Posted Nov 15 - 2024Headteacher's Newsletter
what's happening at Chesham Grammar
Posted on: June 5th 2020
Head's Blog
Dear Parent,
I hope that everyone enjoyed the half term break and made the most of the glorious sunshine.
On Monday, it was so nice to see our Year 9s who came in to collect their exercise books for their GCSE options subjects which started this week. For the past 10 weeks, the school has been virtually deserted and being in it has felt rather sad and lonely. While the students were only with us briefly on Monday, the buildings almost felt like school again and I know I am not alone in longing for the day when the chatter of 1300 students once more fills the corridors at lesson changeover time, only for those corridors to fall silent as lessons commence. The interaction between students and teachers in lessons, several hundred of which take place during a school week, is something we all took entirely for granted until March 20th, 2020. I know that the increase in live lessons this week has been well received and has given students more contact with both their peers and their teachers. Nothing can replace what goes on in a classroom of course but I am at least thankful for the fact that we have technology which makes this contact as well as the ability to ask and answer questions possible. Several times during this period of lockdown learning I have found myself wondering how we would have coped had this pandemic happened before this was the case.
Schools are dynamic places and CGS is full of bright, articulate, inquisitive and enquiring students who question and seek to understand and make sense of the world around them. This is one of the joys of teaching and of spending your days surrounded by teenagers. You will doubtless have heard me say before that never a day goes by without a student making me laugh and one of my favourite things about CGS is the way in which I can be standing by the courts on duty at lunchtime wondering if my toes will ever be warm again only to be interrupted by a student who comes and stands beside me and says 'Miss, what do you think about ....' and proceeds to initiate a discussion or debate about something which has sparked their interest or about which they feel strongly. Sometimes this is a school rule of which they have happened to fall foul and about which they have very clear thoughts - almost always well reasoned! Usually, though, it is about something going on in the world around them. As a result, I know that this is a week in which I would ordinarily have been involved in many such conversations about what is happening in the USA and around the world. I know that we would have been talking to our students in assembly, tutor time and in lessons and that we would have made time to listen to their views on what is happening as we sought to help them make sense of it. Nelson Mandela said 'Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world' adding that its power 'extends beyond the development of skills we need for economic success'. I could not agree more and I do hope that our students are taking the opportunity to think and to talk about what is happening in the USA and around the world and that they are sharing these views with you as they would have been with us.
Well done to Orlaith in Year 8 who has already written 21 book reviews during the CGS Lockdown Reading Challenge. Phenomenal! Many congratulations too to Polly in Year 11 who has been accepted into the Royal College of Music's Junior Department as a first study violin. This is an excellent achievement. Well done, Polly.
Next Friday sees the deadline for submission of centre assessed grades and rankings for those in Years 11 and 13 which will enable the exam boards to award results in August. This has been a simply massive piece of work. To give you some idea of the scale, we have had just short of 2,400 separate exam grades to decide on, each one being carefully considered and discussed. I am hugely grateful to the Subject Leaders who have led this work in their departments and to the Senior Team who worked with me throughout the last few weeks and right through the half term break, scrutinising every grade and seeking clarification in relation to rankings in particular. Before the end of next week, it is my responsibility to sign off all of these entries. Before we do this, there will be a final check of every grade for every student. Thank you to all the staff involved and in particular to Mrs Dax, Assistant Head, who oversees Data and for whom next Friday will be a welcome milestone!
We are working through the logistics of our meetings with students in Years 10 and 12 and will be in touch with them and their parents with the details early next week. Those parents who have asked for their child to have some time in school moving forward should have received information about the arrangements for this; please let us know if you have not.
Our caretakers continue to make the most of an empty school and are currently giving the art rooms a lick of paint. Well done and thank you to the art staff who took on the challenge of repainting the art gallery themselves and who certainly seemed to be enjoying this whenever I went down to see how they were getting on!
With best wishes for a relaxing weekend,
Annmarie McNaney
Headteacher
