T H E PI LG R I M R E V I E W S PRI N G / S U M M E R 2 019
HEADMASTER’S WELCOME ...FROM THAT PASTORAL FOUNDATION WE CAN LIGHT THE TOUCH PAPER TO SEE SUCCESS BURST OUT LIKE A FIREWORK IN ALL AREAS OF A CHILD’S JOURNEY TO YOUNG ADULTHOOD. FROM THE HEADMASTER
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he Pilgrim Review celebrates the full and varied lives of Reigatians – another few months of amazing adventures, making life-long friends, securing memories and developing talents and experiences that are all part of how we cherish childhood.
believe that children also need to feel valued and understood, secure amongst friends, looked after by adults and aware that older children are on their side – from that pastoral foundation we can light the touch paper to see success burst out like a firework in all areas of a child’s journey to young adulthood.
Reigate Grammar School was awarded a School of the Year 2019 award for work in pastoral care and wellbeing in the annual, prestigious Times Education Supplement (TES) Independent School Awards 2019.
“The TES Independent School Awards are a roll-call of the most impressive institutions and individuals” said the Editor of the TES, Ann Mroz. Reigate Grammar School was nominated for more awards than any other school in the country and we were in good company with other nominated schools including Eton College, Wellington College, Brighton College, Caterham and Epsom College.
I am delighted that the people in the RGS community have been given this award because children’s wellbeing and happiness is the most important aspect of a great education. The lead judge was Natasha Devon MBE, former Government Mental Health supporter. Natasha said RGS stood out as a “school which understands mental health as a universal issue”. She added: “They have embedded it into many aspects of school life rather than confining it to PHSCE or a ‘wellbeing week’.”. One parent said they had “never seen such positivity from any other school”. Judges were impressed at the way that RGS takes a wholeschool approach to wellbeing for both staff and students. This commitment is clearly not simply through excellent Heads of Year and Tutors. This is about each and every member of our community, adult and child, understanding the importance of being nice to each other, of caring enough to make a difference. The judges understood that our priority as a school is pastoral care based upon a belief that happy and healthy children go on to become high achieving. The school scores some of the best exam results in the country so the RGS approach to focus on the whole child seems to work well! I think it helped that RGS could refer to our last full ISI inspection report where we were the first school of our kind in the country to secure the judgement of Exceptional. Of course, at RGS securing excellent exam results is an imperative because they open doors of opportunity that will help secure future success and wellbeing. However, I think we all
This award comes just after winning the Independent School Parent award for RGS’s partnership work and community outreach. We were delighted to be recognised by another independent organisation for the work we are doing within the community including sharing our facilities, school partnership projects with the state sector, volunteering work our Reigatians carry out and the impressive Changing Lives bursary programme that helps with social mobility. Of course, it is the daily experience of each child in our care that matters more than any award and we need to remain conscious that we will always have students, families and staff in our community where, for a variety of reasons, things can be and are very tough indeed. It is nice to see our work affirmed in both our overwhelming inspection report from ISI and these ‘School of the Year' awards, which we should definitely celebrate, but this recognition must only serve as a spur to do even more to help children and others in our community to stay healthy and to support them when things are far from easy. I hope that you enjoy this edition of the Pilgrim Review. Shaun Fenton Headmaster 2