Headlines =- 13 December 2024 by Honywood School

HEADLINES

By James Saunders

A WONDERFULLY WARMING WINTER CHRISTMAS CONCERT

As we begin to look towards the final week of the longest term I would like to highlight our goal of being the beating heart of the community.

The week has neatly been bookended by two heartwarming community events. On Monday we held the Winter Concert. The event was a complete sellout - it even garnered the attention of ticket scammers. I half expected to see our tickets competing with Oasis on ticketmaster. Anyway, the crowds packed in for a delightful evening of performance that really demonstrated the thirst families have for supporting the arts (and seeing their children perform). Nothing beats the pride parents and grandparents have in seeing the creativity and talent of their loved ones on stage. I was particularly impressed by our newly formed choir who have only started working together this term. We must never underestimate the power of the arts to bring people together.

Welcoming families to Honywood to showcase the creative talent of our learners is a real highlight of my job. The hall was packed out for two hours of high quality performances from all cohorts. There was singing, dancing and dramatic performances aplenty, including some avant garde French theatre. I would like to thank the wonderful Expressive Arts department for their support in preparing learners for the show and for the smooth running of the evening. An event such as this is difficult to organise at the best of times and at the end of a long and tiring term it is much appreciated. The team was able to pull the night off with no issues and all the performers had an opportunity to show us what they can do.

I had the opportunity to talk to families at the end of the evening. I mentioned the fact that it takes real courage to stand up in front of an audience and perform. Whilst sat in the audience it struck me that what we were all looking at in anticipation of each

performance was an empty space - nothingness. It took the energy of each performer to stimulate our senses and turn the empty space into something else; something unique; something emotive. Throughout the course of the evening I, like so many in the audience, experienced a range of emotions. Those feelings were a direct result of the incredible energy, heart, and soul that our performers displayed. They all turned an empty space into a visually and auditory stimulating environment. Sitting at the back of the hall whilst the audience sang along to ‘Hey Jude’ was inspiring and a memory that our performer Lacey will remember for a long time.

School is very much like this. It is not about the building (which is useful given our need for a new school), it is about so much more. Without learners a school is just an empty space - a nothingness. It is the learners that bring their own unique performance day in day out. Just like a live performance, every interaction with our learners is a one off. Like them, it is unique. Sitting there watching each individual pour their heart and soul onto the stage I couldn’t help thinking how proud I was and privileged to be a part of our community. A community where, each and every day, we get to see the uniqueness of our learners as they continue to grow.

Additionally, today was the culmination of our reverse advent calendar to support Braintree foodbank. Acts such as this really do make a difference. Extending our reach out into our community so that families can be impacted by the warmth that emanates from Honywood is something you should all be very proud of.

Did you know that over the last few years for the first time in history Unicef has been providing food aid to British children. It shouldn’t be that way. We should live in a world where all children are able to grow up with access to food. We shouldn’t have to intervene. Food banks should not even be a thing. But they are.

And they are needed now more than ever. I have been blown away by the sheer volume of food that we were able to take to the foodbank and I thank you all for your kindness and compassion at a time of great difficulty for so many families.

It is easy for us to get caught up in the day to day at the moment. We can be forgiven for not taking the time to pause and look back on what we have achieved. September seems like so long ago.

WIth only one more week to go it is important we all remain focused on maximising our learning time ahead of the two week break. Our C11’s have been conducting themselves marvellously during the mock exams and will certainly be glad of the rest.

On another note I have just received our provisional numbers for next year’s C7 cohort. I am pleased to say that the numbers reflect the growing popularity of our wonderful community and family orientated approach. This is certainly reflected in the comments that parents put in their application form to justify why they wish to send their child to Honywood. Last year saw the largest increase in applications which is why we were asked to take on a bulge year. We may well be asked to do the same as our numbers for next year have topped last year’s record.

I wish you a lovely weekend, only one more week to go.

James Saunders

THANKS

To the following learners for supporting the Governor Visit on Tuesday 10th December:

Benjamin Boughtwood

Martha Camamile-Wright

Edward Hutchison

William Norfolk-Stimson

Charlotte Nottage

Ella Thorogood

Amarissa Bilbeisi

Oliver Dennis

Dean Glover

Stanley Moxham

Jack Hill

Estelle Scherer

Soha Malek

Tama Ujfalusi

The Cohort 7's played their first netball match on Wednesday 4th December away at Alec Hunter.

Unfortunately Alec Hunter only had one team meaning the Honywood A team and B team both played the same team.

The girls started off a little nervous but gained in confidence as the matches progressed and finished the games smiling.

Final scores: Honywood A V Alec Hunter A 7-7, Honywood B v Alec Hunter A 1-15.

Netball teams travelled to Ramsey school on Friday 6th December.

C7 (in yellow) won 22-1 all playing really well as a team and the C8’s (in blue) played a hard fought match and just lost out in the last few minutes losing 13-15.