Leweston welcomes new Head of the Senior School At the start of term Leweston was delighted to welcome Mr John Paget-Tomlinson as Head of the Senior School. Mr Paget-Tomlinson joins from Portsmouth High School GDST where he was Deputy Head (Academic) and brings to Leweston extensive senior management experience as well as a strong educational vision. Commenting on his appointment the Chair of Governors, Mr Chris Fenton, said “I have no doubt that Mr Paget-Tomlinson’s leadership skills and charismatic drive will lead Leweston on to greater success, and that he will maintain the strong, supportive community that makes Leweston stand out from other schools.
Leweston equestrian squad have a lot to celebrate as not only have they won the NSEA South West RPL title for the fourth year running but they also achieved the highest number of points nationally across all the schools competing in the National School Equestrian Association.
Mr Paget-Tomlinson added “Leweston is a truly fantastic School with a great deal to offer each and every one of its pupils. I have already been impressed by their determination to seize every opportunity, and there are many, that they are presented with. The School is truly exceptional and it is a great honour to be part of its continuing success.”
Further to this, in November, 13 teams and 28 individuals from the School competed at the NSEA National Schools Championships at Addington in Show Jumping, Dressage and Arena Eventing (Jumping with Style).
Mr Paget-Tomlinson is looking forward to meeting families interested in Leweston at the upcoming Open Morning on Thursday 30 January at 10am.
Rugby on the rise Last term rugby was introduced to, what is already, a very busy sporting calendar. Boys from Year 3 to Year 9 participated in our first competitive and noncompetitive fixtures and, at their match at Port Regis, the U10 and U11 players were lucky enough to meet England rugby star Lewis Moody after the game.
This term work will start in the Art and Design Centre to create new specialist studios to support the 3D design course including state of the art equipment which will be used by all our creative classes.
Distinctions for Eliza and Naima
Fellow Sixth Former Naima achieved Distinction in the Associate of Trinity College London Diploma for Recorder.
All of the riders performed well but congratulations to Issy C who was named the National Preliminary Dressage Champion.
Chris is No. 3 in the World FEI Eventing rankings and has competed at two World Games and two Olympics, winning team Bronze in 2016. He is known as being the fastest cross-country rider in the world.
To recognise their achievements the team were invited to a show jumping coaching session with Olympic Eventer Chris Burton at the world class training facilities at Lower Chapel Marsh Farm.
Leweston School: What does ‘Value-added’ mean for your child? For over 30 years the Centre for Evaluating and Monitoring (CEM) at Durham University has produced valueadded data for pupils of all ages and for over a decade Leweston has sat within the top 5% of schools in the country in this important measure.
This term pupils will be competing in Hockey, Netball, Football, Swimming, Cross-Country, Fencing, Shooting, Tetrathlon, Biathlon and Biathle with other recreational sports offered through the activities programme.
design option will be offered at GCSE, to build on the existing Fine Art and Fashion and Textile Design courses.
Congratulations to Eliza, Year 13, who achieved a Grade 8 Piano Distinction before Christmas. Earlier in the year Eliza was awarded Sherborne Young Musician of the Year and invited to attend the Douzelage General, Education and Youth Meeting in Finland.
The School’s youngest competitor was Year 6 with the oldest last year’s Equestrian Captain who left after A Levels in July.
With Mr Cannon, Leweston’s Head of Rugby and Housemaster, leading the boys’ training and development we look forward to the future.
Developing Designers of the Future Leweston’s creative culture and impressive Art and Design Centre has inspired many young artists and designers over the years but from September 2020 there will be two new courses on offer to students. Photography A Level, including traditional darkroom and digital design, will be available for Sixth Form and a new three-dimensional
Leweston Equestrian Team Celebrate Individual and Team Success
However, parents often ask what exactly value-added means? When pupils start at Leweston they sit a standardised set of national assessments which provide a baseline against which future progress can be measured. The ‘value-added’ is simply a measure of how much better a student does than their baseline data would predict; literally the value that is added to the pupil’s progress by studying at the School.
In 2019, over 25% of the GCSE grades achieved at Leweston were one or more levels above baseline predictions, proving, once again, the exceptional value that is added to our pupils’ results thanks to the pupils’ positive mind-sets and the exceptional support from our professional and dedicated staff. Comparative data on school performance is also released by the Department of Education every January. In 2019 Leweston was ranked as the best School in Dorset for progress at A Level and our Attainment 8 score (points achieved in up to 8 qualifying GCSEs) was the highest in the County, as was our EBacc score (an average score based on grades in English, Maths, Science, Languages and Humanities).
An exciting term for Computer Science
OPEN DOORS 30 January 10.00am & 26 March 10.00am
This term, students will continue to explore coding and programming concepts, giving them the opportunity to enrich their learning through physical computing. Code Club runs every week as an activity and encourages pupils to develop a deeper understanding of computing topics such as robotics, coding and machine learning. Year 8 will continue their exciting work as part of the Gender Balance in Computing research project designing apps to solve real world problems. Leweston also plans to submit teams for the CyberFirst Girls Competition, run by the National Cyber Security Centre, which aims to support girls interested in careers in cyber security.
Leweston is delighted to be shortlisted in the Outstanding Musical Initiative category in the Music and Drama Education Awards.
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