THE
CHURCHERIAN
2019
HEADMASTER’S FOREWORD
04
VI FORM
44
JUNIOR SCHOOL
10
FIFTH YEAR
46
NURSERY
12
ART & DESIGN
48
RECEPTION
14
BIOLOGY
52
YEAR 1
16
CHEMISTRY
54
YEAR 2
18
CLASSICS
56
YEAR 3
20
COMPUTER SCIENCE
58
YEAR 4
22
DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY
60
YEAR 5
24
DRAMA
62
YEAR 6
26
ECONOMICS & THE EPQ
66
JUNIOR MUSIC
28
ENGLISH
68
JUNIOR SPORT
30
FRENCH
70
PARENTS’ ASSOCIATION
32
GEOGRAPHY
72
COLLINGWOOD
34
GERMAN
74
DRAKE
36
HISTORY
76
GRENVILLE
38
MATHEMATICS
78
NELSON
40
MUSIC
80
RODNEY
42
PHYSICS
86
COVER ARTWORK BY: LIZZIE BUNKER
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Editor
D Greenall
Design
G M Hadlow
PSYCHOLOGY
88
ADVENTUROUS TRAINING
128
BUISNESS & P0LITICS
90
OSCA
130
RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY
92
FIRST CHALLENGE
132
SPANISH
94
CCF RAF
134
STEAM
96
CCF NAVY
135
CURRICULUM SUPPORT & THE GRILL LECTURE
98
CCF ARMY
136
SPORTS SCIENCE
100
REMEMBRANCE EVENTS
137
RUGBY
102
DUKE OF EDINBURGH’S AWARD
138
NETBALL
106
TEN TORS
140
U15 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
110
DEVIZES TO WESTMINSTER
142
BOYS’ HOCKEY
112
CHARITIES & CAS
144
GIRLS’ HOCKEY
114
CHURCHER’S COMMUNITY
150
BOYS’ CRICKET
116
OC INTERVIEW - RHIDIAN BROOK
154
GIRLS’ CRICKET
118
DON BROOKS REMEMBERED
156
ROUNDERS
120
DEPARTING STAFF
158
ATHLETICS & CROSS-COUNTRY
122
TENNIS
124
SWIMMING & WATERPOLO
126
THE CHURCHERIAN
04
HEADMASTER’S FOREWORD are part of theatre tradition, its meat and drink, and therefore maybe the length and energy of the applause may not be the best measure of significance; maybe that should be the event with most press coverage. That accolade probably goes to the U15 triumph in the Independent Schools Hockey Cup, with live streams keeping all enthralled, including those in the back of a History lesson who may have been a little wiser and not posted their comments live! If not Les Misérables or national sporting triumph, maybe stories of the journey along the Silk Road in China as part of the biennial World Challenge expedition best set the tone for the adventure, enterprise and endeavour of the academic year 2018-19; then again maybe it is the ‘only-in-America’ sized, mammoth trophies won in the Lockheed Martin international computer coding competition which best defines 2018-19.
W
here does one start with a foreword to a magazine that chronicles a year? Dispensing with chronology for the moment, the obvious would seem to be with the major highlight, the one year-defining event; but that is where the trouble starts, as there are so many potential candidates for
Undoubtedly all these are worthy candidates for the award of ‘event of the year’ but, looking back, the moment that probably had the greatest impact, that told you most about Churcher’s, is marked by actually having no applause, no music, no sounds at all. this accolade. The event that claimed the most applause would probably have been the Senior production, Les Misérables, which was magnificent and will probably endure in many people’s minds as one of our best ever major drama performances, until, of course, the next ‘best ever’ comes along. Standing ovations
2018 was a significant anniversary, but 100 years since the cessation of a World War might be seen as too distant to have any relevance to Churcherians of today. That is not how the community of young and old here saw it. Through an honour guard of the CCF, under the newly consecrated War Memorial portal and past the silent
soldier, the whole school, adults and children alike, over a thousand souls, passed in absolute silence and with due reverence for what the war memorial and Remembrance ceremony meant. If you wanted a definition of Churcher’s you had it there in the shared community, the recognition of service given and obligations to come. What characterises Churcher’s the most is the contribution of individuals to the whole; one wayward miscreant amongst the masses during the Remembrance parade would have damaged the whole, but there was none and pin-drops could be heard. There were a number of exceptional parts to Remembrance this year, the impact of Pippa’s huge artwork masterpiece dressing the end of the art block or the wind band’s
solemn renditions of hymns such as ‘Abide with Me’ were certainly very distinct, but most significant was the respect given and the value awarded to the achievements and sacrifices of others, and that is what is most
defining about the community at Churcher’s. This endemic of mutual applause and support which we enjoy at Churcher’s does appear to encourage a remarkable level of involvement. Teenagers are often labelled as apathetic, disaffected, truculent and reluctant to get involved, but not here. It isn’t just the quality of national trophies or the spirit of community that I can celebrate at the end of a year but also quantity, the number of awards and the numbers achieving awards. Take, for example, music: there has been an embarrassment of riches, more Exam Board Instrumental Certificates to award and at a higher level than ever before 33 at the highest Grade Eight level with two who have
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ascended beyond even the exceptional and have the letters for musical diplomas to add to their names.
a remarkable backdrop to concertos and symphonies, but it was the mountains of Norway which were an equally stunning vista for our First Challenge expeditioners paddling through the fjords.
The tourists and locals on the shoreline of Lake Geneva would have got a taste of this Churcherian musical talent as this year was the turn of the Orchestra and Jazz Band to tour abroad; it will be the choirs next time. The lakeside mountains of Switzerland were A Level
Total No. Exams
2014
313
And when it comes to paddling, this year saw our largest fleet of K2 kayaks competing in the Devizes to Westminster Canoe Marathon. Maybe in a few years’ time the new-found canoeing Cumulative Percentage A*-A A-B A-C A-D 46.6 76.2 92.8 98.7
A* 10.7
A-E 99.7
2015
293
14.2
52.9
80.4
93.5
97.3
99.3
2016
350
20.7
58.1
83.3
96.4
98.1
99.7
2017
345
18.3
45.4
77.1
92.2
98.3
100.0
2018
307
21.5
54.8
87.4
97.7
100.0
100.0
2019
348
25.8
61.4
85.2
96.3
98.6
100.0
Cumulative Percentage
GCSE
Total No. Exams
A-C
A-D
2014
1152
28.6
66.7
89.6
97.7
100.0
1246
31.4
64.8
88.1
98.2
100.0
2015
1235
2017
1209
2016
2018
A*
A*-A 27.4
32.6
A-B
60.8
87.3
63.5
91.1
97.5
98.8
100.0
100.0
9
9-8
9-7
9-6
9-5
9-4
9-3
[Combined letters and number grades]
1348
22.0
43.5
65.7
83.9
94.2
98.5
98.6
2019
1212
25.3
49.3
70.8
88.7
98.1
99.8
99.8
talents of the Third Year expeditioners will mean we will once again find record numbers of Churcher’s Lower Sixth kayakers on the Thames. They may exceed the numbers of vessels but it will be interesting to see if they also exceed the number of trophies with this year’s ‘DWers’ coming away with the top school and 2nd junior team prizes.
the potential talent within us. It just needs to be drawn out: the conveyor belt of creative brilliance we enjoy here clearly shows such talent isn’t the privilege of just a few. Whether the same can be said about latent skills in Maths or Science or Languages or Humanities or whatever just waiting to be drawn out is debatable, but that all of us have at least some exceptional talent is evident from this year’s GCSE and A Level results. ‘Exceeding numbers’ is becoming somewhat of a habit here. We have such numbers involved in and, most importantly, completing The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme that we are deemed a premier direct licensing centre in Hampshire. That enthusiasm with the outdoors spills over into other opportunities as well and even the trials and tribulations of completing Ten Tors on Dartmoor did little to deter our three 35 mile and two 45 mile teams, with more students involved in that physically and psychologically demanding challenge than ever before.
With so much adventure and so many involved one might assume that the outdoors would be the theme of my concluding half-term letter to parents of the year, but two astonishing exhibitions, as the year came to a close, easily persuaded me otherwise. As is oft quoted ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ I won’t try to describe the extraordinary creativity that we were presented with at the annual Design & Technology Exhibition and Art Private View, except to say that it must be true.....that is, with so much creative brilliance on display year after year, we must all have
‘More than ever before’ is becoming a common theme in this foreword and the academic results carry on that theme. When something gets repeated time and time again one can become desensitised to the news, and I would have liked to have avoided using the phrase ‘record-breaking’ once again in respect to Churcher’s A Level results, but that is what they are: outstanding, our best ever, record-breaking. Once again the students at Churcher’s smashed all expectations of them; they have absolutely excelled in the classroom and outside. As I said in my press statement
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on the release of the GCSE results, I am an optimistic realist, but even so, to assume champagne-popping GCSE grades after record-breaking A Level achievements could be seen as pushing one’s luck. But the sun was shining literally and metaphorically as much on the Fifth Year as it had on the Upper Sixth. Comparing the apples and pears of letter and number grades is somewhat complicated but there is no doubting the buoyancy of this year’s GCSE results. This glorious success story is part natural talent, part brilliant teaching, but probably mostly the influence students have on each other. When everyone has a common aspiration to be the best they can be, the inspiration and influence infects all. Add to that the delightful camaraderie of a shared adventure and you have a heady mix that brings outstanding rewards. What a joy it can be to be a teacher! I will leave you to absorb more
Once again the students at Churcher’s smashed all expectations of them
of the flavour of the academic year just gone in the pages that follow and conclude with one reference back to where I began, and that is with the feeling of community. It has taken six years and 1,260 student hours and 173 tonnes of materials to complete the missing 15,840 inches; the circle is now complete and members of the public, the community of Petersfield, can circumnavigate the lake without getting their feet wet or muddy. Closing the circle of the footpath around the Petersfield Lake, which began with the Millennium Path, has been the job of our Community Action Service teams of Third Year and Lower Sixth over these last few years. It may seem that this academic year has been book-ended with stories of Churcherian contributions to the wider community in which we live, but it is not just the top and tail: in fact the year has been remarkable for such stories and long may it continue to be so. Simon Williams
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JUNIOR SCHOOL The academic year 2018-19 has been jam-packed with activities and connections, both learning ones and friendship ones.
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acey at times but always fun, CCJS&N children continue to throw every ounce of energy and enthusiasm into everything they do.
Mindfulness was an exciting introduction to the curriculum last year and Years 2, 5 and 6 were introduced to a block of sessions. Providing the children with other options and ways in which to manage their wellbeing is an important new aspect to the Junior School curriculum. We were delighted with our inaugural Wellbeing Day launched in June to celebrate and learn how to look after our minds and wellbeing. Reading has been and continues to be an important focus for the Junior School and Nursery
too and the celebrations around World Book Day last year were a particular highlight, including everyone’s favourite, a dress up day, and an interactive quiz where teachers’ voices were recorded for children to hear book extracts. It was great fun! With all that the children manage to achieve across the curriculum from academic to sporting, performances to outings and trips, underpinning all of this are the connections the children make to places, skills and knowledge, and most importantly the positive connections the children make with one and another. Ffion Robinson Head of the Junior School and Nursery
Pacey at times but always fun, children continue to throw every ounce of energy and enthusiasm into everything they do
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We have had a very lovely and busy year in the nursery. In the Autumn Term we welcomed all our new Owls and Pussycats and everyone settled into the new routines really quickly. With so many activities to choose from the children spent many happy days building, cutting, splashing and playing. In November we had a camp fire day. Mr Forbes helped us throw sticks in to the fire and taught us how to stay safe. We sang songs and read the story of ‘Stickman’ by Julia Donaldson. The term ended with our beautiful Nativity in the Nursery garden, with 20 little angels retelling the story of Baby Jesus with songs and music. In the Spring Term, the farm came to visit and we met all sorts of animals such as donkeys,
sheep and a turkey! It was fun to help groom some of the animals and stroke the rabbits. We even had a turn at walking the farm dog. The day the snow arrived was amazing! We wrapped up warmly and went outside to build snowmen and throw snowballs. To celebrate St David’s Day we invited Mrs Robinson in to show us how to make Welsh cakes. They were delicious! The Summer Term flew by with lots of gardening and planting amongst other things. In the garden, we have learnt how to look after plants and what they need to grow. We planted a sunflower seed to give to our Daddies on Father’s Day to continue to grow at home. Our role play area became an aeroplane and took us all around the world!
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RECEPTION Our year in Reception whizzed by in a complete blur; blink and you would have missed it!
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he children had a wonderful time during STEAM week where we learnt all about Space. Mrs Pendry turned the classroom into the children’s very own rocket! They also made their own rockets to launch in the studio. Music has been a prominent feature of this year. More often than not, children were requesting songs to which they could make up their own dances and perform shows to each other. ‘The Greatest Showman’ was the soundtrack of choice and everyone in the class now knows all the tracks inside-out!
The children were very fortunate to have gone on many trips and received a great number of visitors over the year. They visited Steep House, Waitrose, Pizza Express, the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and the Isle of Wight. They welcomed visitors for Remembrance Day, Ramadan, new Mummies and their babies, Turkish speakers, Indian chefs and many more! Creativity is always encouraged and over the year, the children have explored colours and shapes, construction, modelling, painting and drawing, all through a variety of topics and themes.
music has been a prominent feature of this year
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YEAR 1
Year 1 has had a busy year with the children enjoying lots of different styles of learning.
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hey have continued to benefit from being outside a lot and have embraced learning through play. Their historical study of Captain Scott’s journey was re-enacted and, amazingly, the snowfall in December proved perfect timing, so the children packed up their sledges and trudged over the school field to base camp! Learning to swim in the Senior School pool was enormous fun, with the children benefitting from being in small groups. They swam further and further as the weeks progressed and their confidence grew. They were even jumping off the diving boards by the end! There have been lovely trips, too, visiting St. Peter’s Church where the children investigated the different materials used to build the church, and learnt how a number of extensions had been added over the years. They also learnt about the inside of the church and looked at the Christening font and memorials. The children were also allowed to ring the church bell! The Weald and Downland
Museum was a lovely day out, with the children being able to investigate lots of old and different styles of houses. They pretended to be children from Victorian times and had lots of typical chores to do in the cottage! In class, the children loved the visit from a Mummy and new baby. The baby caused great excitement and he very patiently had a cuddle from lots of children. Year 1 was very keen to ask questions and learnt a lot about a baby’s growth and development. Gardening has been high on the agenda, with the children making full use of our lovely cottage garden area. From planting bulbs earlier in the year, to growing raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, herbs and lavender, the children have greatly enjoyed this experience. They have turned out to be excellent at weeding and love to spend time watering their produce.
learning to swim was enormous fun, with the children benefitting from being in small groups
NATIVITY
The highlight of the Autumn Term was the Nativity, where all three classes joined together to share the Christmas story with a packed studio of very proud parents, grandparents and friends.
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YEAR 2 What a very busy and productive year at the top of the Infant school!
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upils have enjoyed new and interesting topics, which have often featured a class trip or an assembly to share with the school and parents. In the Autumn, Year 2 had a very wet and windy walk to Liphook train station and doctors’ surgery as part of a topic on map making. They looked at all the local landmarks they could use for a map and even got the chance to meet the doctors, try the machines and
see one of the treatment rooms. Upon our return, they retraced their steps using Google Maps and then made their own amazing maps with labels and keys. In the Spring Term, Year 2 learnt lots about Kenya as we compared and contrasted it with their lives and local area. They had great fun sharing information about Kenya with the school and parents in a class
assembly, particularly enjoying dressing up and performing Handa’s Surprise, a story based in Africa. As part of a topic on materials, Year 2 enjoyed a wonderful busy day at the Winchester Science Centre. Starting with a visit to the Planetarium, they looked at the different constellations and planets and explored the universe, flying through space with help from their guide. They
then learnt about matter and saw some exceptions to the normal rules by experimenting with dry ice and slime. Year 2 explored the rest of the centre, trying on space suits, competing in running races and launching parachutes! The Summer Term was jampacked with an assembly, an Infant concert and a Sports Day! Year 2 also enjoyed a Victorian summer holiday on Hayling
Island as they found out what is was like to go on holiday in the past. We met the donkeys who took people for rides on the beach and gave the sanctuary a ÂŁ300 donation from a cake sale we had organised earlier in the term. Then they went to Hayling beach and played on the sand, built sandcastles, went on a train ride, walked along the sea front and enjoyed an ice cream. Everyone was exhausted by the end of the day!
HISTORY
History topics this year included Remembrance Day, marking the 100th anniversary since the end of World War 1. Year 2 visited Bramshott Church to see the War memorial and churchyard. Everyone was fascinated by the monuments and memorials to the 300 Canadian soldiers who died during or shortly after the First World War.
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YEAR 3 Action-packed is how you would describe Year 3’s year as the children have thrived and grown, physically, emotionally and academically.
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ll three terms have included trips and special themed days, assemblies or a show. There was a STEAM week in the Autumn Term and a Reading Focus in the Spring Term. The Summer Term enabled the whole year group to embrace their learning outdoors and make the most of the wonderful outside space. The other highlight was, of course, a spectacular ‘Showcase’ which involved every pupil in Year 3 singing and dancing for their parents. Assembly highlights have included an excellent piece of Roman drama by 3M in the Autumn Term and a ‘Mindfulness’ focus from 3P. Spring assemblies were based on an Anglo-Saxon Invasion (3M) and the important theme of ‘Friendship’ was covered by 3P. As part of their Music Education, Year 3 went to G Live to ‘Meet the Orchestra’.
To see the children’s faces as they heard live classical music at such close proximity was a privilege. Outdoor learning throughout the year has been encouraged and enjoyed by all the children and, especially, Mr Forbes! The year started with a Team Building afternoon where the children had an opportunity to bond with their fellow Year 3 pupils, tackling a selection of fun activities from orienteering to initiative exercises. This was followed at the beginning of the Summer Term with an amazing trip to Barfield School for our adventure day. This year’s ‘Showcase’ was a production not to be missed! Every child was involved in this and it certainly made a big impact on everyone who took part. The singing was amazing and everyone especially enjoyed the ‘School of Rock’ item performed by Year 3’s street dancers.
DAYS OUT
Among the many school trips were Butser Ancient Farm, Barfield School, the Sustainability Centre, and Selborne. Year 3 also had an Anglo-Saxon Day and Campfire which involved dressing-up, drama and arts and crafts activities, as well as learning a lot of history!
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YEAR 4
Bustling with activity and energy, the children have embarked on a huge range of activities from concerts to musicals, theatre trips to sports matches and tournaments.
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to encourage an ‘I can do it’ attitude. This was supported by 4T’s assembly on Perseverance and 4R’s on ‘The Koala that Could’.
The year started with an introduction to New Year – New Routines. The whole year group participated in some successful Positive Mindset activities
In no time at all Year 4 headed out on the first of some very enjoyable trips. We visited Southampton Art Gallery and learned about the beautiful Perseus Series by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. The paintings tell the story of Perseus’ adventures which linked our History topic on the Ancient Greeks with the
mazing learning, investigations and even documentary making has taken place throughout the year. Add to that opportunities in the school grounds and class-based work and you will realise that this year has been incredibly successful and productive.
study of Greek myths in English. When the children made their Medusa heads in clay, it brought the whole experience to life.
had a wonderful time and there were some sad faces when the time came to board the coach home.
The Spring Term saw lots of learning taking place in the shape of VIPERS – a new comprehension scheme which has enhanced the children’s reading skills. Added to this, the children have been writing Super Sentences to develop their creative writing. Throughout this year, Year 4 have been documenting a lot of their work and activities on Seesaw. They are now proficient in ‘posting’ their activities so that their families can share what they have been learning. This has been an exciting and innovative addition to their learning journey.
D-Day Museum
The year culminated in two very interesting and very different school trips, the first of which was to Penshurst Place in Kent for a Bushcraft experience. The children learned how to set fires, whittle tent pegs, cook delicious burgers over the fires, make a bivouac and a small animal trap amongst other things. Everyone
Our final trip of an actionpacked year was to the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth to coincide with the 75th anniversary of that historic event. The children found the exhibits exciting and they really enjoyed the workshop and trying on some clothing, playing with authentic WWII toys and re-enacting an air raid scenario.
STEAM Week Working in groups, the children learned about NASA’s real-life Mars Rovers, designed their own Rover around a Dash Robot and devised a program so that their Rover could collect some soil samples and follow a programmed route on ‘Mars’. It was both exciting and rewarding to see how well the children organised their groups so that everyone had a purposeful job
to do and co-operated well with each other in the sharing of ideas and facilities.
‘Three of a Kind’ The children loved working on the rehearsals and relished their evening performance to a very appreciative audience. Their singing and acting were outstanding!
Prize Winners! Pupils worked very hard on some short but very effective drama presentations of the story of Scheherazade from the Arabian Nights in their Drama lessons with Mrs Roberts. Their endeavours were so good they won the film competition organised by the Philharmonia Orchestra. The children were filmed by a professional crew and the clips were shown to a full Anvil Theatre audience while the orchestra performed some of the music from Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov.
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YEAR 5
An action-packed Year 5 has provided wonderful opportunities for all the children, whatever their talents, to shine and build their confidence.
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he year started with a challenging residential at Cobnor. Many children faced their fears of heights or water and, blessed with fantastic weather, it felt like a holiday! In time for their return to school, the children and staff had got to know each other and bonded well, ready for the year ahead. Later in the term, Year 5 spent an exciting day at the Gilbert White Study Centre in Selborne, where they increased their knowledge of the lifecycle of plants and developed their investigation skills. Activities included: clay modelling to form the components of flowers and
developing their microscope skills by viewing seeds, flowers and fruits that they collected from Gilbert White’s Garden. In the afternoon, they developed their group work skills, by making hypotheses and analysing the length of ferns along the zigzag path. Spring Term had a history twist, with a trip to Hampton Court on a windy Spring day. Workshops included a tour of the kitchens and also a return to the classroom for some Tudor maths! Back at school, as part of their Aztecs topic, Year 5 had a drama workshop in the studio, which brought this period of history alive and helped enhance
their learning as well as give them all a chance to dress up! Rounding off the Spring Term, the children all performed superbly in the Petersfield Music Festival before breaking up for Easter, giving them the rare opportunity of working with a large choir and singing with an orchestra. During a very busy Summer Term, pupils took some time to focus on their wellbeing for a day. The pace slowed down as they reflected on how to be healthy, mentally and physically. Activities included mindfulness colouring and collecting materials to make miniature gardens – it was great fun! In
by 5T in the Autumn Term, an Aztec spectacle by 5G and a scientific forces spectacle by 5T in the Spring. Both classes covered topics like Africa and the Tudors in the Summer Term. Their growth through the year has been clear to see as was their excellent delivery and calm and confident attitude shining out.
SCIENCE GOPHERS
the afternoon, the sun shone and they enjoyed the challenge of learning to juggle. Working in pairs, they encouraged each other to persevere, putting our hand-eye coordination to the test! A Shakespeare workshop on Macbeth, gave the children a hands on experience of this marvellous playwright and the results were astounding! In one morning, they covered the whole play and enjoyed every moment. An experience that deserves to be repeated – it will be ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ next! Assembly highlights this year have included plastic pollution
Year 5 visited the Senior School for an afternoon of hands-on science investigations. They were greeted by the Year 7 ‘gophers’, who did an amazing job at demonstrating a variety of exciting scientific activities, as well as explaining the science behind them. Pupils were wowed by the science and very eager to have a go for themselves! The various activities involved testing their sense of smell, constructing Cartesian divers and investigating the density of coloured liquids. The children were absorbed all afternoon and especially enjoyed working within the facilities of the Senior School and with the gophers.
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YEAR 6 Y
ear 6 enjoyed a fulfilling end to their time at the Junior School as they took on the responsibilities of representing and leading the school in all aspects of school life, from the sports field to the school council and from helping with infant playtime to reading at the Christmas Service. In the first term, the children’s teambuilding skills were put to the test on the Isle of Wight, where activities included an obstacle course, initiative tests and The Giant Swing. The children needed to work as a team to support and encourage each other and most found the courage to take the plunge and enjoyed the ensuing sense of achievement. Year 6 travelled back in time to the Victorian Age when they visited the Milestones Museum in Basingstoke, experiencing Victorian life first hand as they enrolled in the Board School and joined the apprentices at the Talisker ironworks. At school they used an abacus and slates with chalk. In the foundry they learnt about the changes that occurred in making all things
metal between 1809 and 1900. A truly hands on way of further enriching their knowledge of the Victorian Age. Pupils enjoyed another day of learning at the British Museum, supplementing their classwork on Ancient Egypt. Armed with iPads for gathering information the children met King Nebamun and his family, analysed hieroglyphs with the help of the Rosetta Stone, identified the clothes Ancient Egyptians wore and studied the mummified remains of important Egyptians and their pets. Statues from the period were also analysed and scoured for symbols and carvings. The gruesome process of mummification was fascinating, including the tools to remove the brains and organs to put in canopic jars, ready for the natron salt and embalming oils to dry and preserve the body. The children’s understanding of the world of Ancient Egypt significantly progressed because of their exposure to the artefacts. After the rigours of the Entrance Exam in January, pupils rolled their sleeves up for an action-
packed citizenship curriculum, starting in London with the Houses of Parliament. After the airport style security to enter the building they were treated to a detailed tour of the key areas. The children were fascinated to see where Lords and MPs sit and discuss the key decisions of the day. They saw where and how MPs voted and the impact of the monarchy on the running of parliament. Following Westminster Palace, they embarked on a river cruise to The Tower of London including a visit to the Crown Jewels and the torture chambers! Other highlights have included a parliament style debate about homework and school uniform, lifesaving in the Senior School pool and a Masterchef style cooking competition. The annual French trip consisted of a mix of adventurous activities and cultural and linguistic experiences. The visit to the market was a highlight for many, where the children were encouraged to converse in French and paid for their items in Euros. A World War One
Cemetery offered the children some time for reflection on the sacrifices some had made before us; all were struck by the sheer number of graves and the emotional inscriptions engraved on them. The visit to a local school gave the children an opportunity to meet their pen pals and after a hesitant start, the children were soon sharing experiences in French and English. For many of the children it was their longest stint away from home; however they
had little time to contemplate this as the evenings were busy reviewing new French vocabulary and playing French games. Adventurous activities included an impressive obstacle course amidst the trees and sand sailing, which was not for the fainthearted! The finale to Year 6 was the Summer Term’s performance of Macbeth, featuring darkness, tragedy, humour and great singing; all the ingredients for a knockout show! Held over
two nights, each class had the opportunity to perform as the main cast as well as support the cast as the chorus. The children put on an amazing performance, full of interesting characters, choreography and movement and melodious, collaborative singing. The audience experienced the action-packed scenes of the warring Scots and Norwegians, the mysterious chantings of the witches as well as the dark and dismal scenes in Macbeth’s castle.
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MUSIC
Our two Junior Concerts this year have showcased the wide variety of music making in the school.
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ur first concert, in November, was a fantastic insight into some of the projects happening in the classroom. Year 5 had been learning all about rhythm and learnt ‘The Cup Song’ as part of their unit and for 40 children to perform this together in time took a great deal of awareness surrounding pulse and fine motor skills. The result was very impressive! Year 6 had been busy forming a percussion orchestra and played a very sensitive performance of ‘Walking in the Air’ with solo singer Will Renshaw leading the way. They also showcased some musical theatre they had been practis-
ing in class, performing a scene from Annie with passion and confidence, bringing the house down with their rendition of ‘It’s a Hard Knock Life’ with soloists Ruby O’Reilly and Zola Thomas. Our Summer Concert showcased a very different selection of music and saw all the musical clubs take to the stage. The Orchestra, flute and recorder groups and brass band all performed as did our first ever CCJS Rock Bands performing ‘Wonderwall’ and an original song ‘Platinum Girl’, composed by the Black Knights. Perhaps most memorable may have been the Chamber Choir
performing with a musical maturity well beyond their years and highlighting the high standard of music which is achieved here at the Junior School. The way these children took on ‘One More Day’ from Les Misérables brought goosebumps to the audience and will be something we remember for a long time.
Infant Concert
The annual Infant Concert is a highlight for the school’s younger pupils in Years 1 and 2, who eagerly await their chance to perform solo, ensemble and whole class items to a friendly and supportive audience. This year we enjoyed an evening of music which enabled our Reception Class to also be involved. It is lovely to see such young children having the confidence to take to the stage and we really nurture these opportunities and support children performing in groups such as the recorder and dood groups as well as those wanting to do a solo performance. There was not a dry eye in the house when they all sang with such energy ‘Tomorrow’ from Annie as their closing number.
Petersfield Music Festival
Year 5 joined other schools in the local area to take part in the Combined Festival Choir at this year’s Petersfield Music Festival. They were excellent ambassadors for the school as always and really took to heart the advice about singing out during the performance and using their faces to convey the emotions of the songs. The Festival gave them many opportunities and experiences that they may not have otherwise had and all the children made the most of it!
High Hurlands
Following on from last year’s inaugural concert for the residents of High Hurlands, we wanted to continue this special relationship and invited them for a special afternoon of music. High Hurlands looks after physi-
THERE WAS NOT A DRY EYE IN THE HOUSE! cally and mentally challenged young adults who came and enjoyed tea and biscuits served by members of Year 5 and then sat back and enjoyed the music!
Open Day
This year the Music Department had an open-door policy which saw children of all ages come with their parents and siblings to create a music soundscape inspired by space. It was lovely to see children being free and creative working alongside their parents to create music with no boundaries or expectations.
Tea-Time Concerts The much-loved Tea-Time Concerts have continued this year, providing solo performance opportunities for our young musicians in a relaxed informal setting. The children continue to be enthusiastic about these events and it has been great to see so many parents and teachers supporting.
Senior School Collaboration
Our Junior musicians enjoyed a unique afternoon collaborating with the Senior School Music students who taught us ‘Ode to Joy’ and helped create a large orchestra made up of all our musical clubs to play together. It was so inspirational, and the younger children were excited! After we played all together, we were lucky to enjoy some performances from the older children. We hope to make this afternoon a firm fixture in our musical calendar!
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SPORT
This year has seen some exciting new additions to the sporting line up and continued successes across the curriculum.
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t is an honour to be Head of Sport at a school with such a strong sporting ethos. However I am most proud of the 100% participation in representative sport this year from children in Years 2 to 6, whether it be through inhouse matches or inter-school fixtures. Very well done to all the children and thank you to the parents who are instrumental in encouraging every child to get stuck in and have a go! With some changes to our set-up for this year, the Year 3s continued the precedent set by the Infants with both boys and girls taking part in each of the five main sports throughout the year: football, netball, rugby, hockey and cricket. The change saw a real breadth of experience on offer and it was fantastic to see the children realising hidden talents in sports they had never considered before. The new format also allowed for the addition of Pop-lacrosse and Ultimate Frisbee to the Year 3 PE curriculum, both of which were hugely popular additions and again provided
new opportunities for sporting success. The big change across the whole of the Junior School was the introduction of Girls’ Cricket which again proved incredibly successful. The girls really stepped up to the challenge of trying something new and the raw talent on show during the Summer Term was truly exceptional. So much so, in fact, that a number of the U11 girls were invited to club try-outs following the Hampshire U11 Prep Schools Girls’ Cricket Tournament where they finished in 3rd place. This success combined with some girls’ cricket taster sessions run by Grayshott Cricket Club and our Middle School Girls’ Cricket Festival held at the Senior School made for an excellent start and has raised the expectations of more to come! Matt Forbes
RUGBY
The stand out sporting success for this year has to go to boys’ rugby. Losing only four out of the 40 fixtures played from Years 3 to 6 and with tournament wins for the U10s at the Oakwood Rugby 7s followed by the U11s at the Boundary Oak, PGS and CCJS Rugby 7s, it was the most successful term on record and one that will be hard to beat!
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CHURCHER’S COLLEGE PARENTS’ ASSOCIATION
rums nd D a s k ts Kaya CCF Floodligh e Dron plays is D e c Scien UGA M rden ry Ga o s n Se bots IT Ro ssroom la oor C Outd
Summer Hoed own
Christmas Ceilidh Party Saturday 1st December 2018
Quiz Night Friday 1st March 2019
The May Ball Saturday 4th May 2019 for more information contact pa@churcherscollege.com
Friday 21st June 2019 5pm to 8pm
A fant as opport unity tic to mee other t pa and ha rents ve a great night!
The proceeds of PA events this year have contributed to the following: Table Tennis Tables, Visualisers, Floodlights, Board Games, Sports Hall Exam/Pace Clock, Team Building Equipment, Science Displays, Twitter Cameras, Knitting Kits, Picnic Benches, Branded Mugs, Portable Pop-up Gazebos Whilst we aim to give accurate information, please note that details are subject to change. We will keep you all updated
churcherscollege.com
code: Dress y and Countr es W tern
Venue: Churcher’s College Junior School
S ATU R DAY 4 M AY 2 0 1 9 A N U N M I S S A B L E E VE N I N G O F ST R I PPE D B A C K L I VE M U S I C F R O M T H E FA B U LO U S S U PE R 8
Entertainment provided by the Woodsiders Barn Dance Band Fairground stalls American BBQ Moonshine Bar including American beers, wines, bourbon and gin Book tickets via Wisepay
T I C K E TS £3 0 P E R H E A D F I Z Z O N T H E L AWN F R O M 7 P M 3 CO U R S E D I N N E R
GIN BAR B L AC K T I E CA R R I AG E S AT M I D N I G H T
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COLLINGWOOD The House has continued to get stuck into all that they do...
...whether that be in the classroom, on the fields or on the stage and this has resulted in the House continuing to go from strength to strength. Our House Captains deserve much of the credit for the spirit in the House and it has been a pleasure to work with Pea Rushin, Jess Wilson and Marcus Davies who, over the last year, have been a great support to me and have made an excellent contribution to the school as a whole through the School Council. They, and all our leavers will be missed and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for their contribution as they go onto bigger and better things! In the House Cup, the House has been fully committed and I believe managed to achieve my goal of no empty lanes in any House Competition. In the Academic Cup our Achilles heel has traditionally been our performance in the quizzes and that continued to be the case this year where we managed a creditable top four finish overall;
I know our tutors will continue to work on our quizzing knowledge in form time this year. There were also some notable successes on Speech Day and Lower School Prize Giving where we topped the pile but we were beaten by the red of Rodney to the effort prize this year despite some impressive efforts from the Third and the Fifth Years in particular. Traditionally we have found success in the Performing Arts Cup to be elusive, however that has not been the case recently and our performers in the House Music were simply amazing with winning performances in the Junior Vocal, Junior Instrumental, Senior Vocal and Senior Instrumental which gave us first place overall and the Performing Arts Cup. The Sports Cup has been an area we have traditionally had a lot of success and while there were some notable successes such as winning the First and Second Years rugby, netball and the Senior swimming gala overall we
didn’t manage to win the Cup. I was particularly proud that so many stepped up when they were needed, with the Jackson twins returning from Study Leave to help the House on Sports Day when we were down on numbers shows excellent Collingwood spirit! Overall the House has had an excellent year and whilst we did not manage to achieve our aim of winning the House Cup for the third year in a row, everyone has helped the House continue to work hard and achieve well. All the leavers from the House whether they be in the Fifth Form or Upper Sixth will be missed and I hope they will continue to hold a special place for the Palatinate House in their hearts. Well done to all in Collingwood! Ben Seal
MY WORD, IT’S A PLEASURE TO LOOK BACK ON ANOTHER AMAZING YEAR IN COLLINGWOOD
CHARITY
Our charity this year remained MNDA. One of my highlights of the year was seeing so many in the House building some awareness of what it must be like losing one’s voice by not speaking for a morning on our ‘Silence Speaks’ campaign. At the BBQ following the event the pupils who attended definitely made up for their quiet morning. I did managed to teach my lessons without my voice for a morning and I definitely appreciated a small part of the frustration that must come with the early stages of this disease. Hopefully others in the House and round the school have taken the same message. The success of this day was not just building an awareness of the disease around the House and the School but we also managed to raise £1,115.82 which has been donated to MNDA.
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DRAKE
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aving had nothing more to celebrate than a ‘top five finish’ in the House Cup for the last three years, and finding it increasingly difficult to put on my ‘good loser’ face in the final assembly of the school year, you can imagine my joy when this year’s House Cup results were announced and, as Mr Williams always announces the positions in reverse order, I found that Drake wasn’t mentioned first, second or even third: this year, we came out second, losing out to Nelson by a relatively small margin.
It was in the Sports Cup that we performed most impressively, and whilst winning the Swimming Cup and the House Cross Country competition was a fantastic achievement , if I’m being honest it was our victory on Sports Day that was not only the icing on the cake but the cherry on the top (along with a generous helping of multicoloured sprinkles). This isn’t, I hasten to add, because Sports Day is more valued or higher profile than the other sporting competitions; it’s purely because when we pipped Collingwood House to the post in the 2018 Sports Day (winning by only 1 point), I know there were a lot of people who believed it was a fluke that the yellow house was victorious, and so to seal last year’s victory with a second consecutive win not only cemented our continuing strength in the sporting arena but, I hope, has silenced all of the naysayers. I can’t close this report without mentioning this year’s House Captains and Vice Captains: Anya Pigden, Ryan Wilkinson, Sarah Moses, Ella Lacey, Halcyon Sheen, Tom Bloomer and Oli Fitter have led by
example throughout their time in the House and all six of them fulfilled their roles with dedication and a great sense of humour and I have very much appreciated their support. I wish them, and the rest of the Upper Sixth Drake leavers, every success and happiness in the next stage of their academic careers.
There’s a great team spirit in Drake House and whilst (admittedly) I may be biased, in my opinion it’s not only a successful but a friendly, welcoming and fun-filled House. Long may this continue and here’s to another happy, busy and (hopefully) very successful 2019-20. Suzanne Herrington
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GRENVILLE
Another busy year for the Grenville pupils and staff and one in which we have all worked hard and played hard.
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ur grip on the Academic Cup may have loosened this year, but we must not be too greedy having won it for the last five years: I like to think of it as Grenvillians showing their altruistic manner and letting others have a chance! Speaking of altruism I have been absolutely delighted with the charity fundraising efforts of 1G. The previous 1G set a high benchmark, raising about £1,200; the new 1G were not daunted and set about eclipsing their forebears. They did so in style, raising over £1,300 during the course of the year. My personal favourite is the collective effort of the Christmas Hot Chocolate Sale, and witnessing the mayhem of a group of 11 and 12
year olds trying to collect the money and then serve about 200 cups of hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles! 1G were ably supported by 2G in this, and throughout the year, so I would like to thank 2G for being excellent “peer buddies” to the year below. Another highlight was the House Music Ensemble: a talented Fourth Year bunch led the way, accompanied by many First, Second and Third Year pupils – the stage was barely big enough for the 15 of them, and their rendition of Toto’s ‘Africa’ was infectious. It is sad to say goodbye to so many talented Upper Sixth Formers this year: my thanks go
to the House Captains, Lyssie Hoe and Carl Flohr, who were amazingly efficient and had things organised before I had even asked. I hope they are all delighted with the A Level results – I know I am very proud of what they achieved. 4G also said goodbye to Miss Gardener and I am sure she was delighted with the Grenville green netball they presented her with! Jon Seaton
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NELSON
Nelsonians have, once again, been at the heart of everything Churcher’s.
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rom First Year to first team we enthusiastically contribute to school sport. Many of us enjoy sports beyond the traditional team sports and outdoor adventure, too. We have budding GB athletes, swimmers, sailors, hockey players and equestrians, as well as expeditioners. Many of us play sports at county level and beyond, of which we are very proud; at the pinnacle Alysia Gibson continues to compete internationally in windsurfing and continues to pursue her Olympic dream whilst taking a gap year. Team sports are not the only team arena, and the performance of our wonderful 4N ensemble in House music was a personal highlight in my year. In the performing arts world, leading lights such as Frances Flannagan and Elizabeth Turner, who have led the college orchestra, are exceptional musicians in their own right.
However many of us excel in the arts in the broadest sense. Emily Langrish’s artwork featuring her grandfather, an OC himself, is an outstanding example of artistic flare, creativity and skill. We celebrate the broad life we lead at Churcher’s; however, our core activity is our academia. At the very top in the GCSE world, Zoe Blackburn achieved the straight run of Grade 9s in her examinations. At A Level, Flo Anderson, Emily Bradford, Lottie Clarke, Matt Crane, Caitlin ElliottHughes, Frances Flanagan, Charlotte Golding, Charlie
Muir, George Smitherman and Elizabeth Turner achieved A and A*s across the board. And taking it a step even further, Imogen Morrogh and Holly Porter achieved achieved a straight run of A*s at A level. Indeed, there were many personal successes and they were not all about As and 9s; the goal is to be ambitious and do our best and we certainly did that! Have I ever mentioned that I consider our House to be ‘family’? Our House Captains, Frances Flannagan and Zac Rodber and our Vice Captains,
Imogen Morrogh and Nick Tomlinson, have truly been exceptional role models. Our entire Upper Sixth family have all enriched House and College life; they are future fund-raisers, entrepreneurs, sports leaders, expeditioners, captains of industry, politicians, philosophers and psychologists. It is not always easy to conclude these reports, but this year is easy. WE WON THE HOUSE CUP! Richard Hoe
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RODNEY
A year in which the already full extra-curricular program was even busier than usual and the pupils of Rodney House were centre stage.
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he detractors would like to suggest that involvement in such activities is at the expense of academic performance but this year that could not have been further from the truth as, both at A Level and GCSE, the public examinations results were outstanding. Within the classroom the pupils of Rodney also demonstrated their determination and hard work by coming second in the Academic Cup. What was very encouraging was the contribution made by pupils at every level in the House. The Third and Fifth Years won their respective quizzes, the First Year received the most prizes on Speech Day
but the stand out statistic was the effort totals from the termly reports. The First Years and Lower Sixth pupils came first in each of the three terms and the Upper Sixth were first in the Autumn. On the sporting front we also had some excellent results. The First and Second Years and Senior girls took the honours in Netball while the former two were also placed top in Rounders. The boys also had some excellent results with the Fifth Form winning the Rugby and the Third Year coming first in both Hockey and Cricket. The mixed Second Year tennis team also won their event. Well done
to all involved and hopefully the many second places we achieved this year can be converted to winning positions next year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of Rodney House, both pupils and staff for all their efforts and support over the last year and for making it such a successful one. I would also like to thank the Captains and Vice Captains of Rodney for all their work throughout the year. John Yugin-Power
CHARITY This year’s chosen charity was Centrepoint and, of course, there were the usual cake sales but three endeavours stood out as being particularly special. The whole House were invited to take part in a 24hour challenge in the gym, running, rowing and cycling the distance required to cross the north Atlantic. With an unforeseen delay for snow, by mid-morning on the Saturday they had managed to cover the distance from Churcher’s to the south of France. Some of those involved then got on a coach to travel to away fixtures! The second significant event was the 1R Nuts Challenge, which involved a large group of 1R taking on a very muddy and wet obstacle course and finally Jude Franklin used his involvement in the DW event to fundraise for the House Charity and raised a very substantial sum. Collectively the pupils and staff of Rodney raised in excess of £3,500 for Centrepoint this year.
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VI FORM
2019 A Level results “The Best Ever!” 26.3% A*, 63.2% A*-A, 85.5% A*-B
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ne of the best days of the year is welcoming the new Lower Sixth in September, when they arrive full of energy and enthusiasm for the new academic year. The first week of the year is also invariably sunny, often in contrast to the end of the holiday, and whilst this all too predictable weather shift is frustrating for all returning from holidays, it does make for a bright, optimistic atmosphere full of hope and ambition. The new Lower Sixth arrived in Ramshill to be welcomed by the Sixth Form Team and it was great to see how welcoming the students were to those who had arrived from other schools. It was far from a gentle ‘easing in’ to the new school year however as they were put through their paces confirming their subject
choices and listening to a lecture on study skills from Elevate Education. Friendships were furthered at the annual Teambuilding day at Calshot and this helped the year group to settle quickly. Early in the Autumn Term we also
TILDY BILLSBERRY-GRASS AND JACOB HALDENBY WERE EXCELLENT CAPTAINS OF COLLEGE, ABLY SUPPORTED BY FLO ANDERSON AND ARCHIE PHILLIPS
had a new ‘Captain’s lunch’ which this year was a Mexican and some of the Captains, ViceCaptains and staff dressed up for the occasion, raising money for charity in the process. Lots of pressure was brought to bear on the piñata, which did not last long and the fancy dress dodgeball tournament was equally well contested. missed their university offer by a grade, but last year’s trend of universities accepting such students continued and by midday on results day, very few of the Upper Sixth were without a university place. This year’s results were the best we have had at A-A*, an impressive 63%.
The Upper Sixth returned to what turned out to be the toughest term of their academic lives in more ways than one. UCAS dominates the Autumn Term for the Upper Sixth and this necessitates a huge amount of extra work over and above the academic demands of their A Level subjects. University research, drafting and redrafting their personal statement and puzzling over the complicated details of their UCAS form all add to their already significant
impress on the sports fields, on the stage, in the numerous ensembles, as members of Young Enterprise companies, which this year will be replaced by Tycoon Enterprise, amongst the local community as part of the Community Action Service and much more besides. The Sixth Form Committee has gone from strength to strength, helping to make improvements to the academic and social life in Ramshill and discussing issues about life in the Sixth Form. A
workload and it is an exhausting term both physically and emotionally. I must pay tribute to the work of the Personal Tutors too, who work so hard to ensure the students’ UCAS applications are the very best that they can be.
sub-committee was responsible for the Leavers’ Ball which once again took place at Old Thorns; a magnificent occasion with its Carnival theme.
INK MAGAZINE
We were all very pleased indeed when the A Level results were published, proving that all the hard work throughout the year had been worth it. A huge number of Sixth Formers gathered in the Garden Room to celebrate their results. Some had a nervous wait having
The school’s academic publication, INK, was published for the sixth occasion, and none before have been so big. The breadth of interest of Churcher’s students is staggering and this is borne out by the wide variety of university courses to which our students apply.
The Sixth Form students have also impressed with the range of their achievements. Alongside the exceptionally hard work they put into their academic studies the students
I wish the class of 2019 every success in the future. Bill Baker
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2019 GCSE Results “Quite Exceptional!” Grades 9 – 7 (A* - A) 71.2% Grades 9 – 5 (A* - B) 98.2%
FIFTH YEAR T
here were some excellent opportunities to unwind and reward ongoing good work for our Fifth Form this year away from the pressures of GCSEs! Mocks ended with a welldeserved tea party and we introduced a Wake Up Through Movement start to the day with form groups participating in dodgeball, netball, indoor rounders, indoor football and sitting volleyball among others! Web Free Wednesday saw phones put away and the Pavilion buzzed instead with
the sound of conversation and board games, who knew that Uno could get so competitive? Study leave began with great day out at the New Forest water park, although the water was a touch chilly! To round off a fun-filled year, the Fifth Form Committee organised a fantastic end of year Prom at the Lythe Hill Hotel, which has certainly raised the bar for future proms! Laura Snowball
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ART & DESIGN Our annual Summer Exhibition was a fantastic success this year with guests treated to a wonderful and diverse display of work produced by the GCSE and A Level students.
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his proved to be a good indication for the Summer results, which were exceptional. I believe that this year’s Upper Sixth A Level work was one of our strongest ever, the quality of work was, at times, stunning. At A Level, 60% of the students achieved an A* and 100% achieved A* to B, with one student, Saff Wood, achieving 100% marks. At GCSE a staggering 96% achieved a 7 or above with almost 50% achieving the highest grade of a 9, with two students awarded 100% by the exam board. To achieve the maximum possible marks is a huge achievement and in these three cases well deserved. Stand-out pieces at the Exhibition included Saff Wood’s figurative paintings, executed with a fantastic amount of skill and preparation. Emily Langrish exhibited an amazing photo realist painting of her grandfather. This brought a lot of comment with guests finding it difficult to believe that such skill could be shown by a relatively young artist. Sophie Laughton and Pippa Tuffin chose the popular theme of ‘Plastic’ for their exam project, with both producing interesting and highly skilled outcomes. ‘The Street’ was another popular exam theme with Connie Porter, Ella Mitchell, Lizzie Bunker and Alysia Gibson all producing fantastic
SAFF WOOD
TATE MODERN
During the Autumn Term, Fourth Year and Lower Sixth students visited the Tate Modern for an insight into some intriguing contemporary Art. This led to the students producing pages in their sketchbooks revealing their interest and understanding of this work.
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SAFF WOOD
JAMIE LAND
EMILY LANGRISH
SOPHIE LAUGHTON
LUCY JACKSON
CONNIE PORTER
VICKY FARMER
individual responses. ‘European’ was the other favourite exam choice with Flo Anderson producing a final piece which showed great creative skill and composition, while Emily Glyde’s powerful canvas on the same theme depicted the plight of refugees. All of these students produced interesting, engaging work and showed a dedicated and committed response throughout their A Level studies. A very impressive display indeed. The busiest studio at the Exhibition was again the Lower Sixth room where each student set up a display, including large canvases as well as in-depth critical studies work on other artists. Also included was some more experimental use of materials to produce abstract mixed media outcomes. The standard in this room was also incredibly high and bodes well for next year when they complete their course. The remainder of the Summer Exhibition was taken up with GCSE work and filled the two main studios. This display illustrated the great level of diversity of knowledge, creativity and skills that the students who choose to study Art & Design at Churcher’s are able to achieve. During the year the Third Year students had the opportunity to each produce a Self Portrait
canvas, a huge success with the majority of pupils producing outcomes that even surprised themselves. Projects undertaken in the First and Second Years have included 3D relief constructions where the pupils looked at the work of Oldenberg and other Pop Artists, as well as wire relief ‘drawings’ and architectural studies incorporating the work of Gabo and Calder. First Years studied Van Gogh and Cezanne for their colour mixing project. Al Saralis
LEST WE FORGET
As part of the 100 year commemoration of the Great War, Pippa Tuffin’s remarkable painting of a figure draped in the Union Jack flag, produced in the Lower Sixth, was reproduced as a huge banner bearing the words ‘Lest We Forget’ and hung at the end of the Art block . This striking and monumental piece was visible upon entry to the College and remained for the whole year.
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BIOLOGY Churcher’s students excelled at The Royal Society of Biology academic competitions.
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or the first time this year, the Lower Sixth Biologists took a road trip to Slapton Sands in Devon for a four day field course, which proved to be immensely enjoyable. Whilst practising many familiar and unfamiliar sampling techniques, they trapped moths and small mammals and also took a bat walk.
Competitions The Royal Society of Biology runs several academic competitions each year, aimed at Year 10, Year 12 and Year 13 students. The Junior competition (Year 10) is called the Biology Challenge, and is taken by nearly 50,000 students across the world. The top 5% achieve the Gold medal. This year, five Churcher’s College students won Gold medals –
Josiah Wilson, Mara James, Jack Foremen, Oliver Fogelin and Jasper Jones. All Gold medal winners are invited to apply for a ticket to the Awards ceremony at the IET London, and this year Josiah was the only Churcher’s student lucky enough to get a ticket (only 40 tickets are given!). The Lower Sixth students also achieved great success in the Senior competition, called the Intermediate Biology Olympiad, with Jude Franklin achieving Gold, Katie Hutchinson Silver and Will Coni a Bronze medal. Mandy Westwood
FALCONRY
Hawkeye Falconry paid another visit in the Summer Term, to show the First Years the amazing adaptations of raptors. Almost every child had the opportunity to fly one of the six owls who came to visit, and the visit was followed up with the dissection of the box owl pellets which Alistair brought with him, to find out what the owls had eaten for breakfast that morning!
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CHEMISTRY
It has been a busy year in Chemistry, with competitions, trips, extra-curricular clubs and fireworks!
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n November a group of First Year pupils investigated the Chemistry behind fireworks, looking at how to get different coloured flames as well as how to make things burn really well! In the Summer Term the Second Year Academy group learnt about gunpowder and other explosives. For obvious reasons practical work and demonstrations in this area are more limited; while the pupils can make their own paints making their own high explosives is something that is prevented by serious safety and legal issues! The pupils were able to investigate aspects of explosives such as
the role of oxidising agents, the difference between substances burning and exploding, and the difference in power output when the same fuel burns or detonates. Due to popular demand we ran an extra session to allow the pupils to do some more practical work.
course left them with a greater appreciation of the skills that painters such as Leonardo, van Eyck and Canaletto had, as well as some sympathy for their apprentices who spent the hours grinding the pigments to make them suitable to use in the paint.
The Fifth Year Academy group spent half a term working on making pigments and paints from scratch. Prussian Blue and Green Verditer were, as ever, popular choices. The students then mixed the pigments that they had made with the oil binder to make a workable paint, something that they found was much more challenging than they had expected. The
David Dunster
Chemistry Olympiad This competition is aimed at the most able Upper Sixth students and is used to select the best four students in the country to
form the UK schools team which competes in the International Chemistry Olympiad. Just over 7,000 of the best A Level chemists entered round one this year, with the top 577 awarded a Gold Certificate, the next 1,750 a silver and the next 2,100 a Bronze. Over a third of those that enter do not achieve a Bronze. Two students from Churcher’s College entered the Chemistry Olympiad this year. Holly Porter in the Upper Sixth was awarded a Silver Certificate and Ollie Mutch from the Lower Sixth was awarded a Bronze Certificate.
Cambridge Chemistry Challenge This is a competition run by the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge University. It is very similar to the Olympiad but aimed at students in the Lower Sixth or below. This year we had a bumper crop of 11 students taking part. 9,023 of the best of the 50,000 or so students studying Chemistry across the country took part. Only the top 813 (9% of the entries) were awarded Gold Certificates. Since the competition began in 2011 we have had six students awarded Gold Certificates - this year we had another five achieve Golds, along with four Silver Certificates (the next 19% of students) and one Copper. The questions are much harder than at A Level and require the students to relate work from different parts of the course as well as to apply ideas that are explained on the paper which they will not have come across before. Exposure to this much more demanding style of question will stand them in good stead when it comes to the full Olympiad and degree level work. Congratulations to Gold Certificate winners Will Hipsey, Callum Francis, George Whittle, Ollie Mutch and Tim Orchard; Silver winners Noel Shipley, Peter Hindson, Katherine Hutchinson, Thomas Parmenter and Copper Certificate winner William Coni.
GCSE Science Live! The Fourth Year enjoyed a variety of talks given by leading scientists on a range of topics. The highlights for the pupils were Prof. Lord Robert Winston and also Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, whose ability to explain complicated ideas in an engaging way while making fun of herself made a real connection with the audience.
THIS YEAR SAW A BUMPER CROP OF STUDENTS TAKE PART IN THE CAMBRIDGE CHEMISTRY CHALLENGE
COSMETICS CLUB
Some enthusiastic Second Year pupils helped by Charlotte Evans, Flora Edward and Kaitlin Shaw, made soaps, lip balms, body butter and more for Cosmetics Club. Their stand was very popular on Open Day with lots of people wanting to make their own versions to take away, as well as the free samples that were on offer.
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CLASSICS The Classics Department led a group of 26 GCSE and A Level Latinists, Classicists and Ancient Historians on a four-day trip to Rome.
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he glorious weather and our central location in the heart of historic Rome allowed us to explore every part of this glorious city on foot, including the Pantheon, the Colosseum and the Roman Forum amongst many other highlights. We were even treated to a light show projected onto the Pantheon temple in the evening. But it was not just the famous sites that made our visit special; there were the smaller reminders of the Romans embedded in the fabric of the modern city, a Roman temple façade round one corner, a small forum (now a cat sanctuary!) in another. We also managed a coach tour to the ruins of Ostia, the ancient port of Rome, Hadrian’s opulent villa at Tivoli and the Catacombs. A visit wouldn’t be the same without also sampling the hundreds of icecream flavours and the odd pizza or two! In March, the Second Year spent the day visiting two
local sites with links to Roman Britain: Fishbourne Roman palace and Butser Ancient Farm. At each site the pupils were introduced to the concept of RomanoBritish culture, and examined the way that the Celts and Romans impacted on each other’s lives and, in particular, their houses. Returning to school full of information, the pupils each created an original project that demonstrated what they had learned: models of roundhouses and RomanoCeltic villas, infographics highlighting their differences, comics, stories and even short films were presented in class. Greek Club has been in full flow this year, giving pupils the chance to get to grips with the complexities of Ancient Greek, quickly producing fluent and accurate translations of famous myths and stories, as well as studying the culture of the Greeks. In particular, we have looked at the discord between the Athenians and Spartans, how they fought, their ways of life, and their influence on our modern world. It has been wonderful to see such enthusiasm from a wide variety of year groups in Greek Club, and Mr Gibbins looks forward to continuing the sessions next year. Jon Hegan
COMPETITION SUCCESS
Several projects were also submitted to the Classical Association’s Artefact2Art Competition: Isaac Lucraft’s short story won first prize in his category, winning him a place on a historical fiction masterclass in London, and Noah Jarrad’s comic on life before and after Roman invasion was Highly Commended! Both pieces went on display at the Classical Association Conference exhibition in London in July.
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COMPUTER SCIENCE F
ollowing on from last year’s success in the Lockheed Martin Code Quest we entered the Lockheed Martin Cyber Quest challenge in October to test students through a series of Cyber Security challenges. Once again we came out champions in the UK and actually seventh against an international field of entrants all on the same day. At Easter we once again entered the Code Quest and achieved second and third in the Advanced category and a first in the Novices. A hard act to follow! First Years enjoyed creating Games for a Club or Society, with the competition element inspiring some really excellent games. Second Years created
Apps for Charity and selected Apps and Games from both years were showcased at the Red-Hat Coding Competition in the Summer. For further enrichment, we brought in a speaker on Cyber Security who gave our Computer Scientists an insight into the Cyber Security industry and the many opportunities available for lucrative careers. IT in the Third Year continues to offer students not taking Computing the chance to develop useful Functional Skills that are recognised life skills, using Microsoft Office tools and Graphics editing tools. The Digital Leaders have continued to make a great
contribution to the Department and IT across the school. They have helped test out hardware and software and are great at discussing ideas that affect students with our IT Helpdesk and Senior Management. Gaming Club continues to thrive and take over the whole Department on a Monday and Friday lunchtime! Karen McCathie
EXCURSIONS
A number of visits throughout the year provided invaluable experiences outside the classroom: IBM Festival of Innovation was the first outing for select Third Years; a trip to the BETT Education Show for Technology for Second Years from the Digital Leaders club; a series of lectures for Sixth Form Computer Scientists at the Computing in Action day in London and the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park for Fourth and Fifth Year students.
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DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY actually start to be assembled. It was not a fire station or pirate ship, but the culmination of hours upon hours of blood, sweat and tears (no metaphor intended) and is in fact what they originally intended to create, hurrah!
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t can be tough at times to appreciate life as a Design & Technology teacher when, in the midst of January, your arrival at work precedes the waking of the sun and your departure is long after the sun has dropped back into its wintery slumber. This is prime manufacturing season, when your waking hours seem packed full of “How do I make this?” “It wasn’t supposed to look like that!” and “It’s broken in two… How do I fix it?!” For what seems like an indeterminable period of time, what is supposed to be a GCSE or A Level project just appears like some form of massive Lego set, however, one which has no instructions, lots of missing parts and the outcome is yet to be determined; is it the fire station or the pirate ship?! However, as January rolls in to February and March there are moments when the light illuminates the workshop, where previously the piles of materials strewn around workbenches
Fast forward to May. The sun greets you each morning as you swan into work under its umbrella of warmth and optimism; the workbenches lie dormant and clean, devoid of the previous evening’s debris and the echoes of hustle and machine bustle are long since silenced. The final link in the chain is completed with the gym swelling with perfectly presented projects, accented with subtle lighting to emphasise the attractive design lines; immaculate Design pages adorn the presentation boards and the ambient music belies the frenetic activity which led up to this point. As May rolls into June the creature which is the NEA (NonExamined Assessment) beats back into life again as Lower Sixth and Fourth Year pupils dip their toes into the pool of endless design opportunities and the cycle starts again. Year on year we strive to see all pupils maximise their potential, producing design portfolios that tell a story from initial research and developing designs, which will blossom into tangible reality. Steve Edington
IMMACULATE DESIGN PAGES ADORN THE PRESENTATION BOARDS
NEW HOME
As many of you who have visited the site will have seen, the temporary accommodation is now complete. Our technicians undertook a very cathartic process of decluttering 20 years of “Oh we’ll just keep hold of that…” and, combined with a further four weeks of hard work in sweltering conditions, have transformed an empty shell into an all singing, all dancing D&T Department, our temporary home for the next 12 months!
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DRAMA
Drama has continued to triumph this year, undoubtedly with our senior school production of les misérables at the forefront of its success.
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ith over 115 students involved both on stage and behind the scenes, the production really did demonstrate the ongoing collaborative nature of life within the Performing Arts Department. Our gifted cast raised the roof with their vocal talents and the audience really did ‘Hear the People Sing’! The acting was second to none, evident in the fact that there was not a dry eye in the house! During the Summer Term, we held auditions for our Senior
Production of Laura Wade’s Alice and as always, we had a fantastic turnout. Students really stepped out of their comfort zones to demonstrate the wacky nature of some of the most well known characters in theatre. The Hatter was madder than ever, the White Rabbit was his usual quirky self and the audition panel held onto their heads tightly during the Queen of Hearts auditions! The performance in the Autumn
Kirsty Foreman
Term promises to be as quirky and action-packed as the auditions! This year saw the introduction of our very first ‘Panto Week’ where we witnessed something quite magical, with the whole of the First Year performing their very own mini Pantomimes to the rest of their year group. It was a huge accomplishment
to get an entire year group on the stage and to perform so effortlessly and confidently in front of their peers and it says a lot about the amazing pupils we have here at Churcher’s. This was a fantastic week with lots of ridiculous costumes, dad-jokes, singing, dancing and all round fun!
Sixth Form Drama student Kirsty Foreman successfully fought off fierce competition from across the UK to win a role in the National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) Summer production, Growl. Over 1,000 students from across the UK auditioned for just 30 places in the production which is an original take on the Big Bad Wolf. Kirsty played a variety of different characters and spent a large part of the show on stage. To succeed, Kirsty had to attend two rounds of all day workshops at NYMT where her drama and musical talents were fully tested. “I’ve always told myself that if I can believe I will achieve” explained Kirsty. “I’d like to work in the West End eventually so this is an amazing opportunity and experience for me.”
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Once again, our fantastic GCSE & A Level students produced another set of brilliant results and performed some of their outstanding exam pieces as part of the Annual Drama & Dance Evening in the Summer Term. The evening was a roaring success with pieces addressing some of the most relevant social issues of the present, including the ongoing refugee crisis, the progression of feminism and the evolution of the freedom of speech act. Amongst these thought-provoking pieces was the hilarious duologue from Jim Cartwright’s Two, as well as the brilliant performance by our Musical Theatre group, not to mention the slick performances by our Dance groups, where we saw a range of styles including Contemporary, Lyrical and Musical Theatre.
As always, students had the opportunity to stretch their knowledge of theatre by accompanying us on several trips, encompassing a range of styles including Musical Theatre in London’s West End, Physical Theatre using the work of the fantastic Frantic Assembly, as well as productions that showcase all of the different design elements in theatre. We also had a very informative Stage Make-Up workshop with Amber Shaw of London School of Make-Up where our backstage crew really explored their craft and even got to practice on each other! After another year of chaos, examinations, extra-curricular and productions, we are really excited to go even bigger and better next year...watch this space! Stacey Carty
LAMDA SUCCESS
Extra-curricular Drama has thrived this year with 114 of our LAMDA students achieving bronze, silver and gold medals for the formal examinations, of which 83 achieved a Distinciton, as well as another successful year at the Godalming Festival where our students won an array of awards. Our Junior & Senior Drama Club students have been exploring a variety of scripts and really experiencing the development from page to stage and, as always, our dancers were able to develop too with our visiting dance teacher Danni Lannoy, who ran the Street Dance Club during the Autumn Term.
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ECONOMICS T
his has been another outstanding year for the Economics Department. We started the year with a fantastic set of results: 56% of students scoring A*-A in their A Levels and Will McCathie achieving the grades he needed to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University. The year was book-ended with our best results ever! 74% A*-A and 100% A*-B. Well done to Sarah Moses, Jessica Willson, Imogen Morrogh and Joe Bowling for their A*s. Outside the classroom our students have been busy with enterprising activities. Our Young Enterprise team ‘Made By Us’ impressed with their cookbook of family recipes that they produced and sold successfully at a range of trade fairs. They were rewarded for their efforts by winning ‘Best Presentation’ and ‘Best Teamwork’ at the South Hampshire Area Final. The Economics and Business students also had the unique chance to apply their knowledge to real world situations by attending a Dragons’ Den event run by Draper Esprit. This was a unique opportunity to learn about venture capitalism and meet and question a range of CEOs. Martin Hill
THE EPQ The Extended Project Qualification is growing in popularity amongst students, and universities are increasingly recognising this highly valuable qualification.
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o reflect this national growth, we have significantly changed the structure of EPQ. Students in the Lower Sixth now are taught a range of crucial skills, including how to conduct primary and secondary research, how to reference and how to plan and structure the report. This year, ten Upper Sixth students completed their projects and the range and diversity of subjects was impressive, from ‘The cause of Hadrian’s accession: Plotina’s influence or Trajan’s wishes?’ to ‘Giggles the Chimp: a children’s cartoon episode’ and ‘Making a longbow in the style of Agincourt’. Presentations of their project took a marketplace format where each student had a stand in the gym and spoke to staff, parents and supervisors about their projects. As the number of students undertaking an EPQ grows this event will become an even more impressive display of the research that goes on in our Sixth Form. To help the students with their research we are very grateful to be closely linked to Southampton University. As one of the many Russell Group Universities that make lower grade offers to EPQ students, they are keen to promote it in schools. As such Dr Emma Thompson has been into school to speak to our new students, and our students have also had the opportunity to visit Southampton University’s Library to conduct their research. This was a fantastic experience both for their EPQ, but also to prepare them for undergraduate study. Martin Hill
Design and build a Shepherd’s Hut
Making a longbow in the style of Agincourt
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ENGLISH
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he new year was barely underway before we had the good fortune to travel to nearby Bedales with a party of Fifth and Sixth Formers to hear one of our most prominent poets, Simon Armitage, reading a selection of his poems and talking about the various influences behind his writing. Always infused with his trademark dry humour, Armitage’s presentation proved how to be a performance poet in the very best sense of the phrase, leaving students with
the impression that even the most mundane of objects and experiences can provide material for those writers who are prepared to truly listen and observe. Later in the Autumn Term, our Sixth Form students visited the Donmar Warehouse for the performance of one of Shakespeare’s most problematic plays, Measure for Measure. Josie Rouke’s original production, which forced us to confront our preconceptions about gender and justice, was a challenging introduction to their examination text for the Lower Sixth, though some of the ideas were exploited to excellent effect by the Upper Sixth in their A Level mocks (and, I hope, in the Summer examinations).
One of the highlights of a busy year was the annual English Speaking Union public speaking competition. Our Fifth Year team of Zoe Blackburn (speaker), Will Bentley (questioner) and Tommy Howells (chair) swept through the branch final at the Bishop’s Palace, Chichester, on a cold afternoon in late January, successfully arguing what we all know to be true – that learning philosophy is as valuable as learning mathematics. Advancing to the Regional Final at the ESU headquarters, the elegant Dartmouth House in the heart of Mayfair, the team this time chose to support the view that patriarchy is not dead. Despite a commendable performance from all, with Will awarded best questioner for the evening, the judges decided to
advance Salesian School to the final round at our expense. It was a disappointing end to an exhilarating occasion, but one of which all three of our team should feel justly proud. David Cave
FRANKENSTEIN
Mrs Daniel was in her element on Open Day, supervising the transformation of 15 of our First Year pupils into Frankenstein’s monsters in recognition of their study of Mary Shelley’s seminal work (albeit it in the form of Philip Pulman’s playscript adaptation). If you wondered who those green-faced horrors were as you ambled around the school site on that scorching day in July, here’s your answer!
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FRENCH
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e are delighted with both A Level and GCSE results; our students worked so well. There have been amazing essays from our Sixth Formers as well as some impressive written paragraphs from our Fourth and Fifth Years. Margo, our French assistante, worked tirelessly to make all our students feel confident to hold various discussions in French. We said au revoir to her in May and look forward to welcoming Hermione for the next academic year. It has been an eventful year, which took many of us out of the classroom and into the real world. More than 30 students stayed at the beautiful Château de la Baudonnière in Normandy, a trip packed with exciting activities culminating in a TV interview whilst visiting the D-Day landing museum in Arroman-
ches. This allowed our school to witness some of the celebrations commemorating the 75th D-Day landings anniversary. With language immersion at the heart of the trip, our pupils baked bread à la française, ate crêpes à la crêperie, spent their Euros au marché, and friendships were forged whilst looking after the rabbits and chickens at the Château. We look forward to going next Easter again. Our Second Year students continued exchanging letters with a collège near Nantes, and we will hopefully be meeting them as they come to visit Hampshire next Summer.
Our year finished in style during Open Day with fantastic outfits displayed in our fashion show and delicious as well as stunning looking cakes for our International Bake Off competition, which was a real success this year again. Our Second Year students ran the Continental Café with panache and we therefore managed to raise over £300 for MNDA. We look forward to many more visits and exciting opportunities in the next academic year. Nicole Sparks
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GEOGRAPHY Geography has seldom been far from the front pages of the news media this year…
YOU PLAN YOUR TRIPS BASED ON CLIMATE, BUT WHAT YOU GET IS WEATHER…
…with growing awareness and concern over Climate Change, the Brexit challenge to our regional geo-politics and the ever growing flows of international migration. Such issues feature strongly in the GCSE and A Level curricula and rarely have so many lesson plans and case studies needed updating for topicality in a single year! Indeed, a number of our students have been sufficiently motivated by climate concerns that they have added their voices to the Climate Action and Extinction Rebellion protest marches. Fieldwork remains a key feature of Geography, as we seek to test the application of the theories and models studied in the classroom to the real world. However, while climatologists can model
climate, hydrographers can predict tides and we can reserve slots in the busy school calendar, we remain at the mercy of the weather. The First Years enjoyed the best of it this year, with a wonderful blue-sky day at Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door in June, followed by the Fifths at Portsmouth Harbour and the Seconds at Marwell back in the Autumn. However, the Upper Sixth and the Fourth Years battled wind and rain to record data in their respective trips to Highcliffe in the Autumn and Summer Terms, and the Lower Sixth fared little better for three consecutive days in Dorset in November. The Thirds had an overcast, but essentially dry day in the New Forest in June. To paraphrase a clip from a very old geography video tape, “you plan your trips based on climate, but what you get is weather…” August brought welcome sunny days for our best results at both A Level and GCSE. At A Level, our students achieved 74% A*-A and 95% A*-B. The A*s were earned by Imogen Morrogh, Maddy Jackson, Emily Jupe and Marcus Davies. At GCSE 34% of pupils achieved the top grade 9 and 83% grades 7-9, with Katie Harris attaining the highest overall mark. David Nighy
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GERMAN
The German Department continues to have excellent examination results at A Level and we are very proud to have many talented Germanists.
THIS YEAR HAS SEEN A LOT OF INVOLVEMENT OF SIXTH FORMERS IN MENTORING AND CO-TEACHING
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e launched an exciting Christmas Market Trip to Cologne this academic year. First and Second Years visited the many wonderful Christmas markets in this beautiful city and the famous cathedral. They had a great time in the Lindt chocolate museum, learning about the history of this chocolate brand and sampled its delicious products. The trip gave the pupils an invaluable insight into some of the
German Christmas traditions and they were able to practise their spoken German. The 14th exchange to Warendorf took place in April. Immersed in German culture and language our Third and Fourth Year pupils had a wonderful time experiencing school life and family life in Germany as well as taking part in exciting trips. Phantasialand, a large theme park near Cologne, was again the highlight of the trip but our
visit to Dr Oetker World in Bielefeld and to Signal Iduna Park, the famous football stadium in Dortmund, were also much enjoyed by all. Everybody looked forward to seeing their exchange partners again for their return visit to Churcher’s College, which followed in May. This year has seen a lot of involvement of Sixth Formers in mentoring and co-teaching pupils from lower years. Carl Flohr accompanied me to
the Junior School to help give Year 6 an insight into the German language. We taught numbers and colours through playing football in the classroom. The pupils learnt quickly and interactively and were able to use the words they had learned with confidence and excellent pronunciation. German Club in the Junior School is flourishing and this is thanks to Frau Becker making the club a fun club. The pupils attending it describe
it as amazing and are looking forward to it every week. I am also extremely grateful to Megan Knight and Max Walton for dedicating their time to getting involved not only with the Junior School but also helping out in the Third and Fourth Year lessons once a week with a smile and much enthusiasm. It makes a huge difference to the pupils in those year groups to have an extra helping hand in the lessons.
We were very sad to say goodbye to our German language assistant from Austria, Sophia Lafner, who took regular conversation lessons with every year group from the Second Year to the Upper Sixth. Sophia will be greatly missed as she captured the pupils’ attention with a wide range of activities and games which made them practise their German language in a fun and imaginative way. Dr Ariane Broomfield
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HISTORY
Another busy year for the History Department in which we have brought history to life in and out of the classroom with a busy programme of trips, lectures and enrichment activities.
Krakow and Auschwitz
A fabulous set of pupils headed to Krakow and Auschwitz over Easter; they all behaved with sensitivity and compassion. Visiting the Schindler Factory and then the Galicia museum, they were fortunate enough to witness an incredible, but also harrowing, talk from a Holocaust survivor. The students were exemplary; torn between speechlessness due to emotion and wanting her to understand their gratitude for her sharing her story, they hit the exact balance between respectfulness and inquisitiveness, entirely grasping the privileged and time-limited nature of their experience. Visiting Auschwitz was transformational: the guides led us through a deeply personal journey in which we all struggled to understand the scale of atrocity perpetrated there. In contrast, the pupils enjoyed the beauty of Krakow, the much needed release of traditional folk dancing and a trip to the Salt Mine. This was a soul-lifting experience in which we saw chapels and statues hewn directly from the rock salt which were indescribably beautiful. Overall, it was a profoundly thought-provoking trip.
Paris and Versailles
“Mr McLearie’s tour of Revolutionary Paris was a highlight of the trip; he knew so much and was funny with it! I also really enjoyed having some free time eating our French picnic in the Tuileries Garden. Versailles was huge and a bit
showy, but we saw the royal apartments where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette lived.” Ela Bozdag
Ypres and the Somme
“The best part of the Battlefields trip was when we went to the Somme. It was really moving to see the smaller cemeteries all around the area, but I also thought the huge cemetery at Langemark was really sad to see, as it showed the sheer size of the death toll. The hotel in Ypres was really nice and so central, especially as it was almost next door to a chocolate shop!” Luke Offer
Tudor Trip
“It was fascinating experiencing for ourselves the monastic system Pre-Reformation (at St Cross we had beer and ale, a meal traditionally given to travellers). I really enjoyed walking through Winchester to look at the Abbey (to see how architecturally a monastery could have looked like before
1536), as it was lovely weather and the landscape was beautiful. To then see the ruins of Netley and Titchfield Abbeys gave me a real idea of all the destruction that occurred in the mid 1530’s.” Maddie Walker Moffitt Highlights of our extra-curricular lecture and enrichment activities have included: • Second Year visit to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight • A Quantum Theatre performance to commemorate the First World War. • ‘The Directory: France 1795-1799. What were its chances of survival?’, by David Andress, Professor of Modern History, University of Portsmouth. • ‘Fear and terror in Tudor England: Court life under Henry VIII’, by Prof. George Bernard, University of
THE LIFE OF SOE AGENT LT VIOLETTE SZABO, GEORGE CROSS, CROIX DE GUERRE BY HER DAUGHTER TANIA SZABO
• • • •
Southampton. ‘How far did 1917 present a turning point in Russian History?’, by Chris Corin. Third Year Art and Poetry Competition: ‘Never Such Innocence’. Lower Sixth visit to the cinema to see the film ‘Mary Queen of Scots’. ‘Young Brave and Beautiful: The life of SOE Agent Lt Violette Szabo, George Cross, Croix de Guerre’, by her daughter Tania Szabo.
We were delighted to welcome Tania Szabo to Churcher’s College to tell us about the incredible life of her mother Violette Szabo SOE. Over 300 people came to hear her speak and were moved by this very personal and unique testimony about Violette and all the
influences on her life that led her to become one of our leading SOE agents. We were told about her bravery in occupied France and her death at the hands of the Nazis at Ravensbruck. What was particularly poignant was her mother’s willingness to leave her daughter and risk returning to take part in the fight against Hitler, knowing that she might never see her child again. All attending were struck by Tania’s response to a question from the floor when Tania expressed the view that in doing this her mother had made the correct decision. At the end the audience could see all the medals that both her parents had been given, both whist alive and posthumously. Helen Jolliffe
WEDNESDAY 23 JANUARY 2019 7.00PM
Churcher’s College Lecture Theatre
ACADEMIC NEWS A Level results: Our A*-A: 57% (History record!), A*-B: 80% IGCSE results: For IGCSE we achieved a very strong number of Grade 9 (40%), Grade 8-9 was 72% and Grade 7-9 was 87%. We look forward to introducing a new A Level course this coming year with a new unit on Churchill and a look at Britain through the years 1951-1997.
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MATHEMATICS
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aths is one of the most popular subjects in the school with over half the Upper Sixth students opting to take the subject at A Level. As well as being popular it is also very successful, with both A Level and GCSE results being outstanding this year. 31% of students achieved the top grade of an A* at A Level and 84.8% of pupils achieved grade 9-7 at GCSE.
Maths Challenges We entered 180 pupils into Maths Challenges this year of which 58% received a Gold, Silver or Bronze certificate. Congratulations to the following pupils who all performed exceptionally well and were invited to go through to the next level. Evan Cocksworth-Jones, William McIntyre, Laurance Horwood, Samual Waring, Sid Brockwell, Kieran Kenyon, William Ashing, Harrison Knight, Chris Butler, Henry Robinson, Joshua Coates and Oliver King. Well done to you all! Tracey Greenaway
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MUSIC
G
iven that there are SO many events, concerts, trips and tours happening over the year, I find it difficult to sum them all up without writing a report that takes up far too many pages! Let me begin by congratulating the 123 pupils that passed ABRSM exams, an outstanding 23 of them at Grade 8 standard, plus two of our Upper Sixth musicians, Isabella Herraman–Stowers and Elizabeth Turner who achieved their ABRSM Diploma - a first for Churcher’s!
Our Grand Summer Concert summed up the amazing music of many of the ensembles that rehearse on a weekly basis and also featured our talented Upper Sixth musicians, to whom we said a sad goodbye, but with all
our best wishes for the future. The concert began with a terrific showcase of our incredibly talented brass players playing ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’, complete with gong and bass drum, closely followed by the Junior Strings and Junior Wind Band, who joined together for a performance of ‘Lord of the Rings’. This performance demonstrated the talent we have in the younger years and seeing 70 players on stage fills me with excitement for the future. The Junior Chamber Choir, which gives our young singers the chance to be a part of a smaller vocal group, delighted all with their rendition of ‘Another Day of Sun’ from La La Land. The Orchestra gave two performances in the concert, the first giving the leaders of the orchestra, Elizabeth Turner and Frances Flannagan, a chance to wow the audience with their double violin concerto, a fitting end to an incredible seven years of music making which has seen both of them achieve Grade 8s and beyond. The Orchestra also entertained the audience with a Mexican style piece called ‘Danzon’, complete with all sorts of percussion instruments! The Senior Chamber Choir never fails to impress at concerts and they have been a highlight of many a concert through the year, performing a range of sacred choral music at the
Remembrance Concert, the Carol Services and the Spring Concert. The Choir also sang Evensong on Mothering
Sunday at Buriton Parish Church. This concert provided an opportunity for the choir to demonstrate its versatility by performing some pieces in a very different style: a four part arrangement of an African American Spiritual, ‘Wade in the Water’ followed by ‘Oh Happy Day”. They certainly brought the house down! The Senior Jazz quintet started life two years ago and this year, under Mr James’ new leadership,
have gone from strength to strength, learning a large repertoire that has enabled them to play at several functions at school. The Upper Sixth A Cappella group is a very special pupil-led group, set up in the Fourth Year on the return leg of a tour to Bruges as a reason to keep singing together! They produce some extraordinary performances, as you’ll have seen with their performance of ‘White Christmas’ at the Carol Concert. They have not only rehearsed themselves, but instead of just performing music that other composers have written, to make their group unique, they arrange all their songs themselves and for their final performance, Elizabeth Turner had arranged ‘My Heart Will Go On’. A spell-binding performance. The second half of the Concert opened with the Senior Wind band who, thanks to their wonderful conductor Mr Cree,
produced two highly polished and professional performances of ‘Montagues and Capulets’ and ‘Pixar Movie Magic’, creating a very lively start to the second half. The Wind Band has enjoyed playing at various high profile events this year, including the Remembrance Parade, Senior Speech Day and Founders Day and every time I hear them I am bowled over by their polished performances. Alysia Hoe has been leader of the Senior Wind Band this year and if there was one person that we could rely on to be setting out the chairs at 8am ready for SSA rehearsal on a Monday morning as well as putting away the chairs from Wind Band at 5pm on a Friday, it was Alysia!
123 PUPILS PASSED ABRSM EXAMS, 23 AT GRADE 8 STANDARD The Junior Choir have enjoyed a great year, kick-started by their tour of Amsterdam in the blazing heat last Summer. They have sung at various school concerts this year, including the Junior Cabaret last term and they gave a high quality performance here of ‘Sing’ with Ruby Hall as their soloist.
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The Jazz Band have had a fantastic year, led by another of our extremely talented musicians, Ryan Wilkinson. Ryan has such skill, whether he is playing classical, jazz or any style of music. He has been involved in more ensembles than I can name here over the years and has developed into a superb musician. The Jazz Band performed the energetic ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, followed by the famous ‘Feeling Good’ where they were joined by the sensational India Easson–
Hastings, another outstanding voice. Like the Chamber Choir, pupils audition for a place in the SSA Choir. The SSA have maintained a fantastic reputation over the years and rightly so, always taking pride in the quality of their performances. They not only sing in our main concerts through the year, such as the Remembrance concert / Carol service / Spring concert, but have been known to tour in their own right. They brought the
house down with ‘Mamma Mia!’ One group of musicians have decided that the week is not long enough to fit everything in as they come in to school on a Saturday morning to rehearse and have fun! And have fun they most certainly do! One of the lovely parts about Rock School is that all pupils from the First Year to the Upper Sixth join together to play some great music and their performance in this concert was no exception, as Elizabeth Turner and the band encouraged all the younger
pupils to join them on stage with their inflatable guitars, performing ‘Ain’t It Fun?’ by American rock band Paramore. Their performance also included a completely homemade Lego video that kept the audience amused! And finally, it was time to say goodbye to our Upper Sixth musicians. We are going to miss them hugely, but in their time with us they have achieved an extraordinary number of Grade 8 exams, performed in
countless concerts and events and have been an amazing set of students to work with. I would like to say a general ‘Thank You’ to all of them for everything they have contributed to over the years and in their performance of ‘Start a Fire’ from La La Land. In the final ensemble of the evening, the Senior Choir created a stir with their performance of ‘Africa’ by Toto, complete with rain, thunder and lightning at the start, followed by a medley of classics from ‘West Side Story’
to bring a dramatic end to the concert. The Choir has totalled a record breaking 100 members this year and been ably led by Immi Evans, who has had the unenviable job of keeping tabs on all of them! Helen Purchase
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Orchestra and Jazz Band tour to Lake Geneva. The customary beginning to a Churcher’s College School Trip is an early start and a coach full of excited, but tired students and this year’s Orchestra Tour to Lake Geneva was no exception. Having departed school at around 4:30am, we arrived at the airport and got the bus to Montreux for a quick look around before arriving at our hotel in Leysin (having negotiated many zigzag bends giving us some incredible views). We then had an amazing afternoon going up the Berneuse cable car and looking at the 360 degree views over the mountains and lake, then coming back down for a relax in the pool. That evening, having had dinner in the buffet restaurant, we had a rehearsal for the upcoming concerts. We spent our first full day at Évian-les-Bains where we took a trip in the funicular train and sang Happy Birthday to Mrs Purchase! We also had time to walk around and drink the famous water from the fountains. Then we took a boat on Lake Geneva to Lausanne and had some lunch and a look around. Afterwards, another boat trip to our first concert venue, Yvoire, a beautiful medieval village on the lake. Our concert there went really well – despite it being a very hot 38 degrees – and it was lovely to see familiar faces in the audience. The next day we explored the ice caves in Chamonix. We got on the Train du Montenvers to the Mer de Glace and then the cable car down to the Glacier to visit the ice caves. It was an amazing experience, walking
down 430 steps into the caves. Also a massive contrast from the 33 degree heat outside the cave. We also were able to see an amazing view of Mount Blanc once we were back up on the mountain. In the evening we drove into the mountains to Argentière. The setting was amazing, with snow covered mountains behind the village square in which we played. When we began the concert, there was a little rain. Then there was a lot of rain! We picked up and carried all our instruments and music stands and restarted the concert in the village hall. It was lovely that the audience came with us... and helped us with carrying everything! The audience must have been around 200 strong and gave us a standing ovation at the end. Our last full day was spent at the Aquapark, a great way to cool down from the heat and it offered an amazing collection of scary rides together with private direct access to the Lake. Once again, everyone had a brilliant time and we were excited about our final evening concert. After the water park, we wandered around Montreux and had dinner at a pizza restaurant on the side of the Lake. Due to a thunderstorm, our final concert was inside, but equally as amazing as the others and for some of us in the Upper Sixth it really was our final Churcher’s College concert! Thank you so much to all of the teachers who organised and played a part in making the tour so enjoyable and memorable. Flo Anderson
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PHYSICS
Another very busy year of activities both inside and outside of the classroom to enrich the experience of all those students in the school.
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ur nearly 70 strong A Level students had the chance to visit London and the A Level Physics Live! Series of Lectures, with notable speakers such as Dr Ben Goldacre, Dr Helen Czerski and the always brilliant Professor Jim Al-Khalili talking about how the quantum world blends into the biological species of our planet, fusing the sciences together.
Lower and middle school students volunteered for the SATRO Physics Challenges hosted in Guildford, as well as making the annual visit to Chichester Planetarium to bring to life our ‘Mission to Mars’ First and Second Year teaching programme. GCSE Science students also had their version of science lectures at the GCSE Science Live! event, where again Prof. Lord Robert
Winston amazed us with his stories of evolution and genetic mutations. On the examinations front, students at A Level achieved five A* grades and seven grade As, with each of the students taking up their places at university to follow Engineering, Physics, Astrophysics and Material Science courses. A special congratulation to Chris Butler
At A Level students achieved five A* grades and seven A grades. At GCSE 83.2% of students received 9-7 grades (old A* - A)
who managed an average of 94% in his Physics papers and takes up his place at Oxford University and Physics studies. At GCSE the students managed to shine brightly too, achieving 83.2% of grades in the 9-7 (old A*A) range, so our congratulations go to all of them! Alongside the STEAM bridge building day, Science Club, Science Aunties and Uncles Sixth Form mentoring program and of course lessons, last year was certainly a busy and successful one. We continue to evaluate, refine and add to our program to continue to provide a richer and valued experience for the students. Matthew Kelly
VISIT TO CERN
Some A Level students were joined by the Fifth Year on the biannual visit to Geneva and the CERN particle accelerator project. We spent three days touring the site learning about the fundamental forces of nature and the future of particle physics. During our visit we also took in the rich culture of this amazing city by visiting the UN Palace of Nations, a tour of Lake Geneva and hiking up the mountains (actually we took the cable car!).
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PSYCHOLOGY More and more students are also going on to study Psychology at university
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e are now finishing our third year of Psychology at Churcher’s. The Department continues to grow and as a result we welcome Ms Amanda Clark to the school in September 2019 as an additional full-time teacher. Our first set of A Level results were absolutely stellar both in absolute terms and in terms of value-added scores. More and more students are also going on to study Psychology at university, and from all the personal statements we’re reading, there look to be many more on the way. Ms Clark brings with her a wealth of experience and ideas to help get Psychology out of the classroom. From research projects to visits to Southampton University there is much on the horizon about which we can be excited. We want to be recognised as one of the biggest, brightest and best A Level options at Churcher’s and we are certainly well on our way to achieving that. With 36 students in the Upper Sixth and a similar number (if not a few more) planned for the Lower Sixth, Psychology continues to be in fine fettle and long may that continue! Dr Gary Glasspool
THE L6 DEMONSTRATING FREEZE FRAMES OF THE TRIPARTITE PERSONALITY – THE ID, EGO AND SUPEREGO
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BUSINESS
Business students had an amazing year with 91% achieving an A or A* grade in the Summer of 2019.
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bout half of these students are going on to study Business at university, where I am sure they will replicate their A Level success. Particular congratulations go to Emily Habib and Flo Anderson who not only both achieved A* grades but also both scored 20 marks or more above the A* boundary! Business proved to be one of the two top performing A Level subjects at Churcher’s in 2019 and much credit should go to the hard working students in this cohort. We were pleased to welcome a number of external speakers for Business CCALS lectures. Tom Hall, from Alitex, spoke passionately about running his own business and Liza Gamblin spoke with equal passion about the chocolate industry, generously supplying Montezuma’s chocolates to her audience.
Later in the year we had Martin Perry, from Bartholomews, who introduced students to agricultural trading markets and finally Mari Burton from the National Education Union, discussing the relevance of trade unions in the 21st Century. We were also fortunate to have Simon Flint, Abi Shaw and Amanda Inkley come in to classroom lessons to talk about their areas of business specialism. Lower Sixth students attended an A Level Business Flying Start Student Workshop at Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth. Students experienced four hours of intensive large-group tuition by experienced A Level Business presenters. I am sure this will have enabled them to have a greater level of understanding of business concepts. Student Investor Challenge also
had a successful year with eight teams taking part and one team reaching the national semifinals. Arthur Dinham-Peren, Elliot Dewdney, Sam Mearns and Tom Radford fruitfully invested £100,000 of virtual money in the first round of trading. Only the top 500 teams of over 5,000 nationally progress to the semifinals, so they performed exceptionally well. Finally, both Mr West and Charlie Gaisford have had articles published in the Business Review, the main journal for A Level Business students from all of the exam boards. I look forward to the 20 Upper Sixth Business students repeating the success of this Summer. Mr R A West
POLITICS BEN MASCALL FORMER SPECIAL ADVISOR FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DEFENCE
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his was the first year that the Politics Department had ‘stepped out on its own’, as at the end of last year Economics, Business and Politics was split into three separate Departments: it was with a sense of anxious expectation that the year began. The academic success of 2018 continued throughout the year, with a great number of students from within the Department (and beyond) choosing to study Politics or International Relations at university and all successfully gaining places at their first choice university. As ever, the students also enjoyed a trip to the Houses of Parliament and the Supreme Court. In addition to their tour of the Houses of Parliament and sitting in on a Supreme Court hearing, the students were also fortunate enough to meet Damian Hinds MP, the newly appointed Education Secretary. They were able to grill the Rt Hon. Mr Hinds on his first few months in the
MONDAY 11 post, following up on this two weeks later at a hustings event at Bohunt School: ‘Education in an Uncertain World’. The student-run forum featured the Heads from both Bedales and Bohunt Schools and the Churcher’s students excelled themselves with some challenging questions and robust discussion. Students excelled themselves preparing and competing in our second annual Great Debate, which involves a referendum question posed to Fourth and Fifth Year pupils, with Sixth Formers giving speeches in support or against the motion. This year “Would you prefer a No Deal or a second referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU?” produced a decisive result, with a second referendum winning with 89% of the vote. We look forward to another successful year in Politics as we continue to forge ahead into pastures new. Patrick Cheshire
MARCH 2019 7.00PM
REFRESHMENTS AVAILABLE FROM 6.45PM IN THE GALLERY
CHURCHER’S COLLEGE LECTURE THEATRE
LECTURE SERIES The CCALS programme continues to be a source of inspiration for our students. We were incredibly fortunate to have a wide range of outside speakers coming into the school to meet and talk to the students. Two OCs were among those who returned to speak with the students. Lt Col. Chris Parker returned to give his unique and fascinating insight into the challenges of foreign intervention, based on his time with Desert Rats in Basra and Baghdad. Then, Ben Mascall regaled us with the tales of the dark world of No 10 and the ‘Secret World of Whitehall’, giving a fascinating peak behind the curtain of the dark world of back office deals and mandarins. Former Petersfield MP Michael Mates also came for a cosy Q&A and had some interesting conversations about the challenges of Brexit, from the perspective of a former Northern Ireland Secretary.
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RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY The year 2019 was one of big goodbyes, innovation and great excitement.
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n splendid surroundings, mid-way through our biannual A Level London trip, we sadly said farewell to Mike Hoebee. The trip to London was once again a success but it was not without its controversy, as we aim to challenge all our senses from sounds, sights, feelings and taste. For the latter sense we had researched and booked the best vegan restaurant we could find, serving fusion food governed by an Italian chef with a Salvador Dali moustache, and a South Korean opera singing co-chef. I had been in dialogue with the restaurant for weeks, determined to come up with a really varied menu. It turned out that most of our students were challenged beyond the call of
duty by the first sight of a vegan dog, and even Mr Lofthouse cut a funny face when the A Level girls begged him to finish their South Korean fermented kale. It turned out that our suggestion that all schools, hospitals and prisons should only serve vegan food in order to have less impact on the environment might not be as easy to implement as we thought. Our students were unmistakably a lot happier the following day with a slap-up burger from Planet Hollywood. We became innovative when it came to teaching the War and Peace unit for GCSE. Mr Lofthouse suggested Paintball as a way of teaching Just War, Forgiveness and Reconciliation. We compromised due to
logistics on LaserQuest. It turned out playing shooting games on your PlayStation actually comes with benefits, as some of our trigger-happy boys discovered to their delight! Another exciting moment was the arrival of the Westminster Abbey Lego Cathedral. The previous year we had built our own Lego Cathedral, a step up, we thought, from our sugar cube cathedral. Mr Cree got wind of this, and mentioned that a couple of his friends had a Lego replica of Westminster Abbey standing in their garage, which we could have for Open Day. He was joking, but we were not. So we persuaded Phil to arrange for the Cathedral to be brought to Churcher’s for this
year’s Open Day. It was made by four people to mark the occasion of the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. It consists of approximately 200.000 bricks and no glue is used. It has since been displayed 13 times as far afield as Holland. Its purpose at Churcher’s was to raise money for the charity ‘Fairy Brick’, the sole purpose of which is to provide Lego kits to sick children in hospitals up and down the country. We are happy to report that due to the generosity of Churcher’s, its parents and students, we were able to support the charity
with £400. It turned out to be a brilliant way of teaching about Rudolph Otto’s concept of the numinous. His thesis was that if one experiences something truly marvellous and surprising one can be transferred from the phenomenal realm to the numinous realm for just a moment and perhaps get an experience of the ‘other world’. So, we lined our students up outside in the corridor, asked them to close their eyes, put their left hand on the shoulder on the person in front of them and marched them into the Cathedral to open their eyes in unison. If any of our students truly had any mystical experiences I cannot say, but we certainly had many ‘wow’ moments. Tony Ostersen
Playing shooting games on your PlayStation actually comes with some benefits!
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SPANISH
The year has been abundant in linguistic extra-curricular activity, ranging from cultural trips abroad to A Level study days and Spanish theatre both in and out of school.
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he importance of these experiences outside the classroom can never be underestimated and has been appreciated by our hispanists from beginners to our more proficient A Level students, allowing them to connect more deeply with others and have a better understanding of Spanish culture. Our Third Years had the opportunity in October to visit Barcelona. The trip was fast paced, with lots of movement around Barcelona experiencing travel on the metro and buses and the hubbub of Barcelona city life. We had the chance to visit the Park Güell and the Sagrada Familia, to name just a couple of
Gaudí’s masterpieces and two of the most important sights in Barcelona. The park, which is like something out of a fairytale, was the perfect spot for a photoshoot, with our students jostling to get a picture with the famous mosaic salamander at the heart of the park. The Lower Sixth girls outdid the Third Years in terms of kilometers covered in Barcelona over their four day trip. One of the highlights was a Spanish cookery lesson in which all the girls, through their linguistic flair and enthusiasm, managed to convince some other English participants that they were Spanish! A super group of Fourth and
THEATRE
our first language Sixth Form party with garden games and paella to set the scene and to say to goodbye to our Upper Sixth linguists. The L6 have been very proactive this year in terms of their speaking skills and have been volunteering as language assistants, practising conversation skills with our younger students. Many have been brave enough to spend a couple or more weeks in Spain with families in Valencia. Their experiences were positive and equipped them with essential parenting skills in addition to linguistic skills for the future! Anna-Maria Giffin
Third Year students enjoyed a trip to Malaga in the Easter holidays, staying with host families. They soaked up the cultural sights including a day trip to the Alhambra. They were a particularly engaged group and appreciated the help from the guides at every stop. They were a delight to take to Spain. During Open Day the Spanish Department contributed to and presented the multilingual fashion show. A large number of show-stopping Spanish and South American themed cakes were entered for the Modern Languages Bake Off, a delight for all the senses! At the end of the Summer Term we enjoyed
Whenever possible we jump at a chance to go to the theatre, usually London, to see Spanish productions such as Lorca’s ‘La Casa de Bernarda Alba’ performed by the Cervantes Theatre and loved by the Upper and Lower Sixth, particularly as it is one of their A Level literature pieces. Focused and motivated, the Sixth Formers were also stimulated during a study day on A Level Literature and Film Studies earlier in the year, giving them a taste of university style lectures in target languages. From serious theatre by ‘Lorca’ to slapstick humour, the Fourth Years participated in and enjoyed (even if they did not want to admit it!) the performance by the visiting ‘Onatti Theatre’ company.
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STEAM
Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics
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his year saw several new initiatives, including visits to the Engineering in Action event and Thorpe Park STEM Fair, a Sixth Form project to measure the speed of light and an exciting roadshow visit for the First Year (detailed below). Old favourites were much in evidence as well, including a welcome return of the Greenpower electric car engineering challenge, Prof. Averil MacDonald’s ‘People Like Me’ seminar, encouraging female participation in STEAM careers and a successful run to the Grand Final of the SATRO Engineering Challenge for our Second Year team. The whole First Year took part in an exciting event courtesy of BAe Systems, the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, helping the visiting team of presenters to demonstrate and explain some of the technology that enables modern communication. The lively demonstrations covered the uses of different parts of
the electromagnetic spectrum, from infrared for night vision to microwaves for mobile phones and Bluetooth. They also learned how robotic spheres could be controlled using these technologies, or programmed to act autonomously using algorithms linked to the robots’ own sensors. Our Third Years enjoyed a day of hands-on activities related to the theme of bridges towards the end of the Summer Term, to help link their academic studies to wider applications. They completed a series of challenges set by the Science, Art, Design and Technology and Maths Departments, designed to stretch their intellectual, creative and team working abilities and, on the same day, were given valuable instruction in selfdefence. Impressive teamwork brought victory to a team of Rodney pupils in a very closely contested challenge.
On the day everyone was involved and had a job to do and the experience of racing on the Goodwood track is one I will always remember Ollie Hewett
GREENPOWER
After many years, this May saw an eagerly anticipated return to Greenpower for Churcher’s. An excited team of First to Fourth Year pupils helped to prepare this year’s entry. The racing season kicked off in style at the illustrious Goodwood Motor Circuit where 57 teams from across the UK attended to compete in the endurance event. Two 90 minute races saw the cars, drivers and pit crew put to the test, and after a steady start Churcher’s entry ‘Limitless’ marked a solid return; as a new team we started at the back of the grid and in race 2 managed to progress our position to finish 36th overall, an admirable result given this was the first time for our pupils.
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CURRICULUM SUPPORT Sometimes pupils arrive at Curriculum Support in a muddle…
…but having someone to assist with school work, literacy or study skills can help them to believe in themselves.
Hey Mrs Blackman, I hope you are well. Just to say a big thank you for your help before my exams!! I think they went quite well (touch wood) and I really wasn’t stressed! I practised the breathing techniques and positive thinking which really helped! You really made me feel better and thank you for boosting your students’ confidence and self-esteem! All the best, Sixth Form Student
GR TH ILL E 2 LE 019 CT UR E
SIMON WESTON CBE 1982 Falklands War Veteran ‘My life and experiences, in my own words’
WEDNESDAY 1 MAY 2019 7.00 - 8.15pm
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SPORTS SCIENCE T
his year the Lower Sixth enjoyed a Physiology lab and a Biomechanics lab at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Joe Knowles was put through his paces in a V02 max test and Henry McMillan was able to see the valves working in his heart with an ultrasound. Meanwhile, our Fourth Year GCSE students went to Chichester University where they were put through their paces in some fitness tests using light gates and they also had the chance to experience blind football. We were lucky enough to be visited by Jakob Bloch who is an elite endurance runner as well as being one of our parents. He gave us an insight in to the training and psychological stamina required to run in situations of being sleep deprived or for hundreds of kilometres, day after day. Laura Snowball
ultra trail running Training, Nutrition, Performance and Recovery BY JAKOB BLOCH
TUESDAY 30 APRIL 2019 4.15 - 5.30PM
CHURCHER’S COLLEGE | LECTURE THEATRE
Well done to our Upper Sixth and Fifth Year for all their efforts in their exams and I hope that your results will help you in your future endeavours
The Eaton Games
The Eaton Games aims to be a fun, competitive and food-filled occasion. The Sports Science classes, from the Fourth Year to the Upper Sixth, enter a team and play against each other. In the Autumn Term we played mixed seven-a-side hockey and in the Spring Term it was a mixed netball tournament. The Summer Term welcomed a sitting volleyball tournament.
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RUGBY
Any season that ends in winning a cup is always a pleasure to play a part in and so for the 1st XV to win the Hampshire Cup in the final against a very strong Peter Symonds side made a memorable end to an excellent season.
1st XV
For a coach, seeing the progress that this group of players made as they became a team over the season was very special indeed. This was an extremely committed team and defence was at the heart of this group. In particular, it was the tackling which made the season what it was. In attack it would have been good to have got the opportunity to continue to develop more but as the season went on we became more and more efficient with the ball in hand. The season was not without its
frustrations and, looking back, Dauntsey’s and PGS (particularly after the start) were both games that could have turned for us, but winning the last five games against strong opposition showed what an effective group this became. A lot of the credit for this should go to the leadership of this group, handled with distinction by Tom Bloomer (Captain) and Zac Rodber (Vice Captain). The Senior players and the Upper Sixth deserve a lot of credit for the commitment of the group and particularly Sam Carrol and Max Sutcliffe deserve a mention as they won their Colours this
year. Our leaving Upper Sixth players will be missed and we look forward to welcoming them back to watch next year.
U16
U16 rugby is often very exciting, the first year of competitive lifting at the lineout signals the transition into what the players really recognise as the full game. Both the A and B Teams had a very successful term, with some excellent wins in a highly competitive calendar. With 48-0 and 47-0 wins respectively against Dauntsey’s at the beginning of the season, there was always going to be an
Tom Bloomer Sixth Former Tom Bloomer enjoyed international rugby success when he was selected for the England Counties U18 team to face Ireland in the Spring. The 23 player squad was selected following a national development weekend at Stourbridge RFC which saw players gather for several days of coaching and selection. Before departing for the two match tour, which England drew 1-1, Tom explained, “Putting on the England shirt is a great honour and I am so proud to have been selected. It was tough competition at the national development weekend and I’m going to give it everything in the matches; this is undoubtedly the highlight of my career so far.”
attacking edge to both teams, although robust and resolute defending would become highly important – defence can often win games, as would be the case in hard fought victories against the likes of Shiplake College and Christ’s Hospital. Very well done to all players, and thanks to those that left at the end of the Fifth Year.
U15
The U15 had another successful season, with a fantastic squad and some real strength in depth. The A Team won 12 and lost four, the final game of the season being a loss against Dean Close
School in the regional final of the NatWest Cup Plate competition, a game that should have been won. The most satisfying victory was a nail-biting 17-14 against Lord Wandsworth College. The team was well skippered by Sam Hibberd, who along with a number of others was selected for County or Academy rugby. The B Team, under the astute leadership of Jamie Willson, also had a successful season with a record of won eight, lost two. On no fewer than five occasions the team scored over 50 points against their opponents. The rugby of both sides was characterised by an exciting brand of running rugby, and an increasingly strong defence.
U14
Last year’s U14 squads enjoyed a spectacular season and they should be incredibly proud of their collective efforts throughout the term. I think on a personal note, that when I reflect back on this group of boys, they would probably rate amongst one of the very best of squads that I have ever worked with during my time at Churcher’s, if not the best! Testament to their success was the winning of the Herold Cup, thereby making them the most successful side (statistically) in the entire school. Competition for places was incredibly tough and this meant that that the boys brought an unquenchable
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work ethic and desire to improve with every session. As a result, I had huge selection headaches, but what a problem to have! 30 boys represented the A Team over the duration of the season and this of course meant that the B Team was also incredibly strong. Many boys were afforded the opportunity to lead across both teams and this will undoubtedly benefit them as they move forward. As the season progressed this squad became incredibly well drilled and learnt to remain patient when attacking and scramble bravely when they had to defend.
the boys approached a tough season in only their second season together – all of a sudden the faces weren’t so new and the bonds were that much stronger. A fabulous season for the B Team saw them finishing unbeaten. Such was the depth of this age group that there was high competition for places throughout the season. Energetic, committed and skilful, we should all recognise the attributes of a team that loved its rugby. Big wins against Dauntsey’s, KES Southampton and Halliford showed they were a team to be reckoned with. Dominance at the break down combined with our willingness to move the ball about showed that they knew what rugby was all about. A super group of boys, a super season and I have no doubt they will be representing the school for many years to come.
Energetic, U12 The U12 thoroughly enjoyed their committed season, the greatest evidence being the 55+ boys coming to and skilful, training every week, and the fact that every boy that wanted to we should all play was able to do so. It is only the start of their journey but the recognise the foundations are in place for a fantastic few years at Churcher’s. U13 Thanks must go to our budding U13A side had a very hard attributes The rugby coaches coming through fought but successful season. Duke of Edinburgh’s Award 85 of the 160 points amassed of a team would come in only two games, the scheme; without their help the task of looking after so many Claremont Fan Court that loved its against keen players would be all the and Salesians at either end of more difficult. What a bright the season. However, most rugby. pleasingly was the way that future!
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NETBALL
I have been so delighted with the commitment and enthusiasm of all the girls this season.
1st Team This was a season of hard fought victories and valiant defeats with the 1st Team picking up some superb wins against St George’s Weybridge 16-14, Seaford College 26-21 and Eastbourne College 46-31. Some of the best matches of the season however, were against local rivals PGS where the girls tuned over a 15 goal defeat to get within six, but possibly the best overall performance of the season was against Christ’s Hospital and, although the four goal defeat was disappointing in the end, the talent on display that day was a huge credit to the girls and their grit and determination to work together as a team and fight until the bitter end. A huge well done must go to captain Izzie Harper and defensive unit of Maya Payne and Tildy Bilsberry-Grass who played a season as well as any defenders I have had the privilege of coaching. The 2nd Team proved to be far too strong for the majority of opposition this year, scoring a total of 316 goals and only conceding 142. Captain Holly Condor led the way with the shooting stats, backed up well by Annabelle Jenkins, and again the defence of Eleanor Jolliffe and Sophie Garwood proved too much for the majority of attacks.
their debuts for the 1st Team this year. A superbly talented team. The U16B also had a wonderful season winning seven of 11 matches with the pick being against local rivals PGS 22-18. Sophie Porteous (Goal Shooter) and Ella Condor (Goal Attack/ Goal Defence), were stalwarts in the team, and Rachel Pyke and Georgia Chapman provided the never-ending energy and
enthusiasm through the mid court.
U15 The U15 as a whole are without doubt one of the most exciting, talented and versatile in the school. Across the South this year group is incredibly strong, so, although the results don’t always go their way, this is in no way a reflection of their superb talent. The numbers for training all season were superb and there was lots of movement across the teams, particularly in the C and D Teams. They had an excellent cup run this year, reaching the quarter finals with wins against Clayesmore and Monmouth, with big wins against PGS and Christ’s Hospital along the way. The shooting unit of Sacha, May and Soukie were unstoppable, Amy, Surrey Storm star Alice and Adie dominated the mid court and Helena, Kim and Olivia proved a nightmare defensive unit for all who came their way!
U16
The Bs won nine of their 15 matches, with Bels proving too good in defence for any poor shooters who came across her. Phoebe and Anna once again were superb with their shooting stats and Holly literally played every position on court and had yet another wonderful season alongside Rhianna, Rosie, Alice, Mara, Lottie and Freya.
The U16A continued to be a force to be reckoned with! They remained unbeaten in all Saturday block matches and picked up a fabulous win against the St Swithun’s 1st Team in the last game of the season, winning 23-16. The goal stats speak for themselves, 470 for and only 191 against. A special mention must go to Hannah Russell, Izzie Brower, Eva Bertran and Katie Harris who also made
With shooters as consistent as Rosie and Betty, you would always put money on the C Team winning the majority of matches and that’s just what they did. 17-11 against PGS and 21-16 against KES Southampton were two of the most exciting victories in a strong season for the girls. The Ds only lost two matches this season, with some hotly contested matches being played throughout. Celia,
Lucinda, Ella and Hannah were a consistent presence across the C and D teams, and all the girls can be very proud of themselves for their commitment and performance levels.
U14 What a superb season for these talented netballers! Height
is not on their side but they more than make up for it with fitness, determination and an unrivalled desire to win, perform and improve as a team. Scoring 353 goals with the shooting being shared between Izzie, Alice and Lola, they proved a wonderful combination of speed and accuracy around the court. Liv and Darcey completed
the attacking line up, linking the defence and feeding the shooters perfectly. The defensive line of Co-captains Mia and Bo, alongside Lola at GD, formed a partnership that hunted down the ball and saw some of the most spectacular interceptions, conceding only 169 goals. In many other schools there are plenty of girls who would be playing A Team netball and that is what makes this B Team so strong. Winning eight and drawing one, the girls put on a strong display all season. Hannah was outstanding in defence with Chrissie and Megan providing the fire power down the other end, fed beautifully by Sophie and linking well with Lucia, Livvy and Phoebe. The strength in shooting continues into the C Team with Phoebe and Liv being exceptional all season. With eight wins and four losses the girls should be so proud of their performance, winning some really tight matches with both Hollys, Scarlett and Lily shutting down the opposition and taking close victories against PGS, Lingfield and Seaford. The D Team also showed great
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commitment to training this year and developed so well as a team. Nellie, Emilia, Louise, Lara, Annabelle, Emily, Olivia and Amelie all improved hugely throughout the season with their best performance coming against Lingfield, winning 17-11.
U13 Despite being the smallest year group in the school, the commitment of the girls to get four teams out for the majority of the season is a huge credit to them. This is a team that will get better and better as they have such talented sportswomen who absorb information and strive to put it into action. The A Team picked up five excellent wins and, along with some of the B Team players, they had a wonderful weekend at the PGL tournament in Liddington. The girls got all the way to the final and developed some excellent team bonding along the way. Gabby, Daisy and Maisie all had excellent seasons and showed great versatility, with Elly, Thea and Annie getting stronger and stronger with their shooting. The Bs had some strong wins and narrow defeats, making for an exciting season. Georgia forced her way into the team after an excellent season for the Cs and joined forces well with Millie, Lara and Lottie. Tilly and Millie continued to improve and provided some excellent balls for the shooting pair of Maddy and Emily. Both C and D Teams picked up thrilling and close victories against St Swithun’s on the last day of the season and capped a good season for them in terms of individual and team improvement. Win, lose or draw Amy, Charlotte and Clemmie the number of all took turns to lead the girls out playing attacking end of the netball this year court and Ella has been at a continued her improvement, record high moving up to the C Team and cementing her place
in the team. Lotta also showed great potential throughout the court, playing a variety of positions. Nieve and Molly worked tirelessly and Amelie continued to show great potential in the wing attack role.
U12 The U12 girls had a great start to their netball at Churcher’s; they enjoyed their season with some fantastic results. We attended – and won! - the PGL Tournament in Swindon, overcoming some tough matches to show both their determination and good team spirit to lift the cup. Their season was also successful for a new year group, managing to win approximately 90% of the matches across all five teams. We are looking forward to a bright future of netball as they progress through Churcher’s. Suzanne Gardner
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U15 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS O
n Tuesday 19th March, Churcher’s College U15 Boys hockey team became national hockey champions after beating Whitgift at the Independent Schools Hockey Cup National Finals in Birmingham.
Captain Alex Lambrianou ensured the team were focussed and ready for the biggest day of their season. Churcher’s started very well against Whitgift, a hockey powerhouse, going two up before the break through Will Porter and a superb upright reverse stick effort from forward James Hill. Two-nil up at the break, coach Andy Cairns spoke of calm and composure in the second half. Whitgift came back strongly and reduced the deficit inside two minutes. Churcher’s continued to play well, however Whitgift scored a second - nerves were frayed amongst the supporters! Henry Plewes made an important tackle inside the Churcher’s D and before long Will Porter was running with the ball in the opposition half. Beating two players he approached the D and shot on his reverse beating the diving Whitgift keeper and making it 3-2 Churcher’s with less than two minutes remaining. A disciplined last few seconds ensured Churcher’s saw out the result to the final whistle and sent the player and supporters in to rapturous celebrations. A massive congratulations to all 20 players that were involved in the cup run from the whole school. A truly momentous achievement. Peter Beard
“Someone once told me that talent has nothing to do with success, but effort has everything to do with it. That’s why we can now call ourselves national champions because when others decided to give up we grew stronger, always believing we could achieve our dream. To be able to look at those who stand by your side on the pitch anointed in gold to signify the distance we’ve come as a team is an experience of honour and pride many will never be able to feel, but trust me when I tell you it’s an experience you’ll never forget. We are a team that contains not just those who play on the pitch but teachers, coaches, substitutes and parents. A team united by that one boat that sails on our chest. A boat exploring every new adventure with the pupils it guides. A boat that says we’re Churcherians and as Churcherians, national hockey champions.” Captain Alexander Lambrianou
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BOYS’ HOCKEY 1st XI
The U12 year groups played some fantastic hockey and their desire to improve and work hard was to be admired
It has been a really mixed season for the 1st XI. Such was the strength of our opposition that performances were often encouraging, always entertaining and exceptionally competitive, only for us to fall slightly short at the final hurdle. 31 different players represented the 1st XI this season, including 17 debutants, indicative perhaps of the strength and depth on offer at this level. The team were crowned Lord Wandsworth College 7s champions, with a clean sweep over Shiplake, Leighton Park, Christ’s Hospital, Worth, Pangbourne and our hosts. Finally, the last weekend of term ended the season in style; three wins from three at the Bath Hockey Festival in three excellent but very different games, followed by defeating the Old Churcherian’s in a thrilling 6-3 victory for the first time in a few years to end the season.
2nd XI
The 2XI have played with great spirit and enjoyment in a tough season where they have faced a number of very large hockey schools 2XI’s. The ever present Captain Tom Hall marshalled his troops well with the highlight being a tightly fought 3-2 victory over HCS 1st XI.
U16
The U16s play a fantastic brand of attacking hockey. It has been a very successful season and a cup run was always on the cards; however, we were edged out in
thrillers against Reeds, whose keeper got them the victory, and KES on penalty strokes after we had the better of the match. The seniors will be pleased to have this U16 squad joining them next season.
U14
Goals, goals and more goals this side has scored 93 of them! The only fixture the boys lost was against St George’s College, the eventual national champions.
U13
The U13 won four matches, drew three and lost five. They are now under no illusion as to what is expected of them on a hockey pitch having been put to the sword by eventual national champions Whitgift 12-0 who, needless to say, were exceptional. The way the boys applied themselves in the previous round’s victory over PGS, though, was the season’s highlight and that intensity and teamwork will set them up well for future seasons.
U12
What a great start! The U12 year groups played some fantastic hockey and their desire to improve and work hard was to be admired. We regularly ran four U12 hockey teams on a Saturday which gave the boys plenty of opportunities to develop their game and these boys proved to be quick learners and highly motivated to represent the school. All in all, a super year with a superb group of boys.
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GIRLS’ HOCKEY
1st XI
Winning eight matches through the season, the clear highlight was winning the Hampshire Trophy without conceding a goal. The Bath Tour was reintroduced at Senior level and open to the girls for the first time. It was made memorable when we came through with a win against LWC in a nine goal thriller, taking it 5-4! Sadly, the tour signified the end of Churcher’s hockey careers for a number of stalwarts who we look forward to welcoming back in next season’s OC fixture.
2nd XI
The girls played fantastically, as
shown by the results - winning six games and drawing three out of the 12 played, and scoring 27 goals, giving us a fantastic goal difference of +10! The girls put 100% into every match, always trying to be the first to every ball and getting a positive outcome from being the ‘D’. There are many highlights over the season and results aside, the most impressive aspect of the squad’s development was their excellent game awareness, along with great work on and off the ball.
U16
Outside tournament play the U16A played nine matches, won three, drew five and lost one. We came runners up in
the Hampshire tournament and qualified for the regional competition. It became very evident that they were a selfsufficient, organised and cohesive team with some brilliant leadership from Rachel Pyke and Eve Rushin. A special mention to Catherine Gallagher whose outstanding season as goal-keeper certainly kept us in the match in some fixtures. seven matches, won four, drew two and lost one represents a brilliant season for the U16B and we wish them every success as they move into the seniors.
U15
“The best views come after the hardest climb”, as Mr Harris
says, so with difficult games against competent teams like Wellington and Cranleigh, we have learned how to make our matchplay more clinical. “Fulfil the prophecy, be something greater, go make the legacy” are wise words that Mr Harris also stole and we will take them into next hockey season.
U14
It has been an incredibly successful season for the U14A girls, recording just three losses across their 18 fixtures. The whole squad were exceptionally committed throughout the season, pushing each on whilst retaining that sense of fun and love of the game. In 18 games the team only conceded 14 goals – what a record! For the B Team, enthusiasm, friendship and fun, along with good hockey ability and a desire to improve has made for a pleasing season and it has been fantastic to see this squad grow in confidence throughout the season.
U13
The U13 have had a very successful season, playing a total of 21 matches, winning 12, drawing two and losing seven. The unquestionable highlight of the season was when the 13 A&B sides combined to play 11a-side for the first time against Wellington College, which ended an incredible 5-5! The Second Year girls group is a small cohort; however this should not take away from the fact that all bar one girl represented the school playing hockey.
U12
This season, the U12 ran four teams, A-D, with 83% of the year group playing. The Ds won a tight match against KES 2-1, the Cs beat Highfield Bs 1-0 in a really even contest, the Bs beat Westbourne House 3-1 and the As finished the season with a good 4-0 win over LWC. Especially pleasing has been attendance at training throughout the season.
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BOYS’ CRICKET Well done to everyone who represented the Senior cricket team this year, we hope you have enjoyed it and that cricket remains a sport that you play long after you have left school.
Senior
U14
On the plus side we managed to introduce a lot of young players to the mix and the experience will stand them in good stead as they move through the school. Well done to everyone who represented the Senior cricket team this year, we hope you have enjoyed it and that cricket remains a sport that you play long after you have left school. Finally, we say a sad farewell to our Upper Sixth cricketers who, over the years, have represented the school with great pride: to Charlie Tuffin, Max Mayes, Matthew Crane and the outstanding captain Matthew Price we say thank you for all the great memories over the years and we look forward to welcoming you all back to school one day to play in the OC fixture.
It was an excellent, if particularly short season for the U14A side, and even the June rain could not dampen the spirits of this fantastic bunch. To lose only two games in a season is testament to the abilities of the team. Perhaps slightly disappointing was that one of those losses was in the County Cup semi-final, although Winchester College were very worthy winners on that day. What impressed so much was the enjoyment these boys take from just playing cricket – there is so much to say for a group of boys just getting out there and having fun, particularly when they do so with such style. It is often difficult to name individuals within a team, particularly one with such depth – 15 players played A Team cricket this season - however, it would be amiss not to mention Jude Wright; three 50s and a huge 123 not out versus Lord Wandsworth College in the County Cup.
U15 The U15 have had another very strong season both in terms of performances and results. Winning six matches out of eight, the boys played a good brand of attacking cricket with seven half century knocks. Unfortunately, there was a repeat of last year’s result when we lost in the County Cup final to PGS. However, seven of the U15s have represented the 1XI this season and are well placed to go into Senior cricket and add real value.
U13 The U13 started the season with a fine run chase to defeat Lord Wandsworth and ended it on a high with a tremendous last ball victory over St George’s, Weybridge. The spirit of the side remained strong despite some mid-season losses and it was great to see so many
different players representing both the A and B sides. Some notable performances were Fergus Weatherhead’s 57 not out against a strong St George’s side and Henry Goodwin’s 45 against Shiplake B Team. It has been great to see so many boys wanting to represent the school at cricket and we have been selecting from a very big squad. In the cup, although losing in the 1st round, we had a good run in the plate competition, beating Hounsdown School to reach the final.
U12 The U12 have had a great opening cricket season at Churcher’s College. Despite the inclement weather we managed to field regular A, B and C Teams. Although overall we have finished the season on top with wins, more important is the fact that every pupil who wanted to play a competitive fixture has been given that opportunity. We have seen a huge development in the skill base from the boys and they really seem to have enjoyed the season. Rob Maier
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GIRLS’ CRICKET U12
75% of the year group represented the school in cricket this season, a trend which we hope will continue to grow. Fixtures against Lord Wandsworth College, KES, PGS and Ryde have borne mixed success and as confidence rises we plan to field hardball teams across an increased range of age groups. Lexie Oliver and Jorja Wright have been playing hard ball all season and as keen members of the U12A boys’ team, both have finished the season with an impressive number of wickets
U13 Girls’ U13 cricket has gone from strength to strength, with the U13A Team winning all but one of their fixtures. We have been impressed with how the girls encourage and support each other and how eager they are to improve. Gabby Hibberd and Katie Baird have been influential with the bat, alongside Daisy Coffey, who has certainly been the star bowler for the team. Maisie Weller, Millie Cooke-Priest and Thea Swarbrick have also made huge improvements, showing real promise as cricketers. The U13B also tasted cricketing success, winning their fixtures, and quite convincingly too. Lara Foulkes, Tilly Hutchins, Annie Rowley and Ellie Durham showcased their batting potential, hitting boundary after boundary and taking some excellent catches in the field. The future is definitely bright for this age group, and we look forward to witnessing further success. Rob Maier
This season our focus has been to develop performance and participation in girls’ cricket
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ROUNDERS
U15A&B, U14A&B, U12B
19
unbeaten
won
373 rounders scored
150
girls represented the School
26 matches played
Tilly Thomas 15-year-old Tilly Thomas has recently been called up to a national England Women’s football team. Tilly is primarily a midfield player but is pretty versatile, having also played in attacking and defensive positions for Southampton FC. This Summer, Tilly accompanied England to the U16 Nordics tournament in July involving Finland, Sweden and The Netherlands. “It’s my ambition to help Southampton FC get to the Women’s Super League – the top division of women’s national football,” explains Tilly. “I also want to play for England in the 2023 or 2027 Women’s World Cup, I’ll be working hard to achieve that!”
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ATHLETICS & CROSSCOUNTRY It has been another exciting athletics and cross-country season.
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s ever, the Butser Hill Challenge kicked things off - between two kilometres and five miles of ups, downs and not much flat in between. 2018 saw the 40th running of the event and Churcher’s students from both the Junior and Senior Schools turned up in droves to take on the test. There were a number of success stories: Zac Greenaway won the Year 4 race and six of the top ten finishers in the Year 5 race were in Churcher’s colours. Three students took part in the full five mile adult race, comfortably finishing ahead of the three Churcher’s staff that also took to the hill! However, the biggest accolades perhaps go to our intermediate team: Eoin Martyn, Christopher Martyn and Luca Phillips Mateo were the first three home in their age category, but across all intermediate runners, Thomas Briggs was fourth, Kai Jackson second and James Medley crossed the line first. A superb effort by all. Heading into the track season, six of our junior athletes and ten of our intermediate athletes qualified for the County Championships thanks to their performances at the South East Championships; Ollie Bowen and Liv Busher would go on to
be crowned County Champions in the high jump and javelin respectively. Liv would also go on to compete in the National Championships, joined by Natalia Ivanov in the pole vault; Natalia set a new personal best of 3.00m at the English Schools’ Track and Field Cup. All too soon Sports Day was upon us; a number of school records would tumble, but mention must again go to Liv in the javelin, breaking the existing Third Year record by over 11 metres! However, to see so many students competing for their House was the real success story of the day. Our success in cross-country continued at the English Schools’ Cross-Country Cup; the intermediate girls’ team of Louise Reed, Libby Daunter, Bo Texier, Mia Clark and Livvy Bristow overcame an incredibly tough field to come second in the team event, and a staggering 14 First and Second Year students went on the represent South East Hampshire at the Hampshire Championships having qualified at the regional event, making up well over half the team. Kevin Maguire
TO SEE SO MANY PUPILS COMPETING FOR THEIR HOUSE WAS THE REAL SUCCESS STORY OF SPORTS DAY
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TENNIS
F
ollowing on from the wonderful tennis warmup camp in marbella, the tennis teams this year have had a marvellous season of matches and great results. Of the 46 matches played this Summer Term, Churcher’s Tennis won an amazing 32 matches, drawing four and needing to improve in just ten others, a win percentage of 70%! Memorable victories include wins over PGS and Lord Wandsworth.
This season also saw a selected number of Sixth Form students take time out on Wednesday afternoon to complete their Level 1 LTA training qualification, in collaboration with the coaching team from Kingsley Indoor Tennis Centre. Over a number of weeks, the students developed their skills in coaching and were invited by Herne Junior and Greatham Primary Schools to coach their Year 5 & 6 pupils.
Marbella Tour
The very early (1.30am) meet time on the first Monday of the Easter break did not dampen the excitement of the 44 tennis playing Churcher’s students for the four-night trip to Marbella. We were greeted by sunshine on arrival at our very smart hotel right on the coastline. With temperatures around 20 degrees every day it was certainly hot work for the tennis players who normally had two hours of coaching each morning followed by a further two hours every afternoon. We were able to take a trip to the very upmarket Puerto Banus by bus for a meal followed by a look around the port and the shops, admiring the many supercars and superyachts! After some intense sessions the pupils returned to Petersfield with great enthusiasm for the season ahead. Tina Jenkins
CHURCHER’S TENNIS WON 32 MATCHES AND DREW 4, A WIN PERCENTAGE OF 70%!
PARENT-PUPIL TENNIS TOURNAMENT
The parent-pupil tennis tournament was at capacity again for the fifth year running. It was a blistering hot day for the opponents ranging from First to Fifth Year. We saw some great displays of technical, fast pace and skilful tennis. It was a special day, witnessing the teamwork between both the parent and pupil and the sportsmanship between opponents. We finished with a lovely BBQ in the sun, enjoying the close final which was won by Paul and Barnaby Lewis.
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SWIMMING & WATERPOLO Participation and performance in swimming in the School continues to grow.
T
he weekly swimming squad sessions attract more than 20 swimmers on average, with the majority of these being offered opportunities to represent the school in intra- or inter-school galas. In the Hampshire relay championships, Churcher’s College entered 12 teams in 12 events, becoming Hampshire Champions in six and earning qualification to the ESSA relay finals at the London Aquatic Centre for the Inter Boys in
both the freestyle and medley relays. An incredible day at the Olympic Park finished with the boys ranked 14th (freestyle) and 11th (medley) in the country. We returned to this amazing venue for the Bath Cup too, where both girls and boys open teams finished 14th in the country, a fine achievement and a huge improvement on previous years. The Churcher’s biathlon championships continued to be a popular event with 22 students taking part this year. Our success in the Henley Classic Open
Water event also continues, with Churcher’s retaining the School’s Cup for the second time and Tom Hogg and Henry Plewes both podium finishers. Senior pupils have fully embraced water polo this year and have achieved much success with both Alex Sandberg and Henry Plewes achieving selection for the South East England squad. Kelly Higgins
BOTH GIRLS AND BOYS OPEN TEAMS FINISHED 14TH IN THE COUNTRY, A FINE ACHIEVEMENT AND A HUGE IMPROVEMENT ON PREVIOUS YEARS
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ADVENTUROUS TRAINING In the first week of the Easter break 13 cadets and four staff ventured to Snowdonia for the annual week of Adventurous Training, billeted just outside Llanrwst.
S
unday saw the cadets gorge-walking up and down the Geirionydd and Afon Ddu Gorges, through various states of immersion, climbing into the Washing Machine and up the Elephant’s Bum (although these may not be strictly literal translations from the Welsh). On Monday and Tuesday we all undertook a canoe expedition along the estuary of the Afon Dwyryd from Maentwrog to Porthmadog, with an overnight wild camp at a disused slate quarry. A variety of makeshift canoe and bivvie shelters withstood the evening showers and 24-hour ration packs were supplemented with hot chocolate and marshmallows toasted over the kelly-kettles. Paddle skills developed throughout the trip and were sufficient to navigate the stronger wind and tide conditions on the second day. On Wednesday, three cadets started their two-day
introduction to white water at the Plas y Brenin kayak course, learning and honing their boat handling skills on moving water on some gentler stretches of the River Dee. The remaining cadets climbed and summited Snowdon; two groups via the challenging Crib Goch route, with one group continuing to complete the Snowdon Horseshoe, while the third group ascended via the Pyg Track. Blue skies afforded a great day and fantastic views for all. On the final day, our kayakers completed a descent of a section of grade two plus water on the Dee putting yesterday’s practise to good effect, although eveybody swam at least once (Capt Nighy included). The other cadets spent the day climbing near Blaenau on Slick and Slack, completing a series of single and multi-pitch climbs, belaying one another up and abseiling down. Capt D Nighy
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OSCA THIS WAS YET ANOTHER EXCITING TIME FOR OUR SECOND YEARS, WITH OUTDOOR FUN, SURVIVAL TECHNIQUES AND CHALLENGES APLENTY, AS WELL AS ADVENTURES TO BE REMEMBERED FOREVER.
W
e walked in sunshine, rain and fog; we navigated through the Downs, with or without a compass; we sailed, canoed, rowed on the Testwood Lakes; we chopped wood and cooked on open fires in Alice Holt; we experienced caving, climbing, abseiling, mountain walking in Brecon and above all, we learnt to work as a team, enjoy each other’s company and make new friends. Oscaneers also had an introduction to scuba diving in the school swimming pool, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The OSCA programme celebrated ten years of successful adventures and, as I pass on the reins to Mr Heath, I wish him every bit of success and am sure he will enjoy the programme as much as I have enjoyed it. Long live OSCA! Nicole Sparks
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FIRST CHALLENGE Fjords, mountains, midnight sun…and mozzies! For all these reasons and more, Norway proved to be a challenging adventure for the 72 students who set off into the wilderness this summer.
S
plitting the Challengers into five groups means that every team has a trip to call their own. To have this independence from the rest of the year group means that every team, although following similar itineraries, have very different experiences and this year was no exception. Teams 1 and 2 enjoyed some of the most glorious weather that Norway saw all summer, which, although lovely in many respects, brought its own challenges as everyone strived to stay hydrated whilst walking in some tough terrain. Teams 3, 4 and 5, on the other hand, caught the end of the weather high, which was closely followed by a monumental storm as a low pressure passed over the area. I often feel, though, that this is what First Challenge is really about. Obviously we don’t want the challengers to be miserable but making them face these natural barriers brings them closer together and forces them to overcome the challenges as a team. Camping for ten days, cooking on gas stoves, carrying all their own gear and fighting off the midges is tough, but throw in Mother Nature and that’s when the fun really begins! Jamie Daniel
MAKING STUDENTS FACE NATURAL BARRIERS BRINGS THEM CLOSER TOGETHER AND FORCES THEM TO OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES AS A TEAM
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THE RAF SECTION HAS BEEN BUSY... LEARNING DRILL, THE BASICS OF FIRST AID, SWIMMING,
RAF
FLIGHT SIMULATIONS AND TEAM BUILDING SKILLS
This year has been a very important year for the RAF, and the CCF as a whole, with the centenary of the end of the First World War.
N
ew cadets were very much thrown into the deep end to quickly learn the drill required for our remembrance celebrations. This started with the school’s own Remembrance assembly and the dedication of the new war memorial for all of our School boys lost in the wars since 1914. We were all aware of the significance of these events, not only in honouring Old Churcherians but also the commitment of the armed services throughout this time. During the service the RAF section performed admirably and when the CCF lined up for the school to walk through the memorial, it was the RAF cadets who were closest to the arch. Only two days later the events continued with the Petersfield Remembrance Day Parade where the RAF was also well represented in the poignant celebration.
Throughout the year the RAF has also been busy with field trips and activities. These have included a tour around the new hangars at the RAF Museum in Hendon and a tour around the active RAF base at Odiham, including sitting in a Chinook cockpit and trying out the life rafts, as well as hearing about the experiences of members of the RAF. The most recent field trip was to Basingstoke for indoor skydiving and a Cold War themed escape room, which all the cadets thoroughly enjoyed, and it helped them develop their team work skills. Unfortunately this year the RAF section has not been as lucky as usual with weather at Boscombe Down and only a couple of flights have gone up. During the most recent flight at the end of June most of the cadets did aerobatics including loop-the-loops, barrel rolls and experiencing 0G.
swimming, flight simulations and team building skills.
In terms of the weekly sessions the RAF section has also been busy, not only learning drill but also the basics of first aid,
Flt Sgt Emily Jupe
Throughout the year the section has also had a series of successes, especially from the Lower Sixth NCOs. Cpl S Redfern completed his Air Cadet Pilot Scheme (ACPS) with a glowing report and flew solo in Summer 2018 and Cpl J Browne also completed the ACPS and flew solo this summer. Furthermore, Cpl J Browne and L/Cpl B Brandon will soon be completing the Air Cadet Leadership Course (ACLC). It has been an honour to lead the RAF section, especially in such a significant year and I was proud to participate in all the Remembrance events. I wish the RAF all the best in the future and I am sure it will continue to offer lots of opportunities for future cadets.
NAVY
This year the Navy section has really flourished. With the enthusiastic help of Lt Lofthouse the section has gone from strength to strength.
Adam Childs
C
hief Petty Officer Childs has had an exemplary year, leading by example and gaining the First Sea Lord’s award, beating over 20,000 applicants nationwide. Chief Childs has been the model cadet and much of the section’s success is attributed to him and the other officers, Leading Hands Hutchinson, Newbery and Williams. Leading from the front, they have organised and trained the junior cadets to a very high level so that we have strength
in our rising cadets. Many have taken the opportunities to take part in camps and courses, sailing to the Channel Islands, going on leadership and sailing courses. Our field days have involved visits to various Navy establishments, weapons training, low ropes and assault course visits as well as sailing to the Isle of White, firefighting and dinghy sailing in Chichester harbour. Lt Cardwell
In a first for Churcher’s, Sixth Former Adam Childs has become one of only six First Sea Lord Cadets. Adam, who represents the ‘Southern Area’ of the UK, met in Portsmouth with the other five cadets in an event hosted by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Philip Jones KCB ADC. They were awarded certificates and badges on board HMS Victory, the flag ship of the First Sea Lord, and later enjoyed a harbour tour of Portsmouth, seeing HMS Queen Elizabeth and other vessels. Adam will now serve a 12 month tenure, with key responsibilities including attending several key Royal Navy/Royal Marines events, working alongside other cadets from the Sea Cadets and Volunteer Cadet Corps and being presented with a 1SL Cadet Board badge to add to his uniform.
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ARMY
The training programme this year has comprised of three very successful field days.
T
he new Third Year cadets had a fieldcraft skills day at Oxney Farm (Bordon) in the Autumn Term to learn and practise skills in camouflage and concealment, tactical movement, navigation and judging distances. The Fourth Years, having completed their Skill at Arms training, enjoyed a day of battle exercises using blank ammunition and smoke grenades to clear a Close Quarter Battle (CQB) lane, exercising pairs-firemanoeuvre drills and then laying and fighting through a snap-ambush of an enemy patrol. In the Autumn Term the Third Years spent the night bivvying at Longmoor, living on ORP and practising their field administration and patrolling skills.
second year of our Community Expansion Programme (CEP) partnership with The Petersfield School (TPS), which gives up to 15 pupils per year the opportunity to parade, train, exercise and camp as part of our unit. Their cadets and officers are well-integrated into the platoon structure and continue to be an asset to the contingent.
We have now finished the
Capt D Nighy
This year’s Summer Camp took 18 cadets to Barry Buddon, on the east coast of Scotland, for a full and challenging programme, including live firing of the cadet L98A2 and L129 sharpshooter rifles, AT paddle-sports, paintball pairs-fire-manoeuvre and bunker clearance, battlefield first aid and a company-level exercise combining a night ambush and daytime attack.
Flo Anderson Upper Sixth Former Flo Anderson has been awarded a British Army Officer Scholarship, one of only 100 which are awarded annually from thousands of applications. Flo completed the Army Officer Selection Board earlier this year, a rigorous and challenging three-day process involving leadership and mental aptitude tasks, interviews and physical challenges. Flo was Company Sergeant Major of the Army section and after University intends to head to Sandhurst to complete her 44week training to become an Army Officer.
REMEMBRANCE EVENTS
E
specially poignant this year was the Remembrance Assembly, which saw the Rev’d Canon Will Hughes joined by VIP guests for a special assembly which included a short film featuring OC Ken Webb. 92-year-old Ken remembered with great clarity and emotion his time serving in WW2. This was followed by the dedication of our newly constructed war memorial, which remembers OCs who have fallen. The College’s Senior CCF cadets led the way to the memorial, followed by a banner party, where they laid wreaths while the Wind Band played alongside. In a further act of Remembrance, the College commissioned an art installation of 54 ‘Silent Soldiers’ on the roundabout at the entrance to College. Each soldier represented one of the 52 old boys and two groundsmen who made the ultimate sacrifice in WW1. They were subsequently auctioned to raise a further
£1,000 for the British Legion. Continuing our commemoration through art, a giant 5m x 3m painting by A Level student Pippa Tuffin was positioned on the exterior of the Senior School Art Block. The College Wind Band also played in the Remembrance Service in Petersfield Town Square on Sunday, 11th November, where the College CCF (including a platoon from TPS) paraded along with Veterans and other local bodies. With this being a special year, the town also hosted a commemorative event at the Festival Hall. The College Jazz Band performed ‘Dark Town Strutters’ Ball’ to a packed hall. This was closely followed by our own annual Remembrance Concert at St Peter’s Church where the audience was treated to an evening of exceptional music from the College Orchestra and various choirs. The Senior Chamber Choir even sang in Russian, which was most impressive!
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THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH’S AWARD A
fter last year’s scorching DofE assessment we had a very different experience on Exmoor: low cloud and sea mist dominated the week making navigation difficult. Almost 80 students started this year’s assessment, staying the night in Minehead or Exford Youth Hostels and departing early on their expedition treks, walking
between 16 and 20 km per day, carrying everything they would need for the next three days. All of our leaders, made up of school staff and parent volunteers made a huge effort to remotely monitor the students and supply them with water when needed, which helped the expedition run smoothly and allowed the students to complete their trek safely. At the end of each day the students
camped and cooked their own meals, moving from campsite to campsite. Completing around 50km of walking, the students finished at lunchtime on June 27th and had well-earned fish and chips before returning to School. Congratulations to all the students involved! Richard Cardwell
Gold at the Palace
As the sun shone brightly this summer, 11 Churcher’s students travelled to Buckingham Palace to receive their Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award from Prince Michael of Kent, Sophie Countess of Wessex and Edward Earl of Wessex. The students were among 1,000 proud young people from across the UK receiving the coveted Gold Awards, which every young person worked incredibly hard to accomplish.
BRONZE AWARD
This year’s cohort of more than 70 students headed to the sunny Isle of Wight for their Bronze Award Assessed Expedition in June, demonstrating why Churcher’s is recognised as a premier district licensing centre in Hampshire.
The Duchess of Wessex spent time with the Churcher’s students asking about volunteering and residential experiences, which are essential to completing the Gold Award. The Duchess was also interested in the highs and lows of the gruelling final expedition which forms a vital component. She also spoke to the Churcher’s
parents about her own daughter, who is currently working towards her Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award, empathising with the parents’ role in supporting and sharing a joke about the “unique smell” that returns with teenagers from expeditions. Also demonstrating a sense of fun, Anne Diamond, the TV presenter, presented certificates introducing herself to the students by apologising for “not being a rock star”. Nevertheless, Anne proved highly engaging with the story of her start in the world of journalism, reporting and news reading, and stories of some of the fascinating people she has interviewed during her career. Congratulations on this wonderful achievement to Oliver Sanders, Catriona McColl, Robert Chamberlain, Calum Bryant, Flo Anderson, Anya Pigden, Rosie Botham, Charlie Morris, Miles Prosser, Ryan Wilkinson and Hannah Cordall.
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TEN TORS This year we had the largest group of students for many years; three 35 mile challenge teams and two 45 mile challenge teams
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his year the weather was looking good; however, this would set a different kind of challenge as it was so hot that dehydration and heat stroke were a serious concern. With the course issued the day before, the groups set about frantically working out their routes, looking at every contour, checkpoint and path along the way. By the end of the day the groups were ready, route established, kit checked and plans made ready for an early
start. The start of the Ten Tors is a unique experience with thousands of challengers and staff standing on a hill awaiting the firing of two field guns. Accompanied by the sight of two Royal Navy Merlin helicopters passing low through the valley, the guns sounded and the challenge had begun. Students from across the country poured down into the valley and into the distance, hopefully in the right direction! With only occasional transmission from their GPS trackers the awaiting staff and parents set about plotting the groups along their routes with all teams seemingly making good progress throughout the day. Midway through the Sunday morning, as staff and parents were dismantling the camp, the GPS tracking suggested that the groups weren’t far away. As we gathered at the finish line we saw the first Churcher’s team come in, shortly followed by the rest with around an hour between each group. As they passed the finish line, applauded by hundreds of supporters, the sense of relief was evident from the challengers. With blistered feet and sore backs, the students finished waving the Churcher’s flag high! A tough challenge for the students, but one of the most rewarding for all involved. A huge congratulations to all the students on their achievement! Richard Cardwell
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DEVIZES TO WESTMINSTER Churcher’s wins top school prize for the second time.
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he Devizes to Westminster International Canoe Marathon (DW) is a canoe race held every Easter over a course of 125 miles (201km) from Devizes in Wiltshire to central London. It has been run since 1948. Starting at Devizes Wharf, the route follows the Kennet and Avon canal for 54 miles to Reading, where it joins the Thames. Another 54 miles later it reaches Teddington Lock, ending 17 miles later at Westminster Bridge. Celebration was tinged with tragedy over the four days of the Easter weekend as Churcher’s students successfully completed the DW beating off stiff competition from schools across the UK to win the top school prize. This year the tragic death of one of the adult competitors at Westminster underlined just how challenging this famously gruelling canoe event is, renowned worldwide for being a severe test of skill, physical and mental stamina and planning. This is the second time Churcher’s has won the Junior Team School trophy (as well as twice for the Junior Ladies Team trophy) for this extraordinary challenge and follows months of arduous training and preparation.
DW PUSHES STUDENTS TO THE LIMITS OF ENDURANCE AND COMMITMENT
This year there were 12 double kayaks from Churcher’s with 24 boys and girls competing in the Junior Doubles race class. The Churcher’s top performing male paddlers, who won the Schools’ Cup, were led by Elliott Dewdney and Tom Parmenter, closely followed by Seb Cooke and Tom Smith, Will Keohane and Ben Williams, Tim Orchard and Louis Wright. The top performing female boat was crewed by Anna Patterson and Libby Remington closely followed by the two Hollys, Thompson and Milner. The squad was completed by Joe Knowles with Bob CraigWood, Jude Franklin with Charlie Willcock, Max Walton with Will Hipsey, James Coni with Callum Howes, Flora Edwards with Katie Hutchinson, Amelie Lewis in a mixed crew with Ben Murphy. Mark Adams
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CHARITIES A
Another successful year raising money for good causes.
t the start of the year, the Sixth Form led a whole week of fundraising for our school in Mude in Nepal, including a busking competition, Krispy Kreme doughnut sale, hockey crossbar challenge, 5-a-side football, Mario Kart racing, Mexicanthemed lunch and many more events. We raised over £2,000 for the Mude school to help fund new equipment and improve the education for the children. See Mr Harris’ first-hand account of the impact our fundraising efforts have on the community. Before Christmas, the Charities Committee decided to support the charity Walking With The Wounded (WWTW) with a whole school non-uniform day and also organise an obstacle course for Churcher’s students to compete against each other to raise extra funds, raising over £1,300 for WWTW to support the veterans. For the first time here at Churcher’s College, we hosted Comic Relief Red Nose Day. On top of another whole school non-uniform day, red noses were sold throughout the week before the day by the Sixth Formers and everyone was hoping to find the ultra-rare nose. As the Krispy Kreme doughnut sale went down so well in October another doughnut sale took place in the tuck shop and in Ramshill which sold out within ten minutes! We raised over £1,553 to support Comic Relief and its goal to create a world without poverty. At the end of the Summer Term, pupils took part in our Funding For Others charity festival, a sunny afternoon of fun with music, entertainment, games,
sponge-the-teacher, slip and slide and more, which raised just under £800 to go towards the children in Mude. What a brilliant way to finish the term before the Summer holidays! As well as raising funds, charity work has proved to be another way for students to form friendships, united by a common cause.
CHARITIES SUPPORTED
IN THIS ACADEMIC YEAR WE HAVE RAISED JUST OVER £12,700 FOR CHARITY
The charities we donated to last year included: • Genetic Disorders UK • Step by Step • CRPS • United World Schools • Read for Good • Walking with the Wounded • Cardiac Risk in the Young • Chestnut Tree House • The King’s Arms Charity • Comic Relief • Centrepoint
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Haunted Library
When we canvassed our Library regulars to find out how they wanted to celebrate Halloween, there was only one answer – a Haunted Library! Read for Good, who deliver books to children in hospital, seemed the most fitting Charity for the Library to support with this fun event. We spent the morning hanging heavy blackout drapes from the second floor, emptying the furniture and setting a Spooktacular scene. Books covered in cobwebs look very effective! When lunchtime arrived, excited pupils (not knowing quite what to expect for their 20p entrance fee‌) entered through dry-ice to the dimly lit Library. They weaved their way through a spider web to pass through graveyards, upturned tables and bowls of entrails and eyeballs into which only the bravest would put their hands. Many of our teachers had fully embraced the chance to dress up, and hid behind curtains, under tables and in cupboards to jump out at the already spooked students! Who knew our teachers were so scary?
Our Visit to Mude, UWS Boxing Day 2018 and Miss Gardner and I packed our bags to fly to Nepal to meet the people in the community of Mude and the key players in the organisation called United World Schools, whose school we have been supporting for five years. On arrival at the school for the first time, we could see that the path leading to the school was lined with people waiting to greet us with marigolds, scarves, red paint and lots of ‘Namaste’. Once we had been greeted by pretty much everybody and with foreheads painted red we sat and watched a series of dances, speeches and songs that were performed for us and the other VIPs (Nepal has a lot of these, apparently). We were all asked to stand up and say a few words of ‘inspiration’ which we duly did, to our embarrassment. During the visit we really gained an understanding of the role UWS has had in the community and the desire to elevate teaching from its didactic roots. Everyone involved sees the school as a tool for creating social change and allowing generations of children to dream of a different role beyond labouring, farming or marriage. The pride taken in the school was obvious and we, as Churcher’s, are a part of that story. UWS Mude is becoming a hub for teaching innovation and what can happen when thinking outside of the traditional Nepalese box. Students in the school now speak English and can start to see life differently as they’re taught using more engaging methods in brightly coloured classrooms. When we were sitting on the top of the hill, watching the sunset cast an orange glow onto the distant skyline of Everest and Makalu, it felt like an incredible place for Churcher’s to be effecting and driving positive change, in what we hope is a sustained manner. It was an incredible experience to see how this remote Himalayan community is changing and the role we have had. However, there is still much more to do. Jeremy Harris
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COMMUNITY ACTION SERVICE
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he year 2019 marked the finalisation of two individual projects which have run for six and seven years respectively. It was the end after six years at Gloucester Court, where our Sixth Form students have been running art and craft activities for the residents on a weekly basis. The residents have bene equally pleased with the weekly chat and cake eating as much as the craft activities! Unfortunately, the demographics of Gloucester Court have changed, with some residents having sadly passed
away and others moving into care homes. New residents of Gloucester Court are so young that they are still of working age and therefore are not in need of our support. Should the demographic swing again, Churcher’s College will, of course, be ready to take up the role once more. The other venture to have reached its conclusion is our glorious path building project by the Petersfield Heath Pond. Anecdotally, it began with the Headmaster running around the
pond, getting muddy feet and suggesting we did something about it. We contacted the Petersfield Society, who connected us with Friends of the Heath (FotH). It was a match made in heaven! FotH had the plans and the know-how and we had the resources to make it happen. Throughout these seven years there is one man who we have relied on more than anyone else: David Burstall from FotH. We have shared a vision of not only wanting to fill the biggest mud-holes in the path, but also of wanting to finish the
job we started seven years ago. David has dealt expertly with all the politics, bureaucracy and logistics of the project and has always had brilliant insight as to just what young boys and girls are capable of. It has been an inspiring inter-generational project between our students and the volunteers. Over the years we have completed 440 yards, used 2,400 feet of batten, hammered in 571 metal rods, wheel-barrowed 173 tonnes of gravel and involved 490 student volunteers (and devoured the same amount of KitKats).
So, what does the future hold? We hope to revisit the path from time to time for general maintenance and we also hope to get involved with tree planting initiatives to do our bit to make the world a greener place. Tony Ostersen
PATH BUILDING
Over the years we have completed 440 yards, used 2400 feet of batten, hammered in 571 metal rods, wheelbarrowed 173 tonnes of gravel and involved 490 student volunteers, who have devoured the same number of KitKats!
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CHURCHER’S COMMUNITY
The Churcher’s College Community includes present and former pupils, parents and staff, ensuring that the connection to school remains beyond the classroom.
OC Netball
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he Development and Alumni Relations team organise a wide range of events, including reunions, and share news from Old Churcherians (OCs) and the wider community to help maintain friendships and connections to school. In addition, it helps pupils with networking opportunities and to find work experience and support with their careers wherever possible. We encourage Old Churcherians and friends of the College to remain part of the Churcher’s family. Keep in touch, we are always happy to hear from you!
year group reunions. Catching up over lunch at College, they brought with them the sunshine, lots of great stories and plenty of laughter! The following day, our OCs donned their sporting gear for the annual Old Churcherian netball and hockey matches against the College 1st teams. The colder weather didn’t put anyone off and we had a great morning of sport with the OC Ladies victorious in both hockey and netball, with the OC Gentlemen narrowly losing to the 1st XI.
The London Dinner
Reunion Weekend
This year’s reunion weekend at the end of March began with more than 70 OCs returning for their ‘69, ‘79, ‘89, ‘99 & ‘09
HHH Drinks
With a change of venue for the annual London Dinner, this year taking place in the prestigious RAF Club in Mayfair, OCs dined with the Captains of College,
U6 Parents’ Social their Deputies and Vice Captains along with the Headmaster and select staff. A wonderful evening of good food and conversation heralded the end of official duties for our senior Sixth Formers and provided another opportunity for the Churcher’s community to come together.
Upper Sixth Parents’ Social
The end of the academic year brings the end of an era for many parents too, whose relationships with Chucher’s College will take on a new hue
Reunion Weekend
as their children move on to their next challenge. While the Upper Sixth partied at the Sixth Form Ball, parents gathered in the Ramshill Garden Room for an evening of reminiscing and looking forward.
Heath Harrison House Drinks
The OC events calendar begins with drinks at Heath Harrison House, a welcome chance for recent leavers to catch up with staff and old friends before many embark on their new lives at University.
KEEP IN TOUCH, WE ARE ALWAYS HAPPY TO HEAR FROM YOU
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Networking
Over the summer we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to spend a week at the Rayne Institute in St Thomas’ Hospital, part of King’s College London’s School of Cardiovascular Medicine & Sciences, to gain a rare first-hand insight into the fascinating world of medical research. Under the guidance of Dr James Clark and working alongside two physiology MSc students we were introduced to many of the techniques and methods that prove integral to molecular biological research, such as protein immunoblotting and gel electrophoresis to isolate specific proteins related to cardiac function. We were also provided the opportunity to observe cardiac ultrasound of mice and laser confocal microscopy to analyse mouse heart tissue, as well as being able to experience other aspects of life within the institute such as faculty meetings discussing findings of ongoing research. The experience greatly enhanced our knowledge and understanding of both human and animal cardiac physiology and provided us invaluable insight into the world of research as a potential career path going forward. We would like to thank Dr Clark for this amazing experience and would highly recommend it to anyone strongly considering medical research as a career option.
The London Dinner
Ollie de la Court and Erin Care Charlie Beardsmore (10) went to Hong Kong in his gap year and was grateful to Bob Hunt (73) and Nick Case (86) for taking the time to make him feel welcome. Annabel Dickson (15) got in touch to see if we could put her in touch with an OC in the legal profession. Rob Thomas QC (86) provided her with a week’s work experience in his London chambers.
Work Experience
OC Hockey
HHH Drinks
OC DROPS IN!
Not just your average Thursday at school! Everyone was very excited to have a brand new Wildcat helicopter land in the school field one June lunchtime flown in by OC Major AB Rivett AAC.
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RHIDIAN BROOK Old Churcherian & Award-Winning Author
academic, sporty or an Did the transition into screenwriting come all-rounder? naturally and how I took a while to hit my straps academically. It wasn’t until I was your experience was doing A Levels that I felt I of working with was getting somewhere. I always Hollywood stars? enjoyed rugby and eventually made the 1st XV in my ‘Seventh Term’, playing scrum half and wing.
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hidian Brook is an award-winning writer of fiction. His first novel, The Testimony of Taliesin Jones, won several prizes including the Somerset Maugham Award. His third, The Aftermath, was an international bestseller and has been translated into twenty-five languages; it has also been made into a major motion picture. His latest novel, The Killing of Butterfly Joe, is just out in paperback. He has written for television and the screen and has been a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’ for 20 years. We asked him to reflect on his years as a Nelsonian at Churcher’s from 1975-82.
Do you have any particularly memorable anecdotes of your time at Churcher’s? I have many memories: stealing rhubarb from the Mount House gardens at midnight; the stage collapsing at the end of the Nelson House play; running from the Chemistry class when the yellow phosphorous ignited. If I had to pick one, it would be skating on the frozen Heath pond, the ice cracking at the edges, falling in and having to walk back to school in my underpants.
Were you more
As a Churcherian, what were your favourite lessons? I’d have to say English, with Mr Martin and Mr Chapman. Although ‘Bomber’ Brown’s RE lessons are memorable, and PE with Welshman Mr Hill had its moments.
Who were your favourite teachers and did any of them inspire or encourage your love of writing? Both Mr Martin and Mr Chapman – and Mrs Chapman during seventh term – all encouraged a love of literature. Mr O’Brien taught English O Level and History with imagination and flourish. I once wrote a short story which Mr O’Brien thought I’d plagiarised from Jack London; this was not true but I took it as a compliment.
At what age did you realise you wanted to be a writer, and how did you get your first break? Around about the age of 27. My big break was getting ill. I was working as a copywriter in an advertising agency when a virus took me out of work for two years. I started to write what became my first novel, The Testimony of Taliesin Jones.
I’m a visual writer, often ‘picturing things’ before I write them down; so scriptwriting came fairly naturally. I prefer writing novels. Scripts are really a set of instruction for others – actors, director, art design – to follow. I didn’t write the script that was shot for The Aftermath but I did meet the stars. They were all professional and engaging and beautiful.
How do you look back on your time at Churcher’s College? Do you think you learnt any lessons here that have stood you in good stead later in life? I was homesick at first, but after a while began to enjoy it. There were only 120 boarders back than and because we were
‘BOMBER’ BROWN’S RE LESSONS ARE MEMORABLE, AND PE WITH WELSHMAN MR HILL HAD ITS MOMENTS
predominantly a day school, we had a fair amount of freedom. I think pretty fondly of my time there. I entered the Sixth Form the year the school took in girls (five of them initially!) and I think they helped everyone raise their game. I’m not a fan of boarding school, but it did give me a certain independence and selfreliance.
And finally, what advice would you give to today’s Churcherians, especially those with a passion for writing? Don’t do it! But seriously, if you have passion, that’s a good start. You won’t get far without. You’ll also need the talent. Other people (readers, editors, publishers) will let you know whether you have it or not. Then I’d suggest you need perseverance. It’s a long and patient game. Rewards are not always instant. It takes time and thought. Then, perhaps you need what some call luck, but I’d call timing. The timing of when you write an idea. Where it comes from. Having the time to write it, etc. If I could pass on one thing it would be that nothing is wasted.
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DON BROOKS
Don Brooks, who sadly passed away this year, was Headmaster of Churcher’s College from 1973-85.
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ere follows an extract from the eulogy delivered by Simon Williams at Don’s memorial service held at St Peter’s Church in August. It was one of the saddest duties for me this year to circulate the news to Old Churcherians and the staff at Churcher’s that Don had passed away, but it was, conversely, a real pleasure to note the tone of the replies I received, as this little sample might suggest: “Mr Brooks was such a positive influence in my school days at Churcher’s and greatly encouraged me to strive for entry to Cambridge” “As one of the five ‘ladies’ in the second intake of women, I am grateful that Don pushed for that change. I look back on my two years at Churcher’s College with fond memories” “My memory of him was of being firm, but always fair, with a very good sense of humour” “I was in the school from 1976 to 1982, and, even though he was navigating the challenges of moving the school from being a state aided grammar school to being a private school, he still found time to support me during the time my parents split up”. “you may already know this, but in my day Mr Brooks had the affectionate nickname of ‘Officer Dibble’” “Very, very sorry to hear the news. “Dibble” was a fine man and a wonderful Headmaster” “I have some very fond memories of Mr Brooks or ‘Dibble’ as some of us called him”. I have no idea why Don was awarded the nickname ‘Dibble’ by the children at Churcher’s
but there is possibly a certain resonance between the situation in the New York alley way, with Top Cat’s gang getting up to mischief and Officer Dibble’s attempts to control them, and the lads at Churcher’s and Don’s endeavours to keep them on the straight and narrow. Of course, managing the militant teenage masses was not all Don had to contend with. He may have been mainly focussed on their well-being when he was Deputy Head between 1968 and 1973, but when he was suddenly thrust into the limelight of Headship, when the previous Head, David Goodfield, suddenly died on the tennis court, Don had to step up and he had a lot, lot more to worry about. A Headteacher has to not only keep the body and soul of the school of the present ticking over, but he or she has to prepare it for environmental pressures of the future as well. Don’s time as Head is liberally peppered with momentous decisions forced upon him by changing landscapes and, in hindsight, the direction he chose for the school has proven to be the absolute right one. When Don started at Churcher’s in 1968 it was a state maintained school, what was called at the time ‘voluntary-aided’. The money for everything came from the Government via the Local Educational Authority. When Don became Head he was swiftly informed by the LEA that the school faced a cliff edge, the state maintained, all boys’ boarding school that it was had to change and there was a choice: to become a co-ed comprehensive school, a Sixth Form College or merge and have a split status with TPS, The Petersfield School. Or there was a fourth, more radical option, the jump-over-the-cliff-edge option, and that was to go independent.
Imagine having to close one night as a school with money coming from outside and then open the next morning having to raise one’s own funds. I read in the Governors’ minutes at the time “the teaching staff had a frank discussion with the Board about the future of the school and were not unanimous on any of the options”. It wasn’t just the teachers and the Governors who couldn’t agree; there were pupil views and parent views and Old Churcherian views and local population views; as many different ideas as to Churcher’s future as there were people and it was up to Don to decide. Fortunately for us Don didn’t duck the challenge of going independent, going it alone with absolutely no money, nor was he outwardly fazed by the complications of transferring every stick of furniture, every spoon and fork from LEA’s ownership to Churcher’s selfdetermination and expense. In September 1979 with the help of an independence appeal which Don initiated and a target to raise £150,000, which actually became a remarkable £250,000 within two weeks (equivalent to around £2million today), Don purchased everything… all those buildings, forks, spoons, and teachers, and Churcher’s became master of its own destiny. And that was just the beginning of a new and, as it turns out, glorious chapter in Churcher’s almost 300-year history. Today we are flourishing with almost 1,200 who can call themselves Churcherians and that growth began with Don as the man who introduced the girls, with the first five pioneers starting in the Sixth Form in 1980: Rosemary, Helen, Jolanda, Claire and Kate. Don was not content with just simply maintaining the status quo: he knew that to
stand still, as Oliver Cromwell once said, is to go backwards. In 1981 there was a great deal of talk in the press about the ‘considerable concern for the future of independent schools’, as the press headline read, but this was the time when Don moved Churcher’s up from a two form entry to three. He also initiated talks about the future of boarding, began the re-development of the gym, oversaw the purchase of land for playing fields and tennis courts, looked at the development of science facilities, an all-weather pitch, and opened the new art and music centre. But as Don said in his final message as Head to everyone in the Churcherian magazine of 1985, and I quote: “A school is not the buildings or the site (fortunate though we be in having such a superb setting). It is the pupils and staff who are in it and those who have passed through.” I have inherited a magnificent school, full of magnificent people, young and older, and I have no doubt that the creation of modern day Churcher’s began with Don and was further developed brilliantly by Geoff Buttle who, with a short interim arrangement, took over the reins in 1988. Don may have retired in 1985 but he left part of his heart and soul with Churcher’s. I know this because he has been the most magnificent supporter of the school ever since he retired and a guiding hand to me as well. Ever-present at concerts and plays and Speech Days, June and Don have continued to help and applaud the generations coming through Churcher’s. Don’s name graces our Speech Day Music Prize, an example of June and his continuing wish to award and applaud the children at Churcher’s and especially the music. Don sowed the seeds of success for Churcher’s with his foresight, courage of conviction and the huge efforts he made. The children he once taught have clearly not forgotten what he did for them and we, who are still at Churcher’s, will certainly not forget him and all he has done for all of us.
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DEPARTING STAFF Mark Adams
To remain at a place for 22 years you have got to like it, but it is equally true to say it has to like you. As evidence of that, Mark’s involvement in school life goes far beyond the normal nine to five and you don’t tend to dedicate such energy, effort and enthusiasm to something for which you have lukewarm regard. Amongst lots of other things Mark was, once upon a time, a full time, fully fledged Design & Technology teacher, a man renowned for his brilliant carpentry skills amongst others. Once upon a time he was also holding the CCF Navy Section together almost by himself. Of late he may have been a part-time technician but there has been nothing part-time about his involvement in DW. For 13 years Mark has been coming in Sunday after Sunday, in early morning, between October and Easter, spending all day canal or riverside in all weathers, breaking ice on the canals, training the crews, and returning late Sunday afternoon to then repair and re-repair and repair again all the kayaks that had been dropped, capsized and run into walls. And on top of all that, then spending the whole Easter weekend with the DW crews camping for four days often in what must have felt like mid-winter. What has been remarkable, alongside Mark’s DW longevity, has been the amount of DW silverware we have accumulated over the years and that is because of all the care, time and effort Mark has given to what really only started as a sideline.
Alex Thomas
Alex joined the Mathematics Department in September 2015 as a temporary maternity cover. She was always helpful and most professional, however kept herself pretty much to herself. I later realised that Alex was feeling sheepish about what she considered to be a pretty cushy deal. This I now realise is typical Alex: she is thoughtful, considerate and astonishingly unaware of just how highly she is regarded. After her calm first year Alex returned on a permanent basis, much to everyone’s delight, and soon began to reveal her true character! She is first and foremost a superb Maths teacher, caring hugely for her pupils and determined to get the very best out of them, whether they liked it or not! She is also a very kind and helpful colleague with a fantastic sense of humour. During her time here Alex also enabled budding D of E pupils to join in their first expeditions on the Isle of Wight. Alex and her family have gone to join Pete on a two year African adventure in Lagos. Whilst we are sure they will have an amazing time we very much look forward to seeing the Thomases back in Petersfield in two years and to hear about all of their escapades.
Ian Webb-Taylor
Having started his career in Perth, Australia, Ian made the journey to the UK to continue his teaching and organ playing before arriving at Churcher’s from the Stanchester Academy, Somerset in 2017. We have enjoyed hearing Ian play the organ on a number of occasions and, more often than not, seen him receive a standing ovation, particularly at our Carol services. Together with the academic teaching, Ian has coached a number of our vocal and instrumental ensembles, culminating in a superb concert, given by the SSA Choir at St. Mary’s Church, Liss, in June of this year. His superb accompanying skills have been evident at our numerous concerts and Ian has no doubt raised the online profile of the Music Department with the development of our Twitter account. He has also introduced the Music4Lunch concerts; short, informal concerts where pupils perform to a small, supportive audience, without the pressure of a more formal occasion. His calm, professional support over the last two years has been most welcome and we wish him all the best for the future.
Suzanne Gardener
That Churcher’s has jumped forward in leaps and bounds with Netball is without doubt; that Suzanne is the one woman tornado behind that stellar trajectory is equally clear. Some might be unwise and suggest that the gold medal and England’s trouncing of world series winning Australia in the Commonwealth Games netball is behind the brilliant growth in both participation and elite performance in netball here at Churcher’s, but we are only too aware that it is personalities not prizes that drives these things. Suzanne has not been single-minded in her pursuit of netball gold but she has been determined to give and get the best to and from our sportswomen and men, whatever the sport, and that, for example, saw her standing beside the River Thames at silly o’clock in the morning waiting for the 4am start for our swimmers. Suzanne’s travels and adventures now take her to sunnier climes in the Middle East along with our very best wishes.
Richard Cardwell
Richard’s role here gave him a split personality, half PE and half Outdoor Adventure, which seemed an ideal fit; what he didn’t realise when accepting the post was that he wouldn’t have one, but two demanding masters in Philip Pearson and Dan Cox. That he has survived that ordeal is probably as impressive as any mountain he has ever climbed or raging torrent ever forded. That he is now running away to Jersey to escape is probably no surprise but he leaves behind a few holes to be filled, not least his PE, his DW, his CCF, his DofE, in fact a whole host of acronyms. Possibly testament to his worth or what has developed since he has been here, is that the various roles he has had have to spread across a number of souls, now too much for one person. We send him off overseas along with our very best wishes.
Mike Hoebee
Mike’s departure has been keenly felt since he left at Christmas for Bedales, after having been an integral part of the R&P Department for seven years and a term. Aside from inspirational teaching, Mike’s speciality was the integration of IT into the classroom. He very quickly became best friends with FireFly and he made sure the Department was firmly placed in the 21st Century, boasting state of the art FireFly pages. His other passion within Teaching and Learning was Gamefication and while at Churcher’s, Mike managed to add the title ‘Published Writer’ to his social media profile, as he got his critically acclaimed GCSE revision guide published. He will be missed by all he taught but Mike leaves one select group of students really wanting more - the Warhammer group, with whom Mike spent many a lunchtime playing Kill Team - quite a game title for a very peaceful R&P teacher. Beyond this, Mike also co-ordinated the CCALS lecture series, was Assistant Head of Drake, headed up e-Learning, taught IT and helped with D of E.
Lexi Franklin
Lexi joined us part-time in September 2017 to meet the demands of a growing Psychology Department. She was involved in ‘Elephants on Acid’, our Psychology club for First to Fifth Years, and she also helped out with the Academy. A highlight of Lexi’s time here is her decoration of the Psychology classroom and also helping prepare for the Open Days, where she got the room fizzing and buzzing. She was also integral to the inaugural Psychology of Crime workshop. She leaves us with all well wishes in order to spend more time with her family.
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Rob Snowball
Just over two years ago, Rob came on board the Churcher’s ship as School Staff Instructor (SSI) in our CCF. That was no easy task for Rob. He may have had a little dabble in army fatigues a few years ago but his marching and skill at arms was at best rusty. That, however, wasn’t the main hurdle he faced, having to win over some raised eyebrows at the appointment of a civvy to the role usually earmarked for a senior NCO coming out of the service. But they have indeed been won over, singing Rob’s praises and even congratulating him on his navigation of the impenetrable MoD database called Westminster. Though the SSI role did pre-exist Rob, its more expanded nature of five days a week and including involvement in Adventurous Activities and expeditions did not. That Rob is being replaced with another with a five day CCF/Adventurous Activities brief shows that it has been a success story. We are very grateful to Rob. He may not miss the herding cats bit of school life but hopefully he will look back on his time here with some fondness and we might even find him at another PA Quiz with facial hair returned now that army regs don’t impose themselves!
Vivienne Raeside
Viv joined the Science Department ten years ago as her daughter moved up into the Fourth Year and so had the tricky task of starting her teaching career here by teaching her daughter’s friends. She quickly showed herself to be not only a very good teacher but one who understood the pupils’ needs and motivations very well; her ability to see education from the pupils’ perspective was a particular strength. Over her time here she has taught Chemistry, Biology and been a Form Tutor to all year groups from the First to Fifth Years. She has also run OSCA groups, been away on OSCA expeditions, organised the GCSE Science Live! trips, run trips to A Level Chemistry lectures, helped out with numerous musical concerts and trips, started and run the very popular and successful Cosmetics Club, including running visits to companies for the club members. From the outset she was passionate about providing the best education that she could, quick to take on board new ideas and ways of improving the teaching in the department and proactive in suggesting changes to the content that we delivered. Her skill and kindness were hugely appreciated by the students; she was always greeted with huge affection when she came to see her old tutees at the Nelson Sixth Form leavers’ meal. She will be greatly missed but we hope to see her back to help with trips in the future.
Karen Kelley
Once upon a time Karen was a primary school teacher, so she knows only too well the trials and tribulations of being a teacher. Her son Will was a success story here, rising to the dizzy heights of Captain of College, so Karen knew what it is like to be a Churcher’s parent. But where Karen has had a unique experience is in single-handedly trying to hold together the Old Churcherians. Of late, Gill Clarke and Tim Dilks have helped her, but for many years, right from the days when Geoffrey Buttle gave her the role of resurrecting an alumni association after it had collapsed, Karen has done much by herself. That we have a flourishing Foundation; that we are helping disadvantaged children; that we have OCs involved in careers and practice interviews and work experience and CCALS lectures is in no small part down to Karen. She leaves behind her own legacy as she goes off to enjoy retirement, a flourishing Richard Churcher Foundation and there are a host of people so grateful for that and all Karen’s efforts.
Charles Gobie
Churcher’s has been lucky to have a team whose blood, sweat and tears has given us immaculate grounds, and there has been one man responsible for the further improvement in recent years – he has been out there in all weathers, spade or fork, mower or tractor in hand. In the relatively short time Charles has been here he has probably had more pats on the back than anyone else and deservedly so; not only is he a brilliant groundsman but he does it all with a smile. Imagine if someone was continually scribbling across your pristine work on a daily basis - that is how Charles must have felt! Sadly, the long journey from Twickenham each day eventually took its toll and we have lost him to an all girls’ school closer to home. A huge thank you to you for making Churcher’s a little prettier and our best wishes for life back in the smoke surrounded by tower blocks and girls.
Suzie Arnold
When all the world is crumbling around your ears; whatever the disaster is at one’s door; however badly something is going there are those who just seem to rise above all the chaos and see the positives when no positives appear to exist. With a perpetually reassuring smile, a “never mind, dear” or a “it will be alright on the night”, Suzie is just one of life’s perpetual glass half-full people and that is why the children (and adults) love her so much. Suzie seems to live and breathe drama. After 11 years of involvement with Churcher’s as a parent and LAMDA teacher, we wish Suzie the very happiest of retirements, but we also know that Suzie will be back because her passion for drama and for children’s involvement in it will undoubtedly find her in the audience of many a production here.
Karen Wood
Imagine having a job where you have to persuade every teacher to do something, to do it in a way they are not used to, to do it often at a specific time and to do it using a computer database which, like all databases, needs a degree of familiarisation… It is quite remarkable that Karen lasted so long! Karen was our pioneer in the wild west of school information management systems, helping us make a seamless transition from one system to a new one. She was the very best sort of ‘yes’ person; even if what she meant was ‘yes, give me a moment whilst I work out how to do that’! After 8 years at Churcher’s, Karen has opted for a change of scenery at Bedales where we are sure her knowledge and unflappable nature will be equally appreciated.
Philip Pearson
Back in November 2007, the Headmaster received an email that began “Philip (new parent, First Year) is very keen to get involved”. It didn’t take long to recognise that ‘keen’ in Philip terms is in another universe compared to the rest of us! In the years that have followed, we have seen the birth and growth of OSCA, setting the record for the fastest growing club in the school. A handful in its very first, neonatal outing to almost universal membership of the Second Year within a heartbeat, that enthusiasm has carried on over the last 12 years. Furthermore, Churcher’s has become a darling of St James’ Palace and DofE HQ because of Philip; maybe once upon a time he might have been seen as a bit of a maverick but when you do something different, but something obviously right, soon everyone is copying and it becomes mainstream. Philip’s involvement in adventure will continue at the same break-neck pace it always has but we hope that some of those future steps are with, or at least alongside, the Churcher’s gang as well.
"WE DO NOT INHERIT THE EARTH FROM OUR ANCESTORS WE BORROW IT FROM OUR CHILDREN" NATIVE AMERICAN PROVERB
Churcher’s College Ramshill, Petersfield, Hampshire GU31 4AS Tel: 01730 263033 Fax: 01730 231437 Email: enquiries@churcherscollege.com
Churcher’s College Junior School & Nursery Midhurst Road, Liphook, Hampshire GU30 7HT Tel: 01730 236870 Fax: 01428 722550 Email: ccjs@churcherscollege.com
