Dear Parents and Carers
Firstly a huge welcome to all ‘new’ to QES/QESS, and a welcome back to everyone. I hope the school holidays were enjoyable despite the dreadful weather on occasion.
We start this week with our two training days for colleagues covering many areas, including updates on Safeguarding, our Development Plan, Common Standards and Communications and, of course, a review of our exam results and the destinations of student leavers.
Looking through the range of ventures our Year 13 leavers are about to embark on is a real treat every year, with this year being no exception. A final overview of these will be on our Sixth Form pages on the website by the end of the month for your perusal and I’m sure you will agree the range is extensive: from exciting Gap Years and further vocational courses at local colleges and Apprenticeships to a diverse range of university courses from Marine Biology at Bangor to Music at Royal Northern College, from Maths and Physics at Warwick, to Human Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge. We cannot be more proud of all our school leavers and wish them all the very best.
Of course we also welcome Year 7 and 12 on Wednesday and all other year groups on Thursday. Whilst I hope everyone had a good six weeks, we do know that they can also be eventful for young people, so please do contact us to let us know if there are any concerns we need to be aware of as your child starts the term. We also welcome new colleagues this week:
- Heather Black – Cover Supervisor
- Rob Derbyshire – Head of Physics
- Stephanie Green – Head of Modern Foreign Languages
- Jane Magrath and Howard Pimblett – Science Technicians
- Brad Moss – PE and Sport Technician
- Wil Mossop – Head of Maths
We have completed a full review of all Leadership positions and Carly Cardwell joins Rebecca Chapman as our two Deputy Headteachers across the Trust.
During the summer our site staff colleagues worked hard in refreshing tired areas and updating our environment, from resurfacing lab benches to painting and decorating, power-hosing and reflagging areas. I’m also delighted to inform you that the next stage of our solar paneling happened with panels over the main QES building in addition to the QEStudio panels last term; shortly we hope to have a screen in Pupil Reception indicating how much the panels have generated on a daily basis. However, I’m particularly pleased to let you know that thanks to the fundraising of parents, colleagues and pupils over several years, we finally managed a much needed overhaul of the main corridor pupil toilets. For a long time these have been totally unsatisfactory but I hope pupils will agree that they are a significant improvement.
Our Development Plan this year is as comprehensive as ever – there is much we are working on to improve, not least our communications with you and our endeavours to fundraise for further improvements to the facilities and provision for our pupils.
I hope this term is a happy and rewarding one for everyone in the QES/QESS family. As always please do contact us if you have any concerns or queries and thank you in advance for your ongoing support. There certainly is much to celebrate and be optimistic about as our fantastic young people embark on this fresh academic year.
With best wishes
Cathy O’Neill
Executive Headteacher
