Head’s blog
I hope you’ve all had a good week and that many of you will have enjoyed some of the festive events of the last few days. The theme for the week was ‘A time to be grateful’ and I feel incredibly fortunate and grateful to be part of our wonderful community where so many pupils, teachers and parents have given their time and energy to bring joy to others.
Christmas Concert
I am still in awe of what the children achieved at last night’s Christmas concert. The standard of the musical groups, the ambition of the pieces played and the enjoyment on the pupils’ faces was a joy to see. It was one of our best Christmas concerts and I was especially proud as my predecessor, Mrs Lynn Duncan, was there to see that music is flourishing at Belmont. A special thank you to Georgina Perrin, Adrian Warren and Tony Cucchiara for their inspirational teaching.
‘Squeak’
The Year 3 Christmas nativity was just as impressive on Tuesday. ‘Squeak’ was an absolute delight to witness and the Year 3 team seemed to have so much fun and confidence performing onstage; I was particularly impressed with their energy when they sang. They really belted out the songs with gusto and filled the room. Well done to all the children and thank you to Miss Alderton, Miss Chrisostomou, Miss Desai, Mrs Harris and the music department on such a successful production.
Lights, Camel, Action!
I was also fortunate to see Grimsdell’s nativity yesterday which was breath-taking. I don’t know how the teachers and teaching assistants organised and prepared so many little children so beautifully, but they did and the results were spectacular. There was some wonderful acting and singing talent on show amongst our youngest children in the Foundation and I look forward to them joining Belmont in the next year or two.
Winter Wonderland
The festive feeling was kick-started by a hugely successful Winter Wonderland on Saturday. We had a wonderful turnout and the school looked great. Father Christmas seemed on particularly good form this year so thank you to Santa for fitting us into his busy schedule. A huge thanks goes to Bambina Marcou, the FOB and other volunteers. An incredible amount of work goes into making the day such a success and I am grateful for everyone’s contributions. I’d also like to thank Mr McNulty and all the children in Year 3-6 who worked hard on producing some spectacular work for the Art Auction. With help from their teachers the children created an amazing visual feast in the Chapel at Winter Wonderland.
Art Scholarship Pop-up Exhibition
Continuing with our Art theme on Wednesday 4th December the Art Scholars handed in their artwork for Miss Randell, the Head of Art at Mill Hill, to make her shortlist for interviews in the New Year. All the children have worked really hard over the last 10 months and produced some fabulous work that I was blown away by. On Monday, 9th December the Art Scholarship Club will have a Pop-up Exhibition of their work from 15:00-16:00 in the Jubilee Hall. The exhibition will showcase the impressive variety of the children’s talents and Mr McNulty is looking forward to his first sell-out Belmont exhibition!
Head of Future Skills and the House Carousel
I would like to express my gratitude to Mrs Van Der Westhuizen for leading and developing the fantastic House Carousel over the last couple of years. Victoria has decided to step down from this position to concentrate on her important roles as our Innovation Lead, Eco Co-ordinator and Forest School Lead; she might teach a bit of Design and Technology too!
I would like to congratulate Mr Sam Phillips on being appointed our new Head of Future Skills. This is a new role that will incorporate oversight of the House Carousel but also look more widely across the whole curriculum and co-curricular offer to ensure that we are getting the balance right between the acquisition of knowledge and important skills for the future. Some of the skills and attributes that we consider as vital in preparing children for the future are confidence, curiosity, independent thinking, creativity, leadership and teamwork, resilience, emotional intelligence and adaptability. I know that Sam is very excited about taking on a whole school area of responsibility and having a real impact in enhancing the pupils’ education.
Rugby News and ‘The Showdown’
Congratulations also go to Mr Phillips who has been appointed to his first National League 1 refereeing appointment this Saturday at Plymouth in the third tier of English rugby. This rounds off a busy week for him which started with the Women’s Premiership at Wasps on Saturday as well as refereeing the AASE Final at Allianz Park on Wednesday afternoon. We wish him all the best on Saturday at Plymouth.
I look forward to seeing many of you at the Carol Services next week. Just to remind you that the Year 3 and 4 Carol Service is on Wednesday, starting at 10am to allow parents with younger children in Grimsdell to see their Christingle service before.
I hope that you all have a lovely weekend.
Best wishes,
Leon Roberts
