Headmasters Letter - End of Summer Term 2008
21st August 2008


Dear Parents

I hope that you have all had a pleasant, even if a wet and typical English summer, and you and your children are looking forward to the start of the Autumn term this coming Wednesday 27th August. In the meantime I thought I would update you on events over the summer.

GCSE Results
These were released today and, again, I am delighted to report another successful year for our students. Some of our headline results are as follows:

 95% of our students gained the equivalent of five or more GCSE pass grades (A*- C). The average UK school achieves a 60% pass rate.

 77% of Gad’s students achieved NINE or more GCSE pass (A*-C) grades.

 82% of Gad’s students (83% in 2007, 73% in 2006) achieved Five or more GCSE pass (A*-C) grades including Maths and English compared to only 45% nationally.

 77% of students leave Gad’s with five or more GCSEs including Maths, English, and Science compared to only 44% nationally*.

 70% of students leave Gad’s able to speak a modern foreign language with a GCSE French qualification. Few schools can match this! Only 120,000 UK GCSE students pass French GCSE out of a national population of almost 500,000 16 year olds. This works out at 24%. That 70% of our leavers have a modern language qualification is a real bonus.

 22% of Gad’s Hill grades were A* or A grades compared with 19% nationally.

As ever none of this success would be possible without a huge amount of hard work by the students themselves and also our dedicated and enthusiastic teaching staff who I know work tremendously hard over the year to ensure that we get the best out of our children. Many thanks to them all!

New School
Everyone will be delighted to learn that after many years of effort and persistence we have finally been granted planning consent by Gravesham council to build the new school. The planning committee met on 30th July to consider revisions to our planning application which we had implemented following an earlier hearing in January. Despite petitions opposing the scheme from several residents on Crutches Lane and also from Higham Parish Council the borough council unanimously approved the scheme subject to certain legal agreements to protect the historic mansion and visitors centre.

This means that more detailed planning will commence with the prospect of building commencing within the next couple of years. I will, of course keep you all updated with events. I am very grateful to our team of Governors who have worked with our architects and planning consultants to overcome the very many political hurdles we have faced over the last few years. Hopefully we are now in a position to put in place a new school which will help to improve the quality of our education here at Gad’s in the near future and for many, many years to come.

Routine Visits / Parental Consent
Parents will be familiar with their children bringing home consent forms to enable them to take part in a school visit. There are occasions, however, when the children do go off site but when consent forms are not required. I thought that it would be useful if I were to clarify the situation.

One of the reasons why school visits have fallen away in many schools, state schools in particular is the bureaucratic burden placed on teachers who are expected to fill in countless forms just to take children out for a few hours. The result is that it is easier not to go and consequently many children in other schools miss out on valuable educational and enjoyable learning experiences. At Gad’s we are very vigilant when planning visits away from school and do adhere to DfCS and HASPEV regulations but we do try to keep the bureaucracy to the minimum.

Parental consent forms are required whenever children are visiting a site away from school and which is not a part of their routine lessons or school day. For example; a visit to the science museum in London, theatre in Canterbury or a day trip to Paris, CCF field days or camps, GCSE Geography coursework study day in Rochester etc.

Parental consent forms are not usually required for excursions away from school which are a part of routine lessons or PE and which are scheduled to take place mostly during school hours. For example; weekly swimming lessons at Strood sport centre, away sports fixtures at other schools, off-site CCF training on Wednesday afternoons, Kindergarten or Junior school use of the neighbouring farmers fields for science or geography work, choir rehearsals at Rochester Cathedral etc

That said, if any of these routine activities involve anything hazardous (CCF; canoeing, abseiling etc) then a consent form would be required even if taking place during school hours.

If a routine event which wouldn’t usually require a consent form involved the children being away out of school hours (i.e. back late from an after school sports fixture) then parents should expect to be informed of the event and the estimated time back at school. It is worth pointing out that many events and sports fixtures are in the termly calendar and a more up-to-date list of events is on the school’s website each day.

If anyone has any concerns about these arrangements please do let me know. As a school we do have to try to strike the right balance in keeping parents informed. None of us and that includes parents, want the school and their child’s learning to grind to a halt under excessive paperwork for routine events. Equally we are aware that parents want to know where there child is and what they are doing. Hopefully, the procedures I have outlined above are a common-sense approach which gets the balance right.

Staff
Just a reminder that we will be welcoming a number of new teaching staff to the school on the first day of the Autumn term. Your children will soon become acquainted with: -

Mr Richie Bassett has been appointed as our Year 1 tutor. Richie is a graduate of the University of Wolverhampton and joins us from Luddenham School in Faversham.

Mr John Stone has been appointed as our Director of Music. John is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and joins us from St John’s Catholic Comprehensive School, Gravesend.

Mrs Svetlana Kurganskaya has been appointed to work alongside Mrs Dearnaley as a teacher of Design and Technology with Art to teach from KS2 through to GCSE in our Senior school. Lana is a graduate of the Leningrad Kirov Academy of Forestry Engineering, Russia and joins us from St George’s C.E. Middle School, Minster.

Mrs Claire Williams has been appointed as Head of Science. Claire is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and joins us from Highsted Grammar School, Sittingbourne.

Mrs Nelson, many of you will remember left Gad’s on maternity leave last February. Following the birth of her daughter; Laoise Mrs Nelson has decided not to return to Gad’s. We wish her and her family well. In the meantime, Mr Anthony Vaughan who covered for Mrs Nelson during her maternity leave will remain here at Gad’s.

School Calendar
Please find enclosed with this letter your copy of the school calendar for the Autumn term. Inside you will find details of all of the events which will be taking place during the term. Some events, of course, will be organised as the term progresses and will not necessarily be in the calendar however it is usual for us to notify parents by letter in advance.

The school web-site contains up-to-date information on what is happening each week and each day. Please do watch the events page.

Please refer to the calendar and our published term dates when booking family holidays. We publish term dates at least two years in advance so that families can avoid their children missing school. We do not allow children to be absent from school to take family holidays.

Homework Diary
Your children will receive their own personal homework diary on their first day at school. It is important that parents check and sign their child’s homework diary at least once per week so that you can monitor their progress.

Student Handbook
The Student Handbook is issued to all students who are new to the school and to any other students or parents on request. It is also published on our web-site so that it is available to all parents and pupils at any time of the day or night. The handbook continues to contain all of the information, rules, procedures and policy documents which pupils and parents may need to refer to during the course of the year and to enable a better understanding of how the school operates.

School Intranet
The school has had its own internal intranet since September 2007 which contains a huge amount of information on subject departments. I suppose it is an extension of our web-site. To date the intranet has only been accessible while at school but that is about to change. From the 1st September all pupils and their parents can log onto the school intranet from home or anywhere in the world. This will be a useful way for our children to gain access to teaching materials from all subject departments, view their e-mail, send their homework, etc. There will even be a facility to view what homework has been set for your child in each particular subject! Simply log-on via the school website using your child’s user name and password. Like most IT projects there will invariably be some teething problems but it is still progress! Our two E-learning co-ordinators, Mr Harris in the Senior school and Dr Bishop for the Juniors and Kindergarten are responsible for training and helping our teaching staff utilise the facility effectively. If anyone has any queries relating to our E-learning project please do speak to either of those members of staff.


School Uniform
It is not unusual for September to be a warm month. Although I say this more in hope than expectation after this year’s dismal Summer! Consequently pupils may return to school in either summer or winter uniform. Winter uniform will be compulsory for all pupils with effect from Friday 26th September.

PE Lessons / Wednesday 27th
Pupils in KR, J3, J4, U4, L5 and GCSE PE will need to bring their PE kit into school on Wednesday, 27th August as they will have PE that day. All children will receive their timetables earlier that morning and consequently at this stage they will not be aware of which days they have PE. The children in the classes named above will have PE on a Wednesday and will therefore need to bring in their kit to enjoy the full benefit of their PE lesson that day.

CCF
L4, U4 and those L5 +U5 CCF option will have CCF training on Wednesday afternoons. All CCF cadets will need to attend school in CCF uniform on Wednesday 27th as their CCF training programme will commence that day. The Lower 4th pupils (last years Shell classes) must come to school in either CCF uniform if they have it, or in their normal school uniform if their CCF kit is not complete. It is intended that they will be issued their uniform or any parts missing (not issued during the summer term) during the course of the day.

Uniform order for the day is shirt sleeve order (beret, combat 95 shirt, (or green shirt if no combat 95), combat trousers, belt, + boots. Combat jackets, Jerseys not required.

Holidays during Term Time
Absenteeism has a marked effect on pupil performance. Absence through ill-health is understandable. However, absence to enable pupils and their family to go on holiday is certainly not justifiable and has a damaging and disruptive effect on pupils’ education. It is particularly irritating as children here enjoy more holidays than most schools. We are also frequently on holiday when other local schools are still in session and therefore this enables families access to some of the better and more cost effective holiday deals.

The state sector has tightened their approach to “unauthorised absence” such as this and Gad’s has done the same. Indeed, taking a child out of a school without the Head’s permission leaves parents liable to prosecution under the Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003.

Parents familiar with the school will be aware that the school will not authorise children to miss school to attend family holidays during term time. If parents ignore the school’s wishes and still remove their child to go on holiday then this will be treated as an unauthorised absence and reported to the Local Education Welfare Officer who may impose a fixed penalty notice or in more serious cases support a criminal prosecution.

It is also worth pointing out that children who apply for entry to another school at either 11+ or 16+ will find that a poor attendance record and particularly a record of unauthorised absences will severely hinder their opportunity to gain a place at another school.

I ask parents to ensure that family holidays are taken during school holiday periods and not during term time. Term dates for the next few years are published in each terms calendar. There is no real excuse for not being aware of our term dates. 100% attendance is our aim; and helps to ensure that our children benefit from all of their lessons and make good academic progress.

Whole School Photograph
On Friday, 26th September a whole school group photograph will be taken. This will be done by The School Photography Company; professional school photographers. As this will be a historical record of the school it is important that pupils are all in the correct uniform. All pupils must attend school that day wearing WINTER uniform regardless of the weather.

Future Events
A fuller list of future events is listed in the enclosed Autumn term calendar; in the meantime I would like to highlight the following key events in the next few weeks. Please make a note in your diary:

Tuesday, 26th August Staff Training
Wednesday, 27th August 8.40am Commencement of the Autumn Term
Monday, 3rd Sept 9am Friends Welcome Coffee Morning – Conservatory
All parent welcome
Wednesday, 3rd Sept 3.45 – 4.30pm O-Pro mouth guard fittings
Friday, 5th Sept 2pm Friends Welcome Afternoon Tea – Conservatory
All parents welcome
Monday, 8th Sept 7pm Governors Meeting
Wednesday, 10th Sept 9am Friends AGM - Conservatory
Wednesday, 17th Sept 7pm New Parents Welcome Evening
Friday, 26th Sept 11am Whole School Photograph
Friday, 26th Sept 8pm Friends Quiz Night
Thursday, 9th October 7pm Autumn Concert (The Royal Dockyard Church, The Historic Dockyard)
Thursday, 16th October 6pm Harvest Festival (The Royal Dockyard Church, The Historic Dockyard)

In the meantime I hope that you have sufficient information to ensure we get off to a smooth start to the academic year. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me via the school office.

Yours sincerely




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