Headmaster's Letter - 8th January 2010
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| It is very frustrating to have the new Term delayed by the snow and ice. I do hope that by the time you are reading this, we are set fair to get on with the Term. But if there are further problems, do keeping checking our website for information. Our ‘ClarionCall’ system seems to have worked well – but it only works to mobile phone numbers, so can I make a desperate plea to all those parents who have not yet given us a mobile number to do so. |
| We have had more Oxbridge success this year. Congratulations to: Joe Bradley - St.Anne’s College, Oxford, to read Literae Humaniores (Classics); Amy Jeffs – Girton College, Cambridge to read Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic; and Josh Pendry (who applied post-A Level) – St.Catherine’s College, Cambridge, to read Natural Sciences. |
| Some dates for your diaries: our main school play, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is on 4th, 5th and 6th March; and the annual Pump Room Concert is on 25th March. And two particularly important extra meetings for some of you: for Year 11 parents, please note our Sixth Form Open Evening on 26th January; and for Year 9 parents, our GCSE Options Evening on 25th February. |
| We have a number of events this term as part of our PSHE programme. The Drama Workshops on relationship and moral issues which Mr.McKenna wrote to many of you about will be going ahead on a re-scheduled date later (because of the snow). Year 7 will also be having a talk by the Police on 11th February about issues of personal safety. The dangers of the internet and the various forms of e-communication have become a major concern for all of us who have care of children and young people, especially as this is an area in which we as adults have so little control or even knowledge of what children are doing. Two websites our ICT Department recommends to the pupils here are www.bbc.co.uk/onlinesafety and www.kidsmart.org.uk. As parents you might also find useful www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents. Here at school we don’t normally allow use of social networking sites in school time – though expert advice is that it would be counter-productive to try and block them from the school system. Our advice to parents is not to be afraid of asking your child to show you what they are doing on-line at home. If you’re not familiar with the social networking site they use, ask them to show you. And if possible, do not allow your child to have internet access in their bedroom. There are a number of wider initiatives which it is worth knowing about. Just before Christmas the UK Council for Child Internet Safety launched a national strategy (see www.dcsf.gov.uk/ukccis), and there is a Europe-wide Safer Internet Day on 9th February with the slogan ‘Think Before You Post’. Our own Staff here are having a training session on what more we can do as teachers to guide our students through potential dangers, and we will be running a series of targeted sessions for the students during this year. |
| Finally, each year we have a Lent Project for fundraising. The charity we will be supporting this year is the Bulgarian Abandoned Children’s Trust which was set up following the BBC documentary in 2007 which exposed how disabled children in Bulgaria were being incarcerated in inhuman conditions. The Trust’s subsequent work has shown how even apparently hopelessly damaged children can be helped and given a meaningful life and future with the right care. We will devote our Mufti Day this term to this charity. You can read about its work at: www.tbact.org/home.htm. |
| With best wishes for the Term, |
