I was lucky enough to see some of the Under 11 and Under 10 games on Wednesday against Davenies. And what drama! Having pulled off a number of exceptional saves as goalie for the Under 11 A team, Jamie Smith went one better than most of his contemporaries... he scored a goal straight from a goal kick! Renowned for having a solid boot when kicking from hand, Jamie struck the ball exquisitely and lofted the ball over the opposing keeper (on our biggest pitch too!) to put his team two goals up. In assembly this morning I have challenged all school keepers to try and equal this record! I also awarded our first ever certificates this morning for Team of the Week, Mr Barber’s new initiative. Please see our celebrated players in Mr Butterfield’s words. I was very impressed when watching the Under 9’s play, with James Frize and Junwen Liew showing great determination, and Ross D’Alessandro pulling off some fine saves. This all bodes well for the rest of the season.

Many congratulations go to our General Knowledge Quiz teams that were picked at the start of the week. All boys went through a gruelling process to find who from each year group would represent the school on Monday’s General Knowledge festival which takes place at Rickmansworth. Well done to William McMath (Yr 6), Tommy Beever (Yr 5), Joel Smith (Yr 4) and Peter Babcock (Yr 3), and I will bring you news of their efforts in next week’s bulletin.

Our school choir have been very busy practising for their concert at the O2. I joined the choir (not singing!) to listen to them in action at a rehearsal earlier in the week, and they sound so professional! Mrs Stevenson has done a super job with them, inspiring them to greater things, and I am sure their adventure to London will be an enjoyable and successful one.

There are a number of events coming up in the next few weeks, so please do keep up to date with your school calendar, whether it be sporting fixtures and weekend tournaments, Bushcraft expeditions, Year 4 onward schooling presentations, and of course, our charity week. We will be supporting The Link Foundation and Rosie’s Rainbow again for our fundraising activities, and I know the boys have already started planning some of their events! Talking of money raising, thank you so much for those who contributed to The Link Foundation’s Christmas fund, where over £600 was raised. Mr Denton is also working hard for a charity event, and he is running the London Marathon this year. Please find out more here and possibly help him in his cause.

My highlight of the week has been spending a bit of time with Reception and Year 1 boys in class, watching them develop and learn in so many fun ways! When taking visitors around the school, they have been astounded at the boys wonderful manners, their mature and happy dispositions, and also at the quality of the answers they give to my questions. They really do know a lot about Dinosaurs and Lego, much more than you might think! A special mention must also go to Tom Gordon-Smith in Year 6 who withstood the pressure of having not only his class, but also his Headteacher and visitors to the school, watch as he calmly demonstrated at the front of the class how to calculate an exceedingly tricky multiplication of a decimal problem. He did it perfectly and earned a number of House points!

And finally to chess! The Delancey school challenge starts very soon, and with over 40 boys ready to test themselves, Mr Hogg is going to have a busy next couple of weeks!

I wish you all an enjoyable weekend.

Justin Spanswick