Category: Senior School News

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.

Last Saturday, four Woodbridge girls took to the mountains of Norwich to compete in the National Finals of the ESSKIA dry slope skiing competition. They were the embodiment of what has come to be known as the Learning@Woodbridge qualities. Their perseverance to make it through a tough qualifier, by far the most stacked in the country, and endure miserable (but fast!) conditions in Norwich was commendable. They took responsibility for their own training regimes, all attending school training as well as clubs or academies outside school. They were collaborative and worked excellently as a team to qualify for the prestigious team finals. And they were aspirational, competing in the Under 19 category as two 13 year olds, a 15 and 16 year old. I could not have been prouder of the way they represented the school, skiing competitively and exuding positivity, improving times between runs and proving that they are a team for the future.

With results yet to be ratified, our team of Katherine (Y12), Beth (Y11) Honor (Y9) and Madeleine M (Y9) has finished in the top dozen schools in the country, a fantastic achievement. And hot off the press, Honor has been selected to represent Great Britain in the upcoming races in Andorra next January, so many congratulations!

Woodbridge made a lightning start against Thomas Mills, scoring five well-worked tries in the opening half before the opposition had barely found time to draw breath. Fazil touched down for two and there was one each for Erwan, Edward B and Obi. So slick was the play that spectators might have felt they were there for a masterclass in flowing attacking rugby by Woodbridge: tries scored out wide after quick passing and good handling from the backs. One onlooker was even drawn to make comparison with the All Blacks! The forwards played their part magnificently, opening up the pitch beautifully with their powerful running to allow the backs to flourish, George N, Hector and Sam W being particularly impressive. The second half was much the same with another five tries: Barnaby, Fazil, Robert S (2) and Moses scoring. This meant that Woodbridge were dominant victors with Fazil scoring his third hat trick in three games.

The under fifteens recently travelled up to Culford on a cold and rain swept Saturday afternoon, but came away with smiles on their faces nonetheless. The match proved to be unexpectedly straightforward thanks to the successful use of many of our tactical plays – typically, the forwards crashing through in the heart of attack, and the backs finishing off superbly in the corners. Woodbridge were stronger, faster and fitter on the day, and it paid off with a score of over 50 unopposed points by halfway. The second half allowed the less experienced players to get some game time, and it made for a much more evenly matched game thereafter. Meanwhile the weather ended as it started, with heavy rain, though with a silver lining to the clouds thanks to the convincing victory by 64-14 (tries by Tom, Mauricio, Ollie, James, Ruben and Jack).  Roll on East Bergholt!

The under fifteens have continued their season with two spirited encounters. The first was against RGS Colchester: after another strong week of training, strategies were in place before the whistle, only for a slow start to lead to a converted try against us.  Happily, a few clean breaks from numerous players got us back on our feet, and Jack finished the phase with a well-deserved try. Unfortunately Colchester then scored twice more through their strong and consistent forwards to secure the lead at half time. The start of the second half saw some fine individual performances from the likes of Tom B and Mauricio, and another try followed as John dived into the corner. But the physicality of the game began to show, and with substitutions for injury, Colchester eased away again before Woodbridge answered back with a lovely weighted kick from Barney for Mak to touch down under the posts. 19-35 the final score.

Next for the team was the national cup fixture against Ipswich.  It was a shame that not all wounds had healed from the weekend, but our team gave their all in another physical and demanding match.  The highlight came early in the first half when multiple strong carries by Jack W and others, led to John’s try – one for the whole team. Just before the break Mauricio then scored a very cheeky try in open play with a chip and chase, leaving the boys close enough to hope for more in the second half.  Sadly it was not to be as Ipswich’s strength in depth proved decisive. Despite defeat, the team were immensely impressive: relentless tackling and hard work for the full 70 minutes, but Ipswich played their best game and they deserved the win. Special mentions go to Jack W, Kit and Barney who all had very strong games and refused give up or to allow Ipswich through.

Members of the Science Club can be seen here having great fun competing in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s global experiment, looking at hydrogel. They embraced the chance to return to their youth by filling nappies – just with water of course this time!

Many congratulations to OW Alex Dye who has just received his Gold D of E Award and is now awaiting his invitation to the Palace.

Meanwhile, back in school there are many enthusiastic volunteers looking to match his achievement. Charlie has recently completed his Silver Award, and Robin, Noah, Madelaine, Joanne, Katy, Ianthe, Rob, Ben, Petronella, Saif and Beth have recently earned their Bronze Awards.

Bee reports: We had a great time at the Year 7 Movie Night on Friday evening. We watched Paddington 2, and it was really nice to sit in the Science Lecture Theatre and wear our own clothes. Some of us even wore onesies, making it feel really cosy! We were raising money for Macmillan, and we raised over £90, which we feel very proud of! We look forward to the next charity movie night just before Christmas and hope that the event is even bigger than this time.”

Our thanks go to Year 9 students Phoebe, Rufus and Eleanor who organised this event, including designing and printing the posters, booking  the Science Lecture Theatre and choosing the movie and pricing.Year 7 gave them a round of applause at the end of the evening.

On 28 September 2018, Woodbridge joined thousands of others across the country to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support with their annual coffee morning. Bake sales have always been popular, and students arrived in large numbers to sample the delights that were kindly donated by a number of staff and students. The catering department provided all hot drinks and the event was a huge success.

Overall, we raised over £225. Including the Year 7 Charity Movie Night last week, that brings the total to £317. Thank you to all staff and students who supported this event, and to Mrs Shanahan’s tutor group and the Charity Committee for running the event so smoothly!