Phenomenal!

In recent weeks, I have been communicating with Ofsted’s Regional Director regarding policy and guidance on their website and it has proved to be very open and honest. I am doing this for clarification for schools in general but obviously in our current position, it is of great interest to Whitehill and to me. The conversation continued on Monday morning, probably at the same time that Ofsted were on the phone to Hitchin Girls’ School. It was time for the other two members of the Mills family to have their two days of fun.

Music in Year 5 this week.

I had a very productive Monday which included a school tour for some prospective pupils. I do enjoy showing people around our school and particularly enjoy seeing our class reps talk confidently about their classes.

We also had a very productive Tuesday morning with a visit from our School Effectiveness Advisor. He worked with me and my leadership team before heading out to look at how we teach writing across the school. He visited four classes, chatting with pupils as he did so. Whilst we haven’t had his report yet, I did enjoy writing down some of his feedback which suggested the ‘behaviour for learning is exceptional.’

As soon as the morning was done, I popped over to Letchworth Rugby Club to try and catch some of the lower school rugby festival we had two teams participating in. We were lucky with the weather and had a very successful afternoon with the two teams enjoying some wonderful rugby. Although the results are irrelevant, I was informed by the pupils themselves, that they won 11 out of the 12 games they played. A huge thank you to our parent supporters and especially Mr Long who was also at last week’s upper school festival.

Tag! A great afternoon in the sun.

I referenced HGS’s Ofsted earlier and on Wednesday morning I was at HGS to meet with the lead inspector in my role as a trustee. It was very strange indeed to see the process from the other angle. Having experienced many inspections from the school staff side, this was my first as a governor. I think I got my questions correct.

It was a race back to school after this to take part in the other half of the course I was on last week (where I had a little doze). I am proud to announce that every slide was viewed on this occasion and in fact it wasn’t death by PowerPoint which is always a result.

We had our first netball matches of the year after school on Wednesday, against St Ippolyts. Honours were shared with one win each. The first game is always tough, with several players playing a match for the first time. Well done to all who took part.

Honours even in the netball fixtures this week

My office was being used for a meeting on Thursday morning and so I did my best to get on in the main school office without annoying Mrs Granger too much. I would say that I achieved this, however Mrs Granger may have a different opinion.

There were no entries in my diary until governors at 7.00pm and so I tried to visit a few classrooms to see what the pupils were doing and what they were learning. I also kept an eye on the cricket score from Pakistan (don’t tell anyone) where the run scoring by the England team was just extraordinary.

As an aside, the governors’ meeting I have just referenced was only in my diary and Mrs Granger’s diary. not the other governors’ diaries. Oh well, it did mean we had a slightly earlier night.

Two teachers in Orville Class?

On Friday morning, I wasn’t able to take Achievers’ Assembly as I was attending our Friends’ Association AGM at Highbury. Our Friends’ committee work exceptionally hard for the benefit of both schools and it was lovely to spend some time hearing about the successes from last year and the plans moving forward. I also don’t take for granted the donation the school received totalling £7500. This is the highest we have ever had with £15000 being shared between the two schools. Phenomenal!

Whilst we always look to keep up to date with the latest technology in the form of ChromeBooks, we have also kept our library looking fresh with lots of new books. We are looking to buy a new PA system for outside use too, especially as Mrs Williams was so disappointed at sports day that she wasn’t able to use a mic!

Mrs Burniston took Achievers’ Assembly on my behalf and made a point of telling me about what we celebrated, including rugby medals, swimming awards, music certificates and hockey trophies. Well done to Neveah (Year 5) and Joni (Year 6) who sang for us.

Beautiful singing in assembly on Friday

This week, Apollo won the Class of the Week, Earth won the House Cup and Mayan’s earned the Wombles.

A brilliant account of last Friday’s sports festival

I am popping outside to watch some of the football shortly, as two of our teams take on St Andrew’s. For the girls, it is a repeat of last week’s league match, however this time, it is in the Wix Cup.

Looking further ahead, the week looks reasonably calm, certainly as far as my diary is concerned. On the sports front, we have a tag rugby friendly against Purwell on Wednesday and then football against the same school on Friday.

I am heading over to Cambridge on Thursday evening for an NAHT event which runs into Friday and so probably won’t be back in time to see any of these matches. I will ask Miss Gooderham to keep me updated.

That is it for week six. Two more to go before we have our half term break. Don’t forget to sign up for your consultation evening appointments (not Apollo, obviously) as these take place in the final week of the half term.

One final point of interest, just because I looked it up. This is the 444th blog I have written since I started at Whitehill! What will my dad make of that?

Thanks again to our amazing Friends’ committee and volunteers – you are amazing!

Have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes,

Steve Mills
Headteacher

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