Headlines By James Saunders 24th September 2021
Open Evening update
Enrichment and building social and cultural capital It has been a great week for Enrichment. Yesterday a group of C11 learners hosted an afternoon tea to say thank you to the volunteers who gave up their time to support our on site lateral flow testing. Their hosting made our visitors feel very welcome, as did the cake. A special mention to Lienke and Layla who provided a lovely backdrop of entertainment in the form of a singing recital. Today we have engaged the whole school in experiences that have been a long time coming. Donned in their PE kits, our newest cohort of C7s have been to Danbury for an activity and team building day. The weather was perfect for a school trip and it was great to finally see learners filling the bus. The learners were all accompanied by their Learning Group Leaders who supported them in overcoming a series of challenges which included zip wire, mountain biking, obstacle course and orienteering. Experiences such as this really help us to focus on getting to know learners as individuals through building positive relationships. The experiences they had this week will stay with them as their relationships with their peers develop over the year and have certainly helped to strengthen their sense of belonging to our community. Next week, C8 gets to do the same after missing out on this experience last year.
That brings me neatly on to today: Sports’ Day. We approached this Sports’ Day with great anticipation. Even in the summer the weather can be unpredictable. Thankfully today was great. Sports’ Day takes a lot of organising behind the scenes as well as on the day. People often ask me if being a Headteacher is tough - they have asked it a lot over the last eighteen months. I can honestly say that when you experience the things I have mentioned, when you get to see how talented our young people are, and when you get to share in their challenges, talents, failures and successes, it is the best job in the world. I hope that our learners have enjoyed competing for their Houses today in relays; netball; rounders; football; and pétanque.
Open evening is fast approaching and is only a couple of weeks away. We are however aware of the changing landscape. The Covid situation in school is already becoming quite difficult. We are monitoring things closely and will make a decision next week as to whether we need to make any further changes to the evening. Thanks To: Izzy Corbett, Layla Al-Riyami, Marcia Swain, Lienke Viljoen and Megan Walby for supporting the afternoon tea to say thank you to the community volunteers who helped us with lateral flow testing.
C7 at Danbury Outdoors
Sports’ Day winners are Attenborough!