Category: Prep News

Congratulations to Rowan Kent who won the UK Chess challenge Under 7 title at the weekend in Manchester. He scored a perfect 6 points from 6 games and qualifies for the very last stage, the Terafinal in Loughborough in August in which he takes on the winners of all the other age groups up to Under 18! The UK chess challenge is recognised as the largest chess tournament in the world, with over 70000 children entering annually. Rowan also won £100 for his efforts. Congratulations to the other Woodbridge School players who took part.Marina Pommier scored 4 out of 6 in the Under 9 girls event, whilst her sister Georgia Pommier scored 3/6 in the Under 8 girls. Lai Chun also produced a fine performance, scoring 3.5/6 in the Boys Under 18 event.

Delicious smells floated around The Abbey this week as the Year 5 children took part in Bake a Cake for the Queen competition.  Oliver Laxton, Imogen Melrose and Grace Godwin baked  a stylish hat made from coconut, lime and courgette, complete with specially baked carrot dog cakes. The Queen’s corgi’s would be thrilled.

Chloe MacMillan baked two delicious carrot cakes and then put them together with brightly coloured icing and edible jewels to create a splendid crown.  To complete the look she had made an edible corgi to stick on the front and scattered glacier mints around the edge which made the cake look as if had been encrusted with diamonds.

Recipes and photos are soon to be submitted to a National Competition and we will keep you posted of the outcome.

Years 5 and 6 treated us all to a fun-filled two hours in the Seckford Theatre this week. The two musical shows, based on Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes, involved many, many farm animals, a giant, Daisy the Cow, ex horse-race jockeys, a baddie queen, a handsome king, a gutsy Snow White, a heroic Jack and many more colourful, weird and wonderful characters.

The two shows were in celebration of Roald Dahl 100 – marking 100 years since the birth of the world’s number one storyteller. The cast mimed and performed to specially orchestrated music in a minimalistic space and sang catchy and witty songs written by Mr Brett.

Most of the scenes had been improvised by the cast during the rehearsal process and showed real flair and imagination. There were some wonderful set pieces that had the audience rooting for Jack as he escaped from the Giant and cheering for the horses as they raced over the jumps!

The children have worked extremely hard over the past few weeks and ought to be very proud of their performances.

A big ‘Thank You’ to the staff who helped and supported the cast and to the technical team at the Seckford Theatre for your endless enthusiasm and positivity!

Mr Brett presented certificates to the children in Queen’s House in recognition of all their hard work. Effort certificates were awarded to Rosie, Matilda, Arwen, Dominic and Emilia. Table Manners certificates were awarded to Stephanie, Ike, Anthony and Hermione. Arthur and Oscar received Karate certificates. Well done to you all!

The Abbey U11 tennis team represented the school very well at the annual Framlingham U11 tennis festival.  The team consisted of Beau Barrington Hibbert (only in Y5), Katie Norman, Iris Morton and Helen knight. The team finished sixth in a tough field and improved throughout the day, The morning started with a touygh match against eventual tournament winners, the Brandeston Alligators. Although the girls played well and singles and doubles games were close, The Alligators won the tie 6-0. Next up was Old Buckingham Hall. The Abbey grow in confidence and this time we didn’t lose a rubber. Beau and Katie won their doubles, and each also won their singles. While Helen won her singles and drew in the doubles, playing with Iris. The last pool game was against Holmwood House, who were too strong. Both Beau and Katie scored points for the Abbey by drawing their singles 3-3. This meant The Abbey qualified 3rd in the pool, playing for positions 5-8. A strong performance against the Brandeston Cheetahs followed in the first of the cross-pool matches.Beau and Katie again won their doubles while Helen and Katie won their singles. Iris and Helen (doubles) and Beau in her singles secured the tie for The Abbey when they drew their rubbers.

In the final tie of the day, we were up against Town Close, last years winners. Some great tennis was played during this fixture and both teams saved their best for last. Beau impressed in her singles, against a player two years her senior. Helen and Iris both drew their singles. Katie played a great match but was just beaten by a great come-back from her opponent.

Well done to all the players for good work throughout the long day and especially warm afternoon.  Many lessons about technique and tactics were learned and the school can be proud of the team.

On Friday 9 June the Year 3 Girl’s tennis team travelled to Brandeston to play in the Suffolk School Mini Tennis League. The team was made up of Lara Zie, Georgia Pommier, Rose Jackson and Nina Chapman.

They played brilliantly and supported each other as the competition progressed. There were four schools in the competition and for each school the girls played one single and one doubles match. When it was time for the semi-final The Abbey and Culford had won three matches each and so it went down to points. Culford  just beat us on points to gain a place in the final and we played Brandeston B team to decide third and fourth place.

The girls were a credit to The Abbey and played some great tennis. They came away with a medal for third place and they deserve to feel very proud of themselves.  Well done girls!

The Abbey U11 tennis team represented the school very well at the annual Framlingham U11 tennis festival. The team consisted of Beau Barrington Hibbert (only in Y5), Katie Norman, Iris Morton and Helen knight (photo attached). The team finished sixth in a tough field and improved throughout the day, The morning started with a touygh match against eventual tournament winners, the Brandeston Alligators. Although the girls played well and singles and doubles games were close, The Alligators won the tie 6-o. Next up was Old Buckingham Hall. The Abbey grow in confidence and this time we didn’t lose a rubber. Beau and Katie won their doubles, and each also won their singles. While Helen won her singles and drew in the doubles, playing with Iris. The last pool game was against Holmwood House, who were too strong. Both Beau and Katie scored points for the Abbey by drawing their singles 3-3. This meant The Abbey qualified 3rd in the pool, playing for positions 5-8. A strong performance against the Brandeston Cheetahs followed in the first of the cross-pool matches.Beau and Katie again won their doubles while Helen and Katie won their singles. Iris and Helen (doubles) and Beau in her singles secured the tie for The Abbey when they drew their rubbers.

In the final tie of the day, we were up against Town Close, last years winners. Some great tennis was played during this fixture and both teams saved their best for last. Beau impressed in her singles, against a player two years her senior. Helen and Iris both drew their singles. Katie played a great match but was just beaten by a great come-back from her opponent.

Well done to all the players for good work throughout the long day and especially warm afternoon. Many lessons about technique and tactics were learned and the school can be porud of the team.

On Tuesday 24 May, Year 4 spent a wonderful day at Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Carlton Marshes. The children had a fun-filled time learning about the invertebrate animals that live on the marshes and their surrounding habitat. During the Dyke-dipping session we were lucky enough to find a variety of animals living in the water, including a fearsome looking water scorpion, several ingenious water spiders (which carry a bubble of air as they dive under the water) and we were also lucky enough to find a dragonfly nymph! Following on from this we spent some time identifying some of the nearby trees and designing a key to identify their leaves. Finally, after lunch the children had a mini-beast hunt, collecting and grouping invertebrates from the marsh land this time. This time we found many crafty woodlice, hiding under logs, spiders and a rather beautiful soldier beetle. Year 4 would like to thank Mrs Carter and Mrs Deacon who kindly came along and enjoyed the day with us.

The Year 3 children spent a fabulous day as Ancient Greeks. We had an array of gods and goddesses parading around the Abbey building. Highlights of the day included being mathematicians and solving complex problems, even attempting Pythagoras’ theorem. The children particularly enjoyed food tasting and tried olives, yoghurt, honey, tzatziki and some delicious pomegranate juice.

The afternoon was spent decorating Medusa masks and finding out about the Trojan horse and the fall of Troy. It was a great day and really brought our topic to life.