Category: Head’s Blog

25th November 22

As the World Cup started so controversially in Qatar, our children basked in the glory of England beating Iran so convincingly. I could hear in the playgrounds the children impersonating their heroes, shouting, “I’m Saka” and “I’m Bellingham”.  What strong role models these international players can be to our children, combining self-discipline, teamwork, flair, grace…

18th November 22

How timely it was for us that only last week, the MP for South Staffordshire, Sir Gavin Williamson CBE, lost his Government job as Minister of State without Portfolio. And that this week, a cloud hung over deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, who is the subject of allegations by former members of staff at the…

11th November 22

While our busy world rushes on, The Last Post and Reveille ceremony still takes place every evening, come rain or shine, at the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres. Laurence Binyon wrote the words on a Cornish cliff top in 1914: “At the going-down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.” When…

4th November 22

I was all set to wax lyrical about the School’s Fireworks Extravaganza. What a shame that the weather beat us. Instead, let me ponder another method of playing with fire – the pursuit of Fame.  Living in an age when so many dream of being famous for five minutes – or at a stretch 15…

14th October 22

Several years ago, as Head of a leading Prep School in the south-west, I introduced myself to the poetry of former Laureate Sir John Betjeman, the man who was perhaps most famous for his opening line, “Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!”. Betjeman had written more sympathetically about the charming seaside resort Sidmouth. Being…

7th October 22

For many years this country has seen its political figures being treated like life-sized Punch and Judy figures. Leaders and senior ministers have been lampooned in the press, and (subsequently) roundly mocked by the general public. Of course, their actions may oftentimes have merited a degree of derision, and some moral outrage has occasionally been…

30th September 22

Did you know, that amongst the five of them, the sense of smell is considered the strongest and quickest memory inducer? The wondrous internet tells me that this is because the olfactory bulb and cortex are so close, physically, to the hippocampus and amygdala (both of them huge factors in memory retention). Which probably explains…

23rd September 22

Dolefully, soulfully, our week with the country saying its collective goodbye to the Queen. Chatting to the children on Tuesday, I learned that the many who watched the event were hugely impressed by its pomp and ceremony. As he takes on his new duties, I am sure that we all offer our new king sympathy…

16th September 22

This week as a School community we have watched our monarch take her final journey from her beloved Balmoral, to her final resting place in the Great Hall at The Palace of Westminster.  We have also witnessed our new King, Charles III, deal with the death of his mother whilst travelling the length and breadth…

8th September 22

Welcome back to one and all To say that this has been an historic week is, for once, not an overstatement. On Monday, we got a new Prime Minister, Liz Truss. On Tuesday, she was welcomed to Balmoral by Her Royal Highness. On Wednesday lunchtime, Liz Truss represented  the reigning monarch’s new Government at the…