The extended time with no pupils in Collinson has been a tale of the unexpected, to be sure. I miss everything about the old normal and drift into reverie as I sit first thing in the morning with my triple espresso and Times 2 crossword, wishing that I was doing morning registration and straightening a few ties before the break of the School day. The therapeutic sound of happy chatter is deafening in its absence.

However, to reflect on the privilege of real boarding life has been salutary. Graeme Turner and I agreed the other day that the walks through our grounds offer jaw-dropping beauty that in our haste we had taken for granted or, worse, not even noticed properly. My IT skills have received many volts through them as I have accomplished my new work of attending and chairing meetings and being the conduit between pupils and academic staff in the context of virtual and streamed learning. I appreciate the extra time I have now to consider my pupils’ needs.

I have been in awe of the astounding commitment to our pupils displayed by my colleagues as they have worked unstintingly to perpetuate teaching and learning in these uncharted seas. I will be sad to leave them all behind.

Clichés tend to jar but every cloud has a silver lining. The bridging courses on offer would not have happened without the current force majeure, virally unpleasant though it is; and the work done with the Lower Sixth on university preparation has profited from an especially sharp focus, as have the preparations with those transferring from MMHI to MHS.

I feel that enormous progress has been made these last weeks – societally and parochially within the Foundation – towards full comprehension of the paramountcy of the wellbeing of everyone in our community, pupils, academic staff and non-pupil-facing colleagues alike.

Half-term looms now, and I wish everyone well with their loved ones in their tightly-knit households.