Well, it has been a busy week here in School with our ‘special guests’ joining us. There are various regulations in place about how much I am able to pass on at this stage to the community, but I can say that I am very pleased with the findings from the whole process and I look forward to you all being able to read the report when ISI have completed it and it is published sometime in the Summer Term. There are so many great things about the School and I am pleased we have managed to show them to the Inspectors.

Consultation Process

You may remember from previous newsletters that it is my intention to run a consultation process with members of the community to help us plan for the future. In that regard, the first part of this process will take place next week. A comprehensive questionnaire, which we have been working on with the well-regarded consultant’s RS Academics, will be sent to all Senior School parents early next week. It will give you an opportunity to share your experiences and thoughts about the School and also offer ideas about our future. I am, of course, aware you were asked to do a questionnaire for ISI earlier this week but that was brief, served a very different purpose and the School is not given particularly deep feedback or information about the results. The process we will run next week will be much deeper and more formative for the school. It will help me and other colleagues organise the next steps of the consultation process which will take place next term. I should add that a similar process will take place for the Prep School during the next academic year once Mr Scholey, the incoming Head, has had an opportunity to get to know the Prep School well. Thank you in advance to all of you for your forthcoming thoughts!

Of course, the main headline next week is that we will be taking the whole School to Twickenham on Wednesday for the U18 National Vase final. I know we are all looking forward to it immensely and I hope to see a number of you there. We were due to have the biennial inspection of the CCF with various special guests that day, and I am thankful to the organisers for their understanding and flexibility as we rearrange aspects of what would have taken place. Next week we also have Lower Sixth Drama performances on Tuesday, a Music concert on Thursday and MFL plays for the Second Form.

Busy times indeed!

Best wishes,

James Thomas