26 March 2021

I have felt incredibly privileged this week to join a wide range of inspirational lessons across the Junior and Senior School. It was a joy to share in pupil's enthusiasm for learning across the curriculum and as ever, I end the week with the deepest admiration for academic endeavour, creativity, curiosity and sense of fun that define the pupils and teachers approach to their daily life at school.

This sense of fun and curiosity was strongly on display in our youngest pupils in Nursery this week as the children spent a wonderful time learning about minibeasts. They have enjoyed minibeast stories, bug hunts, had a visit from an African Land Snail and learnt all about minibeast habitats. They were even fortunate enough to witness a butterfly emerging from its cocoon in the Nursery Chrysalis station. We were also lucky to capture this on video and it is truly mesmerising!

Our Year 4 pupils practised their Chemistry skills, visiting Miss Thorpe in the Senior Chemistry lab, as part of their investigation into gases. They were truly enthralled watching Miss Thorpe demonstrating some thrilling experiments that involved popping, flames and exploding volcanoes!

Pupils throughout Junior and Senior School have been exploring Drama, with Years 7-9 enjoying looking at some of Shakespeare’s finest insults! In addition, Scarlet Wilderink from the Watermill Theatre led drama workshops on Teams on the plot and characters of Shakespeare's 'A Mid-Summer Night's Dream' on Wednesday. Pupils in Key Stages 1 and 2 and Years 7 and 8 enjoyed participating in activities to explore the movement and facial expressions of the diverse characters from the comedy to celebrate Shakespeare Week. Meanwhile, our Year 11 pupils have been working impressively hard on their scripted GCSE assessment, preparing some incredible monologues. We have been staggered by the dedication and commitment shown by these Year 11 pupils – well done to them all!

Have a lovely weekend!

James Raymond
Headmaster