Category: Senior School News
The Fitzgerald Society is Woodbridge School’s new Junior Oxbridge Programme, aimed at intellectual high fliers in Years 10-11 with a zest of knowledge and exploration. Pupils interested may not even be looking to end up at Oxford or Cambridge, but will love thinking and tackling challenging ideas.
There will be a mixture of events and subsidiary activities, starting in Michaelmas 2018 with a trip to the British Museum to explore how power and authority can be conveyed through images, rather than words. Other major events will include a moot (mock law trial) where you will study evidence, create your own cases, and bring them to court. There will also be a trip to either Bawdsey Radar exhibition or Bletchley Par. Pupils will also have the opportunity to take part in the Alan Turing Cryptography competition run by Manchester University.
Subsidiary activities will include exploring the use of arsenic in the Victorian era, and logic problems set by GCHQ.
For more information about how to apply please contact Miss Anne Wright in the Classics Department.
A glorious day saw Woodbridge School well represented in the Suffolk team across track and field events, and the fine weather was matched by some wonderful performances. Flora Pitt competed well in the long jump; Mauricio Corfe and John Hendry in the relay; John Hendry’s duel in the 200m was probably the most exciting event of the day, even though he had to concede victory and settle for second; April Hill matched John with a fine second in the 1500m; and Nathan Goddard (third place in the 3000m), one position ahead of Alex Evans Lombe in the same race both had a strong Norfolk wind to contend with.
In the field, Tom Turner recorded a high jump PB of 1.45m and Tori McCarroll, hot on his heels was successful at 1.35m. A PB of 32.01m and a third place went the way of Chisom Oguamanam in the discus; and Sophie Graham’s double victory: in the discus and in the final field event of the day, the javelin, ended a long and successful exhibition of athletics.
Our Young Enterprise team, East Coast Eats, have sold over 300 copies of their magnificent cookery book and, on the way, being a fine example of a young business, have turned a very healthy profit. Moreover, they have persuaded no fewer than seven retailers to stock their cookery books, designed with those taking self-catering holidays in mind. And if you have somehow missed the chance to purchase a copy for yourself in your local browsing, they even have a few copies available for sale direct! Perhaps most importantly the students have been on a journey of self-discovery. They have learned to run a business make decisions and take risks. This has taught them innumerable lessons and has given them life skills, and, of course, made them very much more employable – and their forthcoming university applications all the more impressive!
But Young Enterprise is also a competition (https://www.youtube.com/user/YoungEnterpriseUK), and the team recently competed at the regional final having won the Suffolk final. They performed magnificently, winning the trade stand and business interview with margin to spare, and presenting to the audience with flair, humour and amazing poise. Sadly, though, only one team could go forward to the national Final and, by a whisker, East Coast Eats finished as runners up. Although disappointed, our sixth formers took the news with great character, strength and good grace. After all, they have left a legacy which will sit proudly on bookshelves across East Anglia for many years to come. Mrs Wright, our head of enterprise said, “It has been an honour to work with such a fantastic group of young people this year. East Coast Eats set a fantastically high standard, and can be immensely proud to have been the region’s best selling and most profitable company this year.” And the pupils? Jude Ashken, Mollie Biddle, Jessica Bowers, Joshua Bradbeer, Saxon Gallo, Mary Godfrey, Thea Hall, Daniel Hempstead, Ella Holliday, Sebastian Lamb, Nathan Little, Georgia Martin, Lily Proudfoot and Callum Sycamore.
Pupils from Year 9SV and Year 10 Latin entered the Cambridge Ancient Worlds Video Competition, which required them to produce a short video inspired by the Ancient World. Nine videos were selected by the judges, and three of these were Woodbridge entries. No other school in the history of the competition has had so high a proportion of successful videos in one year. Enormous congratulations to:
Aimen Alvi, Sophie Harper, Maisie Watts and Charlotte Dinwiddy, who came 4th with their beautiful rendition of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, Harry Rennell, who produced a very clever and witty take on the real truth about the Cyclops Polyphemus, and Medomfo Owusu, Ianthe Hill and Lily Peto, who produced a charming and delicate shadow-puppet version of the story of Prometheus.
On Friday 8 June, Bedford and the East Area Prep Schools’ Athletics Championships was the venue of choice for those of our pupils who had gained this season’s qualifying times and distances. With 51 schools present, every event was highly competitive making finishing in the top two to qualify for the Nationals in Birmingham quite a challenge.
First to compete for the senior school was Ruby Vinton in the 1500m. She set a new record by 3 seconds running in 4:54.8 and was way in front of the rest of the field from the start! Woodbridge now hold the best two times in the history of the event, as April Hill set the previous record two years ago. Henry Dinwiddy also qualified in the 800m finishing second in his race. Fazil Akyol did well to get to the finals of the 200m, but found rushing from the high jump competition to the 200m final and back to high jump was one obstacle too much. However he was delighted to win the high jump with a clearance of 1.50m. He also made the relay final with fellow team mates Ronald Hui, Tommy Burrows and Ebuke Ofunne. Tom Martin threw the javelin 31.09m to win his competition; and with the last field event of the day Beau Barrington-Hibbert threw the discus a magnificent 28.30m to set another new record, eclipsing OW Katie La Vergne’s mark held for the past seven years. Moments later, at 6.10pm, the girls’ relay team of Ruby Vinton, Maddie Buchanan, Libbie Brightey and Ada Marson sealed another second place, and qualification for Birmingham.
Those who narrowly missed out in 3rd place were Lexie Barrington-Hibbert, Tom Mitchell and Henry Dinwiddy in discus and Katie Norman in javelin. These amazing results are testimony to our athletes’ hard work and dedicated training under the expert guidance of coaches Mr Graham and Mr Goddard. Two new records set and a trip to the Nationals on the 3rd July in prospect! Our thanks also go to Mr Wheelhouse and Miss Sanders who were busy officiating all day.
On Wednesday night during Half Term some of our top athletes travelled to Watford to compete in a series of middle distance races in the hope of achieving personal bests or perhaps even the entry standard for England Schools.
Alex Evans Lombe was the only athlete to compete at 3000m, having finished second at the recent Suffolk Schools running 9:57 to secure selection to compete at the Anglian schools on 16th June. This time Alex improved by a massive 25 seconds, running 9:32 and gaining a perfect confidence boost ahead of the Anglians.
Amy Goddard and Kit Evans Lombe competed at 1500m and ran brilliantly, just missing out on season bests by one and two seconds respectively.
Charlie Turner had opened his season with a 4:36 PB, and on Wednesday he went significantly faster running a really impressive 4:27. Charlie is in Year 9 – the Year 13 school sports day record (set in 1974) is 4:29!
April Hill entered this event with a personal best of 4:52 knowing that she needed 4:48 to be included in the top 25 or 30 athletes that will get to start in one of two heats at England Schools. The result – April ran a new personal best of exactly 4:48, qualifying for England Schools and as far as we are aware becomes the first female Woodbridge School endurance athlete to do so.
Last but not least, Nathan Goddard started his race with a personal best of 4:10 knowing he needed 4:06 to guarantee selection. Not only did he achieve that, he ran quicker than the National Standard of 4:03 for his age, recording a very swift 4:02.79. This will secure Nathan’s passage to compete at England Schools in Birmingham on 13-14 July for the third year in succession.
To give the performance some context, Nathan is age 15 in Year 11… now, what did I write above about Year 13 school record…?!
A long night in Watford, but a very successful trip and we wish the athletes the very best for the rest of the season.
Many congratulations to Arabella, pictured here at the reception for her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award, held in the presence of Princess Eugenie and personally presented by Dr Hazel Wallace. It was a double celebration for Woodbridge School, as OW Rosie Streat was also delighted to be at the Palace to receive her award.
Many congratulations to our team of four which gained a ‘bronze medal’ from within the very competitive field of eighteen Year 8 teams in the region vying for the honours. Raise your test tubes to Asmee, Lucy, Amy, and Henry.
Asmee takes up the story:
“Going to UEA for the chemistry competition and seeing the demonstration was incredibly fun. In fact, the kitchen chemistry may have been the best part. With its light show, explosive foam and colour changing chemicals, it really did shock the audience. For the challenges, firstly, we had to solve a robbery by doing chromatography and testing unknown samples. The second challenge was very experimental – it involved making foam. The team that made the most foam in a limited amount of time won. In the end, we came third out of 18 schools, which we were very happy about. All in all, UEA has an amazing chemistry school and if we could ever go again we definitely would.”
It was a great day at the ESAA English Schools’ Track and Field Cup.
Our junior (Years 7/8) and intermediate (Years 9/10) athletics teams went to compete in the ESAA English Schools’ Track and Field Cup at Bury St Edmunds on 17 May. With sixteen schools entered competition was tough. Our best 13 girls and 15 boys in each division were selected to compete in two events each in a way which ensured that all the events were covered. After that, it was the distances and times which counted, gaining points for the team – with only the top school to qualify! This was our chance – a chance mirrored across 80-plus similar events for multiple schools across the country.
Our junior girls’ team did well finishing 6th. Highest scorers were Ruby Vinton and Beau Barrington-Hibbert on 38 points, and 37 for Amy Goddard. The best individual performance was Ruby’s in the 1500m, finishing in 4:57!
The Junior boys’ team finished 8th. Top scorers were Fazil Akyol with 39 points, Henry Dinwiddy with 35 and Tom Martin 33. Fazil’s javelin throw of 29.75m was the top scoring individual achievement.
The intermediate girls won with an amazing 408 points (second place RHS on 310 points some way behind). These points place them around 6th in the country as they go into the Regional round… that from 1000 schools taking part! Amazing! Top scorer was Nell Pilkington with an outstanding 54 points with a throw of 11.23m in shot (worth 35 on its own) and 100m run of 13.8s. Second was Sophie Graham with 49 points and third Emily Whyte with 44. Victoria Burrows, Flora Pitt, Isabelle Eaton, Ianthe Hill, Ella Walker, Annie Yates, April Hill, Bea Thomas and Joey Zhou all added excellent scores from fine individual performances to secure victory.
The intermediate boys also won in very fine style with RHS and Farlingaye second and third respectively. Top scorer was Leroy Okojie with 42 points thanks in part to his blistering 11.0s for 100m, second John Hendry with 40 and third Maurico Corfe.
The town was out in force to celebrate the efforts of its citizens young and old competing in the Woodbridge Shufflers’ junior race and 10k last Sunday. The sun was out in force as well – glorious if you were there to support, and revel in the pre-event entertainment provided magnificently on the Chapel Lawn by the wonderful Swing Band. Sunshine and Swing – a perfect combination, and the music rolled richly over the verdant grounds, relaxing tense muscles and filling nervous hearts and minds with positive thoughts. The applause flowed for Mr Shepherd and his virtuosos, and then the scene shifted to the highways and byways of Woodbridge.
The Junior Race was an extraordinary endorsement of our fantastic running programme. Resplendent in Woodbridge tops, our boys and girls dominated proceedings as the results couldn’t fail to show:
In a field of 140 athletes, Woodbridge School Pupils filled 4 of the top 5, 6 of the top 10 and 12 of the top 20 positions. With some 30 athletes in total we accounted for almost a quarter of the field and the sea of red running through town was a sight to behold. All of our athletes finished in the top half and the running group were particularly proud of Rufus Davis, who in his first year with us, finished a credible 40th completing the 1500 m in 6:01
Medal winners were:
C.Turner – Overall race winner in his pink socks and Gold u16B
K.Evans Lombe – Second in the race, also in pink socks and silver u16B
A.Hill – Third overall, first lady and gold u16G
R.Vinton – Fifth overall, second lady and Gold u12G
M.Marshall – Silver u16G
E.Rufford – Silver u14B
A.Goddard – Gold u14G
J.Hattan – Bronze u12B
A.Jackson – Silver u14G
R.Jackson – Silver u12G
O.Ripman – Bronze U8B
And then in the Senior 10k itself, it was time for the most extraordinary moment of the day without doubt: Nathan Goddard, not yet 16, finishing fourth from a field of over 650. Fourth! In 35:10! Needless to say winning the under 18 pennant to boot! And not too far behind in 20th (38:05) Alex Evans Lombe ran a marvellous race as well. Chris Long, with just over a year of running behind him deserves a special mention as he was almost in the top 10% finishing 84th in 42:36. These three were our school’s undoubted highlights, with parents and school running club regulars, Mr Turner winning the Over 50 category in a very quick 36:04 for 9th place, closely followed by Mr Rufford in 13th in 37:17.
Some fantastic staff results included Mr Smith (39:49) and Mr Garvie (41:10) both making it into the top 100, as well as Mr Streat (51:44), Mr Lubbock (57:32 )and Ms Start ( 51:25).
With so many athletes competing on the day we may well have missed some names and we apologise in advance if that is indeed the case.
One more incredible highlight. Our Marketing Team put a massive effort into the day and decided to raise funds for one of the official charities of the race. We are extremely proud to announce that pupils and staff have raised over £500 for the East Anglian Air Ambulance, an outstanding conclusion to a great day!
Many congratulations to all of our runners: pupils, staff, parents and OW’s.