The week started, as usual, with my Monday assembly which continued with the theme of ‘what makes a good friend?’ Continuing from where we got to the previous week, we looked at the characteristics of being a friend and considered the idea that as well as having good friends, it is also important to be a good friend. The two are certainly not mutually exclusive. At Whitehill, I would say this is the case for the overwhelming majority of our pupils. Of course, I will continue to strive for all!
The other priority for Monday was to follow up the announcement some of you might have seen in the press about the parent company of the two residential centres we use (Year 4 Overstrand and Year 6 Devon) going into liquidation. As you could imagine, on hearing the news late Friday night, Mrs Granger and I set to work, exchanging messages up to midnight, and by lunchtime on Monday had received confirmation that our two particular centres had been taken over as going concerns by other reputable companies and it was business as usual. Other schools, booked to visit seven other centres around the UK, may not be so lucky.
I was invited to see the work being done in both Year 3 and Year 4 art lessons on Monday afternoon. Year 3 were using a wash and then silhouettes to depict Stonehenge and showed great creativity. Judging by the large version, which is starting to appear in the dining room, I assume these will form part of a Year 3 display.
In Year 4, pupils were looking at the work of Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama. Working in a variety of media, the pupils created their own artwork from examples they had researched. Ronnie and Arden in Orville Class and Ivy in Lamarr caught my eye with their precision and attention to detail.
We have had two visits from students at HGS this week. On Monday afternoon, four language students came to work with Year 5 as part of Project Polyglot. Then, on Tuesday afternoon, Year 11 sports leaders came to test their skills coaching our Year 6 pupils. The link between the two schools continues to be strong and, in my opinion, valuable.
Some of our support staff were out of class for the whole of Tuesday as they renewed their first aid qualifications. When I was a pupil, the only training I think staff must have had back then was how to apply a ‘wet paper towel’! For example, when I realised falling was not the only way to get down after dangling upside down on a climbing frame, over concrete (yes, I’m that old), and cut my chin open, it was the magic ‘wet paper towel’ that was applied first. Anyway, I am pleased to report that training today goes well beyond this approach.
Lunchtime was fun on Tuesday as I was outside with the pupils rather than being in the dining room. It is lovely to see games develop from just a silly look or comment including what felt like a recreation of the story, The Enormous Turnip. And yes, I was the turnip and the Year 3s were trying to pull me across the playground.
I spent some of Tuesday afternoon visiting Year 5 geography lessons. They were tasked with looking at the topography of the United States and each group were given a section of a giant map to create. It was a lovely lesson to see play out and I was particularly fascinated to see the different approaches from the two classes. Same task, two completely different but interesting outcomes.
I mentioned my assembly at the start of the blog and on Wednesday, I joined Mr Lord, as he led his assembly. The theme of his assembly was the use of AI and I was keen to see the messages that would come out. The assembly was jointly delivered by Mr Lord and Chat GPT, including a Q&A session at the very end. It was great fun and I particularly liked the answer to one question which highlighted the need for pupils to read lots and immerse themselves in books. Mrs Vernon would be delighted with that answer.
At breaktime, I finally managed to honour my promise to Thomas (Year 5) to have him attend Biscuits with the Boss. He assured me that he missed out the opportunity to do this in Year 3 and who am I not to fulfil a promise. He brought along a group of friends from Year 5 and Year 6, and we chatted about future careers amongst other things. It was a very pleasant 20 minutes.
On the sports front this week, we had two indoor athletics heats. All four teams across both nights competed very well indeed, as you may have seen on our social media feed. The races certainly looked very competitive but as we would expect, our teams competed with smiles on their faces and enjoyed the experiences. Both our boys’ and girls’ teams from the Wednesday evening’s heats won and will now take part in the district finals after half term.
I am glad I had the opportunity to get out and about in the first half of the week as on Thursday, I spent most of the day in meetings. One of these was a meeting at Highbury with Mrs McConnell Smith and Highbury’s Headteacher, Mrs Adshead. It was very productive and included the opportunity to have a look around the school and see some teaching taking place. I hope the ‘look, it’s Mr Mills’ comments from the pupils didn’t destroy the lessons too much.
It was another busy Achievers’ Assembly on Friday morning which saw Apollo win the Wombles; Earth win the House Cup and Apollo also win Class of the Week.
We also celebrated plenty of certificates in Year 3, including Jenson’s 15km running club award. Ted (Year 3) and Freddie (Year 5) were quite rightly proud of their respective ‘player of the match’ trophies from their weekend teams. Well done to Ruby (Year 3) who takes part in junior Park Run each weekend and has just earned her half marathon award.
I also presented Headteacher’s Awards to Hudson, Thananika, Agnes (Year 3) and Skylar and Zoe (Yer 4) for their great attitude in PE on Thursday afternoon. Mrs Jarman sought me out after the lesson to recommend them for the award as this super approach to lessons is consistently at this level.
The music today was provided by Anya (Year 6) who sang for us and Georgia (Year 5) who played the piano.
After the assembly, I headed out to a local headteacher’s consortium meeting where there was plenty on the agenda giving us a chance to put our heads together and think about collaborative solutions to local and county-wide issues.
I was back just after lunch to have another walk around the school to see what the pupils were getting up to.
Tomorrow, our boys’ football team are competing in the county finals of the national competition in Watford, and we wish them all the very best. They are a strong team and have every chance of progressing further. Regardless of the results, however, we are all proud of the boys (and of course Miss Gooderham) for getting this far.
We also have our trampolinists out on Sunday taking part in the Zonal Finals of this year’s national competition. Good luck to Poppy H, Chloe, Niamh (Year 6) and Bella L (Year 5) who take part in the team competition. Chloe, Niamh and Bella are also competiting as individuals. We also have Freddie G (Year 5) competing as an individual. Although I am unable to make it, Mr Lord, who will be travelling with the team, has promised to keep me updated.
Looking ahead to next week, I appear to be out for about two and half days. On Tuesday afternoon I am at University of Beds holding mock interviews for the third year BEd students who will be about to embark on their round of job hunting, trying to secure their first school.
On Wednesday and Thursday, I am on two days of training for my professional association, the NAHT, in London. I did look at timings to see if I could sneak in a show on Wednesday night, however it looks like the training goes well into the night.
I will be back in school on Friday and will enjoy seeing what the pupils have been getting up to.
On the sporting front, we have the first netball match of the spring term at home to Purwell, on Wednesday afternoon. On Saturday 1st February, we have the county cross country finals and hope that, as we did last year, we can get some of our athletes through to the national finals.
That is it for another week. Halfway through the first half of the spring term.
Have a lovely weekend.
Best wishes,
Steve Mills
Headteacher
