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18 September 2026

Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award Update: 2025–26

Our Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award students have been making steady progress this year. We encourage all parents and guardians to help spur our participants on as they work with their assessors to submit their final reports!

Spotlight on Volunteering:

Finding meaningful volunteering opportunities can often be a challenge, but last year four of our students embarked on a unique project at a community allotment in Crouch End, North London. They are now wrapping up their placement, having dedicated alternate weekends (outside of school holidays) to support the site.

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The variety of tasks they tackled was vast, and certainly unusual for 15-year-old students! Their hands-on efforts included:

  • Scrubbing and painting community buildings and floors
  • Laying hardcore to build stable roads and pathways
  • Managing compost areas and general community plot gardening
  • Constructing a custom 1-metre-square sieve
  • Helping set up the allotment’s Autumn Produce Show

 For the Autumn Show, the team worked tirelessly setting up gazebos and tables and sorting produce entry classes. As this was the allotment's very first show, the organisers noted that without our four dedicated volunteers, getting everything ready would have been a massive struggle!

It is a testament to their hard work and enthusiasm that all four students have already asked to return to the allotment when they begin their Gold DofE Award next year.

Well done to Lara, Maia, Noemie, and Kyoko

Gary Doyland

Maths Student of the Week

Nina 10M – for making an excellent start to Year 10 Maths. She has absolutely mastered quadratics, and I'm very impressed! Well done!

Macmillan Coffee Morning

Friday 25 September | 10:30-1:30

We warmly invite our school community to join us for a cuppa, a slice of cake, and a chat in support of Macmillan Cancer Support.

Cake Donations
To make this event a success, we would be incredibly grateful for cake donations (either homemade or shop-bought). Please drop off all donations at reception by 9am on the morning of the event.

Volunteers Needed
We are also looking for volunteers to help run the event from 9am onwards. Even if you can only spare an hour, your help would be greatly appreciated during our busiest times.

Donations & Payment Details
If you would like to make a contribution online, donations can be made directly via ParentPay. Please note that card payments will not be available on the day, so please remember to bring cash with you.

Get in Touch
For more information or to sign up as a volunteer, please contact Mary K. at maryrkav@gmail.com.

What We're Reading 

Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven

In Laura Steven’s captivating YA romantasy Our Infinite Fates, Evelyn has lived and died thousands of times, always murdered before her eighteenth birthday. Now reincarnated in present-day Wales, Evelyn is determined to find her executioner and break an ancient curse in order to save her sick younger sister. Shifting between Evelyn’s past lives and the present day, this novel blends romance, mystery and an unforgettable enemies-to-lovers dynamic.

If you enjoyed They Both Die at the End or The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, this book is the one for you!

Special Evening – Welcoming Natalie Haynes
29 September, 17.30–19.30

We warmly invite you to an inspiring evening with bestselling author and classicist Natalie Haynes as she discusses her latest work, No Friend to This House.

Natalie has generously agreed to speak at this event in aid of our Saving Classical Greek at CSG fundraising campaign, which we shared with you last term. All proceeds from ticket sales will go directly toward the campaign.

We would be delighted to see you together with our students, on Tuesday, 29 September.

Full event details and booking

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Weekly Wellbeing Section

Working on Wellbeing

This week, try and get to a park such as Hampstead Hath or Primrose Hill and as you walk, try leaving your headphones in your pocket — even if only for 10–15 minutes. Instead of filling the walk with music, podcasts or scrolling, see what you notice around you:

  • What can you hear?
  • What can you see that you would normally walk straight past?
  • How does it feel to have a little space from constant information and stimulation?

Research into nature and attention suggests that spending time in natural environments can help restore our capacity for directed attention and support positive mood. A 2024 experimental study found that people who took a 40-minute walk in nature experienced greater increases in positive affect than those who walked in an urban environment. McDonnell & Strayer (2024) – The influence of a walk in nature on human resting brain activity

You don't need to make every walk a “mindfulness exercise”. Sometimes, simply allowing yourself to walk, notice your surroundings and let your mind wander can be a useful break from the constant stream of information we experience each day.

Ms Hacker

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