Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends
As well as our fantastic exam results, this September, we also came back to considerable upgrading on our site!
The site team managed to spend a total of £0.6 million on significant and much needed upgrades. The money spent was raised from a combination of bids made to the government, planned capital spends and money from grants and donations!
Firstly, you may notice if you come in to school, our impressive new roofs. It seems as though every year we replace or repair at least one roof! This time, it was the turn of the drama hall, the library and The Holt café. They roof tiles are in keeping with the age of the building and the last of the scaffolding has now gone! Don’t they look nice! You can see the “during” and almost “after” phases.
One of our kitchens in food technology was also completely refurbished.
We were able to do this using a grant from Wellington College and a generous top up from the fabulous Holt Association! The Holt Association, led by Linda Carroll a former member of staff, is a group of former staff and students that attended The Holt. The age range of members currently is from about 24 to well into the 90s……….The Holt Association have twice- yearly reunions where it is great to catch up, see what is new at The Holt but also share memories from school days. The Holt Association is also extremely generous and raise a lot of money for the school which has helped to fund some of these projects.
To help our growing numbers in the Learning Link, the site team re-configured some poorly laid out space to create an extra classroom, and office……..and amazingly a corridor. I don’t know how they think of these things.
We were also able to give our multi- faith room a much-needed makeover!
As for the field- at the end of last term it was discovered that we had about 100m of collapsed pipes under the turf. This was also repaired- although the hot weather has delayed the grass recovery somewhat!
We have also managed to raise funds to invest in teacher laptops and docking stations in all classrooms. This means teachers can save valuable time logging in and locating resources on shared folders as they arrive to their lessons with their resources already loaded. Every second counts!
And lastly, we were able to upgrade some computer suites!
Many thanks go to the finance, site and IT teams……..who worked all summer to get the school upgraded and ready for a new year.
Of course, you may have seen the letter sent out last week regarding financial donations to The Friends of The Holt. This group, alongside the Holt Association form the charitable arm of The Holt. We are not into parent quiz nights or cheese and wine events- many of our parents and guardians tell us they are too busy- which we understand! Instead, we ask for your support with the events we do hold such as doughnut sales, the Christmas tombola and the summer colour run. This year, our fundraising campaign is a school cooling project to improve our heat management systems for the summer terms. We are looking to install air conditioning units in some areas of the school, along with passive cooling methods to keep the heat out such as brise soleil fittings and other retrofitting measures that we can do to our old buildings!
Our most effective way of raising funds directly is through regular parental contributions, either committing to a one off, annual, or monthly contribution to The Friends of The Holt.
To contribute, please go to Make a donation | The Holt School
Alternatively, a one-off donation can be made through our online payment system, WisePay.
Thirdly, parents/guardians and friends can contribute directly to our “just giving” campaign for the school cooling project.
To make a donation to our Just Giving Page, please go to School Cooling Project – Just Giving Campaign
In other news, I am delighted to congratulate the modern languages department, and in particular Emma Diaz for achieving the International School Award.
This prestigious award is in recognition of The Holt’s work to bring the world into the classroom.
The International School Award celebrates the achievements of schools that do exceptional work in international education. Fostering an international dimension in the curriculum is at the heart of the British Council’s work with schools so that young people gain the cultural understanding and skills they need for life work in today’s world.
The International School Award encourages and supports schools to develop:
- An international ethos embedded throughout the school
- A whole school approach to international work
- Collaborative curriculum-based work with international partner schools
- Year-round international activity
- Involvement of the wider community
Enhorabuena Sra Diaz and the rest of the MFL department!
Katie Pearce
Co-headteacher