Well, for McArthur anyway.

Here are the scores for the House Competition in the first week.  

Cooper:    1           (+12 -11)

Jenkins:  12           (+16 -4)

McArthur: 17           (+24 -7)

Wood:     12           (+20 -8)

Thus McArthur win tuck this week.

Note that this is a temporary update - the running totals will be moved to the academic section soon.

More updates this afternoon/evening. 

At the risk of being repetitive, on the way back from photographing the hockey I popped into the Centenary Hall to have a look at the final rehearsal. I do repeat - well worth attending.

It;'s going to be good. T Curzon (below) was doing a very impressive performance of Pie Jesu, from Faure's requiem.

Don't worry, though - he definitely won't be wearing his tracksuit tonight!

Today 1S had their first ICT lesson. They had to type out one of the great romantic poems of all time!

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is  sweet
And so are you. 

They then had to find a picture of a rose or a violet on the web, and put it on the page.

Finally they had to change the poem so that it was not quite as romantic - in fact, distinctly deprecating to the female in question!

They were encouraged to do this by copying a pasting and then editing the text, 

Here is a completed one. There are more to be read below - just their altered text is shown.

Roses are evil,
Violets are foul,
Sugar is blue,
And you are a towel.

                                            O Atkins (7.06)

Roses are fat,
Violets are you,
Sugar is goo,
And you are a cat.

                                            H Hussain (7.02)

Roses are revolting,
Violets are dead,
Sugar is stupid,
And you're red.

                                            C Goswami-Myerscough (7.09)

Roses are sick,
Violets are dumb,
I am so cool,
When you suck your thumb.

                                            E Revill (7.06)



                                             

The Headmaster began today’s Assembly by introducing the four new members of staff – Miss Bishop and Miss Moss, who will be working upstairs in surgery, and Mr Alexander and Mr Guyatt, who will work downstairs and with the sport.

He wished the boys a good term, and reminded them to be nice to each other – treat others as you would like to be treated. He also referred to the previously-published anti-bullying policy, and a new section about what to do if a boy is worried about anything at school. These are printed on page 47 of the new calendar.

Mr Smith then spoke about an important omission from the printed calendar. Apologies were made to M Ritchie and H Vernau, who were promoted to Monitor last term, and have not been listed. As some small recompense they stood and received thunderous applause once more from the assembled throng! Unfortunately there is no photograph of this, as AGP forgot to take the lens cap off his camera!

He told everyone about the first School Council meeting, which will take place a week on Friday, at 5pm, in Chapel. When the meeting is over the Headmaster will consider things and report back in the following Assembly.

Mr Smith reminded the boys about running and the importance of not doing it inside or around buildings, or in the courtyard, and the importance of this for their own and others’ safety.

Mr Wild gave out the Music Examination results from the end of last term, 100% pass rate. He also congratulated T Curzon: though he doesn’t have his violin lessons in school, he took Grade VII and gained a distinction.

Mr Anderson explained the arrangements for the Inter-House Cross Country, taking place on Tuesday, 15th January on Spens Field. The first ten Juniors and fifteen Seniors count for points, so there is all to go for. It will be a great start to the House competition.

Continuing the Cross Country theme, the Headmaster then stood to congratulate H Reynolds (11.11), who has been selected to represent Berkshire U13s in the National Cross Country Championships at Nottingham. Well done to him – a deserved round of applause was received here, too! The picture below was taken in the afternoon.

H Reynolds stretching before his first XC session of term. Yes. I know - the others should be as well!

With final encouragement from the Headmaster, the boys then left to begin the term properly with Lesson Three!