If you have visited the school site in the last week or so, you will have seen that the new changing rooms and pavilion are beginning to resemble the plans. Many thanks to all those who attended the Parents' Association Valentine's Ball on Saturday. It was a splendid event and raised £7400 which will go towards the School's Development Fund. The raffle was drawn quite late in the evening and a number of winners did not claim their prizes, so if you still have your ticket, please check to see if you have numbers: 408, 287, 72, 168, 79, and 213. If you do, please email [email protected] to claim your prize. I would like to thank the Ball Committee publically for all their hard work in organising such a successful event.

On another pleasing note, I am sure most of you will have seen the recent Department for Education school league tables where our GCSE results placed us as 24 ^th in the country, as reported on the BBC news website. This statistic, based on the average number of points scored per pupil, reminds us that last year's Year 11 pupils and their teachers worked extremely hard. I am sure that the same will be true of this year's cohort. However, what really pleases me is that our pupils managed such impressive results while continuing with so many other activities, from scoring tries on the rugby pitch and performing in bands and orchestras to acting in plays. Speaking of extra-curricular activities, I would like to mention the recent success of the chess team. On Thursday 22 January, they beat Monmouth School 4.5 – 1.5 in the ECF National Schools Knockout Cup. This fine victory puts us through to the West Zone final, which is also the last 32 in the country. This will be against the winners of Bristol Grammar School and Millfield. Our team has reached the last 32 in the country for each of the last 3 years, and lost to Torquay Boys' Grammar (2012), Magdalen Oxford (2013) and KES Birmingham (2014). We hope that we can go at least one better this year.

I would be grateful if you could support us by reminding your children of the importance of road safety (yet again). We will be holding section assemblies on this theme. All too often there are 'near misses' outside the school grounds and in nearby roads and last week a pupil was hit by a car. Thankfully, he was not seriously injured. In particular, I would strongly discourage the wearing of headphones whilst walking or cycling to school as this does make it more difficult to spot traffic. Additionally, if parents could avoid dropping off their children on the school site, congestion would be eased and the site safer.

Kirkland Rowell have provided us with some initial results from the recent Parents' Survey. It is pleasing to see that their analysis of questionnaires suggests that overall parents are extremely pleased with the provision for their sons and daughters. However, there is always room for improvement and I will consider all suggestions made by parents very carefully. I will report back more detail in my next email to parents. However, if you have serious concerns about the way in which we have done things or have worries about the welfare or happiness of your child, do get in contact by emailing me or other key staff as follows:-

Heads of Key Stage

Head of Key Stage 3 (Years 7, 8 and 9) – Mr R Davies – [email protected]

Head of Key Stage 4 (Years 10 and 11) – Mr C Carter– [email protected]

Head of Key Stage 5 (Sixth Form) – Mr P Daniell – [email protected]

Heads of Year

Year 7 – Miss H Stroud – [email protected]

Year 8 – Mrs M Brown – [email protected]

Year 9 – Mrs J Spilsbury – [email protected]

Year 10 – Mr N Stewart – [email protected]

Year 11 – Mr J Gallagher – [email protected]

Year 12 – Mr M Lynch – [email protected]

Year 13 – Mrs D Glover – [email protected]

Alternatively, you may wish to contact your son or daughter's Form Tutor. Their email addresses are listed on our website (www.strs.org.uk) Parents/Pastoral Care/Year Group, or on Parent Gateway (under reports).

Matthew Morgan,
Headmaster