Category: Senior School News
It is an astonishing testimony to the care and energy that Mrs Brown and her team have given to our Careers Fair since she brought it into being just a few years ago that it is now considered the best East Anglian venue for many of our stallholders. Exhibitor numbers continue to rise, with some 10% new this year, and a further, sometimes overlapping, 10% or more with direct Woodbridge connections (often OW employees keen to return a favour!). Over sixty companies helped teenagers from all over the county research their futures, and the Dome was buzzing throughout the four hours with a wonderful sense of purpose and possibility. Universities, colleges, professional institutes, companies, charities and more all were delighted to offer advice, and could not have been more pleased with the constant footfall of those keen to listen. I wonder how many futures will prove to have been influenced by this opportunity? I wouldn’t be surprised if it proves to be hundreds. Our thanks go to all the exhibitors for joining us, and our congratulations to Mrs Brown, Mrs Kneebone, Mr Edwards, the catering and caretaking staff, and all the teaching staff and prefects who ensured it ran so perfectly on the day.
Daniel has been shortlisted by the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, in the Armistice 100 Schools Poetry Prize competition organised by the University of Lincoln. Daniel’s poem will feature in a book and he has been invited to attend an awards ceremony at the University of Lincoln where Carol Ann Duffy will announce the competition winners and launch the book containing the winning and shortlisted poems. Huge congratulations to Daniel.
Sounds of the Soapbox
Wednesday night saw our first evening of poetry performed in the Seckford Theatre as part of the 3rd Woodbridge Youth Poetry Festival. Our now regular poetry friend, Amy Wragg, with fellow artists from Get On The Soapbox, treated us to a wonderfully diverse set performed to a 150 strong audience. Amy, a performance poet in her own right, is so much more than a host, drawing us in to recollections of her life filling stages at festivals in ‘Take Me Back To The Fields’, considering ‘What Poetry Is’, and collapsing the distinction between page and stage artists. She then introduced us to Allanah Jo-Ann Peck, an upcoming poet based in Ipswich whose work reverberated with passion and fragility. Meditations on her dog ‘Fletcher’ and the fallout from a university led CV workshop were particular highlights. Matt Annis, a personal favourite of mine, touched on the political, the familial and the commercial, launching an uncomfortable attack on the insidious nature of advertisements on social media with his robotic refrain of ‘fit in the mould, do as you’re told, be what you’re sold’. After a short interval our headline act for the evening, John Osborne, entertained us gently and with words that seemed to come naturally and sweetly yet with a core of sharp humour that never alienated his enthusiastic audience. He considered the plight of his friend at school, Michael Jackson – yes, like the singer, yes, people have said that before, yes, it is quite annoying – and I found myself wondering whether John himself has been the recipient of such comments – yes, like the playwright. But his poems never looked back in anger, rather they recollected with joy his closeness with his twin sister, two astounding young buskers on Hastings pier, that dream of buying a new sieve. My personal favourite was his thought-experiment of meeting Kylie on an online dating website and whether she’d respond to a message from a shy guy who lives in Norwich in a house with a chubby neighbour who snores. He should be so lucky.
This was an evening that showcased the imaginative possibilities to be found in our ordinary world, the spaces we live in and people we share them with, the feelings that we all struggle with, and made poetry in response and as a sort of solution. I am sure each poet will have inspired the audience to go home and write something, perhaps in anger, but also in a spirit of honesty and tenderness.
County Round
Following on from an extremely successful event on Thursday, anticipation was high for the first round of the National Schools’ Cup. Unlike many other Cross Country races this is a team competition in which the best four runners count. The top three teams in the county round then qualify for the regional round. To add extra spice our runners knew that the regional and national round of the competitions are being held at Woodbridge School this year, so the opportunity to represent your school on ‘home soil’ is an opportunity not to be missed!
The competition began with the Junior girls’ team of Nancy, Issie, Georgina, Eloise, Ruby and Sophia. The initial pace of the race left a couple behind, but eventually the group settled into their running and made significant progress through the race, ably led by the imperious Ruby who finished a couple of fields ahead of her nearest rival in first. Eloise once again gave it her all and finished in an excellent 7th. Issie (with a slight injury) pushed herself to the limit for a 17th place finish ahead of Sophia 29th, Georgina 35th and Nancy 37th, working together to secure a team total of 54 points and qualification for the next round.
The Inter Girls were next: April immediately hit the front to dominate the race, controlling the speed to forge a comfortable lead and win; Molly produced an excellent performance, surging through the field on the second lap to finish 4th, whilst Jess and Bea worked hard as a team to push each other on and finish in 6th and 7th respectively. Amy 10th and Anna 15th both ran excellent races and ensured that the team total of 17 points was enough to give the team a dominant 1st place.
The Junior boys had been so enthralled supporting the previous race that they nearly forgot to line up at the start, and so when the gun went they were towards the back. Undeterred they picked off runners quickly and by the second lap were at top speed: the race eventually became a line of Woodbridge vests vying for top honours. Eventually the boys finished in 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th positions for a points total of 26 and another 1st place for the school. A fantastic race from Edward, Ethan, Jonny, James, Moses and Jonjo.
The inter boys’ race began with Charlie immediately out in front to dominate the race, setting his marker down to finish comfortably in 1st place. Kit meanwhile settled into an excellent pace and slowly made his way through the field to take 2nd some 50m behind. George also powered through the field to finish in 6th, while Henry effectively sprinted the whole third lap to turn 15th into a fantastic 7th on the line. Tom and Ed worked hard to bring the team home in 16th and 17th. The team total of 16 points earned a third first place for Woodbridge.
All four teams through to the next round – three in first place! Roll on the regional finals on the 10th November here at Woodbridge!
The Suffolk Festival of the Performing Arts took place last week, with Woodbridge pupils from Years 3 to 10 taking part.
The School enjoyed spectacular success at the Festival, with 3 out of 4 of the speech and drama championships being won by Woodbridge pupils, along with a substantial number of other cups and awards. Our congratulations to all those who have won prizes, with particular congratulations to Oliver (Y8) who won the Senior Drama Champion award, to James (Y7) who jointly won the Junior Drama Champion award with Sacha (Y6) who also won Junior Speech Champion, and to Alice, Havannah and Amelie who also won cups or trophies.
The full list of Senior School results is attached here.
Our congratulations to recent OW Will Emery who has been offered a prestigious Palgrave-Brown UK Scholarship to attend St Hugh’s College, Oxford.
The Palgrave-Brown scholarship is an Oxford scholarship aimed specifically at providing funding for undergraduates from Norfolk or Suffolk.
Competition for the scholarship is exceptionally high, and this makes Will’s achievement notably outstanding.
It was our great privilege to welcome The Right Reverend Tim Stevens, erstwhile Bishop of Dunwich and more recently of Leicester, to help us celebrate and commemorate our founders and benefactors at our annual Commemoration Service. He embraced the opportunity to talk to the whole School community, from four to sixty-four (I’m guessing!), and took as his theme the importance of giving in all its guises: from the Sermon on the Mount and reflections on what brings true happiness, to Stephen Hawking (where the sermon started), to Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai whom we may not have remembered by name, but could not possibly have forgotten for her story – recovering from her attempted assassination by the Taliban as a child only to petition even more strongly and globally, on her recovery, in the struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Bishop Tim’s was a simple and passionate message for us to be the best we can, and to do the best for, and by, others and for our fragile world. It was what our founders hoped for us, all those generations ago. Now to rise to the challenge.
Speech Day was, as ever, a wonderful day of celebration – made all the more special for the opportunity it afforded the School Community to welcome our new headmaster, Dr Robson. The Swing Band has made a tradition of turning out exceptional performances, and the half-hour of fantastically upbeat music set the scene perfectly. Thereafter Mr Finbow formalised the welcome with an introduction that both encapsulated what we stand for and gave Dr Robson the platform to see where we might go from here. That Dr Robson did so with such enthusiasm and passion, and with heartfelt appreciation of his predecessors Mr Tetley and Mr Cole, was extremely well received – as were his five top tips for our leavers bound for university! Amongst them: do not fear failure, but embrace instead the opportunities that the risk of failure opens up. It’s a great message, and one all of our prize winners clearly hold dear given the wealth of achievements they have secured and range of endeavours they have undertaken. Indeed, once the presentations were at an end and their praises sung, Dr Robson felt compelled to honour them once more with words that were touchingly delivered with just a hint of a lump in the throat… not that he’s the first to find the achievements of our children (young adults!), when laid out so strikingly, pretty emotionally overwhelming.
It fell to Head Girl Lily and Head Boy Harry to close proceedings with their beautifully judged votes of thanks intermingled with reflections on their own experiences here. Not a dry eye in the house… Perfect
This year has surpassed all expectations and the results are simply wonderful! Congratulations must go to every one of our hard-working pupils for their outstanding GCSE achievements.
41% of all grades were at 9-8, and 59% of all grades achieved were 9-7, making this year our best GCSE results year ever!
Woodbridge prides itself on providing a unique, balanced and holistic educational experience; this recipe clearly brings out the best in every child when you see such outstanding academic success.
We would like to thank all the dedicated staff and supportive parents. Well done to all.
James Phelan (Year 12) has been named as one of fifteen winners in the Peterhouse Vellacott Essay Competition, one of the most prestigious national essay competitions open to Year 12 pupils. James chose to pursue his love of the Ancient World by writing an extremely well-researched and scholarly essay – ‘Should we be more surprised by the decline or the longevity of the Byzantine Empire?’
215 pupils entered from across Britain and James is to be congratulated upon his fantastic achievement. He will collect his prize of £75 at an awards ceremony at Peterhouse, Cambridge on Friday 22 June.