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Last week, on a cold and stormy day, Pilgrims' took a team of Year 6, 7 and 8 athletes to compete in the Senior Wessex Athletics Championships at King Park Stadium, Bournemouth.

As I left my home in fairly heavy rain, I wondered how this would affect the mood of the boys ahead of what is, on paper, quite an intimidating distance. The answer was not much! There were some hastily and impressively taken snoozes on the bus, but we arrived in good time and set off just after 9:45am. The weather brightened, and we made our way from Middle Winterslow towards Broughton.

There is always something pleasing to me about our community at Pilgrims' doing, what is in effect, a pilgrimage of sorts. I had stunningly varied conversations - often about future plans. I spoke to one boy about wanting to be an estate agent, and to another about collecting fossils so that he could open a museum. We talked about gap years, mental health, my best and worst moment as a teacher! The boys wanted to know which teachers were friends with who, we discussed favourite pieces of music and Tom Gilbey, who is a wine expert (not a subject I raised)!! And all the while, the kilometers kept ticking.

A huge thank you to the parents who met us first for lunch and then again for our final stop by Crab Wood, where we were treated to an astonishing array of baked goods. Without this, I suspect there would have been a number of drop outs. As it was, nearly everyone completed it, which is an incredible achievement. 30km is a huge undertaking; it is a very long way and the commitment to a very difficult last 5km back through Winchester was testament to this.

My huge thanks to Mr Greenwood, Mr Reynolds, Dr Vipond and Mr Flood for being so brilliant and making the walk such an enjoyable and safe experience for the boys and to Mr Duncan for his support to-ing and fro-ing in the minibus all day. The boys raised a whopping £1086 for a local charity which provides counselling services for children in Winchester, which is absolutely fantastic.

A huge well done to all.

Will Darlow
Head of English

This year, Pilgrims’ entered the national ‘School Challenge’ quiz competition for the first time in a number of years.

Since 8W finished their exams, I have been showing the boys a variety of visually impressive experiments which we then discuss, to see what principles of Science are involved, and what they have learned.