Category: Senior School News

Many congratulations indeed to Saxon who has succeeded in achieving his Duke of Edinburgh Gold award – while still at school!  It takes considerable effort to achieve the award at any stage (indeed we have just recently heard from an OW who has completed some eight years after leaving us); to do so as a sixth former is exceptional and Saxon joins a very select group of Woodbridgians who have shown the extraordinary dedication and sense of public service this demands.

Congratulations to Victoria, Laura, Saffron, Hope and Medomfo for achieving their Bronze award!

I know that a couple of hours in the Dome at Woodbridge listening to speeches and applauding the year’s prize winners is not everyone’s dream Saturday morning.  But now I am retired I can choose not to attend, except that as OW president I am invited and so it seems churlish not to accept.  I was honoured last year to have a prize for French awarded, bearing my name, so I was keen to see who followed the worthy first winner, James Bellhouse (2017).

I was thrilled to discover that the French prize went to Gabriella Zins (2018) whom I knew to be another worthy recipient, simply from seeing her in language competitions, on exchanges and study trips not just in France but also in Spain.  Gabby is going on to study chemistry at Birmingham University, not surprisingly with a year abroad included; I hope she will choose France for that.

What I had not realised is that my youngest tutees in my last year of teaching had left school and they were both prizewinners too.

Alyssa Hedley (2018) won the Psychology Prize and will go on to study that subject at the University of East Anglia.  It was good to hear of the many other accomplishments she developed over her time at Woodbridge, including acting (she was a hilarious librarian last time I saw her) and playing the flute, on which I heard her play a solo at Snape Maltings.  She also helped out as a classroom assistant at Thomas Wolsey School in Ipswich.

Adam Wildbore (2018) won the Hewlett Cup for all-round contribution to school life.  In addition to A levels which are leading him to Exeter University to study geography, Adam managed to complete his gold Duke of Edinburgh award, was a sports leader and managing director of Young Enterprise, represented the school and the region in a range of sports and spoke at the Model United Nations in Paris.

I was so pleased that the final remaining members of B-GBB and the winner of the French prize were so successful at school and it was good to see these fresh new OWs once again; I wish them all the very best for their degrees and beyond.

There will be some people out there who don’t realise just how exciting maths is.  Add in an element of competition and the joy would be complete for Jonathan and John from Year 13 and Brendan and Jake from Year 12, our wonderful senior maths team.  All they had to do was to get to Northgate and answer a series of fiendish questions, against the clock and often ‘in relay’ (working in pairs, one pair providing a solution to a problem which itself enabled the other pair to answer theirs, to open up a third problem to the first pair… and so on).  It was cracking good fun!

We were one of the top fourteen schools from Suffolk and Essex vying for a place in the national final, and vie we did… 90% in the first round; amongst the top six going into the final round (with no idea of where in the six we were…); and then the final relay round… and a good start… four ‘races’ to complete… and the first was perfection!  The second was … nearly.  The third… was a little harder.  The fourth?  Don’t ask.

But we had enjoyed ourselves!  It’s the taking part after all…  And so to the announcement of the top three.  Third Framlingham; second Woodbridge!  You could have knocked us down with a feather (and not just because we were so mentally exhausted); and first (perennial winners) Colchester RGS (next year…).  So our best result for years if not ever and a fantastic achievement delivered with genuine enthusiasm and received with astonishment and humility.  Mr Streat was so over-excited that he forgot to take a picture, so you’ll have to imagine our happy smiles as we proudly held our certificates.  He also thereafter very nearly ran Jonathan over in the car park, which would have been a shame, and scant reward for Jonathan’s sterling efforts all evening.

On Tuesday 27^th November, Year 7 enjoyed a school trip to Trinity Park. We went there to watch two science presentations with practicals and explanation.

The first half of the show was led by a man called Russell who was very funny. He told us all about his job as an oceanographer. He taught us all about the different types of plankton including cyanoplankton, otherwise known as blue-green algae. He asked up two children to help him with a demonstration of a food chain, and even dressed up as a shrimp!

After a short break, we settled back down into our seats to start watching the second half. The lady (called Dr Suze) was talking about how super powers could become reality by nano-science. Scientists have been developing different ways to make people invisible and lots more. She showed us a practical in which she had a beaker of plain water and then put 3 circular bead-like things made out of hydrogel. Once the beads entered the water, they were indistinguishable from the water in all lights.

In conclusion it was a fascinating day out and we all really enjoyed it. They both really made us all want to learn more about science.

By Phoebe and Florence

Fables and Fairy tales

We all know the stories… don’t we?

It’s wonderful to be captured unawares, and right from the first moments so we the audience were caught – by a freeze-frame quartet: ensembles at the ready, caught, in their turn, between books and their own imaginings…

And then a moment of reflection – a clever device to introduce both cast and intention as we saw our stars-to-be on the big screen, preparing to tread the boards: the usual thespian route of stage to screen turned upside down.

And thereafter it was the joy of performance: The Golden Goose (was anyone else waiting for a golden egg?) caught me unawares – I didn’t know the story! That laughter should win the day was as it should be (though, as with the best fairy stories, it’s dark laughter at heart, just to keep you on your toes).  Rumpelstiltskin ran and romped, and the weaving was done to perfection… but what else was captured by the intertwining threads?  Ah yes; nothing is simple.  And nothing was simple for the misused and wishful Catskin either.  So nearly everything lost, but everything won in the end (though the old man may disagree): our happiest ending?  The Hare and the Hedgehog, and the defeat of hubris, looked set fair to trump it – victory to the underdog and lots of laughter on the way… only for a tragedy to tip the balance and draw the worst from the best.  And so the moral of our night exploring the medieval imagination is?  Modesty, humility and dignity in your victories; and much the same in all your trials and tribulations!  Yes, please!  And what a fine example our cast and crew set: terrific in their endeavours, marvellous in their performances, and dignified in their gratitude for their audience’s warm, lengthy and well-deserved applause.

We had the opportunity to take our Year 10 business students to BT global headquarters this week to engage in an Enterprise day.  The purpose of the day was to put students into a controlled commercial environment where they break out into small teams (each team representing a company) and compete to make the most virtual money in the day.  To achieve this the students have to work together in their respective teams completing milestone tasks including:

• Building and selling virtual cars; achieved through the accumulation of car-part tokens that can only be completed by trading/negotiating with other teams.
• Raise initial capital (for the car parts) with a start-up loan; needing them to understand what a loan is and that it needs to be paid back through the online bank.
• Raise initial and ongoing capital by trading in shares; trading in of all the other companies, using our online share-trading software.
• Maintain the company bank account; using BT’s online banking software.
• Raise additional capital by paying for then completing physical team activities and a variety of reasonably complex quizzes and questionnaires; these activities provide a “return on investment”.
• Complete a mock-government paperwork exercise.
•  Delivering a short presentation (in the Dragon’s Den style); two people pitch for a couple of minutes to a panel on “why their company is investable”.
• Negotiating with “The Union” when their “car factory workers” go on strike; the outcome has a cost, the better the negotiation the lower the cost.
•  Generally manage each other in the team (lead by a Chief Executive Officer and a Chief Financial Officer) and handle/negotiate all the other teams competing.

According to the placings one of our teams,  Lovol came second in the competition.  However the organisers acknowledged an error in their otherwise excellent procedures that made the “first” team results invalid.  Congratulations to all our students below and particular pride and respect for our winning Woodbridgians headed up by CEO Jack W.

The 1^st Hockey team just missed out on a spot in the fourth round of the England Hockey U18 Plate Competition by going out on penalty strokes against New Hall.

The much anticipated third round match was played at an excellent tempo on a cold and rainy afternoon at New Hall School.  Woodbridge relied on good team play and passing, defending their deep areas against two particularly talented opponents and making good tackles and clearances in the D. A highlight was Sophie’s play in goal, penalty corner defence and the sheer guts and determination shown by the players, with Eleanor and Annabel outstanding.  Meanwhile at the other end, Woodbridge had a few scoring chances of their own rebuffed by an equally in-form goalie.

Woodbridge tweaked the formation very effectively for the second half, and despite conceding an early goal looked increasingly dominant:  Joanne and Flora P injected pace on the right; Flora J was dictating play on the left; and now Woodbridge really opened up the match.  Penalty corners…. Ianthe’s drag flicks well saved; a post hit; and at last the pressure told as Ianthe flicked the ball over the GK. With time running out Woodbridge kept pushing, and Poppy and Sophie both offered constant threat, but New Hall held strong.

The match ended 1-1 and it was up to a penalty stroke competition: New Hall was absolutely clinical in theirs, and although Ianthe scored for us it was not enough as New Hall won it 3-1.  We wish New Hall well in the next round.

Woodbridge had some very strong performances. Mollie led from the front, Ianthe was pivotal in midfield, Flora J again had a very solid match, Annabel was influential, Eleanor stepped in front of her player to win the ball every time, and Flora P impacted the match very well in the second half.  But ultimately Sophie L’s saves kept us in the game from the start to earn a very well-deserved player of the match.

Norwich have a strong reputation for school football within the region and so the early formation and game-plan was to see to our defensive duties first and foremost and hopefully score on the break. This tactic worked well as we soaked up the early pressure and our opponents became increasingly frustrated by our resolute back-four of Matty, Louis, Danny and Gonzalo. Ali and Tom, playing in front of them as two holding midfielders, were sharp and strong in the challenge and Charles and Jake on the wings both had industrious performances. We sneaked a goal but then the cardinal error was not to see the lead out to half-time and we found ourselves heading into the break 2 – 1 down. Norwich really grew into the game at this point and extended their lead; many teams would have capitulated further at this point but Woodbridge showed grit and determination to mount a comeback. Seb nicked one back for us before adding to our tally, getting on the end of a sumptuous move begun by the ever-skilful Joe. At 3 – 3 both sides had excellent chances to take the win; Norwich found Harry on top form between the Woodbridge posts and the Norwich ‘keeper was equal to everything we threw at him. An excellent game played in a combative spirit was enjoyed by everyone.

Friday 23rd November
We had a great day with nine children competing in the NSEA pop-up dressage competition. For many of the team it was their first time ever competing in dressage, and team manager and trainer Miss Lucas was very proud of how well they all presented, and represented the school. The tests were recorded at Newton Hall and will be sent via YouTube to be judged.

Photo: left- right
Lottie, Miss Lucas, Maddy

Saturday 24th November
We had a fantastic show at Forest Edge with the jumping team of Alex, Haydn, Perdi and Ada. All went clear in the 80-90cm to achieve a very good second place overall. They then competed in the 90-95cm Windsor Q in which they came fourth, with Perdi placed fourth individually as well.

Photo : left to right
Haydn, Perdi, Alex, Ada

Sunday 25th November
To complete a hugely impressive three days, the team then competed brilliantly at Topthorn EC in the NSEA grass routes and RPL league, an event proudly and expertly hosted jointly in association with Woodbridge School. It was great to have all levelled riders competing at this show from 40cm- 90cm. Everyone rode fantastically and looked very smart. Well done to Eve (second individually in the 70cm RPL) and the team of Eve, Oli, Nancy and Lily who finished third overall.

Photo: Left – Right
Eve, Lily, Oli.

Woodbridge School riders Thea, Eloise, Haydn, Alex, Perdi, Lily, Ada and Eve all competed at the NSEA Plate Championships on 17/18 November 2018, some as individuals and others as part of our team.  Better still they were all there as competitors in the National Points League Championship, as Woodbridge had already won the regional points league. This requires a team of 8 riders; with two riders competing at each height and the best six scores to count.  The younger riders were joined by Eloise and Thea to ride in the top height round.  And in a remarkable performance our riders finished on a combined team score of only 4 to take third place in this prestigious National School League Championship.

The School also had excellent results in both team and individual competitions: most notably the 75cms Show Jumping Team took 2^nd place with Eve (Year 6 at the Abbey) being the youngest member scoring a very fast clear alongside her team mates of Alex, Perdi and Lily.  In the individual events the top results went to Alex and Perdi who gained individual placings in two different height classes of Jumping with Style.

Results:-
75cms Show Jumping Plate Champs
Team of Eve, Alex, Perdi & Lily were second
75cms Jumping with Style
Alex qualified as an individual and was placed fifth in the final
85cms Jumping with Style
Perdi qualified as an individual and was placed sixth in the final
85cms Show Jumping Plate Champs
Ada qualified as an individual and completed with a fine double clear to be placed in the top fifteen.
Regional Points League National Championships
Team of Thea, Eloise, Haydn, Alex, Ada, Perdi, Lily and Eve completed on a score of 4 to take third place.