HM Letter to Parents June 2015

HEADMASTER’S LETTER

JULY 2015

T0 PARENTS

Dear Parents We celebrated many of this term’s highlights at Speech Day on Saturday and, therefore, this letter is relatively brief. However, at the end of another very busy term and year, thank you for all your support and encouragement, and I hope that you are pleased with the progress that your children have made at Chigwell this year.

Contents Page 1

Middle Sixth Leavers’ Party Summer Concert

Page 2

Speech Day and the Summer Ball

Page 3

Speech Day and the Summer Ball

Page 4

Drama

Page 5

Alec Osborn George Prior

Page 6

Activities Week Head Start

Page 7

Examination Result Days Sports Day

Page 8

School Shop Staff News

Page 9

Friends of Chigwell – A message from the Chair, Mrs Purnima Sen

Middle Sixth Leavers’ Party

It was good to bid farewell to the Middle Sixth leavers and their parents on Monday evening. They gathered for photographs, had a service in Chapel followed by a bbq in New Hall and on the Swallow Lawn. If students have not done so, please could they email their personal contact email address to gpunt@chigwell-school.org

The

Development Office maintains contact details of Old Chigwellians so that we can stay in touch with former pupils and will let them know about O.C. events

Summer Concert Following on from the excellent Jazz Night, the roof of New Hall was once again raised at the end of term Senior School concert. A packed audience was entertained by a diverse programme ranging from Chigwell All Stars, Fusion Group and Big Band to The Flute Group, Wind Band and First Orchestra, as well as soloists Faith Inch and Gopal Kambo. The Middle Sixth Leavers aptly completed a wonderful evening of music. Thank you to all pupils and staff for producing such a memorable evening.

1

Speech Day and the Summer Ball

Once again, Speech Day was a real celebration of the last year at Chigwell.

Guest of Honour, Mr Michael Marshall Smith O.C., who is an author, spoke extremely well about pupils ‘knowing who they are’ and many parents and pupils asked for a copy of his speech which is attached with this letter.

On Friday, the preacher at the Pre Prep and First Form service was Professor David Hatch, a former anaesthetist and current member of the Magic Circle who made use of his magical talents during the service. On Saturday, Father Tony Chantry preached at the Junior and

2

Speech Day and the Summer Ball On Saturday evening the annual Summer Ball took place and this was particularly well attended this year by parents, friends and students who are leaving this summer.

Senior services. Fr Tony is also an Old Chigwellian and he has led our Roman Catholic Masses at school for well over a decade. He is stepping down as General Supervisor of the Mill Hill Missionaries but we hope to stay in touch with him as he continues his missionary work in some of the poorest parts of the world.

3

Drama The Junior School production of Peter Pan was outstanding. A huge cast, with the lead roles shared by several actors, performed in front of three full audiences in

the

Drama

Centre.

Many

congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to pull off such a professional production.

Meanwhile, last week members of the Sixth Form performed in the Drama Scholars’ Play, Can’t Pay Won’t Pay. This was a hilarious, fast-moving production of the well-known play by Dario Fo and the students involved worked very hard to pull off the performance in a very short space of time.

4

Alec Osborn Alec

Osborn

represented

George Prior the

Many congratulations to George who

Independent Schools national U15 side

rowed at Henley recently. George rows

at a tournament held at Manchester

for the Globe Rowing Club and he

United’s training ground, Carrington.

competed

The four team tournament involved

comprising two Globe rowers and two

Manchester United, Burnley, Aston Villa

from the London Youth Rowing Centre.

and ISFA. Alec played against the three

This was in the adult section and the four

other Academy sides in shortened forty

rowers came fourteenth out of twenty-

minute matches. The ISFA side fared

eight. Later this month, George will be

well, losing 3-1 to Manchester United, 2-

competing in the British Championships

1 to Burnley and drew 1-1 in their final

in Strathclyde in both a pairs and an

game against Aston Villa. This was an

eights boat. He only just missed out on

excellent experience for Alec and he

the Great Britain trials but is training

thoroughly enjoyed testing himself

extremely hard for many hours each

against some of the best U15s in the

week. His coaches have commented on

country.

how

in

much

a

his

composite

performance

boat

has

improved and we will follow his progress with interest.

5

Activities Week Pupils from across the School took part

the standard curriculum. For example,

in a variety of activities and trips during

Pre Prep children built dens and sang

activities week. At this time we aim to

songs around the camp fire, in French;

give experiences that extend beyond

there

were

Duke

of

Edinburgh

expeditions and activities, trips to Mersea Island, the Isle of Wight and the Lake District; pupils volunteered at local care homes and there were numerous other activities here and elsewhere.

Headstart The science department encourages

awarded a place at Aberdeen University,

students to apply for Headstart courses

Luke Piper will be going to Bristol

which inspire future engineers and

University

scientists. If successful, students get an

Newcastle University; all three students

insight into university life, talks with

will be taking part in engineering

current university students and staff, as

courses. Emma Cadman will be studying

well as the opportunity to work on

engineering at St. Mary’s College and

projects at the university. This year, five

Lauren Keiller will be learning more

students

about science and engineering at UCL.

have

successfully

been

awarded places on Headstart courses at

and

George

Prior

Congratulations to all five students.

top universities. Max Albert has been

6

to

Examination Results Days A Level - Thursday 13th August The arrangements will be as follows: •

At 6.30am results will be sent electronically to students

•

From 7am onwards Mr Neil Saunders, Mr Andrew Long and I will be available in school for advice or help

•

Between 10am and 10.30am, Middle Sixth students should come into school to collect hard copies of their results and accompanying letter

•

Between 10.30am and 11am, Lower Sixth students should come into school to collect hard copies of their results and accompanying letter – they will also need to confirm their A2 subject choices

•

The Middle Sixth photograph will be taken at 11am

Requests for Access to Scripts and Re-marks can be made through Mr Paul Fletcher and for the Lower Sixth requests for photocopies of scripts need to be made before Friday 21st August.

GCSE - Thursday 20th August The arrangements will be as follows: •

Between 10am and 10.30am the Upper Fifth should come into school to collect their results and accompanying letter – they will also need to confirm their AS subject choices

•

If, post results day, the student makes an agreed AS subject change they must complete the summer work for this as well as their other AS subjects

•

The Upper Fifth photograph will be taken at 11am

•

At 12 noon results will be published electronically to students and parents for those unable to come into school

Once again, requests for Access to Scripts and Re-marks can be made through Mr Paul Fletcher.

Sports Day Despite the slightly inclement weather our annual sports day took place with fierce competition, excellent commentary and plenty of whole-hearted support from those in attendance. Thank you to the Friends of Chigwell who worked so hard throughout the day to provide refreshments and to raise funds.

7

The School Shop Please note the following arrangements for the School Shop over the summer break: 8th to 17th July

Closed for stock take

21st, 22nd, 23rd July

Open from 10am to 3pm

28th, 29th, 30th July

Open from 10am to 3pm

4th, 5th, 6th August

Open from 10am to 3pm

10th to 14th August

Closed

17th to 28th August

Open from 10am to 3pm

31st August onwards

Open as usual from 12 noon to 5pm

Staff News As I mentioned in my speech on Saturday, we are saying farewell to several members of staff. Mrs Juliet Boughton is retiring, as is our Archivist, Mrs Marian Delfgou. We send both ladies our very best wishes and we do hope that they will stay in touch.

Three other members of staff, Mrs Nicola Jones, Mrs Jenny Murray and Mr Jamal Muse are moving on to new schools and we wish them all well.

I hope all Chigwell families have a

With best wishes

wonderful summer and the opportunity

Yours sincerely

to take a well-deserved break. Leavers will hopefully stay in touch with us and we wish those going on the choir tour to Spain and the hockey tour to South

Michael Punt

Africa a very safe and enjoyable trip; we look forward to hearing all about their experiences on the pupils’ return.

8

Friends of Chigwell – A message from the Chair, Mrs Purnima Sen And another year passes by with our Friends of Chigwell team at the helm! By September 2014, we, as a team, were fully functional and each one of us had their role fully understood and having spent a year focussed and committed to our small cause, we were raring to go.

The year started beautifully with the usual fayre at the inter-school annual football and netball event. In November we had our most popular event of the year, the annual firework night, making a profit of over £5,000. This was followed by the usual Christmas school discos and the Christmas Fayre. 2015 took off with the Easter egg hunt in the Pre Prep, which is always very popular with the children and also is a non-ticketed donation by the FoC. Theatre trips to the west end this year included Memphis, Cats and Matilda! These events are held purely to get our parents, families and friends together rather than simply to make money, although on this occasion we made just over £100 altogether. February saw us selling drinks to the Old Chigwellians and getting to know our alumni. We also tried our hand at something new this year and did a couple of nights running the bar at the music and drama events. Following this, we held film nights at the Pre Prep with 101 Dalmatians and A Night at the Museum 2. Finally, last month we had a great sports day and the 7am start to the 4.30pm finish ran beautifully – the weather was threatening and we finished clearing up just in time for the heavens to open. In financial terms, this was a semi successful event with us making £1,700 in revenue. We never seem happy when we do not raise the stakes year on year and were down nearly £1,200 on takings last year, but who can guarantee the weather?

In conclusion, I am delighted to say that the FoC have raised £30,800 since September 2013, which is £7,000 lower than we raised last year. This has made us a profit of £10,269 which is £5,000 lower than last year.

However, none of this would have been possible without all your help. The FoC members are, of course, a triumph with their fantastic efforts, energy, time and uncompromising commitment, and without them we would certainly not be as successful. We cannot forget the teachers and the support staff who help with printing, supplying, moving, providing relentlessly to all our demands. And last, but certainly not least, a big thank you to all parents of the School who contribute a huge amount by supporting our events – you make the Friends of Chigwell the successful fund raising charity that we are and I call on you to help us challenge this years’ takings. So I request you, the parents, to help us turn things around next year and by volunteering, donating, attending, do your bit to help us raise further funds while having fun at the same time.

9

Term Dates 2015 Michaelmas Term First day: Thursday 3rd September Half term: Saturday 17th October to Sunday 1st November Term ends: Wednesday 16th December 2016 Lent Term First day: Thursday January 7th Half term: Saturday Feb 13th to Sunday February 21st Term ends: Wednesday March 23rd 2016 Trinity Term First day: Monday April 18th Half term: Saturday May 28th to Monday June 6th Term ends: Wednesday July 13th