Month: January 2018
Suffolk Representative Honours
Many congratulations to the following who have been selected to run for Suffolk at the Anglian Cross Country Championships on Saturday 3 February.
Minor Girls : Ruby Vinton
Minor Boys : Ed Buckingham and Moses McBride
Junior Girls : April Hill, Amy Goddard, Bea Thomas and Jess Elmer
Junior Boys : Charlie Turner and Kit Evans Lombe
Inter Boys : Nathan Goddard, Alex Evans Lombe and Daniel Davies
Young pupils at Woodbridge School have been joined on stage by Lord Marlesford and the Rt Hon Sir John Waite, a former Lord Justice of Appeal, for the exciting debut of ‘The Trial of Paris’ play. Pupils in Years 7 and 8 performed the play to two audiences on Friday, 19 January, in the Science Lecture Theatre.
Written by Anne Wright, Woodbridge School’s Head of Classics, ‘The Trial of Paris’ is a crossover between Greek mythology and a courtroom drama. The play sees Paris of Troy on trial for starting the Trojan War, with pupils playing barristers and witnesses including Aphrodite and Zeus.
Lord Marlesford, President of the Suffolk Preservation Society and former Parliamentary lobby correspondent for The Economist, joined the young cast on stage in character as a judge for the first ‘Trial of Paris’ performance. Sir John Waite took to the stage as a judge for the second performance, bringing his lifetime experience as a former Lord Justice of Appeal. The play encouraged the audience to take an interactive role as jury, by deciding whether Paris was innocent or guilty.
Anne Wright said: “I am incredibly proud of the cast, who were utterly convincing, and I should like to thank our judges for their thought-provoking comments about the importance of the rule of Law.”
Latin is very popular at Woodbridge School for pupils of all ages, from Year 7 to A Level. Classical Greek is also available (both as an academic option and as an extra-curricular activity), while Classical Civilisation is offered at A Level. The school has a proud tradition of sending Classicists to Oxford and Cambridge Universities and, this year, a Woodbridge School pupil has been offered a place to read Classics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
Forty enthusiastic and confident Woodbridge and Abbey boys and girls travelled to compete in this huge event… over 250 running from over 30 schools in each of the six races on the day. Our team was a credit to the school and further enhanced our reputation as an excellent cross country school.
For the senior school races, the Year 7 girls started impressively with Ruby Vinton continuing her recent run of victories with a confident performance to win by some 100m. But these races were as much about teamwork, and so six had to score well: Madeline Buchanan (29), Ada Marson (58), Esme Ball (63), Chloe Macmillan (70), and Kitty Frith (101), Maggie Nicholson (103) and Libbie Brightey(107) running together to push each other, all fought through the pack and the cold to give themselves a chance of glory. Eight place overall was a fine reward.
The Year 7 boys were also on fine form: Ed Buckingham (4) chased down the initial leader and worked hard in the front group, while Moses McBride (11) and Tommy Burrows (17) forged their way up the field into the second group. Jonny Evans Lombe (33) and George Na Nakhorn (39) showed excellent support for the front runners and with Erwan Gouedo (67) and Albie Smith (102) working exceptionally hard right to the finish, the boys took a deserved third place overall.
The Year 8 girls feared they would be a runner short, but Isobel Mitchell agreed to run a year up to ensure that the team would be able to gain a score. The team was ably led by Amy Goddard (3) who ran with the front runners from the start and worked extremely hard throughout the race and she was well supported by her entire team of Ann Jackson (10), Willa Cole (19), and Isobel Mitchell (37), Iris Morton (40) and Ella Pitt (41) whose triumvirate approach brought the very best result out of them. The girls won as a team – a brilliant performance.
The Year 8 boys now knew we were in with a shout for the overall competition. Ed Rufford (14) and Tom Martin (26) set the pace with Tom cleverly biding his time and slowly moving through the field throughout the race; Samuel Bolus (47) worked as hard as he ever had, digging impressively deep, as did Oliver Doole (64) and the pair of Archie Sjoberg (83) and Max Hutchinson (85) who pushed and pushed right to the end. Seventh for the team: another great result.
In the end in the overall results our girls’ team and our boys’ team both finished third (the only school to feature on both podiums). It meant the grand total would be close… and so it proved as we were pipped into second behind Lincroft Academy by 1462 to 1476 points, and well over 100 points clear of third placed Bedford Modern. A brilliant day! Many congratulations to all the runners who performed admirably in freezing cold and windy conditions.
Introducing Computational Thinking supported by BT Labs@Adastral Park Computational
Computational Thinking gives students access to a set of tools to improve reasoning, perseverance and problem solving which can be applied across the curriculum. During this interactive session pupils learnt what an algorithm is and were able to code BeeBots. What a clever bunch!
As the final deadline arrives for applications into this year’s UCAS and with it any remaining decisions about what to study and where are committed to paper, we are delighted to report that our students have already started receiving some wonderfully tempting offers.
In particular, Oxford and Cambridge Universities have just simultaneously announced theirs, and our congratulations go to Wolff Lambert (Classics at Oxford), William Emery (Music at Oxford, an open offer underwritten by St Hugh’s College), Emily Barker (Mathematics at Churchill College, Cambridge), Abigail Crane (Natural sciences at Homerton College, Cambridge) and William Clarke (History and politics at Girton College, Cambridge).
While many of our students must continue to wait for now, some have already received offers from all the universities to which they have applied, including Pierre Blackburn, Stuart Evans, Alyssa Hedley, Abraham Hew, Jake Jay, Ben Kelly, Millie Leith, Tom Lomas, Caragh Paul, Georgie Saunders, Kieran Saxton, Will Wells and Oliver Whiting. Others have heard good news for some of the more unusual degrees, for example: Gabby Harvey has an offer for a degree at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, in singing, which is very unusual for someone so young; Harrison Perkins is choosing between music (saxophone) at Trinity or King’s London; Rachel Prowse has unconditional offers from St Andrews and Edinburgh for French; James Briggs, with his career in mind, has an unconditional offer for police studies at York St John; and Charlotte Sheehan and Nancy King have secured recalls on the long haul to drama school.
What diversity – what imagination!
Congratulations to the U14A netball team for an excellent match on Monday after school! They showed real resilience, guts and determination. East Bergholt came with a strong team of club players and who were quick to challenge every ball. In the first quarter Ella Walker and Emily Whyte shot well and the teams were level. In the second quarter East Bergholt pulled away by 4 goals thanks to some excellent shooting and despite Jess Elmer’s fierce defending mid court for which she took some hard hits. The Woodbridge girls had a change of positions and battled hard in the third quarter to turn the game around. Ariane Bilgen and Issy Eaton dominated their players in the circle, not allowing them any space near the post. Further down court Molly Marshall and April Hill used the turned-over balls quickly to turn the defence into attack. Both teams were not going to let the game slip away from them and in the final quarter the match was very physical and exciting. The standard of netball was very pleasing and the result even more so! To win the game by one goal, 15-14 was well deserved. Well done, girls, on an excellent whole team performance.
Suffolk school pupils have been treated to an exciting Chemistry show.
More than 200 students from St Mary’s Primary School in Ipswich and The Abbey went to see the show at the Seckford Theatre in Woodbridge. The show was put on by Stephen Ashworth, a reader in the chemistry department at the University of East Anglia. Dr Ashworth has given lectures in science all over the world.
Ambra Calver, Chemistry Teacher and STEM co-ordinator at Woodbridge School, said: “A huge thank you to Dr Ashworth for his fantastic Kitchen Chemistry show. The explosive experiments and interesting demonstrations on household objects left pupils with a real excitement for science.”
The Netball season got under way for the U15B team with an away league match against Westbourne. Luckily, we were playing indoors (which makes all the difference, particularly this time of year), so the girls were happy! Although the first quarter was slow to get going, especially as most of the team hadn’t played netball since last season, we managed to end with a 4 – 4 draw. Our passing was quick, but unfortunately not accurate, and we were panicking, therefore not converting our interceptions. During the second half, the team slowed their play down and managed to convert their interceptions into goals. Maddie Cheshire and Libby Martin worked brilliantly in the shooting circle; moving effectively and ensuring passes was received under the post. Sophie Harper, Amber Harrell and Tori McCarroll worked tirelessly in defence, putting the shooters under pressure and turning the ball over. Charlotte Bowers and Laura Golding kept the momentum going in Centre, ensuring passes into our attacking circle were accurate and Maisie Watts and Lily Craig backed up on our defending line and around our attacking circle. A good team performance – well done girls!
The Woodbridge School Junior Riders travelled to the Easton & Otley College Easton Campus to contest the NSEA Grass Roots Show Jumping Regional Final on Saturday 6 January 2018.
Sasha Reid started the day off by taking 2nd place in the 40cms Championship.
This was then followed by the Team of Isla Appleby (Yr 8), Lily Waterer (Yr 8), Sophia Waterer (Yr6) and Eve Marson (Yr5) winning the 60cms Championships with Lily, Eve and Sophia taking 2nd, 3rd and 4th place as individuals respectively.
The same team then went on to contest the 70cms Championship class and completed the double by winning. Lily Waterer finished the day in Style taking the win as the individual with Sophia taking 4th, Eve taking 5th and Isla taking 6th place.
This was the first time this team had competed at any Championships level.
The riders had qualified for the Championship in September 2017 by winning the qualifying classes at the Tendring Hundred Riding Club hosted show.
It is sobering when an OW who left school in 2010 says that he feels old. The Christmas Drinks event at the King’s Head just before Christmas usually attracts OWs who have left fairly recently and are still at university, in the middle of an apprenticeship, or have just started out in the world of work. Sam Rowell who left only seven years ago was the OW feeling old, so I chatted to him to try and make him feel better about his age. It is all relative… Sam is now working for IBM in data analysis and like most of the others involved in computing now has a smart pair of spectacles to complete the serious intellectual look. Marc Jeffreys and Aron Lankester are both working for BT in data analysis too (though they aren’t allowed to say much about it) and Harold Elman who graduated in computer science is taking another degree, this time in mathematics. Harold always did love study, even when it was GCSE French!
I have not seen Robin Hartley since he left the Sixth Form. He is currently engaged in a PhD in materials science at Bristol, having taken an engineering conversion year after his degree in chemistry; I wasn’t aware that such courses existed but it sounds a good route in to engineering. And he still has time for dance – amazing! Guy Stow and Andrew Norman were present along with Dom Crane who is in his second year of chemistry at York but hasn’t done much drama this year, which given how much he did when at school is sad, but he is going to get back in to it he says. Applying for a third-year placement in industry is taking up much of his time at the moment. Best of luck!
Millie Hooper graduated in linguistics at Cambridge this summer and is very excited about her imminent start in the world of casting, whilst her peer, Rosa Gaffney, is concerned that the MS Word spellchecker does not accept Japanologist which is what she considers herself. I see her more as a Nipponist. With Jake Isabell there (whose hair is quite spectacular and yet mostly under control) it was just like being in the GCSE French classroom again, in a good way.
Helena Robson has stayed on in Edinburgh after a degree in History of Art to work in the photography department of the National Gallery of Scotland, which she is loving. Hannah Whitmore has graduated at Surrey University and has remained there for a PhD in plant chemistry which she is hugely enjoying. She has encouraged me to keep working on one of her grade 7 cello pieces which I have just started, a scary tarantella. I am unsure I’ll ever be able to play it as well as Hannah though!
Rhiannon Humphreys has loved her first term at Cardiff reading English whilst continuing to sing. David Spray, also at Cardiff but studying geography, had been singing with Rhiannon and some other Chamber Choir alumni in the Thoroughfare that morning, raising several hundred pounds for Crisis in just two hours. Also at Cardiff is Maddyson Chan who is studying pharmacy whilst keeping up her dancing. Isabella Pincombe went straight to the Royal Academy of Music to study the oboe after A levels and is loving the range of opportunities for top-flight performance opportunities there.
George Cory is looking forward to his Admiralty Interview Board in February, having passed his flying aptitude tests with scores at the top of the pile. Brothers Tom and Nick Elmer were on good form. Tom is in his fifth year of medicine (or is it sixth?) at Newcastle whilst Nick is studying mathematics at Southampton after doing A levels at the Defence Sixth Form College, Welbeck. He is having second thoughts about a commission in the army. Sister Maddy Elmer could not be at the Christmas Drinks as she was working on a photo shoot, in Turkey, so that must have been tough!
Julie Maclean has started a degree in anthropology at the University of Toronto and is really enjoying her time there. It was good to hear of her elder brothers Alex and Ian too. I just managed to catch up with Ellisse Morey as I was leaving. She has stayed true to her linguistic vocation at A level and is now studying French, Spanish and Italian at Hull (a university I enjoyed visiting this summer as part of the City of Culture experience) whilst Ella Burdett is reading English at Edinburgh and loving the experience.
As Chairman of the OWs, Rob Turner had the pleasure of welcoming his own daughter, Lucy-May, to her first OW event since she left the Sixth Form in the summer, though he was probably just wondering where the last 18 years have gone. It was also good to catch up with other OW Committee members Rick Hobson, Ken Bailey, and David Houchell who had a couple of samples of OW branded polo shirts on display.
It was a particular pleasure to see Sue Leslie, widow of the legendary mathematics teacher, housemaster and raconteur, Mr Jeff Leslie. She reminded me that it was because of the French exchange that Jeff became such a Francophile, insinuating useful knowledge of French cheese and wine in to maths lessons and sixth form assemblies. It was also a favourite topic of conversation at lunch! Their two children, both OWs, Catherine and Max are well. Max is a practising dentist (having got the idea of dentistry from the father of his French exchange partner), and he is busy building a house in Cambridge.
It was also good to catch up with various staff, present and previous, including Mr Edwards, who had just been supporting former Chamber Choir members on the Thoroughfare, Mr and Mrs Hillman (Heads of Computing and Chemistry respectively), Mrs Brown (Director of Sixth Form and Careers at school), Mrs Green (formerly Head of French) who is about to walk round the Isle of Wight for a mental health charity and Mr Ringer who did so much for design and sailing at Woodbridge. He said that his OW daughter, Frances Ringer, is now teaching music in Hertfordshire giving her opportunities to play keyboards, double bass, a range of wind instruments and to sing; her time in the music department at school was not wasted!
There were lots of you I did not manage to talk to, but get in touch or indeed, let’s chat at another OW event in 2018! And I was mortified to get one name wrong in the three hours; sorry, Josef!
