9 February 2016

I cannot believe we have reached the end of Term 3 and that today is Shrove Tuesday.  It only feels a few days ago that we were taking down our Christmas decorations.  Last Friday saw the last House Charity Day of the year.  Challenger and Churchill students took over the School for the day to raise money and awareness for Sarcoma UK and The ABF Soldiers’ Charity.  The highlight of the day was the showing of The Great MGS Bake Off on the big screen in the Hall which was filmed the week before.  Thank you to the staff and students who took part in the Bake Off and well done to those who won Star Baker.  Friday was also the day 22 teams competed at the annual Parents' Association Quiz Night.  Over 150 people took part in what was an enjoyable evening and congratulations to Fifty Shades of Grey Matter who won scoring 222 points out of a possible 300.  Thank you to the Parents' Association, the student helpers, Mrs Lois Birrell and everyone who took part.  The quiz illustrated one thing though, the need to brush up on our spelling as the spelling round saw some very low scores!
In all my recent Blogs I have never mentioned school assemblies, but the last five weeks’ assemblies have been particularly appropriate.  The members of staff who give the assemblies have always spoken about something specific to them or on a matter that is significant for the time of year.  Since returning to school in January, everyone, without being asked to, has spoken about resilience.  Mental resilience and mental toughness amongst young people is something I am particularly keen to see develop at MGS and so spoke about it during the first week of term.  Following this, Ms Lang, Ms Johnson and Dr Everett all then continued the theme and spoke about something specific to them, from the strength of character Shackleton had when he endeavoured to cross Antarctica 100 years ago, to Dr Everett who shared with everyone the need to find peace and time to reflect quietly.  All of the assemblies certainly made me think, and I am sure many of the students did the same.
Congratulations to Rebecca Stone of Year 12 who has been selected to represent England at the U19 Korfball World Cup taking place in March in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. She will be part of a squad of 7 boys and 7 girls and will play teams from 15 other countries. Well done and good luck Rebecca. Finally I wish to thank the 18 students who have applied to be School Captain for the 2016-17 academic year.  Reading application letters from students who wish to be considered for the role and how they feel about their school is always incredibly rewarding.  The shortlisting now begins with the interviews taking place after Half Term.  Best of luck to them all.