It certainly feels like autumn has well-and-truly taken hold this week, with a chill to the air and the leaves on the trees beginning to change into their deep autumnal colours. It is a time of the year I enjoy very much. I also had the pleasure of enjoying a couple of fantastic evening occasions towards the end of this week. Thursday's whole-school House Night saw Memorial Hall packed with pupils and staff who spent the evening Ceilidh Dancing. Any initial wariness quickly waned, and within minutes the hall was filled with the happy sounds of our enthusiastic amateurs stripping the willow, virginia reeling, and much else besides. It is very important to me that, alongside all of the serious things we do, school should also be fun, and we should always make sure we do things because they are simply that: fun. Thursday's reeling night was a perfect example, and for those in the 6th Form there will be another opportunity to practice their moves at the Burns Night supper in January. The following evening, Mem Hall was transformed from dance floor into quiz hall, as almost 100 parents and Upper 6th pupils took part in the annual Friends of King's Bruton Quiz Night. The inimitable Rev Bev was our quizmaster, and as well as enjoying a highly entertaining evening of quizzing, there is no doubt that the inner competitiveness of our teams was never far from the surface: in the end the top five teams were separated by only four points! It was also an occasion where our Hospitality pupils were our servers for the evening, and as ever they were an impressive balance of personable and professional, and their presence added an extra something to the occasion, as it always does. My thanks to all involved in what was a very successful night, and especially to Mrs Bedford who led the organisation and running of both of these events.
We also had a very active and successful week of sport. On Wednesday afternoon we hosted eight prep schools for an U10 rugby tournament. As well as giving the opportunity to watch lots of good rugby, played in a fantastic spirit, what was particularly pleasing to see is that the afternoon was run almost entirely by our senior rugby players. This not only gives them the leadership experience of managing and arranging a large tournament, and dealing with visiting parents and staff, but it also provided one of those invaluable moments when pupils young and old interact in a natural environment, each benefitting from the other in ways they probably won't realise until they are older. Our senior girls' hockey teams have had a spectacular week. After a dramatic victory over Millfield (on penalty flicks) on Tuesday saw them progress to the next stage of the Independent Schools Cup, they then had a superb 6-1 victory away at Dauntsey's two days later to move through to the next round of the other cup competition we enter: the T2 National Cup (the cup in which we reached the final last season). As if that weren't enough, the girls then won all of their games at the regional indoor qualifiers on Friday afternoon, including big wins over Canford and Marlborough. Very well done to everyone involved, and we wish them well as they move through these various competitions. Coincidentally, Mr Eriksson and I are travelling up to London on Wednesday to attend the ceremony for the Independent School of the Year Awards, in which we are a finalist in the 'Sporting Achievement' category. We are up against some of the biggest 'names' in England for this particular award, including Millfield, Rugby School and Uppingham, and while of course it would be lovely to win, whatever the outcome we should take the opportunity to reflect with pride on our sports provision, particularly as our nomination explicitly recognises our ability to blend excellent participation rates with top-level performance. It also gives us an occasion to feel grateful to have a pupil body who throw themselves so wholeheartedly into school sports, and to such good effect, as well as staff who are dedicated, skilful, and caring. Win or not, we won't ever lose sight of that.
As you read this our Third Form will be en-route to Northern France and Belgium, for our annual Battlefields Trip. As well as being a great opportunity to spend time together as a year group, it is also of course a powerful and important trip, not only giving pupils the chance to develop their understanding of the history of the war, and its poetry, but also to reflect more widely on concepts such as duty and sacrifice; concepts which are sadly becoming increasingly prevalent in today's world. During their time away the pupils will also reflect on the 56 members of the King's community who were killed in World War I, and the many more in conflicts since, something we will soon be doing as a school as we begin to build towards Remembrance in the early part of November. I wish our Third Form an enjoyable and thought-provoking few days, and my thanks go to the staff accompanying them for all of their hard work in organising and preparing the trip.
Matt Radley
Headmaster
