Thursday 28 June 2018

Term time holidays.



A school in Essex has offered parents the opportunity to take their children out of school for one week in July, as long as they take part in enriching activities.

Apparently parents who opt to go on holiday for the week must complete a form explaining how their child's leave will be enriching. The form asks parents to circle whether the trip will be cultural,spiritual, moral or social. They are also asked to share which enrichment activities they intend to complete during the holiday. While they are away, children are expected to complete an educational booklet.

In the booklet there will be sections to fill in about topics such as English, maths, science, history and geography and the children will be expected to fill in information and facts about the place they are going to and what they will be doing. There will be a show and tell to other pupils when they get back to school the following week.

Blow me down, that seems like an awful lot to have to complete just for a week off. We were rather hoping to get our grandchildren released from school for a day to come to The Goodwood Revival with us. I was rather hoping my informative letter would be sufficient to have them released, but if the above is the precedent being set, I'm wondering if my letter will be sufficient.

I believe there is the option just to pay a fine to have them released, or it may be, should that not work that the boys will both mysteriously come down with a bout of dysentery or dengue fever on the day in question, lets hope not.

Dear sir/madam,

The Goodwood Revival, grandchildren trip, 7th September 2018.

It is our intention to take our grandchildren to this years Goodwood Revival, which is a classic motor racing event which takes place at the Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit in West Sussex.

Goodwood was originally a World War Two airfield called RAF Westhampnett which was named after the village bordering Goodwood and served as a Battle of Britain base during the war and was the station from which RAF legend Sir Douglas Bader flew his last sortie.

As with many ex airfields, Silverstone also being one, after the war the perimeter road was turned into a race track and so in September 1948 Goodwood opened to host Britain’s first post war motor racing meeting at a permanent venue.

The opening of the circuit was met with rapturous response as the British public had been deprived of motor racing from 1939 when Brooklands closed at the start of the war.

In August 1966 after 18 years of memorable competition, including the fateful crash which caused Sir Stirling Moss to retire from racing, Goodwood closed its gates to contemporary motor racing, due to the enormous cost of bringing the circuit up to modern safety standards.

The circuit was in continuous use as a test track but remained in the same time warp condition as when it closed in 1966, however the story does not end there.

On 18th September 1998, exactly 50 years to the day since Goodwood first opened, Lord March, now the Duke of Richmond re-enacted the opening of the track at the very first Goodwood Revival meeting, which this year is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The Goodwood Revival is like stepping back in time as the cars racing are from a bygone era, the circuit has remained in its time warp state and most of the people attending adhere to the policy of dressing appropriately, fine frocks for the ladies and tweed for the gentlemen, for example.

We have been attending this event for 20 years and will be going in our 1947 Bentley, dressing in the correct outfits and have purchased some splendid tweed for Christian and Lewis, so we should all look and act the part, for I have found that if you dress a child as a gentleman and treat him as a gentleman, he will act like a gentleman.

I feel this trip will be both entertaining and educational for the boys and I know they are greatly looking forward to it.

Kind regards,

Joe Wells.




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