Wallingford School lies at the heart of its local community and it was important this week to attend a conference organised by Wallingford Town Council on the topic of Heritage Crime. I attended with some of our Year 13 student leadership team and their contributions and insight were invaluable as they reflected on living in a town with such history and getting the message out to everyone – both young and old – that this history needs to be valued and looked after. It was also a pleasure to meet the relatively new manager of the Waitrose in Wallingford on Wednesday and to talk about our school and its role in the town. Two different examples but they illustrate the importance of the local civic fabric to our school. Wallingford Town Council are in the process of establishing a Youth Council for students aged 15-18 and I would encourage anyone who might be interested to apply – information about how to do so is displayed on posters around the school and has also been sent out through our social media feeds.

A highlight of this week was the Art and Photography visit to the Tate Modern in London which sounded brilliant as always. The team are also running a Design a Christmas Card Competition which is linked to House Points and are about to launch the annual Merchant Taylors’ Photography competition which always generates a very high standard of entries.

Finally, I am observing a lot of lessons at the moment, particularly of Year 7 classes and I have to say how impressive they are in everything they do. They are probably getting a little tired five weeks into the start of their busy Wallingford School lives but their enthusiasm, manners and sheer desire to do well are simply fantastic.