Thursday was European Day of Languages and to mark it our Modern Foreign Languages faculty organised the fantastic Speed Languages Learning Competition. Student and staff turnout was high, thirteen languages were on offer with the most popular – as voted by students – being Cantonese. It was a great event and is now one of the highlights of the school calendar – very well done to everyone who participated and a thankyou to our MFL team for their organisation of the event.

Other highlights of the week have included the performances of “An Inspector Calls” and “A Christmas Carol” from the Globe players to our Year 11 students to support their GCSE English Literature studies; our Year 13 A Level Politics students visiting the Houses of Parliament and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office; a Year 10 GCSE Textiles visit to the Oxford Botanic Gardens; and today we have the first visit from the Speakers’ Trust team who will be working with our Year 12 students as they prepare for the annual Merchant Taylors’ Company Livery Awards Competition which is always an excellent event.

As I wrote last week, clubs and activities, fixtures and practices are also now fully in action as the academic year moves forward with purpose.