Regular readers (by which I mean my mum and dad) will have noted the absence of the HT blog over the course of my maternity leave and subsquent return. Ms Rooke, my amazing deputy and Acting Headteacher wasn't much of a fan of the blog, and since returning I have found the competing priorities have needed a while to establish themselves into a new routine - but I'm back and I hope you will join with me once more to share and celebrate news, events and my thinking. 

The senior leadership team have been working hard this term to visit primary schools to share our unique skills and talents. It's always a pleasure to be able to visit as many primaries as we can both locally and further afield - we will always try and attend if we are invited!

Our open season this year closed on Friday 11th October - fittingly perhaps as it was UNICEF international Day of the Girl. Open events have been well attended and very busy - thank you if you were one of the families that attended or one of the families that encouraged others to come and have a look at us. We've seen an increased interest from both local families and those in neighbouring boroughs. We are aided by not having a catchment area and have over the past two years increased our year groups to continue ensuring that those students who want to attend will have a place. I look forward to welcoming our new year group next september - numbers yet undetermined. 

We have tried to manage the school calendar to enhance the students awareness of key issues - we supported Jeans for Genes day and tied it into our STEM curriculum, and on Friday 11th as well as International Day of the Girl we asked all of our students and staff to wear an outfit from a country they had links or heritage with. It was a lovely splash of colour on an otherwise typically downcast & wet October and highlighted an important aspect of our black history month awareness. It was fantastic to see the many cultures & traditions the school embodies and promoted conversations across the board, peer to peer, staff to student, human to human. Our heritages and histories encompass the globe and this was one way that it was visual, immediate and intertwinned. There is much to be proud of as a London School, and this allowed us another opportunity to celebrate the differences whilst confiming our similarities.

We also had it confirmed last week that we have been reaccreditated as an International School. This is an award that recognises our curriculum and opportunities across the school have a strong global aspect to it. For us we see it as a student's right to understand the world and to be able to make impact across it. Our project with Helen Pankhurst & Care International is an example of this - https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/49987267 

All of our work at the school is about what we can do to make a difference, but also in the unfailing belief that the students in our care now will go and change the world. I get up everyday beliving this to be true. The next prime minister, future lawyers, doctors, business owners, scientists and everything thing else possible - their interest and motivations started somewhere - maybe in a school assembly hall, maybe in a lesson. At HSG - we want that ambition and interest lit. What an honour to be able to hold the matches...

Ms R 13/10/2019