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Posted on: July 20th 2017
Headteacher's End of Term Letter
Dear Parents and Carers,
I cannot believe that we have once again reached the end of another very successful academic year. I am sure that Christ’s Chronicles has kept you up to date with the school’s weekly programme, but I would like to share with you again some of the key events of the year.
Now that we are in the third year of our newly built 6th form, we are pleased to report 95% of our former year 13 students started their university course in September 2016. Of these students over a quarter attend a top Russell Group university. We are also pleased to announce that our first Sixth Former to achieve the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award went to Buckingham Palace to collect their award in May. Our D of E programme continues to be a great success with over 100 students involved in total in the upper school.
On the 7th May, Christ’s School were victorious in the Dynamik National Schools Basketball Championships in Manchester following their success at the London School Games under 14 competition. With the boys’ hard work led by Mr Sedour and the Richmond Knights Basketball club, Christ’s were crowned Under 14 School Basketball National Champions. In recognition of this fantastic achievement, the team received awards at both the main School and Sports Awards Evenings this year.
On Friday 7th July students headed to St Mary’s University for our annual Sports Day. Thanks to Mr Smith and his team for organising the event and allowing our students the opportunity to participate in a professional athletics stadium. The overall result was a joint win for Elizabeth and Turing Houses – congratulations!
To mark the end of the GCSE exams we held our Year 11 Liturgy. It was a very special time for our students, their families and teaching staff. After months of preparation and hard work for their GCSEs, it was a time to reflect and share special memories of their time at Christ’s. We wish them every success on Thursday, August 24th when they will be able to collect their results, between 9am and 11am.
We also witnessed the third biennial choral and orchestral concert that was held at St. John the Divine in Richmond earlier this month. The centrepiece of this year’s concert was an outstanding performance by our most advanced young musicians accompanied by a full orchestra of Fauré’s Requiem. Congratulations to all those who took part and also to Mr Wilson for his continued dedication to the Music department.
Earlier this year some avid readers from Year 8 represented Christ's School in the annual Richmond Battle of the Books competition. These students read six books and answered three challenging rounds of questions over the course of the morning. This was followed by a round of general literature knowledge questions which really sorted the readers from the non-readers! After taking part for many years and coming close in previous years, we were thrilled to be awarded first place.
We were visited by Ofsted in November 2016 and we are delighted that Christ’s School was awarded a Good judgement, using the new assessment framework. Since 2015 schools have been assessed by Ofsted using a much more demanding and rigorous framework, therefore we are particularly pleased that Christ’s performed so strongly in every criteria. In recognition of our values of Love, Justice and Peace we are thrilled that our work to ‘promote pupils’ personal development’ has been judged as ‘outstanding’ and ‘the level of care and support for all pupils is of the highest standard’. Reflecting our culture of ambition for every student, Ofsted recognised that ‘teachers have high expectations of their pupils’ and, as a result, ‘attainment is high’ with ‘pupils’ attainment at the highest grades strong in a variety of subjects’.
We also had another busy year with extra-curricular trips including Tower of London, Battlefields, Ski trip to France, Spanish Exchange to Madrid, Classics trip to Athens, theatre trips, Year 7 trips to High Ashurst, France and Spain, amongst many others which were enjoyed by both students and staff.
As this academic year comes to a close we say goodbye to a number of staff who are leaving for a variety of reasons: Mrs McGrail is retiring; Mrs Bradley is moving to a new school; Ms Moran is moving to teach abroad; Mr Morandi is moving to a 6th form college; Reverend Willoughby will be returning to be a parish vicar as well a Chaplain in a school local to her; Mrs Rose will be starting a new career; Ms Martinez is starting a PGCE in Art; Ms N Bell is moving to a new school and Ms Rubio returns to Spain. Miss Martin also leaves us to start a new post at another school. We wish them well for the future and thank them for their contribution to Christ’s School.
A number of new staff will be joining us in September:
Ms Holland - Head of RE
Mr Hogan - Head of Mathematics
Ms Collinson - Science/ Psychology Teacher
Ms Obi - Science Teacher
Ms Kieran - Science Teacher
Ms Kurokawa - Psychology/ Maths Teacher
Ms Booth - English Teacher
Ms Audouin-Leighton - Maths Teacher
Ms Gray - Pastoral Support Worker
Ms Frith - Pastoral Support Worker
Ms Rogers - Learning Support Assistant
Ms Bell - Learning Support Assistant
Ms Beunel - Learning Support Assistant
Mrs Kukadia - Science Technician (part-time)
Mr McCoach - Computer Science Teacher/Cover Supervisor
I am sure that you will join me in welcoming them to Christ's.
We have some staff who are changing role in September. Ms Randall has been appointed Head of Key Stage 3 English. Ms Oddy has been appointed Head of Modern Foreign Languages. Ms Smee has been appointed to Key Stage 2/3 Leader (transition from primary to secondary school), Mr Sedour has been appointed Key Stage 3 Leader. Mr Rutter has been appointed the new Chaplain for Christ’s School.
Mr Williams recently worked extremely hard to gain us a recommendation for the Investors in Careers Award which we hope to be able to announce in the new academic year.
The list of tutors for next year is below:
|
KSL 2-3 Debbie Smee |
Pastoral Support Workers |
||
|
Ms Kieran |
7RKI |
Ms Frith |
Year 7 |
|
Ms Holland |
7VHO |
Ms Frith |
Year 8 |
|
Ms Booth |
7EBO |
Ms Gray |
Year 9 |
|
Ms Oddy |
7HOD |
Ms Gray |
Year 10 |
|
Ms Kurokawa |
7IKU |
Mr Baxter |
Year 11 |
|
KSL 3 Djamal Sedour |
|||
|
Mr Higinbotham |
8THI |
Mr Wilkinson |
9CWI |
|
Ms Lakshmikanthan/ Ms Vashisht (Wed/ Thurs) |
8KLA |
Ms Chedda |
9BCH |
|
Mr Hall/ Mr Wilson (Wed/Thurs) |
8JHA |
Ms Harries |
9SHA |
|
Ms Randall |
8JRL |
Ms Wynn-Davies |
9CWY |
|
Ms Campa/ Ms Obi (Fri) |
8JCA |
Mr Heitzmann |
9JHE |
|
KSL 4 |
|||
|
Mr Bird |
10TBI |
Ms Bell |
11CBE |
|
Ms Collinson |
10ECO |
Ms Petrovics |
11GPE |
|
Mr Hordern |
10THO |
Ms Connolly |
11ACO |
|
Ms Nayyar |
10WNA |
Ms Conteh/ Mr Raisin (Fri) |
11MCO |
|
Mr Brooks-Beckman |
10EBB |
Mr Arnold |
11RAR |
|
KSL 5 Matthew Morris |
|||
|
Ms Stewart |
12MST |
Mr Smith |
13TSM |
|
Ms Powell |
12SPO |
Mrs Todorinovic |
13DTO |
|
Mrs Harris/ Mr Williams (Wed) |
12HHA |
Mr Hartnett |
13LHA |
Can I remind you that we expect all students to be dressed properly in the normal school uniform at all times and throughout the whole school year. Please use the holiday period to refresh uniform and equipment requirements so that all students arrive ready to learn in September. Students are expected to return in their winter uniform of shirt, tie and blazer. For further information about both school uniform and sportswear please refer to our school website.
You will notice that a number of homework tasks have been set on Show My Homework which are due to be submitted at the start of next term. These are enrichment tasks, designed to be enjoyable and interesting as well as helping everyone to hit the ground running in September! We understand that it may not be possible to complete all the tasks set but the expectation is that every student completes what they can; this may mean that they have to prioritize certain tasks. Please be reassured that students will not be penalized for not completing everything that has been set but we hope that they will embrace the opportunity to learn and research across a variety of subjects.
Please be reminded that all absences need to be reported by 8:30 on each day of absence by phone, email or text. Unexplained absences are recorded as unauthorised, which can generate a referral to the Education Welfare Service. We do not authorise absences during term time for any holidays, as advised by the Department for Education. It is not always possible to get medical appointments after school but we appreciate it if your child can come to school first and get registered at 8:30 then go to their appointment, coming back to school in time for their second registration at 1pm.
To keep up to date with school news, events, successes and achievements in the classroom and in the sporting arena, please visit our website, follow us on twitter @christs_school and Facebook which you can access from the home page on our website.
May God bless you over the summer holidays, particularly if you are travelling. I hope the time will be used to good effect and that you return refreshed and ready for the new academic year which begins for all students (except year 12) on Tuesday, 5th September 2017, starting at 8.30am for the new Year 7 students, 9.30am for the years 8, 9,10 and 11 and 10am for the year 13 students. Year 12 students will start on Wednesday 6th September at 10.30am.
Yours faithfully
Helen Dixon
Headteacher
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