And that, as they say, is a wrap! The 2023 – 2024 academic year comes to a close and we say goodbye to another cohort. A cohort who finished Year 2 in lockdown; who had significant disruption throughout Year 3 and Year 4 but who are now ready to move onto their respective secondary schools.
Like most other weeks, this week has been busy and gone very quickly. The piles of paper and things needing sorting have increased and therefore a few quiet days in the holiday will be required to get them filed and ticked off the ‘to do’ list. Of course, anything that has remained on my ‘to do’ list since last September can now officially be binned. That is correct, isn’t it?
On Monday, we had the final visit from our current county adviser (known as a School Effectiveness Adviser or SEA), Martin Roberts. He has been working with us for the last five years and helped us negotiate Covid as well as our most recent inspection. Martin is retiring and so we will be allocated a new SEA. It will be interesting to see who we get and what their take on the school is. As we buy into the service, we can then make the decision as to whether to continue with the number of visits we currently have or reduce and invest the money elsewhere.
I think he was quite emotional as he drove out of the car park for the last time as he was, by his own admission, very fond of the school and its ethos. He loved visiting and he loved chatting to our pupils.
I will continue to keep in touch with Martin as he shares a similar interest in theatre and therefore, I have no doubt our paths will cross in a West End show at some point moving forward.
We visited a couple of the classes before lunch (I took him out to say thank you and as a birthday treat for me) and he insisted we visited Apollo Class to catch up the artwork they have been doing. The pupils were finishing painting their Grayson Perry inspired clay pots and as always, were demonstrating high levels of achievement. I was fascinated by a drawing Joshua (Year 5) was doing and he has promised me a copy of it when finished which I will display in my office.
We also popped outside to see a Year 6 rounders match. No end of term for Year 6s is complete without a rounders match. I actually saw some quality batting from several pupils and some less than quality ducking by the fielders rather than trying to catch the ball! It was very amusing but certainly wasn’t going to result in getting their opponent out. Good luck, HGS!
It was all change on Tuesday and Wednesday as we made the decision to postpone sports day hoping that the weather forecasts were correct. As it turned out, we could probably have got away with it on Tuesday but postponing it, did mean we saw blue sky and the return of the fire engine!
Our sports day is an impressive event. It should not be underestimated just how much work goes into the preparation prior to the day by Miss Gooderham and her team. Much of this also has to be done outside of the working week as they still have teaching commitments. Well done to all of the pupils who took part in the field and track events so enthusiastically and did their very best for their respective Houses. Whether they came first or last, they were all earning points and that one extra probably made all the difference. Congratulations to Air House on being crowned champions for 2024, the second year in a row!
Thank you to everyone who came along and supported so enthusiastically and enjoyed the event. Thank you too, as already mentioned, to the firefighters from Hitchin Fire Station (both on and off duty) who ensured our (now) traditional celebration could take place at the end. All the pupils enjoyed the opportunity to cool down and the Year 6s in particular got an extra-long soaking! Please don’t forget to support our local fire fighters at their open day on Sunday 1st September.
A separate event which took place on Wednesday morning was the grand final of the ‘Mitchell Family Sprint’ which I have been enjoying all year. Freya (Year 3), her brother Finnley who is at Highbury and then mum or dad have been having a little race each morning across the playground to get to class. I have become quite invested in the results and therefore obtained medals for the final which I am delighted to say were presented to Freya (1st place) and then Finnley (2nd place). I can’t wait to see what next year’s morning event is.
Thursday was interesting. For the first time in a while, there was nothing in my diary. By lunchtime I had had several lovely meetings and chats with parents who had popped in. This is one of the best parts of my job. In the afternoon, I tried to locate the different class parties and helped myself to one of my favourite savoury snacks, the cheesy ball! In some of the rooms there were definitely enough to go round.
Over the course of the year, the school raises money for charity through various events including our year group productions and the Junior Leadership Team initiatives. I am delighted to tell you that this year, we are going to be able to send just under £900 off to the charities chosen by the JLT, including Stand By Me, a local bereavement charity close to our hearts.
We had a special Achievers’ Assembly on Friday which we streamed via Teams to any parents and carers who wanted to join us. It was a lovely celebration of all that is good about Whitehill. It gave me a chance to present our Core Purpose Champion award to Henry (Year 6) with twelve other pupils all getting medals and a certificate.
We presented Evie and Joseph (Year 6) with the Athlete of the Year awards and six other pupils across all four year groups won School Games Values awards for the this term. We also presented a Sports Commendation badge to Alex (Year 6).
Edie and Joshua (Year 5) found out they had come third in the county for this year’s K’Nex challenge which earned them a certificate and K’Nex kit each as well as getting the school a trophy. Well done, both!
Our musical interludes were courtesy of Amelie and Violett (Year 3) who both sang for us. They were amazing!
Just to keep you updated, the usual school awards were handed out as follows: Aztec won Class of the Week, with Apollo winning Class of the Year; Air won the House Cup again and so were House of the Year. Kahlo won the Wombles this week with Mayan retaining the Womble of the Year Award.
If you are free over the coming days, we have some of the pupils’ artwork on display as part of Hitchin’s Art Trail again. A huge thanks to Mrs Dent who has been the driving force behind this, and you can catch the work in the British Schools Museum until 31st July.
And finally for this week, you will recall that a couple of weeks ago we had Hitchin TV in, to film for a promotional video we had commissioned them to produce. The cutting room floor will be knee deep but we are delighted with the final result which we will use when ‘showing off’ our schools. We would love for you to have a look too and so here is the link:
Welcome to Highbury and Whitehill Schools
I will make sure that a link is available on the school website in the coming days.
There is no ‘what’s happening next week’ section to this week’s blog (much to the relief of my dad who will already be thinking this is too long). It would be quite short and probably just reference ‘sleep’. I will finish instead with a thank you on behalf of all the staff for your kind words and gifts at the end of another very successful year. I hope you all get a chance to enjoy some quality family time together and we will see three quarters of you back in school on Tuesday 3rd September when we can all start again!
Have a great summer break.
Best wishes,
Steve Mills
Headteacher
I am so grateful to the school for looking after my granddaughters through Covid and a devastating family breakdown over the last four years. They have learned so much, and had such a good time, and school is so much more fun now than it was in my youth!
Lovely school and photos. Well done mr mills and all the teachers and staff. Would love to have that photo of Eva if someone can send to me please…