Good Schools Guide VISIT US APPLY ONLINE CONTACT US Portals

Portals

Barrow Hills Bulletin

10 October 2025

Friday 10th October 2025

Welcome to the Barrow Hills Bulletin, your weekly newsletter with a snapshot of life at School.

Message From the Head

Dear Parents,

It’s been a lively week, with highlights including our U10 girls’ performance at the Charterhouse Hockey Tournament, Year 6 heading to Legoland, a history expedition for Year 7 to Battle Abbey, and history coming to us through The History Man’s Vikings workshop.

The children are studying hard, and the academic horizon is looking bright. This term’s routine and externally validated academic assessments showed the vast majority of Year 6 pupils already performing above national expectations — and notably, those coming up behind them in Years 5 and 4 also exceeding expectations and set to excel. We expect great things.

To bring this to life, we’ve created a short film for the website – you may recognise some familiar faces!

Inclusivity matters to us, as does aiming for 100% participation. Equally important are the high standards and quality we strive for. Thank you for your support with all of this.

Enjoy!

Mr Towers, Head

News from Upper Prep

As we race towards half term, Year 7 and Year 8 continue to impress the staff with their enthusiasm and work ethic.

Year 7 enjoyed a fantastic trip to Battle Abbey with Mr King and Mr Smith on Tuesday and then used this immersive experience to write a piece of descriptive writing later in the week.

Our Year 8 Captains have been very busy. It has been great to watch them developing their leadership skills this week. Dylan and Delilah introduced the Harvest Festival service on Thursday, Henry, Reuben and Ben accompanied Year 6 children to Legoland on Friday, and Charlie created a superb slide show presentation for our House Poetry Final on Monday.

James has ensured the Common Room has been well used, as well as leading by example in mountain bike club and our Sports Captains, Mateo and Philip have enjoyed supporting the younger children with their games lessons. Tom, Delilah and George as Drama Captains, will accompany me to Petersfield Wardrobe in half term to help choose costumes for Shakespeare in Love. Our Heads of Houses, George, Alfie and Josh continue to offer help and support to all in their houses by updating the notice boards and encouraging children to sign up for house swimming!

It was such a pleasure to see the children engage with parents so confidently at our Open Morning today. We had so many lovely comments about our polite and friendly tour guides – who are all clearly so proud of their school. Well done Year 8 – you demonstrated the very best of Barrow Hills today.

Dates for your diary:

October 14th: Maths Information Evening 6pm – 7pm

October 15th: Year 7 meet some of our Governors

October 17th: Year 7 at KESW for a very special Bridewell Ceremony

October 17th: Break up for half term

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Mason, Head of Upper Prep

News from Prep

Year 6 had a wonderful day at Legoland today, combining hands-on learning with a healthy dose of fun and adventure. An update will follow soon, but from all accounts, the children represented the school beautifully and made the very most of the experience.

Our Open Morning today was a great success, and I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone involved. Our pupils were outstanding ambassadors – welcoming visitors with confidence and warmth, and showcasing the family atmosphere that makes Barrow Hills such a special place. Feedback from visitors was overwhelmingly positive, with many commenting on the sense of community that radiates throughout the school.

Year 3 also had an exciting week, welcoming The History Man for an immersive workshop on the Vikings. The children were captivated by the stories, artefacts, and hands-on activities, which truly brought their topic to life. It was wonderful to see their curiosity and enthusiasm shining through.

Sport has been another major highlight this week, with a fantastic House Swimming gala on Monday kicking off a busy few days of fixtures and events. It’s always such a pleasure to see the children demonstrating great team spirit, perseverance, and encouragement for one another – both in victory and in effort.

Finally, a huge thank you to all our families for your generosity in providing supplies for our Harvest Festival. All proceeds have been donated to Godalming Community Store, who were deeply appreciative of your kindness. It was particularly heartwarming to hear the following message from them after some of our Year 5 children helped load the donations into their cars:

“We were still smiling when we got back to the store about the enthusiasm of your young children.”
What a lovely reflection of the compassion and community spirit that we value so highly at Barrow Hills.

Warm regards,

Miss Tyrrell, Head of Prep

News from Pre-Prep

Thank you for the super effort everyone made in donating to our harvest appeal this year. All your generous donations provided the perfect backdrop to our harvest festival assembly yesterday morning. I think we all had ‘Cauliflowers Fluffy’ stuck in our heads for the rest of the day! From poems and artistic head dresses to singing, our Pre-Prep children treated us all to a wonderful performance to start the day. A particular well done to our youngest performers, Kindy and Reception, who attended their very first wider school assembly.

It was an incredibly busy Open Morning for prospective parents this morning. I was immensely proud of how well many of the children in Pre-Prep spoke to some of our visitors about what they were doing during their tours of the site and spoke with such clarity about the tasks they were working on.

Congratulations to Sammy (Year 2), Ariella, Annabelle, Indy, Luca, Valo and Parker (Year 1) who have all been so busy earning house points for their houses that they have managed to achieve their Bronze Award before half term. A special well done to our Work of the Week recipients who have been beautifully blending in phonics, demonstrating determination and resilience in lessons, and showing such commitment towards their reading, both at home and at school. Fantastic effort, Alice (Rec), Indy (Year 1) and Sophie (Year 2).

A week today, Friday 17th October, is our Open Classroom for Kindy, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. The front door will open at 3pm and you are invited to visit your child in their classroom where they can show you around and share their exercise books.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Mrs Barnett, Head of Pre-Prep

School Notices

Year 3-8 parents are warmly invited to next week’s Parents’ Maths Information Evening on Tuesday 14th October, 6pm – 7pm in the Refectory.
This is a fantastic opportunity for parents to meet with the Head of Department, Mr Pretorius, to gain an insight into Maths at Barrow Hills, and for a Q&A session after the presentation to help with any stumbling blocks!

BHCC

Bacon Butties were a welcome treat this morning, and helped raise £143.00. The Bacon Butty stall runs every single Friday, serving a selection of delicious breakfast treats and hot drinks, and is a fabulous meeting point for everyone to catch up at the end of the school week.

Thanks to our amazing team and the community for your support!

Bonfire Night & Fireworks Display

The Barrow Hills Parents’ Association is delighted to invite you to our annual Bonfire Night Celebrations.

Tickets are available to purchase below or with cash at the Bacon Butties Stall on Friday mornings.

https://www.trybooking.com/uk/FJLR

Christmas Card Ordering

Christmas Arts and Crafts Fair

We are excited to announce that we are hosting a Christmas Arts and Crafts Fair on 29th of November 11am-4 pm with over 20 high quality arts and crafts makers as well as food, drinks and carols. We have a few spaces left and as part of our community we would love to see staff, students, friends and family to have a stall or to attend and support our first Arts and Crafts fair.

Please contact our Head of Art- Mrs Waller at rsw@barrowhills.org for more information.