Our Standards Are Right Up There With the Very Best

I hope that all of you who were able to attend our Parents’ Day last Saturday enjoyed the day as much as I did. It was fantastic to be able to come together as a school community and celebrate the superb achievements of the pupils during the course of this year. We were lucky with the wonderful weather and it was lovely to see so many of our families making a real day of it with mini-marquees and picnics.

Academically, the results obtained in exams and tests taken by our pupils show that they are doing exceptionally well. I gave an example in my speech, saying that 18 out of 20 pupils in set 1 Maths in Year 8 were deemed by our independent test providers to be on track to get an 8 or 9 at GCSE. In the lowest Maths set, all pupils have made the expected progress, with half of them making ‘higher’ or ‘much higher’ levels of progress than expected. It is a similar story in other subjects and in other year groups.

In sport, our standards are right up there with the very best Prep schools in the country. Our Year 7 girls were the second best swimming team in the country and in the top 8 schools for hockey, our Year 8 netballers were fourth in the National Finals, our Year 7 boy cricketers ended last Summer as 5th in the country, and in Biathlon we were national team champions in no less than 4 different age groups.

The standard of music and dance from the pupils both before and during the Prize Giving ceremony showed off the exceptionally high standards achieved in our Performing Arts department.

Together with excellence, it is just as important to be inclusive. We regularly put out around 20 sports teams each week and have nearly 200 pupils involved in 18 different instrumental ensembles and choirs.

We are currently experiencing a high demand for places and capping class sizes continues to be important. For September, we have therefore just a very small number of remaining spaces in each of our year groups. The average Form size for TPS in September will be between 17 and 18, and none of our Forms will be over 20.

During my speech on Saturday, I thanked each and every member of the staff at TPS. You can’t be an outstanding school without having outstanding staff, and I feel extremely privileged to work alongside such a strong team of enthusiastic professionals, who are so able and willing to go beyond the normal call of duty.

Finally, may I say a very heartfelt thank you to all parents (and grandparents!) for the very active part that you play in supporting your children’s education and our school.

I wish you all a very happy summer holiday and look forward to seeing everyone back in September, revitalised and excited for the new academic year.

Mr Andrew Edwards
Headmaster TPS