Borden Grammar School Parent Portal

Dear Parent or Guardian

Easter is traditionally a time of reflection and, being of a certain age, I remember being at university when D:Ream came out with “Things can only get better”. With continuing Covid outbreaks, the cost of living crisis, industrial action across almost all of the public sector and shortages of labour across multiple sectors, it feels like D:Ream may be due for a revival (although I think Professor Brian Cox may well have left his musical career behind)…We’ve certainly had our own share of disruption at Borden and I would like to thank parents for their continuing patience and support this term.

In contrast to the national picture, things have continued to ‘get better’ at Borden. Our new building is moving at a pace and, if you’re interested, we will shortly be updating our expansion pages to include some of the most recent pictures of developments. Our ‘Bagel Breakfast Club’ has grown with a regular stream of 80 or more students accessing their free healthy breakfast every morning. Our ‘World Book Red Nose Day” event focusing on mythical or fairy tale books included students dressing up across all year groups, with the 6th form taking part for the first time this year. Again, I would recommend you take a look at the gallery photos to see some brilliant costume efforts.

Congratulations to year 10 who won the local annual rugby tournament, whilst a huge number of students have represented the school in a variety of sports across year groups. Our first live school concert since Covid took place this term, with choirs, orchestra and individual performers receiving huge acclaim from the many attendees. We’ve also had visits from primary schools as well as science outreach work taking place in an effort to expand Borden’s borders. The ski trip was a welcome return and looked amazing; it almost passed without incident with a member of staff being the only unfortunate injury!

So what next? Excitingly, the music and drama department has started planning “We Will Rock You” as our school show for the summer term. Planning has taken place for the Montpellier trip and we are already thinking about Barcelona for next year. Many of our year 10 parents attended the Duke of Edinburgh introduction evening, with a large number of students joining up to do their bronze award. And then there’s our exciting new staff addition starting for a day a week after Easter; “Hazy” our own Borden therapy dog. We will also do a little surveying of views during the summer term, with students, staff and parents being given an opportunity to give feedback. We are particularly interested to gather parent views on the hybrid parent evening model we currently operate in order to support our planning next year.

So, there remains much that we can be optimistic about at Borden. However, as we return after the Easter break, many of our students will be feeling anxiety heading into the summer exam season. They will feel the inevitable pressure to achieve the grades they want and we need to all be there to offer support. Please remind them that a focus on performance rather than improvement can be damaging; the latter being more likely to reduce anxiety and bring results. Referring back to the D:Ream reference, Professor Brian Cox actually started out as a successful Physics student, became a keyboard player in a famous band and has now become one of the most renowned celebrity physicists of our generation. His life story shows that learning doesn’t stop at school and is about constant development. He said about learning,

“You dig deeper and it gets more and more complicated, and you get confused and it’s tricky and it’s hard…but it’s beautiful.”

So as a final message to all of Borden’s year 11 and 13 students who will be working hard this Easter, remember that learning is meant to be challenging, but if you try your best and keep going, ‘things will only get better’.

Kind regards

Ashley Tomlin
Headteacher

Some words from our Heads of Years

Term 4 seems to have flown by! Tuesday's during form time this term have been all about debates. The students have had different topics such as: Para social relationships, the use of phones in school and whether students should be allowed to sell snacks on school campus. The year group approached these debates with maturity and ensured that everyone was listened to as they shared their personal opinion.

Year 7 will receive their second audit at the end of this term and once again I am impressed by the incredible efforts across the year group, a large number of students have made improvements in their achievement, classwork, behaviour and homework. Next term we will focus on time management and organisation, year 7 will also have their first parents evening in which teachers have the opportunity to meet with parents/guardians to share the progress the year group have made so far.

I would like to give a shout out to 7MD who are the Term 4 form competition winners! Well done boys, I hope you've enjoyed your non school uniform day and sweet treats.

Have a lovely Easter break!

Miss Irinoye
Head of Year 7

Now that Options exams and GCSE subject choices are made, year 9 have enjoyed a quieter second half to the Spring term. We have covered a wide range of topics in form time, mainly centred around internet safety and the importance of considering the source of content posted online. 9CS followed this up with an excellent form assembly on Online Safety. Students also took part in the first Vertical Tutoring day, working with students in years 7 and 8 to consider how a House system might be reintroduced to the school. An astonishing amount of achievement points have been awarded across the year group and students will be rewarded for their efforts in the final week of term - at the time of writing, 9PDR are runaway leaders of the interform competition! A polite reminder that students should be wearing full uniform in school every day - ties, blazers and school shoes included - and fully equipped for learning. Best wishes to all year 9 students and their parents/carers for a restful Easter holiday before we begin the final term of KS3.

Mrs. Edwards
Head of Year 9

Year 11 have been moving ever closer to their final run in for their upcoming GCSE exams. All students undertook a successful period of mock exams at the beginning of term 4 and the effort, commitment and motivation to achieve from the vast majority was exceptional. It has been fantastic to see many students adhering to the advice and support that has been received this year in relation to study timetables, revision methods and the use of past paper questions to support their progress. Since their November mocks there has been clear progress made in relation to outcomes and confidence across the curriculum and I look forward to sharing the final run in with pupils as they push towards positive outcomes in their final exams. The increased maturity and drive has certainly not gone unnoticed by staff and as a thank you and congratulations, year 11 were awarded with a non uniform day and a free breakfast on Friday 24th March. Myself and Miss Powell were lucky enough to be able to share a tremendously positive experience with the pupils by handing out the breakfast items and I hope the feeling will be just as positive at results day in August. Well done year 11, keep on pushing through to the end!

Mr Weller
Head of Year 11

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Easter Newsletter

Some words from our Heads of Years

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Secondhand uniform shop