Having these visitors to the school not only enriches the experience of the students and inspires them, but also gives them the opportunity to make links and explore options for their own career journeys.

Careers has been a focus this term, with many opportunities to learn about a range of options for the future, including at our annual Careers Fair. Thank you to the many parents who volunteered, we are very grateful for your time and for sharing your expertise with our students as well as a number of students from our WKSATA link schools. 

The students have been engaged in many extra curricular activities including debating, drama, music and a very wide variety of sports activities. We love hearing about the achievements of the students outside school and continue to invite you to share these with us so that we can recognise our talented student body in our news items and in assemblies and form time. 

As many schools are at this time of year, we have been recruiting for new staff and new opportunities in the school. We will update you on staff leaving and joining us once the process is complete. We are very lucky to have such a desirable school and we have been fortunate to be able to fill the positions advertised to date. 

Next term we start the summer exam season and I know that students will be working hard over the coming break to revise in preparation for the exams. Please ensure that students follow the advice they have been given about revision strategies and are taking regular breaks to ensure they do not overload themselves. They have also been signposted to where to find support if they need it, should things get overwhelming for them. Please ensure they are asking for help if they need it.

Finally, on a personal note, I am happy to say that I am recovering well from my ankle injury and I am back in school as much as I can be. Thank you for your very kind messages and for your understanding as I have been working remotely. I have been very grateful to be back on my feet and back in school recently.

To those who will be celebrating I would like to wish you a Happy Eid (or Eid Mubarak) and a Happy Easter. I hope you all have a lovely break.

Best wishes,

Mrs Crean

This term we come to the end of the netball and hockey coaching sessions that have been ongoing since September. We will be offering cricket coaching after school in Terms 5 and 6. We also look forward to tournaments and fixtures in the summer term for cricket, rounders, athletics and tennis. 

By the end of this term students will have competed in the winter interhouse competition. Students in year 7, 8 and 9 will choose to compete in either netball, football, rugby or hockey and will be able to win points for their house. 

View more pictures from the  Gym and Dance Display

Bird surveys have been continuing around the school grounds and meadows site and include an exciting visit by waxwings-  a very charismatic winter visitor from Scandinavia.  The Meadows Team are looking forward to the start of plant and insect surveys after Easter and the new partnership between Marvellous Meadows and Marden Wildlife (see story below).

Our thanks to the PTA for a wonderful and varied calendar of social events for parents and teachers.

Students have enjoyed today's Easter cupcake competition and sale, the perfect way to end the term! 

We thank the PTA, too, for their fundraising to support the light upgrades in the Mitchener Hall. 

This year got off to a good start in STEM with our newly elected subject ambassadors launching a brand new Year 12-led research project on Sustainable Use of AI in STEM subjects. Feeding into the school's AI working group, students have used qualitative research methods to design a questionnaire and sent it out to selected year groups. They will analyse the data gathered with an aim to writing a research paper and publishing it in the Young Scientists journal. The Year 12 STEM ambassadors are currently also working on a school-wide House based STEM competition, to be launched soon.

ECO-reps have also been elected in every form from Year 7 to 11 and are just about to have an induction in a project called the Schools' Good Life Charter, with the aim of 'helping everyone in the school community to live happier, more sustainable lives.' And several students across the school are in the process of completing their CREST awards, on diverse themes such as sustainable toothpaste and the effect of salt concentration on plant growth.

Meanwhile, in the curriculum, Year 9 have now completed their Microbiology STEM project and are using Maths, DT, Psychology and a whole host of transferable skills to explore what it would it be like to live on another planet - and therefore to think of how to make living on this one more sustainable. They will once again be planting sewing seeds and planting vegetables near the Meadows area and looking forward to sharing our produce with the school kitchens.

The Spring Concert took place on 27 March at Tonbridge School Chapel.  Junior Choir, Cantores and Chamber Choir all sounded beautiful in the lovely rich acoustic there.

The TGS Jazz Band and Year 7 singers gave an atmospheric and lively rendition of Africa by Toto TGS and GCSE musicians raised the roof in the Samba Band performance.

Prior to the music trip to Italy in July the Junior and Chamber Orchestras played Italian music by Vivaldi and Rossini and the concert came to a rousing climax with Adiemus by Karl Jenkins with all the choirs and orchestra combining to make a hundred and eighty performers raising the roof! A big well done to all those who took part.

Year 12 students have been engaged in gathering data and writing up their Internal Assessment (IA) psychological experiments, showcasing their dedication to scholarly inquiry. Year 13 students have been preparing for their mock exams, refining their understanding and exam techniques.

The Psychology Subject Ambassadors have teamed up with the STEM club to explore the impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on education.

Medsoc have enjoyed a varied programme of meetings this term, including visits from a number of external speakers.  Recent sessions have included:

TGS Debating has gone from strength to strength this term. After a busy year of debating, students have qualified for the Finals Days of both the Oxford and Cambridge competitions and the Regional Finals of the Churchill Public Speaking and Mace Debating competitions. Students from across Year 10-13 have taken up debating for the first time and achieved great successes.

Year 13 students have been working hard in completing their IA oral exams which have, so far, demonstrated the students' commitment to their languages and the cultural background to them. Next stop is the Year 11 oral exams, happening in April. The MFL team are also busy organising the language trips to Rouen and Seville for October 2024 - they will certainly be an exciting opportunity to witness real-life in both France and Spain; practise the languages and have a good time.

Year 12 have set up a UK Linguistics Olympiad Club and members recently archived three Bronze Awards in a competition and Year 11 Latin students enjoyed visiting the British Museum to learn more about Life in the Roman Army.

Well done to Ruby and Carys in Year 13 who re-launched and edited the TGS newspaper in 2023-4, and to the team of writers who have written a series of engaging articles.  

Ruby and Carys explain more about the project: 

Our aim with this newspaper is to champion the student voice, not only towards issues within the school community, but also in relation to global topics. We want to give students the freedom to write about what interests them, whether that be politics, music, sport, or anything else they are passionate about and want to share with others in a creative way. Anyone, of any age and experience of writing, is welcome and encouraged to get involved!

You can read articles from the second edition of the newspaper below:

It's been another busy term in Maths, with 160 students partaking in the Intermediate Maths Challenge with great success: students achieved 45 Gold, 63 Silver and 22 Bronze awards, congratulations to all participants (see article below for more details).

27 students progressed on to the Kangaroo follow on round and they will receive their results after the Easter holiday.

Congratulations also to the TGS Team that won a Gold Medal in the National Cypher Challenge (see article below).

Sixth Form students continue to run a well-attended Maths Club for younger students.  This term activities have included interesting puzzles and games and a mathematical treasure hunt.

In January, four of our top Mathematicians in Year 10 competed against many other schools in Kent at the Invicta Maths Challenge in Maidstone. They unfortunately didn’t progress to the next round but did exceptionally well considering they were competing against year 11s in all other schools.

The IB Visual Arts Exhibition is a fantastic celebration of the work of our very talented Visual Arts students and is now open at Royal Victoria Place in Tunbridge Wells.  Do pop by to view their work, details as follows:

The beginning of the year is always a busy time in the Library. Term 3 passes very quickly and brings World Book Day fast on its heels.

During this period, the breadth of support available from the Library and our Librarian has been demonstrated through both the promotion of reading and World Book Day and also the research skills and Extended Essay support provided for Sixth Form students, including a trip to The London Library.

A group of students also enjoyed the recent annual Page Turners Book Award Gala Evening, see below.

The new Year 12 Student Leadership Team (see below) have embraced their new roles and are positively impacting the school community through a wide variety of projects and initiatives.

Well done to Year 13 who have approached their mock examinations and preparation for their IB Diploma exams with great focus and maturity.

The now famous termly football game ended in a 1-1 draw.

You'll note from this newsletter that Sixth Form students have had many opportunities to take part in subject enrichment; from university visits to visiting speakers to competitions.  The debating team has had a successful term. 

With their examinations in the not too distant future, the Year 13 IB students have been submitting their CAS portfolios and blogs for moderation.

The experiences and projects carried out are outstanding and these are reflected in their portfolios and diaries, which I have had the pleasure of viewing.

‘The CAS experience has taught me the importance of helping each other without the expectation of anything in return. I have learnt that to gain life experience we don’t always have to be taught lessons by our teachers – we can instead learn them if we choose to engage ourselves in real-life circumstances in which we lack knowledge in.’ Sian.

‘I believe that CAS has truly been a very enriching and enjoyable experience. It has not only given me work experience and talking points for university interviews and applications, but also the opportunity to meet new people and acquire hobbies that I would not otherwise have tried.’  Annabel.

May I take this opportunity to thank them for their time and kindness and wish them well for the forthcoming examination season.

Mrs Twinam, CAS and Internationalism Co-ordinator

Our Year 7 and 8 students have enjoyed some fabulous Action! activities over the last two terms. Chocolate Making at Temper Temper in Southborough was very popular, the students thoroughly enjoyed creating their own chocolates every week. Some students have immersed themselves in learning how to crochet, producing some beautiful items of which they are ever so proud. It’s been lovely to see the flurry of activity in the DT rooms, with industrious students using the laser cutter, and creating some really individual clocks.

We are very thankful to our Sixth Formers who have generously given their time to run clubs, such as street dance, football and table tennis, it’s wonderful to see them teaching our younger students.

We look forward to the summer terms, where some activities such as Yoga can be moved outside as the weather brightens up.

Throughout the start to this year, there have been a range of events culminating in the celebration of this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week, which featured the theme ‘My Voice Matters’. 

We began the new year with a wellbeing workshop for Year 7 parents, exploring practical ways to help communicate with their teenage children and described seven practical tips to help parents keep lines of communication open, whatever the teenager’s mood. 

At the end of January TGS was part of the largest schools’ mental health TV broadcast hosted by DJ and mental health campaigner, Roman Kemp. He had teamed up with the charity Here4u and six other UK leading mental health charities to explore positive solutions to those facing mental health challenges.

Parents were invited to celebrate Parental Mental Health Day by joining a webinar hosted by the charity Stem4. This discussed ways in which to help relationships to flourish and learn ways to connect positively to maximise young people’s mental health.

Children’s Mental Health Week took place in February, we participated in the Young Minds Hello Yellow Charity fundraiser day and wore yellow to support mental health. Staff and students contributed to a gratitude wall, encouraging everyone to recognise positive aspects in our lives, our wonderful peer mentors led assemblies presenting an engaging PowerPoint on this year’s theme and discussing ways to reach out for help and support. Activities were also delivered throughout the week, with Kooth and The Charlie Waller Trust, on the topics of managing anxiety and self-care and perfectionism. We look forward to working with both charities again for our HSEE days and forthcoming Wellbeing evenings.

After a very exciting week of quizzes, it was Taylor who emerged as convincing winners of the annual House Quiz competition. They defeated Fayerman in the semi-finals by 370pts to 160pts and then, in the final, beat Carey in front of a packed Mitchener Hall audience by 470pts to 170pts. 

On the 8 March Tonbridge Grammar School marked International Women’s Day (IWD) in a variety of ways. Many in Years 9–12 were able to join online talks from Fatemeh Moussavi-Pourgharbi, Clinical Research Fellow at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford and Hannah Preston-Jones, Senior Project Manager, Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford. The sessions were part of the ‘TGS in Conversation’ series with the speakers giving very insightful and thoughtful answers to questions posed in advance by the students these included ‘How does it feel to be a woman in STEM, does it come with challenges but also benefits?' and 'Does ethics get in the way of your research?’ The speakers commented on how engaging and insightful the questions were.

Tilly and Lavnya in Year 12 put together an assembly for Years 7, 8 and 9 which explained the origins of IWD and highlighted some key women whom they found particularly inspiring such as Aretha Franklin, Patsy Mink and Anita Dongre. Over the next few weeks in form time, groups will be selecting one inspirational woman and completing a display for their door of their form room.

Since the beginning of the year, students across year groups have had the opportunity to learn outside of the classroom, including: 

• Some Year 8 students took part in the Ski trip to Austria during February half term which offered team building activities to help with the students personal development.
• Some Year 10 History students visited a local care home to interview some of the residents plus 4 Year 10 students participated in the Invicta Maths Team Challenge at Invicta Grammar School.
• Year 11 GCSE Latin students visited the British Museum to develop their understanding of Roman life in Britain and Y11 GCSE Drama students visited the National Theatre to see ‘Dear Octopus’ to prepare them for expectations of GCSE Drama.
• GCSE and IB Music students enjoyed an educational visit to the Barbican Centre in London to watch a live performance of the London Symphony Orchestra.
• The annual Page Turners Gala Event took place at Kent College in March, hosting a number of our students and providing them with a real-life author experience.
• Sixth Form students have enjoyed various visits including Wakehurst Place for ESS students exploring conservation, Southampton University for enriching concepts of the IBDP Philosophy course, a London Library visit for students carrying out EE research, a visit to The Handmaid’s Tale Opera to encourage other ways of looking at a text and deepen their understanding and Physics in Action lectures in London to extend their knowledge in real world contexts.

Students from across all year groups have continued to enjoy numerous sporting activities, whilst debating teams and public speaking teams have travelled throughout the Southeast to take part in numerous competitions.

News stories can be read in the relevant sections of this newsletter. 

View more images of the Ski Trip to Flachau

Our students enjoy a wide range of activities, music and sport in their leisure time.  We are incredibly proud to celebrate their success: