Last week's House Plays were a magnificent success and many congratulations to all the participants. It was a
fantastic day, a keenly fought competition and huge fun for all concerned, on the stage, behind the scenes and
especially sitting in front. The overall House Cup was won by Swale with their musical version of Harry Potter which had the audience in fits of laughter from beginning to end.
Richard McNamara and Fred Bowron were a hit as Professor Quirrel and Voldemort and thoroughly deserved their award as joint BestSupporting Actors. Sarah Dover won Best Actor for her bouncy portrayal of Baloo in the Jungle Book, the makeup in the Lion King was excellent and Norka Poon and Nigel Chan brought the house down when they walked on stage as the ugly sisters in Cinderella.
I hope everyone has seen the photos on Facebook. We will put them on the school network so pupils can access them and copy them for their own use.
My thanks to parents for coming along to this week’s two parents 'meetings. U4 parents were in on Tuesday and I hope the new grading system is clearer now.
My letter about reports did explain about National Curriculum levels and we will send that out again towards the end of term to accompany the next batch of full reports.
One thing that has come to light is that if parents go online and read their children's reports in the online format you don't get to see the definitions of the effort, homework and behaviour grades.
To see these you need to download the PDF versions of the report as this gives you the definition page. Year 5 and 6 parents were in on Wednesday and I hope they too found the evening useful. The Junior School are moving to termly reports this year but they will start next term. The team have agreed the timings and how they fit with parents' meetings.
They are finalising the format of the reports now and we will write home about that very soon. The new format reports will start in February, with the parents' meetings in March being the opportunity to discuss grades in more detail.
PHPA, our parents’ association, held their regular meeting on Thursday evening and would welcome more parents joining them for meetings or to join a list of parents happy to help out at events. The last few weeks of term will be busy and volunteers are always welcome. Please contact PHPA if you are interested in helping.
Congratulations to Beth Robinson and Sophie Ryan, who on Thursday afternoon took part in the Final of the Darlington Young Chef of the Year competition.
Beth's menu was Chicken Noodle Soup, Stuffed Chicken Breast with Bacon and herb wedges followed by Baked Raspberry Cheesecake.
Sophie produced Pumpkin Soup, Chicken and Cranberry Risotto served with an Apple and Walnut salad, followed by Mini Apple and Blackberry Crumble served with fresh cream. You will understand now why I volunteered to help with the Pre-final tasting.
Sadly, when I went to Food Tech to check out their final rehearsal they were just finishing tidying up – very bad timing on my part! It was a tough competition, but a great experience for the two and I am not sure if Beth and Sophie are available for dinner parties…….
Tomorrow we are hosting the 19th Darlington Young Musician of the Year competition. This is a Rotary event and we have a number of our pupils who are participating in it.
If you get the chance to attend the concert at 7pm please do so, the standard was excellent last year and I am sure it will be again this time. Next week continues the onward rush to Christmas. The Juniors are continuing with their preparations for the Snow Queen and no doubt the pace will be picking up.
The last few mocks will be taking place in the Senior school and I am sure Middle and Upper 5 will be delighted to get those out of the way. We are holding the Sixth Form Scholarship exams in the second part of the week, and of course next Saturday we have the Christmas Fair.
This year the funds raised from the Fair will be put towards a new lighting desk for the Theatre – sadly the old one quietly imploded during a thunderstorm earlier in term and had to be replaced ahead of the Fair to ensure all our Theatre events at the end of term could have the lighting subtleties they deserve.