Category: Prep News
The Abbey, the Prep School for Woodbridge School held the inaugural Woodbridge Junior Young Musician of the Year competition on 1 May. We were delighted to welcome thirty-one participants from sixteen different Suffolk schools, all aged eleven and under to be adjudicated by Clio Gould, Leader of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy of Music. The level of music making was extremely high, and our distinguished adjudicator was very impressed by all the young musicians. Each participant received a certificate and a written adjudication, but there could only be three prizes. These were awarded to Amelie Clark from Mellis CEVC Primary School who came third playing the flute, Nina Varadarajan from Bealings Primary School who came second playing the piano and Etiane Cheung from Ipswich Preparatory School who came first, also playing the piano. A number of other performers were highly commended and all showed great potential.
On Thursday, 23 April 2015 Year 5 became journalists for an afternoon and interviewed Noel Hunt and Zeki Fryers from ITFC. Year 5 actually called themselves The Abbey Press! The Abbey Press asked them what they did when they weren’t training for their big matches. The reply from them both was the electronic game, ‘Fifa!’ They said it was weird to see themselves on the computer game.
Here is a scoop you wouldn’t find in The Sunday Times, The Sun or even The Daily Mail – neither of them thought of football as a sport they would be playing professionally. It turns out Hunt wanted to be a vet and Fryers had a dream of being an athlete running against Usain Bolt!
We asked them many questions, but here is one more: we asked them who was the hardest player they had come across? Fryers replied that for him it was Falcao and the old Italian Captain Callivaro.
To be up close to players we usually see from a distance was a privilege. We were also lucky enough at the end of the interviews to be able to get their autographs. We would like to thank Noel Hunt and Zeki Fryers for coming to visit us at The Abbey and ITFC for allowing them to come.
By James H, Harvey G and Samuel B
U14As
It has been a busy few weeks for the U14A team. Before half-term, they travelled to Ipswich High for one of their last league matches with only the bare 7. The girls knew this was going to be their toughest game yet as Ipswich High’s U14s had made it through to the Regional competition back in January. From the starting whistle, the girls cannot be faulted for how they approached the game with dedication, determination and want for the ball. Katy G and Maddie F both had a storming game shooting and hardly missed, and Eleanor B and Mollie B kept the pressure on the opposition’s shooters. Zara L made her debut for the A team and played an absolute blinder – especially after feeling very anxious about playing! Chloe O and Flora J played faultlessly in the centre court and supported their attackers superbly. Well done girls on an excellent performance – definitely the best of the season so far! Won 23 – 12
St Joseph’s game was a completely different story after half-term, as the girls did not want it as badly as the Ipswich High game. However, after a shaky start, with the ball being thrown away at every opportunity, we managed to regain our composure and begin to think about our movement both on and off the ball. Even after the opposition putting on a younger and more experienced player, to help their team succeed, our girls managed to hold it together and fight until the final whistle. Luckily we won – by 2 goals!! Won 11 – 9
A friendly match v St Felix, enabled us to include Florence A and Ella S into the mix. This was a scrappy game to begin with, but at half-time, the girls began to think about their dodging and passing down court, which enabled us to take control of the game. A good performance from all and whichever combination played, every one gave it their all. Well done! Won 21 – 9
U12As
The U12As have had an extremely busy few weeks with matches v Culford, The Abbey, Ipswich High and St Jo’s, not forgetting to mention the South Suffolk tournament too.
In our matches against Culford’s U12A & B teams, we showed superb team work and communication, enabling us to get away with a strong lead in the first half. Going into the 2nd half 6 – 0 up, the team knew they had to work hard to prevent Culford from scoring whilst trying to increase our score. At the final whistle, the girls knew they had achieved what they set out to do. Instead of playing South Lee’s U11A team, as this was arranged as a triangular, we played Culford’s U12B team. The team should be pleased with their performance – especially as positions were swapped around, enabling the girls to prove their worth on a netball court. v U12As Won 10 – 1 & v U12B Won 15 – 0
We knew the fixture v Ipswich High was going to be our toughest yet, so the girls warmed up and prepared themselves both physically and mentally. In the past, it has taken a quarter to get into the games we have been playing, but not on this occasion, we had to put in 100% from the starting whistle and the girls cannot be faulted for their grit and determination. Our movement down the court was not only superb, but effective and enabled us to lose our defenders, therefore keeping possession of the ball. An excellent team effort by all – and some of the best netball this team have played. With the score 6 – 6 at half time and 11 – 10 to us at the end of the 3rd quarter, the girls had to give everything they had in the last quarter to ensure we came away with a win. The ball was going from end to end, with a goal being scored every time. Finally, we managed to close IHS down and score on their centre, therefore going ahead by 1 goal. This was the crucial point as it made us realise we could win the game – and we did. Well done girls!! Won 16 – 12
After a successful Friday afternoon of netball against The Abbey, where the As won 22 – 4, even with every single girl playing a number of positions, including shooters, it was an early Saturday morning match v St Jo’s next on the agenda. The girls were in good spirits as they had had a successful week. Their performance cannot be faulted as they applied themselves in exactly the same way as the Ipswich High game and played some excellent netball. Preventing their opposition from scoring half was their target – which they achieved!! Well done!! Won 37 – 15
Welcome to the East Anglian Prep Schools Cross Country Championships 2015.
Congratulations to Isabelle Jervis, Alice Sharratt and Erica Walkling who have been Highly Commended for their pictures on the theme of ‘Animal Magic’ submitted for this year’s competition in aid of Cancer Research UK. As well as attending a special prize-giving, their work will be exhibited in the Peter Pears Gallery in Aldbrugh on Friday 13th March, 1-5pm, 14th March, 12-5pm and on Sunday 15th March 10-4.30pm. Seven other Abbey pupils, Aidan Holliday, Clara Melrose, Joe Virr, Katie Bellhouse, Jo Dunmore, Ella Reynard and Alexander Sharratt have also been chosen to have their work exhibited. All are welcome to attend to see their work and that of pupils from other schools in East Anglia and the designs will be available to purchase along with specially printed postcards of their art work. Really well done to these pupils and to all who took part in the competition. I was really impressed by the high standard of work and how imaginative and different all the pictures were!
On Tuesday year 5 were lucky enough to be joined by staff from BT to take part in a day long computing challenge. Throughout the day the pupils were introduced to new programming ideas that went together to create a programme to control the movement of a virtual robot. This required the pupils to think logically in order to create and debug algorithms.
The day culminated in a year group competition with teams pitting their robots against each other on order to collect coloured mines. After 16 hard fought duels it was Tom Martin and Sukey Ridge who were the eventual winners on the day. Well done to everyone involved.
It was a sunny but very cold and windy day for the County B races at Culford, the conditions (apart from the course) were ideal, although the route had been changed for this year’s race, and included running through fields containing sheep! It was an extremely successful day, with 11 out of the 17 runners gaining a top 16 position in their respective races. This was an important competition as the top 8 in each race would definitely gain a place in the Suffolk Schools’ team, ready for the Anglian Championships @ RHS on Saturday 7th February, with 9th – 12th place having a good chance to be selected and 12th – 16th place being considered, depending on other factors.
Well done to the following runners who have been selected: Sarah B (3rd), Amy G (5th), Charlotte D (7th), Henry D (8th), Victoria B (10th), Charlie T (10th), Harriet P (12th) and Gus C (12th). Jack G (15th) and Tom T (30th) from The Abbey are both under consideration. Well done to the remaining competitors who fought hard; Sophie G (13th), Madeleine C (16th), Calum A (17th), George R (24th), Connor G (25th), Ianthe H (30th) and Tom H (32nd).
Thank you to all the parents who came along and supported – especially Mr Goddard who lead the warm ups and helped to mentally prepare each runner!
Congratulations to all the Woodbridge School competitors at the Suffolk County Athletics Championships (Clubs) at Ickworth House last week. Great to see so many runners from The Abbey and Woodbridge competing on a difficult course in tough conditions. With a team silver (U13 girls) and an individual bronze (Henry D) as well as 14 top 10 finishes, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we are just one school and fantastic to see us all working together. Well done all!
Good luck to all competing at the Suffolk Schools on Thursday!
All the girls were on cracking good form and played their hearts out in each match. They won their section, not losing a match which meant they got through to the semi-finals. Sadly they didn’t win that match. They had one final match against Barnardiston to decide who came 3rd or 4th in the competition. This was a most thrilling match as when the whistle blew for full time it was a draw, 2- 2. The game went into a golden goal period and we scored first! The girls were delighted and came away with third place medals.
Christmas at the Abbey started on 9 December when the Chapel Choir visited the Seckford Almshouses for a spot of Carol singing. The Chapel Choir sang some of its own repertoire including works by Rutter and Godfree as well as that perennial favourite, ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’, and both the choir and residents enjoyed singing traditional carols together.
