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About St Mary’s

Headmistress’s Letter: 13 September 2005

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the start of the new academic year at St Mary’s and a special welcome to all new parents. 105 new girls started at St Mary’s last Wednesday in years 7, 8, 9, 10 and the L6th. We welcomed 19 new boarders and their families on Tuesday.

New Staff

We welcome the following new staff to St Mary’s this September: Paul Mitchell (Academic Deputy Head), Gillian Clifford (Head of Art), Teika Bellamy (part–time teacher of Chemistry), Christopher Thompson (part–time teacher of History) and Rebecca Rist (part–time teacher of Latin). We welcome back Liz Hurles and Kalpana Jogia (Receptionist) after maternity leave.

Due to unexpected circumstances Ms Claire Dagnan (Head of Spanish) was not able to join us this year. We have appointed Mrs Marisa Fernández to teach Spanish from Year 8 to the L6th and Mrs Lindsay Simpson to teach the A2 Spanish from the beginning of this week.

Examination Results

We were once again delighted with the examination results achieved by the girls in year 11, L6th and the U6th. Some of you may have read my comments in the Cambridge Evening News and seen the lovely photograph of four girls in year 11 receiving their GCSE results. The results are summed up as follows:

At GCSE 67.5% of all grades were A* and A. 27 girls achieved straight A* and A grades and 9 departments achieved more than 20 A* grades. 100% of girls achieved 5 A*–C grades and 99% of all grades were A*–C. Emma Oliver and Kimberley Thomas achieved 11 A* grades and Kate Stuart, Sophie Mather and Anna McPhater achieved 10 A*.

At A2, 36% of grades were A, and the A/B % was 72%, A–C % was 92%. 100% of grades were A–E. The following nine girls achieved straight A grades: Cynthia Chang, Claire Hickling, Clarice Lau, Georgie McHale, Helen Mather, Lin Shao, Lizzie Tuley, Joanna Waddington and Vivian Wong. Special congratulations to Natalie Stops in last year’s U6th who has won the Dangoor Scholarship (worth £1000) for her first year of study at university.

At AS, 72% of the grades were A–C and 96% were at A–E. Special congratulations to Joyce Chan with 4 As (with 3 maths papers at 100%); Rachel Down with 4 As; Anthea Kwok with 4 As, B and a C; Faye Huang with 3 As and a B; Jane Leung with 3 As, 2 Bs and a C; Sidney Tanoto with 4 As and Sally White with 4 As and a B.

Many congratulations to all the girls who worked so hard to achieve such splendid results and to the teachers who year after year help the pupils to achieve their potential by their dedication and commitment.

RSAcademics Parents Satisfaction and Perception Survey

We are including in this mailing a summary of the responses to the RSAcademics Parents Satisfaction and Perception Survey. We are in the process of setting up a parents’ focus group to look at some of the issues raised, so if you are called to participate we would be most grateful if you could take part.

Open Morning

Our Open Morning for prospective parents is being held on Saturday 15 October from 9.30am until 12 noon. We would be happy for parents to join us to look at the school and see all the activities that the girls will be participating in. All girls from Year 7 to the U6th will be expected to be in school for that morning (with years 7 to 11 in full school uniform and the 6th form in smart dress code). If your daughter is unable to attend for any reason, please send a letter confirming this to me. Last year we had about 400 visitors and it was an extremely happy occasion.

To enable the teaching staff to prepare for the Open Morning, we will be closing the school early on Friday 14 October at 1.45pm. (Please note that this is earlier than stated in the school calendar). The girls will have six short lessons on that day. Please let us know if that causes difficulties for you so that we can arrange to look after your daughters in school until 4pm.

Sports Success

Many congratulations to Susan Brown who has enjoyed great success again in the biggest rowing event in the world, The World Masters Rowing Regatta, winning 5 gold medals. Sixth form rowing is gaining in popularity year by year as the result of Mrs Brown's enthusiasm and expertise.

Parents’ Surgery

New parents may not be aware that I run a Parents’ Surgery every morning from 8.45 until 9.15am. Parents are welcome to drop in to discuss any issue however small concerning their daughter’s education. This was a very successful initiative started last year which helps us to deal with problems at a very early stage.

Prizegiving Speech

For the benefit of new parents and those who were not able to attend Prizegiving in July, you will find my speech reporting on last year on the school web site: Prizegiving Speech 2005. I hope you enjoy reading it!

With best wishes to all parents, staff and pupils for this new academic year,
Yours sincerely,

Jayne Triffitt
Headmistress