Headteacher's Newsletter

what's happening at Chesham Grammar

Posted on: June 10th 2022

Head's Blog

I hope that you and your family enjoyed the long bank holiday weekend and that your child had a good half term. I know from talking to students during the week that lots of them attended street parties for the Queen's Platinum Ju Jubilee bilee. I can remember quite clearly the street party I attended as a young child for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977 and so I am sure that our students will remember the events they attended long into the future. As always following a break, it has been good to welcome everyone back and to re-establish the routines of school life. We have a busy few weeks ahead.

GEOGRAPHY FIELDWORK FOR YEAR 10s

During the week, students in year 10 doing geography GCSE have been undertaking fieldwork in the river Misbourne. Fieldwork is obviously an integral element of the study of this subject but one our students have not been able to undertake for some time now so it is great to see it returning. Thank you to Miss Evans for organising the visits and to the accompanying staff. Photos can be found on the Geography Department's Twitter feed @CGS_Geography.

GRAMMAR SCHOOL HEADS CONFERENCE

GSHA On Wednesday, I attended the Grammar School Heads Conference in London, with the vast majority of my Headteacher colleagues from the 163 grammar schools across the country. Speakers included Nadhim Zahawi, the current Secretary of State for Education and Amanda Spielman, Ofsted's Chief Inspector and there were also sessions on a range of issues from character education to the future of general qualifications, all of which provided much food for thought. I will be discussing all of this with the senior team over the next few weeks.

CGS@75

75 test Over the next few weeks, as you know, we have events taking place as we continue to celebrate the school's 75^th anniversary. I know that a good number of our parents are themselves CGS alumni and those of you who are former Chesham Grammar/High School students, are invited to our 75^th anniversary alumni reunion on the 25^th June between 2 pm and 6 pm. Tickets are available at https://cgs75thanniversary.eventbrite.co.uk. A reminder also that we are hosting a party for all parents on Friday July 8^th and further information from The Friends of CGS has been sent home about this today. Some of you have asked for the details of how to order a copy of the 75^th anniversary whole school photo to be provided again, so here they are:

Website: www.gillmanandsoame.co.uk
Proof card login: 408858
Proof card password: 183504

WELL DONE TO...

DRUMS ...Ava in year 11 who has been chosen as a finalist in the BAFTA Young Game Designer awards. As a result, Ava has been enrolled on the BAFTA YGD Digital Mentorship Programme which will give her the opportunity to talk to lots of experts in the gaming industry from companies such as Playstation and Warner Brothers. Well done also to Issy in year 8 whose entry in the Jubilee Art Competition hosted by Riverside Shopping Centre, Hemel Hempstead, was placed in the top 20 of over 400 entries. Her art will be displayed in the centre until the end of June. Kirtan in year 9 took part in a music tour recently, playing Indian drums (tabla) in a group of other musicians, visiting Birmingham, Leicester and Manchester. Well done to him too.

HAPPY 12TH BIRTHDAY TO...

...Radhika, Weng Kay, Georgia, Jess, Anna, Anton, Yasmin, Lexie and Dhruv in year 7 with whom I have met for birthday tea this week.

SAFEGUARDING OUR STUDENTS

Safeguarding is one of the key priorities of every school and I would like to remind you that there is a wealth of useful information available to parents on our website, including information on what to do if you are worried about your child. As part of our safeguarding responsibilities, we seek to ensure that our students know how to keep themselves safe online and it is important that we make sure our parents are kept informed about this too, especially as the ever-changing nature of online activity can make it difficult for parents to stay up to date. We would therefore like to invite you to an online safety workshop webinar run by Childnet, a leading online safety charity. This will be held on Tuesday 28^th June from 7-8pm. Further details can be found here.

YOUNG ENTERPRISE BUSINESS VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Following on from recent successes with Young Enterprise, we are looking for new Business Volunteers to support our students. Participating in Young Enterprise requires students to set up a company to create and market a product. This experience enables students to develop vital employability skills. Young Enterprise is seeking experienced business people from all walks of life to advise and support students on their journey. If you are interested and can spare approximately 90 minutes per week, please contact Josh Barrow from the YE Chiltern Volunteer Board, at secretary@chilternye.org or visit the website www.yechilterns.com for more information.

ECONOMICS MAGAZINE - LATEST EDITION

ECONOMICS 1 Please find the latest edition of our Economics Magazine here. As always, our students have written excellent articles on a wide range of current issues of interest, ranging from the sale of Chelsea FC to the non-dom status of Akshata Murty, who is married to the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak. Well done to everyone involved in this.

SPORT AT CGS

Sport 1 In my last newsletter before half term, I reported that lots of our students had taken part in the Bucks Schools Triathlon. The results of this came in over half term and we were delighted to hear that our year 9 and 10 boys won their event with the year 7 and 8 girls and year 9 and 10 girls both finishing 2^nd. Well done all! Sport 2 This week, our year 9s won a fantastic cricket match v Chalfonts Community College, winning by 1 run while our year 9 girls won the District Rounders Competition. We dominated the event, with the final played between two CGS teams. Fantastic! In tennis, our year 8s drew v The Amersham School while the year 9s beat Amersham 6-0 and 4-0. Finally, good luck to all those who are competing in the Bucks County Track and Field Championships tomorrow. Next week’s fixtures can be found here.