Dear parents, guardians and friends
This is our last SLT blog of the academic year – thank you for sticking with us! The summer term is coming to a close, we have held our presentation assemblies celebrating the efforts and achievements of our students, and we will gather one last time for our end of year assembly on Friday. So have we been winding down? Quite the opposite.
Last Wednesday, our PE department took a group of KS3 students to the Berkshire School Games at Braywick Leisure Centre, Maidenhead. Our girls competed in Boccia and New Age Kurling, and led cricket activities for primary aged children.
Wednesday evening saw the gold final of our Holt Young Musician of the Year take place in the school hall. The audience were treated to a wonderful evening of high-quality performances with the eventual winners chosen by external adjudicators being Clare (piano), Olivia (instrumental) and Martha (voice). What was even more impressive was that over a hundred students had entered the competition and all had their efforts acknowledged by our hardworking duo Mr Gray and Mrs Crozier.
On blisteringly hot Thursday, we held our Culture Day as trailed by Mrs Pearce in last week’s blog. It felt as if the school was filled with the colours, sounds and tastes of the whole world, and it was a delight to see students and staff take pride in and share aspects of their heritage. Thank you to our busy Student Leadership Team and site staff for making it happen.
Back to sporting matters, our U13 cricket team were crowned county champions after a thrilling final on Friday afternoon. Congratulations to the girls and Coach White for the hard work that carried them to glory!
And so to Activities Week! Year 9 students were up at the crack of dawn on Sunday and Monday for trips to Valencia and Lille respectively. They are having a lovely time, by all accounts, and putting their language skills to good use.
Year 8 are returning from their residential at PGL Osmington Bay today. They’ve certainly been up to some adventures:
Students not on residentials have had the opportunity to participate in day trips and onsite activities. These have included a codebreaking trip to Bletchley Park for Year 9, a visit to Oxford for Year 12, water-based activities for Year 7 at Horseshoe Lake and Year 9 at Dinton Pastures, a filmmaking project and Oscars ceremony for Year 7, and a concert by the Quintessentially Wind ensemble for Years 7 & 8. These pictures should give you a flavour:
I have no pictures to share with you of Year 9 screaming on rollercoasters at Thorpe Park on Tuesday, but Miss Harris writes,
“Year 9 embarked on their Thorpe Park adventure on Wednesday, most of the eager to try out the new ride Hyperia: the tallest, fastest rollercoaster in the UK (although also boasting one of the longest queues too!). Students enjoyed Swarm, Saw, and Colossus and generally being spun round, whizzed along track, and dropped from great heights! It was a busy day, and the students conducted themselves brilliantly. A big thank you to the members of staff who gave up their time to make the trip possible.”
I would like to echo that gratitude to staff. The events of the last couple of weeks don’t just happen and are the result of a huge amount of work by those leading activities and those supporting the organisation of them behind the scenes. I would particularly like to thank our offsite admin and finance teams for making sure the many, many trips have been running smoothly.
I should also mention our Year 10s who, while not in school, have been in our thoughts as they have taken on work experience this week. Many are having a great time, but entering the adult world can also be really challenging for lots of our young people, and we are proud of them all. A big thank you goes to Miss Johnson for organising work experience week.
And so, as we continue to gear up for the next academic year, I would like to wish you and all our students a wonderful summer. I hope you all manage to get a break at some point.
We look forward to welcoming our new Year 7 and Year 12 students on Friday 5th September, and everyone else on Monday 8th September.
Ben Adams
Assistant Headteacher.