September Open Evening

Monday 26 September 2011

Open Evening – Wednesday 28 September – 6.30pm – 8.30pm

Pupils and staff at Cirencester Deer Park School are enthusiastically getting ready to open our doors to prospective pupils and their parents this week on Wednesday 28 September. Our annual Open Evening is an important event in our school’s calendar and we look forward to welcoming visitors to our ‘outstanding’ school from 6.30pm.

Our Open Evening provides prospective pupils and their parents another opportunity to see the school in action and meet and talk to current pupils and staff. Unlike our Open Mornings in June and earlier this month, which enabled our visitors to tour the school and observe what goes on during a ‘normal’ day, our Open Evening is very much a family event, with plenty of activities for our visitors to take part in. We recommend you come early as there will be plenty to do.

‘Our aim is to give potentially new pupils an insight into the experience of learning at Deer Park,’ explains Headteacher, Chiquita Henson, ‘During the evening they, and other members of their families, will be able to participate in a range of ‘hands on’ activities across our ‘outstanding’ curriculum. Current pupils and staff will be present to share their experiences at the school and answer questions.’

Assistant Head, Caroline Skerten has co-ordinated the event this year: ‘Colleagues have put together an impressive programme which genuinely reflects the learning that takes place in our classrooms daily and I am pleased to see so many pupils planning to participate in the evening. They are immensely proud of their school and are excellent ambassadors.’

Faculty teams have planned some interesting challenges: for example, there will be experiments to do in Science, instruments (including our Samba Band) to play in Music, tools to use and objects to make in Design and Technology, problems to solve in Maths and decisions to be made in Geography.

Pupils will be available to guide prospective pupils and their parents from one faculty to another and many will be leading activites and reflecting on their own learning.

Headteacher, Chiquita Henson, and pupils from each year group will give a presentation in the school’s main hall at 7.45pm. Senior staff will be available throughout the evening to respond to questions and specialists will be on hand to talk about our provision for pupils with special education needs and the opportunities we provide for high achieving youngsters. As a comprehensive school we are committed to ensuring everyone can achieve more than they first think is possible. This year, every pupil in our ‘Class of 2011’ left with at least one grade C:

• 88% achieved 5 or more A*-Cs
• 68% achieved 5 or more A*-Cs including English and Maths
• 100% achieved 5 or more A*-Gs
• 25% of all grades awarded were at A*/A
• 29 pupils achieved 8 or more A*/A grades
• 21 former pupils achieved 3 or more A*/A grade in their A levels at Cirencester College.