After the gathering gloom and incessant wetness of the autumn, this new spring term seems already to have lightened the tone. For the first time in weeks and weeks the sun, though low, is brilliant in a winter blue sky and nature is responding; the snowdrops and crocuses have suddenly poked through the mud and green of the lawn of No11 and the activity and volume of the local birdlife has lifted noticeably. In the same way the post-Christmas period ushers in a wealth of different activities as we both consolidate the current academic year and prepare for the new one to come in September. Last week Year 13 were sitting their mock A level papers in the Sports Hall, and their results (and the associated reports) will appear this side of the half term break. Whether the news is good or otherwise, their sights are now set firmly on the summer. The same will be true of Year 11, as their Parents’ Evening is due this week where the discussions will be split between a post-mortem of the pre-Xmas exams and what comes next.
Future planning is firmly on the spring term agenda. Applications for BWS Sixth Form are at their highest-ever level, unsurprisingly, with already over 200 students having submitted their forms including well over half of the current Year 11 – the deadline for applications is still around 2 weeks away! Those already with us in Year 12 have the BWS Higher Education Conference rapidly approaching on Valentine’s Day, and it is then that we get them thinking about future possibilities at university and elsewhere. As well as that the spring term sees the selection of the new batch of BWS prefects; the announcement of the awards comes in the final assembly of term, and the boys take over their new roles from the start of the summer. Year 9 should already be thinking about their GCSE Options as the choices of subjects will need to be confirmed later in the spring. There will be assemblies, and options evening for parents and also the Year 9 Parents’ Evening to help with the decision making process.
There is a lot to look forward to then in this new term. Let’s hope that the weather sustains its current more sunny theme and encourages us all through.
SDS
