Friday Flyer                                                                                         10th January 2025

Dear Michael Hall Community,

Happy New Year and blessings for a memorable 2025!

This year we know will be memorable for many reasons, not least because we will be celebrating 100 years of Michael Hall School. In thinking about this when I was preparing for the start of the year assembly – Three Kings assembly, which this year was on the 6^th January, I tried to take us all back to 1925 ……

This was a time after WW1 but before WW2.

Food was grown mostly in the UK, so was seasonal and probably organic too. There were no plastics, microfibres or mobile phones, and only 66% of UK houses had electricity by the end of the 1930s. The first Michael Hall School began in Streatham, went to Minehead during the war and then moved here to Forest Row.

The story I told to welcome us to 2025 was about a young boy who took it upon himself to help his family, who had fallen on hard times, earn money for a new donkey. With a heart full of hope, he ventured into a large bustling city. Despite the odds being against him, he did return home with a donkey and more. Hope had indeed helped the young boy succeed in achieving his dreams.

Perhaps this is a year to keep ‘hope’ at the forefront of our vision, as the unpredictable world we live in so often takes us on an unexpected route!

Jacqueline Courtenay
Head of Lower and Middle School 

Thank you for your donations at the Advent Festival of Music!

A huge thank you from the Music Department for the generous donations given following the Advent Festival of Music in December. £737.45 was raised and we are delighted to report that a new flute purchased with some of the monies is already being borrowed by a pupil who had their first lesson this week. All monies donated to Music at Michael Hall go to supporting the musical education of our pupils and students, so if you were unable to give at the Festival, do consider making a donation through the school website at https://www.michaelhall.co.uk/news-and-events/fundraising/support-music

Candlemas Concert on 2nd February celebrating the music of 2 Alumni of Michael Hall.

I am grateful to announce that I will be participating in a concert at the Christian Community on Sunday 2^nd February that celebrates the music of 2 composer musicians who are alumni of Michael Hall. Both of them will be participating in the concert alongside the Elgin Quartet (drawn from BBC Orchestras) and the sublime tenor, James Gilchrist. James is an internationally acclaimed musician and Nick Korth (horn player and composer) is one of the finest players I have been privileged to hear and work with.

Please do support this venture so close to home. It will certainly be memorable. Contact details can be found on the flyer. 

Julian Rolton.