Tuesday 25 April 2017

This week is a much busier one than last week.  This evening I am attending the quarterly Old Maidstonian Committee meeting and tomorrow after school we welcome new parents and students who are joining MGS in September.  The event tomorrow is the Year 6 Welcome Evening; it is the event that we invite new members of the MGS community into the School to begin their journey as Maidstonians.  Also at that event the current School Captain, School Vice-Captain and Student Leadership Team relinquish their positions after undertaking them over the last year and invite the new team to take over.  Thank you again to Tom Lindsey, Joshua Gray and the Team for the last year and I look forward to working closely with Kristian, Lex and the new Team over the next 12 months.

Friday this week is the annual Parents' Association non-uniform day.  The day normally takes place in June to coincide with the Summer Fete but this year it is taking place in April just before the May Day Bank Holiday weekend.  The Parents' Association works incredibly hard to support the School and this non-uniform day is one of many events that raises money to help fund numerous projects around the School.

And finally, 4 RAF cadets, accompanied by Mr Parish, spent 10 days based at RAF Troodos in the Cypriot mountains along with 52 other cadets from all over the UK. While there they had official visits to most areas of RAF Akrotiri including the Sea Rescue helicopters, police dogs, explosive demonstrations, leadership exercises, air traffic control, DCCT range shooting, weapons demonstrations, meteorological office and the fire-fighting section. There were also more adventurous activities such as clay pigeon shooting, high/low ropes, swim tests and life raft demonstrations, dodgeball and other sports, laser tag and paintballing, and beach sports. To give you some context, RAF Akrotiri is a very active operational base where the RAF is conducting Operation Shader in Syria and Iraq, and RAF Troodos is the UK radar installation covering the Middle East.  Thank you to Mr Parish for accompanying the cadets.

Tuesday 18 April 2017

Welcome back everyone; I hope you all had a good and well-rested holiday.  Today we embark on the final term of the year, and this first week is a relatively quiet one, to ease us back into things, but the new term sees the very important examination season begin. Students from Years 11 to 13 are completing GCSE and A Level exams in May and June and I am hoping that they have already started with their revision! There are now only four weeks until the exams begin so many students will be knuckling down to prepare for them.  Good luck to everyone involved.

Before the holiday we enjoyed a week of Old Maidstonian events. Last year's leavers returned to receive their A Level certificates; the 1st XV played the Old Maidstonians at rugby and beat them 40 - 0; and nearly 100 former students attended the Old Maidstonian Society Supper. This last event took place on the last day of term and was presided over by the then president of the society, Neil Turrell.  His presidency came to an end at the supper and we welcomed Sam Coppard, School Captain 2011 - 2012, to take on the role for the coming year.  The supper was a lovely occasion, and I thank all the students, parents and staff members who attended and supported the event.

A lot of work has taken place over the holiday, particularly to the premises: new flooring and carpet in Reception and Lobby, new lights in the Quad, new gold curtains now hang in the Big Hall, a number of areas of the school have been painted, and progress has continued with the building project.  Thank you to all of the staff who continued their work over these last two weeks which included a number of crucial revision classes for the older students.

Many congratulations to Maxim Bragin of 7H who competed for Kent at the South East Schools' Inter-Counties U13 & U14 Cross-Country Championships at the end of March. The competition was very tough indeed with Maxim coming 49^th out of 80 and 10^th out of 16 in the Kent Team.  Well done Maxim.

Over the first weekend of the Easter holiday, the Army Section took part in the Cadet Cambrian Patrol in the Brecon Beacons.  This is a national competition with 22 Army sections selected from all over the UK. The cadets spent 13 hours navigating 30 km, over arduous terrain in typically challenging Welsh weather.  On route they had to complete 7 military tasks, ranging from first aid to a sniper stalk. This was the first time that MGS entered the competition and the months of preparation was rewarded with a Bronze Medal.  

Enjoy the first week back.