Dear Parent or Carer 

The staff at Holmer Green Senior School, wish to thank you for your ongoing support this academic year.  It has been an unpredictable year starting off with mass Covid testing for all students, the on-boarding of a whole new range of school facilities, including: Dining hall, Sports Hall and teaching block to name a few; with the return of external exams and the welcomed return of trips and extra-curricular activities. 

I would also like to thank both the staff and Governors at Holmer Green Senior School for supporting the school during the various events of this academic year.  They have continued to put students first and re-vitalised the extra-curricular opportunities for students, that were so missed during lockdowns. 

I hope this newsletter gives you a further flavour of the various activities of the school and would hugely urge all parents/carers to encourage their children to join a school group or extra-curricular activity as in addition to the particular skill being taught, students learn communication skills, time-management and develop another social network, outside of their typical classroom environment. 

Our Ukrainian students have settled in well and we have found their presence of real value to our community.  It is great to see our students being so warm and generous to students, who have dealt with huge turmoil in their own personal lives, and also for our students to have gained really empathy and appreciation of another culture and a perspective on the typical fortunes of their own lives. 

There have been so many events taking place this term, but I wish to draw out a few highlights.  Congratulations to the 160 or so Duke of Edinburgh participants who have completed either their Bronze, Silver or Gold Award; well done to our 30 Scholars who completed their Brilliant Club Essay with Surrey University on, amongst other things, Gothic Architecture and were awarded 1^st or 2:1 awards; well done to all those who  were awarded prizes at the Excellence Evening; well done to our Sports winners and Sports leaders; thankyou to all those students supporting foreign languages at local schools; well done to all our Year 12 students who completed their Work Experience placements and finally a huge congratulations to all those year 11 students who received a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Architecture & Maths) or Art Scholarships to further their studies in our Sixth Form. 

We have a number of staff members leaving us this year and we wish them all luck.  With our increasing school roll, we have also been really fortunate in recruiting additional staff members.  Please find a list of leavers and joiners below. 

Further, with our expanding school roll we have been able to promote staff to the following positions: 

Updated staff roles: 

Victoria Walden – Assistant Head of Sixth Form (Year 13) 

Dylan Sheen – Assistant Head of Sixth From (Head of Year 12) 

Amrita Kang – Head of Science 

Shaista Akhtar – KS3 Science lead (maternity cover) 

Stephanie Gordon – KS4 Science lead 

John Smith – Pastoral Manager 

The Missenden’s Community Board has created a Youth Needs Survey, to get the views of young people on what they need in the local community. It would be really good to get a direct response from young people.  Please encourage your child(ren) to complete it. 

We want to wish all our Year 11 and 13 students the best of luck with their A Level, BTEC and GCSE qualifications.  Year 13 result day is 18 August and Year 11 result day is 25 August. 

The first day back for Year 7 and 12 is on Tuesday 6 September 2022, and then all year groups will be in on Wednesday 7 September 2022, to start normal timetabled lessons.  School uniform will be required and PE kit only required for PE lessons. 

Lastly, we wish everyone a great summer break.  We hope families are able to get some quality time together and we hope all students remain safe over the summer break so that we can come together as a community again in September.  Happy holidays. 

Work Hard, Be Kind, Have Passion. 

Ed Hillyard 

Headteacher