Headmaster's Letter (22 April 2008)
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| Please find enclosed your copy of the new School Calendar. We start the new Term with some staff changes. Mr.Paul Harvey takes over as Deputy Head Academic. His brief includes the timetable (working with the Assistant Director of Studies, Mr.Porter), the curriculum, GCSE and A-level options, and our assessment and reports system. Don’t hesitate to contact him directly if you have any queries about these or other academic areas of school life; he can be emailed on p.harvey@stedwards.co.uk. |
| Mrs.Jane Jones takes over as Head of Science. Mr.Chris O’Reilly takes over charge of our Gifted & Talented programme, and Mr.Mike Bull becomes our Oxbridge Adviser. Our Classics Department is joined just for this term by Mr.Chris Cheadle, MA. |
| You will be glad to hear that the various school trips over the break went very well. We look forward to another busy term, dominated of course by the GCSE and AS and A2 exams. Parents of students in those year groups have already been sent details of study leave arrangements and revision sessions; if you have any further queries, don’t hesitate to contact the Relevant Head of Section (email addresses are in the Calendar as usual). |
| An important date for your diary: Speech Day on Friday 11th July. We are privileged to have as our Guest of Honour this year the Vice-Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University, Professor Gerald Pillay. As usual, the day will be a social one, with a barbecue for everyone beforehand – more details in due course. |
| With best wishes, |
Headmaster's Letter (7 April 2008)
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| It felt very strange still being in term-time for two weeks after Easter, and I am glad that there will apparently not be such an early Easter again until the year 2228. Your children were certainly more than ready for their Spring break. |
| Despite the shortness of this holiday, there are no fewer than seven St.Edward’s School trips during it: three outdoor pursuits trips (Ten Tors training, D of E and CCF RAF); the annual Ski Trip in Courmayeur in Italy; two Languages Department trips (to Valencia in Spain, and to Le Touquet to learn about French cuisine); and our History Department visit to the 1st World War battlefields of France and Belgium. I wonder how many schools run this number of trips over such a brief holiday period? I am most grateful to my colleagues who are giving up their holiday time in this way. |
| This has been a rather gruelling term at times with our energy supply problems and the two-day closure. We are now assured that the gas problem has been definitively fixed. And while we are still waiting for our electricity supply upgrade, we have experienced no further outages and have not needed to rely on the generator for the past week. |
| But we of course have had our highlights as well. For me, two of these were the school musical Oliver! and the recent Pump Room Concert, though there has of course been much else happening as well, as the enclosed latest issue of Term in View records. My thanks to Mrs.Rachael Wright for her editing of it. This also contains an appreciation of our Academic Deputy, Mrs.Sheila Cooper, who left us at the end of term to take up her appointment as Headmistress of St.Margaret’s School, Exeter. We wish her all the best. |
| Our new building continues to be on schedule. The construction work is now all but completed, and the next phase will be the installation of the kitchen and other equipment. I have made a number of visits to the site and been excited to see at first hand just how spacious the new Dining Hall and Drama Studio will be. It will be a major expansion of our facilities when it opens in September. |
| The Trustees have now set the school fees for 2008-9. The Trustees are mindful of the present economic outlook and the rising cost of so many daily necessities (the School itself faces a rise of 51% in our energy costs). They have therefore kept the rise in fees as low as possible. Across the Junior and Senior School together, the average fee rise will be only 3.5%. The fees per term for the Senior School will be: |
| Year 7 | £3163 | |
| Year 8 | £3225 | |
| Year 9 | £3670 | |
| Year 10 | £3708 | |
| Year 11 | £3742 | |
| L6th (Yr 12) | £3708 | |
| U6th (Yr 13) | £3708 |
| Thank your for your continued support of the School. |
| May I wish everyone a good holiday break. |
| With best wishes, |
