Happy New (School) Year to you all. I trust you had some quality family time together over the last six weeks and in chatting to some of you on the playground, I am guessing the return to school couldn’t have come around quickly enough.
For those of you who are familiar with these blogs, ‘welcome back.’ For those of you new to Whitehill, ‘welcome.’ Of course, my dad would probably just say, ‘good luck!’ You will get to know more about him if you continue to read these on a weekly basis but if I just say there is a real-life Victor Meldrew, that will tell you what you need to know.
Anyway, it was lovely to welcome everyone on Tuesday morning following a staff INSET day on Monday this week. I was on the playground early to help direct traffic and make sure everyone knew where they were supposed to go. I think it is Lamarr Class which appears be the most challenging to find but I think we all got to the right place at the right time.
I have done a lot of chatting over the course of the week, finding out about holidays, exciting trips away and fun around Hitchin. It is aways lovely when you find that you have visited the same place as a pupil and can compare notes. Lottie (Year 5) and I both went to Amsterdam and so spent some time deciding which Van Gogh painting we both preferred (Lottie’s hat gave that away) and how we felt walking around Anne Frank’s house.
I have no doubt there will be many more conversations in the coming days as I try and make time for all who want to share their experiences. William (Year 6), for example, has spent the week showing me his impressive ability to solve a Rubik’s Cube.
I have tried to balance my time between visiting classes to see how the pupils have settled and what they have been doing and giving them space and time to establish relationships with their new teachers. What I have seen has been impressive. Pupils in Kahlo Class were early recipients of Headteacher’s Awards for their work on Frieda Kahlo but not before a group from Aztec Class came and showed me their work and received an award each.
I was back in Kahlo Class on Thursday afternoon to see them focused and engaged with their preparation for the Henry Moore Foundation visit. I was so impressed and could see the way that these particular pupils had built upon their work ethic (they were Class of the Year, remember) from when they were in Year 5.
Mr Lord suggested I might want to pay a visit to Voyager Class on Thursday afternoon, and I am glad I did. They were creating booklets linked with their work on our Zones of Regulation and again they too were trying really hard. Oscar had already had a Headteacher’s Award for his comic (which now has a place in our library) and benefited from the whole class award I handed to them. He is a very talented illustrator!
As part of my travels, I went outside on Thursday afternoon to see the first Activity Afternoon of the year. Fortunately, the forecast rain had stayed away and so it was the lesson as planned. I am proud of our PE provision at Whitehill, with all pupils receiving two and a half hours on average per week.
Joining our staff team this year is former pupil, Mr Ciepiela. A Year 4 when I first arrived at Whitehill and now a young man in our teaching team. He has fitted in so well and I know he will be a great asset to the school. Dare I say a fantastic example of ‘profound individual growth’?
Mrs Granger has absolutely smashed it this week in the office! Huge thanks to her as we hit the ground running and made sure the start of the year was as smooth as it should be. We have advertised for an admin assistant and so I hope it won’t be long before we are back to full strength in the office.
If you have been into school, you may also have seen the incredible work she, her husband and Mr Waluk have done to give the office a facelift. It looks like a different room and certainly brightens the office up.
Our Friday morning assemblies are always a highlight of the week for me. These are our Achievers’ Assemblies and a chance to celebrate individuals, groups, teams and classes.
We had our first of the year on Friday morning and already had plenty to celebrate. The usual school awards were handed out for the first time this year with Air winning the House Cup; Kahlo winning the Wombles and also Class of the Week. A double in week one.
We also celebrated Olivia’s (Year 3) success with her two horses Peter and JJ. Georgia (Year 5) had raised money for prostate cancer which is a lovely example of ‘seeing the bigger picture’. Katie and Freddie (Year 5s) both showed their recent football medals.
As part of my weekly blog, I also look forward to what the pupils, or I, might be getting up to next week.
It might only be week two, but the diary is quite busy. On Tuesday, The Year 3s have their first outing of the year, to Wymondley Woods. On Wednesday morning, the Year 6s who are interested in being a member of the school’s Junior Leadership Team (JLT) will present in front of the school before answering their questions. These hustings are always very interesting and I look forward to seeing which pupils will be liaising with me and my SLT over the course of the year.
On Thursday, the Year 6s are out as they visit the Henry Moore Foundation and on Friday morning, as part of the Achievers’ Assembly we will announce the successful JLT candidates.
As well as being head of Whitehill, I have several other roles to fulfil. One of these is as a trustee at Hitchin Girls’ School. In a few minutes, I will be heading up to HGS to be part of the Year 7 ‘celebration’ as the latest cohort come to the end of their first week. I wonder how many familiar faces I will see.
One of my other duties is as a member of my professional association’s (the NAHT) national executive. Next Friday afternoon, I have my first meeting of the year with them.
Looking at my diary, I also seem to have booked myself onto a training course for offsite visits! Not quite sure how I have managed to do that so soon in the year but it gets it done.
That is it for the first blog of the year. I hope our newbies have had a good week and I look forward to seeing everyone again on Monday morning.
Have a great weekend!
Best wishes,
Steve Mills
Headteacher
The length of this week’s blog ‘I do not believe it’