Private School News

Polam Hall Pupils’ Sporting Achievements

Polam Hall students are making their mark in the world of sport.

Charlotte Hindmoor, a member of the Blackwell Grange Golf Club and Durham County Junior team, has been selected for the England Super Birdie Squad, an elite training team that receives coaching from EWGA coach Pat Smillie. She has also been named England’s Most Improved Girl Golfer after scoring a narrow victory in the final of the Abraham Trophy at Ramside Hall Hotel and Golf Club at Durham.

She recently won the Young Sports Achiever Award in the Darlington Sports Winners’ scheme and now will go onto the grand final. This achievement was also marked by a special Mayoral Award, presented by Darlington’s Mayor, Cllr Ian Haszeldine.

During the past 12 months, Charlotte has dropped her handicap from 20 to 9.

Charlotte has entered numerous competitions including the Scottish Ladies Golf Association Open Stroke Play Championship, the Northern Girls’ Region Close Championship and the English Girls Championship.

Members of Polam Hall’s lacrosse team have notched up some notable achievements too.

Polly Enevoldson has been chosen to captain Yorkshire U19 Lacrosse Team, with Dominique Forrest and Krystal Forster-George being vice-captains of the Yorkshire U19B Lacrosse Team. Kaitlyn Robinson, Polam Hall’s lacrosse coach, is assistant coach of U19A Yorkshire lacrosse squad.

Marie Green, Polam Hall’s head teacher, said: “Polam Hall encourages the skills of its pupils whether they lie in the academic, vocational or sporting fields.

“We are pleased to see that the achievements of some of the school’s hard working and talented sports players have been officially recognised beyond the school environment.”

PUPILS PERFORM A FARCE IN THE DARK!

Pupils at Durham School, one of the region’s leading independent Schools, are performing ‘Black Comedy’ a play by Peter Shaffer, which all takes place in the dark!

The play, performed over 3 nights, (20 -22 November, 7.00 pm) takes place in the school’s own Luce Theatre, with the plot revolving around a party which is plunged into darkness when the main fuse bows – only the audience can see what is happening! It is a lot of fun, full of mishaps and embarrassments as people fall down stairs and constantly bump into doors and furniture and each other!

The play’s humor hinges on a highly theatrical concept: when the lights are on at the party at the beginning of the piece, the actors are in total darkness; when the lights go out, the stage is then lit, allowing the audience to watch the cast stumble about and fumble as they try to complete the simplest of tasks.

The first half of the programme for the evening sees pupils perform in a series of brief and varied sketches giving a snapshot of the pupils practical work in English and Drama including snippets of Shakespeare; the second half sees the perfomance of Black Comedy.

“It is a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining evening with a balanced programme of serious drama and light entertainment” said Mr. David Woodhead, Head of Theatre Studies and Drama at Durham School, “Pupils of all ages demonstrate their theatrical skills in a refreshingly informal setting”.

Banning the blues!

Durham School, one of our region’s leading Independent Schools, has marked Anti-Bullying Week 2008 this week by making a “blue wall” of over 150 pledges made by pupils from Years 7 to 9. Each pupil was asked to reflect on the theme ‘Being different, belonging together’ and to take their own individual stand against bullying.

Durham School’s Deputy Head in charge of Pastoral Care, Mrs. Fiona Parker said: “It is so important to take every opportunity offered by national events such as this to raise the profile of bullying issues and reinforce our zero tolerance approach to bullying – in particular name-calling and cyber-bullying. A relatively simple thing such as a mass of pledges is a powerful statement to all of us that bullying in any form is wrong.”

Prizes were awarded to the writers of the most thoughtful pledges which convey the pupils’ promise to tell a teacher or a parent and to support receivers of bullying in small practical ways. As Mrs. Parker highlighted in a recent chapel service “Durham School celebrates its diversity of talents. We are all part of one cohesive whole.”

Lucky Eight for Rowing Cox Jack

Durham School 1st Eight rowing cox and Durham Eye Editor, Jack Deverson (age 16), celebrated 8 A*’s in GCSE results announced today. Jack was also awarded 1 A and 1 B grade.

Jack, a pupil at Durham School, has had a truly remarkable year, launching and editing the school’s own newspaper ‘The Durham Eye’, as well as steering the Durham School 1st Eight rowing crew to qualification for the Henley Royal Regatta (it has been 21 years since an Eight from the Durham School Boat Club has qualified for the Henley Royal Regatta). Jack also steered the school’s Boat Club to gold medal success at the Ghent Spring International Regatta, held in Belgium earlier in the year.

In this special Olympic year, launched on the Eighth Day of the Eighth Month of 2008, the number 8 has certainly proved to be lucky, not only for Team GB, but also for Jack!

GCSE congratulations also go to: Alastair Galbraith-Brown (7 A*, 2 A grades and 1 B grade), Matthew Tiffin (6 A*, 3 A grades and 1 B grade), Alex Turnbull, Josh Tognarelli and Johanna Kellett, who all achieved 5 A* grades, and James Grant, Fraser Jackson and Byong Choi, who each had 4 A* among their 10 passes.

Quote from David Goodhew, the new Deputy Head (Curriculum) at Durham School:

“Well done to this year’s GCSE candidates: their hard work, combined with good teaching, has produced a very pleasing set of results. In particular, I am delighted that so many students have significantly outperformed their target grades, demonstrating very strong ‘value-added’ across a range of subjects.”

Congratulations also to all the many other candidates who did not necessarily score the highest grades but whose excellent individual performances are a personal triumph.

Straight A’s for Durham School’s ‘Heads of School’

Durham School sixth formers, Alex Duell and David Quinn, are celebrating straight A’s in this week’s A level and AS exam results. Alex, who has held the position of ‘Head of School’ for the last year, is delighted to be celebrating together with David, who will succeed him as ‘Head of School’ in September.

At A2 level, Alex Duell, a member of Caffinites House, has been awarded straight A`s in all his subjects – English Literature, French and German and also History (AS) – an excellent set of results. On hearing the news, Alex said he was thrilled and very much hoped that he will now be offered a place at Dublin, where he wants to study languages; French and German. Alex already has an offer from Bath University, but will have to wait until Monday to hear from Dublin.

At AS level, David, a member of Poole House, has been awarded straight A`s in his exams – Ancient History, Art & Design and Music in which he gained top marks in 2 of his Music modules. He was hardly able to contain his excitement and commented, “I am absolutely delighted with my results. I am thoroughly looking forward to the new academic year and hope to repeat Alex’s success at A2 level.” He added:” Alex will certainly be a tough act to follow as Head of School, but he has passed on some excellent advice and I have a superb team of monitors to assist me in my new duties.” In the meantime, David is due to travel to Bath next week to attend the RSCM (Royal School of Church Music) Summer School, for which he was awarded an Organ Scholarship.

Alex and David have both played a huge part in the school’s successes over the past year and should be highly commended for their commitment to both their academic studies and their contribution to school life; Music, Drama and their Houses in particular.

Special congratulations also go to Sarah Jones was amongst the Top 10 candidates in the country who sat A Level German this summer, according to Edexcel, the UK’s largest awarding body. Out of 2931 candidates, Sarah achieved one of the highest overall marks. Edexcel’s Managing Director, Jerry Jarvis, said: “This is a tremendous achievement and testament to the hard work students put into preparing for their exams. We send our congratulations to Sarah.”

Head of Sixth Form, Mr Paul Gerrard, was delighted with the performance of his students. “

“All these students worked very hard and deserve their success. Our results represent a very solid improvement at the top end of the grades. A 5% improvement on our grade A percentage from last year, an 8% improvement on our A/B percentage. Overall they are our third best set of results since the new exam format came out in 2001. Another very pleasing aspect was the improvement the students showed from the percentage of A’s they scored in their L6 AS exams, to the percentage of A’s they eventually scored at A2. There was a 12% improvement in this area.”

The Assistant Deputy Head of Curriculum, John Everatt commented: “I am particularly pleased for our star students but we must not forget that there are some equally significant, or even more significant, success stories lower down the ability range where boys and girls have worked just as hard for their grade Cs, Ds and Es. It is easy to overlook their efforts.”

Photo:
David Quinn and Alex Duell ‘Talking Heads’

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