Autumn Term
25th JANUARY 2021 Issue 1 : 4th September 2020
Dear Parents, A vignette of school life: the snow fell, steadily, and with intent, on Sunday. It accumulated to around seven inches across the entire site, rendering it quite magical. It was still and quiet, the peace shattered only by the merry sound of the boarders having a whale of a time. As you will be aware, one of the charming peculiarities of St T's is that it operates in a completely different climate to everywhere else. Where other places may only receive a flake or two, up on the hill we find ourselves facing a situation that resembles the ice planet of Hoth in “The Empire Strikes Back�, but with the regrettable absence of Han Solo and fewer tauntauns. So it was on Monday morning at 6am, as I met Alan, our indefatigable groundsman, who, with the aid of crampons, had made it to school. There was nothing down his way, he said, as he started up the snow plough. Off to the drive he went. At 6.30am, I had waded down the length of the drive to check on progress. On my way back up, I was surprised to hear the sound of a van coming up behind me. It was our meat delivery chap, clearly an intrepid fellow. He got as far as the turning for the Prep school before stopping; he could go no further. I had a quick, socially distanced chat with him; could he, perhaps leave the delivery with me? Yes, he said, it is only 3 kilograms of meat, and he energetically sprang out of the van and opened the doors at the back. As he was searching for the order, the van started to slide backwards on the ice, towards him, gathering pace. The gentleman assessed the situation rapidly; he was clearly not the sort to be overly troubled by this. He summoned the spirit of Geoff Capes and braced himself against the van. When both he and the van continued their slide back down the hill, he decided on a different tack. He said to me: 'Don't worry', ran back towards the driver's side door (van still in motion), opened it, jumped in, and jammed the steering wheel so that it came to a halt into a small bank of snow at the side of the road. It was, as I said to the girls in assembly about an hour and a half later, the most impressive thing I had seen in some time. But I also reflected, as I trudged once more up the hill with a bag of meat in my arms, on what an absolutely wonderful community of people we have here: for behind the meat delivery gentleman was Alison Craig, here in a 4x4 to feed the horses; behind her was Gary, braving the drive to come in and feed the boarders, and behind him, Marco and Steve of our Maintenance team, who had abandoned their car at the bottom of the drive and were sprinting up the hill to help the van driver out. They spent literally eight hours on Monday shovelling snow so that we could reopen to key worker children on Tuesday. This cross-section of our community, showing such dedication to St T's, surely illustrates that despite Boris Johnson's announcement that schools will not be returning until at least 8th March, St T's is still here, and we will continue to support your daughters with their education, their physical fitness, their mental health and general wellbeing until we are able to welcome them back. I hope this is as soon as is safely possible. Best wishes, Dr Claire McShane