Dear Parent/Carer and Friend of the School,

 

As we come to the end of the summer holidays and look forward to the new school year, it gives me great pleasure to introduce myself formally as the new Headteacher of William Ellis School.

 

Since my appointment, I have had the opportunity to meet many people associated with the school and know that we can make a good start to the new term.

 

Over the holiday much has been done. Many areas of the building have been redecorated, including a substantial number of classrooms, the library, and the front entrance. The IT infrastructure has been upgraded and there are many more new computers. The kitchen has also been refurbished, enabling us to improve the quality of food we can serve to your son(s).

 

With all this work complete, it will enable the staff and myself to focus on what is of most importance, namely the quality of teaching and learning in your son’s lessons.

 

Over the coming weeks and months I will get to know as many of you as I can and let you know what plans I have for the future success of William Ellis.

 

 

 

After the well publicised delays in the delivery of results and papers to schools, the SATs results for our Year 9 students arrived just before the end of term. Once again these are encouraging. In Maths, 81% of boys achieved a level 5 or above ,with over 60% of the cohort achieving level 6-7 passes - a very strong performance indeed. 14 boys achieved level 8 ("exceptional performance"). In Science 76% of boys achieved level 5 or above, with 47% achieving level 6 or 7. Final results for English are not yet available as a number of scripts had to be returned to the company responsible for marking the exams. Initial, very provisional, results indicate that 73% of the cohort achieved level 5 or above, with 36% gaining level 6 or 7. The results at the higher end show a marked improvement on last year.

 

Progress in these three core subjects has therefore been sound and Year 9 boys should move onto their GCSE studies with real confidence of further success. We congratulate the cohort for their hard work and very positive approach to their SATs exams.

 

 

BEHAVIOUR FOR LEARNING LEAFLET

Over the course of last term, we began a review of behaviour in and around school, with a view to developing clearer and more consistent behaviour management practice. In June/July 08 the Senior Management team invited three members of Camden's Secondary Behaviour Partnership Team to work with the school to help provide an evidence base from which to plan future actions. About 50 students from Years 7-10 and a number of teaching staff and learning assistants participated in interviews led by a small team from the local authority, who also carried out a 'Learning Walk ‘, visiting lessons and observing social areas at break and lunchtime . Feedback from this initial review indicates that, while the majority of students behave well in and out of class with only a minority causing concern, staff and students alike seek greater clarity and consistency regarding expectations, procedures and positive and negative consequences. Over the coming year we will be continuing this review in more depth.

 

However, we would like to ensure that all students and parents are fully aware of the school's expectations and current systems from the very start of the new academic year and to this end we have put together the leaflet entitled "Good Behaviour = Outstanding Learning" which we would ask you to read through with your son before term starts. This outlines the Rewards and Sanctions systems and a set of routines (Classroom, Corridor and Canteen codes) which all boys will be expected to adhere to ensure that the school provides a calm and purposeful environment in which to learn. We will be explaining these in more detail to the boys in Assemblies and Tutor periods next term.

 

 

These are the provisional 2008 GCSE results for Year 11 students. With 66% of all students gaining at least a grade C in mathematics and 54% in English, the majority of boys achieved the important C grade or better in both core subjects. 51% of all students gained at least 5 A*- C grades and 45% gained the all important 5 A*- C grades including English and Mathematics amassing a total of 336 points on average each. There is every chance that these headline figures will improve further in the next couple of weeks as a consequence of the remarking process.

 

Most students performed extremely well and there were some wonderful individual results with students gaining A*s and As. Strong individual performances included James Shale’s 10 passes including 3A*s and 7As. Other students who achieved 9 or more passes at A* and A grades were John Ainger, George Armour, Christopher Julienne, Josh Marcus, Louis Miles, Joe Sirett, Stepan Stepanenko and James Strojwas. Another notable achievement was Finbarr Ricketts’, who achieved 9 good GCSEs at the same time as training to run in the English Schools finals.

 

 

Following last year’s best ever results La Swap has maintained its standard.

The overall ‘A’ level pass rate (A - E grades) is 97.4% (97.3% last year) compared to the national figure of 97.2%.

23 subjects achieved a 100% pass rate and 15 subjects had 80% and above A - C grades.

A - C grades stand at 73.8% (73.1% last year) compared with a national A - C figure of 73.9%.

As ever these results are provisional. Congratulations are due to all students and staff involved.

 

 

We have introduced a system to distinguish the three year groups in Key Stage 3 by their ties. Year 7 students wear a blue and yellow striped tie, Year 8 with an added green stripe and Year 9 with an added red stripe. All boys going into Year 8 and 9 will therefore need to purchase a new tie on their return on 2nd September. These will be available from the School Office on that day at a cost of £2.50.

 

 

If your son is entitled to a Free School Meal and you have not yet applied please return your form, with proof, to the school office on the first day of term. Free School Meals forms are available from the School Office.

 

 

Please notify the School Office immediately of any changes to your son’s emergency contact details ie. change of address/telephone numbers/e-mail.

I would like to remind all boys that we are a uniform school and it is the expectation that all boys will be in full school uniform in September.

 

I would also remind all boys that attendance and punctuality is core to the start of any learning programme and would ask that you will encourage your son in these two vital elements of his schooling.

   

 

Yours sincerely,