Members of the Upper 3 Chamber Choir delighted residents at Abbeyfields with a beautifully curated programme of Christmas music, filling the home with warmth, nostalgia, and joy. A standout moment of the morning came with Zoe Asamoah’s breathtaking solo in Once in Royal David’s City. Her poised and expressive delivery set a magical tone for the performance and was met with heartfelt applause from both residents and staff. The Chamber Choir followed with a selection of well-loved traditional carols, including Silent Night, Hark The Herald Angels Sing, and Away in a Manger. The residents sang with joy and gusto, creating shared celebration and seasonal reflection. Bringing something fresh to the festive programme, the choir also introduced a contemporary Christmas piece, Sweet Silent Night. Its shimmering harmonies and peaceful mood captivated everyone and left a lasting impression.  The visit proved to be a meaningful experience for everyone involved one that celebrated music, community and the simple joy of giving time to others. The Upper 3 Chamber Choir left Abbeyfields with full hearts, knowing they had brought a little extra light to the residents’ day.

Upper 1 had a wonderful time visiting the Cathedral this week as part of their learning about the Advent Story and the Christmas Story. The trip offered a special opportunity for the children to deepen their understanding of these important Christian celebrations. During the visit, the children took part in an interactive Christmas Journey, where they re-enacted the special Bible stories of Christmas and the journey to Bethlehem. Moving around the Cathedral, they brought the narratives to life through characterised storytelling and drama, with plenty of enthusiastic dressing-up along the way! This immersive experience helped the children connect more meaningfully with the people, places and events at the heart of the festival.  The visit also included a creative craft workshop, where the children made their own matchbox mangers to take home. This thoughtful activity encouraged them to reflect on the Nativity in a hands-on and imaginative way.

Running in the winter has never looked better with these new, lightweight bibs.

Lower School pupil, Ethan, has been incredibly busy raising money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. "As everyone knows - I love rugby! When I heard the news about Lewis Moody - I decided I wanted to raise money for the MND association. I took inspiration from Kevin Sinfield who does 7 ultra marathons in 7 days. I decided to ride my bike for 7 days doing 1 mile a day! My initial target was £100. We changed it to £500 and now my total is sitting at £721!! I was further invited by the MND association to run an extra mile with Kevin during his current 7 in 7 on Mon 1 December in Ipswich. I was also interviewed by Anglia TV!" Congratulations to Ethan for his amazing efforts! If you would like to support him further please click here!

During the half-term holiday, a group of U6 art scholars travelled to the beautiful capital city of Denmark, Copenhagen. It was a wonderful trip, packed with gallery visits, sight-seeing, museums, food and shopping! A great bonus to this trip that we all enjoyed was the location of our hotel. We stayed on the Nyhavn: a canal which is lined with colourful houses on both sides, giving us a beautiful view from our rooms and easy access to fantastic restaurants. As this trip was filled with artists, I am sure this view was subject to all of our cameras. On my favourite day, we visited the MACA museum, in which I was thrilled to see many reproductions of Banksy’s work, with the exhibition showcasing the evolution of his career. Following this we took a walk along the Langelinie Pier, on our way to the Design Museum, seeing the statue of the Little Mermaid and passing the stunning Kastellet fortress and The Marble Church. We then visited the National Gallery, before trying the famous Gasoline Grill burgers for dinner, which I can confirm were worth the hype. We finished the day with an exciting climb of the Round Tower, which gave us a perfect view of the city at night. The Round Tower is the oldest functioning observatory building in Europe and the night we visited, it was open to the public – it was built to enable astronomers from the University of Copenhagen to gaze at the stars far above the lights and the smoke of the city, and some of us had a look through the incredible telescope at the simply stunning city vista. Another great day began with us being given free time; a few of us used this to explore the city using only a paper map, and our digital cameras. We then visited Kunsthal Charlottenborg, one of the largest exhibition spaces for contemporary art in Northern Europe, followed by the Danish Architecture Centre; extremely useful to some 3D students looking to pursue architecture as a career. The best bit for many was the permanent exhibition – a 40-metre, 4-story spiral slide down which most of us dared throw ourselves. A final highlight was on our last day which was dedicated to shopping and exploring Copenhagen’s extensive number of shops and bakeries! These pastries were another level!  A huge thank you to Mr Passam, Mrs Curtis and Mr Cann, who made this trip so wonderful!

This half term has been an exceptional one for Girls’ Hockey at Norwich School, with teams across every age group demonstrating determination, teamwork and impressive progress on the pitch. Juniors (U12 & U13) The U12s have risen brilliantly to every challenge, competing in a series of highly competitive fixtures. Their confidence, technical skill and match understanding have grown week by week. A standout achievement was qualifying for the Regional Finals in Stamford—a fantastic reward for their hard work and enthusiasm.  Our U13 squads have also enjoyed a superb half term: The U13A team produced several excellent performances, including a commanding 6–0 win over Beeston and qualification for the East Regional Finals in Ipswich. The U13B side impressed with an outstanding 11–0 victory against Beeston and a strong 3–0 win over Norwich High School for Girls. Inters (U14 & U15) The Inter teams have shown steady development this half term, competing in a number of close, exciting fixtures. The U14A team secured notable wins over Framlingham College and Ipswich School, while the U14B squad celebrated a convincing victory against Felsted and a well-earned draw with Gresham’s. The U15s have made significant progress, recording strong wins against Felsted and Woodbridge, alongside a determined draw against Gresham’s. Seniors (1XI, 2XI, 3XI) The Senior teams have also enjoyed a highly successful half term. The 3rd XI showed impressive grit and resilience, highlighted by an excellent 5-1 win against Felsted. The 2nd XI have been superb, losing only one match so far, with a standout 1-0 victory over Gresham’s. The 1st XI continue to build week after week, delivering a series of strong performances including a 6–0 win over Felsted, 7-0 against Langley School, and a confident 2-0 win over Woodbridge. With such strong performances across all age groups this half term, the future of Girls’ Hockey at Norwich School looks incredibly bright. We look forward to carrying this momentum into the next stage of the season.

In fine winter sunshine, Norwich School formally opened our new facility, 15 Upper King Street, on 3 December 2025. At around 19,000 ft² and spread over six storeys, this new facility offers a transformational addition to the school estate and has already added meaningful value to the educational experience we offer at Norwich School. It is a facility we can all be proud of. Lessons started taking place in 15 Upper King Street from September 2024, following the challenging conversion of the building from a former accountants’ office to an educational facility during the spring and summer of 2024. From May 2025 the lower ground floor has also been open, offering a hot food service in this secondary refectory to complement the original, helping ease congestion and generating much needed additional capacity. Those eating there are offered the same food options and the air conditioning means it offer a pleasant experience. As recently as September 2025, the Geography Dept in its entirety has relocated there, as the building’s potential is maximised. Joining us for the grand opening was our principal guest Old Norvicensian Roger Robinson (ON 52-61) and his wife Geraldine. Together with his sister Pauline Dallmeyer, Roger had the vision to provide substantial funding to enable this building to be converted so beautifully. He was present to see the large top room dedicated in his family’s honour: The Robinson Suite. He was joined by specially invited guests including the Chair of Governors, the Dean of Norwich and fellow Governors, senior staff, support staff who have been so instrumental in the impressive conversion, members of the Geography Dept, and red gown senior prefects. Mr Griffiths, Head, expressed the school’s gratitude to the Robinson family for their generosity and lifelong support of the school, he articulated his great pride in the building’s progress during the last two years, and thanked all those whose dedication had got us to this point. We hope pupils, staff, alumni, charitable partners and visitors will continue to enjoy this facility for many years to come.

Two weeks. Yes, that’s right. In just two weeks we will be on the cusp of the Christmas holidays. I wonder what you will do in those days, particularly the ones immediately after Christmas. That glorious time when nobody really knows what day of the week it is, whether the shops are open, or if the bins are being collected. If your Christmas holidays are anything like mine, they involve a fair amount of travelling. For some, that travelling begins as soon as term ends, racing out of school to disappear somewhere exciting. For others – like me – the travelling happens after Christmas, a yearly road trip, to grandparents, to greatgrandparents, to aunts, uncles, in laws: a type of Christmas pilgrimage. Christmas is full of travelling. Today’s reading sees Mary and Joseph make their journey to Bethlehem; soon after, the shepherds hurry to see the good news, the magi follow a star to distant lands, and then Mary and Joseph flee to Egypt in a far more anxious journey. Even our hymn today concerns people travelling. “Lo from the North they come; from east and west and south.” All this talk of journeys has made me think about travelling and its place in our lives and our faith. This week I have watched Strictly Come Dancing and Race Across the World. One has no phones, no flights, and a temporary pause to the race because of civil unrest in Guatemala; the other is full of glitter and spray tan and a weekend in Blackpool; both programmes explore how their contestants are “on a journey”. And this is nothing new. From the Wizard of Oz, to Forest Gump, from Moana to the Mandalorian, our culture is full of quests and pilgrimages. Some claim the greatest of these is the hobbits’ trek from the safety of the Shire, across Middle Earth towards the dangers of Mordor. However, over 1,000 pages of reading, or more than 10 hours of film isn’t for everyone: Lord of the Rings? More like Bored of the Rings? These films drag on and on – why can’t those hobbits just get where they’re going? That review says something true about many of us: we are impatient travellers. We want to arrive. We want to get there. Parents of young children know this well: five minutes into any car journey will come the inevitable: “How much longer?” “Are we nearly there yet?” As parents of such children, and with them in the car with us, it is likely that we will have exactly the same attitude: let’s get this over with as soon as possible. Cancelled flights, lost luggage, or overcrowded trains: most journeys and forms of transport involve frustration, impatience, discomfort and maybe even a little bit of rage. I like travel to be planned and predictable. I never did the student inter railing thing yet I do appreciate the freedom of unhurried journeys. When you are not rushing to arrive, or feeling cross about your arrangements, you can notice the scenery, enjoy the journey, even think. My favourite journeys are long car journeys, but with my husband, and without the small children. On such journeys, we talk, we reflect, we plan. On those occasions, I really don’t mind the traffic. Not all journeys involve transport. At this point of the year, as we cling on until the next end of term, we are on our slow, yearly trek through the academic calendar. We live by assignments, deadlines, submission dates, exams. But when people leave school, they often say the same thing — “It went so fast. I wish I’d appreciated it more at the time. ” Yes, being so destination-focused can mean missing what’s happening on the road itself. Yet there is a far greater risk: that the hassles and stresses of travel make us avoid journeys altogether. Why bother when it’s so hard? However, the world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. These words, attributed to St Augustine, have been borrowed by travel companies to sell holidays: to encourage people to visit unknown places and embrace the world beyond their doorstep. Yet I cannot believe that Augustine is really talking about all-inclusive package holidays or gap years. This great thinker and church Father is encouraging intellectual and spiritual exploration, rather than inter-railing and back-packing. Perhaps, in line with Augustine’s encouragement, we should be delighting in all travel and exploration, especially in our thinking, and never seek instant, quick, or easy answers. We don’t have to and we certainly shouldn’t stay fixed in one place or perspective. After all, that is what Advent, beginning this weekend, invites us to do: it is not simply about counting down the days until Christmas, but about taking the journey slowly, learning to wait, to notice and to prepare for what lies ahead. Wherever you are going in the next few weeks, godspeed to you and please do travel safely. When you’re sat in a departure lounge and the flight is delayed, or you’re on your way to Granny’s house and the traffic is bad, or, because it’s one of those days after Christmas and nothing works properly, you find that you are on some god-forsaken rail replacement bus, by all means look forward to arriving at your destination but have it mind to enjoy the journey time and the travelling as much as the arrival. Journeys have to be taken, and should be taken, but they should be enjoyed, not just endured. The Christian story, especially at Advent and Christmas, reminds us that all journeys, including and especially the unexpected and the transformational, should be celebrated. In the words of today’s hymn: Shout as you journey home; Songs be in every mouth.  You don’t always need to know where you’re going, or indeed how you are going to get there. Treating all journeys, the actual, the intellectual and the spiritual, with this mindset, might leave us less frustrated by delays, changes, or bumps in the road and more open simply to seeing where the road takes us. Like Mary and Joseph, we might travel with uncertainty, and face difficulties, but we should travel with faith. Mary and Joseph survived without googlemaps: their journey certainly didn’t turn out as anticipated. In fact, their arrival in Bethlehem was only the start of a much greater journey, for them and for us.

Following on from enrichment sessions in the Michaelmas Term all about libraries, Fourth Form scholars visited the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library for a lunchtime session. We admired a wide range of items from the library’s heritage archive collection before a discussion focussing on the Kelmscott Press and William Morris’s rejection of the mechanisation of the industrial revolution towards the Arts and Crafts movement and then compared this in particular to another book from the 1400s. It was fascinating to discuss the role of physical media and how creators are pushing back today in an increasingly digital environment. We went on to discuss pupils’ impressions of what role libraries play in today’s society and the experts at the Millennium Library added their own thoughts. Pupils were keen to explore the shelves and the digital archive but lo, it was time to return to school for our afternoon lessons. We all left feeling full of anticipation to visit the Millennium Library again as soon as possible to explore everything it has to offer with a newfound understanding of its heritage and value in today’s world.