2 October - 6 October marked National Libraries Week: a week dedicated to celebrating the role and impact libraries have on the wider community. 

Harrow High School celebrated this week with a series of events, kicking off with the first ever Read-a-Thon. Lasting the entire week, students were challenged to spend as much time reading in the library as possible with a Waterstone book voucher at stake for the winner of each year group. 

A curve-ball was thrown half-way through the competition when Ms. Rajeev and Mr. Power joined in, promising to donate their reading minutes to some deserving students. After five days of solid reading, we came out with our five winners who all together spent an astounding almost 17 hours reading in the library! 

Please join me in congratulating the winners: 

• Elizabeth S (Year 7), 

• Anika (Year 8), 

• Jemimah (Year 9), 

• Prachi (Year 10) and 

• Shrey (Year 11). 

A big thank you to all the students who participated for a whopping total of 1 day, 14 hours and 31 minutes spent reading! 

Miss R Zvobgo

Librarian

The new City Year team is delighted to be joining Harrow High. This year's volunteers are Shai, Elize, Mann, Hannah, Ebun and Anna. They will be supporting learners in Year 7-11 in lessons and in 1 to 1 mentoring sessions as well as running clubs which this year include homework, cooking, fitness, debating, art and chess. City Year mentors, in their distinctive red jackets, are volunteers who serve Harrow High School for the year. They will also be working with learners in different initiatives to help with improving reading ages such as First Start, Corrective reading and Lexia.

Mr K. Zane

City Year Leader

The school hall was buzzing with excitement and the feedback from staff, learners, parents and carers stating that they found the evening engaging and informative. One parent said, "This is good event! We got so much information, we have so much to think about."

An exhibitor was equally positive saying, "It’s so good to have learners and their parents attend the event together, the conversations that are had are so much more meaningful."

Ms M Bowen

Head of Student Development

At Harrow High School we celebrate Black History Month every October. This year’s theme was “Saluting our Sisters” and we began with Ms Barrett speaking  in assembly about some of the achievements of black female leaders and activists. 

Excellent learning is at the forefront of all that we do and with that in mind, subject teachers have delivered special lessons/activities focused on acknowledging and celebrating the experiences and stories of women of the  Black community and the huge impact they have had on all of our lives. 

As always, displays that celebrate our community’s diversity have been put up throughout the school, including a permanent one, special music played on the corridors and a celebratory meal was prepared by our wonderful canteen staff on Wednesday. 

In a well attended talk to celebrate Black History Month Shai Forde from the City Year team gave learners a historical tour of Barbados and its history of slavery, its links with Britain, Africa and the famous pioneers who fought to bring about emancipation and then independence. We heard about key Barbadian or "Bajan" personalities including Rhianna, the Prime Minister and President, learnt about flora and fauna and the tourism landmarks and the sport which inspired most questions from the eager audience: road tennis. Afterwards there was a taste of the island with snacks and drinks which elicited a very favourable reaction from attendees. 

Thank you to our librarian, Ms Zvobgo for her invaluable technical and logistic support. Well done and thank you, Shai, for bringing Barbadian history and culture to Harrow High School so successfully. We hope everyone enjoyed the celebrations!"

Mr C Preda

Associate Headteacher