I hope that you all had a thoroughly enjoyable Bank Holiday and that you were able to make the most of the sun.
Many of you will now be aware that I will be leaving Aberdare Community School at the end of this term to take up the post of headteacher of Whitchurch High School in Cardiff. I would have liked my time in Aberdare to have been considerably longer than it has been and I am sorry to be leaving so soon. I will always be grateful for the welcome and support that I have had from colleagues, pupils, governors, parents, the Local Authority and the local community during my time here and I am utterly confident that the school will continue to make progress into the future. As soon as plans for appointing a new headteacher are finalised I will inform you via the usual channels.
In the meantime, we have a busy term ahead especially as we enter into examination season. I would like to wish all pupils and students who are taking public exams the very best of luck and the hope that they each achieve the qualifications they need in order to realise their life ambitions. Their teachers have worked hard in preparing them for these exams and, in many cases, have given up their spare time to deliver extra revision and support sessions. We have been impressed with how our examination year groups have responded and are hopeful that this will be fully reflected in August's results. AS and A Level results will, this year, be issued on the 16th August; GCSE results will be issued on the 23rd August. I look forward to seeing lots of smiling faces on those days.
We are currently drawing to a close on our first ever cycle of Year 8 options. This represents a substantial change in procedure and approach for the school, a change which we are confident will have a positive impact upon the chances of success at the end of Key Stage 4 for all of these pupils. In recent years the Key Stage 4 curriculum has become increasingly crowded and we feel that this change will allow subject teachers to deliver the full syllabus in appropriate detail and depth and with plenty of time available for revision and exam practice. Many thanks to all the pupils and their parents for embracing and supporting this change. We will be able to finalise these options as soon as possible in the next few weeks.
I was delighted last week to be able to issue our Pupil of the Month award to the following pupils: Saffron Bodrics; Grace Rees-Whippey; Amber Phillips; Kaitlin Richards-Tang and Alycee Davies. All have impressed their teachers and their Progress Leaders over a substantial period of time and are fully deserving of this accolade. It was also pleasing to note that we had 13 players representing the Cynon Valley rugby team in their successful bid to win the Dewar Plate at The Principality Stadium recently. That is, surely, an experience that they will cherish forever.
It is pleasing to note also that there has been an improvement in attendance rates across the school. It is stating the obvious but we simply cannot guarantee a quality education for our pupils if they are not in school; we cannot teach them if they are not here. I would like to thank parents for their continuing support in helping to improve attendance. Remember: 90% attendance means missing a day every fortnight corresponding to approximately 100 days lost between Years 7 and 11.
Finally, ESTYN's inspection report on the school is due to be published later this week. Electronic copies will be available as will paper copies on request from the school. Once we have had a chance to fully and properly digest the messages and recommendations I will report back to you all on our plans to take things forward into the immediate future.