Mr Spanswick's Words Autumn 9

I will start today by thanking you all for your patience with regard to our building work on the Sports Hall. A quick 10 day job is now in its fourth week, and while skips and red tape have been removed to allow pedestrian access via the pathway by the Sports Hall, the works are still to be finished. I am grateful to have received feedback on the effectiveness of our overflow car park - while it is a welcome, if somewhat muddy addition to the school, we will be ensuring that it is well lit to allow for a safe passage to and from the car.

Our Science team have been picked! Mrs Nott and Mrs Carter have been grilling our budding Scientists to see who can represent the school at the upcoming tournament. Well done to all of those boys who managed to get through to the final rounds, and especially well done to William McMath, Will Dixon and Oli Payne who are chosen from Year 6, and Samuel Ancliffe, George Watson and Noah Olikara who made it through from Year 5. I will update you on their progress later on in the term.

With the December very much on the horizon, my focus turns (very willingly!) towards Christmas and the joys that this can bring. Whether you are coming to our Nativity play, the Christmas Fayre or the Carol Service, please ensure that you can, wherever possible, keep several dates free to join in our celebrations. At Christmas time we also look to support families who are not as fortunate as ourselves. This year we will be concentrating our charitable efforts on the Link Foundation. Please click here to view the general outline of our support, and I will write more on this next week, ensuring that we have our pupils very much involved and understanding the reasons behind ‘giving’ at Christmas.

I was witness on Tuesday to some of the best rugby fixtures I have seen this year. Watching the Under 9 A, C and E teams battle against Moulsford and Chandlings was a privilege with Edward Look, Sam Bassett, Caspar Bose, James Jeffs and Jack Johnson really stood out for their performances. Hou Ning Zhu and Thomas Scargill scored some of the best tries I have seen in a long time.

My gallery this week is full of successful pupils who are working very hard to achieve their best. There is also a sneak preview of Archie Butterfield and his parents!

This morning in assembly I gave out numerous merit certificates for acts of kindness, something that I love to do! This balanced the happiness of the receiving an award with the look of disdain from many of your sons when I started to play some opera music at the start. As you know, I always play a wide range of music in our meetings so that the boys can experience some ‘different’ genres…….after this morning’s reaction, I believe I will not turn to opera again for a while!

Have a lovely weekend

Justin Spanswick