The second half of the autumn term

Dominic Coutts, Head of Secondary. October 2021

Outlines of courses taught at Secondary

Parents frequently wonder what their sons or daughters have been doing at school.

Sometimes your enquiries may yield detailed answers from your children; other times, responses can be on the minimal side.

It is also understandable that you want to know what your children will be doing over the course of the school year. This is information students are likely to know only very hazily.

For both of the above reasons it is necessary and right for the school to provide parents with an overview of the courses at Secondary.

The outlines now made available to you on the school website should help parents to follow what is taught at the school and also when it is taught.

It may be that there is some deviation from what is shown here. These are, after all, only overviews. Nonetheless, I trust that they will be of use to you.

Personal Health and Social Education

More straightforwardly known as PHSE, this subject does not lead to any assessments and usually won´t appear on reports but it is of crucial importance in helping young people to negotiate many of the issues they face in the world today.

Along with Miss Gupta, who is playing a key role in this area, I am seeking to expand the importance of PHSE across the school and also to find ways to ensure that it is of value to the students following both the bilingual and monolingual systems. Thus a great deal of what is covered in PHSE is also addressed in Ethik classes in the ES system, and vice versa.

Miss Gupta has already prepared excellent resources which will feature both in PHSE lessons and during the twenty minute slot on Monday morning set aside for assemblies or tutor time.

The school production

Despite facing enormous challenges because of the pandemic, Dr Sargent and his cast prepared an outstanding version this summer of The Real Inspector Hound. He and his actors are now embarking upon a new production, of Treasure Island, which promises to be another great success. For a reminder of the key dates, I include the relevant section from Dr Sargent´s recent letter to parents:

Monday 29 Nov 12.30 Dress rehearsal (finish by 15.25)

Tuesday 30 Nov 18.00 Premiere (finish by 20.00)

Wednesday 1 Dec private runthrough for students (finish by 15.25)

Thursday 2 Dec 18.00 Evening Performance (finish by 20.00)

Some further dates

Last year the pandemic had a predictable impact on parents' evenings. This year, fortunately, such occasions are once more possible.

For a reminder of the key dates for this term, please see below:

27 October 2021: Grade 12

10 November 2021: Grade 10

1 December 2021: Grade 11