Headmaster's New Year Letter 2009

Dear Parents

News Update January 2009

I hope that you have had a restful Christmas and New Year and are looking forward to the start of the Spring term on Tuesday 6th January.

Our end of Autumn term events such as the nativity play, carol service and house cross-country competition all seem a long, long time ago. However I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took part and who played a role in making all of these events such an outstanding success. During the last week of term we played host to something like 1400 parents and guests at the three major events that took place during that week. 400 people for the Kindergarten nativity play. A congregation of almost 700 for the Carol Service and another 300 spectators at the house cross-country competition. Ultimately, I do hope that all Gad’s Hill parents who came along to support their children enjoyed the occasions. They certainly seemed to pass off quite successfully and I do hope that they helped create the right atmosphere in the run up to Christmas.

Now let us look forward to 2009, the New Year and the new Spring Term:

New School Exhibition

I have mentioned before our plans for the new school and now that we have obtained planning consent from Gravesham Council we are continuing to strive forward and do our best to make it all a reality. In the meantime; I thought it would be useful to let parents know where things stand at present and as such we are organising a mini-exhibition during the second week of the new term to enable parents and pupils to see the plans for themselves and to discuss the construction and developments with staff and Governors.

We plan to do this on two mornings and two evenings on our return to school in January so that parents can drop off their children in the morning (or collect in the evening) and grab some coffee and refreshments, have a look at the plans and a chat to myself or one of our Governors who are involved in the process. The programme is as follows:
Day/ Date Time Venue
Mon 12 Jan 3.00 - 4.30pm Dining room
Tues 13 Jan 8.15 – 9.15am Dining room
Wed 14 Jan 3.00 – 4.30pm Dining room
Thur 15 Jan 8.15 – 9.15am Dining room

During each of these sessions refreshments tea/coffee, bacon rolls (am sessions), and donuts (pm sessions) will be available. The plans for the new school will be displayed on the walls of the dining room and an information sheet will be available to take away. There will also be a member of the school Senior Management Team, members of the Governors New School Committee and myself available to answer questions and explain the scheme in more detail.

New Staff

I am delighted to welcome the following new members of staff to the school. I am sure that you will, in due course make them welcome:

Miss Charlotte Bassett will be our new teacher of girl’s games/PE from 1st January 2009. Charlotte is a graduate of the University of Wales and joins us from the Folkestone Academy. She replaces Mrs Nelson who was on maternity leave until her resignation in September.

Mrs Wendy Black joins us from the 1st January 2009 as a Teaching Assistant for PE/Games. Wendy assisted us during the Autumn term two days per week and will help strengthen Kindergarten and Junior games in particular. Wendy has a daughter (Holly) in the Lower 4th.
Miss Sarah Williams joins us from Australia as our new Gap year student.

Parental Feedback

As an independent school we are very conscious that we exist to meet the needs of our customers, our pupils. One of the ways we can check on how we are doing is to ask parents, pupils (and staff) to complete a questionnaire to assess our performance. The last time this happened was in the lead up to our last ISI inspection in November 2007, just over a year ago. Later this month children will bring home a questionnaire for parents to complete and return to the school. When the data is analysed it will help us to assess our service, to identify what we get right, as well as point out areas for improvement. Consequently, it is important that you use this opportunity to contribute to the good management and development of the school. The more questionnaires that are returned the more accurate the data; so please do set aside the 10 or 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire. It would be much appreciated.

The pupils will complete their own questionnaire at school at much the same time. The results from all of the questionnaires will be available later in the term.

One other way in which you can have your say and contribute to operation of the school is at the annual “Headmaster’s Question Time”. This event usually happens one Wednesday evening during early June and provides parents with the chance to do just that “ask questions” about any matters that concern them in the operation of the school. Further details of this event along with the confirmed times and date will be published early in the Summer term.

That said; if you have any urgent matter that you feel need to be brought to our attention then do get in touch with your child’s Form Tutor in the first instance or if necessary Mr Bertwistle (Head of Seniors), Mrs Marsh (Head of Kindergarten & Juniors) or myself.

Car Park / Change to school day

Parents will be very aware of the difficulties posed by the overcrowded car-park at the start and end of the school day. I am asking parents to provide us with feedback on a suggested proposal to attempt to ease the parking difficulties. You will find a survey form attached to this letter. Please complete it and return it (via your child’s form tutor) to the School Office.

When the new school is built then the new school car park will be larger than the present one and therefore some of the problems will be eased. However, there is another option open to us which would involve a staggered start and end to the school day. At present the whole school starts at 8.40am and while the Kindergarten finishes at 3.20pm both the Juniors and Seniors finish at 4.00pm. This means that pretty much everyone is trying to drop off their children at about 8.30am and the majority, 80%, picking up at about 4.00pm.

One proposed solution is to stagger the school day with the Kindergarten and Juniors (180 pupils) starting at 8.15am and the seniors (220 pupils) continuing to start at 8.40am. The KG/Juniors would then finish at 3.20pm and the seniors at 4.00pm. This should mean that the KG/Junior parents who mostly tend to park up and walk their children into school, would be arriving shortly after 8.00am (or 3.00pm in the afternoon) to a relatively empty car park and be away from the car park at 8.20am and 3.30pm leaving space for the incoming senior parents who tend to drive by and drop off / pick up rather than park for any duration. In theory this would provide more parking spaces for all. I must point out at this stage that all of our after-school clubs and activities would continue, albeit with different start/finish times where necessary. There would be no dilution of the quality of education for our children.

However, the proposal would involve a more significant change for Kindergarten and Junior parents and there may be a good number of reasons why many such parents would oppose these proposed changes. Many parents drop off/pick up on their way to work etc. Consequently I am anxious to sample parental opinion and determine whether there would be widespread support for such a scheme or not. While senior pupil’s parents will also be asked for their views it would be unreasonable to base our decision solely on a majority vote of parents. We must bear in mind that the number of Senior pupils is greater than the Kindergarten and Juniors combined. In essence I am aware that senior parents stand to benefit without any undue change to their routine and therefore it is only correct that any decision must be heavily influenced by the opinions of Kindergarten and Junior parents.

At present I wish to collate parents views in order to present these to the Governing Body. There is no firm commitment to change start/finish times at this stage. It is only a proposal. But I do wish to find out what parents think, so that a balanced decision can be made in due course. Should there be widespread support then the earliest such a change could take effect would be in September 2009. Clearly if there is little support for the proposals to change the times of the school day then that would be the end of the matter. What is important is that parents complete and return their survey form. Your views/vote is important! I will obviously update parents on the results of the survey later on in the term.

Spring Term Major Events

As ever these are published in the calendar which is issued to all of our pupils at the start of each term. Do ask your son/daughter to extract it from the bottom of their bag if it has not been made readily available to you. Equally, all events for the term, and week and each day are available to view on the school web-site www.gadshill.org

Congratulations to:
Staff Sergeant Money and his partner Jay who gave birth to a baby girl; Hannah during the Christmas holidays.

Yours sincerely
DGC