Month: September 2017
As part of National Poetry Day the children shared some of their own poems with the class. Many of these have been submitted to the Woodbridge Young Poets Competition. Good luck to all of the Abbey Pupils who have entered. For those that haven’t there is still time…The deadline for entries is this coming Monday.
http://www.woodbridgeschool.org.uk/woodbridgeyoungpoets2017
Poem by James Hattan, Age 10, Year 6, The Abbey
If I owned a time machine ….
If I owned a time machine I`d go back 6 billion years ago
When the Big Bang created the Earth,
Well that’s what we think, we will never know
Next, I`d go to Stone Age times, when they hunted with their spears
They would kill woolly mammoths, rabbits and sometimes deers
After that I’d go to Ancient Egypt and meet Tutankhamun, their holy master
That was until he died, and when he did it was a disaster
I’d go and see the ancient mummies, wrapped in white bandages and well preserved
I`d fascinate at all their wealth and carefully observe
Next I`d go to Roman times and see the gladiators fight
I`d see it in the Coliseum, man against the Lions bite
After that I’d go to Anglo Saxon times, they had a ruler too
King Raedwald was his name, he died and was found buried at Sutton Hoo
I think I’d go to Shakespeare’s Globe now
I’d go and see Macbeth
Shakespeare wasn’t for everyone, in most of his plays there was a gory death
World War 1 and World War 2, England goes to war
Peace was broken and nobody was happy any more
Last of all I’d go and see Neil Armstrong take off to the moon
No one knew what he would find
One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind
Now I’d go back to my present self and I wouldn’t believe what I saw was true
But if I owned a future machine I know what I would do ….
On Tuesday year 5 pupils visited Hedingham Castle for a medieval experience. Pupils were taught how to besiege a Norman Castle, archery, medieval music and even played a game of trap ball.
Teddy: “I loved the archer explaining the difference between war bows and modern bows.”
Zara: “I found the healing lady really interesting.”
Jacob: “My favourite part was visiting the armoury.”
The children in Reception have been celebrating European Language Day with Ms Verona. During their Spanish lessons they learnt a song in which they said hello in 9 different languages! They proudly performed the song, with the actions, to their teachers.
Year 3 have made an excellent start on our Year 3 string scheme. This week the children decided which string instrument they wished to pursue. The session this week culminated in a whole year group performance. This is a great achievement, given the short amount of time that the children have been learning.
Tom Corin
Teacher of Music – The Abbey and Queen’s House
It was an encouraging start to the season for The Abbey girls’ hockey teams away at Littlegarth.
The A Team were two goals down in the second half and then with ten minutes left to play they suddenly improved their structure, fought hard and went on to score 2 goals. Littlegarth responded with another attack but The Abbey team defended well and turned the game round with their third goal being scored in the last two minutes of the game. A tremendous team performance, great start to the season and encouraging to see a fantastic comeback, whilst under pressure.
At half time the C team were 1 – 0 up. They dominated the first half and were unlucky not to score more goals. In the second half they kept the lead right up until the last few minutes when Littlegarth managed to score. The final score was 1 – 1.
The B and D Teams had a lot of possession, but were unable to hit the ball past the GK. Both teams worked hard and their positioning improved. An area for improvement is to hit the ball harder.
Last term Ms Ruth Leach entered the pupils in her club in The Woodbridge Horticultural Society photographic competition. The results were as follows:
1st Theo
2nd Charlie L
3rd Jack P
Highly Commended were James H, Finlay, Marina and Lily M
Congratulations to all the pupils on their stunning photos.
The Year One children have been investigating water. They have been learning about solids and liquids and reversible change. They have also been experimenting with objects that float and sink and making sensible predictions before carrying out a fair test. Budding young scientists!!
The children enjoyed playing a variety of maths games in the outside area today. They were learning to sequence and recognise numbers, count and move along number lines. They particularly enjoyed a game of skittles and were able to record their scores for themselves!
Can you ever enjoy a dinner even when the food is excellent and the wine deliciously tempting, if you have to deliver a speech afterwards, without a microphone? Well in the case of the OW Dinner 2017, yes. This attracted a particularly convivial crowd, mostly from those who left in 1992 and 2007 (25 years and 10 years since leaving respectively). The Tuckwell Room was splendidly arrayed and coped with pre-dinner drinks in there too rather than on the rain-soaked chapel lawn. Well done the Swing Band for coping!
It has only taken 25 years but at last I have discovered why Kevin Boyd slept so badly on the last night of the Classics trip; it was all Jaik Campbell’s fault apparently, though he very plausibly denies it. And as they were both in my tutor group thirty years ago, I shall just have to believe them both…
Do we still have ‘train boys’? There were several in this 1992 group including Robin Catchpole, David Green and Nick Brough (who is still using his nickname gained then). They were some of my first Form I French class in September 1985; we were both new to the school together and apparently I was “scarily strict”. Imagine that.
It was good to catch up with ex-Under Officer Josh Brown, ex-Sgt Chris Marshall and ex-Flt Sgt Ed Bowden, who all helped improve and expand the CCF to help it on its way to what it is now. It was that year group which suggested incentives such as stable belts for the senior NCOs, which continue to this day. They also became incredibly adept on the assault course which also developed and helped the contingent win that element of many regional and national competitions. I was just sorry that John Edwards and Marcus Stapleton couldn’t be there that evening.
Former boarders Mel Hunter, Natalie Lawrence, and Mike Robinson were to the fore, all seeming very grown up but with interesting tales to tell about their time in Queen’s and School House. No apologies needed, Mel! Ginto Lee came up from London to light up the room with his smile. Joe Steventon is taking care of animals from his practice in Hasketon Road and Joe Fairs has recently returned from London and set up a business and is enjoying Suffolk again.
Gemma Morley is teaching yoga and other interesting therapies in London, very much needed in stressful times. It was also good to meet some spouses – James Hutchinson’s and Josh Brown’s and they appeared to cope very well with the reminiscing going on all around. And the prize for the most changed from the 1992 group goes to Tim Waring who is taller and darker haired than I remember, but then boys do change more after leaving school.
And from the younger year groups it was good to see David Armitage and his fiancée. David, former senior PO in the RN Section of the CCF and now holding a commission in the Royal Navy, had one more assessment to do in order to complete his helicopter pilot training; all he needed to do was successfully land and take off from a ship at sea. Chris Leng and Fred Marlowe were sporting splendid beards. Chris didn’t take up my offer to continue the conversation in French… Simon Hill is still buzzing from his A-level physics class’s results this summer – he has cracked how to teach this challenging subject in Sheffield. Might he have a genetic advantage?
Keith Rowbory is still smiling and practising maritime law in London. And then there were Lucy Havard, Emily Purser and Maria Wyard (yes we heard your laughter across the room, ladies!). Lucy is embarking on a degree in the history of the philosophy of science (or is it the other way round?) after some years practising medicine, Emily is having a ball at the University of the Arts, London, and no one has made administration sound such fun. Maria is recently back from Pakistan, working for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and awaits her next overseas posting.
Of the ‘youngsters’, it was good to see Marc and Alistair Jeffreys at the dinner (the latter left only in 2015) and Aron Lankester has completed his apprenticeship with BT, so successfully that they are sponsoring him to do a further year of degree-level study. Sadly I didn’t get a chance to talk to many others. I heard Adam Lawson’s laugh many times but didn’t manage to talk to Anna Lawson and Paula Sheridan.
I was very happy to be seated with Morgan Davies, former OW President Huw Turbervill, and Clare Kneebone who organised the dinner so excellently. All were in brilliant form and very good company. I couldn’t help noticing though that we were sitting on the (slightly) older half of the room. Sorry folks, that’s just life. I was also next to the Headmaster, Neil Tetley who gave us a brief taste of some of the developments in the school, notably moving Queen’s House to the Abbey site; it seems an exciting time in the school’s life.
Lastly it was very good to have staff support as ever as they are who OWs like to see again. Miss Gill seemed to have a great time reminiscing about Iceland and Norway and no doubt geography too, Mrs Willett, OWs Mr and Mrs Hillman and Mrs Tyndale-Brown, as well as the Head and his wife, Laura. I was sorry not to be able to talk to many of the OWs who left in the 40s, 50s and 60s, but I am hugely looking forward to the opportunity to do so at the Senior Alumni Lunch to be held on 17th February 2018. That will be for those who left 50 or more years ago and we will be treated to a talk on the school by Mark Mitchels, past OW President.
In between times, there are Christmas Drinks to look forward to in the King’s Head. But let’s not will Christmas on ourselves just yet… Keep in touch!
Graeme Bruce
