Apologies to all those of you who are regular readers of my blog for last week's "air shot".  Events overtook me and by the time I had realised that I had forgotten to write my blog, it was too late.

I have had an extremely busy past two weeks, not least because we are in the season of admissions/scholarship testing for new pupils, and I have been very heavily involved in the process.  In the first three weeks of term I have seen in excess of 50 sets of prospective pupils and parents, and I have also been part of the team hosting the entrance and scholarship tests, all of which has been time very well spent, and I am optimistic that we will have a significant number of new pupils joining the school in September (we generally recruit in the region of 170 pupils at various levels, but principally into Year 7, Year 9 and the Lower Sixth Form).

Much of my time in the recent past has also been taken up preparing for and attending important Governors' Meetings (Property Sub-Committee Meeting, Education Sub-Committee Meeting, Finance Sub-Committee Meeting and Strategic Development Sub-Committee Meeting).  All of these meetings inevitably take a great deal of preparation time and it will be no surprise for you to hear that for all Heads, liaising with governors is an important part of the job, and quite rightly takes up a significant amount of time.

Last week I attended an HMC East Anglian Group Meeting held at The Leys School in Cambridge (HMC represents the 'top' 250 boys'/co-educational independent schools.  It is sub-divided into regions and further sub-divided into local groups such as the East Anglian Group).  For the first time, Heads were asked to bring their Heads of School (in our case Monty Beaton and Chloe Crismani), and whilst the Heads had a meeting, a parallel meeting was held for Heads of School.  I am delighted to say that both Monty and Chloe thoroughly enjoyed the occasion and were reassured that the sorts of things they do at RHS as Heads of School, are not dissimilar to their opposite numbers elsewhere.  The two meetings were followed by a splendid dinner held in the upper dining hall at The Leys School in Cambridge, all hosted by my opposite number, Mark Slater.

There is a great deal of effort being placed on raising the school's academic profile at present.  This process is being co-ordinated by the new Director of Teaching & Learning, Matthew Christmas, in liaison with our Heads of Department.  Working parties have been established to review our academic policies and procedures, lessons are being observed, marking is being scrutinised and the sharing of good practice (an educational cliché I know), is taking place.  Sarah Williams, Head of Academic PE, led a first class session last week for teachers on the subject of "Making lessons more exciting/accessible", and she also gave the Education Sub-Committee Meeting of the governors an excellent presentation on work being done within the PE Department.  My own Year 7 pupils are now being subjected to a diet of up to date PowerPoint presentations and instead of saying "yes Sir" when I call the register, they are giving me the name of an island around the British Isles!

No doubt you will be aware that we have been struck down by a virus which has swept through the school community during the first three weeks of term.  Our Health Centre staff have had no less than 500 medical appointments since the beginning of term, and illness has been rife both within the pupil body and amongst members of Common Room.  I am confident that we are through the worst of it, but in the absence of a hard frost, which I have been reliably informed by Anne Thompson, our Health Centre Sister, would help with the situation, I hope that the forthcoming half-term break in a couple of weeks' time will "knock the bug" on the head.

On Saturday evening I attended this year's Parents' Burns Night.  It was an outstanding success so many thanks to the RHSPA, to Sophie Braybrooke and on the night to William Bowry, all of whom made a major contribution to the evening.

As ever, pupils and staff at RHS are extremely busy and in spite of the odd blip, I can report that all is well.