6th September 2019A Message from the Head...They say a picture is worth a thousand words and the one above is certainly no exception! Featured are the pupils who either joined the school yesterday, or at some point during the course of the last academic year together with those pupils moving into Reception classes and Upper 3 this year. I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge welcome in particular to all the new pupils and parents who became part of the Gateways community yesterday. I hope you have received a warm Gateways welcome and we look forward to watching your children flourish during their time with us. A new chapter... Welcome also to our pioneering Upper 3 who are the first co-educational year group to be admitted into the High School. They may be squinting into the sun in the picture above but the smiles on their faces say it all! They have made a great start already and I am sure that they all have a bright Gateways future ahead of them. And last, but by no means least... ... the exciting start to "Big School" for our new Reception classes. Miss Hayter and Mrs Watford look as proud as punch of them already! Exhilarating examination results ... I am delighted to share with you all the news that Gateways enjoyed yet another incredible year of examination results at GCSE and A level. A separate mailshot will be sent to all readers in due course but the immediate headlines are: - 100% of our 6th form gained entry into their 1st or 2nd choice university (79% 1st choice); - the emerging value added data from the University of Durham places Gateways as the number one school in the UK for Value Added in Double Award Science and PE. The first headline shows just how good we are at advising and supporting our 6th form to achieve their goals and the second headline is what Gateways is really all about. It's why we keep our class size in the proven educationally optimum range of 14 - 18! More Value Added data will emerge in the coming weeks but I am already aware that a number of other departments at Gateways also feature in the top ten for their Value Added! Well done everyone - the hard work really paid off! On a slightly terrifying note... this year's Leadership Charity Challenge is announced below... Every year, the Leadership Team at Gateways School take part in a challenge to raise funds for a good cause. This year we have entered an event - The UCI World Championships Official Sportif which takes place on Sunday 22nd September. This will require us to ride a 73km (46 miles!!) route of one of the official UCI World Championships stages! Mrs Bartle and Mrs Wallis didn't even own bikes when this was thrust upon them and Dr Johnson had a bike... somewhere. Mrs Titman and Mrs Wood are quite the professionals and have even offered a tow up the killer hill in Pately Bridge... if only! Basically, most of us are just hoping to survive the whole experience! Like most people, we all have (or sadly had) someone in our lives who has been affected by Cancer. Please show your support for this wonderful charity (and for us!) by making a donation. It's easy, unlike this ride!! To see how your donation could help and to donate please click here. Please give generously ... or Mrs Wallis says she's not setting off! Have a great weekend! Some of us have to go on another 'glorious' bike ride! - Dr Tracy Johnson - Quick Links To Popular Content:New Year - New Page - New Group!The Gateways Parents and Friends Association (PFA) are delighted to invite everyone to 'like' their new Facebook Page here. By 'liking' this Page you can then receive notifications from the PFA about the important events that they organise, such as the Summer Ball, as well as information such as uniform shop opening times etc.Returning Parents and existing Friends will also need to ‘like’ this new page in order to continue to receive updates about PFA events so please click on the link and 'like' the new page now while it is fresh in your minds!Once you have 'liked' the new Page, you can then request to join the new Members Group if you would like to be able to join in any discussions taking place within the Group. We hope this new structure of Page as well as Group will help us both promote our events to a wider audience while still enabling the members to remind each other about non-uniform days etc! The first PFA event of the year is advertised below and we do hope that lots of new and returning Parents and Friends will pop along next Friday. We look forward to catching up with everyone soon! If you'd like to join the dynamic group of supportive parents pictured above (otherwise known as "The Committee"), I would love to hear from you at gpfa@gatewaysschool.co.uk If you'd like to have some fun and raise money for a wonderful school in the process we'd love you to join us! - Kathryn Dyer, PFA Chair - Combined Cadet Force begins at Gateways SchoolThe newly formed joint Combined Cadet Force is looking forward to its first session with the new recruits. This will take place after school on Tuesday afternoon next week. Cadets should change into sports kit at the end of the school day and report to Reception at 4pm. Pick up time is 5.30pm and cadets may sign in to homework club until 6pm if necessary. - SSI Tracy Sockett - |