NEWSLETTER www.cowesec.org info@cowesec.org
Friday 28th September
Dear parents and carers, We were so pleased to host so many prospective parents at our annual Year 6 Open Evening on Thursday 27th October. The building was packed with parents and students and thank you to all who attended to hear my address, even if there was only standing room by the time I began. I was so proud of Mimi Poulton and Albert Newton, newly appointed Head Girl and Boy; their speech caused me to reflect on how far the school has come in the 6 years since they joined us. With a new leadership team, building and curriculum the school is unrecognisable just during their school career. We also heard from two very brave Year 7 students, Lorelai and Theo, about their experience so far less than a month into their Cowes journey. They did so well presenting to a large audience and have achieved one aspect of the Cowes Charter - public speech to an audience. During this week we have also appointed Deputy Head Boy Duke Peters, and Deputy Head Girl Ellen Wood, so congratulations to all for their achievements this week. This week we were delighted to see a number of our students being celebrated for their hard work with the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. They presented on their walks to an enrapt audience. It was really inspiring to see all the organisation and effort they put in to be successful in addition to the demands of their school work. The Sixth Form team organised another workshop, this time with students in Year 10, 11 and Sixth Form, from Oxford University. They were taken through the application process and what they need to achieve in order to be successful with their future applications. The representative from Oxford was truly inspirational and enthused the students to push on with their studies. This year, for the first time, we are delivering the ARK mastery curriculum to Year 7 in English. We are placing a renewed emphasis upon a knowledge based curriculum with additional curriculum time for reading. This week we saw our first monitoring visits and the advisors were so impressed with how our students relished the challenge of this in depth approach. On Thursday we were also keen to look again at our excellent results, achieved in the summer term, as the national progress data was released. As expected, we were so pleased with our progress score putting us significantly above national average and much above Isle of Wight 2017 figures. This was our best ever progress score and confirms our trajectory of steady improvement. Given the new, tougher GCSE courses this achievement cannot be underestimated. As a reminder I continue to hold parent surgeries and these sessions are there to enable parents to get to know me and discuss the work of the school directly. Attendance is by pre-booked appointment only so please email dharrison@cowesec.org or phone the school on 01983 203103 asking for Donna Harrison to book a slot in advance of each Tuesday. With best wishes, Rachel Kitley