Message from the Head
Dear Parents,
This half term has been jam-packed with so many different activities! Our eldest students have sat a series of exams, received feedback and started to plan for the next steps in their education journeys. Other Secondary students have started their preparations for end of year assessments while also taking a moment to reflect on what is important to them personally and how to look after their own physical and mental health.
In this respect, our Year 9 students were fortunate to speak to the Senior fellow and author Charles Kenny this week. His most recent book “Your World, Better: Global Progress and What You Can Do About It” – written for the smart and engaged Secondary school students, is exactly the kind of thought-provoking perspective we are looking to give our students more of. More below from Alexa Marett.
Our thanks go to Carsten Fink, one of our Primary parents, who made this presentation and discussion possible through an introduction. I remain impressed with the GES community and your generosity to offer your connections and networks. Should you have any ideas for something that will benefit our students or even the wider community, please do let me know directly. We are always grateful for introductions or opportunities that may lie within your own networks. Mr Wootton is currently looking for anyone that may be willing to host 5 days of work experience (14-19 June) for Year 10 students, so please do email him directly ([email protected]) if you, or your connections, could help out.
Mid-week we ran another very successful Virtual Open Day and I am pleased to say that some of the classes are now very close to capacity and we will shortly have to start wait lists for some Secondary classes.
With half term approaching (From Wednesday lunchtime) please can I just remind you to keep updated with the COVID travel rules and quarantine requirements. It is important that we continue to follow these even though the vaccination programme is moving quickly now.
I hope you have a wonderful half term. Please look out for the next newsletter in two weeks time.
Matt Williams
From your teachers
Y9 Wellbeing Day
Wednesday saw the turn of Year 9 for their Wellbeing Day – a jam-packed day of activities focusing on emotional well-being, reflection and team-building.
After team games and Sport, we were absolutely delighted to be joined virtually by Dr. Charles Kenny, live from Washington. Dr. Kenny is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development. He presented his most recent publication Your World, Better, all proceeds of which go to UNICEF. The message is a powerful and thought-provoking one: it is a call-to-action for young people to encourage them to act to make the world better. He showed us how the world has changed since the students’ grandparents were young, in areas such as health, wealth, the environment, education, democracy and happiness. It is an optimistic message, one that left us with much food for thought and sparked an interesting and lively discussion amongst the students with Dr. Kenny.
Time for reflection, a picnic in the sunshine and a wonderful Art project by the lake completed our day. We hope you had an inspiring day, Year 9!
Alexa Marett
Assistant Headteacher (KS3)
Student's success
We were delighted to hear of another student’s success – this time in Music.
Congratulations to Lara in Year 3 for passing her Grade 1 piano exam with Merit.
We would love to celebrate more of our students’ successes – may those be in or out of school. Please feel free to share any of your son’s or daughter’s achievements (music, creative, sports, academics or others) with us.
