Headteacher's Newsletter

what's happening at Chesham Grammar

Posted on: July 1st 2022

Head's Blog

SPORTS DAY

It has been a wonderful week at CGS, topped off by one of the highlights of the summer term, Sports Day, which took place this afternoon. The middle distance and hurdles races took place this morning as did the field events with the sprints and relays this afternoon, watched by the whole school. The highlight and culmination of this event is the squadron relay, which involves staff running two of the legs and students the others. As you can imagine, there is always great excitement as the staff undertake their part of the race! Congratulations to Shakespeare House who emerged as Sports Day victors this year. Many thanks to Mr Spittle who masterminded the whole event, supported by the rest of the PE staff and very well done to everyone who participated, representing their House with pride.

Art and Photography Exhibition

At the end of Sports Day, I made my way direct to our Art and Photography Exhibition. This showcased the work of our GCSE and A level students, which was absolutely incredible. I am always blown away by the standard our students produce and I know from talking to visitors who were also at the exhibition that I am not the only one. Thank you to the Art Department for all their hard work in staging the exhibition.

75th Reunion

Last Saturday, we held our 75^th anniversary reunion for alumni which was attended by around 300 former students and staff representing every decade of the school's history since the 1950s. We had a small group of leavers from 1957 which by my reckoning means they are now in their early 80s. It was a truly joyous event. I would like to say a huge thank you to our current students who gave up their Saturday afternoon to come and act 75^th anniversary ambassadors, taking the CGS students of yesterday around the school of today. We have received many messages, comments, cards and emails from our alumni who were 'bowled over' as one of them put it by our students. Very proud!

National Rounders Champions

This week, three of our rounders teams have competed in the National Finals in Leicester. Yesterday, our year 9 team got to the semi-finals, while the year 10s were knocked out in the quarter finals. On Wednesday, however, our year 8 team reached the final and won, so are now national champions! We are very proud of all the students who competed very much in the spirit of CGS, even in the torrential rain of yesterday. We are especially proud of course of the year 8s who totally smashed it. Well done to everyone involved and thank you to Mrs Craig, Miss Cowley and Mrs Maishman who have taken the teams to Leicester this week. I enjoyed meeting with the year 8 team today at breaktime and together, we placed the trophy in the school trophy cabinet where it will reside. Well done to: Alice (C), Sophie, Danica, Tilly, Charlotte, Thiv, Anya, Tegan, Mollie, Nell and Millie.

German Teacher Award for Miss Sichla

Earlier this term, we nominated Miss Sichla for a German Teacher Award. These awards are made at the German Embassy in London and recognise the dedication of German language teachers across the country. As a nominee, Miss Sichla was invited to attend the awards ceremony at the German Embassy which took place yesterday. I am very proud to announce that she was the recipient of one of the awards. It is wonderful for her to receive this recognition for her hard work. Well done Miss Sichla!

Anna Sichla Germany Embassy

Languages Week

Next week, the MFL Department will be holding a Languages Week in school to celebrate all languages. There will be numerous exciting activities and opportunities on offer for the students to take part in, including karaoke, spelling bee, a treasure hunt and a quiz. There will also be showings of French, Spanish and German films and a short film competition. Some of these activities will involve a small donation so students might want to bring a small amount of cash. There will also be ice cream for sale during the week.

Welcoming parents of our Class of 2029

On Tuesday evening, we were delighted to welcome parents of those who will join our year 7 in September for our Induction Evening ahead of the year 6 students visiting us for their transition day on Tuesday. They will meet their vertical tutor groups on Tuesday and it has been really good for these groups to meet this week as we work towards a move back to a vertical system in September. Well done to the older students who have experienced vertical tutoring in preCovid days for helping to set the tone which enabled the younger ones to settle in.

FOCGS: Final fundraising events of the year

This time next week, the hall will have undergone a transformation ahead of our 75^th Anniversary Party for parents. I am looking forward to seeing many of you there. Ticket sales have now closed on ParentPay but if you have missed this and want to come, please get in touch with the FoCGS over the weekend.

The Friends will be finishing off their year of fundraising with a number of events to raise money for the wellbeing hub which has been their focus this year. There will be fantastic 75^th silent auction with some 'money-can't buy' prizes including a unique song composed for a special person or occasion as well as a golf experience for 4, a mini battery operated ride on Tesla, trips up the O2, and a 3 night campervan trip. The auction will open next week with final bids by 10pm on Friday 8 July. Details of how to access this will be sent out on Monday. The Friends will also be hosting a 75^th anniversary raffle which will go live next week on ParentPay and drawn on Monday 18^th July – again, do look out for it!

Bags2School and mufti day

If you are having a clear out, the Friends are running the final Bags2School event of the year next Tuesday, 5^th July. Any items need to be dropped off by 9am please. Finally, there will be a mufti day for students next Friday, July 8th. The £1 requested donation can be made on ParentPay next week.

Online Safety

Thank you to parents who attended the online safety event on Tuesday run by Childnet. There is some information from the event in the link (click here) from Mr Bradbury which will be of interest to all parents.

Online safety tips

Well done and happy birthday to .....

Yesterday, I met with students who have accumulated more than 200 House points so far this year. Very well done to: Macey, Noah, Samuel, Dhir and Harvey in year 7 and to Emily W in year

8 and Emily D in year 9. Finally, happy 12th birthday to Dhruv, Ania, Josh, Samuel, Rafael and Oscar in year 7 with whom I met this week for birthday tea.