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Newsletter 7 - July 2025
Farewell to Mrs Herring
It is with a real sense of sadness that we say goodbye to
Mrs Herring, our department’s longest serving teacher. Mrs
Herring has worked at St Richard’s for 25 years, primarily
teaching French, but also working in the Spanish and
German teams. She has brought so much energy, passion
and commitment to everyone she has encountered. She will
be remembered by us as the ultimate team player who cared
deeply about the pupils and her colleagues. We will miss
her creative input hugely. She successfully planned and led
the European Day of Languages with flair. She was also
a driving force for the MFL World Culture Club and heavily
involved in promoting FairTrade activities both within our
department and across the school. She has recently been
instrumental in developing a link with our French partner
school who we will visit for the first time in September. We
send her off with every good wish and blessing for her
retirement and we look forward to seeing her, in and around
school, invigilating. For now, though, it is time for a new
chapter to begin, and for her to enjoy a well deserved rest
with her family and friends.
Finally, we would also like to wish all our pupils a very happy
and well deserved holiday. We look forward to seeing you all
again in September, rested and ready to embark on the next
stage of your learning journey.
MFL Department “Duolingo” Summer Challenge
Happy Holidays!
Bonnes vacances!
¡Buenas vacaciones!
Schöne Ferien!
Mathematics
What’s happening in class?
It has been a very busy couple of terms for pupils both in and
out of the classroom and pupils have been continuing to work
hard with both classroom and homework.
We welcome Miss Kent to the role of Head of Department.
Mr Jacobs still remains part of the Maths team, but also
has extra responsibilities as Senior Assistant Principal.
Revision (all years)
On the pupil portal, under Maths, pupils will find links to
many key websites and resources (such as past exam
papers and mark schemes). Aside from MathsWatch
and Sparx, other useful websites are Mathsgenie and
Corbettmaths. Revision guides are available and can be
purchased from Parent Pay. If you are unsure of your
child’s tier, please contact their Maths teacher.
Puzzle time
Using only addition, add eight 8s to get the number 1,000.
Answer: 888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1,000
Mr Eyre - KS3 Maths Co-ordinator
KS3 - for any questions, contact their class teacher or Mr
Eyre (KS3 Coordinator)
Year 7 have continued their studies covering topics heavily
focused on geometry and geometric reasoning. Year 8 have
covered areas of geometry (parallel lines, interior/exterior
angles, circles, trapezia, symmetry).
Year 8 into Year 9 - Year 8 have recently taken their end of
year assessment. This, alongside unit assessments scores
from across the year, will help decide their groups for next
year. Pupils will begin following the GCSE curriculum in Year
9. The whole cohort is combined into 9 classes with groups
1-6 following the higher tier and groups 7-9 following the
foundation tier. We will continue to monitor classwork and
unit assessments to ensure students are in the correct set
and tier of entry in order for pupils to achieve the best grade
they can.
KS4 - for any questions contact their class teacher or Mr
Clark (KS4 Coordinator)
Year 10 have had a busy couple of terms, with their
mocks and work experience. Pupils will have gone
through their mocks in class to ensure they close any
gaps that they had. They also received a yellow feedback
form to support them in this. They will be set a homework
task over the summer to support them in closing gaps
and aiding retention. We congratulate our recent Year 11
pupils on all the hard work put in for the summer exams.
We wish them all the best in their future ventures.
For a chance to win some goodies in
September for the highest point scores
across French, German and Spanish,
get logged into Duolingo and keep your
language learning streak alive!
Miss Tester - MFL teacher