An update from the Head of LGS

In our September issue of The Heron, we shared the exciting news that Helen Foster is the new Loughborough Grammar School Head, making her the first female head at LGS in its 528 year history.  

Helen wants to share her vision for LGS with you as she begins this new chapter at LGS.

Direction of Travel at LGS

I am thrilled to have started my tenure as Head of Loughborough Grammar School, having already worked closely with the boys over the past five years.

Our alumni are hugely important to us at LGS and I have been delighted to meet so many of you at events during my first term as Head. I am acutely aware of my privilege at being the current custodian of your wonderful school and I wanted to assure you that I am taking this responsibility seriously.

At the start of the year I updated parents on my vision for the future of LGS and it was so warmly received that, as such important members of our community, I also wanted to update you, our alumni community, on the direction of travel at LGS and my vision for your School.

Academic Results

Our academic results this year are trending positively, but I wish to steepen the trajectory in the coming years. Our A Level results have returned to pre‑pandemic levels, as was expected from news coverage preceding the results over the summer.

At A Level, we achieved a 99.7% pass rate overall; 90% of grades were A*- C and 74% A*- B.

A wonderful 47% of grades were A* or A, with 8 boys getting all A*s.

At GCSE, 88% grades were 9-5, with 25% of our grades being 9s. I am aiming to raise this to 30%.

The data on schools is not a level playing field as there are so many variables. Nationally, boys perform less well in exams overall than girls, and there is such little data for same sex schools to use as a comparison. Nevertheless, our results, particularly at A Level, were wonderful.

Moving Forward

To make our ambitions a reality and to put us where we belong we have evaluated the experience of the different Year groups and consulted with the Senior Leadership Team. Following this period of evaluation and consultation we have identified areas in which the School can improve, and have produced a plan to implement changes that will benefit each year group.

The Year 7 and 8 ‘key habits of learning’ will be evaluated and improved. The sports programme in Year 9 has been identified as an area for change and a re-invigorated sports programme will be unfolded to add much needed balance to an academically challenging period for our boys. In Years 10 and 11, leadership, decision-making and revision skills will become an integral part of our programme.

Throughout the School, underpinning all of this will be the introduction of the ‘LGS Learner’, where teachers and pupils will be concentrating on developing boys’ skills in independent learning (stressing not what to think, but how to think) and metacognition (heightened awareness of how a problem is approached and how to learn most effectively).

Significant investment will go into our Sixth Form, both in staff time and resources. We are delighted to introduce a Professional Development Programme (PDP), which addresses the need for an LGS boy to have ‘more than just three good A Levels’. Academic supervision, study skills lessons, academic extension and work experience are just some of the elements that have been outlined to the Year 12 boys and their parents. In the Sixth Form more emphasis will be placed on the pupils defining their own path, making their own academic choices, and deploying and developing their skills and knowledge. They must expect a challenge, but our boys will know that they will be supported every step of the way as they rise to that challenge.

I know this all sounds quite serious; it is serious, and I am serious about it. We will not simply wave the word ‘excellent’ about, we will become excellent. We will not simply talk about relationships, we will relate, one to the other, teacher to pupil, teacher to teacher, pupil to pupil, because in every field of endeavour, those who collaborate prevail. And crucially, we will not simply talk about having fun doing all this, we will laugh. You will hear that laughter when you come by.

Finally, I’d like to thank you all for your ongoing support of your former School. So many of you give back to Loughborough Grammar School with your time, wisdom and expertise. This helps our boys enormously and I thank you on their behalf.

I hope to see you at future alumni events in order to keep you updated on our progress.

With warm wishes

Mrs Helen Foster 

Head