successful season newsletter - stamford school 2011 news issue 33.… · opera and bbc national...

During the first week of theEaster holidays, 31 girls leftStamford en route toCourmayeur, Italy.

Whilst skiing, the group wassplit into four groups ofdiffering ability and all girlsshowed remarkable progressthroughout the week. Even thebeginners were skiing down redslopes by the final day!

Après ski, the girls had theopportunity to browse theboutique shops of Courmayeur and sample some of Italy’s delightfulgelaterias and creperies.

The evenings saw the girlspartake in various activitiesincluding ice skating, a pizzaevening, karaoke and apresentation evening.

Courmayeur ski trip

Into the wildThe Year 4s enjoyed a verydifferent camping experiencewhen they went on a three dayresidential trip in the woods of Cornbury Park, Oxford.

The outdoor course wasorganized by Mr Phillips andwas run by the BushcraftCompany who specialise inteaching children survival skills.During their stay the childrencooked their own meals,filtered water, administered FirstAid, built shelters from naturalresources, as well as learninghow to extract water and buildand light fires for survival andcooking.

ChambermusicAfter attending a chambermusic course in the Easterholidays, Benedict Swindells(Year 8) was invited to play alunch time foyer concert at theCardiff Millennium Centre,home of the Welsh NationalOpera and BBC NationalOrchestra of Wales, with othermembers of the course.

Although quite a journey fromStamford, it was much closerthan for some other people,one of whom travelled all theway from Norway. Benedict’squartet played a piece fromDvorak Cypresses; Nature LiesPeaceful In Dreaming.

First SES readathonIn June, 43 students from Stamford School, Stamford High Schooland Stamford Junior School gathered together to take part in theEndowed Schools’ first ever charity readathon.

The sun smiled upon teachers and students as they ploughedthrough their novels sat on the chapel lawn in St. Paul’s Street.Money raised from the event will support the work of ‘Friends ofChernobyl’s Children.’ Cecilia Hammond, who co-ordinates fund-raising and support for the charity in this area, joined the avid young readers on the Friday afternoon, having first officiallylaunched the proceedings. It is hoped that the readathon willbecome a regular fixture in the schools’ calendar and attract even more students in the summer of 2012.

Poetry prizeStamford High School pupilZoe Wilson has been namedwinner of the School Poet’sPrize for her wonderful poemabout a pupil being sent tothe headmaster to be told off.Zoe was presented with herprize by former PoetLaureate, Sir Andrew Motion,who visited Uppingham toread from his latest poemsand prose, and to discuss his current work on a sequelto Treasure Island.

As well as a cash prize, Zoereceived a signed copy ofAndrew Motion’s latest work.

EngineeringsolutionsSES collaborated withCummins GeneratorTechnology to design asolution to one of theircurrent engineeringproblems: the effects of heat sink shape and airflowon the cooling ofsemiconductor rectifiers used for rotating duty inindustrial AC generators.

The team of Emily Talukdar(project leader), Simon Taylor,Richard Wood and KatherineNoble presented their work at the Celebration Day atLoughborough University on the 5th April and will go on to represent Schools in the Big Bang event inNottingham on the 28th June.

Record speech and drama resultsAfter six full days ofexaminations, pupils at theStamford Endowed Schoolshave achieved their best everset of London Academy(LAMDA) Speech and Dramaresults – with a record numberof 47 pupils gaining their

Bronze, Silver and Gold Medals and all candidates –163 in total – achieving arecord number of Passes with Distinction.

Paul Galloway, Head of Speechand Drama at the Endowed

Schools, said, “Although theSchools have a proud history of outstanding LAMDA resultsover the years, never beforehave we had a majority of ourcandidates achievingDistinctions.”

CivicDaydebateSES pupils supportedEngland’s first ever Civic Dayby supporting a debate heldby Stamford Civic Society.

The debate aimed to encouragestudents to contribute to thethinking on local civic issues andtackled the motion ‘This Housebelieves that development forthe future is more important forStamford than preservation ofthe past’. Beth Cameron andRebecca Burney of the HighSchool and Matthew Kew andArthur Crawford of StamfordSchool put forward strong andconvincing arguments in thiscontroversial and hotlycontested debate.

Successful seasonThe Stamford High Schoolfootball team have had a greatseason this year, captained byRebecca Palliser. Highlightsincluded coming runners up inthe Under 18 national 6-a-sidetournament and runners up in the national under 18 11-a-side cup competition.

After wins against Uppingham,Welbeck and Oakham in thepreliminary rounds, the teamtravelled down to Didcot toplay the national cup final

and only lost to an impressiveCobham team in a hard fought match.

Five girls were also chosen torepresent the Midlands sidewith three girls going on to play at the Under 18 regionaltournament this year in March.Playing for the first time as ateam, the Midlands side played some excellent passing football and came a respectable 3rd place.

Orchestra concert70 students of the FirstOrchestra put in to practice allthe hard work from the weeklyrehearsals and produced anoutstanding concert atStamford School Hall.

The first performancetransported the audience toFingal’s Cave, evoking thechanging sea withMendelssohn’s HebridesOverture. The orchestra alsoresponded very well to themany demands of the music inmovements from Schubert’sUnfinished Symphony andBeethoven’s 8th Symphony

capturing sensitive, dark,powerful and energeticmoments. As vocal soloist ofthe evening, Abigail Ellisondelighted the audience withstunning singing of ExsultateJubilate by Mozart.

The repeat performance fromthe Autumn Concert of theIntroduction to Act 3 fromLohengrin by Wagner was acommanding and assuredinterpretation and the concertfinished with a rousing finalewith music from Lord of theRings and The Fellowship of the Ring.

Newsletterwww.ses.lincs.sch.uk Summer 2011 Edition 33

Vis

itw

ww

.ses

.linc

s.sc

h.uk

for

man

y m

ore

gre

at s

tori

es

Vis

itw

ww

.ses

.linc

s.sc

h.uk

for

man

y m

ore

gre

at s

tori

es

The

Stam

ford

End

ow

ed S

cho

ols

is a

reg

iste

red

cha

rity

no

.527

618

German exchangeSpringtime in the Rhinelandwas just as beautiful inGermany as England this year.

Arriving at the end of March feltmore like the end of April withpink blossom everywhere amidthe pretty pastel colours of thestuccoed facades of Bonn.

Alongside day excursions toBeethoven’s birthplace in Bonn,Cologne Cathedral, a Baroquepalace, a medieval castle and a boat trip down the Rhinegorge, the English guests were treated to the wonderful,

warm hospitality of their hostfamilies, enjoying additionaltrips to Phantasialand themepark, the Nurburgring and thefamous Haribo factory!

Four sixth form students wereable to enhance their linguisticskills still further during theirone week work experience atthe WDR national televisionstudio in Cologne, theheadquarters of DHL and the space research centre, das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt.

Children’s author Julie Hearnvisited the High School on 4th May.

She opened her talk to Y9 by reading a heart-rendingpassage from her novel The Merrybegot, setting thescene for an informative lectureon her six books. Pupils wereinvited to vote for theirfavourite versions of theproposed covers for Julie’s

novels, and discovered thatwriters have very little say over the final choice.

Over tea and cakes in thelibrary with members of theBook Group, Julie revealeddetails of her next novel.Intrigued by themes of timetravel and lost love, the girls are looking forward to thepublication date of the book.

Children’s author visits

Race for LifeRace for Life is Cancer Research UK’s flagship event, with over 300 events taking place across the UK.

On the 15th May, 2011 over 70 females from the StamfordEndowed Schools entered the Stamford Race for Life in BurghleyPark. It was amazing to have so many girls, parents, teachers andfriends and family from the Endowed Schools coming together for this worthy cause!

Our youngest entrants from SES were Rachel Harte, Nicola Cato,and Maddie Pike (all in Y1 at SJS) and Lottie Pike (in Y3). Well done to everybody who took part.

Our Speech and Prize-Giving days this year once again gave us theopportunity to reflect on and tocelebrate the remarkable achievementsof pupils across our Schools.

This has been another busy year, full of accomplishment in the classroomand beyond. At the Stamford SchoolSpeech Day, our guest speaker Mr Alan Duncan MP imparted some wise words to the pupils, advising thatthey adopt an international approach. By visiting other countries, they will not only gain an appreciation of other cultures, but understand what is special about their own.

In a School such as ours, these words resonate strongly. Over thecoming weeks, students will depart for New Zealand, Alaska andother states of the US, Norway, France and Poland. Whether thepurpose of their trip is to play rugby, study geography or history or to learn another language, the pupils are sure to return enriched by the experience and more mature in their outlook of the world. I hope that our pupils greatly enjoy their trips and I wishyou all a happy summer break.

Stephen Roberts,Principal of the Stamford EndowedSchools

An international approach

D&T updatedThe DT department at SHS was brought into the 21stcentury with the arrival of some new CAD/CAMequipment, purchased withfunding from a successful bid to the Wolfson Trust.

The equipment includes abrand new state of the art laser-cutter, a CNC lathe, a 3D printer, together with abrand new DT ICT suite of 14 computers and projectionfacilities.

The GCSE DT girls haveworked very hard this yearmaking use of the new facilitiesto produce some excellentoutcomes. Hatty Spark basedher designs on Pop Art andproduced a coffee table in theshape of a guitar.

The upper part of the tableincorporated recycled fabricsand most parts weremanufactured on the new laser-cutter and CNC lathe.Please visit our website formore examples of our pupils’innovative creations.

AnimalcampingOver the weekend of 21st May,29 pupils from Stamford JuniorSchool took part in the ‘AnimalCamping’ theme weekend.

It was a fantastic introduction to camping for first-timers,aided by the perfectweather. The children put uptheir own tents with helpfrom some willing Duke ofEdinburgh boys from thesenior school. They playedoutdoor team games, made animal mosaics andsculptures, and made factfiles about various animalsusing the computers andresource library.

EarthquakeappealJoe Cooke, Angus Green andTom Wire raised over £600 in afew hours bag packing forcustomers in Stamford’s Marksand Spencer store in aid of theChristchurch Earthquake Appeal.

All three boys are members ofthe Stamford School RugbySquad travelling to New Zealandin the summer for a rugby tour.They decided to raise funds andawareness of the 2011Christchurch earthquake as it is a possibility that the school tourcould still have a fixture inChristchurch.

The city is in great need oftourism to help boost theeconomy, and rugby in that city will be one of the maincommunity vehicles that aidstheir recovery.

Beyond the syllabusThe Year 10 RiFTT society has had an exciting 2011 so far, with awide range of excellent talks from girls on topics that may not beon any exam syllabus, but are fascinating in their own right.

All of the girls participating (more than 30 in the year group havedone so, with new faces still coming to join in) do a superb job atchallenging the speaker, asking excellent questions and stretchingeveryone’s thinking about the topic.

The recent speakers are pictured, and their talks have included“Cargo Cults”, “Carl Jung’s Theory of The Collective Unconscious”,“Predictions about The End of The World” and “Are we stillevolving?” The standard of all of the talks has been incrediblyimpressive and a very inspiring future Year 11 beckons!

Sarah Outen awarded MBEFormer Stamford High School pupil and renowned solo oceanrower Sarah Outen has received an MBE for her charity work.

Sarah celebrated her inclusion in the honours list alone on a bumpytrack in the Ukraine as part of her two-year solo circumnavigation ofthe globe by kayak, rowing boat and bicycle. Sarah, who was theyoungest person and the first woman to row solo 4,000 milesacross the Indian Ocean in 2009, was recognised for her sportingachievement and charity work.

Sarah has been a regular visitor to the Stamford Endowed Schools,giving talks to parents and students on her inspirational epicadventures and charity endeavours. The Schools are very proud ofher achievements and would like to congratulate her on her award.

Classics trip to Italy56 boys and girls from Years 10-13 across the Schools wereinvolved in this year’s classics trip to Italy.

Although they endured serious road congestion around the Bay ofNaples, the stunning views across the water to Vesuvius and theoccasional dolphin made for a spectacular backdrop. The inevitablehighlight of the first part of the trip is the visit to Pompeii, and thepupils were able to indulge in a full investigation of the baths,theatres, houses, temples and villas of those citizens who werekilled in the cataclysmic eruption of 79 A.D.

In Rome, everyone tends to have their own individual favouritemoment or monument. Some opt for the size and scale of theColosseum, for others, the remarkable ruins of the imperial palaceson the Palatine Hill or the arches and temples around the foruminspire. Some are impressed by the beauty and magnificence of St Peter’s basilica, the view from the top, or the Sistine Chapel.

Others tend to fixate on the quality of pasta, pizza or variety of ice-cream. There are those who revel in the sun, take a specialinterest in the Roman public transport system, or just share a jokeand a memory with the staff accompanying the party.

Combat CadetA team of eight cadets entered the annual Combat Cadetcompetition coming 4th out of 22 teams.

Team captain Ben Brooks led the chosen few through a series of testing command tasks, night navigations, an obstacle courseand a 5km run.

No prizes were won this time but we have our sights set on the2012 event. Lt Mike Holdsworth and Second Lieutenant SuzyMacCarthy supported the team throughout the weekend.

NationalphysicscompetitionsIn March, we entered girls into the Year 11 and Year 12national Physics competitionsrun by the British PhysicsOlympiad organisation.

They opted to do thechallenging 1 hour papers intheir own time and did reallywell. The questions aredesigned to stretch the mostable students and encouragethem to apply their physicsknowledge to novel andinteresting situations.

Congratulations to all thosewho were brave enough to take part!

Congratulations!Mr Leigh Ware (SS) and Miss Emma Jackson (SHS)were married at StamfordSchool Chapel on Saturday28th May.

The ceremony was conductedby Rev Mark Goodman andmany old Stamfordians werein attendance. Mr & Mrs Warelook forward to becoming thenew house parents of BrowneHouse in September.

Four Year 10 girls fromStamford High School visitedRugby School for the three day Extreme Physics event.Willow Fox, Cordelia Lang, Issy Henriques and Emily Joycewere caught up in a whirlwindof physics activities that were a far cry from their regularclassroom experiences.

The girls found themselvescharging around the streets ofRugby on the trail of a treasurehunt, built timing devices,devised new signallingtechniques and constructeddragsters capable of being

launched from pressurisedequipment. There were lectureson topics ranging from lowtemperature physics to comets,each delivered by an expert intheir field.

However, the highlight of theweekend was undoubtedly thetrip to Milton Keynes to try outthe simulated skydiving facilityat Airkix. In a vertical windtunnel with wind speeds up to150mph the girls experiencedthe exhilaration of flying atterminal velocity - truly anextreme physics event!

Extreme physics

Snail Trail35 children from StamfordJunior Schools’ receptionclass visited StibbingtonEducation Centre onWednesday 25th May to take part in the Snail Trail.

Activities involved ponddipping, making clay snailsand snail mosaics, andcreating spiral artwork usingnatural materials, in the styleof Andy Goldsmith.

The pupils were also able to observe the African Land Snail!

SpaceCentrevisitOn the same day as the firstever probe reached Mercury,an intrepid group of Year 5children visited the LeicesterSpace Centre and undertooktheir chosen roles ofCommunication Officer,Navigator or MedicalTechnician in Mission Control.

Problem solving tasks werecompleted brilliantly and, as a consequence of high levelteamwork skills, the childrensuccessfully launched a probeto rendezvous with an unknown comet, which theysubsequently named ‘Comet SJS’.

Vis

itw

ww

.ses

.linc

s.sc

h.uk

for

man

y m

ore

gre

at s

tori

es

Vis

itw

ww

.ses

.linc

s.sc

h.uk

for

man

y m

ore

gre

at s

tori

es

ChemistrycompThe Salters’ Festival is achemistry competition for Y8students and is hosted by arange of universities.

Based in an undergraduatelaboratory at BirminghamUniversity, the day involved lots of hands on practical workand working as a team to solve chemical challenges. The experience was made allthe better by the fact that theteam won the competition.After the competition they got to see a range of amazingchemistry demonstrations.

An Evening of StoppardAn Evening of Stoppard was performed at the Stamford CornExchange in the penultimate week of June. SES students fromYears 9 and 10 rehearsed hard for several weeks to perform threeworks from the pen of great contemporary British playwright, Tom Stoppard.

The evening began with the rollicking murder mystery play TheReal Inspector Hound, a delightful send up of the classic AgathaChristie genre. Thereafter, two short plays, Dogg’s Hamlet andCahoot’s Macbeth, continued with the themes of humour, darknessplus the mind boggling addition of a made up language tounderstand! The complexities of casting and directing twenty threestudents across three plays, building three sets and costuming thewhole lot was exciting, nerve wracking and ultimately a realpleasure. The students, as ever, both on stage and backstage, rose to the occasion beautifully, and we hope that all of ouraudiences enjoyed a ‘good night out’ at the theatre.

High note atStamford School The Bands Concert was a truedelight with a great manystudent performersrepresenting each of the threeschools. Highlights includedCharlotte Rodriguez's stunningperformance of ‘On My Own’and solos from Ellie Goodman,Emily Skelton, Carys Nally andAbigail Ellison.

Sam Robinson, a Year 10student, was equally wellreceived when he sung MichaelBuble's ‘Feeling Good’, backed

by the SES Big Band whichexcelled itself in its first concert.

After the interval, 65 membersof the SES Concert Bandplayed a varied programmewhich mixed the raw might ofselections from the Gladiatorand James Bond soundtrackswith the eye watering beautyand emotion conveyed by HighSchool pupil Becky Taylor'srendition of ‘Schindler's List’ onthe violin.

Netball in the CaribbeanOver Easter, 21 girls from theHigh School donned theirnetball kit and began a ten day tour of Barbados.

The first game was against theNational Development Squadand it was a closely foughtgame. After narrow losses theteams reflected and weremotivated to win. Both seniorand junior teams experienced

significant successes as theytravelled around the island forthe rest of the games.

They also had time to soak upthe Bajan lifestyle with somebeach time, a 4x4 adventureand a catamaran cruise. Overall it was a great learningexperience that has improvedthe team’s netball and left them with lasting memories.