Dear Parents, Guardians, and Friends
It seems a good while since that long, sizzling summer as I write with rain cascading of every roof here at The Holt. Indeed, we are nearly a fifth of the way through the school year, and we are as busy as ever doing all the things that make our school such a wonderful place.
And it is our students who take the lead. Each year, we run a rigorous recruitment process before appointing our new Student Leadership Team from amongst our Year 12s. The successful candidates have won over staff, peers, and younger students with their confident hustings performances, coolness under pressure, and responses to some rather leftfield questions from our SLT. The team will take on their new roles in December and deliver assemblies, lead on Student Voice, and represent the school at a number of events. Congratulations to our new Head Girl Elysia and her deputies Miranda, Jasmine, Annabel, and Emmeline.
Did somebody say cake? On Friday, our Technology Department held their annual cake sale in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. Over £800 was raised for this worthy cause, and we would like to thank everyone who provided cakes, and to the staff and sixth form students who gave up their time to make it happen. Matters were more complicated than in previous years due to the introduction of Benedict’s Law which, quite rightly, requires schools to be even more proactive in keeping safe students who might suffer allergic reactions. This meant that we were unable to accept home-baked cakes for sale on this occasion.
Mrs Griffiths, in her very first SLT blog, wrote last week about the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge undertaken by our very own “Hannah Frys” in Years 12 and 13. Well, we’ve had the results in and are delighted that 34 of our students were awarded certificates at bronze, silver or gold. Special congratulations to our gold winners – Amrit, Chung Wo, Emily, Anusha, and our top scorer Chloe – who have all qualified for the next round of the competition. If you think that sounds easy, have a look here for more information about the challenge – including this year’s question paper.
It is not just our students who have been going for gold – as you may have seen in the local press. The school benefits hugely from our wonderfully committed staff. This includes our Modern Foreign Languages Department. Colleagues have enriched the life of our school in recent years by setting up a successful French exchange programme, residential visits to France and Spain, a Spanish language newspaper and a Model United Nations club. This work has been recognised by the British Council who have bestowed upon us their International School Award for our engagement in language and cultural development.
Not to be outdone, we have received another accolade in the form of the School Games Mark Gold Award. Sport and physical education are a key part of life at The Holt. Wearing my parent hat for a moment, I am very appreciative of the opportunities that students enjoy here to take part in physical activity – whether that be in interschool fixtures, house competitions, PE lessons, or inclusive tournaments.
We are particularly proud of our commitment to inclusion, ensuring that every student, regardless of ability, experience or confidence, can take part, develop their skills, and enjoy being active. The Holt Physical Education Department has always competed successfully with other schools on a local, county, and national level but the gold award recognises that the school is providing a broad, inclusive, and well-developed programme of school sport, rather than simply achieving good competitive results.
Before the half term break, we will be holding a non-uniform day to raise money for WADE. We have asked students to bring a suggested donation of £2 in return for a day in their own clothes – and it looks as if the weather may brighten enough for them not to bury their finery under raincoats. For many years, our students in Year 9 have taken it in turns to develop their confidence by serving lunch to local elderly people at the WADE Centre on Reading Road, and it is always our pleasure to support them.
We wish our students well for the half term holiday, and we hope readers of this blog will also enjoy some downtime – even if it’s as simple as not having to drag teenagers out of bed each morning! Learners in Years 11 and 13 are coming back to mock exams (PPEs), but we have encouraged them to maintain a healthy balance of revision, rest and fun, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday 2nd November.
Ben Adams
Assistant Headteacher