We have been overwhelmed with all of your support for our recent initiatives - the food advent boxes,
the cake sale and tombola in aid of The Charlie Waller Trust, and the Children’s Cancer Run. Thank you
so much for your generosity - it is greatly appreciated.
We were delighted to welcome Mr Jonathan Anderson from Merchiston to give our Prep School
Assembly, this week. He talked about the importance of kindness and ‘paying forward’. I felt very proud
to think of all the things we are doing both in school and in our own families to consider others, and
particularly those less fortunate than ourselves.
Every term has certain ‘pinchpoints’ - for children, staff and parents. It seems these are largely
unavoidable, and no amount of planning or preparing can eliminate them entirely. For children it can be
pressure of examinations, assessments, an external commitment or even a change in the usual routine,
and for staff it is largely linked to increased workload at times due to report writing, additional marking
or planning for a particular event.
Personally, I always sense the Autumn term ‘pinchpoint’ in the last two weeks of November, you may
recall I mentioned this in an update a couple of weeks ago. It is heartening to feel that we as a
community have moved through this, and are now looking forward to the utter joy of Christmas in a
prep school. Our decorations are up; I cannot deny the actual process of this was a little chaotic on
Monday evening, but it was also a lot of fun. Classrooms, corridors and dormitories are fully bedecked
and the homemade paper chains (everywhere...) never fail to bring a smile to my face. I normally hold
on for the start of December to start thinking about Christmas, but I cannot deny this has not been my
approach this year. We have had lots of amusing conversations at school about whether we are part of
the ‘November or December Tribe’. Thankfully, we are all now on board and looking ahead to the
remaining weeks of term with warmth, excitement and anticipation.
I wanted to take this opportunity to clarify the start time of the Christmas Parade, which is 3.30pm.
I had indicated the start time would be 3.00pm, but we have pushed it back a little - I do apologise if this
causes any inconvenience. We will issue further information regarding timings for this, in next week’s
update. Accordingly, we will aim to stagger year groups and also collection times to make the whole
process as smooth as it can possibly be.
To confirm, parents will be invited to purchase a raffle ticket when they arrive for the tombola. The
prizes will be displayed and collected at the big speed bump, which will signify the end of the Parade.
All proceeds of the raffle will go to The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust. If you would like to find out more
about this charity, please look here. We are also going to award a prize for the best decorated car.
I am writing this on Wednesday, and this afternoon we are running our own Children’s Cancer Run. This
event is one we always try to support and as it was unable to go ahead, we have decided to organise our
own. I am grateful to the staff who have organised this and are also helping to oversee it - no doubt
there will be some muddy knees at the end!
I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Our boarders are participating in ‘The Darkness’ - it sounds
terrifying, but is essentially a gigantic game of hide and seek in the dark - the hiding places they find are
always ingenious.