Thanks to the generous donations made by FONS, the decision was taken to purchase eighteen copies of Fatherland by Robert Harris for members of the school's Lollards History Club (L5-M5 pupils).The introduction of this book club element to our society has allowed us to discuss key themes throughout the novel. Set in an alternate historical reality where Germany had won the Second World War, the book follows March, an SS officer who is not loyal to the Nazi regime, and his search to uncover the truth regarding what happened to the Jews of Europe. At the time of writing, we have had two meetings dedicated to discussions about the novel. In those, we have covered themes around propaganda, totalitarianism and the importance of truth. All eighteen copies have been handed out to pupils and are currently in use. In the Trinity term, we will have our final discussion together, by which point everyone will have read the entire novel. In this meeting, it is hoped that we can meaningfully discuss the value of the historical fiction genre and bring in our own factual knowledge to assess how realistic Harris' prediction of a post-1945 Nazi world is. It is also hoped that this will be the first stage in encouraging a culture of reading amongst our Fifth Form pupils, with the potential to purchase further accessible historical books in the future. Once again, we must thank the FONS committee for their generosity which has allowed our club members to take their love of History outside of the classroom

Random Acts of Kindness Club is just one of the various Clubs and Societies on offer at Norwich School. Here's what a member had to say about the club and the work that they do; We are a group of pupils who gather once a week to come up with ideas on how to spread kindness and improve people’s days. Our goal is to make a difference to our school community and spread gratitude & positive attitudes through small, anonymous acts. In doing so, we hope we can be the reason that someone smiles and make people feel valued.  Our reward is to see the surprise and curiosity of those that randomly find our message or are a recipient of a specific thank you/well done. It is our hope that in starting this chain of kindness, it will slowly ripple through the school community, and it will become part of everyone’s daily lives. Keep an eye out for our Random Acts of Kindness logo and join us in making kindness contagious!

With two world record attempts in their sights, Josh and his father, George, are cycling around the world to raise money for Unicef.

In keeping with Norwich School tradition, Valpy House led the celebrations of Shrove Tuesday by serving pancakes to the school at breaktime. Pupils in the house are encouraged to bring in toppings that they think everyone will enjoy. The traditional lemon & sugar option is still a big seller, while the more adventurous tastes could add bananas, strawberries, cream, marshmallows, and this year's new trend was biscoff spread. We sold almost 150 pancakes this year, with the proceeds raised going to Action Cancer UK. There was also a large bag of leftovers, which were donated to a local foodbank.  Also at lunchtime we held a pancake flipping contest, with the winner flipping their (plastic) pancake 44 times in 30 seconds. Can you beat that?

As part of a FONS joint bid, board games have been purchased for the 4th Form and Repton House to encourage team building and friendships! These games are in the 4th Form office for tutees to use and some have been allocated to Repton House tutor groups! We have already seen that playing these games builds skills in teamwork, collaboration, healthy and friendly competition, strategy and problem solving as well as being a useful tool to help pupils communicate. Relationships between peers and tutors have been consolidated through game play as is evident from the photographs taken. During important conversations a game can act to put pupils at ease; to start a conversation; to distract and to comfort. During a busy school week, playing a board game during social times or tutor times can act as a stress reliever allowing pupils to relax and have fun which we believe will improve their overall wellbeing. Finally, we have seen that all pupils in the tutor groups get involved, irrespective of ability, gender or friendship group. We believe we are therefore, promoting inclusivity and engagement and enhancing the overall sense of community. In the future, we plan to add to our store of board games. Andrew Rowlandson runs the Board Games club. At the same time as we applied for the bid, he asked parents for donations, which too bolstered our supply. We would very much like to create a board games library, where pupils can sign games in and out. Many thanks to the FONS for their generous support.

The wildlife club spent £191.80 on a range of bird feeders and food, to attract birds to the Senior School site, and hopefully give pupils the chance to see these birds up close, none of which would have been possible if not for the generosity of the Friends of Norwich School! We initially purchased a range of different types of food to see what went down well with the birds. Mealworms, seed mixture and fatballs all seemed popular, so we then purchased more of these, and should now have enough to keep us going for a year or more. We have placed feeders in the quad, the 4th form garden, the garden behind the Economics block, and in the trees around the quiet playground. The feeders have required refilling on a weekly basis. The best observation point has turned out to be the classrooms in the E block. From there we can watch the birds in the garden and talk about them at the same time from behind the glass. One lunchtime, we watched blue tit, robin, blackbird, collared dove, woodpigeon and goldcrest all feeding on or below the feeders. This spectacle has also proved popular with some tutor groups in those classrooms in the mornings.  The wildlife club has grown this year to around 12-15 pupils who meet on Monday lunchtimes to enjoy a wildlife walk around the close, and also explore the county on trips during half-term.

Jonathan Pearson, the School’s Development Director and Norwich School alumnus, gives us his take on passing educational values to the next generation…. At home I have a grainy old photo of a group of Norwich School linguists taken at the playground gates in 1986. Once you have got over the initial shock of the quite hideous mullets and spiky bed-hair, you may recognise myself, Jonathan Pearson, amongst the sixth formers. Look harder and on the end of the front row is a dark-haired, heavily bearded young teacher, proud of his youthful charges. That young man is none other than our then French A-Level teacher, the legendary Mr Bedford-Payne. Fast forward 32 years to 2018 and in the same New Buildings classrooms where Mr Bedford-Payne taught me, he is still teaching Norwich School classes. Sitting in one of the rows is a certain Edward Pearson, my middle son. Things have come full circle. I am delighted to have been able to pass on a Norwich School education to Edward and to my other two sons. There are quite a number of you sitting here today whose mother or father is a former pupil, and I suspect they may also feel the same. You may or may not decide to send your own children to Norwich School one day or indeed to other great schools across the country. However, the focus of today’s assembly is more generally about successfully passing on the baton of education to the next generation, and sharing with others the important values learned whilst at school. I firmly believe in the positivity of this approach. My role at school is Development Director but also being a parent here and an Old Norvicensian accounts for why I have such pride in this school in particular. The focus of my work here is to foster a strong external community comprising former pupils, past and current parents, charities, businesses and well-wishers, all of whom help us be the best school we can. We very much encourage this community to pass on the baton of education to the next generation. You will already have had some experience of how beneficial these external interactions can be. We get great speakers from all walks of life during the school year, but I always take particular interest when we get Old Norvicensians speakers at assemblies, at Prize Giving, at public lectures on site or in classes. They are always worth listening to. Of course such ONs will have the natural advantage of having completed their education, so can offer valuable insights about careers and sharing their life experiences. I cannot recommend highly enough Mrs James' current series of careers breakfasts. Recent ON presenters have included astrologists, financiers, medics, authors and the like. Absolute gold dust. As they achieve material success, providing financial help is another way ONs pass a meaningful legacy back to Norwich School. For example, it won't have escaped the notice of attendees at Prize Giving that its programme is stuffed with prizes endowed by ONs inspired to support academic, sporting and co-curricular achievements. I am gratified that funds raised through the generosity of alumni have provided substantial funds for current building work at the Lower School, as well as for refurbishment costs to adapt so beautifully our new 15 Upper King Street facility. The biggest contribution ONs have recently given, however, is through generous bursary funding, and that includes to many pupils sitting in front of me right now. Such support ensures your talent and potential is given a chance to shine, an opportunity which otherwise might have been denied you. Why do they want to give back? What's in it for them, you might ask? The answer is invariably simple: they love this school and appreciate the critical part it has played in their lives. They want to see it thrive, to pay back the educational foundation upon which they have built their successful lives. You are the future and only a good education can give you that best start in life. They understand that well and feel compelled to help. How marvellous is that? But what can you pass on? I hope when you are an ON you will be minded to help the school in some of the ways already outlined, but I urge you not to wait till you leave school. Pass it on now! You know the values the school lives by: love, compassion and inclusion. If you have younger siblings, pass on these values in your everyday lives. If you are an older pupil, or a prefect, or a team captain or lead a society or club, share such good practice with younger pupils. Pass on that love of learning, a lifelong curiosity for cultural and intellectual challenges, pass on fair play and respect in sport and in your daily behaviours, give freely of your time, enthusiasm for life etc etc. I am sure tomorrow’s world will be a better place for it. I appreciate how fortunate I was to enjoy my early years as a pupil at Norwich School like you. We seemed to have studied lots of poetry in my day. It seemed natural to continue that focus at University and this love of the poetic form has stayed with me throughout my life. I wanted to introduce to you a poem with the Latin title Vitaï Lampada, translated as The Torch of Life. Before your heart sinks at the thought of Latin poetry before 9am, please bear with me. It’s in English, it's short and trust me it's a brilliant poem. In a moment you will hear it read to you by L4 pupil Rosie Brew, but here are just a few words of introduction. It was written by Sir Henry Newbolt in 1892 and became seriously popular during WW1. Its essential timeless message speaks of fair play and the importance of passing such values on to future generations, which has been the theme of today's assembly. There are just three verses. Stanza one opens on a cricket pitch in The Close, in Clifton College, Bristol - not Norwich, but it easily could be. A tense cricket game is reaching its climax. A calm captain urges the poet to play fairly to win the game. Verse two shatters this idyll as we are transported to the desperate theatre of war. The battle is bloody, the soldiers' protective formation is shattered, and the Gatling machine gun is jammed. All looks doomed, till the poet harks back to the serene fair play inspiration of the cricket square in order to rally the troops. And the moving final verse sees the poet in old age reminding us that, as health fails and we draw our last breath, there is nothing more critical than to have passed on to the next generation the values by which we have proudly lived our own lives. So here is Rosie reading Vitaï Lampada by Sir Henry Newbolt. I hope you enjoy it. There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night -- Ten to make and the match to win -- A bumping pitch and a blinding light, An hour to play and the last man in. And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat, Or the selfish hope of a season's fame, But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote -- 'Play up! play up! and play the game!' The sand of the desert is sodden red, -- Red with the wreck of a square that broke; -- The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead, And the regiment blind with dust and smoke. The river of death has brimmed his banks, And England's far, and Honour a name, But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks: 'Play up! play up! and play the game!' This is the word that year by year, While in her place the School is set, Every one of her sons must hear, And none that hears it dare forget. This they all with a joyful mind Bear through life like a torch in flame, And falling fling to the host behind -- 'Play up! play up! and play the game!' Thank you, Rosie, for reading so well. So let me leave you again with that last powerful line to reflect on…. This they all with a joyful mind Bear through life like a torch in flame, And falling fling to the host behind -- 'Play up! play up! and play the game!' I invite you to ask yourself what will you proudly pass on from your education here to the next cohort of boys and girls sitting in these same seats in a generation’s time? What will your enduring legacy be?

It was a delight to see the Norwich School Refectory come to life on Friday night as we welcomed guests for the inaugural Norwich School Music Quiz. Organised by volunteers from the Friends of Norwich School this new quiz follows in the footsteps of the much-loved sell out Winter Quiz, which has been running for years. However, this event offered quiz lovers the opportunity to show their prowess specifically in the world of music. To steer the evening, we were in the capable hands of our own Noel Vine, Director of Music for the Lower School. Former Heart FM DJ, Noel has performed with many of the UK's leading symphony orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also a prolific session musician, with impressive recording credits, from major film and TV soundtracks, to pop, rock and dance records. During his illustrious career he has worked with a diverse array of high-profile artists such as Madonna, Goldie, Spice Girls, Take That, David Gray, Oasis, Paul Weller, Gabrielle, Brand New Heavies and many more. Needless to say, he didn’t need much prompting when it came to reading out the answers. Rounds included what you might expect – featuring bangers from the 80s and 90s, a classical round and name the album. As well as what you might not – with a Norfolk and Norwich Round – and possibly the most challenging round of the night – Contemporary Music, set by a member of the Upper 6 inspired by music from his playlist! And of course, no Norwich School quiz would be complete without the Head’s round. In addition, quizzers were treated to two live music rounds, with fantastic acapella performances from Rachel Dean and Sophie Millington, who sang lines from musicals, and an incredible round from Noel on the violin, challenging the room to guess the TV theme tune played in the style of classical music. And there were some surprises along the way – who knew that it was in fact Eddie Van Halen who played a solo in Michael Jackson “Beat It” and NOT Slash, or that the cathedral organ is one of only two in the country which has a cymbelstern!  Huge thanks to the Norwich School catering team, who treated guests to a delicious supper of hand-battered fish and chips followed by a gooey chocolate brownie, and to all those who gave of their time so freely to make this event possible. Over £2,000 was raised, which will be used to continue the vital work which Friends of Norwich School does within our community.

Catch Betsy on stage for the classics play The Bacchae at the UEA.