Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends
Today marks the end of lockdown 2.0. With only 29 days of the year remaining and 11.5 school days, I wanted to take the opportunity to look ahead to some of the exciting events that are due to take place in the coming weeks. We might not be able to celebrate this season as we normally would but instead we have all found different ways to show generosity, kindness and gratitude to those around us.
Over the last few weeks, students have been collecting advent calendars to donate to Wokingham food bank. I am sure the chocolate will bring a little festive cheer to the Wokingham community. Thank you to everyone who donated.
The first weekend of December is traditionally the time that my family dedicate to putting up the Christmas tree and decorating the house for Christmas, I am therefore always excited to see the delivery of The Holt Christmas tree. Each year it has become a personal Holt tradition that I select a small group of students to help decorate the smaller tree in the main reception. This is always lots of fun. I am sure you will agree that they have done a great job…
It would not be the Christmas season without our festive house events:
- The English department are running their annual KS3 Christmas competitions. Year 7 will be writing letters of application for the highly desirable position as one of Santa’s reindeer. Year 8 will be designing Christmas cards with a festive verse. Year 9 will be writing spooky stories with a Christmas twist!
- The Food and Nutrition department are running a Christmas cake competition. This is open to all year groups. The deadline for the delicious entries is 11/12/20.
- All registration groups will be taking part in the Christmas door competition. This really brightens up the school corridors… we will share the results in a future blog.
Still on the theme of baking… Goldsmiths held ‘Charity Tuesday’ bake sales in the marquees. A member of 7G told me that they raised an astonishing £84 in only 30 minutes! For future events, our extracurricular coordinator, Miss Harris recommends that students purchase tokens from either the snack shack or canteen using their Wisepay accounts. You may purchase tokens online for your daughter or son, however Miss Harris advises me it takes a little longer this way.
We are really looking forward to our Christmas picnic. Further information about how your daughter or son can join in can be found on: https://www.holtschool.co.uk/parent-information/letters-and-announcements/
On a different note, I would like to introduce our newly appointed Student Leadership team. The students all went through a rigorous interview process and impressed us with their maturity, commitment and vision for the team. Daniela Bertolino has been appointed as our new Head Girl and Caitlin Everton, Sophie Guy, Jennah Hamad and Megan Hurst as her deputies. We look forward to working with them over the coming year.
Thank you to our outgoing Student Leadership team, they have truly done an outstanding job. The team were very active during the spring lockdown period; they quickly adapted and maintained excellent communication with their peers. I particularly enjoyed the ‘Homes Under the Hammer’ style tour of the school created especially to welcome the Year 6 students who had missed out on the traditional induction day.
Enjoy the festive season.
Many thanks.
Vicki Martin
Assistant Headteacher