My goodness, it's a long time between entries. The excuse is to have
found a mountain of work up with which to catch if you'll pardon the
refinement, after the HMC conference. A large portion of the time was
spent writing references for medical and Oxbridge applicants and
ensuring that their UCAS forms were properly filled in. No matter how
many references I write, how many forms I read, there is always just a
little tremor before I click on the button which sends them out into
cyber space. That click may be the moment that begins the rest of their
lives, determines their fates, a virtual bungee jump into the future.
While I was away, it was a good time to be a Year 8 pupil. They all
had two days doing vigorous things in Ardnabannon, getting soaked and
smelly in the process. I wish I hadn't been away and had had the
opportunity to visit them because the excitement was still palpable when
I talked to my own Year 8 class. Stephen Robinson came back with a
mountain of clothes left behind and I was there when he emptied them out
on to the Assembly Hall floor for the perusal of the few boys who
actually realised they had lost something. The smell lives with me.
And there was also a most exciting robotics day for a few classes,
when they had the heady experience of writing computer programmes which
gave life and movement to small robots. I think back to my time in first
year and to a past which really was a foreign country.
Speaking of fateful moments, we will welcome 210 P7 pupils and their
parents into the School on Saturday next for our orientation day in
preparation for the AQE tests. I don't relish it and the first thing I
say to the parents is "Sorry! Sorry that we've found ourselves in a
stand-off with DE; sorry that we are sticking to our selective guns;
sorry that we have to put you and your children through this." And, of
course, much else they need to know. For the children, it's a chance to
introduce ourselves and to say that it won't be as bad as you think and
that we'll make it as easy as, in the circumstances, we can.
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