I very much enjoyed, on Tuesday, taking the pupils on a tour of the Bayeux Tapestry. Looking again at that extraordinary work, I was so touched by all the details both of the nation-changing events leading up to the Invasion and, of course, of the Battle itself, but also of the lovely pictures of everyday life which run along the bottom of the tapestry. The boys were fascinated by the details of horses and axes, of spears and arrows as well as the more personal moments like the touching pictures of Harold rescuing Norman soldiers out of the sea, people who were later to invade his country, and then of the moment he swore upon the holy relics under William’s gaze that he would allow William to be king of England, something, of course, which occurred but only after Harold had taken the throne for himself and then lost it in the bloody battle. On the 960th anniversary of the battle, namely the 14th of October, the British Museum is broadcasting a lecture for schools about the tapestry, and we will ensure that our pupils are able to watch it. If we can get tickets to see the tapestry itself, we will endeavour to do so but they are very difficult to get so I have told the children that they should try to persuade you to take them. The next batch of tickets comes out on 21st October.

Tomorrow, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the founding of the Cathedral Choir, we are holding a “come and sing” Evensong for all Cathedral School alumni. A very large number of former pupils are returning to a lunch at the Pavilion followed by the rehearsal and service in the cathedral. If anyone would like to hear this messed choir in action, they would be more than welcome. I’m very touched that so many pupils, including some of those who left last year to those who left over 60 years ago, will be taking part.

In the cathedral this morning, our chaplain, the Revd Catherine Cleghorn, preached to the boys about the importance of forgiveness. She illustrated her talk with the help of a large collection of hymn books. She got a boy to stand with his arms outstretched with a bag hanging from each hand. These were gradually loaded up with hymn books and, after a short while, the boys’ arms dropped and the bags fell to his feet. The point that the chaplain was making was that if we held on to the wrongs that others had committed against us, they would become a burden to us. Though, and she was keen to stress this, we should not ignore all of these things, the act of forgiveness was in fact an act of liberation for ourselves as well as something important to the person who had hurt us. I’m sure she is right. It is so important for our boys to hear such messages. It was, for the second week running, lovely to see so many parents for coffee afterwards. Do please join us.

Many parents said that they had read my comments about Oxford Open Doors and told me about the many places that they had been over the course of the weekend. I was having a conversation with some of the boys about what the most important qualities of a scholar were. They suggested a number of things including reliability, hard work and mental energy. I think these are all right but I suspect another important quality is curiosity and one of the elements I most enjoy about Oxford Open Doors is the discovery of things that are on the other side of walls and it’s always good to wonder what could be through one of those doors. Another quality which is very closely allied to this, is the importance of noticing things. If you notice what’s going on around you, you will probably always be fascinated by everything, and one of the things I’ve always enjoyed about the pupils here is that they very often notice so much. Indeed, one boy said to me recently: “Sir you wore that tie two days ago - do you have any others?” It’s always good to be kept on one’s toes.