New Year 7s enjoy a week of summer activities

Year 7 pupils starting at Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School in September have been taking part in a Summer School to help them build their confidence before they start life at secondary school. Two groups of 30 pupils have been given the chance to participate in activities, all themed around Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Each day of the week the pupils got a chance to do activities from a range of subject areas including Maths, Science, English, Humanities, Spanish, Art, Drama, PE and Food – all linked in with the play. The week culminated in a visit to the Globe Theatre in London where they enjoyed a tour of the theatre and took part in a special ‘Lively Action’ workshop.

Maya Shah who took part said, ‘Summer School has been amazing. I’ve had amazing subjects with amazing teachers and I’m really looking forward to starting in September’. Aishani Banerjee agreed:’ Summer School was really fun and I really enjoyed meeting new people – it’s a good head start’.

Mr Wood was delighted with how the pupils engaged with the week. ‘We have offered summer schools for our new Year 7s for a number of years, but additional funding from the Department for Education has allowed us to put on something really special this year. We have been able to offer the opportunity to 40% of our new Year 7s and I just wish that we had the resources to do this for everyone! We know that many pupils have experienced a lot of disruption at school over the last 18 months and this is one of things we are doing to support them. We’ve had over a dozen staff give up part of their holidays to come and help out which I think shows how determined we all are to help our pupils overcome the challenges they have faced.’