Well, dear Friends and Followers, welcome back. And that's just what I said to the LMs when they arrived at SF after their jolly excursion to Cornwall! They seem to have had a really good time, and most said that they enjoyed their camping experience, as well as the train ride from Oxford. I think I might have enjoyed the latter rather more than the former, but that's just me. As I've said before, camping and I are not the most suitable of bedfellows. And I share Mr Clarkson's loathing of caravans and caravanning, although I'm not convinced that dropping grand pianos on them from a great height is a particularly good use of a fine musical instrument.

Anyway, it's good to have the LMs back, and I'm sure you'll be regaled with many a tale before very long. I don't doubt that there'll be a degree of hyperbole, but never mind: as a wise HM once said to parents, 'If you promise not to believe everything you hear about school, I promise not to believe everything I hear about home'.

Mrs C, Miss Lade and I oversaw the laundry going to the correct baskets, and there was plenty of it! In the event, though, all the LMs were very efficient, and they managed to follow the copious instructions on the board almost to the letter.

I promised that you would be the first parents to know news of my retirement plans. Well, things have not quite turned out exactly as I'd imagined, as I've been appointed as the Chaplain of Milton Abbey School in Dorset. Yes, you did read that correctly. I'm delighted, of course, and greatly looking forward to a new - and somewhat unexpected!  - challenge. As you know, our daughter, Alice is there at the moment, and she's done amazingly well. The new HM, Mr Doodes, is coming to the end of his second year, and the way in which he has gripped the place is truly awe-inspiring. I wouldn't go and work for him if I didn't genuinely believe that, because, frankly, at my age I can afford to be choosy. Still, we can talk about that in due course.

For now, I hope you will be content in the knowledge that your LMs are tucked up happily, and, without doubt, sleeping like logs.

Goodnight.