The big
day has finally arrived - all the planning, the organising, the
advertising, the fund-raising, the cajoling, the implementing – yes, today is
the Macmillan Charity Day which took place this afternoon where the school
raised vital funds for our partner charity, Macmillan Cancer Support (Douglas
Macmillan MBE was an Old Sexeian) and the students had a brilliant time. The
school was turned into a village summer fete with the Vicar of Bruton in
attendance and traditional fayre games being the order of the day, from
skittles and hook the duck to splat the rat and a coconut shy. Lots of money
was raised as well as for a Leukaemia Charity (organised by Ryan Aldworth and
his year group) and my sincere thanks go to Mrs Frost, the staff and Macmillan
Cancer for getting involved and putting on such an excellent fund raising
activity – again bringing our school community together to help those in need.
It astonishes me how much we do as a school to help those less fortunate than
us and it goes to show our values of tolerance, respect and kindness are
inherent in all that we do. We said farewell to our Y11s yesterday at an
entertaining and emotional Leavers’ Service and BBQ and we wish them well in
their future endeavours (some still have exams this week and next) and we look
forward to seeing many of them back in our 6th form in September.
They have been a mature and talented year group (the Y11 Yearbook is just
one example of this) and will be remembered with great fondness and affection.
We have
also had considerable success in various sporting fixtures this week with an
emphatic win over Taunton School by our U15 cricketers and U14 and U15 tennis
at Milton Abbey – students enjoying their sport (when the weather holds up of
course!) and developing in confidence and character. Huge congratulations also
to Georgia Silcox (L6 Long Jump) and Caitlin Carnegie (Y11 1500m) who won their
respective events at last weekend’s County Championships and will now represent
the school and Somerset at the National Finals next month. What makes this
achievement even more astounding is that this has been achieved with the back
drop of public exams and I am so impressed with these two individuals and other
students who work hard and play hard. We wish them every success possible. We
have had even more success this week with Caroline De La Harpe (Y10) being
awarded Silver in the Big Boarding Bake Off at Eton College – a tremendous feat
(we were the only state boarding school in the final) and we look forward to
tasting some of her creations shortly.
We have
the Glastonbury Exeat over this long weekend and I hope families will enjoy the
extended time together, whether that be at the Festival or not, and if indeed
you are braving the mud fest, I hope you have a great time. The Glastonbury
Festival is part of the fabric of Somerset, part of the county’s DNA and brings
so much to the local economy. But more importantly for bringing the performing
arts, in all its shapes and sizes, to life. This cultural benefit should not be
underestimated and we as a school will continue to support the Festival in any
way we can and we wish Michael Eavis (whose grandson attended Sexey’s) and his
team the very best this weekend (I do hope the weather is kind!). And speaking
of performing, we wish Adam Wagstaff (Y7) all the best as he represents Sexey’s
at the Big Boarding Choir this weekend in London. He will certainly be singing
for his supper!
I also
cannot ignore the significance of today, as today will go down in history. It
is so rare that we as a country, as a generation, will have such an important
decision to make today - to vote on our future in Europe in this historic
referendum. Today's vote will have profound implications, not just for us in
the UK but potentially could change the political landscape of a whole
continent by breakfast time tomorrow morning. Will I be having toast or
croissant with my tea? The planning, organising, advertising and debate over
the past four months is now over. It's time to take a deep breath and to pick
up that stubby pencil....
And by
the way, congratulations to all the British and Irish teams for staying in
Europe (Euro 2016 football that is!)
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