From the Heads

Aside from the plethora of extra-curricular opportunities on offer at WHD, we remain both proud and focused on our academic rigour and extension. Our phenomenal success rate into highly competitive grammar schools speaks for itself, as does the array of top senior independent schools that our pupils transition to. This week is a reminder of this as we wish 3 of our year 8 pupils well in their academic scholarship assessments at King’s Canterbury, Sevenoaks and Brighton College – schools that are recognised not just for their pastoral care and breadth of education but for their academic success too.

With the Coronation fast approaching, there is much excitement at school about the PFA event on Friday afternoon to take us into the Coronation Exeat weekend. We hope to see those of you who can make it on Friday afternoon. 

Mr Gavin Franklin and Mrs Jo Parpworth

JDRM Gavin Portraits-2

School Last Week

Madam Laurans-Ryder

Congratulations to Madam Laurans-Ryder who married during the Easter break. We are delighted for the happy couple and wish them a very prosperous future together.

 

Acclaim at the Turner Contemporary

Well done to Mia in Year 1 who recently entered the ‘Rise Up’ portfolio competition at the Turner Contemporary gallery. The brief of the project was to create artwork which raises awareness of climate change. We are delighted to announce that Mia’s artwork entitled ‘Eco-Princess’ was selected and that it will be on display at the gallery between 27th May to 10th September. Mia used a range of recycled materials to create this 3D piece. We would love to hear from you if you manage to visit and see Mia’s artwork.

Reception Trip to Wildwood

Our Reception children thoroughly enjoyed their trip to Wildwood. Many thanks to the staff that organised and led the trip.

Trinity Success

Congratulations to Gian, in Year 5, who has achieved a Distinction in his recent Musical Theatre Trinity exams. Mrs Golding reported that he achieved a glowing report and an exceptional score of 94%. We have no doubts that Gian’s name will be up in lights one day.

Year 5 Boarders

A number of Year 5 children boarded for the first time last week. Sadly the weather meant that we couldn’t spend most of our evening outside as we had hoped, but a highly competitive game of dodgeball in the sports hall, some ICT room time with Mr Martin and some games of chess in the library provided sufficiently fun alternatives to an evening playing hide and seek or cricket on the grounds.

In the boarding house, Thursday nights are hot chocolate nights, so the children enjoyed a hot drink and some toast before playing some board games and watching Nanny McPhee! It was a pleasure to welcome them all to our boarding community for the night and we hope that some of them might consider some regular flexi boarding next year.

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)

A well-contested final of the Rowland Constantine Shield General Knowledge Competition took place at King’s School Rochester on Friday. Some fiendishly difficult questions tested the five teams competing with Wellesley Haddon Dene leading by a narrow margin until the final round on Castles, when King’s Preparatory School stole in to defeat us by two points. As ever, the knowledge on display was both eclectic and impressive.
The final scores were:
King’s Rochester 60 points
Wellesley Haddon Dene 58 points
New Beacon 57 points
Bickley Park 48 points
Hilden Grange 45 points

Congratulations to our impressive team of: Theo Alifrangis (Year 5), Olivia Dilkes (Year 6), Felix Butterfill (Year 7) and Raf Cable (Year 8).

School This Week

Team of the Week

Congratulations to the General Knowledge team of Theo A, Olivia D, Felix B and Raf C who performed superbly at the finals of the Rowland Constantine Shield competition at King’s Rochester. We are so proud of them all and Mr and Mrs Franklin look forward to seeing the team for cookies and squash this week.

Scholarship

We wish 3 of our Year 8 pupils the very best as they spend the week at their future schools sitting a range of academic scholarship papers and interviews. Good luck to Raf Cable (The King’s School, Canterbury), Grace Flowers (Sevenoaks) and Max Miller (Brighton College). Additionally, Mirabel Poulson takes the art scholarship for Sevenoaks as well this week. We hope that they all enjoy the experience.

Coronation Party

The PFA are looking forward to welcoming you all to our Coronation Party at 3.15pm on Friday 5th May. Proceedings will begin with a dance performance involving children across the school and we will then move to the grand unveiling of our Coronation commemorative artwork. Afterwards, we will serve tea, coffee, cake and Pimms and enjoy some garden games.

Year 1 Trip to Dover Motor Museum

With much excitement, our year 1’s head to the Dover Motor Museum for an educational morning of fun and all things automobile.

After School Clubs – Friday 5th May

Please note that after-school clubs will not be available on the 5th May due to the King’s Coronation party.

Year 7 Mini Golf Broadstairs

Mrs Parpworth and Mr Parfitt are looking forward to taking Year 7 to Broadstairs on Thursday this week for a game of mini-golf. We have everything crossed for dry weather.

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.

Pre-Prep Values Awards

Reception 

Dominik for always having courage in his academic work and showing teamwork at beach school working well with a partner on patterns and building sandcastles. 

 

Diruksha for always showing respect.

Year 1 

Pixie Jarman for her resilience with her English writing using rhyming words to create her own poem. 

 

Hannah Nelson for demonstrating key school values when moving around the school and resilience in her work.

Year 2

Lara Davies for working very hard in all lessons, understanding the concepts and applying them with accuracy. She always has a go at everything and succeeds through practice and hard work

Claudia Flockhart for politeness, hardwork and being such a positive, caring member of our class.

Year 3

Theo Hempstead – Theo has worked hard on his attention to learning and strives to produce work of a high standard.

 

Elodie Dooray-Williams – Elodie has a caring attitude towards others in our school community. Her kindness shines out and it is an absolute delight to have her in the class.

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 2

MenuWeek 1Week 2Week 3

Matches This Week

2.00pm start unless otherwise stated

Wednesday, 3rd May

Cricket Thomas Cup v Harvey Grammar: 1st XI (a)

Cricket v Junior King’s: Girls U13 A (h)

Cricket v Northbourne Park: U11 A (a)

 

Please always refer to the website calendar as it is the most up-to-date place to check for fixture changes and locations.

If your child has been selected for a fixture, we will communicate with you prior to the fixture with information regarding the recommended pick up time from Wellesley HD.

 

No Matches Last Week

 

Cricket v St Lawrence: Boys U13 A

Lost by 7 wickets

Cricket v St Lawrence: Boys U13 B

Lost by 3 wickets

Cricket v St Faith’s: Mixed U11 A 

Lost

Cricket v St Faith’s: Mixed U11 B

Lost

Cricket v St Faith’s: Mixed U11 C 

Won

Cricket v St Lawrence: Girls U13 A 

Lost by 35 runs

Tennis v Junior King’s: Girls U13 A

Lost

 

 

 

 

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