April 2016
HEADTEACHER’S TERMLY UPDATE
Welcome back to Term 5 of this academic year. As you may recall Term 4 was very short but very busy and full of
interesting and exciting events and activities. I hope that everyone had some rest and relaxation over the holiday
period and has returned refreshed and revived for the term ahead.
We ended Term 4 with a super concert organised by Ms Jury and Mrs Cooper. This concert has become one where
the talents of the senior girls are showcased and it is wonderful to see how these musicians have grown and
developed in their music over the years they have been at Kendrick. I would like to acknowledge and thank the
soloists from Year 13: Chiara Leonardi, Katherine Dapre, Shivani Rajani, Annabel Johnson, Natasha Gavin and Imogen
Lawlor. Some of these students will be studying Music at university next year. I am sure they will all continue to give
great pleasure to others in their music making. It was also great to see the whole of Year 9 introduce and end the
concert with their beautiful singing pieces.
Prior to the concert the school was heavily involved in Sports Relief events and once again Sixth Form students led
us all in a wide range of fund raising activities including: Staff Bake off, Netball and rugby matches with Reading
School, Sixth Form verses Staff Volley Ball, a variety show as well as the usual sponsorship activities. I believe that the
total amount raised was in the region of £2500, the highest amount raised for Sport Relief!
I would like to thank parents and staff for supporting the KPS raffle which raised almost £8k. As we said this money
will go towards the refurbishment of very intensively used Chemistry Laboratories which will cost about £130k. Most
of the funding for this refurbishment has come from a one off donation from our Kendrick Trust as well as a donation
from the Wolfson Foundation. It is not easy to procure funds at the moment so we are deeply grateful to these
donors, as well as, parents and friends who help us maintain our facilities and buildings.
Some other refurbishments have also taken place over the Easter break and these have included redecoration of two
classrooms and an extension/conservatory to the Year 13 Common Room in the Sixth Form block. The Conservatory,
that was the Terrace, we hope will provide more space for our expanded Sixth Form and enable students to use the
area throughout the year rather than just in the summer months.
Looking ahead, this term focuses on the students in Years 11, 12 and 13 with their public examinations pending. As
always these students have worked very hard over the duration of their courses and deserve to do very well. We are
undertaking some examinations at A Level for the first time and appreciate the greater intensity and pressure that
this has placed on staff and students. I am sure the conscientious efforts of Kendrick students and staff will ensure
that this examination season will go smoothly and students will continue to be supported in their endeavours.
I would like to refer parents to the article sent to you by our Counsellor Anna Albert, a couple of weeks ago. Anna
has been our counsellor for five years now and has supported and counselled many students in an unobtrusive and
discreet way. Along with our School Nurse, Karen Jacobs, these individuals provide essential support and guidance to
our students. Once again Anna has written an article in which she explains and expresses some of the issues that our
young people are dealing with. I urge you to read the article, as I am sure, you will find it a helpful source of
guidance.
Attacked from Within
Finally, at our Welcome assembly on Monday 11th April, I formally introduced the Head Girl Team for 2016-17. They
have exciting plans about what they would like to do in the coming year and I am sure the whole school community
will support them in their endeavours. I finished the assembly by making reference to an amazing feat of physical
endurance which I became aware of in the holidays; the ambitious challenge that the celebrity Eddie Izzard set
himself to raise money for Sport Relief this year. He decided to run 27 marathons in 27 days, the number
representing the number of years spent by Nelson Mandela in prison. He managed to do this including running two
marathons on the 27th day! His route followed the places that were key in Mandela’s life ending at the Union
Buildings in Pretoria where Mandela gave his inaugural speech as the first freely elected President of South Africa in
May 1994. He compared his challenge as trivial compared to Mandela’s endurance of his conditions and life in
prison. He referred to a poem that is well known to have helped Mandela in his long years in captivity. The poem is
Lead, inspire, make a difference
April 2016
HEADTEACHER’S TERMLY UPDATE
called Invictus by William Ernest Henley, written in 1875, and our new Head Girl, Nasya, read the poem to the
students as a reflection for the start of the term. I would like to share the poem with you.
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
By William Ernest Henley
As always my thanks to parents for their continued support and encouragement in all we do at Kendrick.
Christine Kattirtzi, Headteacher
Lead, inspire, make a difference