After a whirlwind last fortnight of the school year I have spent the last two days catching up with all of the things that should have been done before the end of term. Schools are very different places without the students. It is easier to accomplish certain things but it is nowhere near as interesting.
The coming weeks will see a good deal of building work on both of our campuses. The Junior School Green Pitch is being laid as I write and the contractors will probably be back home to Germany before the end of the day. On the Senior School site the air conditioning units are being fitted in the Braille building, there will be a massive amount of earth moved to lay new pathways around school and work continues apace on the Redgrave building. If you are strolling along the river bank in the coming weeks do not be alarmed if it looks as if the school is being dug up or demolished, it isn’t. I’m told that all will be ready for our return in September. The Redgrave project is likely to be concluded at the end of September and will open once all of the necessary safety checks have been completed.
Thank you to all parents, guardians and grandparents who came to the Junior School Final Assembly and to the Senior School Prize Giving. Both were appropriately joyous occasions and it was great to be able to send off our Year 6 and Year 13 students in such style. Thank you to all our musicians and other performers who contributed to make it such a memorable occasion.
Over the course of the holidays I hope that students are able to rest and recuperate. I’d encourage all to read a book (or more) and take some exercise. If the current excellent weather holds then I believe that we will have a memorable summer indeed.
The School remains open all through the summer period. At times there will be a skeleton staff so questions and queries may take a little longer to answer than normal and for this we apologise. The first set of public exam results will be out on Thursday 16th August so do look out for our posts regarding exam success. The GCSE results will be published a week later. Schoolblazer will operate their service throughout the summer holiday and would advise earlier rather than later orders to guarantee delivery for the start of term.
We look forward to welcoming students back to school in September. I hope that all travels are safe and enjoyable and that holidays are suitably memorable. I am looking forward to burying myself in a good book under the shade of a suitable tree, swinging gently in a hammock (at least for an hour or two…). I am also hoping to avoid seeing the back to school adverts in shops until the end of the month!
Nick Hammond
Headmaster