Welcome to the new school year at BCG!
It was wonderful to see all of the children back in school as well as welcoming so many new ones too. The campus is full of excited children and there is a lively purposeful feel around school.
Of course, the new year also brings new teachers and we are extremely fortunate to have been joined by a whole host of excellent staff. We spend a lot of time recruiting the very best teachers and support staff and I am delighted with the way in which they have settled in so quickly. Feedback from children has already been extremely positive.
Senior Leaders
Mr Ben Ruddin joins our Senior Leadership Team as Head of Secondary. Mr Ruddin has many years of leadership experience, in particular in his previous school in South West London. He arrived well before the start of term and has been so busy he is probably already looking forward to half term! Mr Ruddin’s family will be joining our community in October and we look forward to welcoming them.
Ms Ester Pou has also joined the Senior Leadership Team and has been appointed Senior Teacher, a very important role in any British School. As you know, Ms Pou is also Directora Tecnica and Head of Languages.
Other new staff will be introduced later in the newsletter.
Senior Prefects
I am delighted to announce that Judith R. and Yuvgen Z. have been appointed Head Girl and Head Boy respectively. This is a great honour and they deserve all our congratulations. They will be helping Mr Ruddin and I, select a prefect team over the coming weeks.
Start of Term
Actually it has been an extremely positive and relatively easy start to the term. There are so many aspects to getting a school ready for the new year and I would like to thank the support teams, admin staff and teaching staff for all the hard work already done.
I would also like to thank those parents that have shared with us their positive thoughts and told us how happy their children are to be back in class - the summer holiday is certainly long for many of them. These messages are appreciated.
I know that there are a few of you that feel we could have done some things differently and I respect those views. We have a well established line of communication in place with our excellent Parent Reps and we look forward to those regular meetings where we can discuss any concerns or suggestions parents may have.
I would ask that you remember that we are always working hard to do the very best for the children. Some things take a little longer to get right with new staff, new students etc
Enrichment
Our great Enrichment Team have been working hard on the after school activities programme as well as the Trips programme for the year. Activities start this week
Chromebooks
These have been issued to all students in Year 7-Year11 who have returned their signed form. If you have not completed the form please do so.
Mobile Phones
We have reminded all students that they should not use their phones at any point during the school day. They have no need to. Any phone that is being used will be confiscated and taken to reception for collection at the end of the day. If a phone is confiscated 3 times then it will need to be collected by a parent.
Century Tech
This is an exciting new addition to BCGs academic provision. All students from Year 3 to Year 12 have access to this excellent online tool to support their learning in Mathematics, Science and English. More details of Century Tech can be seen on their website here.
In the memory of Queen Elizabeth II
The British College of Gava was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II and we pass our condolences to her family at this very difficult time.
Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was a remarkable lady who served our country with dignity, loyalty and grace. Growing up in central London the pageantry and history of the realm was part of my childhood. Clearly, everyone knew that Her Majesty was getting frailer but it was still an incredible shock and will take us all a very long time to get used to.
On Friday, a lovely Primary assembly looked at the Queen’s extraordinary life as did our Year 7, 8 and 9 Assembly. The Senior students gathered with members of staff to pay their respects in a short assembly. All the gatherings ended with a minute's silence and I was proud of the respect that all of our students showed at this very sad time.
God Save the King
Simon Mower