It was brilliant to welcome parents and friends to the school for our very first end of term concert. It was a very well attended event, with members of the audience treated to excerpts from 'A Christmas Carol' as well as festive music from the choir and soloists. As our first concert, we had a short extract from 'Make Believe' by AA Milne, which was the first show ever performed on the stage in 1939, when this was Pinner County School. All performers are to be congratulated on a brilliant evening. My particular thanks to the parents who volunteered through our embryonic Parents Association to serve refreshments at the event too. In the photograph above, Scrooge makes his entrance, complete with top hat, through the audience. At the end of the concert, one parent remarked that the team at the school are a 'credit to education, given all that has been achieved in just three months.' Great feedback to receive at the end of our first term.

There has been some competition this week for the photo to accompany the weekly blog: House Bake Off, Local Schools Carol Service, Esafety for Parents, Environmental Club , or our newly installed Christmas tree?

So many highlights to choose from! House Bake Off saw Bannister claim their first win in the House Competition with a very impressive running track inspired design. We were delighted to welcome Deena and Selma from Heriot's Bakery as our judges. They also kindly donated a very generous prize to the winning bake, which was very kind. The judges has a very difficult decision given the high standard of entries; well done to all involved.

This morning our choir followed up their success at the Pinner Panto by starting proceedings at the local schools carol service. Readers and singers did the school proud at a very high class event. I was delighted to welcome Parents to the Esafety follow up to their children's sessions on this a couple of weeks ago. Pinner Safer Community Officers also came along to support us, which was much appreciated. I enjoyed listening to the Environmental Club pitch their ideas about how to turn the school even greener in the months ahead, so look out for flowers, herbs and vegetables growing in the months ahead. A House competition along these lines is inevitable!

All students in Year 7 have experienced an African drumming workshop over the last few weeks, through workshops offered by the Harrow Music Service. Currently almost twice the national average number of students take part in instrumental lessons at Pinner High School, which bodes well for three forthcoming concerts: Pinner Panto on Pinner High Street on 24th November, the annual Pinner cluster schools carol service on 2nd December to which we are delighted to be invited, and our end of term concert on 15th December. Students are rehearsing hard, and we are all very much looking forward to it. The Parents Association will make their debut at this concert, serving refreshments at the interval, and I am very grateful for their support.

This week House Football came to a climax featuring an all Malala final, with 7MY triumphing over 7MX. Penalty shoot outs were required more than once during the latter stages of the competition, and all teams displayed the Pinner High School Values through these very tense times!

We were inspected by the Department for Education this week, who visit all new schools during their first term. I look forward to bringing you an update of their findings next week.

Students have picked their new series of Head's Challenge Clubs, almost half the year have requested applications to be House Captains, the football team were playing at Whitmore, and the Badminton team training too, rehearsals have started for our end of term performance; as well as this, some great learning activities and high level responses in lessons, and a visit from Cannon Lane to experience Secondary School Science: so the second half of term is clearly underway at Pinner High School!

Clubs this half term include: Chinese Calligraphy, Graphic Novels, Mindfulness, Fashion, Drama, Table Tennis, Gymnastics (all on a Monday) and Bike It, Creative Writing, EAL, Choir, Environment, Football, Guitar and Netball (all on a Thursday). All students do two of these activities. Student Leadership was launched in assembly on Tuesday, with students able to put themselves forward for the role of House Captain. The successful applicants have a job description which includes running House Events, liaising with their peers and staff to make the school an even better place, and feeding back about the House system. More roles will be available in Student Government, Charity Coordinators, as well as Subject Trailblazers.  

Another jam packed week- it is amazing to think that we have been open for nearly half a term. This week I have been running tours of the school for September 2017 entry, and very much enjoy showing families the school 'at work'. We visit all the classes running during a tour, and when the teacher is not in full flow, I ask the students a few questions, so that visitors can hear directly from them, having heard enough from me at Open Evening! Students were able to show off to our visitors their first full paragraphs in Spanish, the development of their Chinese character writing, and their love of Science experiments in our lab. I ask the students to tell visitors what they like about Pinner High School; some talk about House Events and Clubs (mindfulness and international foodclub take more explanation than gymnastics and karaoke, but with every child doing 2 out of the 15 activities on offer this half term, there is plenty to talk about). Food often features as a highlight, as does the trip to HOAC, but my favourite comment was from a student who, unprompted, said how safe they feel at school, and how at home they already are.

In other news this week, the girls had their first sports fixture, an 8-3 netball victory over Avanti House; many congratulations to all involved. A re-match is a certainty! On Saturday the Trailblazers Choir will be at the opening of the Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner Memorial Park.

The final week of the half term is just as busy as the last 5, with Parents Book Club on Monday, our first whole School photo on Tuesday (fingers crossed for the weather!) and a Coffee morning and Show My Homework drop in on Thursday. Friday is an INSET day, so school is closed to students, before reopening on Monday 31st October at the usual time.