I write this following a glorious day on the river
supervising the Rowing activity during the Extended Learning Week. So
many of the boys in Years 7 to 10 now look forward to this annual week of
activities, and I hope that you son is thoroughly enjoying himself whatever he
is doing. This year there are so many different activities which are
adding to the development of better links and relationships amongst boys
between different year groups. Friendship is the over pinning quality
that we want to focus on during this year’s week. Please do log on to the
school website each day and follow our twitter feed to find out more about what
you sons are getting up to. Year 12 students this week are enjoying their
week of work experience; finding things out about themselves and of the places
of interest they have chosen to go. I look forward to hearing from them
their experiences.
Thursday and Friday last week was Sixth Form Induction;
where our current Year 11s, joined by a large group of external students, experienced
what it is like being an MGS Sixth Form student. A number of activities
took place ranging from a ‘getting to know you’ session to taster lessons in
each of their A-Level choices. The School was busy again, which was good
to see, and it is hoped that this new cohort adds to the already improved Sixth
Form ethos.
Thursday was a busy day: we held a coffee morning for
parents who wanted to find out more on how we are supporting their child with
any additional education or medical needs. It proved to be a great
success and thank you to the parents who came in, and to the members of staff
who led on the presentations. In addition to this we also had an
‘Investors in Careers’ assessor in school assessing how we provide high quality
careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) to the student
body. Not only did we gain re-approval of our work but the assessor could
make virtually no comment on how we could improve on what we do such is the
quality of the programme. Many, many thanks to Mrs Acaster, Mr Smith and
the students for spending time with the assessor and to Mrs Acaster for
creating an excellent programme of events that include a number of work related
focus days, enterprise education and the BBC School Report. CEIAG is very
much appreciated by the student body, and it remains one of the great strengths
of MGS.
Finally, last week we received the draft review of MGS that
will be appearing in the next edition of The Good Schools Guide. MGS has
never appeared in the Guide, but with our on-going developments and
improvements over the last few years we were invited this year to appear.
The article is such a pleasure to read and makes one feel even more proud of
the School. The next edition of the Guide will be published later in the
year so do look out for it.
