As the summer term commences we wish all our examination candidates well for the challenges ahead. Students in Years 10, 11, 12 and 13 face GCSE and A level examinations and we expect good news when results are published in August. For our Upper Sixth (Year 13) we look forward to celebrating their Leavers’ Weekend (30th June - 1st July). The weekend starts with Prize Day on 30th June when we welcome back to the Grove as our guest of honour Lord Walker (OG); the afternoon sees the annual house sports afternoon and the day concludes with the summer ball, this year with a special 2012 twist: a “Masquerade Ball”. The following morning we gather in Chapel for the traditional Leavers’ Service followed by a hearty lunch in the dining hall and an afternoon of cricket, tennis and a barbecue for OGs, leavers and boarders.
Our 200th anniversary celebrations continue this term and we hope to see many current pupils with their families joining with Old Grovians, their families and friends on 13th May for the 2012 Garden Party with fairground rides, music and dancing, a concert by the Rothwell Temperance Band and firework display. Festivities commence at 2.00pm and conclude with fireworks as soon as the sun sets.
Early this term we will be taking possession of our new 25 metre swimming pool. This superb new facility, to be known as the Jubilee Pool, further enhances the school’s sporting facilities and opens up the space of and near the old pool for the next major building project. Thanks are due to the 100 Club and the Friends of Woodhouse Grove for their donations towards the new equipment in the pool which includes a state-of-the-art electronic timing system and scoreboard. The successful 2012 Sports Dinner has also helped to meet some of the pool costs.
On Easter Monday an excellent servant to Woodhouse Grove School died. Foster Watson (Headmaster of Bronte House from 1979 to 99) lost a long battle against leukaemia. We held a service in celebration of his life in Chapel on 20th April and all who knew Foster remembered his kindness, warmth and infectious good humour. We remember Pam, Gerald, Kate and Liz especially at this time. In lieu of flowers the family have asked that donations be made in Foster’s memory to the Haematology Unit at St James’ Hospital in Leeds and to Woodhouse Grove School for the competition equipment in the new Jubilee Pool. For all who wish to mark Foster’s memory please feel free to make an appropriate donation; cheques can be made payable to Woodhouse Grove School and marked for the Foster Watson memorial fund.
Further improvements and extensions to the school’s facilities will be undertaken this summer. Work will commence on the long-awaited floodlit synthetic (3G) training pitch in July and will be complete before the end of October. This scheme has been made possible by partnership funding and commercial arrangements with third parties including Bradford City FC. Later in the year we hope to complete a deal with Bradford Council in which the school takes responsibility for Rawdon Meadows (the playing fields on the right of the school entrance). The deal will see a new pavilion replacing the decaying building on that site and permit the school to improve the main entrance and traffic arrangements there. We will also be applying for a footpath diversion to improve the amenity value of the path along the riverside and further facilitate the proposed traffic enhancements on our site. The deal will ensure school access to these playing fields but also protect the rights of current sports groups there, including Bronte Archers.
As we look towards the final months of our bicentenary year we will have enjoyed many school activities, celebrated many student achievements and seen further improvements in the school’s overall facilities. Notwithstanding the challenging economic situation Woodhouse Grove is going from strength to strength and looks forwards to the first year of its tri-centenary with confidence.
D C Humphreys
Headmaster
