Dear Parent / Carer,

I hope you were able to have some quality family time over the holiday. We have started the term running as we go straight into Year 11 exams. The practical exams have an impact on the whole school as students in each subject such as Textiles have a 10 hour exam. This has an impact on the workings of the rest of the school and so, for the period of exams, we regularly have to relocate classes. We are also taking the opportunity to reorganise our Year 11 to enable us to maximise the support we can give them in the lead up to their final exams. We feel that the current Year 11 have a maturity and understanding to be able to deal with this initiative.

At the end of last term, we said goodbye to Mr Ian Handscomb who has been here on a short term contract and he is replaced, for the remainder of Miss Helen Woodger’s maternity leave, by an experienced scientist, Miss Maria Tiplady. We also said goodbye and fond farewell to Mrs Stella Laing. Stella had worked for us over a period of 8 years and in recent months had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I am pleased to report that she has come through her course of therapies successfully. We are pleased to have been able to support her during her illness but also wish her well for the future. We welcome Ms Caroline Trevorrow who has joined us in our Learning Support Team. She has a specialism in autism and this will be very useful for us with the increasing number of diagnoses in this field.

As we approach the Summer, there is a lot of work planned for the fabric of the school. To begin with, the 1930s cottage hospital frontage is being redecorated although the weather has meant that this is taking much longer than we anticipated. Later on in the term, over the Summer holidays, we have a large project to refurbish windows in the music block and a significant proportion of our roof. Unfortunately, when the school was added to in the 1980s, the roof was built at the wrong pitch and so the underfelt has become rotten and we have suffered for some time with leaks. We anticipate that all this work will be finished by the start of the Autumn term. You will probably appreciate that all schools want work undertaken over the holiday so, in order to ensure we have the best chance of finishing for September, there will be a major scaffold set up period during the latter three weeks of this term.

Thank you for your continued support. We are delighted that, yet again, in the last academic year we were top of the table in GCSEs in our local area. With this last push and support for our current Year 11, we hope that this position will be retained next year.

Yours faithfully

David Harris
Headteacher