Dear Parents,

This week, our School community came together for a truly inspiring Wellness Week centred on the theme “You only have one body – look after it!” From start to finish, the programme was packed with energising, educational, and thought-provoking experiences designed to help pupils develop lifelong habits of physical and mental wellbeing.

Highlights included a morning ‘Workout with Whatman!’ and mindfulness sessions, Judo, and fascinating talks from visiting professionals, from Skincare Fundamentals with Dr Olivia Sparrow, Rupture and Repair with Esther Obiri-Darko to Managing Big Emotions and Coregulation with Dr Diana Goldsmith & Aishling Dempsey, who shared their insights into looking after both body and mind. Music appreciation has also been central to our Wellness Week and our Recital Concert on Tuesday saw a challenging and exciting repertoire, with a wide range of performance. Well done to all of our musicians for you resilience and sharing your talents.

Pupils embraced challenges such as the ‘Inter-house Swim the English Channel’, daily mindful practices, ‘Move it’ and even the thought of having some screen free evenings, with surprising enthusiasm. Breaktimes had a wellness twist, with mindful colouring and Bluebell walks with Maisie! All of our pupils explored how sleep, nutrition, and screen time affect performance, while younger children enjoyed hands-on learning about the five senses, healthy choices, and staying active. The energy across the week was joyful, purposeful, and deeply collaborative.

I would like to extend my deepest thanks to our brilliant staff team for the creativity, care, and commitment that made this week such a success especially to Mrs Scarbrough and Mrs Rowton. The scope of activities, the thought behind each session, and the enthusiasm with which everything was delivered were remarkable. We are also immensely grateful to our parent community for your support, whether by speaking to classes, helping with logistics, or encouraging wellness habits at home. It is through this kind of partnership that our pupils thrive. If you were unable to attend, the presentations can be found in the newsletter, please also do spend some time looking at SchoolTV which hosts a plethora of information covering a huge range of topics.

Wellness Week reminded us that health is not a one-off project but a way of living. As we navigate the complexities of an ever changing and challenging world, this week’s focus is more important than ever, to prioritise wellness among pupils is essential for creating a nurturing and supportive educational environment where everyone can thrive academically, emotionally, and spiritually. We hope it sparked conversations that will continue long after the week has ended.

Next week many of our instrumentalists will play at the Benenden Concert Hall along with nearly 160 other musicians from Kent’s Prep Schools. We are very much looking forward to hearing their performance on Tuesday. My heartfelt thanks to Mrs Harrod who has not only inspired our pupils, but also Music teachers across 11 schools to come together for what look to be a superb orchestral event!

This week Year 3 have delved deeper into Japanese culture with a Japanese workshop. On Tuesday, five wonderful volunteers from the Japan Society visited for the morning. The pupils were taught how to count to 10 in Japanese, they made origami Samurai helmets and birds and had was great fun trying on kimonos.

Dr Tuck, Nikki, Danny and the catering team ensured that our VE Day commemorations were truly fitting with an extremely informative assembly and 1940s style picnic where the whole school came together to remember.

This weekend we have our own cricket T10 Festival and we have 68 pupils taking park in the Triathlon at Sevenoaks, many thanks for the support you have shown for their fundraising activities! We wish everyone the best of luck.

Best wishes,

Emma Neville

Head