The Roundup - Edition 59

III Group (Year 9) District Netball Tournament

It was a spectacular night of netball on Wednesday when the III Group  won all five games in their pool matches of the District Netball tournament (with a goal difference of 53-10!), which qualified them for the semi-finals. 

They beat Barclay's School convincingly 15-2 and earned their place in the Finals against the Pool 2 winners, Hitchin Girls' School. The girls played well but were down 3-5 at half time; however, after stepping it up and with resounding resilience, they came out victorious - scoring the winning goal (9-8) just before the whistle!

A HUGE well done to our defence (Edie, Manuella and II Grouper (Year 8) Laila (who all made repeated interceptions to keep the opposition score low); to Teah and Maya (who maintained non-stop control of the Centre court and making numerous turn-overs) and to our shooters of India and Ruby (with India shooting the majority of the 77 goals but superbly assisted by Ruby's passing, movement and support in the circle after needing to step up into the Shooter role after their usual shooter, Sadie, broke her collar bone).

We are SUPER PROUD of them all!

Our I-II Group (Years 7 & 8) Rugby team took to the field on Wednesday for two competitive matches against experienced Knights Templar teams. From the first whistle, our players demonstrated resilience, skill, and teamwork, putting in strong tackles, rucks, and runs.

It was particularly exciting to see the progress of those who are newer to the sport, with their confidence growing throughout the games. The opposition named Archie and Alex as players of the match, but this was truly a team effort, and every player contributed to a strong performance.

This experience has given us plenty to build on, and we look forward to taking these lessons into our next games. Well done to all involved!

In Art, II Group have a lovely book project where they create and illustrate their own children's books. They stories are created in English and then illustrated in the Summer term in Art lessons. 

We organised sessions for Elena Sapsford to come into each II Group English lesson to discuss how to create their own children's stories, what to think about and how to formulate ideas. Elena is a children's author and publisher so I thought this would be a lovely opportunity to share her work and the ideas behind them, facilitating a short workshop. 

The Major Officials organised a bake sale to help raise money for Red Nose Day.  Another wonderful example of our young people's commitment to service to our community and charity. 

This week our Major Officials led our Senior School Council which brought together representatives from every company. The meeting began with an update from the committees about what they have been doing. 

Art and Daniel explained what the food commitee have done to get the Tuck Shop open again and have met with our chef Susana to discuss ideas for the food menus.

Sorcha shared what EDI projects she has in place in response to recent student voice feedback, including celebrating St Patrick's Day on Monday and plans for May Day and a Cultural Day in the summer. Sorcha is also undertaking a research project into girls in STEM as part of her EPQ project and we look forward to hearing more about this soon.

Daniel Da Silva updated the Council on the Be Green Committee, including plans for a Morning Talk for Earth Day and reintroducing bees in Arunwood. 

Claudia and Aubert celebrated the Events Team's successes from Children's Mental Health Day, Stupid Cupid and the Recycled Fashion Show. They also sought more ideas from the student body about future events they would like in the school.

We then had Freemans Business where Company Reps shared ideas and issues from their peers with the Council. The Major Officials will discuss these with Rich on Monday at Fishes Lunch and then report back to the Senior School in our Meeting soon.

The School Council was an absolute joy to observe. Thomas did a superb job of ensuring that every voice was heard. To see our young people manage their own council with representatives from every year group in the Seniors is inspiring. Well done everyone!

On Monday we celebrated St Patrick's Day with a Morning Talk from Sorcha, Amelia, Art, Aubert and Claudia, who explained the history of St Patrick's Day. The Major Officials then offered some fun face-painting during lunchtime which students enjoyed being creative with. 

A wonderful series of activities took place this week as part of Neurodiversity Celebration Week. Students recorded videos of their reflections on being neurodivergent on Monday in The Mulberry, shared and wrote poems on Tuesday, made charm bracelets on Wednesday, enjoyed mindfulness colouring on Thursday and came together on Friday's Morning Talk to celebrate minds of all kinds. Our students gave an incredible Morning Talk - well done to them - and to Marcus and new student Mayu, who performed A Whole New World from Aladdin superbly. 

We were also very pleased to welcome Paul Towns, a local artist, whose project #Hyperfocus25, highlights how hyperfocus helps artists produce exciting, detailed and creative pieces. It was so interesting to hear Paul talk about how he only recently discovered his passion for drawing and that the hyperfocus he experiences when creating helps him to feel calm and concentrate. You can find out more about Paul's projects by clicking here.