Co-Educational Grammar School
flourish academically and personally. Its culture is exceptionally happy and welcoming. Pupils enjoy coming here and parents and carers are extremely supportive of the school” Ofsted
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Chesham Grammar School. In my view educcating other people’s children is a real privilege. It brings with it a huge responsibility to do all we can to prepare them for Adulthood by offering the best possible allround education. Our students arrive in Year 7 as young children. By the time they leave, which for the vast majority is at the end of Year 13, they are adults, old enough to vote and to do most of the other things adults in our society can do. It is our responsibility, in partnership with parents, to mould them into the leaders of tomorrow, to develop in them the skills and qualities necessary to meet the demands of the twenty first century. Over the course of their very long working lives – many will be in to their 70s before they can retire – they will probably have jobs which have not even been thought of yet. Our society is ever changing, and it is vital that we educate our students to cope with this.
results so that they have access to the very top universities including Oxford and Cambridge and a career of their choice. Of course, success is not only measured in terms of exam grades but by the influence one has on the world and we seek to ensure that CGS students are articulate, confident and courageous as well as resilient, openminded and tolerant. Above all, we want them to be happy, believing that happiness is crucial to an individual’s success. We want CGS students to enjoy school and to have fun both in and out of the classroom. besides; there really is something for everyone. A huge number of visits and other activities support the curriculum, enhancing the learning of students and enriching their all-round experience. All of this takes place within a co-educational environment where our young men and women learn to live and work effectively together. We believe this prepares them for life which is, after all, co-ed! I hope this prospectus, which expands on what I have outlined here, will give you a flavour of the richness of life at CGS. Best wishes CGS is forward thinking, innovative and ambitious. Ofsted rated the School ‘outstanding’ in all areas in 2025. However, in our view ‘outstanding’ does not mean ‘perfect’ so we continually seek ways in which we can further improve. We aspire to provide an exceptional educational experience. We unashamedly strive for excellence in all that we do, setting very high standards and inspiring our students with first-rate teaching. As a consequence of that and of the hard work we expect, our examination results are superb. There are of course many other facets to life at CGS. There is a rich and varied extra-curricular programme with sport, music and drama all being very highly valued. We enjoy significant success in these areas and in many more Annmarie McNaney Headteacher
describe the school as a ‘wonderful community’.” Ofsted “Students we met were perfect ambassadors for the School – quietly confident, understatedly charming and not remotely precocious.” Good Schools Guide “The environment and ethos of CGS has challenged me to reach my goals whilst having a lot of fun along the way.” Year 13 student
EXCELLENCE Parents who send their child to CGS expect that they will leave with outstanding examination results and rightly so. Examination preparation is only one part of life at CGS but it is, of course, vitally important and we take it seriously. Academic qualifications are a key element of an individual’s CV throughout life and we therefore do all we can to ensure our students leave us with the best possible examination results. When a student joins us in Year 7, they start a journey which for most will last seven years and from that very first day, we instil in them a desire to strive for high standards, for their own personal best. Our GCSE and A level results are excellent not just in raw terms but also in the context of what we call ‘value-added’. Such measures, which seek to identify the progress each individual child makes during his or her time in the school, show that our students make outstanding progress. The achievement of our students consistently places us as one of the top co-educational state schools in the country. Students leaving CGS progress to the very best academic institutions including Oxford and Cambridge. We do all we can to support them to make the right choices about life beyond school. Our broad and balanced curriculum is good preparation for, and leads our students onto, many undergraduate courses ranging from medicine to law, engineering to accounting and forensic psychology to creative arts. “Thank you, CGS, for helping me to get fantastic A level results and to fulfil a potential I didn’t know I had!” Year 13 leaver “Pupils develop as enthusiastic and curious learners and achieve impressive results in public examinations.” Ofsted
OUR CURRICULUM CURRICULUM Our curriculum is broad and balanced. It is carefully designed to support our students to become Our curriculum is broad and balanced. It is confident and independent learners, ultimately able carefully designed school. As our students to to adapt to life beyondto support you would expect, itbecome confidentby rigour and breadth and is is characterised and independent learners, effectively supported by homework which forms an ultimately able to adapt to life beyond school. As important element of each student’s learning from you would expect, it is characterised by rigour and the very start of their CGS career. breadth and is effectively supported by homework which forms key stage 3 element traditional All students in an important follow a of each student’s learning from very start to study curriculum which includes the opportunity of their two modern foreign languages, design technology, CGS career. drama and lifeskills. In Year 9, students are given careful advice and are well supported as All choose in key stage 3 follow a traditional they students their CGSE options. curriculum which includes the opportunity to study two modern foreign languages, design At GCSE, all students take ten examination technology, drama and lifeskills. English subjects: mathematics, English language,In Year 9, students are three sciences.advice and then given careful literature and all There are are well supported of student’s choice, one of four other subjects as athey choose their CGSE options. which must be a language and one a humanities subject such as history, geography or religious choice, oneWewhich must be a language and one to studies. of also strongly encourage students a choose a creative or practical subject. In Year 11, humanities subject such as history, geography orstudents make their A level choices andencouragevery religious studies. We also strongly again are carefully guided in this process. The vast majority students to choose a creative or practical subject. of our students choose to stay into our Sixth Form. In Year 11, students make their A level choices and again are very carefullynew subjects on offer which At A level, there are guided in this process. The vast majority of our curriculum.choose include students These to add further breadth to psychology, sociology, stay into our Sixth Form. government and politics and photography. Students studying mathematics can Atalso level, there are new subjects on offer A opt for further mathematics in the Sixth Form. which add further breadth to our curriculum. These include psychology, sociology, government and politics and photography. Students studying mathematics can also opt for further mathematics in the Sixth Form. At GCSE, all students take ten examination subjects: mathematics, English language, English literature and all three sciences. There are then four other subjects of a student’s “The school’s curriculum provides breadth and depth. Its ambitions exceed the scope of national and examination expectations.” Ofsted
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