Month: May 2017
3 out of 4 athletic teams make it to the A regional finals in the ESAA English Schools’ Track and Field Cup!!
Our junior (Years 7/8) and intermediate (Years 9/10) athletics teams went to compete in the ESAA English Schools’ Track and Field Cup at Bury St Edmunds on 11th May. Woodbridge School dominated the day. With ten schools competing on the Wednesday and the same number again on the Thursday competition was tough. Our best 13 girls and 15 boys in each group were selected for two events each, covering all the events between them. Distances and times gained points and the team scoring the most points qualify.
Our strong unbeaten junior girls’ team won with a total 346 points, exceeding the previous day’s winners RHS (309), thereby earning a place in the A regional finals as the top school. Olivia Buchanan was our top girl scoring 48 points, her javelin throw taking her off the scoring system! Emily Whyte was second top with 44 points from 800m and javelin. Bea Thomas next on 38, closely followed by Issy Eaton 37 and Ella Walker 36. Issy came second in her 100m race to the UK’s number two runner. Arianne Bilgen did well in high jump to win with 1.35m.
The intermediate girls also won, with 343 points, again exceeding previous day’s winners RHS (324), to take them to the A regional final as top qualifiers. Top scorer was Sophie Graham on 46 points from a javelin throw that took her off the scoring system, combined with her hurdles points. Next was Nell Pilkington (42) whose shot throw also took her off the points system and she also did the relay. Sarah Barker scored 35 points with a strong 1500m, Maud Peel 31 and Victoria Burrows 30. Many thanks to Annie Yates, who stepped in to cover Amy Graham who was absent on the day, and pocketed a good number of points.
The Junior boys’ team also won scoring 342 points. Ipswich School had won the day before on 307 so again we finished first overall. Top scorer was John Hendry with 40; we are hoping to add detail to this report soon.
The Reception children have been learning to tell the time. They have found out about the hour and minute hands on the clock and worked out how their day is organised by time. They have played time games and used computer programs to support them. In Parent Session this week they made their own clocks to take home and practise with.
In Year 1 the children have been writing their own “That’s not my minibeast” story using materials to make the books ‘touchy-feely’. The children are all very proud of their stories which are displayed on the book shelves in the classrooms!
Mrs Lindsay-Smith & Mrs Cory
Year 4 thoroughly enjoyed the History trip to Colchester Castle on Tuesday. We all found it extremely enjoyable. Firstly we went upstairs to build a Roundhouse and a Roman Villa. We looked at a video and then we made them. After that we had a snack and play outside the castle. Then we went back inside to go into the vault. The vault was made in Roman times, it was under the castle. We learn lots of facts – like Boudicca burnt down lots of temples like the one in St Albans and the one in Colchester for revenge. We also went into the prisons. There were bloodstains on the floor and the keys to the cell, speakers and a monitor. It was then time for lunch – we ate outside in the castle grounds. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the museum, finding fascinating information about the Romans. It was a great day.
By Theo Pommier and Charlie Langdon 4T
What a fantastic day Year 3 had at Ringsfield Eco Centre last Friday. They arrive to find ancient pendants hanging from the trees. After travelling back in time, through the vortex they were greeted by Ar and Om who had been expelled from their village after allowing the fire to go out.
Relieved to find a new tribe willing to help them they escorted us back to their home in the woods where they showed us how to blow on the embers to relight the fire. They taught ancient skills of weapon making, shelter building, making paints and cooking and foraging. Having ground flour from seeds we all made Stone Age bread and cooked it in the embers on green 5ticks.
After a hunting game and foraging for berries we returned, via the vortex, to 2017. Smelling of smoke and exhausted many children fell asleep on the coach dreaming of Ar and Om.
Congratulations to Joshua Cole on his outstanding essay entitled, ‘To what extent can Sir Redvers Buller be considered a poor officer?’ Submitted to the Society of Army Historical Research’s essay competition 2017, it saw off essays from enough sixth-formers and undergraduates to achieve second place. On 25 April 2017 Joshua was invited to attend the society’s AGM at the Royal United Services Institute in London. Here Joshua enjoyed a lecture delivered by Michael Locicero entitled ‘A Moonlight Massacre: The Forgotten Last Act of the Third Battle of Ypres’ before receiving his prize of £100 and a year’s subscription to the society journal. The reception afterwards presented opportunities for canapés, wine and discussion with the likes of Major-General Truluck and the prize-giver Lieutenant-General Sir Barney White-Spunner, Deputy Director of Defence Policy at NATO, and previously commander of the Kabul Multinational Brigade in 2002 and later Chief of Joint Force Operations for the national contingent in the Middle East.
Last year at the County Track and field Championships we took 24 pupils and 12 qualified for selection to the county athletics teams. We thought that was pretty good… This year we took 49 girls and boys from Years 8-13 with an astonishing 22 pupils qualifying in 26 events!
With five heats in the 100m (40 competitors) it gives some idea of the competition to come in the top three to qualify. On the track Issy Eaton went to the finals for both 100m and 200m – coming third in 200m to qualify and just missing out in 4th place for the 100m. John Hendry also place 3rd in the final of the 200m gave him a place too. Our distance runners were dominant: Sarah Barker and Nathan Goddard winning the 3000m and George Wharam coming 2nd. Hurdlers Sophie Graham, India Lawson and Mauricio Corfe all won their races.
The throwers did well too: wins for Sophie Graham 36.27m and sister Laura with a PB of 39.43m quite outstanding!! Olivia Buchanan came 2nd and Amy Graham (with injury) 3rd. In discus Sophie Graham won, as did Joanne Garnett, and 3rd places for Alex Weir Simmonds, Annie Yates, and Laura Graham added to the collection. In shot we had more to celebrate with wins for Jemima Potter and Nell Pilkington, and 2nd place for Maud Peel.
In the jumps we had wins for India Lawson in high jump, and Ianthe Hill in long jump with Georgia Harrold coming 2nd. Triple jump saw 2nd places for India Lawson and Hal Ottley, and 3rd place for Hugo Thomas.
Those narrowly missing out on qualification but still securing excellent fourth places were Emily Whyte in Javelin, Jemima Potter and Nathaniel Gunn in discus, Charlie Turner in 1500m, and Gussie Terry in Triple Jump.
All 49 should be proud to have achieved the qualifying distance or time to attend this event. Well done all on such a chilly day!
We look forward to next week’s athletics events which take us back to Bury next Thursday for the schools’ team event, and to Northgate on Tuesday with Year 10.
Four schools took part in a Year 4,5,6,7 and 8 girls’ athletics meet at New Hall. In very cold conditions the girls did extremely well and won overall, scoring 238 to defeat Holmwood House 4th on 378, New Hall 3rd on 341, and Ipswich High on 298.
The Year 8 girls had complete control with Issy Eaton winning 100m, 200m, and coming from behind in the last leg of the relay to win. Molly Marshall won the 1500m, and long jump, Olivia Buchanan the javelin and, joined by Issy, Ella Walker and Emily Whyte, the relay. The team overall won both track and field events. Meanwhile Year 7 Bea Thomas won the 800m, Amy Goddard the 1500m, Iris Morton the high jump, and Ella Smith the discus to help the Year 7 team win their overall field events.
Congratulations to all.
Six schools took part in the first athletics meet this season at RHS on Saturday: Gresham’s, Ipswich High, Ipswich School, Framlingham Prep, RHS and Woodbridge. Open to girls’ teams of U12, U13 U14 and U15, lots of pupils took part with roughly 12 competitors or more per event. This year the organisers were concentrating on getting as many involved as possible, giving them an opportunity to post times and distances for the season, and in true Woodbridge fashion our girls happily stepped in to do extra events to cover for some late and unavoidable absences.
The girls showed dominance on the middle distance track 800m with Sarah Barker 1st and Amy Graham 2nd in U15 team, Bea Thomas 1st and Amy Goddard 2nd in the U12 team, and Emily Whyte 3rd at U13. The throwing events were equally successful: in javelin U12 Katie Norman came 1st and Tess Walker 3rd, U13 Olivia Buchanan 1st Emily Whyte 2nd, U14 Nell Pilkington 1st, U15 Amy Graham 1st and Freya Nyberg throwing well. In discus Ella Smith1st Olivia Brown 3rd, U13 Lakisha Charema 3rd and Jess Elmer 4th, U14 Annabel Yates 1st Saffron Holliday 3rd, U15 Cristine Lui 1st Joanne Garnett 2nd. Special mention to Cristine whose success followed from just one training session with Mr Graham! In shot U14 Nell Pilkington was 2nd with 9m to the winning throw of 9.03m! In the U15 team event Maud Peel came 1st and Joanne Garnett was 2nd. Meanwhile Ella Walker finished off her very successful day as part of the winning U13 relay A team (Emily Whyte, Katie Bellhouse and Eleanor Wright) having already won High Jump and 200m.
Apologies to anyone not mentioned who did well; a full set of results will follow from RHS. Thank you to all the parents who brought the girls to school on the Bank holiday weekend and those out supporting at RHS. A big thank you to Mr Goddard and Mr Graham for their presence and training, and to Mrs Pilkington and Miss Sanders for their leadership on the day. Most importantly thank you girls and well done!
Oliver Juzst was one of two goalkeepers selected to attend the England U16 hockey International matches this last weekend ( Saturday 29 April – Monday 1 May) at Lillieshall, Shropshire. The England U16 team were up against Ulster U17 boys.
The first match was played by the older goalkeeper James Mazzerello on Saturday 29 April and resulted in a win to England 2-1. Ollie’s turn came on the Sunday, after a full day of training and waiting, and with the Ulster boys looking for a win. It was a tight game and ended in a 2-2 draw. Penalty shuffles took place after the final whistle and Ollie made 4 out of the 5 saves with the Ulster keeping letting in several shots, although these do not count and were played for experience leaving the final result a draw.
On the final day, Ollie and James shared the game with James playing the first half, Oliver the second. Both our keepers conceded two goals in the game and the final score was 4-3 to Ulster in another tight game.
All-in-all a respectable result considering the England team were playing up a year and we were missing some of our outfield players to club finals commitments.
Congratulations to Oliver on a fantastic debut with the England Team.