I will start this week with a ‘thank you’ to the Year 6 parents and carers who have been submitting their ticket requests for the Year 6 musical. Getting them in early will help me allocate the seats and try and provide as many families as possible with the extras they have asked for. Mr Mills Jnr and I will have a look at how many seats we can fit around the stage to ensure great sightlines and plenty of legroom and then start sending home the tickets.
Monday was a very interesting day for a number of reasons. I had a visitor from the Temple Grove Trust, with whom I have been working as part of my Farmington Institute Heads’ forum, spend the day with me. She was keen to see for herself the practice I have spoken about on a number of occasions, including the work I am proud of in terms of stakeholder relationships.
She was very impressed with each and every class she visited and particularly enjoyed chatting with Emmeline and Lennie (Year 3) who are currently the Aztec Class Reps. She was also disappointed when we had to leave the Year 6 musical rehearsal which I take as a good thing.
The visit showed great timing as Kusama Class held their ‘open house’ with parents and carers (one of the key stakeholder groups referenced earlier) spending time seeing what learning looks like in Year 4. I chatted to several parents as they left their lesson who all stated how fascinating it was seeing the teaching across a range of subjects.
As part of the day, I took my visitor to another local primary school after lunch, to see their practice in action and to compare the settings. Part of the Temple Grove’s remit is to support one-off projects in schools with a cash grant, and I hope that we will be able to benefit from their support with a project of our own. Mrs Burniston, Mrs McConnell Smith and I all have the same idea!
A highlight of the week for me is always my Tuesday morning meeting with my Junior Leadership Team and this week was no exception. On the agenda this week was the time capsule project; Movies of Christopher Nolan (and my disclosure that I cry at the end of happy films!); Racial profiles of Olympic champions and secondary school transition. You cannot say we don’t cover a range of topics – some of which benefit the school!
The rest of Tuesday morning gave me a chance to clear some emails – some, not all – before a packed rest of the day. Mr Wathen visited again and met with our Local Authority Adviser in advance of their work together from September. I stayed for the majority of the session before I had to head into London for my penultimate Farmington forum referenced earlier.
The venue this time around was split between a private tour of the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London and then a meeting over dinner at the Delauney Restaurant on Aldwych. I cannot fault the way we have been looked after across the year. My final meeting with them in July will take place at the Tower of London. I wonder if they have saved the best until last?
Whilst I was meeting and then heading into London, our Lower School Pupils held their PE afternoon at Hitchin Girls’ School as the sports leaders ran a festival for them as part of their course. I had ‘spies on the inside’ and received a message from Mrs Mills whose office overlooks where the pupils were working saying that they were clearly having an amazing time. I am sorry that I wasn’t able to get up there to see it for myself.
I wasn’t able to be in school on Wednesday but was in contact with my team. We managed to take the whole school photo and although it wasn’t me who requested it, in my final year, the wonders of technology have enabled me to be in the final photograph.
Both cricket matches this week have been cancelled due to the weather, as was the Year 6 river trip which has been rescheduled for next Tuesday. We all long for a return to the summer weather we had in May.
The two trips on Friday did go ahead, however, with the Year 3s heading, by train, to Shepreth Wildlife Park. Mrs Lomas sent over a photo of my favourite animal, the otters, and confirmed that all was going well. I believe it needed to be a brisk walk to catch the train but with Mr Denney leading, all was good.
Our Year 6s were also out at an Olympic Legacy Day organised by the school sports partnership. For the first time in a while, Mr Mills Junior approved of the t-shirt colour which went very well with their hoodies.
I am sure we will see the outcomes of both visits on our social media platform later today.
Our Achievers’ Assembly this week was therefore a Year 4 and Year 5 event. It was very civilised. Well done to Everest who won Class of the Week thanks to a game of ‘rock, paper, scissors’ with Kusama Class. Both Year 4 classes continue to work really hard across the week. Earth won the House Cup with Mrs Wells (on her birthday) being allowed to collect the trophy in the absence of the Year 6 captains.
We celebrated Jenson and Lola-Mae (Year 4) who both shared football awards with us.
Looking ahead to next week, we have the first Year 6 transition meeting with one of the local secondary schools, with HGS coming in to talk to the girls who will be heading there in September. They also spend time chatting with me and the Year 6 teachers about each of the pupils. Later in the week, we repeat the process with Priory School.
I have a meeting a HGS straight after this and then at the end of the day, I am being visited by a former Whitehill pupil and her mother who is now in Year 10. It will be lovely to see them both again.
Year 6s are out on their river trip as I have already mentioned, on Tuesday.
The only other key event sees our Year 6 sports leaders out on Friday morning supporting a Key Stage 1 sports festival at Letchworth Tennis Club. Also on the sporting front, we have a rounders match against William Ransom on Wednesday, after school.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Best wishes,
Steve Mills
Headteacher
