Head’s blog
A Wonderful Evening
The ‘Ball for a Wall’ last Saturday was a fantastic event. There was a lovely atmosphere and the venue at Allianz Park was just perfect. The balcony looked out over the pitch and the fireworks were as good as I’ve ever seen. I would like to thank all of the teachers, parents and friends of the school for supporting the event on the night, plus anyone else who sponsored the ball or took part in the silent auction. The highlight of the night for me was the pupils’ involvement. The jazz band were just exceptional during the drinks reception and Zoe Simon’s rendition of ’How Far I’ll Go’ and Amma Ris’ version of ‘Feeling Good’ were both jaw-dropping performances. I would like to say a huge thank you to Nick Priestnall, as Director of Development, and all of his team for overseeing the event and ensuring it was a tremendous success. I am delighted to say that so far, as a result of the auctions and some incredibly generous pledges, we have raised over £53,000 with possibly more to come. The ball was a wonderful evening with a great outcome, getting us ever closer to our £1 million target for the Sports Hall. Thank you to everyone!
Nice Weather for Ducks (or Geese)
Activities Week has seen an additional challenge this week with the deluge of the last few days. The Lake District and Cornwall trips have still been huge successes with children testing themselves abseiling, surfing, ghyll scrambling, studying rivers, exploring caves and generally developing their resilience and ability to be part of a team. These trips are hugely valuable in helping the children to grow socially and emotionally. Year 7 and 8 have been a credit to the school and I would like to thank all the teachers for their support of these trips and particularly to Mr Palmer for leading the Year 8 trip and Mr Hayward for leading the Year 7 trip.
The weather was probably worse in NW7 than at the furthest ends of the country. Our regular Canadian geese visitors probably enjoyed the weather more than the rest of the Belmont community this week!
Despite the rain, the children have had a brilliant time with some great trips and a huge range of activities taking place from a climbing wall, inflatable obstacle courses, stage combat, circus skills, golf, trips to Herts Young Mariners, the matinee of West End show Wicked and the Science Museum. Clothes may have been drenched at various points this week but spirits certainly weren’t dampened. Thank you to all the teachers involved with this special week and to Miss Goldthorpe in particular for organizing her first ever Activities Week.
STEM Nationals
The Year 6 STEM Juniors team (known as AeroTaches) competed in the National Jaguar Primary School challenge. 38 schools from around the UK were competing for the 2019 Champions title. As part of the event the boys were judged on their pit display, portfolio, engineer design of the car, a verbal presentation, an additional challenge to construct a car from recycled material and then, finally, racing their cars. It was a very long day but the boys did extremely well to have been the first ever team to have represented Belmont at this National Competition. Thank you to Mrs Caldwell for working with the children.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Best wishes,
Leon Roberts
