now boarding

Doctors, Dentists and Haircuts.

Some of those tasks you take for granted are not easily factored into the life of a Chorister family, not for us anyway. Regular health check-ups and haircuts need to covered off outside of the school week or during holidays and that takes a little organisation and perseverance; During those precious weeks I'd guess that the last thing Tom thinks of is a visit to the Dentist for a check-up.

For obvious reasons the Choristers are registered with a GP local to the Cathedral and the two nurses on duty are extremely competent and there's always a fluorescent orange first aid backpack close to hand. Should, however the boys need to visit a doctor when they're at home, they'll need to register as a visitor, even though they may have been to that Doctor since birth.

Tom still has his local family dentist which he needs to attend during holidays; there's an arrangement for emergencies when boarding although I'm not sure of the detail. One thing that we do need to look out for is that his brushing regime at school is a good one. 

Curiously a good haircut has been the thing to catch us out. Although the boys don't have regimented haircuts that we've seen at one or other Cathedral, the school is quite hot on neat and tidy so whilst day boys can get away with longer hair, that's not an option for the Choristers. I'm not sure that very short suits them either, at the end of the day the Cathedral is quite conservative. One time the school even took Tom and Angus out to a local 'salon' such was the state of their hair. We were billed for the pleasure of course.

So this morning, much against his will (for these were precious hours on Saturday leave), I took him to a local barber for a 'short back and sides, but not too short'. A little chocolate bribery may have been involved but the experience was very good all round (phew!)

From top to bottom, inside and out, he is every inch a Chorister.

Simon Russell Beale on being a Chorister

One of St. Paul's ex-choristers, Simon Russell Beale has been  in the media a fair bit recently. He's been presenting a series on Sacred Music on the BBC, he's filming a new series of 'Spooks' and he's going to perform in King Lear at the National in 2012.

On the back of Sacred Music, he was a guest on The Choir with Aled Jones when amongst other things, he talked briefly about his time as a Chorister.

Here's a clip.

 Simon Russell Beale

The summer term starts here!

We had a great Easter holiday, of course it does feel a tad long for us but not so for Tom; he's more of the opinion that he's earned it and I think he's right. As usual he spent a good chunk of time playing with his sister but mostly I know he values time by himself, which is totally understandable and common amongst the other choristers. Other than that, the three weeks and couple of days whizzed by.

He did manage to leave his prep in the classroom (again understandable at the end of a hectic holy week), and for possibly the 3rd holiday in a row I found myself visiting the school mid-holiday to collect. Need to watch out for that in future.

His end of term report was excellent again, his grades improving quite noticeably, clearly a sign that he's increasingly comfortable with the boarding and in fact the whole setup. 

The painters were in and the parts of the school that I saw looked clean and bright with a good lick of paint; I know that major works are reserved for summer holidays.

 
 Returning for a new term has never been a strong point for Tom - we've had a few wobbles previously but for this term he's really transformed; no tears (that I noticed), well organised and totally up for it. In fact he's been talking more and more about the repertoire (and in particular this Sunday's Eucharist Sanctus), which must be a good sign.

The Director of Music thought this a good sign too, and at the term's early Chorister Parent evenings he told us how well tom was doing. Not perfect of course, looking for Tom to 'let rip' occasionally and not worry about perfection.

 
  
Always good to get insight on his work in the Cathedral; and in September he'll have been there two years (he started age seven), so it's certainly a good, robust and gentle development.

The Chorister Parent evenings are annual informal, one to one opportunities to speak to the Director of Music and the singing teacher; but it's a tight schedule, barely 10 minutes allocated per chorister.

Other events take place at every beginning of term, the PTA's sale of second hand uniform sale effectively recycles valuable clothing and generates good revenue for the PTA to spend on the Children. (The most recent big ticket item the PTA has supported is a new school minibus).