Private School News

Wycliffe meets The Apprentice

Sir Alan Sugar met his match when he took on Wycliffe’s 14- and 15-year-old entrepreneurs in a special The Apprentice Enterprise Day at the school.

In the event, pupils had to take up Sir Alan’s challenge to design, develop and market a new brand of breakfast cereal.

The day for Year 9 pupils was organised by seven trainee Business teachers from local universities.

Over the course of the morning pupils were tasked with using and developing enterprise skills such as: team work, creativity, problem solving, using initiative, taking risks and handling money. They were asked to devise a logo, slogan, packaging, TV/Radio advert and poster for their new product and then present their ideas as if to ‘Sir Alan Sugar’.

Organiser, Lianne Brown said, “The ideas and work produced by the pupils at Wycliffe was fantastic and truly enterprising. The trainee teachers had a wonderful morning and had the difficult task of judging an overall winner; all of the work produced was of such a high-standard.”

In the end the prize was taken by a team who dressed one of their number up as a large pink rabbit to get their message across.

All pupils thoroughly enjoyed the event and many are now keen to take up Business Studies GCSE! Sir Alan, watch out!

Wycliffe joins top schools to celebrate trail-blazing achievement

Wycliffe has received further recognition for its outstanding achievement in securing the Challenge Award for excellence in gifted and talented education.

Being the first independent in the UK and still the only school to ever win the award across all six stages of education, Wycliffe was invited to join other trail blazers in Oxford to celebrate. The Award is given for high quality work by the whole school, teachers and governors, in challenging all pupils, including those with high abilities, to achieve their best.

The presentation ceremony took place at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford where Wycliffe pupils Rosie Grindrod, Rob Camm, Fergus Menendez and Rosanna Crabb-La Hei told the audience how they had benefitted from their education at the Stonehouse independent school where each is on the Gifted and Talented Register.

Rosie has recently had her creative work published in an anthology from which she read to a large audience at the College, Rob is thriving in all academic areas while also representing the county at rugby, Rosanna was a magnificent Malificent in Sleeping Beauty singing to a Tchaikovsky score while also excelling in all sports and academic disciplines and Fergus told the assembled throng about how he regularly takes whole-school assemblies, sometimes even dressed as a panda to highlight environmental matters!

NACE Chief Executive Julie Fitzpatrick says: “I am delighted to see so many schools in the magnificent Sheldonian Theatre being rewarded for delivering excellent gifted and talented support in an inclusive way so that it benefits the whole school. The Challenge Awards are widely recognised across the education profession both for their rigour and their encouragement of a climate where everyone is a learner and the achievements of the most able children can enhance the performance of the entire school.”

International Day

Pupils and staff at The Cheltenham Ladies’ College participated in The International Mufti Day held on the 14th of November. The aim of the day was to bring together the different cultures of the world whilst supporting the six college charities. Each year was assigned a Continent to represent and staff were given the theme of the Universe. The creative side of College definitely shone through with a wide variety of costumes ranging from traditional Kimonos from Japan to the Statue of Liberty from North America. All the girls and members of staff put in a tremendous amount of effort and it was fascinating to see some of the interpretations of each Continent! The day was followed by the International Society Event held on the 15th November, which included traditional dances and outfits as well as a modern catwalk and auction. Both days were extremely enjoyable and an enormous success.

Gigi Fateh-Iravani SFC2

Gloucestershire Schools’ Debating Competition

On November 27th Polly Mitchell and Tabitha Ward took part in the Gloucestershire Schools Debating Competition in the Parliament Room in Gloucester Cathedral. They had to propose the motion, ‘This House believes Magna Carta is dead’ and then had to oppose the same motion in the final. The girls gave excellent speeches both in support and against the motion and won the competition. The girls received trophies and £250 of book vouchers.

Mr J Hole, Head of Sixth Form

England’s National Under 16 Hockey Squad for 2009

Issy Davies, currently in UC5 at The Cheltenham Ladies’ College, has been selected for England’s National Under 16 Hockey Squad for 2009. The squad was announced after an assessment camp at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre in Buckinghamshire over the weekend of 21st-23rd November 2008. Issy, who plays in goal, was one of four goalkeepers and 30 outfield players to take part in this final selection process.

Gibraltar will be Issy’s destination for warm weather training in January and she will participate in further training sessions and camps in the UK prior to the Easter Four Nations tournament and Test matches on 5th April 2009.

After her selection, Issy said, ‘I felt surprised and really chuffed when I was selected as I didn’t believe that I’d played that well. I danced ecstatically around my room!’

National Independent Girls’ Schools Football Cup

The Cheltenham Ladies’ College 11-a-side football team began their National Independent Girls’ Schools Football Cup campaign with an impressive 8-5 win in an exciting warm-up match against Malvern College on the 25th November.

After stifling an early goal attempt by the opposition, our team took control of the game, enjoying most of the possession during the first half. Trailing 3-2 at half time, team spirit shone through with CLC rallying to pull level. The back four held their line well but tired legs on both teams resulted in going goal-for-goal until the final nine minutes when the score stood at 5-5. Charlotte Kwan built on her hat-trick to score two more goals and Amanda Salloum shot from the top of the box to seal the win for The Cheltenham Ladies’ College.

Katherine Fok, SFC2

Inter House Polo Tournament at Longdole

This Autumn term saw the launch of the first Inter House Polo Tournament at Longdole. A number of keen players joined forces to create six house teams playing two chukkas each, in two evenly-matched divisions. Having been provided with a delicious lunch in the clubhouse and following some tactical scheming, parents, girls and staff saw some fabulous team play between senior, junior and novice players. Fierce competition in Division I saw St Margaret’s (Annie Styler, Caz St Quinton and Alice Anderson) emerge victorious with two superb wins, followed by a combined team from St Helen’s/Glenlee (Lulu Burton, Cecily Higham and Amabel Clark) with Farnley (Cece Cardale, Anna Rowlinson, India Dunn and Ria Sugden) in third place.

In Division II there was even closer fought rivalry with the final placings being decided on goal difference, meaning Glengar/Bellairs (Claudia Buck, Imogen Dalivalle, India Dunn and Ria Sugden) ran out the eventual winners, beating St Clare (Perdy Humfrey, Antonia Dalivalle and Cameron Gardner) with St Austin’s (Brigitte and Jenny Kozena and Zoe Laxton) taking third place.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, with some excellent play being exhibited as well as a good mingling of abilities which allowed novices to develop their game and gain vital playing experience while the more experienced players got back into the swing of things in readiness for the arena season ahead. I sincerely hope that this enjoyable tournament will continue annually, allowing the sport to thrive within CLC and provide much more fun for years to come. Many, many thanks to Miss Ralph for all her hard work in organising such a great event.

Elizabeth Burton SFC2

South Cotswold Netball Tournament