Summer
Newsletter
Issue10:July2016
Another year over…
That is another year completed and I don’t know
about you, but I feel time has certainly flown by this
year. It seems like yesterday we were welcoming our
new Year 7 pupils to the school.
The third year of The Reach Free School has been one
of yet more incredible achievements, many of which
were celebrated at the Annual Awards Ceremony at
Watersmeet
Theatre
on
Monday
18th July.
Congratulations to all the winners on the night, with a
special mention to Niamh who won my Headteacher’s
Award for her outstanding achievements and
commitment to her education this year. Niamh had
100% attendance for the year, is a member of the Reach
Council and is an absolute star in the classroom, on the
stage and for her sports teams. She was thoroughly
deserving of this award and goes into The Reach Free
School history books as the third ever winner of this
award. Well done Niamh.
At this time of the year, Mr Essery presents me with
plenty of information about how our pupils have
performed throughout the academic year and I am
delighted to say that once again our pupils, across the
board, continue to exceed the national expectations for
their age range. We know we set our pupils
challenging targets, but they are certainly rising to the
challenges in front of them.
Our oldest pupils have now begun Key Stage 4 and
their all-important GCSEs. It will be in two years’ time
when we receive our first set of examination results
and it is certainly looking very promising so far.
club. Alicia and all the cast did themselves proud and
showed what dedication and hard work can achieve.
Sports wise we continue to achieve new heights. Our
year 7 boys’ football team thoroughly deserved their
‘Team of the Year’ award, having comfortably won
their league and will now move up to the top division.
We also held our first ever Sports Day at Merchant
Taylors’ School on Friday 14th July. The last two Sports
Extravaganzas take some beating, but I think we all
agreed that this topped it with some truly stunning
performances in the track and field events.
Congratulations to Atticus who were the overall
winners of the day and lifted the trophy.
As always the newsletter is packed full of articles,
including photographs from the Spanish and French
residentials as well as lots more details of what we
have been up to this term. Towards the back you will
find information about the new classrooms we are
building this summer, the new bus information and an
update on our permanent site.
It has been another incredible year for everyone
involved in the school and we look forward to
welcoming another new cohort of pupils when we
return after the holiday. As always I wish you an
enjoyable, relaxing and restful summer break and I
look forward to seeing everyone again in September.
Richard Booth
Headteacher
Across the curriculum we have had incredible
experiences. This year we extended our curriculum
offer to include more Music and Technology and it
was with the former that we saw our first ever ‘Battle
of the Bands’ event which certainly didn’t disappoint,
particularly as this was the first year that some of our
pupils had studied music at secondary school.
Also on the stage, we had the end of year performance
of Guys and Dolls, with pupils from all year groups
involved. Matthew, Tamara, Cai and all the cast were
excellent, but a special mention must go to Alicia who,
with less than 24 hours’ notice, stepped in to take the
role of Sarah Brown, after Rebecca had been
hospitalised following an event at her trampolining
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Inside this issue
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Guys and Dolls
Scout’s Success at School
Battle of the Bands
Ready, Set, Bake
CCR - Story Time
CCR - The Big Lunch
Chelsea’s Choice
Valladolid 2016
Azu’Rivage 2016
Sports Day 2016
The Medals Keep on Coming for Devesh
Gaelic Greatness
Dancing at Wembley
Jack the (Watford) Lad
It’s a Washout
Round and Round
Hockey Hopefuls
Zilcho’s
Annual Awards Ceremony
Activities in Three Rivers this Summer
New Faces
Goodbyes
Tolpits Lane Update
Long Lane Update
Reach Café Tariff
Uniform
Transport Update
Twitter
Diary Dates for 2016/17
to have missed out on the night, is very proud of how
everyone rallied together to not let her down.
We are so pleased with everybody that took part in
Guys and Dolls and it was great to see as many guys
as dolls turn up to audition for a part.
Thank you to everyone that came along to support the
show, see you at the next one!
The cast of Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls
Matthew as Nathan and Tamara as Miss Adelaide
This year’s final show was one for the history books. A
gruelling rehearsal schedule, a huge amount of lines to
learn, some tricky songs to belt out and the challenge
of bringing Cuba to a stage built out of scaffolding on
the outskirts of Watford – cue inflatable palm trees!
All was going swimmingly and we were looking
forward to show night when disaster struck on a
trampoline and our lead actress, Rebecca B had to pull
out of the show due to a dislocated and fractured arm
requiring surgery. Following a crisis meeting with the
cast, the future of the show looked increasingly bleak.
The next day however, Alicia announced she had
learned all of the lines for the role of Sarah Brown and
was prepared to step into the spotlight to save the
show…and she did!
The entire cast and crew pulled together to support
Alicia to learn the staging and songs with just two
days to go before show night. An absolute triumph for
all involved and we know that Rebecca, although sad
Alicia who stepped into a key role with 48 hours’ notice 2
Scout’s Success at School Scout has been in training as a School Dog almost since
she was born and this term, her hard work was
recognised as she passed her final assessments making her a fully-fledged school dog with the
charity, ‘Dogs Helping Kids’.
they were invited to perform at Francis Combe’s
Summer Fair.
Join us next year when The Reach Free School will
battle again to bring that trophy home!
Ready, Set, Bake
The assessors were in school for a full day and
observed Scout in a number of different scenarios.
Scout demonstrated her calm and friendly demeanour,
her reading skills and the work she does with pupils in
her elective with real aplomb.
On Wednesday 13th July, six pupils took part in The
Reach Free Bake Off Final.
Their ‘Showstopper
Challenge’ was to bake a cake that related to the school
in some way. Both cakes and pupils rose to the
challenge magnificently.
She continues to be an asset to the school community
and her tail wags for us all as much today as it did
back in September 2013 when she first started working
here.
It was a long afternoon but all of the finalists worked
hard for every minute of it. The cakes varied from
sponges shaped like buildings to icing in school
colours. We even had a cake with meringues disguised
as bushes and trees! Whilst we had a couple of near
disasters, all of the cakes turned out well in the end!
A big thank you to the pupils who worked with Scout
in her assessments, you were fantastic.
Well done Scout, we’re very proud of you!
Congratulations to all the finalists and especially to
Jessica, the worthy winner of both the Showstopper
Challenge and the overall competition!
Scout enjoyed a rest after her gruelling assessment
Disaster strikes for one of the contestants
Battle of the Bands
The Reach Free School
successfully hosted our first
ever Battle Of The Bands
event and raised a grand total
of £321 for Nordoff Robbins,
a Music Therapy Charity.
Groups from Francis Combe
and St. Clement Danes
schools came forward to take on our very own
‘Outnumbered’ and ‘The Fricks’. After hits such as
Pompeii, All of Me, Feeling Good and Yellow
reverberated around the school, the judges came to the
decision of awarding the trophy to White Noise of St.
Clement Danes. Our bands performed so well that
The Bake Off finalists with their creations
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Jessica’s winning masterpiece
The Maple Cross pupils meet the authors
Karen’s teal and purple themed cake
CCR – Story Time
Ethan and Thomas read their story
One of our CCR projects this term was to write and
illustrate children’s stories to share with the children at
a local primary school.
In a class of 25 excited Year 2 children at Maple Cross
JMI School, Harry, Edward, Marcelo, Tyler, Jessica,
Rebecca, Emily, Defne, Elsie, Mateusz, Jack W,
Jeremiah, Thomas, Ethan, Grace and Emily wowed the
children with their exciting stories.
The Reach Free School pupils questioned the children
throughout their story time and asked the ultimate
question, ‘What did you think of our story?’
It was no surprise that the children loved all of the
tales. Our pupils represented the school in a fantastic
manner and had a very enjoyable afternoon – we even
joined in with playtime!
Jessica, Elsie and Defne share their tale
CCR – The Big Lunch
Our annual festivity, The Big Lunch was back in full
swing this year. On Sunday 12th June, despite the wet
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British summer, The Reach Free School pupils, their
family and friends gathered in the hall and canteen to
celebrate. There was a whole host of events on offer,
all planned and delivered by our pupils such as Hook
the Duck, Beanboozled, Face-painting, Sumo Suits and
many more.
Unfortunately, due to weather changes, the famous
Sponge the Teacher had to be postponed which,
although disappointing for pupils, was a relief for a
number of staff.
The Year 8 pupils spent weeks planning the occasion,
which was a huge success raising an astounding
£275.90. A special thanks goes to The Friends of The
Reach Free School for their help with the event.
Chelsea’s Choice
Earlier this term, year 9 pupils watched a production
of Chelsea’s Choice, a drama piece designed to teach
young people about the signs of sexual exploitation
and how to protect themselves from abusive
relationships. The performance had a real impact on
the pupils who remarked after the show that they felt
much more aware of the signs, risks and ways to
protect themselves from exploitation in relationships.
We hope to be able to host the performance again next
year as all of year 9 felt it helped them to be much
more self-aware, mindful of the information they
divulge to others and ultimately how to keep
themselves safe.
Year 9 watch the Chelsea’s Choice production
The sumo suits made a welcome return
The actors convey their serious message
The canteen was a hive of activity
Valladolid 2016
As a sea of 61 red T-shirts made their way to the gate
at the South Terminal of Gatwick Airport, the public’s
cries of ‘Good luck’ and ‘You must be mad!’ to the
accompanying staff made us all chuckle.
Year 7 pupils settled down to a disproportionate
amount of Pringles and Maltesers on the short flight to
Madrid and then promptly fell asleep on the coach
journey to our accommodation in Valladolid.
Mystery prizes were up for grabs
We had such a fantastic week practising our Spanish,
learning about farm life in Spain and exploring the
stunning city.
Magical memories were made from what were
arguably once in a lifetime experiences: milking sheep
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and then drinking the milk; stroking a hedgehog;
watching a fox climb on a teacher’s head to steal their
sunglasses; befriending goats, kayaking, BMX’ing and
horse-riding with friends and ultimately having an
amazing time developing independence and resilience
in another country.
We had a superb time at Los Cortas de Blas Granja
Escuela and were sad to say goodbye to all the lovely
staff and animals who made us feel so welcome.
Cory takes hold of the hedgehog Alfie and Jake with ‘Simba’ the farm dog The rescued hedgehog meets his new friends Lily enjoying the sunshine! Everyone together at the farm
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Oscar and Shay with frozen pigeons ready to feed the
animals
Jamie demonstrating her archery skills
The group get to grips with the lamb
Caitlin covered in ‘stuff’
Goats in their pens
Anastasia with an egg
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Dinnertime at the farm
Daniel and Ben in their matching t-shirts
All ready for the kayaking session
Maya and a donkey
Elena reunited with her wandering suitcase
Sixty-one red t-shirts waiting to board the plane
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Azu’Rivage 2016
While Year 7 flew to Spain, Year 8 pupils hit the road
to the South of France to the lovely town of
Azu’Rivage, for a week of exhilarating water sports.
Despite a 16-hour coach journey, the pupils kept their
spirits high – that’ll be the lattes they bought at
2.00am! - and started their first day in France with a
hearty breakfast and a full day of activities.
Taking to the water for Pico and Dart sailing, paddle
boarding, wind surfing and kayaking, the pupils set
about making magnificent memories and coping with
the occasional capsize!
The weather didn’t dampen any of their spirits
As well as boating, the pupils explored the culture and
beauty of ‘Dune du Pilat’, the highest sand dunes in
Europe. Absorbing the most spectacular views and
taking on the challenge of the run up the steep dune,
the pupils had lots of fun tumbling back down the
sandbank to bury Kieran, much to the amusement of
the locals.
To top off the trip, our Hertfordshire pupils fully
embraced the French culture with more than just a
macaron; they lapped up the snails, mussels and frogs’
legs on the menu.
Unfortunately our French voyage did need to come to
an end but the memories will live on forever.
These five also didn’t mind a bit of rain
On the ferry all set for our French adventure
Tayyab’s tongue turned teal – what a tongue-twister!
Learning the basics of kayaking
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The first challenge is to balance on your board
The girls are prepared for their activities on the lake
Kieran is ready!
Matt has the balancing sorted
Keszia sampling frog’s legs
Azu’Rivage, the setting for our annual Year 8 water sports trip
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The Dart - mastered
Tyler and Lewis mastering the Pico
A slight accident
Alice has time for a photo on her boat
Keszia and Katy seem to have mastered the Pico
What a sunset!
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Learning how to control the Dart
The photo doesn’t quite do it justice. This is a steep climb!
Amazing food served every day
Team photo at the top
The warm up exercises were always a hoot
Josh and Kieran’s head
Before dinner there was time to relax…
Team photo at the bottom
…and spend time with our friends…
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…until Miss Mitchell made us jump for photos!
Azu’Rivage certainly made some great memories
Before we knew it, it was time to come home. Sports Day 2016
This year’s Sports Day was held at Merchant Taylors’
School. It was a full on day of sport as pupils
participated in football and rounders tournaments and
the obligatory athletics.
InthetownCaitlynposed…
The competition had been building over the last two
weeks and each house had their own agendas to make
sure that they were the winners of the Sports Cup.
Kicking things off were the boys’ football tournament
and the girls’ athletics track heats, throws and jumps.
By break time Calpurnia were the leading house,
ahead by 80 points. It was then the girls’ turn to take
part in their rounders tournament whilst the boys
competed in their athletics heats. Records for each year
group were being made and the competition was
fierce.
After lunch saw the athletics finals where all houses
came together to support each other. Exceptional
performances from Ben D, Alfie J, Connor W, Susana
E, Matthew V.E, Katy B and Alicia DV are worthy of
mention.
…andsoonstartedatrend!
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There could only be one winning house and following
their success from last year, Atticus triumphed again
with a 38 point lead and were crowned the 2016 Sports
Day Champions.
The final of the Year 9 boys’ 100m
The start of the Year 7 boys’ 100m
A key changeover for Sam and Will in the 4 x 100m relay
Cheering on from the side-lines
The final of the Year 9 girls’ 100m Susana and Saphir cross the line
Jack crosses the line first in the 1500m
The Medals Keep on Coming for Devesh
In the Spring newsletter we reported on how one of
our pupils was setting the local swimming world
alight. Devesh started swimming a year and half ago
and is known as the ‘Rookie Swimmer of the Year’ at
The start of the Year 9 1500m
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his club. This has been his first competitive swimming
season and he has most definitely made his mark in
the swimming world. Devesh represents Watford
Swimming Club in various galas and competitions and
has won 18 Gold, 16 Silver and 10 Bronze medals since
he started!
He is currently ranked number one in Hertfordshire
for the 200m Individual Medley, 200m Fly, 100m Fly
and 200m Freestyle. Devesh was awarded the BILL
JUBA Memorial trophy as the U14 Swimmer of the
Year. Well done, Devesh. We are very proud of you!
Dancing at Wembley Stadium Our annual trip to Wembley to watch Saracens v
Harlequins was a great success. With a win form
Saries and many of our pupils dancing pitch-side, it
was a day of awesomeness! Well done to all who took
part and we look forward to sharing the experience
with you all again next year.
Gaelic Greatness
GCSE Physical Education student, Lee has proven that
dedication, self-discipline and commitment can really
take you places in sport, to Ireland to be exact! Earlier
this year, Lee was selected to represent Hertfordshire
in a three day Gaelic Football tour to Cork, Limerick
and Kerry. His team was unbeaten until reaching the
semi-finals, where their dreams were dashed. The
experience however, was a great one, Lee commented,
'It is an experience I will never forget. I hope it
helps me to reach my sporting goals'. Well done Lee;
we are very proud of you!
Lee in action on his Gaelic football tour Pitch-side dancing Well done all, a great half time performance
Jack the (Watford) Lad We are very proud of our own Jack W who has
excelled outside of school playing football for the
Watford Academy. In May this season, he had the
opportunity to play one of his fixtures on the hallowed
turf at Vicarage Road Stadium, home to the mighty
Watford FC.
The young Hornets demonstrated with devastation the
sting they had in their tails as they demolished
Birmingham City with an emphatic 10 - 2 victory,
leaving the Blues feeling...blue! Jack certainly looked
the part and didn’t let the occasion overawe him.
Proving what a versatile player he is, playing right
midfield he was composed and calculated in his
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Lee in his full kit performance. He also got amongst the goals, adding
his name to the score sheet with a solitary strike. Wood
is now in good company as he has joined the likes of
Aguero, Sanchez and Mahrez; all of whom have
scored at Vicarage Road this season.
So watch out Rickmansworth, Queens, Westfield et al.
Jack will be spurred on by that taste of the big time
and raring to go next season for Watford and The
Reach Free School team! Well done Woody!
eventually came to the final ball of the match and us
requiring just two runs to win.
Aman was the one, ready and waiting to be steeped in
glory. The ball came in at him at some speed and
although he was unable to make contact, the wicket
keeper was caught out by the pace and unable to stop
the ball from passing him. This gave Daniel and Aman
the unexpected opportunity to make the two runs
required. They took that opportunity and by the skin
of their teeth the game was theirs, 44 for 5 won it.
So thanks to that late drama, the boys finished with a
100% winning record and unlike the weather this
summer, their future looks bright as they have the
making of a very successful team over the coming
years.
Round and Round
Jack playing at Vicarage Road It’s a Washout
Torrential rain, hailstones, thunderstorms and
waterlogged pitches…the weather was the only
winner this year as the cricket season became a
washout! With only six of the possible twenty fixtures
deemed fit for play in the year 7 division, the Reach
Free boys got just two games.
Our first match against Bushey Academy took place
over at Merchant Taylors’ School on a rare sunny day,
perfect for cricket and a perfect stage for our boys to
shine. With impressive bowling from Miron, Moosa,
Rory and Will, the wickets fell early and the runs were
sparse. Bushey managed to steady the ship a little but
thanks to some terrific fielding they only managed a
score of 32 for 8 off 10 overs.
A low score to chase and our boys did it at a canter.
Will and Ben were a solid partnership but when Ben
was uncharacteristically run out, Rory came in to
finish the job. Achieving the required runs in just 6
overs with only one wicket lost, they blew Bushey
Academy out of the water.
Our girls worked hard in preparation for their annual
District Rounders Tournament.
Year captains, Niamh P, Elsie D and Jadah J ensured
that their teams were up to scratch and ready to face
the tough competition. With twenty teams entering
into the tournament, the girls were faced with a
challenge but conducted themselves with true team
spirit and tenacity. We didn’t win this time but that
has just spurred us on for next year!
Hockey Hopefuls
Back in April, the Year 7 and Year 9 boys took the
short trip over to Rickmansworth School for a mini
hockey tournament. It was an ideal opportunity for
the boys to showcase their skills and go head to head
against other schools in the district.
The tournament proved mixed fortunes for
both teams, as the Year 7’s lost 3-1 and 1-0 but could
not be faulted for their effort and commitment. There
were some stand out performances from the likes
of Will, Jack and Lucca but all the boys left with their
heads held high.
In contrast, our second match against Bushey Meads
was a much closer affair, decided by the last ball of the
match. Bushey Meads opened the batting and there
were again fantastic bowling and fielding
performances from the same boys as well as Lucca and
Alfie who were making their debuts. A score of 43 for
8 meant an achievable target to chase but with Bushey
Meads’ bowlers also in fine form, the runs dried up
and our big hitters were out early. Daniel managed to
get some valuable runs to keep us in the game and it
The Year 7 boys’ Hockey team
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The Year 9’s however surpassed themselves in all
three of their hard-fought matches. Drawing the first
two 0-0 and 1-1 against Rickmansworth and St
Clement Danes respectively, they saved their best
performance for last. A resounding 3-0 victory against
Parmiter’s saw goals from Melu, Lewis and a man of
the match performance from Scott who led the line
and ensured the boys secured second place, finishing
the tournament undefeated!
Either Mr Essery has long arms or he has borrowed a
selfie stick to take this picture. We’ll let you decide. Activities in Three Rivers this summer
The Year 9 boys’ Hockey team
Zilcho’s
105 pupils enjoyed a day out in the sun at Thorpe Park
on the summer Zilcho’s trip. Arriving alongside
approximately 834 other schools at the park’s opening
time, pupils were quickly zooming around the park
trying to beat the queues for the popular rides.
Although this became increasingly difficult as the day
went on, pupils found ample entertainment during the
occasional long wait between attractions, mostly via
the excessive consumption of sugar. The timehonoured tradition of getting soaked under Tidal
Wave was widely recognised, not least by Mr Vyas,
whose face upon his drenching spoke of certain regret.
Mr Essery enjoyed the new attraction ‘Coffee Queue’
so much that he returned again twice after lunch. A
fantastic day was had by all, in celebration of the
brilliant effort required to not lose any Reach Points
over a significant amount of time. The less said about
the coach journey home, the better…
Three Rivers District Council have emailed the school
to let us know about some activities which are taking
place in the local area.
For full details of all Three Rivers summer holiday
activities visit www.threerivers.gov.uk or call 01923
776611 to request a summer brochure.
Two25
Not just another youth club for 10-14 year olds in
Croxley Green, 1st to 19th August 10am - 4pm, £5 per
day
The Art Box
Workshops for 13-19 year olds, £5 per session
Nature Walks in Leavesden County Park and
Rickmansworth Aquadrome
See website for details, free to take part, but booking
essential
Parks tennis
Coaching for £3 per session in South Oxhey and
Scotsbridge every Saturday
Croxley Skate Jam
5th to 7th August, Croxley Skate Park - Free
Angry Birds (U) – Watersmeet
Thursday 28th July - 11am, 2pm, 5pm, £3.50 adults,
£2.50 children + £1 per ticket booking fee
Secret Life of Pets (PG) - Watersmeet Monday 15th
August - 11am, 2pm, 5pm, £3.50 adults, £2.50 children
+ £1 per ticket booking fee
BFG (U) - Watersmeet
Friday 2nd September- 11am, 2pm, 5pm, £3.50 adults,
£2.50 children + £1 per ticket booking fee
Well done to all those who remained in Zilcho’s this time
around
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Free Swim for under 19s
Running at selected leisure centres throughout the
holiday and free gym sessions for 11-15 year olds
Annual Awards Ceremony
Monday 18th July was the night of our Annual Award
Ceremony held at Watersmeet Theatre. The event was
a celebration of the successes over the last academic
year. Notable winners on the evening were Niamh
Pinching (Headteacher’s Award), Ben Delicata and
Ella Weiner (Sports Personalities of the Year), the year
7 Football Team (Team of the Year) and Atticus who
won the House Cup. There was also a huge round of
applause for the 33 pupils who picked up Gold
attendance certificates for full attendance for the entire
academic year. Well done to all the nominees and
winners of awards! We are very proud of you all.
Above: Mr Booth with the representatives of the Atticus
House as they receive applause from the packed
auditorium. Left: Miss Mitchell and the Sports Personalities
of the Year, Ben and Ella
Mr Aldridge with the Musicians of the Year, Cai and Shiana
Baker of the Year, Jessica and her
Runners Up
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New Faces
In the Spring newsletter we announced some of the
new staff that are joining the school in September. We
can now provide more details about their roles. From
September 2016, the school will have three new
Assistant Headteachers joining the Senior Leadership
Team.
Mr Jones, Assistant Headteacher, will be responsible
for staff professional development and will be Head of
House for Jem taking over from Miss Fitchett, who
continues in her role as SENCo.
Tolpits Lane Update
Due to the delay in our permanent site and in order to
accommodate our new intake of pupils we are
expanding the number of classrooms at our temporary
home. Over the summer we will be adding nine new
classrooms to the school. These new rooms will
predominantly be housed on the first floor in an area
which we haven’t used before. We are installing five
new all-purpose classrooms, new Art and Music
rooms and a new IT suite with the latest Chromebases
for our pupils to use.
Mrs Beech, Assistant Headteacher, will be responsible
for secondary and Key Stage 4 transition. She is taking
over from Miss Simpson as Head of House for Atticus.
In addition to the internal work we are also planning
to secure the boundary of the school which will give
our pupils a larger outside playing area and increase
the security at the site.
Mr Smith, Assistant Headteacher, is responsible for
Electives and is taking over from Mr Essery as Head of
House for Radley.
The classrooms will be completed first and be ready
for September with the external works to follow in the
Autumn.
Miss Mitchell will be moving into her new role as
Assistant Headteacher permanently from September
and will be responsible for all community aspects of
the school. She will continue in her role as Head of
House for Calpurnia.
We will also be welcoming Miss Caldwell (Head of
English), Mr Bueno (Head of Languages) and another
Mrs Evans (not the Art teacher) will be joining our
Technology department. Miss Christofi will also be
joining the school as a Science teacher. The final new
appointment is Mrs Kaddour, who will be joining the
Pupil Support Team.
Mrs West, who joined us in May, will be moving to a
new role as a year 7 Assistant Teacher from
September.
The final new appointment is Mrs Berman, who has
recently joined the school and is Mr Booth’s Personal
Assistant.
We look forward to welcoming all of our new staff in
September.
Goodbyes
This summer we say goodbye to two members of staff.
Miss Korth is moving to a Lead Practitioner role at a
school in Manchester and Mr Sanz is moving to a
school nearer his home in East London to continue
teaching Spanish. Thank you both for your efforts this
year and we wish you both the very best in your new
schools.
Long Lane Update
We have now completed the detailed design, with
Willmott Dixon Construction, for the construction of
the permanent building. The scheme designs are on
the website if you haven’t seen them already. You
may also be aware of the public consultation that was
carried out in May and June and should you wish to
comment further or for the first time please do so and
this is still possible via the email address
[email protected].
Our next step is to submit the planning application to
Three Rivers District Council and will be available for
viewing on the Council’s Planning Portal. A thorough
review of all documentation was undertaken prior to
submission and we are optimistic we will receive
planning permission following the 13 week statutory
period.
Even with a robust planning application there remains
a chance we could receive objections that could delay
the application but we are confident that the design
team have addressed the issues surrounding the site,
public concerns and pre-planning advice offered by
Three Rivers District Council and Hertfordshire
County Council in relation to the highways.
Following planning approval we will work to award
the construction contract and mobilising of those
responsible for building the school, with construction
works expected to commence later this year with the
targeted completion date set for the spring of 2018.
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We will review the transport provision in the Autumn
to ensure that it offers our pupils the most efficient
service possible and routes may change depending on
demand.
The Reach Café Tariff
From September the price of a meal deal will be
increasing from £2.35 to £2.40, this includes a main
meal (or baguette) and a dessert. As ever, the choice of
food will change daily for pupils and the menus are
available on our website.
Twitter – 477 Tweets this year, 1181 in total
If you are entitled to Free School Meals, please
remember to apply for these through Hertfordshire
County Council. More information can be found by
searching for Herts free school meals. This entitles
your child to a free meal every day and the school
receives additional Pupil Premium funding.
Please remember we tweet regular updates of events
and trips using our Twitter handle @reachfreeschool.
Follow us to get a dose of news from our pupils and
staff. Don’t worry if you are not on Twitter as these are
also posted directly to the news section of our website,
www.thereachfreeschool.co.uk.
Diary Dates for 2016/17
Uniform
There will be a small increase to the prices of some
items of uniform from this summer. We are committed
to keeping the cost of the uniform as low as possible,
but due to factors outside of our control, the prices will
increase slightly. The increases are spread over a range
of uniform items, so as not to impact any one
particular product.
Below are the important calendar dates for the school.
Please note we have an online calendar on the website
with details of all major events taking place.
2016
1st September:
2nd September:
5th September:
30th September:
We have been working with the manufacturer to
ensure that the highest quality of uniform is available
for you to purchase. The new prices can be found on
the school shop website.
4th October:
Year 6 Open Evening
24th – 28th October: Half Term Holiday
If you require any replacement uniform items, these
can be purchased from our online school shop and will
be available for collection from Wednesday 17th
August 2016.
16th December: End of Autumn Term
2017
3rd January:
4th January:
5th January:
Transport Update
Mr Booth wrote to parents, guardians and carers
recently to inform them of the changes to the price of
the buses from September 2016. With there being
increasing demands on the parking spaces,
particularly at the end of the school day, we have
subsidised the school buses even further to encourage
more pupils to use the service.
Spring Term Begins/ Staff Training
Staff Training
Pupils Return to School
13th – 17th February: Half Term Holiday
The 462M and 462C routes will continue, with a new
462W route covering Watford being introduced. All
routes will continue to be operated by Peter Reynolds
Coaches.
31st March:
End of Spring Term
18th April:
19th April:
20th April:
Summer Term Begins/ Staff Training
Staff Training
Pupils Return to School
1st May:
May Bank Holiday
29th May to 2nd June: Half Term Holiday
20th July:
21st July:
24th July:
The timetables and tickets for all three services are
available from the Peter Reynolds Coaches website.
From September the cost of the tickets will be:
Half term: £30
Full term: £60
Full year: £180
10 journey ticket: £10
Pay as you go: £1 per journey
Autumn Term Begins/ Staff Training
Staff Training
Pupils Return to School
FORFS Afternoon Tea
End of Summer Term
Staff Training
Staff Training
The Reach Free School
Unit 3, Wolsey Business Park, Tolpits Lane,
Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, WD18 9BL
Tel: 01923 224764
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.thereachfreeschool.co.uk
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