OFSTED published it's annual report today, November 20th, naming JHGS as one of this year's outstanding providers. The full list can be found at http://live.ofsted.gov.uk/outstandingproviders/index.cfm?fuseaction=outstanding200708 This rating is a reflection of the excellent OFSTED report last year as well as all the hard work by members of the school community.

This week is anti-bullying week and the theme of this year's is 'Being Differnt, belonging together'. There will be an number of different activities run in school helping to raise the awareness of this important issue. A briefing sheet, prepared by the anti-bullying alliance, can be downloaded from the all newsletters and correspondence section of this website.

Exciting news but news which will create some inconvenience. Parents will be aware that we have been looking to refurbish our Dining Hall and enhance the catering provision we offer to students, staff and visitors. To achieve this, we have entered a partnership with a new provider - Innovate. Together we aim to redecorate and refurnish our Dining Hall to make it a much more attractive and multi purpose area. There will be a mix of seating areas providing more relaxed seating as well as dining tables. The servery will be altered and there will be a number of separate food centres. The facility will be staffed all day enabling sixth formers, staff, visitors etc. to access refreshments between 8.00 a.m. and 5.00 p.m. A wide range of meals and snacks will be offered and School Council will be regularly consulted regarding the quality and range of food and choosing particular “theme days”. There will also be outdoor covered eating areas outside the canteen. The room has already been equipped (as part of our IT work over the summer) with a wireless network enabling students to use laptops in the room. The refurbishment is being funded by the schools’ Capital Funds and by Innovate and (importantly) from donations made by parents through annual/ monthly donations. We should like to launch the new room and associated catering in January 2009. It will be particularly exciting if students can return in January to a completed facility. To achieve this, we need to close the current room on 1 December and start the building. Clearly this means we cannot provide our current range of service from that date. In particular we shall not be offering hot food. Innovate will provide sandwiches/rolls etc. and we would encourage students to bring packed lunches during this period. The entitlement to free school meals will still exist but lunch will be provided as above rather than hot food during this period.

On Thurs 18th December, there is a Talent Show at Cressex School. John Hampden is looking to send along 4 'acts'. Auditions take place in the hall on Thurs 20th and Fri 21st November at lunchtime.

The beginners' concert will be held on Thursday 13th November. It starts at 6.30pm and since it's a free concert no tickets are required.

Charlie and Liam have both been selected in the England Hockey U16 Training Squad. This is a significant achievement for the two of them, who also represent Wycombe Hockey Club. Well done.

The 2nd annual JHGS/WHS Higher Education and Careers fair will be held on Nov 6th from 6pm - 8.30pm at WHS. Information to help you make the most of this event can be downloaded from the other section in newsletters and correspondence.

The autumn half term holiday starts at 3.40pm on Friday 24th October. It has been a very busy term with many changes at JHGS. Good luck to the football and rugby teams who are touring France and to the large number of year 11 students visiting some of the WW1 battlefields. Have a good week.

Over the last few months we have been developing the JHGS Learning Gateway. This provides access to the school's network and other resources, will support student's learning and will ultimately also parents to follow their son's progress. The finishing touches are being made this term but the site is now live with most features working. There is a short user guide in the 'all newsletters and correspondence' section of this website. This is an exciting and significant development in our aim of increasing our use of ICT to support teaching and learning, and we believe that the Gateway is the first of its type in Buckinghamshire.

This production is being performed at Holmer Green Village Centre on Wednesday 29th and Thursday 30th October (tickets - £8.00 each) and Friday 31st Oct and Saturday 1st November (tickets £12.50 each which includes a ploughmans supper).Start time: 7.45 pm. To obtain tickets or further information call the box office on: 01494 714391