Category: Senior School News
What a wonderful, feel good afternoon and a genuine showcase of what makes Woodbridge so special – its incredible warm community: a community which enthusiastically came together in the Dome on Saturday for its biggest ever whole school Christmas Fair. It was a fabulous family event with a true feel-good factor: children of all ages enjoyed everything from traditional games such as pin the nose on the reindeer and candy cane fishing, through to a bouncy obstacle course and snowball throwing, whilst many more had the excitement of meeting Santa in the winter wonderland grotto.
The Fair encapsulated everything that is Christmas, from the two brilliant carol singing choirs, Mr Streat and his merry band of pupils and staff, and Mrs Peel’s wonderful Woodbridge ladies choir, to the Christmas Market stalls selling Christmas presents of wonderful quality (including D.O.G., otherwise known as our very own Young Enterprise Team’s dog lead business!), and the fabulous Woodbridge Editions selling stunning prints at Christmas sale prices. Mention must also be made of the catering team’s rich hot chocolate and Bavarian hot dogs to keep happy fair goers sustained after all that bouncing and shopping. There was even a secret present wrapping area manned admirably by Mrs Robson and Mrs Latham, and their two daughters. I suspect all will be looking to others in their households to do their own present wrapping this year! Our Sixth Form pupils were also there in force (so who was in the pantomime Rudolph being so ably led by Lily?), handing out programmes and selling tickets with Mrs Brown; and our parents running the fun and games stalls delighted visitors with their warm, friendly smiles – in fact everyone seemed to be smiling.
Our thanks to all involved in the organisation the event – Mrs Latham, Mrs Field, Mrs Robson and our greatest thanks to Mrs Ihenacho who managed to pull such a remarkable event together in record time. Our thanks also to the parents who ran the stalls and to all the pupils who came in with bottles, chocolates, jam jars and presents.
What an event! The school community: celebrating Christmas and supporting Home Start to wonderful effect in truly spectacular Woodbridge fashion!
Good heavens above. What a stunning concert at St Mary’s – and how nice to see it so full – barely a seat to be had. Hundreds of happy Woodbridge friends and family were given an Advent treat to savour.
Seckford Sinfonia set the bar high from the start, with extraordinary poise for performers so relatively young and inexperienced. But they are of course the next generation and aspire to standards that were to unfold in front of them from then on. They are right to aspire, I should add, as their renderings of Susato, Ling and Williams were joyous and skilful.
The guitar ensemble, led by Mr Plackett and his excellent joke, were a delight. The soft sonority of classical guitar music is immensely beguiling, and our ensemble did Bach and Power proud with their beautiful mix of unison and harmony.
Jazz next, with a jaunty Let it Snow from the saxophone ensemble – we were properly in the mood now, one reinforced magnificently in the second half by the brass ensemble in their own jazz take on Go, tell it on the Mountain. Christmas is on the way and these two groups left us in no doubt! Sublime.
And sublime is the perfect word for the Chamber Orchestra’s astonishing English idyll. Elgar and Vaughan Williams – lyrical, magical, almost mystical in their embrace of our heritage. And the performances matched the music, with stunning precision in their floating melodies.
All change for the Concert Band – vitality, exuberance, panache and energy in wonderfully familiar Coates, and breathtakingly sophisticated Shostakovich. We all deserved our refreshments after that! Though not too many refreshments… the Swing Band swung us back into our seats with some blistering Bernstein before completing with Stolen Moments and Walk the dinosaur (Boom chakka…). Utterly brilliant with a series of solos earning well deserved applause. The Percussion ensemble kept us enthralled with a hypnotic take on Carl Orff; the Chamber Choir delighted with two gorgeous favourites – The long and winding road Flying us to the Moon and back… (do join us at one of our Carol Services to enjoy more of their repertoire, also being recorded next week!).
Cellisti calmed us all down again – beautiful, poised and poetic. And then the Symphony Orchestra to close with two fabulous overtures: Ruddigore and Nabucco. Great tunes, so Mr Milton assured us – and he was right. Magnificent, triumphant, Regal in their scope. What a finish. What a night!
Thanks so much to all of you who shared such an exceptional evening of music making; but most of all thank you to our young performers and to the host of music staff who have helped you achieve so wonderfully well.
The Girls’ First team continued their good run of form against Culford, delivering a very entertaining display to win 5-0.
Having weathered the early Culford storm well, Woodbridge started to build momentum, and it wasn’t long before they took the lead: a clinical finish at the far post by Victoria, perfectly set up by Georgia. A little later, Ianthe made it 2-0 from a penalty corner to give Woodbridge a good cushion at half time. This can be a dangerous score in sport and Woodbridge were determined to be the first team to score in the second half. A series of attacks resulted in a penalty corner and a great move was put away by a deflection from Harriet, who then doubled her tally five minutes later in similar fashion. Woodbridge played with flair, moving the ball around through the defenders and midfield and really working on maintaining possession, choosing the right time to go forward. The team played with speed and passion and deservedly ended on a high, a string of penalty corners on the final whistle seeing the whole team involved in trying to get one more goal, achieved at last by Sophie G.
Well done to each player on a near-perfect performance and good game by everyone. Player of the match went to two-time scorer, Harriet.
The Girls’ First team hosted Langley in a much anticipated “rematch”, after Langley’s last-minute equaliser last season. It couldn’t have started better: Ianthe scored a drag flick from the first corner of the match in the 7th minute; and Martha, making her first team debut in goal, defended Langley’s goal scoring chance and subsequent penalty corner early on. Thereafter Eleanor, Maud, Joanne and Annabel defended brilliantly allowing the rest of the team to press forward with confidence, with Eleanor also using her strength and speed brilliantly to attack up the right. Flora P added to this to make it very difficult for Langley to keep Woodbridge attacks under control. Annabel played a great match whether as defender or in midfield, tackling and distributing well and getting the better of her opposite number. As we have now come to expect, Ianthe and Mollie were towers of strength in midfield. With a smaller than usual squad due to mock exams and illness, the forwards led by Georgia had to work extra hard. Poppy was again instrumental in her work in the press to win possession and Kiya and Victoria’s movement up front made it easy for the midfield to find them. With the players riding the wave of support from the touchline a second goal seemed always on the cards, but it was not to be… and then… close to the end Langley contrived a “one-on-one”… not again?? Not if Martha had anything to do with it! Her match-winning save was quickly followed by the final whistle and the celebrations of a very happy team. This was a very well deserved and hard fought 1-0 victory. Well done to Annabel and Eleanor who were voted joint players of the match.
Science club got in the festive spirit this week making the annual ‘chemis-trees’. Pupils had a great time and they are now on display in C3 and then chemistry prep room!
Thanks to some U13 players and girls that don’t normally play we went to RHS on a rainy Saturday afternoon with a full compliment and it was worth it! We were under pressure for so much of the game but valiant goal keeping by Evie and defending by Asmee and Lucy H and Lucy C we held on to a draw. We had a few chances and there was some great play by Alexandra and Elizabeth attacking. Lily played really well in midfield as did Lara (Year 8) and Sophie (Year 8) who had not played on a full pitch before. An excellent end to the season and thanks to all the girls who have played, and I am pleased that some have enjoyed it more than they thought they would! Very well done.
This was a great match to watch and a real nail biter as there were goals galore and the ball was moving up and down the pitch all game! We knew Finborough would be quite strong but we got on that pitch and gave our all. They went 1-0 up in the first 10 minutes but we held it together, kept the ball wide and there were some great attacking runs from Iris, Annabel and Sophia. Iris then put one in the back of the net and we were on level pegging. We went into half time with some excellent hockey being played and Asmee and Elise holding it all together at the back. We went out determined to bring a win home but unfortunately went 2-1 down with a strong strike from Finborough. And then another went in our net shortly afterwards and we then had to really dig in. There were some fantastic through balls played from the defence and Sophia popped up in the goal and scored to bring us to 3-2. How exciting! We had some sound play from Gabrielle, Charlotte G and Lily and on a break into the circle and after some amazing goal keeping from them, Maddy finally put it in the net to bring us to 3-3. What an ending and such a brilliant and exciting game to watch. Well done!
The J4 finished their season with a good win over Langley played at Harleston Magpies ground. Nominated player of the match again by the opposition was Eloise who had a great game at left midfield, scoring two goals, one from a super cross from Millie. The third goal was scored by Charlotte C to secure a 3-0 win. Some excellent work kept the ball away from our defence and we were unlucky not to score more. Special mention to Caitlyn who played two matches keeping a clean sheet for both.
The J3 played also at Harleston against Langley. Woodbridge had plenty of pressure but found the goal keeper very hard to get around. Eventually two goals were scored by Selina and one each for Sophia and Violetta S. Violet W played particularly well, with lots of pressure and good delivery of the ball to her team. The final score 4-0.
Spirits were high ahead of this match, our last fixture before the Christmas break. Despite the damp and sticky conditions Woodbridge were the first to find their passing game and even though we fluffed our early chances it was clear that the game was for the taking. We took a 2 – 0 lead into the half time interval, the goals coming from close range finishes from Seb and Will. An organisational change gave us even more attacking opportunities after the break and Jake completed a second-half hat trick with some assured attacking play. Seb added to his personal tally and our tireless Captain Joe fired in one of his own too. The two Danny’s were strong at the back for us but RHS did get a late consolation. A special mention goes to the RHS ‘keeper who performed heroics in goal and kept the score vaguely respectable. This romp was a great way to end this term’s football and the team can return in the new year feeling very positive.
Popcorn at the ready!
But keep the lights on if you’re easily scared….
Welcome to the 4:10 Film Club
Welcome to fright night…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFMkKb2FOE