Month: March 2017
As part of the topic Splish Splash Splosh Year One have been investigating materials and finding out which ones are waterproof. They were given the task of finding a material suitable to make an umbrella for a gingerbread man! The children worked well together in small groups to carry out a fair test…with a tasty incentive; if your gingerbread man stayed dry you were able to eat him!
The children have been using the outside area to support their learning in Literacy and Mathematics. In Literacy, they used chalks and paints to practise the letter shapes of the phonemes they have been learning this term. In Maths the children had a game of skittles and recorded their scores to find number bonds to 6.
Jennings and Darbishire – Holmes and Watson, Jeeves and Wooster, Ant and Dec (no – they were taken by our very own Joshua and Adam, or was it Adam and Joshua?)… Laurel and Hardy? Yes – a better fit. What fun we the audience had, and, not withstanding a little necessary nerves, what fun the readers had too. Bea, Tanya-Yasmine and Elise in Year 7; Jack, Henry, Hugo and Alexander in Year 8; Medomfo, Arthur, Annabel and Tom in Year 9; and Ant and Dec and Josh and Adam to round the story off. Was there a thief? Was the laundry ever laundered (because any ill-gotten gains could no longer be)? Was the egg still on the tie? And did the hic haec the hoc? What is certain is the Jennings won an event at Sports Day (and Darbishire may have done so too), and that it was all caught on camera (not just any camera… a gazillion smasheroo or some such) by Lord Field Marshal Sir Trumpington-Topsy-Turvy KCMG DCO MC and bar. I think that was his name….
Spiffingly splendid – our most heartiest congratulations to the winners Tanya-Yasmine Huq, Henry King, Arthur Bartlett and the overall champion Tom Scoggins, and our thanks to hosts Josh Cole and Adam Wildbore, judges Ella Jerman-Riddell, Madeline Upton, Laura Lindsay-Smith and Miss Crossland, and organisational supremo (with a flair for some perfectly chosen pictures) Dr Renshaw.
Woodbridge travelled to RHS to compete in the Suffolk Sevens hoping for a chance to qualify for the East of England finals at Franklin Gardens. It was a tough afternoon with 18 teams wanting to claim the two places available from the two winners pools.
Woodbridge started well and defeated Ipswich with tries from John Hendry (3) and captain Mak Zie. Jack Christie converted for a 22-7 win.
Next were Thurston and a whole squad rotation allowed for a comfortable win with tries from Tom Turner, Will Franklin, John and Mak. Jack added two conversions. Two late tries in the dying seconds flattered Thurston’s score but a 26-14 win was achieved. Woodbridge were now through as winners of their group and were in the A league finals.
The next pool was a tough one with one team claiming the right to play at Franklin Gardens. Finborough drew first blood before John equalised just before the half time whistle. Finborough pulled ahead soon after with another try and Woodbridge were almost out. In the final minutes John scored and Jack converted for a 14-12 lead. Mak sealed the win with a great burst through close to the line and Jack converted for a 21-12 win.
Woodbridge now had to play Colchester RGS straight after their tight encounter against Finborough. The lack of a break proved too costly and after a few minutes Colchester were gifted 3 quick tries. Woodbridge, after playing some fantastic Sevens were now reeling and the dream had disappeared despite a consolation try late in the game from John. So close at the end but we had fallen just short of the main goal of the afternoon. Finborough then took advantage of a tired Colchester but Colchester just eased them out to win the group. Despite the disappointment the squad remains buoyant having played some great Sevens in preparation for the next tournaments.
On Friday 3 April, a team of four junior mathematicians; Nina Varadarajan and Henry Waldron (both Y8) and Hal Ottley and Saif Toubassey (both Y9), represented Woodbridge School at the Regional Finals of the UKMT Team Maths Challenge 2017 at Framlingham College. Pitted against some very strong competition from a whole host of schools from Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex, these four students did amazingly well to achieve 2nd place, pipped by the narrowest of margins by the favourites, Colchester Royal Grammar School.
Our cross country athletes close the season with three National Cross Country Fixtures – Competition at the highest level.
The Saucony English National Cross Country Championship – Entry through your club and the largest event with over 8000 athletes competing in 10 Age Group races.
British Athletics Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships where our students selected will represent Suffolk County ( Loughborough on Saturday 11 March)
New Balance English Schools Cross Country Championships where our students selected will represent Suffolk Schools (Norwich on Saturday 18 March)
Last weekend, Saturday 25 February, a group of seven travelled to Nottingham to compete for Ipswich Harriers in the first of the three Nationals with some fantastic performances.
To give the results some context, junior races typically have 400 to 500 of the fastest cross country athletes in England competing. If you consider that in team sports an England Squad is typically around 30 strong before the final match day side is selected, in cross country it is widely recognised that top 100 takes some doing and top 50 is knocking on the door of National Standard.
Our individual results were as follows:
U13 Boys –
Charlie Turner – 38th – a fantastic second half saw Charlie storm his way into the top 50 pacing his race perfectly
George Wharam – 58th – again a powerful finish saw George closing in on that top 50
Kit Evans-Lombe – 118th – A first National event for Kit and not far away from that top 100. Such is the level of competition in fact that Kit was only 6 seconds behind 100th.
The boys helped Ipswich Harriers to 6th place in the team competition against the very best clubs from around England.
U13 Girls –
Amy Goddard – 215th from 467 finishers. A first National for Amy and she was our only athlete on the day running a year up. 48 seconds between 100th and 215th shows the depth.
U15 Girls –
Sarah Barker – 42nd – an outstanding run saw Sarah power through to finish first for her club as well as break into that top 50 on a National stage for the first time.
Amy Graham – 136th – closing in on that elusive top 100, just 15 seconds ahead. A good return to form for Amy.
Amy and Sarah helped Ipswich Harriers to an incredible 4th place at the Nationals. The Clubs best result of the day!
U15 Boys –
Nathan Goddard – 18th – A top 20 finish at Nationals !
Nathan’s highest ever finish at a National Cross Country fixture and just a tantalising 9 seconds from top 10. Another mature performance moving from 26th to 18th in the final 500 metres.
Congratulations to everyone that competed and we wish you well for the remaining fixtures.
Congratulations to our mathematicians on another fine haul of certificates in this year’s Intermediate Maths Challenge, a challenge sat by thousands of pupils across the country.
Top this year for us was Brendan Bennett with a very impressive score of 106, earning him a place in the top follow-on competition for Year 10s – the Hamilton round. Our other winner of a gold certificate was Saif T of Year 9, scoring an excellent 82 to earn a place in the Grey Kangaroo follow-on for Year 9s. Joining him will be Saffron H and Maddie C , also of Year 9, who achieved top silver awards and made the Kangaroo hurdle as well.
Our other pupils to gain silver awards were: Ashlyn F (best in Year 11), Sophie L, Zara L, Freeman L, James P, Danny C and Ella H of Year 11, Louis T, Guy S, Nathan G and Cristine L of Year 10, and Hal O and Nathaniel G of Year 9.
Bronze awards were won by James E, Daniella E, Tara H, Justin T, Jude A (Year 11), Sarah B, Martha C, Jonathan K, James M, Amy K, Alex E-L, James B, Toby C, Sophie D, Toby M, Natasha D, Jenny C (Year 10), and Isobel S (Year 9).
Many congratulations one and all.
Alessia Ruggiero reports: On Sunday and Monday 11 Woodbridge School students performed the role of International diplomats, or in UN speak, “delegates” for France, Canada and North Korea at the 8th MUN Conference at Felsted. For two days they experienced the complexities associated with the global governance of challenging issues such as nuclear disarmament, religious extremism and LGBT rights. Inspired speeches were delivered by all the delegates who contributed to developing, challenging and supporting a range of resolutions. The quality of our delegates’ preparation as well as debating and negotiating skills was recognised by the organisers who also awarded special commendations to Chris Long, the delegate for France at the EcoSoc and Abi Crane, the delegate for Canada on the Ecology and Environment committee. Other strong delegates were Josh Cole, influential member of the UN the Security Council who was superbly supported by the rest of the rest of the French delegation (Abigail Tearle, Callum Sycamore and Archie Timms) in the General Assembly.
Meanwhile the ‘pantomime villains’ of the delegation for North Korea (Ben Weston, Miles Budden, Chris Grainger and Jozef Gwizdala) also attracted a great deal of attention, not least for their uniforms and accessories!
How true, how true, how TRUE! A festival – ‘a celebration’ – and so it was, embracing the enthusiasm, skill, passion and talents of well over a hundred of our pupils from eight to eighteen, not forgetting the brilliant staff who guided them to such heights (the staff embraced a different range of ages… but Mr Penny’s not letting on).
Cantabile – stunningly melodious, and beautifully measured: poignant pieces, witty arrangements, and crystal clear from the start.
The Chamber Choir – the pinnacle, and at the top of its game, mixing the secular and the religious with graceful aplomb and mesmerising musicianship (did you pick out all the nursery rhymes before they all began-agin?).
The Barbershop – not just a case of half a dozen snappy dressers having fun, but a wonderfully nuanced and balanced rendering of two classic songs given new heart and soul.
‘Down by the Riverside’ (how about that for a title written for Woodbridge…) and a wonderfully clever coming together of youth and experience as Cantabile followed where the Chamber Choir led. Brilliant.
The buzz at the interval was electric – here was an audience in the thrall of something very special. And the second half measured up in spades. The Abbey Chapel Choir delighted with its take on a very international repertoire, mixing brave solo voice with unison and harmony to joyous effect; the Chamber Choir returned to take glorious advantage of a chance to sing Mozart’s Ave Verum with a professional chamber orchestra; and then it was all (senior) hands to the pump for the Choral Society’s powerful performance of Schubert’s Mass in G featuring three quite outstanding soloists: Florence Gidney, David Spray and Owen Butcher.
A magical evening of song. Our sincere and enormous thanks to our wonderfully generous benefactor who made this very special event possible, and our hearty congratulations to all the performers, and of course to Ms Weston and her inspirational team of singing teachers, to Mrs Williams, to Mr Milton, to the memory of Mr Stafford, and to Mr Penny who rightly took the final bow at this, his final Woodbridge School Snape concert.
