At the annual Prize Giving event at Ramsey Grammar School, Headteacher Annette Baker, praised students and staff for an excellent year’s work, resulting in the school maintaining an average 60% + pass rate of GCSEs at 5 A*-C with English and Maths over the past three years, and achieving its best ever A Level results. Mrs Baker said that the new agreed values encompassed in the Ramsey Grammar School’s 'Way of Being' would provide a springboard for future success.
Mrs Baker said:
'I pay tribute to the school’s proud history in helping us to sharpen our vision for the present and the future, enabling us to define excellence, not just in terms of exam results but in terms of the values, qualities and characteristics which define a good person, which we think should be the recognisable distinguishing features of a member of the Ramsey Grammar School family.'
Following consultation with students and staff members, it was decided that the values of responsibility, trustworthiness, respect, community, fairness and kindness were the ones that should be promoted in the school to enable everyone to be the best possible people that they can be. Mrs Baker highlighted the importance of these values starting with respect.
She commented that:
'Respect is fundamental to our quest for excellence. The students came up with expressions of what respect means in practice and in particular the phrase 'don’t do or say anything that might be hurtful or disrespectful, even if it is 'just funny' or 'banter.' Many hurtful things are said in the name of banter and I was delighted that the students themselves picked up on this and have alerted us to the damage that it can cause.'
Mrs Baker reminded parents of their responsibility with regards to students’ attendance, making a direct connection with poor attendance and under-performance at GCSE and A Level. She also made it clear that the support of parents and carers with the Ramsey 'Way of Being' was essential to ensure the school’s future successful development.
In her address Mrs Baker highlighted the excellent achievements of the GCSE and A Level students. With the average of 60% + 5 A*- C with English and Maths passes over the past three years, an extra 30 students per year are achieving this important benchmark. She praised Louisa Burton, Samantha Hassall and Amelia Manning who obtained the school’s best results at GCSE this year. At A Level, Mrs Baker said that the excellent results achieved were 'a reflection of the quality of teaching and on the positive attitude to learning of our students.' A Level collaboration with QEII and Castle Rushen High School is going from strength to strength. The best individual results at A Level were achieved by Matthew Simpson, Georgina Coates and Ben Roobottom who have gained places at their preferred choice of university, Matthew and Ben studying medicine and Georgina reading Natural Sciences.
Mrs Baker told the assembled audience, including His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, Sir Richard Gozney, of:
'The increasing range of activities offered by the school to support learning, recreation and wellbeing. This included reference to Live Screening at the Northern Theatre Experience, the Parents’ Association Film Nights and the school’s promotion of wellbeing, recently recognised by Isle of Man Newspapers in the shortlisting for the Award for Excellence for Workplace Wellbeing.'
Mrs Baker concluded:
'As we reflect on the achievements of the past year and look forward to the future, we do so in full confidence that this school will continue to go from strength to strength, founded on a Way of Being which defines who we are and which makes our school a places where we all want to be.'
Mrs Baker paid tribute to the hard work of all staff and thanked long standing members of staff who left RGS at the end of the last academic year, Rosie Allison, Nikki Arthur, Kath Brown and Rachel Smith, for their contribution to the success of the school.
Students from all key stages delivered presentations to celebrate the successes of their fellow students and were complimented on this by His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, Sir Richard Gozney in his closing address.
