On Monday, we welcomed one of our alumna, Dr Layla Hosseini-Gerami (pictured below) back to School. We are super proud of her and very grateful to her for giving up her precious time to speak to the students. More details below.

On Tuesday over 50 of our Year 11 students visited Shrewsbury Prison, more below.

On Wednesday, Year 12 students took part in the Green Schools Challenge, more about that below.

On Thursday afternoon, we welcomed parents to a Parents' Afternoon, where Mrs Queralt, the Deputy Head and Designated Safeguarding Lead, spoke about Monitoring Devices at Home.

On Thursday, students took part in the Senior Maths Challenge, we wait to hear the results.

This week, there has been a lot of sport, details below. Good luck to our netball teams who are taking part in a tournament on Sunday at Stowe. Thank you very much to all the staff, students and parents who give up their time to enable us to participate in these events.

Sport this Week

A few updates from last week to begin with.

Hockey

Last Tuesday, the U15 hockey team played against the Royal Latin School. Unfortunately, they lost 2-0 but the team played a great game.

Swimming

Last Friday, swimming students took part in the English Schools Swimming Association gala at Woodside Leisure Centre. The Seniors placed 8th in the medley and freestyle and in the inter medley, they placed 7th. Great swims all round.

This week:

Netball

For the first match of the season, the U14 A and B netball teams played against The John Colet School. The A team sadly lost by one point with the final score being 7-8. The player of the match was Katie. The B team won 3-1 and the player of that match was Grace. They were very close games, with great energy shown by all.

Hockey

The U16s and U14s took part in the hockey county rounds at Stowe School this week, fantastic teamwork, a great time had by all.

The U14 hockey team played away at Waddesdon but lost 7-0. Player of the match was Katy Todd.

Football

The U15 football team played The Grange, sadly losing 6-0. Great saves by Amelia.

The U18 football team were away at Wycombe High School and won 4-1. Player of the match was Alice H. Well done to all involved.

Swimming

Swimmers competed in the Wycombe swim league on Wednesday. Inters set the record for the squadron relay, which we are really proud of.

Congratulations to all in what has been a very busy week of sport.

SEND Coffee Morning - 22 October 9-10.30 am

We would like to invite you to the first of our Aylesbury High School SEND Coffee mornings. Sometimes being a parent of a child can feel very lonely and this will be an informal opportunity to meet with members of the SEND team and other parents too. There will be a lot to talk about. We will be looking at what is going well and asking for your input on what we, as a SEND team, can do better. We will also be discussing future sessions and what topics you would find helpful.

The coffee morning will be held in the SEND corridor on 22 October from 9-10.30. If you would like to come along, please can you fill in this Google Form so that we have an idea of attendance. We very much hope that you will join us and we look forward to meeting you. Unfortunately, you will be unable to park on site, unless you require disabled parking. If you park on the roads around the School, please do so with consideration for our neighbours, thank you.

Miranda Crafts

SENDCo

Digital Wellbeing

Thank you to all of those who came along to the Parents' Afternoon yesterday. It was really useful to be able to discuss together how we can help our young people navigate this difficult area.

We looked at this video from Smartphone Free Childhood which looks at the frightening links between problematic smartphone use and poor mental health and the way in which social media companies manipulate young people into this addiction.

We also considered these parental control apps to help your daughter spend less time online:

iPhone:

Screen Time - Monitor usage, set limits, schedule downtime, block specific sites

Android:

Google Family Link - Manage screen time, apps, and content filters. This can be used to control non AHS Google accounts on your daughter's Chromebook, as well as on their phones

Third-Party:

Bark, Qustodio - These often have more advanced features, such as monitoring text messages and social media for signs of cyberbullying or dangerous content, and they work across both iPhone and Android devices.

Finally, we thought about building digital resilience - getting our students to take control of their phones themselves rather than having restrictions imposed by parents. We have a whole school drive on this at the moment with a student-led Digital Detox group planning a House Competition which will run after half term. Students will be offered a series of detox challenges which they can sign up to in exchange for house points. We'll send details home about this - please get behind them on this - and feel free to join in!

Our next Parents' Afternoon will be on 24 March 2026 so please do put the date in your diary!

Aylesbury High School Association

The AHSA is Aylesbury High School’s parent-teacher association (PTA). Like other PTAs, AHSA is a parent-led volunteer group. We aim to give the school a social aspect outside of school hours which brings the AHS community (parents, students and teachers) together and simultaneously raises funds to support the school and improve its facilities, thereby further enriching our children’s experiences.

Over the years we’ve raised thousands of pounds, which have been used by the school to buy a range of specialist equipment that has helped enrich and enhance the students’ educational experiences. AHSA has donated iPads, Carnegie prize winning novels for literacy, 3D printers, a thermal imaging camera, water fountains around school, chairs for 6th form study, cameras for photography, lightboxes for art, MFL subscriptions, pianos and picnic tables for outdoor seating - just to name a few!

The AHSA committee currently comprises a very small yet valuable number of parents with children in different year groups in the school. At the start of last academic year we wanted to raise money to install new lighting for the School Main Hall. We successfully completed the year fundraising, by organising our annual events, namely the Quiz & Curry night, Christmas & Summer raffles, our joint AGS/AHS Year 7 Disco and the Year 11 Prom.

But it is not all about raising money! Through our activities, we’ve made lots of new friends and had a great deal of fun along the way. As parents and carers of AHS pupils, you’re automatically members of the AHSA so we’d love you to join us.

We are currently looking for volunteers to come forward to fill the positions of Chair, Secretary and Treasurer for the AHSA. These are exciting positions and will allow you to work closely with staff and students alike. These are important appointments to enable the AHSA to thrive and be able to continue its work to provide the much needed funds and social aspect to our girls while they are at AHS.

Here’s how to get involved:

Become an active Association member

To get the most out of the AHSA, come and join our monthly meetings – we’d love to hear your ideas. We are currently meeting virtually on Google Meets on the first Wednesday of every month from 7.30 to 9.00 pm. Email us at ahsa@ahs.bucks.sch.uk for details on how to join the meeting.

Offer a pair of helping hands

If you don’t have time to join our meetings, look out for our emails where you can sign up to help at one of our events.

Take part in our monthly 50:50 cash draw!

For a one-off £25 payment per person, you are entered into a monthly cash draw. Each month a member is drawn at random, and wins 50% of the monthly prize. The other 50% goes to the AHSA and helps to raise much needed funds. You can sign up via ParentPay.

Donate to AHS for free while you shop

Signing up at EasyFundraising and nominating Aylesbury High School as your chosen cause means the AHSA receives a percentage of your purchase price at no cost to you! With over 600 stores like Tesco, John Lewis, Viking Direct, Expedia & Sainsbury’s participating, it’s easy to make a big difference.

Donate prizes for our seasonal raffle draws

In the past we have organised “Guess the weight” and a few other raffle draws for Christmas and summer. We would like to continue to run our Christmas raffle this year. If you are working for or own a business or would like to donate prizes towards this cause please contact:

ahsachair@ahs.bucks.sch.uk.

For further information, please contact us at ahsa@ahs.bucks.sch.uk

Keep up to date with all the AHSA news

X account at @ahsassociation

Facebook at www.facebook.com/ahsa.ahs.sch.uk

Join our Classlist community – Please see attached poster for more details

https://classlist.page.link/pP736kkhMfE8t1Gp7

AHS Active Breaks Project - Vote for Our Outdoor Table Tennis Tables!

We are absolutely delighted to announce that our fundraising campaign, the AHS Active Breaks Project to install outdoor table tennis tables, has been successfully selected for the Tesco Stronger Starts customer vote!

This is a fantastic opportunity to secure vital funding for equipment that will offer our students even more engaging and active ways to spend their breaks and lunchtimes, promoting fitness, teamwork, and fun.

How You Can Help

We need your support! The project with the highest number of votes across our region will receive up to £1,500, with second place receiving up to £1,000, and third place £500. Every single token counts!

Voting Details

When: Voting commences in the first week of October 2025 and runs until mid-January 2026.
Where: You can vote in the following local Tesco stores:

1. Aylesbury Extra (HP19 8BU)
2. Aylesbury Superstore (HP20 1PQ)
3. Aylesbury Jackson Road Express (HP19 9BF)
4. Wendover Express (HP22 6NU)
5. Aylesbury Express (HP22 7ER)
6. Meadow Way Express (HP20 1XS)

How to Vote:

1. Make a purchase of any value in one of the participating stores.
2. You will receive one blue token per transaction.
3. Cast your token for the AHS Active Breaks Project in the voting unit near the checkouts.

Please share this news and the list of participating stores with your family, friends, and local community!

What Happens Next?

Votes will be collated after the voting period ends in January, and we expect to be notified of the outcome in mid-February 2026.

We are incredibly excited about this opportunity and appreciate your help in making the AHS Active Breaks Project a reality. Let's make sure our students get to enjoy some fantastic new table tennis tables!

Thank you for your continued support of Aylesbury High School.

Art

On Tuesday we welcomed our visiting artist again Peter Keegan. https://peterkeegan.com/

Peter is a local artist who predominantly works in oil paint developing expressive portraiture. Our Year 12 art students were lucky to work with him all day to learn techniques and develop their creative and critical thinking as they reflected on his work. Year 12 could ask him questions and discuss this in their own approaches, as they began to develop their own pieces. Year 12 will continue to develop the paintings over the next week and we are excited to see them in their final stages.

Mrs Hartwell and Mrs Gayler
Art Department

Visit to Shrewsbury Prison

We took 50+ Year 11 students to Shrewsbury prison on Tuesday to help complement our GCSE unit on Crime and Punishment. Students were guided around the prison that closed in 2013 and discussions were had, not only about prison life in the Victorian era but also in the modern day, as students will look at the use of prisons and whether they are an effective method of punishment in modern society. As we also look at the death penalty, students were shown the execution room in the prison and discussed how this would have happened in the past, and the method of hanging in relation to other methods that are used around the world today. During the trip, students thoroughly enjoyed the escape rooms that they participated in.

Mrs Williams
Teacher of RS

Green Schools' Challenge

Well done to the 39 students from Year 12 who participated in the Green Schools' Challenge this week. This competition is run by the Bucks Skills Hub with the support of a number of local businesses. Students worked in teams to develop an outline proposal for a “green” solution to a problem faced by the School, which was judged on how impactful and innovative it was by judges from Whiffaway and the Bucks Skills Hub. The judges were incredibly impressed by the creativity and innovation shown by all the students, and particularly by their team-working and presentation skills. Congratulations to the Pedals that Power team (Lily, Emilia, Anushri, Freya, Ophelia, Bella) who will now take their idea forward to the county final in December.

Mrs Sutton
Next Steps and Careers Lead

Visiting Alumna

On Monday, we had great pleasure welcoming back to School, one of our alumna, Dr Layla Hosseini-Gerami, who left AHS in 2014. Layla is the Co-Founder and Chief Data Science Officer at Ignota Labs. She has recently won the prestigious Innovate UK (IUK) Women in Innovation Award and has been honoured with a purple plaque. These are being displayed at schools nationwide to recognise the award's winners. Layla joins over 200 recipients who are developing innovative solutions to critical social, environmental, and economic challenges. The award also means that she receives £75,000 in grant funding and business support to bring pioneering ideas to market.

Whilst here, Layla spent time talking to Year 13, and carried out workshops with Years 10, 11 and 12. Her talk was truly inspirational and she has very kindly offered to come back to School sometime in the future. We are so grateful to her for giving up her precious time and we are very proud of her achievements and to have her as one of our alumna.

For more information visit www.ignotalabs.ai.

For more details about Women in Innovation see: https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/programme/women-in-innovation.

Alex Ridout Jazz Musician - Alumna of AHS

We are super proud to let you know that Alex, one of our alumna, is regularly touring internationally in various bands and at the moment is touring the west coast of America with (5 times Grammy winner) Samara Joy as part of her world tour! Female jazz instrumentalists make up only 5% of jazz musicians so Alex is quite a trail blazer. She is making waves in New York (where she is based) and is being celebrated here.

https://ukjazznews.com/alexandra-ridout-at-font-music-2025/

Alex will be bringing her ‘New York’ Quartet of musicians from the New York jazz scene to Aylesbury (15th November at The Methodist Church Hall, Buckingham Street) as part of a UK tour, which includes headline shows at The Guildhall/EFG London Jazz Festival and the Cambridge Jazz Festival.

If you would like to attend her concert in Aylesbury on 15 November, this is the link to tickets (which are not available to buy at the venue) and it also has a lot of background information about Alex. https://wegottickets.com/event/676881.

Sports Presentation Evening

Thank you to those who came along to our Sports Presentation Evening to celebrate our sporting success over the last academic year at AHS.

We were fortunate enough to be joined by Lesley Owusu GB Athlete and British 400m Champion, who told her story about how sport changed her life. She shared how sport helped her to become mentally strong, giving her confidence, resilience and empowerment. She spoke about the importance of being positive and how through sport her attitude to life changed from 'I can't' to 'I can'.

A special mention to both Mrs Carpenter and Miss Nicol for all the hard work that they put in behind the scenes in making this event possible and to the entire PE team for all the evenings and weekends they give up throughout the year in supporting our sports teams.

Of course, this event would also not be possible without the attendance of our students at both extra curricular clubs, training and fixtures and we are very proud of all them. Congratulations for all those who received their colours for continued commitment to their teams and those who received special awards.

AGS/AHS Joint Production

This year’s joint AGS/AHS production is an abridgment of Shakespeare’s comedy ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’ complete with live music, singing and dancing.

PLEASE NOTE THE START TIME OF EACH PRODUCTION IS 7.00PM

Venue: AGS Foundation Hall

Performances take place on:

Monday 20 Oct 2025

Tuesday 21 Oct 2025

Wednesday 22 Oct 2025

This production is staged in a Traverse format meaning audiences are on both sides of the stage similar to a fashion show catwalk. Tickets are unreserved.

Ticket prices:

General admission £10

Concessions (for students OAPs etc) £7.50

Tickets are available via this link:

https://buytickets.at/aylesburygrammarschool/1860930

We hope to see you there.

AGS/AHS Drama

Diwali

We are getting requests for up to five days away from School to celebrate Diwali. We are only able to authorise a single day for the main day of Diwali, which is Monday, October 20th (Lakshmi Puja) . If you wish your daughter to take this day off School, please can you let us know? Thank you.

With thanks, as ever, for your support, and wishing all a lovely weekend,

Marieke Forster

AHS School Fundraising

The AHS Fund helps us to enrich the curriculum and develop the school's facilities to ensure that every student is able to fulfil their potential, wherever their strengths lie. Support from our Parents, our Alumnae and our wider community allows us to provide the outstanding education you expect and the students deserve.

Please click here for further information AHS School Fundraising

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