I am horrified to be writing the newsletter for the end of Term One already. How can time pass so quickly? It is, however, always a pleasure to reflect on the term when I sit to write this and as usual there have been many wonderful things going on. Taking the results first, our Year 11 students achieved an excellent set of GCSE results. 73% of students gained 5 A*-C grades, whilst 67% achieved 5 A*-C including English and Mathematics. Whilst we are proud of the achievements of all of our students, those who did particularly well include: Sam Bradley 10A* & 1A, Joanna Thompson 8A* & 3A, Zoe Cox 7A* & 4A, Jocelyn Evans7A* & 4A, Bethanie Simpson 7A* & 4A, Georgie McEwan 6A* & 5A, Hannah Westbury 6A* & 4A, Alice Hodkin 6A* & 3A. Amazing congratulations must go to Rebeka Hall who achieved A* in all her 11 subjects. Once again the dedication and hard work of our staff and students has paid off.
September saw not only the start of a new school year but also the arrival of our new Year 7 intake. Clearly starting at secondary school is daunting but they have settled in remarkably well and it feels like they have always been part of The Warriner family. September also saw the launch of our “Behaviour for Learning” and we have just completed a cycle of student voice feedback to seek their views on the process. I fully accept that students are never going to be happy about a system that involves detention but their feedback was overwhelmingly positive reflecting upon increased lesson productivity and focus because time is not being lost dealing with minor issues such as lateness and lack of essential equipment.
One of the things I was really keen to do when appointed was to share the really good things that we are doing with others. I am delighted to report that Mrs Hunter, Mr Conway and Mr Tustian have been accepted to join the National College’s highly competitive Outstanding Facilitator Programme in recognition of their outstanding teaching. They will be working to share their great practice with other schools. We have also successfully bid to host a middle leadership hub with members of our partner primary schools, again in recognition of the outstanding Subject Leaders that we have. Mr Tustian has presented the systems we use to manage data at two conferences and has received superb feedback as well as numerous requests to copy our practice.
Things are also moving on the Sixth Form front. Informal consultation will begin next month so please look out for the consultation document and register your comments. There will be the opportunity to attend a public meeting as part of the statutory process and dates for this will also be released next month. I am very optimistic that we will get the support we need for this to go ahead but need as many of you as possible to add your voice to ours. Whilst the statutory process, which can take up to a year, runs its course we will be offering our current Year 11 the opportunity to study a package of an applied A Level in Animal Management alongside A Levels in Biology, Chemistry and Geography. This will be fully taught at The Warriner School in partnership with OCVC.(Oxford & Cherwell Valley College) This is aimed at students who wish to study Environmental Science, Vet Science or Vet Nursing at university.
We have also completed the formalities pertaining to our Trust status and I am delighted to report that we will be working in partnership with Prodrive, Franklin Covey, OCVC and RM. The primary aim of this collaboration is to work together to develop a curriculum that prepares our students for the world of work through embedding problem solving, resilience and leadership skills into the bread and butter of what we do.
Dr Annabel Kay