8th July 2022
A Message from the Head...
It has been a characteristically busy final week of the academic year, one of the main highlights being the Upper Key Stage 2 production of Hoodwinked which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday evening.
Well done to all the pupils for their fantastic performances and to the staff, in particular Mrs Foster, for all of their hard work in putting on such an amazing show!
Out CCF cadets have been out of school for most of the week enjoying their first proper summer camp since our Cadet Force was launched.
Camps in the previous 2 years have either been cancelled completely or they have taken place in a drastically reduced form because of COVID.
Cadets returned to school tired this morning but having had a fantastic experience more about which you can read in Capt Davies' articles in the High School & 6th form articles section.
Yesterday was a doggy themed day as we welcomed Dogs Trust into school to run a series of workshops before the High School then departed on a community walk to raise funds in support of this worthwhile charity. Dr Newton has written more about this and you can read her article below.
I also had the pleasure of drawing our fees lottery winners for the summer term earlier in the week. Mr & Mrs Willis are pictured below with their lucky son Ethan whose name was the one drawn out of the hat this time around! Ethan's tuition fee for the autumn term is now set to £0 making for one very happy family! If any parents, who are not already part of our fees lottery, and who would like to take part, please email here to enquire further about how to join ready for the next academic year.
I will finish this week by saying a huge thank you and well done to the PFA for their extremely successful summer ball which took place last Saturday night. You can read more about this event in The CherryVine summer issue (below) - a fantastic total, well in excess of their fundraising target, was raised and this will now be put to extremely good use in starting to resurface some of our sports courts.
This event could not take place without the considerable effort of the Chair of the PFA, Mrs Kathryn Dyer, and her formidable committee members. Well done one and all - I can't wait until next year's event!
All that remains for me now is to wish everyone a fantastic summer holiday. To our Leavers, good luck, best wishes and do keep in touch. To everyone else - see you in September!
- Dr Tracy Johnson -
High School community walk
On Thursday, following a Dogs Trust workshop, High School and some of the staff completed a 5 mile walking challenge around the Harewood estate to raise money for Dogs Trust. The weather was particularly lovely and the views around Harewood were stunning; we were greeted by cows and saw deer running through the grounds of Harewood estate. It was truly idyllic, that was until we embarked on the hills on the approach back to Gateways! Cookies and fruit were provided to keep us all going. Lower 6 pupils and staff did an great job as marshals along the route to help with the opening and closing of gates. Upon return, pupils were treated to a variety of burgers and fries to eat on the field followed by ice lollies brought out to us by Wayne and the team. It was a very enjoyable morning, although some of us experienced a few aching muscles today due to those hills!
A huge thank you must go to our Gateways community for supporting our efforts. The last look at our Just Giving page stands at £490 which is an impressive amount. Should anyone still wish to donate you can access the page by clicking the button below.
- Dr Sara Newton -
PFA Summer Ball
The Gateways PFA Summer Ball took place last Saturday and it's fair to say, it was a resounding success. The sun shone, the prosecco flowed, guests ate, drank and were merry and we raised a phenomenal amount of money.
Enormous thanks to all our sponsors for their very generous support, to Taste Cuisine for the amazing food and service and to all the bidders who drove up the auction prices to ensure we smashed our fund raising target (not forgetting our very charismatic auctioneer who encouraged everyone to bid big - thanks Harvey!) We raised £21,833 so we completely smashed our target of £20,000 for the year and we will be donating this back to the school to go towards the upgrading of the outdoor sports courts.
I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who attended, placed a bid, donated a prize, bought a golden ticket or sponsored us. We really couldn’t do it without you.
Finally, my thanks go to the wonderful PFA committee; a group of phenomenal, hard- working, driven, fun women who made it all happen!
Have a great summer everyone and we’ll see you in September!
- Kathryn Dyer, Chair of the PFA -
SCS Sports Camps
SCS Sports Camps are running throughout the summer holiday. Places are booking up fast so book now to avoid missing out! Go to the website www.scssportscamps.com and click on the 'BOOK HERE' tab! We look forward to seeing you there!
Dogs Trust summer family workshops
