Private School News

Biking For Breakfast – WREKIN COLLEGE

Wrekin College English Teacher Andy Brennan has set himself the challenge of cycling 500 miles in 50 hours to raise money for the Wrekin College Orphanage in Malawi.

Andy’s aim is to raise at least £1000 specifically for food for the Amao Orphanage in Mtunthama, Malawi. He was shocked that the 50 children living in the orphanage did not have breakfast. Their first meal of the day is lunch. It costs just 90p per day to feed a child but securing regular funding is always a challenge.

He plans to cycle 500 miles in 50 hours, starting and finishing at Wrekin College. Starting Wednesday 18th August to Friday 20th August 2010

If you like to support Andy please donate through the Just Giving website: www.justgiving.com/medicmalawi-breakfastboost. Every penny donated goes to the Orpahange.

More information about the orphanage can be found on the Medic Malawi Website www.medicmalawi.org or from Wrekin College T: 01952 265604 E: info@wrekincollege.com

OSWESTRY SCHOOL Snowsports

41 pupils and 6 staff enjoyed a fantastic week on Oswestry School’s annual snowsport trip to the Aosta valley in NW Italy.

Throughout the week snow conditions were perfect for beginners, intermediate, advanced skiers and boarders alike. The 4* Hotel Norden Palace was a welcome haven for rest and recuperation for tired bodies at the end of each day and it provided excellent silver service restaurant facilities. A busy après-ski programme was enjoyed by everyone, highlights being ice-skating, bowling and the ever popular disco.

Two year 12 pupils have been selected to attend the Interski Scholarship selection day at Chill Factor, Trafford Park, with the possibility of going on to take an instructors’ course.

Oswestry School Pupils ‘Ready, Steady, Cook!’ Contest

Oswestry School pupils put their culinary skills to the test in a live cookery competition organised by the School’s award-winning catering company, Chartwells.

The ‘On your marks, get set, cook!’ competition, overseen by professional chef Darren Tinkler, saw two teams of three pupils and one teacher go head-to-head in a bid to create the tastiest and healthiest dish possible from a selection of mystery ingredients which included chicken, pasta, chick peas, basmati rice and a selection of seasonal vegetables.

After 15 minutes of frenzied cooking, the girls’ red team produced a delicious dish of chicken fillet in a tomato ragout sauce, served with pasta and wilted greens, while the boys’ green team served up a mouth-watering balti of chick peas, peppers and spices with basmati rice and wilted spinach.
It was a close contest, but the excited audience of pupils and staff eventually voted for the red team’s repast.

The prize for the winners was to see the School’s catering team replicate the winning recipe and serve it for lunch for the whole school to enjoy.

Pupils’ Purple Pinkies Prevent Polio

Oswestry School pupils have raised £600 for charity by staging a non-uniform day with a purple theme.
Each pupil paid £2 for the privilege of wearing their own clothes on a normal school day. The money raised was donated to the Rotary Club’s ‘Thanks for Life’ project for polio eradication and the Charlotte Hartey Foundation to support local charities.
The day was organized by the School Interact Club in partnership with Oswestry Rotary Club.
Why purple?
When children in developing world countries are vaccinated against polio, they have a purple stamp put on one of their little fingers. In this way the immunisation team knows who has received the medication.
Each purple pinkie brings us closer to making polio history.

Photo: Some of Oswestry School’s purple-clad pupils

Oswestry School Pupils get the Point

Pupils at Oswestry School have the chance to learn a new sport, thanks to a partnership with the Oswestry Fencing Club.

Club coaches Bridie Lloyd and Tom Gulliver visit the school on Thursday afternoons to teach the skills of fencing to a group of 16 pupils, as part of their out of hours learning programme.

‘The club has proved very popular and we have a waiting list of pupils who want to join,’ said Oswestry School Director of Sport, Darren Hollingsworth. ‘We are very pleased that we have the opportunity to offer fencing as part of the alternative sports curriculum and we are glad that we can work with the Oswestry Fencing Club in this way.’

All-Round Excellence Confirmed at The Old Hall School

The Old Hall School is ‘an exciting school, buzzing with activity and endeavour in a wide variety of sporting, musical, dramatic and other activities’, where academic standards are ‘high overall in comparison to the national average’, according to the Independent Schools Inspectorate.
The inspection report, received this week, praised Wellington’s Old Hall School in all areas, describing its curriculum, pastoral care and links with parents as ‘excellent’. Headmaster, Martin Stott, in expressing his delight at the School receiving such plaudits, explained, “We are thrilled that the school’s recent move to its new location, next to Wrekin College, and all that has developed since, has been stamped with a very large seal of approval by the Independent Schools Inspectorate.”
Mr Stott, who joined the School in 2007, added that, “The inspection experience was very positive, in terms of confirming where we currently are, and reinforces our desire to continue to improve our already ‘excellent’ curriculum.”
An on-line questionnaire, completed by children and parents, produced results which praised all aspects of the School, its organisation and management, further enhancing the School’s reputation for combining the best of old and new, in educational terms.
The School’s inspection, one of the first in the country to be carried out under the new system, comes at a time when there is ever-increasing pressure on both the independent and state sectors to comply with rigorous regulatory requirements. The Old Hall School demonstrated its full compliance in every aspect, which is testament to the excellent internal organisation of the School and to its outstanding teaching and learning facilities.
The School welcomes all interested families to its next Open-Morning, which will be held on Saturday, 15th May. www.oldhall.co.uk

One of the Largest Groups of Young Voices in Shropshire sing Vivaldi “Gloria” – March 20th, 7.30pm

Two Shropshire Music Scholars perform Bach’s Famous Double Violin Concerto

Shrewsbury Abbey
March 20th 2010
7:30 pm

One of the most famous of pieces, Vivaldi’s “Gloria” is to be performed at Shrewsbury Abbey 20th March by one of the largest groups of young voices in the county. The concert will also feature two brilliant violinists, both of whom are music scholars at Wrekin College; Matthew Duffield and Freyja Clarke. They will, together with the College Orchestra, perform Bach’s famous double violin concerto.

The combined choirs of Wrekin College will be joined by the choir of Prestfelde School too, making a total of 150 singers, with most of the choir being of school age. Prestfelde school will also perform parts of Pergolesi “Stabat Mater”.

Wrekin College has a long and fine tradition for producing excellent singers and three of the solo singers for the evening will be students of the College: the evening will be conducted by the College’s own Director of Music, Francis Murton.

Members of the public are welcome to join us for this concert which takes place in the beautiful surroundings of Shrewsbury Abbey; we look forward to seeing you there.

The concert takes place on Saturday 20th March at 7.30pm and tickets are available, priced £5 from the Music Department at Wrekin College telephone : 01952 265625 or email music@wrekincollege.com

Photo: Freyja Clarke and Matthew Duffield

Gap Year Students from Down-Under

Oswestry School has been enriched by two new Assistant Tutors from the southern hemisphere. Known by the school as ‘gappies’, Rhys McCarthy and Jonathan Hosking will be spending their gap year working as assistant members of staff at the school.

Rhys is from New Zealand where he has been studying at St Paul’s Collegiate School, while Jonathan comes from Bathurst, in New South Wales. Both are keen sportsmen and have played at regional level in their chosen field; Rees is a cricketer and Jonathan’s main sport is tennis.

The two gappies have settled quickly in to life at Oswestry School. ‘Everyone is very friendly and welcoming,’ says Rees. ‘In particular I appreciate the sense of history here – my school was 50 years old, but Oswestry has 600 years of heritage!’

Photo: Gap year students Rhys McCarthy and Jonathan Hosking

New all-weather courts at Oswestry School

Oswestry School has completed the refurbishment of the tennis courts at Welsh Walls, to provide a flood-lit, all-weather surface with facilities for tennis, mini tennis and netball.

The versatility of the two new courts is also greatly enjoyed by the children of Oswestry School Bellan House, since it provides them with an extra play area for use during their break times. Bellan House children will also receive tennis coaching as part of their sports lessons.

‘I am delighted to have been able to include the courts as part of our on-going school development plans,’ said Mr Paul Stockdale, Headmaster of Oswestry School. ‘As well as improving the School’s sports facilities, we are very pleased that it will benefit the community, in that Oswestry Tennis Club will also be making extensive use of the courts.’

Photo: Bellan House pupils enjoy their break time on the new all-weather surface

Oswestry School Launches Art Award

Oswestry School art department is proud to announce its first annual art competition which is open to the public, with a winning prize of £2000.

The Peter Edwards Art Award aims to promote the very best in contemporary painting and is a competition which is open to all. It will be exhibited for the first time at the School on Saturday 3rd July, 2010.

‘We wish to promote and inspire work in different media by newly emerging, talented amateurs and established professional artists,’ said Anne-Marie Stonehill, Head of Art at Oswestry School. ‘We hope that this award will be a long-term benefit to the community by encouraging local artists of all ages.’

Peter Edwards is a renowned portrait artist whose commissions include famous footballers Sir Bobby Charlton and Ryan Giggs, and former poet laureate Seamus Heaney. A former pupil at Oswestry School, he has continued to maintain close links and is both a parent and a school governor. ‘I am very happy to be associated with this award,’ he said. ‘I hope that it will stimulate local art groups and encourage aspiring artists to express themselves.’

More information about the Peter Edwards Art Award can be found on the Oswestry School website: www.oswestryschool.org.uk.

Photo: Artist Peter Edwards with Oswestry School student Francesca McFall

Oswestry School Pupils ‘Top of the Class’ at Regional Festival

Pupils from Oswestry School took part in the Shropshire Festival of Verse and Prose, which took place at Moreton Hall on Saturday 17th October. The festival is open to all schools in north Shropshire and Cheshire
Quiana Booker came 1st in Storytelling and Public Speaking, telling her own amazing horror story, ‘Alice’, and speaking about her pet corn snake, which she took as a live visual aid.
Lewis Bebb and Edward Ellis-Cooper came 2nd in the Duologue, with an extract from Toad of Toad Hall. They followed this by coming 1st in the Mime, giving an excellent and amusing performance of their self-devised piece called ‘Home Improvements’.

Photo: Quiana Booker

Pupils Excel in Ballet Performance

Three pupils from Oswestry School were delighted to be in the cast for a wonderful production of ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ by the English Youth Ballet. The ballet, performed at The Severn Theatre in Shrewsbury, was a sell out and it was a unique opportunity for the children to celebrate their talent.

Fiona Newman (10), Verity Bowen (12) and Harriet Bussey (8) danced in three of the performances, having been selected from over 200 children who were auditioned.

“We really enjoyed it and would love to do something similar,” they said. “It was great to have the chance to work with six professional ballet dancers. The costumes we got to wear were lovely.”

“Dance & Drama is a fantastic way for the children to express themselves, gain confidence, coordination and discipline in a fun, happy and creative environment”, said Performing Arts teacher Claire Thompson. “Classes after school include modern dance, tap, musical theatre and drama, which for talented pupils can lead to examinations and involvement in outside productions.”

Oswestry School offers excellent opportunities for children to study a wide range of performing arts, including specialist Ballet and LAMDA lessons from the age of 4, as part of the school day at Bellan House.

Photo: Fiona Newman, Verity Bowen and Harriet Bussey with Performing Arts teacher Claire Thompson

Speech Day at Oswestry School

The Guest of Honour at the Oswestry School 2009 speech day was the actor Robert Hardy CBE, who gave a fascinating speech which wove a masterful tapestry of amusing anecdotes, expert historical knowledge and keen insight into contemporary situations. Mr Hardy is no stranger to Oswestry School, having visited during the 600th Anniversary celebrations in 2007, when he delivered an excellent talk on the English Longbow, a subject on which he is an international expert.

As well as speaking at Speech Day and presenting the awards to successful students, Robert Hardy was the guest at an earlier reception during which presentations were made to retiring members of staff and the Old Oswestrians Society.

Picture: (L-R) Head Boy Liam Chambers, Chairman of Governors Peter Wilcox-Jones, Headmaster Paul Stockdale with Robert Hardy CBE

Midlands Today newsreader NICK OWEN present prizes at Wrekin College

Prize giving at Wrekin College last week was a newsworthy event, when Nick Owen took centre stage to hand out an array of academic and achievement prizes to pupils at the school.

Josie Pointon won the International Sportswoman Prize for her achievements with England Netball and James Lauder the International Sportsman Prize. James has represented Great Britain many times playing Badminton and was recently ranked 8th in the European Men’s Doubles

The Sir Ian Blair Prize for Community service was awarded to Kimberley Mattu for her inspirational community work with local pensioners. Kimberley runs a weekly computer skills course offering guidance on how to use the internet and email.

The Evelyn Gordon Memorial Prize is awarded to an outstanding Year 11 student for overall academic performance, this year to Matthew Duffield.

Nick also presented Gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards to Fleur Clarke, Alice Coley, Clare Harnell, Hugh Orton, Abi Varley and Naomi Wood.

Photo:Stephen Drew, Headmaster, Nick Owen, Matthew Duffield, Kimberley Mattu, Christopher Reynolds-Jones, Chairman of the Board of Governors

Magnificat and Phantom combine in unique battle on Friday 8th May

Wrekin College will soon present one of the most demanding choral pieces ever written, Bach¹s ³Magnificat² in D major. This work is stunning in the exuberance of its opening section and dexterity of the choral parts, continues with some beautiful music for the five soloists, all accompanied by orchestra. This is a golden opportunity for you to hear this superb music in the College Chapel and sung by the College Choirs.

The Choir will be joined by five professional soloists; Catherine Benson, Chloe Turner, Ruth Theobald, David Manford and Michael Arthur, and will be conducted by the College¹s Director of Music, Francis Murton.

The choir, still fresh from its very successful tour of the United States just before Christmas, is a choir of 48 singers, all aged between 13 and 18 years of age. They will combine with our community choir of 25 adult singers. This will be without a doubt a golden opportunity to hear this music produced by a choir of young voices.

Alongside the Magnificat, the choir will perform selections of songs from Andrew Lloyd-Webber¹s ³The Phantom of the Opera² .

I do hope that you may be able to join us for this concert. It takes place
in the beautiful surroundings of our College Chapel, we look forward to seeing you there.

The concert takes place on Friday 8th May at 7.30pm. Tickets are going fast, so please contact the college to obtain your tickets:
01952 265625 or email music@wrekincollege.com

Oswestry School Wins County Netball Tournament

Oswestry School U19 Netball Team successfully beat all opposition to become North Shropshire U19 Champions for the fourth consecutive year.
The tournament was held on Wednesday, March 4th at Ellesmere College. It was played as a Round Robin tournament, with the five teams (Oswestry School, Moreton Hall, Ellesmere College, Thomas Adams School and Walford & North Shropshire College) playing matches against each other.

Oswestry played extremely well against challenging opposition, showing good centre court domination, excellent communication and great accuracy from the two shooters, Katy Yates and Katherine Stockdale.

“It was an amazing afternoon,” said Pat Keighley, Head of Girls’ PE. “I cannot speak highly enough of the girls’ commitment and dedication to their netball. They are wonderful role models for the rest of our school teams and they richly deserve to be the U19 North Shropshire Champions.”

Photo: The victorious Oswestry School U19 netball squad

Oswestry School ‘Outstanding’ in Helping Pupils to Achieve and Enjoy Their Work

Oswestry School has been graded as ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ in a recent Ofsted inspection of its boarding facilities.

The inspection took place over four days in December 2008, as part of Ofsted’s regular cycle of inspections of boarding facilities in schools. The inspectors made a rigorous examination of all aspects of boarding school life and spent time talking to pupils and parents to get their views on the school’s provision.

Six areas were assessed, in two of which the school was awarded the highest possible grade, ‘outstanding’, meaning that the provision is of exceptionally high quality. These areas were:
· ‘helping children to achieve well and enjoy what they do’
· ‘helping children make a positive contribution’.

The remaining four areas, in which the school was graded ‘good’ (the second highest grade, meaning that the provision is strong), were:
· Helping children to be healthy
· Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe
· Achieving economic wellbeing
· Organisation

‘I am absolutely delighted by the outcome of this independent inspection of our boarding facilities,’ said Headmaster Paul Stockdale. ‘It bears out what I already knew: that we provide a home-from-home for our national and international boarders. Their welfare is our highest priority and they clearly enjoy and benefit greatly from the experience’.

The full report can be obtained from the school or may be accessed via Ofsted’s website.

CAMBRIDGE SUCCESS

Two Wellington students are celebrating news of places at Cambridge. Alex Shanklin, currently Head Boy at Wrekin College, goes forward with an outstanding GCSE background of 11 A*s to Veterinary Science: Fleur Clarke, with an equally impressive array of GCSEs will go onto Corpus Christi to read English.

Sporting Success at Wrekin College

REGIONAL WINNERS
Wrekin College’s 1st VII Netball team proceed to the National Netball Finals on March 21st after winning the Regional competition. The final match was close with the team beating Thomas Telford by only one point. This is the first time two Shropshire schools will compete in the national finals.

SWIMMING SENSATION BREAKS TWO SCOTTISH RECORDS
Wrekin College Swimmer Matthew Rose, set two new records over the weekend at the Scottish Swimming Championships. Thirteen year old Matthew broke the 800m and 1500m front crawl as well as bringing home 5 Gold and 2 silver medals. Matthew trains, with Dave Clarke, Wrekin College swimming coach and at Streamline the renowned training club based at Wrekin College.

GYMNAST FLYING HIGH
Wrekin College,Third Former Nicole Watson, not only won a Bronze Medal for Great Britain in the Australian Youth Olympics last week but came third in her age group and 11th overall in the All Round Individual Competition. Nicole trains with Park Wrekin Gymnastics Club whose home is Wrekin College. “ Nicole is one of the top girls in the country earmarked for the 2012 games” said Christine Still the Wrekin College coach.

Photo: Youth Olympics

Headmaster’s Armistice Day Service

Oswestry School held its Armistice Day service in the Peter Humphreys Centre on Tuesday. Headmaster Mr Paul Stockdale began with an explanation of the history and purpose of Remembrance Day and the significance of wearing poppies to mark the occasion. He pointed out that young men of a similar age to the school Sixth Form students had been prepared to fight and die to preserve the freedom that we enjoy today.

As he led the prayers for peace, understanding, compassion and forgiveness, the School Chaplain Mr Ray Evanson reminded the pupils that there are few people whose families have not been affected by war in the past or in the present day.

Head Boy Liam Chambers and Head Girl Katy Yates read out the names of the Old Oswestrians who had died while serving in the armed forces in the two world wars. The staff and students then stood to observe the two minutes of silence at 11am.

The guest speaker was Mr Derrick Fisher, the grandfather of three present Oswestry School pupils. Mr Fisher, who was a tank commander at the end of the Second World War, helped pupils to understand something of what it was like to live through the horror of such circumstances. He described his experience as a teenage plane spotter in the Civil Defence, when he had warned of an enemy bomb attack on a town shopping centre and had then worked through the night to rescue the survivors. Mr Fisher then went on to read extracts from the diary of his uncle Philip, who had been an army chaplain during the First World War, caring for and comforting soldiers during the Battle of the Somme, in which there were 57,000 British casualties.

Mr Stockdale closed the service by thanking Mr Fisher for his personal memories and very moving address.

Picture: Head Boy Liam Chambers and Head Girl Katy Yates read out the Oswestry School Roll of Honour