Year 7

Year 7 REPORT

WORDS BY Mr Matt Allen, Head of Year 7

Despite the numerous challenges that were thrown at them, the boys have had a successful year. Lockdown posed its problems, but we stayed connected, kept working hard and kept smiling (most of the time!). It’s usually at this point that I talk about all of the Year 7 trips and team building activities that the boys have enjoyed but, sadly, there’s not much to report here. That said, each tutor group developed their own spirit and character and it was fascinating to see how these identities evolved differently, depending upon the characters within the group. The influx of a very impressive crop of new boys has really enriched the year group and new friendships have evolved and developed.

There were successes to celebrate. Boys gained an impressive collection of Future Skill Merits, displaying all the school’s values - Integrity, Responsibility. Curiosity, Endeavour, and Kindness. Whilst there were not external trips, boys got lots of opportunities for enrichment - they enjoyed Maths Challenges, Geography Walkie-talkie Challenges, Science trips to the Planetarium and Observatory and numerous other activities, throughout the year. There were some great performances in the U13 UKMT Maths Competition, which bodes well for next year’s competition - congratulations to Tony for coming first in the year. There was also a seemingly endless list of wins, placements and commended performances in this year’s Remote Bedfordshire Festival. Congratulations to Charlie, Oliver and Aryan (twice), who also won sections of the Prep School Music Competition. Oliver also won the Handwriting Competition and Harry won the Poetry Competition, closely followed by Rocco and Ralph. Congratulations, too, to Marcus for winning the Boarder of the Year Cup in Eagle House - it’s been lovely to have seen your transformation through the year! There were lots of other successes too, so apologies if I haven’t mentioned you!

As the year came towards its conclusion, 7JG managed to flex their sporting muscles, winning the tutor group relay at Sports Day and then coming out as champions in the much-vaunted Tutor Group football competition on the last day of the year. Not only did they play some excellent football - illustrating the value of playing as a team, not individuals - but they were wonderfully supported, with some amazing cheerleading coming from Mrs Gedye and Cormac!

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Year 7 tutors - Miss Bamber, who joined us in January, Miss Goodman, Mrs Gordon, Mrs Gedye (and her Deputy, Mr Phillips!) and Mrs Travis. Their care, support and gentle cajoling was of huge value to the boys. No issue (ranging from a missing pencil case - usually found exactly where it had been left - to social and emotional worries) was too big or too small for the merry band of Y7 tutors. Of all years, this was possibly the most challenging for tutors to maintain their fantastic support. Maintaining ‘team spirit’ remotely was a huge challenge. Boys weren’t getting the face-toface contact that they thrive upon, and it was difficult to pick up on the hugely important non-verbal cues that boys give. These are the cues that, along with the passing comments and ‘off the record’ chats, say so much about how a boy is feeling, so tutors had to work so hard to find other ways to get the boys to open up about how they were feeling. Whilst things were difficult for them at times, their passion and desire to protect and support their charges was ceaseless and, for that, I am truly grateful.

And so, to next year…

I sincerely hope that life at BPS gets back to somewhere near ‘normal’ and the boys get to enjoy a proper Year 8. They will be top of the tree and, with that, comes huge responsibility. Congratulations to Freddie, Oliver, Eesa, George, Josh, Thomas, Advik, Charlie, Isaac, Kasim, Vir, Lewis and Sam for being made prefects - I look forward to hearing about how well you lead the school next year.

And finally, good luck to Mr Heaney, as he takes over as Head of Year 7 - you’ll do a great job and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have done over the last six years.