After an elongated weekend of sledging, snowman-building, snowball fights, fires and family time, the Great Freeze of 2018 was well and truly over by Monday morning. And so it was that the School sprang back into life after its 3-and-a-half-day weekend, with children (and staff) bounding back in through the door with tales of good fun had (and the odd injury sustained) during what seems to have been an enjoyable and exciting weekend. I hope that you were able to have some fun and to spend some time together, and that you took the chance to make some happy memories during the rare snow-days that we had.
Whilst it is fair to say that Devon perhaps does not ‘do’ snow very well (the empty shelves in the supermarkets and the shut-up-shops in the city were a good – if unwelcome – visual reminder of the difficulties brought to the region by the snow), let it never be said the we don’t ‘do’ rain! After a bright day earlier in the week when it really seemed that spring was finally here, we have had lots of rain in the latter part of the week – but it hasn’t dampened our spirits nor curtailed our plans! Indeed, the School has never been busier nor more colourful: our Year 5s came into School dressed in anoraks and wellingtons to go Exeter Forrest School; our senior instrumentalists trekked to Blundell’s to take part in their Orchestra Day rehearsals; we have had hockey fixtures, netball matches, parents’ evening, Headmaster’s Coffee, a Matthew Locke Society (Chorister Parents’ Association) meeting, 4 Evensongs and a Mothers’ Day celebration in the Pre-Prep; and, biting our collective thumb at the lashing rain, a triumphant re-run of World Book Day today. The weather may have been miserable, but the colour, the costumes, the creativity and the joy (not to mention the sheer inventiveness) displayed by the pupils and their teachers were glorious: I’m not sure what the opposite of pathetic fallacy is (I shall have to ask Miss Cox), but today was surely it.
And so I thought that the Headmaster’s Blog this week should be a celebration of that colour and that joy – and what better way to convey that than through some snaps of the day. To that end (and, I suspect, to much grateful approval) I shall stop writing at this point, and hand over to some fabulous pictures. Enjoy them, and enjoy the weekend.
James Featherstone
