SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM BLOG 13/12/2023

Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends

It has been 14 weeks since the start of term in September. As we finish on Friday a huge well done to all our Year 7 students for settling in so well and embracing the life of the school. Year 10 have transitioned smoothly to GCSEs and similarly Year 12 students moving on to A levels and for some in Year 12 working out ‘The Holt Way’ if they came from another school.

The enthusiasm of all year groups in getting involved was evident over the last week with all the Christmas festivities and end of term events.

Year 9 art club showcased the work they did this term. They learnt a number of ceramic imprinting techniques and applied them to create house numbers which were glazed and wall hangings inspired by natural textures. All students worked carefully, and the results were extremely professional! Thanks to the art department for running the club.

Thanks to Miss Ward and Mrs Hart for organising the Year 13 interview day which took place last week.  Year 13 took part in 20 min mock interviews with employers in different sectors for example we had a biomedical engineer, business owner, journalist, teacher, accountant, and a physiotherapist.  Students said they valued speaking to people who are working in careers they would like to go into and this increased their confidence in an interview setting. The interviewers were very complimentary of the skills and attributes that students demonstrated – which is good to know!  Thank you to all the interviewers who gave up time to attend.  We have a Year 12 interview day on 22 February and if anyone is interested in taking part for the day please do email Miss Ward, Assistant Headteacher and Head of Sixth Form.

The Christmas door competition kicked off festive events …. forms decorated their classroom door and points were awarded for creativity, use of recycled materials, the extent and impact of the Christmas theme and bonus points for only using blu-tac (a stipulation from our site team!).  We had some year group winners in …… and here are some pictures of Year 9 doors that I judged with Mrs Connor. The result for Key Stage 3 are in and for Key Stage 4 TBC

Last week Mr Gray and Miss Drew organised a joyful and festive Christmas Concert in the atmospheric setting of St Paul’s church.  The choirs – The Holt Singers and Junior Voices, the staff choir, the orchestra, the piano, violin and harp solo, the guitar and flute ensembles and the Jazz band all performed to such a high quality – the music was beautiful.  Thank you also to the readers.  It was great to see the church full of parents, family and friends and thank you to everyone who came to support and of course thanks to Mr Gray and Miss Drew for making it happen.

Last Friday, the Christmas Fair took place in the main hall…. this alongside sports day is a big event for Houses; not only from the competitive aspect of winning best stall/Christmas tree decorations but also in raising money for the House charities and Friends of The Holt. The fair is ‘old school’ with the simple but fun stalls run by the House prefects including knocking down tin cans, guessing the teacher from baby photos, darts, the card game ‘higher or lower’, virtual skiing and chucking ping pong balls into cups of sweets.  The younger years embraced the fun , blew their cash (thanks to parents for funding) and entered the spirit of having a go….and hopefully winning a Swizzler sweet, Quality Street or Drumstick!  The House stalls raised £1670 and this is split 50:50 to Friends of The Holt and the House charities.  A whooping £771.46 was made on the tombola and this goes to Friends of The Holt.  A huge thank you to the Heads of House, the sixth form tombola team, the House prefects, the site team, and the IT team for making the fair run so smoothly.

This week, the Heads of Year have been delivering presentation assemblies, where students give speeches or perform to their peers alongside giving claps to students who received certificates for making progress in subjects, being tutee of the term or for receiving the Flourish certificate. Well done to all the students who received certificates and as we say in these assemblies, there is always a next time for students to receive a certificate so not to be disheartened but to keep doing their best.

The incoming Year 12 Student Leadership Team organised the sixth form Christmas Quiz; their first event.  The ten staff teams and eight sixth form teams competed on the usual quiz rounds on films, music, Dingbats, more guessing the teacher from baby photos and a slightly novel round, (my favourite as I am not good at retaining trivia) decorating the gingerbread man as a teacher. The winning sixth form team have a Nandos voucher to share between them…so that will be one chicken wing each and the staff team (a combo of English and social sciences) a jumbo tin of Quality Streets.  Thanks to the new student leadership team and all who took part so enthusiastically – it was good fun.

The Year 13, outgoing student leadership team deliver their last assembly on Friday which we look forward to…. they have been filming for a staff carpool Karaoke as well as writing the festive assembly script.  Alongside this, they have done a brilliant job bringing together the students’ views on whether we should ban mobile phones in school.  The Year 13 student leadership team chaired discussions at year group school council level and then at the whole school council.  They shared the responses with us and made a film of the outcomes for students to watch in form this week.  Mrs Pearce and I will be in touch with parents at the start of term to clarify the mobile phones rules but in short, they are the same as now, but the rules need tightening up especially around not having phones out in lessons or in-between lessons, apart from at breaktime and lunchtime.   Thank you to the Year 13 student leadership team for being so reliable, loyal and hardworking – you have been a fantastic team.

As always there is a sporting event on most weeks and last week it was House netball.  Thank you to Mrs Ebden for organising.  The results for each year group were as follows

On Tuesday, it was Christmas Jumper day.  Students wore a festive jumper and made donations to the Save the Children Gaza Emergency fund where £644.52 was raised.  Alongside wearing the jumpers, over 800 students and staff tucked into a school Christmas dinner.  I was on scraping the plates duty along with Mr Adams and Miss Ward…..Mrs Pearce and Mrs Smith were giving out Freddo’s and desserts and Mrs Martin was clearing away cracker residue from the tables.  The scraping of plates was really very easy and there was very little food left…. apart from the diced vegetables…..the students clearly enjoyed the food!  Thanks to Mr McWilliam, the finance team, the IT maanger, the mid-day supervisors and SLT for all lending a hand to ensure the 800 students got through the Café in two and half hours and of course to Vicky Jones, Head Chef, and her team in the Café. Good spirits all round. 

Mrs Sawyer, our Charities, Enrichment, Extracurricular and Student Voice coordinator has been behind the coordination of the House competitions, the Christmas fair, the charity events and the mobile phone debate at student council….. we are very grateful for all her work in making these events happen….she has had a busy term for sure – thank you Mrs Sawyer!

We look forward to seeing all students back in school on Tuesday 2^nd January – so early!!

Mrs Pearce and I wish you all a peaceful Christmas break and Happy New Year!

Anne Kennedy