I hope the break served you all well. It certainly was a much needed week off as far as I was concerned and the opportunity to put my feet up (by that I mean visit a few shows in London) and switch off from school was much needed. I, like my colleagues, return ready for the next seven weeks and that busy run-up to Christmas.
We start this week’s update with some exciting news. Just before we broke up, we were thrilled to learn that we had been awarded the Herts Shining Communication Award from Hertfordshire Speech and Language Therapy Service. The award recognises the hard work that the school puts in to understanding, spotting, assessing, and supporting language and communication needs in our pupils across the school. A special mention here to Mrs Williams and Mrs McConnell Smith who have worked hard to showcase the work we have done in this area.
Monday saw several pupils from Apollo Class visit me, proud of their writing. All the pupils left with a Headteacher’s Award and a much-deserved five house points. On the same day, I was invited by Mrs Davies to see some of the artwork the pupils of Kusama Class had been producing. Linked to their unit of work on William Morris, the pupils showed great skill with their observation and really focused on attention to detail. I look forward to seeing how their work develops.
Other Headteacher’s Awards have been handed out to Essie (Year 4) for her wonderful research on Mary Anning as well as Grace (Year 6) for her extended writing on Ernest Shackleton. You may have seen on social media, Grace happened to be in the right place at the right time and was also served hot chocolate.
We were straight into football fixtures, as two teams headed over to Pixmore after school. We probably have a couple of weeks, max, in which to get fixtures played now that the clocks have gone back and once again both teams played very well indeed. A win and a draw are a good set of results.
One of the teams was back out on Wednesday after school to take part in the first round of the ESFA national competition. I was able to get along for the whole competition and was again, very proud of the team. Joey (Year 6) was so composed in goal and impressed me and Samuel’s (Year 6) bullet header against Willliam Ransom was a great goal. All the games were very close – so much so that it resulted in a penalty shootout to decide who went through to the final. Even this went to sudden death and unfortunately, the 5-4 scoreline was not in our favour.
As I was sitting in my office after staff briefing on Thursday morning, I could hear the pupils in their singing assembly and, with reference to my comments in my email today, could hear the Christmas songs getting an airing for the first time.
One of my main duties on Thursday was to accompany Mr Denney and members of our flying club (from a previous year) to his airfield as the final part of this extra-curricular opportunity.
This was such a great opportunity and a real treat for the pupils who were told, after having had a tour of the hangar, that they were going to be able to sit and be taxied by Mr Denney along the runway. It was such fun, and then at the end of the afternoon, we were treated to a flypast by Mr Denney.
In a week where the government, through their White Paper, are talking about enrichment opportunities for pupils, I don’t think you could provide a better experience for the pupils. As Alex (Year 6) stated, completely unprompted, ‘We are really lucky at Whitehill to have such amazing teachers [who enable us to do such cool things].’ I couldn’t agree more. Perhaps Bridget Phillipson should pay us a visit?
I should also thank the rest of the Denney family (mum, dad, and brother) who looked after our pupils so well and facilitated this visit to the family business.
I was out first thing on Friday and so in my absence, Mrs Burniston led Achievers’ Assembly for me.
The two usual awards were handed out as follows: Earth won the House Cup (with Emmeline (Year 3) scrutinising the counting of the House Points this week – thank you Emmeline). Voyager won Class of the Week for the first time this year. Well done, Voyager!
I was gutted to hear that I’d missed hearing Daisy (Year 5) sing and so I just had to ask her to sing for me at lunchtime and the feedback I received from so many members of staff (including our visitor from HGS) was spot on… she was amazing!
The piano was full again with lots to celebrate. George (Year 3) had some more street dance awards and so I am definitely going to have to get him to perform for us soon.
A huge ‘well done’ to everyone who we celebrated in this week’s assembly, including Sooriya (Year 5), Millie B (Year 4), Ella (Year 3) and Ayla (Year 5).
Even though I was out first thing, I did get back to school in time to visit Year 6 who were working with Mr Derrett from Hitchin Girls’ School. This term’s visit was looking at electricity. The pupils did a whole range of activities, seeing just how much fun you can have with science but learning so much in the process. His delivery of the lesson is so good and I couldn’t resist popping back on numerous occasions to see what both classes were doing.
Next week’s diary looks full.
There is a netball fixture away at William Ransom on Monday after school and then we host Highover on Wednesday. Still on the sporting front, the boys have a football match against Purwell at home on Thursday.
We are in the season of parent tours and having done one, very enjoyable, tour on Wednesday this week, I have two on Tuesday – one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
On Tuesday, the Year 6s have a very exciting day as they take part in a Lego Workshop, thanks to Affinity Water. A huge thanks to the Year 3 parent who drew my attention to this (and for making it happen).
On the same day, we have our Year 5 mediators being trained and this, together with our Wellbeing Warriors, ties in perfectly with a suggestion from Bamber (Year 4) who has been chatting with me about ways to support pupils at break and lunchtime. Her idea definitely ‘has legs’ and I have already been chatting with Mrs McConnell Smith about her request. A great example of pupil persuasion!
Phase are in on Wednesday afternoon working with our Year 5 pupils and then on Thursday morning we have Dr Elderkin (a Whitehill parent) coming in to work with Year 6s on a DNA workshop. This session is always great fun and very well received.
On Thursday afternoon, I have the Regional Director of Ofsted visiting. This is a great opportunity for me to talk through the current changes to the Ofsted inspection process with one of the directors and to show him what makes Whitehill, Whitehill. I have no doubt he will be impressed.
I told you the diary was full.
Anyway, that is it for another week. My dad will be on the phone within the hour to share his opinion on the length of this week’s blog but back me up here, we have so much to celebrate, right?
Have a great weekend and I will see you on Monday morning.
Best wishes,
Steve Mills
Headteacher
