7 February 2025

Dear Parents,

Nottingham Road is living up to its weather reputation as the heat and thunderstorms give way to cooler mist and drizzle. We were fortunate to host a full day of games on Saturday and our children have acquitted themselves extremely well and enjoyed their sports. It has been wonderful to see the participation in such a wide range of activities from chess to tennis, equestrian events to swimming and even some bobsleighing.

It was a pleasure to host Howick and Winterton Prep Schools at the gala on Tuesday and to see our swimmers put on a superb show. The girls again outswam the boys and I have challenged the losing team to buy each of the winners a chocolate!

On the intellectual front, the Library is becoming a vibrant hub in a prominent setting in the school. Gary Mortimer and Sarah Lovejoy are creating a wonderful space for recreational reading, research and intentional learning from books and also through Chromebooks. Yesterday the library extended onto picnic blankets in Headmaster’s Wood for World Read Aloud Day as the senior children spent time reading to the juniors.

There is space on the library shelves for suitable new literary treasures. If you have any unused recent children’s novels, young adult fiction or contemporary non-fiction books that have been read, loved and are ready for a new audience, the library and will be most grateful for these. Please contact Sarah Lovejoy (sjlovejoy@gmail.com) or have your children bring any donated books to their library lesson.

The staff development programme this term has included workshops, webinars and talks such as:

Behind the scenes the project team have been removing alien invasive plants and will be planting more trees, initially near the Lapa. The refurbishment of Classroom Block 2 has begun and we look forward to the Grade 5 classes occupying these spaces. More prominently, the school shop, yet to be named, is nearing completion.

Here’s hoping that the sun will allow some outdoor activities tomorrow.