Required from: April/May 2020
Contract: Part Time 30 hours per week – Monday to Friday. Term time plus 30 negotiated hours with negotiable start and finish time
Salary: Kent Scheme Salaries Range 5: £18,704 – £20,121 per annum pro rata (Equating to £12,839 – £13,811 per annum)
Closing Date: 8am on Monday, 20th April 2020
Interview Date: TBC

Applications welcomed immediately

We are looking to appoint an experienced Finance Officer who is both enthusiastic and flexible to join a busy, friendly team. The role includes administering the school’s purchase ledger function within FMS together with monitoring, reporting and advising as necessary along with general finance duties. The successful applicant will demonstrate attention to detail and a good level of numeracy. A background in financial administration within a school is preferable and the ability to use financial software is essential.

Maidstone Grammar School for Girls is a very successful selective girls’ school of 1250 students with a mixed Sixth Form of approximately 320. Since July 2019 we have been appointed by the Department for Education as a Computing Hub in recognition of the expertise the school has evidenced in Computing Education, and will take a lead in training teachers across the south east in the delivery of Computing. This post offers the opportunity to work with intellectually able young people in a supportive and friendly environment. Staff benefits include strong support for professional development and a healthcare scheme.

Full details and an application pack are available below. Applicants should complete our application form and email, along with covering letter, to the Headteacher’s PA. If you require any additional information please contact Ms Starns, PA to the Headteacher via email: mstarns@mggs.org

Applications will be considered in the order in which they are received. Suitable candidates may be interviewed before the closing date and Maidstone Grammar School for Girls reserves the right to withdraw the position if an early appointment is made.

• Advert
• Job Description
• Person Specification
• Support Staff Application Form

Applications should be emailed to mstarns@mggs.org

The post Finance Officer appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

The Saxons began the week by sharing stories of VE Day celebrations, including (socially distanced) BBQs, afternoon teas, home baking, gardening, bike rides, street parties and even a neighbour displaying tanks! Miss Johnson’s VE Day afternoon tea for two is pictured.

The Saxons also shared their proud achievements during the lockdown. These ranged from achieving a personal best for running 5K to learning new skills including daily yoga routines. This week’s Thunk was ‘Is a toy car that no one has ever played with still a toy?’. The unanimous decision was that it would still be a toy as it could not possibly be a real car! Last week’s Thunk, which was ‘Is it natural to be greedy? If so, is being greedy ok?’, caused a lot more debate amongst members of the house!

The Saxons are raring to go for the first of the new House Challenges, with this week’s task being ‘The Distance Challenge’. Houses are competing to accumulate the most distance in km travelled by walking or running over the next week. Every km converts to points for the house and the winning house will also receive 50 bonus points. This is a fantastic chance for students to get active and enjoy the lovely weather that we have been experiencing, while also collaborating on a team project, even from afar. All year groups are encouraged to visit their House Classrooms and to get involved!

The post Update from the Sixth Form Saxons appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

This week Year 9 students completed a baking challenge and produced some amazing results!

Amelia A in 9G made a salted caramel cheesecake.
Amelie M in 9F made bee lemon profiteroles.
Alex J in 9F made mini banana bread AND oreo cookies.

Well done, I bet they tasted delicious!

The post MGGS Year 9 ‘Bake Off’ appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

Partial Opening of Schools in Term 6

Thank you for your continued support of your daughter’s/son’s education during this period of lockdown. As I am sure you are aware the government have stated that students in Year 10 and Year 12 should start to have time with their teachers in term 6. We are currently working on how this will operate in school both safely and effectively to enhance students’ learning. As we start to work on this process, we know that we would only expect one year group to come into school on any one day. Details of how this will work will be issued in the second half of next week.

Clearly, as schools start to re-open teachers who have children in Key Stage 3 may wish them to attend school under the key worker provision. If you would like your daughter to access the Keyworker provision in term 6 and your daughter is not currently attending school please complete the Google Form here.

Thank you for your patience as we work on developing the arrangements for Year 10 and 12.

The post Headteacher’s Weekly Update appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

Holly M in Year 7 at MGGS has kept herself busy during lockdown and, last week, was offered a contract for next season with Charlton Athletic Football Club’s Under 14s squad.

Holly is also ‘climbing Everest’ from home, where she has to complete 44 stair climbs each day for 12 weeks to climb the equivalent height of Everest. She has so far raised £450 for Porchlight, homeless charity. You can view her adventure on Twitter @HollyMums.

Holly’s Just Giving charity page for Porchlight can be found here https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tabitha-maclaurin1

Congratulations Holly on your contract with Charlton Athletic Football Club U14s and good luck climbing ‘virtual’ Everest!

The post Holly keeps herself busy during lockdown appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

The Government designated last Wednesday “Thank a Teacher Day”, stating:

Today we are saying thank you to teachers, senior leaders, support staff and all those working in education settings who are making a difference to their schools and communities during the coronavirus outbreak. To mark the day, you can send a free thank you card to a colleague.

The Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson, said: “Thank a Teacher Day gives us all a great opportunity to thank everyone working in education, but I especially wanted to express my respect and admiration for all staff in nurseries, schools and colleges for going above and beyond to help this country tackle coronavirus and continue to support young people.”

Many students and parents contacted us on that day to share their thanks, and we’re grateful to you for taking the time to do so. The many positive messages we have received during virtual school have been a great encouragement.

The MGGS Leadership Team would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all of our teachers and support staff for their dedication and hard work. We are very proud to work alongside such capable and committed colleagues, and of their contribution to the community that we share.

Our staff are also parents, uncles, aunts, godparents and friends to many children and young people between them, and therefore, we’d also like to extend our thanks and appreciation to anyone in the wider MGGS community who is a teacher or works in a school or nursery setting. We understand that these have been challenging times for our sector and, to mark Thank a Teacher Day, we would like to extend our thanks to you too.

It’s never too late to say thank you to anyone you know in the education sector! If you or your daughter/son would like to, free thank you cards can be found at https://thankateacher.co.uk/, alongside more information about the day.

The post National Thank a Teacher Day – Wednesday, 20th May 2020 appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

On Thursday every House enjoyed an opportunity to welcome their new House Leaders and say thank you and farewell to the outgoing team. We enjoyed photographs and memories from the last year as the outgoing teams shared their highlights and congratulated the new teams as part of a virtual handover assembly.

Obviously we are very sad not to be able to do this in person. However, it is important and fitting to say thank you to the 2019-20 House Leaders who have been an absolutely brilliant bunch, inspiring and motivating their House members through many competitions, events, activities and day to day school over the past year.

Equally we congratulate the new teams on their appointments, and look forward to seeing how they, along with the new team of Student Reps, will build on past successes and lead the Houses in new adventures. Already they have been doing a great job of leading the new House Challenges, open to all year groups and introduced to bring the House together during virtual school. Do get involved (or encourage your daughter/son to do so!).

The post Welcome to the new House Leaders! appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

This week, two Vikings’ students share their experiences and reflections.

Marianne G, Year 12
This week, V1 have been thinking about the people in our lives who deserve appreciation and kindness. Examples included parents, siblings, friends and teachers – these are the people who relentlessly support and guide us when we’re stuck. A ‘thank you’ to these people sometimes just isn’t enough to summarise our gratitude to them, especially since a few members of our form have parents who classify as key workers and have been amazing from the moment they started their job. So, we came up with some ways (which still only scratch the surface) to thank the incredible people in our lives:

– cooking dinner for the family
– baking tasty treats
– writing letters and e-cards
– sending an isolation care package with their favourite things inside

We have also been thinking about activities which we would like to complete for ourselves. This time spent at home has given us the opportunity to start on plans we may have made a long time ago but put aside as the weeks ran away from us. Whether it’s beginning books, being more arty or active or simply taking time to relax and reflect on how we’re doing at the moment; there are many things we may have put on the back burner. There are also so many things to experience right now from the comfort of our own homes, including live streams of nature and animal habitats, broadcasts of West-End musicals and theatre, art clubs and tutorials, exercise videos and so much more; one is almost spoilt for choice!

Lastly, we’ve reminisced and shared a couple of photographs from previous holidays, spent basking in the glorious sunshine. Specifically, coastal Californian sunshine (picture on the left) and coastal South-Western French sunshine (picture on the right). It was lovely to look at pictures, frozen moments from a time much less worrying than this. That is one of the best aspects of photography, that good memories can be both mentally and physically stored to remember.

Leilani M, Year 13
Each of the Vikings have had a unique lockdown experience, much like the rest of the world; some have baked sourdough bread, learnt a new skill, worked on an old one or ran for distances I can tell you I personally wouldn’t even attempt! Some have had very abnormal birthdays with best wishes via Google classroom and pictures of cake we wish we could share. More significant birthdays are coming up in the next few weeks and others have celebrated with those at home. Many of us have had more time than ever before and most have had to develop our understanding of the importance of structure and self discipline, but together we have all been acting to achieve shared goals, to be safe, well and to stay home where possible.

The sense of community has always been something that is extremely prevalent at MGGS and I find as Vikings we are our own lovely little sub community. We have definitely all come together and supported one another, from a distance, now more than ever before. We as a society have, to a certain extent, become more empathetic and kind towards one another than I have experienced in my lifetime; we take time to support one another and we thank those that care for us. We would like to hope that over the years that follow this time that we will continue supporting each other much like this, both within the MGGS community and outside, where I feel there has been the greatest change.

As a Year 13 I can only imagine how challenging it must be for Year 12 and Year 10 students at the moment to stay on top of their NEAs and revision, but I know they are all strong and supported so very well by each other and our teachers.

The scrapbook Google Classroom has been a wonderful place to see what everyone, including those outside of the Vikings house, have been doing and making. Supporting each other with our creative outlets, in my opinion, is even more important than ever before.

This week Vikings have been set the task of thanking those who have made a positive impact on our lives. I for one know that I am thankful for a lot of people and have been getting in touch with many of them the past few weeks to express how much I appreciate everything they’ve done for me.
As Vikings we would like our first thank you of the week to be to our teachers and our families for supporting us through this as well as key workers and NHS staff that have been working tirelessly to support us all!

The post Update from Sixth Form Vikings appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

MGGS has donated its vending machine supplies to the Salvation Army for them to distribute to their local food banks following a suggestion by one of our students.

The Salvation Army has passed its thanks to the school for the very kind donation and said it will make a lot of people happy as they don’t normally have “treats” donated! 

The post MGGS Donation to the Salvation Army appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

Thank you to everyone who has been in touch regarding this project, but we still have a few gaps in the years 2000 until 2016. If you were a Head Student yourself, or know any from this period, please do ask them to sign up to our database. We are seeking their permission to add their names to our new honours board in the main school hall. We are also hoping to invite them to an unveiling celebration once life returns to normal.

https://www.mggs.org/connected-community/development-trust-office

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Thank you for your support this time in enabling virtual education to continue at home. As next week is half term, no work will be scheduled to be completed during that term. As we start to partially open in term 6 I would refer you to my separate letter giving the current information. More details will follow in due course.

The post Headteacher’s Weekly Update appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

Contract: Full Time from September 2020
Closing date: Noon on 10th June 2020
Virtual Interview Date: 12th June 2020

Applications welcomed immediately.
Applications from prospective NQTs and experienced teachers are welcome.

We are seeking an enthusiastic, dynamic and innovative colleague to join a team of committed professionals within our Physical Education Department to teach across all key stages for this full time maternity cover post. The post would be equally suitable for an experienced teacher or for an NQT. A passion for the subject and the desire to inspire others are essential. The ability to teach GCSE and A level PE is desirable along with an ability to specialise in at least one sport eg dance, football etc.
This post offers the opportunity to work with high ability students in a supportive, friendly and forward-thinking environment.

Maidstone Grammar School for Girls is a very successful selective girls’ school of 1250 students with a mixed Sixth Form of approximately 320. Since July 2019 we have been appointed by the Department for Education as a Computing Hub in recognition of the expertise the school has evidenced in Computing Education, and will take a lead in training teachers across the south east in the delivery of Computing. This post offers the opportunity to work with intellectually able young people in a supportive and friendly environment. Staff benefits include strong support for professional development and a healthcare scheme.

Applications will be considered in the order in which they are received. Suitable candidates may be interviewed before the closing date and Maidstone Grammar School for Girls reserves the right to withdraw the position if an early appointment is made.

The MGGS site is currently closed until further notice and MGGS is working virtually.  Thank you for your interest in this position.   We value communication with you.  Please note during this time emails will be monitored however response times may be delayed. Please be reassured that if we have any updates that these will be communicated with you as early as possible via our website vacancy pages.

We would encourage you to submit your application and covering letter.   We will be looking to interview via Google Hangouts, or similar systems.

We appreciate your interest at this difficult time and hope that you and your family are keeping safe.

• Advert
• Classroom Teacher Job Description
• Person Specification
• MGGS Teacher Application Form (Word Format)

Applications should be emailed to mstarns@mggs.org

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Megan and Laura J @MGGS_ have just completed a virtual netball training session with none other than a super league and South African international player with their club this week! Proud parent commented “No stopping them and thank you to the PE staff for the club recommendation.”

The post Netball Training Continues… appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

This week, Kent Online reported, “A 15-year-old schoolgirl has written a moving song after her grandpa’s sudden death. Immy, who lives in Hollingbourne, near Maidstone, was shocked when she heard the news her grandpa had suffered a heart attack.”

“Despite being well into his 80s, John, who worked as an architect for most of his life, was “the most active man ever” right up until his final days.”

“From the moment Immy found out her grandfather had been taken into hospital, she began writing down everything she was thinking and feeling, as a way of coping with the intense emotions.”

“The Maidstone Grammar School for Girls pupil said: “I started writing down everything and turned that into a poem. And then I just sat down at the piano and everything I was feeling came out in notes.”

“Immy added: “We did not see it coming. It was hard as we couldn’t see each other because of social distancing. Up until his final days he was the most active man ever – he still did gardening and things like that. He would never have been one of those old men who didn’t get up and about. We all thought he was going to live up to 100.”

Head of Music at MGGS, Mr Chapman, commented, “ It is a really nice song and the standard reflects many of the compositions I have heard from our GCSE students in their vocal compositions over the years. I think it demonstrates what a talented bunch we have and also the development in the availability of electronic recording techniques, which enables students to manipulate and record sounds/instruments to a high level. I love hearing these and this is why I’m so passionate about introducing more composing units using ICT into KS3 – the excellence of many of the compositions from Year 7 upwards has been amazing!”

We are all thinking of you Immy at this time.

Read the full article on Kent Online here https://www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/everything-i-was-feeling-came-out-in-notes-227586/

The post MGGS singer Immy S gets 5,000 views on SoundCloud for song Cloud Gazing written in memory of her grandpa to play at his funeral reported by Kent Online appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

The MGGS Development Trust have created a quiz for you to test your knowledge of the school’s history:

https://quiz.tryinteract.com/#/5ec2a5c23e252d00140e6df0

The post How much do you know about MGGS? appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

Subterranean Britannica has very generously agreed a grant of £5,000 towards the ‘A Step In Time’ campaign, and more specifically towards the opening of our rediscovered set of WWII tunnels at the front of the school. We are very much looking forward to progressing with this project once it is safe to do so. Thank you Sub Brit!

The post A Big Thank You! appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

We are hoping to update our honours boards in the main school hall and have been unable to trace any Head Students for the 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 academic years. If you know anyone who served as a Head Student during these years, please ask them to get in touch with Mrs Lila Brewer via dto@mggs.org

The post 2001-2003 Head Students appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

The new House Leaders have been enthusiastically encouraging their Houses to participate in the House Challenges. This week saw the final results of the first House Challenge – The Distance Challenge – where students form all year groups (and staff) were asked to track the number of km they walked or ran in a week. The weather was gorgeous and students and staff achieved amazing distances with the top three results being:

Special mention must go to Adelewa O in Year 8 (Britons) and Jaime B in Year 7 (Romans) who logged the top distances of 100km each! The House Leaders also shared some inspirational photos and videos of their own to keep everyone motivated!

The second House Challenge – The Photography Challenge – has just closed and House Leaders have the task for sorting through the beautiful photographs and choosing the best three in each House. These will be awarded House Points and will be shown in the News and Blog next week.

Please do encourage your daughter/son to check her/his House Classroom regularly and to get involved. We are famed at MGGS for our community spirit, and although we cannot enjoy our usual summer term together, we are very keen to stay in touch! The House Classrooms are alive with activity and a great way to build relationships across the year groups while we are working from home.

The post House Leaders and the Summer House Challenges! appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

This week Year 9 students were set the creative challenge to create a picture (drawing, photograph, painting) of what they could see out of their window.

Here are two lovely contributions from Maisie S and Eva H!

The post Year 9 Photography appeared first on Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

“Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting.” ~ Edward de Bono.

As a department, we wanted to celebrate the amazing creativity shown by our KS3 students since homeschooling began. They have been resourceful, independent artists, rising to the creative challenges set for them. In recognition of their efforts, we are sharing a digital exhibition of wonderful artworks with you, including work from Years 7, 8 and 9.

Well done KS3, we are very proud of you. Keep up the fantastic work!

Mrs Pacifico, Mrs Jenkins and Mrs. Francis – MGGS Art Department

See the full exhibition here – not to be missed!

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