We return to school this autumn having reached a plateau at long last in terms of growth. Our very first year group of 160 reached GCSE in the summer, and 75% of those boys are now continuing their education with us here in Year 12. Another 80 students (including over 60 girls) join them in starting their A level courses, meaning that the sixth form now stands at just over 400 with 35% female students. I am absolutely delighted with the way that the move to coeducation post-16 has progressed, and feedback from the students (from boys and girls) shows that they feel that they have helped to create something very special here in the heart of the city. Now that we have reached our projected ceiling for growth we can focus on quality and opportunity post-Covid, and because of the context it does feel that we are building anew rather than trying to resurrect from pre-March 2020.
Exam outcomes were superb overall; I rarely drill down into the minutiae of the data because the headline figures tell you most of what you need to know, and those figures for our students at both GCSE and A level in August 2022 were virtually unchanged from the previous year. That is significant, as last summer the exam outcomes were determined through an internal assessment process because of the demise of external examinations. In both cases our numbers were virtually identical, despite the fact that there was a process of downward moderation at national level as results are moved back towards the 2019 level. The messages are that (a) our assessment arrangements last summer were broadly both robust and accurate and (b) our students, both boys and girls, did very well this year in their first set of external tests. I am really proud of what they achieved, and Year 13s will be following paths to a range of prestigious universities later on this month. I wish them all well.
A number of new colleagues will be joining the staff team this September. Jemima Edney is starting life at Bishop’s in a new role as Deputy Head (Pastoral), so she will be working as a part of the senior team and will also be leading the group of Pastoral Section Heads. Joining the Linguists will be Alexandra Bellingham, Inmaculada Gea Neff and Deborah Foulkes; Deborah is covering for Leanne Bould during her maternity leave this academic year. Joining the Humanities Faculty will be Gabriella Burchell (RS) and Anita Horsell (History & Politics). In PE we welcome Hamish Morton, and Fran Holmes will be working in Science. Katie Weiner will be assisting the work of the Sixth Form Team, and finally we welcome one Music Assistant (Tom Reeve) and three Sports Assistants (Callum Kealey, Lily Harffey and Isaac Taylor-Holland) for this academic year. I wish all of my new colleagues a fair wind as we launch into the madness of term!
The key issues for 2022-2023 are quite clear I think. We have the continuing job of rebuilding teamwork, cohesion and corporate identity post-pandemic. We have a focus on new routines for assembly & collective worship, partly driven by the combination of increased numbers and restricted accommodation – Rev Stella Wood is working very creatively in this area as you might expect! We have the funding to build a new teaching block during this academic year, hopefully on the Bishopgate Site, thereby removing the last of the temporary classrooms from Bishop’s. That job has been almost 60 years in the making! There is the rebooting of our extra-curricular programmes now that Covid has become more of a part everyday existence for society, though we still have to build in some adjustments to academic delivery and assessment to compensate for the unavoidable shortcomings of the recent past. Last year I felt that we moved to somewhere around 80-90% capacity; this year we should be able to do better still, to help ensure that our boys and girls have a year to remember. Finally there is always the possibility of inspection on the horizon, as we have not been visited since 2006! My philosophy is to try hard to get things right for our students on an every day basis though, so no special preparation beyond a slightly heightened level of adrenaline if and when the inspector calls
An exciting year awaits us all. The school feels in vibrant good health and ready to make a difference to the biggest number of young people ever in 2022-2023.
SDS
