My word! These evenings do come in quick succession once the term is up and running, do they not? It seems only yesterday that I was writing the last entry.

One of the aims of this blog is not only to furnish you all, dear Followers, with an accurate account of how your cherubs are faring, but also to offer a broader 'helicopter view', if you will, of the school itself. And from where I'm sitting now, I can hear the collective question 'Well, how's the new broom doing, then?' My response? He's possessed of three eyes. (I can now hear the sharp intake of breath as those words slam onto your retinae.) Yes, indeed he is. Intelligent, Incisive, Interesting. And a thoroughly capable HM. I am really excited about the future of SF, because if things continue at the pace this term has started, we're in for a terrific ride. So there you are: now you know. That's my take on the new reign - and I'm not just writing all that simply because I know that our new Leader is himself a follower of my nightly offerings!

You may sometimes wonder what your sons' preceptors discuss over their morning coffee. Oh come on, I bet you do. Well, this morning, I was sitting among a branch of SF erudition in the form of the Director of Music and the Head of English, who between them have almost as many postnominals as a tin of alphabet soup. I enquired of my colleagues as to what one did with a gamut. Did one, perhaps, 'run' a gamut? Did one 'run up' a gamut? Did one 'pass through' a gamut? It fell to the good Doctor of Renaissance Literature to put me out of my misery, and inform me that one 'runs through' a gamut. I was much relieved, and opined that I had spent a sleepless night wondering what one did with a gamut. The Director of Music began to tell me what I could do with same, but before my ears were defiled beyond repair I made for our spanking new coffee machine and poured myself a cappucino.

As for Newton, it's been a great evening. No telly on Mondays, but Bourbons bics, orange juice and fruit a-plenty to compensate for that, games in many corners of the lodge, ranging from Connect 4 on the floor of Osprey to sophisticated computer games in the upstairs common room, a string of phone calls - and of course, the inevitable dog-worship in our kitchen. As for our new members, they've been the life and soul of the party: I even had to tell one of them to pipe down a bit!

All is well.

Goodnight.