Parents will be aware that the government are proposing a number of changes to the GCSE qualification. There is still a lot of uncertainty about what the changes will look like, however, with the exception of changing the rules regarding ‘early entry’ and significantly increasing the grade boundaries there are no structural changes to the qualifications for students currently sitting GCSEs (Year 10 and 11 students). The first changes will impact this year’s Year 9 when they start their GCSEs in September 2014. We have been informed of some of the changes but we will not find out the full extent of these changes until the end of this month. With this in mind, we have taken the decision to change the Year 9 Options Evening from Thursday 16th January to Thursday 13th February 2014 and Year 9 Parents should have received a letter this week informing them of this change. We did not want to run an information evening when we would only be able to impart partial information and so many factors relating to GCSE are still ‘unknown’. The Year 9 Parents’ Evening will still take place on Thursday 23rd January 2014. Congratulations to Harry Francis (9Q) and Conor Tyrrell (9T) who have been selected to represent Essex in the Schools Under 14 Football Team. Representing your county is an incredibly prestigious moment for any footballer such is the exceptionally high standard across Essex and we are very proud of both Conor and Harry. One of our ex-students, Sheri Dean, is raising money for the British Heart Foundation by running the 2014 London Marathon in memory of another of our ex-students, Ben Peacock, who tragically passed away at the age of 23 last year. Sheri is a nurse at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and is raising money to raise funds for the BHF to support their work. If you would like to support Sheri in her bid to raise £2500 please go to: https://www.justgiving.com/Sheri-Dean/ Our non uniform day next term will also be raising money for the British Heart Foundation. On the topic of non uniform days, please be aware that we have a non-uniform day next Friday (17th January 2014) to support the ‘Jeans for Genes’ campaign. Our School Council have asked us to support this charity and we are asking that students come to school in non-uniform but wearing at least one item of clothing that is denim. Further information can be found later on in this bulletin. I would like to wish everyone a good weekend.
Paul Banks Headteacher
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