DEAR PARENTS
3RD JULY 2020
One of my favourite Roald Dahl books is Matilda – I am currently having the pleasure of listening to it in the car with Imogen on the rare journeys we’ve managed to take during lockdown. I am particularly drawn to it at this time of year because of the following quote: "School teachers suffer a good deal from having to listen to this sort of twaddle from proud parents, but they usually get their own back when the time comes to write the endof-term reports. If I were a teacher, I would cook up some real scorchers for the children of doting parents. 'Your son, Maximilian’, I would write, 'is a total wash-out. I hope you have a family business you can push him into when he leaves school because he sure as heck won't get a job anywhere else.' Or if I were feeling lyrical that day, I might write, 'It is a curious truth that grasshoppers have their hearing-organs in the sides of the abdomen. Your daughter, Vanessa, judging by what she's learnt this term, has no hearing organs at all.' ... A particularly poisonous little girl might sting me into saying, 'Fiona has the same glacial beauty as an iceberg, but unlike the iceberg she has absolutely nothing below the surface.” I am delighted to let you know, having read every child’s report, that we have no children to whom such descriptions might apply! Indeed it was an absolute pleasure to be able to read about the everyday bits that, as Head of Junior School, I don’t get to see, be that small victories such as learning a maths concept or spelling pattern or instances where the children have shown particular enthusiasm for a topic. What is clear is that all of them have made great strides this year and, while there are always targets for the future, they can be proud of the progress they’ve made; not least in the face of the restrictions of lockdown. The distribution of reports marks the end of the year. In many ways, it is finishing in a normal fashion with us marking many of the usual festivities such as Sports Day, Awards Meeting and Leavers’ Meeting (more about these later) and yet it will bring to an end what is the oddest school year of my life – and I hope also for the children.