Dear Parents,

Re: A Level/ BTEC Results – Boys’ School

This year’s cohort missed out on the chance to sit GCSEs and suffered major disruption to their learning in Years 10 and 11 which had an impact on their Sixth Form studies. Despite this, the decision was taken by the government and Ofqual to return the grading to pre-pandemic levels. In these challenging circumstances, we are delighted that the A level and BTEC results which are published today demonstrate the hard work and commitment of Hasmonean students and show that, yet again, they have performed at a high level.  The table below shows how well the students have performed and they are broadly in line with the 2019 results.  Nearly a quarter of the students achieved at least 3 A/ Distinction grades with several receiving all top grades.

GRADE  A*/ DISTINCTION*	14%
GRADE  A*/A  D*/D	43%
GRADE  A*-B	67%
GRADE  A*-C   D*-M	83%
PASS	98%
TOTAL NUMBER OF CANDIDATES	90

 

 

 

                                                                                     

 

 

 

We would like to congratulate the students for working hard throughout their courses sometimes in very difficult circumstances to attain the best results possible. If your son has not achieved the results he needs to get him into his choice of course, there is a lot of help available, both in school and at UCAS. This guide has some useful tips on how to approach the results Exam results: 5 tips for parents and carers on supporting your child with results day – The Education Hub (blog.gov.uk)

 

Queries about Grades

Students with queries about their examination grades should contact the examinations officer: Mrs J Leigh via email on  j.leigh@hasmonean.co.uk

Please send specific details of your query via email. This will enable Mrs Leigh to deal with them in order of priority. Please DO NOT call her on results days as due to the large number of queries on this day, email is by far the best way to deal with your query. You can find the answer to many questions on the website through the following link.

https://hasmoneangirls.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GCSE-FAQs-Summer-2023.pdf

Queries about entry onto university courses should be directed to the Head of Sixth Form:  Mr Simberg s.simberg@hasmonean.co.uk

With kind regards,

 

Mrs M Langdon

Headteacher, Hasmonean High School for Boys

 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Dear Parents,

Re: A level/ BTEC Results – Girls’ School

This year’s cohort missed out on the chance to sit GCSEs and suffered major disruption to their learning in Years 10 and 11 which had an impact on their Sixth Form studies. Despite this, the decision was taken by the government and Ofqual to return the grading to pre-pandemic levels. In these challenging circumstances, we are delighted that the A level and BTEC results which are published today demonstrate the hard work and commitment of Hasmonean students and show that, yet again, they have performed at a high level.  The table below shows how well the students have performed, these figures are somewhat better than the comparable statistics in 2019.  Over a quarter of the students achieved at least 3 A/ Distinction grades with several receiving all top grades.

GRADE  A*/ DISTINCTION*	20%
GRADE  A*/A  D*/D	50%
GRADE  A*-B	73%
GRADE  A*-C  D*-M	86%
PASS	98%
TOTAL NUMBER OF CANDIDATES	79

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We would like to congratulate the students for working hard throughout their courses sometimes in very difficult circumstances to attain the best results possible. If your daughter has not achieved the results she needs to get her into her choice of course, there is a lot of help available, both in school and at UCAS. This guide has some useful tips on how to approach the results Exam results: 5 tips for parents and carers on supporting your child with results day – The Education Hub (blog.gov.uk)

 

Queries about Grades

Students with queries about their examination grades should contact the examinations officer: Ms J Owusu via email on  j.owusu@hasmonean.co.uk

Please send specific details of your query via email. This will enable Ms Owusu to deal with them in order of priority. Please DO NOT call her on results days as due to the large number of queries on this day, email is by far the best way to deal with your query. You can find the answer to many questions on the website through the following link.

https://hasmoneangirls.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GCSE-FAQs-Summer-2023.pdf

Queries about entry onto university courses should be directed to the Head of Sixth Form

Ms Valencia: c.valencia@hasmonean.co.uk

With kind regards,

Mrs K Brice

Headteacher, Hasmonean High School for Girls

 

Dear Parent

As we come to the end of another year at Hasmonean, there is one very important thing left to do. And that is to give thanks.

My first go first to those who are perhaps the least familiar to you but without whom Hasmonean would simply fall apart:

• The finance team
• The Recruitment and HR teams
• The admin team
• The site and cleaning teams
• The security teams
• The marketing and development team
• The IT Team
• The examinations officers
• The science and food technicians

My second go to those who are interacting with your children every day to make a difference to their lives:

• Our Kodesh and secular teachers
• The pastoral teams
• The student services teams
• The HIPE teams
• The safeguarding teams
• The standards teams
• Our SENDCOs, LSAs and SEND department
• Directors of learning
• Subject leaders
• Our peripatetic music teachers

The next to those that I personally most rely on:

• The senior and executive teams who shoulder the great responsibility for running the schools; ensuring Kodesh is high quality and the ethos is upheld; and ensuring the operations, HR and Finance aspects run smoothly. They work tirelessly and harder than anyone knows.

Penultimately, my thanks go to the governors and trustees who work incredibly hard late into the night to ensure the vision of the school is not a lofty ambition but is something that is realised throughout the year. I will refrain from mentioning how much time they put into their roles for fear of dissuading you from taking on such a role yourselves. We are very, very fortunate to have them.

Finally, I would like to thank you for entrusting your children to us and for your support. While the new Year 7 site at Belsize Park has certainly tested our nerve and tested everyone’s patience, the amount of genuine appreciation that has been communicated to us is utterly heart-warming. This was a huge team effort on behalf of our governors, trustees and staff – particularly our timetabler; Barnet councillors and officers; the Catholic Diocese; PaJeS; local authority/communal funding – and in no small part – a series of divine interventions.

Wishing everyone a good Shabbos and an enjoyable summer,

Andrew McClusky
CEO, Hasmonean MAT

Dear Parent

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same…”

These famous words written by Rudyard Kipling appear above the doors to Wimbledon’s Centre Court. They are there to remind the players that in every tournament, one will leave as a champion whilst the other will leave disappointed. Therefore, we have to understand how to approach both victory and defeat when they arrive on the scene.

Sport is all around us at the moment. From Wimbledon fortnight, the Grand Prix at Silverstone, The Tour de France to the Ashes.

One thing that astonishes me watching the boys at break is the number of boys involved in various sporting activities. Today at lunchtime, we had a mass game of football taking place at the same time as a game of rugby alongside a game of cricket. In the gym, Year 7 students were all involved in the table tennis tournament whilst others played basketball. The school may be short of space but the boys use every available bit to play sport and even try to persuade me to join in.

Sport is so important in teaching key skills like teamwork, resilience and perseverance. It also allows a variety of students to showcase their talents. Whilst watching Wimbledon this week, it was clear that to be a champion, you have to believe in yourself and have the mind-set to win even when you are behind. Let’s continue to remind our children that success comes with disappointment at times and to not give up.

Finally, for the cricket fans amongst you, let’s hope that the English team can build on their success in the third test to win the ashes for the first time since 2015.

Shabbat Shalom

Mrs M Langdon
Headteacher – Boys’

 

Dear Parent

It seems to be the wedding season, with many joyous celebrations before the “three weeks” begin next Thursday.

Imagine, bleary eyed, you bump into a friend the morning after a wedding.

“Wasn’t it lovely?!” you say to your friend. The reply is a curt “the music was too loud!” or “the main course was cold!”

That’s it? What about everything else? The atmosphere? The company? The speeches? The food? The joy of seeing a young couple set off in life together? And so much more.

Negative people have a tendency to zero in on the negative and overlook anything positive.

Parshas Balak, the second parsha of this week’s double billing – Chukas Balak, is an intriguing parsha and, as ever, there are many timely and relevant lessons to learn, particularly applicable to parenting and chinuch.

Balak hires Bilam to curse the Jewish people. He acknowledges that whoever Bilam blesses is blessed and whoever he curses is cursed. The Seforno explains that actually Bilam did not have the ability to bless and Balak was just flattering Bilam. In fact, Bilam was a deeply critical and negative person who could only curse.

This is alluded to in the description of Bilam being “shesum ha’ayin”. He had a very limited and critical vision. This is also why the Torah highlights that Bilam always targeted his curse on “miktzas ha’am” – part of the people. Negative people zero in on part; positive people see the total picture.

Good parents and mechanchim have to catch their children and students doing good things and praise them lavishly for it. Good parents and mechanchim have to act blind occasionally. Of course there is a time for criticism but it is all too easy to overlook the good or just expect it.

I encourage members of the Kodesh Teaam to make “nachas phone calls” every Friday. Just two a week, with the sole goal of telling parents something positive their child did that week. I think I enjoy making these calls as much as the (sometimes astonished!) parents who receive them.

It is said that the world is made up of two types of people, radiators and drains. Some people infuse energy and radiate positivity, and some people just drain and sap vitality from any situation.

Being positive and looking for life’s silver linings, makes for good parenting and good chinuch. 

Good Shabbos 

Rabbi J Golker
Menahel

AI has been much in the news lately and, for those who can remember 2001 A Space Odyssey with its controlling computer HAL, the prospect of computers developing apparently sentient powers is a frightening prospect. Clearly, some form of regulation would be desirable and software developers and politicians would do well to sit down and discuss what should be done. However the potential for AI to assist in education is undeniable. As an experiment, I asked Chat GPT to produce 20 GCSE multiple choice revision questions on Germany between the wars and it took just over a minute to produce appropriately sophisticated ones. The advantages for students in helping them with research or to get extra assistance is also evident. This was the beginning of the response to a question about how to solve quadratic equations:

To solve quadratic equations, you can use several methods, including factoring, completing the square, or using the quadratic formula. I’ll walk you through each of these methods

However, AI should only ever be a tool to assist, not a replacement for human thought. It should not be used to produce work which is then passed off as the student’s own and there are already programmes to detect this. As computers do more of the lower order tasks, the skills of evaluation, analysis, synthesis and discernment will become ever-more important. These higher order thinking skills, identified over 60 years ago in Bloom’s Taxonomy, will be what is most highly prized. These are the hardest to master and the most difficult for computers to achieve. Education will be vital to mastering these. Teachers, at least, need not fear that they will be out of a job anytime soon.

Wishing you all a good Shabbos.

Mrs Katherine Brice
Headteacher – Girls’