Month: February 2019
All 30 Year 9 Spanish Intensive students visited the Europa Centre on Wednesday 27 February. This is a slightly bizarre building in the Upminster area which contains a replica Spanish town. The pupils were split up into small groups and were taken round the ‘town’ by Spanish natives to ask questions in Spanish and practise role plays, for example at the train station, in the hotel or at the travel agency. The teachers heard some fabulous Spanish being spoken by pupils, and were very impressed by their enthusiasm. Hopefully this experience has whetted their appetite for the Spanish study trip to Salamanca in June where they will also be thrown into lots of Spanish speaking and listening for the week! Special mention to Jacob, Sophia and Milo who won the ‘Missing Person’ competition by asking and understanding various questions and replies in Spanish to identify a missing person. Well done to all pupils on a very successful day and hopefully a boost to their confidence!
Not cheerful – that’s important to make clear from the start. This was The Yellow Wallpaper meets Psycho meets The Rear Window. There’s nothing quite like a bit of immurement on a Wednesday night, and Year 11 delivered an unhealthy dose in grim style. The murderer, the mother, the picture, the girl, the bystander – all present and correct – as was the palpable and compelling smell of madness and decay. Four groups took their turn on stage to tell this most eerie of stories – a chronology that by design was itself uncertain, leading to an outcome that was at once predictable and inexplicable. The acting was compelling, the sense of pace and the narrative arc sustained unremittingly; many congratulations one and all – this was, as ever, an exceptional piece of theatre – it’s quite something to know that it was all devised and realised by the pupils themselves.
Brilliant… and now could you tell me what it was all about, please?
What a time we had!
Thursday at the turning circle: five in the morning doesn’t feel so early when the weather is good and the Coach drivers Chris and Martin are so cheery and welcoming. Many roads, one ferry and thirteen hours later we arrived in Cologne to a friendly welcome and fine dinner at our splendid Jugendherberge. The perfect journey preluded a perfect tour!
Friday dawned beautiful – indeed the weather throughout our stay was glorious – unbroken blue skies and crisp summer sun to banish any wintry chill. The walk across the Rhine towards the soaring Gothic masterpiece that is the Cathedral could not have been more inspiring: the breath-taking space once inside quite overwhelming. And to think we were not simply tourists here, but guests, choristers for Midday Prayers (after a quick busk outside!). And the acoustic. Oh my goodness… voices rising higher and higher, further and further. What a privilege to perform there; what a memory. Quickly followed by a dizzying ascent to the top of one of the dreaming spires for views to horizons barely contemplated below. And there was a trip to the famous Chocolate Museum as well. What a day… so far! Because soon after we were off to Heimersheim to perform in the ancient Pfarrkirche St Mauritius. A beautiful setting in which a small but perfectly formed and immensely appreciative audience delighted in the Chamber Orchestra’s brilliant performances and the Choir’s equally mesmerising repertoire. And our reward was a fabulously convivial dinner in the local Hotel zum Stern – no mean feat feeding forty famished folk so (e)fficiently.
Saturday took us to Bonn and a rendezvous with Beethoven (or at least his death mask, his birth house and a host of fascinating memorabilia besides). The Namen-Jesu-Kirche was fabulous: over three hundred years of history, beautiful spaces, glorious decoration, and another splendid acoustic. Lily used her fluent German to brilliant effect while the orchestra rehearsed to encourage passing trade to return for our concert. And another busk in the market square elicited great applause and one besotted baby, transfixed by Miss Weston’s conducting and the choir in full voice. The evening concert was majestic, presented this time to an audience worthy of its quality – the pews were full and the appreciation rapturous. It was a wonderful event and our thanks go once again to our hosts for such kindness and generosity.
Sunday meant Koblenz, an enormous statue of Kaiser Wilhelm, a cable car ride above a misty confluence of the Moselle and Rhine to a castle-topped hill across the waters. And then a quick trip to Andernach for our final concert to be given in the extremely modern Kreuzkirche – unprepossessing from the outside in its concrete carapace, but beguilingly spacious and beautifully wrought on the inside with glorious stained glass and finely panelled woodwork. The welcome was every bit as warm and welcoming, and the audience passionate and plentiful. The concert performances of orchestra and choir were as good as they had ever been, and with an acoustic just a little softer than on previous occasions the musicianship was even more brilliantly presented. Indeed, in response to Millie’s lovely speech in excellent German, the residents were moved to say that they had not hosted such a fine concert in all their long memories, their long and heart-felt applause testimony to the truth of that claim.
Marvellous.. and then it was Monday and a journey equally smooth to bring us and our wonderful memories safely home.
Many, many thanks to Mr Milton, Miss Weston, Mr Turner, Miss Alzapiedi, Mrs Hornsby and Mr Cole for their organisation, conducting (of course!) and care; and many more congratulations to our wonderful orchestra and choir for performing so well, and for being such a pleasure to tour alongside.
To celebrate Chinese year of the pig, our Year 8 and Year 9 pupils put on a fantastic performance of singing and tongue twisters in Mandarin for the audience at the Ipswich Chinese New Year Show, which took place on Sunday 10 February. They also had the chance to sit in the audience and enjoy watching other performances. The ACCE founder and organiser of the show, Mrs Lydia Tse, was very impressed with our pupils, and so was the rest of the audience. The pupils were awarded a certificate for their fantastic effort and, of course as part of Chinese tradition, a red money packet for good luck with the new year.
Stunning.
Sumptuous.
And deeply original.
The shock of arrival was magical: such a beautiful staging, such glorious detail, and such wonderful costumes.
And the surprises kept coming, not least Kathryn Clements’s brilliant choreography so astonishingly brought to life by the cast, but in particular by Tom… I tend to resist naming names in production reviews – especially as so much of what Miss Mayes and Mr Williams bring to the stage is ensemble based – but Tom’s performance was quite exceptional. His dancing alone compelled the viewer; but, without words, that he spoke through movement and expression so well of his angst was all the more remarkable. And the ambiguity created by casting him ‘the girl’ captured all the more tellingly the human scope of the fable. Around him the ensemble wove its spell of desire, despair and derision. Our quartet above guiding the old lady’s story; a preacher at odds with the Word; angels and clowns, harlequins and charlatans, acrobats and a majorette (very fine work!), and the most surgically relaxed knife thrower one could have wished for. And still more visual delights: the black and the white offering the most dramatic contrast to the red, teasingly introduced and vividly unmissable.
The story is chilling, the ending at best uneasy; but this production of The Red Shoes transcended such disquiet to leave the audience moved, beguiled and hugely impressed. Many congratulations to the cast, to the directors, and to the backstage team for an outstanding evening’s entertainment!
For the second time the School entered the King Henry Relay, a competition that is over thirty years old but was this year in a new format and bigger than ever. It meant we could merge all year groups to create two boys’ teams and two girls’ teams.
The competition itself sees the boys’ teams complete 6 legs and girls’ 4 legs each of 2.53 miles, with batons exchanged as in a track relay. The boys’ race had 60 teams (A and B teams) competing this year in the largest ever field. Our A team was ably led out by Nathan, completing his leg in under the magical 12 minutes. Kit then continued his excellent recent form to keep the team within touching distance of a top 10 finish; then Charlie and George worked hard in the middle stages of the race, handing to Henry still in 9th position. Henry and Alex gave their all to retain the position, and nearly managed it, just being pipped to the post, finishing and excellent 12th. The B team did remarkably well with Chris, Tom and Johnny breaking the 15 minute barrier and Ethan, Edward and Sam just outside, to earn 46th overall and 8th out of 18 in the B team standings.
The girls’ race is 20 years old this year and had the most entries ever at 38 teams. Ours performed fantastically and finished in 5th place, having even led at one stage! April went first to produce an excellent run of 13m 29 seconds (eighth fastest female on the day, and 35th fastest all time). Ruby… was extraordinary: she ran the fastest female time of the day at 13m 01s – and this as a Year 8 amongst seniors – and the fifth fastest time ever over the 20 years of the race! Sarah and Jess then fought tenaciously to secure an outstanding 5th place overall. Our very young B team were not to be outshone: 7th out of 13 B teams and 27th overall. Bea charged out of the starting area for a 15 minute opening lap; Anna, Eloise and Issy (finishing strongly to steal a few more places) carried on the fine work.
This week a Careers Lunch took place, this time for those interested in Finance and Recruitment. Many thanks to Paul Lewington, Laurence Denvir and Jim Marshall for giving up their time and talking to our students about their career paths and passing on tips for their futures.
Exams. One simple word can stir up a huge range of emotions. For some it is an opportunity to show off acquired knowledge and is a validation of hard work and effort. For others it is a memory test that strikes fear and insecurity and is a disappointing finale on a period of hard work and effort. For many it is just another activity to do during the day.
There are many advantages to being part of a 4-18 school and the lack of exam pressure is an important one. In so many schools across the land Year 6 can turn into ‘flat SATS practice’ or ‘past paper pain’ an overload of repetitive paper exercises designed to ensure a particular hoop or exam is successfully negotiated. To be fair, it works. A dull diet of test and retest ensures that pupils are able to rollout formulated answers and number crunch to get the desired grade. However, and you probably guessed there was one coming, when the children move on to their senior school and are expected to utilise this knowledge they don’t know how to apply what they have learnt because that was not why they memorised it in the first place.
The traditional route into independent senior school, through the exams known as Common Entrance (common due to the fact all pupils sat the same papers into all senior schools) has been called into question as Patrick Derham OBE, Headmaster of Westminster School states, “The reality is the exam has become for us an exit test rather than a genuine entrance examination.”
In truth these exams have been under threat for a while. Many schools have turned to group activities, interviews and problem solving puzzles to test how pupils are able to apply their knowledge, work with others and demonstrated resilience and independence of thought. Senior schools want to see that pupils can connect their thoughts, join up theories and understand and enjoy their learning.
As Mr Derham also notes, “This exam heaps pressure on pupils, parents and teachers, fuelling unnecessary anxiety and stress.”
Fortunately we are not constrained by this curriculum and the need to tick boxes to ‘exit’. Our Year 6 curriculum is vibrant, varied and full of opportunity and development the right way, in my opinion, to celebrate all that has been learnt during the magical time that is prep school. There are still exams (or tests!). However these occur at appropriate points throughout the year from Year 2 onwards and the children see them as an opportunity to find out what they can do and a chance for further learning. They are not an event to be scared of and when GCSEs and A-levels come round our children are not scared.
I am delighted that this change will allow more schools around the country to benefit from the curriculum we already enjoy. Removing Common Entrance will allow schools to “use this freedom to develop their curriculums in ways that are even more rigorous and inspiring… and enable young minds to flourish,” Patrick Derham.
Nicola Mitchell
Quotes taken from “Common Entrance exam is a burden children do not need” by Patrick Derham OBE, Headmaster of Westminster School writing in the SATIPS publication, Prep School, Spring 2019 Issue 94.
As the sun dawned on Tuesday 5 February, the A Level maths sets were already on their way to Piccadilly, London, to visit the annual Maths Fest, a day full of different brilliant maths talks. Talks ranged from pairs of primes, to why 1+2+3+4… = -1/12, and many more, with students enjoying lectures from many different experts all at the top of their field.
The students learned about why harmonies sound so good (something to do with Pythagoras), and why trusting everything to algorithms might not be as safe as we thought.
Overall the excursion was very well received, and all of the students came away with a new respect and deeper understanding for the fun side of maths.
Such glorious originality, variety, and coiled enthusiasm – I say ‘coiled’ because for me there is at once something constrained and something utterly liberated about percussion. The act of striking; the delicacy of caress. It makes for a fascinating repertoire full of surprise, humour, shade and colour. Yet above all it takes immense skill and no little courage – there is no hiding one’s contribution: everyone is a soloist within the ensemble, every blow owning its distinctive place in the whole.
I have no idea what many of the instruments are properly called (even Mr Milton suggested he has little idea how some are assembled); but then when hand and thigh, whistling lips and reddening palms are added to the orchestration, why should one worry about not being sure how a marimba differs from a … one of the other ones?
Because, really, one is already swept along in the beat, captivated by the rhythm, and entranced by the ebb and flow of sound. Yes, this was a magical evening delivered by a very proud Mrs Seed and her quintet of wonderfully talented pupils. And, unusual though it is for me to pick out one in particular, I must mention Jonathan who was at the heart of the action throughout, but most of all was the truly astonishing soloist for Gitano. Miraculous.
Our thanks to all the performers for a brilliant evening’s entertainment.