Category: Woodbridgian Weekly
A number of students were invited for tea and cake with Miss Norman earlier this week, in recognition of various activities in and outside of School.
Earlier in the term, Miss Norman talked about the kindness and generosity shown by a number of our students at Christmas. She explained how she received an email from an elderly couple, local residents who had been treated to some delightful carol singing by a group of the School’s Sixth Formers, raising money for The Bridge School.
Praising the students for their wonderful singing and politeness, the residents also went on to explain that this was the only contact they had over the Christmas period, so this act of kindness was felt with real warmth and meant a great deal to them. In recognition of that, Year 13’s James, Jasmine, Kitty, Isla, Ollie, Esme and Evelyn, Year 12’s James, Toby and Xander and Year 9’s Romilly enjoyed tea and cake with Miss Norman.
Alongside these kind and caring carol singers, Miss Norman also invited Year 13’s Issy and Freya in recognition of them both being superb role models in their tutor groups.
Our chess teams have been extremely busy, with matches played last Wednesday and Thursday in the National Schools Championships and the Ivan Gromov Online League.
National Schools Championships Regionals
Last Wednesday our chess B team, made up of Year 13’s James, Year 12’s Artem, Year 9’s Callum, Year 8’s Pranav and Year 7’s Otto and Dominic, took part in the National Schools Championships Regionals, playing against Norwich School.
Unfortunately it was the end of the road for our young team, who performed admirably against Norwich A but lost eventually 9 – 3. Well done to all of them.
Individually though, Callum won both his games, and Artem also won one of his. Congratulations to both of them.
Our A team however dominated their match, winning 12-0 against Norwich B team. Congratulations to Year 13’s Polina, Year 12’s Sergei, Christopher and Harry, Year 11’s Nikolai and Year 10’s Rowan.
Ivan Gromov Online League
Thursday night saw students take part in the continuation of the Ivan Gromov online league – Woodbridge School fielding two teams for only the second time this season.
Our A team remain top of the league winning comfortably 6-0 against Tonbridge B, and our B team drew 3-3 with Eton College B. This included debuts for Year 9’s Lade and Year 12’s Benno, who both won, along with Year 12’s Aidan. Very well done everyone who took part.
The start of the netball season has been a busy one already, with 18 matches played, along with one tournament.
The Junior teams travelled to Finborough last week to play a triangular with Orwell Park. The U13A, B and C teams all came away successful and secured brilliant wins, with the U13Cs scoring 24 goals in 24 minutes, amazing!
The same teams travelled to Fram Prep on Wednesday, and we had a repeat performance with three out of three wins secured with over 60 goals scored between the three teams, which demonstrates our strength in shooting and depth in teams.
The large U12A squad enjoyed their first match against Finborough, where they could put into action the skills and tactics, they had learned so far. The team played their little hearts out and were victorious.
The team also travelled to Fram Prep on Wednesday and played their Junior 3rd team. Another good performance with centre passes and backlines being practiced which have been our main focus over the past week, along with our shooting. Again, the team tasted success and scored 23 goals! Well done!
The U13B travelled to Ormiston Endeavour for their league tournament last week, playing five matches and winning them all – a great achievement, well done!
Finborough were our opponents again last week, but this time with the U14A, B and C, as well as the U15A, B and C teams. On a bitterly cold afternoon, the B and C teams fought hard in the cold conditions and the U14s came away with two wins, but unfortunately, the U15s could not follow suit and lost narrowly.
Inside in the warm, the U14A and U15A teams both played. The U15s were first up, all pumped and ready for the match after warming up to the opposition’s music. The first three quarters saw the girls play with superb determination and defended brilliantly all the way down the court. Unfortunately, in the last quarter, our opposition got the better of us and dominated the play and went ahead.
The U14A team’s game was a slightly different story with us dominating from the starting whistle and leading by 11 goals in the first quarter. Preparation for the Regionals was on the agenda, putting into action all the tactics which have been recapped, learned, and practiced over the past few weeks.
The U19 and U16A teams faced a combined St Jo’s team on Tuesday, at home. Playing half a match each against the same team, enabled us to use our fresh legs on the court and brush off all the cobwebs as mock exams had prevented several of the girls from playing netball since before Christmas. The U19s were up first and from intercepting the first centre, they were on a roll. Brilliant defence, excellent centre court play, and superb shooting enabled us to have a seven-goal lead in the first 10 minutes. The girls managed to keep this up and played with great determination and tenacity, securing a well-deserved win.
The U16A team took to the court to face the same team, and with our first centre pass, we managed to convert and go ahead straight away. The girls fought tirelessly, making some excellent interceptions which we converted into goals and our shooting was consistent. St Jos started to catch up in the second quarter, but we managed to keep our cool and our heads up, coming away with the win, which was deserved.
Well done to every team so far, a great set of results!
A level Drama students were lucky enough to visit the National Theatre last week to see The Witches. An absolutely spellbinding performance, it was the perfect antidote to blow away the January blues. You can hear more about it in our report from Year 12’s Phoebe.
Phoebe, Year 12
“On the 22 of January, A level drama students had the absolute pleasure of watching the National Theatre’s The Witches. Directed by Lyndsey Turner, this musical concoction had everything: magical disappearing acts, unbelievable technical effects, and a powerhouse, predominantly female, cast.
When imaginative schoolboy Luke moves in with his grandma, her talk of square-footed, bald-headed, children-squelching witches seems crazy. But when the pair visit the seaside ‘Hotel Magnificent’ they are plunged into the heart of the witches’ evil plan: to turn all of Britain’s children into mice.
With witty and heart-warming characters, such as the seemingly charming but fatefully greedy Bruno Jenkins, whose extravagant tap number about a sugar-high, surrounded by bedazzling dancing and singing confectionery, made us roar with laughter; this production had it all. However, beneath this sugar-coated veneer lay pure evil. Played by Katherine Kingsley, the Grand High Witch had so many different dimensions. A selfie-taking celebrity one moment, a hellish witch another, and even a seemingly lovely lady dressed head to toe from the Boden catalogue, Kinglsey brought everything to the table. Her incredible solo Wouldn’t it be nice?, was essentially an anti-child declaration that caused the audience to roar with laughter – and question their priorities!
This trip gave us so much to think about, particularly the importance of compelling set design. With visions of Kath Kidson inspired colour palettes and wonderfully inventive costumes, we all gained so much from this amazing opportunity and can’t wait to apply what was learnt into our own work.
Last weekend Suffolk Schools Athletics announced their Cross Country team to compete at Anglian Schools in Lincolnshire on Saturday 3 February, and we’re absolutely delighted to confirm that 23 of our students have been selected, with two on a very short reserve list.
Well over 80 schools enter the Suffolk Trials and 36 schools have one or more athletes selected to now race at Anglian Schools. Woodbridge School are absolutely thrilled to be able to confirm we once again lead the way in terms of representation, with our 23 athletes more than double that of any other Suffolk school.
Congratulations to the following students going through to compete at Anglian Schools:
Competing in the Minor Girls race:
Year 6’s Chloe
Year 7’s India B
Year 7’s India J
Year 7’s Ella
Year 7’s Alexandra
Year 7’s Imogen
Reserve runner on short list, Year 7’s Jasmine
Competing in the Minor Boys race:
Year 6’s Archie
Year 7’s Dexter
Year 7’s Alfie R
Year 7’s Olly
Year 7’s Otis
Year 7’s Josh
Year 7’s Charlie
Competing in the Junior Girls race:
Year 8’s Alice
Year 9’s Romilly
Year 9’s Felicity
Reserve runner on short list, Year 9’s Sophie
Competing in the Junior Boys race:
Year 8’s Digby
Year 9’s Jago
Competing in the Inter Boys race:
Year 10’s Jasper
Year 11’s Angus
Competing in the Senior Boys race:
Year 12’s Bruce
Year 12’s Iwan
Year 13’s Henry
Congratulations to every athlete selected, and good luck!
Year 13’s Esme – Audrey
“I’ve been involved in every show since starting at Woodbridge School, apart from when Covid restrictions were in place and no one could perform, and I have to say I’m the most excited about this performance and character! Watching other students in leading roles I’ve always aspired to have my moment to shine, I’m thrilled about playing Audrey and loving the challenge the performance offers and presents – I can’t wait.
The rehearsals have been brilliant, even the weekends! It’s such a great opportunity to see everyone taking part, its hard work but actually really good fun all at the same time – especially spending time and working with people I don’t ordinarily cross paths with in School, particularly as this is a whole School production so I’m meeting and working with students from across the Year groups.
Rehearsals aren’t just an opportunity to practise your lines, your acting, they’re a chance to learn from others – and hopefully for others to learn from you. Everyone’s in the same position and relying on one another; it makes the whole process of working up to and performing such a great time. It’s great working with Ollie and James again, and especially as this is so very different to anything we’ve been in together in the past – it’s exciting to see them as their characters develop and come to life in their acting.
My absolute favourite numbers is Suppertime which I perform with Year 12’s Xander; the plant (Audrey II) is luring Audrey into watering him…and then eats her! It’s quite a special number, very persuasive and seductive and the tentacles just accentuate the suggestive nature of the entire scene. I love the song too!
Ahead of performing I think it’s important to develop a coping strategy in terms of making sure you can give your very best in all performances over the week – perhaps saving a little extra for the final show. Rehearsals teach and encourage stamina, but there’s an awful lot of self-discipline needed too. And as Miss Mayes says, there’s also a huge amount of trust that is needed between the actors and the Director; it’s like an invisible contract and our side of it is that we promise to do our absolute best and deliver the performances of our lives – which I know we will do!”
Year 13’s Ollie – Mushnik
“Honestly, I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to play Mushnik; this part offers me the opportunity to sing, dance and act – everything I absolutely love about the whole process of doing a musical!
Mushnik is fun to play as although he’s fairly balanced in terms of his personality throughout the entire performance, he is in fact the character whose presence and character balances out what you might say is the hysteria of Seymour and Audrey. Performing alongside Esme is also a real pleasure, having played the Von Trapp children in The Sound of Music, we’ve come full circle you might say, and this has been the perfect opportunity to act together again.
I’ve been really enjoying the rehearsals, and as Esme said, even the weekends are fun – after all, you can’t expect to put on a performance of this scale if you don’t and aren’t willing to work hard and that includes putting in the time and energy needed. For me it’s the immersion in the play that I enjoy the most during rehearsals, adding on the layers each and every time you get together to go through lines and scenes, adding in the music, taking part in choreography, it’s been brilliant so far and I know it will continue to get better.
Rehearsals are also a chance to see and meet other people, friends in School and those you might not have met or had the chance to perform with. Again, as Esme said, being a whole School musical means we’re spending time with people from different parts and Years at School, it’s quite a unique opportunity.
My favourite number is Mushnik and Son where I sing with James, who plays Seymour. The song comes from nowhere and the choreography is just as unexpected going against everything the audience will have thought they knew about Mushnik; it’s a real opportunity for James and I to really give it everything we’ve got and I know he enjoys the number as much as I do – I can’t wait to perform it to an audience.
Looking ahead to the performance, I don’t tend to get nervous, I’ve done this a few times now so I guess you could say I’ve perfected my coping strategies. I feel calm and collected, and usually have a quiet moment to myself just before we go on stage. It’s so important to remain centred, to have control, especially for a production as lively as this, it would be so easy to get drawn into reacting to the crowd’s enthusiasm and enjoyment of scenes, rather than acting how you are meant to in the scene – especially on the first and last night of the performance.”
Year 12’s James – Seymour
“Seymour is great, he’s a geek, he’s nervous, it’s the kind of role I love to play actually, definitely my ‘sweet spot’, we all have characters that we feel are most definitely in our repertoire! At the start of the play he’s incredibly set in his ways, has no aspirations whatsoever – so it’s great to see how his character develops as he becomes famous in the most unexpected way; great to see his reaction and those of the other characters in the play.
Coming through to the auditions there were a few of us still performing in Jack Absolute Flies Again, and Miss Mayes said she could tell we were all still trapped in those characters, that it was quite amusing to watch. But working with her in Drama and on all the productions I’ve been part of, she knew and had faith that I would be just as faithful to the role I played in Little Shop of Horrors – and I absolutely love the part I get to play.
Rehearsals have been going really well, they’re hard going and take dedication and commitment, but none of us are going into this with anything else in mind, it’s a great opportunity to be part of a brilliant whole School production and I can’t wait to perform. I love working with Oli and Esme, we’ve been in many shows together in the past, playing such different characters, so it’s great to have the opportunity to explore other characters together, and working with people you know, and trust makes a huge difference. I have complete faith in the fact that I know they will work as hard as I will, as will everyone involved in the production, and that when we’re on stage we can trust one another to be there if needed, you know, if you lose your place, or a line just isn’t coming, I know they will be there to pick me up and carry me through! Trust, truthfulness and authenticity are so important, not only in yourself as an actor but in those you’re performing with – how lucky are we to have that in each other?
My favourite number is also Mushnik and Son, just like Ollie’s. It’s utterly brilliant and unexpected and I’m loving rehearsing and working with Kath who choreographed the number to perfect my moves – dancing isn’t usual territory on stage for me so the opportunity to explore this part of acting has been brilliant.
I think this musical tells an intimate, beautiful story when you look at the characters and the story closely, so I’ve taken time to find my character Seymour, watched other performances of the play but been careful not to take on the identity of the character I’ve seen in them; I want to create and share a version of Seymour that I’ve taken time to develop and bring to the stage.”
Tickets are on sale for Little Shop of Horrors via Seckford Theatre: https://www.seckfordtheatre.org/event/little-shop-of-horrors/.
Our Year 12 Physics class enjoyed a trip to Cambridge University yesterday, where they visited the Cavendish laboratory for a lecture on light diffraction. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the trip, commenting that they found it, “absolutely marvellous!” and, “a riveting insight into Applied Physics!”.
Harry reports on the trip and how he felt the lecture related to their course in School.
Report from Year 12’s Harry:
Our Year 12 Physics class enjoyed a trip to the Cavendish laboratory where we learned about light diffraction through Young’s double slit experiment, and its use in investigating the structure of DNA.
The lecture, given by Lisa Jardine-Wright OBE, included an interactive practical exploring the effect of different shaped apertures.
While niche, the talk was still incredibly applicable to our course and it was very satisfying to see how our work could be used in the real world!
Thank you to Mr Cooper, our Head of Physics, for organising and taking the students to and from the University, it was a great day which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.
Perfect Conditions and Pristine Blue Skies for the Senior Ski Trip to La Plagne, December 2023
Students returned from their Senior Ski trip to La Plagne with tired but happy faces, having enjoyed perfect conditions and beautiful blue skies (for the majority of the time!) in the French Alps.
Setting off on a dark and early Saturday morning, the Senior Ski trip students began their journey to the French Alps, flying for the first time this year, arriving in the resort of La Plagne 1800 just after lunch. Taking time to explore their hotel and home for the next week, the students soon acclimatised and familiarised themselves with their beautiful and truly quite breathtaking surroundings.
Amongst the people in the resort, our students (and Miss Hinton who is a dog lover!) were excited to meet Troy, a 12-week-old sheep dog puppy who had free roam of the hotel, much to everyone’s delight.
After an early night on the Saturday everyone was up and raring to hit the slopes on their first day of skiing; met with a perfect blue bird day and fantastic snow that had been falling the previous week, it felt great underfoot. Students were divided into three ski groups based on ability, and spent time tackling challenging runs, working on technical elements, and improving their technique across the board throughout the week. The perfect skies turned grey as the weather became snowy later in the week – but visibility remained good enough and the snow and the pistes were the best everyone could have hoped for.
Each group dabbled in some off-piste skiing, exploring the trees and couloirs that La Plagne has to offer; an excellent and really varied area to ski.
Evening activities were laid back, after everyone had woken up early and worked hard on the slopes all day and ranged from bowling and shopping to watching the fire show to mark the start of the season and having supper at a lovely local pizza restaurant.
It was a great trip, and some tired but happy faces returned to Woodbridge School ready to enjoy Christmas with their families, while they regaled them with tales from their adventures on the slopes – and of course of the puppy!
Thanks go to everyone who made this trip possible, including Miss Hinton, chief disciplinarian to Welsh students, Mrs Letts, our La Plagne tour guide, Miss Jeffrey, expert on the moguls and Mr Brous, to whom we send best wishes for a speedy recovery, as he had an unfortunate accident on the slopes, but smiled the whole way through as he always does, we have the photos to prove it! And thanks of course to our students, who not only had a great time, but were a pleasure to be around.
LEGO Fun Day
On Saturday 13 January, our eagerly awaited LEGO Fun Day returned to School for 2024. A free event that’s open to everyone, the day was once again supported by The Brickologists.
With over 60 people in School for the event, everyone had a fabulous time with prizes for the children’s competition as well as the adult’s – children made a model of their favourite room in the house in the competition and adults built a spinning washing machine!
The children also enjoyed using LEGO and Duplo to build a den which they could fit into, as well as a large group build creating a large, long island which included a marooned boat and lots of booby traps in the style of Indiana Jones.
It was great to see everyone engaged and enjoying the LEGO as well as the time together, thank you to everyone who came along and everyone who helped organise and manage the day.
LEGO Robotics
We were incredibly excited to launch our very first five-week LEGO Robotics Programme in School on Monday 15 January, and week one did not disappoint.
Children arrived in School for the first of their five sessions, supported by Richard Williams from The Brickologists, a Robocup Junior Champion winning coach and STEM ambassador.
With only a limited number of places available on this course, it was great to welcome everyone along to the event as they built their very first robot. Next week they will all be learning how to code it, and complete the first challenge, ‘Cliffhanger’.
We’ll share more news of the sessions as they take place, but for now thank you to everyone who helped to organise and manage the event and we’re excited to see what the remaining four weeks have in store for our LEGO enthusiasts.
Our U15A Boys Hockey team kicked off the season with an early fixture and superb performance against our local rivals, Fram College in the Independent Schools Cup.
On a cold winter’s evening, the boys were on fire on the pitch, starting the stronger team and camping in the opposition 23m area for the opening minutes.
Despite several half-chances, close misses and saves, the opening goal was not to be. Framlingham started to build momentum and had a number of chances of their own from open play and PCs (penalty corners). GK, Year 10’s Ernest and the defending trio of Year 10’s Theo and Alex with Year 9’s Oliver M in front of him, made strong tackles, intercepts, saves and clearances to keep things level.
Co-captains, Year 10’s Jasper and Tom controlled the mid-field, with good decision making and skill in possession, alongside an immense work rate when needing to defend.
Woodbridge kept pushing to get goals in the second half, moving the ball all over the pitch, and confident to transfer round the back and feed the forwards up the line. Superb leading and work rate from Year 10’s Rowan set the tone for exciting forward play, including rotations, high and wide leads off each other. Year 9’s Oliver Y was strong in mid-field and dynamic up front, getting close to scoring and setting up his fellow forwards in the 9 yard area.
The game continued to be end-to-end, entertaining the growing group of spectators. The team was very grateful for the support!
As the game came to a close, Framlingham capitalised from a series of quick free hits in the 23m area, breaking through defenses on a third attempt and a cracking rising reverse stick shot flew into the right corner. Nothing much could be done to prevent this superb goal.
Woodbridge picked themselves up and camped in the Fram half to push for the equalizer, with three more chances, only to be denied by a great one-on-one GK save and composed penalty corner defence.
At the final whistle the Woodbridge team stood tall, knowing they delivered a great performance; disappointed not to get the result, but very much hungry to push themselves to even better play.
This team showed the biggest hearts and very quick learning, executing every tactic and being organised in set pieces. Well done to each player who represented the team so well on and off the pitch and good luck for the season ahead. Congratulations to Year 10’s Theo who was voted players’ Player of the Match.