Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends
A life coach came up with a formula that shows the 3rd Monday in January is when we are most likely to feel a little more miserable than usual with the frustration of failed New Year resolutions, credit card bills, dark evenings and cold weather…and for our families with daughters in Year 11 and 12, PPEs to top it all!
I am sure Blue Monday is nothing new and people have felt like this in January for many decades. At school we try to prepare our girls for such feelings…telling them that being in a low mood now and again is normal and actually makes them realise when things are going well. We are always going on about being grateful and when life seems hard, gratitude gives us perspective. A bad as it sounds, there is always someone worse off than we are.
Mr Stromdale and 60 Year 10 scientists had a lovely day on Blue Monday in Oxford at Science Live. Lectures were given by five of Britain’s top scientists working at the cutting edge of their specialisms including Prof Robert Winston (embryology / fertility), Prof Andrea Sella (chemistry), Prof Jim Al-Khalili (theoretical physics), Prof Steve Jones (computer science) and Prof Lucie Green (Space Physics) who is an inspiring space scientist and lecturer. Let’s hope some of our girls are inspired to take science subjects further at A level and at university.
Mrs Hart, our careers lead, gave an interesting presentation on careers to the governors last week, where we talked a lot about promoting STEM subjects and in particular encouraging our girls to take up engineering courses at university. If any women engineers are reading this and would like to come into school to speak to students for 40 mins at lunchtime on how amazing a career in engineering can be – please do get in touch with Mrs Hart.
 |
 |
 |
On Saturday, Miss Cardy and Mrs Bolton took the Holt Cross Country team to the Berkshire Schools Cross Country championships held at Newbury Racecourse. The girls were excellent in the wet and muddy conditions, with the Year 7 team coming 8th/17 schools, the Year 8/9 team coming 4th/16 schools and the Year 10/11 team coming 3rd. Tom Nike came 7th in the U19 category, Abigail Baines came 7th in the U17 category and Cara Dowling came 15th in the U19 category, meaning they qualified to represent Berkshire at the South East Inter Counties next month. An excellent run by all who participated!
Mrs Pearce and I had a nice chat with Father Richard from St Pauls Church on Thursday, musing over the issues in Wokingham right now as well as chatting about leadership styles – there are quite a few similarities within our roles! We look forward to Father Richard joining our sixth form student leadership team in leading the Easter assembly in April.
I hope your week perks up if you were feeling a bit down on Monday!
Anne Kennedy
Co-Headteacher