Woodbridge School and Sixth Form
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Woodbridge School Prep
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The Reception Parents and their children enjoyed a final parent session together today – coffee and croissants!  It was a lovely end to the year and a chance for the teachers to say thank you for all their support this year.

Delicious smells floated around The Abbey this week as the Year 5 children took part in Bake a Cake for the Queen competition.  Oliver Laxton, Imogen Melrose and Grace Godwin baked  a stylish hat made from coconut, lime and courgette, complete with specially baked carrot dog cakes. The Queen’s corgi’s would be thrilled.

Chloe MacMillan baked two delicious carrot cakes and then put them together with brightly coloured icing and edible jewels to create a splendid crown.  To complete the look she had made an edible corgi to stick on the front and scattered glacier mints around the edge which made the cake look as if had been encrusted with diamonds.

Recipes and photos are soon to be submitted to a National Competition and we will keep you posted of the outcome.

Years 5 and 6 treated us all to a fun-filled two hours in the Seckford Theatre this week. The two musical shows, based on Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes, involved many, many farm animals, a giant, Daisy the Cow, ex horse-race jockeys, a baddie queen, a handsome king, a gutsy Snow White, a heroic Jack and many more colourful, weird and wonderful characters.

The two shows were in celebration of Roald Dahl 100 – marking 100 years since the birth of the world’s number one storyteller. The cast mimed and performed to specially orchestrated music in a minimalistic space and sang catchy and witty songs written by Mr Brett.

Most of the scenes had been improvised by the cast during the rehearsal process and showed real flair and imagination. There were some wonderful set pieces that had the audience rooting for Jack as he escaped from the Giant and cheering for the horses as they raced over the jumps!

The children have worked extremely hard over the past few weeks and ought to be very proud of their performances.

A big ‘Thank You’ to the staff who helped and supported the cast and to the technical team at the Seckford Theatre for your endless enthusiasm and positivity!

At the recent session of Trinity music exams at Woodbridge School many pupils achieved very high marks; 17 pupils from the School out of 29 entrants achieved distinctions, amongst them Jonathan Ferguson whose score of 98/100 at grade 8 (the highest grade) on drum kit drew this comment from Mr Penny: “I have never seen a mark as high as that at the school in Trinity music exams at any grade let alone grade 8. Jonathan is the backbone of the School’s Swing band and plays in the Concert band and Symphony orchestra and is an exceptional gifted and motivated student, ready to help with all areas of percussion with other pupils.”

Congratulations to Minnie Wayman who has been selected to represent Suffolk in the East Region Inter County Swimming Competition at Norwich on Sunday 10 July. This is her first call up for Suffolk so she is delighted: her selection is a fitting  reward for her impressive contributions over a long season.

Our Years 9/10 Intermediate girls’ Athletics team recently travelled to Woodside Stadium in Watford for the A Regional finals of the ESSA Track and Field Athletics event. The top 27 schools in East Anglia: our girls were put in a group with 11 others on the day, the twelve teams providing two competitors for each event.  It meant that our girls were up against 22 of the best from East Anglia: it was going to be tough!. Special mention must go to Rosa McInerney whose birthday it was: she celebrated in style, coming away with the most points for the team with 41. She was placed 3rd in high jump and 11th in hurdles, a great achievement! Georgia Harrold was another to perform well: 4th in 100m and part of the relay team to finish on a score of 36. Chloe Outen achieved an excellent PB in the triple jump to be placed 6th and gained a combined score of 36. Maddie Craig scored 37 points from her hurdles and long jump. Others in the 30s were Flora Johnston on 31, Joanne Garnett on 32 (her high placing in discus gaining 21 points) and Ella Holliday on 32. It was a great team effort and a big thank you goes to those who stepped in to cover absence on the day. We wait for our final position in the competition, but reaching this standard is worthy of the profoundest congratulation. T Shirts have been ordered and will hopefully be here for the last day of term to mark this fantastic achievement: well done to all!

And so the Wick & Wax journey is at an end… all bar the remaining stock which you’ll still see in the local Co-Ops, and also no doubt around school from time to time: every piece a bargain quality product!

But the competition journey is over, thwarted at the last in the Eastern Regional finals. Robinson College, Cambridge, opened its doors to seven excellent companies. And there’s the thing: I still think ours was the most like a company… with a trade stand that was genuinely elegant and grown up, a presentation that was mature and assured, and financial awareness bettered by none.  But there is more to judgment than what an audience sees on the day (especially a biased Dad one).

Perhaps the weather offered us a premonition, our arrival washed away in a flash flood. But before long the stand was dry, up, and impressing the other teams and visitors (actually everyone was looking over their shoulders to the next stand….). Helena and Rosie were grilled on the trade stand; Jozef masterminded the powerpoint, and Abi, Jasmine, Rosie and George spoke from the heart.  Then, while the judges deliberated, the guest speaker Kamal Hyman brought delight, hilarity and huge enthusiasm to bear (from himself and from the audience) in an inspirational fifteen minutes that had everyone ready to conquer the business world by the end (in the nicest possible way).

And at last to the results. It started so well: Best company report: Woodbridge School’s Wick & Wax! Euphoria… pride… raised pulses (and expectations?).  But then the next six minor awards went elsewhere – and not one to each company either… two had won two (and indeed these companies had always looked like the main rivals). And so it proved: Team Ignite won the day (grrr… it must have been very close ) and we took the journey home will a sense of what might have been; but don’t forget, team: you have achieved extraordinarily – huge profits, a great product (and the most genuinely elegant one for many years), sales to numerous shops, and … go on… admit it… personal development.  Many congratulations to all in the final team on the day, but also to all in the company as a whole, some twenty five or so committed and talented Year 12s.

It’s fun dodging the rain… especially over the course of 90 miles or so!  Barely a drop from above on our journey, despite the evidence of deluges before our arrival at various stages. And even a hint of warmth in the air around Ipswich.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Friday. Loading up and rolling out in minibuses and with trailers. Nervous anticipation. A fine curry at the Horseshoe in Clerkenwell (THANK YOU, Rob Madigan, landlord and friend of the ride, for making us so welcome and feeding us so deliciously). Speeches and exhortations.  Back to the Bridge School (THANK YOU, Headteacher Penny Barratt for your inspiring words, for giving us a reason to succeed, and for your overnight hospitality). A difficult night’s sleep on the school floors – but it encourages the early rise! And then breakfast and a 7am departure, almost to the chimes of Big Ben.

Traffic – more each year – and a cool breeze kept us alert; luck kept us puncture free and so the first stop at Wells Park School field (THANK YOU, Wells Park, once again) came early.  Chocolate, bananas, energy drinks. Then road, road, road (and, yes, a few punctures!) till lunch after 53 miles at Colne Engaine. And what a lunch, hosted by Mrs Spray, Mrs Streat and Rhiannon Humphreys – delicious hot drinks, all you could wish to eat to help towards the 8000+ calories the day would sap from us, and welcoming smiles.  Bliss.

The afternoon is hard, but shorter – under forty miles of undulations (some, frankly, quite abrupt!) – but everyone finished with a big smile on their face and a drink soon in their hands (soft of course!), and by 6pm it was hot baths and deep sofas…

27 riders: six of them pupils (well, well done Owen Butcher, Adam Colbert (who sprinted here, there and everywhere helping people find their way and take the right turnings), George Cory, Will Pilkington, David Spray and Oliver Wroe); staff Mr Garvie, Miss George, Mr Patten, Dr Rickard and me; three OWs Ally, Molly and Cameron; parents Steve, Ed, Sharon, Jenny, Sarah, Amanda, Gary, Paul and Toby; Bridge School parents John and John; and friends John and David. And on the support side Mr and Mrs Hillman, Mr Jackson, Mr Spray, Mr Turner and the lunchtime team.

Brilliant!  Support us now if you haven’t already!
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