But it is a scene of destruction which promises a great deal.

It is a picture of the place where the old pavilion used to be. Of course the reason it has been removed is because the construction of our new pavilion is about to begin. I have made many claims about this before, but now we have incontrovertible evidence that things are moving forward. This is outstanding news for the School. The new Pavilion will transform the way in which we are able to use our playing fields – we will be able to host tournaments and charity events; we will be able to entertain visiting teams properly; we will have decent shelter for our pupils when the weather is inclement; we will be able to entertain properly over on the fields and we will be able to teach in the Pavilion’s main room, allowing us to make full use of the Woodland School. We will be in touch with you in more detail next week about this exciting news.

Talking of exciting news, we are hosting a double reeds event in the School and in the Cathedral on Monday. I am not sure what your expectations about a double reeds event are, but it is a fairly remarkable occasion. Double reed instruments, including the oboe and the bassoon, are very difficult to play and are, as a consequence, rarely played - especially by young people. In our school we have a large number of oboists and bassoonists – so much so, in fact, that we are hosting this event, to which pupils from two famous music schools, namely Wells Cathedral School and the Purcell School of Music are coming. Also participating is the principal oboist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra so it will be a memorable occasion. I hope that a number of you might come to the concert at 3.30 pm on Monday in the Cathedral.

Last term I spoke to the pupils about the Picture Gallery at Christ Church. I mentioned, during the course of the talk, that three of the frames in the gallery were empty because the paintings which should have been contained within them had been stolen. On Monday, I learned that one of the paintings had been found in Romania and that the dealer who had reported the painting had been in possession of the other two. Next to each of the empty frames were the words: “This empty frame remains hanging in the Picture Gallery as a placeholder for the stolen painting and as a symbol of hope for its return”.

I told the pupils that they should live their lives hopefully, looking positively to the future, particularly about what they were able to achieve. Looking forward hopefully would, in the end, bring them far greater success and would ensure that their lives were positive. I also suggested that the boys go to see the returned painting, a painting which had, in the words of the picture gallery’s Curator, Jacqueline Thalmann, been “dragged over Christ Church Meadow and then taken all the way across Europe.” What a moment of celebration that it is now back home in the place where it has been for more than 250 years.

Happy Trinity Term!

Mr Murray

Headmaster