Letter to parents

Dear Parents,


As we reach the middle of the summer term, I would like to update you with just some of the many events in No.4 and the achievements of the girls. The first challenge of the term came with the tennis match against the Staff Common Room on Sunday, 26th April. Girls from every year group turned out to pit their strength against the staff with over 16 pairs keen to play. The standard of tennis was very high but overall the staff won the most matches with the Bursar being one of their surprise ace players!

Another traditional social fixture of the summer term is the Birthday Supper Barbecue. Of course, with our reliable English weather, thunderstorms were predicted for the night of the barbecue on the 14th May so the party was held in No.4 on the private side. With many girls having birthdays in the summer term and nearly all of the staff that they had invited able to attend, we were over fifty to supper that evening. The girls were wonderful hosts to the staff and made sure that no staff got away without playing several of the party games on offer. Dr Stafford was the winner when it came to seeing how many smarties one could eat in thirty seconds using chopsticks, Saskia Hefes won the food tasting game and Hannah Jefferson and Mr Major drew for the greatest number of pegs that they could hold in one hand. As always, our chef, Jean, cooked an impressive meal for the girls and we would like to extend our thanks to her for all that she does for the House.

Despite the changeable weather this term, there have been several sporting highlights. On Saturday, 18th May seven girls from No.4 were entered for the athletics match at Bromsgrove, competing against RGSAO, Solihull School, Uppingham and Repton. While all the girls competed to a high standard, the junior relay team which included Rebecca Raby-Smith and Kirstie Imm ran a perfect race. Their first position continued a winning streak as they have been unbeaten this season. The tennis teams at both junior and senior level have also performed extremely well so far with Harriet Matthews, Henrietta Ross, Becky Connell, Ella Cripwell, Flora Paterson, Tori Barley, Hannah Jefferson, Lottie Rugeroni, Gemma Kitching, Chiara Podbielski and Justine Michel winning matches against schools such as Dean Close and Malvern St James.

The annual sports dinner held on Friday 15th May brought further glory as four of our Upper Sixth were awarded trophies for their sporting prowess throughout the year.
Hannah Jefferson was awarded the player of the season for netball, lacrosse and tennis, Tori Barley won the trophies for the most improved tennis player and the players’ player shield for lacrosse, Zippy Chappell won the shield for the players’ player for netball as well as the trophy for most improved player for netball, and Nina Price was awarded a shield for best lacrosse player in the second team this season.

There have also been many achievements outside of the field of sport. No.4 are very proud of Poppy Andrews who has been asked to undertake the role of Secretary of the School Council. Emma Hicks has taken over from Tori Barley as Head of House and is already doing a splendid job. One of Tori’s last actions as Head of House was to award a newly-created cup that is to be presented each year to someone that the Head of House feels has contributed in a positive way to the atmosphere of the House. The first winner of this cup for the past academic year is Hannah Pascoe, who impressed Tori with the kindness and the quiet work she did behind the scenes to make things run more smoothly in the House.

We are in the middle of the examination season and so far all of the girls have coped well with the extra pressures and workloads. The girls have organized their work around their extra-curricular activities and it is good to see Kirstie Wombwell, Charlotte Davies and Anna Lamport being able to find the time to plan their Silver Duke of Edinburgh canoeing expedition in the midst of their examinations. The Upper Sixth have been very focused and have a selection of offers between them from Cardiff, Cambridge, Brighton, Leeds, Exeter, Durham, Imperial College, Bournemouth, De Montford College of Art and the Cambridge School of Dramatic Arts. With high grades to achieve for some of these places, we wish them all the best in the crucial next few weeks.

Many of you are probably unaware that No.4 now has two representatives on the Parents’ Working Group Committee. They are Andrew Cripwell and Judith Williams. They are very willing to hear from you and will raise any concerns that you may have at the termly meetings held with the Headmaster and members of the Council. Please feel free to contact them via their e-mail address, cripwell@tiscali.co.uk and jiniwilliams-churchill@hotmail.co.uk. Another way of keeping you in touch with what is happening in the school has been to post small news ‘bites’ on the No.4 school web page so please do look at it from time to time as we try to include photographs as well as more recent news items about the House.

All of us at No.4 wish you a happy half-term and look forward to seeing you in the near future at the various school events coming up.


Yours sincerely,

Anne Sharp