Dear Parents,
What a busy week! Some very important days in the school’s year – a first ever taster day for Year 6s (with 19 pupils) and an open day with more attending than ever before. We have also had an evening at a local prep school where there was a lot of enthusiasm for our year 7 offer, and a brilliant evening at the nursery showcasing their excellent work. Those are much less important than the next item…
Obviously there is excitement in the Bond household too that the key event of the week has happened, that the new James Bond film premier has happened and been reviewed positively, and a family outing needs to be planned!
Year 5 quizzed me today on the school’s questions for me – video will follow. My favourite questions were: would you rather have a pet snake or spider and what is your favourite motorway?
The COVID situation in schools is worrying to everyone, with the health impact, and with half term approaching. The School has to follow government guidelines (and our letters are provided by PHE) but we are choosing to ask, we cannot tell, that if your child is waiting for a PCR result, or has a sibling with a positive PCR to learn remotely. Thank you for the emails of thanks regarding Year 5, they have been passed on to the team.
On Tuesday I gave an assembly on diversity and difference, and pointed out that no one is normal. I really enjoyed Matthew Syed’s book ‘Rebel Ideas’ and his key point in that book is that diversity, especially cognitive diversity, matters to progress. To help the ideas to ‘stick’ with the girls and boys, Year 6 were temporarily excluded from assembly and then they explained what it was like to not be included. I talked about how it might feel to be different and how much being ‘normal’ and ‘fitting in’ matters to us – yet it shouldn’t – and the importance of not pointing out differences and ‘calling out’ any times people do. The assembly finished by covering how similar we are in all sorts of ways, challenging the pupils to be willing to be different, but recognising what they have in common.
Before the start of term the Leadership Team discussed how we could help the school to be (and feel) more inclusive. Mrs Bradbury is going to start a project talking to pupils, parents and staff investigating what else the school could be doing to help the school to be more inclusive and work with Mrs Mitchell in PSHE, and the pre-prep staff to ensure that Holmwood provides the very best foundations for all.
Best wishes
Edward Bond
Headmaster