The theatre owes much to the Globe Theatre on London’s South Bank, where many of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed and where Shakespeare himself acted. It has galleries all around the stage which juts out into the audience with only the back sections of the stage being beyond the seats. This arrangement means that, despite its considerable size, it has an intimate atmosphere. I was there with a group of boys from Forms 7 and 8 to see Prokofiev’s wonderful ballet Romeo and Juliet, based, of course, on the play by Shakespeare. The performance by Northern Ballet was electric. It starred Mr Robson’s husband Harry Skoupas, playing Lord Capulet, who lent the ballet real humanity through his poignant portrayal of the father who loses his daughter through his manipulation of her. Prokofiev’s score, so poignant in places and yet so violent, provided the perfect atmosphere for the dancers to act out the terrible tragedy which overtakes the young lovers. I was so impressed with the boys who found themselves engrossed by the spectacular drama. They all followed the story despite the fact that, this being a ballet, not a single word was spoken. Music and dance convey so much.

On Thursday morning, I asked one of the pupils who was arriving at school how they were feeling - “Exuberant!” they responded. “Why?” I asked, though this was a perfectly ordinary thing for this particular boy to say given how upbeat he is about almost everything. “We are going to the Formula 1 factory today!” Now that really is a reason to be exuberant. Form 5 visited the Alpine factory at Enstone, a vast building in the fields of North Oxfordshire, where some of the fastest cars in the world are made by hand. The boys were able to see the extraordinary care with which these exquisite machines are created – no mass production here! At one point they were allowed to go into the wind tunnel where racing conditions are simulated and at the end of the fascinating tour they were given elegant blue baseball caps which they all wore into lunch upon their return! Our trip to Stratford involved the husband of one of our staff; the second was organised by a former parent who works there. We are so fortunate in the contacts we have and the opportunities which we can provide for our pupils. If any of you work somewhere which might interest our pupils, or to which they could visit, do please let us know.

It was Languages Day yesterday. We had a colourful assembly at which a Form 8 boy talked to the School about why he considered learning languages to be such a powerful thing. Along with so many of our pupils, he speaks two languages fluently and is learning several others. Towards the end of the assembly all the boys were given a pencil. They were then shown a film which included a series of masked members of staff speaking various languages. There were some members of staff for whom no mask would have been a disguise, whereas others were less easily identifiable. There were languages which pupils did not find hard to guess, such as French, German and Italian, but few if anyone was able to identify Cornish, or indeed Scots. I was very surprised at the variety of different tongues on display.

In Cathedral Assembly this morning I happened to mention the terrifying nature of serpents. I discussed my son’s pet milk snake which he handles with great care but which gulps down mice at a faster rate than a hungry ten year old. I also talked about the vast bulk of the green anaconda and its powers to constrict and then consume a human. I talked of the deadly venom of the inland Taipan capable of killing 250,000 mice with the venom of one bite. At lunchtime I paid for my serpent scepticism when a great snake enthusiast countered all my claims one by one. Snakes were far less dangerous than deer statistically. Snakes very rarely consumed humans, finding their shoulders difficult to pass through their mouths, and the number of human fatalities of the inland Taipan is miniscule. Indeed, it was easy to save oneself if attacked by a constrictor. Apparently, a number of approaches can be taken. If water is available, the head should be submerged until the snake drowns. A blow to the nose and eyes renders most snakes immobile temporarily and the snake’s tale is comparatively weak and, if attacked, can cause the rest of the snake’s body to weaken. Personally, I am not going to put myself in a position where I need to test these procedures – but at least I now know what to do if I become embroiled in the coils of a vast constrictor and I will never again paint such a negative picture of this beautiful species. One never stops learning, particularly at CCCS!