Category: Prep News
We were delighted to welcome local author Andrea Skevington, as our guest judge. She clearly enjoyed the competition and was very impressed with the high standard of reading. She gave some insightful and very encouraging feedback to all of our readers.
Alice Sharratt was the overall winner of the competition and will be formally presented the Richardson Cup at The Abbey Prize Giving. Andrea Skevington felt Alice had made a brave choice in her reading material, The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo It required a slow contemplative start which Alice delivered brilliantly. She created suspense and the room fell completely silent as the audience hung on to her every word.
Well done and congratulations to all of our fantastic winners.
Norton Heath, Saturday 5 November 2016
On a cold November morning, Woodbridge School travelled to Norton Heath keen to improve on their efforts in the NSEA Grassroots Equestrian Regional Final from last year.
Following training by Tina Haslam at Newton Hall throughout the year, the Woodbridge riders had an impressive day.
Woodbridge started the day well featuring within the top three team finishes in the 40cm, 50cm and 60cm fences but then secured a fantastic 1st place and Regional Champions title at the 70cm class with their team of Tess Walker riding Noodle, Perdi Ludgrove riding Billy, Olivia Lubbock riding Annandale Gwyneth and Zoe Newman riding Sliabh Piper.
An excellent team achievement and all round good day for Woodbridge with other placings for Woodbridge throughout the events, however, top Individual finishes came in the 75cm Perdi Ludgrove 1st and Tess Walker 2nd. Perdi’s win of the 75cm capped off an exceptionally good day with the Woodbridge team and as an individual.
A full run down of the results is shown below incorporating excellent clear rounds, with ribbon placings for individuals.
40cms Championship Finals Team 3rd
Woodbridge School Team : Rosie Hunter-Blair riding Jimbo, Lily Waterer on her maiden outing with Annabel, Eve Marson riding Bengad Cocos and Sofia Waterer riding Volandero Amber Dancer.
Individual placings Eve Marson 5th riding Bengad Cocos and Sasha Reid 6th on her maiden outing with Flash.
50cms Championship Finals Team 3rd & 5th
Woodbridge Blue Team 3rd ; Sofia Waterer riding Volandero Amber Dancer, Fran Jackson riding Minnie the Minx, Isla Appleby riding Jigsaw & Rosie Hunter-Blair riding Jimbo.
Woodbridge Red Team 5th ; Oliver Reid riding Twix, Lily Waterer riding Annabel, Perdi Ludgrove riding Billy & Eve Marson riding Bengad Cocos.
60cms Championship Finals Team 2nd & 3rd
Woodbridge Red Team 2nd ; Sofia Waterer riding Volandero Amber Dancer, Eve Marson riding Bengad Cocos, Rosie Hunter-Blair riding Jimbo & Perdi Ludgrove riding Billy.
Woodbridge White Team 3rd ; Lily Waterer riding Annabel, Tess Walker riding Noodle, Fran Jackson riding Minnie the Minx & Olivia Brown riding Ash.
Individual placing – Perdi Ludgrove riding Billy 5th
Woodbridge Blue Team; Zoe Newman on Sliabh Piper, Alex Ryder-Davies on Faith the Third, Oliver Reid on Twix and Olivia Lubbock on Annandale Gwyneth were sadly unplaced.
70cms Championship Finals Team 1st
Woodbridge Team 1st ; Tess Walker riding Noodle, Olivia Lubbock riding Annandale Gwyneth, Perdi Ludgrove riding Billy, Zoe Newman riding Sliabh Piper.
Individual results – Perdi Ludgrove 4th riding Billy,Tess Walker 6th riding Noodle and Olivia Lubbock 7th riding Annandale Gwyneth.
75cms Individual Championships 1st & 2nd Place
Having qualified in the previous round, Perdi Ludgrove came a fabulous 1st riding Billy and Tess Walker came and amazing 2nd riding Noodle.
An incredible day for the young Woodbridge riders. Oliver Reid produced clear rounds throughout and the younger members from The Abbey riders – Sofia Waterer, Eve Marson, Rosie Hunter-Blair & Perdi Ludgrove were placed in every Championship class they competed in. The day was capped off beautifully with a Team 1st in the 70cms, followed by fantastic results with Perdi Ludgrove and Tess Walker finishing with a first and second respectively in the 75cm.
Two glorious days of poetry! Woodbridge School has been alive with the sound of the spoken word this week, as we have celebrated the delights of poetry with staff, parents and pupils of all ages across the School. The inaugural Woodbridge Youth Poetry festival #WYPF has seen 10 poets conducting workshops and interactive workshops with Woodbridge pupils in a true celebration of poetry leading up to the Aldeburgh Festival this weekend. The festival started with six poets holding workshops for Year 7 and 8 pupils- Ian Griffiths (nonsense words), Fred Ellis (who reads poetry?), Carol Lawrence (visual art inspired poetry) Rosalynde Price (speaking with words aloud). Tim Gardiner (Haiku) and our very own Mrs Davis (savouring the senses, a poetry collaboration about pizza!).
In the afternoon, the Woodbridge Young Poets Competition prizegiving took place in the Seckford Theatre, with family and friends gathered to hear the 24 worthy winners recite their wonderful works and to see them receive their prizes.
For those who had not yet had the opportunity to take part in the event, the evening saw a poetry reading by two wonderful modern poets, both new and shining lights in the poetry world, Vanessa Kisuule and Mark Grist, all hosted by the wonderful Amy Soapbox. Those in the audience who were perhaps unsure what to expect were soon watching in rapt delight as Vanessa took to the stage, charming, engaging, drawing us in as she talked openly about her feelings on bullying, social integration and family through her poems. A Q and A session with Vanessa sat comfortably on the edge of the stage gave more and more insight into this fascinating, delightful and inspirational young women. We were all starstruck.
Next the delightful and dynamic Mark Grist, an English Teacher from Peterborough- or a rapper, a pug lover, a beacon of hope for the disadvantaged, all wrapped up as a poet with the gift of the stand up comedian.
Two hours passed in a flash and everyone left smiling, laughing, and keen to meet with those who had delighted them during the evening, not least the large number of pupils in attendance, who formed an orderly queue to talk to Vanessa and Mark after the event. This may have been the first poetry event that the Seckford Theatre has hosted, but it will certainly not be the last.
On Thursday it was the turn of The Abbey pupils to sample some poetic delight, this time in the form of poets Rachel Piercey and John Canfield from The Emma Press. Years 5 and 6 from The Abbey, along with Waldringfield and Nacton Primary schools enjoyed the delights of an interactive reading at the Seckford Theatre; they stomped and roared as Minotaurs, whistled and roared as the sea whilst teachers took the role of sirens, delighted in choosing their martian style in a poem about the planets, and were frightful as monsters as they took on the guise of the fearful Ginny Green Teeth. In the afternoon, John and Rachel stayed for workshops at the Abbey.
Meanwhile at the Senior School, our lucky Sixth Form A level English Literature students were lucky enough to be able to experience a workshop with Mark Grist, met with understandable excitement as many had seen him perform the night before. It was insightful, productive and bold, as students shared their own work by the end of the session.
A wonderful first year for youth poetry, and the first of more to come!
Young poets across Suffolk were celebrated at the inaugural Woodbridge Young Poets Competition. After attracting over 450 entries in its first year, the competition ended with a special prize-giving event held for 24 young winners at The Seckford Theatre on Wednesday.
The overall competition winner in the junior category (ages 7-11) was Chloe Morgan at The Abbey, Woodbridge School, who wrote a thoughtful poem ‘The Power of the Sea’. Junior runner-up was Aurelia Hibbert, also from The Abbey, who wrote the poem ‘Firework’. Abbey pupils were particularly successful in the Junior section of the competition, with Beatrice Liddy receiving a highly commended award for her poem ‘The Secret’, whilst Alex Crawford won a commended award for his poem ‘Orchestra’, and Alice Sharratt was also commended for her poem ‘In My Mind’. Woodbridge Senior School pupil Lucy Hobday also won a highly commended award for her poem ‘I Should Like, written whilst she was a pupil at Kyson Primary School.
Woodbridge Pupils also featured In the senior section of the competition, with Alfie Davis winning a highly commended award for his poem The Girl at the Window’, whilst Lia Schreiber, Madeleine Cheshire and Sam Bryant all won commended awards for their poems ‘Your Ability to Trust’, ‘Love’ and ‘I Don’t Want It’. The senior section winner and runner up were Archie Gault and Beth Cope from One Sixth Form College.
The judges Ian Griffiths, former Chairman of the Suffolk Poetry Society and Fred Ellis of Poetry Anglia were delighted by the outstanding quality of all of the entries to the competition – indeed describing their task as exceptionally difficult. All 24 winning entries were warmly introduced by Fred and Ian who detailed the powerful reasons why they had won, and when the poems were read aloud by their authors, the fantastic quality of the winners was truly revealed. You could have heard a pin drop in the audience as we delighted in the excellence of the work, on themes happy to sad, light and dark, but all wonderful.
Our huge thanks to Fred and Ian for the amazing amount of work and thought they put into both judging the entries and presenting the winners on the day, and our even bigger thanks and congratulations to the winning poets. Well done!
7 Woodbridge school riders qualified for the NSEA Championships, including two individuals and two teams. The age range of riders was from 10 to 18 years old.
The first day saw the youngest team member, Ada Marson age 10, take part in the JwS 70cms Final. This was her first time competing at the Finals, and she produced a confident clear round, taking all the short routes. She scored 3rd highest on Style marks, but finished 11th overall out of 55 individuals competing. She was the youngest in the top 12 riders.
The second day saw the most action for the Woodbridge Teams with the Dressage Team of James Brown, Tabitha Wilson-Smith, Lydia Sida-Page and Francesca Aitchison competing as well as the 80cms showjumping team of Rowena Wilson-Smith, Tabitha Wilson-Smith, Francesca Aitchison and Fleur Ludgrove.
The day started with the Showjumping team. The course was in the outdoor International Arena and consisted of a relatively straight forward first part, with a jump off course offering the option to take tight lines and go for a fast time. With 50 Teams contesting, it was all or nothing to have a chance of a place. Sadly, other than Fleur Ludgrove who produced a good clear and a fast jump off time, the rest of the team had a fence down resulting on a team score of 8 penalties and no placing.
The Dressage team however had a truly successful day. Two riders took their tests in the morning; Tabitha and Lydia rode Prelim tests and scored individual placings of 2nd and 8th places respectively, leaving the team in 2nd place after the first round. Then the final two riders, James and Francesca, took Novice tests in the afternoon to produce the final scores for the results.
James performed exceptionally well and took 1st place in his arena, whilst Francesca was also placed 8th in her arena.
This resulted in a fantastic result of the Team taking 2nd Place at the Championships.
The final day saw James Brown contesting his individual qualification in the JwS 1.10m competition.
He produced a good round with one fence down; but with only one clear round out of 22 competitors this was a superb result. He finished up taking an individual 7th Place in this Championship – another good result for James.
Woodbridge School also was awarded a Training Voucher for coming 2nd in the Regional Points League 2015-2016
The school had a range of riders from Grass Roots rider Eve Marson (8yrs, Yr 4) to Senior Dressage Team riders present to collect the Award, representing all those that have gained points in Regional Points accumulating competitions against other schools in the Eastern Region (Suffolk, Essex, Cambs, Norfolk). This is based on Team points won and includes Grass Roots through to Open classes.
A great team spirit existed across all the ages with everyone supporting each other.
Team members:-
James Brown riding iL Darco G – 2nd Team Dressage , 7th JwS Individual 1.10m
Rowena Wilson-Smith riding Autumn Gold – Team 80cms SJ
Lydia Sida-Page riding OK Mister – 2nd Team Dressage
Tabitha Wilson-Smith riding Ruby Queen of Diamonds – 2nd Team Dressage & Team 80cms SJFrancesca Aitchison riding Wix Spring Realm – 2nd Team Dressage, 8th individual Dressage & Team 80cms SJ
Fleur Ludgrove riding Otter – Team 80cms JS
Ada Marson riding Rolly Rascal – 11th JwS Individual 70cms
Woodbridge and Abbey pupils achieved extraordinary results in this year’s Suffolk Festival of Performing Arts, almost seeming to sweep the board at times. Meanwhile there are almost too many highlights to select by way of an appetite-raiser, but I will have a go by congratulating in particular those who took first places, cups and trophies (many of them more than one!): Lily Cook, William Cook, Tom Evans, Amber Franklin, Oliver Laxton, Christopher Long, Chloe Macmillan, Caitlyn Maggs, Sophia Mattar, Imogen Melrose, James Phelan, Sasha Reid, Evelyn Saunders (overall most promising speech performer), Alexander Sharratt (overall senior speech champion), Alice Sharratt (overall junior speech champion), and Sebastian Ward.
A fun morning of cross country was held at the Senior School this week for Queen’s House and The Abbey. Everyone got the chance to take part and enjoy a fun run in the sun! A slightly longer course was offered to the Year 5 and 6 pupils, which gave them a chance to enjoy the excitement of running in the valley.
Year Three had a fabulous day on Wednesday when they went exploring at Grimes Graves. Grimes Graves is the only Neolithic flint mine open to visitors in Britain. Highlights of the day included descending a steep ladder, 30 feet into one of the pits. There were layers of rocks dating back millions of years and evidence of tunnelling. The children discovered what it must have been like for Stone Age man to mine the flint using a deer antler as a pick. Running up and down the lunar looking landscape outside also proved to be great fun. The deep holes are evidence of a further 400 mines that had been partially filled in.
It was a great day of fun, exploring and learning
On Tuesday Year 5 went to Hedingham Castle for a series of interactive sessions with Norman castle dwellers. We were shown how to invade a Norman keep, how to address and lay places for the hierarchy of staff at the castle, archery and Norman healing methods.
Finlay Clench said “it got more and more exciting as the day went on” and Millie Johnson said “a great day was had by all”.
On Tuesday 20 September we went to Colchester Castle as part of our History topic – The Romans. When we arrived at the castle we were welcomed and shown around. First we went got into our classes (4C and 4T) and built an Iron Age round house and a Roman Villa.
We then went down under the castle into the vaults. We had to count the steps as we went down – each step was worth 100 years, which means the steps were 200 years old. Our leader talked to us about the Celts and their round houses and then described the Roman invasion. We learnt how the Romans beat the Celts – killing, beheading them or making them slaves. After that we talked a little about Boudicca.
We spent the rest of the trip looking around the museum and learning about Roman artefacts.
Year 4
