Head’s Welcome

We were fortunate to start the new academic year on a real high, with our Upper Sixth leavers achieving the best A Level exam results seen at WGS for over ten years. A broad and exciting range of onward destinations lay ahead: most to university but some also to the increasingly popular apprenticeship route. Our Year 11 students also did fantastically well, achieving GCSE results significantly higher than in 2019, the last year of exams being sat in the normal way pre-pandemic.

Many factors contributed to this wonderful success story but, above all, I feel immensely proud of our students, who worked with commitment, ambition and diligence to achieve their goals, and grateful to the staff, who did so much to support, guide and encourage them. This includes the exceptional standard of online teaching that was provided through the Spring 2021 lockdown, which fell in the middle of the first year of those exam courses.

Two important new programmes started up in the Senior School in September, under the auspices of new members of staff Mrs Keeley, Head of Wellbeing, and Miss Kailey, Head of Careers. The Wellbeing Programme, which takes over Personal, Health and Social Education, Relationships and Sex Education and a host of other lessons for life, is in place for all year-groups and is being taught through a mix of timetabled lessons with specialist teachers, tutor time ‘bitesize’ discussions and activities and an exciting schedule of visiting speakers. It is critical to ensure that our young people are equipped to thrive in the world around them and that is what our commitment to this revitalised programme is designed to achieve.

Meanwhile, the post of Head of Careers has been separated out from that of Head of Higher Education, ensuring clear visibility for the two roles and highlighting their different, though complementary, areas of focus. Miss Kailey has launched a new Careers Education programme in timetabled lessons and a wide range of additional activities and talks in School and external visits. As you will see in the following pages, the first phase this term has been extremely successful and I am excited to see the next developments. The School came together in September to remember Her Majesty The Queen and celebrate her life and reign in ageappropriate ways. With the exception of our longest-serving member of staff, Johnny Johnson (albeit he was a baby when Elizabeth II came to the throne), it was a first-in-a-lifetime experience for everyone in School to reflect on the death of a British monarch. We recalled Her Majesty The Queen’s visit to Wolverhampton and the School in 1962, when she graciously marked our 450th Anniversary by planting a weeping ash tree which flourishes to this day on the lawn outside the main Senior School building. We are perhaps still getting used to having a King: the Head Boy and Head Girl certainly noted the change to the Loyal Toast when we attended the annual Doctors’ Dinner at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall, an event which celebrates the connection of a number of schools to the Merchant Taylors’ Company.

Interest in joining the School is at an all time high. We enjoyed a well-attended Open Day in October, and have waiting lists for all three of our Infant classes, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. Indeed, with 190 students on roll, our Junior School has never been bigger, but its family feel and personal touch remain as strong as ever under the expert leadership of Mr Peters and his newly promoted Deputy Head, Mr Griffiths.

This fact was supported by the positive response to our wellbeing survey in which all WGJS children contributed. This highlighted that 100% of children feel safe at School and feel supported by their teachers. All children also understand how to stay safe online.

The end of a busy term in Junior School saw all children taking part in a Christmas performance. Infants delighted with their annual nativity ‘Shine, Star, Shine’, and Years 3 to 6 brought the house down with their Christmas Concert. Photographs of both can be viewed later in this magazine.

As The Independent went to press, we were devastated to learn of the untimely passing of our dear friend and former colleague Carrie Bennett, who served the School with distinction as Director of Marketing & Communications from 2014 to 2021. Carrie passed away earlier this month following a courageous two-year battle with cancer, and the end of term has been shadowed for the entire WGS community. In the New Year, we shall look to the best way of paying tribute to Carrie at School, but for now our thoughts and prayers are with her family.

Alex Frazer Head