17 July 2013 Dear Parents and Carers, Thank you for all your support throughout this last

academic year; it is always very much appreciated. This year we are celebrating 300 years of Christs School. The official celebrations began with a wonderful Service of Thanksgiving at St Mary Magdalene Church, Richmond. Baroness Shirley Williams was our Guest of Honour, which was particularly special as the Baroness officially opened Christs School when she was then the Secretary of State for Education, in 1979. She gave a wonderful speech about her relationship with the school. The mayor and the Bishop of Kingston attended along with several former Headteachers and numerous former staff and pupils. The school choir, which consisted of students, staff and parents, performed beautifully and Year 8 show cased a wonderful drama of the key events over the past 300 years. A reception was held at the school afterwards where numerous archive photographs and the history of the school were displayed. On 22 June our second event , A Choral and Orchestral Concert, was held again at St Mary Magdelene Church. On 4 July our final event, an Arts and Jazz Evening, was held at the school. Christs Chronicles will be publishing further details about these successful events including photographs. We thank Canon Robert Titley for the use of St Mary Magdelene Church. A number of staff were involved to ensure a wonderful time for all and special thanks must go to Mr Wilson, Head of Music, for all his considerable hard work that he put in to all three events. As you will have read in Christs Chronicles, our pupils have access to a breadth of experiences on offer to enrich their learning and I am grateful to work with so many colleagues who are willing to provide this essential dimension to our remarkable school. On 5 July the sun shone on our annual Sports Day. This year was the first year where the 4 new houses competed against each other. All the students took part in a very successful day culminating in a very competitive staff relay race. The overall event was won by Dickens House. We also held our Year 11 Liturgy. It was a very special time for our students, their families and teaching staff. After months of preparation and hardwork for

their GCSEs it was a time to reflect and share special memories of their time at Christs. We wish them every success on August 22 when they will be able to collect their results, between 10am and 11.30am, and for their futures. Our Head of Sixth Form, Mr Morris, co-ordinated a very successful Sixth Form Open Evening and a taster day for our current Year 10. They all enjoyed the experience and came away with more of an understanding of the expectations of further education. We will keep you updated with the future progress of this exciting development. Year 10 embarked on their final expedition for their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. Special thanks to Mrs Lorenz who has been successfully running the Award for the past few years. Each year the number of students participating grows which is a credit to Mrs Lorenz and her team of helpers. Year 10 are currently on their 2 week Work Experience placements which we hope will be beneficial in giving them a taster of working life. Thank you to Mrs Ralph for her hard work and efforts in ensuring that all students have the opportunity to experience another aspect of their future lives. Last week the remaining student body were able to take part in three days of diverse extra-curricular activities ranging from Disney Land Paris, Ready Steady Cook at school to cycling around Richmond Park. Again we were lucky with the weather and I believe that all students had an enjoyable time due to the hard work of our staff. Myself and members of the Leadership Team interviewed students for Head Girl and Head Boy. The quality and standard of students who applied for the positions were incredibly high and I am delighted to announce Hanna Stephenson and William Imber-Coxhead as our Head Girl and Head Boy. As this academic year comes to a close we do say goodbye to a number of staff who are leaving for a variety of reasons: Mrs. Young, Miss Levien, Mr. Roderick, Miss Taylor, Mr. McPaul, Mr Bradley, Mr Baldwin and Ms Kelynack. We wish them well for the future and thank them for their contribution to Christs School. Mrs Bean goes on maternity leave again at the beginning of September and I am sure you will join me in wishing her well. A number of new staff will join us in September: Ms Dhaliwal Miss Oddy Ms Hickson-Kucikova Ms Bell Ms Murray Mr Bird Ms Williams Head of Geography MFL Teacher Science Teacher Science Teacher Art Teacher RM Teacher (maternity cover) Cover Supervisor

Ms Mills Ms Bernstein Mrs Todorinovic

Physics Teacher Learning Mentor Second in charge of Maths (joined us in June)

I am sure that you will join me in welcoming them to Christ's and wishing them well for the time that they are with us. We have some staff who are changing role in September. Ms Bromly has been seconded to the senior team as an Associate Assistant Headteacher with responsibility for improving teaching and learning at Key Stage 3. Mr Butler will continue as an Associate Headteacher for the next academic term with responsibility for Key Stage 4 teaching and learning. Miss Hoyle will continue as acting Subject Leader for Humanities. Miss Taber will be Head of Year 8, Mrs Harris will be an Art teacher, Corinne Gleisner will become our Learning Mentor and Mr. Morandhi will be our cover supervisor. Mr Sedour will be our PE and PACE teacher and Ms Bartlett and Ms Godliman are embarquing on their teaching qualification. The list of tutors for next year is below: HOY 11 Ms Humberstone Mr Simpson Miss Needham Mrs Conteh Miss Randall HOY 10 Mr Spicer Mr Wilson Mr Raisin Mrs Mbanefo Ms Dhaliwal HOY 9 Mr Williams Ms Campa/Mrs Godliman Ms Stewart Miss Moran Mrs Morris HOY 8 Ms Taber Mrs Lorenz Mr Edmondson Miss Bartlett/Mrs Todorinovic Mrs Harris/Mr Bird HOY 7 Ms Crayton/Ms Brown 10PWI Ms Bell 10JRN Ms Oddy 10AMB Ms Hickson-Kucikova 10GDH Ms Dougherty Mr Sedour 9JCA Mr Morandi 9MST 9KMO 9CMO 11ESI 11CNE 11MCO 11JRL

8CLO 8TED 8SBA 8CHA 7CBE 7HOD 7MHI 7JDO 7DSE 7MMR

Parent View gives you the chance to tell us what you think about our school. Parent View asks for your opinion on 12 aspects of the school, from the quality of teaching, to dealing with bullying and poor behavior. This information is looked at by the school and by Ofsted when they carry out an inspection. We would welcome your feedback. We would just ask, however, that you do not put anything unfavourable on the website unless you have already contacted the school about the issue and it has been dealt with by an appropriate member of staff. www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk

Please use the holiday period to refresh uniform and equipment requirements so that pupils are ready to begin in September without unnecessary and avoidable confrontation. All pupils will be expected to revert to the normal school uniform of shirt and tie. However if the weather is exceptionally hot we will reconsider this decision and continue to wear the summer uniform. Please look at our website nearer the time for confirmation. Canvas footwear is not acceptable. No makeup is allowed nor nail varnish and over the knee socks are not to be worn. No jewellery is allowed apart form one pair of stud earrings. May I also remind you that - school will begin for pupils at 8.30am every morning - pupils cycling to school MUST wear a cycle helmet - uniform should be worn properly from home to school and from school to home. Trousers should be school trousers and not jean style trousers. School shoes should be worn NOT trainers or leisure type plimsolls. Thank you to all those families who do support us by having the same high expectations of their children as we do. Please be reminded that all absences need to be followed up with a note in the diary or a letter when your child returns to school even if a phone message has been left. There is a space in the diary for this; otherwise unexplained absences are recorded as unauthorised. Absences on the last day of term are always unauthorised unless there is an obvious medical reason - we do not give permission for early holidays and we again need confirmation of your childs absence upon their return. Medical appointments should not be made for during the school day.

If you are going away in the summer break I hope that you return safely; for everybody I hope that there is time to relax and rest before returning refreshed in September. The new academic year, which sees us continuing to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Christs School, begins on Tuesday 3 September for Year 7 only at 8.30am and Wednesday 4 September for the whole school at 8.30am. May God watch over you and keep you safe. Yours faithfully

Helen Dixon Headteacher