Dear Parents

Our Christmas celebrations during the past few weeks have been enjoyed by all. The Prep nativity play, ‘Glory, Glory, What a Story’ was a delight and the Prep Christmas Concert was an entertaining mix of voice and poetry. The School Carol Service at All Saints Church, Harewood was full of variety and beautiful singing; although a bit cold, it is a lovely setting!

The High School production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ was a triumph! It was a truly professional and highly technical production. My congratulations go to Miss Taylor on her first production at Gateways and to the girls for their outstanding performances.

Mrs Wilcox and I have enjoyed meeting parents of Lower 3 pupils. Our discussions have been a very positive experience and, as always, we have valued hearing parents’ views. We look forward to welcoming the Lower 3 girls into the High School next September.

I am delighted to report that this year’s UCAS application process has resulted, to date, in an impressive 94% success rate! Our Sixth Form girls clearly impress.

Following our first term of dance on the curriculum, and in the extra-curricular programme, we all enjoyed our Dance Showcase Assembly this week. Congratulations to Miss Fox and the girls for outstanding performances. It was good to see all ages exhibiting their talent.

Lower 4 pupils visited The Grand Opera House, York on Monday to see ‘Aladdin’. A truly traditional pantomime that presented a wonderful afternoon.

We also laughed our way through the Sixth Form Pantomime yesterday; Emma Kennedy’s portrayal of Mr Dutton seemed to raise the broadest smiles. I loved the Head’s crown – what an idea!

All of this was followed by House Drama today where the pupils prepared and then performedin one day. It was a wonderful afternoon, thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.

This year’s LEAP Team has been working hard behind the scenes this term in setting up their company, Embrace, and maximising selling opportunities. The 11 Upper 5 girls in the team have demonstrated their commitment and are ‘fine tuning’ their skills as businesswomen. The trading opportunity last weekend in the Merrion Centre, Leeds, was a positive experience.

We have been successful in our bid to join the ‘Get Set Network’, which is part of the London 2012 education programme. This membership confirms that our teaching, learning and playing echoes the Olympic values. We will be able to use the London 2012 logo, we may tour the Olympic Park, we have submitted a request for Olympic tickets and our pupils playing sport will be broadcast on the ‘live sites’ across cities and communities in the UK. Great news!

Our teams have enjoyed a very busy term of fixtures playing local schools such as St. Mary’s, Menston, Moorfield School, Richmond House School, GSAL, Woodhouse Grove and Tadcaster, as shown in the table below:

Played Won Draw
Under 8 4 2 2
Under 9 8 5 2
Under 10 9 5 1
Under 11 12 4
Under 12 5 5
Under 13 6 6
Under 14 5 4
Under 15 7 6
Senior 6 2 1
Total 62 39 6

Today we said farewell to Mrs Barbara Leeming who retired after many years as a Teaching Assistant in Prep. We are very grateful for all the support she has given to the School, as both a parent and as a member of staff. Miss Sarah Lavery has been appointed to this role and will join us in January.

Mr Keeton remains unwell and, at this moment in time, we are hopeful he will return for the Spring Term. We wish him a speedy and full recovery.

I wish you, and your families, a very happy Christmas and every good wish for 2012. We look forward to welcoming School back on Monday 9th January.

Thank you for your ongoing support for Gateways.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Y Wilkinson
Headmistress

Dear Parents

Although we have just entered the season of Advent, Christmas does always arrive early in schools. We’ve enjoyed the Prep School Christmas Showcase, our Christmas Fayre and ‘Glory, Glory, What a Story’ – the Christmas story as presented by Pre-Reception and Reception children. As ever, it was absolutely delightful.

My grateful thanks go to Mrs Pick and the FOG committee for their time and hard work in ensuring the Christmas Fayre was a huge success. I am very grateful for the amazing £1,800 raised to benefit the children and pupils at Gateways – thank you.

I was pleased to welcome so many of you to the launch of our book, ‘Gateways to Harewood’ last Friday. The launch was the culmination of over a year’s hard work involving Gateways, Harewood House, Old Gatewegians and the residents of Harewood. The project involved all pupils from the youngest to the Sixth Form, all would see their work in print, feel that their own words were important and have a sense of ownership of this unique project – the result being an eclectic mix of poems, stories, observations, diary entries and facts combined with drawings, cartoons and school projects. We were very grateful for the support and involvement of Patricia, Countess of Harewood, who wrote the foreword for the book and to local author, GP Taylor, who wrote a story for inclusion. Copies of the book can be purchased from Mrs Sharrock in the Library; I certainly recommend it to you.

The final ‘Master Class’ in the series this term took place on Thursday 24 November. We were joined by teams from Brodetsky School, Wigton Moor School, Harewood Primary School and Western Primary School in Harrogate to experience a range of sporting and team-building activities throughout the day. The morning kicked off with a two hour cricket training session led by YCCC (Yorkshire County Cricket Club) coaches, followed by a golf lesson and, finally, a fantastic karate lesson. We really enjoy extending and enriching the experience of our own pupils and that of other pupils in the local area.

I continue my programme of lesson observations which is always a great privilege. I have seen some great lessons competitive, active, engaging and challenging with much individual support and attention.

Sixth Form Art and History students departed for a residential visit to London last Friday. History students visited the Tower of London while the art students visited several art galleries. All the students visited Hampton Court to witness the size and grandeur of a royal palace; my thanks to Ms Feeney and Mrs Finan for their support.


I am proud to inform you that we are building on last year’s university application success of 92% securing their first or second choice place. To date, our offer rate for this year’s Upper 6 girls is 97%!! I read every application prior to sending and it’s clear to me that the girls have benefited enormously from the careful guidance and support of the Sixth Form Pastoral Team.

Please use the car park safely and with consideration for others. We continue to have instances of cars being parked on the pavements which endangers the children walking into School. Please ensure you do not block in others by parking inconsiderately and across bays. I would request that cars are only left unattended if parked in a designated parking bay.

I politely remind parents that your first point of contact for any concern or query, academic or pastoral, is your daughter’s Form Tutor. They know your daughter well and will liaise as is appropriate on your behalf with other colleagues. We respond swiftly to your contact.

On the Performing Arts front, rehearsals continue, a pace, for the High School production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ which takes place on Wednesday 7th December. Please be sure to order your tickets in good time, they are being sold at the Reception desk. May I also draw your attention to the new event in our Performing Arts calendar – on Monday 12th December at 9.00am, you are warmly invited to join us for our ‘Dance Showcase’ in the PAC. The girls have been inspired by Performing Arts activities such as the visits to the Film Festival at Harewood, break dancing extra-curricular lessons, the drama visits to ‘King Lear’ and ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and this week’s the visit to see ‘Top Hat’. We are also looking forward to the visit in January to see Aladdin.

You should receive your invitations to the School Carol Service today; I warmly invite you to our service which is taking place on Wednesday 14th December 2011 at 2.00pm. This year we are pleased to be returning to All Saints Church on the Harewood Estate for this highlight in our School Calendar.

It is the time of year when consideration is being given to Senior School entry for 2012 and we are currently organising our Entrance Examination, I thought it timely, therefore, to remind parents that we operate a reward scheme where we offer a one off payment of £500 to any existing family that introduces a new pupil to the School.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Y Wilkinson
Headmistress