News Letter - September 2001

September 2001 Newsletter

International School Award

I am delighted to be able to report that the school has just been awarded the International School Award in recognition of the quality and wide range of international activities that take place at the school.

The award is made by the Central Bureau of the British Council following their assessment of a portfolio showing the international work undertaken at the school during 2000/2001. The accreditation is valid from September 2001 to August 2004.

In the letter confirming the award, most complimentary comments were made about the high standard of the work presented to the adjudication panel and the quality of the international activity taking place at the school.

Examination Results

Some of the information below duplicates that published in the August newsletter which only appeared on the school's website.

GCSE

Excellent GCSE, GNVQ and A level results have again been achieved by the pupils and students in the summer. This consistent pattern of high achievement is a powerful reflection of the hard work by all the staff at the school.

At GCSE, 70% of the pupils achieved 5 or more passes at grades A* to C. While a slightly lower percentage than the 73% achieved in 2000, other measures of the pupils' achievements show improvements over last year as follows:

The average points score per pupil (8 points for A*, 7 points for A, 6 points for B etc.) increased from 49.7 to 52.0;
The percentage achieving 5 or more passes at grades A* to G was, for the first time in the school's history, 100%;
The percentage of entries resulting in grades A* or A increased from 28.3% to 29.4%

Many candidates deserve to be specifically mentioned for their outstanding results. For the sake of brevity, just four are mentioned below:

Amanda Good - 10A* and 1A grade
Victoria Evans - 10A* and 1A grade
John Shovelton - 9A* and 2A grades
Kerry Somerton - 9A* and 2A grades

A Level

At A level, the average points score per candidate (A -10 points, B - 8 points etc.) was the same as for 2000 at 21.7 while the average score per entry increased from 5.9 to 6.3. The percentage of entries resulting in grades A and B increased from 44.4% to 46.2%. These are, again, excellent statistics.

Six candidates achieved 5 A level passes at grades A and B as follows:

James Boast - 4A and 1 B grades
Matthew Amos - 3A and 2B grades
Timothy Bowker - 3A and 2B grades
Jonathan Hicks - 3A and 2B grades
Serena Lewis - 3A and 2B grades
Stewart McKane - 3A and 2B grades
Anna Rigby - 1A and 4B grades

The above statistics are, as for 2000, for those students entered for 2 or more A levels. For 2001, the DfES will be publishing the statistics based on all students completing A level courses in Summer 2001.

AS Level

2000/2001 was the first year of the new AS (Advanced Subsidiary) courses which were introduced by the Government as part of the new post 16 curriculum pattern known as Curriculum 2000. Most students took four subjects rather than the traditional three which inevitably placed additional pressures on them. The results achieved were most commendable and compare well with the above A level statistics. 48% of the entries resulted in grades A or B and 95% resulted in grades A to E.

Accommodation developments

In the Kingswood Building, the multimedia room has been divided into one large and one smaller room with a permanent partition. The larger room (K5) is the multimedia area with 25 PCs and computer projection facilities. The smaller room (K6) is set up as a standard classroom with space for up to 30 pupils. This has been carried out as the old multimedia room was too large for teacher centred lessons using the computers. The new arrangement allows a class to work effectively in K5 using the ICT equipment while another class can use K6.

Also in this building, two store cupboards have been created in the area on the ground floor which used to house the vending machines.

In the Humanities Building, the classrooms have been redecorated and new carpets have been laid. Also the staircase has been repaired and the lobby areas and the staircase have been carpeted.

In the Renishaw Building, work has been carried out on the staircase at the car park end of the building in order to correct the varying heights of the steps. This necessitated all of the treads being removed so that brackets could be welded to the sides of the staircase in the correct positions to ensure that the heights of all of the steps are equal as required for Health and Safety. As this was a fault of the builders, the work was carried out at no expense to the school.

The Staffroom has been redecorated and new carpets have been laid.

It was originally planned to have new windows installed in the Drama Hall and the Gym. However, the time taken to get three quotes as required for our grant application delayed this to the extent that the contractor which made the successful tender did not have time to source all of the required parts during the summer break. The new plan is to start work on 10 October in the Drama Hall with a view to work moving to the Gym during the half term holiday.

Number of pupils on roll

For those of you who are interested in statistics, the number of pupils and students on roll in the school this September is 1465.

A plea to parents who bring pupils to school by car

If you bring your children to school by car, would you please not use the entrance to the front car park (the one nearest to Wotton) as a turning space. This causes many problems, particularly for staff, services and delivery vans which need to enter or leave the school site through that entrance from 7:00 onwards.