Welcome back after the Easter break to the summer term. A term that started with some reasonably summer weather too. It really does make all the difference having warmer and sunnier weather, so fingers crossed it lasts.
For me, this marks the start of my final term at Whitehill (I’m not counting down the days… 60…) and there is so much I still need to do. It will all be done, for sure, but I am also going to enjoy my final weeks as Headteacher at Whitehill.
Break duty and lunchtime on Monday gave me the opportunity to catch up with some of the pupils, many of whom appear to have grown considerably over the break. Perhaps the Easter eggs the pupils told me they had consumed had some magical powers. As you would expect, I was interested to chat to some about shows they had been lucky enough to see. I couldn’t let recent football results go either but I don’t want to say too much about that until after this weekend’s ‘big match’ against Arsenal. It is the hope that gets you in the end!
After a two-week break, there was plenty for me to discuss with the Junior Leadership Team on Tuesday morning. Plenty to discuss and plenty of hot chocolate and biscuits to be consumed.
Item one on the agenda was the recent World Book Day competition results. Over Easter, each member of the JLT had taken a selection of the entries home and had come up with a shortlist. They then spent time picking their year group winners and runners up. They hope to be able to announce the final results in next week’s Achievers’ Assembly. We need a trip into town first to pick up some prizes, and this has been scheduled for Monday.
We also spent some time looking at the booklets each class has produced to go into the time capsule. We have a list of what else we would like to go into the capsule and so we will get working on collecting all the bits and pieces before having a planting ceremony later in the term. The plan is that instructions will be left for the capsule to be dug up in 2044 when the school (and I) will be 75. The JLT will each be 29 years old.
There are still prizes being cashed in from the Christmas ‘lucky hat’ last December. Daisy (Year 5) treated Voyager Class to an extended break on Tuesday morning which I was happy to honour given the lovely weather. Apollo Class followed suit and cashed in their ‘non-uniform day’ voucher on Thursday.
In a choice between the staff meeting and supporting the boys’ football team at their end of season rally, I opted for the football (I didn’t need to be at the staff meeting). It was a lovely evening, and the team did very well, progressing through to the semi finals unbeaten. A late goal saw them go out at this stage, but they can feel proud with the way the played. Joey (Year 6), in goal, was magnificent as he has been all season. The future also looks bright with the quality of the Year 5s coming through.
Thanks to some hard work on the part of our Friends’ Association, we have been given a grant from the council for just under a £1000 to spend on some musical instruments. In collaboration with Mrs Jarman, our music lead, we will now be ordering a digital drum kit, another set of ukuleles and two more percussion sets. It is all very exciting.
Whilst on the subject of new equipment for the school, we had training on Wednesday for the upgraded sound equipment in the school hall. Several members of staff and a couple of Year 6s who will be mixing this year’s production had a lesson on how the desk works. It really will add so much to the quality of the shows and concerts we have at Whitehill.
There have been a number of Headteacher Awards handed out this week. I was particularly impressed when I was invited to watch Voyager Class perform their Greek plays. Perseus, Theseus, King Minos all featured across the plays I watched. There is some real talent in that class.
I had a group of Year 3s from Aztec Class come and show me their science work where they have been learning about the parts of a plant and their respective functions. They were loud – very loud – but they knew their stuff!
Much quieter was Ellis (Year 4) who received his Headteacher Award for some lovely English work and whose teachers were rightly proud of the work he had done.
We had teams competing in a bench-ball competition on Wednesday afternoon at Knights Templar School, organised by the Schools Sports Partnership, with one of the teams finishing first. The standard was high and as we would expect, the pupils rose to the challenge.
I spent Thursday morning at Hitchin Girls’ School in my role as a trustee, enjoying time in the music department. It was such a lovely morning and as always, great to see former Whitehill pupils engaging in the lessons and doing really well.
I wasn’t able to get to the start of the football rallies at Priory School on Thursday afternoon as I was present at the Year 6 residential meeting, but I did manage to get over there by 4.20pm to see most of the matches. It was a very successful evening with the girls’ team finishing runners-up and the boys’ team winning. That meant medals all round.
Achievers was great fun again. The House Cup was awarded to Air and Everest were presented with the Class of the Week trophy.
We ran out of time at the end of the Spring Term to present our Wall of Fame Awards and so kicked off the Summer Term with a set of them. Well done to the three pupils in each class who were awarded either English, Maths or Science certificates.
In addition to these school awards, we also celebrated swimming, sailing, scouting, and soccer (please note the Americanism is purely to aliterate the sentence). Well done to everyone who shared their successes with us.
Our music this week was provided by Lillian and Julia (Year 6) who sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables. It was so good!
Next week’s diary looks exciting. On the sporting front we have the two end of season netball rallies on Monday at Whitehill and then on Thursday at Highover. We have our first cricket fixture of the term away at Purwell on Tuesday after school. We are back to winter sports with a football fixture at William Ransom on Friday evening before we have a group of pupils (and staff) taking part in the Mini London Marathon on Saturday morning.
Throw into the mix, a day of interhouse football and boccia on Thursday, it promises to be a very active week for many.
On Friday evening, the Friends’ Association are hosting the Grape Escape – a wine tasting evening which promises to be a fun-filled event and something different on our social calendar. Join Jamie from Hedley Wright Wines as he guides us through a wonderful tasting selection of fizz, white, rose, red and dessert wines. Tickets are available through Classlist. Given that I am supporting the afore mentioned mini marathon in London the day after, I may be an interested observer for this event.
This week’s ‘and finally’ is an opportunity to share with you a wonderful initiative a group of Year 4 pupils from Kusama Class have set up. They have taken it upon themselves to support one of the school’s chosen charities this year, Phase, by running the Hitchin Kids Mile. If you would like to support this project, you can read more on the class’s Just Giving page.
As you can see it is certainly full steam ahead!
Have a great weekend.
Best wishes,
Steve Mills
Headteacher
