Dear Parents, Carers and Students
Once again, we have welcomed our German Exchange visitors from Nördlingen, fifty-five years after the very first exchange. We hope they again enjoy Cotswold life, the Chippy fair (!) and the autumn sunshine – ahead of the return leg to Germany in July next year. A wonderful experience for all of the students and families involved. Many, many thanks to Miss Richmond for organising.
Attendance Matters
One would expect a pretty good start to a new term and so it has been amongst most year groups this year. As a school, it’s a full percentage point higher than the first week back last year – and we hope that bodes well for the future. However, it is much too early to draw any conclusions or patterns but nonetheless important that this topic remains prominent in our minds.
| Tue 4 to Fri 8 Sep 2023 | |
| Whole school | 95.5% |
| Year 7 | 98.5% |
| Year 8 | 95.8% |
| Year 9 | 92.0% |
| Year 10 | 94.3% |
| Year 11 | 94.4% |
| Year 12 | 98.0% |
| Year 13 | 94.5% |
| No. on 100% | 932 |
When you have a moment, please take a look at the updated annual letter on attendance provided by all headteachers in Oxfordshire at this time of year. It appears on our website alongside key information about attendance. Going forward, any request for leaves of absence during term time must be submitted via a new online application form.
School Photography
Later this term, we shall be inviting a school photographer to take brand-new images that we plan to use on our website. With this in mind, we have asked parents and carers of children in years 7, 8, 9 and 10 to provide permission by following this link. If you have not yet indicated your preference, please do so (one way or the other). It will only take less than a minute and enable us to capture life at our school in 2023. The highly professional images will of course be made available to their parent or carer on request, free of charge.
Meet The Tutor Evenings
These are due to take place between Tuesday 26 and Thursday 28 September. We introduced these meetings a few years ago across all year groups so that parents and carers could better connect with tutors and find out how the start of the year has gone. Please look out for a letter and invitation to use the online booking system.
And finally…
Thank you again for your support and encouragement – which has led to one of the best starts of a term we can recall.
Yours faithfully
Barry Doherty
Headteacher
