Mr Bolderow’s Blog Week 4

I hope that this email finds you safe and well.  It has been another good week with lots of shout outs from the staff and excellent work from the boys.  I have had good work shared with me, from Oscar Frederiksen’s computer animation to explain how different variables change pressure (tune into my assembly later for a short snippet), to Lorenzo creating an avatar for Mr Pimlott to use.

I also want to mention the excellent work of Harry Singh Virdee in Year 11 and Monty Cortazzi in Year 12 who have helped West London Mission sort and deliver groceries to homeless men in the area earlier this week.  The men are usually accommodated in the night shelter on Seymour Place but have all been relocated to hotels in the area. They distributed bags and bags of groceries generously donated by Waitrose and I know they hope this is the first of many such deliveries.

As I mentioned in assembly last week, we are saying goodbye to a year group for the first time.  Their commitment to the School Community continues to inspire me – Louis Jegou has offered to tutor younger boys in Maths over Microsoft Teams.  I hope that any younger boys who need help in this area will take Louis up on this very kind offer. A normal Year 13 farewell would include an opportunity for them to talk with staff, share some memories and say goodbyes – Zoom, which has become the tool for all sorts of communicating and socialising, will be the venue for their farewell later today.

Many of the staff have put together farewell videos for our Year 13 leavers to share some stories and memories of the year group (I particularly enjoyed the story about Mr Warner convincing a Duke of Edinburgh participant that they needed to bow to the cows to pass safely through a field) and pass on some words of advice for the future (“never pretend to be more well-read than you actually are”).

I was struck by two things watching the videos – firstly the affection the staff have for the boys and secondly that the boys are taught by a fascinating, interesting, caring and funny group of teachers.  Watching the videos reminded me how lucky I am to have the workmates I have and how much I am looking forward to working with them in person in the future.

I hope you enjoy the weekend.

Best wishes, Seth