So we came back from our February half term refreshed and raring to go, with the end coming into sight. The last half term really was the hardest in my opinion, finishing off all our A level courses, getting stuck into revision and finishing all the notes you somehow forgot to do earlier I the year. This was not helped by the ridiculously cold spring that we were having, with temperatures in and around school close to Arctic conditions.
The return to school saw a return to normality for many students, especially a group of 40 sixth form students returning from Alabama Space Camp organised by Mr Elsden and the French trip which saw Mrs. Sharpe take a number of students to Morocco over the half tern. Furthermore we were only back for 5 days before another trip set off, this time to the Rheindalen in Germany on a German exchange! The trips continued in this term with our CCF contingent, with trips Air Experience Flying and Gliding, the CCF CCCT weekend with the Territorial Army in Yorkshire and the annual CCF adventurous training weekend to Farchynys.
Unfortunately, by the middle of the half term, the big Siberian Freeze hit Walsall, and hit it hard. Temperatures fell to as low as -7 and all of the sports fixtures, rugby and hockey, got cancelled, no house sporting fixtures took place and even Project Horizon got cancelled due to the abnormal weather conditions. To the latter part of the term the snow hit, creating the huge drifts, hazardous driving conditions and perfect snowballing conditions. Unfortunately the term’s Field day also got cancelled due to this weather, for many of us this would have been our last ever Field day.
The last week of the term was upon us, and that meant open evening. Open evening had yet again been moved forward due to the changes in taking the admission test. So, on a bitingly cold Wednesday evening my vice captains and I stood in the entrance hall and outside welcoming people into our school, for the last time.
Then came the last day of the term, Thursday the 28th of March and the day I had been looking forward to since the start of the term. No, this was not because it was the start of 2 weeks of holiday, but because it was the night of the annual rugby dinner. This is an occasion where all the rugby players and many old boys and parents get together to celebrate this year’s achievements, but being 1st XV captain I also had to do a speech and it had to be funny, something a lot harder than people think. However the night went well and I wish to congratulate Josh Pepper on taking over as next year’s 1st XV captain and Gursant Singh for being awarded vice-captain. I am sure they will do a brilliant job and I wish them a prosperous season.