Month: June 2018
A glorious day saw Woodbridge School well represented in the Suffolk team across track and field events, and the fine weather was matched by some wonderful performances. Flora Pitt competed well in the long jump; Mauricio Corfe and John Hendry in the relay; John Hendry’s duel in the 200m was probably the most exciting event of the day, even though he had to concede victory and settle for second; April Hill matched John with a fine second in the 1500m; and Nathan Goddard (third place in the 3000m), one position ahead of Alex Evans Lombe in the same race both had a strong Norfolk wind to contend with.
In the field, Tom Turner recorded a high jump PB of 1.45m and Tori McCarroll, hot on his heels was successful at 1.35m. A PB of 32.01m and a third place went the way of Chisom Oguamanam in the discus; and Sophie Graham’s double victory: in the discus and in the final field event of the day, the javelin, ended a long and successful exhibition of athletics.
Our Young Enterprise team, East Coast Eats, have sold over 300 copies of their magnificent cookery book and, on the way, being a fine example of a young business, have turned a very healthy profit. Moreover, they have persuaded no fewer than seven retailers to stock their cookery books, designed with those taking self-catering holidays in mind. And if you have somehow missed the chance to purchase a copy for yourself in your local browsing, they even have a few copies available for sale direct! Perhaps most importantly the students have been on a journey of self-discovery. They have learned to run a business make decisions and take risks. This has taught them innumerable lessons and has given them life skills, and, of course, made them very much more employable – and their forthcoming university applications all the more impressive!
But Young Enterprise is also a competition (https://www.youtube.com/user/YoungEnterpriseUK), and the team recently competed at the regional final having won the Suffolk final. They performed magnificently, winning the trade stand and business interview with margin to spare, and presenting to the audience with flair, humour and amazing poise. Sadly, though, only one team could go forward to the national Final and, by a whisker, East Coast Eats finished as runners up. Although disappointed, our sixth formers took the news with great character, strength and good grace. After all, they have left a legacy which will sit proudly on bookshelves across East Anglia for many years to come. Mrs Wright, our head of enterprise said, “It has been an honour to work with such a fantastic group of young people this year. East Coast Eats set a fantastically high standard, and can be immensely proud to have been the region’s best selling and most profitable company this year.” And the pupils? Jude Ashken, Mollie Biddle, Jessica Bowers, Joshua Bradbeer, Saxon Gallo, Mary Godfrey, Thea Hall, Daniel Hempstead, Ella Holliday, Sebastian Lamb, Nathan Little, Georgia Martin, Lily Proudfoot and Callum Sycamore.
Pupils from Year 9SV and Year 10 Latin entered the Cambridge Ancient Worlds Video Competition, which required them to produce a short video inspired by the Ancient World. Nine videos were selected by the judges, and three of these were Woodbridge entries. No other school in the history of the competition has had so high a proportion of successful videos in one year. Enormous congratulations to:
Aimen Alvi, Sophie Harper, Maisie Watts and Charlotte Dinwiddy, who came 4th with their beautiful rendition of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, Harry Rennell, who produced a very clever and witty take on the real truth about the Cyclops Polyphemus, and Medomfo Owusu, Ianthe Hill and Lily Peto, who produced a charming and delicate shadow-puppet version of the story of Prometheus.
Year 10 historians enjoyed a glorious day out in Norfolk exploring a series of stunning Norman sites. Castle Acre showed us just how much a new Norman lord could impose themselves on Anglo-Saxon society with both castle and a magnificent priory. The theme continued in Norwich with a visit to England’s most elaborate Norman keep with its dominant position over-looking a town once half the size of modern day Woodbridge yet still the second largest English town. Perhaps more than anything else the power of the Normans was best displayed in the towering heights of their cathedrals and Norwich is no exception. Navigating cloisters once filled with the quiet shuffle of Benedictine sandals we found our way back to the coach and an end to an excellent day.
On Friday 8 June, Bedford and the East Area Prep Schools’ Athletics Championships was the venue of choice for those of our pupils who had gained this season’s qualifying times and distances. With 51 schools present, every event was highly competitive making finishing in the top two to qualify for the Nationals in Birmingham quite a challenge.
First to compete for the senior school was Ruby Vinton in the 1500m. She set a new record by 3 seconds running in 4:54.8 and was way in front of the rest of the field from the start! Woodbridge now hold the best two times in the history of the event, as April Hill set the previous record two years ago. Henry Dinwiddy also qualified in the 800m finishing second in his race. Fazil Akyol did well to get to the finals of the 200m, but found rushing from the high jump competition to the 200m final and back to high jump was one obstacle too much. However he was delighted to win the high jump with a clearance of 1.50m. He also made the relay final with fellow team mates Ronald Hui, Tommy Burrows and Ebuke Ofunne. Tom Martin threw the javelin 31.09m to win his competition; and with the last field event of the day Beau Barrington-Hibbert threw the discus a magnificent 28.30m to set another new record, eclipsing OW Katie La Vergne’s mark held for the past seven years. Moments later, at 6.10pm, the girls’ relay team of Ruby Vinton, Maddie Buchanan, Libbie Brightey and Ada Marson sealed another second place, and qualification for Birmingham.
Those who narrowly missed out in 3rd place were Lexie Barrington-Hibbert, Tom Mitchell and Henry Dinwiddy in discus and Katie Norman in javelin. These amazing results are testimony to our athletes’ hard work and dedicated training under the expert guidance of coaches Mr Graham and Mr Goddard. Two new records set and a trip to the Nationals on the 3rd July in prospect! Our thanks also go to Mr Wheelhouse and Miss Sanders who were busy officiating all day.
Year 9 enjoyed a fascinating and moving day at Ypres last Friday. The early start gave us ample opportunity to investigate some of the most iconic sites of the First World War and post-war memorials first-hand. We heard about the significance of Ypres in the context of the British campaign to remove Germany from Belgium, and all along the 440 miles of the Western Front, including a large scale and sobering depiction by the pupils of fallen comrades scattered across no-man’s land as the men went ‘over the top’. Amongst other activities pupils were also encouraged to re-create some of the most famous depictions of men, both British and German in the trenches themselves. Exploring Tyne Cot, the Menin Gate and Passchendaele brought the pupils closer to those who fought here and, with a visit to the German cemetery at Langemarck, this was not confined to the soldiers of the British Empire.
On Tuesday 5 June, Year 2 visited Southwold as part of their topic on the Victorians. They were all dressed the part and were very excited to learn more about Victorian seaside holidays. The day started with a tour of Southwold museum where the children looked at Victorian artefacts. This was followed by a Victorian picnic, complete with jam sandwiches wrapped up in brown paper and tied up with string, a sausage roll and a miniature Victorian sponge cake. After lunch the children enjoyed playing games on the beach and sketching the beach huts. The day ended with a well-deserved ice cream and a walk along the pier.
Year 2 thoroughly enjoyed their transition afternoon to the Abbey. They were excited to see their new classrooms and meet their new teachers. They had a tour of the school and afterwards had great fun making spinners and circuits.
Year 3 have been writing letters to famous celebrities and local businesses. Jeremy wrote to his local Tesco store about their limited range of Lego kits. They were so kind and send him an enormous selection of kits to make! We are all looking forward to the post arriving each morning to see if there are any more letters there for us!
Over the past forty years (or maybe more!) there have been many subtle, and not so subtle, changes in education; from how we teach reading and the bridging method in maths, to how we support children with their emotional development and well-being.
It used to be considered that well behaved children were seen and not heard. Fortunately times have moved on. However, it would seem that one change may have had unintended consequences.
We used to prepare children for the road ahead; with all its bumps and potholes, in a bid to ensure that each child was equipped for their own future; securely packed off with a toolkit to ensure that they could navigate said road with confidence.
Then, the change; for a number of years it seemed to be expected that teachers and parents should do their utmost to drive ahead of our children, with a steam roller, trying desperately to smooth the path they were about the tread. This clearly had benefits; less trips and hazards and fewer issues to deal with and obstacles and hurdles were moved out of the way.
This is where we come back to the ‘however’… Children do not learn from pages of ticks, easy lessons and flat footpaths. They need appropriate challenge, disappointment and undulations to build resilience, develop self-sufficiency and fine tune empathy.
We should not be setting children mountains to climb; but we do need to prepare our children for the road ahead and not the road for our children. In a supportive environment children should have the confidence to learn from mistakes, move on from set-backs and develop the character and skills they will need in later life.
The cross-county event is always a perfect example of this. Children pushing themselves beyond their previous limits, working together as a team, supporting their friends and having fun through the exhaustion and, often, the rain! This event could be avoided, everyone could stay inside in the warm but the children are richer for the experience and learn as much, if not more, about themselves than they would do in a classroom for that hour.
Setting challenges that are just a little out of a child’s comfort zone builds confidence, allows the acquisition of skills and invigorates pupils with the desire to strive to succeed.