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This past fortnight has certainly been memorable, even if it came with more snow than any of us anticipated. My sincere thanks to all our families for your patience, understanding and support on Thursday. We are fortunate to be a Google Classroom school, allowing learning to continue when the weather is less than cooperative.
We will always do our utmost to remain open and I am grateful to our Estates team for all their hard work to ensure that this happened. The safety and wellbeing of our students must always come first. No school day is worth an unsafe journey, and I am grateful to everyone who helped us navigate the disruption sensibly and calmly.
The last two weeks have been extraordinarily busy and filled with moments that remind us of the strength and spirit of our College community. Our Remembrance Day service was a particularly poignant occasion. Reading the Roll of Honour for both Scarborough College and Bramcote is always a humbling responsibility for our students, and our choir delivered an emotional performance befitting the day.
Their voices were once again in fine form at Prize Giving last Saturday, where they performed beautifully. We were honoured to welcome Olympian Mr Roger Black MBE as our excellent guest speaker. His message, focused on resilience in the face of adversity and the importance of perseverance, certainly resonated with our values as a school.
A special mention must go to our current and former Heads of School, Anouk and Toby, both of whom spoke with great composure. It was a pleasure to see them at the lectern, and they are great leaders.
Prize Giving was followed by the ever-popular OSA Ball on Saturday evening. It was a joy to see so many Old Scardeburgians return. They included a reunion group from the Class of 2015 celebrating ten years since leaving Scarborough College. Their presence was a powerful reminder that the friendships formed here endure long after school days are over. My thanks to everyone who attended and to The Mix Tapes – led by one of our own music teachers, Mr Dave Hughes – for keeping the dance floor full all night.
Our sports teams have continued to excel, even by our high standards. The senior teams led the way with outstanding performances across the board. Our First XII netball team remains unbeaten and has moved to the top of the league, while in hockey the boys were crowned North East Indoor Champions. Our girls narrowly missed out in the final on penalties of the U18 Indoor National Qualifiers, despite winning seven games and drawing one. Good luck to the boys in London, where the best eight teams in the country compete over two days.
Rugby has also delivered some memorable moments. The 1st XV won 17-7 in what may have been the coldest game in years to defeat Pocklington and secure a national plate quarter finals place. However, it is the U14s that continue to set records. They reached a national quarter final, following a 38-10 win against St Peter’s, 57-0 against Barnard Castle and a comfortable victory against Hymers. Perhaps the highlight of the week was watching the U8s playing in their first ever festival of rugby.
It is this attitude that was recognised in our recent ISI inspection. The full report has been circulated, and we were delighted that the inspection team highlighted the self-esteem and confidence of our students, as well as the commitment of our staff to promoting the positive wellbeing and physical and mental health of every young person in our care. Inspectors also picked out the impressive progress our children make academically at all ages, including in formal examinations. It was a lovely report and I thank every member of the Scarborough College family.
With upcoming performances of Six the Musical and the annual Carol Services for both Senior and Prep School, as well as many more sports fixtures, I am sure that this term will continue to be vibrant.
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