Today sees the final A-level public examination in school and our Sixth Form Ball this evening in Greenwich. It has been a real pleasure to support both the Year 11 and Year 13 girls through their examinations over the past few weeks; they have worked extremely well and with real determination. We send them off for a good rest and celebration with our good wishes. Although we will see them all in August, we will miss them all tremendously and look forward to giving the Year 13 girls in particular, a good send-off tonight.

At Juniors, we are also very proud to send Miss Newton off for summer early with our good wishes. She has been honoured to be selected as the technical coach for England U19 Netball on their tour of New Zealand and we are delighted to support her. I am sure the girls will want to follow her progress and should be able to keep track on Twitter @England_Netball.  

We welcomed a more independent, more sun-tanned and tired Year 5 and 6 from their residentials last week. They clearly had a brilliant time and my grateful thanks go to the teachers and staff for looking after them so well in sweltering conditions.

On the hottest day of the year so far, we also enjoyed a wonderful Senior Sports day. Records were falling, despite the heat, and it was really rewarding to see the increasing athleticism and friendly competitiveness of the girls. On days like sports day, every participant counts and it was brilliant to see girls volunteering to get outside their comfort zone and win points for their House. It was a superbly organised day, so again my huge thanks to the PE Department and Sixth Form, as well as families for supporting.

Both Year 9 and Year 10 had an exciting week packed with Sixth Form taster activities, University visits, EPQ study days and a wealth of academic and co-curricular enrichment. On Monday, a small group of Year 10 girls were fortunate to attend the ‘Inspiring females’ (@InspFemales) event hosted at our sister school, Norwich High, where they heard from big note speakers such as Samira Ahmed and Cheryl Giovannoni and networked with girls from other GDST schools; a really unique opportunity.

It was particularly special to welcome back recent alumnae to share their experiences of university and reflect on choices made in Sixth Form. Year 10 will build on this knowledge with an exciting ‘Bright Horizons’ event in the final week of term, which brings together expert advice from Higher Education, Alumnae and governors on planning for the future. Year 12 also enjoyed a more focussed evening of advice on Monday, with more tailored advice on UCAS applications and university finance, from our own universities team and invited speakers.

Last Thursday saw our Annual Art and DT exhibition of GCSE and A-level work. Those of you who had the pleasure of visiting will have been as impressed as I was about the creativity and quality of the work on display. I was certainly coveting much of the textiles design; we have some future stars in the making no doubt.

We have plenty to look forward to in the final two weeks of term. My thanks to you for your support of the girls at our many events, activities and not least, academic endeavours. I look forward to seeing you in and around school.