15 February 2019

The past two weeks have seen a stream of application letters, interviews and speeches as our Year 10 pupils expressed their ambitions for the role of Head of School.

As ever, my staff and I were incredibly impressed by the calibre of application. Their enthusiasm for assuming extra responsibilities and their original ideas for what they would do with the role were genuinely heartening. I’m very pleased to announce that Honor Roberts has been elected Head of School, with Georgie Davis, Sofia Smith and Lucy Stubbs as Deputies. I’m sure you join me in wishing them all the best when they assume their new duties after Easter. In the meantime, I very much look forward to the process continuing after Half Term as we elect our House and Subject Captains.

Tuesday evening saw the welcome return of our annual Rock & Pop concert: a chance for all keen singers to perform their favourite songs in front of an appreciative audience of family, friends and staff. The evening brought a fantastic display of talent, a real variety of different styles and some beautiful, soulful singing, not to mention the first outing for Class Dismissed, our new staff band! Well done to everyone who took part. Please do visit our Flickr albums for photos of this event and the week in school.

Yesterday saw Key Stage 2 children from local primary schools joining our own pupils in the Willow Theatre for an uproariously funny talk from author, Sam Copeland. Sam’s debut novel, Charlie Changes Into A Chicken, does a deft job of providing plenty of humour while also exploring childhood anxiety. Judging by the queues for his book signing, the afternoon was a real hit!

This very busy week also brought a host of fiercely contested Senior Inter-House Netball and Junior Football matches, a visit to Nursery by the Fire Service, stunning contemporary performances of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet by the Box Clever Theatre Company, a regional Junior Cross Country meet, a GCSE Art and Textiles trip to the V&A and the Royal Academy, our Year 6 and 7 Cricket team progressing to the county finals and a chance for some quiet reflection as Years 7 and 8 visited our local church to mark the start of Lent. Year 9 also delivered your generous donations of toiletries to the Oxford Shoebox project and we end the week with our home clothes day in aid of Meningitis Research – my thanks to all of you who are helping us to support this cause.

At this half-way point through the school year, we now look forward to a brief pause and a chance to recharge the batteries as we head into Half Term. I wish all our families a very restful break.

With best wishes

Dr James Raymond