Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends,
On Tuesday last week Mrs White and Miss Digby took 24 Year 7&8 athletes to Queen Anne’s School for a Reading athletics competition. Well done to team Holt who won the event out of 8 schools and 17 teams at the competition. Well done to stand out performances from Grace, Lola, Annie, Alice, Amelia B and Violet!
Mrs White and Mrs Bolton have been very impressed by the students’ dedication to athletics this summer and it has been wonderful to see so many new emerging athletes. There will be more to update you in on the next blog with the regional finals.
Last week we also welcomed our Year 10 students into the sixth form centre to ‘Meet the subjects’. Thinking to the future about which A-levels someone may pick can seem overwhelming as there are so many subjects to choose from! To inspire students about the subjects on offer, all of our A-level subjects set out their stalls across the sixth form with student prefects and volunteers who spoke to Year 10 students about what the subject was like, the topics they would study as well as getting them to participate in activities on their stalls.
We were very impressed with all of Year 10 as they asked fantastic questions, were engaged with all the stalls and most importantly spoke to subjects they had never considered before but now would think about for the future. Thank you to all the staff and student volunteers, it was a great success.
On a very sunny Friday we also held our first ever ‘Holt Vinted’. Thank you to everyone who donated their pre-loved clothes. There were bags after bags which kept coming in, and the sixth form conference room was overflowing. It is great to think of how many clothes have now been saved from landfill because of the whole school’s contribution and enthusiasm for the event. It was a great team effort from the Student Leadership Team and the sixth form volunteers who spent their time collecting, sorting and folding especially in the blazing sunshine! We hope everyone has enjoyed their new clothing finds.
Our staff have also had their eye on technology this week with our ‘AI focus week’. There has been a range of activities that staff have been getting involved with to develop and enhance their knowledge of AI for the purpose of teaching and learning. As we ask our students to take risks in the learning, our staff have also put that into action and have been trying something new with AI this week. We look forward to running a similar week with students in the autumn term.
And finally with a little look ahead to the summer holidays, volunteers at Wokingham Library who run a writing club called Igniting Writing for 11-18 year olds are leading a series of creative writing workshops.
The creative writing workshops are full of fun writing activities and are a great chance for aspiring young writers to come together and share imaginative ideas, develop their writing skills and build friendships with others. Both experienced writers and beginners are welcome.
Emma Salamut-Ward
Assistant Headteacher
Head of Sixth Form