Mr Bolderow’s End of Term Blog

Dear Parents,

I hope you and your families are safe and well. The events of this past week have been both challenging and rewarding for me as I am sure they have been for you and your families. The challenges included planning our last assembly which I wanted all of our boys to be a part of, but connectivity issues meant this has now moved to YouTube!  Being at home with a young family gives me a chance to reconnect while juggling work and makes me realise the importance of balance! Perhaps the most rewarding thing of the past week was the “Clap for Carers” which was an emotional outpouring of thanks for our wonderful carers in the NHS – an event which put our own problems in perspective.

The boys are to be congratulated on their good humoured approach to remote learning. There have been some hiccups in adapting to the new technology, but the boys have approached it in a positive and diligent way. My heartfelt thanks also go to our teaching staff who have shown their customary diligence and dedication in delivering their high quality teaching to the boys. I firmly believe that all the elements of our value wheel have been displayed across our community during these past few weeks.

Congratulations also to some of our Year 13 boys who have received numerous offers for places at prestigious American Universities including Jack C at Wake Forest, Edouard G at Chicago, and Bennett D who has the choice of four colleges, Notre Dame, Vermont, San Diego and Wisconsin-Madison.  Vadim M received an incredible nine offers including UCLA, Virginia and McGill and finally Sean M, our Head Boy, is fielding offers from Haverford, Weslyan and Emory. These are significant achievements as many of these colleges have very low acceptance rates with only 2% of applicants admitted. I am delighted that our pioneer’s hard work throughout their time at Wetherby Senior has been recognised by universities here in the UK, in Europe and further afield.

Many thanks to the Barometer team for their fantastic work throughout this term where, under the guidance of Ms Bradley, they have ensured that we continue to produce this student-led publication even in the most difficult of circumstances. This is truly something we are all proud of.

We are in exceptional and unprecedented times. Notwithstanding this, we hope that you and your families are safe and well and can enjoy some downtime and rest from devices over the coming weeks. Rest assured, I would like nothing more than to welcome all of the boys back to school in person after the Easter holidays but I think we must try to adapt to our new circumstances as they arise.

With best wishes, Seth