The concepts of multiple intelligences and multi-sensory learning have on the one hand passed from fashionable educational theory into daily mainstream classroom practice and on the other have begun to look in many cases less like revolutionary innovation and more like the systemisation of things everybody had always known.

It does not take long for any teacher worth her or his salt to realise that different children learn best in different ways, and that these differences are often clustered around, for example, a preference for visual, auditory or tactile cues — or a combination of any or all of these.

It would not, therefore, have been difficult to justify this term’s Arts’ Day at Christ Church Cathedral School on educational grounds, despite the fact that for pupils aged seven and above the “normal”

subject timetable was completely dropped.

Instead, boys participated in three styles of workshop: music, poetry and art.

The internationally-renowned violinist Tasmin Little engaged in an exploration she calls ‘The Naked Violin’ which aims both to demystify aspects of this extraordinary stringed instrument whilst celebrating the beauty and versatility of its sound.

The boys’ reaction was immediate and enthusiastic, and ranged from: “I really liked it – I learned all sorts of things I didn’t know”; “A musical masterpiece!” to “I didn’t expect to be moved — but I was.”

With the school’s advanced violinists Tasmin was able to explore some of the subtleties of the bow hold (crucial, apparently), bowing itself and various other techniques.

Ms Little is a born communicator and had the gift of swiftly putting the boys at their ease.

What a wonderful opportunity to learn from someone at the top of her profession.

The poetry workshops were led by Kenneth Steven, writer and poet frequently to be heard on Radio 4.

Here the boys were, perhaps, in more familiar territory — we use words in school every day and everyone is encouraged both to read and write poetry.

Kenneth’s strength was his quiet knack of showing to his young writers not only that they had wonderful ideas but that these ideas could be taken further and, with work, turned into poems.

He stayed the whole day in school, judging in the afternoon the annual Poetry Reciting Competition that has a long tradition at Christ Church.

We believe that the dual skills of learning poems by heart and speaking them aloud (from the heart) are really important.

Anyone listening to the older boys speaking the words of Wilfred Owen or John Keats or the younger ones with their Roald Dahl and A A Milne would surely be convinced of this belief, as well as appreciating the enthusiasm that only children can bring to this sort of activity.

Rounding off our kinaesthetic carousel was our own head of art, David Cotterill, whose workshops led to a number of multi-media works inspired by the graphic word.

This work has led to and inspired a larger, collaborative piece which now dominates the floor space in one of the art rooms.

You could say, then, that there was something in Arts’ Day for everyone’s style of learning: or you could more simply conclude that an understanding and enjoyment of music, poetry and painting lie at the heart of any attempt to create a civilised society.

Mr Martin Bruce Headmaster