In May, Upper 3 pupils celebrated the end of their Summer exams with an incredible trip to France. Pupils visited a local snail farm, where they learned about snail farming, tried unusual snail facial treatments and even tasted snails. They also visited a 100-year-old boulangerie, where they made traditional loaves of bread. The much-loved Infant French teacher, Camembear, also joined the trip, and the U3 children thoroughly enjoyed his company throughout. The programme included a range of fun activities, with facilities offering opportunities such as a silent disco and archery tag, ensuring there was plenty of laughter and excitement along the way. A highlight of the trip was visiting La Coupole, the impressive Second World War megastructure built as a V2 rocket launch facility. This helped pupils understand how wartime rocket technology later influenced the development of space exploration. The trip also provided rich opportunities beyond the classroom. The Camera Kidz team conducted an interview with the snail farmer, gaining a fascinating insight into his work. Pupils certainly embraced French culture, enjoying a vast number of pastries throughout the week. Another standout moment was visiting a traditional French market, where pupils enthusiastically spent most of their money on sunglasses within the first five minutes.  Overall, the trip was full of memorable experiences, laughter, and learning, providing a wonderful way to celebrate the end of exams.

The Boat Club had a successful Training Camp to Lake Comabbio, Corgeno, Italy in the Easter holidays with 47 rowers working hard on and off the water and eating plenty of pasta. The return to school saw the first Regatta take place, with our three GB Trialists racing in the GB U19 Spring Regatta, with a 17 th place finish for Ellie, 11 th for James and 2 nd for Nicholas. The next stage will be Final Trials in July. The Seniors travelled to Wallingford Regatta, where some very close racing saw the crews miss out on the final by very small margins. 55 rowers competed at Bedford Regatta, with 17 crews racing across 14 events and taking part in a total of 28 races. With 5 crews reaching the semifinals and a further 4 in Finals, the Boys 1 st Quad came away with a win. For the J14s and some of the J15s this was there first side by side racing. Well done to all the coxes on the day for steering what is a challenging course.  This weekend is the National Schools Regatta at Dorney Lake, Eton. 42 Inters rowers will be racing on Friday and 13 seniors on Saturday and Sunday. Good luck to all crews.

‘Business Breakfasts’ is a brilliant programme helping our young people better understand the potentially intimidating world of work. Before the start of school and over a working breakfast, the school brings in seasoned professionals to speak about their specialisms. The content is veritable gold dust. Generously sponsored by our partners at SG Wealth Management , the Trinity Term events have been both inspiring and informative. There have bene three in the series so far this half term. SG Wealth Management kicked the series off with their very own Director of Business Services, Fran Kemp FPFS. Her lucid, engaging talk aimed to demystifying the important role wealth advisors play in managing their clients’ complex finances professionally and trustworthily. She impressed the pupils with the range of skill sets needed and the range of backgrounds and specialisms that financial advisors have, ultimately boiling down to relationships built on confidence. She held a large audience captivated and the Q&A afterwards prompted some very smart audience questions. The second session was an introduction to the legal profession from our neighbours in The Close, Leathes Prior Solicitors . Experienced Partner Chris Goodwin had been convinced from an early age to become a lawyer and explained his traditional route through a law degree. In contrast former Norwich School pupil Alex Robinson now working with Chris at Leathes Prior, explained how his route into law via a history degree, Masters then law conversion had transpired and how it is possible to become a lawyer from various starting points for those not going down the law degree route or even those with a non-University route. This theme was followed up by the third talk in the series delivered by the charismatic Dale Willis founder of My Great First Job , a non-profit organization dedicated to helping young people transition from education to employment.Speakgin to parents in the pre work breakfast session and then to our pupils during the school day, his focus was on the value of increasingly popular Degree Apprenticeships as a viable and very cost-effective alternative to the traditional tuition-fee heavy university route. He explained all the ins and outs of being in paid work whist obtaining a degree paid for by the employer. It’s not for everyone, but for those prepared to make that paradigm shift the outcomes can be life-changing. Business Breakfasts will resume after half term and pupils are strongly encouraged to be curious and open minded and to come along to learn. Thanks go to Mrs James for organising and to our inspiring speakers for giving of their valuable time, as well as to SG Wealth Management for having the vision to sponsor this transformational iniaitive.