This has been another busy and highly productive week for RHS.  On Saturday morning we held this term's Open Day.  We were visited by 69 families in all – a very healthy total.  The morning culminated with a presentation in the Burns Recital  Hall when our Head Boy, Monty Beaton and our Head Girl, Chloe Crismani, spoke to our invited guests.  As usual they did a splendid job and the feedback which I received from very many parents was extremely positive.

Last Friday our Year 7 pupils were taken to Greenwich by our History Department under the specific guidance of David Barker.  Our pupils had the opportunity to take part in a role play exercise with a character actor playing a sailor from the time of Nelson, and several boys were amused to read an account of a rather unusual cricket match played at Blackheath between the pensioners of Greenwich Hospital in 1796, the prize fund for which was £1,000.  It was unusual because one side consisted entirely of one-legged ex-sailors and the other of one-armed ex-sailors; the ferocity of the game apparently led to five wooden legs being broken.  Despite this, the one-legged team won by 111 runs!

Sunday may have been a huge day for the Premiership football, but it was a much bigger occasion here at RHS when our inter-house 5-a-side football competition reached its climax.  Collingwood ran out as winners in all five competitions (Year 9, Year 10, Year 11, Year 12 and Year 13).  Many thanks to Simon Warr who masterminded the competition together with Andrew Nutton, Chris Graham, Jeanne Wilby and James Cullen, for their regular refereeing, timekeeping and scoring.  I managed to watch the last two finals, both of which were decided by excellent goals, one from Ben Moore (Lower Sixth, Collingwood) and the other from Harrison Jeffries (Upper Sixth, Nelson).  Unlike the last day of the Premiership, no red cards were shown and indeed only two yellow cards were awarded throughout the competition. 

Over the last fortnight our Year 10 pupils have been engaged in a public-speaking competition.  Each house has participated and the range of topics has been extremely diverse with speeches from the deeply political ("the assassination of a dictator can never be justified"), to the light-hearted realm of entertainment ("Hollywood killed the theatre").  All the speeches stimulated a good level of debate with probing contributions from two healthy middle school audiences.  Special mention should go to Francesca Morelli, Tabitha Palmer and Olivia Peacock who were the respective top scorers in the role of speaker, chairman and questioner.  After two initial rounds the four teams that proceed to the final are Collingwood, Howe, Raleigh and Anson – the final will take place on Friday 25 May in the Library.

At the weekend in addition to 5-a-side football we had some other excellent sport.  Our equestrian team (consisting of the three Ainsworths and Chloe Tribe), came fifth in the inter-school jumping competition at The Royal Windsor Horse Show – a splendid result.  Our cricketers had an excellent afternoon against Framlingham winning 5 of the 7 fixtures, and our rounders teams had a similar amount of success also against Framlingham. 

Finally, I would like to mention Tom Craggs-Ward who was last week's duty bugler for morning and evening flag.  He played faultlessly throughout the week so very many thanks to him.

If pride of place last week went to our Band and to Roger Jones, this week it goes to our Choir and to our inspirational Director of Music, Peter Crompton.  On Saturday evening the Choir gave its annual Summer Concert and it was a great success enjoyed, I think, by all those present (i.e. both performers and audience).  The first half included solos from Toby Seabright (baritone) Olivia Peacock (organ) Ben Banks (organ) and Mattie Todd (soprano), all of whom performed with great confidence and musicality.  The second half included some of our greatest church music including "Evening Hymn" by Balfour Gardiner and "O Thou The Central Orb" by Wood (my all time favourite!) with the Choir performing, as is traditionally the case for the second half of the concert, from the balcony at the west end of the Chapel.  Very many thanks in particular to Katie Peacock, our Head of Vocal Studies, William Saunders, our Head of Academic Music-elect for his accompaniment, and of course to Peter Crompton for all that they did to ensure that the concert was so successful.

During the course of the weekend we welcomed back old girls of The Royal Hospital School.  Girls were introduced to the school in 1991 and to celebrate the 21st anniversary of their admission to the school, Lucy Pembroke, our Development Manager, organised an excellent programme of events for our visitors.  We had a good attendance and on the basis of several conversations which I had, the old girls who returned to their alma mater, not only enjoyed the programme of events but were impressed with all the changes that have occurred since they were pupils at RHS.  It was particularly pleasing that ten of our old girls joined the Choir for the service on Sunday morning.

On Sunday afternoon we held our annual Mini and Ultra-mini Marathon.  A large number of boys and girls participated in the event and an equally large number of pupils and staff were en route in support of the runners.  Many congratulations to all the participants and many thanks to the staff who marked the route, but in particular to Les Thompson and Martin Warren for masterminding the event.  The mini-marathon was the only sporting event of any consequence to have taken place on our playing fields following another week of pretty heavy rainfall.  So far this term we have lost 36 cricket matches and in addition, a large number of rounders and tennis fixtures.  I am pleased to report however, that sailing has gone ahead as normal (what's a little rain for sailors?) and on Saturday we hosted and won the Eastern Region Junior Team Racing Regatta on Alton Water.  There was one cricket fixture which took place on Saturday afternoon – our 2nd XI played against Framlingham College 2nd XI on one of our astroturf pitches in a 20/20 fixture, which remarkably ended in a tie, both teams scoring 119 (Nathan Chambers hit a six off the last ball!) – in addition, we have managed to play the odd tennis and rounders’ fixture, but in general our sports’ programme has been severely disrupted.

In spite of the inclement weather, RHS is in good form and I am delighted to report that our Year 11, Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth Form pupils appear to be working diligently towards their forthcoming public examinations.

Pride of place last week went to our Band and to Mr. Roger Jones, our Bandmaster.  On Wednesday the Band had a royal engagement playing in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen when she was at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, before she went on to reopen the recently refurbished Cutty Sark.  The National Maritime Museum, as many of you will already know, was home to The Royal Hospital School before it moved to Holbrook in 1933.

On Saturday evening the Band gave its Annual Concert here in the Assembly Hall.  As ever it was a superb occasion which featured some excellent individual performances.  Tom Precious who played the solo in the final movement of Haydn's Trumpet Concerto, as well as the solo in Sunset, Toby Seabright and Harry Court who gave a memorable duet performance on their trombones in "The Joker" and George Petrides, drummer, who was in fine form throughout the evening.  In addition, the Corps of Drums led by Richard Pooley was highly impressive, as indeed was the Jazz Band and our Sax Quartet.  In short, it was a thoroughly good concert.  Very many thanks to the Band and of course to Roger Jones.

Yesterday the prefects' selection process took place here in and around the Old Music School.  From an original group of 60 applicants, 35 Lower Sixth Form pupils were selected to go through to the final phase of the process.  Each of the candidates participated in two practical leadership tasks (PLTs) and a discussion group as well as being interviewed and making a three minute presentation on a subject of their own choice.  In addition, and to round off the day, the candidates in their groups had to produce a poster which illustrated the qualities which good and bad leaders exhibit, and this was followed by half an hour of physical exercise in wet and dirty conditions on the school's playing fields!  All of the applicants participated in the programme with enthusiasm and commitment and I would like to thank them for putting themselves forward for selection.  I would also like to thank James Lockwood, our Deputy Headmaster, together with Hazel Anthony, Sarah Godfrey and our four Heads of School, Monty Beaton, Chloe Crismani, Luke Jones and Lucy Bailey, for being part of the selection team, but in particular I would like to thank John Snoddon for all that he did to ensure that the programme ran so well.

22 of the 35 pupils who participated have been selected to become new school prefects.  I will be letting them all know in the next day or two on an individual basis whether or not they have been selected, so some will be pleased and some will be disappointed.  To those who are selected I will offer my congratulations and to those who are not, I will remind them that we all face upset and disappointment from time to time and we must learn to deal with it!  To quote Betsy Trotwood from Charles Dickens' masterpiece, David Copperfield, "We must meet reverses boldly and not allow them to frighten us,  we must learn to act the play out, we must live misfortune down!".

On Sunday three pupils from RHS competed in the UK Chess Mega Final Championships at Woodbridge School.  Joseph Barraclough scored 4 points from 6 to finish second in the U13 age category, Jack Cuddihy secured first place in the U13s with four wins and a draw and Sean Cuddihy won the U15s with a superb win in the final round against the U18 champion.  All three pupils have now qualified for the National Giga Finals.

It's been another excellent week here at RHS!

In spite of the inclement weather it has been an excellent first week of term.  Needless to say, most of our sport has been seriously disrupted but the first round of the inter-house knockout cricket competition did take place on Saturday on our two astroturf wickets. 

Highlights of the past week have included the Scholars' dinner on Wednesday evening prior to which Matthew Christmas, our new Director of Teaching & Learning, gave an excellent talk on China, entitled "Stand up China"; the Sixth Form debate between Collingwood and Cornwallis won by Cornwallis with Laura Brown in particular performing outstandingly well; the Lower Sixth Form Diamond Ball held in the Jellicoe Room on Saturday evening (masterminded by Christian White, our Head of Sixth Form together with the Sixth Form Committee, so many thanks to him and all concerned); and our first set of Divisions.  In addition to all the above, the Upper and Lower Sixth Form completed a set of mock examinations, house photographs took place and some practical public examinations began – not bad for the first week of term!

This is the time of year when school prefects for the following year are selected.  This is always a difficult process and this year made even more so by the very large number of applications from our Lower Sixth form pupils – indeed no less than 60 in total.  Inevitably, this means that a significant number of applicants will not be selected and will therefore have to face disappointment - part of life's rich tapestry.  The success of pupils at The Royal Hospital school never ceases to impress me, but I am equally impressed by the manner in which pupils accept disappointment and move on without dwelling on the negative.

I have been reminded this week for all the right reasons what a remarkable school RHS is; we go from strength to strength!

Term is up and running and I am delighted to say that spirits are high.  At the beginning of this term we welcome seven new pupils which means the total school population is 691.

During the course of the holidays many staff and pupils were busy on various trips.  We ran a highly successful ski trip to Colorado, all organised by Rick Trowern so many thanks to him; 14 Collingwood boys completed Duke of Edinburgh expeditions in Scotland courtesy of Jonathan Pooley and Karl Weaver; our cricketers had an excellent tour to Barbados; Olivia Peacock played first bassoon for the Suffolk County Orchestra at a highly prestigious concert at Snape Maltings; Rob Mann, together with last year's Heads of School, Lynsey Choules and Sam Kester, appeared on the Antiques Roadshow (the Nelson portrait which they took to the Antiques Roadshow was valued on the day at £100,000 - I have now been informed on good authority that the picture may be worth £250,000!); Andrew Nutton and Rebecca Van Zee married, so many congratulations to them, and our D/W paddlers did themselves and the school proud by winning all three team trophies, the Schools' team trophy, the CCF team trophy and the overall junior team trophy.  Very many congratulations to all concerned (a more detailed report is available elsewhere on our website).  So all is well at RHS.

During the course of the holidays I passed on the tragic news of Paul McCaffery's death.  Last week Paul's funeral was held in the North East of England and the school was well represented with past and present pupils and staff.  As I have previously announced, arrangements will be made for a memorial service to take place later on this term and it is my intention to send out details to the wider RHS community in the not too distant future.

I trust you all had a very pleasant Easter break.  I look forward to this term being as busy and as successful as ever.