Off To A Flying Start

It has been a real pleasure to see all of our pupils and families happily getting back into the swing of school after the Christmas holidays. I hope that you all managed to enjoy some rest and quality time with your families over the festive period. A very warm welcome also to the new pupils and their families who have started at TPS this term – we are delighted that you have come to join us!

The end of the Autumn term saw the introduction of our new system of reporting attainment using the numbers 1 to 9. We hope that this has enabled parents to better understand how their children are doing academically with reference to national standards. We have received very few queries from parents which suggests that the new system is both clear and informative. Please do contact your child’s Form Tutor, Mrs Seymour or me if you have any questions or feedback.

Also at the end of last term, the pupils completed, with the help of their Form Tutor, their first self-assessment against the 12 values of the TPS Mission. If you have not done so already, please do have a look at the relevant pages in your child’s Pupil Planner which will show the coloured-in wheel and some targets for this Spring Term. Again, please do contact us with any questions or feedback.

In the past few days, it has been lovely to see the pupils in Years 3, 4 and 5 enjoying special events such as a ‘Survival Morning’ (Y4) and workshops on the Romans (Y3) and Victorians (Y5). It has been a focus of ours during this academic year to review the curriculum topics in these year groups and to ensure that we are inspiring and engaging all of our pupils. The boys and girls certainly seem to be enjoying the enhanced programme of visits and trips.

2019 got off to a flying start for us in netball with almost a clean sweep across years 5 to 8 against Queen’s. Our girls in years 7 and 8 deserve a special mention as they won six out of six matches in their A, B and C teams. Our boys from Years 5 to 8 also enjoyed a very successful and enjoyable afternoon on the astros as we shared the spoils with Clifton College.

Remaining on the subject of sport, the magnificent total of 28 TPS pupils have now qualified for the National Biathlon Championships at Crystal Palace in March. Congratulations to all of these boys and girls, and to the staff, coaches and parents who support them so well. The fact that this is more than double the amount of qualifiers which we had for this event last year shows the strides that TPS has made in strengthening our position as one of the leading sporting prep schools in the country.

I wish you all a very happy and rewarding Spring term.

Mr Andrew Edwards
Headmaster TPS