Headmaster’s blog 01/12/2023

As we get ever nearer to the Christmas holidays, end-of-term preparations and events are well underway – our Upper School Play takes place next week (Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th December), our next issue of The Barometer is nearing completion, and rehearsals continue for our Christmas Concert on Wednesday 13th December.

In addition, there are a number of charitable activities for our community to support before term ends, namely our annual shoebox appeal for West London Mission and our raffle. Mr Thornton tells me that raffle tickets (£1 each) will be on sale next week, at Hannah House Reception or via our Charity Committee, who will be coming round to tutor groups. Cash or card is accepted, and the top prize is a brand new Canada Goose jacket (worth around £1000) so you can help a great cause and, potentially, win a great prize!

All of this means that, alongside their usual lessons, our boys have much to look forward to including, in the last week of term, our Christmas lunch, Christmas Jumper Day and Trib charity activities, and staff then making fools of themselves, on stage, in our Staff Pantomime.

The colder temperatures this week make it clear winter is now here, so it seems pertinent to circulate this very useful NHS link to help parents assess whether their child is too ill for school. This NHS resource includes valuable information on common illnesses, symptoms, and guidelines to determine when it’s appropriate for a child to stay home, and I’m sure we will all find it helpful this season, as coughs and colds are so prevalent.

I’d like to conclude this week’s newsletter message with a brief mention of the news, earlier this week, regarding my move to St Albans School in September 2024. As I said to my staff, I accepted this role with very mixed emotions as I feel privileged to have been Headmaster at Wetherby Senior and know that we have a wonderful school with a fantastic community of pupils, staff and parents. Thank you to those who reached out to me, following Tuesday’s announcement, and I’d like to reassure everyone that the remainder of this academic year will be very much business as usual, and I remain absolutely committed to maintaining Wetherby Senior as the great school that we all know it to be.