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It's always a sad moment at the end of a production, when a set is broken and the spell cast by the play dissolves; so it must have been on Tuesday night after the third and final performance of Holes, this term's Summer Play, performed by Block 3s and 4s. Loving watching plays or music being shaped in rehearsal as I do, it is always intriguing to see the final product, having an inkling of the craft and industry behind it; so, it was wonderful to see the exhilarating combining of acting, music, diverse genres, movement, lighting and design that was Holes. The biggest of well dones to director, Steve Gardner, designer Jo Greenwood and their talented cast and creative crew.

So, with the end of term tomorrow, that's it for this term's blogging. Before long I will be on puppy training duty, if allowed. Maybe I will stick to cuddling.　

Sun shines on Parents' Day: phew! A scorcher, almost; but well above the picnic hubbub, it's the (for me at least) humbling displays of students' work that are the centrepieces: Dance Display, Holes (the summer play, of which more next time), the exhibitions in Art, Design and Outdoor Work; noting in particular such gems in Art as 6.2 Amber's vegetation within bodies, 6.1 Sophia's magical house in print; in Product Design, Block 5 Felix's chair (inspired partly by Op Art's geometry) and 6.2 Imogen's outdoor shower design; upstairs in Textiles, Bibi's Grecian Dress now has beautiful copper additions and Toby has designed and made an apron with a witty cutlery design. The day concludes with the summer concert - starting in the Quad with Georgia's magnificent leading of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto and concluding with the Serenade in Boys' Flat courtyard  - the jaunty Barbershop Boys give way to Wesley and Tavener. I finish the day with some mild roistering amongst the 25 years on OBs - back in the Sotherington Barn; resisting (easily) the impulse to dance, am intrigued by one OB's comment: "25 years on and I can tell each one of my peers by their dance style - that never changes..."

To the 6.1 All-night Bake: virtually all the 6.1s work in shifts through the night to get the bread ready for Parents' Day picnics. Meeting by 10 at the Bakehouse, outside there is a big (camp) fire going  (encircled by students sitting on hay bales); there's an even hotter fire in the oven inside. Outside there is a ukelele and, for sure, some guitars; inside it is all kneading and banter round the big baking table, with teachers of Classics, Philosophy and Maths to the fore. Tents and sleeping bags are set out. Head of ODW Peter Coates explains that the all-night shifts compress the work that ordinarily happens over a 24 hour period into a night, with about 240 loaves produced for the big day - over twice our normal weekly production. Refreshing to think that this tradition grew out of a mere 10 or so students originally opting to take part - now it has become an unmissable rite of pasage. 

Happily the sun is shining for what should be a cracking Parents' Day.

Bleary-eyed having had an early morning report-writing session: burbling into my dictaphone, my words are punctuated by vigorous hen-clucking, a primordial howl from the aggrieved Westie and the occasional soprano bark from a now not-so-small black puppy; departing 6.2s' reports this morning - in so many instances, it is difficult to sum up what these people have given over the last (in most cases) 5+ years at Bedales. Many go much further back - one even goes back 16 years, having started at Dunannie in 1995 and then being put back into her (correct) chronological year, hence the 16. One of the things that still strikes me, almost a decade on, is the way that the warmth of the relationships between teachers and students is so fully and touchingly etched in these reports - mutual respect, honest communication, shared academic passions - all these things shine through. Heartening stuff and a privilege to have the last word.

After Monday's assembly, which is a spirited account of April's Classics department visit to Greece, I'm off to a joint meeting of the Maths and Philosophy societies. Billed cleverly by respective heads-elect of those departments, Michael Truss and Clare Jarmy, as a clash of two great civilizations, it is attended mainly by devotees of the two societies - some students straddle both, quite comfortably, I suspect. Is Mathematics discovered or invented? Michael kicks off: So you think you know the answer? Well, try defining Mathematics for a start...No, fool, that's arithmetic.(that's me talking to myself)..Try a set of axioms or a set of rules.. well, that has people wriggling round the edge of it...So in comes Clare and before long we are grappling with the concept of the "metaphysically queer" (Mackie) and, maybe inevitably, God, with Morris Kline's intriguing line that "God exists since mathematics is consistent, and the devil exists since we cannot prove the consistency." The students take a little time to warm up, but in the last half hour or so the questions bubble up - no fisticuffs but some impressive sparks. Walking back home nine thirty-ish through a beautiful mid-summer gloaming and a nightingale sings from one of the big trees by the Theatre - thinking of the spirit of Coleridge etc but then remembering Michael's words too, that "Mathematics crops up everywhere, even when you're not looking for it."  There'll be maths in that song too.

Have always envied the French their "C'est genial!" - much better than our relatively pallid affirmatives "It's great/brilliant/really nice.."  The English word genial deserves more use, trailing its welcome associations with spirit, flourishing and life-giving. Why all of this? Because I've been reminded of the timelessly genial experience of listening to someone entertain an audience - in this case in the quotidian setting of a school assembly - with a talk on laughter: Nick Gleed, Director of Music, musing on why we laugh and, yes, doing a lot of laughing himself, partly because we, the audience are doing a lot of laughing. Making us think in the best way through suprising us - and maybe even himself. Pirouetting nicely (genially and modestly too) off Beerbohm's quote, "Incongruity is the mainspring of laughter," Nick then brings the assembly to a close through asking Callum (in Block 4) to play one of his own compositions on the organ - so, sustained by laughter, the assembly closes as bone-rumbling chords assert congruity and a different kind of concord. Great! "Genial!" (Fr).

Intriguing how schools look - and how their looks reflect what's important to them. Here, the look of the place is as important to the school's sense of itself as any school I've known. Like so many things, it goes back to the founding of Bedales and John Badley's firm belief that surroundings (like good conversation, friendship and music) shaped how young people developed - and that the school estate should reflect that, as well as being a place where "hand work" was evident - so the sense that you had a farm around you was something to be proud of.

Each week I have a walk around with the Bursar - a good look, really, sometimes at things we want to develop, often at bits that work and bits that don't. This is certainly not about neatness, but always have clear in our minds the landscape plan; this, agreed by our governors' buildings' committee, informs what we do. The round table for all things aesthetic internally is the planning committee - a group chaired by a teacher which contains teachers from Bedales and Dunhurst, as well as students, and which is both sounding board and watchdog, snapping at the heels of and seeing off PVC fencing and leylandii.

Currently chaired by our head of Outdoor Work (ODW), Peter Coates, the group also provides a platform for broader consultation on new ODW projects - in the pipeline, a pineapple house (made from windows recycled from Steephurst) and the next big barn-building project. Walking round with Richard one is struck continually by the evidence of that long-standing tradition of students building and shaping the place - those ponds, and that smiling (admirably hairy) earth sculpture, which is looking all the more jolly for a good dousing.

Weekend ahead bodes well: an all-in weekend for young actors at Dunhurst and Bedales, with concentrated work on The Isle of Wonders and Holes respectively. Caught my first real flavour of Holes, seeing part of a rehearsal nineish on Thursday evening - intriguing and impressive - a high level of concentration at the end of a long day - so too was my first glimpse of the set.

Today it's the first 6.1 Higher Education Fair - OBs from a range of universities and courses in the Library and available to be quizzed by 6.1s who are starting out on their own H.E. journeys - should be handy, with plenty of wisdom born of experience passed on.

Meanwhile, many of the 6.2s who have yet to complete their exams will be back in the Library on Sunday battling away with their revision. And, of course, this weekend is the launch of the Tree Auction - something for everyone there, I'm sure.

Headline news here: NEW HEAD BOY AND GIRL TEAM ANNOUNCED. So, congratulations to Titus, Rebecca, Laura and Richard on their appointment; they take over from the strong quartet of Omer, Grace, Sarah and Frank, who are the first to congratulate them straight after I have asked them to do the job; then we are over to Wednesday evening assembly where the new team do their first "shush" - which means that they walk in front of the school and (normally) ask for their quiet - with this being in effect the announcement of the new hb/hg team their shush is met with cheers, applause and an affirmative foot roll from the other students. Normal business then resumes, with my assembly - given canine goings on, it is maybe unsurprisingly 8 THINGS YOU CAN LEARN FROM A DOG.  Aided by an unusually obedient Westie and a moderately compliant puppy, we manage to get through without incident and the dogs' annual appearance is through. Handshaking is slower than usual as there are plenty of congratulatory hugs for the new team from other students as they move towards the handshaking line - after all, the student advisory vote has been a very influential part of the process, along with the consultations with teachers and the existing hb/hg team.  

Student leadership here follows a very different pattern to most public schools. No prefects - they were swept away in the late 60s, as the ripples from Paris found their expression here. For a while the school didn't have any official senior student roles - then it was felt that it was a gap and the current system followed.  Not being big on traditional ceremonial events of the standard public school, there is little by way of official duties, but my hunch is that the role of the hb/hg team is as demanding as anywhere: not only are you expected to continue to be the role model and exemplar of Bedalian values but you also play a crucial role in the relationship between students and staff: that's being both conduit and sounding board for both. We also rely on them to help us innovate and improve, so they should and do question and challenge -  appointed on behalf of the school community, they know that their role is to serve that community.