Good afternoon.
Due to the extremely busy day at school today, I confess I am writing this just before I attend our Leavers' Supper, one of the many school traditions taking place this week. At the Supper I will announce this year's Founders' Day Award winners. It is always a special occasion as it is one of the final gatherings of Year 13s and staff, and precedes the Year 13 Prefect team handing over their badges and responsibilities to the Year 12s who will take up their roles.
Today is Founders' Day itself, which is marked with special school assemblies and a service at St Mary's Church. The guest speaker at this year's service was former student Esther Gamble. Since leaving HGS, Esther has established herself as a leading barrister, and her experience will no doubt be of great inspiration to all. Thank you to all the students and staff who have worked so hard to make this day happen and I'll write more about this next week. A special thank you must go to Ms Atkins and the music departments from both HGS and HBS, as they have worked incredibly hard to bring the musical elements of the service together.
All this week students have taken part in a range of sporting events and heats, which culminated in Sports Day today. In addition, students took part in the District athletic championships - well done and thank you to all involved.
Alongside Founders' Day and Sports Day, today also saw the Enterprise activities taking place - we look forward to sharing the creativity that was on show as students competed to raise money both our school and Phase Hitchin.
From Monday through to Wednesday this week, we welcomed our future Sixth Form students into school for their induction days. A huge thank you to Ms Stojko, Mrs Leigh and all the staff that organised and led this important introduction to life in our Sixth Form.
On Friday last week, Mrs Mills and I were invited to attend the celebration event for students completing their time at the NHESC, which was hosted by the Headteacher, Mrs Hughes. The event was attended by the students and their families, NHESC staff, and representatives from the local schools that the NHESC works so closely with. Both Mrs Mills and I were very proud to hear of the success that our student, Kenzy, had achieved at the centre. She came away with a number of awards, including 'The Headteachers' Award' presented by Mrs Hughes in recognition of her commitment to study, attendance and charitable work. Well done Kenzy and a huge thank you to Mrs Hughes and all the staff.
Just yesterday, I was made aware of the community efforts of Heather in Year 7. Completely independently, she decided that she would like to fundraise for the Guide Dogs for the Blind. She baked and decorated cakes, made pompom dogs and made paper bows from old comics, and sold them all at a bootsale at her old primary school. Well done Heather - a great example of our sense of community and the important school value of kindness!
Finally, a reminder that next week sees another important tradition as our Gym and Dance display takes place - I look forward to seeing you there.
Have a good weekend,
James Crowther, Headteacher
