Senior Reflections Week 5 October 2024

Dear parents,

HMC conference

This week started for me in the grand city of Belfast, where the heads of the schools who are members of the HMC gathered for our annual conference. This event is an important one for us all as heads, not just to discuss the hot topics of the day, but also to be inspired by some forward thinking and charismatic speakers, and, of course, to connect and support each other. Belfast is a magnificent city – with impressive buildings, a fascinating and chequered history, and incredible warmth from the hospitable residents… and their wonderful pubs! We were lucky with the weather this conference, and also with the fringe activities that were laid on for us – including a private tour of the Titanic Experience and also an open topped bus tour which was incredibly interesting. If you have never been to Belfast, I recommend you make a trip sometime…. And if you want to read more of my reflections on the conference and the importance of HMC, you can do so in my blog, here.

Click here to read the Head’s blog on the HMC conference

Open Morning

Whilst I was away, the school has been gearing up for tomorrow’s open morning and I am very grateful indeed for your support in making sure that your children are available to attend to assist on Saturday. Just to give you all advance warning, next year’s major open morning will be on Saturday 27 September 2025. Please ensure that you make a note of this and that your children are available to be here on the day. We do consider that this is a normal school day, and that every member of the school community can be available, unless there are exceptional reasons not to. We do rely on your children to be brilliant ambassadors for the school at open events, and we hope that you will support us in this. We are hopeful for a sunny day tomorrow and look forward to seeing your children (and our visitors) here for a great event.

Scholarships

As you know, we offer a programme of enhanced support and enrichment activities for children who show exceptional talent in sport, music, art and drama, through our scholarship programme. This is open for internal and external applicants for entry to Y7 (11+), Y9 (13+) and Y12 (16+). We welcome applications from your children in the Upper Two, Fourth Form and Upper Fifth years and please note that the closing date is November 2. If you would like to know more, you can read about the scholarships here, and of course our admissions team are always happy to advise.  There will be a talk about scholarships on Saturday morning at the open day, if you wish to attend.

Click here for more info on scholarships

Field day

Looking ahead to next Friday, we have the whole of the senior school off on visits and trips out of school as part of our termly field day activities. We have a host of activities on offer; the Third Form will be exploring the Jurassic Coast on their geography field trip, the Fourth Form are off to Plymouth for a watery experience at the aquarium, the Lower Fifth are off for a residential to Bletchley Park and Thorpe Park, to explore all things STEM, and those in the Middle Fifth and above will be doing adventurous and service activities linked to their Friday 8 programme. I hope that your sons and daughters are looking forward to this opportunity to learn out of school and develop their character with their friends in some unfamiliar settings. I thank my colleagues for giving their time and expertise so readily to ensure that every one of our pupils has a great day next Friday. It is no mean feat getting all of the pupils off site on the same day!

This weekend

As well as Open Morning tomorrow, we have a full programme of sports against Mount Kelly and King’s College, Taunton, and we wish our teams every success. On Sunday, some members of the Lower Sixth will commence their Ten Tors Challenge training programme with the Abbot’s Way Walk across Dartmoor. This is an arduous journey, and great preparation as the Ten Tors training programme starts in the second half of the autumn term. We wish the participants fine weather and comfy boots!

Have a lovely weekend.