Message from the Headmistress
Dear Parents,
I had a joyous moment on Wednesday morning listening to two little girls from the Reception class, as they stood in their socially distanced boxes awaiting their first day back; they chatted non-stop about how lovely it was to see each other again and about all the things they had missed about school and how excited they were to see Mrs Scott. They even talked about the importance of standing in their boxes… It was at this moment when I realised just how important our re-opening is for some and how valuable it is for the continuing social development and emotional well-being of the children.
Even the Year 6 children, who are undeniably ‘cooler’, were clearly lapping up the structure and discipline of the school environment and loving the renewed contact with Mrs Keyworth. (I can let you into a secret – the staff are so happy to be doing what they do best – in a classroom!)
Next is the turn of the Year 1 bubble who can return to school on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from next week. This is starting as a very small bubble, but we hope more may feel able to return to it soon. Mrs Wand is very excited to see you again! Year 1 are back 8.45am to 3.15pm.
Again I remind parents of the importance of the start and finish time. This is so we can fulfil our risk mitigation, separating the flow of the bubbles and not permitting visitors and parents onto site.
We are currently planning the return of Nursery children and Year 10 for the week commencing the 15th June.
Nursery parents will receive a separate communication about the plans for this today.
The Year 10 situation has been made more complicated by a government edict received this morning about the proportion of children we can welcome back at once. This, somewhat irritatingly for us with our very small cohorts, has halted our planning in its tracks. I sent out a questionnaire to seek a parental response on who may wish to return, but recognise that this is an impossible question until you know what you are returning for…but my chicken and egg is I am struggling to provide for an unknown number and now trying to build in the most recent advice on percentage of the group at once. The outline plan is that each teacher will have the opportunity to deliver a ‘masterclass’ session (or about 3 hours) to each group they teach (or now, a portion of each group they teach). So every subject will be allocated a slot to allow for face to face update, topic updates and the provision of resources to keep as much as possible moving forwards. We are aware of the curriculum gaps which will have formed during lockdown.
Today we say au revoir to Mrs O’Looney who commences her maternity leave on Monday. We send her our best wishes for the weeks ahead as she prepares for her new arrival.
Next Friday (12th June) the Friends of Hollygirt are meeting (virtually) to discuss their future plans. The committee could do with some new members, please send a message to Miss Hutley (robertahutley@hollygirt.notts.sch.uk) if you would like to join the group and she will put you in touch with the chair, and send you a link to the meeting.
On Friday 19th June at 3pm the management team are offering a live virtual Parents’ Forum for any parent who may wish to pose a question to myself, Mrs Hudson (Bursar), Mrs Wright or Mr Dean. There will be more details of this on next weeks’ news update.
We will shortly be seeing Stafford House (Junior School) with its new roof and no scaffolding: won’t be long now!
The Senior School timetables for form times, tutor mentor sessions, subject clinics and lesson times can be seen below:
I hope you are all well and are enjoying the lifting of some restrictions. I note you can now queue to go to Ikea; queue to get a McDonalds or a KFC; queue at the garden centre; alternatively, you can have socially distanced meets outside with friends in the park. Some of that may please you!
Please get in touch if you require any help or have any queries.
With best wishes for a lovely weekend,
Mrs Hutley
Headmistress
Message from the Head of Juniors
Click here to view this week’s Stars of the Week
Dear Parents,
I hope you have all had a good week. Sadly, no longer the beautiful sunshine which we enjoyed on Monday and Tuesday, but we were extremely lucky with the weather over half term.
We have seen the return of Reception and Year 6 this week. They have certainly enjoyed seeing their friends and teachers and it has been lovely to have them back. Next week, Year 1 are also returning. As we no longer can accommodate parents on the premises, staff will be on Elm Avenue to collect the children at their allocated arrival time and similarly, will bring them back onto Elm Avenue at the end of the day. If, for any reason, you do arrive late, you should go to Main School and press on the buzzer there.
We are in a position to start planning the return of Nursery children and Mrs Hutley will be sending out more information on this.
For children in Reception, Year 1 and 6 not returning to school, there will still be an online learning provision. There will be a slightly different format to this as staff will be back in school teaching; any questions about this, please contact me. I am still so impressed with some of the work coming in from the children; thank you for continuing to support this.
Teams lessons for the week beginning 8th June are as follows:
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Wright
Head of Juniors