Headteacher's Newsletter

what's happening at Chesham Grammar

Posted on: March 25th 2022

Head's Blog

PROGRESS EVENING

Last night, we held our Parents' Evening for those who have a child in year 8. Unfortunately, a number of positive Covid cases and a stomach bug have had a significant impact on staff absence this week and obviously also affected Parents' Evening. Like many schools, we have struggled through the last few days and I would like to thank my colleagues, many of whom have stepped in and covered lessons for absent colleagues during their own non-teaching periods.

YEAR 11 & 13 SUMMER EXAM TIMETABLES

Our year 11 and 13 students have been issued with their own, personalised summer exam timetable today. Please make sure that this is kept in a safe place. I would suggest taking a photo of it in case the paper version gets lost. The full timetable can also be accessed on our website here. A reminder that we are holding a Teams Information Evening for those with a child in year 11 on Monday and/or year 13 on Wednesday which will help parents understand the exam board content disclosures in each subject. If you have any questions in advance, please do let us know so that we can address them during the presentation. There will also be the option to ask questions during the event. After Easter, year 10 students will sit their internal exams and the timetable which has been shared with students can be found here.

SUBJECT REVIEW

As you know, over the course of a school year, we undertake regular subject reviews and we are reviewing Geography next week. Each time, we seek feedback from parents. We are enormously grateful to those of you who take a few minutes to provide this. If you would be willing to give us your feedback in relation to Geography, please complete the questionnaire by Friday April 1st . You can of course complete this with your child if you wish.

UKRAINE COLLECTION

Ukraine Thank you so much to parents who very generously dropped off or sent in donations for our second collection for those affected by the conflict in Ukraine. Huge thanks to Mrs Bialas-Malecka who works in our Finance Team for organising this. The items will be taken to medical and emergency refugee centres in Poland.

Some of our parents are involved in the organisation of a fundraising event for the DEC Ukraine Appeal at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre. The event, Stand With Ukraine, is taking place on Thursday April 14th and a number of well-known musicians and comedians will be performing. Ukrain poster A3 These will include Katrina from Katrina and the Waves, Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri along with comedians Hal Cruttenden (Live at the Apollo), Clinton Baptise (Phoenix Nights) and Ricky Grover (After Life). All proceeds will go to the DEC Ukraine Appeal. Details can be found here.

YOUR SCHOOL LOTTERY

Lottery It is a year since the Friends of Chesham Grammar School launched their Your School Lottery fundraising initiative and in the first year, this has raised nearly £3,000 for the school. Every week, a CGS parent wins around £50 and there is also always a chance that one of our parents will win the overall jackpot of £25,000! This is an easy way to raise money for the school and the FoCGS invite anyone who would like to join to sign up here. Every ticket sold generates 40p for the school and enables us to provide additional resources and facilities which are not covered by the funding we receive from the government.

VISITS AND SPORT THIS WEEK

Netball 1 On Monday, year 12 students attended a UCAS Convention which I know they found useful. Thank you to the Sixth Form team for organising this. It has been a very busy week on the sporting front with many students representing the school in the glorious sunshine with pride! Our year 7, 8 and 9 netballers have taken part in their respective District Tournament with CGS taking more teams to each tournament than many other schools. The students showed great resilience and sportsmanship and played really well. Special mention to the 7As who won the Plate competition and to the year 8 team who also won their fixtures against Dr Challoner's High. The year 7 boys beat both Thorpe House and The Misbourne in football while the year 8s narrowly lost to Thorpe House. In basketball, year 9s beat St Michael's. The fixtures and extra-curricular PE clubs for next week can be found here.

Hockey 1

WELL DONE TO...

Issy Issy in year 11 who represented CGS in the British Showjumping Just For Schools Winter Championship last weekend and who won her class. Congratulations, Issy! Liam in year 7 has just passed grade 5 piano with Merit while Emily in year 11, who started to learn the piano as the 'skill' element for the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award has passed her recent exam with Distinction. Well done to them both. I would like to mention Monty in year 8 and Sam in year 9 who each set about raising money for the Ukraine humanitarian crisis which we were happy to support. Monty undertook a sponsored silence yesterday, raising over £500 while Sam organised a lunchtime collection, raising nearly £90. Very well done. Every year, many of our students take part in one or more of the national Maths Challenges and those who are awarded silver or gold are invited to enter the follow-up round. The Intermediate Maths Challenge is aimed at years 9 - 11 but a good number of our year 7s and 8s chose to enter with lots of them qualifying for the follow-up round. Very well done to them all. Particular congratulations to Bjarni in year 8 who, along with Tobin in year 11, was invited to take part in the Olympiad. Thank you to the Maths Department for encouraging and inspiring the students to take part.

BIRTHDAY TEAS

Happy 12th birthday to Ana, Sophie, Filip, James and Elijah in year 7 and congratulations to Millie, Beenu, Beatriz and Nitharsan in year 13 who have just turned 18. As always, my birthday teas with the students were amongst the highlights of my week!

ECONOMICS MAGAZINE

Please find the latest edition of the CGS Economics Magazine here. Well done to the students for their insightful articles and thank you to the Economics Department staff. Finally, a reminder that term finishes two weeks today on Friday, April 8th. School will end at 1.15pm.