School Captain’s Blog: 1st Half Term 2015

This is my first Captain of School blog after a pretty eventful first half-term. I’m Liam O’Connor and I currently study Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Economics; with the aim of studying Mathematics with Theoretical Physics at university. Within school I am vice-captain of the rugby 1st XV, Sergeant in the RAF section of the CCF, as well as taking part in last year’s very successful sun-chaser Horizon Project and the venturous drama production this year. This year the pupil senior leadership team has expanded with two new posts being created: Head girl, as well as Captain of house who has an oversight of the whole house system, both of whom will be of great help to the school community.

After spending a month in Tanzania over the summer with 19 other students from the school, conquering Mount Kilimanjaro and volunteering at the orphanage run by ‘Light in Africa’, it was nice to come back to news of record-breaking GCSE results from last year’s year 11.

After the 6th form and year 7 induction day, the new cohorts all quickly settled in. Indeed there were several opportunities they could get involved in straight away. The year 7s and 6th form got a chance to show off their skill with the launch of the new Futsal House competition. Whilst the 6th form girls took a chance to visit Farchynys with a Mountain Biking weekend. Straight back from Tanzania, Mr. Rendu has set about preparing for another expedition to Borneo in 2017. Whilst despite the departure of Horizon’s founder, Mr Coghlan, at the end of the last year, ‘The Near Space Race’ will see two teams of students launch balloons this year. Whilst this year’s drama production of ‘Bassett’ will see 7 boys and 7 girls all the way to the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, in April.

With events left, right and centre, this half-term, my role has been a busy one. The annual speech at the Old Boys’ Dinner was a highlight for me. With Old Marians from as far back as the 1930’s it was a very enjoyable evening, even with the difficulty of the speech looming over the dinner. But, it was an honour to meet members of the Club that benefit the school in so many ways. The evening also saw the launch of the bid to purchase new property in Farchynys, which would see the site secured for several decades, and allow everyone in the ever expanding school to enjoy the facilities that we have there.

Speech day this year was a huge celebration of just how much had happened in the last year. The event was again held at school, with the school hall transformed with the help of many bouquets of flowers. Everyone involved in the evening was a massive tribute to the school. The school band once again received outstanding reviews, thanks to the work from Mr. Vause, and the events that were highlighted by the pupil senior leadership team kept the whole evening flowing. My Vote of Thanks, was a fairly easy speech compared to the one at the Old Boys’ Dinner, and it made the whole evening very enjoyable for myself being able to share my thoughts on the day and the whole year with the rest of the school.

After the initial shock of the organisation required within my role, I feel I have settled in well. There’s many events to look forward to over the coming months, many of which I mentioned at the start and should be exciting as they come to fruition. The next big events for the school take place in the form of the annual QMA fireworks event that takes place straight after half-term, as well as Remembrance Sunday the day after for CCF.

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