Dear Parents and Carers

Well today’s lunchtime was a messy one. Our students have been queuing up (literally) for the chance to pie their teacher – all in the name of charity of course.

The event was organised by our Sixth Form Student Leaders to raise money for the Oddballs Foundation (a charity raising awareness of testicular cancer), who also came to support the event.

Thank you to the Sixth Formers who planned and led the event so brilliantly, to all those students who took part, to the Oddballs Foundation….and a massive thanks to the teachers who volunteered to be pied. Such good sports.

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Dear Parents and Carers

Wednesday night was Rock Night at Myton – an annual event where students from Year 7 to Year 12 get to showcase their tremendous musical and vocal talents. The audience were treated to renditions of Kings of Leon’s ‘Use Somebody’, Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’, Queen’s classic ‘We Will Rock You’ and my favourite, Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. I’m always amazed by the students’ talents, and the hard work and dedication it takes to reach that point. Thank you to everyone who came to support.

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Dear Parents and Carers

Back when my lad was tiny (long before he discovered tech, hormones and what an absolute embarrassment his Mum and Dad are), he used to enjoy a bedtime story, particularly a Julia Donaldson book. One such yarn was called “A Squash and a Squeeze”, a tale of a woman who felt her house was too small. So after seeking advice, was told to pack every animal on her farm inside the house, live like that for a while and wouldn’t you know it, when they were all released, her house didn’t feel so small after all. 

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Dear Parents and Carers

Yesterday we welcomed Karenjeet Kaur Bains back to Myton, who left in 2015 and has achieved great success as a British powerlifter, being the first Sikh woman to represent her country at both the European and World Championships. Karenjeet is the winner of three Gold and two Silver Commonwealth Powerlifting medals, the five times All England Powerlifting Champion and five times British Powerlifting Champion. She also holds the Guinness World Record for the “Most Bodyweight Squats in a minute” – so many achievements and she’s not finished yet! However, you may know her better as Athena from The Gladiators, which explained the excited staff running to find her and then leaving with signed photos, obviously for their kids. I am delighted that she visited us and will continue to do so, she is one of our very many inspiring students.

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Dear Parents and Carers

I end this term by sharing photos of the work going on in school in preparation for our new modular village, and the exciting 3D visualisations showing how the buildings will look once completed. The modular buildings are due at the end of July, but we are having regular meetings and are pushing for the end of June, so watch this space!

Best wishes

Andy Perry

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Dear Parents and Carers

Later today you will receive a letter about our proposal to join the Stowe Valley Multi Academy Trust (MAT). Please check your SchoolPost account for this letter which outlines our proposal and gives information on how you can raise any questions or views.

Please also look out on SchoolPost for my letter about our Parent Governor vacancy. Parent governors are a vital part of our governing board, helping ensure that the board is connected with parents.

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Dear Parents and Carers

Our annual Careers and Apprenticeships Fair took place this week. This is always a fantastic and well attended event, and this year was no exception. Students, parents and carers spoke to representatives from 40 local businesses, colleges and universities about the opportunities available to students when they leave school, including career choices, apprenticeships and higher education pathways.

Thank you to our Careers Advisor Mrs Wedgbrow, for organising this event, the students and their families who attended, and finally to the many exhibitors who made this such a successful and informative evening.

Best wishes

Andy Perry

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Dear Parents and Carers

We had a really nice evening with our Year 8s and their parents and carers yesterday as they considered their Year 9 curriculum. We have made some changes to this process over recent years and feel that it now balances the needs of students to have a broad curriculum together with the skills they will require. Students progressing into Year 9 will maintain nearly all their current subjects but where we do facilitate some choice is around the creative and technical subjects. Whilst the traditional “English Baccalaureate” subjects of English, Maths, Science, Humanities and Languages certainly provide a balanced and strong education, especially if a student is likely to progress to university, we must also keep in mind that students making these choices now won’t retire until around 2080. 

To be successful until this date will require creativity and confidence in using technology. Therefore, our Year 9 curriculum brings into play subjects such as Photography, Creative imedia, Computer Science and the Arts, allowing students to choose some new experiences whilst keeping the core subjects, Humanities and Languages. Then, at the end of Year 9 these students will choose which subjects to take forward to GCSE having had a far broader range of experiences from which to make an informed choice.

It is always a nice evening discussing these options with the Year 8s and their parents and carers and I thank all those who came last night. 

Best wishes

Andy Perry

Dear Parents and Carers

In between celebrating our good news on getting a school rebuild, we have been pushing and pushing a particular exam board to get adjustments for our Year 11 music students. Alerting the exam boards to our RAAC situation was one of the first things we did, and they all went straight to their default offer of extensions for coursework. We have taken advantage of this where needed but for our musicians it isn’t that simple, they have lost their facilities and for the first half term couldn’t access any of their coursework at all so an extension is of little use, particularly extending into the GCSE exam season.

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It is with great pleasure I can announce that Myton will now get a school rebuild.  We got the call yesterday afternoon from the DfE confirming this and whilst it has been a protracted process and, at times, a bit of a battle, it is brilliant news.  Our students and this community deserve to have the very best school and some of our buildings are tired and old, and although they contain some great memories (and a lovely big office with a balcony for me), they are past their useful life and cost a fortune to maintain. 

Myton has been put into the Schools Rebuild Programme.  This means that all our buildings will be assessed on their conditions so we expect that along with the RAAC area of lower school, upper school will also get replaced as it is 70 years old with all the same issues as lower school apart from the RAAC.  The rest of our buildings are far newer so will most likely remain, but this is speculation at this point, we will have a far more detailed picture at some time in the summer term as well as a timeline.  However, we do know that following the assessment of our buildings and the decision as to what gets rebuilt, there is a design phase, then planning and also going out to tender.  After that, a build of this size will be two years or so meaning the whole process could take up to 4 years. 

In the meantime, we continue to push the delivery of our modular build which will give us lots of space and lovely big rooms to use whilst everything else continues.  It is important the students currently at Myton get the best facilities and the modular build will provide this.  On top of that, Oakley School is on track, so we are scheduled to take full possession of our new building at the front in September.

Overall, this year has been and will continue to be a battle but from next year we will have more space than ever, great rooms and can enjoy them until we move into our brand new Myton School.  The future looks far brighter now than it did in September, and in the meantime, I’ll continue to enjoy my view and balcony!

With best wishes for half term

Andy Perry – Head Teacher