Posted May 3 - 2024Headteacher's Newsletter
what's happening at Chesham Grammar
Posted on: June 25th 2021
Head's Blog
Dear parent,
Winter House sports competition
It has been an absolute pleasure to see the students in Years 7 - 10 taking part in the House sports competitions this week. How we have missed the sight and sound of students enthusiastically and with such determination representing their House, clearly enjoying the friendly rivalry involved. I would like to thank the PE Department and especially Mrs Maishman and Mr Spittle who have done all the organising. Thank you too to those in Year 13 who very kindly came back each day to referee and umpire all the matches. The standings have changed daily which has been interesting to see and the final results are incredibly close. Well done to Shakespeare House who came from behind to end up as the overall winners on 43 points. Second place was shared by Frankin and Darwin, each with 41 points while Austen finished 4th with 40 points. It could hardly have been tighter! We start the summer House sports competition on Monday. Good luck to everyone as they go again.
CGS athletes
Remaining on the sporting front, on Tuesday, a number of students from Years 8 and 10 represented the school at the English Schools Track and Field Cup at Hillingdon athletics stadium. All four teams (2 junior and 2 intermediate) performed well. In the competition for junior girls (Year 8), Olivia and Alice dominated the 800m winning their respective heats and Alice also did well in the 1500m. Amongst the intermediate (Year 10) girls, Scarlett led the way as Captain with her performance in the 1500m. Gabi did well in the hurdles, as did Kayla in the 200m while Amelia was well placed in the 300m and long jump. The Captain for the junior boys was Callum who ran an outstanding race to win the 1500m. Enzo also did well in the 100m and Toby in the 300m and long jump. Oscar was the Captain of the intermediate team of boys. He won his 300m race comfortably and led the relay team to victory while Alex won the discus event with a throw of over 42m (the second placed throw was more than 15m short of this). Twins Archie and Euan who, as Year 9s were a school year younger than the rest of the field, ran in the intermediate 800m and 1500m respectively, performing well. Mr Spittle and Mrs Craig who accompanied the students were very impressed by and proud of the students. Well done to all those involved.
FoCGS Prize Draw
Every year, The Friends of CGS organise a prize draw and the pandemic has not deterred them! Given the circumstances, tickets are being sold via ParentPay this year and the draw takes place on Tuesday, July 6th, at 2pm. Ticket sales close next Friday, 2nd. The top three prizes are vouchers: £400, £200 and £100 respectively with the lucky winners able to choose vouchers from John Lewis, Argos, Tesco or Sainsbury's. To buy tickets, which are £1 each, you just need to log into your ParentPay account. Anyone without a ParentPay account who wishes to buy tickets can do so via PayPal using this link: https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/2736512 Any support for the FoCGS is support for the school and thank you to those parents who have already purchased tickets for the draw.
Well done to...
Well done to Amy in Year 7 who was the runner-up in the National Food Writing Competition, an excellent achievement. Libby in Year 7 has passed her Lamda Acting grade 3 exam with Merit. Camille, also in Year 7, passed her grade 5 piano exam with Merit, as did Georgia in Year 9. Very well done.
New caterers for next year
Over the last few weeks, we have been going through a tendering process which has resulted in the appointment of a new catering company who will start in September. Culinera will provide all the food at break and lunchtimes across the school. We had several companies in to present to us and of course this involved tasting what they will be offering our students and staff. A number of students were involved in this. Their contribution was invaluable and their observations astute. We are delighted to have appointed Culinera, a small local company, headed up by Tom, who attended The Misbourne School and who, as a local boy, knows the area very well. We are really excited about this, having had a disappointing experience with our current caterers. We will let you know when menus are available on the CGS area of their website. My thanks to all the students who contributed to the process of choosing our new caterers.
History and CGS
In September, 'Horrible Histories' is coming to The Elgiva in Chesham and The Elgiva is offering CGS families a £2.50 reduction in the adult ticket price and a £4 reduction in that for children. Bookings need to be made by July 31st and the promo code to use is CGS. We know lots of our students enjoy 'Horrible Histories' and in fact it was mentioned in a history lesson I visited today. Dr Southwood has put together a series of history lessons for Year 7s to enable them to learn about the history of CGS. This has involved them looking at documents from the school archives and they have also learned about the post Second World War tripartite system within which the school was established. Next April, we celebrate our 75th anniversary and will be holding a series of events to mark this, details of which will come next term. Part of the lesson I visited this morning was a question and answer session with Mr Biddle, Subject Leader for Art at CGS, and one of our alumni, attending in the 1980s. He captivated the students with his stories of how the school was back then. I think it is fair to say from what he said this morning that he was not a model pupil! He gave a fascinating insight into what is different and what has stayed the same. I know we have many former students amongst our parent body and it would be wonderful to receive your own reflections on your time at CGS.
Duke of Edinburgh Award
Tomorrow, our Year 10s will be undertaking the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award expedition and we hope they all enjoy the experience. Thank you to Mr Moore Bridger who oversees the D of E within the school and to the staff who have volunteered to give up some of their weekend to undertake the supervision required.
COVID-19
Finally, as we approach the end of term and the end of a school year unlike any other, please encourage your child to maintain all the measures we have in place to keep the school safe. You will know that the number of cases of the Delta variant, which spreads very quickly, is rising and I know of one secondary school in the local area which has had to move all students to online learning because of the number of cases it has. This is a situation I want to avoid. There is a wide range of parental views on the measures the school has had to take this year ranging from those which are very supportive to those which are not. Whatever your personal viewpoint, the fact of the matter is that any one positive case in school has a huge impact on a significant number of students and one case can lead to up to a third of a year group, some 60 students, having to be sent home to isolate for 10 days. This is no fun for anyone and we continue to work hard to avoid this happening. We can make outbreaks less likely by being careful. While face coverings are no longer mandatory in schools, a number of our students have continued to wear them as they move around and staff are still required to wear them in corridors and social spaces. Students must still continue to wash or sanitise their hands regularly and must wear face coverings on school transport. In being cautious, we minimise the chances of students having to isolate into the summer holiday. Please make sure that your child does not attend school if s/he has any COVID symptoms and that you book a PCR test as soon as possible. Twice weekly lateral flow tests and the subsequent reporting also need to be maintained please. I long for the time when we can return to normal. Until then, caution and care help us all to maximise the chances of the school being able to stay fully open. We do not yet have any guidance at all on what schools will be required to do in September. As you can imagine, this makes it impossible for Headteachers to plan. For example, it has always been our intention to return to vertical tutoring as soon as we can but we cannot plan for that until we know whether there will be any requirement to keep year groups separate next year. If there is, then vertical tutoring's return will need to be delayed. All I can say to parents at this point is that when we know what the requirements are, we will be in touch. Thank you so much for your ongoing support.
With best wishes for a relaxing weekend,
Annmarie McNaney
Headteacher
