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(The full version of St. Mary's Messenger can be found in the password-
The penultimate week of the school year is coming to a close, though we have still the Rounders and Cricket versus the parents to come this evening, which are ferociously fought fixtures. That’s not just ferocious from the boys and girls, it’s ferocious from the adults too! I am sure there will be a host of great stories come from this evening’s sport just as there have been from previous years. There is also the Upper School Concert at Bishop Grosseteste to look forward to on Saturday. Mr Nowell has been putting all our orchestra, choir, bands through their paces so we look set for a great evening there. Since The Messenger hit the newsstands last weekend there has been so much happen, I barely know where to begin.
We have had two very successful Sports Days, both blessed with good weather for a change. I had to miss the Upper School afternoon at the Yarborough track, which made me sad as I missed not only all the fun and excitement but also my elder daughter’s sporting swansong at St. Mary’s. However, I did watch and greatly enjoy the Y1 and Y2 morning at The Lindum. Thank you Mrs Kelly and Mr Easton for organising two such good events for us. The enthusiasm and passion with which the youngsters compete is inspiring. To them, this is the Olympics. Competing is part of life and they are learning through competition. When they are prep school age the disappointment can be assuaged by the thought that “there’s always next year…”, which is not always true for us adults. Well done all competitors!
The Swimming Gala was another success and a pleasure to watch. The organisers made the gala run like clockwork and the competitors swam well and gave the spectators a good show. For now all swimmers must head for other pools or beaches as there is no swimming club until the Autumn Term. Thank you to those parents who have made sure that the children have their sport and practices (and at such an early hour!).
The transition period is underway as the pupils move between Year Groups, getting
to understand the new routines and the new Form Tutor. We are fortunate in St. Mary’s
because our school is quite small, so the geography and the faces are familiar even
if the details are not. This is good preparation for when the children leave, progressing
to schools of well over a thousand in some cases. The new Houses have been named,
groups allocated and all that remains really is for poor Mr Daly to write the timetable
for 2010-
Monday last gave us a new and wonderful experience: the Year 6 children took to the stage of the Theatre Royal to present to the school and their parents a selection of work they have been doing in English or for LAMDA exams, followed by Le Petit Chaperon Rouge (Little Red Riding Hood), all in French. They were all fantastic, really rising to the occasion, showing skill and bravery in acting on a proper stage, in front of an audience. The children from Foundation to Year 5 had the thrill of visiting a real theatre (which we should all do more often as it’s so enjoyable when we do it) and seeing the elder statesmen of the school acting for them. Mrs Howard, Mrs Ford, Mrs Lyons and Mrs English from the teachers and Jane Thorne from the parent body deserve a big London Palladium round of applause from us for treating the school to such a lovely experience.
Year 6 enjoyed a fantastic trip to East Kirkby to have some more practical experience of History and World War II. It frightens me to read that almost all the pilots of The Battle of Britain have gone, it seems only a moment ago that there were still plenty of survivors of The Great War. I hope that the things the Year 6s saw and heard will stay in their memories for a good long time.
We have all heard about a marathon runner’s “The Wall” that fills a competitor with
sometimes overwhelming fatigue when one realises that although there’s about twenty
miles gone, there’s still quite a distance to go. This week has been the teacher’s
Wall. We have not had Miss Muir or Mrs Ford with us for a while (and wish them both
well), so everyone has been feeling more stretched than usual, with a new electronic
reporting system to master on top of the million and one other things that log-
Andy Salmond Smith
©2010 St. Mary's Preparatory School