Welcome back and a Happy New Year to you all. I hope you enjoyed the break and managed to spend some quality time with family and friends. It did feel quite short having only one full week away but there was still enough time to eat far too much and pop into London a couple of times!
There is much to look forward to in 2024 for both Whitehill and the wider educational field. It will be interesting, for example, to see the way the new Chief Inspector leads Ofsted and there has already been much in the news about his decision to pause inspections for a couple of weeks. We are likely to have a general election and again, this is bound to have an impact upon education policy in some way.
I spoke to the Year 5 pupils on Thursday, as I need them to help me out with some changes I am making at lunchtimes. We reflected briefly on what 2024 would look like for them, including becoming Year 6s and also choosing their secondary schools for September 2025. They are an impressive cohort and I have no doubt they will relish the many opportunities which will come their way in the coming weeks and months.
Another group of pupils who were brought to my attention on Friday morning were some Year 4s who became sports leaders for the afternoon. Grace, Bella, Sam H, Thomas N, Tommy, Nevaeh, Arthur W, Katie, Thomas B and Joseph G helped Miss Gooderham and the team to lead tasks during Thursday’s activity afternoon. All received a Headteacher’s Award and were celebrated in Achievers’ Assembly. More great role models!
As it has been a two-day week, there wasn’t a great deal to present and celebrate during our assembly but we did present the House Cup. For the points collected at the end of the term and on Thursday, Earth House ribbons have now been attached. The other regular awards will be presented again from next week.
Looking ahead, the calendar is looking quite clear at the moment as we wait for clubs and other events to start up again. There will be a new club timetable set up and this will be shared with the pupils in the coming days.
We do have the sports leaders from Hitchin Girls’ School visiting on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon as they continue with their awards.
I will also look to send out a set of invites to some Year 3s for Biscuits with the Boss next Friday break time.
That is pretty much it for the first week back – well two days. That being said, given the winding up my dad does on a regular basis about the length of these blogs, I am not sure I should let him off with such a short offering today.
You may have seen the t-shirt he had printed for Christmas with his ‘Ban the Blog’ slogan which I posted on twitter. Well this week, to try and get out of reading the blog again, he spent a couple of days in hospital but I am pleased to say his consultant is on my side and has sent him home with a note on his ‘meds sheet’, that ‘a regular blog read will be beneficial for his recovery!’ (I knew I could trust UCHL!)
Have a great weekend!
Best wishes,
Steve Mills
Headteacher
Get well soon Mr Mills Senior!