Letters

We are accelerating towards the busy and exciting Christmas period in school as the Autumn Term progresses.  What a term it has been so far!

Falmouth MAT

The term started with our school operating under its new structure within the Falmouth MAT with King Charles and St Francis.  It has been a really positive experience to see the three schools working together over the last 12 months to form our educational partnership, which we will all benefit in the future in many different ways, as the MAT partnership work progresses.

School Production

One example of the many benefits of working together was seen in our outstanding school performance production this term of ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’.  For the first time our cast had members from King Charles and St Francis taking part to give the production a real community feel.  The feedback from members of the audience was outstanding, giving the performance an average rating of 5 out of 5 stars (the actual score was 4.96 – hardly anyone didn’t give the top score of 5 stars)!

If you came, I hope your enjoyed the new ‘Falmouth Theatre’ experience in our refurbished Hall.  New tiered seating, performance curtain and equipment upgrades all worked really well together to ensure the experience had further improved levels of comfort for the audience along with the stars on the stage.

Drama

So many people commented on how good it was to still see such investment in the ‘Arts’ at our school.  On that point, Drama’s place within the Key Stage 3 (Lower School) curriculum has been raised.  This year, similar to a lot of other schools, Drama has been timetabled with English in Lower School.  The number of English lessons have therefore increased for this to happen. Please be assured that Drama has the same amount of curriculum time in Lower School this year as it has done in any previous year.  We also continue to run Drama and Dance options, along with a number of Arts based subjects at Key Stage 4 (Upper School) and Key Stage 5 (College), in the same way we always have done to ensure an ‘Arts’ based experience is fully available to those students who wish to choose subjects within this field.

Exams

Back in October we hosted our busiest ever Open Evening for new families and it was great to see so many families from both within Falmouth and the areas around us.

Around the same time the Government announced the provisional exam result data for schools nationally to coincide with the application process for Year 7 places.  We were delighted to see our students achieve such excellent results that were thoroughly deserved after all of their hard work, with great support also given by staff and families at home.

The progress our students made this year, compared to the national average across the country, was outstanding.  Our students achieved results that placed them within the top 2 schools in Cornwall, top 3 schools in Devon and Cornwall, top 4% of schools in the South West and top 10% nationally.  Wow!  Exceptional results to continue the recent trends set in Falmouth School of students achieving excellence in their work.

Sports Hub

Another significant milestone this term was to see the actual construction start of our long awaited Sports Hub.  Whilst new playing pitches have been under construction over the last 12 months, the central parts of the project began last month on the full size floodlit all weather pitch and Sports Pavilion.  We can all see driving past the school how much progress has been made over the last few weeks.  The steels for the Pavilion are due to be in before Christmas, with the base down for the pitch then giving a real visual of the size of the project.  This multi million pound enhancement to the school facilities should be ready for use next summer after such a good start to the construction schedule.

Communication

Another initiative we started last term, which we plan to continue with, is to host a meeting with the Town Council each term. This gives us the opportunity to talk to Local Councillors about the work of the school but is also gives you the opportunity to raise any issues with your Councillors, knowing there is a forum in place for your points to be discussed.  Please also don’t forget that I am available together with the Chair of Governors for a meeting, on any issue without appointment, on the first Monday of each month (please see the  website – www.falmouthschool.net – About Us – Governance – Chair of Governors Meetings, for more details).

Communication remains one of our key focal points to improve on as much as we can.  Having different forums to represent views, along with a significant increase in the amount of information we send out by email, letter and social media (Facebook and Twitter), hopefully ensures you are receiving the right type and amount of information from us, whilst also being provided with ways to seek answers to any questions you may have.

I hope you are able to enjoy the festive period and New Year celebrations. The term ends for students on Tuesday, 19 December at 3:00pm, with students returning for the start of the Spring Term on Thursday, 4 January 2018.

Brett Miners

Headteacher