Dear Everyone,

As I said in assembly this week, preparing for a voyage can be more demanding than sailing. One has to pack provisions, identify who is in which cabin, check the sails, scrub the decks, assign roles and rotas for the crew, check in the passengers and, finally, weigh anchor. By comparison, sailing is a breeze.

In this job, nothing is ever finished and nothing is ever perfect. Everything must be compliant and nothing should be out of place. We have 107 school policies.

One final sleepless night of worrying and at last the first day of term was upon us. Would we be ready? Did we have everything covered? Did every sailor know which cabin he or she was in and where it was located on the ship? The answer is probably not; despite all our very best efforts things slip through the net, don’t they. (We are on a journey of improvement with how we manage our internal communications and IT systems, and rest assured it is very much on my agenda).

But then the children started wandering in through the gate, smiling, shaking hands and catching up, laughing and joking, sharing travel tales, introducing themselves to new joiners and getting them settled in. My colleagues and I soon remembered that our greatest asset at this school is the warm and caring relationship that exists between our staff and pupils and between the children themselves. No amount of planning can prepare for this, it happens naturally – but only if the culture that surrounds it is intentionally positive. I am proud to say that our culture and values at HSW have deep roots and a strong stem. The positive energy this week has been palpable.

We have set sail again and I am more excited today about our destination than I have ever been since joining the school. Thank you to everyone for helping me manoeuvre this ship out into the bay again, with a larger crew and more passengers than we’ve had for a long time. This will be an exciting voyage.

New Parents Meet and Greet, Oberon Pavilion, 6.00pm Monday 18th September

I warmly invite all those who have recently joined our school to a welcome meeting at Oberon a week on Monday. We will have wine and nibbles together and I will be delighted to introduce you to my wonderful colleagues. Not only will this be an opportunity to find out more about our routines and procedures, most importantly it will give us all a chance to celebrate the culture and values that make us so unique. I very much hope to see you there!

Student Safe Transport Service

Can I remind everyone of the excellent minibus service we offer for our students. We still have a few places left on the three routes that we now operate across the area, so if you would like to find out more do get in touch with my colleague Charmaine Grinnam, at office@hsw.co.uk