Month: March 2019
The 1st XI hockey boys finished their season with a clinical performance against Langley. The match was played at a somewhat sedentary pace in the first half, allowing Woodbridge to put together a good passing game and score four textbook goals. The combination of excellent build up play in midfield to get the ball up the pitch, good forward leading and positioning and careful final passes did the trick. Woodbridge’s conversion rate was excellent and they made full use this time round of their chances. Oli B, Charlie M (2) and captain, Toby were the goal scorers in the first half, with Langley managing one in response rather against the run of play. The second half was quieter by contrast, but Joshua and Saxon (2) were on target to round off some fine team moves and rubber stamp a convincing victory.
Well done and thanks to each player for their commitment and effort in the season. So much progress was made and a true team was the result. Passion! Power! Persistence!
Congratulations to our four Year 13s who finished their Woodbridge School hockey career on a very positive note. Toby, Ollie, Dom and Saxon… you will be missed.
Won 41-25
We were delighted to come out on top in this high-scoring game: but it was a close run thing at first! Annie and Victoria fed some fantastic balls into the circle, and Saffron and Flora defended our defensive third brilliantly. Nell and Libby worked well in their usual partnership to score a goal after goal – so important for the league position – and Sophie H, and Amber held their nerve in the defensive circle. Well done, on a great afternoon… one more game to go!
The vignette; the short story; a poem; a miniature. Art need not be on the grand scale: drama can be encapsulated in a glance, a comment, a turn of the head.
And so it proved: through the words of the greatest dramatists we have known, via stolen moments from major works, we saw all the world on a stage.
From Shakespeare to the twenty-first century, from play to novel, this was an evening of transportation (literally, in the case of the last forlorn character). Our senior performers, all no doubt vying for LAMDA medals, drew on experience and research to populate the stage with humour, pathos, whimsy, anger and more. And they did so with a confidence and ease of manner that belied the intimacy of the occasion and the exposing nature of monologue or duologue. No shrinking violets, here, but men and women often on the attack – against each other or against the tribulations of circumstance.
It was a brilliant evening. Captivating and challenging. Many, many congratulations to the performers, and once again to Mrs Lockwood and Mrs Franklin.
Miss Norman reports: The splendour of P G Wodehouse’s ‘World of Blandlings’ was brought to life for the annual Reading Aloud competition which took place in the Seckford Theatre. Under the careful eye of Dr Renshaw, George and Guy took to the floor to introduce the group of pupils in Years 7-9 who had been carefully chosen by their class and teacher to represent their group. Few see the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to nominate a reader and so all of the participants are worthy of praise for their skill at characterisation in bringing Wodehouse to life.
7A Finlay
7B Zander (winner of Year 7)
7C Charlotte
7D Rose
8A Oliver (winner of Year 8)
8B Isobel
8C Evie
8D Jasmine
9E Chase
9F Lizzie
9G Elise (winner overall)
9L Maddy
The student judges (a perfect mix of Emma, James, Myles and Poppy) were impressed by the confidence and assurance which each of the readers brought to the stage. It was a challenge to choose year group and overall winner but the judges were able to determine that Zander (Year 7), Oliver (Year 8) and Elise (Year 9) just had the edge with Elise taking the overall title.
I was delighted to co-judge with my sixth form team and extremely impressed by the high standards that were in evidence. A wonderful evening for everyone.
This was semi-finals week… my goodness Mr Ben Parry, our adjudicator for the forthcoming final, has a tough job!
Many,
many congratulations to all those who have competed in this term’s
competition. Our juniors have set the standard with exuberant and
talented performances which hint of things to come; our intermediates have
shown the flowering of genius in all its variety; our seniors have simply
astonished us with their virtuosity, musicianship and courage.
Three stellar afternoons.
And now for the super-nova evening to come (I hope that’s an appropriate astronomical analogy… it’s a good thing, be sure!)
So, welcome all:
Thursday 28 March
School Hall
6pm for Junior and Intermediate classes, and their adjudication; an interval to draw breath, and then
8pm for the Senior class and a final adjudication
Be there and be bowled over!
We are delighted to welcome Mr Parry to make all the difficult decisions: he is supremely well qualified – artistic director of the National Youth Choir, erstwhile director of music at St Paul’s Girls’ School London, and now assistant director of music at King’s College Cambridge – and his wisdom will, I am sure, add enormously to what augurs to be a marvellous celebration of the many and varied talents of our wonderful musicians.
On 18th March 2019 we attended the preliminary round of the 2019 ‘Have Your Say’ competition at Copleston High School, Ipswich. The competition is organised by the Essex and East Anglian Branch of the Association for Language Learning. It gives linguists across East Anglia an opportunity to speak and read in a language that they are learning. With over 120 participants from eight different schools, competition at the regional preliminary round was fierce. Congratulations to the following pupils who represented the School: Isla and Sophie (Year 8 French) and Amy and Evelyn (Year 8 Spanish). Amy and Evelyn did very well and gained a place in the final in May. Special thanks to Mr Morton for accompanying the group.
Congratulations to our nine Woodbridge School athletes that competed for Suffolk Schools at the English Schools Cross Country Championship in Leeds on Saturday 16th March.
Rain and mud were the order of the day, but that did little to dampen spirits and the quality of racing was as impressive as ever. This remains the final winter fixture each year and is something of an elite event with only the top 8 athletes across two year groups competing for each of the 45 counties in each of the six races. So just 360, or about 0.1% (yes one tenth of a percent), of the fastest school athletes in England.
As has been the case throughout the winter, Woodbridge School athletes were more than capable of holding their own in this elite company:
Ruby – a year young in the Junior girls finished an incredible 10th, just missing top 8 and an English Schools vest by 3 seconds after two miles in the mud. Ruby will be able to compete in the same race next year and remains excited at the prospect. A great finish to a very special winter of racing for Ruby.
Amy – also in the Junior girls race, finished in 227th and 3rd Suffolk to close out her best winter to date.
Henry – A first race at this level for Henry who ran an excellent race to finish 144th and 7th Suffolk in the Junior Boys. This group of Suffolk youngsters are pretty incredible with the team finishing second to Surrey overall across the 45 counties. Considering the size of the Suffolk population, this is a remarkable result.
Kit – Running a year up in the Inter Boys, Kit closed out a remarkable season to finish 50th and 2nd Suffolk with the strong Suffolk team finishing 10th.
Charlie – Also a year young in the Inter Boys, Charlie was inside the top half of the talented field finishing 178th and 6th Suffolk. In doing so he contributed to the second best team result for Suffolk on the day.
April – Competing a year young in the Inter Girls, April finished well inside the top quarter in 74th place and 2nd Suffolk. Another very impressive performance with April holding on to the large leading pack for at least three quarters of the race.
Jess – A year young in the same race as April and a first experience at this level. Having achieved her aim of making the Suffolk Team to compete at this event, Jess was able to hold her own to finish a credible 253rd and 6th Suffolk.
Nathan – Nathan had just about recovered from a virus that kept him out of the UK Inter Counties the week before to finish 104th and 2nd Suffolk, running year up in the Senior Boys.
Sarah – Making a welcome return to competition at this level and running a year up, Sarah did extremely well to finish 219th and 6th Suffolk. The Senior girls were 16th in the team results, Suffolk’s third best result of the day.
To round off the day, Suffolk Boys were awarded the Category C (based on population size) trophy for the best overall results.
Lily reports: Despite extremely windy conditions at UEA, the Seconds netball team had tremendous success against both Norwich and Framlingham at the tournament on Saturday 9th March; winning both matches. Tension brewed as the goal difference was consistently small during the Norwich match, yet thanks to Izzy and Ella’s shooting prowess, we prevailed with a final score of 17-15. Although we were missing numerous team members, Hannah and Evelyn valiantly stepped up, and became invaluable players who alternated on the wing and kept their opposition under pressure. The disruption caused by the wind was immense, yet with Mrs Scahill’s encouragement, we persevered.
Issy and Lucy’s defence against the Framlingham team was robust, and consequently they found it increasingly difficult to score, whereas we scored in any few seconds we had under their net. Against some strong opposition, Sarah’s impressive stamina maintained a steady pace as the Framlingham players began to flag, and the final score was 14-10.
Overall an enormously encouraging success. Congratulations to all players.
Everyone’s a winner! Records set! Marvellous new categories (gender neutral, though bear-centric on occasion)… and no speeches of thanks – or nearly none!
What a great evening it was – our thanks to the fab hosts, the sparkling performers – the happy, the sad, the confused, the angry, the musical, the tragic, the thoughtful, the modest, and the opposites of all the above. For that is the beauty of LAMDA – variety in a nutshell: a nutshell containing a cornucopia of delicious theatrical treats in miniature.
Congratulations one and all to the ‘junior’ showcasers – you have set the bar splendidly high for yourselves and your futures; and congratulations to Mrs Lockwood and Mrs Franklin on all that you help our budding Oscarators achieve.
On Saturday 9 March six Woodbridge School athletes had earned the right to represent Suffolk at the UK Inter County Cross Country in Loughborough.
A prestigious annual event where the top eight athletes from each English County compete against area teams from Scotland, Wales and Ireland. So just 350 of the very best cross country runners in the United Kingdom in each race.
Alex competed well in the U17 mens’ race despite a slight knee injury to finish in 210th place and 4th for Suffolk.
For Eloise in Year 7, this was a first county club representation and a great first experience competing a year up in the U13 girls’ race to finish a credible 235th and 5th for Suffolk.
Amy in Year 9 posted her best result so far in a national level competition, finishing 160th and 2nd for Suffolk, competing a year up in the U15 girls’ race.
April, not quite over her recent virus, fought well in the same race, always in the top 100 to finish 1st for Suffolk and in 95th place
Kit’s season continues to go from strength to strength. Competing in the U15 boys’ race with a ferocious start, Kit found himself in about 60th place after the first kilometre of his five kilometre race. From that moment on there was no stopping him as he fought his way through the field to finish an incredible 22nd and 2nd for Suffolk. The Suffolk Team finished an amazing 6th overall in this age group. To give Kit’s performance some context, it is always good to point out that in team sports there is normally a National squad of around 30 announced before the final team is agreed. Getting into the top 100 in England alone takes some doing, so to finish 22nd in the UK is a major achievement.
Last, but not least, Ruby. Ruby started this race having won the South of England Inter Counties in December and the South of England individual title in January. Last year when she competed in this fixture, she competed a year up and finished an eye-opening 8th. To keep the pressure off, friends and family were not saying anything, but deep down everyone wondered whether a medal was possible.
From the start Ruby was always in the lead pack and by mid race, the young star started to take the race by the scruff of the neck. In the final kilometre Ruby was able to power away from the lead pack to cross the line as UK Under 13 Inter County Champion.
Not only did Ruby win her race, but across the 10 races on the day from U13 to Senior, Ruby was in the shortest race at 3000 metres, and her winning margin of 19 seconds was the largest of the day.
An outstanding achievement and a credit to her hard work, determination and family support. Of course, at the same time, a small piece of history for Woodbridge School.
Congratulations to all of our athletes and good luck to those competing at English Schools in Leeds this coming weekend – the final fixture of the winter!