We hope you have had a great summer and are looking forward to returning to school tomorrow. It's a case of "business as usual" - same time, same place (you'll be relieved to hear that) and minibuses will be operating as last term.
Most summers bring staff changes, but this year we have more than usual to announce. Mrs McKenzie and Mr Morse have now retired and we wish them well in the future. Messrs Fletcher and Coleman are moving on to develop their careers in teaching - both have benefitted from their time at IGS and we have been pleased to help them in the early stages of their careers. It's good to know that their time with us has strengthened their desire to pursue a career in teaching.
Why not go and make a cup of tea, come back and have a sit down - what follows is quite a long list! We are delighted to welcome the following new staff:
Miss Simpson is known to many as she has worked at IGS as a supply teacher on a couple of occasions. She will work alongside Mrs Clarke in the English Department
Mr Gascoigne is a very experienced Maths and Science teacher who will bring that experience to Upper School
Mrs Vignali is, again, an experienced teacher, this time a linguist. She will take over from Mrs McKenzie, teaching French across the school.
Miss Mackenzie, who was with us last term and oversaw our "summer of Art", will join us permanently. She will teach Art across the school, and will also offer for the first time (to our Year 10s) an optional Art GCSE course.
Miss Bathrelou is very well known to us as an occasional supply teacher over the years and she will join us permanently as a PE teacher (and will contribute in other areas as well).
Mr Fielden will teach some Science in Upper School but joins us primarily as a Teaching Assistant
Miss Pitt and Ms McGurk will be with us as Teaching Assistants, helping with small groups and 1:1 work
Mrs Thomson, mother of three children at IGS, will join us part-time as a Teaching Assistant
The summer has been busy in many ways. We have, for example, completed the addition of another classroom which will enable us to split what was the Ravens Class; we have finished the new build at the back of the school, creating two rooms and an excellent area for our youngest pupils; we have almost completed the installation of a new laboratory area in one of the upstairs classrooms; and we have, as ever, recruited several new students.
Professor Tooley was invited by the Daily Telegraph to write an Opinion piece about us, and did so a few weeks ago. The result has been huge interest from all over the country (a twenty-fold increase in website hits that day). It seems no-one can believe we really can run a school which repeatedly gets commended by Ofsted on ... you know what I'm going to say ... fees at 20% of the average in the UK independent sector. Some of the responses to Professor Tooley's article were openly disbelieving, one person describing it as "fantasy". The implication was that we were hiding something. All we would say is that after seven years the fantasy continues, and appears to be gaining momentum. Thank you for your support along the way.
We are really looking forward to welcoming all those new staff tomorrow, and many new children.
Another year begins ...