Welcome back to a new year; I hope you all had a wonderful
holiday and enjoyed the time with your family and friends.
It is always good to see the students again so the first day
of term for me is one of the best days in the school year. Fortunately the weather held off so we were
able to have the entire school in the Quad for the first assembly of the
year. The first week of term is required
for the routine of school life to settle down.
All students and teachers are learning their new timetables and the
layout of the school is sometimes confusing for our new members. It is always pleasing to see older students
help the younger ones out when they are looking to find where their next lesson
is. I hope your child had a good start
to the year and is looking forward to the coming weeks and months.
The summer holiday is a time for staff, students and parents
to recharge batteries but also is a time for us to complete necessary work on
the fabric of the school and prepare for the start of the new year. The big job, and one that the students have
responded positively to, was the complete refurbishment of the Boys’ toilets in
the Main Building. I understand there
were cheers from a number of boys on Wednesday when they visited the toilets
for the first time. The toilets have
become a tourist attraction! Another
main job for the school is to receive, issue and analyse the summer examination
results. This year we matched last
year’s A2 performance with just under 60% of all grades being A* - B. AS results were the best the school has ever
had with just over 50% of all grades being A/B, and at GCSE level 51% of all
grades being A*/A. I am extremely
pleased with these results which come from hard work both from the students and
their teachers. There were many
individual performances which were mentioned in our press release at the time,
and these will be acknowledged and celebrated at this week’s Upper School
Speech Day.
As just mentioned, the main event of this week is our annual
Upper School Speech Day where we celebrate the achievements of Years 11 to 13
from the 2014-15 academic year. Many
leaving Year 13 students will be present, particularly because this year’s
Guest of Honour is Mr Neil Turrell, former Headmaster of the School from 1992
to 2009, was Headmaster when that year group first started at the School in
2008. We look forward to welcoming Mr
Turrell, leaving students and invited guests back on Friday.
