Head’s blog
School of Rock
There was plenty of warmth last night in the Patrick Troughton Theatre at Mill Hill, both the physical and emotional atmosphere. Year 8’s performance of School of Rock was just astonishing. The level of the performance of 12 and 13 year old children was reminiscent of a West End show at times. Dom as Dewey Finn had the most incredible stage presence and energy and I am sure that he will go on to to perform at an even higher level at Mill Hill and beyond. Mrs Sanchez, Head of Mill Hill, attended the show and she was just blown away by the quality of the musical: she is really excited about welcoming such a talented and hard working group of children to Mill Hill next year. As Head of Belmont, I am incredibly proud of every pupil who contributed to make the show such a success, whether singing, playing an instrument, dancing, backstage, light and sound or front of house. You really did ‘stick it to the man’!
None of this would have been possible without the inspiration of Mrs Russo and all of her team and I would like to thank Steve Smith, James McNulty, Ollie McGuinness, Sam Sulkin, Jackie Ince, Adrian Warren, Georgina Perrin and Bobby Smith for all their huge effort in making School of Rock so magical. The warm words and standing ovation for Libby Russo demonstrated how much Libby inspires and motivates the children to produce their very best.
Congratulations to Caragh Pugh and her husband Chris on the birth of her daughter Alannah who was born over Half Term!
Scholarship Success and Inner Strength
I’d like to congratulate all of our 11+ and 13+ pupils who gained scholarship awards at Belmont and Mill Hill respectively just before half term. The children should be proud of their achievements. For those who missed out this time there are further opportunities at both 13+ and 16+ and it is important that those pupils are able to bounce back from disappointment. The theme for this week’s assembly was a section of Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’:
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
We talked about the importance of inner strength and self-belief, referencing the likes of Oscar winner Olivia Colman and England cricketer Sophia Dunkley who both proved doubters wrong. Old Belmontian Sophia is currently in India with the England Women’s Cricket Squad: [CLICK HERE] to see the link to a BBC video with her playing cricket with some of the local children in Mumbai. One of our Year 8 cricketers, Riva, was also lucky enough to meet her over the half term whilst she was playing out in India.
Other Sporting News
Hot off the press I’ve also just had news that our Under-13 girls have qualified for the IAPS Nationals for the third consecutive year. Congratulations to them as well as our Under-12s who put in a great performance and just missed out on qualification. Finally, well done to the pupils who were involved in the Year 5 Maths Challenge and the Oti Cross Country competitions this week. It has been another action-packed week and I am sure that the pupils and teachers are looking forward to a well-deserved rest this weekend. That does not include the girls and staff involved in the Belmont Under-10 Netball Festival tomorrow – I wish them the best of luck!
To any of our Welsh families out there – have a very happy St David’s Day! Following the rugby against England that is two weekends on the trot that you’ll be able to celebrate. Wishing everyone (Welsh or otherwise) a lovely weekend.
Best wishes,
Leon Roberts
