One week later and, boy, what a lot has happened! In the aforementioned World Cup, England’s 4–2 victory on Wednesday night (which could so easily have been 6–2) was the first England match for many years where I’ve allowed myself a flicker of hope that there could be exciting things to come. (Dare we dream…?) Meanwhile, there’s been a Year 5 camping and bushcraft residential for two nights at the start of the week, a Year 8 water sports day at Sandbanks followed by an impressive yomp for the same boys along the 22 miles of the Clarendon Way in support of Winchester Youth Counselling the very next day, and then a Year 6 water sports day at Sandbanks today. 

In amongst all of this, some Year 6s have also taken part in a swimming gala at Canford on Tuesday and, with apologies, I must mention the boys who competed in last week’s Wessex Athletics regionals (which eluded both the newsletter and then Pilgrims’ Pitches on Tuesday). In that excellent squad, two - possibly three - boys have made the National Finals in their events (final confirmation still awaited): Tristan G. running the 600m (an unforgiving distance) in the age category above his own and winning by a distance; Alexander W. smashing his PB in the javelin on the way to coming first; and Luca B. coming a mighty second in the Shot Put. 

Finally, yesterday, we had the whole-school photograph. Despite their busyness and no small amount of tiredness, the boys were excellent and it was a pleasure - for the third year in a row - to have the photography company describe them as the best pupils they work with. Not bad for a national company. 221 boys, lined up in Year groups and height, headed over to Cathedral Green, formed up on the risers as directed, photographed, and back in school in under 35 minutes. 

What does all the above go to demonstrate? (Apart from the tactical wearying of the Year 8s…!) I suspect, in truth, that it demonstrates something pretty simple. 

The boys have been busy. At times, very busy. But it’s not only the volume of activity that stands out, it’s how they go about it. Whether that’s getting stuck-in with woodland camping at the start of the week, or setting off to walk rather a long way the morning after a full day on the water, there is a readiness just to get on with things. 

The same applies on the sporting front. It is always a pleasure to report success at regional or national level - particularly when it involves running against older competition, sending a javelin further than ever before or launching the equivalent of a small cannon ball - but the broader picture matters just the same: boys competing, improving, supporting one another, and representing the school with real commitment. Not every race is won, of course, nor every throw a personal best (mercifully, or I suspect the rest of us might be at some risk of being skewered), but the approach is a consistent one. 

And then there are those moments that don’t make much of a headline at all. The school photograph probably falls into that category. At one level, it’s a straight-up logistical exercise: a large number of boys moved from A to B, arranged in some semblance of order, looking dashed smart, and returned again in good time. But the way it happens - the speed, the calm, the lack of fuss - says a good deal. Not least because 221 boys do not, by accident, move that efficiently unless they are used to doing things together. 

None of this is especially showy (notwithstanding the excellent success of reaching National Finals). But step back for a moment and look at a week like this in the round - the continued academic focus for all but Year 8, the musical, the sporting, everything else - and I would say there is a sense of something working as it should. Boys being stretched, certainly, but also encouraged to have a go, and reminded, now and again, that they are part of something that relies on everyone playing their part. And, indeed, that they can be stretched and make it through; which in itself is an excellent life lesson. 

As for the Year 8s, I could sense that the combination of water sports followed by the Clarendon Way may, at one point or another, have felt like quite enough for any single week. (There were certainly a few tired legs in evidence when I joined the welcomers at the west end of the cathedral for their return.) But they completed it, and completed it well, which rather proves the point. 

So, what does it all demonstrate? Perhaps just that a school week can contain rather more than it first appears to. And that, when it does, the boys tend to rise to it. 

Which, given the pace things are going at the moment, is probably as well. 

As this newsletter comes out, School of Rock is about to start. Here we go again…