Month: March 2018

We are delighted to announce that, just as we celebrate the successes of our pupils, we also like to congratulate our staff on their achievements.

Mrs Christina Clubb (Deputy Head at The Abbey) was commemorated at an awards ceremony this week.  She is the proud recipient of the The Suffolk Schools Tennis Association, Tennis Teacher of The Year Award.

This award is in recognition of Mrs Clubb’s many years of service and her commitment to ensuring that tennis features as a summer sport in the fixture calendar.

Well done Mrs Clubb, we are very proud of you and you fully deserve your recognition.

The snow might have thwarted the music department a couple of weeks ago, forcing cancelled concerts, but, quick as a flash Mr Milton spotted an opportunity to provide a wonderful evening of ‘samples’ last Friday.

The Showcase Concert brought together a glorious range of ensembles, choirs, orchestras and bands, and filled St Mary’s with a heady mix of ancient and very modern.  Well, I count ABBA as very modern.  And Grease.  And Chicago.  But I am told I am a little old fashioned… so I was back on more familiar territory with the Chamber Choir’s Weelkes (c 1600!).  Anyway, the foot tapping was already well under way by the time the Chamber Choir performed.  Seckford Sinfonia had taken on the first two of my ‘very moderns’ with uncontainable smiles and delight (performers and audience); the Concert Band and The Lion King made for splendid soul mates; Cellisti took us to America via Oblivion (an interesting coupling…); Cantabile changed the mood to the sublimely silken with two mesmerising odes, one to eventide, the other to Lilies and Roses, and then joined the Chamber Choir for Chilcott’s take on the Irish Blessing. Alone, the Chamber Choir then built to the unstoppable crescendo of Hogan’s My Soul… Ms Weston pressing the accelerator like Stig – but with infinitely more character, and no white helmet.

After the interval (notable for the enthusiastic chatter of a very happy audience), the Swing Band excelled in a Herbie Hancock quartet, the Percussionists Mambo-mesmerised, the Brass Ensemble waxed and waned (pian’ e forte!) with aplomb and the Symphony Orchestra wowed us with Chigago.  Phew! Fantastic!  Many, many congratulations to performers and conductors alike – you richly deserved your packed and appreciative audience.

In a week during which ironically we sadly lost one of the UK’s most celebrated modern Scientists, pupils from across the School have been celebrating all aspects of Science and Technology during British Science Week.

Senior School pupils sampled a fascinating insight into BT’s Adastral Park, visiting the innovation showcase during the first half of the morning, followed by hands-on workshops during the second half. The innovation showcase proved fascinating for pupils, giving insights into themed environments of the future such as the shop of the future, with interactive mannequins and displays designed to tailor adverts according to the viewer’s social media preferences, and the bank of the future, complete with ATMs which use vein recognition systems far more accurate than the currently used fingerprint biometrics. The good news is that thanks to technology, our lives will be much simpler, with parking space finder apps and drone Domino’s Pizza delivery to look forward to!

The hands-on workshops offered pupils the chance to code robots to undertake specific tasks, such as moving objects or exiting tricky environments. Pupils were also able to use virtual reality to experience life out at sea and practise CPR and using a defibrillator.

 “I really enjoyed going round the visitor centre, finding out about the technology that we might use in the future.” Josh Bell

“One of the best parts of the BT science week event was the vast number of stalls to go to, each of which had something interesting to do with science or technology.” Livia Grey

“It was really inspiring to see how people are creating new technology to help us overcome current barriers in the future.” Medomfo Owusu

Pupils have also enjoyed a fantastic space themed session with Paul Hill of Sirius Astronomy, an elected fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Paul taught pupils about the history of space and what is involved with becoming an astronaut! They enjoyed a chance to try on a replica of the Sokol Pressure Suit as worn by Tim Peake during his Principia Mission. This workshop covered aspects of human biology, the physics of pressure and the engineering and design of space suits, as well as a look at the history of human space flight. They took part in several hands on experiments and some lucky students were able to take a Space Suit selfie!

The Rocket and Spacecraft workshops held by Paul allowed pupils the opportunity to build their own spacecraft and recovery systems as they learned about how rockets actually work. Explosions and rockets, what a fantastic way to round off British Science Week!

Jasmine has been accepted to study at The Royal Academy of Dance as of September.

Places are hard to gain, but it shows the excellent standard Jasmine is at.

Well done Jazzy!

The warm introductions given by Issy Cory and Bella Straughn-Poels to this year’s dozen contestants paved the way for stories warmer still.  Yes, Paddington came to Woodbridge (no doubt via Liverpool Street and an escalator or two…), and the audience could not have been more delighted.

Those of you familiar with the books, TV or films will know Paddington well – but there is still nothing quite like the written word read aloud to allow the listener the chance to invent the most wonderful imagery capable of outstripping even the cleverest CGI.  And so it was for us.  First Year 7: Zaid Toubasey, Chloe Macmillan, Amelie Field and Caitlyn Maggs welcomed our traveller and helped him clean behind his ears and almost everywhere else.  Then Chase Vincent, Elise Ottley and Amy Goddard of Year 8 helped him on his way into London up and down and up and down and up…. and down the escalators.  And Noah Prescott, John Hendry, Sophie Ralph, Gabrielle McKay and Sebbie Ward of Year 9 made hay, chaos and joy in the very famous Barkridges department store.  Exhausted, the judges retired to deliberate, while we were left to treasure one more story thanks to last year’s winner Tom Scoggins as he brought Paddington victory in the painting competition – it’s not every day a bear wins first prize…

And talking of prizes, our thanks must go to the panel of judges Oliver Waldron, Anya Trevor-Pallares, Izzy Morgan and Miss King who undertook the extremely difficult task of separating the excellent from the excellent.  Their conclusion? The Ayres Cup passes to Elise, with Amelie and Sebbie close behind.  But on a night like this, with so much pleasure shared, everyone’s a winner – our thanks and congratulations to one and all, and of course to Dr Renshaw and the English department for the delightfully constructed evening, a culmination of many happy hours in the classroom I suspect.

Such a delightful performance of The Pied Piper at The Abbey.

Bravo to cast and crew for such a wonderful rendition.

Senior and Sixth Form students have been enjoying participating in activities for National PI Day.

Some of the challenges were: Solving PI Dingbats; Hula Hooping and drawing a perfect circle!

Prizes will be awarded.

Please click here to find the running times for the equestrian One Day event taking place at Poplar Park on Sunday 18 March 2018

The children in Queen’s House have been taking part in science week. This year the theme is “Exploration and Discovery”.

On Tuesday they took part in science workshops led by Miss Cousins, a science teacher from the senior school. This was an opportunity for the children to learn through hands on experience. As well as making their own rockets, which they sent into the air using air pumps, they also enjoyed making ”alka seltzer” popping rockets that went so high they had to launch them outside! They explored the properties of slime and created exploding volcanoes using vinegar and bicarbonate of soda.

As you can imagine the children had great fun trying out all these activities.

Last Saturday a number of our cross country athletes competed for Suffolk at the UK Inter County Cross Country in Loughborough.

Ruby Vinton was the outstanding performance for Suffolk on the day, finishing in 8th place in the U13 Girls’ race. To give this achievement some context: in March 2019 Ruby will be old enough to compete at England Schools’ Cross Country for the first time and 8th place in that event would earn an England Vest. This was an outstanding performance to round off an incredible first winter for Ruby at this level.

Overall Woodbridge School had eight athletes competing at the Inter Counties, which is an achievement in itself. For most, it was more an adventure than a race, with the muddiest conditions our young athletes had ever seen. Kit Evans Lombe was tripped face first into the mud early on in his race and by the time he stood up he was in last place. He made excellent progress which in an event where each of the 44 counties only enter their top eight athletes, is no mean feat.

Charlie Turner lost a spike (shoe) early on and the shoe was never seen again. Try running 4.5K in mud with one shoe. April Hill slid down a muddy bank and into a stream. It was so steep and slippery that it took forever to get out and a cold and wet April had little option other than to call it a day, living to tell the tale with a smile once warm. In terms of results, Charlie Turner (U15B) and Nathan Goddard (U17M) were on or around the top third, with Amy Goddard (U13G), Bea Thomas (U15G), Kit Evans Lombe (U15B) and Alex Evans Lombe (U17B) on or around the two third mark in their races.

This was a great experience at the highest level for these athletes, and one they will long remember!