I am most grateful to our charity reps and PA Chairs for the work that has gone into our Ukrainian fundraiser for ‘Voices of Children’. On Tuesday 10th May, next week, we shall draw the winning Raffle Ticket for ‘Head of School for the Day’ on Friday 13th May. This was great fun last year, with our lucky winner from the Kindergarten, being involved in many key events such as Assembly, choosing lunch for the whole school and handing out awards, amongst many others. The Raffle Draw Zoom Assembly will take place at 9.30am on Tuesday and we hope as many of you can join us as possible.
I am always so pleased to see the adventurous spirit of our students and I am just back from a restorative playtime with our Grades 1 to 4 in the 96th Playground and it was good to see the year groups mixing and playing so well together. We were stopped by a local resident yesterday at morning break, who said he comes to this playground a great deal with his grandchildren. He wanted us to know that he was particularly impressed with our school and faculty, as our teachers interact and enjoy their time with the children so much more than other schools taking their students to this play area. That is always good to hear and I think we rather take this for granted, with all staff enjoying their time at the playground as much as the WP children! After our recent trip to the Met and the written compliments paid to our Grades 2 to 4 students from the Met volunteers in the Gallery, I am proud that the children and teachers are being rightfully recognised. After all, this is one factor that makes our school unique.
I am sure that we shall see the aforementioned ‘adventurous spirit’ in full play from 1st -3rd June as we venture off for our first residential trip to the Ashokan Center with Grades 3 and 4. Based in the foothills of the Catskill mountains and 12 miles west of the Hudson River and Kingston, the students will take part in a range of team building and unique opportunities and activities. It will be full immersion and a fun look at the natural sciences, social studies and adventure education. I am dusting off my backpack, walking boots and residential kit as I type, and am most looking forward to accompanying the whole group. This is one of the most fulfilling aspects of school life and rewarding experiences for the educator. In terms of residential trips, these have taken me around the world with lucky students in my care, to the age of 13 – from Cape Town and Stellenbosch, to Milan, Dublin, Paris, Champѐry, the Ardeche River and Iceland. Incredible memories are always forged on these excursions and a good time is always had by all. Whilst I have certainly experienced a wide range of activities (notably, quite a hair-raising and blustery coasteering jump and a two-day river descent through the rapids of the Ardeche river) it will certainly be my first time in a Blacksmith forge, which will be most exciting! We look forward to sharing the photographs at the various Prize Giving events in the last week of term and in our final Gallery Wetherbridge for the 21-22 school year – watch this adventuring editorial space!
