Wow – what a fantastic start to the new academic year we have had. We have a very new look campus, with our amazing new Primary and Secondary learning spaces and break-out areas, improvements to our boarding houses and our new Sixth Form centre.

Our new teachers have now settled into the ebb and flow of BIST life and are really enjoying getting to know our students. On my daily walkabouts and lesson drop-ins I have really enjoyed seeing the students so engaged in their lessons.

The new homework policy is now up and running, and the feedback from students, parents and teachers has been very positive and I am looking forward to seeing the improvements in the quality of homework now being done by our students.

The ECA programme started this week and I must say that it is no doubt the best ECA programme we have ever had at BIST and my thanks go to Mr Dye, our new Director of Sport and Enrichment for all his hard work putting this programme together over the past three weeks. I walked around the campus on Tuesday and it was a delight to see the students so engaged and excited trying new activities and clubs. I dropped in on Mr Meddows-Taylor to see his drumming club and decided to joined in – I will apparently be making a guest appearance on stage with the group at a later date as I was a natural drummer!