As we start the summer break, first and foremost, huge congratulations to all pupils on all that they have achieved in the past academic year! We are so proud of the ways that they have grown spiritually, morally, academically and culturally over the last twelve months. Thank you too to our parents and carers, whose support of their children, of their engagement in their studies, of school events and of the school’s values has been so critical to ensuring their children’ development and the continued flourishing of their school.
The immense amount that our pupils have achieved and engaged in is evident in the summer newsletter, which we very much hope you will enjoy looking through. It really does demonstrate our pupils’ energy, commitment, creativity and deeply-held values, and we are so proud of what it reflects about them.
The end of the school year brings, as it usually does, a number of changes in terms of staffing. These are referenced on page 11 of the newsletter. We are immensely grateful to all of those colleagues for their exceptional contributions over the years. It is only right too to offer a special thanks to Mrs. Hansen, our exceptional Head of RE (as well as being a teacher Governor), who is the longest-serving of those colleagues and who retires this term following a career in which she has made an outstanding contribution as an educator. We know that she has taught many individuals who are now in our parent community, and that they, and their children, will join me in congratulating her and wishing her a happy, healthy and fulfilling retirement!
We have some important building work taking place over the summer which will improve, in particular, the windows in the Sixth Form Study Centre and in the library. This is, however, simply to ensure the building is the best it can be in the short term and discussions in relation to a new school building are very much ongoing: we will be extremely excited when the work starts and we look forward to shaping a building that is more conducive to achieving all that we strive for here in Bishop Vaughan.
With the long break ahead, we would encourage our pupils to keep up their reading; recommendations for summer reads can be found in the latest edition of the newsletter (referenced previously and which contains all of our news from the past term), or separately in the latest edition of the reading recommendations newsletter here.
We encourage those pupils awaiting exam results to keep a sense of perspective and calm in what we know can be anxious weeks of waiting. We know they have worked hard, and we know too that there have been a volatile few years with many disruptions to normal ways of learning. We are incredibly proud of the focus they have shown. All of their teachers join me in wishing them every success for the results days in August, as well as in wishing all pupils – and indeed the whole school community – a happy, healthy, safe, restful and very enjoyable summer break. You will all be in our prayers and we look forward to seeing you all either on the results days or when we welcome you back in September!
Mrs Pole