Welcome back to you all.

I hope you’ve had a relaxing and restful few weeks and that the batteries are recharged for the coming term.

We welcome a huge number of new pupils, and also a number of new staff –I’ll start by introducing them in turn. Mrs Orr joins the Maths Department to cover the maternity leave of Mrs Howes, whose daughter Elizabeth is safely arrived, I’m delighted to say. Mrs Morgan is also on maternity leave and Mr Taylor steps up to become Acting Head of Department with immediate effect from the start of this term – I wish him well with that, as I do Mrs Walters who will step in to cover Mrs Morgan’s teaching.

Miss Matthews joins us as Head of Geography, Mrs Rodriguez joins the Modern Foreign Languages Department, as does Miss Verdon.

Mr Shields moves to Wiltshire from London as Head of ICT, M s Vogwell returns as a member of the Economics and Business Studies Department, in which department we also welcome Mr Andrew. Mrs George joins the English Department and Mrs Mace steps up to become Head of Department for RS.

The Senior School also welcomes a new team of Sports and House Tutors, including for this term Mr Martin, plus for the entire year Miss Webb, Miss Jobson and Mr Cartwright. Mr Reilly returns as Rugby Coach for the term, I’m delighted to say – thereafter he will take over from Mr Martin as a Sports and House Tutor.

It has been a very busy summer, with a whole shift round in departmental areas. I won’t try to baffle you now by explaining where everything is – suffice to say that some departments have been re-located – I am sure you will soon get the hang of it! There has also been a huge injection of new IT facilities around the campus, plus a refurbishment of the Sixth Form Centre which now boasts its own bar area.

In terms of our own staff and pupils, there has also been a trip to Norway, in which Mr Wicks stepped in for the injured Mr Crinion. I look forward to hearing more about that. CCF Summer Camp took place at RAF St Mawgen, near Newquay, and was attended by 28 cadets and three adults: Mr Hayward, Mr Edwards and Alice Charteris (OV), leaving on the Saturday after the end of term. I am told that the cadets behaved impeccably and were a credit to the school, their behaviour, enthusiasm and attitude eliciting a series of positive comments from the staff from other schools, as well as from the regular Army instructors. That’s good to hear – well done to you all.

In addition there was a highly successful Ecuador Trip about which I look forward to hearing more (perhaps a school assembly might wish to hear about this early this term) – I do know that the trip was very successful indeed and that the participants, once again, were a credit to the school.

More recently, there has been a good deal of pre-season activity including a rugby tournament over this last weekend and the girls’ 1^stXI hockey played a match against West Wilts here on Saturday.Our new team of prefects are ready to hit the ground running after two days of rigorous prefect training, as well as a prefects’ supper on Sunday evening – I wish them well as they assume their important roles of leadership at the top of the school.

A word on examination results. IB results saw our headline figure for IB points per candidate go up for the third consecutive year – many thanks to all involved in that and particular thanks to Mrs Wilson for her hard work as IB Coordinator. As Headmaster I would commend to you all the support the staff offer the pupils here on and after results day – I witnessed this for myself this summer, as in the past: I was very impressed by the level of support which the staff here offered our GCSE, A Level and IB students. I’ve worked at many schools and not seen such a professional and caring approach elsewhere. Turning to the A Level results, perhaps the most pleasing aspect of our results was the achievement of a 100% pass rate in all subjects at A2. Top scholars included Nick Bourne, with A grades in Physics, Geography and Biology to add to his A* Extended Project, and Hollie Andrews, whose grades included an A grade in Art and one of the new A* grades in Photography. A* grades were achieved in a diverse range of subjects including Art, Business Studies and Mathematics. Kien Du achieved 3 A grades and Jeff Tsang 4 A grades. They’re not here, of course – many will be off to university shortly, whilst others start their Gap years – we send them our congratulations in their absence and our best wishes for the future.

In terms of GCSEs, we were delighted by what was by some criteria the best ever set of results at this school. 96% of GCSE students achieved 5 or more A*-C grades (that’s 6% up on last year, which is a great achievement). Over 45% of all pass grades were at A or A*. There were a number of very strong departmental performances and it may be invidious to pick out some, but the core subjects of English, Mathematics and Science set a very high standard, with 99% of all entries achieving a grade C or above. Separate sciences all obtained 100% grade B and above, endorsing the School’s decision to introduce IGCSE Science from this September. Excellence was in evidence across the board with a wide range of subjects achieving 100% A* - C pass rate. There were a number of very strong performances but I will congratulate those separately on another occasion, soon. All in all, these three sets of results (IB, A Level and GCSE) show that the school is on a strongly upward trajectory, and that is because of the hard work of our pupils but also down to the dedication of academic and support staff.

Finally, I’d like to mention a theme which came to me in reading all the reports at the end of last term. As I hope you know, I am a great believer in a broad view of education: exam results are important – of course they are – but life is broader than that, and what you get in terms of character and life skills from the whole range of what we do here – music, art, drama, sport, CCF, Duke of Edinburgh, trips abroad, I could go on, but you get the picture – all these are invaluable. I was really heartened and enthused by the number of pupils giving so much of themselves across the range of school activities, squeezing the most out of every drop of opportunity available here. That sort of whole-hearted commitment to a broad and holistic education is what I call the “Warminster Ethos” – I am thrilled that so many of you are buying into it so fully.

For people just joining our school community, and for some returning pupils who haven’t yet seen the value of this “Warminster Ethos”, let me explain the benefits further: this is a place characterised by a can-do attitude – it isn’t a place paralysed by self-consciousness. It is a place to get stuck in to the whole range of different opportunities available here, to make the most of what is on offer, to try your hand at new things. Don’t worry about looking foolish or excessively keen, because the only true foolishness is not having a go for fear of not looking cool. Life is too short. So make the most of it, get stuck in, and squeeze every drop of opportunity out of your time here. People often say that school is a preparation for life and of course in some ways that has to be true. But at another level – school isn’t a preparation for life – it is life –so don’t think of it as a rehearsal. Get involved – have a good term.