Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends
It was a pleasure to see so many of our Year 11 students and parents at our sixth form open evening recently, as well as many new students who are interested in joining us next year. We run our open evening as repeated subject presentations which are led by our students and supported by our teachers. This gave everyone a chance to hear all the key information about the different subjects on offer and to hear from our students about what it is like to study these A-levels. We also had additional staff on hand in the sixth form such as Bath university to help with decisions about good A-level combinations, Mrs Hart our careers lead, ASK apprenticeships and the sixth form team. Of course, not forgetting the sixth form Costa team who gave away over 600 cake samples during the night. We were blown away for with the turnout and our grateful to our current sixth form students for supporting the evening.
Following on from open evening was our Year 11 taster day last week. The current year 11 have been very complimentary about the day as it has allowed them to see what a typical day in the life of a sixth former is like, including having a free period during the day. Just a few highlights were the practical sessions in biology, discussions of British democracy in government and politics, seeing inspirational work of current students in art and testing out new techniques. Year 11 now have their guidance interviews with a member of the senior leadership team to help make their final subject choices. As a reminder, the deadline for applications is the 12th December. All information about the sixth form and applications can be found on our sixth form website https://www.holtsixth.co.uk/
Following a highly successful event last year, the Spinners’ charity event ‘I’m a teacher get me out of here’ ran for a second year last week. Our campmates (very brave teacher volunteers) were selected at random alongside their ‘bush tucker’. The fine selection included chicken feet, fish eyes, chicken liver, mealworm pies and chillies to name but a few. Dr Lewis and Mr Mosely seemed to use the event as an opportunity for a free lunch, but Ms Kostaki took the title of Queen of the Jungle. Over £200 was raised the Spinners’ charity, Creating Better Futures. Thank you to all 15 teachers involved, and Mr Mirams and the Spinners prefects for organising such a popular event.
Year 7 took part in their annual concert yesterday. The concert involved many of our talented musicians playing solo pieces. Their instruments ranged from violin to piano and even a harp. Then around 200 of our Year 7 students performed songs from musicals such as ‘This is me’ and ‘Hakuna Matata’. Year 7 have been rehearsing in their music lessons as well as some of their assemblies since September. Congratulations to our students who won a competition to write and read the introductions to each song, it was great to hear the background and key messages to well-known songs. The concert was in such demand we also opened our afternoon dress rehearsal to parents. Well done to Year 7 and our in-house orchestra for two great performances, and thank you to Mr Gray for organising the event. Here is a flavour of the performances, with which I must say I think was my favourite song of the night!
And following those inspiring performances from our Year 7, our annual Christmas concert at St Paul’s church is taking place next week on Thursday 7th December at 7pm, it’s sure to get you in the festive spirit. Make sure you book your tickets before they sell out https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/t-vvpddnv
Emma Ward
Assistant Headteacher
Head of Sixth Form