Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends,
After a comparatively quiet week last week, I was in for a shock when I listed all that could be included in this blog. Add to that the resignation of the Prime Minister, the unprecedented heat, and I think there may also be some football on…it’s been an impressively busy week all round. So, make sure you have your water bottle and personal fan to hand, and enjoy the happenings of Holt.
On Friday last week the history department had a speaker in from Reading University to speak to Year 12. Jess and Winnie write:
We were delighted to have a visit from Professor Major from Reading University on Friday. He delivered a presentation on early concentration camps and how they evolved, resistance to the Third Reich along with the regular people that supported the SS and the SA. Professor Major helped us to understand the lives of the ordinary people under the Third Reich through a roleplay scenario. We were also incredibly lucky to be shown his research of the impacts of bombings across Germany, presented on a map. It was interesting for us as a class to be educated in these topics in such detail by an expert, and for those looking at studying history at university, we had a real taster session of how we will be working in higher education.
We’ve also had the much-anticipated Inter-House Dance competition for Years 7, 8, and 9. I was lucky enough to be asked to be a judge for Year 9’s competition on Friday. Their theme was current events, and we saw dances depicting WWII, mental health, County Lines, and addiction to name a few.
The winners were Tanners with their very emotional dance depicting the Covid-pandemic. One of the team, Sophie, writes:
When we first chose Covid to be our theme for this year’s Inter-house dance, we all knew it would be a challenge. Covid was such a critical time in everyone’s life, and trying to reflect the isolation and fear of those 3 years was difficult to say the least.
Perhaps the hardest part of the process was the song selection. we used “the sun and the rain” at the start to show the lack of communication pre Covid, while everyone was glued to a screen, but were unsure of what to do for the 2nd. It was obvious it should be about loneliness, but when we searched, most of them were about breakups! Eventually we chose ‘Eleanor Rigby’ as it clearly talks about being cut off from others, and though it’s about war time, covid-19 was, in a way, a battle for all of us. For the end, we chose ‘Sky Full of Stars’, to symbolise hope, and also the skies clearing when no one was driving! For the choreography we started close together and gradually separated, before a repeated sequence bought people together with the vaccine. We all learnt so much through the process and hope our commitment was reflected in our dance.
On Monday we said a fond farewell to our Year 13s as they held their Year 13 Prom at Hamlet in Wokingham Town Centre. The students looked very grown up, and having taught a few of them in Year 7 (and some of them in 7, 8, 9, 10 AND 11!) it was quite emotional to see them all grown up, and talking about their exciting summer plans- lots of very exciting holidays booked! A big thank you to Mrs Salamut-Ward and Mrs Thomas for all of their work with the prom, and, indeed, the Year 13s overall.
It’s not just in-school events either. Mr Gray took a small but mighty group of musical students earlier this week to a coaching session and concert at Kings School Wimbledon. A big thank you to Mr Gray and Miss Schotting for going with them, and a huge congratulations to the students who it was reported played “brilliantly”.
This week has also seen an Interhouse tennis organised by our fab PE department (Wimbledon, watch out!), and Interhouse maths which saw Year 7 students solving numerical clues from around the school. I was asked by several if I knew when the Norman Conquest was and they had to find the difference between that date, and the date of the Black Death! I have to admit, having done Modern History GCSE, it’s a clear gap in my off-hand knowledge which I will be endeavouring to solve post-haste…Thank you to Mr Crawley for coordinating such a fun mathematical enterprise.
If that wasn’t enough, we welcomed speakers from the Chinmaya Mission UK to give our Year 8s a talk about Hinduism. The students were attentive and asked some insightful questions and provided some very profound insights. Thank you to Mrs Barker and the PoR department for organising this for our students.
Last but certainly not least, we had our transition day for our new Year 7s on Wednesday when we invited our new students in for the day before they start with us in September. The students were wonderful, getting stuck in, asking great questions, and really taking in the many new aspects of Secondary school in their stride. They were aided masterfully by the Year 10 (almost 11!) prefects who took their jobs as guides and role models very seriously. Huge thanks to everyone involved in making the day happen, particularly to Mrs Izod-Martin who will be Year 7’s Head of Year and has spent the last half term visiting Primary Schools and really getting to know our new students. In the evening it was the turn of the Year 6 parents to have their “induction” into the Holt, whilst the main hall was particularly warm, it was lovely to have the opportunity to meet and speak to our new cohort of Holt parents. A big well done to our Head Girl Amrit, and one of her Deputies, Rose, who spoke with confidence and fondness of their journey throughout the Holt, and reassured listeners that the worries our Y7 students face about the step from Primary to Secondary are no different to those experienced, navigated, and overcome, by our Sixth Form students several years on!
This brings what has been a very busy (and warm) week to a close. I must sign off as I’m heading to the Holt and Forest Year 11 prom being held at Coppid Beach tonight!
Elizabeth Harris
Assistant Headteacher