Saracens High School, which opened in 2018, just received their first set of GCSE results; and we’re delighted! We open our sixth form this September and will welcome 150 students, both new and returning, into Year 12. 

Many pupils came into school with their familes on results day in August. Farhiya and Iziah are just two of our pupils who, along with their families, were overjoyed with their results.

Farhiya achieved eight grade 9s and three grade 8s and is joining Saracens Sixth Form to study A Levels in Chemistry, Physics and Maths. ‘I did it!’ exclaimed Fariya. Farhiya’s mother, who works at the school, said ‘Thank you to the amazing teachers; all the help has paid off.’ 

Iziah is joining the innovative Saracens Sixth Form Pre-Apprenticeship Programme and will be spending three days a week at school and two days in a local business. He hopes to start an apprenticeship at the end of the one-year Pre-Apprencticeship course. 

Principal Matthew Stevens was delighted with the pupils’ GCSE results:

‘We are extremely proud of all our pupils today, and thrilled for their families. They have been rewarded for all their hard work and effort with many outstanding results. This will set them up well for the future as they enter the sixth form to study A Levels, T Levels, or the Pre-Apprenticeship programme. 

It was particularly pleasing to see the level of consistency across subjects which included outstanding performance in many subjects. I would like to thank our incredibly talented and committed staff who helped our pupils achieve so well.’

Kevin Perry, Chair of the Saracens Multi-Academy Trust, remarked on the significance of school’s first set of GCSE results:

‘This is a truly significant day in the continuing development of our wonderful school as we celebrate the first real set of public exam results. I would like to congratulate all our pupils on what they have achieved today, especially against the backdrop of all the disruption they have suffered over the last few years .’

On the penultimate day of the school year we held a Summer Fair for our pupils, families and community. What a brilliant afternoon!

This was our first ever Summer Fair and it was organised by our formidable Pupil Leadership Team. In glorious July sunshine guests enjoyed games, barbecue food, face-paints and some special activities like the inflatable sumo suits and bungee run!

Thank you so much to the Pupil Leadership Team for organising such a wonderful event and for staff who helped on the day. Money raised will go towards the school’s charities.

In this year’s Pearson National Teaching Awards a number of our amazing team received commendations.

Congratulations to Mrs Luscombe for receiving a certificate of excellence in the category ‘Secondary School Teacher of the Year’. Since arriving in the third year of our school’s life, Mrs Luscombe has made History one of the most popular KS4 options. No one walks into her classroom without becoming engaged in the lesson. She is extremely popular with pupils and teachers alike and has had a tremendous impact on pupils’ enjoyment of reading since taking up the responsibility of Literacy Lead.

Ms Gruszka received a certificate of excellence in the category ‘Teaching Assistant of the Year’. Ms Gruszka’s dedication to pupils’ wellbeing goes above and beyond what educators usually give and her work with our EAL (English as an additional language) pupils is second-to-none. In praise of Ms Gruszka one teacher remarked that, “she makes miracles happen and she changes pupils’ lives forever.”

Miss Alexa was highly commended in the category ‘Excellence in Special Needs Education’. Miss Alexa is kind and caring and puts the pupils at the centre of everything she does. She has developed the Grow and Thrive team to offer our pupils a range of interventions including EAL, SALT, Literacy, Numeracy and Emotional Wellbeing to help pupils reach their potential. Miss Alexa is a cherished core member of our Saracens family.

As a school we also received a certificate of excellence in the category ‘Secondary School Making a Difference.’ What a privilege, for pupils and staff, to belong to this school.

It seems to have been a mere blink of an eye and we are at the end of the academic year. This has been another significant year for us, and I was delighted to see so many people at the Celebration of Achievement evening which highlighted the many positive events that have taken place this year.

You will notice that this is not our old format of an end of year newsletter, as we have now moved online. The large end of term documents have been replaced by more frequent celebrations and updates online. Please see the website for more details.

This year our first cohort of pupils, who joined us in September of 2018, worked very hard in the build up to their end of Key Stage 4 exams and it was encouraging to hear that they felt staff had prepared them very well for those challenges.

We also launched the Saracens Sixth Form this year, which received over 300 applications for September 2023. Most will be studying A Levels, but the new T Levels in Health and Digital, which will be supported by Middlesex University and include extended industry placements in businesses, are going to be revolutionary in education.

We also are launching our Pre-Apprenticeship pathway, which will support young people into work within one year. If you are a local business owner and are interested in the possibility of offering apprenticeships to Saracens students, please get in touch. 

At the end of each academic year it is always sad to say goodbye to colleagues as they move to pastures new. This year we say goodbye to: Mr Guez, who was one of the original ten teachers back in 2018, and we are grateful for all he has done to support pupils, set up the music curriculum as well as leading extracurricular music activities; Mrs Cenci is retiring after launching the extremely successful Food curriculum; Ms Saccaro and Miss Qureshi are both moving away to be closer to family; Mr Morraies is leaving teaching for a while to have time with his family; Mrs Waller and Miss Hirst are leaving to take up Subject Lead posts, in Science and Geography respectively, at schools in Hertfordshire; Miss Goodard is returning to full-time study; and we also say goodbye and good luck to three colleagues who have only been with us for a year – Miss Bretske, Dr Tolchenove, and Mr O’Dwyer. We are grateful to all these colleagues for the contribution they have made to our community and we wish them the best of luck for the future. We also wish good luck to Mrs Levy (nee Chilton) who will begin her maternity leave before the beginning of the new year. We look forward to welcoming her back at the end of the next year.

We are growing again, so we have a number of new staff joining us next year and we have already been joined by Miss Stevens (no relation), who takes over Languages from Miss Saccaro, and Mrs Simons, who is leading our Sixth Form.

I hope you have a safe and enjoyable summer break and look forward to welcoming everyone back in September, or seeing the Year 11s on results day (24 August).