27 March 2013 Dear Parent/Carer, As the Headteacher of Christs School since September 2004, I have had what I can

only describe as the best job in the world. This is not the first time I have said this, but it is the first time that I have written it to you, and I do so as I embark on my final few days at our fine school. Many of you reading this will have known me as Headteacher for, at most, four and half years, and that is only if your eldest child is in year 11; some of you I have known only since last September when your daughter or son began in year 7; and a few of you I taught during my first spell at Christs in the 1980s as a newly qualified teacher of Mathematics and PE. There are a few other groups of parents, but to you all I offer my thanks and gratitude for the support you have given your children by trusting me, and my colleagues, with the secondary education of your precious gifts from God. We find ourselves frighteningly two thirds of the way through the academic year, the 300th in Christs history of educating young people in Richmond. As always, much has happened this term and I hope that Christs Chronicles, our website, ParentMail and texts together Twitter (@christs_school) allow you to keep up to date with everything that is happening and about to happen. Among the schools recent news highlights have been Dorsa Nasrollahi who was the winner of the Boroughs Speak Out Challenge to whom we offer our congratulations. Dorsa now waits to see if she will be chosen for the grand final at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Congratulations also go to the year 10 Science team of Josh Pacho, Megan McHugh, Milly Logan-Wilson, William Imber Coxhead, Clio Tucker O'Sullivan, Ellie Mylles, Luca Rigani and Jack Broughton who, under the guidance of Ms Young, triumphed last week in the Borough Forensic Science Challenge competition. Thank you to those parents who attended the recent 6th Form information evening organised by Mr Morris. It was very well received and was the first of a number of events that will guide and inform both parents and pupils as they make decisions about their post-16 education, which we hope will be here at Christs when the 6 th Form opens in September 2014. Plans for the new building that will accommodate this expansion are well underway and there will soon be a decision regarding planning permission that we hope will mean that construction can begin, as planned, in the summer

Year 10 also took part in a successful Careers Day last week, organised by Ms Brown. There were a number of workshops including outside speakers from various companies, colleges, ex-Christs students, CV workshops, decision making and presentations about available vocational courses. The students were very engaged and came away with lots of information. The revitalised House system has brought an added dimension to school life. The winter sports day before Christmas was both popular and successful, despite the cold. This term, and particularly during Lent, the Houses have been competing against each other to see which one could raise the most money for their chosen Charity, Comic Relief. Each of the Heads of House has offered their highlights below: Attenborough House have had a very successful term raising money for the school's Lenten Charity. They have raised over three hundred pounds with more money still to be handed in. One of the events organised was to run 'Starburkes' for a week, where the Attenborough House Captains set up a stall and sold various confectionary to students at break, lunch and after school, with the profit all going to Charity. There have also been Attenborough students who have worked hard to raise money outside of school under their own initiative. This has included students who ran their own bake sales, students who undertook a sponsored silence and students who organised a car wash. It has been great to see the students work together so well and their efforts culminated with the Mufti Day on the day of Comic Relief. [Mr Roderick] Elizabeth House has worked with enthusiasm over the past 5 weeks to raise nearly 500 for Comic Relief. Some of the many fundraising events we put on included 'Sponge the Prefect', 'Guess the Sweets in the Jar' and a Valentines Day cake sale. In addition to this we staged two competitions. The first was 'The Great Christ's School Bake Off'. Staff and students were invited to bake their best cake or biscuit. Entries were judged on appearance and then students paid to taste the cakes and vote for their favourite. The second competition was 'Ready Steady Cook' where staff had 30 minutes to bake against the clock. The audience of students had great fun seeing their teachers out of their usual comfort zones! The winner was the person whose cakes were snaffled up the quickest by this tough crowd and this saw Ms Harris triumph as her incredible cakes were the first to sell out. Ms Mbanefo deserves special mention very professional, sugar twirls and baskets not bad for someone who claims not to have baked for 15 years. Thanks to all staff who took part. Overall we have had great fun, made some new friends along the way and raised a lot of money! [Ms Perkins] Turing House raised over 400 this term for Comic relief, through a range of activities. One of the most popular proved to be the KS4 versus teachers Dodgeball tournament, which raised approximately 60, but also raised the interest in future teacher versus student competitions. Excitement was tangible with the MarioKart tournament, raising nearly 80 in total. Last, but by no means least, huge support was shown by Ruth Scott through her culinary skills, and the staff in general, with weekly soup dishes being served in the staffroom. Students from all year groups contributed time, passion, and money to make this years fundraising the most

spirited and productive in memory. Ideas are flooding in for future fundraising activities. [Mr McPaul] In the two weeks leading up to Comic Relief 2013 students in Dickens House organised and took part in a variety of fundraising activities in order to reach the target total of 300. Students arranged a 'Smarties and Chopsticks Challenge' which proved harder than anticipated and had students and teachers frustrated, yet eagerly competing against each other to transfer the most amount of Smarties from one bowl to another. The students also arranged a 'Sponge the Teacher' competition and a superb set of 'stalls' with an enticing pirate theme were erected by Mr Rumsey and Mr Gray. Students were nervous at first, but confidence soon grew when they realised the satisfaction of sponging a teacher! The teachers that participated were Ms Hoyle, Mr Butler, Mr Roderick, Mr McPaul, Ms Young and Mr Edmonson, all sporting goggles and waterproofs! The most popular event was the Doughnut Sale that was held at break and lunch. Dickens House raised 2 per minute during this event. The creativity of our fundraising events was also noticed by the BBC and Red Nose team who came into film 'Dodgeball', 'Sponge the Teacher' and 'Smarties and Chopsticks'. The footage was then used on the Red Nose Day website and on the main BBC show. The Richmond and Twickenham Times also published a story on the events. The top fundraisers from each house in year 7 were taken to Blue Peter's Comic Relief show and made history as it was the last ever live Blue Peter show from BBC Television Centre. The end result saw all four houses exceed their targets and raise almost 1500. A mufti day was then held on Friday 15th. The energy and effort was a mark of how much the students cared about raising money for our Lenten Charity and the lengths they would go to, to make it a success. A special thanks to the Dickens House Captains for giving up so much of their time. [Ms Moran] An end of term letter would not be complete without some general housekeeping reminders, and this is no exception. Please be reminded of the opportunity to use the holiday period to ensure that your childs school uniform is full and correct, especially shoes, which should be proper traditional leather-type school shoes, not Vans or other leisure/cloth upper shoes. If you are in doubt about any aspect of school uniform, please contact school to clear up the matter. I must also reiterate that it is the policy at Christs not to authorise family holidays during term-time unless there are particularly exceptional reasons for doing so, and that we do intend to work with the Education Welfare Officer and LA to improve our attendance, to benefit every child in our school. The new term begins for year 11 only on Monday 15 April at 8.30am, with the rest of the school starting back on Tuesday 16 April at 8.30am. Later that week there will be Academic Tutorial meetings in the afternoon for pupils with their tutors to review their recent tracking assessment which you should have been able to access via the new on line system, Insight, for which you should have received a login from the school. Please also be aware that we hope to launch our bespoke homework VLE after Easter. This will enable both pupils and parents to access work that may have previously gone awry, or been missed due to absence. Further details will be included in the next edition of Christs Chronicles.

May 18th will see a special Service of Thanksgiving at St Mary Magdalene Church, Richmond for the schools 300th Anniversary. Baroness Shirley Williams will be the Guest of Honour, particularly special as the Baroness officially opened Christs School when she was then the Secretary of State for Education, in 1979. We hope also to publish a History of Christs School later in the year, and there will be other events to mark this historic occasion. Throughout my time at Christs I have worked to make things better for our pupils, your children who have been, and continue to be, a great source of inspiration for me. They, with your love and guidance, together with that of Jesus Christ, help make our school what it is. I have been very touched, and humbled, by the kind words that I have received from so many of you since I announced I was leaving. If I have not thanked you personally, please be assured that I am very grateful and that I will remember you in my prayers. I have every confidence that Mrs Dixon will take the school on to a higher level in her role as interim Headteacher; I know too, that you will give her your full support. As we are in Holy Week with Easter fast approaching, I feel it appropriate to remember that Easter is about love; a love that comes from the knowledge of Gods love for us and that, in Christ, life has hope and meaning. In a world experiencing sadness and pain, the Easter message calls us all to have faith and trust in the God, who brings life out of death, hope from despair and the opportunity for new beginnings out of endings. Through faith, hope and love, I hope that we may be transformed by the power of the risen Christ to know the real joy of Easter. Thank you and God bless you always. Yours faithfully

R.E. Burke Headteacher