From the Principal #96

Greetings from London during a week of excitement as our wonderful Christmas tree was decorated by the boarders and both Father Christmas and a Snowman appeared, ensuring that they were socially distanced and wearing appropriate face masks. In addition, our Christmas fireplace was set up in the entrance area of the Boarding area, together with a post box for Christmas cards and gifts.

Not only did we see the beginning of the Christmas celebrations but we also commemorated the USA Day of Thanksgiving. The Student Council prepared presentations shown around the school offering information to the students and staff about the origins of the day. This was supplemented by a wonderful Thanksgiving meal prepared by our excellent Catering Team which marked the occasion; the pumpkin pie was delicious!

As November begins to end, we are seeing the final charitable activities linked to our traditional Movember theme. Sean Gallagher and the Student Council Charity Team have been running a RowMo activity, challenging students and staff to time themselves completing 500m on a rowing machine. There have been some outstanding performances across the college and the final race will take place next Monday. Good luck to all those yet to row.

Finally, I am pleased to share with you our latest pastoral developments as two of our members of staff, Mark and Auryn, have completed Sleep Practitioner Training this week through the Children’s Sleep Charity. This training will allow us to develop a School Sleep certificate with the charity, the first in the country, which will allow personalised training for students to improve their sleep patterns, aimed at improving academic performance. This supplements the great collaboration that we are developing at the moment with internationally-published dietician Amanda Ursell aiming at improving the student’s dietary awareness, again to maximise their healthy lifestyles. These are only two areas of our Health Charter that we continue to develop to ensure we remain at the cutting edge of our pastoral practice.

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.

Best wishes

Tom

Thomas Hadcroft, Senior Vice-Principal (Pastoral)