Head Master's Weekly Notes - 12th September

I have just time to draw breath after a host of events and fixtures this week at Sexey’s – from Girls’ Hockey against Sherborne and Bruton School for Girls, to the Y13 visit to Thomas J Fudge’s to rugby fixtures against Milton Abbey and the Gryphon, Y12 Meet the Tutor evening, The Mahoney Football Trophy competition, the Silver DoE expedition to the Quantocks this weekend, Mandarin Club and the Drama trip to the Theatre Royal in Bath. Has it only been a week? There have also been some other questions this week. Does it really matter if Scotland does become independent? How will it affect us here in the South West? Should we care? Would the previous Head Master of Sexey’s been worried about this potential rift within Great Britain? Why haven’t we been asked whether Scotland should become Independent? This is the story dominating the press and our discussions at school stemming from the whole school assembly we had last Tuesday. I think we should care about this issue and it will affect us, politically, culturally and socially. This union has been the most successful experiment in multiculturalism in history. For over 300 years it has made us wealthier, improved our culture, it has made us better, more tolerant people. And people across the globe marvel at the wonders and riches we have as a nation. It is equally amazing to think of ourselves as a family – Northern Irish, Welsh, English and Scottish – very different in many respects, bickering as families always do but united through wars, through depression and through recession and coming out stronger because we are a family who stick together rather than go it on our own, much like our family at Sexey’s. We have all grown up in a United Kingdom – that is all we know and for the sake of loved ones and friends in Scotland I hope with all my heart that it does not come down to the end of the United Kingdom, the end of Great Britain. At stake is a wonderful union with a successful single market and a shared heritage of artistic, scientific, humanitarian, diplomatic, cultural and military endeavour. If that is lost it will be a historical tragedy. I wait with baited breath for next week’s vote.

 

News from the Sixth Form

 

Congratulations to those Y13 students who have been appointed senior prefects this week in assembly – Jack Wingate and Annabel Buckland as Heads of School, Joe Stewart-Sendell and Ziana Azariah as the Deputy Heads of School with Phoebe Hung as Head of Boarding. The following have also been appointed as Senior Prefects – Laura Rossiter, Emily Harrison, Jess Mascall, Hatty Dukes, Jo Barrington, Eleanor Nurse, Zoe Whitcombe, Ellie Davenport, Amanda Lam, Alannah Travers, Harriet Perkins, Will Annetts Burke, Alex Petre-Mears, Ross Hilborne, Chris Gillanders, James Petrovic, Bob Brooker, Peter Clackson, Aaron Hooper. We wish them well in their endeavours this year as they lead the student body and act as positive role models.