Month: December 2018

On Saturday 1 December, over thirty Woodbridge School athletes competed at Ipswich High in the second Suffolk Schools Cross Country trial, having qualified through the first trial in October.  And they produced an outstanding set of results despite the constant rain. In summary:

Four individual medals: golds to Amy and April, silver to Nathan and bronze to George.

12 top 8 positions (the Suffolk Team comprises 8 in each age group to compete at England Schools in March).

15 top 16 positions (a wider Suffolk Team is selected to compete at Anglian Schools in February).

24 athletes qualify by right to compete in the final Suffolk trial to be hosted by Woodbridge School on 10 January (Top 40 finish).

These numbers exclude two of our superstars who were ill or injured and who, together with a few other runners close to qualifying, will be granted byes to the final trial.

Congratulations to every athlete that represented Woodbridge School so well in difficult conditions. The results are just rewards for all the hard work you are putting in and everyone should be extremely proud of their performance.

Full results as follows (with apologies for one or two missing placings):

Minor Girls:
8 Eloise
10 Rose
17 Lara
And close behind, Millie and Sasha

Minor Boys:
5 Ethan
15 James
35 Jack
46 Arthur
And close behind, John and Will

Junior Girls:
1 Amy
21 Anna
27 Isobel

Junior Boys:
7 Henry
19 Edward
23 Jonny
48 Fazil

Inter Girls:
1 April
5 Jess
10 Bea
22 Ella
27 Ashleigh

Inter Boys:
3 George
4 Charlie
6 Kit
28 Tom

Senior Girls:
6 Sarah

Senior Boys:
2 Nathan
5 Alex

Many congratulations indeed to Saxon who has succeeded in achieving his Duke of Edinburgh Gold award – while still at school!  It takes considerable effort to achieve the award at any stage (indeed we have just recently heard from an OW who has completed some eight years after leaving us); to do so as a sixth former is exceptional and Saxon joins a very select group of Woodbridgians who have shown the extraordinary dedication and sense of public service this demands.

Congratulations to Victoria, Laura, Saffron, Hope and Medomfo for achieving their Bronze award!

The dinner is always a top notch event.  From the exquisitely presented apéritifs to the mouth-watering courses that follow, topped off by coffee and home-made petits fours, the whole meal is worth it in itself.  To eat so well in such good company is a fantastic bonus.  Many thanks to Clare Kneebone and the School’s wonderful Catering Department for ensuring such a great event.

This year, we dined in the school hall (which in case you haven’t been back recently, no longer has a stage, but a balcony instead and the old lighting gallery has gone too.  The lighting has been improved but the dark wood panelling and the honours boards are as they ever were though).  Tables of eight dotted the room and I was seated with the youngest in the room, who left Woodbridge from 2005 onwards.

The most senior OWs that evening were Michael Taylor (1943) and John Sayers (1949) who were the only leavers in the forties present.  It was also good to catch up with stalwarts of the Old Woodbridgians, Ken Bailey (1963), David Houchell (1964) and Paul Jenkins (1967).  They are always great company!  As are my ex-colleagues who are OWs: Jim Hillman (1983), now head of IT at the School with his wife Alison (1984), now head of chemistry at the School (née Tyndale-Biscoe) and her sisters Isobel (1986), now Director of Sixth Form and Head of Careers, and Penny (1989) who also teaches but in another school not too far away.  They also are great supporters of the OWs and always good value at events.

There was a good representation of those who left in 1988, a mere 3 decades ago: Pippa Lewis, Sandra Jarvis and Jenny Garnett, along with James Harper (whose eldest son will become an OW next summer) and Matthew Leguen de Lacroix.  Matthew’s name is not one to forget quickly and though I never taught him I remember him as a good Burwell boy (when Miss Pendal was in charge) and a tutee in the sixth form of Mr Marsh, then head of modern languages.  Perhaps not surprisingly, Matthew now lives in France so it was especially good to see him at the dinner.  As it happens, Mr Marsh has moved to France this year, having retired from Bedford School and secured an Irish passport.  Sandra and Jenny have several OWs in their families and are huge supporters of the School, and along with Pippa we had a very jolly chat.

The newest OW to attend was Alistair Jeffreys (2015), with older brother Marc (2013).  They are both loyal BT men but got there by different routes, so we had a really interesting conversation about the pros and cons of university degree versus apprenticeship with a degree, both routes leading to the same opportunities at BT.  Katherine Gomm (2009) attended with her brother Chris (2007), neither of whom I had seen since they left.

The most senior OWs on my table were Helen Rothwell (2003 – she left to explore pastures new in the sixth form at Framlingham College, but that’s a long time ago…), with friends Rebecca Payne and Louise Lewis (née Clarke) who were in the same year as Helen and left in 2005.  Helen talked very passionately about her work in Canary Wharf working in marketing for Barclays Bank.  It sounds like there is a lot more to marketing than we might think; she would be a great advocate for that sector talking to senior pupils at school thinking about career options.  Louise and Rebecca have both gone in to medicine, though different specialisms: Louise in general practice and Rebecca in geriatrics.  We talked about their siblings and parents and it was very good to reminisce.

The highlight was that Louise had brought a photograph of the same three when they were in Year 10 (4th Form in old money) and excited at the prospect of their first RAF Battle of Britain Dinner in this same hall.  Photos of old friends and events are worth keeping as they bring so much pleasure decades later.  I was particularly impressed that Louise produced said photograph in its frame as it is clearly treasured.  If you have not yet joined the new OW Network, do so and you can see the photo of Louise, Helen and Becky.

A big thank you to staff who came for drinks (Mr Streat and Miss Gill) even though they could not stay for dinner; OWs really appreciate seeing staff that they remember from their school days.

So, another exceptionally convivial evening and I look forward to seeing a good representation of those OWs who left in 1989, 1994 and 2004 attending the OW dinner next year.

I know that a couple of hours in the Dome at Woodbridge listening to speeches and applauding the year’s prize winners is not everyone’s dream Saturday morning.  But now I am retired I can choose not to attend, except that as OW president I am invited and so it seems churlish not to accept.  I was honoured last year to have a prize for French awarded, bearing my name, so I was keen to see who followed the worthy first winner, James Bellhouse (2017).

I was thrilled to discover that the French prize went to Gabriella Zins (2018) whom I knew to be another worthy recipient, simply from seeing her in language competitions, on exchanges and study trips not just in France but also in Spain.  Gabby is going on to study chemistry at Birmingham University, not surprisingly with a year abroad included; I hope she will choose France for that.

What I had not realised is that my youngest tutees in my last year of teaching had left school and they were both prizewinners too.

Alyssa Hedley (2018) won the Psychology Prize and will go on to study that subject at the University of East Anglia.  It was good to hear of the many other accomplishments she developed over her time at Woodbridge, including acting (she was a hilarious librarian last time I saw her) and playing the flute, on which I heard her play a solo at Snape Maltings.  She also helped out as a classroom assistant at Thomas Wolsey School in Ipswich.

Adam Wildbore (2018) won the Hewlett Cup for all-round contribution to school life.  In addition to A levels which are leading him to Exeter University to study geography, Adam managed to complete his gold Duke of Edinburgh award, was a sports leader and managing director of Young Enterprise, represented the school and the region in a range of sports and spoke at the Model United Nations in Paris.

I was so pleased that the final remaining members of B-GBB and the winner of the French prize were so successful at school and it was good to see these fresh new OWs once again; I wish them all the very best for their degrees and beyond.

Anna Crawford always had lots of energy.  At school, in the CCF, medical degree then army career beyond.  She certainly needed it and all her sense of humour when trying to liaise with a good number of her year group, the King’s Head, and me.  The simple plan was to have a tour of the school then repair to the King’s Head for refreshments and ultimately a buffet supper.  After what felt like a thousand messages on the Facebook messenger thread, all was set for the Saturday.  But Anna found herself on Friday night in a broken-down car in Yorkshire, which put paid to her attendance.  The group photograph on the chapel steps shows 15 OWs who left a mere two and a half decades ago.  We had assembled at ‘The Holly Bush’ (now a lowly yucca).

GBB, Sarah Wray (Davies) (still known as Sid), Rachel Brazier (Meister), Emma Lawrence (Holland) (who has taken over her mother’s bakery – it was always good to have a Holland in your class as the cakes were amazing at the end of term), Liz Parkins (Stephens) (who had come all the way from Cornwall, as smiley as ever for the visit and has been using her A level French in her children’s school), Sarah Seaford (Helier) (who apologised unnecessarily for leaving after the fifth form), Andrew Grimbly (who helps in rail management in the north west), Louise Peirson (Cordy) (who works and lives locally with her family), Jeremy Laight (formerly of School House and still looking cool with his characteristic smile), Helen Ward (who is now an educational psychologist and hasn’t lost any of her sense of fun), Alwyn Morris (polymath English teacher, writer, musician, property developer), Gwen David (now a Clinical Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, having also taught at Dundee), Kip Morton (former RAF fighter pilot and now barge restorer and proud father of the one toddler on the tour), Giles Meehan (who now teaches maths locally), Dan Webster (who used his A level French when driving round France sourcing oak beams from the 16th or 17th centuries).  Actually one OW left more recently than the rest but Chris Ward (1997) on the right, came along to support big sister Helen and see her old school mates again.  He has gone in to construction after a career in the RAF.

There were endless reminiscences about queuing for lunch, the changing rooms, how Boarders managed to gain entry to the music school at the weekend and of course the Cedarwoods (where generations of first formers started their school career under the stern eye of Mrs Nicholls). They were happy to discover that a part of the Cedarwoods still stands by the Dome (to house drama costumes), where they remember having RE lessons with Mr Kelly in a Portakabin.

Having toured the whole site, and thoroughly chilled down, we repaired to the King’s Head, which many had not been back to since school days.  The Barrack Room filled up with 16 more of the year group: Stephen Hudson (who was the only one of the group to have attended the OW Dinner and who had joined the Royal Anglian Regiment after university), Will Penkman, still a serving officer, Adam Lawson (still working in the City), James Heathfield (who became a consultant engineer after a degree at Cambridge), Polly Durrant (Hardiman) (who is expanding her empire from the Ufford Crown in conjunction with her husband and her brother, OW Will Hardiman), Adam Barlow (now distinguished in the world of conservation biology having picked up a relevant PhD on the way), Lizzie Ferguson, Karen Virr (Haynes) (who knows the school of today very well), Rob Leith, Seth Lord (glad of his GCSE French as he is restoring a property over there), Faith Manning, Fiona Mullins, Charlotte Ridout (I think my only tutee to have attended university in my home city of Dundee), Graham Tollit, (who is back in London after working in Singapore), Stephen Walker (who I was glad had managed to be persuaded to attend) and Hannah Wilson (having arrived just in time from Glasgow, where she is completing a language teaching diploma and putting her French and Italian to good use as well as possibly her English language skills…)

Some staff joined us for the evening.  Hannah brought her mother, Mrs Wilson who knew a lot of the year group from their teenage years and who used to be matron of Queen’s House when it was a girls’ boarding house.  Miss Theasby, formerly Head of Classics was also in attendance as was Mr Garfath-Cox who had taught many of this year group for maths.  Miss Gill who is still at the chalk-face as Head of Geography also joined in the jollities which went on till late in the evening.  OWs always like to meet up with staff who had taught them; there were so many memories shared of sport, CCF, lessons, field trips, the Norway trip and life in the boarding houses.  Photos of this year group reunion are on the new OWNetwork.