Welcome back to all the students and staff of Netherwood School. We are delighted to announce that once again, our GCSE results were very good indeed! 100 per cent passes were achieved in 11 of the 18 subjects in which entries were made. All of the 16-year-olds in last year's GCSE group passed at least five GCSEs, with the average number of passes coming to nine per person. A total of 33 per cent of all entries led to either an A* or A grade. Mrs. Pip Welton joins us as the form tutor of Year 3 and will be teaching science, ICT, and Games, with an emphasis on fitness. She comes to us well 'prepared' for her job, having spent many hours at Netherwood this summer, preparing both herself and her room for the start of term.

Mrs. Ceri Montagner takes up a permanent part- time post as the tutor of Years 4/5. She will be teaching her specialist subject 'English' in Key Stage 2. It is also hoped that she will be lending a hand to the new fitness scheme that we are in the process of developing in both the lower and upper part of the school.

Mr. Howard Dwyer is joining us to teach both geography and boys' games. He comes with an excellent track record, having played rugby for Cardiff Rugby Club. His enthusiasm has already delighted many of the pupils in the school.

Mr. Athar Naqvi joins us to teach ICT in the upper half of the school. He has already taught ICT in Dubai and has lectured in ICT at both Pembrokeshire College and Treforest College. He is currently completing his M.PHIL. in ICT, and will be a huge asset to the school.

Miss Helen Standing has been upgraded from peripatetic drum teacher to director of music. Miss Kerri Brosnan has joined the school as the headmaster's PA and school receptionist, during the temporary absence of Jennie Kinahan who has decided to take up the offer of going on a world tour with her friends. We wish her a safe and enjoyable time abroad. Mrs. Jane Prout is joining the house staff as a domestic and lunchtime supervisor. We are pleased to announce that our Sixth Form is again underway with the arrival of Georgy Sopromadze, who will be studying German, European History, economics and maths at A Level.

He may shortly be joined by a Spanish student, who will be taking a combination of A Levels and GCSEs. This year, we have decided to support The Innovative Fund Raising Initiative of the Save The Children Organisation. They call this the 'Wish List'. It means, instead of bringing Harvest produce to school, we are all going to bring in money (probably £1 each for children, or more) and the money collected will be used towards purchasing a 'Wish List' gift for the needy and poor of other countries. Amongst these gifts are a family food basket, 40 chickens, a pair of goats, school uniform, a hairy yak, seeds and the provision of schooling for five children. Our pupils will learn all about the project in the next few weeks and when we have collected the money, we shall all decide which gift(s) we wish to purchase for the children in other lands.

On Wednesday, September 26, 'The Army Student Presentation Team', headed by captain Chris Woodward, came into school to give Years 9, 10 and 11 a very informative talk about the role of the Army in today's world. The main objective was to increase the students' awareness and understanding of today's Army, overall. Representatives from the local recruiting office were also present and a useful question and answer session followed. Thank you very much to Mrs. Macnaughten and 'The Army Student Presentation Team' for an entertaining and informative afternoon.

On Wednesday, September 19, the children and staff from the Pre-Prep Department went for the day out to Tenby to experience different modes of transport as part of their 'Journeys' work.

Having been driven to the railway station in Saundersfoot, the children waited excitedly for the train, guessing from which direction it would come and listening intently for the first sound of its imminent arrival. Teddy, in Year Two studied the timetable to see how long the journey would take, and discovered, after some calculations, that it would take seven minutes.

The train pulled into the station and the guard helped the children on board - minding the gap. They found comfy seats and the children sat down excitedly. The guard then came to sell them their tickets, which came out of the machine slowly.

In no time at all, they were pulling into Tenby station. They were helped off by the guard and set off to walk into the town. They saw a range of different vehicles on the way - from bicycles to dumper trucks. They stopped overlooking North Beach and enjoyed the view of the boats in the harbour, before making their way into Tudor Square where they were to have a ride in the horse drawn carriage.

Just as they climbed aboard it began to spit with rain. Coats on, hoods up...they wouldn't be defeated by a few wet drops! They learned that the horse's name is Major Tom and that he is 10- years-old. He is a shire horse with huge feet. He was very well behaved. The ride was quite slow and bumpy - very different to the smooth, fast train. Next they went down to the harbour to admire the boats and have their lunch. In the harbour, they saw yachts, motor boats, rowing boats and fishing boats. Half-way through lunch it began to rain a little harder. A decision was made to go up to see the new lifeboat station and hopefully it would stop raining long enough to have a run around on the beach. The lifeboat station and indeed the lifeboat were extremely impressive. Gregg operated the information computer for them and they were all suitably impressed, particularly by the huge splash generated by the lifeboat going down its slip. They talked about what the lifeboats do and how brave the lifeboat crews are. They came out of the lifeboat station to heavy rain, so made their way to a café whilst we made a decision. A taxi would be the answer, and sure enough, there was a large taxi waiting for them. So they returned to school happy, tired and a little damp, arriving in style in a taxi to the door.

In the middle of August, the school's celebrity swimmer, Johnnie Delahunty, entered the 'Summer Nationals' in the 50m National Pool in Swansea and achieved a fantastic personal best time in his 100m freestyle. He once again dipped under the minute to achieve a West Wales Regional Squad qualification place.

There were only three swimmers from Johnnie's club, the Tenby Dolphins, to achieve the necessary times, the coach, Mr. John Amos was absolutely ecstatic! There were in fact only 20 swimmers from the whole of West Wales to qualify! The first of the training camps was held at the National Pool, where the swimmers were pushed to the absolute limit, not only in the pool, but in the gym as well!

Training for Johnnie will now be extremely extensive, as the area coach is expecting him to be in training now, not only in Pembrokeshire, but twice a week in Swansea too! Well done, Johnnie!