Dear Parents/guardians/carers,

The first term of the new academic year is well underway and it has been a very positive start at St Mary’s.

Our Y7’s have begun life at St Mary’s in very settled fashion and it feels like they have been with us for much longer than the opening weeks.  They are now fully involved in the life of the school, and it was lovely to see some of you at their recent Y7 Welcome Mass.

I also want to extend my thanks to the huge number of you who consented to your children helping out at our Open Evening on 3^rd October.  Hundreds of our pupils volunteered to either help as guides or within departments and they were an absolute credit to our school.  We received so much positive feedback from prospective parents both on the night itself and after the event.  Our pupils really are our very best advert for the school and the response and feedback from our many visitors highlights this.

Last week our Y11 pupils were all out on their week long work experience placements around the county.  It is very reassuring and rewarding to hear from employers that our pupils are polite, punctual and show great potential in the workplace.  Such experience is vital for informing their next steps and I hope our Y11s were really able to take something from their placements, even if it helped to confirm that they don’t want to follow a particular career path.

With Y11s returning to us this week, the focus shifts back to preparing for their mock exams later in the term.  I am sure that parents of Y11 are by now aware, but we are offering extensive support after school in the lead up to the exams, both from individual subjects to larger ‘Study Skills’ sessions every Wednesday in the hall.  These have been well attended so far and I would encourage our y11s to make the most of the support available.  Thank you in advance, as I know this puts an extra burden on parents and we are also offering some transport support for pupils who may have difficulties attending, and our minibus will take pupils into town just before 5pm each evening.

My classroom visits so far this year have been very encouraging, and I have seen good levels of engagement and learning across the various year groups.  Our schedule of Department Reviews begins this week, and together with my senior colleagues our monitoring will begin with the Music department and then we will see all other departments across the remainder of the academic year.

Rehearsals for this year’s annual production are in full swing as the cast and crew get ready to share ‘Shrek the Musical’ with you in the new year.  When ticket details are released, please come and support the production as it is always a highlight of the school year, and a huge amount of work goes into it.

We look forward to welcoming last year’s Y11 cohort back to St Mary’s next month for their presentation evening.  I am sure you will have seen in the local press that they achieved some impressive GCSE results, meaning that for a % of pupils gaining a 4+ and 5+ in Maths and English, St Mary’s were the top performing school in the county.

Everything is set up for another successful year at our school and I would just like to thank you for your ongoing support and cooperation of all that we do.

Yours faithfully,

Stuart Wetson
Headteacher