Governors, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to be able to welcome Sir Michael Savory as our guest of honour. Sir Michael has had a highly distinguished career in the City of London. He has also been Chief Executive of Young Enterprise UK since 2006 – a scheme in which we participate on an annual basis – and, as Chairman of the Britain-Australia Bicentennial Trust, Sir Michael invites our heads and deputy heads of school each year to attend the Admiral Sir Arthur Philip commemoration service held at St Mary-Le-Bow in the City. Admiral Phillip was in command of the first group of settlers at Botany Bay and subsequently at Port Jackson in Australia in 1788 and is regarded by many as the founder of Australia and he was educated at the Royal Hospital School when it was in Greenwich. This year I accompanied our heads and deputy heads of school, together with Paul McCaffery to the commemoration service. It was a great day out and we received very generous hospitality from Sir Michael, which included lunch at the Grocers' Company. And that's not all – a few years ago, as Lord Mayor of London, Sir Michael invited RHS to participate in the Lord Mayor's show. Our band played, we put together a float and that too was a great day out for all concerned. So Sir Michael is a true friend of the Royal Hospital School and it really is a privilege to have him here with us. Sir Michael, you are most welcome.

This has been a year of conspicuous success culminating in a first class report following our recent ISI inspection. Above all else, the report highlighted, and I quote lest you have not found time to read it:

"Pupils have outstandingly well-developed personal qualities; they are ready to become active, responsible citizens who will contribute to society in a positive manner, exercise good judgement and show tolerance, courtesy and respect for others. They are friendly, confident and outgoing and loyal to their house and school. The school very successfully fulfils its aims concerning the development of values and personal qualities.”

I would argue strongly that nothing else is of greater importance than that but you may disagree so here are a few more extracts from the report:

"Standards are high. Pupils are well educated….They are articulate, confident and capable of independent thought. Results in GCSE and A Level examinations over the last three years…… have been high.”

"Teachers are enthusiastic in their approach, have very good subject knowledge and they know their pupils extremely well”.

"The extensive range of extra-curricular activities is extremely successful in meeting the school's aim to develop the pupils' talents and interests to the full”

"The school provides exceptionally high quality pastoral care and support for its pupils.”

"The school provides an outstanding boarding experience which is strongly endorsed by the pupils. They are proud of their houses and enjoy the close camaraderie, the increasing independence and the chance to take on responsibility as they get older. They emerge as confident, mature and self-assured young men and women.”

The report did include some constructive criticism, which we have already begun to address, but the overriding message is that this is a fine school and that we turn out well rounded, well educated, confident and unpretentious young men and women who will be able to make a substantial contribution to society during their adult lives and we can all take considerable pleasure in the that.

This year has also been the first for Blake and Drake in their new guise as junior houses. I am particularly pleased that, not withstanding a few inevitable teething problems, we can reflect upon a very successful year for both houses. The accommodation itself is superb and has "worked” really well and the restructured pattern of the working day has been of great benefit to our Year 7 and 8 pupils. So many thanks to Mike Barraclough and his team in Drake and to Joanna Hewitt and her team in Blake, together with Andrew Evans, Head of Lower School and Hazel Anthony, Senior Mistress for the enormous amount of work that they have done to ensure that the two junior houses have been launched so well.

This year our boarding house refurbishment scheme has progressed with the conversion of Hood and St Vincent. Hood, recently described, by one visitor who knows the boarding school world well, as "the best boarding house I have ever seen,” was formally reopened a couple of weeks ago by Karin Norman Butler, our governor with specific responsibility for the pastoral welfare of our pupils. I was delighted that Karin was able to "do the honours” for us; Karin steps down from the board at the end of this term having completed nine years in office and she has given us a great deal of her time, plenty of common sense advice and above all else great loyalty and support and I would like to take this opportunity to thank her for all that she has done on our behalf.

As you probably know, St Vincent is currently being refurbished; it will reopen at the start of next term and during the summer holidays the ground floor of Raleigh will be refurbished in preparation for its conversion into our new day house.

Whilst the upgrading of our boarding houses over the past few years has been universally welcomed the decision, taken two years ago, to establish two junior houses and the more recent decision to convert Raleigh into a day house have received a more mixed response. I hope that as this year reaches a conclusion those of you who doubted the wisdom of converting Drake and Blake into junior houses feel less exercised about the matter and, similarly, in a year's time those of you directly affected by the decision concerning Raleigh will also be happy with the way things have worked out. I am not insensitive to the irritation and upset that is caused when restructuring of this type occurs and I am therefore very grateful that all those of you at the sharp end of these changes – pupils, staff and parents – have made them work, even if in some cases it's been through gritted teeth!

So St Vincent will reopen at the start of next term as a fully refurbished boarding house and Raleigh will begin its life as a day house and, for the time being, our boarding house refurbishment scheme will come to an end. I do, however, anticipate that the top floor of Raleigh will be refurbished in a couple of year's time as numbers in Raleigh grow. Meanwhile, Cornwallis is currently receiving something of a face lift but a fully fledged refurbishment of the house is not likely to occur until the balance of day pupils and boarders has reached some sort of equilibrium and that may well take several more years.

Of course none of the boarding house refurbishment scheme or indeed the creation of our magnificent new music school would have happened without the financial support of Greenwich Hospital. The programme has taken 5 years to complete at a cost of £18million and I would like to thank Martin Sands, the Director of Greenwich Hospital and his predecessor John Chadwick for their support and generosity.

This has been a truly remarkable year for our musicians. We have been treated to a rich programme of high class instrumental and choral events and it all reached a wonderful climax last December when our choir, numbering a massive 140, performed at The Royal Albert Hall accompanied by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of John Rutter. Getting there was no easy feat and I'm not referring to the coach journey down the A12 and into London but rather to the long and intense rehearsals with John Rutter during November and December. But it was all worth it. The two concerts performed in front of packed houses, including large numbers of enthusiastic parents and friends, were hugely successful and will long be remembered by all those pupils and staff who participated. As you probably know there will be a repeat performance this year at The Regent theatre in Ipswich. It's amazing to think that this year our own Carol Service, the Admiralty Carol Service and the National Seafarers' Service in St Paul's all felt like routine occasions. As ever our music making has been inspired by the incomparable Peter Crompton together with his team of Paul McCaffery, Roger Jones, Katie Peacock and numerous peripatetic teachers. Very well done to them.

It has also been a year of wonderful drama. Jekyll and Hyde this year's play was another stunning production masterminded by the self effacing Simon Warr. The set and special effects were spectacular and the cast very ably led by Henry Laurie as Jekyll, Charlie Lambert as Hyde, Jemima Watling as Emma and Jenny Manwaring as Ludy Harris, acted danced and sang with remarkable professionalism. In the more recent past, our junior pupils staged Dandelion Time under the direction of our new Head of Drama, Melanie Bloor-Black, and that too was a splendid production. The costumes produced by Debbie Hitchen were amazing (especially the sea cucumbers) and almost every pupil in Years 7 and 8 took part either on stage or behind the scenes. My thanks and congratulations to all concerned but especially to Simon Warr and Melanie Bloor Black.

On the games field we have fielded large numbers of school teams and in addition, house leagues have continued to flourish. Reece Topley's progress as a cricketer has continued – he has already represented Essex at 2^nd XI level – and recently he was able to get his own back on Kevin Pietersen by bouncing him in the nets. Seb Green, Claire Cuddihy and Georgia Tindale competed in the National Schools' Cross Country championships; Charlotte Shelley (high jump), Rupert Powell (400m), Jonathan Ilori (triple jump) and Paul Dowding (javelin) have all qualified for the English Schools' Athletics championships; sports' day itself was a fantastic occasion – RHS at its best; we came a very creditable 4^th in this year's Devizes to Westminster canoe marathon with Alex Minshall and Chris Myatt becoming the first RHS crew to break the 19 hour barrier; Toby Eaton played for the Prep Schools' National Barbarians rugby team and Owen Herbert played for the Midlands at under-18 level; Ben Davies will be taking part in the European Championships during the Summer holidays, sailing a 29er and, in addition to these individual highlights, I can report that our 1^st and 2^nd XI cricket teams won 19 fixtures between them and our U/15 rounders team captained by Laura Brown was unbeaten.

In short, sport remains an integral part of life here at RHS and it brings a great deal of success and satisfaction. It all requires a huge amount of effort and commitment from a large number of staff, often our wonderful long time stalwarts Les Thompson, Don Hawkley, Jeanne Wilby, Paul Surzyn, Chris Herbert, Clive Rennison, and Simon Warr under the direction of Paul Hardman and Catriona Herbert. Sport is also particularly well supported by a large number of our parents. So to all those of you concerned, many thanks for your wonderful encouragement; do please keep appearing on the touchline – you are always very welcome.

There have been all sorts of other highlights throughout the year:

· We have had a series of splendid dinners including the Nelson House Trafalgar Night Dinner when Sir Alan Massey, Second Sea Lord was the guest of honour;

· We have also had a series of excellent parades including two superb sunset ceremonies all choreographed by John Snoddon and Roger Jones;

· 20 pupils have achieved their gold DofE award;

· We have raised £13,000 for various charities half of which will go to our specific school charity The Woolverstone Project; £2,000 of that money was contributed by this year's Head of Community Action, Rob Henderson; Rob raised the money by being sponsored for taking part in the Jurassic Coast Ultra Run – 3 marathons in 3 days along the Dorset coastline – what a remarkable achievement! Very well done to him and the CAT team led by Barry Hocking;

· The Summer Ball on the theme of "Diamonds Are Forever” was fantastic fun for all involved and we managed to raise £12,000 on the night itself for our new Annual Fund largely as a result of the amazing generosity of a number of parents;

· Our CCF has continued to thrive under the command of Colonel Mark Godfrey with the support of a large number of very willing CCF officers and pupil NCOs;

· Over 170 pupils, staff and parents took part in our ultra mini and mini marathon, won convincingly by Josh Pearey;

· Over 20 parents, pupils and staff completed the Great East Swim held at Alton Water a couple of weeks ago;

· We held our own election campaign earlier this term which was won in some style, i.e. with 52% of the votes, by Tim Mac representing the Green party. Tim's masterful and heart rending reference to the plight of polar bears proved to be irresistible to the electorate;

· And last, but certainly not least, Lizzie Green secured herself a place to read English at Hertford College, Oxford.

And my personal champagne moment in all of this, without doubt was Henry Laurie's remarkable solo performance in our recent choir concert. Henry may be an agricultural hockey player, but he is a wonderful baritone.

So it has been a year to remember; indeed a year, as I said earlier of conspicuous success, but the tragic and untimely death of Sarah Lee last December was an terrible blow, all the more so because Sarah lost her life as a result of someone else's reckless and irresponsible behaviour. I mention Sarah because it's right that I should do and lest, in the business of our own lives, we have already begun to forget the pain that her parents will still be feeling each and every day; and also because I would like to acknowledge publicly how much I admired the manner in which Garry Ravenhall and the rest of the art department conducted themselves at that awful time. Sarah was a real delight and in just a few months here she touched many of us with her vitality, her spirit, her energy and her talent. I am very pleased to let you know that, as a result of the generosity of pupils and staff, a garden in memory of Sarah will be developed by the art block during the course of next year.

Today we bid farewell to a number of long-serving staff, all of whom are retiring... though not necessarily by nature! Pat York, our dentist, has been here for 18 years. Pat has always scraped, drilled and filled my teeth with the greatest of dexterity and, although he has usually compared my knashers unfavourably to the rest of my family, it has always been a pleasure, if that's not a stupid thing to say, to have been treated by him. I trust that Pat's other patients have also regarded him as a figure of benevolence rather than torture.

Tony Nicoll and his wife, Lil, leave us after 10 years of outstanding service. As Property Services Manager, Tony has had responsibility for the school estate, and he has also played a critical role in our £18 million building programme. No matter what the challenge has been Tony has approached all that he has done with skill, diplomacy and a most remarkable degree of unflappability, no doubt derived at least in part from the experience of submarine command. It really would be hard to overstate how much respect and admiration Tony has commanded here at RHS; he is a tremendous chap. Tony's wife, Lil, has also been employed here part-time in our reprographics department, and together with Tony has been very much part of the community.

Janet Fuschillo has given us 12 years of fine service; for much of that time she has been at the helm of Hood House, but she has also been a member of our Business Studies Department and has been, for many of our girls, a fabulous aerobics coach. Without wishing to encourage any gossip or mischief-making, I can reveal that Janet and I go back a long way. We worked together at Dover College in the 1990s so I can say from plenty of experience that Janet is the most charming person you could ever wish to meet. She is loyal and supportive and instinctively puts other people first. I am delighted that although Janet is retiring, she and her husband, Paul, will be resident in Holbrook and I am sure that we will maintain close contact with them.

Charles Stewart leaves us after 10 years in post as Chaplain to return, together with his wife, Mairi, to their roots north of the border. Charles has been an outstanding Chaplain. At a time when the church itself has been wracked with division and doubt, under Charles' guidance the Chapel and Chaplaincy here have remained very much at the core of this community. Our services are vibrant and well-attended and during Charles' watch, over 300 pupils have been confirmed. Charles has always emphasised the importance of engaging pupils in services so, for example, each Thursday morning over the past decade a Year 7 pupil has spoken from on high in the pulpit and Charles' has had the uncanny knack of picking up on some sort of problem and dealing with it brilliantly in an address in Chapel. In addition to being the Chaplain, Charles has also been President of the Common Room, an RS teacher and Master i/c bagpipes. Charles' direct and robust approach has occasionally ruffled a few feathers, and I suspect that, thanks to Charles, anything to do with eggs will forever traumatise Martin Warren, but we can all be very grateful for Charles' service to this community particularly when there has been a crisis. Mairi Stewart has been ever present at Charles' side – indeed Charles and Mairi celebrated their 40^th Wedding Anniversary two weeks ago – and I would like to thank Mairi too for all that she has done over the past 10 years, specifically in support of the choir but in the more general sense as the Chaplain's wife.

And finally, we bid farewell to Chris Chick who retires after 108 terms at RHS. Chris has served under no less than five headmasters; he has been an integral part of our Science Department as a highly capable teacher of physics for as long as anyone can remember. He was also until recently chairman of the staff social club and bowls club. I am particularly pleased that we are able to wish Chris well in his retirement. A few years ago he faced a serious illness from which he has now made a full recovery, and it really is a pleasure to see him in good health as we bid him and his wife, Jenny, who has also been a regular part-time employee here at RHS in our school Library, a long and happy retirement.

Let's give our retiring member of staff, Pat York, Tony & Lil Nicoll, Janet & Paul Fuschillo, Charles & Mairi Stewart, Chris & Jenny Chick, together with our other leaving staff, Jed Cawkwell, Victoria Lillingstone, Charlotte Anderson, Caroline Edson, Franziska Kuhn, Geeta Maheshwar & Ian Mitchell, a very warm round of applause.

What next? In some respects a period of consolidation, by which I mean that it will be nice to return to RHS this September without any part of the school being a building site, and you will be pleased to hear that there are no immediate plans for any further re-structuring. But no organisation of this type can ever believe that the job is done if it is to progress. We need to raise the school's academic profile and aspirations so that we achieve greater success, particularly at A level, and ideally at Oxbridge level too; we need to forge better links with our former pupils in the same way that we are now doing with our Parents' Association; we need to prepare ourselves for greater autonomy as our relationship with Greenwich Hospital continues to evolve; and we need to do more to enhance the school's reputation so that we are regarded as soon as possible as the school in the East of England, and in the fullness of time, as a school with a national reputation for excellence. All this can be achieved and all this needs to be achieved within the ongoing context of providing our pupils with an outstanding all round education uniquely linked to a fine seafaring heritage, and also within the context of producing young men and women who have the ambition and humility to understand that with a fine education comes the responsibility to make a difference through service and self sacrifice. Whatever happens, we must jealously guard our high ideals and we must remain a values driven organisation.

Pupils, parents, staff, governors and friends of RHS all play their part in one way or another in the success of this fabulous school and I thank you all for that. On a personal note I would like to acknowledge the great support I receive on a day to day basis from Ann January, my PA; I would like to thank and congratulate James Lockwood, our Deputy Headmaster, on completion of a highly successful first year in post; and finally I would like to thank the chairman Henry Strutt, for his uncomplicated encouragement, advice and friendship.

Ladies and gentlemen we can reflect upon yet another year when much has been achieved and we can look to the future with an ever increasing sense of confidence and optimism.

21 June 2010

 

On Friday evening last week we held our annual CCF Dinner which was preceded by a sunset ceremony and parade. The guard and band performed superbly – indeed it was the best sunset ceremony that I can remember, and it was very well supported by pupils, staff and parents, so if you came, very many thanks for being there. Our guard commanders John Snoddon, Gemma Smith, Calum Wingate and Katherine Murrison, together with our Drum Major Monty Beaton, did a conspicuously good job. The band has a very strong line of trumpets at present as I'm sure you have noticed, together with an increasingly robust baseline being produced by Chris Myatt on his tuba! None of this could have happened without the input of Mr. John Snoddon and Mr. Roger Jones, both of whom routinely do a great job producing outstanding parades. Alex Vrij, our senior RN cadet, introduced our guest of honour, Commodore Bob Mansergh, very well indeed, and Henry Munns did likewise when he thanked the Commodore for his speech. Colonel Marc Godfrey gave all present a first class report of the CCF's activities over the past year. Our cadets have had the opportunity to do all sorts of exciting things from leadership courses to flying. With about 400 cadets and over 20 CCF officers, our CCF is the 10^th largest in the country and we are one of only 18 schools to have RN, RAF, Army and Royal Marine sections, all running at the same time (and in addition, we also have a REME and Pioneer corps).

I am a strong supporter of the cadet movement and in particular CCFs in independent schools, and it gives me a great deal of satisfaction to know that the CCF here at RHS really is one of the very best in the country. Commodore Bob Mansergh (educated at Haileybury College and Southampton University), is currently Head of Reserve Forces and cadets and is based at the Ministry of Defence in London, and I know that he was particularly impressed with the pupils and staff he met during his brief visit and he spoke in glowing terms about the strength of our CCF.

On Thursday last week we had this term's Board of Governors' meeting. The Board of Governors meets three times each year (i.e. once a term), and is supported by a number of Sub-Committees (Education, Finance, Property), all of which also meet, once per term. As far as the school's governors are concerned, RHS operates increasingly like other independent schools (this was not previously the case because the school was effectively ‘governed' by the Director of Greenwich Hospital), and I am very grateful for the tremendous support that our Governors give to us. One of our Governors, Karin Norman-Butler, who has particular responsibility for the pastoral welfare of pupils, will be standing down at the end of this term having served the school for nine years. It was particularly fitting that on Wednesday evening, Karin was our guest of honour at the official re-opening of Hood House. The house itself looks fantastic, the girls were in very good form and Nicola Mann, Housemistress, spoke very well indeed – in short, it was an excellent ceremony!

I trust that if you are a regular reader of these blogs, you will have picked up by now that although, as with all organisations, there is plenty of the routine, it is very rarely the case that a week passes at RHS without something of genuine interest occurring! With just two weeks to go before the Summer holidays, I'm just hoping that the sun will keep shining and that our examinees will keep working – as ever, there is much to do.

You will, no doubt, be interested to read Lee Menday's report in Assembly on The Great East Swim:

On Saturday a number of enthusiastic staff & students took part in the Great East Swim 2010. Some 3000 competitors took part in this 1 mile open water event.

The conditions could not have been worse with gusts of 30mph, rain and enough chop to make anyone seasick.

It would be unfair to single out any one swimmer, because all those who took part achieved their goal of swimming the challenge. What I would urge you to do is speak to them all and hopefully they in turn may inspire you to have a go next year.

Congratulations and welcome to a growing elite group within RHS:

Darren Abbott, School Accounts
Emma Cook, Swimming Coach
James Cullen, Teacher
Sophie Braybrooke, Marketing Director

Ella Walker	Cameron Allen
Freddie Fergusson	Matt Davidson-Brett
Sophie Roman	Ellie Dowell
Ali Evans	Annie Murrison
Rhys Evans	Alex Minshall
Lynsey Choules	Jade Hope
Katie Rae	James Rae
Sarah Mannion

7 June 2010

 

Friday prior to the half-term exeat (28 May) was a red-letter day! Divisions was a great success. The inspecting officer, Colonel Matt Jackson, RM, was genuinely impressed with the parade and even more impressed with the pupils he met. After Divisions I visited the Art Department to see this year's GCSE and A Level examination pieces – they were terrific! The quality of the work really is superb. The day concluded with our "Diamonds Are Forever” Ball, It was a wonderful occasion and a significant sum of money was raised for our new "Annual Fund”. Jasper Corbett (father of Felix and Laetitia) did a brilliant job as the auctioneer – I suspect that without his powers of persuasion, we would have raised considerably less money! The Ball was organised by Sophie Braybrooke and Katherine Alexander, so a particular thanks to them, and a huge vote of thanks also to the parents and friends of RHS who supported the Ball providing prizes for the auction of promises.

The half-term exeat was a welcome respite and it was good to be able to enjoy the Suffolk Show, along with many other people connected with RHS, in glorious sunshine. The break finished with an excellent function held in the walled garden at Holbrook House organised by the RHS Parents' Association. It was a great occasion, very well attended and even a bit of rain didn't dampen the atmosphere. Very many thanks to the RHSPA committee for all their hard work and also to the jazz band under the direction of David Bolton for providing some excellent entertainment. It is now time to get back to the "chalk face” – there may be only four weeks to go before the end of term, but there is much to do between now and then, not least the small matter of school and public exams.

My address to the school in assembly on Monday 7 June….

A brief article in last Wednesday's Daily Telegraph revealed that a runner who was thought to have recorded the fastest time ever for a participant aged over 65 in the London Marathon, took a 10- mile short-cut. Anthony Gaskill, 69, crossed the finishing line in this year's marathon in just 3 hours and 5 minutes. He was to have received a plaque in celebration of his outstanding time but plans were abandoned after an analysis of the second half of his race revealed that he would have had to have run it in under an hour – a feat that even the world record-holder, Heile Gebrselassie, or our own Mr. Evans, could not match.

Mr. Gaskill who is from The Wirrall, Merseyside, admitted that he took the short-cut but said that he was injured and never considered himself to have completed the race. I'm not sure that I believe that.

Nevertheless, I do have some sympathy with Mr. Gaskill. On the day that he, Mr. Evans and Heili Gebrselassie, along with thousands of others, were running the London Marathon, I was plodding round the mini-marathon here at RHS. It was highly tempting to drop off the parade square down to the finishing line without doing that final lap around the Drift, but Mr. Simmons was on hand to prevent any such skulduggery and anyway, I would like to think that I and the rest of you, who participated, had sufficient integrity and self discipline to complete the race in its entirety. I did short-cut in one respect however – my training regime; a few gentle jogs in Lanzarote during the first week of term, proved to be wholly inadequate, hence my disappointing 57^th place in a little under 1 hr 40 mins. I even had to walk for a couple of hundred yards, something that I have never previously done in any race of any length.

We all short-cut from time to time and sometimes it's a perfectly sensible thing to do. Not every job requires the long route. Only pedants dot every "i” and cross every "t” every time and many a journey is improved by taking a shorter, quicker option, but it is generally the case that, although a short-cut seems like a good idea at the time, it invariably results in disappointment or embarrassment at a later date.

The highlight of this past week was the Choir Concert which was held in the Chapel on Saturday evening. The Choir was in fine voice and there were some excellent solos (Elspeth Peacock, soprano; Oliver Peacock, organ; Jemima Watling, soprano), but the outstanding individual performance was given by Henry Laurie. Henry has a truly magnificant baritone voice – I do hope that he continues to sing after he leaves school at the end of this term. My thanks as ever to Peter Crompton, our irrepressible Director of Music, Paul McCaffery and Katie Peacock for all they did to ensure that the concert was such a great success.

Incidentally, earlier on Saturday afternoon I saw Henry Laurie batting with great gusto for our 1st XI against Framlingham and on the subject of cricket, two of our pupils James Kerr (2nd XI) and Josh Allday (U13A) both scored centuries against Framlingham – a great achievement.

Divisions on Sunday was, as usual, a fine occasion. It was a particular pleasure to welcome our inspecting officer, Captain Will Martin, RAN. Captain Martin is currently in the UK as Australia’s naval attaché. Like all the other Aussies I’ve met he was sport mad and excellent company. I’m sorry that I was unable to watch the final of the 20/20 Cricket World Cup with him later in the afternoon! (For the uninformed, England trounced Australia).

Two unusual sporting events took place last week. We had our first inter-school golf fixture for at least a decade. Clive Rennison (master i/c golf) took our team to Felixstowe Ferry to play against St. Joe’s. We lost the fixture 1-5 but nevertheless, it is good to be able to report that golf is slowly but surely being resurrected here at RHS.

We also entered an equestrian team for Her Majesty’s Services Team Jumping Competition at the Royal Windsor Horse Show which took place over the weekend. I know that our riders acquitted themselves particularly well with Alice Dryden leading the way with a clear round. My thanks to Sue Tansley.

Public examinations are now well and truly underway and in spite of the various sports/activities/music concerts etc., which are taking place, I am very pleased to let you know that our pupils are now very much focused on matters academic.

I had a very significant birthday last week. I am very grateful to Peter Crompton, the Director of Music for announcing at Friday morning’s congregational hymn-singing practice that I was celebrating my 40th birthday, which was not quite right, as I was born in 1960!

This has been a week to remember culminating in an excellent concert given by our Band on Saturday evening under the direction of Roger Jones, Bandmaster. The concert consisted of a wide variety of music finishing in traditional style with Crimond, Sunset, the Britannic Salute, Heart of Oak and our very own march, Holbrook. The Band was in fine form, as was Roger Jones (plenty of corny jokes!). The highlight of the evening was Highland Cathedral featuring Bradley Fenton as the solo piper, but all of our pupils who took part deserve a very special thanks for putting on such a good show.

On Thursday evening under the chairmanship of Marc Godfrey, Head of Politics, we held a ‘Question Time’ in the Burns Recital Hall – a key event in our own election campaign. The candidates (Jacob Campbell, UKIP; Henry Munns, Labour; Lizzie Green, Lib Dem; Cameron Allan, Conservative; and Tim Mac, Green), faced a variety of challenging questions from a large and sometimes vocal audience. They all acquitted themselves very well indeed. Voting takes place later in the coming week, shortly before the General Election itself.

On Saturday, as usual, I spent much of the afternoon watching our pupils perform on the games field. Charlie Boci was a "class above” batting for the U14B team against Gresham’s (we won easily), and Owen Herbert hit a very rapid 16 (4, 6, 6, 0, out), as we overwhelmed Gresham’s at 2nd XI level. Meanwhile, away from home our 1st XI also won comfortably – our cricket is thriving.

On Friday evening I attended this year’s Lower Sixth Form dinner – the food and the company was first class. I was very well looked after by Lucy Nutt, Maudie Cousins, Stella Jung and Lottie Thompson; all very impressive young ladies. What really struck me however was the very pleasant congenial atmosphere – staff and pupils mingling and conversing with each other without any sense of awkwardness. It was a marvellous experience.

My most quirky duty this past week was to attend a local Parish Council AGM with the two Heads of School, Kirsty Brown and Charlie Lambert, in order to receive payment from the Parish Council on behalf of Greenwich Hospital, for use of the Reade field. The Reade field is in the heart of Holbrook behind the Co-Op. It is leased to the village (a 99 year lease dating back to about 1970) for the princely sum of one Suffolk reed per year – the ultimate peppercorn rent! Charlie and Kirsty were presented with the reed, which I think is now in Charlie’s study; I trust you won’t spend it all at once!

Nearly all of our pupils have returned to RHS following the travel chaos at the start of term; needless to say, my own extended holiday has not gone unnoticed, especially by Roger Jones who took every opportunity to mention it during Saturday evening’s Band Concert.