Posted May 3 - 2024Headteacher's Newsletter
what's happening at Chesham Grammar
Posted on: January 28th 2022
Head's Blog
Dear parent
On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, staff from The Inspirational Learning Group were in school working with all students in years 7 and 10 on The National Careers Challenge. This is the UK’s largest careers and enterprise competition and provides students with a real-life business challenge. They competed in teams, developing their communication, problem solving, teamwork and creativity skills as they prepared their response to the brief.
For year 7s, the brief was focused on the theme of sustainability and STEM while year 10s were involved in an esports digital challenge where they had to create, design and launch a new computer games concept. It was a pleasure to watch the students work together during the day, which culminated in the pitching of ideas to a panel of judges. The winning group from each year will take part in the finals at the ICC in Birmingham on 7th July 2022 where they will compete against other schools from up and down the country. 
You may recall that we have won this competition twice, the first school nationally to do so. The students gained a huge amount from the experience and I hope that if you have a child in year 7 or 10, they have told you about it. Huge thanks to our Careers Leader Mrs Lovelace and to Miss Lindsay, who put so much work into the organisation and running of the event. Well done to those in the winning teams: Areyan, Archie, Anaya, Amelie, Nathan and Lily in year 10 for their computer games concept "around the world in 80 games" and to Ana, Ranulf, Ruben, Diya and Elena in year 7 for their recycled product "Dr Filter".
STAFF NEWS
Today we said goodbye to Mr Browne-Carey who has taught drama and English for the last few years. He decided that he wanted to return home to Ireland and we wish him all the best for the future. We have been joined by Mr Camichel, an experienced drama teacher who is taking over the drama classes of Mr Browne-Carey and who has already thrown himself into the life of the department, helping with rehearsals for the school show and running extra-curricular clubs. We welcome him to our school and wish him a rewarding stay with us.
DRAMA
Also during the week, we welcomed SPLENDID Theatre Company who came to work with our A level drama students in preparation for their upcoming practical exams. This was an excellent workshop and Mrs Neagle was so proud of the students involved. We are now just a couple of weeks from our school production of High School
Musical Jr. I have popped into rehearsals a couple of times this week and I think we are in for a treat when we see it at The Elgiva! The rehearsals are an excellent showcase for the energy and talent of the students and it is such a privilege to see them working together and enjoying themselves, especially after their experiences of the last 2 years.
CONGRATULATIONS
Well done to Oscar in year 7 who has recently passed grade 5 piano with Merit and to Elizabeth in year 9 who was awarded Distinction in grade 4 Musical Theatre. Happy 12th birthday to Pranav, Aditi and Isabella in year 7 with whom I met for birthday tea this week. It was a pleasure to meet with some of the students who joined CGS in year 12 in September, following the recent data drop which indicated how well they have settled in and the excellent start they have made to their A level studies. Well done to Jessica, Ben, Millie, Hussain, Hannah, Emma, Lucy, Noa and Oliver. Jessica has also recently been awarded a prestigious Arkwright Engineering Scholarship, following in the footsteps of a good number of previous CGS students. Well done, Jessica!
SPORT
Last term, Mr Pontin, Director of Sport, started a lunchtime rugby club for girls. This is run by Neil Aves, one of the coaches from Chesham Stags. T his has been well attended and last Sunday, some of our students made their debut for Chesham Stags. Annabel, Camille, Celestine and Megan, all in year 7, played in their first ever rugby game against Towcester, contributing to a 65-15 scoreline in Chesham’s favour. Camille and Megan both scored a try with Celestine scoring twice.
During the week, our year 8s played their first hockey fixture, with the As beating Dr Challoner's High School 3-2 and the Bs winning 5-3. In netball, the Senior A team also beat DCHS 33-14. The year 9 C team beat The Beaconsfield School 18-13 and the Senior Bs won their last league match of the season, also v TBS, 27-8. Our year 9 D team played TBS As, narrowly losing 7-8. The 10Bs also lost 4-6 in a close match. Finally, the U15 girls played John Colet School in the semi-final of the football County Cup, winning 7-1 and thus making it to the semi-final. Well done everyone. Fixtures and practices for next week can be found here.
SUBJECT REVIEW AND FEEDBACK
As you are aware, we regularly undertake subject reviews and next week, we are visiting the History Department. If you have a few minutes to give some feedback, we would be most grateful. The views of students and parents are an important part of our review process. Thank you. You can submit your response over the next week here
Parental feedback from the reviews we undertook last term told us that parents often do not feel that they have information about the subject content in years 7-9. From year 10 onwards, the content is obviously largely determined by the Examination Boards. We have therefore put together some information for each year group in key stage 3. This gives you an overview of what each subject teaches and is a reminder of how broad the CGS curriculum is. There are separate ones for each year can be found here: Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9
YEAR GROUP PHOTOS
Next week, we have year group photographs taking place for years 11 and 13. We expect full school uniform for year 11s and dress which complies with our Sixth Form dress code for those in year 13. Clean shoes are also recommended!
YEAR 9 GCSE OPTIONS
Students in year 9 will be asked to make their CGSE options choices soon and we are holding a short information evening for parents on February 10th from 6-6.30pm. This will be held on Teams and will outline the options process and explain our online options platform to parents. Further details will follow from Mr Patteson.
Finally, a reminder that we ask students to undertake a LFT on Sunday evening please.
With best wishes for a relaxing weekend,
Annmarie McNaney
Headteacher
