Posted May 3 - 2024Headteacher's Newsletter
what's happening at Chesham Grammar
Posted on: July 8th 2022
Head's Blog
Dear parent,
I am not entirely sure where to start this week! It has been a hugely eventful week at CGS, full of successes.
National Enterprise Challenge Winners
Yesterday, a team of year 7s and a team of year 10s, those who won the school round of The National Enterprise Challenge, travelled to the ICC in Birmingham for the National Finals. Over 57,000 students from across the UK have participated in this careers event this year with 1,000 making it to the final yesterday. Both teams performed very well in a competitive field with the year 10s coming away as overall winners. This is a superb achievement and CGS is the only school in the country to have won this competition three times now. We are incredibly proud of the students, who have worked very hard all term to prepare, working with Mrs Lovelace, Miss Lindsay and Miss Thoday (who has been present for all three CGS wins). Many congratulations to all those involved and thank you to the staff. Those in the year 10 winning team are: Amelie, Anaya, Areyan, Archie, Lilly and Nathan. Congratulations to them and well done also to Ana, Dhruv, Diya, Elena, Ranulf and Ruben in year 7 for their excellent participation. It is certainly a day the students and staff will never forget! Pictures are on the main school Twitter feed, @cgsbucks, as well as on the CGS Careers feed, @cgsinspiration. Both accounts are worth following if you are on Twitter yourself.
District Athletics Champions
Many congratulations also go to our year 7, 8, 9 and 10 athletics teams who competed in the Chiltern District Championships on Wednesday. We once again came away as overall winners. Our year 9 girls finished in 1st place, as did our year 7, 8 and 10 boys. Thanks to Mrs Craig and Miss Cowley who have coached and encouraged the students and also to Mr Spittle. There were lots of individual successes on Wednesday with the following students winning their events:
Year 7: 1500m: Megan 100m: James High Jump: Lucas
Year 8: Hurdles: Tegan 200m: Iris Girls relay team
Year 9: Hurdles: Francesca 200m: Lucy 800m Olivia 300m: Liam 800m: Callum High Jump: William Long Jump: Toby Girls relay team
Year 10: 100m: Kayla Long Jump: Annabelle Hurdles: Tristan 800m: Archie 1500m: Euan Shotput: Edward Discus: Joe High Jump: Kamal Girls relay team Boys relay team
House Performing Arts
On Monday evening, I attended our House Performing Arts Competition. This was organised and led entirely by the Sixth Form students in each House. They did a brilliant job and it was a pleasure to see the obvious enjoyment of all the students involved. The House Captains along with Mollie and Rohan, our new Head Girl and Head Boy, presented throughout the evening and I was so impressed by their poise, confidence and presence. Well done and thank you to all involved.
Languages Week
Thank you to the MFL Department for all the activities which have taken place this week to celebrate Languages Week. I had the privilege of judging the Bake Off competition yesterday and was serenaded by the languages karaoke which was taking place in an adjoining room! Well done to all those who have taken part throughout the week.
CGS at Ley Hill
Yesterday, the pupils at Ley Hill school were treated to a musical workshop led by students from our year 12. As the group opened with Bohemian Rhapsody, Aidan supported with excellent piano accompaniment and also performed one of his compositions. Alice demonstrated the workings of the oboe, Noa played the violin and Sophia explained how the saxophone family operates. Robyn, Rohan, Jamie, Chloe and Emma led the school in vocal harmony. Robyn’s contribution as overall compère merits special mention, Mrs Lewis who accompanied our students tells me. She watched with immense pride.
FOGCS 75th anniversary silent auction and raffle
As I write this, our school hall is undergoing a transformation ahead of the 75th Anniversary Party this evening. Thank you to all those who are supporting this and I look forward to seeing you later. Thank you also to parents who have supported the silent auction and the prize raffle. The auction closes this evening at 10pm. Any last minute bids can be placed here: https://www.auctionofpromises.com/CGS75 while raffle tickets can be purchased on ParentPay with the draw taking place on Monday 18th July.
Well done to .......
Caspar in year 12 who was awarded Distinction in grade 8 LAMDA and to Samuel in year 7 who has passed grade 1 violin with Merit.
Birthday teas
As we near the end of the year, I am meeting with those students in year 7 who have a birthday in July or August for birthday tea. This week I have met with: Elsie, Sophie, Alcy, Henry, Kanishk, Libby, Sonia, Naitik, Samar and Thiren. Happy birthday to them all.
Activities Week
As you know, next week is Activities Week and there is a good deal of excitement amongst the students and staff. Thank you to Mrs Dax who has organised the week - a huge undertaking - and of course thank you to the accompanying staff, many of whom are on residential visits with year 7 or 8, without whom we simply could not offer the students these opportunities. The focus this year is very much on having fun and making memories after the last two years and I look forward to hearing from the students when they return. We have set up a Twitter account @cgsvisits and visit leaders will post throughout the week. The weather is forecast to be very hot next week so please make sure that your child has plenty of sun cream and a hat, especially as lots of the activities take place outside.
Thank you ......
Finally, I would like to say a huge well done to our students and staff. The last couple of weeks have been very challenging indeed as we have been dealing with a good deal of staff absence due to Covid. Obviously when a teacher is absent, lessons are inevitably different for students. I know that some students have had a number of subjects where their teacher has been unwell. While Covid's impact on the school is now far less disruptive than was the case until national restrictions ended earlier this year, it most certainly has not gone away and a number of staff have been quite poorly. As always, however, we have been able to carry on because those who are in school have stepped in to cover the classes of absent colleagues. I would like to thank them for their unwavering support throughout this period.
With best wishes for a relaxing weekend,
Annmarie McNaney
Headteacher
