Dear ALS Community,
I’m sure that the whole school community has enjoyed the sunshine this week. There’s always that much more of skip in the step of people when the sun is shining! In that spirit, I am delighted to share, that our Head of Sixth Form, Miss Gulliver, is expecting her first child later on this year. Miss Gulliver spoke with her Sixth Formers earlier this week to let them know and we are in the process of appointing for someone to pick up the reigns of Sixth Form for a year whilst Miss Gulliver is away.
This week I have attended the Independent School Association’s Conference for new Headteachers. I was privileged to be asked to speak at the event and to share some practical advice on leading a school. The things that make ALS such an exceptional school community may not apply to all contexts but I hope that I was able to give a few points that were worthwhile for others. Mr James held the fort for me today whilst our future Reception pupils (for September 2022 and beyond) came for a ‘Superhero’ morning in school. These sessions help both the children and parents settle into Arnold Lodge and act as a key touch point as our youngest pupils prepare to join school for the first time. Henry was the first to try out one of the ALS superhero capes we had made for the event and he’s been very keen over the past few days on running around the house with it on. My thanks to all those involved in making the event such a wonderful success.
Looking into the coming week, on Monday and Tuesday our year group photographs will be taking place. If your child usually comes to school in their PE kit on one of these days, please make sure they come to school in their school uniform and bring their PE kit in a separate bag. As we enter the final full week of the Spring Term, there’s still much to do with Junior School Parents’ evenings on Monday and Tuesday next week as well as Year 8 Parents’ Evening on Thursday. If you have any questions about these events going on please contact your child’s class teacher or mentor.
On Thursday (31st March) the Arnold Lodge Parents Association (ALPA) is meeting at 8:30am at the Boston Tea Party in Leamington to discuss upcoming plans. If you can, please do take the time to go along and join for a coffee and cake. Even if you’re not sure how much time you can commit to support our Parents’ Association, it would be lovely to have a good turnout at the event to discuss the future of ALPA and to enjoy the time with other parents from our school community.
This week, our safeguarding information focuses on Youtube. YouTube is a video-sharing social media platform that allows billions of people around the world to watch, share and upload their own videos with a vast range of content – including sport, entertainment, education and lots more. It’s a superb space for people to consume content that they’re interested in. As a result, this astronomically popular platform has had a huge social impact: influencing online culture on a global scale and creating new celebrities. In this guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as connecting with strangers, inappropriate content and high visibility.
Our weekly mantra is from Veritas: Do the right thing at the right time. Mr Hawkins, Head of Veritas, writes: doing the right thing at the right time in the right way is a big challenge. It's especially difficult in the current world, but being able to conquer that challenge is what makes us successful and appreciated by those around us. Start with determining what is the right thing to do. Ask yourself, what are you trying to achieve? You might be doing the right thing, but it does not work and the reason for that is that it is not the right time... yet. The last thing to reach success is to ensure you are not only doing the right thing at the right time, but you also need to do it in the right way. Always with good intentions and looking out for others around you.
Over the past two weeks, we’ve had some fantastic sports results to share. Last week, our U13 footballers were victorious 5-1 vs Bowbrook House and our U11 swimming team qualified for the ESSA National Finals in June. Congratulations to Sophie, Isla, Freya and Harry for some excellent swimming! This week, some of our sporting highlights include our U11 hockey team drew 2-2 and put up a valiant match in a 4-2 loss with Bablake whilst our U13 netballers took a 15-4 victory against Campion. This week sees another busy week for sports fixtures. Good luck to all those competing.
I wish you all a lovely weekend and to all the Mothers, Stepmothers, Sisters, Aunties, Grandmothers, Great Grandmothers in our ALS Community, we wish you all a very happy Mother’s Day on Sunday.
Best wishes,
David Preston | Headteacher |
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