WELCOME

At the start of a new school year, we extend a very warm welcome to all students who are new to the school. We hope they settle in very quickly and enjoy the challenges which CNS will provide. Year 12 students will start on Monday: the publication of GCSE results on Thursday of last week and the Bank Holiday weekend would have given insufficient time to staff and students to resolve all choices of course by yesterday.

Joining the staff this term are Mr Grainger (Head of Maths), Mrs Fenn (Maths), Miss Johnson (Modern Languages), Mrs Machin (Special Needs and English), Mr Martin (Physics) and Mrs Day (ChemistryTechnician).

The majority of staff and students are returning to CNS after the summer holiday and we hope that students will be refreshed and will be eager to set themselves high standards for the whole of the coming year.

EXAM RESULTS

At this stage all GCSE and A level results are provisional, but the indications are that good performances were achieved by last year’s Year 11 and 13.

At GCSE, some 54% of students achieved five subjects at grade C and above and, in terms of overall grades awarded, nearly 60% were at grades A*, A, B or C. Both statistics are significantly higher than national averages.

At A level, the overall pass rate was over 90%, with many students achieving A and B grades. Twenty-one students have achieved the status of County Scholar, having gained two A grades or ABB or better.

Congratulations to all those students who worked hard and gained results which reflect the effort they put in to their work- whatever the grades!

INSPECTION MEETING

All students in Years 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13 were issued yesterday with a letter giving details of the meeting for parents at 7.30 pm next Monday, 7^th September, with the Registered Inspector, Mr Roy Hedge, who will be in charge of the OFSTED inspection at CNS in the week beginning 19^th October. Year 12 students will receive the letter on Monday.

Mr Hedge will explain the inspection process and will then invite parents to express their views on a range of aspects of the school’s operation and performance. Please do come to the meeting.

Accompanying the letter is a questionnaire which should be returned to the school office by the stated date. We hope that parents will wish to complete the questionnaire: your opinions of the school are an important part of the inspection process.

We are aware that some parents have been given extremely short notice of the meeting, even though letters were sent out during July to parents of students who were then attending CNS . The meeting has had to be arranged at this time to give Mr Hedge and his team sufficient time to carry out preparatory work for the inspection, but we do apologise for any inconvenience which parents may feel about the date of the meeting.

CARS AND PARKING

Parents of students who are new to the school should note that cars must not be driven in to the school grounds when students are brought to school at the start of the day or collected at 3.25 pm: the drive is narrow and there are no free parking spaces. There are also parking restrictions along Eaton Road, so please take these into account. Do take care, particularly after school, when traffic is very heavy and there are pedestrians and cyclists in large numbers.