A letter from the headmaster

Dear Parents

By switching our RGS News content to an email newsletter we plan to bring you a monthly, rather than termly, update on what’s happening at RGS, with articles taking you directly to the up-to-date news on our website. We are also hoping to enlist more of our students to develop fresh content in a variety of media presentations.

Thank you to marketing manager Mrs Savage and deputy head girl and publicity officer Poppy Robinson for their work in this initiative, which is also helping maintain our commitment to reducing paper usage.

With that in mind, and following the climate change student protest in Leeds, I would like to update you on some of the initiatives we are taking at RGS to reduce energy usage and improve our commitment to a sustainable future:

- Re-cycling items such as used pens, food and wrapping waste from break and lunchtime

- School communication and academic reports moved to email

- £50,00 investment in energy-efficient LED lighting

- 250 new low-wattage computers installed, with much-reduced energy usage

- Encouraging the ‘cycle to work’ scheme for NYCC employees

- A recent application for 300 saplings from the Woodland Trust for the school estate

- Establishment of an Eco-Society for students

- Looking to diversify our border planting to support bees & butterflies

- Continuing to look for ways to improve insulation and reduce energy wastage such as switching off lighting

- Assemblies on personal responsibility, waste management and recycling

I would also dearly love to see my solitary bicycle joined by others in the school’s cycle store, but I do realise that many will not commit to cycling to school until the ‘powers that be’ have committed to a robust network of safe cycle lanes through the city of Ripon. We live in hope.

With best wishes,

Jonathan M Webb

Headmaster