Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends,
One of the parts of the job that I enjoy the most as a head of sixth form is seeing our students navigate their choices about their future university, apprenticeship and career ambitions. It has been a busy couple of weeks in the sixth form centre with a flurry of UCAS applications being processed, Oxbridge and medicine interviews taking place, students completing apprenticeship application forms and our annual Year 13 interview day.
In total we had 18 different interviewers attend our day both in person and online. They came from a range of different sectors including politics, law, optometry, medicine, finance, teaching, engineering, architecture, veterinary medicine and more!
We are so grateful to all of our interviewers for giving up their time to help us with delivering these mock interviews. They are a great opportunity for our students to know how to share their success and skilfully manage challenging questions. We know just how important these encounters are to ensure our sixth form students leave us with clear goals about what they would like to achieve and how they are going to get there.
Year 11 have also been preparing for their futures and Mrs Connor organised a study skills session the whole year group. Mrs Connor told us:
“Our recent Year 11 study skills session was very successful and positively received by students. The presentations focused on practical revision strategies, effective study routines and how best to prepare for upcoming PPEs. Students engaged well with the activities and left with clear, manageable approaches they can begin using straight away. We would like to extend our thanks to Miss Roberts, Mrs Baker, Mrs Whitehouse and Mr Sutton for their engaging presentations and the valuable resources they shared. All slides from the session will be made available so that students can revisit the techniques at home and continue developing strong revision habits in the run-up to exam”
Thank you to all the staff for their part in the session and to Mrs Connor for organising the event.
Year 11 students also had a great opportunity to develop their knowledge of further study of sport at the University of Bath.
Mrs Bolton told us:
“Year 11 worked hard during their physiology workshops at the University of Bath last week. They applied their GCSE theory content to testing and were inspired by the GB athletes who were training and the amazing facilities. Well done!”
Also sticking to the theme of sporting events, thank you to Leander Rowing Club for introducing our year 9 and 10s to ergo rowing at the Forest on Thursday. Congratulations to Cherenna who came 2nd in the individual competition and to both teams who picked up medals in the relay competition! 🚣🔴⚪️🔵🏅
Thank you to Mrs Bolton for organising these great events.
It was also a momentous day for our GCSE dancers yesterday who completed their practical exam during the day and then got to see a great performance of Oliver in the evening. Mrs Benge told us:
“The GCSE dancers had an exciting trip to see Oliver in the west end on Tuesday- this was a fantastic opportunity for the students, with it being a lot of the girls first time seeing a west-end show. The students came away so inspired with some saying ‘it was so much better than I ever thought it could be!’
The students had a chance to analyse the staging, lighting and costume used in the show- which is a vital part of their theory paper.
As we all countdown for Christmas the music department are helping us through these last couple of weeks of term with their musical ‘Countdown to Christmas’. Well done to everyone who has contributed a performance so far, there is one for each day in December leading up to Christmas. Both staff and students have entered in their recordings so please do follow @theholtschool_music on Instagram and take a listen. A sneak preview of one of the entries is below and the outcome might surprise you!
As a reminder our Christmas concert at St Paul’s church takes place tomorrow 11th December at 7pm, and we look forward to seeing many of you there for a very festive evening. Tickets are still available at www.ticketsource.co.uk/the-holt-school
Emma Salamut-Ward
Assistant Headteacher
Head of Sixth Form