Dear Families

What a busy and exciting week it has been! It's great to see all our students involved in a variety of activities outside of normal lessons. It's been a really positive week and a great way to finish what has been a very positive year for everyone at our school. Below are some highlights from the last full week of the year.

Our Year 12 students had an incredible opportunity to visit CERN in Geneva, where they explored science and technology. This trip was an unforgettable experience for everyone involved, thanks to Mr Evans, Mr Knocker, Miss Johnstone and Miss Barrow for accompanying the students.

This week saw our Sports Days on Tuesday and Wednesday. Despite the rain on Tuesday, the event was a huge success! On Wednesday it was great to see Years 7 and 9 support an afternoon on track events culminating in 400m relay races with lots of cheering and encouragement!

Additionally, we've had our end of year rewards trips across all year groups. These trips are set up to reward students who have been fantastic all year. The feedback has been extremely positive, and it sounds like everyone got involved in the activities on offer.

We are also proud to announce that our school has been recognised as an ADHD Ambassador School by the local authority. This is a testament to our commitment to inclusivity and support for all our students.

Looking ahead to next week, on Monday, we will be celebrating our student's success at our annual Awards Morning, where we will recognise the achievements of our nominated students. This is always a highlight of the year, and we look forward to celebrating their hard work and dedication with both them and their families.

As a reminder, school will finish at the normal time on Tuesday. We will continue with normal lessons for the final two days, and attendance remains vitally important. Every day of learning counts, and we appreciate your support in ensuring your child’s attendance.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone for your support throughout this year. It has been a great year, and it’s great to see our school continue to grow from strength to strength. This is our last newsletter of the year, but an end of year letter will be sent out next week with more reflections and updates.

Wishing you all a wonderful summer break ahead, ready for the start of the Autumn term on 4 September.

Kind regards

Mr P Grills

Headteacher

Dear Families

We have reached the end of another academic year, and on reflection it has been hugely successful for Teddington Sixth Form. Our Year 12 students have adapted well to the academic demands of A Level, and I am confident they will continue to make huge progress in Year 13.

This half term has been extremely eventful, and students have continued to work hard following their mock exams. The focus is now on Post-18 options and we all recently travelled to the University and Careers Fare at the Emirates Stadium. This gave students the opportunity to talk to all universities in the UK and a wide range of employers on degree apprenticeships.

I was delighted to see so many students taking part in the TEFL course and our students were praised highly by the two teachers leading the sessions. All students passed the course successfully and now have the initial qualification to teach English overseas. We also had a number of Year 12 students Science students visiting the Hadron Collider in Cern, Switzerland this week and I hear the trip was a huge success.

On Wednesday this week we had a fun team-building trip to the Southbank, whereby students had to collect a number of photographs in a range of locations. The winning team collected all photos and won the £50 Nandos voucher! It is always a pleasure to see students in a different capacity and many of them rose to the challenge!

On Monday and Tuesday next week we will host our Future Pathway Days and have arranged a number of external speakers and ex-students to talk through students’ Post-18 options. This is a really valuable end to the term and should leave students in a very clear position going into the summer holidays.

I wish them all a restful break and look forward to seeing students again in September!

Kind regards

Mr P Garrett

Head of Years 12 and 13

Teddington School has been recognised as being 'ADHD Aware' as we have ADHD Ambassadors facilitating here!

Congratulations to Ms Layton, Mrs Veysey and Miss Gilling who picked up their awards at York House this week! ✨

A huge well done to everyone that participated in Sports Day across Tuesday and Wednesday. It was fantastic to see so much sportsmanship, bonding, teamwork, talent and friendship across the days.

Well done, Teddington!

The End of Year Rewards Trips saw Year 7 go Paintballing, Year 8 go to Hampton Pool, Year 9 go to Chessington WOA, Year 10 go to Thorpe Park, and our Inclusion Team go Bowling.

What a fantastic final full week we have had!

Four staff and forty-one Physics students from Years 11 to 13 have just returned from four days in Geneva.

The main purpose of the trip was to spend a full day at CERN where students benefitted from a lecture on the details of how the large hadron collider (LHC) operates, putting into practice their understanding of aspects of advanced physics – electromagnetic fields, thermodynamics, cryogenics, current electricity, relativistic mechanics and sub-atomic particles. They also got to see the different parts of the internal structure of the LHC and visit the LHC control room. In the afternoon they also enjoyed a hands-on workshop making cloud chambers using dry ice and ethanol which enabled them to observe and compare the particle tracks of alpha and beta particles in background radiation, plus tracks created by other particles such as muons. The day was rounded off with a visit to the public displays covering topics such as the “Big Bang” and stellar evolution and quantum phenomena.

A second day was spent visiting the Swiss Plasma Centre in Lausanne where research is being carried out into the cutting-edge physics of creating plasmas at extremely high temperatures and developing nuclear fusion reactors. They enjoyed a presentation by two research physicists who are specialists in the field, plus a close look at the fusion reactor, and with the use of advanced computerised measurement and imaging they also got to see fusion reactions taking place. On the same day students had a guided tour of the Einstein Museum in Berne, which is where Einstein developed his theories of the photoelectric effect and special relativity before he moved to Princeton in the United States following the rise of the Nazis in Europe. Students also got to do some sightseeing in Berne.

Other highlights included a guided tour of the European Headquarters of the United Nations which included being able to observe and listen to a conference of the United Nations Human Rights Council, and a separate conference on the rights of indigenous peoples. Students also enjoyed a very thought-provoking visit to the Museum of the International Red Cross which highlights the role of the organisation in conflicts, famines, natural disasters and in locating displaced persons. As well as this, students visited St. Peter’s Cathedral in the old part of the city where they climbed the cathedral towers to admire the vistas across the city, the lake and the mountains beyond. Finally, students enjoyed a one-hour cruise on Lake Geneva itself.

This was an exceptional opportunity for our students, and they embraced every aspect of it with interest and enthusiasm. I must congratulate all students on their conduct – it was a privilege to be responsible for them. I also thank my Science colleagues Mr Knocker, Miss Barrow and Miss Johnstone who gave me every support and who made my leadership of the trip straightforward.

Congratulations to Ary Saberi in Year 7!

Ary recently played at the Aspire all-star national basketball tournament held in Manchester. He was selected to play for London, and they achieved the silver medal (5 points away from gold!). The Aspire Programme sits at the base of the Team GB selection and is for 11- to 15-year-old basketball players originally selected from a talent pool of 20,000 boys and girls in clubs and schools nationwide.

The YouTube video of the final is posted below.

Very well done Ary from us all at Teddington!

Two of our Year 7 Science classes were involved in delivering Science Workshops to Collis and St John’s Baptist School this Summer term. Our students were amazing Science Ambassadors who were experts in their field in helping primary students to carry out the practical's and to explain the scientific phenomena that they experienced.

Aaryav G who ran one the workshops said:

The demonstration started with a bit of nerves, but that soon went away as we progressed, repeating the practical to several primary school groups. My group was working on the question as to why leaves change colour in autumn, and we were demonstrating this using a separating technique called chromatography. The students would fill in a results table for every experiment and we would explain how this relates to the question they were exploring. It was immensely satisfying to see the result of all our efforts, especially when the students thanked us for our support and help. In the end, we all felt great and proud that we had made a positive difference to the school and the local community.

Feedback from Nichola Wainwright, Science Co-ordinator at Collis Primary School:

We would like to express how grateful we are and how wonderful the experience is. It is so well organised; the content is just right, and the students are welcoming and knowledgeable - all credit to you and the Teddington team.

This year saw our largest ever entry of Physics students in the BPhO competitions – Year 13 taking part in the British Physics Olympiad; Year 12 in the Senior Physics Challenge; and Year 11 in the Intermediate Physics Challenge.

All students did incredibly well in these high profile and very demanding national competitions and all can be really proud of themselves.

The photographs show students achieving Gold and Silver in these competitions.

Well done to all! 👏

My name is Robyn, and I am halfway through my A levels at Teddington, studying Biology, Chemistry and Geography. I have recently been accepted for a volunteer teaching placement in 2025 with the charity Project Trust.

Project Trust has over 50 years’ experience of providing international volunteering opportunities for young people. My placement will be in one of three countries - Malawi, Cambodia or Ghana. I will be teaching in local schools, both English and my chosen subjects, and be involved in youth development work where I will help mentor young people who have had a difficult start in life. I will be living, working and helping within the community for up to a year. Placements are designed to meet community needs and never take work away from local people.

I know I have a lot to offer and would love the opportunity to positively impact the lives of others in such a special way, but to make this possible I need to raise the necessary funds.

I would therefore be extremely grateful if you could donate to my fund and help me achieve my goal which is linked below this text. The money raised goes directly to Project Trust to pay for the essentials such as flights, insurance and accommodation.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and any support will be massively appreciated!

Kind regards

Robyn Boynton Lavelle

1 July - Successful preloved uniform event - We’re so grateful to raise £1,500 in an afternoon.

Thank you for all those helpers sorting the gifted uniform and, on day, enable new parents to obtain 250 reasonably priced items of uniform; and thank you, Kathryn Rocha, for going above and beyond – making uniform sales more organised, frequent and assessable.

9 July (17:00 – 18:00) – Year 6 Induction disco

We welcomed 100 incoming Year 7s coming to our silent disco. We also hosted a new parent’s café at the same time. It was wonderful to see the new Year 7 cohort making friends and enjoying themselves!

11 July (19:00 onwards): PTA end of year drinks at the Anglers

Please have a look at our PTA bulletin to see our end of year annual review.

As part of South Asian Heritage Month, we are proud to welcome ENG-ER-LAND, a show produced by Hannah Kumari to Brentford FC. Please see the flyer.

ENG-ER-LAND is a one-woman show telling the story of Lizzie’s journey in football as a person with dual Indian and White British Heritage. The show is inspired by Hannah's experiences going to football matches as a teenager. ENG-ER-LAND blends storytelling, dance and music with 90s nostalgia and tackles themes of racism, identity politics, lad culture and working-class masculinity.

Please join us on Saturday 3rd August at 19:15, with tickets from £5.00 including two samosas from Samosas Direct. Please click on the poster for more information and to purchase a ticket!

Please have a read of some fantastic events and opportunities happening locally by clicking on the 'Neighbourhood News' button below.

15 & 16 July: Year 12 Future Pathways Days

15 July: Awards Morning

16 July: Term ends at 15:00

4 Sept: All students return with a staggered start. More information can be found here.