Dear parents, guardians and friends
The heating system has whirred into action at The Holt, which means we must have entered the second half of the autumn term. Halloween and Diwali have been and gone, fireworks are fizzing, and – if you peer into the distance – you can just make out the shape of a Christmas tree marching to meet us.
9T ran a Halloween themed teacher apple bobbing competition on the last day before half term and raised £146.66 for their House charity Dingley’s Choice. Thank you to the rather soggy teachers who sportingly took part!
It has been quite the season for charitable endeavours. Hot on the heels of Mrs Bolton’s fun run, our non-uniform day raised over £1500 for WADE whose aim is to promote the welfare of local older residents in Wokingham and the surrounding areas. Further to this, Sharon Hart (our Careers Lead), is undertaking a colossal 10km swimathon at the Olympic pool in London on Saturday in aid of Alzheimer’s Society. We wish her well with this challenging endeavour.
Today we have welcomed a speaker from the David Nott Foundation to engage with our Year 7 students. Ms Mirza writes,
“On the morning of Wednesday this week, The David Nott Foundation visited our school to speak to Year 7 about the work they do across the world, linking perfectly to the novels our students are studying in English: “No Ballet Shoes in Syria” and “Refugee Boy”. This is the 5th year the Foundation has come to share their experience of helping doctors and surgeons in the middle of conflicts and during natural disasters. Nick Cartwright, Head of Operations spoke to our students about their work in the ongoing conflicts in Palestine and Ukraine, and the recent earthquakes in Syria and Türkiye. To show our appreciation and recognition of all their efforts, Year 7 have been donating money during their English lessons; this will be collated and sent to the Foundation this week. Thank you, Year 7 – you have been incredibly generous!”
You can read more about the work of the Foundation here.
Our Head of History, Miss Howard, has been leading assemblies this week on the theme of remembrance ahead of Remembrance Sunday and our Armistice Day ceremony on Monday. She helped students reflect on how war impacts people in many different ways by sharing some footage of an interview with her grandfather who lived in Wokingham during WWII. Our crochet club, led by Mrs Sall and Mrs Baker, have also been hard at work producing poppies for this finished piece.
Year 10 geographers have been out and about in Wokingham this week undertaking fieldwork that will feed into the non-examination assessment element of their GCSE. The geography team have been impressed by their focus and responsiveness.
You may have been aware of building work going on at The Holt in recent months. We are delighted that the external construction of a new block has been completed. This provides purpose-built spaces for our site and IT support teams and replaces the post-WWII HORSA building that had been their decrepit base for too long. I am always keen to give credit to our wonderful support staff, and it is important that we resource them well so that they can help us to keep doing what we do as a school. The block also includes two new classrooms which will provide flexible accommodation for lessons and other activities. The internal fit continues, but the building will be in service soon.
Being in possession of a large amount of roof space, we have also recently had a large number of solar panels fitted to our school buildings. In doing so we aim to reduce future energy bills and make our school more sustainable.
Each of these projects has involved some inconvenience for staff and students as fencing, scaffolding and machinery have restricted access in some parts of our site. We thank everyone for their patience and adaptability while these works were carried out.
Year 11 and Year 13 have PPEs (mock exams) this week (and into next). To enable exams to run more smoothly and efficiently, we have moved our main exam venue from the hall and gym to the sports hall. This has involved investment in new heating, lighting, insulation, carpeting and furniture to make a space that we hope students will find comfortable and quiet so that they can perform at their best. I am grateful to the site team and our acting Exams Manager, Mrs Griffin, for bringing this to fruition.
Finally, with regard to that looming Christmas tree I mentioned, the music department are inviting students and staff to be part of a musical advent calendar for our countdown at the end of term.
Look out for that advent calendar in December, and we will keep you abreast of all that happens in the meantime.
Ben Adams
Assistant Headteacher
6th November 2024