Headteacher's blog

It is with much regret that I have to inform students, staff and parents of the death of Mrs. Alina McCavish on Thursday the 26th of August. Alina was a member of teaching staff at Cherry for over 26 years working firstly as a teacher of English and Drama before going on to lead the English department with great distinction. She had suffered from a serious illness for a number of years but this did not diminish her commitment to the school and its students. Alina retired in August of last year but still returned to Cherry to help prepare year eleven students for their GCSEs in 2010. Alina was an exceptional teacher who had the highest expectations of all students and staff what was perhaps less apparent to students was her ‘waspish’ sense of humour that brought a smile to members of staff.

She will be sorely missed by all staff at Cherry and the wider community the school serves.

Well the long wait is over and the exam results are out!

Our students have done exceptionally well this year with 87% of students achieving 5 A*- C grades the highest number ever. 49% of students also achieved 5 A*-A grades including English and Maths which again was the highest ever percentage recorded by Cherry students. Another pleasing aspect of the results was the big increase in students who recorded A or A* grades. Some of the students who achieved outstanding results include

Carly Fields - 1A*, 9As, a distinction and a grade B
Oliver Rushby - 4 A*s, 5 As, two distinctions and a grade B
Alastair Bochel – 5 A*s, 7As a distinction and a grade B
Lewis Yates – 8 As, a distinction and two grade Bs
Jake Powell – 4 A*s, 6 As, a distinction and two grade Bs

Equally as pleasing was the number of students who achieved their grade Cs or equivalent through hard work and dedication. We wish you all of you the very best at sixth form, college or in employment. Some year 11 students are of course coming back to join us at Cherry. If for some reason you have not got the grades you needed do not hesitate to contact Mr. Pindar at the school to discuss your options here at Cherry.

We hope to see all of you in November at the senior prize giving evening.

Once again well done!

Welcome to Space Camp

Information for students and parents

Well I hope you are looking forward to your experience at Space Camp as much as we are here at Cherry Willingham School.

To give you a little idea of what you are going to be doing I thought I would share some of your mission details

• You will be expected to design your own planet and make some of the species that live on it
• You will be making rockets and getting to know the physics of flight and propulsion
• You will learn all about the history of the space race and all about the future of space travel too
• You will be learning some ICT and presentation skills

Most of all we want you to have lots of fun, make new friends and hopefully get excited about Science and Technology. On Wednesday we are off to the National Space Centre at Leicester and that should be great fun as they have organised a number of specialised workshops for you.

On Friday we are having a barbecue to celebrate your work and hopefully mums and dads can come along to and have some food as well! If you could let us know during the week if you are coming to the barbecue on Friday that would help us plan accordingly.

To help you prepare perhaps you can do some research about the following topics in advance

What does SETI stand for and what does it do?

Why is Sputnik important in the history of the Space Race?

Who was Neil Armstrong and what did he do first?

Extension research

What Scientist links the development of missiles that attacked Britain in the later stages of the Second World War and NASA?

End of term update

It has been a very testing term for all of us here at school. I would like to thank all the students and staff for showing resilience and optimism in light of the difficulties that the fire has caused us. What has impressed me most has been the commitment of everyone to make sure that the fire caused minimum disruption to learning. The fact that we have managed to do the following is a source of great pride to me.

• Started our new timetable in June
• Moved into our vertical options pattern so smoothly
• Began our new faculty structure
• Made sure that our World Cup event went ahead in May
• Ran our early risers programme for Primary students in July
• Are running an able and talented summer school for 48 primary students next week

Out of curiosity I looked up the schools entry on Wikipedia yesterday I was amused to see that the page describes the recent fire as a ‘small fire’ when you consider that the school has lost around a third of its accommodation it is hard to agree with the description. The Wikipedia entry also has a number of other errors and I intend to correct them over the summer holiday!

Goodbye and Good Luck

Today we say goodbye to a number of staff. We wish all of them well and thank them for all their hard work and dedication.

Mrs Roden Davies – retiring
Mrs Thoy – retiring
Mrs Grayson – moving to a promoted post at another school
Miss Tuke – moving to Somerset
Miss Fogg – moving to London to start a PGCE

I would like to wish all your students and staff a very happy and safe holiday. School begins for students on the 6th of September. Please check the website for further updates over the summer.

I would like to say a big thank you to all the students and staff of Cherry Willingham Primary school. It has been a delight to see you this week and help you settle in. I have got to know quite a few of you over the week and I know Mrs.Scoffield would be very proud of how mature and well behaved you have been. I really enjoyed teaching some of you and hoped that you enjoyed learning how to use the Bunsen burners and had fun melting chocolate. I was very impressed that you all did your research on states of matter and was very very impressed that one or two you managed to find out what a Bose-Einstein condensate was! I am looking forward to seeing you all in September.

Mrs.Pyrah (teaching assistant) composed a lovely email earlier this week explaining how all the non teaching staff make a brilliant contribution supporting students at the school who have specific learning needs. In particular she highlighted the contributions of our two caretakers Mr. Paul Rubery and Mr. David Bates. Well done gents!

There are many students who deserve the title of student of the week. A group of students have been helping our children from the local primary schools navigate their way around the school site and become accustomed to their new school. You deserve a massive thank you for all your efforts. The students of the week for this week however are Abigail Dobbs and Lucy Myers for helping promote the school at an open afternoon at Monks Abbey School they were brilliant ambassadors for the school and did a fantastic job. Well done girls!