It is a statement of the obvious that these offers are the result of much hard work from the students themselves, but they also reflect the outstanding teaching and sustained pastoral support these students have received over many years from a whole host of teachers. Alongside these ten students are many more, who though disappointed not to secure offers this year, have benefitted from pushing themselves to make an application and from the support they have received to do so. We are proud of every student who had the courage and ambition to put themselves forward.

And now on to the main section of this Headmaster’s Update, in which I'm delighted to introduce our first “guest presenter” – our Director of Sport, James McCann.

January is not the most obviously sporting of months, but it has proved an immensely positive one for us at Leicester Grammar School, with our pupils continuing to achieve outstanding success both collectively and individually across a range of sports.

In cricket, we are delighted to celebrate notable achievements in the Indoor Cricket Competition. Both our U13 and U15 Boys and U13 and U15 Girls teams have won their respective Borough competitions, as a result, all teams progress to the County Finals. Further progression awaits our girls, as the competition advances beyond County level to the National Finals. In addition, a number of pupils from across our boys’ and girls’ pathways are currently part of County cricket set-ups, highlighting the strength and health of our programme.

Our boys’ hockey programme continues to go from strength to strength. This season has seen our U14, U16 and U18 teams all qualify for their respective Midlands Finals, an exceptional collective achievement. These groups now have the exciting opportunity to push on further, with hopes of securing a first-ever National Finals appearance for LGS boys’ hockey (fingers crossed).

We have also enjoyed considerable success in senior rugby, with five pupils securing places within Professional Development Player Pathways. Eduards, Rory, Dan and Eddie (Year 11) have all been selected by Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints DPPs, while Philip (Year 12) continues his involvement within the Leicester Tigers DPP. These selections are a testament to the pupils’ hard work and the quality coaching and support provided at school.

In netball we are delighted that every girl in Year 7 has represented the school this term. This is a wonderful demonstration of participation and very much in-line with the inclusive sporting programme that we are proud to run.

We also recognise two outstanding individual achievements: Catherine (Year 10) has risen to become UK number one in the U16 Table Tennis rankings, whilst Isaac (Year 13) has been selected to compete at the International Home Nations Cross Country Event at Parliament Hill, London.

Collectively, these successes reflect the commitment and ambition of our pupils and staff, and we look forward to building on this momentum as the term progresses.

Thank you to Mr McCann for summarising our pupils’ successes this month, and to the whole Sports department for the months of planning and training that have gone into helping our pupils to these achievements. We are immensely proud of them all.

I will finish by sharing that printed copies of The Leicestrian, our annual publication which attempts to summarise the excitement and activity of the school year, have finally arrived. We have a stack of these at reception, so if you or your child would like a copy as a record of the year, please do ask them to collect one.

With best wishes,
Magnus Anderson
Headmaster