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Shrek the Musical!
What a wonderful week - the culmination of several months of planning and rehearsing ensuring the final production was brilliant! Our...
Posted / 14/02/25
Welcome from the Headteacher and Head Boy
John Hampden Grammar School is remarkable. We seek to give our young men the personal qualities as well as the qualifications to carve out their own bold paths into the future. As you would expect, a challenging academic education is at the heart of what we do. John Hampden is an outstanding school with exceptional academic success. But in a changing world our young men will need more. They will need character, spirit, resilience. They will need to lead, to inspire, to take responsibility. They will need to care, collaborate and create. This is what we mean by #BeMore at John Hampden. We support every individual to build these qualities necessary for happy, successful and fulfilled lives, ‘Big lives’ as one of our students recently described it. The all round education and values your son will receive at JHGS are embodied in our motto “Quit Ye Like Men.”
Our exam results are excellent at GCSE and A level and place us amongst the top performing schools in the country. These results equip our students to succeed at the best Universities in Britain and abroad, to secure places on ultra competitive level 3 apprenticeships and even to set up their own companies upon leaving the Sixth Form. Over 125 years ago JHGS was educating young men and women to work in the Wycombe Furniture Industry. Today, we maintain strong links with many local and global companies, preparing our students to succeed and lead in a rapidly changing global economy. Alongside the academic rigour of the taught curriculum the #BeMore campaign develops in the boys “soft skills” to succeed as a JHGS Learner and in the future world of work.
Our parents praise our commitment to genuinely caring for their son and believe it is what makes JHGS unique. The Pastoral Team at JHGS is outstanding and they will get to know your son and help him throughout his journey at JHGS. We are committed to building a strong partnership between home and school so that as parents you feel as much a part of the JHGS community as your son. There are always opportunities for parents to help with our evening events, second hand shop or careers talks and mock interviews for example.
With such an extensive extra curricular programme your son will make friends and have many opportunities to develop new skills and talents. I encourage you to read the sports page on the website to get a flavour of the sheer number of sports on offer and our teams’ achievements. Music is also strong at JHGS with a large number of music groups, termly concerts and an annual school production. As you would expect from intelligent and articulate young men debating and discussion are very popular and this is supported through the Pratchett Debating Society, JHGS Question Time, and the Young Magistrates. Regular school visits here and abroad deepen understanding, widen horizons and create friendships and memories that last a lifetime.
JHGS is a forward thinking, innovative school which embraces technology to support and promote learning and personal development. To further demonstrate our commitment to your son we have recently opened our new Design Technology studio and workshops, 2 new Science labs and our £3.5m Innovation Hub of learning spaces and IT suites. This now houses our Maths, Business, Economics and Psychology departments and will be a true Innovation Hub for the 21st Century.
We are proud of everything we do at JHGS but most of all we are proud of our students, your sons. They join us as young boys and leave us 7 years later as young men. They are inspirational.
Miss Hartley
Headteacher
Head Boy Welcome
It is both an honour and privilege to serve as your head boy for the academic year 2024/2025. John Hampden Grammar School is an exceptional institution with the development of every pupil’s potential at the heart of all the school has to offer. Our motto, “Quit Ye Like Men”, in modern English means “be courageous” in all we do. This means building resilience and stepping outside of our comfort zones not just for our own self development but for the enhancement of the school community as a whole. These ideas and the ethos of the school are expanded on in John Hampden’s #BeMore, https://www.jhgs.bucks.sch.uk/21/quit-ye-like-men-and-bemore, the aim of which is to produce students who are emphatic, ambitious and independent minded. We want all students to enjoy their time here, to develop a real thirst for learning and to be continually improving and bettering ourselves.
It’s what makes John Hampden a unique place to learn and mature. The school provides a fantastic environment in which pupils can achieve academic excellence while having outstanding pastoral care available to them. I have first hand experience of the high quality pastoral side of the school having joined the school in Year 12 in September 2023. I was welcomed by both teachers and students, and immediately made to feel at home within the school community. There is a genuine desire from all members of the school community to make John Hampden an inclusive environment for all students which then helps each of us to achieve our full potential.
An education at John Hampden includes more than the academic, and is designed to shape and guide students of all abilities along their educational journey. John Hampden offers an array of opportunities through extracurricular events. From Year 7 and 8 being involved with Drama Club, Years 9 and 10 taking on the challenges of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, all the way up to the Sixth Form with the Pratchett Society Debating Club, Mock Trial Association and Oxbridge entrance exams prep. An excellent range of sporting opportunities are available at the school including table tennis, squash, fencing, tennis and of course football, rugby, cricket and hockey. The school excels at many of these sports nationally and at a regional level. Some noticeable achievements have been made from the First XI Football Team reaching the Gibbs Cup Final (Bucks, Berks and Oxon schools) and the Bucks County Cup Final.
The arts, music and critical thinking are all encouraged throughout the school. Each year the school puts on a number of concerts and theatre productions. Students not only perform but also produce the shows with student lead lighting, sound and tech teams. In recent years the school has debuted The Phantom of the Opera, as the first school in the UK to licence the show. Other top flight performances include Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and Grease with all year groups participating. The school is a consistent high achiever in the National Cipher & Maths Challenge run by the University of Southampton.
As your Head Boy I want each and every student at John Hampden to thrive and be a fully engaged member of our exceptional community. The Head Boy Team for 2024/2025 will be working hard to make that happen. By being courageous in all we do together as a school we can make John Hampden a truly exceptional place to learn. I look forward to meeting you at one of our Open Days or as a new student at the school.
Yours faithfully
Oliver Robinson
Head Boy 2024-2025, on behalf of the Student Body