This week seems to have flown by! At assembly today when Jack Cairns lit our advent candle for the first time, I had to look twice at the date…..we only have seven and half working days left until the boys break up for their holiday’s, not that anyone is counting!!

This very full and busy week started pretty badly for me when I challenged Josh Sharma to a game of chess in Monday evening’s club. It took Josh (who is seven years old) just under 12 minutes to beat me (or thrash me as several onlookers pointed out)!!! You forget sometimes that these boys are young men, and young men with plenty of skill, ability, and maturity. I will be challenging Josh again, once I have learned some better openings and defensive strategies! Well done Josh!

Congratulations go to a number of our talented students this week. Rayan Rasool has been placed in the top 5 Creative Writers in the National Young Muslim Writers competition, a superb achievement. Joseph Brittain continues to train immensely hard at tennis and he remains one of the top players in the Region, and Nationally. Our Scientists performed very well at the very competitive Science quiz last Friday and came 11th overall - well done to Ollie Payne, Téo Rybak, Charlie Doyle and Samuel Jackson. Congratulations also go to all our Claires Court Scholarship applicants who were put through their paces last weekend at the Senior Boys school - I have been told that they were a credit to their families and their school, making an excellent impression. And I must commend our dramatists who have been rehearsing for the Nativity next Friday. I feel we are in for a real treat at All Saints church, and I hope to see many of you there to celebrate our Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 boys production. This afternoon I was visited by three boys from Reception. Mrs Sullivan brought boys to me because they had showed such maturity and kindeness to their peers when they were hunting for Elves in the Thicket this afternoon. I was so pleased with them and proud of them.

Ben Weymouth’s super creative writing, and my lovely gift from the Year 5 boys…..they have given me a decorated advent calendar. The only catch is that I have to work out an equation for each day of December so that I choose the correct window!!! Brilliant fun, and I have promised not to use my calculator! Finally onto our budding journalists - I was interviewed very professionally by Sam Jeffery last week, and along with Danyal Baber, Nyle Cohen, Jack newton, Rory Saffman and Roudra Bhattacharya who have been scribing during their after school clubs, we can now look forward to reading Claires Court Junior Boys first newspaper of the year. Both Mrs Stay and I are hoping for more Broadsheet than Tabloid!

One of the local charities that we support during our 3 for 3 charity week in March is the Link Foundation, which is organised by one of our parents, Mrs Loughery. The Link Foundation supports underprivileged children in our local area. This year we are asking if you would like to contribute to this wonderful cause by bringing in a present for another child to the school. It does need to be a new gift and not second hand. Please read the important information regarding the Link Foundation later in the bulletin, and please donate if you can.