It is also amazing how quickly the snow disappears and normality resumes! I was so proud of our Under 11A and B football teams who took part on Monday in the ISA Regional Football Championships. I watched a great deal of the B team game and both Mr Watkins and I marvelled at some of the impressive football that the boys put together. I was especially in awe of Max, Fraser and Ali who worked their socks off all day. Similarly, the A team played superbly and qualified for the Nationals by reaching the final. In the final they were pipped in a tense penalty shoot out, but the whole team deserve much praise for their endeavours. Again, Finn and James stood out for me as tireless runners working hard for the team.

On the sports fields we also had fixtures against St John’s Beaumont and my staff returned from their matches with lovely stories to tell of well behaved and happy Claires Court boys...who also happened to win! Well done to Theo for his two super goals for the Under 11B fixture.

We are without our Year 4 classes in school today - some of them are taking part in a Bushcraft Expedition, others are travelling down to the South coast for a Football Tour. They all looked very excited this morning wearing their new hoodies! I will update you on their progress next week. Mr Barber and Mr Grose have been discussing team formations all week (I think they are a little excited too!) and are very confident of how the boys will get on. Similarly, Mrs Henry has been practising her fire lighting and tracking skills ready for the Year 4 Bushcraft day!

Moving towards the end of term, I should remind you that we have our Year 5 and 6 (along with all choir members and instrumentalists) taking part in the joint concert on Tuesday 20 March. This will be held in the Sports’ Hall at Junior Boys. It is one of my favourite evenings of the school calendar and I am hoping that Dean Richards, my successor, will be able to pop along to see the boys and girls in action. I took him around our school last week and he met some of our younger pupils who immediately warmed to him.

In assembly this morning I gave some of the first purple belt multiplication master awards - many congratulations to Haider-Ali, Tavish and Danyal who have been absolute stars in their maths lessons. In fact, Year 6 dominated awards this morning and it reminded me just how fantastic a year group they are. At Open Day on Tuesday yet again the visitors were effusing praise on our guides mentioning amongst other things their manners, the pride they show in their school and their confidence. And I am glad they are good at this job...they are going to be training our Year 5 boys in this role at our next Open morning!

I will leave you with some pictures of our younger boys who I have been observing around the school over the past week. Happy boys, always learning, always being challenged, always striving to be their Best Self.

Good luck to all our Year 5 footballers at their Berkhampsted tournament tomorrow and I hope you all enjoy a lovely weekend break.

Justin Spanswick