Thus Dickens describes Marseille at the beginning of his great novel Little Dorrit. To read again this incomparable prose reminds me of what it has felt like to have been at Christ Church Cathedral School during the course of this week. As I said in the relatively cool surroundings of the Cathedral this morning, I want to thank the staff so much for navigating their way through these exceptional few days. I’m very grateful to them indeed as conditions in the School have not been optimal. I also want to praise the boys who have been brilliant in dealing with these very difficult conditions. They have remained calm and sensible. I suspect that they have learnt a lot about dealing with extremely hot weather. In these sorts of conditions, learning how to remain calm and how not to fall out with others is essential and I’m very proud of our community.

Rarely in this country, do we get the sensation that we are walking into a wall of heat, but when I have left No 3 Brewer Street and stepped outside I have almost reacted physically to the oppressive nature of the heat. Extreme weather like this is so profound that it makes us feel that the place which we are used to is somewhere different. Another of my favourite literary passages comes to mind from the chapter In “Cider with Rosie” by the excellent Laurie Lee about Snow - and just thinking of the chapter makes me feel less hot! The chapter begins in the following way: “Winter was no more typical of our valley than summer, it was not even summer’s opposite; it was merely that other place and somehow one never remembered the journey towards it; one arrived and winter was here. The day came suddenly when all details were different and the village had to be re-discovered.” I feel as if we have been on a rather taxing journey to somewhere else with an utterly reliable crew of fellow travellers. We have all learnt something, even if the lessons that we were all planning on teaching haven’t quite gone to plan! Thank you very much for your support for what we have done – I’m very grateful and let us enjoy the last week of term in a rather more conventional manner!

One of the rearrangements which we had to make during the course of this week was having to postpone the play Treasure Island. It was impossible to spend days out on the Meadow rehearsing, especially given the number of cutlass fights and general piratical action which would have been involved. Mrs Fairhurst and Mr Davies managed to undertake rehearsals early in the morning and some back at school under the chestnut tree. As such, we will have a performance on Wednesday which I look forward to tremendously. Despite the heat, it has been a pleasure to hear some piratical cursing and some sea shanties echoing around the School.

While all of these things have been going on, a number of pupils have been taking Music exams. I was introduced to the examiner at the end of a day and a half sitting in the Walton Centre and he looked almost liquid. He did say, however, what a successful time he felt that he had had. I look forward very much to hearing what those results were. I am very impressed by the professional way in which the pupils went about taking these exams.

I look for to seeing you all at Speech Day. Our speaker this year will be Lord Ricketts who was Ambassador to France, the country’s first National Security Advisor and the Permanent Secretary to the Foreign Office, ie the senior civil servant advising the Foreign Secretary. I’m sure he will speak with great interest and I look forward to hearing what he has to say. I’m also looking forward to the Head Boy’s speech too. Throughout the term Hugo has been telling us all to sit down in different languages, something he has done with great applomb and expertise. Today he did so in sign language- sometimes actions speak louder than words - and I say this as someone who has made their living out of words!

I hope you have a relaxing and slightly cooler weekend.