Press Release: New headteacher announced for AHS

Mrs Forster becomes the 7th Headteacher at Aylesbury High School and is passionate about creating a welcoming environment.

The prestigious Aylesbury High School has a new headteacher – only the seventh in its history – after a ‘rigorous’ recruitment process.

Aylesbury High School’s Governing Board announced the appointment of Mrs Marieke Forster as the Headteacher following a rigorous recruitment process assisted by recruitment consultants, Saxton Bampfylde.

The school announced there was a very strong field but said it was the ‘unanimous decision of the Governing Board to appoint Mrs Forster’.

Aylesbury High School is an ‘Outstanding’ rated girls grammar school renowned for its excellent exam results which have placed it amongst the best schools in the country.

The school says it balances its academic success with a wide ranging, challenging and inspiring co-curricular programme and prides itself on inclusive pastoral care.

And its new head says she is ‘honoured to lead the amazing school and its students’.

“I would like to say how delighted and honoured I am to accept the role of Headteacher here at Aylesbury High School, and how much I am looking forward to contributing to the success of this amazing school and its incredible students,” Mrs Forster said.

“I am excited about the opportunity to lead and work with such a talented and dedicated community; I believe that, together, we will continue to grow our positive and engaging learning environment that inspires our students to achieve their full potential, to make our girls walk tall.”

The appointment cements the stability she has brought to Aylesbury High School since being appointed acting Headteacher in the Autumn Term.

Helen Bush and Kate Weir, co-chairs of the Governing Board said: “We are excited to continue working with Mrs Forster and look forward to seeing AHS nurture independent young women with strength and confidence through her leadership.”

Mrs Forster becomes only the seventh headteacher at Aylesbury High School and says she is passionate about creating a welcoming environment which draws the very best out of all in the community.

She says she aims to do this by providing an ambitious education that stimulates critical thinking, values diversity and facilitates dynamic personal development.

Press Release: AHS GCSE Results ‘buck the national trend’

Aylesbury High School’s (AHS) Year 11 students have excelled in their GCSE results released today, Thursday 25 August. This year’s results are even more remarkable as these were achieved following a significantly disrupted two year period of study. They have also ‘bucked’ the national trend of results going down on last year’s teacher awarded scores, by increasing the number of top grades awarded. The results were so good that the most common grade achieved by the Year group was the top grade (Grade 9), with 35.8% of all grades being a Level 9, up from 26.1% last year.  

The Head of Year 11, Miss Kilkenny, commented ‘These students have worked so hard during the challenging period of lockdowns and remote learning that they thoroughly deserve this great set of results’.

Headteacher, Giles Scoble, added ‘These results are a credit to all of our students, and also show the support and encouragement they have had from both staff and their parents/carers. One student gained eleven GCSEs; with ten at grade 9 and a grade 8. Another six students gained ten straight grade 9s with nearly half the year group getting ten or more grade 7s or above. Particularly encouraging was that many students improved on their target grades and nearly all secured the grades they needed to progress to our Sixth Form.

The Assistant Head responsible for KS4, Olivia Raven,  added; ‘We are really proud of all of our Year 11 students. They engaged with remote learning during the lockdowns, adapted to ‘Plan B assessments’ and this was in addition to all the normal challenges that accompany any set of public exams. It is great to see the range of subjects these students have excelled in; not just the traditional academic subjects.’

The headteacher continued; ‘An incredible 86% of the year group got seven or more Grade 7s, with the average score being equivalent to a high A-grade under the old system. This complements the ‘stellar’ A-level results gained last week by Year 13 students and confirms AHS’ reputation as a top academic school that develops the whole student. These results exemplify how our students respond to our aim of ‘Inspiring every student to seek Challenge and be Prepared for the world of today and tomorrow’. We look forward to seeing them continue to develop as they enter the Sixth Form and look forward to seeing them in September.

Press Release: Aylesbury High A-Level results 2022

AHS A-level students have passed with flying colours and we wish them well, wherever their plans take them!

We are delighted to report an outstanding set of exam A-Level results at AHS this year, which are a credit and a testament to the hard work, dedication and support of our students, staff and parents over the past two years.

Grade Percentage of entries at that grade
A* 28.3%
A*-A 60.0%
A*-B 83.0%
A*-E 100%

With the return to public examinations, exam boards set the grade boundaries to give a national distribution between the last set of public exams in 2019 and the ‘high point’ of the CAGs awarded in 2021. At AHS we are delighted that we have actually seen our results increase on the grades we awarded in 2021 year; with the average grade gained by a student being an A grade. This also reflects the move to additional teaching time in Year 12 and a renewed focus on Teaching and Learning at AHS.

Our results are a credit to all of our students, but maybe of particular note is that 27 students gained 3 or more A*s and 77 students gained 3 or more A*-A grades. One student gained 4A*s and an A grade to secure their place at medical school, with five others gaining four straight A*s.

Whilst grades are important, it is the opportunities that these grades offer our students that are paramount; something we refer to as ‘next steps’. We are thrilled at least eight of our Oxbridge students secured their places, as did all fifteen of our medic applicants. There were also places gained at Veterinary Medicine and Dentistry.  Our students are going to places as far afield as Aberystwyth to East Anglia and Brighton to Edinburgh, studying Ancient History through to Zoology. 

Whilst I have highlighted some of our ‘top achievers’, we have been hugely impressed by all of our students and how they have coped with the past two years. We are proud of each and every one of them. They have engaged with their studies throughout the lockdowns, remote learning, ‘Plan B assessments’ and all the usual stresses and strains that come with any set of public exams. This group of students also did not sit their GCSEs (due to the first lockdown), so this was their first set of public exams to test them.

AHS A-level students have passed with flying colours and we are confident that they will continue to make a real difference wherever they choose to go!

Eco-Schools Green Flag with Distinction awarded to AHS for 2021/22

This year has been a landmark in the world of all things Eco, with COP26 coming to our shores. We were lucky enough to have students directly involved, as well as hosting our own student led mock COP26. We have also launched a Facebook group dedicated to preloved uniform and increased our recycling capacity to include film plastic, pens and medication packs. We have worked with Oxford University and the Wildlife Trust as well as producing videos and assemblies to educate all of our students. Our journey has been a labour of love for all those involved.

These are just a few of the activities that enabled us to achieve our Green Flag Award this year with Distinction. The students have worked so hard and our dedicated team of Earth club attendees deserve this fantastic achievement. They should be very proud of themselves. There will be celebratory hot chocolate on Friday (vegan, of course 😉 ).

 

If you want to learn about our initiatives, please visit the Eco School web page.

 

 

Vikki Burt (Mrs, she/her)

Teacher of Biology and Psychology, Eco-coordinator for BSSN

Year 8 Homes for the Future Design Competition 2022

Last half term all of year 8 took part in a Design Competition whereby they worked in small teams to ‘design a house for the future’. 

They worked on this for two registration mornings per week and also had talks from specialists within the industry such as Architects, Low Carbon Emissions and House Building companies.

The standard of the work presented was fantastic and the judges at Fairhive Homes were spoilt for choice when it came to the winners. 

There was a Highly Commended team from each tutor group and three winning teams from 8M, 8W and 8A.

Thanesa, Isabel and Darcey (pictured) were the overall winners but congratulations must go to all the teams recognised.

Mrs Saunders