A Message from the Head...

School was uncharacteristically busy for a Saturday morning last weekend as we held our annual Entrance and Scholarship Assessment day for September 2023's Upper 3 intake.

Despite the assessments the children were undertaking, everyone seemed to enjoy the experience, helped of course by Wayne's delicious offering at lunchtime!

Offer letters went out on Wednesday evening and by the time school finished for the week on Friday, only 11 places remained available for next year's Upper 3.

We look forward to welcoming all our new starters back into school during the summer term for their Induction Day.

On Tuesday, I and several key staff attended the Berkhamsted IT Conference at Berkhamsted School.

The day certainly gave us food for thought about the next stage in our development of IT use throughout the school and I look forward to sharing more details of this in due course once plans are firmed up.

Then on Thursday evening we welcomed our current Upper 4 pupils and their parents into school for the first face-to-face GCSE information evening since COVID.

The evening began with a presentation on how Gateways organises its GCSE programme of study and then the pupils and their parents moved through to the library and some classrooms in Schofield to begin the detailed discussions on their individual choices with subject specialists.

Overall, the evening seemed to be very useful and it was certainly productive!

The week finished on Friday with an excellent High School assembly delivered by Mrs Watson's  form group, L5W.

The assembly commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day and, in a moving gesture, the class had attached images of different people who had lost their lives to the back of each seat in the PAC before the rest of High School arrived.

The theme of Holocaust Memorial Day this year was 'Ordinary People' with the message that the people who lost their lives were ordinary people and the people who carried out the atrocities were also ordinary people. The message that tolerance starts with the individual, and that we must all be responsible for what we say and do and the actions we take, was palpable.

Next week,  we have Mindful Minis visiting to deliver a workshop to children in Reception to Lower 2.  During the workshops, the children will take part in a variety of mindfulness activities including yoga, meditation and breathing exercises. Keep an eye on the Prep articles next week for more information.

Mock exams also begin for Upper 5 and Upper 6 on Wednesday so I'll finish by wishing all of them the very best of luck for those!

- Dr Tracy Johnson - 

Chinese New Year celebrations 

This week saw lots of Chinese New Year activities in school - check out the articles sections below to read about some of the things pupils were involved with. 

We were also treated to a fantastic Chinese New Year feast on Monday.  A big thank you to Wayne and the catering team who went all out with the food, decorations and displays and introduced 'bubble tea' to the Gateways menu!   

CCF - Exercise First Knights

Last weekend, 14 cadets from the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) took part in Exercise FIRST KNIGHTS at Queen Elizabeth Barracks, Strensall. The aim of the weekend was to train and assess the cadets in the safe handling of the Cadet General Purpose Rifle.

Celebrating our partnership with Horsforth School, pupils and staff from both schools attended the weekend training camp and I am pleased to report that all cadets passed the safe handling test, ready for future weekend training camps and field days, where they will get to fire the rifle with live ammunition.

Meanwhile, this coming weekend staff from both Horsforth and Gateways school are attending a weekend course (yes, two weekends away in a row !) learning how to become safety supervisors for the live firing training that we will undertake.

- Captain Davies -

Articles from ...