Headteacher’s Lent Reflection This has been another busy term for all the boys after the Christmas break. The freezing temperatures back in January didn’t stop the boys from throwing themselves into all the activities that have been on offer over the term, being adventurous and ensuring that they were making the most of the opportunities both inside and outside the classroom. From the academic perspective there was much to celebrate and with 111 Academic Commendations at the point of writing, there has been some outstanding work to celebrate. Some of the highlights from the Academic departments were the number of enrichment activities that were taking place, including the Modern Foreign Languages Readfest, the Year 10 and Year 11 Art trip to Barcelona, the Spanish play for Years 7, 8 and 9, the Theatre trip to see Othello for our English GCSE students, the Year 7 Music concert with the collaboration between the Science and Music departments, the Geography trip to the River Chess and, of course the Student-led Academic Gala. The Gala itself remains a highlight of the year with pupils from the Boys, Girls and Sixth collaborating to celebrate academic enquiry and interest with a formal dinner and speeches from the pupils, but also this year from one of our former pupils, Bevan Jones, sharing his own academic journey and his reflections on his time at Berkhamsted.
Among the new initiatives this year have been the Parent Engagement Dinner for Year 9 parents and a range of online parent webinars for all years. The school community is built around the partnership between school and parents and the number of instances where we can offer opportunities for parents to be informed to support them in navigating some of the challenges is key. We benefit from our in-house School Psychologist, Dr Kenefick, and our partner Dr Kathy Weston, at Tooled Up Education who have been instrumental in engaging with parents, as well as the members of staff offering advice on the digital life of our pupils, GCSE Options and supporting your sons through their exams. If you would like to view some of the videos, please use this link. On the sporting side there have been some outstanding performances from individuals and teams across the school, with many receiving County and National recognition. We continue our strong reputation on the Fives courts with a record number of boys reaching the end stages of National Finals in all forms of the sport, with a number of boys winning National titles. We have strong County and National representation in Cross-Country, Swimming and Equestrian, with some great performances also in Squash and Basketball. continued…