Senior School newsletter - February 2018
Dear parents and guardians,
As we approach the halfway point of a year that has seen such change in the school it would be easy to sit down with a thesaurus and list some superlatives to describe all that has happened here recently.
Taking the easy and obvious route is not really the SPF way, of course, and I would like to take this opportunity by looking at the school through a different lens - a small sample of SPF’s unsung heroes.
Schools are communities and they only work if there is an ethos and culture of supporting each other. This can take many different forms, as the groups below demonstrate:
Our catering team
On 20 January we welcomed over 120 Year 6 students to our Entrance Testing day. I spoke to them all as they left and the unanimous answer to my question about the best part of the day was: “Lunch!”.
Alongside this, they had provided sandwiches to our netball teams in their (hugely successful) fixtures against Wellingborough School, and refreshments for visiting parents at four separate parts of the day. All done with a smile on their faces, and as if this was the easiest thing in their world. Chapeau!
The Wellbeing Committee
If there is one thing that sets SPF students apart it is their ability to both be determined, driven and motivated, whilst remaining incredibly kind and caring. There is no better example of this than in the new ‘Wellbeing Committee’.
Entirely a student initiative, this group have implemented some wonderful new additions to the school this year: they have started up a 'Crafting Friendships' club, which runs on Tuesday lunchtimes and hopes to offer everyone a chance to have a chat and meet new people in a low-pressure way, whilst enjoying some crafting activities (slime-making has been the most popular session so far!). They also put together a '15 days of Wellbeing Challenge', published in the Student Blog, which suggested one act of self-care, reflection, or an act of kindness towards others for readers to complete each day in the run-up to the end of term.
The School Office
Mrs Wall and her office staff are the crucial touchpoint in so many of our students’ days. Their days are predictable only inasmuch as they are never the same. They field ‘phone calls, students with lost kit, teachers wanting to know where their lesson has been moved to, and many other things beside. One Friday, I found Karen hoiking wet coats from behind the bag racks - the very definition of ‘above the call of duty’. Needless to say they were in school last Saturday ensuring that the testing day went off without a hitch.
The Backstage Team
We have a number of thriving backstage clubs and enrichment options for those students interested in helping out behind the scenes. Last term, students in our Year 7-8 Backstage Club made gravestones for the Year 6 production of 'Ebenezer' whilst members of our Year 11 Backstage Enrichment group designed and made puppets, set and props for the upper school production of 'The Canterbury Tales'.
Members of KS4 Tech Club operated sound, lights and projections for 'The Canterbury Tales' and were involved in the smooth running of House Talent on the final day of term. Our backstage team and tech crew for 'Ebenezer' was made up of students from Years 9-11 and they did a wonderful job. Meanwhile, in our Year 8-10 Backstage Club, costumes and set are already in full production for this term's senior school production of 'The Tempest', which we await with eager anticipation.
It is, of course, invidious to select just a few people here, but they highlight all the things that go on behind the scenes to make the school work smoothly.
Best wishes,
David Walker
Head of Senior School