Dear Parents,
This Friday we celebrate 70 years since the first Hill House pupils used the Duke of Yorks as our main sports venue. At that time the ground belonged to the Army and was the Headquarters of the Territorial Army including a division of the SAS. When the whole site was sold by the Ministry of Defence to our great fortune it was bought by the Cadogan Estates who have allowed us to continue using this wonderful space. To have the exclusive use of such a venue in central London is unparalleled for a prep school. The Cadogan family have always been generous patrons to Hill House and we are grateful for their continued support.
Appropriately, attached to this newsletter you will find a letter from Mr Hastings, Director of Sport, setting out the sporting programme for your particular building for the rest of the year. It contains important information about clothing and equipment. Please read this carefully. The weather is at its coldest during this term and we endeavour to get the children outside as much as possible. Therefore, please ensure they come to school with the appropriate clothing.
The lifting of Covid restrictions in schools is a welcome boost. Face masks are no longer required in classrooms but they are still required in the communal areas of Hans Place. The decreasing number of cases of Covid in school at the moment will enable us to loosen these restrictions with confidence. We will maintain our enhanced cleaning schedule and monitor the situation daily. However the requirement for twice weekly testing in Hans Place remains. We have now received a delivery of LFD test kits. If your child needs a box they are available from the school nurse.
With the partial lifting of travel restrictions we have been able to arrange three skiing courses to Glion in the second half of this term. We will hope to be able to offer more courses in the Summer Quarter but inevitably some will be disappointed as the chalet can only accommodate sixteen children at any one time.
Music Showcases in Founders’ Hall start again from 31 January. We have seventeen scheduled for this term. The Betjeman Poetry Evening will be on Tuesday 8 February. This is always an entertaining evening I encourage you to support this event. The term in Founders’ Hall concludes with the Senior School play, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
A full programme of sports fixtures is now underway and Online Parents’ Evenings start in the next couple of weeks. Full details and how to book your appointments will be emailed in due course.
We hope to be able to welcome parents back to our Wednesday Assemblies in the second half of the term. Your support for all these events is so very much appreciated. This week we were able to present awards to our youngest pupils for Swimming, such an important activity at Hill House. It is always a delight to see the children in Small School coming forward to receive their awards in front of the whole school. Awards were also presented to Lower School and Middle School for swimming and also the winners of the school recycling bin poster campaign. Charlotte Lavers (‘cello) gave us a terrifically exciting performance of William Squire’s Tarantella accompanied on the piano by her father.
Best wishes,
Richard Townend