Oh the weather outside is frightful But the fire is so delightful Since we’ve no place to go Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow (no snowballs)
Well, what an interesting week this has been.
The fabulous fruits of Mr Turner and team’s extempore exploration of Samba drumming were captured on video.
That, some entertaining self-built snow ploughs in science (not for use on a road near you… not really for use even on a snowball sadly – but great fun nonetheless), touch typing for beginners, and an exploration of character in a showing of Twelve Angry Men, were highlights from Wednesday when some forty day pupils joined our boarders in school.
It’s March now… spring is in the air. Not sure where, though.
Michael Streat
Senior Deputy Head
Woodbridge School has recently been ranked 51st in the top 100 Independent Schools in the UK in 2017 according to School Sport Magazine.
School Sport Magazine’s exclusive top 100 state and Independent sports schools of the year list reflects competitive achievement in a range of sports throughout the year and honours these schools that take competition especially seriously. Reaching the top 100 puts Woodbridge in the top 10 percent of schools in the Country.
Ian Simpson, Head of sport at Woodbridge said “We are extremely proud to have been recognised nationally for the excellent progress we have made and continue to make in sport. At Woodbridge, we are committed to supporting every individual in their pursuit of excellence in every area of their education. It is the hard work and dedication of pupils, staff and parents that make this possible. Each year, we look forward to developing and improving our delivery of sport and this latest news is extremely encouraging.”
Woodbridge School offers a huge range of sports to pupils, enjoying exceptional success in running, athletics, hockey, rugby and netball. Teams regularly gain regional and National awards in competitions.
This year we are celebrating World Book Day on Thursday, 1 March and we would like you to join us in helping your child to make the most of this special occasion. World Book Day celebrates the joy and worth of books and reading, especially for children. At the beginning of the week every child will receive a £1 World Book Day Book Token that can either be exchanged for one of ten special £1 World Book Day books or used to get £1 off any book costing £2.99 or more. The visiting Book Fair will be in school the following week if your child wishes to save their token until then. You can find out more about the books at worldbookday.com/books.
On Thursday, 1 March we would like to invite children to come to school dressed as their favourite book character. The costume can be as simple or as elaborate as you like! You can find some costume ideas here: worldbookday.com/dressing-up. If you would like to, children can donate £1 to ‘Book Aid International’ (www.bookaid.org) and help send books to children in African countries where access to reading material is limited. We would also like to invite children to bring to school their favourite book to share with their class. You can join us in building your child’s enthusiasm for books well beyond World Book Day by reading together regularly and joining your local library if you are not yet members. For more information about World Book Day and ideas on sharing books at home, visit worldbookday.com.
In addition to World Book Day, lots more exciting events will be taking place during the week. This will include a visit from Mr and Mrs Twit in Monday morning’s assembly in addition to other whole school events and challenges involving Queens House and The Abbey.
Queen’s House and The Abbey entered the Young Art East Anglia competition this year with some fantastic art work based on the theme “Nature’s Delights”. We were so impressed with their work and fortunately so were the team of judges, which included local artist Ania Hobson!
More than 2,000 entries were submitted from across East Anglia. Of those 2000 around 350 will be displayed. A HUGE congratulations to the following pupils, whose work was chosen for display in the Peter Pears Gallery in Aldeburgh:
The Abbey: C Langdon, I Deacon, E Marson, G Pommier and J Turner.
Queen’s House: J Baker, X Gathorne-Hardy, T Meredew, A Ripman, M Rufford, T. Tollemache, F Unwin, G Virr and A Watling
And an extra congratulations to I Smith and F Saunders who will also receive a prize for their outstanding entries.
If you would like to see the work of our Woodbridge artists on display, the exhibition is open to the general public at the following times;
Friday March 9 from 1 to 5pm
Saturday March 10 from 12 noon to 5pm
Sunday, March 11 from 10am to 4.30pm
Mr Hutchinson reports: Year 10 had a fantastic photography trip to Rendlesham Air Base (the Old Jet). The base was roamed and the old bomb storage, star wars building, strange lake and an old jet were photographed. The pupils were then split into groups and given the challenge to introduce themselves to the artists and designers in the studios at Old Jet and direct them so that they could create portraits of the artists working in a manner similar to the work of the photographer Colette Smith.
From the feedback and comments from the pupils it is evident that they thoroughly enjoyed the trip and found it informative and exciting.
A huge thank you to Jesse for the tour and the time you gave our students. Thank you also to Em, Nick, Liz, Leanna, Hoax, and Kevin. Thanks also to Mr Holden and Miss Ross for helping the day run so smoothly. Lastly (but not least), a big thank you and well done to the pupils.
Junior Science Club
The first week of the ‘Squashed Tomato Challenge’ sees pupils making prototype machines to carry tomatoes down the hills of Nepal.
What exciting development will be seen next week?
Wait and see…
Woodbridge School’s performance of The Sound of Music brought out the ‘feel-good factor’ and wowed the audience.
Twelve Woodbridge School athletes represented Suffolk at the annual Anglian Schools Cross Country Championships hosted this year at the Royal Hospital School on Saturday 3 February.
There were four age group races for each of the boys and girls and Suffolk were up against the very best from Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk.
Suffolk were in the top three teams in every race and across the eight races were crowned overall champions.
Suffolk won 6 of the 24 individual medals on offer and Woodbridge School athletes claimed 3 of the 6:
Ruby Vinton won Gold in the Minor Girls
April Hill won Bronze in the Junior Girls
Nathan Goddard won Bronze in the Inter Boys
Full results were:
Minor Girls : Ruby Vinton 1st
Minor Boys : Moses McBride 10th (An excellent debut at this level)
Minor Boys : Edward Buckingham 20th (Ed was with Moses before being tripped in the home straight – who says XC is not a contact sport)
Junior Girls : April Hill 3rd
Junior Girls : Bea Thomas 27th
Junior Girls : Amy Goddard 31st
Junior Girls : Jess Elmer 50th
Junior Boys : Charlie Turner 9th (Junior Boys were team winners)
Junior Boys : Kit Evans Lombe 15th
Inter Boys : Nathan Goddard 3rd
Inter Boys : Alex Evans Lombe 35th
Inter Boys : Daniel Davies 57th
Selection to compete at England Schools Cross Country
For the Minor category this was the final race in a series. For Juniors and beyond there was the added pressure of trying to make the cut to compete at England Schools.
This race served as the final trial after which the Suffolk Team would be halved.
It is fantastic to report that the following seven athletes will represent Suffolk at the England Schools Cross Country Championship in Leeds on Saturday 17th March:
Junior Girls : April Hill
Junior Girls : Bea Thomas
Junior Girls : Amy Goddard
Junior Boys: Charlie Turner
Junior Boys : Kit Evans Lombe
Inter Boys : Nathan Goddard
Inter Boys : Alex Evans Lombe
Amy gets another mention in that this year she is the only Woodbridge School athlete selected to compete at England Schools a year young. Amy will get to try out for the same age group next year.
Congratulations to all, a just reward for all the hard work and we wish you every success in Leeds.
Last weekend, three Woodbridge girls flew out to the French Alps to compete in the annual Schoolgirls’ races. Katherine Bye, Beth Turner and Honor Bartlett raced in three disciplines: Giant Slalom, Parallel Slalom and Slalom against girls from schools as far afield as Glenalmond, St Mary’s Calne and Cheltenham Ladies, as well as the big ski schools of Surbiton, Reed’s and NLCS.
In the first race of Giant Slalom, all our girls put down clean runs through the gates and Honor Bartlett finished as the youngest competitor in the top 10, winning the silver medal for her age group. It’s a discipline that we cannot train for on a short dry slope, so our girls did amazingly well to ski with such confidence. What’s more, our overall team time allowed us to qualify for the afternoon’s Parallel Slalom programme, set up as a relay with the whole team competing. We were pitted against eventual runners up in the first round and were certainly not embarrassed in coming in second to them, Beth Turner putting in a great leg for the team. The final race was a traditional slalom race, and with Honor in second overall in the combined, this was a perfect opportunity to move up. Her first blazing run saw her come back to within 0.03 seconds of the leader. But a costly mistake, valiantly corrected by climbing back up the mountain!, saw her lose time and finish in the bronze medal position.
Many thanks to Lucy Bartlett and Rob Turner for coming out to Flaine support the girls too. The team really was a credit to the school and showed the talent we have on the slopes. Bring on more training sessions on the Ipswich Glacier on those bitter Friday evenings!
…And when all was said, sung, and done, the glory of homeland Edelweiss inspired the Austrian hearts to defy those Nasties after all. The snow fell, the music soared, the mountains called, and Maria saved her Captain and his children! Hurrah! I confess, one or two of us in the audience wiped away three or four tears. Between us, of course.
There is something bewitching about musicals – the suspension of disbelief as the music and the songs weave in and out of the spoken word makes for a little bit of magic, and there was plenty of that on show in the Seckford Theatre. From the hypnotic opening of the nuns at prayer to the circle completed at the curtain’s call by the Mother Abbess herself, this was a story that flew along on the wings of love. Seven children in glorious rank order of size, and even more glorious harmony, looked every bit the family as they shrieked at thunder, spun the bed, learnt of musical scales and of loving, and loving again. The Captain’s staff offered a charmingly cheeky deference that belied an obvious fondness for their master. Max did as Max will do – pleasing himself and all around him, and Frau Schraeder with charming honesty did the decent thing by the Captain. What would any of us have done in those times, eh? Not, we hope as Rolf (but good for him at the end!), or the Barons and Baronesses, the Admiral or Boo Hiss Zeller.
So the innocent and Godly nuns and their Abbess saved the day, and the mountains did the rest. The Nasties were thwarted, and our finest of Captains with impeccable honour and a firm hand at the metaphorical till rediscovered his heart and his children, and took the hand of our most beguiling of postulants – our Maria, whose eyes shone with a fervour of goodness that swept all before her.
It’s a wonderful story, and the intimacy of the setting was so beautifully enhanced by the quite outstanding performance of the Band and the fabulously versatile set. On stage, the quality of the singing, as well as, of course, the acting, took us into the heart of Salzburg, and the von Trapps completely into our hearts. Thank you. Thank you, cast, Band, and crew in all your guises. And to those with the vision to bring it all together – directors of stage, music, song and dance – our most heartfelt of congratulations.
