Posted May 3 - 2024Headteacher's Newsletter
what's happening at Chesham Grammar
Posted on: May 7th 2021
Head's Blog
Dear parent,
I hope you and your family enjoyed the bank holiday weekend, despite the weather.
When we returned on Tuesday, Year 13s began their final assessments and Year 11s have been continuing with theirs. These run until Thursday, 27th May. Can I remind you that in order for staff to have time to undertake all the marking and moderation required ahead of determining GCSE and A level grades, the school will be closed to students on Friday 28th May and Monday June 7th, i.e. a day either side of the half term break. Friday 28th will be a remote learning day and Monday 7th an inset day. Staff will set work for students to undertake on Friday 28th.
I am sure everyone has been shocked by the thousands of testimonies about sexual abuse on the website 'Everyone's Invited'. As you may know, the website has stopped publishing names of schools and universities not only for privacy reasons but because the organisers rightly want the campaign to focus on all schools and universities, not just on those which were named (over 100 schools were named, some multiple times). We know that our students feel very strongly indeed about the issues this has raised. One of the golden rules of safeguarding in schools is to take the approach of 'it could happen here' and it is only right that we do everything possible to ensure that our school has an open culture and is one which promotes positive, healthy and respectful relationships, and enables all within the community to feel safe in calling out and reporting inappropriate behaviours. You may know that the Department for Education has asked Ofsted to undertake an immediate review of safeguarding policies in schools in response to Everyone's Invited. Ahead of anything which results from this, there are actions we can take as a school and we have already started discussing these with students. This is particularly relevant to CGS after last week. I will be talking to students in assembly about this next week and some of our senior students will be heading up a student advisory group which will work alongside staff as we review our processes, curriculum, communication, training etc. We will keep you updated as this work progresses over the coming months.
Well done to Sam in Year 8 who passed his Grade 6 trombone exam with Merit and to James, also in Year 8, who gained a Distinction in his Grade 1 drumming exam. Many congratulations to our Young Enterprise Teams who took part in the Chiltern Area Young Enterprise Company of the Year Competition this week. One of our teams, Understood, (made up of Iqra, Aidan, Rabia, Sumeet, Jessica, Jai, Saoirse, Natasha, Peter and Pablo, all in Year 12), came away as overall winners while our other team, Tranquilitea Candles, won the marketing award. Team Understood will now go on to represent the Chiltern area in the regional finals. Understood promotes awareness of those affected by unseen disabilities. If you want to find out more you can visit their website: https://www.understand.me.uk/. We are very proud of what the students have achieved. Well done to everyone involved.
The Bag2School collection organised by the FoCGS las week raised £390. Thank you to our parents who donated 1,300 kgs of clothes and other items and thank you also to the FoCGS.
Can I remind you that at present, we have a 'no visitor' policy and we ask that parents do not arrive at school to drop things off for their child. We hope that it won't be too long now before this can be relaxed but for now, our Reception team will not be able to accept anything parents may bring in during the school day, including forgotten PE kit, homework etc. Thank you for your continued understanding and support.
Mrs Carr, our Subject Leader for Economics who started with us in February, has worked with some of our GCSE and A level economics students to produce an Economics Magazine entitled 'The Current Account'. A copy of this is attached and I am sure you will agree that the students have done a superb job of producing a range of well written, informative and interesting articles. Well done to Bruno in Year 10 and to Simona, Kitty, Ewan, Hannah and Zuhah in Year 12. Thank you to Mrs Carr for inspiring them.
With best wishes for a relaxing weekend,
Annmarie McNaney
Headteacher
