Private School News

French Verse Speaking Festival

Over 20 local primary schools came to St. Mary’s School, Gerrards Cross, to take part in the annual French Verse Speaking Festival, with more than 100 pupils from Years 3 to 6 attending. A great amount of effort must have been spent practising beforehand, as all the participants performed their poems magnificently. There were poems about giraffes, cats and snowmen and some children brought along props to support their performances. The two French judges had a very hard time, choosing from all the applicants but marks were eventually awarded and first, second and third prizes were awarded in each age category.
This was a special festival for Mrs Robinson, Head of Modern Languages at St. Mary’s, as it is the last festival she will be organising. After 18 years at St. Mary’s, she will be retiring in August but we hope she will return to watch the festival in future. It is a very popular event and schools are already putting the date for next year’s festival in their diaries – Thursday 3 March 2011.

Photo: Some of the winners with Mrs Balcombe, Headmistress of St. Mary’s.

New Headmistress for St Mary’s School, Buckinghamshire

The Board of Governors of St Mary’s School, Gerrards Cross is pleased to announce the appointment of Mrs Jean Ross as Headmistress, to succeed Mrs Fanny Balcombe when she retires on August 31st 2010. Under Mrs Balcombe’s exemplary leadership the School has thrived and grown during her 15 year tenure. The governors, teachers and pupils, past and present will miss her but wish her a happy and healthy retirement.
Mrs Jean Ross is currently Deputy Head Teacher at St Albans High School for Girls, where she is also Director of Marketing and Communications. St. Albans is one of the leading girls’ independent day schools, whose primary department was the Sunday Times Independent Preparatory School of the Year last year. Her academic specialism is in Modern languages and she holds a BA (Hons) from Manchester University in French. She is a published writer and a strong advocate in the belief that every child matters; “we need to make education a challenging and positive experience in which every child can acquire confidence and self esteem. My educational philosophy is one of identifying the individual talents of each and every child and giving them the tools and motivation to reach beyond their best. I believe that a happy child is a successful child and so academic provision should be backed up with excellent pastoral care. I want every child to look forward to coming to school each day”.
The Board of Governors is confident that St. Mary’s will continue to flourish under the leadership of Mrs Ross and wish her every success.

England Netball at St. Mary’s.

Karen Atkinson, a member of the England Netball team since 1997 and currently co-captain with 92 caps, held an intensive two hour training session at St. Mary’s School, Gerrards Cross this month.

Nineteen senior girls from nine different local schools took part (Holmer Green School, Burnham Grammar School, Chesham High School, The Amersham School, The Misbourne School, Dr. Challoner’s High School, Beaconsfield High School, Chalfonts Community College and St. Mary’s School). Karen taught them some new tactics and skills, mainly on the defence side and gave them tips on how to improve their play. The girls all learned a great deal from the session and thoroughly enjoyed it. Karen is based in Marlow but has travelled around the world playing netball in several Commonwealth Games and World Championships.

Photo: girls with Karen Atkinson (centre back row)

Double Sports Success for St. Mary’s!

St. Mary’s School in Gerrards Cross is the only independent school in Buckinghamshire to be awarded both the Activemark and the Sportsmark under the national School Sport Partnership scheme. St. Mary’s is also one of only three independent schools in the country to win both awards.

Now in the third year of operation, the awards mark achievement of the national PE and Sport Strategy. To achieve the Sportsmark, at least 90% of pupils of secondary school age must be doing at least 2 hours of high quality PE and school sport each week. The Activemark is awarded to schools where at least 90% of children of primary school age are carrying out at least 2 hours of high quality PE and school sport each week.

Mrs Moore, Head of PE at St. Mary’s commented, ‘The girls at St. Mary’s really enjoy their sport and we work hard to incorporate as much variety and range as possible into both curricular and extracurricular PE activities.’

Mrs Balcombe, Headmistress, said, ‘Mrs Moore and all the staff involved in teaching PE have done an excellent job in ensuring that all our pupils are as active as possible during the school week. This will give our girls a lifelong love of physical activity and safeguard their health both now and as adults.’