FOREWORD
Welcome to the Christmas issue of The Matravers Newsletter.
It is always a pleasure to look back on the first term at the many successes of our school community. I am delighted that our new Year 7s have settled in so well to our traditional ways of working – apprehension about starting a new school having long given way
to engagement in their lessons, sports teams and our wider extra-curricular provision.
It has indeed been an exciting start to the academic year. The continued huge advances being made by Matravers brings me to reflect on the essence of Matravers that is captured so well within these pages. Our traditional, bespoke and independent ways of working enable students to succeed and thrive as young people. Academic success is vastly important but statistics alone cannot fully reflect the intangible aspects of success at the school; our culture extends far beyond the growing provision of exceptional academic education.
From our students’ first day with us in Year 7 to their last in Year 11 or Year 13, the broad range of “outstanding” extracurricular opportunity that exists here is a fundamental part of our development of resilient, ambitious and successful individuals; this is unmatched by others. From the outset, this culture is fostered on an everyday basis, in tandem with and supporting the exceptional academic education.
One of our core values is “dynamism”. We aim to ensure that our students grow and develop into rounded, grounded and reflective individuals with a strong sense of moral purpose. By doing so we prepare our students for life in modern Britain and encourage them to contribute positively to the world in which we live.
I must make special mention of a truly phenomenal school production this year of “Beauty and the Beast”. This production perfectly reflected a huge number of individuals contributing positively to their community. If you were one of the lucky 1000+ people who managed to secure a ticket for the sell-out performances you were treated to theatre of the highest quality. I did have to keep reminding myself that this
www.matravers.wilts.sch.uk
was supposed to be a school production that seemed very much like a professional theatre experience! Nothing less than a huge amount of hard work by everybody concerned realised this fantastic event.
Full participation by everybody is an expectation at Matravers; the option to “buy-out” is not given. We believe that school trips, competitions, teams and clubs are an essential aspect of each young person’s journey through the Matravers experience. The newsletter chronicles the extremely rich and diverse range of activities that occur here, and I am immensely proud of all those whose achievements have contributed to this edition and who are celebrated within its pages.
I am delighted to be able to update you further in this edition about our continued huge investment into the school site. Our Site Master Plan is well on its way to being delivered. We will continue to make improvements to ensure that your son/ daughter has access to the best facilities.
Our new Food Court area is one such recently developed area. We have seamlessly introduced our cashless system into the school and this has provided many benefits. Our catering provision, all produced on-site every day, provides a wonderful opportunity for students to access high-quality food which students are clearly enjoying.
Our front cover from our recent show captures the “character” of our students at Matravers; the sense of passion and commitment that drives them on from day 1 in Year 7 all the way through to Year 13.
I hope you do put aside a good period of time to sit and read this Newsletter. As usual there are many things that are happening right at the end of term that we can’t even fit into this publication: the Christmas Concert; the CCF Christmas Mess Dinner; the choir “on the road”; the Celebration Assemblies; and so on. These will have to wait for another day.
I wish you all a safe and wonderful Christmas and peaceful New Year and look forward to all returning full of energy in January 2018 ready to raise the bar of expectations once again.
Dr Simon Riding, Headteacher
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