Dear Parents and Carers

I hope you found the time to read last week’s letter about our PTA and the broader plans to further develop our site for the 2020s. Whether you have signed up to make a one off or regular donation, or simply bought some of the raffle tickets to be drawn just before Christmas, we hope you can find ways to become involved or at least be very excited by the plans we have for your children in the years ahead.

Ofsted Update

It seems an age ago when we welcomed the Ofsted inspection team to our school. I do not know when their report will be published and imagine that it will be with you and my colleagues by the end of term. We are really looking forward to sharing this with you and it will be another moment to pause, celebrate and then look again at how we can continue to strive as a school and as a community.

THANK YOU TO OUR COMMUNITY SUPPORTERS

We began our term with an INSET day on Monday 4 November. As an entire body of staff, we used the occasion to pause ourselves, take stock and focus on where we are and where we wish to be in the years ahead.

Some of our emphasis was on thanking colleagues for their relentless commitment and effort. In this endeavour, a number of local businesses agreed to support us on that day by providing gifts that we raffled amongst staff as part of our own staff wellbeing photography competition (winning image opposite).

I want to pay tribute to them all below but also note how much it means to us when our local community supports the town’s secondary school. Thank you so much to…

• Beehive Home and Lifestyle             Visit here
• The Cotswold Sweet Shoppe             Visit here
• The Fox at Chipping Norton             Visit here
• Jaffé and Neale Bookshop & Cafe Visit here
• The Living Room Cinema             Visit here
• Saltpig Curing Company                   Visit here
• Wyatts Garden Centre & Farm Shop Visit here

Wendy & Peter Pan – Thursday 12 and Friday 13 December 2024

Tickets to see Wendy & Peter Pan at CNS are selling fast and so please do jump on to MCAS to book your pre-Christmas treat tickets. As in previous years, it will be a memorable production that will showcase the remarkable talent of our students.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Starting Monday 5 December, we begin our end of term attendance push in the final twelve days of term. Regardless of past attendance, all students can win Amazon vouchers during those first eleven days and then, on the final day, one lucky student will win a new Switch OLED console! All they need to do to maximise their chances is to build up some attendance streaks!

Smartphone Free Childhoods – ‘Letters to our Daughters’

Much like a wily football agent, I am in the midst of final negotiations with my eldest with regards to what will probably be his final fully funded phone contract. In many ways I am glad he is through those mid-teen years when smartphones can present some of the greatest challenges. Which leads me to reflect on the fact that many families will be considering a considerable outlay to purchase a new phone for one or more of their children in the next month or so. I think we all know that smartphones are a part of life and we cannot hide them away or pretend that life can be navigated easily without them, but that does not stop us having our qualms and concerns. Meanwhile, I stumbled upon ‘Letters to Our Daughters, Volume 2’ – a collection of letters, poems and prose by girls and young women to express their experiences and hopes for the future. You can download a free copy here or read more about the project by following this link to the Applied Stories website. I wish to share extracts from one poem with you that many involved in schools have been talking about and admiring for many reasons…

And finally…

The snow was a welcome reminder of nature’s ability to surprise and delight. As most families are aware, we are at the mercy of the bus companies and have no authority over if or when buses appear on snowy days. For the most part, the buses managed to move everyone around as planned but we know it was a frustrating day for the users of the CN04 bus route. As I am sure you now know, should there ever be a closure, then we would alert you via MCAS and Satchel One, in addition to the website.

IT WAS THE DAMN PHONES

I think our parents were right,
It was the damn phones –
Laughing as children,
Hearing them say ‘snapgram’ and
‘instachat’ and ‘facegram’,
They would never understand,
They couldn’t even say it right.

We wore the cloak of wisdom’s guise,
Believing we had seen it all,
Living with the world at our fingertips,
We scroll through the trash,
Headlines engraved in our skin,
Wires for veins,
AI for a brain.

And they may not have understood,
But they were right –
It is the damn phones.

A drug in my pocket,
Dependent on simulation,
But can you blame us?

If I counted every hour lost to the screen,
Regret and dread would seep into my being,
So I bury this truth with endless typing,
And it’s not like I can just abandon my phone
It’s our link,
Our language,
Our lifeline,
The cure that’s slowly poisoning our souls.

Does she have a natural face?
Or an iPhone face?
What era is she in?
Is she boy pretty
Or girl pretty?
Alien pretty
Deer pretty
Fox pretty
Bunny pretty
Trapped in a screen’s embrace,
Chasing an ever-changing grace,
Her true self lost in endless disguise,
A reflection of society’s lies.

We are the robots,
We are the products,
We are the future we feared.
And so I sit and I scroll and I rot,
On repeat.

Our parents were right
It was the damn phones.

By Kanika Pudur, The Frances Bardley Academy for Girls

 

Yours faithfully
Barry Doherty
Headteacher