Head’s blog
It has been a busy week at Belmont and exciting events will be coming thick and fast as we approach the end of term. Yesterday we had the Y5 plays: 5SB’s ‘Girl in the hoodie’ 5TB’s ‘The Bridge’, 5SP’s ‘Peter Pan’ and 5MS’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. I was just astounded with the confidence that the children displayed on stage; the quality of their voice projection, comedic timing, singing and dancing belied their young age. What I was most taken with was their enthusiasm and the expressions of joy visible on all their faces. Well done to all the children and the Year 5 teaching team of Miss Black, Mrs Bridge, Mr Phillips and Miss Sevani.
Many of the Year 5 pupils have also been involved in interviews this week. An encouraging number of children have applied for the role of Year 5 Ambassadors. As we have separate break times for our Lower School and Upper School children, we are looking for Year 5 students to have responsibilities and act as role models for Lower School as the Year 8 students do for Upper School. The Year 5 Ambassadors will have duties and also support the younger children in the playground. Our Year 8 prefects conducted the interviews very professionally and the candidates took the process very seriously! Ait was a great experience for both the interviewers and interviewees and I want to thank both the Year 5 and 8 children who were involved: there are some priceless pictures below.
We’ve also had a Lower School Maths Workshops this week. The children had a wonderful time solving a variety of different mathematical problems. Thank you to the Lower School teachers and the Maths Department for making Maths such great fun for the children.
We’ve had our Year 3 pupils taking part in their first swimming gala, lots of sports fixtures, many pupils taking part in formal music exams and two parents’ evenings with teachers giving feedback on our lovely Year 8 pupils. It has been a week that very much reflects our well rounded educational philosophy.
Our holistic and varied approach to education is also reflected in our admissions procedures. Over the last couple of weeks we have assessed close to 500 pupils for places at 7+ and 11+ for September 2018. The changes introduced to our admissions procedures last year allow visiting children an opportunity to feel more at ease and to be themselves. We test their academic potential but we also want to see how the children work collaboratively, that they are kind and also hardworking individuals. We are delighted with the applicants we have seen over the last couple of weeks and also pleased to see the smiles on their faces after they have spent their morning with us.
