Month: June 2016

Mr Brett presented certificates to the children in Queen’s House in recognition of all their hard work. Effort certificates were awarded to Rosie, Matilda, Arwen, Dominic and Emilia. Table Manners certificates were awarded to Stephanie, Ike, Anthony and Hermione. Arthur and Oscar received Karate certificates. Well done to you all!

The Abbey U11 tennis team represented the school very well at the annual Framlingham U11 tennis festival.  The team consisted of Beau Barrington Hibbert (only in Y5), Katie Norman, Iris Morton and Helen knight. The team finished sixth in a tough field and improved throughout the day, The morning started with a touygh match against eventual tournament winners, the Brandeston Alligators. Although the girls played well and singles and doubles games were close, The Alligators won the tie 6-0. Next up was Old Buckingham Hall. The Abbey grow in confidence and this time we didn’t lose a rubber. Beau and Katie won their doubles, and each also won their singles. While Helen won her singles and drew in the doubles, playing with Iris. The last pool game was against Holmwood House, who were too strong. Both Beau and Katie scored points for the Abbey by drawing their singles 3-3. This meant The Abbey qualified 3rd in the pool, playing for positions 5-8. A strong performance against the Brandeston Cheetahs followed in the first of the cross-pool matches.Beau and Katie again won their doubles while Helen and Katie won their singles. Iris and Helen (doubles) and Beau in her singles secured the tie for The Abbey when they drew their rubbers.

In the final tie of the day, we were up against Town Close, last years winners. Some great tennis was played during this fixture and both teams saved their best for last. Beau impressed in her singles, against a player two years her senior. Helen and Iris both drew their singles. Katie played a great match but was just beaten by a great come-back from her opponent.

Well done to all the players for good work throughout the long day and especially warm afternoon.  Many lessons about technique and tactics were learned and the school can be proud of the team.

On Friday 9 June the Year 3 Girl’s tennis team travelled to Brandeston to play in the Suffolk School Mini Tennis League. The team was made up of Lara Zie, Georgia Pommier, Rose Jackson and Nina Chapman.

They played brilliantly and supported each other as the competition progressed. There were four schools in the competition and for each school the girls played one single and one doubles match. When it was time for the semi-final The Abbey and Culford had won three matches each and so it went down to points. Culford  just beat us on points to gain a place in the final and we played Brandeston B team to decide third and fourth place.

The girls were a credit to The Abbey and played some great tennis. They came away with a medal for third place and they deserve to feel very proud of themselves.  Well done girls!

Over the past two weeks, Year 2 have enjoyed some very exciting chemistry lessons from Mrs Hillman, head of chemistry at the senior school.  Mrs Hillman very kindly fulfilled the children’s requests for ‘potions and explosions’!  She showed them how dry ice is made and they learnt that in this instance carbon turns from a solid straight to a gas and the gas is heavier than air.  Mrs Hillman demonstrated testing for PH levels and kindly left some test tube racks in the classroom displaying the full range.  The children were delighted, evidenced by their gasps and cheers and expressions on their faces.  A big thank you to Mrs Hillman and Jo for really inspiring the next generation of scientists!

Opening night for the open mic! Welcome to the twenty-first century, Woodbridge School! And it was fantastic…

Utopian Shift, The Rift (those were the best band names – and brilliant performances too from our Year 7s), The Year 8 Band, The Year 7 Band (great music but the names need work…), Jozef Gwizdala and Eleanor King-Gardiner (a rhyming pair, but solo performers, and stylish ones too), Allen and Cottrell (yes… the heads of the departments of physics and maths – this was anything but music by numbers: a wonderful variety of wavelengths and volumes), Voices 7 (definitely not music by numbers given there were only five of them, though they were certainly into measurements… you’d have to have been there to get my drift on that comment), and then three sixth form bands: the first two with overlapping members, one piece sung, one instrumental, and the last – Lenny and the Jets – offering their homage to Dire Straits and The Who.

Solos to quintets, covers and new material, vocals and instrumentals, singing along and clapping along. We had it all; the audience loved it, and the performers clearly loved it too – music as it always should be: shared, enjoyed, supported, intimate, engaging and entertaining! Many, many congratulations to all the performers, and of course to the impresario, coach, mentor, guide, performer and technician, Miss Ellen Foster!

The Abbey U11 tennis team represented the school very well at the annual Framlingham U11 tennis festival. The team consisted of Beau Barrington Hibbert (only in Y5), Katie Norman, Iris Morton and Helen knight (photo attached). The team finished sixth in a tough field and improved throughout the day, The morning started with a touygh match against eventual tournament winners, the Brandeston Alligators. Although the girls played well and singles and doubles games were close, The Alligators won the tie 6-o. Next up was Old Buckingham Hall. The Abbey grow in confidence and this time we didn’t lose a rubber. Beau and Katie won their doubles, and each also won their singles. While Helen won her singles and drew in the doubles, playing with Iris. The last pool game was against Holmwood House, who were too strong. Both Beau and Katie scored points for the Abbey by drawing their singles 3-3. This meant The Abbey qualified 3rd in the pool, playing for positions 5-8. A strong performance against the Brandeston Cheetahs followed in the first of the cross-pool matches.Beau and Katie again won their doubles while Helen and Katie won their singles. Iris and Helen (doubles) and Beau in her singles secured the tie for The Abbey when they drew their rubbers.

In the final tie of the day, we were up against Town Close, last years winners. Some great tennis was played during this fixture and both teams saved their best for last. Beau impressed in her singles, against a player two years her senior. Helen and Iris both drew their singles. Katie played a great match but was just beaten by a great come-back from her opponent.

Well done to all the players for good work throughout the long day and especially warm afternoon. Many lessons about technique and tactics were learned and the school can be porud of the team.

The Reception classes visited Poplar farm in Grundisburgh today. Mrs Houston talked to the children about the different crops and animals that they have on the farm and showed them examples of wheat, barley, sugar beet and rapeseed plants straight from the fields. The children took part in a variety of activities matching different foods to the plants and animals that they come from. They thoroughly enjoyed meeting Willy, the bull, and some piglets as well as looking at all the different farm machinery, including combine harvester and tractors. Thank you to Mr and Mrs Houston, Emilia’s parents, for such an enjoyable day!

Many congratulations to Adam Colbert who continues to make strong progress in the gruelling world of road racing. His latest triumph was in the 88km Abberton Road Race at Colchester, as part of the eastern region Road league on Sunday 5 June. Racing predominantly against experience adults he finished in a very impressive fourth place overall (behind two adults and one under 23), and fastest junior, out of the sixty or so riders who took to the course. Brilliant work.