Headmaster’s Notes: Every moment is an experience 

The breadth of opportunity that Prince’s Mead offers our children outside of the classroom exists to broaden those all-important skills of teamwork, independence, resourcefulness, responsibility, leadership and sense of public service in each and every pupil. This week has been no exception with a veritable feast of opportunities; with Year 6 throwing themselves into their leavers’ residential adventure in Dorset, Year 5 surviving their bushcraft experience, living under the shady canopy of an enchanted ancient Oxfordshire forest, Year 3 studying the stars with a visit from Winchester Planetarium and Year 2 experiencing Tudor theatrics in all its glory at Hampton Court Palace. The outstanding Summer Term residential opportunities available to our children is a reminder of our aim to ensure we really nurture those immeasurable qualities of courage, spirit of adventure, practical and social skills and place these on an equal footing alongside the development of academic intelligence, that is a given within our classrooms.

We recognise that these remaining few weeks of the academic year are precious ones, particularly for our Year 6 children. This culmination of their prep school journey is always a poignant moment for me, having witnessed how much these young people have thrived and developed over the years. Regardless of when they joined the School, all pupils have thrown themselves into the many areas of Prince’s Mead life; their confidence has grown, skills developed and friendships formed and strengthened.  Having worked so hard towards this moment, Year 6 will quite rightly be making the most of the next few weeks and our Aim Higher programme, with challenging talks from inspiring professionals, team building activities, continued academic rigour and experiences aplenty; there is a great deal for them to enjoy and it is certainly an enriching way to draw their time at Prince’s Mead to a very happy close, before moving on to their senior schools.

There is much in store next week too as we look forward to welcoming you to one of the highlights of our Prince’s Mead calendar – Sports Day. We also look forward to seeing many of you braving it under canvas at our PMA Summer Camp Out in a week’s time!

Mr Peter Thacker