Letter from the Head of Secondary - 17th March 2016

17 March 2016

It was great to see so many of you at last week’s Careers Fair, which was a really wonderful and inspiring event. I was particularly delighted that some of the visitors took the time to find me to tell me how fantastic they had found our students to be. They said that they often find students at these fairs to be disinterested and not really wanting to engage in conversation – our students, on the other hand, arrived full of good questions about possible careers or courses at university, were interested, articulate and polite. What great feedback to receive!

I have also received enormous amounts of positive feedback about our students’ performances in Beauty and the Beast – and some of these were truly remarkable, considering the age and limited acting experience of many of our students. We look forward to their next performance with great anticipation!

Our Model United Nations students were also hard at work last week, debating world issues. After several weeks of thoughtful and elaborate research into their countries and topics, the sixteen SHAMUN delegates arrived at SAS Puxi in time for the opening ceremony. Most of the first day was spent lobbying and merging resolutions, and becoming familiar with the etiquette of formal debating. Debating is what brings the thrill to MUN conferences and the excitement was obvious on the second day when the delegates split into their respective committees: The Economic and Social Council, Human Rights Commission and General Assembly. All day, our delegates showed composure in supporting each other and taking the floor at every opportunity to support amendments to clauses, offer points of information and engage in parliamentary enquiries. Although exhausted at the end of the conference, they were all happy to have been involved in promoting peace and tranquility in our otherwise volatile world.

This week, of course, is ‘out of this world!’ bringing together Book Week and space under a science fiction theme. We started on Monday, with weird and wonderful costumes depicting science fiction and space characters, and throughout the week we are seeing displays, lessons and activities following this theme. The UK National Space Academy arrived today and their masterclasses, lectures and demonstrations are much anticipated by all involved, as is the KS3 sci-fi movie night tomorrow night. We hope to see many of you at the open lecture ‘Space – So What?’ this evening.

So, as we head into the last week of this incredibly hectic term, we look forward to showcasing some international music throughout the week, with a concert on Thursday night, and our international parade and food fair on Wednesday. We are set for a week filled with the flavours and sounds of internationalism!

Dinah Hawtree

Head of Secondary