Snow before the ski trip!

We have enjoyed a wonderful half term and have had much to enjoy and celebrate. It was lovely to see the students, and many staff, playing in the snow this morning and despite threats made as snowballs were hurled in my direction, I can reassure students we will not be introducing triple prep for Year 7 next half term!  We have lots to look forward to over the coming weeks, including pancake races, our first boys’ football fixtures, a Blue Cross seminar, Grandparents’ Day and of course the ski trip, to name a few.

National Storytelling Week

This week has had a literary theme being National Storytelling Week. We were very fortunate to welcome Tessa Harris to school who gave an engaging and incredibly interesting talk on her journey toward becoming a published author. It was wonderful to see the students, and staff, inspired and with new vigour to write and tell stories.  Our balloon debate has been highly entertaining and it has been lovely to spend time listening to children reading in the Junior School and Pre Prep.  A love for and exposure to literature is invaluable and promoting reading in all genres and at all levels is something we are keen to continue to develop. Having been asked to judge this year’s BBC Radio 2 500 words writing competition, I will be encouraging as many of our students as possible to write their own stories for entry.  I have found that when children read with their parents or for older students,  the same books as their parents, the ensuing discussions and debates can stimulate reading enormously. If you would like any guidance on suitable material, please do ask our English Department who would be delighted to recommend books that could be of interest.

Polo Success

Hurst Lodge Polo Team played a fixture against Royal Holloway University. Although they started off slowly going down 3 goals to nil in the first Chukka, the girls dug in and Georgia P scored the first goal early in the second chukka. This transformed the team and their confidence soared.  Although both teams really started playing well and Royal Holloway scored a fourth goal, Hurst Lodge replied with three goals of their own in quick succession tying the game with only a minute to go.

In the dying seconds of the match Iman D broke free and showed some great ball control to score the winning goal giving Hurst Lodge its first Polo win ever.  The pupils have only been playing for a short while and although nervous about playing a team of university students, Iman being 10 years younger than the youngest Royal Holloway player, they rallied and worked as a cohesive unit winning them the match.