Dear Parent or Carer
I welcome you to the first edition of this academic year’s newsletter where you will find a round up of all the events that have been going on. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all staff, parents and students for making my first full term at HGSS so inspiring. I have been privileged to have met numerous students that epitomise our “work hard, be kind” motto. At the forefront of this were Sophie and Matt, our Head Boy and Head Girl, and Humaira, Noah and Aiden, three of our Year 7 students. All exhibited excellence in their preparation and then delivery of their speeches at the recent Open Evening/Morning events which saw over 1500 prospective parents through our doors. All five of these students delivered their speeches articulately and with great courage in two separate sittings and were greatly appreciated by the audience. Thank you to all parents/carers who allowed their children to support us on the evening so that the whole school could be seen.
There have already been a remarkable number of events put on by the school in this first half-term that have enabled students to become further engaged in the life of the school and the subjects they study, but also to go into depths of some subjects to solidify their learning. For example, Year 11 Geographers visited the Olympic Park in Stratford, Year 7s had an E-safety theatre production with a Year 6 group and a number of students were involved in a Drama Make up workshop where they learnt techniques that looked straight out of ‘Casualty’. All the information evenings have been particularly well attended and the presentations of these have been sent out to parents. The big take home message from all of these has been, to avoid exam anxiety in Year 11, it is best to start revising little and often from Year 9. The Year 11 Information Evening had close to 100% attendance and some useful strategies were shared with parents, such as the importance of past exam question use under timed conditions. All Year 11 students were further invited to attend a revision timetable building workshop after school. I wish all Year 11s the best of luck with this year.
Thank you to the PTA for putting on a tremendous Quiz Night this term and for providing a round for which even I knew some of the answers. It was a great evening for groups of friends to come together with a bar and food and pit the might of their collective knowledge against others. The table of prefects held up admirably well, however it looks like our Science Department have been very busy planning lessons, so much so that their general knowledge is somewhat amiss! It is events like these that have enabled us to purchase a new audio visual system for the hall and we thank all of those who supported it.
Lastly, we have a number of students amongst us who not only go quietly about their business of learning at school, but also train either side of the school day and at weekends to compete or perform at a high-level. Our congratulations and best wishes go to: Isabel Schofield who will be competing in the English Championships for gymnastics this November and Millie Ashmore who secured a part in a pantomime at the Elgiva Theatre this December. Again, these students epitomise a ‘work hard, be kind’ attitude and go to show that excellence in any area is a product of extremely hard work.
Have a great and restful half-term.
Mr Hillyard, Headteacher
