Mr Richard's Words Summer Week 4
Goodbye Year 11! A considerable number of students will be returning to the Sixth Form however, it was so nice to have a day devoted to the end of their Senior Girls journey.
Every week the Bulletin newsletter is sent home from the School Office highlighting important forthcoming dates and events, along with a round-up by Mr Richards of the week gone by. Read below recent messages from the Head's desk and previous word's from former Head Mrs Heywood.
Goodbye Year 11! A considerable number of students will be returning to the Sixth Form however, it was so nice to have a day devoted to the end of their Senior Girls journey.
This is a great school; I feel like we are back in full swing now. All of these opportunities do not happen without great staff. Today’s words are devoted to the great students and the incredible staff that make things happen.
As all avid readers of my weekly words will know, I spoke about our school community last week and we continued that theme in assembly on Tuesday.
I would like to welcome everybody back to school and I hope you had a wonderful Easter break in the warm spring sunshine.
What a fantastic week, where the quality of our school has shone through. We started off with an excellent music concert on Monday evening and I was so proud of all the students who took part.
Time really does fly at our school. Year 11 had their final parents evening on Wednesday. This gave our dedicated and hardworking teachers a chance to impart those final tips and bits of motivation before the exams.
Written on behalf of Mr Richards from Mrs Ruddick, Deputy Head Pastoral.
I love a good mystery and have always been a sucker for a good mystery novel or true-crime documentary!
Happy International Women’s Day (for Tuesday). One of the things I get to do as Headteacher is show the prospective parents around our school, and I am always so proud of the focus and atmosphere around the site.
All of my mum’s side of the family are Catholic; I grew up in an Irish Catholic family where we attended church, took communion, confessed our (limited) sins and tried to be better people
As we move from ‘pandemic’ to ‘epidemic’, we reflect upon what was gained and what was lost throughout this most extraordinary time. The recent article in the TES reminded me that the main thing missing from the lives of our young people was social time. The article advocates longer break times as the most important structural change that will support mental health. As the leadership team meets to discuss next year’s timetable, it is great to know that there is evidence to support our investment in increasing social time for our young people. We have reinstated lunchtime activities (although nobody signed up for my Japanese culture club- sad face), implemented an excellent and improving games afternoon and after-school offer, ran a residential trip for Y9 (and a brave Y8) and an afternoon together in the Thicket for Y8.
I hope you have been enjoying the Winter Olympics. I love watching and taking part in sport because it throws up so many stories. I play football with a group of dads on a Tuesday and Mr Gravett's outstanding performance this week was a sight to behold; everything he touched turned to goals!
This week we welcomed Year 9 parents into school for their parents evening and options evening. It was lovely to see everybody back in the hall and for us all to have an opportunity to celebrate success and think about the ‘even better ifs’. This event highlighted the importance of the relationship between the teachers, the parents and the students. We had lots of exciting discussions about the GCSE options process and how these were the first steps into narrowing down their curriculum to the areas they want to pursue further. It was nice to see that many of our students have dilemmas as to what to stop learning later this year. It was lovely to hear this thought process, and reinforces how important it is to keep the curriculum as wide as possible for as long as possible because learning is valuable for learning's sake, not just because there are qualifications at the end.
01628 327500 -
-
1 College Avenue, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 6AW