May 5th 2024
On Monday I spent an idyllic afternoon at our Forest School site. We are extremely grateful to the Miller family, who very kindly allow the School use of a large area in the Ipsden woods. The site was looking particularly stunning with bluebells carpeting the forest floor, and the sun (yes, sun!) filtering through the canopy. I was lucky enough to accompany the Reception children, who could not have been better woodland hosts and were very enthusiastic tour guides! They showed me around pretty much every square inch of their ‘outdoor classroom’, and I was also told firmly where not to go for fear of meeting the Gruffalo.
Forest School gives children the chance to explore, experiment and make mistakes in a relaxed environment, while also having great fun developing skills such as collaboration, creativity and risk management. The latter is especially important as we live in a society where children can (understandably) grow up with limited exposure to, and understanding of, risk. Assessing and quantifying risk is a key life skill for children which they can apply both to recreation and the world of business in years to come. What better place to start this journey than amongst the bluebells of the Ipsden woods. Thank you to Mr Squire, Mrs Thatcher and all the staff who deliver the wonderful Forest School programme to the Moulsford children.
More very valuable life skills have been honed on the cricket pitches in the first two weeks of term. Years 5 to 8 have had many extremely exciting fixtures against Lambrook (on a cold Saturday) and Summer Fields (on a rainy Wednesday). While our intrepid spectators may not have enjoyed the weather, they have certainly had their fill of both drama and quality of cricket. A well contested cricket match can mirror the ups and downs of life, and, if you’re a cricket purist like me, is best played out over five days. We don’t quite have this luxury, so the Moulsford matches are played over roughly three to four hours. During this time, the game can swing either way and the players (and parents) are exposed to a range of emotions, both high and low. To win a tight match the boys often have to dig deep to mine their reserves of self-belief, resilience and focus to see the game through to its conclusion, and end up on the winning side. Of course, victory can be sweet, but often more lessons can be learnt through losing a close game.
Lee Chaffey (Moulsford’s Director of Sport) works very hard to ensure fixtures include as many boys as possible, and that the format for each team suits both Moulsford and the opposing side. For the occasions when it is not feasible to include all boys for whatever reason, he has introduced a very exciting programme for those boys not playing in fixtures on a Wednesday afternoon. More on this will follow in a future Word from the Head.
One boy delighted to get to Wednesday fixtures this week was Gilby B, who completed the Eton Scholarship exams that morning. Well done, Gilby! The Eton exams are on a later timetable to other schools, with Gilby’s classmates taking their scholarship exams last term. Just over two thirds of Year 8 will be taking the Common Entrance exams to their senior schools in early June. They are currently working very hard in preparation for this, for which we wish them the very best of luck.
