Welcome back. What a glorious summer it has been, but not before time, given the poor weather we had last year, and the extreme weather we had earlier this year. I hope that your batteries have been recharged and your reservoirs of hope and good humour refilled. As I looked around at our Staff at the start of the week I could see that this was certainly true for them.

Those of you who are not new to More House will have noticed that we seem to have a larger than number of new Staff this term. This is a combination of two things, the fact that three of our teachers are on Maternity Leave (Mrs Clapham, Mrs Smith and Mrs Adler) with one more to join them soon in the form of Mrs Hextal, and the fact that we have expanded our Staffing both to accommodate the increase in numbers that the School has experienced this year and also improve the experience your daughters have here. Our new Staff are:

Mrs  Sym (Science)

Ms Crowder (Science)

Ms Ahmed (Science)

Mrs Ricci (Science)

Mr  Garwood who is with us for this term as the Head of the PE Department

Ms Minto ~ Head of PE Department~designate

Mrs Romero (Languages)

Ms Crawley (RS and History)

Ms Powles ~ Head of Classics Department

There have also been some changes in responsibilities:

Ms Seconi ~ Head of Science ~ designate 

Ms North ~ Steward of the Household

Mr Robertson ~ Deputy Senior Teacher KS3  & Head of Santiago ~ designate 

Ms Brown ~ Senior Teacher KS3. She is also now the new Head of the Languages Department

Mrs Hamley ~ Head of RS 

Ms Devine ~ Head of VIth Form

Mrs Maudsley ~ overseeing UCCAS process 

and of course Mrs Leach  remains the  Deputy but is also Head-designate until 00.01 15th April when she becomes Head on my retirement.

I am sure that you also be pleased to hear that both Mrs Adler and Mrs Smith have had their babies, although they have had the wrong version, in that they have both had sons ~ Mrs Adler’s son is called Harrison whilst Mrs Smith is the proud mother of Dexter

We have been happy to welcome a small number of girls into Year 8 ~ 10 & LVIth to fill the occasional vacancies which developed at the end of last year as a result of families relocating. By far the largest number of new girls are to be found in Year 7. Once in every 7 years our School has the capacity to expand to three Form entry for one Year Group. Such was the over-subscription of the School, given our reputation, and the quality of the potential intake that the Governors and I made the decision to make this the year of expansion. This is why it feels like we are ankle deep in minis. However you can rest assured that we have kept our teaching groups to the maximum of 16 which is a characteristic here and with the expanded staffing, resources and facilities the educational environment remains as good as it ever was.

This year will also be exciting because it is Part 2 of our 60th Anniversary (Happy 60th Birthday to you all!) and there are some great events on the way over the year, so watch this space!

And finally: we have put up some short films of the girls’ recent activities from last year. You can find them by following the links below but please be aware that there is some explicit content on one of the soundtracks

What we believe ~ personal reflections 2012

Race for Life ~ 2013

St Thomas More’s Day 2013

(Not available on iPad)

With best wishes for a pleasant weekend

Robert Carlysle

In the weeks ahead

The Prayer in the Chapel this week:

Steer the ship of my life, Good Lord, to your quiet habour , where I can be safe from the storms of sin and conflict. Show me the course I should take

St Basil the Great (c330 – 379AD)