Headteacher's Newsletter

what's happening at Chesham Grammar

Posted on: September 17th 2021

Head's Blog

Charity at CGS

Today we have held the first of our charity days this year, with the students raising money for Jeans for Genes, a campaign which raises awareness of the daily challenges faced by those living with a genetic disorder and raises money to fund projects that make a tangible difference to the lives of those affected. Each House chooses a charity to support each year and this was the choice of Austen House.  Thank you to Mrs Maishman, the House Leader for Austen, who has coordinated this along with the Austen House Captains in year 13.  Thank you also to those parents who provided items for the cake sales today.  As you can imagine, these were very popular! We will be able to let you know the total amount raised next week.

It has been a busy second full week of term and we are all well and truly back into the swing of our school routines.  We have resumed in-person assemblies and it has been good to have full year groups together again for these.  For at least this term, we will have a blend of in-person and virtual assemblies, which became a normal feature of life at CGS last year.  It has been wonderful to see so many students throwing themselves back into school life and so much extra-curricular sport taking place at lunchtimes and after school this week, with matches in football, rugby and netball, as well as additional team trials and a number of practices.  Well done to everyone who has taken part and to those who have represented the school with pride.  This week’s extra-curricular sporting programme can be found here: Fixtures

GCSE English

Those of you with a child in year 11 may like to know that the Shakespeare play the students are studying in GCSE English literature, The Merchant of Venice, is coming to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, part of The Globe development in London. Seeing the play live really does help to bring it to life and if you are interested in taking your child, the play is scheduled to run from February 18th to April 9th 2022. Tickets have gone on sale this week.

Good News

It is always gratifying to hear of the successes of our students in their out of school interests.  Many congratulations to Ryan in year 11 who had a very successful summer in both cricket and tennis.  He was the Captain of the U15 Berkhamsted Cricket Club team which narrowly lost in the County Cup final and he was named Player of the Year in his team.  He also won the singles U16 London and South East Summer Open in tennis, improving his national ranking significantly.  Well done also to Charlie in year 8 who has been selected as goal keeper for the Bucks County hockey squad for the second year running. Megan and Amelia, both in year 7, have passed their grade 2 ballet exam with Merit while Conor in year 10 passed his grade 5 LAMDA exam with Distinction.  Caspar in year 12 was also awarded Distinction in his LAMDA exam, in his case, it was grade 7.  Well done to them all.

Important Reminder

Can I reiterate my message from last week about the need to drive carefully when dropping off or collecting your child?  Children can be dropped off at the front of school, in the bus bay off the main road. Please avoid using the service road on the school site as we need to leave this clear for school buses.  Parents should not use the school car park which is for staff parking only and if entering the school site, must drive carefully and be vigilant.  This week, we have witnessed parents driving too quickly down the leisure centre drive, ignoring the zebra crossing and in one case, I saw a parent reverse across the zebra crossing when a child was using it.  Quite simply, none of this is acceptable.

Other Information

As you know, we use Canvas to set homework for students and instructions showing you how to set up an account and also how to set up an 'observer' account so that you can view your child's homework.

Young Enterprise are looking for parents to mentor Year 12 students taking part in the Young Enterprise Company Programme.  If you are interested please click here for further information.

With best wishes for a relaxing weekend.

 

Anmnarie McNaney
Headteacher