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Wellbeing Week is underway!

Our Wellbeing Week is underway with a host of activities designed to celebrate and raise awareness of wellbeing and to give children the skills and tools to help them manage their mental health. Our first guest was Susie, the ‘Happy You’ coach who talked to the children at a special assembly. She set the tone beautifully for the week ahead with an assembly bursting with positivity as she imparted an important message of viewing emotions as super powers and how to use them effectively.

Throughout the day, the Gracey Hall was buzzing with energy as Kevin Francomme of Parkour Motion took classes through a parkour training session, encouraging pupils to challenge themselves and explore different ways of moving.

Year 2 Fun Run

Congratulations to our Year 2 children who all put in a tremendous effort at our fun run. We were delighted that pupils from Hilden Oaks and The Mead could join us to give all the children a little taste of interschool sports fixtures! Races were run across three different distances so that all the children could enjoy taking part; they chose the distance they were most comfortable with. Thank you to all the children for approaching the event with such enthusiasm and for supporting each other so well.

This is just the first of interschool events for the Year 2 children. Later this month we look forward to hosting a football festival, with Radnor House and Sevenoaks Prep.

A Celebration of Languages

European Languages Day was celebrated today with a host of activities. In a whole school assembly the Pre-Prep delighted everyone with a rendition of Frere Jacques sung in a round, our bilingual pupils shared snippets from their languages and each form in the Prep School took a turn to perform songs and quiz everyone on fun facts highlighting the richness of European languages. Finally, the Year 8 pupils revealed how Latin forms the root of many of the words we use every day. The school was a riot of colour as children dressed in the colours of European flags.

A Cross-Country Season Full of Promise

HG has had an excellent start to the cross-country season with victory at the prestigious Brenchley Relays and all four teams attending the Hazelwood Relays finishing first or second.

The Brenchley Relay consists of one runner from each of Yr 5-8 and the HG team led from start to finish with an outstandingly dominant performance.  After previously finishing second, third and fourth in recent years Head of Games Gareth Withers said “It is a great feeling to finally win this prestigious event.  The boys all ran exceptionally well and showed great maturity in the way they paced themselves in what represents a challenging second half of the course.”

Earlier in the week twenty HG pupils took part in the Hazelwood Relays, a shorter and flatter event and an ideal opener to the cross-country season.  The U9 girls were victorious in the opening race after a great team effort.  The U9 boys, U11 girls and U11 boys were all runners up in their races making HG the jointly top performing school across the four races.

This week sees the first of two major races that take place this half term – the Thomas Trophy at Sevenoaks Prep.  The race is run round Knole Park and both the U9 boys and girls teams will be defending the titles they won last year.

A Golden Victory

The U11 boys had an enjoyable and successful day on Saturday morning at the St Michael’s football tournament with the A team winning their group and semi-final before claiming overall victory in dramatic fashion in the final.  With the teams tied, a period of Golden Goal, with players gradually being removed, resulted in a stunning length of the pitch strike to claim victory as the game had reached 2v2!  The B team also saw success winning the Plate competition.  Well done to all the children involved and thanks to St Michael’s for hosting.

Colts Tournament Day

We were delighted to host our annual Colts Tournament Day on Wednesday. The brainchild of our Head of Boys’ Games, Gareth Withers, the day involves every boy in Year 5 and 6 playing in a Football Tournament in the first full week of term. The Colts A, B and C teams played in separate tournaments across our six junior pitches on our HG site whilst our D-G teams played in another three tournaments hosted at Somerhill. In all eight teams from seven schools took part in each tournament – a total of almost 500 boys.

For HG there was lots of success with the Colts A ending joint winners of the A team tournament after Golden Goal extra time failed to separate the sides. The B team were Plate runners-up, the Cs Cup semi finalists, the Ds Cup runners-up, whilst the two E/F teams playing in the E tournament met each other in the Cup semi final and could only be separated by an exciting penalty shoot out! Our Colts G team were also involved in the drama of penalties in their own semi final.

Most importantly there was a huge amount of fun with enjoyment and team work on plentiful display.

The victorious Colts A football team

Creative Connections

While Years 6-8 were out on residential trips, the rest of the school were immersed in drawing, painting, acting, dancing and constructing; all as part of Creative Arts Week. This year the theme was Creative Connections and the school was host to a steady stream of visiting authors, artists and choreographers, stimulating the children’s imaginations and creative energies.

Take a look at some of the week’s highlights

Alpha Plus Group to join Inspired Education

INSPIRED SIGNS AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE ALPHA PLUS GROUP SCHOOLS

  • Inspired welcomes 17 schools and around 3,300 students to the Group
  • The acquisition includes prestigious brands Wetherby School and Pembridge Hall 
  • Inspired provides a premium education to 80+ schools, 75,000+ students in 6 continents

Inspired, the leading global group of premium schools which delivers an outstanding holistic education to students around the world, has signed an agreement to acquire 17 premium UK schools from Alpha Plus Group, including Hilden Grange School in Tonbridge, Wetherby School, Pembridge Hall School for Girls and Chepstow House School in London. The transaction does not include the acquisition of the three Colleges. Closing is subject to the seller receiving regulatory approvals.

The acquisition supports Inspired’s strategic ambitions to continue building the world’s leading group of premium schools. 

Nadim M Nsouli, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Inspired, commented: “The best schools in the world join Inspired, and we are proud to welcome the Alpha Plus Group’s schools, including some of the leading London schools such as Wetherby School and Pembridge Hall School, to the group. Alpha Plus schools offer an outstanding world-class education and environment for students, who will now be able to benefit from the additional support of a global group of world-leading educational experts. Access to Inspired’s global best practices in teaching and learning ensures students will receive opportunities specifically designed to transform and broaden their horizons, giving them a deepened appreciation of their fellow global citizens, magnifying and informing their aspirations, and preparing them for a successful academic and working life in an evolving, global world.” 

Sir John Ritblat, Chairman of Alpha Plus Group, said: “Merging with the Inspired Education Group will allow our Alpha Plus schools to work closely with their schools, and help us to realise our expansion plans to Olympia and beyond. Our students and teachers will be able to share experiences with other schools within the Inspired Group, here in the UK and abroad. I am sure that we will derive great benefits from merging with this excellent Global group of schools, helping Alpha Plus to build on our schools’ impressive history and to continue to flourish.”

Mark Hanley Browne, CEO of Alpha Plus Group, said: “We are very excited to be joining the Inspired Education Group, whose own story, vision and approach is very similar to that of Alpha Plus. Inspired is a group which has a long-term outlook for both our schools and their local communities. For the staff, there will be the opportunity to work in schools abroad, using the Inspired group. There will be opportunities to see best practice, for example in the teaching of science and mathematics at prep school and secondary school level. For pupils there will be opportunities to take part in exchange visits with schools abroad.”

Alpha Plus’ schools have a strong academic focus, excellent pastoral care and outstanding locations, which have resulted in Alpha Plus students achieving excellent 11+ and Common Entrance offers, and with many students being offered places at their first-choice senior school winning exhibitions and scholarships in drama, music and sports. 

The agreement also includes Wetherby Arts School, a new co-educational senior school set to open in 2025, which will be set in a state-of-the-art 60,000 square foot building in the prestigious Olympia development in West London. 

Both Inspired and Alpha Plus philosophies focus on the individuality of each student, with the aim to unlock their full potential by providing each with a holistic education, in a specialist environment to enable them to flourish. Alpha Plus’ philosophy and values are perfectly aligned to Inspired’s forward-thinking educational ethos, constantly encouraging children to be truly resilient independent learners. The schools emphasise the importance of learning to collaborate, caring for others, asking great questions, researching thoroughly and reflecting on personal actions.

Inspired utilises the best educational practices from every corner of the globe to ensure each student receives a first-class learning experience, from Kindergarten to Year 13. Students benefit from a robust, holistic, international curriculum formed around the Inspired three pillars of modern education: academic excellence, sports, and performing and creative arts, with dedicated, highly qualified specialist teachers who demonstrate Inspired’s exemplary methodology.

About Inspired Education Group:

Inspired is the leading global group of premium schools educating over 75,000 students world-wide across 80+ schools in 6 continents. The international group of leading, premium schools utilises best educational practices from every corner of the globe to ensure each student receives a first-class learning experience, from Kindergarten to Year 13. Students benefit from a robust, holistic, international curriculum formed around the Inspired three pillars of modern education: academic excellence, sports, and performing and creative arts, with dedicated, highly qualified teachers who demonstrate Inspired’s exemplary methodology.  

www.inspirededu.com

Inspired Education
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