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Head’s blog

Peace & Progress

Woodstock

Wednesday night saw the Year 6 pupils put on a wonderful tribute to the history and culture of the 1960s. 50 years after the most famous festival event of all time (just pipping BFest) the audience were treated to beautiful versions of music by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan, Ravi Shankar, The Beatles, The Who and songs from the musical Hair. We also learnt about the politics and protests of the 1960s, had speeches by JFK and LBJ, heard fascinating facts about the festival itself including how Woodstock prompted one of the longest traffic jams of all time, both in terms of time (3 days) and distance (10 miles).

The children’s singing and dancing was brilliant and the colourful outfits of the pupils and staff brought a smile to everyone’s face. Thank you to all the staff involved in producing the sketches and the music but special mentions need to go to Caroline Hunt, Sam Sulkin and, of course, Libby Russo!

Year 5 residential to Kingswood

The pupils of Year 5 showed real determination this week. For many of the children it was their first time away from home for that length of time. Miss Black, who organized the tour said the children were magnificent. They embraced the challenges of raft building, the 3G Swing (sounds scary), High Equilibrium (even scarier) Disco dancing, the obstacle course and Aeroball! More importantly they were an incredible team, encouraging one another through the activities but also supporting friends who may have been missing home. Well done to all of Year 5 and thank you to Miss Black and all the teachers on the trip for their hard work and care of the pupils.

Work hard in silence, let success be your noise

This week’s theme is about the importance of quietly going about our business, being proud of our achievements but without being boastful. We talked about the different strengths of the pupils and how some children were more successful in the arts, others in sciences, some are sporty and some are more musical. We should all celebrate our different talents and never think that one talent is more important than another.

We also talked about what success actually means. Following previous BMX assembly embarrassment, Mr Fleet and I took further risks of humiliation by trying to have a badminton rally in front of all the children. I explained that I had played a number of badminton matches with Mr Fleet on Friday evenings during the winter and Mr Fleet had beaten me every time. I asked the children how I was successful – thankfully they came out with more creative answers than ‘you weren’t because you lost’, instead they suggested:

  • I was successful because I learnt how to lose
  • I was successful because practice would have helped me to improve
  • I was successful because I was doing exercise

Crucially, whilst I would have enjoyed the moment of beating Mr Fleet, a far superior badminton player, the more I played him the more competitive I got. I tried to illustrate to the children that my success was about the progress I had made over the course of a few games. The same should be applied to the children’s performance in tests and exams as they are starting to receive their results. It is important that the children don’t obsess about comparing themselves against others but more importantly they should focus on their individual journeys, how far they have come and how much progress they have made. If the children have tried their best and good progress has been made then they should feel incredibly proud. If they need to work harder in some areas next year then they should set themselves targets and show a real determination to do so.

BFEST and FOB

Hopefully the traffic won’t be too bad getting to our festival tomorrow. BFest promises to be a wonderful day and the forecast is warm and dry! Thank you to our FOB Co Chairs and all of our families who have volunteered their time or provided resources to support this event. For the first time in 15 years I will be missing BFest so please accept my apologies. I am Best Man at a wedding in Bristol on Saturday so I will miss out on all the fun in NW7 and my favourite stall, the Greek barbecue! The good news is that Mr Fleet will be doing the raffle and I will be able to have a kebab at Sports Day! I hope you all have a fantastic day.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes

Leon Roberts