With every New Year comes hopes and aspirations, though perhaps, like the sunshine this week, they peek through a watery sky. The playing fields at Claires Court Juniors may look similar to those elsewhere in the neighbourhood, but whatever happens in January and beyond is built on the foundations of our achievements over the previous years. The most likely impact comes from the deliberate steps we have taken to move forward positively and, to slightly misquote Tom Hanks, “Turn up, know your purpose and show that you know what you are doing!”
Perhaps the most delightful rebuttal to the “too cool for school” myth is the sheer variety of kit bags our pupils lug across those fields. It is remarkably difficult to maintain a posture of detached indifference when you are constantly switching roles—swapping muddy rugby boots for ballet shoes, trading a cross-country singlet for the quiet focus of the chess club or the studious engagement of music practice and choral singing. Our students don’t just “turn up” in the singular sense; they arrive equipped with the tools and kits required to shift their focus on demand, ready to meet whatever the day requires.
There is a certain gritty, unselfconscious pride in an Under 15 squad that looks at a selective grammar school with 180 boys per year group and decides that our smaller, expertly tailored environment is exactly where history will be made*. As noted in our recent ISI inspection, it is this expertly tailored personal learning and specialist teaching that enables every pupil to thrive. Whether they are navigating an ambitious curriculum or preparing for the next round of a national competition, they aren’t following the “too cool” rule; they are far too busy making their own history, one kit bag at a time.
This sense of purpose is no more evident than at the top of the school. Now that the UCAS deadline has passed, our Year 13 students are receiving offers from across the country. For them, life is both exciting and anxious in equal measure as they fine-tune their efforts ahead of A-level examinations in four months. They may eventually leave the physical kit bags of the Junior and Senior School behind, but they carry with them the versatility and initiative they have honed here, ready to step into their next chapter knowing exactly what they are doing.
*The Under 15 Rugby XV defeated Southend High School 41-7 in the Regional final of the RFU vase on Wednesday 14 January 2026.
A Principled view 