Time has marched on during my silent period, and the school term mentioned as starting in my last blog.... has now come to an end already! We collected the children from school, and we attended a tea to say 'farewell' to the Headmaster, Dr John Bradshaw, who left the school at the end of last term.
Those of you who have read my book will recall me commenting on John; I have the highest regard for him because, in my opinion, every decision he made was with the interests of the girls under his care at heart - surely the sole requisite of a Headmaster? He made a point of knowing each child in the school (over 400 children) in detail - their achievements, failures, strengths and weaknesses, and all this in spite of the fact that he is totally blind.
John, his wife Sue, and his guide dog Sabre have been very much part of Peterhouse, and my children have benefited enormously from having had him as their headmaster. I am extremely sorry to see him go, and wish him all the very best.
On the final day of term, a farewell tea was held for him to enable parents and students alike to wish him well. Fittingly the tea was held on the lawn outside the Chapel - the physical, spiritual and cultural core of school life.
For me the most poignant image of the day was seeing John say good-bye to his Head Girl of 2014. Those of you who have followed the Blog regularly will remember my posting of 11/11/13 titled "Bats, bangs and Peter's house" (you can access all past blogs at the top right of this page) in which I mentioned the appointment of Heidi as Head Girl for 2014.
This is Heidi saying 'Farewell' to Dr Bradshaw
So that was a really sad day, and I wish John, Sue and Sabre all the very best in the future.
And the 'pride' mentioned in the Blog title?
Well at the Final Assembly, my eldest daughter was awarded an Honours Tie. This is the highest award presented by the school, and is only given out extremely rarely. Both my daughter and the Head Girl were awarded Honours Ties, and this was a source of great pride for me.
It obviously had an impact on my daughter too, because she came home from school, went into her room and started tidying up - collecting all the unwanted debris and generally sorting things out. Having had to pack up and then unpack her bedroom in order to move house (she alone accounted for no less than 5 packing crates of 'ornaments'), my wife and I are convinced that she has some genetic material inherited from a squirrel somewhere along the line, because she has so many 'treasures' stashed away. Hence this clean-out was unprecedented and welcome! And very surprising.
After half an hour of tidying, sorting and putting aside those items which she no longer felt she needed, she emerged from her bedroom and went to throw all the unwanted items away...
So a day of sadness at saying 'good-bye' to John and Sue, pride in the award, and complete surprise at the clean-out.
Small though it may have been.
Have a great day!
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