Dear all,

I was warned about February before I moved to Sutton Valence. Freezing, snowy, icy, damp, dark….. I was told. That has certainly not been the case so far (apart from the drizzle this morning which has now passed as I type). We had another wonderful sunset (that you can see on my Twitter feed here) on Tuesday night and the crisp clear skies have been a veritable delight. I wonder what will come next!

Tomorrow I look forward to welcoming a number of Year 5 students and their parents from the Prep School who are having a mini Open Day. The children, of course, come to the Senior School often for Swimming and other activities, but tomorrow will enable them to see much more of the school in action. I hope they enjoy themselves.

In the Headmaster’s Assembly today, having heard some lovely Vaughan-Williams from Upper Sixth Former Joseph Gillett, our Debating team gave some of the examples of the excellent speeches they have given in this term’s English Speaking Union competitions. At the end, I shared some thoughts with the school from James Shone who you may remember has visited us a number of times before. He shared a profound message in this tweet last night (https://twitter.com/SVS_Headmaster/status/1489329950868090890?cxt=HHwWlMC9reLslKspAAAA) about grasping opportunities. There are so many on offer here at School and I hope we can all make the best of our time in this community. I also attended Junior Assembly at lunchtime (see tweet) and gave out lots of medals and chocolate to a number of pupils as well as having a little chuckle at Mr Carr’s excellent jokes.

We have one week until Half Term and a lot to cram in – the Junior pancake race, a UCAS event for Upper Sixth parents and the Fourth Form Drama devised pieces event look like highlights among many things. This place continues at a great pace.

Best Wishes,

James Thomas