I am delighted to say that our Year 6 pupils have enjoyed an adventurous trip to Wiltshire this week. They have been rock climbing, abseiling, zip-wiring, mountain biking and canoeing. Such pursuits build resilience, teamwork and bravery – all good attributes for learning and for life. My thanks to Ms Smith and Ms Witcombe for their
care and attention throughout the trip.
We are immensely proud of our junior classes. Without the unnecessary pressure of KS2 SATs and 11+ preparation, our children at HSW are allowed to enjoy their school days, working hard of course, but never being sorted and ranked by the narrow metric of what they can memorise and repeat.
Learning at HSW is rigorous and ambitious. Academic progress is regularly monitored and knowledge and skills are tested every term. But we will not define our pupils by their academic scores alone, because we know there are so many ways in which intelligence can manifest, from IQ to EQ (emotional quotient), SQ (social quotient) and AQ (adversity quotient), most of which are pleasingly impervious to the assessment lens, but no less important, perhaps even more so. When our academic learning is enriched with adventurous activity, of the kind we’ve seen in Wiltshire this week, we are building self-worth, which will bring self-discipline, the most valuable of
life skills!
Very soon we will have our whole-school activity week – filled with many different adventurous pursuits – and I cannot wait to celebrate our pupils’ personal development with you. We are proud of them all.