Balmoral Burn

Tess competed in the Balmoral Burn again this year which is a 420m run up a very steep hill in a relay formation.  There are 4 girls in each team and they only need to run up the hill which they are very familiar with as it is the main road to their school.  They raise money for the Humpty Foundation and have a huge amount of fun dressing up.  Tess' team came 16th out of the 57 Queenwood teams that entered doing the run in a total time of 13 mins.  It was a glorious day so was just as much fun for the spectators.  

 Olivia, Tess, Becky and Alex

 Tess half way up the hill and still running - lots of people had already started walking by this point

I hope this gives some idea of the gradient

Tess had her grade 5 piano exam on Friday.  I am so proud of how she approached the exam.  We made the decision in December that she would sit it in May and her piano teacher and I both warned her that it would be quite a hard slog to get ready in that short time frame.  Tess knuckled down and practiced hard even when she didn't want to.  She had 2 weeks of sleepless nights prior to the exam - we're still working on her stress management skills - and hopefully it paid off.  It doesn't really matter how she does in the exam because both her teacher and I know how beautifully she could play her pieces and she can now have fun learning some new ones.