Message from the Head Master – October 2021 Half Term
A reminder on COVID vaccinations:
The School Age Immunisation Service is offering a COVID vaccination to all pupils aged 13-15 at Lancing College as part of the NHS country-wide roll out of this vaccination to young people.
If your child is in this age bracket, your consent is sought by the NHS. If you have yet to send back your consent form, the vaccination date (Wednesday 3 November) will be upon us very soon on our return from the break. This consent needs to be received a full 24 hours beforehand – so by 9.00am on Tuesday 2 November. The letter includes a good range of FAQs. Please find the link here.
I hope that this pre-break newsletter gives you a good flavour of Lancing life being lived to the full. We are keeping a close and cautious watch on COVID matters but it has been smooth running so far – and long may that continue. Our next full review of COVID-mitigating actions will be taking place after the break. In the meantime, all pupils will be returning home with a Lateral Flow Test that we are asking them to take on the day before they return into school, so that we can start the next half term with the confidence that those returning into the school community have returned a negative test.
Over the break one of the Neptunus buildings (the large temporary space on the Lower Quad used as additional classroom space at a time of social distancing) will be taken down. We retain its partner as an additional Dining Hall – but this is a hopeful symbol of a return to more normal rhythms, as has been the recent enabling of inter-House visiting and our welcome of parents to events in the Chapel and Theatre and to matches. All being well, more relaxations will follow.
A revised and updated booklet giving you a full view of our rich co-curricular programme can be found HERE. While parents might wish that they too could participate there is of course the chance to come and sample sporting and creative wares: alongside a packed calendar of fixtures, theatre and musical performances have started with a bang. Last week saw the madcap fun of Black Comedy, this year’s opening production in the Lancing Theatre, and soon after our return we have Journey’s End, a fittingly moving and sombre piece to chime with Remembrance. Auditions for the razzamatazz of Chicago, this year’s full-scale musical, are also underway.
Music too is resounding around the College: we are not far off double figures already when it comes to the number of public performances and this week our five newly-joined Choristers had the pleasure of joining the old hands in singing Choral Evensong at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Bainton’s anthem And I saw a new heaven was a particular highlight and it was a privilege to make music in this ancient and beautiful place, a space those less loyal to our Gothic-revival might say outshines even the glories of the Lancing Chapel …
Work continues apace with the College kitchen refurbishment. The catering team, led by the ever-inventive and creative Mrs Bond, have been working from a field kitchen since the start of term. The more macho in the school like the term ‘combat kitchen’, with its connotations of feeding an army on manoeuvres; it is fair to say that the school’s battalions of people are being fed each day in very challenging circumstances. We never quite know what delightful surprises the ancient buildings are going to lay before us but the plan is that normal service will be resumed in the second half of term. In the meantime you can read an update on the work below.
The break awaits but finally in this newsletter, you will find a ‘save the date’ reminder for the College’s Giving Week in November. Now in its second year, the campaign aims to raise funds to support our Foundationers. With some 17 Foundation Bursary holders currently in the school, we are wholeheartedly committed to continuing to support the programme and many more young people in the future. More details on Giving Week and how you will be able to support the campaign will follow on the return to school.
With my best wishes for a relaxing and safe half term break,
Dominic Oliver