Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends,
This week’s blog is a Harvest special!
You were probably not aware, but 1st October was the United Nations International Day of Older People. All Holt students know about this as it was the focus of an assembly led by Mrs Martin and Mrs Kennedy a few weeks ago. The purpose of the day was to celebrate older people and the vital part they play and have the potential to play in making communities better places to be They used data to explain how and why the population is ageing as well as interesting facts like it is estimated that there currently are more dogs than under 16s in the UK! They also talked about the opportunities and challenges faced by ageing populations, encouraging students to welcome and appreciate the contributions older people make to local neighbourhoods introducing this as the theme for our Harvest events this year.
Harvest is a major event in the school calendar, starting from the assembly I have described and finishing with a delivery of harvest boxes to elderly people around Wokingham. Firstly, this involved every student in the school bringing in produce, lists were given as a guidance from the local Food bank and Wade Day centre. The day before the Harvest assembly House representatives from each form and their House prefects set up a display of food and created a visual display which had to focus on a specific country and how they care for their older population. This was judged by SLT and House Points allocated. You can see how good the winning displays were in the pictures below.
The Harvest assembly was written and presented by the Student Leadership team it included musical performances and a chance for everyone to sing ‘Cauliflowers Fluffy’. With its Harvest theme the House Point totals were delivered by Farmer Lewis and his team.
Almost as soon as the assemblies were over the Harvest displays were dismantleed and sorted by a team of well organised students. They were sorted into boxes and bags to be delivered to individual peoples homes, Wade Day centre and the Food bank – and we had plenty for everyone.
Following many years of tradition, our Year 11 students delivered the packages on Friday afternoon. They delivered parcels to 50 local residents and a car boot full of donations went to Wade and another car boot full to Wokingham Foodbank.
It is lovely when we hear back from recipients – one said she received a Harvest delivery from three of our students this afternoon and wanted to say how polite, cheerful and extremely well behaved they were. They are a credit to our school and would like to pass on her thanks and appreciation.
The Food Bank were also delighted with their harvest produce.
Thank you to everyone who bought in a donation. A big thank you must go to Mrs Kennedy who coordinated this massive enterprise she wants to pass her thanks to the Heads of House, Year 13, 12 and 11 prefects and to the Year 7-10 Harvest helpers …they were all so cheerful and enthusiastic in setting up displays, sorting the food and packing it.
We also continue to support Wade through the daily visits by our Year 9 students – 4 visit each day to help serve meals and just to chat with the residents. They recently sent this message – I have had feedback from staff that the girls who came yesterday, Sindy and Ching, were exceptional, they asked what needed doing, spoke very kindly with the members and were lovely girls.
Finally, we have a Non-Uniform day next Thursday – £2 donations will go to Wade.
The Thought for the Week encouraged students to visit, call or write to an elderly relative, perhaps help them with new technology or challenge them to do something they wouldn’t usually do – I wonder if any of these things happened in your family?
Yvonne Smith
Assistant Headteacher