Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to a new term and school year and I hope you and your family had a good summer. I am delighted to report that the first week back has gone smoothly and would like to thank you for your support in getting our students ready for the new school year. I have enjoyed meeting each year group in my values assemblies, as well as on duty and out and about in school and have been particularly impressed by their warm welcome, gentle curiosity and friendly smiles. It certainly made my first week as Headteacher!

A lot has happened since I last wrote to you in July – I’ve highlighted some of it below for you and have also included other relevant information and reminders for the start of the new year:

A-level results

• 27% of all grades were A* or A
• 56% of all grades were A* to B
• 80% of all grades were A* to C
• Art – 93% of all grades were A*-B
• Geography – 82% of all grades were A*-B
• Design – 100% of grades were A*-B
• Physics – 67% of grades were A*-A (double the national average) and 73% of grades were A*-B

GCSE results

• 81% of our students secured a Grade 4 or above in both English and Maths, with over one third securing Grades 7 to 9 in each subject.
• 76% of students leave with five or more GCSEs including English and maths.
• Almost one third of all results were grades 7 to 9.
• English and Maths pass rates were again exceptional with 90% achieving a grade 9-4 in English and 87% achieving a grade 9-4 in maths.
• Our Humanities students achieved some exceptional results with 38%, 44% and 50% of students achieving grades 9-7 in Geography, RE, and History, respectively.

Summer upgrade

I am thrilled to share the first picture of our Community Kitchen, which was completed over the summer, ahead of schedule! We look forward to sharing images of our planned provision for cooking, catering and food technology and of our work with students who are in need of a bespoke intervention programme. I would like to add my thanks to Mr Doherty, our fabulous PTA, Mrs Trimmer, our School Business Partner and the Design & Technology Department, led by Mr Newton, for making it all happen.

Attendance & Belonging

We know that children need to feel safe and secure to flourish and fulfil their potential. For this trust to grow and to increase resilience, regular attendance is a precondition. Data from the Department for Education has shown that students with no absences at all are statistically twice as likely to gain 5 GCSES Grades 9-5. I would therefore like to clarify what we mean by “good attendance” at Chipping Norton School: Whilst we fully appreciate that there are times when your child may need to be absent from school, we expect ‘no more than 5 days off’ per school year as the aim to aspire to. Please contact your child’s Pastoral Leader or Mrs Whyte or Mrs Armistead should you require any support around attendance. We will share further information about attendance, our protocols, leave of absence requests and our famous ‘Keep the streak’ initiative next week – all aimed at supporting you and your child to strive for no more than 5 days of absence this academic year.

Open Evening – Thursday 2 October 2025

On Thursday, 2 October, we will be holding our annual Open Evening for future year 7 students, from 5 – 8 pm. School will again finish early on that day (end of period 3 at 12:25 pm) and we look forward to seeing many, many of our students back on the evening to act as guides (years 8, 11 and sixth formers), or to participate in lessons, games and activities (years 7, 9 and 10). Our students are our biggest draw, so please look out for permission requests in the run-up. It is a great opportunity for our students to grow in social confidence and spend time supporting their favourite subjects!

Head Teacher’s Question Time

I look forward to continuing the regular communication my predecessor established and – as promised in my letter to you in July – would like to invite you to come along to Chipping Norton School on Wednesday 24 September between 5.30 and 6.30 pm for the first, termly, ‘Headteacher’s Question Time’ to share in person your aspirations for our community. I would like to ask you to express your interest in attending via this link, where you will also be able to indicate the question you would like to discuss if you wish. All that remains for me to say is that I very much look forward to meeting you at one of the many events we will hold in school this year – please come and say hello at a sports fixture, concert or parents’ evening. Meanwhile, I wish you a restful weekend.

Yours faithfully,
Bertram Richter