I would like to begin by wishing a happy new year to everybody associated with the school. I sincerely hope that you all had a lovely Christmas break and have had a great start to 2018.
We are getting increasingly excited by the forthcoming school production of Bugsy Malone here at the school. Previous school productions have helped develop the excellent reputation that Aberdare Community School has a centre of excellence for the performing arts and I am thoroughly looking forward to attending my first as headteacher. A huge amount of work and effort goes into the planning, rehearsing and performing of a large scale production of this type and I know how many hours staff and pupils have invested into the production so far. We really hope that as many of you as possible will join us in The Coliseum on February 6th, 7th and 8th. Tickets are available from the school or from The Coliseum including from their website.
I was delighted to be able to meet parents of many of our Year 9 pupils who attended the Options and Parents Evening on January 25th. Over two thirds of our pupils were represented on that evening meaning that we were able to give high quality advice and guidance to the majority of the pupils and their parents in this year group at a crucial point in their school lives. Choosing Key Stage 4 options can be difficult if pupils do not access the correct advice and we are pleased to be able to do so on behalf of our learners. One to one interviews will be held in the coming days and weeks to ensure that pupils are comfortable with their choices. Please be assured that we try our very best to accommodate everybody’s first preference but, due to finite resources, we are not always able to guarantee this.
I was also pleased to be able to announce in January our exciting reform to our curriculum in Key Stages 3&4. From this year onwards we will be moving option choices from Year 9 into Year 8 and extending that choice to 4 rather than 3 subjects. This way we will free up considerably more curriculum time for the delivery of GCSE and BTEC courses thus allowing teachers greater scope to develop skills as well as preparing pupils for examinations. It will also allow pupils to study an extra subject at Key Stage 4 thus giving them greater breadth to their qualifications as they move on to the next stage of their education. We will work closely with pupils and their parents in the coming months in providing support and advice through these important choices.
Similarly, we have Year 11 options information evening on Thursday 1st February. This is a very important date in the calendar of every secondary school in that it is here that we help our Year 11 pupils understand the full range of options available to them after the years of compulsory schooling. We are very pleased here in Aberdare Community School with the quality and quantity of courses that we are able to offer our 6th form alongside extremely high quality care, support and guidance. This year we have added several subjects to our post-16 curriculum offer with subjects such as Psychology, Criminology, and Sociology now available in the Cynon Valley Consortium schools. I look forward to seeing as many Year 11 parents as possible on that evening.
I am pleased to be able to report some extremely encouraging Year 11 GCSE results in English and Maths. Both subjects have seen a noticeable improvement on outcomes in the previous year. This is testimony to the hard work of their teachers and, most importantly, of the pupils themselves. Those pupils who missed out on their target grades will have another opportunity in the summer and we will work closely with them to give them the best possible chance of the best possible grade in all of their subjects.
My next drop-in session will run from 4.30 – 6.30 p.m. on Wednesday 14th February.