I was always told by my various English teachers that I should never begin any piece of writing with the word 'well'. But rules, of course, are made to be broken.

Well! That was an interesting weekend! I hope that all of you had a great time with your young, and now we can look forward to the winding down (er, up,) of the end of term.

I am pleased to report that I have now completed all of my reports, but, thanks to the machinations of our wonderful new system, I can change any of them at any time! I shall not hesitate to inform any of my pupils of that particular feature of the system if any of them should consider, for more than a nano-second, that their lodge master/English/French teacher needs winding up!

That all sounds a bit tetchy, doesn't it? I suppose the nearest I can get to an excuse is that I had to say goodbye to our son, Tom, this morning, as he left for Japan or seven months. All a bit emotional, I fear, and I'm afraid that I'm not very good at farewells - especially when it involves one's own family members. I received a text message from Hannah, our daughter, asking me directly whether I cried. Of course not. i.e.: yes. I have to say, though, that my distress was somewhat alleviated by the fact that when he checked in, was informed that although he was in economy class from London to Zurich, hehad been upgraded to Business Class thereafter. All right for some. And I've just learnt from the Swissair website that he's landed in Tokyo. I'm sure his girlfriend, Risa, will be very pleased - as are we.

Ruthie, if you're reading this, which I'm sure you are, thanks for everything. I have just heard from your successor, Miss Chloe, that she will be taking over from you in January. She sounds almost as nice as you, and I hope that she will have a very happy time with us.

Chloe, if you're reading this, which I'm sure you are, we're really looking forward to welcoming you here, and I hope that you will have a very happy time with us.

Do you think I got away with that? I'm sure one or both of them will let me know!

It's great to have your little men back with us. It's strange how we miss them. No, honestly - we do!