Head's Blog: Welcome Back!

Dear Parents,

Welcome back – again!

I know that the beginning of term has been slightly disjointed, with the Easter weekend at the end of the first week, but I hope that everyone was still able to have an enjoyable break.

The summer term is a busy one and I would urge you all to check calendars and make sure that you know when everything is happening. It is also the term for the Year 8 Scholarships and Common Entrance and I wish them all the best in the run-up to their exams in May and June – careful planning of revision as well as support from parents and teachers are the order of the day.

In my first assembly, I thought that I would start with some Maltesers: always a good way to engage the school! I had two pupils come out to the front and try to pick up a Malteser with some chopsticks: it proved too hard. However, when I asked the second pupil to help, then it showed that teamwork would secure the right, and tasty, outcome. It was all about ‘problem solving’ and I was able to link it to the plight of many people in the world who have very little, i.e. working together and ‘it is better to give than to receive.’

I then asked the school to close their eyes and imagine themselves in their homes and to think about the following statements:

· Remove all of the furniture from your home except for one table and a couple of chairs. Use one blanket for a bed.

· Take away all of your clothes except for your shirt and trousers. Leave only one pair of shoes.

· Empty the kitchen and the fridge except for a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt and a few potatoes.

· Take the bathroom apart and stop the running water. Remove all the electrical wiring in your house.

· Now, take away the house itself and move the family into the shed.

The above bullet points highlighted what life is like for many people in the world. I asked the school what we could do about it? This then allowed us to talk about our charities as well as climate change and its effects on many countries around the world. I was also glad that a pupil in Year 7 asked me to raise the profile of the ‘shoe swapping’ initiative and the monies raised would go to our next charity.

We have our Be Trewe values at Handcross Park and I know that we all try to live by them in our daily lives.