Thursday

We're unlikely to see much of this in the next week or so!

What a super day yesterday was.  Panto (it was Dick Whittington) and swimming pm (them, not me).

The children were so funny - they obviously related totally with Dick Whittington and  were on his side all the way through.  They kept calling out advice and warnings which were hilariously funny to us adults.

The company is called 'Panto in a Day' and they are well worth considering if you want something for Christmas at school.  They kept all the children engaged for a good hour and it was all very entertaining!

http://www.pantoinaday.co.uk/

Many thanks to the Friends of the School who paid for this.

As if that wasn't enough excitement, yesterday evening Beth, Alex and I were at Al's school to see him receive his two awards, one for academic progress and the other for exceptional personal endeavour.

We are just so proud of him!  Well done, Alex.

The evening was the usual mix of speeches, chapping and music.  Generally, the music wasn't bad but there was one outstanding performance from a counter tenor who used to be at the school and who won a music scholarship.  He sang 'Ombra mai fu' (Handel) which is a favourite of mine and it was simply beautiful.  I think some of the youngsters were surprised to hear such a pure and high voice coming from a man and there were a few giggles at the start but they soon died down and at the end he got the biggest round of applause of the whole evening.  I would happily have heard it all over again.

Today, as I said, I am teaching again but not the whole day.  The nice thing about living so close and being freelance, so to speak, is that I can do an occasional hour here and there and am not restricted to half days or whole days (although those pay better, of course).  Today will be harder work as the class teacher has emailed with definite instructions, but I did it last year with my class so it is not new.

But now I have a bit of home time and need to use it well.  Coffee, then work.