Head’s blog
Science Week
There has been a huge amount of academic success beyond the curriculum this week. Across all year groups the children have experienced a range of exciting scientific and leadership activities. From Year 3 taking part in a chromatography butterfly experiment, Year 5 spending the afternoon at the Mill Hill Science Department to Year 8s forensic work to solve a crime scene in the Michael Proctor building, the children have had great fun. Thank you to Mrs Fisher, Mr Baker, Mrs Caldwell, Miss Gimpel and Mrs Daly for bringing Science to life over the last few days.
History Success
Congratulations to our Year 7 and 8 historians who performed brilliantly in an Inter-schools History competition with Keble and Arnold House this week. The two Belmont teams came first and second which is a wonderful achievement. We also received the results of the final round of the Townsend-Warner History Prize where all four Belmont entrants put in a really good performance in an incredibly tough competition.
Maths Challenge Excellence
Vassilios Hadjiemmanuil (Y7) scored superbly in the first round of the UKMT Intermediate Mathematics Challenge, a national competition principally aimed at Year 11 students, qualifying him for the UKMT Intermediate Olympiad round called the Cayley. He received a gold certificate for his performance in the first round, as well as Best in the Year (the only Year 7) and Best in the Foundation (all pupils who took this exam in Belmont and Mill Hill). He has since taken his Cayley Olympiad round on Thursday 15th March, so we have our fingers crossed for him as we await the results!
FOB Quiz
14 tables of teachers and parents took part in some academic enrichment of their own last night as they competed in the FOB Quiz Night. It was a lovely atmosphere and great fun was had by all. Thank you to Jane Fitzpatrick, Rebecca Noble and Ali Newton for organising this popular annual event. I am pleased to report that the teachers table ‘Long in the tooth but still some bite’ retained their spot as champions. In assembly next week I will be mindful of the theme of ‘win humbly and lose gracefully’!
Chapels and the Informal Concert
Mr Fleet ran this week’s assemblies with the theme of showing someone you care, this was backed up by Mr Philips’ lovely Chapel. He talked about the importance of friends and family and how we are all lucky to have people that care for us. I allowed Mr Philips to take the afternoon off as he was asked to run the line at Twickenham in the National Schools Rugby Finals. He was incredibly proud and his dad was there to watch him make his Twickenham debut.
4NC’s Chapel was just astonishing. I learnt so much about St Patrick’s Day and was blown away by the singing and brilliant Irish dancing. Thank you to Miss Cregg and the children for all their hard work.
I sadly missed the Informal Concert on Tuesday but I am told that the children were brilliant with a number of jaw-dropping performances. I look forward to watching the DVD.
Eton Fives Nationals
Following the phenomenal success of our Under 13 Netball team last week we have more girls putting Belmont on the national sporting map. For the first time ever we entered a girls’ team into the Eton Fives Nationals and they were outstanding. The first pair of Jasmine Garske and Hannah Taylor-Yeates reached the quarter-final stage, playing a year up for Jasmine, and two years up for Hannah, before losing out to Ipswich in a fantastic match. Well done to all the Fives players this week and thank you to Mr McGuiness and Mr Rennie.
Headmaster’s Commends
For commitment, bravery and great team spirit – the IAPS National Under13 Netball Runners Up:
For brilliant achievements in Maths:
For being the 7th best Fives Under 13 pair in the country:
Stephen Hawking
Finally, Mrs Harris sent me a quote from the late Stephen Hawking which I think is a very fitting way to honour the visionary physicist, reflects what we are trying to instil in the children at Belmont and brings Science Week to a close.
“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”
I hope you have a lovely weekend and that the ‘Beast from the East’ does not create too much disruption to your plans.
Best wishes,
Leon Roberts
