Congratulations to our Year 8 Junior Leaders for all of the hard work and effort which they have put into organising such an entertaining party for pupils in Years 3 and 4 in Centenary Hall this afternoon. It is wonderful to see our oldest pupils developing such good relationships with our youngest and this does an awful lot to strengthen that lovely family feel which we have at TPS and to make the children in Years 3 and 4 feel properly integrated into the Prep School.
I have been struck this term by how many pupils have been nominated by their teachers for a ‘Learner of the Week’ certificate in assembly, alongside the other pupils receiving certificates in sport, performing arts and citizenship. I also always enjoy very much seeing pupils at break-time who bring me their Rolls of Honour, awarded to them by their teachers for outstanding effort in their academic work. Over the last two weeks, I have seen over 20 boys and girls in the playground, who have been proud to show me their work and who have gone away happy with a prize chosen from my box. It is lovely for me to see at first hand the excellent standards being achieved in the classroom and to give the pupils the recognition which they deserve.
In Sport, our Year 7 girls excelled on the hockey pitch last Tuesday and played superbly to win their group in the National Prep Schools’ Championships (played in Sussex). They then dominated their quarter-final but were unable to deliver the killer blow in normal time, going out of the tournament on penalty flicks. To get knocked out without losing a match and to concede only one goal in open play during the whole day was a terrific achievement. Then yesterday, it was the turn of the Year 8 girls to shine, as they won the in2hockey county tournament beating Wells Cathedral, Queen’s and Millfield. Very well played to all of our girls!
Well done also to all of the boys in Year 8 and Year 6 who represented the school so well on their rugby tour last weekend. I was very happy to receive the positive feedback with regard to our pupils’ levels of respect, behaviour and sportsmanship. Congratulations to all of the boys!
Finally today, I would like to draw your attention to pages 7-8 of this week’s Courier which gives you the opportunity to get to know better our Heads of Sport who work in both the Prep and Senior Schools. The Prep School benefits greatly from being on the same site as the Senior School and it is terrific that our highly skilled teachers of modern foreign languages, latin and sport teach pupils in both sections. You will see from their mini-biographies that our Heads of Sport are highly skilled and experienced coaches, working with the TPS pupils from Year 3 up in all of their games lessons and attending our home matches. They help to develop the rest of our sports coaching staff and they track the progress of individual pupils and our teams from the age of 7 to 18! The next time you are on the touchline, please do look out out for them and say hello!
Mr Andrew Edwards
Headmaster TPS
