Monday 3rd November | Head of School Letter
Welcome back, I hope you had an enjoyable half-term.
After a busy start to the academic year, there’s more of the same to come with an equally dynamic second half of the Autumn term. We’ve got the Year 13 mock examinations, the Outward Bound trip for Year 10, Science trips for a number of year groups, the eagerly anticipated High School Musical production, our annual Celebration of Achievement Evening, and Parents' Evenings. Wishing our Sikh families a happy Gurpurab later this week.
Independent Learning Success!
The first half-term saw students putting in some truly exceptional effort on our digital learning platforms and in their reading. Their commitment to Prepare, Aspire, Succeed is clearly paying dividends across the curriculum!
A huge well done to our younger year groups for consistently staying ahead with their Sparx Science homework. Year 7 leads the way with an impressive 87% completion rate, followed closely by Year 8 at 75%. This consistency is crucial for building a strong foundation in Science. Congratulations are especially due to 7y/Sc1 and 8y/Sc1 for achieving a perfect 100% completion this week!
The commitment to independent learning is clear from the Sparx Maths data too. So far this year, our students have answered over 320,000 questions correctly and spent an incredible 3,668 hours engaged in personalised learning—a true measure of dedication! Perfect weekly completion goes to 7w/Ma4 (100%), and the biggest improvement goes to 10wy/Ma4, who achieved a brilliant boost of 27% in their completion rate this week. The race for the Sparx Maths Champion of the Year has finished its first half-term. Congratulations to the students leading the overall XP leaderboards: Rose (13,037 XP) leads Year 8, Chloe (12,037 XP) leads Year 7, Alex (8,749 XP) leads Year 10, Aiden (7,699 XP) leads Year 11, and Florence (6,972 XP) leads Year 9. We look forward to seeing who is in the lead at the next snapshot in December!
Our Year 7 and Year 8 students have been absolutely dominating the library shelves this term, showcasing impressive dedication to developing their literacy skills, through their Accelerated Reader lessons and reading for pleasure outside of lessons. Together, Year 7 has read a staggering total of 10,034,706 words, while Year 8 has read an equally impressive 8,111,107 words! This collective effort is brilliant for improving vocabulary and comprehension. Special recognition goes to 7Y1 (with over 5.1 million words read) and 8Y1 (with over 5.5 million words read) for leading their year groups in this tremendous literary achievement.
Thank you to parents and carers for the support and encouragement you provide your young people at home so they can keep up this momentum with their independent learning.
The Repair Cafe comes back to The Cottesloe School!
This coming Saturday 8th November from 9:30am to 12:30pm, the Ivinghoe & Pitstone Repair Cafe is coming back to The Cottesloe School.
After the success of the event held at TCS in March, the team is returning to fix things. If you don’t know what a repair cafe is, it's a fantastic community initiative dedicated to fixing broken items and reducing waste. Instead of throwing things away, bring them along and the skilled volunteers will help you repair them. Did you know the UK discards millions of tonnes of electrical goods and textiles annually? Many of these items could easily be repaired by the enthusiastic and knowledgeable Repair Cafe volunteers, offering a practical solution by promoting repair and reuse. Come along and learn how to fix your items, meet new people, and contribute to a more sustainable future.
Back in March I took along some suit jackets and my son’s school blazer that had split along the seams of the arms - all in great wearable condition but beyond my sewing skills to mend! The brilliant Gill and Gisele fixed the clothing to look like new. Pop along on Saturday, meet the Ivinghoe and Pitstone Team and get something fixed, seek advice on DIY repairs, or just lend a hand in helping the environment. For more information click on their website: https://www.ivinghoepitstonerepaircafe.co.uk/
Bus transport - bus passes and travel bans
The vast majority of children across the county are not eligible for free school transport. However, due to the rural nature of our school and catchment area, over 70% of our students rely on bus transportation, with many entitled to a free bus pass. For those not eligible for free transport, parents and carers are responsible for arranging and paying for their child’s transportation. Buckinghamshire Council is responsible for commissioning free school transport services, coordinating routes and timetables, allocating seats and issuing passes.
All students travelling on local authority transport MUST carry their bus pass with them every day. Bus drivers do not have to permit a student to board the bus if they do not have a valid pass with them.
I am really disappointed to share that Cottesloe students have recently received bus travel bans due to ongoing behaviour issues when travelling on free school transport. Issues have included vandalism and damage to the bus seats and furniture, bullying behaviour towards other Cottesloe students travelling on the same bus, and rudeness and dangerous behaviour towards the driver. Bus travel bans are issued by Buckinghamshire in accordance with their School Transport Behaviour Protocol and Home to School Transport Policy. These bans cause significant inconvenience for families, as they are then responsible for arranging alternative transportation. We urge parents and carers to discuss the importance of appropriate behaviour on the bus with their children, emphasising the potential consequences of their actions. We will be reiterating the importance of acceptable behaviour when travelling to and from school to students; by working together, we can ensure a safe and positive experience for all students using school transport.
If you have any concerns regarding bus transport, please contact the relevant organisation - the company with whom you have a contract if you pay for your child’s transport (likely to be Masons Coach Hire if your child travels on the MAS104 service School Transport in Buckinghamshire - Masons Coach Hire) or Buckinghamshire if your child is entitled to free transport: Buckinghamshire school transport - contact us
Careers and Online Safety face-to-face events
There are two big face-to-face events in school this week. You would be very welcome to attend either or both – book a space via the links below. We’re looking forward to seeing you.
Wednesday 5th November - All year groups Careers: Futures Discovery Evening 6pm-7:30pm To book a place click here: Futures Discovery Evening
Thursday 6th November - All year groups Safeguarding: Online Safety Evening 6pm-7pm To book, click here: Online Safety evening with TVP
Sports Report
It was a week of extremely close contests for our teams, showcasing great resilience and determination across the pitch and the field. The Year 8 Rugby team played out a fiercely competitive match against John Colet, resulting in an exciting 35-35 draw. Both sides showed fantastic spirit and skill to finish the game completely level. Our Year 8 Football team faced a narrow defeat, losing 4-3 to Tring in a game that went right down to the wire. Finally, the U16 Girls' Football team displayed excellent effort against a strong Denbigh side, but unfortunately lost 4-1.
This week we’ve got football, netball, rugby and a basketball fixture to look forward to. Good luck to all teams competing!
INSET Date A reminder that Friday 28th November is an INSET day. No students are expected to attend school; transport will not be running on this day.
Year 12
Online Parents Evening is on Thursday this week. Good luck to our students taking GCSE Maths or English this week.
Year 11
Mock Results morning on Thursday during PSHCE period 2. Sixth Form Open Evening is next Monday, 10th November. To book a place, please click on the link for the: 5pm session Book Now
Year 11 will be participating in a Learning Performance Training Study Skills workshop next Monday, November 10th, 2025!
We've partnered with Learning Performance, the UK's leading study skills company, to deliver interactive and motivational sessions. These workshops are designed to equip our students with essential learning strategies, practical guidance on how to learn effectively, develop robust revision techniques, and prepare comprehensively for examinations.
What will students gain?
Research shows that targeted learning strategies like these can improve pupil progress by an average of eight months! Our Year 11 students will take part in a tailored session, introducing creative strategies including advanced memory techniques to transform their approach to studying.
Every student will take home a printed workbook to help them continue using these valuable skills in preparation for their next mock and final exams.
Contribution Details
To help support this fantastic opportunity, we kindly invite a voluntary contribution of £7.50 per pupil, payable through the MCAS app. This contribution is required by Friday, November 7th. All donations are gratefully received.
For those interested in learning more about the company, please visit www.learningperformance.com.
We are incredibly grateful for our community's continued support in helping our pupils achieve their full potential!
Year 8 and 9
The Quadcopter competition regional final is taking place at TCS on Friday, good luck to our teams!
Have a good week, and thank you for your ongoing support.
Best wishes,
Louise Baldwin
Head of School