Message from the Headmistress
Dear Parents,
What a week! In Senior School we sparkled and instead of awarding Star of the Week, the senior tutors are issuing special badges to pupils. Look out for these. Well done to all our pupils who engaged in random acts of kindness this week. We celebrated in a special assembly this morning.
We spent Wednesday and Thursday in virtual school with our prospective candidates looking for Year 7 entry in September. What a lovely bunch of children we met.
And on Friday (today), I spent the day with the new Headteacher: Helen Barsham, in school. She is a lovely lady and is very much looking forward to getting know the Hollygirt community soon.
Staff news
Mrs Crawford, who has been working with pupils in individual support at Hollygirt, is leaving at half term. She will be working with the new postholder in handover to get to know the pupils. I will introduce the new postholder to you next week. We wish Mrs Crawford well as she moves in to a new phase of her working life!
Well done to all the pupils this week who have managed to increase their engagement levels on Teams and in the submission of their work. We know it isn’t easy.
Remember, we are here, as per timetable, every day. The structure of the school day is exactly as it is in the face to face environment. Structure in life in lockdown is critically important. So stick with it!
Junior children are working to an adapted timetable which works better for them. We encourage all parents to enable their children to join in the live lessons as there is a huge social and academic benefit to this. The work will always be on Satchel:One, but for most, the learning is easier with teacher explanations.
Dates for next week:
Monday 25th is Year 8 Parents’ Evening. This is on School Cloud. Full details have been sent to parents and I know most have already scheduled their appointments in.
Tuesday 26th there is a special careers assembly for Year 11 pupils.
On Friday 29th there is a Parents’ Forum scheduled. Mrs Wright and I would like to offer the opportunity for parents, throughout the school, to come along and ask any questions they have about the current situation. I will provisionally schedule this for 6.00pm on Friday night. If you would like to come along for a chat and to pose your questions, please let Mrs Bamber know and she will send out a Zoom link. I have no agenda for this and would love to hear from parents how things are going at home to get a feeling for what we could do better. There is no limit on the number of parents who can attend, or the numbers of questions you can pose. If no one requests to come, it will not happen. Out of interest, if this is a really bad time for you, but you wish to chat, please let Mrs Bamber know and we can arrange a private meeting if required. (andreabamber@hollygirt.notts.sch.uk)
Have a wonderful weekend,
Mrs Hutley
Headmistress
Message from the Head of Juniors
Dear Parents,
I hope you have all had a good week. The children have continued to impress their teachers with their engagement, commitment and quality of work produced. This week has been Sparkle Week and this afternoon in assembly, we will be hearing about and celebrating their acts of kindness. We listened to some of these of them in assembly on Wednesday and the children have certainly been doing some lovely things; I am sure this will continue.
Teachers have responded to what works well for the children with live Teams and Satchel:One lessons. They have amended the live lessons timetable accordingly; this will be visible in the calendar and you will also receive the weekly timetable via email. All lessons are on Satchel:One; we do encourage all children to join the live Teams lessons but should they not be able to, they can find the work on Satchel:One.
I hope you all have a great weekend,
Mrs Wright
Head of Juniors