Monday started with the joys of temporary traffic lights right outside the school. What fun! It was made even worse when I arrived at school by the fact that the lights weren’t working meaning it was a bit of a free for all. Thinking it couldn’t get any worse, we then found on Tuesday they had dug up the whole of the path right by Mr Waluk’s crossing. The things you have to ‘sort out’ as a headteacher!
To add to my ‘interesting’ list, I also had the joys of Openreach engineers in school trying to upgrade our broadband. What started as a one person job culminated, four hours later, in a four person job. To be fair to the engineers, they were really good, very practically minded and found a solution to a very sticky situation. We now need some more engineers to come along to add the final piece to the puzzle.
Continuing with the fun, our library project finally started on, you’ve guessed it, Tuesday morning, with the removal of the cabling and centre benching. You can already see how much space we will be creating and I know Mrs Vernon is very excited to finally see progress. There is still a long way to go but now we have started, there is no going back.
Thank you to all who were able to join us on Monday afternoon for our open house. I appreciate it isn’t perfect timing for everyone, but judging by the number who managed to sign in, added to those who took me at my word and ‘pretended to sign in’, we were quite full. Seeing parents and carers out in the sun, looking at the books with their children was lovely. We have certainly been very lucky with the weather this week.
Tuesday has already featured in three paragraphs and will now feature in a few more. How did the calendar get so full on one day?
Before and after break on Tuesday, we had our Year 6s visit HGS to have a lesson in the science labs. It is always a great experience and quite often mentioned as one of the things that the pupils look forward to most about going to secondary school in September. HGS have posted about our visit on their social media platform, including the following: ‘Our visitors listened and followed all the experiment instructions really well – we hope they enjoyed learning some new things and getting a preview of what they can look forward to in secondary Science.’ Always nice to get positive feedback.
Parents and carers were queuing early for the Lamarr Class assembly at 9.00am. Mrs Burniston deputised for me as I was needed in a meeting with the local authority (yes, another diary entry for Tuesday) and fed back to me how well the pupils did. From chatting to a few parents, it was clear that they also enjoyed what they watched.
You won’t be surprised to know that I wasn’t able to get out and watch any of the hockey festival or tournament for any of the reasons listed above.
Again, I was kept abreast of how we did during the day, including the small matter of first and third in the afternoon’s competition. Thank you to Mrs Bradshaw and Mrs Wells who have been coaching our teams this year and they can now work out the logistics of the County Finals.
Throw into the mix consultation evenings on Tuesday and I think we can certainly say that most staff needed to lie down when they got home. It was quite a day!
On Wednesday (yes, a different day), we had a day of Interhouse sport. Lower School and Upper School pupils competed in boccia and football throughout the day resulting in wins for Air and Earth in the Upper School events. In the Lower School events, Air and Earth tied in first place in the Boccia with Earth winning the football outright. For those not taking part, there were other, equally as important jobs, acting as sports reporters and photographers. Everyone got involved in some way and it was a very wholesome day.
With the weather being so nice this week, Bailey (Year 4) and Lily-Ann (Year 5) asked if they could go to school pond at lunchtime. Who am I to refuse? It was a lovely 20 minutes sitting in the sun, whilst the pupils explored and did some pond dipping.
The Year 6s had another visit from Phase on Wednesday afternoon as part of a series of workshops they do with our pupils over the course of the year. They finish the year with a very relevant session on transition to secondary school and as Phase work in all three secondary schools in Hitchin, it is lovely that our pupils get to see familiar faces they may meet up with again from September.
As I was acting as tea-boy for the second full night of consultation appointments, I was unable to get along to the B Team and Girls’ football rallies. Miss G (on crutches after Sunday’s cup final injury) kept me updated, sharing the amazing news that the girls’ team got through to the semi-finals and the boys’ team won on penalties in the final, thanks to some amazing saves by Logan (Year 6). Two trophies in as many days is a good return.
Compared to the first three days of the week and in particular Tuesday, Thursday was a little quieter. I was on a four-hour Teams call which was not a highlight of my week, although the content was interesting.
I have already mentioned the weather several times in this blog and it was perfect for our first cricket match of the season against Purwell after school on Thursday. Mr Wells reported that the team played very well indeed with Mr Price getting a special mention and an honorary player of the match award for two crowd catches. If this were T20, I believe I would now owe Mr Price a beer!
The final Achievers’ Assembly of the term on Friday morning was very full indeed. As well as the usual awards which saw Orville win the Wombles, Fire win the House Cup and Aztec win Class of the Week, we also presented some end of term awards.
We had this half term’s sports awards. Well done to Chase (Year 3), Sam J (Year 4), Arthur W (Year 5), Nathan, Niamh and Anya (Year 6).
We refreshed our Wall of Fame and presented certificates in Maths, English and Science to three pupils in each of the classes. Their photographs will now be on the display by our school hall, celebrating their achievements.
‘If it is on the piano, we present it’ is the mantra we use for Achievers’ Assembly. Pupils know if they have an award to share then they place it on the piano and we will celebrate it. We could have done with a Steinway Grand this week as the piano was so full! It included a new one for Whitehill which was ice skating. Brielle (Year 3) and Renee (Year 6) had earned their Grade 7 and Grade 10 where they had to skate backwards and do ‘spins’. Dancing on Ice champs for sure.
Well done to all the ‘piano placers’ this week and also to those pupils in school who win awards and pass exams etc. but don’t feel inclined to stand up and receive the attention. For all they have done this term, well done!
As we are at the end of the term, there is no need to look ahead to next week. We return to school on Tuesday 22nd April where some highlights in the calendar are the in school and London Mini-marathon events. We also have a netball tournament on Thursday after school and a football match against Wilshere Dacre at the end of the week.
Whatever you are doing over the break, I hope you have a wonderful time. Let’s hope the lovely weather continues and you, like me, can get some time to rest. As always, thank you for your continued support and I will see you in a couple of weeks. As a final scary thought, the pupils have only 59 school days left this academic year!
Best wishes,
Steve Mills
Headteacher
