Posted Dec 19 - 2024Headteacher's Newsletter
what's happening at Chesham Grammar
Posted on: September 4th 2020
Head's Blog
Dear Parent,
I cannot tell you what a delight and a relief it was to welcome all our students to CGS today. Schools are by their very nature noisy places and there is nothing quite like the sound of the chatter in the corridor at lesson changeover time or of a class of students discussing their learning or laughing together at something which has happened in a lesson. What a joy it has been to hear that again after such a prolonged absence and never again will I take it for granted. I know that there will have been a good deal of anxiety about the return to school amongst both parents and students and the same is true of the staff so it is good to have the first couple of days 'under our belt' and to see our students throwing themselves back into their learning. Long may it continue!
I won’t make this a very long newsletter this week as we have asked you to read quite enough already over the last few days. I would like to welcome our new Year 7s and those who have joined us in Year 12, both students and parents. Having not got to meet them as we usually would have done at our induction days in July, it was particularly gratifying to see them over the last couple of days. We wish you as parents a long and happy association with the school and extend a formal welcome to you to the CGS community.
We also welcome some new members of staff. In maths, Mrs Hobson joins us while in science, we welcome Mr Moore-Bridger and Mr Ellis, the former in physics and the latter in chemistry. Miss Farnfield joins the geography department while in history, we welcome Miss Farthing. Our new Subject Leader for Economics is Mrs Reid and in PE, we have Miss Pollard and also Miss Spittle, the latter of whom is our PE technician. Finally, we have our gap year technician, Mr Arnold and our two trainees, Mr Barker in physics and Mr Platt in PE. Our new Site Manager, who joined us during the summer holidays is Mr Punter. We wish them a fulfilling time with us. We also welcome our new catering partner, ABM and I have already had lots of positive feedback about their food from the students.
There are a few changes in roles of existing staff which I need to tell you about. Mr Stoddern takes up his role as Assistant Headteacher with the post he vacates, that of Subject Leader for Maths, being taken up by Mr Thomas. Mr Peoples in turn takes over from Mr Thomas as Assistant Subject Leader. Mrs Craig is Acting Head of Girls’ PE this year while Miss D’Cruz is our Lead Teacher for SEND. Miss Robinson will be co-ordinating our EPQ and Miss Penberthy has been appointed to the post of Head of Year 12. Well done and best wishes to them all.
We have made some changes to our pastoral system to take account of the unknowns of the next few months. Years 8 - 11 will have the same Year Head as last year so that if we do have to go through any further periods of school closure, those in post are already familiar with students and parents in their cohort. Mr Pierce will therefore continue to work with Year 8 and will also oversee Year 7, supported by Mr Spittle and Mrs Maishman who also retain responsibility for their own year groups. Mrs Rees will continue to work with Year 10 and Miss Houghton with Year 13, with Miss Penberthy joining the Sixth Form team this year to oversee Year 12.
Please be aware that at the current time, we are limiting visitors to the site to those on essential business only. Usually, we have a fairly steady stream of parents dropping things off for their children who have left home without items ranging from football boots to food tech ingredients and packed lunches to homework! I am afraid we cannot allow this at present for reasons I am sure I do not need to explain and I have told all the students this in my assembly over the last couple of days. Please do not put the receptionist in a difficult position by turning up as she will have to turn you away I am afraid. The staff will understand if things are forgotten occasionally and of course the students can help themselves by packing their bag the night before. It is counterintuitive to us to act in a way which may make parents feel unwelcome but I am sure you will appreciate the need for care and caution at this point. As with all the controls and measures we have had to put into place, we will ease them when we can. If you do need to get in touch with us, you can do so by email or telephone.
I think that is all for this week, except to finish on some nice news and to tell you that over the last few weeks, Mrs De Silva has given birth to Rose, Mrs Fleming to Sienna and Mr Stoddern's wife to Saoirse. To all three members of staff and their families we send our warm congratulations on behalf of the whole CGS community.
With best wishes for a relaxing weekend,
Annmarie McNaney
Headteacher
