FOCUS Senior
Autumn 2020
Adventures in Lockdown
Summer Hike
Over the summer, departing Sixth Formers and keen hill walkers Will Duke and Adam Childs completed a fourday hike raising money for Mountain Rescue, climbing the Yorkshire Three Peaks (39.2km) followed by the Dales Way (128.7km). They walked a total of 107 miles in four days and raised £1,575, earning a feature in the Mountain Rescue magazine! As they explained, “we have a passion for the mountains, and have been fortunate to enjoy many years hiking in the Lake District, Yorkshire Moors, Dartmoor and Exmoor and feel a debt of gratitude to the Mountain Rescue Service”.
Edition 4
16 April 2020
THE LUNCH BOX
Age Concern
Age Concern Petersfield | Lunch Club Newsletter Age Concern Petersfield telephone number: 07852172998. Please call this number if you need any support.
Ron’s Joke of the Week : What do you find on a snooker table and in a man’s trousers? - pockets.
A Big Happy Birthday to : Robert Lumley - 3rd Joy Easlick and Brian Lawrence - 4th
Gardening Club Do you need any plants, compost, etc for your garden? Caroline, one of our volunteers, can take your orders deliver them to you from one of our local garden centres. Please call her on 07817017514.
Answers to last weeks riddle: 1. Green. Yellow, red and blue are primary colours, green is not. 2.December. The other months have only 30 days. 3. Calculus. The others are cloud types. 4. Cabbage. The others are vegetables that grow underground. 5. Shovel. The others have prongs.
Dear Readers, I thought it would be interesting to share some of the experiences from this side of the volunteering and ask you to share some of your thoughts. There have been observations made of this; being “worse than the war”, difficulties of isolation, the lack of being able to go outside, the freedom to choose what do and the flexibility of when to do it. Physically seeing friends, dinner with family, going to a pub and one of my friends saying, “I just miss having a hug”. The things we are currently without are difficult but what has been an unexpected positive, is the sense of community being rediscovered. The world which is often a huge and accessible place for so many, suddenly stopped looking out and remembered to look closer to home, at the people, the history, the beauty and the simple pleasures that are on our doorstep. With the above in mind, we’d like people to contribute to the newsletter. - What do you miss most? (big or small) - What have you rediscovered? - What positives, if any, have come from this difficult time? There is a chance that we can help with the wish list that will come from question one!! List it and we’ll see what we can do. I know there are a host of wonderfully talented people between the Volunteers and our Lunch Club Members. Artists, cooks, DIY guru’s, gardeners, writers, singers, musicians, photographers, pet lovers… you name it. Let’s see if we can make some of the wish list come true. What has also emerged, is that the country is all talking more intergenerationally and instead of seeing just an older person, those younger are recognising and appreciating the personalities, lives and experiences of older people. Take Capt. Tom and his 100th birthday, raising millions for the NHS. Also, the grandchildren, realising what wonderfully bright and interesting individuals their grandparents are. (Obviously we already knew you were great but there is now more time to talk and share) You, the readers have a varied wealth of experience, seen and done much that many of us are yet to realise and some things we never thought of! Many of you have also seen the local area change greatly over the years and it would be lovely to share that history, both through recollections and pictures. Sharing the past. Isobel the star editor has put some great photographs in the newsletter and I ask that you dig through your own photos and share some of your favourites of this beautiful area. One of my favourites would be the bluebells this time of year. Snow drops always say winter is ending but a carpet of violet bluebells can’t help but make you smile!! Nicky (Volunteer Mini Bus Driver)
Age Concern Petersfield - Registered Charity No. 1178837
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1
During lockdown, Sixth Form student Isobel Pyatt continued to volunteer for the Petersfield Age Concern lunch club as a part of her Gold DofE Award. Although the face-to-face lunch club was suspended, weekly lunch deliveries took their place. Accompanying their lunch, Isobel produced a weekly newsletter called The Lunch Box for all members, allowing them to keep in touch, share stories and keep up their mental well-being. As Editor, Isobel had to manage contributions from members and volunteers including puzzles, recipes, stories and much more, learning how to produce a newsletter from scratch.
Lockdown Cards
16-year-old student, Beth Lewis, came up with a creative way to raise both a smile and some money for the NHS, designing postcards so people can keep in touch with loved ones from a distance. Author Ruth Drury spotted Beth’s ‘Lockdown Cards’ on social media and asked her to produce a series of promotional cards. She then commissioned Beth to illustrate her latest children’s book ‘The Angermometer’, which went on to feature in a national advertising campaign across The Daily Mail, Metro and The i in August.
FOCUS Senior
Community Spirit
Fourth Year pupil Harry has also been working towards his bronze DofE award and shown some great community spirit. In May he completed a charity walk for the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund and along with sister Lottie and his Grandpa (virtually) has raised a whopping £5,500! For his volunteering section, Harry has also been delivering milk to his elderly neighbours three times a week and grocery shopping once a week during lockdown.
Baking Competition
During lockdown, First Year pupil Finley organised a baking competition to raise money for the NHS at Frimley Park, whose brilliant staff helped his uncle who had experienced an unexpected heart attack. Taking part was easy; a donation of at least £1, with photos of the finished item judged by Churcher’s College Head Chef and Catering Manager, albeit sadly by sight alone and not taste! Years 3-6 from the Junior School and First and Second Years entered in their droves and after raising more than £1,000 the winner was announced – congratulations to Molly Taylor for her wonderful rainbow cake, we hope it tasted half as good as it looked!
A Helping Hand
Fourth Year Gregor had to be creative when it came to completing the Volunteering requirement for his DofE Award this Summer. He turned his attention close to home and started helping his elderly neighbours at the start of April as lockdown took hold. He kept a weekly diary of the food shopping he did for his 80-year-old neighbours whose own children live many hours away and continued supporting them for 11 weeks over the Summer holidays.
FOCUS • 3
Devizes Training
Sixth Former Luca Phillips Mateo was determined not to let six months of training for the Devizes to Westminster canoe race go to waste when the event was cancelled. Instead, he took his challenge indoors and successfully rowed/ran 200km on his home-based rowing machine - the same distance as he would have travelled in the actual race over the Easter weekend! He has also raised an amazing £3,036.29, completely smashing his £2,000 target, for NHS Charities Together. Luca explains, “The DevizesWestminster International Canoe Marathon is not a continuous paddle, since it takes part in a canal, competitors must lift their boat out of the water at a lock, run around and place their boat back in, thus explaining the running/ cycling part of my challenge.”
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FOCUS Senior
Hurricane Challenge
To complete the Hurricane 80 Challenge, Fifth Year Izzy Jupe walked a total of over 80km in 80 days. The challenge commemorated the 80th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Britain and all money raised through both the entry fee and sponsorship went towards the RAF Museum, which tells the story of the RAF and the thousands of service men and women who served in it. Izzy said, “I went for short walks in the evenings after I finished online school and longer walks on the holidays and weekends. I really enjoyed getting out of the house after being sat inside all day.”
Cycle Challenge
Second Year Thomas was certainly busy over lockdown! Not only did he successfully hike the equivalent distance of the marathon (26 miles) and cycle the equivalent distance of the South Downs Way (100 miles), but he also took on the Extended Challenge of using his stairs to climb the equivalent height of Everest, doing 101 climbs per day - 3,535 stair climbs - which he completed at the end of May and raised £760 for NHS charities.
Masking the Issue
Third Year pupil Mariana has been making and selling masks with the money raised going towards her upcoming First Challenge trip to Romania to help vulnerable communities. She is also raising money to go towards two charities close to her heart: Cancer Research UK and Highfield Highreach. She started out by drawing out patterns and trying several prototypes before settling on a final design, also making bespoke versions for people who wear hearing aids or eyeglasses and would rather not have elastics around ears.
Snowdon Challenge
Congratulations to Second Year Eddie who successfully climbed the equivalent of the height of Snowdon (1085m), raising a total of £550 for The King’s Arms youth charity, more than five times his original target! He had a good go at beating the average time it takes to walk up the mountain of three hours and managed to complete the challenge of 362 flights of stairs in just under three and a half hours!
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Adventurous Activites
Canoe Marathon
The Devizes to Westminster Canoe Marathon training programme has returned this term, with a record 55 Lower Sixth students participating. With a brief pause for the second lockdown, Sunday training days have progressed well. Using the Basingstoke Canal, crews are becoming accustomed to the specialised kayaks used for the Marathon and enjoying learning how to move them smoothly over the water, as well as experiencing a few cold dips and capsizes in these early sessions!
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FOCUS Senior Outdoor Fun
Despite the Covid challenges of 2020, the outdoor adventure opportunities were not to be thwarted! 665 pupils, representing 70% of the Senior School, have been outdoors, developing new skills and challenging themselves on adventurous activities this term.
Duke oF Edinburgh
New restrictions to the overnight element of DofE expeditions have required some quick thinking from our Adventurous Activities team! Nonetheless, this term’s adapted programme has continued apace… Bronze training day took place with 117 pupils in a full day of expedition training, followed by the assessed expeditions over two weekends. Hiking in the South Downs, 16 teams of pupils travelled independently over two days, following their own planned routes via checkpoints where assessors evaluated their skills and progress. Silver training and practice expeditions took place in the New Forest in September with 80 pupils; a three-day expedition with challenging navigation, but glorious views and scenery. The final expedition took place during half term, a threeday expedition saw half of the groups hike from Winchester to Petersfield via Owslebury and East Meon while and the other half hiked from Amberley to Petersfield via West Dean and Stansted. Gold practice took place during half term with 50 Upper Sixth students, a challenging expedition that involved hiking 100km over four days, linking up the highest ground in a route through Surrey, West Sussex and Hampshire, carrying the full kit, setting up camp and cooking each evening.
OSCA
60 Second Year pupils have been making the most of getting outside this term with our Outdoor Survival Challenge and Adventure (OSCA) programme. The varying weekday activities help develop self-confidence, teamwork, resilience and most importantly a love of the outdoors
through fun and rewarding pioneering construction challenges, cooking on stoves, knifework, orienteering, first aid and route planning. Pupils have also had the opportunity to experience an expedition and campsite cooking day which was thoroughly enjoyed.
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Modern Languages
Language Competition
Recently, Sxith Former Jonas Flohr competed in the global Nutty Tilez French online language competition against almost 10,000 other students across the globe, typing targetlanguage words quickly and accurately, in an attempt to be crowned Nutty champion! Jonas, who is an exceptional linguist, came in 8th place globally! A remarkable achievement!
Love Languages
This term we ran our Love Languages poster competition to challenge our younger pupils to be creative whilst thinking about the value of languages in the world. Congratulations to Jessie Lofthouse in 2N who won with her lovely poster and excellent message of “Start today!” Congratulations also go to Freya Morrison and Barney Clifford-Brown who were our very worthy runners up. Bravo!
Bonjour d'Hermione
Bonjour à tous! Je vous écris ce petit texte depuis la France où j’ai passé mon confinement. J’habite chez mes grandsparents donc nous sommes très vigilants car ils sont âgés. Nous allons donc en courses une fois tous les quinze jours, accompagnés de nos masques et de notre tube de gel hydroalcoolique. Nous allons nous promener dans les forêts du Jura tous les dimanches. À part ça, je lis beaucoup de livres !! Je passe également beaucoup de temps à cuisiner : je fais des raviolis maison, des quiches, des gratins et beaucoup de pâtisserie. Je prépare également mon retour en Angleterre, je suis très heureuse de continuer à travailler dans l’enseignement du français ! Prenez soin de vous et de votre famille. À bientôt.
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Lennart Schreibt...
In Deutschland gibt es auch einen Lockdown wegen des Corona-Viruses. Im März und April waren viele Restaurants und Geschäfte geschlossen und man durfte sich nicht mit mehr als einer Person treffen. In dieser Zeit habe ich viel Sport gemacht, nochmal Keyboard angefangen und viele Puzzle vollendet. Mittlerweile ist vieles wieder erlaubt. Auch die Schulen haben teilweise wieder geöffnet, aber es findet kein normaler Unterricht statt. Es ist trotzdem noch wichtig vorsichtig zu sein, denn es gibt immer noch viele Fälle in Deutschland. Deswegen muss man immer 1,5m Abstand halten und in Geschäften oder öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln eine Maske tragen. Wir nehmen die Sache ernst und hoffen, dass dieser Virus schnell vorbei geht.
FOCUS Senior
Computing
Scratch Programming
During lockdown, First Year pupils were challenged with creating a game, animation or story themed on the coronavirus using the Scratch programming environment. Inspired by Mrs McCathie’s lockdown walks avoiding pedestrians and cyclists, which felt like she was in a computer game. The criteria for success were relevance to coronavirus, programming complexity and the fun factor. Democratically chosen by her peers, winner Jessie Lofthouse said of her very popular quiz, “It has been an engaging task during lockdown and has helped me develop my computing skills in a creative and imaginative way”.
Vodafone Digital Creator’s Challenge.
Before lockdown a group of Second Year pupils entered a competition to design an App as part of a national Vodafone Digital Creator’s Challenge. Emma, Annabelle, Meg, and Elise’s team were one of only ten teams across the country to reach the final with their proposal of an App to support women through each stage of their pregnancy. The device connects via Bluetooth to a waistband, sensing movement, monitoring contractions and alerting the user when the time comes to call the hospital. Unfortunately, the final event was cancelled and our team were not judged overall winners in the re-convened remote final, but deserve a huge congratulations for getting so far!
International Success
Hearty congratulations go to pupil Oliver Fogelin who became a finalist in the 2020 Google Code-in, an international contest to introduce students aged 13-17 to open source software development. Since 2010, more than 8,100 students from 107 countries have completed work in the contest and this year Oliver, who worked with the R Project for Statistical Computing, became one of 58 finalists from 20 countries.
iDEA
Scratch
Our First Year students did further great work with Scratch over lockdown including some AMAZING Scratch posters, reimagining it as a movie. When Mr Sangster posted a photo of them on a display to Twitter, the Scratch team from MIT themselves commented on them and thousands of people have since looked at them too!
Launched in 2018, iDEA is the digital and enterprise equivalent of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, in which participants complete a series of challenges to achieve an award at Bronze, Silver or Gold level. Over lockdown, a number of Churcher’s students took it upon themselves to work towards their badges. Very well done to our Bronze award recipients Annabelle King, Stan Walker, Annie Rowley, Lucy Mackay and Katie Baird and an extra well done to Ollie Williams and William Mcintyre who went the extra mile to achieve Silver. It just shows how hard they were working in lockdown in addition to all their studies!
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Remembrance & CCF
Assembly
While the First Year were able to experience their first Armistice Day assembly in its usual Sports Hall location, led by the Rev’d Will Hughes, the rest of the school watched online from their classrooms. After the assembly, the banner and wreath parties led the First Years, followed by our CCF divisions, in a show of respect by parading through the War Memorial Arch accompanied by the Lower Sixth Brass Group. Trumpeters George Feeney, Anna Hughes, Mattie Wagstaff and Henry Plewes sounded the Last Post and Reveille.
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Remembrance Concert
One of the showcase musical events of the Autumn Term has always been the annual Remembrance concert. The Music Department was determined that this year should be no exception, so our musicians set about rehearsing to be part of the remote Remembrance concert. This consisted of performances from the Senior Orchestra (the string players having been recorded in year group bubbles at school and the woodwind and brass players recording their parts from home), a few selected solos from musicians in the Upper Sixth and the Senior choir
recorded in year group bubbles, all put together with some amazing technology. The finished result after many, many hours of clever technical work resembled a great concert, reminding us of the fantastic music that is produced when our musicians join together. It has been viewed more than 1,000 times and helped raise more than £800 (and counting!) for the Royal British Legion.
FOCUS Senior
Exercise Striking Tiger
In one of the last outings before lockdown, 19 Fourth Year cadets and 12 Sixth Form NCOs completed a field day at the Hankley Common training area on the Surrey Hills. The event comprised two activities for the cadets to practise battle drills and demonstrate their proficiency with the Cadet L98A2 rifle, using blank ammunition. The NCOs provided the enemy combatants. One section practised Pairs, Fire, Manoeuvre drills and then fought through a Close Quarter Battle Lane engaging fixed targets and a live enemy position. The other section patrolled out of the harbour area to a woodland briefing point to gain intelligence before laying and prosecuting a planned ambush on an armed enemy patrol. 3,000 rounds were spent, the cadets demonstrated their proficiency with the weapon and the enemy were suppressed (twice!).
Exercise Sharpshooter
Exercise Sharpshooter saw 19 Army cadets from Fifth Year and Upper Sixth head to Moody Down range in order to put their Skill at Arms training to the test; for the majority of the cadets this was their first experience firing live ammunition with the L98A2 weapon. First up was grouping and zeroing at 25 metres – this allowed the cadets to firstly experience the feel of firing live rounds before observing the spread of their fire in order to adjust their sights to their own eye. A spread of no more than 36mm was the challenge – a tough ask! After lots of coaching and guidance from the Cadet Training Team and the school’s own officers, the cadets moved back to 100 metres and had the opportunity to use the small arms range targetry system (SARTS) to electronically track where their rounds hit (or indeed missed!). 29/30 was the high score of the day, but all the cadets, regardless of age and firing experience, took full advantage of the opportunity to put into practice the months, and in some cases years, of hard work required to pass the Weapon Handling Test and get the opportunity to shoot.
Exercise Chameleon
The fresh faces of Churcher’s CCF Army Section were quickly made green last in October as the Third Year deployed on their first training day, Ex. Chameleon, at Bramley Common. Joined by our socially distanced TPS contingent, the cadets were put through their paces in an effort to build their essential military skills in preparation for more intensive training later in the year. Through the rotation of stands the new intake had the opportunity to discover tactics for moving as a section/platoon whilst avoiding detection, conceal themselves even in open ground and the liberal application of cam cream, and fend for themselves using self-built shelters. Interwoven with military knowledge and history (and maybe the occasional drill lesson) from Capt Kelson, the newly painted faces were quickly broken up with wide smiles and anticipation of the year’s training to come.
Old Churcherian Award
This Summer, Old Churcherian and long-standing supporter of the school Commander Bill Evershed (class of ‘55), contacted the Headmaster to offer his old school blazer badge to the school archive. As a reflection of Bill’s continued support and his service in the Royal Navy, the badge has been incorporated into the new ‘Commander Bill Evershed Award’, made by our very own DT Department. This is to be an annual award that is presented to the Cadet Warrant Officer of the Royal Naval section of the CCF each year, in recognition of the time and commitment they give to the CCF and the role model they provide for the lower ranks. The first recipient, Cadet Warrant Officer Josiah Wilson was very proud to be presented with the award and looks forward to the day he can thank Bill in person.
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Geography
Geography virtual fieldwork
Fifth Year
The Fifth Year were scheduled to travel to Highcliffe in October to conduct fieldwork investigations into coastal processes and management. Socially-distant coach seating plans had been drawn up, PPE procured and the programme made Covid-secure. Unfortunately, our timing coincided with the arrival of Storm Alex and a Yellow Weather Warning for wind and rain from the Met Office. Clearly the beach was not going to be a sensible place to be and the trip was cancelled. However, we are lucky to have access to excellent ICT in Geography, and we were able to create a virtual fieldwork substitute using Digimap (digitised Ordnance Survey mapping), Google
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Earth, photos and data from previous years, which pupils could use to complete the paper data collection booklet printed for the trip.
Second Year
The Second Years had better luck with their trip to Marwell Zoo to investigate the Biogeography of Africa and Asia. This involved a tour of the park, with individual work on the pupils’ individually selected species, and a particular look at savannah biome in the Wild Explorers enclosure. However, the impressive new tropical house was closed, as vets were operating on the sloth... who has since made a full recovery.
Upper Sixth
The Upper Sixth spend half their lesson and prep time in the Autumn Term conducting and writing up their Independent Investigations (NEAs). Having chosen an individual topic, location and title, the students need to develop their own data collection plans and resources. In the week before half term, the students spent a day piloting their techniques on the beach at West Wittering and in the urban environment of west and central Chichester. Students were then able to finesse their methods before collecting their own data in their chosen location during the half term break.
FOCUS Senior
History NAPOLEON:
GENIUS OR MEGALOMANIAC? BY DAVID ANDRESS
Professor of Modern History, University of Portsmouth.
MONDAY 16 MARCH 2020 4.30 - 5.30PM
CHURCHER’S COLLEGE | LECTURE THEATRE
Tudor Times
This term, the First Year historians have been delving into the world of Tudor history. They have had a whirlwind tour through this dramatic period of history, including a study of the six wives of Henry VIII from a feminist perspective. They have seen that history can be fun and creative by making music videos to hit Tudor musical numbers, studying Hans Holbein and using this knowledge to draw a portrait of themselves in the Tudor style, and designing their own Tudor banquet. First Year pupils have also looked at the significance of the Tudors as a society, and learnt that hundreds of black Tudors made important contributions to England during this period. In response to this, they have written letters to the Director General of the BBC, explaining to him why he should commission a history documentary all about black Tudors.
Pandemic Project
During the Summer Term, the History Department launched the ‘Great Global Pandemic Archive Project 2020’. Pupils, parents and staff were invited to send a contribution to the archive, detailing their own unique experience of living in lockdown. We hope to use this in the future to give historians at Churcher’s the opportunity to investigate what it was really like to live through 2020. The archive will enable them to practice using the same methods as professional historians, including data analysis and comparison. Responses so far have been varied and sometimes surprising. Many pupils commented that they have been able to read more than usual, with the most popular books including ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee and ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ by Mark Haddon. Favourite TV shows during lockdown for parents and staff included the hit BBC dramas Killing Eve and Normal People. More family time, an unexpected positive, has been a commonality throughout, though the pressures of remote learning and working for everyone made the first lockdown very challenging indeed.
Napoleon Lecture
On 16 March, Professor David Andress, gave an excellent lecture on debating Napoleon’s megalomaniac or geniuslike characteristics. All the Upper and Lower Sixth historians came along to hear him provide evidence for both cases. He conceded that Napoleon’s genius was evident in many areas. He was a master of detail, architect of social peace, brought about stable government, religious harmony, national glory and a meritocracy. However Prof Andress countered this rapidly, focusing on Napoleon’s arrogance and tyrannical qualities, and how this made France more authoritarian and secretive. He questioned decisions such as reintroducing slavery to the West Indies, the oppression of his satellite states, placing his family on numerous European thrones, his obsession with constantly being at war and expanding his empire and his cavalier attitude to human life. Andress ended by damning Napoleon and stated that Napoleon was not superhuman, he just thought he was.
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Careers
Recruitment Expert
Digital Engineering
Determined not to let pandemics get in the way of a good talk, when Peter Lawrence offered to share his knowledge about recruiting, we leapt at the opportunity. Peter is a recruitment expert at Odgers Berndtson (and Governor at Churcher’s College) and his talk provided an excellent foundation for students considering the next stage beyond A Levels, including advice on networking, application and CV writing, and interview preparation and technique. Despite the relentless pace of online working over the last few months, Sixth Form students were still hungry for more, with more than 30 Sixth Formers attending the talk with many more accessing a recording. In addition, Peter offered to review students’ CVs which will no doubt be very popular!
Earlier this term, we were treated to a brilliant talk as part of our ‘Career Bite’ programme of informal careers talks for the Fourth Year up. Shaun Stevens from EPS Water gave us a fascinating insight into the use of BIM (building information modelling) tools, virtual and augmented reality and 4D rehearsals in the design of EPS’s engineering solutions. Shaun explained how this has transformed their design process and it is also facilitating better customer engagement and operator visualisation. He made the whole thing come to life with a fantastic presentation including lots of designphase animations and videos of the final construction phase in action. The session ended with the opportunity to ‘play’ with some virtual reality goggles using pupils’ mobile phones.
Mock Trial
13 students from the Fifth Year and the Lower Sixth participated in an online Crown Court mock trial courtesy of The Lawyer Portal. The three-hour workshop provided participants with a true-to-life interactive experience of a criminal law case in a virtual Crown Court, from start to finish, with them assuming the roles of barristers and witnesses. In the build-up to the mock trial, participants were sent a link to a webinar presentation providing an overview of the English legal system and possible careers in law. In addition, they received a set of instructions (as barristers receive these from solicitors) along with the case files the week before, were advised which role they were playing, and how to prepare for it. Tommy Seagull, a trainee Barrister, oversaw the trial and ensured its smooth running; he also acted as the overseeing Judge. After completion of the trial, there was a very popular Q&A about studying law and law careers in addition to advice about what to do now to enhance their CV.
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Formula 1 Success
Chris Shawe left Churcher’s in 2013 and is now an engineer for the Renault F1 Team. He also has an active interest, and involvement in, visiting schools to promote STEM careers. As someone who was first inspired by the Churcher’s Greenpower Racing Team and who currently works in the exciting world of Formula 1, Chris was keen to engage pupils; he did a fantastic ‘Career Bite’ talk for us which had a huge virtual audience. He certainly inspired the next generation; reflected by the very interactive Q&A at the end, we could have been there all night! During his talk Chris covered dream jobs and how to go get them; how to work out what your dream job is and how to pivot when your dream job wasn’t what you expected. Chris’ own journey was an inspiration and demonstrated just how you can achieve the job of your dreams with focus, tenacity and not being afraid to get yourself noticed!
The Energy Industry
It was fantastic to welcome Sebastian Pont (class of 09) back to Churcher’s (at least virtually!) to give a ‘Career Bite’ talk on working in the energy industry and management consultancy. Last year, Sebastian completed a PhD in Solar Energy, having undertaken a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering. He has recently joined the energy division of the Management Consultancy company Baringa. He soon discovered that the Partner he worked for, Duncan Sinclair, has children at Churcher’s College, and both were very keen to support our careers programme. Although Covid tried to intervene, the presentation was delivered virtually via Teams in October. More than 50 students and parents attended and there was a lively and informative Q&A session, too.
FOCUS Senior
Sixth Form Adventure Wednesdays
New to the curriculum this term is the Lower Sixth Adventure Activity Wednesday afternoon programme. 22 students have already been out hiking in the South Downs National Park, kayaking in our school pool and Petersfield Lake, learning how to light fires without matches, cooking basic snacks and riding the trails on mountain bikes in Queen Elizabeth Country Park. Future activities planned include fly fishing, further camp craft skills, rock climbing, raft building, pioneering challenges, orienteering and more hikes, plus paddling and mountain biking.
Futures Conference
Living with HIV
In September, Emma Cole spoke to the Lower Sixth about ‘A Life with HIV’. Emma was diagnosed HIV positive in 1991 and she described the moment that she, a young, white heterosexual woman, realised that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus did not discriminate. More than 29 years have now passed and her life has changed irrevocably. Many advances have been made with respect to HIV and AIDS but what has changed little in that time is the fear, ignorance and stigma that surround this disease. Emma provided a very honest, straightforward and sometimes amusing account of living with the virus.
Previously known as the UCAS Conference, the inaugural Futures Conference was held in mid-June and provided Lower Sixth students with two days off-timetable so they had the time and headspace to immerse themselves in plans and preparation for life after Churcher’s. Hosted on Teams, students ‘attended’ talks from external speakers on writing a personal statement and degree apprenticeships. In-house speakers covered UCAS and other Higher Education applications including to conservatoires, music and drama schools. In addition, 24 subject workshops, to help students finetune their applications, were hosted by a team of subject-specialist teachers. The result was a raft of first-draft personal statements, plans beginning to form for applications to highly competitive degree apprenticeships and scores of personal tutor meetings supporting the whole evolution. A very productive and rewarding two days.
Laser Quest
The Lower Sixth spent a very different afternoon in New College on their return to school in September as they took on the challenges presented by Laser Quest! The sun shone and their smiles are testament to the great fun had by all!
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Music Sadly this year the Petersfield Festival was unable to take place, along with our Grand Summer Concert at Cadogan Hall, however we still had many exciting events that will live long in the memory.
BSO trip to Portsmouth
Back in February, 40 students and seven staff attended an impressive concert at the Portsmouth Guildhall given by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. The programme, with its enticing title ‘Power and Passion’, featured music by four late Romantic composers - Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakov and Sibelius. Highlights included the dazzling virtuosity of soloist Tom Poster in Greig’s piano concerto, and the emotional intensity of Tchaikovsky’s overture to ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Interval ice creams also went down well!
Singing Evening
The Singing evening is always such a lovely evening, a chance for our singers to get together to rehearse various
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vocal ensemble items. We knew that we would be in for a real treat when the evening started with the Barbershop boys appearing from various corners of the Assembly Hall to sing ‘Hello!’ from ‘The Book of Mormon’. Various duets, trios and ensembles that the singing teachers and pupils had put together then followed, before we were entertained by Kirsty Foreman, Rose Giffin, Emily Sandberg, Molly Steels, Rachel Newberry and Fleur Barrett singing ‘Ex Wives’ from ‘Six’. One performance that certainly won’t be forgotten is the rendition of ‘Crows in the Cornfield’ sung by our very own Mr. Cree, Mr. Lofthouse and Mr. Wickham. The evening ended with the traditional ‘Grand Finale’ where everyone that has taken part in the evening sings together! This year, Mr. Lofthouse led us all with ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’ from ‘The Sound of Music’.
Strings and Piano Evening
There was a wealth of talent on display here, from soloists that had only been
learning a short time, to the virtuoso performances by George Whittle on the piano playing the 3rd movement form Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No 2 (helped by Mrs. Seferinova who played the entire orchestra parts on a separate piano!) and Anna Lezdkan playing the wonderful ‘Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso’ by Saint-Saëns. We also enjoyed performances from two guitar groups and four string quartets, including a composition called ‘The Island’ that Laurie Horwood had written for the Petersfield Music Festival competition, winning his class with this wonderful piece! A brilliant evening!
Music4Lunch
This series of concerts allows students to hone their performance skills in an easy-going, relaxed atmosphere, where sometimes a student doesn't feel ready to play or sing a certain piece for an evening recital. As always, we had a wide range of instrumentalists and singers, from First
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Year to Upper Sixth. In this case, our First Year was Oliver Whittle who sang a very cheeky and entertaining rendition of 'Chim Chim Cher-ee'. The Upper Sixth student on this day was Augustus Tranter, who was in the final stages of polishing his A Level performance pieces and delighted the crowd with a stunning performance of Debussy's 'La Cathédrale Engloutie' on the piano.
Spring Concert
We didn’t know it at the time, but this would be our last concert before lockdown, which happened one week after the last chords of the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah were still ringing out. What a way to go into lockdown! The Senior Choir’s performance of various choruses from the Messiah will long live in our memory. The sound filled the church together with the brilliant accompanying orchestra. The evening began with some classics from the orchestra including the exciting ‘Night on a Bare Mountain’
by Mussorgsky, followed by high class performances from the Junior Choir, Junior Chamber Choir, Senior Chamber Choir, SSA Choir and the Barbershop.
Summer Term
The Summer Term gave the Music Department quite a challenge in terms of producing performances, but as usual, the pupils rose to the challenge so well with numerous recordings being made from home which resulted in weekly remote lunchtime concerts, a 70-piece instrumental ensemble from the various wind bands and orchestras playing a medley from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and a massive remote choir singing ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ from ‘The Lion King’. These remote concerts will be a lasting memory of this extraordinary period.
Autumn Term
Given the Coronavirus restrictions this term, the Music Department has been
developing new and exciting ways to rehearse and perform. There are now numerous weekly rehearsals taking place to accommodate each year group, including a choir, string ensembles and woodwind and brass group for each of the seven years. In addition to these, Mr. James is continuing the singer/songwriter, tech groups and rock school with a combination of remote performances and year group bubbles. In place of our normal programme of evening concerts, we have developed year group bubble lunchtime concerts which have been a highlight of each week. Generally, these consist of a few lovely solos together with a couple of the year group ensembles. Friends from each year group come to form an audience for the performers and the concerts are recorded so that the wider community can see and hear the performances.
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Sport
Water Polo
In March, the Water Polo Team travelled to Northampton to compete in the Bowl Finals. It was an intensely fought afternoon that saw four schools competing for top spots. The boys were in high spirits as they took on their first opponents Torquay Grammar School. Churcher’s went 4-1 down in this match having taken a while to get warmed up after a long journey. Nevertheless, their fortunes changed when they played St Bede’s and St Joseph’s College and in a fiercely contested match Churcher’s won 5-2 with goals from Sandberg, Plewes, Hipsey, Orchard and Parmenter. The final match for the team was against Cheltenham College, and whilst the boys put in a great performance, with some great defending from Finbow and Phillips Mateo in particular, they were not able to push for the win. At the end of the afternoon the boys came away with Bronze Medals. As the team sport grows nationally the school team has continued to flourish under the coaching of Marco. What a lovely way for the outgoing Captain Will Hipsey to end the Season, taking the School further in a National Competition than ever before.
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Intra-School Matches
With competitive inter-school matches on hold for the time being, the Sports Department was determined to keep as many students active on a Saturday as possible, through intra-school matches. The highlight of the revised sporting programme came on Saturday 17 October, when more than 400 Churcher’s pupils took part in the Churcher’s Champions Festival. Internal year group tournaments were held in hockey and touch rugby. All students represented a team inspired by Old Churcherian (OC) sporting heroes: Calum Chambers, Fiona Pocock, Joe Atkinson, Georgina Tuffin, Margie Pedder and George and Will Cairns. There were individual medals for outstanding performers and team awards for matches and overall year group achievement. Most importantly there were endless smiles and happy faces as the pupils enjoyed competitive sport in a Covid-safe style.
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In Other News...
Local Radio
A big well done to 1G who have raised an amazing £115 for Petersfield’s Shine Radio appeal. The radio station, which is run by local volunteers, wants to bring live church services to radio listeners, including lonely and isolated people in the community. Pupils raised the money by selling spaces on a treasure map for prizes. Class representatives Isabelle and Barney were even interviewed about their efforts on the radio!
Cricket Success
Talented Fifth Year Jude Wright is proving a real success on the cricket field. Not only does he play for Alton CC in the Premier division, Hampshire in the U16 and U18 development groups, part of the player pathway into Academy and professional cricket, but he was also a key member of the team who recently won the Hampshire U19 Vitality T20 Cup Final against Sway & Lymington. Jude opened the batting and scored 50 not out (retired), then opened the bowling, taking two wickets (both openers).
Classics For All
Lockdown brought further good news for Mrs Jenkinson-Brown, after the arrival of her baby girl! Classics For All, a charity whose aim is to extend Classics into more state schools, has made her website of free Classics GCSE resources one of their official resources for teachers. The author of the Greek Myth Comix, she has put her extensive resources online, including interactive PDFs for note making, video lessons and quizzes, as well as writing a blog for another charity, Advocating Classics Education.
Churcher's College Community In November, the Development Office launched Churcher’s College Community, a new website where Old Churcherians and the wider community will be able to keep in touch with each other and the school. As we approach Churcher’s 300th anniversary in 2022, we are hoping to engage as many former pupils, parents and staff as possible with the celebrations. As well as catching up with news and reconnecting with former friends and staff, the community can share or seek careers guidance and support, browse the galleries of photos, visit the digital archives and register for events.
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Godalming Festival Success
LAMDA pupils at Churcher’s took part in the Godalming Festival of Speech and Drama just two weeks before Lockdown. The School was hugely successful achieving 27 first places and included 20 First Years who were performing in front of a festival audience for the first time.
Special mention must go to Ben Mackay, Megan Cullen, Daisy Holroyd and Jackson Wilks who all achieved the highest grade of Honours. Later in the year Max Cropley became the first ever Churcher’s LAMDA pupil to take an exam over Zoom, in which he achieved a Distinction.
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Horse Riding Competition
On Sunday 27 September a team consisting of pupils Ella, Meg and Livi represented Churcher’s College in the NSEA competition at Coombelands. They were placed 8th in the 70cm class (Livi as an individual was 5th) and 12th in the 80cm class.
WWF Webinar
Model United Nations
This term, 11 Lower Sixth students took part in their first Model United Nations conference, hosted virtually by Reigate Grammar School. The students went as three delegations from Brazil, Poland and Estonia. Each pupil represented their country at various general assembly committees, including Disarmament and International Security, Economic and Financial, and the Security Council. Fascinating topics were covered throughout the day, including the question of gender income inequality, algorithmic discrimination and the colonisation of Mars. Miss Swindells and Mrs Trent were impressed with the way that all pupils rose to challenge on virtual debating on Microsoft Teams, and how they each were able to argue a point for their assigned country, putting aside any personal opinions. It looks like we have some budding future United Nations delegates in the making!
Fairy Bricks
We featured the incredible replica of Westminster Abbey, made entirely from 250,000 Lego bricks, which we were lucky enough to host at Churcher’s in the Summer of 2019 in order to raise funds for a very worthwhile charity. Mr Cree and Mr Ostersen were proud to hand over a cheque for £400 to the charity Fairy Bricks, which raises the spirits of young children stuck in hospitals up and down the country by handing out boxes of Lego.
12-year-old Will Lall recently hosted a WWF webinar on ‘The Importance of Temperate Rain Forests’. He introduced the WWF-UK’s Chief Advisor for Forests, Jamie Gordon, who talked about the importance of temperate forests, including the Amazon rainforest. Back at Churcher’s, Will’s fellow Geography classmates tuned in to this fascinating remote learning experience to hear the discussion and ask questions. Hearing their friend involved in this incredible experience generated much excitement in class! Will, who is passionate about the environment and a WWF Youth Ambassador, also had the opportunity to ask Sir David Attenborough a question remotely in a video which appeared on Sir David’s Instagram page and has, at time of writing, had over 3.7M views. Will’s question was, “You have lived such an extraordinary life of exploration, discovery and adventure. But looking back, what advice would you give to your younger self?”
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Design & Technology Showcase
One of the many events to be unfortunately cancelled this year was the Design & Technology Showcase evening in the Summer Term, which gives GCSE and A Level students the opportunity to show off the results of their many months of hard work, some of which is featured here.
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Art & Design Imagine, create and connect: staying united and mindful with the power of Art and Photography at Churcher's College Art Department. We encouraged the students to continue to be creative throughout lockdown with a series of artistic challenges. Further images can be seen on the back cover.
The Big Draw
In October, artists in the First, Second and Third Years took part in The Big Draw 2020. With a focus on climate change and the human relationship with the environment, pupils created stamps to be posted on a world map. Each pupil created at least one 3cm x 4cm stamp to contribute to our cardboard world map. The stamps act as 400 individual miniature climate change statements coming together as one, enforcing what we collectively can be doing in order to save our planet. The ‘installation’ is now on show in the below stairs gallery outside the Art Department.
Check out the Art Department’s new Instagram account @ChurchersArt Launched this term, with more than 200 followers already and growing daily!
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Learning from Home
Guild Award
Pupils can start working towards their Guild Awards once they are in Year 3. Regardless of age, the Guild Awards always begin with Apprentice Level and work up to the Master level which takes a minimum of a year to complete. This summer, we were thrilled to award Guild Masters to our Year 6 pupils who were able to continue working on the Award with some creative ideas through lockdown. We were impressed with their ideas to continue supporting charities from home and how some even managed a “residential” trip by camping in their back garden.
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We read Michael Rosen’s Poem ‘These are the Hands’ and wrote our own versions These are the hands that Buy the blankets Help the homeless Donate the money Give the food Provide the shelter Find the lost Give to the found And support the lonely. These are the hands that Soothe the wound Heal the break Build the body Give the water Don’t give up And see you to your last. These are the hands that Sew the clothes Keep us warm Shake us awake Make the cake Brew the tea And give us a hug. Felix Hambly
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Expedition Day
It’s amazing how far we travelled from our homes in our whole school lockdown event!
Reception
In Reception the children virtually set off for the farm and were excited to see lots of different farm animals. They learnt about the special names for animal babies. We made sure we didn’t forget the wonder of our own backyard/gardens and the children played ‘What can I find’ bingo.
Years 1 and 2
All the children enjoyed virtually visiting Longleat Safari Park and using their field guide to spot the animals they saw en route. During their travels they completed a map of the parts of the world the animals they saw came from and the children went to find out what trees they
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had in their gardens or on local walks, and some matched them perfectly! Year 2 thought about the way animals change as they grow and why some babies look like their parents whilst others don’t.
Years 3 and 4
Year 3 and 4 also visited Longleat and looked at where animals came from. They were delighted to see some animals ‘live’ all the way in San Diego Zoo, where the orangutans were particularly eager to show off to the camera. Year 3 then visited the International Space Station to learn what it is like to be an astronaut. On their
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own doorstep, these year groups were encouraged to go out and about to do some bird spotting too. Year 4 wrote persuasive letters, totally mastering the art of emotional blackmail! Many of you will have seen on social media the story about Francesca in 4T and her deal of getting 20,000 views on LinkedIn in order to get a kitten. Super resourceful, Francesca, and well done for reaching one million views!
Years 5 and 6
Year 5 set off to the British Museum armed with a worksheet to investigate the animals they could find in Room 27, the
Aztec Gallery. This was then followed by a trip to Mexico to the National Museum to see their prize exhibit the Aztec Calendar Stone. Children were then invited to make their own, considering the symmetry in their design and the symbolism. They then headed off to space to see the surface of Mars and think about places on earth that had similarities to the planets, followed by a short trip to a planetarium and a voyage to the edge of space. Just before lunch they had a quick tour to the Great Wall of China and stopped to take their photos and send postcards home! Year 6 were given their morning briefing, packed their bags and headed off to
Washington to the Smithsonian Museum of National History in search of fossils. They were keen to take photos when they found them! They were given a talk by an expert paleobiologist before heading home to the South coast to go hunting for ammonites - sharing the certificates they were awarded with pride. After a short break on a roller coaster they headed off in the style of Howard Carter to explore the tombs of Queen Meresankh III and Pharoah Ramesses. The final journey of the day was to wind farms on Google Earth and a challenge to write persuasive letters to local governments convincing them of the advantages of this form of power.
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Back to School We were delighted to welcome all the children back to school for the end of the Summer Term in bubbles of 15 pupils and with staggered starting and finishing times. With lots of handwashing and sanitising equipment the staff embraced the 'new normal', happy to be back in their classrooms with their pupils. September saw the change in bubbles to Year Groups, cleaning has been enhanced and we focused on delivering the allround Churcher’s experience in a safe Covid-secure manner whilst ensuring our children continue to thrive. The children in Year 6 have been appointed specific posts of responsibility and are eagerly supporting the staff in their new roles!
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Talented Year 5
Year 5 were delighted to return to school for the last three weeks of the Summer Term. Working in their bubbles, the mornings were spent consolidating our maths, English, reading and spelling skills, as well as discussing and reflecting our challenging current times in PSHE. The afternoons involved sports, the arts and had a creativity focus. This culminated in the Year 5 Talent Spectacular, an afternoon of comedy, drama, dance, gymnastics and music. The children were fully engaged in this creativity programme and it was wonderful to see their obvious pleasure at being able to be together once more.
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Nursery and Reception I dont want to miss anything!
Ice creams for sale
Concentration and construction
Lets hide!
Picnic time
Welcome to our new Reception Class
New friends
Concentration
Nature studies
All about balance
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We love jumping in muddy puddles
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Quiet time
Always counting
Finding autumn treasures
Sports Day
My special 'Chatterbox'
Cooling down
Sensory garden
Science fun!
Lockdown Sports Day
Clearing hurdles
Investigations
Pressing flowers
Thumbs up!
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Love Learning Languages
We were very impressed with our young language learners’ engagement with distance learning. Despite the lockdown our pupils used this time to be creative and to discover the culture of Spanish and French speaking countries. They also took every opportunity to practise and learn new vocabulary. They clearly showed resilience and worked very hard to develop the skills needed to engage in basic conversations during their live lessons, and to complete all their work to a high standard. It was pleasing to see the
quality of most of the work submitted by the students. Since our return to the classroom, our main focuses have been to build the children’s confidence by listening to the target language, exploring patterns and sounds through authentic songs and rhymes and expressing opinions. The children have had lots of fun doing these activities!
Great scores on Accelerated Reader!
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Thou droning, dog-hearted dewberry. Thou quailing, onion-eyed maggot-pie. Thou puny, plum-plucked pigeon egg I curse you! I wish mouldy cheese upon you. I hope I never see you again. Oh, how I curse you. Thou lumpy, milk-livered moldwarp. Thou roguish, rump-fed ratsbane. Thou beslubbering, beef-witted barnacle I curse you! I wish misfortune upon you. I hope you live a life of misery.
Oh, Ferdinand, I trust you with all my heart. You are loyal, handsome, caring and clever. You are like sparkling diamonds in the sky. I love the way you took my hand, opened my mind and touched my heart. You make me feel that I am the luckiest girl in the world. You are the light of my life; a day without you is a day without sunshine. Most importantly, you are my sun, my moon and my stars. You are my perfect match. I love you, Ferdinand.
By Oliver McLaren
By Imogen Oliver
The Tempest
As a part of their English studies, Year 4 were tasked with writing either an insult or an ode as a character from The Tempest using Shakespearean terminology. We think you’ll agree there are some budding Bards amongst our clever students!
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Junior Sport
Autumn Term
What a fantastic first half term of sport! Aside from the continuous cleaning of equipment, a lack of interschool fixtures and an element of social distancing, the children were busy with a broader than normal curriculum, intraschool matches and a new addition to the sporting line up! In PE lessons, we focused on the ever popular tennis to make the most of the good weather! When the weather wasn’t so kind, we continued the focus on hand-eye co-ordination with
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the introduction of table tennis to the PE curriculum for the Juniors. This was a great success! In Games we maintained our focus on football and netball, but with the addition of cricket on match afternoons, taking advantage not only of the continued good weather, but also the addition of Rob Maier, Head of Cricket at the Senior School, to the teaching line-up for Wednesday afternoons.
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U11 Rugby 7s Tournament
Sandwiched in between all the wind, rain, hail and snow in February, we still managed to host our annual U11 rugby tournament. 12 teams took part from ten different schools and as always the competition was tough. The group stages saw our A team coming top of Group 1 with five matches played, five wins and 15 points on the board. In Group 2, Aldro finished top with five wins and CCJS B team put in an outstanding performance to finish fifth in the group and scoring nine tries in the process. Going into the play-offs, CCJS B team were up against The Royal School A team to play for ninth and tenth position. Having already taken the scalp of the Boundary Oak A team in the group stage the boys were looking for another and were not to be disappointed. Winning the match 4-0 CCJS Bs finished ninth and can feel incredibly proud of their performance during the afternoon. The final had CCJS A going head to head with Aldro for the second year in a row. This was always going to be a tough match, but once again the team stepped up their game when it was needed and put in another standout performance to win the match 3-0 and claim their second tournament win of the Spring Term!
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Trips We may not have been able to go on residential trips this term due to Covid restrictions but we have been able to take part in lots of exciting days out. Year 3 have been to Butser, Year 4 to The Living Rainforest, Year 5 to Cobnor and Year 6 to PGL.
Cobnor
Year 5 had a brilliant day at Cobnor Activities Centre. The children all showed determination and perseverance as they faced their own individual challenges. There were many highlights for the children including: archery, canoeing, kayaking and the task of successfully solving problems as a team! The children clearly enjoyed themselves and can feel extremely proud of all they have achieved.
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Year 6 were treated to an amazing day out and visited the Tutankhamun Golden Pharaoh exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery before lockdown. As an introduction to their Egyptian topic, they were transported back in time amid Tutankhamun’s priceless treasures. The children attended a workshop, studying and creating ancient sacred symbols. The exhibition commemorated the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, and was the final chance to see these glittering world heritage artefacts
before they returned to Egypt forever. The children explored the life of King Tutankhamun, and the storied discovery that captivated the world, through more than 150 authentic pieces from the tomb - three times the quantity seen in previous exhibitions - more than 60 of which travelled outside Egypt for the first time. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the wonder and mystery of the boy king before his priceless objects returned to Egypt forever.
Selborne
Year 5 had a fantastic day at The Selborne Study Centre learning about plant life cycles first-hand. Through outdoor learning, the pupils explored plant life, undertook flower dissections and observed plants in beautiful detail. Staff from the study centre acted as guides, revealing some of nature’s secrets as we walked the paths and gardens! The children then undertook a scientific investigation using quadrants in the meadow to test their hypotheses, helping cement their first term’s scientific knowledge and understanding.
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Philanthropy Day Philanthropy Day was organised during lockdown to add some variety to the children’s experience, one in a series of whole school themed days to give them a change from the new 'normal' classroom routine. And what a success this day was! Children gave their time for the benefit of others, smashed the original target of £400 and raised an incredible £1,545! As if the total raised wasn’t enough of a climax to the day, Rebecca Stephens, the first British female to climb Everest, left us a message of congratulations!
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#ChurchersTogether Infants
The Infants thought carefully about the people who are helping us, and especially about the roles of paramedics. They chose to make a card or poster for people in one of the key worker roles and I am sure the refuse collectors and mailmen who saw them in the windows enjoyed them very much! The children listened to a radio broadcast about remote learning in UWS Mude and threw themselves wholeheartedly into climbing Everest to raise money for our friends also affected by this pandemic. Years 3-6 Years 3-6 started their day with a Covid Care Card which aimed to get them thinking about their own personal wellbeing and the positives that can be gained from this situation. During the day, we took time to think about our friends in UWS Mude. Currently all students in Nepal are also in lockdown and learning remotely. However, remote learning in Mude is very different compared to the UK! Their main methods of learning include listening to a radio broadcast. We were very
fortunate that the UWS Team prepared a radio broadcast for us to listen to and the children tried to learn Nepali. The children were then asked to think about what they could do to help their families as it is really important for everybody’s wellbeing for them to help out at home. They were asked to complete a chore chart and we were delighted to see the photos they shared of them completing helpful activities. Finally, the children learnt about the NHS. Years 5 and 6 thought about their own personal strengths and what they could offer and how these compared to skills found in NHS jobs. The children were surprised to learn that there are more than 350 roles in the NHS. NHS Competition Winner We were thrilled to have a highly commended winner in the national Step Into NHS competition – Year 5 pupil Emilia Hadley pupil was awarded this for her amazing Lego video she made with her brother Noah (Year 6) during our Philanthropy Day.
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We Conquered Everest!
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Music Despite this year being very different we have managed to keep our spirits up here at CCJS with our love for music. We have not let the lockdown or school closures of earlier in the year get us down and we have been sharing our musical performances online enjoying live and pre-recorded concerts throughout the year! We have also enjoyed completing a variety of online music tasks and using this time to listen and enjoy a wide range of music while learning about different composers and musical styles. We have made musical instruments at home and shared our efforts with our class mates and we have enjoyed having our music lessons via Zoom. What a year!
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In Other News
Table Tennis Tournament
Back in March, Mr Blackman organised a charity Table Tennis tournament to raise funds for UWS Mude School in Nepal and Sport Relief. He came up with the idea of a tournament after finding some medals with ‘Table Tennis Schools Challenge’ on them. Entry was open to all pupils in Years
3-4 for a £1 entry fee. Two pupils, Frank and Felix, constructed a fixture list and tournament structure for Years 3-4 and another for Years 5-6 and after a series of exciting matches, the winners were announced – congratulations to Douglas and Ruari who made it a Watt family double win!
Entrepreneurial Spirit! Charity Dressmaking
Year 5 pupil Frank Berry, was desperate to go back to school at the start of the Summer and disappointed not to be in one of the eligible classes. Keen to do something positive, he decided he would skip the distance to the Junior School and back to raise vital funds for the NHS. The challenge involved him skipping 16 miles over a two week period and in spite of some tears, much laughter and some massive blisters, Frank raised in excess of £450!
Year 5 pupil William was busy during the lockdown creating t-shirts which he has been selling to raise money for various causes. The t-shirts, which are all original designs using a mixture of tie dye and bleaching, have so far raised money for his trampoline club and scout group. Now he is setting his sights on using further sales to raise funds for UWS Mude School. The t-shirts have been selling for £7 each and for each one sold £3.50 has been donated to the cause. All are individually bagged and come with care instructions. A big well done to William for this great entrepreneurial spirit!
Skipping for the NHS
Pupils were very excited to receive a thank you and photographs from new friends in Tanzania. The pupils aged 9, 10 and 11, had made dresses from pillowcases and shorts for the international “Dress a Girl Around the World” project which aims to provide suitable clothing for girls in Africa, India and Nepal to wear to school. Without these ‘pillowcase dresses’ they would not have the clothes they need to enable them to attend school. The pupils continued supporting this project, sewing dresses and shorts as a summer project with grandparents, family and friends. All wearable articles of clothing will be sent to Africa by Soroptimist International.
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Imagine, create and connect: the power of Art and Photography Featured here are a selection of 1st, 2nd and 3rd Year pupils’ Art & Design abstract and surreal photography taken during Lockdown 2020.