Michael Hall Parent Portal

Friday Flyer - 21st November 2025

Dear Michael Hall Families,

Thank you to all of those who have expressed their enjoyment in reading the Friday Flyer so far this year. I am enjoying sharing my journey through the thoughts and themes in my first cycle of life at Michael Hall School. Next week I will be reflecting on my first Advent Fair which I am looking forward to this Saturday, with my mum and sister in tow to share the experience.

This week’s Flyer will deviate from my earlier musings, reflecting on the past week or so and an important theme. Previously I have written about the theme of familiarity and how this can be a sense of strong security for us all, but how this must be managed and nurtured with care and sensitivity lest the old adage come to the fore. There is a strong link between familiarity and trust, particularly in our school community and my thoughts over the past week have been occupied by this.

I would like to start with expressing my thanks to all of our parents for trusting us with the education and development of your children. To entrust another set of adults with your cherished children on a near daily basis requires a real faith that they will be safe, secure and nurtured in their education as individuals. It is not something that I or my colleagues take lightly, regardless of how routine and normalised this process may seem on a daily and weekly cycle.

Through the successful days in school, I feel that there is a strong sense of trust developed between the adults, enveloping the children in a strong and secure environment. However, challenges in this trusting relationship arise when things go slightly awry, which is normal given that the development and learning of children is rarely linear without any ups and downs. It is in these moments that the strong levels of trust built up over time must be at their most robust. Like a strand from the willow tree, we must be able to bend and sway in the wintry winds yet still recover to our stable state unbroken.

Our trust is seen at its strongest when our children feel and see that all the adults around them care. Where our expectations are aligned through word and deed. Where they see the adults talk about them with their best interests and welfare at the heart of everything we do. Where we share with them why we meet to discuss them, their progress, their behaviour and their future; all of this within a trusted group of adults around them. I have experienced these meetings and conversations this week and they are deeply valued, keeping the children at the centre of our discussions and actions. It is these types of conversation and meeting that fuel the continued development of our school and the strong links with the community.

I look forward to continuously strengthening the trust between Michael Hall, our parents and the community through direct conversation, arranged meetings, parent events and wider community circles.

I hope to see many of you on Saturday at the Advent Fair!

With warmest wintery wishes.

Stuart McWilliams
Principal