June
2011
Dear
Parents
The
school year 2010/11 has been a tremendous year for Windsor School.
Ofsted inspected the school in December 2010 and judged the school to be
outstanding. All lessons seen were judged to be outstanding or good, with the
majority being outstanding. School results and achievements were judged to be
outstanding. This level of success is only possible when students, parents,
staff and the local community work together to make the school outstanding. We
take great pride in the Ofsted judgement. It reflects our school, our students
and our community. We are very fortunate to have talented students, great
teachers and a very supportive community.
As
we move towards the end of the summer term, we move closer to the final years
of the school. Windsor
School is due to close in
summer 2013. We fully intend keeping the school a vibrant and lively place to
be right up to that moment. We are committed to providing a first rate
education for all of our students.
GCSE
and A Level courses starting in September 2011 will run their course to ensure
that students have every opportunity to gain required qualifications. Our
students will experience smaller class size and thus should benefit from more
teacher time. The school is now smaller than in recent years. We have just
under 400 students. This opens up many opportunities as we begin to make the
most of the available space and look carefully at new projects that could now
be introduced. Recent initiatives include the weekend Art Camp, weekend Drama Camp,
Comenius Project and expansion of the model parliament simulation exercises. We
plan even more over the next two years.
Current
MOD and SCE plans indicate that we will not start GCSE courses (Year 10) or A
Level courses (Year 12) in September 2012. However, a number of parents of Year
10 students in 2012 have requested us to look at the possibility of running a
small Year 10 group for one year only to include early entry into core GCSE
subjects. If you are interested in this possibility please contact the school.
We will run all courses in the other year groups. In addition, we will run
Level 2 courses in Year 12. These include BTec level 2 and re-sit courses. As
these courses run for only one year, there will be sufficient time for
completion.
As
a parent, I know that you will be very concerned about the impact of the
closure of Windsor
School. If your child is
still in Key Stage 3 (Years 7, 8 & 9) in summer 2013 then the impact will
be minimal. Those of you who have older children will be thinking through the
best possible provision for GCSE and A Level courses. We are here to help you;
if you have questions about how the closure will affect your child then please
contact us at school. You may be due to be posted back to the UK in summer
2013. This may create problems for your children. If in doubt, please contact
us for advice. It is essential that you
start planning now in order to safeguard the education of your children. We
will help wherever we can.
If
your child is part way through their GCSE or AS/A Level courses and you are
posted then they may be eligible for retention at Windsor School.
If this affects you then it is important that you contact the school on 02161
4746491.
Mr B Davies
