We’re only 2 weeks in to the new academic year and already so much has happened. We began the Michaelmas term with 28 new boys – just over a quarter of the school – of which 20 are full boarders. It is only the very little ones who are not doing any boarding yet (although one or two have already been to ask me!) but there is no doubt that they will come to it when they, and their parents, are good and ready!
To this end, I am delighted with the work that Ed has put into his new role as Head of Boarding, not least because he has a Boarding blog on this site, so I won’t need to update you on what the boarders are up to – it is all there for you to see and read in glorious technicolor (US spelling, I presume?). They have certainly had a busy first couple of weeks….I particularly enjoyed our Pizza and Camping night on the first weekend of term.
Speaking of the Pizza Oven, I was showing some prospective parents around the school one day last week and when we arrived at the area around Chapel Field, where the shooting range, low ropes course and pizza oven are, the father offered to send me his recipe for pizza dough – it was only when I got back to the office to do a little research, did I discover that he is a very famous chef! The recipe is on its way and I have no doubt that it will make those wood-fired pizzas even more delicious….
In other news, the Monks, Patersons and Knights headed up to London on Tuesday of last week to attend the annual launch of the Tatler Schools Guide 2013. If you haven’t already bought your copy, there is a full page picture (p.83) of the boys in their cricket kit, climbing all over the school Land Rover and, happily, another tremendous write-up of the school…”boys love the boarding (either part-time or full) and the splendid grounds for tree-climbing and den-building….this is one of the cheeriest schools we’ve visited” and so it goes on, describing us as the very antithesis of the modern pristine boring identi-prep. All good stuff.
Anyway, at the Tatler awards at the Dorchester, we were all happily sipping Laurent Perrier (all in the line of duty, I hasten to add) when the nominations for “The Power behind the Throne” category were announced. I can tell you it came as somewhat of a shock that Mrs. Knight was short-listed for the award, no more so than to her! Sadly, she didn’t quite win, finishing runner-up to Mrs. Fenwick at Hazlegrove but it was a great honour nonetheless, although I’m not sure what it says about my Headship!? Mrs. K was only too delighted that she did not have to make a speech in front of 250 Prep and Public school Heads.
Do please read the Boarding Blog if you haven’t yet. You can find it under the ‘Boarding’ tab at the top of the Home Page…..
That is all.