Posted May 3 - 2024Headteacher's Newsletter
what's happening at Chesham Grammar
Posted on: March 18th 2022
Head's Blog
RED NOSE DAY AT CGS
The end of this week marks the half-way point of the half term; the time is absolutely flying by! The students have enjoyed the events which have taken place across the week to raise money for Comic Relief culminating in a mufti day today. Well done and thank you to Franklin House for organising and leading this. Any last mufti donations can be made here.
CHALLENGE PARTNERS
This week, we welcomed a team of reviewers from Challenge Partners, a nationwide
network of excellent schools, to which we belong. Each school within the network has an annual professionally-led peer review undertaken by a team of 4 or 5 external reviewers and reciprocates by sending their Headteacher and senior leaders to take part in reviews of other schools in the network. The review gives external verification of strengths and areas for further development. Our review took place from Monday to Wednesday this week and the team visited lots of lessons, talked to students and staff as well as to senior leaders. Our reviewers were blown away (the phrase one of them used) by our 'amazing' students and staff. Like the Ofsted framework, Challenge Partners has four categories with 'leading' being the highest. This has been the category to which we have been assigned in every annual Challenge Partners review so far, with this one being no exception. While the review did not tell us anything we didn't already know, it was, nonetheless, reassuring to see our view of what we do well confirmed by the team. I will of course share the full report with you when we receive it.
WELL DONES...
Well done to Katie in year 8 who is performing in the Amersham Martyrs play. Gabriella in year 7 has passed grade 3 piano while Dhruv, also in year 7, has passed grade 4 piano with Distinction. Toby in year 11 took part in a badminton competition in Milton Keynes last weekend, winning the doubles and finishing 3rd in the singles. Ruben in year 7 took part in the Endurance40 event, with his team finishing second in 9 hours 56 minutes while Issy in year 11 has qualified for the British Showjumping 'Just For Schools' Winter Championships. Issy will be representing CGS this weekend on her pony Rolo. Well done to them all.
STAFF NEWS
We have recently said goodbye to Mrs Jeffery who was our Sixth Form Learning Mentor for a number of years. Many students have benefitted from her one to one support and she has helped many more with personal organisation and study skills, preparing them not just for success at A level but beyond school also. She will be much missed by students and staff and we wish her well and give her our thanks.
SCHOOL VISITS START TO RESUME
During the week, year 12s have visited the National Apprenticeship Show, where they were able to learn about alternative post 18 options. While most of our students progress to Higher Education, an increasing number choose instead the Degree Apprenticeship route. Year 12s are also out of school on Monday, this time at a UCAS Convention which will give them the opportunity to talk to representatives from the universities and higher education institutions many will be applying to at the start of year 13. It is really good to see visits which so enrich students' experiences of school life start to resume. We will be contacting parents over the next few weeks with some exciting information on visits we are planning for next term and next year. Mrs Dax, who returned from her maternity leave a couple of weeks ago, is leading this.
75TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT
As you are aware, Chesham Grammar School is 75 this year! The school opened as Chesham Technical School on April 17th, 1947. One of the events we have planned is a 75th Anniversary Concert, details of which will be available next week. The standard of music at CGS is superb and I am delighted that our students will once again be able to perform to a live audience. It promises to be a wonderful evening and will take place on the evening of Monday April 4th in the school hall.
ECO CLUB SUCCESS
Many thanks to Mr Ellis and our Eco Club who have organised for recycling bins to be installed across the school site. We are encouraging students to make good use of these and I know the Eco Club members have lots of other good ideas about ways in which we can further engage our students in environmental action.
SPORT AT CGS THIS WEEK
At the time of writing my newsletter last week, our U16 girls were playing in the semi-final of the County Cup in football. They enjoyed a comfortable win over Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School and will now go on to the final where they will play Sir William Borlase's Grammar School. Well done! Well done also to our year 8 A team who were crowned District netball champions on Tuesday. 50 of our year 8 girls took part in the tournament and all the teams played with determination and resilience. Students in years 7 -10 have enjoyed taking part in Winter House Sport this week. Inter House events are always fiercely competitive and I would like to congratulate everyone for taking part and representing their House with pride. Year 7s enjoyed three basketball fixtures v Amersham School with the A and C teams winning and the B team drawing. The Sixth Form team also beat Amersham School. Next week’s fixture list can be found here.
BIRTHDAY TEAS
Happy 12th birthday to Elizabeth, Iris and Avani in year 7 who have just celebrated their birthday; I met with them for birthday tea this week.
SUPPORTING UKRAINE
Following on from the collection last week, one of my colleagues is organising for items
to be sent to Poland. Poland has received nearly two million Ukranian refugees who have left their homes since the war started. There will be a lorry taking donations to medical and emergency refugee centres in Poland. We have been asked to request the following items specifically:
- nappies, wet wipes, Sudocrem
- personal hygiene products for adults and children (shampoo, soaps, shower gels, toothpaste, toothbrushes, sanitary products)
- felt tip pens, crayons, sets of rulers and colouring and activity books for children
- some food stuffs: pasta, nuts, dried fruit, biscuits, rice, rice cakes, gluten free snacks and food
They would also love to be able to provide children with chocolate and sweets. Please do not donate any other items. Donations can be brought to the main school office and will be collected from CGS at 10am next Wednesday 23rd March. Thank you in advance for your support.
With best wishes for a relaxing weekend,
Annmarie McNaney
eadteacher
