The highlight of the week has been one of the highlights of the year – our school Sports Day which took place on Tuesday. Conditions were “reasonable” – light rain pretty much throughout – but from the opening arrivals of the Houses and the parades with the flares to the final announcement of the scores at the end of the day, everyone shined. There was climbing, jumping and some pretty long distances run in the morning before we moved on to sprints, relays and middle distances in the afternoon; there was tug-of-war and cycling, rowing and archery – a new event – to make sure that there was something for everyone and that is important. When the final scores were announced the House positions changed dramatically with Bigg, who had led all afternoon, being overtaken by Matilda with the results received by all in typically buoyant fashion. It was a great afternoon and thankyou as always to our PE department for both the vision for, and the execution of, a great event.

We have welcomed students and staff from our German Exchange partner school this week and it has been a pleasure to have them with us as it always is. We were also delighted to welcome author Jo Cotterill to school on Wednesday. Jo presented to students from Years 8 and 10 on the joy of reading for pleasure and also led a couple of creative writing workshops; she was engaging, interesting and inspiring in equal measure and will undoubtedly have left a lasting legacy with our students. Thank you to Jo for her time and also to the Merchant Taylors’ Company for their support of the visit.

Finally, our Year 12 students have been experiencing a number of activities as part of their Futures Week. The Human Library careers event on Monday was again excellent and thank you to all of the friends of the school who were involved. Thank you also to the Wallingford School Foundation for their support of the residential visit to the University of Nottingham on Wednesday and Thursday which is invaluable as students consider options for their futures.