Posted May 3 - 2024Headteacher's Newsletter
what's happening at Chesham Grammar
Posted on: September 18th 2020
Head's Blog
Dear Parent,
It has been a glorious week in terms of the weather with the sunshine a good match for the sunny disposition of our students who are clearly continuing to enjoy the new term as much as we are. It has been a pleasure to see them in lessons asking questions and discussing their learning with their peers, both key features of lessons which they have obviously missed. There really is no substitute for learning with others in a classroom environment.
Thank you to parents who have let us have good news about extra curricular achievements and it is lovely to be able to share some positives. Well done to Conor in Year 9 who passed his grade 4 LAMDA exam with Merit over the summer and to Evie in Year 8 who achieved a distinction in her grade 2 oboe exam. Molly, also in Year 8, recently took her grade 3 singing exam, submitting her pieces online and achieving a Merit. Georgia in Year 9 was due to sit her grade 4 piano exam on the day the school shut in March! Having also submitted her pieces online, she passed the exam last term. Also sitting an exam online during lockdown was Caspar in Year 11 who found out last week that he was awarded a Distinction in his Bronze LAMDA exam. Taking music and drama exams under normal circumstances is tough enough but getting through them successfully during lockdown was no mean feat so a particular well done to them all. On the sporting front, well done to Ryan in Year 10 who, in a shortened cricket season, hit two 50s for Berkhamsted’s senior side and last Saturday notched up a hugely impressive 151, staying in until the 40th and final over. Finally, congratulations to Oliver in Year 7 who has been invited to join Watford FC’s player development centre as a goalkeeper following a trial there last weekend.
Over the next few weeks, we will start to recommence some of our extra curricular clubs. We obviously need to plan each of these very carefully to ensure that they can run safely and with the necessary measures and controls in place. Information will be sent home to parents as these start to resume. In terms of sport, we can only have clubs for one year group running at a time and most of the activities will need to take place after school as the changing rooms obviously have to be cleaned at lunchtime. There are also clear guidelines about what we can offer in music and drama. We long for the time when we can get back to normal and have numerous clubs, open to all students across the school, running every lunchtime and after school and for when fixtures can resume but until then, we will do what we can to offer these opportunities to the students and to make the school feel as normal as possible.
Usually, we would be holding numerous information evenings this half term for those with a child in year groups where there is a point of transition i.e Years 7, 10 and 12. As we cannot invite parents into school for these evenings, we will be making the information available to you over the next week or so. For Year 7 parents, we are looking at holding some meetings for small groups as we are mindful of the fact that you have not been able to visit the school since hearing that your child was allocated a place here. We like to build relationships with parents from the start of their child’s journey with us and so please do look out for information about how we can make this happen safely over the next few weeks. As always, if any of you have any questions or queries, please get in touch.
Finally, I have been asked to request that parents only use the option to ‘report a matter needing urgent attention’ on our phone line in the case of an emergency.
With best wishes for a relaxing weekend,
Annmarie McNaney
Headteacher
