Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends
Happy New Year!
Last term Mrs Pearce and I used Inspire as our theme for the first assembly of the term and this week we are reflecting on Challenge. We reminded the girls that we have daily challenges in addition to extra ones that we set ourselves, especially at this time of year. As always, the girls were told it is good for them to move out of their comfort zone and the challenges they face will help them to flourish and lead interesting lives. We gave tips on how to face up to planned and unplanned challenges; to be calm, roll with the punches by being adaptable, to plan for day to day challenges, anticipate the problems and to plan how to deal with them, to take support offered, to ask for help and to maintain a sense of perspective. We reminded our girls not to be afraid of challenge and that we admire students who try out new things or try to improve in some way but we also recognise that sometimes things don’t work out……in the end without challenge, life can be a bit dull! We also talked about how sometimes we are faced with miserable challenges, especially in our personal lives and it is hard to see how such situations lead to a more enriched life –we reassured our girls that they are not on their own when things are tough. To end, we reminded the girls to be kind, aim high and work hard this term!
Chips are back on the menu for 2019 – Year 11s reminded me it was four years ago when they disappeared. Chartwell’s food looks and tastes great and is a definite thumbs up from the majority of girls who have used the Café. More girls are enjoying their lunch sitting in the Café with their friends, using proper plates and cutlery, which is so much more civilised compared to eating out of boxes with wooden forks. Litter is also being kept under control with our push on reducing packaging.
Good luck to Year 11 who are currently sitting their PPEs (pre public exams or mocks) and to Year 12 for their exams next week. It is a gruelling term for all our students taking public exams in the summer but they are not on their own with staff and family to support them.
Enjoy the rest of the week and the Friday feeling after a week at work following the festive break!
Anne Kennedy
Co-Headteacher