Wellesley HD Weekly 24th April 2023

School Last Week

WHD Joins the Great British Spring Clean Challenge

Well done to everyone involved in our Spring Clean Challenge. We managed to collect 41 bags of litter from beaches and local streets, exceeding our target. Children reported how enjoyable and rewarding it was to remove litter and help local wildlife. This is a fine example of teamwork and the positive impact we have had on our local community. If everyone in the world got involved, these small acts would add up to a massive difference. Climate change is the biggest challenge we will face and it is up to us to encourage our youngsters to do everything they can to preserve nature and the world as we know it. We want to thank all our staff, children and parents for getting involved.

Comic Relief

Last term we held a special day at school in aid of Comic Relief. Children dressed in their own clothes and proceeds from our tuck shop were added. We are pleased to announce that we raised £180 in total.

Elocution Cup / Poetry Recitation Finals (Year 5 – 8)

On the final evening of term, we were delighted to welcome Dr James Wilper from the King’s School, Canterbury as our guest adjudicator for this prestigious event. Dr Wilper is Housemaster of Luxmoore (a girls’ boarding House), a member of the English department and the US university admissions coordinator.
In front of a packed Old Hall, poetry finalists performed with confidence, courage, humour and great skill and without fail, the audience was treated to superb performances in this evening of literary excellence. Dr Wilper was wowed by all performances and provided insightful and positive feedback to all performers. He gave special mentions to Gian Tarr, Laurie Symington-Mills, Mabel Dunbar-Brunton and Raksiga Rajakumar from the Middle School (Year 5 & 6) and to Kaspar Lear, Luna Sarafoglou, Tate Sheppard, Raf Cable, Georgie Carter, Teegan Pretzlik, Darcey Keefe and Mirabel Poulson from Years 7 & 8. Very well done to all performers and congratulations to our two winners who collected the Middle School and Senior School shields.

PFA Easter Bonnet Workshop & Easter Picnic

We want to say a huge thank you to our PFA for devoting so much time to planning and organising our Easter event. It was a massive success and it was clear from the children’s faces that they had the most amazing time. It was truly wonderful to see families and friends socialising on our lawn whilst enjoying their picnics. The children’s Easter bonnets were spectacular and you could see how proud they all were whilst parading their work. We simply cannot wait for our next event which is the coronation party on the 5th May.

Year 5 King’s Canterbury Maths Challenge

Very well done to our Year 5 Maths challenge team who demonstrated their logical intelligence in abundance at the annual Maths competition at Junior King’s on Friday. Our team of Bertie Telford, Theo Alifrangis, Stanley Keel, Clara Montgomery, Nicholas Chhabra and Genevieve Frogley represented our school with pride and performed very well indeed in such a competitive environment.

Year 5 talk by Thanet Earth

We were delighted to welcome Yasmin Bemath from Thanet Earth to present to our Year 5 children in the Old Hall. The topic of “trade – import and export” complimented the Year 5 unit of study. Thank you very much to Yasmin for coming to talk to us and her practical and informative workshop was very much enjoyed all.

School This Week

Music success

Congratulations to Rose Symington-Mills who achieved Grade 7 (with merit) violin in her Trinity College London music exams. This is an outstanding achievement for a Year 5 pupil – very well done, Rose.

LAMDA success

Congratulations to the following pupils who all achieved Distinctions in their LAMDA exams at the end of the Lent term: Suri Lear (Year 5), Tate Sheppard, Lila Grady, Luna Sarafoglou, Platon SHaotokhin, Kaspar Lear (Year 7), Raf Cable and Georgie Carter (Year 8).
Additionally, Raf, Georgie, Lila and Luna were invited to the Thanet Music and Drama Festival Gala Dinner (on the first day of the holidays) to collect their trophies. At the end of the evening, Luna was awarded the Miss Vyse Cup for the highest average mark over three or more sections of the Festival (she entered Vocal, Dance, Speech and Drama). Miss Olive Vyse was the founder of Haddon Dene. Well done to all involved.

Creative Writing success

Congratulations to Sophie Spencer, Gian Tarr and Johnny Roberts (all Year 5) for being recognised in a national Young Writers competition for creative writing. Their pieces of work will be included in an anthology of works that goes to print this summer. Very well done to them all.

PFA – Baby Gym

On Tuesday morning, we will be again welcoming existing and new families to WHD so that little ones under the age of 2 can experience life at our school. Please encourage any families with babies to look out for these events. It might be a timely reminder to state that we offer a £500 Friends & Family discount for any successful recommendation which leads to a registration.

Reception Trip to Wildwood

Our Reception children are very much looking forward to their outing to Wildwood on Friday and we hope that the sun shines for them!

Six of the Best Art Awards

For the first time in its history, six of the best have been selected around a theme which is ‘Still-Life’. Also for the first time Mr Parfitt has included three pieces, in order to recognise the hard work students in the lower part of the school have put into their art making so far this year. The winners are as follows:
Sunny Zhao in year 8 for her brilliantly observed water colour painting
Luca Keatley- Siggins for his mixed media, ‘Pop Art’ inspired picture
Florence Smith in year 3 for her fantastic oil pastel study of a Matisse painting
Well done to all!

Year 5 Boarding Taster

Day pupils in Year 5 are invited to give boarding a go on Thursday 27th April. This is open to girls and boys. There is limited space available so do sign up as soon as possible by contacting Mrs Spencer.
Flexi boarding is available to all pupils in year 4 and above either on an ad hoc basis or as a weekly booking for up to 4 nights per week. Our current flexi boarders board on the nights that they have a later activity, or on nights when parents have work commitments or events. Some just board because it’s fun! For Year 8 pupils who are heading to a boarding senior school in September, we would recommend introducing some flexi boarding this term. Additional study sessions are available to boarders and flexi boarders in the evenings leading up to Common Entrance.
If flexi boarding is of interest to you then boarding tasters can be booked at any time (you don’t have to wait until you are invited!). Mrs Spencer would also be delighted to show parents our facilities and to chat further about our provision. She can be contacted at boarding@wellesleyhaddondene.co.uk or on Dojo.

Rowland Constantine Shield (General Knowledge team)

Our general knowledge team enter the next round of the Rowland Constantine Shield (having successfully progressed through round 1). They will compete against teams from other independent schools at King’s Rochester on Friday. Good luck to the team of Theo Alifrangis (Year 5), Olivia Dilkes (Year 6), Felix Butterfill (Year 7) and Raf Cable (Year 8).

Exeat

Exeat begins this weekend on Saturday after games (at 3.30pm) with boarders returning on Monday evening and day children on Tuesday morning. This Friday will be a normal school day for all children.

Mini Marathon

On the 12th May, we are holding a Mini Marathon at WHD to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital.  Each child taking part will run/walk a mile alongside other children taking part in schools across the UK.  The event aims to break a Guinness World Record for the ‘The most pledges received for an exercise campaign in one month’.  The current record is: 241,675 people.  Mrs Parpworth will be speaking to children about the event over the coming week.  Please support the children in their fundraising efforts by visiting: our fundraising page.  Thank you!

Reading volunteers

We are currently looking for reading volunteers to work with a chosen class for weekly reading sessions. We are very lucky to have a number of parents and retired staff who work with us on a voluntary basis to boost daily reading. If you are interested in joining us, please contact Mrs Parpworth or Mrs Murray to discuss this further.

School Calendar

Please click here and scroll through for the most up to date calendar of events for the term.

Menus

This week the kitchen will be serving menu week 1

On Social Media