Head of School Letter 29th April 202429/04/2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

This week students will undertake their GCSE and A Level Modern Foreign Language speaking exams. Students in Years 11 and 13 will be speaking French, German, Cantonese and Portuguese with exams being conducted by our own language teachers and visiting examiners. Worth between 25% (GCSE) and 30% (A-Level) of the overall grade, we wish all our students bonne chance,   好運, viel Glück, and boa sorte!

Careers Education and Guidance

Every young person needs good career guidance to make informed decisions about their future and this has never been more important; changes in technology, the technical education system and the labour market mean that the jobs available and the skills and qualifications needed to reach them are changing all the time. The COVID-19 pandemic has added further disruption, with a disproportionate impact on young people as they enter the labour market. Many skilled jobs require specific education and training, and young people need more support to make better-informed decisions about their future. 

At The Cottesloe School, we are proud to have achieved all eight Gatsby Benchmarks in Careers Education. The Benchmarks define what world-class careers provision in education looks like and provide a clear framework for organising the careers provision within a school. A four-year evaluation by the University of Derby, published in 2021, which found achievement of the Benchmarks had a positive impact on students' career readiness and GCSE attainment.

Careers education and guidance happens in some form nearly every day at The Cottesloe School. This week’s assemblies were led by Donna Geoghegan, a Portfolio Delivery Manager at Network Rail. Donna spoke to all year groups about her education, career plans and how she reached her current role. Originally intent on becoming a vet, with offers to study veterinary medicine at university, she took the decision post-A Levels to follow a very different pathway to achieve career success. During the assemblies, Donna helped students to appreciate the skills they will need to develop in order to effectively evaluate potential career paths. Thank you to Donna, and Network Rail for providing this opportunity to our students.   

School Improvement Reviews

As part of our continuous school improvement processes, robust and comprehensive subject reviews are carried out across a two-year cycle. The process involves curriculum leaders and their teams working alongside senior leaders to identify two or three big questions or lines of inquiry to challenge and investigate the successes and areas for improvement within each department. As part of the review day, a respected external advisor joins the team to provide an alternate perspective and to professionally interrogate practices and processes so success is celebrated and actions for improvement are appropriate, achievable and most importantly will have a positive impact on student learning. We also welcome members of the school’s governing body to observe and contribute to the review days. Following a review, a report is published and shared with the subject team, senior leaders and governors, with the Curriculum Leader attending a Governors’ meeting to present their action plans to move forward.

Last month the Maths department review took place, and Year 7 and 8 students will benefit from one area of improvement that’s launching next week - an online Maths homework platform - see below for more details. This week we held a review of the SEND team, welcoming to the review team Mr Tomson, Head of Wingrave School, and Mr Collier, Head of Oak Bank School, a special school that supports children with Social Emotional and Mental Health difficulties, in Leighton Buzzard. 

Sparx Online Maths

One aspect of the Maths department subject review that was identified as an area for improvement was the implementation of learning at home. To support students achieve even more, students in Years 7 and 8 will be trialling an online platform called Sparx Maths that supports students aged 11-16 with personalised, challenging and attainable homework. External research conducted by RAND Europe and Cambridge University found that using Sparx Maths for 1 hour a week significantly improves grades.  Parents of children in Years 7 and 8 have already received a letter explaining more about the system and how to support their child. The first week’s homework will be available at 8am on Wednesday 1st May, with the deadline for completion at 6pm on Tuesday 7th May. The intention is to roll the programme out to all students in Years 7 to 11 from September 2024. To find out more, please watch this video: Sparx Maths Parent information 

Mr Herman braved the shave!

On Friday last week, Mr Herman had his beard and hair shaved off by Mr Powell, watched on by many students and staff. At last check, he had raised an incredible £815. There is a fabulous video on our social media so you can watch what happened! There’s still time to donate if you’re able to:  https://bit.ly/HermanShave

Extending the school day and parent/carer survey Thank you to everyone who got in touch about the proposed change to the school day and the recent parent survey. We appreciate your contributions in helping us to make our school even better. Results and feedback will be shared with you in future letters.

 

Sports Fixtures and Results

There are no results to report this week, but next week will see some Year 7 and Year 8 Rounders matches at Waddesdon take place, we will also welcome primary school children to participate in a QuadKids Athletics festival.  

Wearing PE Kit to school

As a reminder, in order to support students taking exams this summer, from 29th April, on the days that students have athletics, they should come to school wearing their PE kits. This is because we shut the PE changing rooms closest to the exam rooms to ensure the space is silent. To help parents, this means that your child/ren should be wearing their PE kit one day per week only - all years have two Core PE lessons per week, one is Athletics and the other is Rounders/Cricket. 

Year 13 Exam Study Leave

Students must attend lessons up to and including Friday 10th May unless in an exam. If the course content has been completed they should be working on structured preparation for forthcoming exams with their teachers. A letter from Mr Youngs has been sent home with further details. 

 

Year 11 Exams

Protocol Year 11 lessons and timetables will continue to run throughout the Summer 1 term until Friday 24th May 2024. If a Year 11 pupil does not have a scheduled exam, they will attend their timetabled lesson as normal. During this period, the school will offer additional revision workshops and ‘masterclasses’ where appropriate, as well as the timetabled lessons. A letter from Mr Passaro and Mr Magill has been sent home. 

 

Year 8

A number of students will be on their way to a week of adventure in Wales by the time you read this, participating in an Outward Bounds course, supported by Mr Curtis, Mr Youngs and Mrs Hutley. We hope they have a wonderful time, and return safely with tales of how they challenged themselves to push their boundaries.

 

It’s looking like the weather might be warming up so I hope you have a great week and thank you for your ongoing support.

Best wishes, 

Louise Baldwin

Head of School