Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends,
We are now four weeks into the Autumn Term and the time has certainly sped by – the weather is definitely getting cooler, and we are all settling into the routines of school life at The Holt.
Everyone has been through their timetable twice now and Year 7 certainly know their way around the school. All the year groups have had character, behaviour and safeguarding assemblies and are currently having the first House assemblies of the year. ‘Student voice’ has started and Year teams have held their first council meetings. There have been trips, charity events and visiting speakers and the extracurricular activities are well underway.
As SLT link to Year 7 it has been great to see how quickly they are getting used to the routines and starting to embrace school life. On Thursday, all Year 7 went to Ufton Court for a day of team building and problem-solving activities. In groups they took part in six different activities which ranged from very competitive games of ultimate frisbee and Hungry Hippos (this involved skateboards and washing baskets!) as well as challenges like ‘Bridge the Gap’ and A frame walking.
It was great to see the Year 7s really involved, learning to communicate effectively (if not a little too loudly!), trying out new things and I am sure making new friends. Ufton Court is a beautiful location as you can see in the photographs below and the rain held off.
Upon our return to school, Mr Beere led the entire Year 7 (and their tutors) in some communal singing in preparation for the Year 7 music concert on 19th October. I do not know how they had the energy!
Year 7s are also getting involved in extra-curricular activities for which the timetable was released last week. As we say regularly, this is a great way for students to make friends with those who share the same interests and there are certainly lots to choose from for example Cross Stitch club, code breaking and Environmental club as well as the subject specific clubs like geography, history and science, there are numerous music clubs and of course all of the PE ones! The full list is available on our website.
Year 7 science club is very popular – last week they ‘set fire’ to Miss Harris their Head of Year, all of course done scientifically and safely as you can see from the pictures below.
Mrs Bolton says that participation at PE clubs since the start of term has been excellent with huge numbers at netball, hockey, cross country, basketball, football, badminton, dance, and rugby. Our teams have all had a successful start to the season and our netballers have enjoyed victories in a new National competition against Chesham Grammar School and Bradfield College. Our sports leaders in Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 planned and led a fantastic KS1 multi-skills event for over 100 primary school children last Thursday and were excellent ambassadors for our school. Well done to every student involved in our extra-curricular programme.
Year 11s are currently having assemblies about their options for next year, as well as a special assembly on Friday when they had a talk on Breast Cancer Awareness.
The Holt is certainly a busy school, this week we celebrate Harvest, which is a massive event for the school. I am sure there will be pictures next week of the Harvest displays, for which the theme this year is ‘How is the food on our plates affected by global issues?’
Yvonne Smith
Assistant Headteacher