I hope that you enjoy reading the various articles in this newsletter and updating yourselves on your children’s individual and collective achievements. I particularly usher you towards Miss O'Hare’s commentary found below on the outstanding feedback that we received last week on our St Albans High School for Girls candidates following the first round of their 11+ assessments. These results are the glittering pinnacle of an Edge Grove education and illustrate just how well Edge Grove academic staff prepare our girls (and boys!) for seriously academic assessments. I hope it helps you to understand how far and how fast our brightest pupils can progress under Edge Grove tutelage.I believe that this excellence can be only safely and supportively achieved when it is underpinned by the School’s pastoral strengths and I have witnessed over my first eight days the wonderful and creative ways in which pupils and teachers come together to contribute to our community. I was very struck by the happiness of this place and by the smiles and community that it promotes. It was fantastic to meet all of the Pre-School pupils on Tuesday and to introduce myself as the new “Boss” and I hope that this was the first of many weekly visits to get to know them all. I was touched by the birthday cards, delicious cake and the two renditions of Happy Birthday which I received in assembly and later in the staff room. I have also enjoyed my two meetings with the Head Boy and Head Girl and to hear their reflections on their lives in the top year at Edge Grove.To top it all, I got to sabotage Jess Senior’s High Level Book Club and to read my favourite section of John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flats to some seriously impressive young literary critics. Meanwhile, at York House, our pupils were representing us brilliantly in winning the girls' U9 Inter-Schools Cross-Country race and the boys coming in second place. A fantastic achievement so early on in the season.It was so lovely to meet some of you at the FoEG Coffee Morning and I hope that many of you will come together to support the Friends in the future.I am not sure that it is physically possible to squeeze more into a week, and I am hugely indebted to our wonderful pupils and wonderful staff for all that they have achieved in launching this vibrant and energetic New Year.With best wishes,
Yours,
Ed BalfourHead
Please scroll down for a letter from Miss O'Hare, Deputy Head Academic.
Dear Parents,With an overall mean standardised score placing our pupil body one and half years ahead of the national average, and with the input of inspiring Edge Grove staff, it is perhaps hardly surprising that every year I look forward to hearing how our pupils have fared in their 11+ and 13+ assessments.
Over the past five years, Edge Grove pupils have been successful in gaining places to no less than 85 different senior schools, which best meet the needs of our individual pupils. The vast majority of these are some of the most academically selective schools in the country.
I was delighted therefore to hear this week that all of the girls that we recommended to take the St Albans High School 11+ have been invited back for second round interviews. Their admissions team were highly complimentary in their feedback on our girls and were particularly impressed by the performance of one girl whose Maths results place her in the top 3% of the country and another girl whose performance places her in the top 0.5% INTERNATIONALLY!
This is a massive achievement for our girls and I am delighted that they have fared so well at such a critical time. It is a huge credit to our teaching staff from the Pre-School, across the Pre Prep to the Lower and Upper Schools, all of whom have contributed towards their educational journeys.
Preparation will now focus on interview practice, at which our pupils generally excel, due to the breadth of their Edge Grove experience and their strongly individual and characterful approach to life.
I look forward to being able to celebrate more future school achievements with you over the coming weeks, including sharing our scholarship successes at both 11+ and 13+.
Miss O'HareDeputy Head Academic
