The Michaelmas Term – still referred to as simply “the third term” began on Friday, September 13 with 173 boys in the School, 23 over the official capacity. Houses along Horseshoe Lane were used for the overspill. There were also two new masters; BA Watson, of St. John’s College, Cambridge, to supply the place vacated by Mr. Poore, who had resigned at the end of the summer, and Mr. Tayler to act as “music instructor”

The term also started with offers of new prizes. DD Heath – who was to be one of the early School’s most generous benefactors – offered two £5 prizes to the boys who could pass the best examination in Johnston’s Chemistry of Common Life, and Farrar’s Origin of Language. A similar prize was also offered by Morton Sumner to the boy who should write the best essay on, or pass the best examination in, the subject of Road Making. Sir Walter Farquhar also promised an Exhibition of £10 to to the boy was highest in the exams in the summer of 1868, and who was still in the school after that time..