HEADMISTRESS’S FRIDAY LETTER
Friday, 16 October 2015
Dear Parents
No more waxing lyrical about the ‘wonders of Friday’ from this Head when last week this basically came
and bit me on the a**e! Driving home I was busily thinking, how glorious, I am actually going to get home
punctually….. when my tyre exploded. A million warning lights appeared on my dash as I juddered to a halt
in the nearest safe place. Still undeterred, I thought to myself, this could be worse. I might have to wait two
hours for the RAC to rescue me but I happen to have my book, some water, all will be well. What actually
happened was Mr RAC broke the mechanism for storing my spare tyre, Kwik Fit sucked their teeth, charged
me an arm and a leg for a new tyre and told me something about my ‘sensor’ imploding and now Renault
have told me that nothing is covered by my warranty, despite the fact that I have only had the car for 5
minutes. Meanwhile until I hand the car over to their sticky mitts I am driving around with these alarming
lights and ‘bings’ on my dash. Aaargh!
On a happier note, I promised I would give you some details about Ms Magon and Mr Maragh’s Y10 and
Y11 visit to The Apprenticeship Show. Ms Magon says she was delighted to see several of our pupils talking
to representatives at different stands about what opportunities and pathways were available for them and
where apprenticeships would lead. Sophia Hosey, Romalyne Baker Alfred and Ms Magon spent some time
at the Capel Manor stand where they learnt how to make a floral corsage. The day was a huge success
and we feel that all the pupils gained a small insight into what opportunities could be available to them Post
16.
Another busy week. Catherine and I popped over to see Roy English at Abingdon House the other day to
see the all the wonderful things they are doing. Of course, many of your little lambs are alumni so I hardly
need tell you how super the school is.
On Tuesday all of Year 9 spent a lovely, mostly sunny, day at the Ecology Centre in Holland Park with Mrs
Elias, Mr Green, Mr Bristol and Mrs Carter. They were studying the environmental fieldwork section of the
Biology syllabus and compared the pond ecosystem and the woodland ecosystem, looking specifically at
the adaptation of the animals found and linking them into food webs. Many thanks to Trevor at the Ecology
Centre for taking the time to show the group around the centre and introduce them to the animals that live
there. Attach pic
Romalyne, Sophie, Lulu, Thea and Cherry were creative and enthusiastic when carving Halloween pumpkins
during the Seasonal Decoration enrichment. They persevered through the gruelling and gory task of
scooping the brains out of their pumpkin heads. Good work girls!
To coincide with the launch of the proposed new school blazer, we are also re-thinking our school logo. On
Wednesday, Mr Mayer launched a competition inviting pupils to put forward their design ideas. We will
shortlist four designs and award the winner with a gift voucher. The Judging Panel will decide on an overall
winner from these four pieces which will be transformed professionally to a logo that will shine proudly from
our hearts for years to come. All the pupils are encouraged to enter this competition. We wish them all the
very best of luck, and cannot wait to see their creative ideas. We will attach a further copy of the entry
sheet with this letter.
Last night I thoroughly enjoyed the Year 7 Parents’ evening. Wonderful to catch up with the Year 7 parents
and to take a moment to celebrate how well the children have settled in. I look forward to seeing the rest
of the parent body throughout the course of the year and in a new initiative, our illustrious Chair, Simon
Goldhill has suggested that it might be a useful exercise for you to input into my appraisal so I will be getting
in touch soon.
After Parent’s evening, Matthew Potger, Ronda Fogel and I had a rare night on the town. We were
delighted to have been invited by some of our alumni JD, Toby Cartwright and Sascha Bailey to the launch
of their new Art enterprise, “Quite useless”. If ever there was a misnomer, this would be it, since, at the risk of
gushing, it was an incredible evening and an absolute pleasure to witness the boy’s success. I am sure
some of you will remember Toby Cartwright who catered the event, he won the ‘H&F Young Chef of the
Year’ Award during his time here and it is wonderful to think that we played some small part in his future
career. We wish the boys every success with this new endeavour.
Warning, dear parents, Mr Bell is about to have his work cut out for him as never before have we had so
many bake sales in such a short space of time. Today, Mr Potger’s children, Giulia and Alessandro, are both
avid Scouts and they made Mr Potger lug two bags of their freshly baked cakes into school this morning for
a cake sale to raise money for the sponsorship of young people in their Scouts group. The cakes went down
a treat on such a gloomy morning and Giulia and Alessandro would like to thank everyone who supported
this.
On Monday next week Mr Maragh and his year 10 business studies boys will embark on their own apprentice
style challenge for Enterprise Day. They will be split into 3 groups and armed with an initial £15 investment
that they will need to turn into a profit. Stationed in 3 different areas of the school the groups will battle it out
for customers. Please you give your children some extra spending money for Monday, they won’t want to
miss out.
Finally on Wednesday, a member of our alumni, Harry Roberts, (leaver 2013) is embarking on an adventure
to Kenya shortly to volunteer at an orphanage. The organisation he will be working for, called Restart Africa,
offers abandoned children a haven from drugs, violence and homelessness, gives children their lives back
and provides communities with a future. It also develops business ventures to provide employment and
empowerment. Our mufti day next Wednesday 21 st October will be raising money for this charity and we
wish Harry all the best. So remember to send your babies in in mufti and with some pocket money. Thank
you in advance for supporting his fund raising efforts.
While Mr Ford is appointing ‘Green monitors’ (more on that later), Mr Potger has appointed Hudson Daly
(Y11) as the Performing Arts Monitor. His responsibilities will include checking that correct equipment is
present in Music Tuition Suite and Performing Arts Studio, supporting events, the list is endless. Many
congratulations to Hudson.
It is wonderful to have Ms Chapman back even for a short time. She is too modest to say anything herself
but I have overheard numerous accolades from parents and pupils. Thank you also to our supply teacher,
Mr Turner, who has been covering for Miss Holmes. Miss Holmes returns to us, fit and well on Monday but
meanwhile Mr Turner has done a specular job and slotted in well to The Moat family.
Since this is my last letter until after half term, I wish you a relaxing break
Have a super weekend
Clare King (Miss)
Headmistress
Reminders:
Term dates
Wednesday 21 October – 15h45 – End of half term
Monday 2 November – 08h25 – Term resumes
This week’s top Merit Scorer is Cherry Semikin from 8PF with 29 merits.
Well done Cherry!
E-safety tip this week:
Know what to do if something goes wrong. Just as in the offline world, you want to help your child when they
need it. Therefore, it is important to know when and how to report any problem.
Word of the Week:
Next week’s word of the week will be ‘organic’.
Homework week (next week): 2