Some words from our Heads of Years
Finally, we are at the end of another academic year and it has been extremely busy! It has been an absolute pleasure to work with this year group during their first year at Secondary School. They have been funny, charming, hard working and honestly a breath of fresh air to the school. I think I can speak for the entire Year 7 Pastoral team when I say they will be missed, and we are excited to watch them continue to grow as they transition to year 8.
Our list of achievements this year include:
- Training 10 fantastic ABA's, with Great and Rohan going on to join Mr Engel and the school team of ABA's
- Raising £1324.30 during our christmas charity fair.
- Showcasing the Borden Values which is represented by the 19 898 achievement points gained this academic year.
- Brilliant audits which show the massive improvements students in Y7 have been making
During this term, Year 7 have been looking forward to and preparing for Year 8. They have reflected on their first year at Borden, reading back the letters they wrote to themselves during the first week of Y7 and celebrating how far they have come! Thank you to my fantastic Y7 form tutor team, your dedication to your tutees and high level of pastoral care is really appreciated.
Have a lovely summer Y7!
Miss Irinoye
Head of Year 7
I have really enjoyed being your Head of Year this year, and I have seen you making great progress, not just in your studies but as people. Next year brings new challenges and opportunities, as you make your GCSE choices and think more about your futures. Use the summer to reflect on your year and think about what you want to achieve, what you want to do and, most importantly, who you want to be. Have a wonderful and well earned summer break!
Mr Holley
Head of Year 8
Year 12
As we hasten towards the end of the school year, I am as ever, unwaveringly proud of the accomplishments of our year 12 students, whose courage, resilience, camaraderie and creativity truly embodies the spirit of the Borden Values. It seems like only yesterday the current year 12s were collecting their GCSE grades and enrolling on their chosen A Level courses. For many, the transition from KS4 to KS5 was challenging, but as we expected, they have approached the year with positivity, resilience and dynamicism. As anticipated, the 12s approached their mock exams with maturity, dedication and commitment, and we as a team were thoroughly impressed with their positive attitude and ethos.
At the end of term 5, the new student leadership team was elected, comprising of: Fola A (School Captain), Naomi P and James G (Vice Captains) and Skye M, Ariane-Dannielle F, Iqra B, Ethan B, Gerard A and Jacob G as senior prefects.
In term 1 of the new school year, the current student leadership team will introduce themselves to the lower years through a series of assemblies that will solidify the core school values of community, kindness, respect and solidarity.
Peer mentors
Over the course of this year, our wonderful peer mentors have demonstrated their skills of commitment, compassion and empathy when supporting students in the lower years. Peer mentoring underlines the core values of the school and serves to reiterate the caring and supportive environment that defines not only the sixth form, but the school as a whole.
MHFA Team
The MHFA team delivered assemblies to lower school students, introducing themselves and detailing the help and support on offer. This is an invaluable part of school culture, actively cementing the bond between upper and lower school and serves to encapsulate the core school values of kindness and respect.
To complete the year, students embarked on a week of work experience at companies such as the NHS, McCabe Ford Williams, Shell UK Ltd and various schools and legal firms. Here are a few quotes of what the employers had to say:
“Congratulations to Borden on such a well mannered, polite and respectful student who has shown enthusiasm, asking questions that showed us he really was getting to grips with the work assigned. We would happily take on Borden students if this is the representation."
“Eager to learn; a great help.”
“Beyond excellent in all the work he completed.”
“He should hold his head high.”
“He’s a superstar!”
Our final assembly of the year celebrated the positive contributions our 6th form students have made to the wider school community through their oscillating roles as open evening helpers, MHFA champions, peer mentors as well as their academic achievements; including 100% attendance and subject nominations. It was a lovely way to finish the year and celebrate a multitude of accomplishments. Well done year 12!!
Year 13
A very busy final year which has brought about many emotions; excitement when writing personal statements, completing entrance tests for Oxford, Cambridge, medical professions and visiting universities of choice, to the anxiety faced when sitting those final public examinations.
SCHOOL CAPTAIN: Ife F
VICE CAPTAINS: Kristian W, Amelia B
As we say goodbye for the final time to our Year 13 students, we would like to acknowledge some of the milestones achieved this academic year.
The School leadership team took part in numerous formal events, providing first hand information about their journey through Borden; as well as assemblies to lower school years such as Culture week, Black History month and fundraising events for Macmillan Cancer support. We are so grateful for the energy they provided within the 6th form and how they modelled expectations through their behaviours and approach to academic studies.
In October, the Mathematics students took part in the UKMT Senior Mathematical Challenge with Ife F. being the only student to achieve a gold award in the first round of the UKMT Senior therefore qualifying to take part in the Andrew Jobbings Senior Kangaroo competition. A huge well done for achieving a certificate of merit from this round! Also, Film Studies students enjoyed seeing the sequel to Joker with Joaquin Phoenix at The Light cinema, in support of studying the first Joker film for their exams. It is fair to say it received mixed reviews from our discerning filmgoers!
November saw the Year 13 A-level Physics students visiting CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, renowned for its groundbreaking work in particle physics and Geneva, immersing themselves in the city’s rich culture.
February was another busy month, with the Art, photography and DT department taking year 13 students to the Tate Britain in London; they were clearly inspired, as their final A-level pieces were outstanding.
In March, the lucky A-level English Literature students saw Shakespeare's play, Othello (2nd Act) come to life at the Globe Theatre. Eleven A-level Spanish students were able to take advantage of a cultural trip to one of Spain's most cosmopolitan cities, Barcelona. The teachers were impressed with how the boys immersed themselves in the language at every opportunity. However, this trip wasn't just about culture and making memories, it was about broadening our young people's horizons.
Four of our year 13 maths students assisted the year 7s and 8s on a reward trip to Williams racing in Oxfordshire at the end of March. On this trip, they were shown by current members of the Williams F1 engineering team around the museum of F1 cars present and past regaling stories of innovation and creativity, and testing themselves using the full simulators to undertake a 20 person race across a number of tracks; one of our year 13s in fact won this competition!
Sporting heroes!
Cyclocross: A big well done to Luke G. Following on from great success in year 12, after completing 5 stage races in Spain, being asked to guest for an international cycling team, taking part in a race in the South of France, finishing 28th out of a field of 200, Luke went on to achieve further National wins, which led to him being asked to represent GB in Dublin at the World Cup in December. In October, Luke went to Switzerland to take part in an international training camp (see the photos below). Yet again, Luke surpassed all expectations and was offered a place on the Great Britain Cyclocross under 23 squad for the next 3 World Cups - 21st, 22nd and 29th of December. In February, Luke travelled to Belgium to compete yet again. We are so proud to share that not only has Luke maintained his academic studies whilst competing, Luke has also completed a Level 3 in Sporting Excellence in his own time.
Football: A big thank you to Tom C, Michael O, Hadley T, Kristian W, Reece J, Henry S, Nathan O, Ed L for their continued commitment to the 1st XI football team, who progressed to the Semi Final of the Kent Cup.
Finally, in May we said goodbye to our students, starting with the Head Teacher’s speech, followed by the Head of Sixth form’s speech. Throughout their year, the students, as always, were a credit to the school and most importantly, themselves. We are looking forward to seeing them on August 14th for exam results day. Please stay in contact as we appreciate hearing what the Borden Alumni are doing and how your journey has developed.
Finally, we would like to wish you all a very restful summer holiday, and we look forward to welcoming the new year 12 cohort and year 13s back in term 1 of 2025.
Mrs Brinn (Head of 6th form), Ms Das (Head of Year 12), Mrs Searle (Head of Year 13), Mrs Francis
A reminder of the LinkedIn page, started by a group of 6th form students.
Please scan or click on the link and interact with the page, as the team are hoping that this new initiative will enable students and the wider community, including old Bordenians, to interact and become connected to the school.
Here’s the link!
Borden Grammar School Employees, Location, Alumni | LinkedIn
All of these extra things don’t happen by accident. Staff have to be willing to voluntarily take on the organisation of these events, write risk assessments, cost them, chase up finance, deal with students dropping out etc - It’s quite a commitment and I want to publicly thank all those staff who have helped create these wonderful additional experiences for students. Thank you also for getting the forms back, digging deep to pay for trips and communicating so effectively with the school - it really is a team effort.
Talking of staff commitment to the school, we have had three staff who have reached a landmark 25 years of Service to Borden, Mr Brinn - Assistant Headteacher, Mr Reynolds - Head of English and Mrs Cole - Admissions officer. The coasters presented to them on the right were made by Ms Ryan, our Design Technology technician.
It’s been another busy term 6 for the Geography department. In addition to the two Dover castle trips with the History department for Year 7. The department also took the Year 12 Geographers to Herne Bay, for the second of their NEA preparation trips. The coastal day looked at the impact of marine processes on beach morphology, the amenity impact of the advance the line management of Neptune’s Arm on the town centre, as well as the impact of coastal defences on sediment transfers and the unmanaged section of the North Kent coast at Bishopstone cliffs. This follows on from the visit to the London Olympic Park earlier in the year, looking at the success of the regeneration in E20. As well as this, the Year 10 Geography students also undertook GCSE fieldwork in Canterbury, looking at differences in urban quality of life, as well as Reculver looking at the different approaches to managing the coast. The fieldwork will be examined as part of the Paper 2 exam at the end of year 11 and gave the students great opportunity to apply some of the data collection techniques we have been looking at in lessons this term. 
The school anti-bullying ambassadors (ABAs) have had a productive year. We welcomed two new school-wide ambassadors from the Year 7 cohort who received anti-bullying training from Miss Irinoye and they quickly settled into their role, helping to plan and deliver presentations on online bullying to Year 7, 8, and 9 form groups.
Since March, myself and a team of twenty-five Year 9’s have been working tirelessly to put together a transition enrichment session for all Year 6’s that are preparing to transition to secondary school. We had meetings where possible where they split off into groups to create activities covering four different themes within transition: Transition, Organisation, Transport to Secondary School and Changes in expectations at Secondary school. We offered this session to as many of our local primary schools as possible and were lucky enough to visit Tunstall and Borden Primary School.
