Private Independent Day School for Boys 3 - 13 & Girls 3 - 7, Flexi-Boarding for Boys 8 - 13
Private Independent Day School for Boys 3 - 13 & Girls 3 - 7, Flexi-Boarding for Boys 8 - 13
We hope you enjoy reading these weekly blog posts by our Headmaster, Mr Richard Murray.
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I’m still on a high! I have just spent the afternoon in the Cathedral at the House Music Competition. Our adjudicator was the excellent Mr Wilderspin, Head of Music at St Paul’s School in West London. He spoke about each individual finalist with great insight, and warmth, deploying humour wonderfully.
I was very touched by the pupils’ attitude towards V.E. Day. Given that this happened 80 years ago, it cannot have meant very much personally to any of the pupils. And yet almost all of them arrived, wearing red, white and blue, and in our assembly, Mr. Harrison gave a moving summary of what VE Day meant.
The extraordinary 19 Century Oxford poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, in a sonnet entitled Spring, wrote:
“Nothing is so beautiful as Spring
When weeds in wheels grow long and lovely and lush.”
It’s wonderful to be back. There is no better time in a school year than the beginning of the Summer term with so much to look forward to.
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The last few days have been a kaleidoscope of vibrantly coloured activities. I sit here writing, feeling almost dizzy with the experience of it all.
On Monday, we held a splendid event in the Cathedral. We had 160 primary school children attend an outreach concert. They came from various local primary schools and filled the crossing and both the transepts. Meanwhile their parents packed the nave, looking on as their children sang two wonderful songs.
It was tremendous to see so many of you in the Cathedral this morning to welcome the Dean of Westminster, The Very Revd David Hoyle. I love the fact that parents come to the Cathedral and I would like to say again how very welcome you are.
Book Day is always one of my favourite occasions of the year. Right from the start of the morning, there is an excitement in the air and on Brewer Street all is different.
Today I took some steps which I never thought I would take; they were across the threshold of the new Pavilion. To say that I felt like Neil Armstrong taking his first steps on the moon - “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” - is to exaggerate the moment, but it certainly felt pretty monumental!
Those of you who kindly read my newsletter last week will remember that I was very concerned about what would happen when Captain Robeard and his fearsome pirate crew forced me to walk the plank.
Our speaker today in Cathedral Assembly was The Revd Canon Professor Andrew Davison, Regius Professor of Divinity at Christ Church. He talked to us about the importance of caring about what sort of person you are, and directed our attention to the cardinal virtues which are pictured on the floor of the Quire in the Cathedral, and are well worth having a look at.
Thanks to Michael Crooks and the Parents’ Association, we had a visitation from the History Man this week. The History Man is a phenomenon – a bundle of energy, enthusiasm and ingenuity.
