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| 10th February 2023 |
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Dear <<First Name>>,
View from the Study
This week has been Children’s Mental Health awareness week, including Safer Internet Day – an encouragement to us all to consider how we can help our children to care for themselves and one another in person and online. In her assembly last Friday, Mrs. Gale reminded everyone about who is here at Belhaven to support us all and what to do if we need help.
Helping others is key to our personal and communal wellbeing and, in his talk to the school this morning, Mr. Dawson spoke about the benefit of being in awe of something, of belonging to something bigger and more important than just us.
The power of the natural world is the very definition of awe-inspiring. We will be raising money for the disaster relief fund following the tragic consequences of the earthquake in Turkey at the Centenary Concert on February 25th and will be working on the suggestions of the children as to how we can contribute during the week after half term – please do encourage them to think about what we can do to help.
Have a fantastic holiday over half term!
Olly Langton
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| Scholarship News |
| Congratulations to You All for Your Courage |
This fortnight has seen many of the scholarship candidates travel to their senior schools to pit themselves against the other candidates and showcase their talents.
The ambition to attempt a scholarship is what we encourage and many have clearly benefited from the process, regardless of the result – it is a great lesson in life to learn that there are some things, such as the quality of our opposition, that we cannot control! All of the scholarship candidates have felt that they have been able to perform to the best of their ability under pressure – that, rather than the result, is the most important thing.
Congratulations to you all for your courage and well done to the eleven award winners so far, listed below, in alphabetical order:
Charlotte A – Drama, Glenalmond
Harry Bar – Academic, Loretto
Harry Bro – Sport, Ampleforth
Willow F – Warden's Scholarship (Drama, Music and Sport), Glenalmond
Johnny F – Art, Radley
Lottie F– Art, Glenalmond
Louisa G- Sport, Glenalmond
Sophie G– Sport, Glenlamond
Lily H– All-Round (Art and Music), Glenalmond
Fin L – Drama, Loretto
Tom W – Academic, Loretto |
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| The 48th Mansfield Cup is a Hoot! |
William Mansfield, the founder of the Inter-Patrol music competition, taught at Belhaven in the 1970s alongside Paul Williams, who came to visit us with his wife Susan this week.
The idea of the competition was to allow everyone in the School to represent their Patrol and thus the focus is involvement and teamwork.
This year, the excitement of each Patrol was significantly increased by the way in which the four Patrol Leaders, Ottie, Willow, Alice and Sophie, have marshalled their troops. There were some wonderful moments, and a full list of the commendations and prize winners will appear on the website soon, along with more photographs. However, the final Patrol standings after the judges’ adjudication were as follows:
1st – Owls
2nd – Lions
3rd – Wolves
4th – Woodpeckers
Well done to the Owls – an extraordinary 7th successive victory! |
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| Sport and Adventure |
| From Ardvreck to Axe-Throwing |
The last fortnight has seen a raft of fixtures as we pitted ourselves against St. Mary’s, Melrose, Ardvreck and then Longridge Towers.
The senior teams have also been involved in IAPS competitions and Thistles selection – please see the website for match reports on a busy and successful fortnight’s action. A particular mention to Archie R, who stood in as 1st goalkeeper when Harry was unwell, and who performed outstandingly well in the competitive environment of the IAPS tournament. He is clearly keen to emulate big sister Calypso, already 1st team goalkeeper at Ampleforth!
We have also recommenced activities with Ocean Vertical, with archery and bushcraft sessions at their HQ, and rock climbing and abseiling at Traprain Law planned for the next few weeks. In the Summer term, Form 3 will be completing a First Aid qualification in five sessions with the Ocean Vertical team, building on the life skills focus of the Belhaven Award.
They and others will have the chance to continue with SUP and Coasteering lessons and Form 1 will enjoy a day of Coasteering and Ocean Safety in their Leavers’ week when they return from their trip to Northern Ireland after Common Entrance. More details on Trips Week to follow in the second half of term! |
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| The Belhaven Reels Party |
| On Saturday 4th February |
This year’s Form 1 and 2 have approached Reels practice with gusto and a brilliantly positive attitude. Under the expert tuition of Sophy Campbell and a veritable army of parent helpers, they mastered all of the reels on the dance card and, by Saturday 4th February, were ready to show off their skills.
For the second year in succession, a Scottish victory in the Calcutta Cup sent Belhavians into a euphoric frenzy and the excitement fuelled an energetic evening.
The Tibbermore Band created a wonderful atmosphere with their six-piece band and the whole event was a fantastic celebration of one of the most important traditions of the Belhaven calendar. |
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| Pre-Prep News |
| Fairer Weather in February |
The Pre-Prep have been enjoying the fairer weather and lighter afternoons. In Outdoor Education, they have focused on teamwork and physical development. Everyone has loved listening to stories and relaxing outside, cloud gazing and deep breathing!
They all enjoyed litter picking within our local community and learning about the recycling processes. We have collected items for our mud kitchen from the beach, which the children are enjoying using to make all sorts of potions. We are also learning about tides and the moon. |
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| From the Archive |
| Historian, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Recalls the Good-Humoured Scots v English Homilies |
Packing up and travelling home for the holidays, as boys and girls have done today for half term, used to involve the grand sum of zero parents.
Boys were driven from Belhaven to the station and put on the train, bound for various destinations in Scotland or northern England.
One of the first boys at Belhaven, Hugh Trevor-Roper, was to become a renowned historian and Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford – in those early days of Belhaven’s existence, he would travel home for the holidays to Glanton via Alnwick. In this extract from his recollections of life at Belhaven, he recalls a key figure:
‘There were only thirty boys at Belhaven in my time, and Simms and Ingham coped well with them all. Junior masters would come later. But one other person was prominent and memorable in the school, though not of it. This was Miss Rutherford, universally known as Miss R. How she became involved with the school is not clear to me. Her main function seemed to be to preside over high tea.
'But she was a great favourite of the boys and used to deliver homilies or read stories or other literature to them afterwards. The gist of the homilies and the stories was always the same; it was the superiority of the Scots to the English. This delighted the overwhelming majority of the boys; but it was all expressed in a perfectly good-humoured way so that no English boy could resent it, nor did we even think who Scots and who English among us.’ |
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| Diary Dates & Events |
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Wed 22nd – Netball and Hockey matches v Fettes
Fri 24th – visit from James Lyon-Taylor, Marlborough College Head of Admissions; Food Committee; Caldwell Society – Mr. William Ogilvie-Jones (Merchiston Castle School)
Sat 25th – Centenary Concert, St. Mary’s Church, Haddington – 7.30pm start
Sun 26th – Scottish Independent Schools Invitational Cross Country Championships at John Muir Country Park – 2.30pm |
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