Letter from the Headmistress – 5th December 2011
A final round up
Today, the first day of the last week of term, there is a palpable essence of excitement at school.
Last night we had the most beautiful Carol Service. The Readers read with confidence and clarity and the Choir sang beautifully. The children managed to light their candles, read their carol sheets and sing without a moment’s tension due to all the candle light and a lovely evening with mulled wine and mince pies was enjoyed by us all.
Today St Andrew’s Turi are with us for a friendly athletics meet and we have so much before us with just one week to go.
The rhythm, pace and momentum of the term have been significant in bringing us to a position where each and every child has done their best across a huge range of activities. The care and attention to detail by the teaching staff at school has been outstanding and I really could not ask for more from anyone at school – adult or child. As ever we are ably and kindly assisted by a wonderful team of administrative staff and our auxiliary staff must be second to none. All in all we are a very lucky school.
The term started a very long time ago it seems, back in September with the Sports Tour. Since then we have had many more highlights. Our lovely scholarship tutor Laura Burden was one and she brought so much more than just work and new hurdles for our high achievers.We have also worked hard with the Learning Support Department to shepherd and help those at the other end of the learning spectrum. The Under 11 Cricket Team won their Tournament for the fourth year running and the 1st Girls Team won their Tournament after a few years out of the spot-light. Personal bests have been beaten time and time again and a sense of competition has driven and encouraged the children in every aspect of the curriculum.
With one week left I have listed the coming events to keep you in the picture. I have highlighted the times where we would very much like you to join us -
Dorm Dinner: The winning dorms will have their dorm dinner this evening.
Sports Dinner: The first teams will have their team dinner tomorrow evening
Christmas Games on pre’s lawn: Wednesday afternoon
Christmas Dinner: Wednesday evening
The Nativity Play: Thursday 8th December 2011. This will start at 7 am on this evening. There will be supper at school afterwards for all.
Friday 9th December 2011 - Last day of term
Parent v child matches
Lunch on the fields for all
The Independent Schools Fair
Craft fair
Dog Show
Carol Service 6:45 pm
Saturday 10th December 2011
Home after Chapel!
Reminders
Caps: Please could you name your child’s cap on the outside. This has been a problem for as many years as I can remember. Children anxious to appear with a cap for games or for something outside just grab any cap in an effort to make their activity. We hope that naming the caps on the outside will discourage this.
Classroom equipment: Please remember to send your child back with a nice pencil case full of the required equipment – pencils, pens, coloured pencils, felt tips, sharpener, rubber, scissors, ruler, glue.
The Sports camp: This holidays we have a Hockey Camp taking place on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the final week. The camp is being run by Ben Hudson and we are very lucky to also have two coaches from the Royal Hospital School who can join him and add their own expertise.
Please have a serious think about sending your child to join us for this. Such expert and individual tuition helps enormously and in the past staff have found 3 days of this type of coaching to promote the equivalent of 3 weeks of normal school progress.
Christmas present ideas: Finally with the continuous move towards the use of computers in the classroom and as part and parcel of the constant moves in the curriculum we are seriously considering using individual pocket book type laptops in class. To begin with, this initiative would be for Years 7 and 8. Thus with Christmas upon us we thought such information might help when considering suitable presents. Please do not panic and do not leap to any conclusions without a phone call to school! We are well aware of internet safety issues, the expense and charging problems but at the same time the modern world is upon us and I believe we must find ways of handling these problems in a similar way to bringing our children up safely when they go shopping along the High Street or in the sensible use of their mobile phones.
To be useful at school such small computers would need to be resilient for use by children and have Microsoft Office (word, excel) and Wifi access so that the children can access the internet and send e mails.
Come September we will of course make arrangements to look after children who for some reason do not have such a computer.
We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible for the Nativity Play and all the events of Friday.
As ever may I encourage you to ring myself, MJ, Rob Breare or Mike Aung if you have any concerns or problems that we can help you with.
May I take this opportunity to thank you for all your support and enthusiasm this term and to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a lovely holiday. Have a great New Year celebration and see you on Sunday 8th January 2012 all ready for Chapel!
With warmest wishes,
Debs
Mrs. Deborah Boyd-Moss
Headmistress, Pembroke House
