Year 10 - 2009-10

Following on from this Year Group’s success at Key Stage 3, I am delighted to welcome you to the Upper School and the start of your child’s Key Stage 4 courses. This is the beginning of a new and challenging phase in your child’s education and students will find that Year 10 places greater demands on them than those in Key Stage 3 and that they will be expected to show serious commitment to their studies.

A key to success will be excellent attendance at school; this includes being punctual to school. Key information is issued to students during registration and so it is vital that students arrive on time. Another key area to success is efficient organisation of work and time and it is therefore essential that homework and coursework deadlines are met. Coursework will count towards the final grades which the students will attain and their homework tasks will ensure thorough learning. To achieve all this, careful planning is required and a useful vehicle for ensuring that work is completed on time is the school planner, which should be used regularly and be properly maintained. It is a vital tool to help parents monitor coursework and to help both parents and teachers maintain close home/school links.

Throughout the year there will be a number of opportunities for students to become involved in extra-curricular activities and community events. These include the Christmas Concert, the school exchanges to Konstanz and Fontainebleau and the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme. There are also a large number of sports fixtures. One highlight of the year is the School Production, a showcase for Year 10 talent, both on and off the stage. This is an exciting event and success is very dependant on student participation.

In the Summer Term, Year 10 Examinations in all subjects will take place. This provides a valuable experience of examination conditions in preparation for GCSE, as well as being an opportunity to demonstrate progress made in KS4 courses. These exams will inform the predicted grades requested on your child’s college application forms. In November students will take Science and Maths modular exams and there are further modular exams in these subjects in March and June respectively. These exams will be the first part of the Maths and Science GCSE examinations in the Summer Term.

Grey Court strives to provide an informative, challenging and supportive environment in which parents involve themselves in the learning of their children. I look forward to a very positive and successful year for all our Year 10 students.

Mr A. Burton
Phase Leader KS4