Dear Parents and Guardians,
We started the AY2017 school year in a particularly good way on Tuesday. Our students returned and were joined by their new classmates, with great enthusiasm and energy. It was so pleasing to be able to witness the interactions between our students and their teachers, which after all is said and done, is the very backbone upon which the pathway to excellence is laid: upon great teachers.
We have engaged in many projects over the course of the summer and you will quickly appreciate the developments in infrastructure that we have provided. New resources are also in school as we all as new furniture that will help to make learning more comfortable.
But the evidence from meta research is powerfully clear that resources, infrastructure, and a beautiful campus have very little effect in transforming learning. Learning is transformed, according to John Hattie, by powerful connections between teachers and their students. This is the primary drive in the quest for excellence and it is in this domain that we will be focusing our attention this year.
Our review of pastoral structures across the school will help to ensure that interpersonal relations are developed in an appropriate manner, while the individual needs of our learners will be met by the enhanced clarity of learning support services and counseling services.
We hope to see you often during the months that lie before us as your child(ren) engage with their learning. The role of the parent is a particularly important one and we are here to answer any questions that you might have. Further, a developing partnership, based upon respect and a clear vision of the child’s needs, will most certainly be beneficial to the principal protagonist; your child.
We wish you a successful and enjoyable school year. Working together we might just be able to make tomorrow a better day than today.
Yours sincerely,
Alun Cooper