Farewell to Year 11

It is a significant rite of passage indeed: saying farewell to your teachers and tutors who have guided you for the past five years, scrawling parting words on the shirts of other students, and celebrating with an evening of smart dress, dinner and dancing. We said a first 'farewell' to our Year 11 students on the last day of Year 11 with an assembly led by Mr May followed by pastries (a refined Holland Park School approach to a leavers' 'do' if ever there was one) and shirt-signing. Later, students and staff gathered at the Hard Rock Hotel in Marble Arch for the Year 11 Ball, with (as is tradition, I hear!) Mr Andrews taking on the role of DJ.
Of course, it really wasn't a farewell at all. We have since seen Year 11 back in for Maths and Biology exams, and a number of challenges yet loom before they can really breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy the summer. We hope, as ever, to welcome the majority of students back to join our Sixth Form, where they will be lucky enough to be the first year to enjoy Thorpe Lodge as a new Sixth Form Study Centre, just one of several projects we have to improve the school site for students. The real moment of finality, then, comes in August: that all-important results day. We will be open to welcome students in to receive their results and plan next steps with key members of staff, as well as sharing in the successes wrought by five years of diligence, drive and determination.