Sixth Form Bulletin
Claires Court Maidenhead - from Nursery to Sixth Form
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Mr Spanswick's Words Summer 7
Mr Spanswick's Words Summer 7
Dear Parents and Guardians  I start this week's newsletter with the headline news that Mrs Margaret Heywood, Head of Senior Girls has announced her retirement at the end of this summer term. Known as Maggie in school and the wider...
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Saturday 20 JuneCancelled PTA Summer Fete (provisional)11:00am - 4:00pm
Sites wide news
Term Dates
The first day of the autumn term has been brought forward to Monday 7 September 2020, with the new pupil starter induction day for Year 7 and above and Sixth Form planned for Friday 4 September.

Year 8 and 9 HPV vaccination programme
Advance notice that both year groups are to be included in the local area health authority vaccination programme for HPV, and we target early July for an appointment visit to school. 

Taskmaster
As the week eight Taskmaster challenge draws to a close, please find current standings in the leaderboard here.

Stay up-to-date
Please follow us on our social media pages (Facebook and Twitter) for latest news, events and photographs, most recently showing the welcome return to school of some year groups.
SPORTS FIXTURES AND RESULTS
The great CC bake offThe great CC bake off

Senior Boys recently proved that they could stand the heat as they enjoyed some time in the kitchen for the ‘House Bake Off’. Competing for their respective houses, Kelly, Rowanhurst, St Lawrence and Ridgeway, pupils and staff cooked...
Creativity flourishes during lockdown

Art and creativity is continuing for Claires Court pupils who have completed wonderful drawings and paintings from home during lockdown. Boys and girls from Reception to Year 10 have used their home surroundings and materials, and responses to...
Creativity flourishes during lockdown
Divisional Updates
From Mrs Rogers, Head of Sixth Form
Mrs Rogers shares a short film clip with an update from Sixth Form this week. You can watch the full video here

From the Senior School Heads, Mr Wilding and Mrs Heywood
The G10 prefect process is well underway and last week Ms Clifford set them a further challenge of ‘what they would like to see happen with school if we had to go into lockdown for a second time and how could they welcome the New Year 7 girls in September’. Thank you to all applicants and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your answers. Here are a few of the future leadership teams suggestions.  

‘Once a week a google meet can be set up where the Head Girl team runs the meet doing different activities with the whole year that enables the girls to get to know the team as well as getting to know the rest of the year.’

‘We could do something like the Claires Court lockdown olympics. This could include a variety of different activities (because not everyone loves sport). The activities could be an egg and spoon race or how many hops in a minute. Or, we could add different categories such as baking, singing, cooking, drama to ensure there is a category for everyone and not just the athletes.’

‘What I should like to see happen, and think would be beneficial for the other girls in the event of a second lock down, would be that for the afternoons the girls could book an appointment for 30 minutes to have one to one google meets with teachers so that they can ask their own questions to do with their work and understanding of the topic, as some girls might have questions after the whole class google meet and could find it embarrassing to talk on the class meet.’ 

‘I  would like to suggest that the school has a ‘Festival Friday’ form meet every friday afternoon where girls in their form could have different competitions and games to do such things as a crazy festival hair do, festival make up looks, best festival playlist, the craziest festival outfit and most fun festival banner. We could all then vote and the girls with the most points get  prizes, whilst having a chat and some sweets.The theme for the ‘Friday form call would change every half term, ‘festival’ could be the theme until October half term and then after it could be ‘festive Friday’ in the run up to Christmas and so on. I feel like this would be a great way for girls to still have fun with their friends and unwind on a Friday.’  

Following on from the group interviews with Mrs Ruddick and Ms Clifford this week, pupils will be leading their ideas with G7 to 9 during PSHEE.  

We are looking forward to welcoming our Year 10 pupils back into school over the course of next week and organising individual Head Girl interviews with the senior leadership team. 

I would thank Mrs King - Salter for all her support both academically and pastorally over the last year and wish her a safe trip back to Germany. We welcome Mrs Barker back from maternity leave to pick up the role as German teacher.  
 
And, we wish to congratulate Mrs Jenny Dimmick and Mike Dimmick on the birth of Louisa Jane born on the 6 July 2020. 
 

 
B10s discussions on their leadership plans and choices commence on Monday, in the flesh, so to speak, as we see 18 boys return to school each day from Monday to Thursday. Parents of both Year 10 boys and girls are clearly keen to see their children back at school, and our academic plans for the week include both practical science sessions and well-being pastoral work included in their mix of in-house learning over the next four weeks.
 
We are delighted that Year 9 have made such a good start to their GCSE programmes, and hope they keep that initial enthusiasm going for the remaining four weeks of term. We can only express our disappointment that Covid-19 rules mean we can’t plan for a fuller return for Years 7, 8 and 9 to school, but we can affirm as strongly as possible that we look forward to everyone making a full return in September. 
 
And finally, as Head of Centre for our examinations, Mr WIlding has completed the submission of our school’s A level, BTEC and GCSE results to the exam boards. We cannot affirm strongly enough just how well our Year 11 pupils and Year 13 students have worked for their examinations over the past two years, and most notably on the subjects they knew were most at risk as we entered #lockdown. Their tenacity, and the close attention of their teachers means we look forward to recognising the excellence of their outcomes in August, when the results are published. 
 
Other Senior faculty news
  • Please do join either Mr Wilding or Mrs Heywood daily for gate duty between 8.30am to 9am; we do hope to see some others on our lonely watch. 
From Mrs King, Acting Head of Junior Girls and Mr Richards, Head of Junior Boys
We can be thankful for things every day and in times where every day can provide us with a variety of different challenges, it has never been more important to focus on the things we can be thankful for, things we might once have taken for granted are now things we look forward to more than ever. Have a look at the poem below. If you were to say thank you for the simple things, what would you include in your thank you poem? Parents and children, if you do have a go at writing your own, please do share them with us.

I can open my eyes and see,
I can open my mouth and say thank you.
Thank you for today, for a comfortable bed, hot water, 
breakfast, clean clothes, my shoes.
Thank you for people who care, for milk, for post, 
the telephone, computers, our car, petrol.
Thank you for blue skies, for rain, 
my dog, flowers in our garden.
Thank you for new friends,
For parents and grandparents.
Thank you for reading and writing.
Who am I thanking?
All sorts - it doesn't matter -
but saying thank you does.

We have reached the end of our second week with our Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils back at school and in their classrooms along with some groups of key workers and members of our dedicated teaching staff. We are thankful that we have been able to provide some of our pupils and staff the opportunity to come together, albeit with strict distancing rules, to begin to experience their learning back in the classroom. Children are so adaptable and already have adjusted to this new normal. I think it is important to take a moment to recognise that achievement and how proud we are of our pupils and teachers for continuing this strange and sometimes challenging journey with the best possible attitude, both back at school and in their remote classrooms. We are thankful to have our pupils and teachers who are still engaged in learning remotely and we thank our teachers for sharing with us how much they have enjoyed being able to see their pupils with cameras in their live lessons. For us it’s not the same as being together in the classroom but it is the next best thing. We look forward to planning for the future both more immediately for the rest of this term and then looking further ahead to the new school year. 

Wishing you all a peaceful, restful and healthy weekend.
Mrs King and Mr Richards 

Other Junior faculty news
  • If your son or daughter is unable to attend lessons due to illness or ‘absence’, please contact the school office via:
Junior Girls: girls@clairescourt.com or leave a voicemail message on 01628 327500 before 9.30am
Junior Boys: Juniorboys@clairescourt.com or leave a voicemail message on 01628 327400 before 9.30am.


From Mrs Wilding, Head of Nursery
Wow what amazing children we have at Claires Court Nursery. If I am honest I was dreading Monday morning as I was certain that there would be so many separation issues and we would have some children unable to part from their parents having spent so much time at home. On Monday just two out of 41 children cried on parting and for one it was her first day with us! Both calmed incredibly quickly and since that moment not a tear has been shed. All I can say is that you parents have done a wonderful job preparing your children for the return and I am overjoyed seeing the happy, relaxed and resilient children we have playing on the field and thoroughly enjoying their time here. The rain has not troubled them at all, indeed it seems to have added to their sense of adventure and excitement. This is British camping at its best!

As always my staff have pulled out all the stops and set up lovely learning experiences for the little ones. All this makes me realise what a lucky person I am to be in a job I love, with exceptional children, supportive families, a great environment and staff I can rely on, whatever I toss to them. 

Just a reminder that when dropping off or collecting your children please maintain social distancing from other families.

Some children are bringing in toys from home in their pockets which we prefer not to happen so please encourage your child to leave home toys at home. We want to avoid loss and cross contamination as far as possible.

If you have not already done so and your child is leaving our Nursery at the end of this term (this does not include children who are transferring to Claires Court Junior Girls and Junior Boys) then please inform the registrar@clairescourt.net  which school your child is going to. This information is required by the Department for Education.  

Have a great weekend and let’s hope for dry and slightly warmer days next week.

Other Nursery faculty news
  • You may continue to contact the Nursery School Office on nursery@clairescourt.com or you can leave a voicemail on 01628 327500.
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MORE SNAPS OF THIS WEEK IN SCHOOL
1 College Avenue, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 6AW
Tel: 01628 327560     Email: sixthform@clairescourt.com

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