I am delighted to share with you the news that JCoSS has been named The Sunday Times Greater London State Secondary School of the Year.

The Sunday Times ‘Parent Power’ tables list the top 2000 highest performing schools in the country and are an influential source of information, so this is a very significant accolade.  It recognises our outstanding results at GCSE and A level, and our rapid rise up the rankings in recent years.  Fuller details can be seen in the printed edition of the Sunday Times this weekend, or online at www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/parentpower (subscription needed).  The overwhelming majority of schools in the top 2000 or named as regional ‘Schools of the Year’ are academically selective: our position as an all-ability school committed to inclusion is therefore even more exceptional.

The overarching aim of our curriculum, as is well known, is to build accomplished mensches: we value the development of character and integrity higher than raw academic grades.  Nevertheless, it is wonderful to see that strategy bearing fruit in other measures.  I congratulate and bear witness to the students whose hard work is reflected in this award, the families who nurture them and my colleagues whose skill, energy and commitment underpins it all.

Yours sincerely

Patrick Moriarty

Headteacher, JCoSS