My theme this week is competition. Learning to compete is a vital life skill, and healthy competition is a great method of self-improvement and motivation. Learning to accept when things don’t go your way on the day is an important part of developing resilience, which is a key part of growing up. Equally, learning to be magnanimous in victory and success is all part of the process.
Pre-Prep Sports Day yesterday afternoon was a lovely event, and it was great to see so many of you there. It is always a highlight to see the Year 8 House Captains leading the little ones out for the House Relays, and to see everyone – including adults – cheering for their House. All, of course, in the name of healthy competition. As ever, my message about the growth mindset applies at a level that even Reception can take on board. Didn’t win the race? What about the next one? What can you do to improve? The same principle applies in every area of school life.
At the other end of the school, we saw a very different form of competition celebrated on Monday evening. The finalists in the 2025 Junior Leonardo Creative Competition headed over to Brighton College. Although the House trophy did not return to us, we won two of the five categories, and Izzy in Year 6 was awarded a Mitchell Prize for Outstanding Creativity. We had much to celebrate both in terms of individual excellence and how our Houses performed overall. By the time you read this, Sports Day for Middle and Upper School will have taken place, where the spirit of competition comes to a head in the Tug of War between the Houses!
Elsewhere in this week’s edition, we have reports from the residential trips that took place last week, and a chance to see the places that you have no doubt heard so much about since they Returned. I hope you have a lovely weekend ahead of the last full week of term.
Ms Elizabeth Lyle, Head