15th November 2024
This week was a week of kindness and thinking of others.
We began on Sunday with the Heads of School accompanying me to lay a wreath on behalf of Rupert House at Henley's Remembrance Sunday service in front of the Town Hall. It was super to see a number of the children and their parents there and some parading as part of the Scouts and other local groups. On Monday we held our annual Act of Remembrance which allowed pupils, staff, and parents to pause and reflect on the bravery and sacrifice of soldiers and civilians alike. We wore odd socks on Tuesday to celebrate our individuality and the children all took part in various different activities to celebrate Kindness and Anti-bullying Week. All the children were encouraged to do kind things which they then recorded on a leaf and collectively made a Tree of Kindness which is currently displayed in the hall.
Entrance and Scholarship success
It is that time of year where our Year 6 cohort sit their entrance assessments for senior schools and we have just received the first results. I am delighted to share the wonderful news that all the girls who sat their assessments for Queen Anne's have been offered places and furthermore, that Aoife-Rose and Rosie were awarded Academic Scholarships, Charlotte was awarded an Art Scholarship and Sophia was awarded a place on the Sports Development Programme. Very well done to them all!
Children in Need Sportathlon
I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone for your support of our 24 hour Sportathon on Friday (and into Saturday!). The children led the way, throwing themselves into whichever sport or sports they were allocated and many got to try things they had never done before.
Thank you to all the parents, grandparents, siblings and staff who came along and joined in with the activities both inside and outside school hours - some even into the early hours of the morning! It was great to see so many people having fun, being active and getting to know each other through sport and charity. Among the 20 different sports we took part in, particular highlights for me were Running Club to start the day (with over 90 people joining us!), a massed Breakdance session with John Johnny on the Astro, rowing in a Leander Double with a GB triallist, playing Badminton for the first time in over 25 years, circuit training in the gym with parents at 1.30am, Bellboating with the Year 5 children, joining some of our talented Gymnasts at the Vision Gym, playing crazy golf around the school in the early hours (please don't tell the children!) and seeing the number of parents and children who turned out at Henley Rowing Club at 6am to help us get through the last couple of hours.
In addition to all of you who joined us, a particular thank you to Mrs Graham for coming into school to give a wonderful ballet lesson to Year 1, to Mr Cottle for coaching us through our Squash session, to Mrs Newman for organising and leading our Night Walk, to Mr Friend for organising the use of Henley Rowing Club and to the Judah family for their provision of goodies and for opening Pavilion early for much-needed coffees and delicious munchies, which kept us going through the night and all the way to the end!
Thank you to the FoRH for holding a delicious cake sale to also raise money for charity and they even threw in another Christmas jumper sale too!
Finally, thank you to everyone who sponsored the Sportathon and helped raised a fantastic amount of money for Children in Need. You have been incredibly generous and the current total of over £3,000 has made the whole event truly worthwhile. If you haven't yet donated, the link to the Just Giving page can be found here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/rupert-house-sportathon . Though we found it utterly exhausting, Ms Ovstedal, Mr Vigano and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and were so pleased that so many of you were keen to join in and support it.
Normality will resume on Monday, once we have fully recovered!
Best wishes,
Nick Armitage