Happy New Year to you all. I trust the Christmas break was an enjoyable couple of weeks and you feel ready for the joys of 2026. For some, I have no doubt, you will be returning to work for a rest!
It has been lovely to catch up with pupils and parents on the playground, hearing all about the holidays and finding out what Santa had delivered on Christmas Day.
I will start the first blog of 2026 with reference to the letter I sent out to parents and carers on Tuesday afternoon sharing the news that this will be my last year at Whitehill as Headteacher. It has been a very difficult decision and one that hasn’t been taken lightly. I am sure that I will chat to some of you in the coming weeks and months and will obviously take the opportunity in these blogs to reflect upon the amazing time I have had as only Whitehill Junior School’s fourth Headteacher. That being said, I will probably get a call from my dad later telling me not to bother as the blogs are already too long! I wonder if he will indulge me.
It didn’t take long for me to award the first Headteacher’s Awards of 2026. The very first went to Lily-Ann (Year 6) for some wonderful independent maths work. I had a group of Year 3s visit me – in the staffroom – to show and explain to me their story facts. Well done to Emily, Marley HS, Taiyah and Alyssa. The final award for day one went to Thananika (Year 4) for her great reasoning during her RE lesson.
When not handing out awards to pupils, I visited Mayan Class to see the work they were doing as Mr Denney introduced the new science topic on the human body. They drew round each other and then had to use what they already knew to think about what they might be made up of. There were some interesting new bones being drawn.
Alex (Year 4) asked to cash in his Christmas voucher he won before the break. His fellow pupils in Kusama Class were delighted as his voucher was ‘cakes for the class’. I obliged and after a trip to the shops, I delivered the tasty treats on Wednesday morning. There are definitely other pupils with similar vouchers and so I will now wait for the others to be claimed. I just hope those who have won ‘extended break’, will wait for warmer weather.
I had the pleasure of popping into singing assembly on Thursday morning. It was such a great experience to hear the pupils enjoying singing. I know I have mentioned it before but one way I use to judge a great school is if singing is embraced and enjoyed. It certainly is at Whitehill.
Straight after, we had a large group of prospective parents visit for a school tour. With many arriving early, they too were able to enjoy the music. Mrs Burniston helped with the tour as it was a large group which meant we had to play the game of ‘let’s try and avoid each other’. I believe our groups only collided twice. The pupils were on top form in every class we visited.
Thursday afternoon saw me visit the classes again. Some wonderful dance by the pupils of Everest Class and I needed no other clues to identify ‘spies’ as the theme for their choreography.
In the period leading up to Christmas, every Thursday afternoon seemed to be wet. It was therefore great to be able to wrap up warm and get outside to do PE in the fresh air. Looking at some of the pupils transition from one activity to another, I can confirm that the field is quite muddy but that didn’t seem to stem the pupils’ enthusiasm. You might find that a ‘Mr Mills Update’ comes out to remind about appropriate PE uniform, and footwear in the coming days.
Year 5 was a hive of activity, and I spent time in both classes looking at their American research and collage. The group work was impressive and very creative as they looked to recreate a 3D physical map of their new geography topic.
We held our first Achievers’ Assembly on Friday morning where Water won the House Cup and Kusama collected the Class of the Week trophy.
We had three dance certificates to present to Emily O, Agnes and Calla (Year 3) who have all done very well in their ballet exams. Emmeline (Year 3) achieved a distinction in her LAMDA exam and performed one of her pieces for us. We also celebrated Poppy R (Year 3) who had achieved her next Brownie’s badge. Well done to all who were celebrated today.
Looking ahead to next week, the diary still looks relatively quiet. That being said, we do have the Friends’ Association discos to look forward to on Thursday evening. Details have already been sent home but of course, if you have any questions, please do get in touch.
We also have Hitchin Girls’ School visiting a couple of times so their sports leaders can work with our Year 3s and Year 5s on Thursday and Friday.
So that is it for week one of 2026. Just another 24 more blogs to go. I will leave you with one final retirement thought (and then I won’t mention it again for a while) which comes from Thursday night when I ended up taking my grumpy, blog-reading dad to hospital. My decision to retire was confirmed to me when one of the nurses asked if I was my dad’s brother! He’s 82!
Have a lovely weekend.
Best wishes,
Steve Mills
Headteacher
Just read your blog brother, enjoyed it!