So the school has been a buzz this week (at least among the staff) with confirmation that our progress results place the school in the top 4% of schools in the UK with our results achieved from GCSE this summer. This is brilliant news for us, a small, comprehensive, sometimes overshadowed by our neighbourhood schools. What it means is that a child attending our school achieves better across 8 subjects than they would if they attended 96% of other schools in the UK. This is a brilliant achievement and one that leaves all of us at the school immensely proud of our highly committed staff team.

What I really love about the school is being able to achieve this things without becoming an exam factory – focused solely on outcomes, when actually, it's the experience of our girls and 6th form that drive us. This term alone, students have attended Wadham College Oxford for their Brilliant Club graduation, 6th form have been on a residential to Pembrokeshire with the energetic Ms Saunders and Ms Clarke. Ms Hardy and Ms Chapman took a small number of students to a Gender Equality Conference at an independent school, and we were further delighted to have our partnership with the Girls Network expand further with 30 more students being allocated female mentors in industries that would support their career options. Ms Franks already has a huge waiting list for her PGL trip in July, and we will be relaunching our D of E programme before the end of term. We’ve also upgraded our student leadership team which will now be part of an accreditated leadership programme. For black history month this year, we’re running a competition which will have an impact at whole school level – we are not standing still!  

A student in the school, who has access to all of this, and continues to undertake their studies with the same commitment will be highly successful. We know that new examinations and courses are really challenging, but we also know that our full extra curricular programme will support success for all if it starts now. It is no accident that our highest achievers have a full and balanced approach to their studies and balance the demands of the curriculum with the demands of having a strong social interest in something else. To some degree, its irrelevant what that interest is in – its about constantly thinking, exploring and learning – and after all, isn’t that what we’re here for?

Ms R

01/10/2017 ​