At the end of a regular week in School, I hope we all now realise why we must not take that for granted. With lockdowns, bubbles, isolation periods and the recent death of Her Majesty, regular weeks have sometimes seemed like a distant memory. It is therefore joyous to be celebrating the completion of a regular week, with children happy and busy throughout the School. Thank you to all of the families who contributed to a wonderful Harvest collection earlier this week too; we and the recipients are very grateful.

Thank you also to everyone who was able to attend one of the Meet the Head events we hosted this week, braving either a late night or a cold morning. It was great to meet so many of you and I hope our paths will cross again soon. For anyone who was unable to attend, I understand that a precis of my talks might be circulating on some parental channels – unsolicited but I am told flattering, for which I am grateful! Alternatively, some of you might like to read this recent article. Thank you too to the SVPSPA for supporting me at these events, as well as for organising the events raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support this Friday.

We said we would update you today about the proposal for the school to provide snacks to the children. As mentioned before, the proposal met with an overwhelmingly positive response from right across our parent body. Thank you too for the various comments and questions which have helped us to hone the approach too. So that you can plan ahead, we aim to begin with a trial week in the week before Half Term and we are just finalising the approach and the operation at the moment. We will provide more detail in next week’s newsletter.

Finally, one matter to bring to your attention as we continue to adjust the operation of the site, is that the side entrance to the Dining Hall will be reverting to a fire exit only and should not be used by parents or pupils when collecting children from prep club or late supper or attending match teas; the entrances nearest to the Coles Building (near The Piggy Palace) should be used instead please.

I hope you have a lovely weekend, that those of you who played in the football or attended the cake sale this evening had a good time, and that those of you attending the SVS Open Morning tomorrow enjoy their visit and tour – if you have not booked for the next Open Morning yet, you should do so soon!