Category: Woodbridge News
Our junior musicians, quite rightly, had St Mary’s bursting at the seams, the audience (which generously donated £238.43 to East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices) delighted to be part of celebrating a fine term’s work. The concert also happened to give us the first hint of Christmas Woodbridge-School-style…
The Seckford Sinfonia’s Marches, first Through the Mud, then Hungarian, were delightful, and raised smiles and pulses in equal measure. Some of the percussion instruments were clearly as much fun to play as they were a surprise to hear! Corelli’s Vivace, played by the Year 7 string quartet, was wonderfully dignified by contrast, yet equally spirited and impressive.
Soloists Joanne Garnett (clarinet), Rebecca Yardy (violin) and Charlotte Dinwiddy (flute) were each quite outstanding playing German, Tchaikovsky and Fauré respectively, while Stringvitation, the Flute Group and the Year 9 String Quartet (Boccerini’s Minuet and Trio played with considerable maturity, having clearly benefited from Miss Jessica Hall’s guidance in the strings competition masterclass just the week before) all played with marvellous aplomb and variety further to exemplify the extraordinary range and talents of our young musicians.
And so to the double finale: first the foot-tapping swagger of Just Jazz: great fun and much enjoyed (watching the Year 7s and 8s in the audience bopping innocently and enthusiastically in their seats was a hoot!); and then the Junior Choir romping through the Old Testament via Goliath and Daniel, and ending with… yes… our hint of Christmas: It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Indeed it was, and the joy with which this final number was delivered summed up a wonderful early evening’s entertainment.
Our enormous thanks and congratulations go to all the performers, and of course to the conductors and teachers of the music department under Mr Penny’s sure leadership who have helped them achieve so much.
The Reception children have had tremendous fun in the spaceship role play areas this term. They have learnt how to be astronauts and spaceship mechanics and have flown to distant planets to meet friendly aliens. However it is time to come back down to earth now and the spaceships will be taking off into space for the last time at the end of the week. Hopefully we will see them return to earth next year.
Last Saturday, Pelham Etherington OW played Mozart’s piano concerto in D minor, K466, in the Great Hall of Durham Castle, with the Durham University Chamber Orchestra. His performance was “in fond memory of John Stafford”. He gave an exciting and accomplished performance; dramatic in all the right places, reflective in others, but with an overall sense of the grandeur and architecture of this amazing piece. Well done to Pelham!
This week the children at Queen’s House have taken part in a maths investigation morning. Children in Reception read the story ‘The Doorbell Rang’ and then worked together to find out how to share biscuits out fairly. In Year 1 the children worked in groups to help Pirate Pete organise his four piles of gold bars so that each pile was the same height – but in only two moves! In Year 2 one group read ‘One hundred hungry ants’ and used the story as a stimulus to find the quickest way for 100 ants to reach food by dividing them into lines of equal length. The other Year 2 group used trundle wheels to work out how far we walk to lunch every day. They found out that it was 240m, and worked out that from starting in Reception to leaving at the end of Year 2 the children will have walked 246km. That is the same distance as walking from Queen’s House to Buckingham Palace and back again! The children showed great determination and fun was had by all.
Year 6 Drama at The Abbey – ‘The Nativity Story’ in a series of freeze-frames
Petronella Powell reports
Woodbridge worked hard in their recent match against RHS. In the first half there were a few chances on goal but none were actually scored by either side. Then, in the second half, Elsa Trevor-Pallares scored, only for RHS to equalise. However, Woodbridge kept up the pressure and Petronella Powell scored our second to make the final score 2-1 to Woodbridge!
ON Tuesday 24 November, we had our second Lunchtime Recital of the term. A warm and appreciative audience were treated to twenty- three performances. Everyone performed well, and it was a lovely interlude in a busy day at the Abbey!
Congratulations to Chapel Choir who rehearsed so thoroughly to give the first Evensong of the academic year. They sang settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Geoffrey Burgon, and it was a lovely, reflective way to end a busy day.