Thank you to those of you who got in touch with me after last week’s blog and in particular with reference to the feedback we received following our London trip with Year 5. Firstly, I am glad that you also thought the email we received was worthy of sharing and secondly, I do like receiving your positive comments, as do the staff. I save them all.
Monday was bonkers! At least it felt a little like that for me as I went from one task to another despite my diary appearing rather clear. I am not sure what went wrong.
The weather was such at the beginning of the week that I finally gave in and switched on the school’s heating. Admittedly – and to protect the budget a little – it is only on for a few hours each morning to take the edge of the chill as the staff and pupils arrive at school but it won’t be long before a throw a few more coals on the fire and allow it on a little longer. I inherit my Scrooge-like characteristics from my dad, by the way.
Managing lunchtime on Monday was interesting. I talk about our varied extra-curricular provision regularly when I have visitors and if any of them saw me trying to seat the pupils as they needed their lunch first, would have seen just how many pupils take advantage of them.
We had table tennis – a new club for Whitehill – and I am in contact with a colleague from Nottingham who has links with Table Tennis England to see if we can get a few more resources. We had Year 3 BSL Club which is very well attended and then we had running club and games club.
After school, so not too much of a logistical issue, we had dance club to which I was invited to see what the pupils had been working on as well as netball club. I think it is safe to say, the pupils at Whitehill have some amazing opportunities.
It was lovely to see so many of you at our open afternoon on Monday. A chance to come in and see the work the pupils have been doing in the six weeks since the start of term, which included the amazing new class displays in the main corridor. Many also took the opportunity to see the refurbished library and use the new seating areas to look through books with their children.
This afternoon precedes the two consultation evenings which take place on Monday and Tuesday next week and for which 93% of our pupils now have an appointment booked.
I referenced the extra-curricular opportunities our pupils have earlier and another curriculum enriching opportunity is the school trips the teachers organise across the year.
The Year 3s, for example have now been out on two visits within the local area, the second happening on Tuesday, as Aztec and Mayan classes went into the centre of Hitchin. I am grateful to the staff who organise these visits as they are not easy to run and as I mentioned last week, managing 60 pupils when the general public is trying to go about its business is no easy task. A teacher has an in-built ability to count to various totals with great skill and precision in order to keep everyone safe; particularly important with 60 seven and eight-year-olds!
My supply of Headteacher Awards stickers continues to be used up. One recipient this week was Cecily (Year 6) who came with a wonderful piece of English for me to see. Just as impressive as the English, was the content she was writing about which was a first me. Cecily reached the semi-finals in a prestigious conker competition. Go Cecily!
I spent the majority of Wednesday in meetings. This meant that I was unable to see the Year 3 music demonstration with Miss Moorhead and Mrs Reid, two of our peripatetic teachers, who were demonstrating woodwind and strings. I also wasn’t able to attend the football fixture after school at Highover.
My non-attendance did not prevent me from knowing exactly what was happening in both matches. My eyes and ears, Mrs Richards, was more reliable than a Sky Sports reporter, and sent me over a minute-by-minute account of the game, including in-match footage. Huge thank you to her and also the five House Points which come with a Headteacher’s Award!
For the record, both the boys’ team and the girls’ team came home with a victory, including a Katie (Year 6) hattrick in the girls’ match.
Straight after playground duty on Thursday morning, I headed up to HGS in my trustee role again to support three student voice panels. In all three, I came across former Whitehill pupils and after coping with the collision of two different worlds, all of the students spoke well and with enthusiasm.
The detailed notes taken will obviously be fed into future Trustee meetings with the leadership team, but I thought one answer we were given was one that I would love to share with Whitehill parents and particularly those with children in Year 6. They were asked for one piece of advice they would share with pupils getting ready to move to secondary school. Several of the girls across different year groups said that the key message is to ‘make new friends. Don’t think you have to stay with your current friendship group as you will meet lots of new friends and then benefit from a wider and more healthy friendship group than you currently have.’ This is one of the key messages we frequently share with our Year 6 pupils, and it is lovely to see that experience from the students themselves supports this message.
After returning in time to take up my daily place in the dining room to oversee lunch, I was visited across the afternoon by several pupils who were recipients of Headteacher’s Awards. Molly F and Samuel (Year 5) received theirs for some lovely extended writing, as did Freddie G and Esme (Year 6).
Charlotte (Year 5), who regularly keeps me in check, also visited to perform a monologue based on the work they have been doing on the Highwayman. In addition to the award and five house points, she also joined me for a hot chocolate and biscuit, as I picked her brains on other school related matters. You can see I was in total student / pupil voice mode.
There was no Achievers’ Assembly on Friday morning as the hall was needed for something else, which meant my main event of the morning was hot chocolate with six more pupils. Another group of Year 3s joined me for Biscuits with the Boss where the topics of conversation included dancing, black holes, and older brothers (but not necessarily in that order).
Straight after break, I had a lovely chat with Emmeline (Year 3) whose actions whilst outside had caught the attention of several members of staff. As one of our Wellbeing Warriors, she thought nothing of going up to a Year 6 who was a little upset and using the strategies she had been taught to try and cheer the older pupil up. It worked! What a wonderful role model Emmeline is proving to be.
Looking ahead to the last week of the half term, we have our consultation evenings on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Fingers crossed the technology plays ball as we have recently had an upgrade to the platform at this end.
Much of Year 3’s week will be taken up with their annual archaeological challenge, the Big Dig. The fact it takes place on the bank outside my window means I have a fantastic view and can respond when they uncover interesting finds.
We have the district cross country competition on Wednesday afternoon at Knights Templar School and then Year 6s are at the Henry Moore Foundation on Thursday.
With the absence of Achievers’ Assembly this week, next week’s celebration is going to be a long event. I can’t wait and am also pleased that our Chair of Governors, Mrs Dorrell, will be present to see the summary of our first half term.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Best wishes,
Steve Mills
Headteacher
