Month: March 2018
There was something intriguingly timely about the choice of play: a strong woman; difficult times; repression and patriarchy. And also a play with barely a male character in sight for some time; boys playing girls, and girls playing girls. Identity; control; strength in weakness and weakness in strength. Jane Eyre is such an important book and deserves interpretations which keep pace with modernity and seek out its timeless truths. Such was the aim, and the achievement of this year’s Upper Sixth drama students. In two scenes we were taken from timid childhood to intrepid, forthright innocence (is that an oxymoron? I think not). Jane’s innocence is essential, but only in the context of her fortitude.
The first act rushed her from home, figuratively and physically, into a dark sanctuary, only for her to find guidance and light from dear Helen Burns. Death the only release… of course. Such is melodrama. We wanted to know more.
Act two and escape into… greater darkness? Not at all, unless that sole male figure knocked from his horse and floundering in his own anger is to upset the transition from lost to found. Well, there lies the question for act three… the act we couldn’t have! This audience was left wanting more: Jane, Mrs Fairfax, Adèle and Pilot seemed to have found a happiness to explore, only for Rochester (ah, those tricksy menfolk) to upset the order of things. And so the evening ended: in uncertainty and ambiguity – a different disquiet from the outset, but no less enthralling.
Excellent work.
Thirty five eager pianists participated in this year’s piano festival held on Thursday 8 March.
We were fortunate to welcome Richard Stafford as our adjudicator. Richard is Director of Music at Ardingly College and an accomplished musician and educator.
His comments on the performances were insightful and astute and all the performers benefited from his advice. He also gave a mini-masterclass to the intermediate level pianists, which helped them raise their standards even higher. It was wonderful to hear such an array of performances encompassing a broad range of repertoire, and all pupils should be commended for their participation. The winners were:
Beginners’ Class: Sophie Ralph
Developing Class: Chester Wigzell
Intermediate Class: Toby McNally
Advanced Class: Etiane Cheung
Recital Class: Wolff Lambert
Overall Junior Winner: Etiane Cheung
Overall Senior Winner: Wolff Lambert
Many congratulations one and all, and many thanks again to the adjudicator Mr Stafford.
On Saturday 17 March, six of our top athletes competed for Suffolk at the England Schools’ Cross Country Championship in Leeds.
All 44 counties entered their top 8 athletes, so 352 elite cross country athletes competed in each race in the sleet and icy wind.
In the Junior Girls’ Race April Hill had the race of her season finishing in 12th place and just missing selection for the England Team (top 8) by 3 seconds after two miles in the mud. This was a quite fantastic effort at the highest level, an amazing return to form for April after a few years of injury disruption, and a very proud day for the Hill family.
Bea Thomas was immensely proud to earn her second England Schools’ badge (still aged only 13) and she once again competed very well against the best in England finishing in the 200’s.
In the Junior Boys’ Race Charlie Turner had his best ever result on the National stage finishing strongly in 23rd place. A top 25 at England Schools’ is an outstanding national level achievement. Charlie was only 45 seconds behind the winner.
Not to be outdone, Kit Evans Lombe had his best ever result at Nationals, finishing 101st. To give the result some context, after 4.1 km in the mud there were only 5 seconds between Kit and 82nd place.
In the Inter Boys’ Nathan Goddard was unlucky to pick up a midweek head cold but still travelled to compete for the Suffolk Team. Fighting hard all the way Nathan once again recorded a top 100 finish in 66th place. His Suffolk teammate, with whom he had run all year, finished 31st giving Nathan a pointer as to what might have been.
For Alex Evans Lombe, this was a debut England Schools’ performance and he competed exceptionally well to finish in the 200’s. Alex only started to take cross country seriously 18 months ago, and this winter he qualified for three County teams which is a testament to his work ethic and commitment.
Saving the best for last, the Junior Boys’ Suffolk Team unbelievably finished second overall in the team standings which is quite incredible when you consider the size of the County compared to the might of some of the other 43.
In fact, there were further Inter County Competitions on the day in which each county was classified according to population. Suffolk is a ‘C’ County and in that category Suffolk won the overall boys’ and were second in the girls’. A fantastic result!
Well done to all the Woodbridge School athletes for their contribution. A well-deserved rest lies ahead, before we switch to track and a long-awaited summer!
A group are away on a study trip in Rouen. They have visited le cathédral and the very location where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake… so far a wonderful time being had by all.
Year 2 recently went to the Minsmere Nature Reserve, in Saxmundham, to look at animals living in their habitats. A truly idyllic place for the children to visit with a variety of different habitats. Some of the UK’s rarest wildlife can be discovered and there are plenty of activities to get involved in.
The children thrived on what was in store for them. They became adventurous in the ‘Wild Wood Adventure and Build a Den’ area (collecting wood and making nests), then made their way to the Discovery Centre to search out minibeasts – they found a selection of them and even got to hold them!
Further trails led them into areas where they could spot deer and other wildlife. The children then took shelter, out in the marsh areas, in the nature hides where they used their binoculars to spot different birds.
A great day in the outdoors had by all.
Year 13, as part of their A level studies, took a trip to London to attend a series of lectures by Sovereign Education.
They enjoyed conversing with the various people they met, who included a University of Exeter lecturer and Robert Service. Robert Service is actually the author of one of the books they have read as part of their course ‘The Penguin History of Modern Russia – From Tsarism to the Twenty-First Century’.
A group of our students, a Young Enterprise team, have created a recipe book ‘East Coast Eats’ inspired by local eateries. And word is getting out there!
See link below for the full story:
Abbey swimmers have had a storming start to 2018!
C Hattan, G Phillips, E Carter and M Pommier all qualified to compete in the County Championships, held over three weekends at Crown Pools, Ipswich, through February.
Out of a possible 15 events, C Hattan qualified in 14, including the challenging 200m Individual Medley and 400m Freestyle. G Phillips picked up 12 qualifications and E Carter three. M Pommier had the challenge of swimming up a year, because of when her birthday fell, so had to qualify with and compete against largely Year 7s.
There were some excellent individual results, with both C Hattan and G Phillips making individual finals, but potentially the highlight was the 200m Freestyle Team Relay where an enthusiastically and loudly supported Deben team won a well-deserved bronze medal. C Hattan and G Phillips making up crucial time in the last two legs.
A great result for one of the smaller clubs (that doesn’t even have its own swimming pool at the moment!) On the basis of their performances this year, C Hattan, G Phillips and E Carter have been selected to attend the Suffolk County ASA Development programme, part of the England Swimming performance pathway.
The Year 5 art students visited Bury St Edmunds Cathedral to see their collaborative Art work on display as part of a public exhibition entitled “Choices”. The children enjoyed seeing their work and sketching areas they found interesting. We discussed how, why and when we make choices in life.
The exhibition had a biblical reference; we heard the story of Jesus in the desert and discussed how Lent is all about making choices.
Year 5 were lucky enough to each add a Lego brick to the model of the Cathedral and engaged brilliantly when touring and learning about the different aspects of the building itself.
On Monday 12 March, George, a former pupil of Woodbridge School, came to The Abbey to give a talk to Year 6 about the CCF. CCF stands for Combined Cadet Force. It has different sections: the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force.
The CCF teaches you lots of exciting skills; about being responsible, leadership and self-confidence by doing adventurous activities and teaches you how to speak in public. He talked about the importance of being part of a team, to look out for each other and to help one another.
You can join CCF in Year 9. Every month you get to do something amazing like fly a plane from a RAF Base, which would be extremely fun. Year 13 is the highest rank and you become a leader and have a lot of responsibility, such as attending meetings with teachers to plan activities for CCF.
He talked about The Duke of Edinburgh Awards. For the Bronze Award there are local activities and camps, the Silver Award camping in the Lake District and for the Gold Award he went to Morocco to climb the Atlas Mountains. Which sounds amazing!