An eventful day at BGS!

Mr Keen commencing the BGS Odyssey marathon

Today saw the culmination of a herculean effort by Mr Keen, Head of Classics, who ably supported by his intrepid colleagues, Ms Ray, Mr Watkins, Mr King and Ms Cox, put together a 15-hour Odyssey reading marathon. Starting at 6:30am, it is due to finish around 10pm. The whole BGS community is taking part and there are about 180 readers, including teachers, support staff, students from Reception to Upper 6^th, their parents and grandparents, senior staff, the Headmaster and Old Bristolians. In addition to this, there are visiting readers from Bristol University (students and lecturers), children and staff from other schools (St Mary Redcliffe, Redland High, Royal High School Bath, St Mary’s Calne, Downside School) and the families of school staff.

I had the pleasure of reading a passage from Book 24 at 3:30pm and was truly inspired by the effort it took to put together the event and the community spirit that encouraged so many people to take part. Hurray for Mr Keen who helpfully posted a YouTube video of himself pronouncing words and names from the Odyssey correctly. What a godsend that was when I was practising my reading!

Candidates receiving results in Library

The BGS Mock Election also took place today with the whole school voting for students representing Communists, Conservatives, Greens, Labour, Liberal Democrats and UKIP.  In common with the Odyssey reading event, a huge effort went into organising it all, led by Dr Massey, Director of Scholars. The student candidates and their supporters have been campaigning with gusto for weeks and all the candidates gave barnstorming speeches in support of their causes yesterday. The votes were counted in the Library this afternoon and the result has already been shared with the candidates. The whole school announcement will be made on Monday. All I can say for now is that it was extremely close!

Mrs Osafo