Headteacher's Corner

Dear Parents and Carers,

2020 has certainly been a memorable year. This has certainly been a memorable term.

As the festive season is now well and truly upon us, we will all, no doubt, take a little time to reflect on the year that has gone and to consider our hopes for the year ahead. Christmas is also a time for celebration. We are all very aware that this will be a Christmas like none other in our lifetime. However, I would like to still take a moment to celebrate the achievements of our Frogmore family over the past term.

During extraordinary times, the ordinary becomes remarkable. Over the past term, teachers have taught lessons to classrooms full of active, positive and engaged students. The vast majority of students have attended school for the full term. Students have made good progress in their lessons and we’ve been able to celebrate this progress in parents’ evenings. Fewer students have had detentions or exclusions than the equivalent point in the previous year. Charity days have taken place (more on the Christmas jumper day below), assemblies have happened (online), tutors have met with their groups, year 11 students have applied for colleges, lunches have been served, the school has been cleaned, repaired, improved…

All of the above is remarkable because simply to achieve this normality has involved a gargantuan effort of thought, logistics and reinvention. Teachers have rapidly developed their professional repertoire to be able to deliver live online lessons, as well as adapting to teaching in a Covid-secure way. Support staff have all played a valuable role in supporting students to be in school safely, whether through helping with contact tracing work, supporting students’ mental health, keeping students fed, keeping the school clean. It has been a monumental team effort and I am incredibly grateful to every member of staff, each of whom has dedicated themselves to keeping our school open for our students. I would like to take this opportunity to, once again, thank every one of them for everything they have done throughout this term.

I would also like to thank our students and their families. I am always immensely proud of our students and this term has taken this to new levels. They have shown through their actions the importance of their school to them, as well as coping admirably with an unprecedented amount of change. Parents and carers have also been so supportive as we have had to navigate our way through these challenging waters. We have all been very grateful for the support.

The end of term always brings some changes. This term, we say goodbye to Miss Buckland. We wish her every success for her next step in her career. Taking up her post is Mrs Randall, an experienced English teacher who we are delighted to welcome into our Frogmore family.

We will also be welcoming, in January, Mr Wright and Mr McCarthy to our design technology team, as well as Mrs Ashford, who will be the new Director of Progress for Macmillan house and will be joining our performing arts team.

I know that there is still much uncertainty about what sort of a Christmas we will be able to enjoy and what 2021 will bring. I urge every member of our community to continue to do everything possible to keep one another safe during this winter break. We have, this week, been informed of a mass testing programme for schools, which will begin at some point in January. Whilst we are yet to receive the details (and we will communicate with you as soon as we do) this is yet another small glimmer of hope that the new year will allow us to gradually inch towards that holy grail: normality.

Have a restful Christmas. Stay safe, remain healthy, and celebrate the ordinary made extraordinary.

Take care

Chris Vaudin - Headteacher

We have a full calendar of events throughout the year. Click the link below to view them.

Christmas Jumper Day

On Friday 11th December, our students took part in the Save The Children Christmas Jumper Day. We saw a wide variety of festive sweaters and accessories and raised a whopping £363.41.

Thank you to everyone for such wonderful support.