Weekly News Friday 11th March 2022

Message from the Head

Dear Parents,

We are a sea of yellow and blue today in support of people from Ukraine and will ensure we find the best charity possible to give the maximum support we can. Our thoughts are those who are suffering. Ms Griffiths has also invited all the students who would like to express their compassion to all those who suffer in wars to obtain a ‘dove’ from her which they can then write their feelings on and pin to the classroom window; a great way to express some of the complex emotions that young people may be feeling at this time.

I was so sorry to miss the inspirational Women’s Day assembly on Tuesday morning and really want to thank the mums who came in to talk to Hollygirt students. Some quotes from the students are below and you can see how much the morning impressed and inspired them. Thank you to our amazing parents!

‘It was amazing’

‘It was really inspiring, thank you  [to] everyone who came to talk. I feel really motivated’

‘very informative’

‘we all enjoyed assembly, thank you for coming in’

‘as a girl who has experienced comments it felt very reassuring and I enjoyed it. Everyone has really interesting pathways and showed us women can be successful. Not just men’.

‘thank you for telling me I can do anything I want’

‘I want to be a paramedic like Bethan and she has really inspired me’.

This week I met with the estates /eco team and we are planning to create a plastic bottle wall and grow plants – ‘water bottles not slaughter bottles’ being a key message from the students’ code of conduct that we are keen to work towards. The team had some great ideas and I look forward to sharing more of these with you over the next few weeks.

The School Council met on Thursday with lovely Julie from our catering team. The students were able to let Julie know their thoughts about what they like and don’t like to eat and we discussed salad boxes, hummus and olives. We focussed on foods that students like but also with a key message being to reduce any waste. I’d like to thank Julie and the catering team for working so closely with us and for listening to the views of the students and for being passionate about wanting the students to like their food! We also discussed theme days and there was mention of a red velvet cake for next week’s Red Nose Day!

In today’s assembly, Mr Sud led us in prayers for those affected by war and then inspired us with running stories. We heard about Ben Smith  (401: The Man who Ran 401 Marathons in 401 Days and Changed his Life Forever) who ran 10,000 miles to raise money for anti-bullying. We then hear how Mr Sud rose to the challenge and ran his own half marathon -inspiring! The takeaway message: ‘take away the ceiling’ of your thoughts; you can achieve if you work hard and fail but get up again and again and again. Thanks, Mr Sud for such inspiration!

Please can I remind all of the Hollygirt community that there should be NO NUTS brought into school at all as we have several students who are very allergic to nuts and for whom even being near a trace of nut can precipitate anaphylaxis.

Some good news -the uniform provider has just contacted me to say that the PE kit has arrived and will be delivered to school on Monday. From there the school will distribute the orders next week.

The options process is now drawing to a close and we will be in touch to confirm those decisions before the end of term so that we can start the happy job of timetabling!

Best wishes for the weekend

Helen Barsham
Head

Message from the Head of Juniors

Good afternoon,

As suggested by the School Council, the children are dressed in blue and yellow today in support of Ukraine. Thank you all so much for your generous donations.

Next week, there will be many activities for Red Nose Day including a Bake Sale on Wednesday.  Please remind children to bring money in if they want to purchase cakes. On Friday, if they wish to, the children may come to school dressed as Superheroes. We will be taking part in a Danceathon on this day. Any donations are of course welcome.

We are celebrating British Science Week next week. As well as classes taking part in various Science lessons, we have will have a visiting Scientist in school on Wednesday who will be demonstrating many exciting experiments.

On Thursday it is the Neon Disco for all junior pupils – this should be great fun.  Thank you to the Friends of Hollygirt for organising this and to Miss Nisan for leading the dancing.  She is a fully qualified fitness instructor certified in Zumba® Kids.  Please could children come to school in their uniform and bring their party clothes to get changed into.

Thank you all for your ongoing support.

This week’s Stars of the Week can be viewed here.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Wright
Head of Junior School

Key Dates for the Week Ahead