Boarding News Our Best Term Yet! Dear Parents and Carers, Firstly, I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas. It has been a long and busy term, and I firmly believe that it has been the best term yet for our boarders. Over the past twelve months, the housemasters have thought long and hard about the environment we want to provide for our boarders. We firmly believe that Holyport College is more than just a school and that boarding life should replicate the family atmosphere of a home without trying to replace it. Ultimately, our aim is to create a caring and nurturing environment where our boarders feel safe, happy and relaxed. Yet as educators, we want to achieve much more than simply providing a stable living environment. We want to boarding to build a confidence in our boarders that encourages them to develop new skills and to go outside their comfort zones. We want to provide opportunities and experiences that will open doors for them, turn interests into passions and set their futures in motion. When I reflect upon this term, I am confident that we are meeting our aims. We have significantly increased the social opportunities for our boarders this term, allowing greater freedom for our Sixth Formers and organising planned social events for younger students to have a night off. Our boarders are hugely appreciative and I firmly believe that they are happier than ever. At the same time, we are continuing to set the high academic expectations for all of our students. Outside the classroom, boarding staff are going beyond the call of duty to support the school work and enrich their minds beyond the curriculum. Weekly Scholars lectures have welcomed a host of impressive speakers to meet with Holyportians to discuss their careers and areas of expertise. We are continuing to take students to Eton for their society events and the lower school Aspirations Programme has had another successful term. A team of ten senior Etonians have led some incredibly challenging lessons for our most gifted mathematicians and will be returning next term with a course on critical thinking. Our Sixth Form tutors hold small study groups every evening and have supported our Year 13s through their UCAS process. Meanwhile, we remain committed to supporting the emotional needs and mental health of our boarders. Yoga sessions and midweek mindfulness have proven extremely popular in both houses and will be a regular part of our activity programme in the future.
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CCF We are all immensely proud of our partnership with Eton College. Each year, it grows, develops and becomes more secure. Each year we see more joint ventures and a more powerful interaction between our students. This year we witnessed our girls become the first female members of Eton College’s CCF. What an honour! Thank you to the staff at both Eton and Holyport, most notably Alex Walker and Katherine Loudoun who have put in so much effort into making the idea of having a joint CCF a reality.
Each week boarders have the opportunity to attend the Eton College society lectures. This term we have regularly joined events hosted by the Medical Society, the Engineering Society and the ‘Voc Soc’. Furthermore, our boarders have also benefitted from a range of other talks on a variety of subject matters. From careers in architecture and design to starting to your business and attending university in Canada, it really has covered everything. The most popular event this year was hosted by the Shakleton Society which invited television celebrity Ben Fogle to talk about his experience of climbing Mount Everest. An inspirational message proving that anything is possible.
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Scholars Whilst we are hugely appreciative of the opportunities that our students gain from our relationship with Eton College, we do not want to rely on them for academic enrichment. Since September the Holyport Scholars have welcomed and hosted a series of outstanding guest speakers. In the photo to the left, we saw a packed Dudley Room for our final guest of the term, Dr Rachel Horton from Reading University Law Society. Discussion ranged from the limits of free speech to sex and age discrimination.
Scholars Events Included: Tan Dhesi the MP for Slough was a fittingly high-profile guest to kick the season off. And he was the first of a number of guests from the world of politics and the media. Scott Pepe (now of the NFU) aand Lloyd Mattingley, both former parliamentary aides, talked about the inner workings of the House of Commons and charmed us all with a fair dose of gossip from the campaign trail too. Connor Woodman, a social activist at the Centre for Crime & Justice,Studies and left-wing firebrand electrified our audience on issues of social justice and the inequities of global capitalism. Meanwhile, Councillor Simon Dudley dropped in on a day of Brexit turmoil to talk WTO rules, Backstops and leadership contests! After all of this we were grateful to Alex Gonzalez from the Financial Times who gave us the opportunity to take a step back and offered a tour d'horizon of the current political landscape, fake news and the dangers and opportunities of the digital age. But it wasn't all politics! We had a good dose of science too, which seemed an opportunity to step into a saner and more rational universe! Fergus Walsh, the BBC's Science correspondent was brilliant and engaging in explaining exciting and mind--boggling developments in medicine. Emilia Skirmuntt from Oxford University came and talked evolutionary virology, bats, dolphins and fencing. Dr Tim Mollart wowed the audience with his passion for science and his synthetic diamonds! Professor Almond from Reading University came and talked astronomy, spectroscopy and crime scenes too.
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Boarders Love to Work OK!! So not always! But on the whole, our boarders work incredibly hard. They share the College values and want to ‘aspire, achieve, succeed’. Pictured here are some Year 8 students with their Eton mentors during the Aspirations Programme. Often one-to-one and small group sessions looking at some of the most challenging mathematical concepts. Critical Thinking lessons next term!
Pictured below is a group of Year 9 boys who joined Mr Slyper for a revision session in trials week.
Sometimes we don’t even ask them to work. They just do it in their own time because they want it…. Really, they do!!
The night before an exam + your teacher + a classroom just downstairs + a group of like-minded students = a last minute revision sessions. #thebesttypeofcramming #benefitsofboarding
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Careers and University Open Days The Autumn Term saw weekend opportunities to visit some of our most popular university choices. Sixth formers visited Royal Holloway, Imperial College London, the University of Bath and Bristol University.
We also took full boarding trips to Oxford and Warwick allowing all boarders to visit the universities. In Oxford, our juniors visited New College whilst Sixth Form students were given a guided tour of Magdalen (pictured above). Boarders were also given the experience of a modern campus university when visiting Warwick. Again, they were given guided tours of the accommodation and booked themselves on talks with departments. We will be arranging further university visits in the summer term as our Year 12 begins to consider their futures.
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Sports The boarders have had another busy term of sport. Saturday morning fixtures have dominated the calendar for the lower school and interhouse rugby, hockey and fives have all taken place this term. This term has also seen the introduction of swimming to our boarders’ programme. Weekend trips to Maidenhead and Windsor Leisure Centres are now a regular event whilst our most gifted swimmers have joined our Elite Swimming Club.
It has been a hugely successful sporting term for our boarder. A huge congratulations goes to Cameron Mobley, who won sportsman of the year, and Maisie Russell who won the sportswoman of the year at the recent prize giving . We also saw a wonderful moment when boarding staff and students took centre stage in the local Marlow vs Maidenhead hockey derby. Miss Kerr wants everyone to know that Marlow came out on top.
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Inter-House Debating This term saw out first inter-house debating competition with boarders taking centre stage. Herschel won the junior event and Milton won both the senior and Sixth Form competitions. We are hoping our next debating event will be alongside those of College House at Eton. Pictured to the right is the victorious Milton team alongside their housemaster Mrs da Costa and the Milton’s No.1 fan Ottile. They defeated Herschel in the final arguing against the censorship of song lyrics. Organiser Mr Carr said that this final was the highest standard that we saw across all three debates this term. Congratulations to Milton.
Meanwhile, three Herschel boarders claimed victory in the Junior competition. After beating a strong Fawcett team in the semi-final, the Herschel Team defeated Milton in an extremely challenging debate which discussed the commercialisation of Christmas. It is great to see Debating taking such an important role in the school and we look forward to inter-house debating becoming a annual event. Thank you to Mr Carr to organsing it all.
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Boarders at the Awards Assembly Liam and Zafar were awarded prizes for their starring role in Herschel’s victory in inter-house fives. Whilst Byron, pictured on the left with Miss Loudoun, won an award for his contribution to the art department this term. Well done gents!
Boarders were also amongst the winners of the Music Department’s Treble Clef Awards. It’s been a busy term of music with boarders joining performances at Eton College, Windsor Castle and the Notre Dame.
We also saw some dedicated boarders being awarded certificates for top house point scores. Congratulations to those students given certificates. Let’s see more of this next term please.
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Finally, just some happy pictures!
Of course, there is plenty of time for some silliness.
And often we find that our boarders have had a little too much fun and have worked so hard that they just need an afternoon nap.
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Happy Students, Tired Teachers.
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Dates for your Diary 2019
Sunday 6th January
Boarders return after 18.00
Friday 25th January
Exeat weekend
Friday 15th February
Boarders leave for half term 15.35
Sunday 24th February
Boarders return after 18.00.
Year 10 Parents Evening
Wednesday 6th February
A full list of activities will be sent to you in the New Year. It will be another busy term. Have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year.
Labelling items of clothing Recently items of clothing have been returned from the laundry unnamed. Could parents/carers please label ALL items of clothing to ensure they are promptly returned to students.
Boardingware Please ensure that you request leave for all absences from boarding, this includes all weekends, exeat weekends, appointments and half term holidays.
HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS BREAK
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