For those of you with daughters in the Senior School, I appreciate May half term may be a mixed blessing. With public examinations and internal examinations, it does have the potential to be a stressful time for parents and daughters. We encourage the girls to be organised in their approach, planning their revision time to include sensible breaks and time for exercise and relaxation, as well as revision. Especially for girls in Year 7, sitting school exams for the first time, it is vitally important that there is family time and genuine relaxation away from textbooks and screens. Exams are all about performance and preparation, so hydration, good food and a clear mind are just as important as thorough preparation. Do feel free to quote me on that!

Of course, our busy programme of activities for the girls continues and we have been fortunate to enjoy some wonderful, creative events this fortnight. There were some really special performances at teatime concerts from Year 3 and the Senior School. It was particularly lovely to see just how much progress Year 7 have made under the free Music Taster scheme with the full range of instrumental performances from trumpets to violins. A stunning Junior Art Exhibition ‘East’, celebrating Asian art has graced the Junior School hall for a week and all the visitors were as impressed as I was at the quality and diversity of the girls’ work; truly beautiful. Teachers at Seniors had organised another action-packed Trips Day for the girls with a diverse range of different activities, from Zoo-lab for Year 7 (meeting various furry and crawling friends) to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award for Year 9 (camping and walking) and Future Learning courses for Year 12 (using MOOCs to extend beyond the classroom).

Year 4 have had a particularly busy fortnight, enjoying a taster morning of lessons at Seniors, followed by a delicious picnic lunch and also taking part in our Partnership Sports Day, alongside students from Faraday Prep, Invicta, James Wolfe and All Saints amongst others, ably marshalled by our dynamic Sports department. The latter event was generously sponsored by HSBC bank through The Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), so we are very grateful that they were able to support this community initiative.

I wish you a restful and sunny half term and Bank Holiday and we look forward to seeing the girls again in June.

Mrs Chandler-Thompson
Head