Posted May 3 - 2024Headteacher's Newsletter
what's happening at Chesham Grammar
Posted on: April 24th 2020
Head's Blog
Dear Parent,
As we come to the end of the first week of the summer term I would like to record my thanks to our staff, students and parents. There has been a huge amount of hard work involved in the first three weeks of learning during this lockdown period and everyone is getting to grips with being at home. I am sure that many of you as parents are still growing accustomed to the balancing of family and work responsibilities and the same is true of many members of staff. They are trying hard to adapt to new ways of delivering content and in many cases are having to create new resources to do so. We are just three weeks in and in a short period of time, a good deal has been achieved and lots of new ways of doing things have been learned. Planning for 'lockdown learning' is totally different to planning for learning in a classroom and it is fair to say that staff - and many students and parents, I am sure - are still adapting.
We have had a good deal of communication with parents this week and I know that many of you will have spoken to your child's tutor; the feedback we have received has been overwhelmingly positive. We are trying hard to strike a balance between what we think is right for our school and the challenges parents and staff may be facing in their own home environment. We are also trying to balance what the teachers, many of whom teach several hundred students and have young children themselves, can reasonably prepare and deliver with what our students can, equally reasonably, be expected to undertake. We will not always get this exactly right but we are all doing our best. As we all become more accustomed to lockdown learning, things will evolve and gradually develop and increasingly, staff will incorporate into their lessons some live and/or prerecorded elements. How and when they do this will be for the teacher to determine based on what is feasible for them; they will have the same level of professional autonomy they do when they are in school and it will not be a requirement for them to deliver all lessons in a particular way. I would ask that at this time, which is difficult and pressured for us all, we as adults follow the same advice I have given to our students which is to be kind to, and patient with, each other.
I have written to the parents of Year 11 and 13 students separately about the way in which GCSE and A level grades will be awarded this year. We have put in place a clear and detailed process by which staff will arrive at the centre assessed grades and rankings we need to submit to the Examination Boards and this will ensure that there is careful consideration of every student in every subject. I would like to thank the teaching staff and in particular Subject Leaders for the many hours they are spending now and over the next few weeks on this.
I am very proud of the way in which members of our school community are supporting the NHS in some way at this time. Our Engineering staff have been working hard to produce face masks and have delivered the first 100 of these to 'Working for Wycombe', an organisation co-ordinating the distribution of PPE in South Bucks. The staff are planning to produce another 400 or so over the coming weeks. Thank you to Mr Harvey who has been leading on this and to Mrs Raymond and Mr Bowers. Our Textiles staff are involved in the production of scrubs etc for care workers locally; well done to Mrs Morgan, Mrs Rosser, and Mrs Barr who are making the drawstring bags needed by front line staff to safely transport and wash their uniform at the end of their shift. Hannah and Amy in Year 11 have also made some of these drawstrings and I am so proud of them all. We also have some staff and students who are volunteering, following the Health Secretary's call for people to come forward last month. A huge thank you to every person involved in any way.
Our Aviva 'Get Recycling' Community Fundraising has now come to an end. The students set themselves a total of £5,000 and this has been exceeded. I am most grateful to all those parents who supported this and also to the Friends of Chesham Grammar School who helped with the campaign. Mrs Baillie and Mr Miles spearheaded it and I know they are delighted for the students that they reached their target.
Well done to Mrs Batsman who is featured in the most recent CLEAPSS bulletin. Each edition features a 'Technician's Tip' and Mrs Batsman thought that other technicians would be interested to hear about a piece of home made equipment in the Physics Department used to demonstrate Boyle's Law and, via the bulletin, this has been shared with science staff in schools right across the county.
Finally, here is a link to a video of a song written by singer/songwriter Tom Rosenthal. The song is called Hope and according to Tom's Twitter feed, it has been written about the situation we are in now and features people around the world in their various isolations. Proceeds will go to NHS charities. Some of our Year 12 students, Gaby, Victoria, Isobel, Isabella and Ella, feature in this and can be seen at 1:49. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lf42qXAVjw&feature=youtu.be
Finally, a plea to us all as parents to remember that at this point in our lives, the overriding priority should be the physical and mental health of ourselves and our loved ones. Please make sure that your children, our students, are not spending all day, every day, sitting at a desk. Please encourage them to have a routine for their learning, yes, but to get some exercise and fresh air and to have some down time when they can catch up with their friends - remotely of course - and to spend some time doing things they enjoy, whether that be reading, listening to music, kicking a ball around in the garden etc.
With best wishes for a relaxing weekend,
Annmarie McNaney
Headteacher
