As we’ve settled into our positions as your Head Girl Team, we have been badgering away and brainstorming new events, acting on your comments from our last school council meeting and implementing our new suggestions box in the Portrait Room (opposite the Terracotta Warrior). We have already received some great suggestions ranging from more socials with other schools, as well as more practical suggestions about Chromebook use. We hear your concerns and ideas and will be acting on these as the term goes ahead and hope that this box has made you feel like you can approach us anytime.

In these first few weeks, we’ve received the exciting news that some redecoration of the Sixth Form Centre will be happening and have been conjuring up several designs plus an infinite number of wall colours to choose from. At our latest School Council meeting, we discussed topics from wellbeing to whole school events and enjoyed hearing your ideas about further charity opportunities through up-cycling clothes or fundraising for an animal charity (animal onesies, anyone?).

Keep submitting your thoughts as we would love to hear from the whole school about what you would like to see happening. It could be anything as small as an assembly idea or something as big as a whole school charity event – the ball is in your court! 

School Birthday

The start of the new academic year at Notting Hill is always jam-packed, but one of the highlights is definitely the school’s birthday! From the Smarties, to seeing the school flag waving on the pole, the 16th of September is always a special day. As we celebrated 146 years of NHEHS, this year’s assembly was all about the history of music at the school. From learning about the discussion of a music society in 1928, to recorder classes in 1948 sounding like farmyards, the school’s musical history is quite a colourful one.

NHEHS is also home to some incredible musical alumnae: Astra Desmond and Nona Liddell were notable for being leaders during times when women rarely featured as soloists. A more recent alumni is Hannah Reid from the band London Grammar. It’s clear that music has been an important part of Notting Hill for many decades – why not start learning a new instrument or join the choir? Not only will it be an opportunity to make new friends, but it’s also great practice for House Shout!

If you ever want to learn more about the school’s history, there is an area in the portrait room, just outside the silent zone, dedicated to this, or Mrs Broekmann will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have!

Extra-Curricular Fair

There are endless opportunities at school and one of the easiest ways to settle into school life and make lots of friends is through extra-curricular clubs. So it was very exciting when the extra-curricular fair returned with over 100 clubs! This amazing opportunity enabled new and returning students to sign up to a range of clubs from Philmosophy to Dissecting Club to Drama Club and numerous sports clubs. Whether you are a budding linguist, climate change activist or just want to ‘knit and knatter’, NHEHS definitely has a club for you. The main hall was filled with stalls and students from every year at lunchtime, walking around with open planners, fighting for the pens at each desk.

Each club was given the chance to set up a display and entice as many eager students as possible. The Lego Robotics Club kept us mesmerised with their synchronised robots in action, while the sports department set the students physical challenges. Other clubs used more sneaky ideas, such as sweets to bribe the younger years!

While it can be a bit overwhelming at the amount of clubs on offer everyone managed to sign up and find a club for them. But…don’t worry if you missed out because there’s always opportunities to sign up for more. If you signed up for loads of clubs in a burst of enthusiasm and are finding it hard to manage your time, check out Sports Captain Jojo’s Top Ten Time Management Tips which you might find helpful! Also, remember to say thank you to all the staff and students who run your clubs because without them they would not be possible! 

Immi, Dedan, Anna, Emily, Dhruti & Jojo