HM Letter to Parents January 2018

HEADMASTER’S LETTER JANUARY 2018

T0 PARENTS

Dear Parents I hope you have had a peaceful Christmas and I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year. Pupils will hopefully be returning enthused and reinvigorated for the first term of 2018.

Contents Page 1

Christmas Inspire Service at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster

Page 2

Calendars Charities Week Staff News Careers Opportunities Chapel Choir in Broadgate Senior Mathematical Challenge

Page 3

Dining Hall Old Chigwellian Events

Page 4

Friends of Chigwell – A message from Mrs Sarah Innocent

Page 5

Bad Weather

Christmas Inspire Service at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Shortly before Christmas the Chapel

Honourable James Brokenshire MP,

at St Margaret’s, Westminster Abbey,

The service was conducted by the

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Choir helped to lead the stunning service

Reverend Dr Fiona Stewart-Darling,

known as Christmas Inspire, which is in

Priest Vicar. Based in Chelmsford, Kids

aid of the charity Kids Inspire. The

Inspire works to support some of the

congregation included some seven

most vulnerable young people across

hundred people, and readers included

Essex, many of whom have had to cope

Vassos Alexander (BBC sports journalist

with huge trauma in their lives. The

and presenter), Dr Michael Scott (author and

Associate

Professor,

and

businessman)

service raised £6,000 to support their

Warwick

work as well as other charities.

University), Levi Roots (musician, chef and

the

Right

1

Calendars

Chapel Choir in Broadgate

As usual, calendars will be distributed via Houses and there will also be spare copies at Reception. Please do encourage your sons and daughters to take advantage of and contribute to the broad extracurricular programme, particularly if you sense they are less involved than they might be.

The Chapel Choir also supported the ICAP

charity day in Broadgate. This prompted a member of the public who works in the area to write to say that he was so

impressed by what he heard that he left his desk several floors above the performance, to come to hear more in person.

Charities Week

Thank you to all pupils and parents who supported charities week so heartily at the end of last term. The total raised was approximately ÂŁ3,500 and this will be shared between our selected charities.

Senior Mathematical Challenge

Staff News

students gained a bronze, silver or gold

Congratulations

to

students

who

performed so well in the Mathematical

Challenge which is run by the UK

Mathematics Trust. Ten Middle Sixth

We welcome Mrs Lucy Standen who joins us a Learning Support Coordinator following the departure of Miss Sarahjane Grimshaw in October.

award with gold going to Nikita Litovchenko, Ellie Li, Jane Jiang, Jerry Zheng and Lance Lan. Jane, Jerry and Lance

Our congratulations go to Mr Andrew Lewis and his wife Amy on the arrival of their daughter Amelia Rose-Ann, a baby sister to Ava.

now

qualify

Mathematics Olympiad.

for

the

UK

In the Lower Sixth, fifteen students were awarded bronze, silver or gold with gold going to David Vepkhvadze, Aleks Bulira, Nikola Stanchev, Adrianna Wojtyna, Alex

Careers Opportunities

Barnes, Darie Ducu, Ryan Huang, Ann Xu

As I mentioned in my last letter, if any parent would be able to provide work experience, we would be delighted to hear from you. This can be extremely useful for students at the top end of the School.

and Vito Yang. Darie, Ryan, Ann and Vito also qualified for the Olympiad.

Congratulations to all who performed so well in this challenging competition

2

Dining Hall

If you have not already done so, I hope you will see the new extension to the Dining Hall

which will provide valuable extra space at lunchtimes. Extending older buildings is never straight-forward but I hope you will agree that the modern extension has been carried out sympathetically.

Old Chigwellian Events I was lucky enough to attend three events for Old Chigwellians over the

holidays: one was a Christmas lunch for O.C.s who get together every month;

another was a gathering of 2017 leavers

who returned from university, and then there was a group of fifty-seven O.C.s of different ages who attended the

Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. We hope very much that Old Chigwellians will stay in touch with the

School when they leave and also that they will continue friendships formed at school.

3

Friends of Chigwell – A message from Mrs Sarah Innocent Last term was a busy one for the Friends

and teddies. All of your support has

was won in great style by the prefects; the

last term and in January the committee

contributed to the FOC raising ÂŁ10,954

of Chigwell. We hosted a quiz night which

and School will meet to decide how to

younger children bopped and threw some

spend the money that we have raised.

shapes at the Pre Prep disco; fireworks

night was a blast; and we rounded off the

Keep your eyes peeled for future new and

term with mulled wine and mince pies,

exciting events for 2018. If you would like

along with homemade cakes and

to get involved with the FOC please do

chutneys, at the Christmas Fayre.

get in touch.

Thank you to all parents who have

Lewis.innocent10@icloud.com

volunteered supporting these events to

Best wishes to you all for a very Happy

enable them to happen, to those who

New Year.

have donated time, bottles, chocolate

4

Bad Weather As I said in my last letter, in the event of heavy snow or ice please consult the school

website (www.chigwell-school.org) for confirmation of arrangements for the school day. We would always be very reluctant to close the School, but are mindful of the safety of pupils and staff.

I look forward to seeing you at the various events that will be taking place over the next few weeks.

With best wishes Yours sincerely

Michael Punt

5

TERM DATES 2018 Lent Term First day: Half term: Term ends:

Thursday 4th January Saturday 10th February to Sunday 18th February

Trinity Term (Easter Day is 1st April) First day: Wednesday 18th April Half term: Saturday 26th May to Sunday 3rd June INSET Day Monday June 4th

Wednesday 28th March

Term ends:

Wednesday 11th July