Category: Senior School News

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.

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) 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.

On Saturday 24 November, Woodbridge School hosted the 38th Final of the England Schools Athletic Association Cross Country Cup. This was the first time in the history of the competition that the final had been hosted in Suffolk.

The Cross Country Cup is a team competition open to athletes in Years 7 to 10 across all schools in England. To reach any of the four races at the final, each of the 27 teams have had to qualify by finishing in the top three of their County Round and then in the top three in one of nine Regional events. Years 7 and 8 compete in the Junior Category with Years 9 and 10 as Inters. With six athletes representing each school and the first four across the line scoring, each race featured 162 of the best young cross country athletes in England. And Woodbridge School qualified for the finals for the third year in succession, this time with both the Inter Girls and the Inter Boys vying for honours on their home course.

The weather, course and enthusiastic helpers and local crowd made for a spectacular day: Woodbridge Inter Girls were in the first race and our athletes ran well above expectation to finish a magnificent 13^th, up from 23rd last year and 19th in 2016. In particular, April ran a brilliant race amongst the lead pack to finish an exceptional fifth.  Our Inter Boys were in the fourth and final race, a race which started at a ferocious pace.  As the miles unfolded it was obvious that Kit was moving through the pack, running the race of his young life and Charlie and George were fighting their way impressively into the top 20. Kit continued to progress, powering into the individual medal positions on the hills to finish an unbelievable second. With Charlie 12th, George 15th and Henry giving his all to close the team out in 67th, everyone wondered whether a podium was possible…

The final result: Woodbridge School finished an astonishing third to stand on the podium for the second time in three years. This was an outstanding achievement at a National level for this group of young athletes.

None of this is achieved without the support of a wider group of Woodbridge School athletes, as well as staff and parents, so we offer an enormous vote of thanks, and congratulations, to everyone who contributed to such a memorable day.

Full results on the day were :

Inter Girls :

• April 5th
• Amy 64th
• Molly 74th
• Jess 76th
• Bea 101st
• Anna 122nd

Inter Boys:

• Kit 2nd
• Charlie 12th
• George 15th
• Henry 67th
• Edward 132nd
• Tom 141st

Woodbridge Editions are currently on show at the University Of Suffolk School of Art, Design and Humanities. https://www.uos.ac.uk/content/school-art-design-and-humanities
You can see the prints exhibited on week days in the Café Cat, Arts Building, Long Street, University of Suffolk.  Recently the prints have also been on sale at the Old Jet market and at Vanil in Woodbridge.  They will be for sale again at the December Christmas Market at Old Jet on Saturday 1 December, and the Woodbridge School Christmas Fair on Saturday 8  December.  Please support our students (who get 50% of the profits) by buying a print.  They would make an excellent present!

Congratulations to our National schools ‘A’ chess team of Oliver, Saif, Marina, Katarina, Jake and Toby who on Wednesday night qualified for the National stages of the competition by winning a quadrangular match at The Bishop’s Stortford High School. The team won all three matches, against our own B team and THBHS A and B teams 4-2, 4.5-1.5 and 6-0 respectively. Oliver and Toby won all three games, but every player came up with valuable points when needed.

Unfortunately the B team lost its three matches, but narrowly missed a draw against our own A team and were close to winning against TBHS ‘B’, losing 3.5-2.5. The team was Sam, Thomas, William, Milo, Henry and James. All games were played in fantastic spirit, and the majority lasted close to the full 1 hour time limit.

Don’t forget the Woodbridge Junior Open is scheduled for next Sunday 2 December, with entry forms available from Mr Hunt or outside B1.

Last Saturday, Woodbridge School had the privilege of hosting the Regional round of the England Schools’ Cross Country Cup.

The Cross Country Cup is a prestigious England Schools’ team competition in its 38th year, where teams of six from Year 7 and 8 compete for honours in the Junior Category and teams from a combined Year 9 and 10 compete in the Inter Category.  Any of the 8000 senior schools in England can enter the competition which has three rounds, County, Regional and National. Only the top 27 schools in England, three from each of 9 Regions, qualify to compete at the Nationals.
Woodbridge School had all 4 teams competing in the Regionals on Saturday, after they had qualified in the County round. And what a proud day it proved to be, where all of our athletes raced to form, with some outstanding individual performances and some fantastic team news.

Looking at individual highlights first :

In the junior girls Ruby V picked up where she left off last year storming to victory in the first race of the day. Well done Ruby!  In the inter girls April H finished a strong third behind two young ladies who were 5th and 10th at the England Schools’ Cross Country in March. Such was the standard of competition. Saving the best for last, our inter boys were outstanding at the front of the race with Woodbridge vests filling 2nd 3rd and 4th, with Charlie T followed home by George W and Kit E L respectively.

Ultimately of course this is about the team and our junior teams both performed as well as we had hoped, with both the boys and girls teams finishing a credible 8th.  Our inter girls fought for every place and were justly awarded third place to gain their ticket to the finals.  And our inter boys closed their scoring with Henry D in 14th and were therefore well deserved winners on the day against the very best of Suffolk and Essex. An amazing achievement by these young men.

You may well be aware that Woodbridge School is hosting the National Final of this event on Saturday 24 November. Many of the best school athletes in the country will be in Woodbridge to compete for team honours, and it will be an incredible spectacle not to be missed. How wonderful, therefore, to have two of our very own teams on the start line.

Full results from our excellent athletes on Saturday:

Junior Girls – 1st Ruby V, 26th Eloise R, 40th Issie M, 43rd Sophia W, 47th Millie J, Nancy A unfortunately had to pull up with an injury

Junior Boys – 30th Jonny E L, 31st James H, 37th Edward B, 41st Moses M, 47th Jonjo W, 61st Ethan R

Inter Girls – 3rd April H, 14th Molly M, 20th Jess E, 21st Bea T, 25th Amy G, 27th Anna J

Inter Boys – 2nd Charlie T, 3rd George W, 4th Kit E L, 14th Henry D, 32nd Edward R, 34th Tom T.

Well done to everyone that competed and many, many thanks to the Grounds Staff for all of their meticulous preparation, and to parents, staff and students, all of whom helped make the event a successful day.

The OWs Tree will be our way of remembering Old Boys and Girls here at the School in perpetuity. We commissioned a beautiful metal tree sculpture, forged by hand here in Suffolk, which is now proudly displayed in School Hall.

Old Woodbridgians can have their name engraved onto individual brass leaves which will hang on the tree as testimony to their participation in the life of the School. We will engrave a leaf for them in return for a donation to our Bursary Fund.  The Fund is now needed more than ever: there are many young people who could benefit from a Woodbridge education.

Minimum donation of £100; please be as generous as you can so we can support more young people.

So if you know of an OW who would like their name on the tree, then please email us at: alumni@seckford-foundation.org.uk and we will send you a form.

When completed, we will then send OW a photo of their leaf on the tree, and they will be invited to see the Tree at special events.  It will make a great Christmas gift!

The King is dead, long live the King!
And so the story ended for Nell, and for us, at least at the Seckford Theatre. But Nell had delighted her King and Country… and her audience!, in the meantime.  And so it proved here, too, some 320 years later, give or take (something one gets the sense she did rather a lot).  In a magnificent restoration of her reputation, a reputation founded on the opportunities a Nation’s restoration afforded, Jessica Swale’s take on the Nell Gwynn story was brought gloriously, sumptuously, and most wittily to light by our Sixth Formers.  Wigs and bodices (mostly for the females), feathers and flounce; hats and dresses (and here – a first for Woodbridge School – I must mention the extraordinary work of Matilda Royal-Dawson in her design and making of Queen Catherine’s costume: quite the most beautiful on stage), waistcoats and buckles.  Visually stunning, but theatrically also: a wonderfully entertaining, slick and witty first half gave way to a surprisingly moving denouement.  This was no simple bit of fun, but a proper exploration of fame, favour and fortune tinged with loss, alienation, competition and redemption.  Nell won and lost in the extreme while all about her measured their takings in life more evenly, but no less enthusiastically and passionately (particularly the King, oh suave man of low principle and high cunning).  There were the good and the foolish, the proud and the fallen; there was song and dance.  And in the end I felt that, yes, for all the trials, there was the sense of a happy ending.  Well done Nell!  You lived for the ‘now’, indeed!  And well done all around you too, carried in the wake of your story but giving it the buoyancy it warranted.  A brilliant cast, fabulous setting, glorious costuming, and expert direction – what more could one ask?  Encore!, of course!

For the first time ever, the National Schools Cross-Country Cup is coming to Suffolk with Woodbridge set to host this highly competitive sporting event next Saturday 24 November. This is a huge honour and we are very excited about such a large and prestigious event being hosted in the school grounds.

Organised by the England Schools Athletic Association (ESAA), the competition final will include pupils from some of the top sporting schools across the country. The national final is an incredibly competitive event and a highlight in the cross-country calendar; any of the 8000 secondary schools in England can enter this competition and after a County and Regional round of elimination it is only the top 27 schools left to battle for team honours. Woodbridge has two teams competing in the event- the inter boys and the inter girls. It is an amazing achievement for them to have got this far and we very much hope the school community will come along to support our teams on the day! The first race starts at 1pm. Parking will be available on the school site until 12.30pm, but St Mary’s school will open their field opposite the Senior School top gate to accommodate late arrivals.

Pictured here are our two competing teams- the inter girls (minus Bea Thomas) and the inter boys. Good luck to all competing!