Head of School Letter 11th March 202411/03/2024

I hope this letter finds you well. Ramadan Mubarak! Wishing all our Muslim students and families a blessed Ramadan, as the holy month began at the weekend.

Ramadan: If your child is fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, please get in touch with their Head of Year, or the school office via email. This will ensure staff can support them in the right ways throughout their fast. For example, we will support them to not participate in PE lessons, make other adjustments to help them, and inform teachers and assistant teachers that they may be feeling more tired during the day, or be lacking their usual energy. For students who want to pray during the school day, a quiet room will be available in TEAM Hub during break and/or lunch.

Science Week: This week is British Science Week, a ten-day celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths held between 8th and 17th March. Following on from the showcasing of our brilliant female Science teachers on International Women’s Day last week, all the Science team (including the male members of the department, Mr Brockwell, Mr Mudarikiri, Mr Caputo and Mr Magill) will be taking their classes through a range of different learning experiences throughout the week - students will undertake up to three Science Week specific lessons. Events will also be taking place at breaks, lunches and after school. To find out more, take a look at the bespoke website: Science Week @ TCS (https://cottesloescienceweek.co.uk/) - designed by one of our Year 12 Computer Science students, Nathan. A huge thank you in advance to Mrs Moore for organising yet another wonderful Science Week at the Cottesloe School.

Careers: Last week we took over 350 students from Year 9, Year 10 and Year 12 students to the Bucks Skills Show. One of the really wonderful aspects of taking our students to events is watching them interact with people from outside our school community. They understand and model the 6Cs and Healthy Relationships on a daily basis in school, but it’s great to see the Cottesloe Character About Us Cottesloe Character (https://www.cottesloe.bucks.sch.uk/about/cottesloe-character) in action within the wider community. Whilst at the Show, I met the Social Value Manager from Morgan Sindall, Norma Odain-Haines. Morgan Sindall Construction who will be building our new classrooms over the coming months. Whilst the construction is underway, Norma will work with the school to support students to learn more about the range of roles and opportunities within the construction industry, as well as work experience opportunities.

This week, all Year 12 students will be attending the Apprenticeship Show in Milton Keynes, to learn more about the ever-increasing range of opportunities open to young people via an apprenticeship. National Apprenticeship Show Central (https://nationalapprenticeshipshow.org/central/)

Sports Fixtures: There are lots of results to share with you this week, with Year 11 footballers winning 4-1 against AGS, a successful Cricket Tournament for Year 9 and 10 girls, and Year 10 and 11 netballers winning 25-9 against Thornton College. A number of games were postponed due to the condition of the pitches and the weather. We saw some losses in netball, football and badminton, but we know that losing games helps us learn and improve - wishing every team success in their next game. This week, there’s more netball for all our year groups.

Vacancies and Interviews: It’s the time of year that schools start to advertise vacancies for the coming September. This week we will be interviewing candidates who have applied for posts in PE, Maths and English. In times of challenging recruitment in education, I’m thrilled that we have received a strong field. If you know of any friends or family who might like to join our brilliant team, please keep an eye on our vacancies page: Vacancies (https://www.cottesloe.bucks.sch.uk/about/vacancies)

Reminder - Last day of term: This is a reminder that School finishes at the normal time of 3.00pm on the last day of term, which is Thursday 28th March. Students return to school on Tuesday 16th April, following an INSET day for staff on Monday 15th April.

Year 11: Miss Mayhew has let me know that the GCSE Drama scripted performances went incredibly well in front of the external examiner last Thursday. I’ve not yet had an update from Miss Felton about the PE students who went to Stowe School on Friday to undertake their Athletics assessment. I’m sure that it went equally as well. This week it is the turn of the Hospitality and Catering students. My luck was in last week, when I had the good fortune to pass through DT4 where students were practising their final meals. I was able to give feedback on some delicious soup and a fantastic lasagne with homemade pasta sheets. We have been really fortunate to have Mrs Catling come out of retirement and return to us to support the two Year 11 classes during Dr Jera’s absence due to a very sad family bereavement. We wish all the students the very best of luck.

Year 9: On Thursday and Friday, students participating in the Bronze D of E Award will be undertaking preparation for their assessed expedition later this year. I hope the weather stays good for them!

There will be a bumper set of Headteacher’s Awards announced in next week’s letter. Wishing you all well for a great week, and thank you, as ever, for your support.

Yours sincerely
Mrs L Baldwin
Head of School