It was great to be able to welcome students, parents and carers to the school on Wednesday evening for Sixth Form Open Evening. The evening is only the start of planning for students’ time in the Sixth Form but it was an invaluable opportunity to ask questions of staff and students, learn about the Wallingford School Sixth Form experience and have a taste of the teaching and learning which our students encounter in their lessons.
As Headteacher I am really proud of our Sixth Form. The strength of our results is well-known, as is the quality of teaching and learning which generates them. We have an exceptionally broad range of courses with an offer which has breadth and depth. Our destinations are wide and varied: the vast majority of students do progress to universities form Exeter to Edinburgh and including Oxford and Cambridge to study an eclectic mix of courses; those who don’t go immediately to university will often take up high level apprenticeships or other opportunities which our Sixth Form sets them up well for. These are all key elements of what we get so right but what I am most proud of is that our Sixth Form is open access – if you want to come here and work and be committed then there is a place here for you. This resonates with the comprehensive ethos of our school and our commitment to serving our local community and is not to be underestimated.
We have celebrated Black History Month in school in a number of ways and I would particularly like to thank Ms McMillan for her series of assemblies during this week. Rather than me outlining what she said I would ask you to ask your son or daughter about what they have taken from the presentation which was very good indeed.
Extra-curricular activities roll on and it is a pleasure to see the rehearsals, hear the Bigg Band and catch the students coming back from fixtures – to quote two of our Year 9 boys’ rugby team “we lost - but they were massive!”. Finally, well done again to everyone who was involved in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme expedition last weekend and a huge thankyou to all of our staff who continue to give up their weekends to support our students.