Head’s Blog – Guest Speaker Visits

Monday 04 December 2023 | By System Admin

Guest Speaker Visits

The past fortnight has been filled with incredible opportunities for our students, with many trips and guest speaker visits taking place. We have had Annabel Gray, BRIT School alumni visit our Drama students to talk about her amazing experiences, routes into acting and the challenges of the industry. Amy Dalby (Blondie Bakery, Norton) and Ben Draffan (Bagel Bros, Yarm) had a great time judging the THS Bake Off live final last week. Politics students were able to hear from the MP for Middlesbrough, Andy McDonald, and award-winning business woman, Victoria Lynch, gave an impressive Tea-Time Talk to our aspiring entrepreneurs in Prep.

We work each day to inspire our children and young people, but sometimes an inspirational message is better heard from someone outside of school. Working with local businesses, and those running them, helps provide first-hand and ‘real world’ experiences for our pupils, and this past fortnight we have heard fantastic stories and examples of resilience, innovation and leadership. These experiences fill our classrooms with awe and wonder and give our students a sense of what might come next – the sky is the limit, as our guests have shown.

Speech Day

On Friday we held our annual Senior School Speech Day with guest speaker, Helen Butters. On a day when we recognise and celebrate academic, sporting and musical successes, it was fantastic to be joined in our acknowledgement by so many parents and guests. It was wonderful to welcome back former students, now enjoying the next stages of their education. We saw prizes and trophies awarded for exceptional progress and outstanding achievement, alongside GCSE and A-level certificates, in a real celebration of hard work and dedication. A huge thank you to Helen for joining us and providing us with such an inspirational speech, again sharing a story of true grit and determination to make a dream a reality.

Christmas Concerts

I am now looking forward to all of the festive celebrations we have on the horizon. Our annual Winter Concert takes place on Thursday 14 December. This is one of my favourites of the many musical events we hold as it brings such a warm and festive atmosphere to our school community. Tickets can be purchased now via our usual Ticketsource link. This event is quickly followed by our end of term Carol Concert; please do reply by return using the Google form circulated this week – we would love to see as many of you there as possible.

Read our latest newsletter here.

Mrs K Mackenzie, Head