We managed to avoid the snow that affected many parts of the country last week but have had several days of miserable, damp weather this week which has impacted breaktimes and lunch. Whilst the snow hasn’t caused a problem with travel, the roadworks around Hitchin and in particular Whitehill, have meant traffic has been horrendous.
I have had the wonderful opportunity to visit classes this week and have really enjoyed seeing some of the quality work the pupils have been producing. I referenced the geography work Voyager Class were doing in last week’s blog and I was invited to see the finished physical map on display in the classroom. It was very impressive and pupils had even thought about the scale. A whole-class Headetacher’s Award was certainly deserved.
I went back in time visiting Aztec Class on Monday afternoon as pupils were coming up with their own cave paintings. Each painting told a story and the use of chalks and pastels to give the necessary effect was delightful. If you saw the photos of the finished work, you may have noticed that Joshua even used his nose to apply colour. Either that, or it started to itch mid lesson!
The evenings have already started to get lighter, and this has meant that netball club was able to start again. The diary is filling up with fixtures, and I know the pupils are excited to be representing the school again.
My JLT meeting this week was very productive and we will be presenting to the whole school next week on their time capsule project. We have some photos from the capsule we dug up in 2019 and can show the new capsule, ready to be filled with 2026 information. It seems like such an appropriate project to be running this year, although of course, the JLT weren’t aware just how appropriate when they decided to do it.
It was Mayan’s turn to turn the classroom into a series of caves on Tuesday afternoon and although I didn’t get to see them in action, Eva, Hattie, Poppy R and Lily were sent to me for Headteacher’s Awards with their finished work. It really was very impressive and their narrative was perfect.
On Wednesday morning, I had a constant stream of pupils coming for awards. There were several pupils from Kahlo Class with extended writing, PE and also ‘for being a good egg’. I had another group of writers from Apollo Class who had been addressing eth subject of refugees in a very mature way. I had to leave my office for the next group, who were three Year 3s who have taken up playing the toot – a precursor to the flute – with Miss Moorhead. They were great!
I wanted to get Biscuits with the Boss up and running again after our break, but my diary has suddenly become very full with school tours. For that reason, I am looking to find time across the week to meet with the remaining Year 3s and this week, I went for Wednesday afternoon. I had a lovely chat and it was lovely to see Henry enjoy two cups of hot chocolate and his cake and biscuit. We did find time for some conversation… but not much!
You may have noticed on your school run, the new telegraph pole outside the school has now been connected to our building. This project, first started in April last year, is very near completion and I hope on Monday, we will be switched over to our new and much improved provider.
Guess what the weather was like on Thursday for Lower School PE? That’s correct… it was raining again. Well done to my teaching team for creatively distributing pupils across four different indoor activities including archery and, as you can see below, Let’s Dance. Perhaps this was a warm-up for the disco.
Talking of which, a huge thank you to the committee and volunteers from our Friends’ Association for another evening very much enjoyed by the pupils. Once again, the atmosphere was fun and the hall full of happy, smiley pupils.
Achievers’ Assembly was great fun again. Wilde won Class of the Week and Earth won the House Cup.
Our music this week was provided by Lillian and Ariana (Year 6) who played their clarinets and Nevaeh who sang for us at the end of the assembly.
Individual congratulations went to Thananika (Year 4) for her wonderful ballet exam outcome and also Katie (Year 6) for her skiing success.
Looking ahead to next week, I have already mentioned clubs starting up again and we have several fixtures to look forward to. There is a netball match away at William Ransom on Monday followed by a home girls’ football match against Samuel Lucas on Tuesday. The boys’ football team have their first outing of 2026 when they play Oughton in a league fixture away on Thursday.
This appears to be the main diary entries as far as pupils are concerned. I have a headteacher visiting me from Nottingham on Thursday for the day. This is a colleague I have known for over 20 years and with whom I have kept in touch, meeting up a couple of times a year to talk through all things education.
On Friday I have a consortium meeting with local Hitchin Heads although not until I have had the pleasure of leading Achievers’ Assembly; one of my favourite times of the week.
That is it for another week. Have a lovely weekend and I will see you on Monday 19th.
Best wishes,
Steve Mills
Headteacher
