Newsletter Issue no. 71 - December 2014 www.edgbarrowschool.co.uk From the Associate Headteacher As we come to the end of our first term it would be Of the remaining students, 20 are either working or on good to bring everybody up-to-date with what’s new apprenticeships and 18 are on a gap year or seeking and what’s been happening at Edgbarrow School. employment. As a school we should be very proud of this year’s Our examination results across the board were once examination results; once again many congratulations again hugely pleasing. Our KS4 results were excellent to the students, staff, parents and Governors for such a and our A2 results were fantastic. The following great team effort. information shows the highlights of each Key Stage. The DfE have now published their RAISEonline report on the 2014 exam results, and we are delighted with our This year our results were excellent. Please find report, which confirms that at Edgbarrow all student below some highlight figures: groups are significantly outperforming national expecta- - 89% of our students achieved 5 or more tions. One of the key figures from the report is the A*-C grades against 90% FFTD (A national overall ‘Value Added’ score. This score compares gov- benchmark to be in the top 25% in the coun- ernment expectations of the grades students should EdgbarrowSchool try). achieve at the end of Year 11 with the grades actually - 83% of our students achieved 5 or more A* achieved by those students. We are thrilled that the -C including Maths and English against 73% score this year is our highest ever at 1050, reflecting the FFTD. fact that we are adding value to the results of students - 39% of our students achieved 3 or more of all abilities. This puts us in the top 2% of schools in A*-A grades. the country! - 100% of our students gained 5 A* - G grades which shows that we are doing our very best for all of our students. This year we held the event on Thursday 11th Septem- - 31% of our students achieved the EBacc ber 2014 and it was another very successful occasion. (English, Maths, 2 Science, Humanities and a Students and parents seem to thoroughly enjoy meeting Language) up again, especially the Upper Sixth, where a number were going off to University the following weekend. We should be very proud of these results, especially Congratulations to everybody involved and thanks to when we look at how well students performed in the Sixth Form team for organising the event. Maths with 86% and English (Lang) with 90% A* - C. One of the things that we now do very well is to ensure that no student achieves a C in English and Fortunately, this year the weather was excellent and Maths and does not gain 5 A*-C. once again more than 1000 students took part in the sponsored walk and returned safely. The final figure from the PTA on the amount raised was over £13,000. We were delighted with our A Level examination results and they are as follows: - This year 136 students sat exams On Saturday 27th September we organised our first - 99.5% pass rate A*-E painting and gardening day of the year. We have been - 61% achieved A*- B grades so lucky with the support and time offered by our - 84% achieved A*-C grades Mums, Dads and students, who give up a couple of - 84% of all BTECs taken achieved distinction hours on a Saturday to paint or garden, and this was no and distinction star exception. This time we decorated the whole of the gym and both For further information 51% of students who went on changing rooms. This was a huge achievement and to Higher Education are at Russell Group Universities. saved the school approximately £3,500. Our next Painting and Gardening Day is on Saturday 28th If you do have to drop in school please do not take a February, 2014. parking space that is going to be required by somebody for the whole day, but just drop or pick up and go. Please do what you can to help. At the end of September once again the school was absolutely packed out for our Open Evenings and events for Year 6 students and parents. Throughout the term we have offered Can I please just remind everyone that students must be on tours on Monday and Tuesday mornings for parents and the school site by 8.45 am ready to register at 8.50am. To students and I have been so pleased and proud to hear of the ensure that students are arriving on time Senior Staff will be wonderful comments made by families as they walk around monitoring the school entrances and any student arriving the school while we are busy in lessons. They talk of the late will be issued with a 30 minute lunchtime detention for positive atmosphere within the school and the calm, orderly that day. site in which students and staff seem very happy. That means a lot to me and thank you to everyone for their help and I am sure you can appreciate how important it is for support in creating such a positive and purposeful atmosphere. students to be in school on time in order to start their day in the most organised and efficient way. On the last Thursday in November we held our annual Goodbye for now to Mrs Hutchinson, Head of Year 9, who Christmas Shopping Event in the Sixth Form and once again left for maternity leave on 28th November. Miss Knowles this was a lovely evening with lots and lots of stalls both from will be acting Head of Year until Mrs Hutchinson returns. outside the school and also many run by our students. The Goodbye also to Mrs Blazer, Head of Drama whose event was very well supported and very busy. A huge thank maternity leave started in October. We wish them both you to the PTA for organising such a wonderful event which well. this year raised over £3,000. The students and staff of Years 7 and 8 once again ran some stalls to support PTA projects Goodbye to Mr Oldaker who is leaving us to become a and I know that the parents of our Year 7 and 8 students Community Pastor for his local church. We wish him all the would have helped the students to organise cake making or best in his new venture. purchasing of sweets etc. prior to the event, so thank you. Also leaving is Miss Henley, teacher of English who will be moving to Canada to become an Outdoor Educator and we wish her luck for her move to Canada and in her new post. Each year the school produces a School Development Plan that is understood and followed by the staff and Governors of Our Librarian Mrs Cook is moving with her family to the school. Last year we shared the essence of this plan with Azerbaijan and we wish her well. parents and carers. In an effort to give you some understanding of where our focus will be this year I thought I Dan June our Music technician is relocating to Swindon and would include this item in the Newsletter once again. we wish him well. Our School Development Plan this year focuses once again One of our Learning Support Assistants, Ms Thomas left us on the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom on 5th December to take up the post of Learning Mentor at particularly: Garth Hill College and another, Miss Fearn, is going to join - Marking and Feedback the Admin team at Sandhurst School. We wish them all the - Literacy and Numeracy best in their new posts. - Intervention - Curriculum Due to the retirements of colleagues last year and to the growth in the curriculum we have this year welcomed an unusually high number of new teaching staff. Please forgive me but this is the usual plea regarding the beginning and end of each school day. Can I please remind ● Joining our English Department are Ms Bell, Mr parents that you should not use the Sandhurst Road entrance Plumtree, Miss Rune and Ms Earl to drop off and collect students. ● Mr Curtis is joining our Design Technology Department Could I please encourage all parents to drop and pick up ● Mr Russell-Smith is our new Head of Geography students away from school if at all possible as with some and he is joined by Miss Dyck and Miss Selby 1,370 students we have more staff who need all the available ● Miss Brink is the new member of our History parking space. We want to make the school site and adjoining Department to cover for Mrs Hutchinson’s roads as safe as possible for children who are either walking maternity leave. or cycling to school and the congestion on Pinehill Road from ● Mrs Brandist and Miss Sanchez Escobar are joining the lights and then into Grant Road is becoming more and our MFL Department more difficult. ● Miss Luffman and Mrs Phillip are joining the Special Educational Needs team ● Joining our Science Department are Mr Burrell and Miss Grant ● Next term, we welcome Mrs Williams and Mrs Osinoiki as LSA’s and Mr Orr who is returning to the Science Department after his sabbatical I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone associated with the school a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you all have a peaceful time with family and friends and I look forward to seeing all our students back in school on Monday 5th January 2015 (Week B).