Excellent GCSE Results
In August we celebrated another good set of results by our Year 11s. We are particularly pleased that 71% of grades from our mixed ability class were A*-B and almost one third of grades were A*-A.
| 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 3 Year Average | National Average 2010 | |
| A* | 20% | 10% | 11% | 14% | 7.5% |
| A*-A | 48% | 25% | 31% | 35% | 23% |
| A*-B | 73% | 62% | 71% | 69% | 43% |
| A*-C | 90% | 89% | 88% | 89% | 69% |
It is important to realise that Thames is a mixed ability school and overall percentages will vary from year to year. Our willingness to tailor the curriculum to suit individual pupils has meant that in the last three years, almost every pupil achieved some B grade passes and in 2010, half our pupils achieved at least 3 A*-A grades. Our Value Add score over the past three years puts Thames in the top 5% of schools nationally.
Outstanding Ofsted Report
Our Ofsted inspection in May has highlighted the school's progression with both pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and their behaviour, judged as outstanding. The inspector also recognised the English, Art, Science, Literacy and ICT provision to be outstanding. As you may know, the assessment criteria has been tightened greatly since our last report and schools that were judged outstanding two or three years ago, are now only achieving good. In all other areas we were judged good, and we met all the statutory regulations, which is only achieved by a minority of small independent schools. The inspection process was a very positive one for us as a school and we are making sure that we continue to improve and progress to outstanding in all areas.
The Pressure Cooker of Teenage Life
Key Stage 3 pupils took part in 'The Pressure Cooker', a workshop about the pressures on teenagers to become adult too quickly. Run by Riding Lights Theatre Company, the workshop covered the influences of the media and fashion industry, how to cope with material and spiritual aspirations and find the strength and confidence to be happy with ourselves and accept others as they are. The workshop provided a creative combination of performance by the actors, interactive exercises, practical workshop and discussion.
Brief Encounter
Year 8 pupils recently spent the day at South Western Magistrates' Court to witness the court in action during a live trial. This followed a visit to the school by a prosecutor for the Probation Service who delivered an excellent session on the English legal system from arrest to sentencing as part of our Citizenship programme.
BP Enterprise Visits Thames
The BP Enterprise team visited Thames to run their commodity trading workshop at the end of March. Our hall was set up as a trading room and the whole of Years 9, 10 and 11 worked in teams to analyse news events and decide whether to buy or sell barrels of crude oil. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the experience which gave them real life insight into the economics of supply and demand and how events outside our control can dictate the vast rises and falls we see of petrol prices. Stress levels rose as the time to make decisions became shorter and the teams worked under pressure, simulating the environment in the City. Congratulations to the winning team who made the best decisions, resulting in the most profit.
Best-selling Author is New Head of English & Literacy
We are delighted to welcome Clare Constant to the Thames staff team as Head of English and Literacy. Clare is a highly experienced teacher who, for almost 20 years, has also been a best-selling author of Key Stage 3 and 4 English curriculum materials published by Pearson Education, Heinemann and Longman, and exam materials for Edexcel and NEAB (AQA). Clare studied English and for her PGCE at Cardiff University, then taught in three inner city schools, rising to Director of Curriculum.
Clare is particularly enthusiastic about empowering pupils to develop the learning and thinking skills to enable them to achieve their full potential both academically and in their personal life.
Thames Scoops National Art Awards
We were extremely pleased with the news that Thames Christian College has won the Good School's Guide Art Award for 2009 in both the boys' and girls' categories. This means that Thames has achieved the best GCSE results in Fine Art of any independent school in England from 2006 to 2008. These awards aim to highlight excellent teaching in individual subjects. David Adkins, our proud Head of Art, said, "I am delighted with these awrds which reflect the hard work and attention to detail put in by pupils over the past three years. We aim to build on these in the future." One new Year 9 pupil who loves Art commented "I'm really glad I moved schools because now I'll do much better at Art than I would have done at my previous school."
Feeling Good - Really Good
For six weeks in February/March, five of our boys were trained by top London choreographer, Lizzi Gee, in a street dance routine from the West End musical Billy Elliot. They were followed by TV cameras in this amazing journey from audition, through strenuous and exacting twice-weekly rehearsals to final filming for The Feelgood Factor, hosted by Myleene Klass and Eamonn Holmes. None of our boys had previous dance experience, but this did not matter, as the point of their participation was to show that dance is fun and good exercise. At the end of March, Yonnatan, Matthew, Theo, Joe and Ronan performed the 'angry dance' with Tom Holland, who plays Billy in the hit show. To familiarise them with the dance, the boys were taken to the show in February and were filmed meeting Tom backstage afterwards. This incredible journey culminated in two days of final rehearsals and filming in ITV's Manchester studios. The fact that the studio was right next to the Rover's Return and Coronation Street was the icing on the cake! The boys took everything in their stride, however, and were an absolute credit to the school and their parents who are so proud of them. As an additional reward, each boy was given a year's free subscription to Stagecoach Theatre School so they could continue their new-found hobby.
If you missed the fruit of their hard work shown on ITV1 on Saturday 28 March, you can catch up on this episode and the one where Myleene came to Thames to spring the surprise on them on Youtube.
School Redesigned
Our GCSE Art students had a fantastic opportunity to experience life in an architect's practice when they went to a workshop entitled Redesign the School. Project35, in Herne Hill, closed its offices for the afternoon and the four architects dedicated their time to our pupils. Initially they worked in one group, learning in broad terms what architecture is and discussing how the structure and layout of the Thames building could be improved. They then split into three groups, each with a lead architect, and were given a specific area of the school to work on: to redesign the facade; to add more floors; to redesign the entrance hall. They shared their ideas with each other and will be finalising them over the next half term to present their finished designs to Mr Holsgrove.
David Adkins, Head of Art, said that it gave the students an interesting insight into architecture, adding that if he had been given such an opportunity at school, he might have been tempted to follow architecture as a career! Ben, in Year 11, said "I was really inspired by the workshop and it confirmed that I do want to be an architect." Many thanks to all the staff at Project35 for giving up their time to allow our pupils to enjoy this unique experience.
Thames on National TV
Levi Roots, of Reggae Reggae sauce and Dragons' Den fame, and whose cafe provides our school lunches, was filmed by the BBC for a follow up programme to the "Dragon's Den". The cameras followed him for a day and filmed him preparing our school lunches and serving it to our pupils. Levi makes a point of using his experience to inspire young people and he was filmed talking to our GCSE Business Studies class about entrepreneurship. This was shown on BBC2 as part of Peter Jones' story on Sunday evening, 16 November.
