Dear Parents/Guardians

I would like to take this opportunity before the term begins to introduce myself officially to you as the new Head Teacher of Eggar's School from 1st September 2023.

Having been successfully appointed in February, I am delighted to finally get started in my role and am very much looking forward to welcoming your children to school this week. I would like to give special mention to our new Year 7 students who will be arriving on Tuesday for their very first day in secondary school. For Year 7 parents, please be assured that we will be here with smiles on our faces doing all we can to make their transition to secondary school as smooth as possible. Year 11 will also be returning on Tuesday and we can't wait to kick start their final year at Eggar's, focused and ready to make every second count in the lead up to the final exams.

To let you know a little more about me, I have taught and led in Hampshire schools for 24 years. Throughout my career, I have enjoyed a range of leadership and advisory roles, most recently as Deputy Head Teacher at The Petersfield School. I am passionate about high quality teaching and learning and will still be teaching Year 11 English in the classroom alongside my Head Teacher responsibilities at Eggar's this year. I have always loved to challenge and motivate all students to achieve their academic potential and to exceed their own expectations of themselves in all areas of school life. As Head Teacher, I will be working hard with my team to ensure that that our students can achieve highly and enjoy their experience of school in preparation for the future. I know we have some fantastic talent beyond the classroom in areas such as the Performing Arts and Sport, and I can't wait to meet our students and hear more about their achievements and aspirations.

The Eggar's values of Belong, Aspire and Achieve will underpin everything we do in the year ahead. I will return to these values regularly with staff and students so you can expect to hear me refer to them throughout the year. I value your feedback as parents and will be asking for your views in the coming weeks on what makes Eggar's a great school and what would make it even better for your children. It is going to be important for me to take some time to understand more about the school and the wider community and I will also be talking to the students to find out what school life is really like!

I am committed to ensuring that our expectations are high at Eggar's and that we will support our students to meet those standards every day - because we care. There will be more information from us later this week to update you regarding mobile phones and uniform once we have delivered these messages to students in our assemblies and tutor time.

We will be increasing our communication with you as parents in the form of "Eggar's News" - a weekly online news bulletin to help you feel more in touch with what is going on in school and what is coming up in the school calendar. We will also be sending ‘Eggar’s News Plus’ half termly with a focus on what your child will be learning next, and we will be using SOCS for extra-curricular information. We look forward to launching this as soon as possible.

Finally, I consider it a privilege and a pleasure to lead Eggar's into its exciting new chapter and I am keen to get to know the Trustees, staff, students and you as parents in the months and years ahead. Working in partnership with you as parents will make all the difference so do come and introduce yourself when you see me in and around school.

I wish the students all the very best on their return this week.

Sarah Holman

Head Teacher