Focus Magazine Summer 2022

Adventurous Activities

Bronze DofE

On the weekend of 14 May we had our largest ever Bronze DofE Expedition Weekend. 130 Third Year pupils in 19 teams planned and completed their hike and camp across various regions of the South Downs National Park. In a weekend where temperatures soared into the twenties on Saturday followed by a whole day of heavy rain on the Sunday, the young explorer/ adventurers had plenty of challenges to tackle and overcome, but in true DofE fashion they raised their game and completed their expeditions in style. With plenty of wet tents and wet clothes the groups returned to base on the Sunday afternoon, tired but happy and successful.

Gold DofE

Following the most atrocious weather in Snowdonia in October, for the Gold DofE Practice Expedition, the Lower Sixth teams experienced the renowned 'majesty' of the Lake District (which they renamed the Mountain District!) for their Assessed Expedition. The fine weather meant that all high-level routes were possible including climbs to the top of Helvellyn, Scafell Pike etc. However, this did also mean that the students were challenged by long days with steep climbs on uneven ground while carrying full rucksacks. All groups did brilliantly, completing their expeditions with confidence and high levels of

achievement plus lots of happy smiles too. Routes include wild camping at idyllic and remote spots - a really exciting feature of the Gold Award at Churcher's.

Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race

This year has seen a welcome return to the DW race. This year’s squad of 30 pupils in 15 boats is the biggest entry that Churcher’s College have ever had. Since October pupils have trained every Sunday on the Basingstoke canal, making huge progress from first sessions where the main aim was to stay in the boat, to paddling the full 50km of the Basingstoke canal on a Sunday at the end of January. Over a sunny Easter weekend all 15 boats completed the race, supported by teams made up of parents and siblings. Our crews won the fastest junior ladies’ team and Schools Team Trophy, as well as coming second in the junior team category and third fastest junior ladies crew, making this one of the most successful DW squads we have ever had.

OSCA

On two fabulous Sundays in May, our OSCA Second Year adventurers took to the water in Chichester Harbour. Rafting, canoeing and kayaking were the main challenges and they all came through in style. Clearly there is lots of talent and spirit amongst the group which bodes well for our OSCA residential trip later this term!

Ten Tors

On the first weekend of the Easter holiday, three Ten Tor Teams (two teams of Fourth Year CCF cadets and one team of Lower Sixth pupils) travelled down to Dartmoor for the final compulsory training weekend, including wild camping. The teams then returned to Dartmoor on Friday 6 May to take part in the main event itself. Lining up on the start line at 0700 on Saturday morning, Churcher’s teams were excited and ready for the demanding challenge that lay ahead of them in this particularly special year, celebrating 60 years of the Ten Tors challenge. All three teams performed wonderfully well completing these long challenge distances, carrying all kit and food and independent of all staff. Although it is most definitely not a race, crossing the finish line in extremely good times on Sunday, our three teams can rightly feel wonderfully proud of themselves for what they had achieved.

First Challenge - Croatia

Beginning in Split in the early hours, as our intrepid Fourth Years pitched their tents in a field of wild flowers on the banks of the Zrmanja River; the start of an adventure on Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast which promised spectacular scenery, friendly locals and challenging trekking for our First Challenge teams. Over the course of the following 10 days, the groups enjoyed kayaking, wild camping and trekking. On to the mountain phase of the trip and Paklenica National Park where they had our first cool wildlife

spot: a striking fire salamander. They conquered the Velabits in the snow and disappeared, deep into the gorges of the Velika (Great) Paklenica and the Mala (Small) Paklenica, discovering houses carved into the landscape as a place to hide when the country was besieged. A last day was spent in Zadar with the teams exploring this small, but perfectly-formed coastal town. Everyone gathered for the sunset, and to listen to the haunting sounds of the ‘sea organ’.

History & Politics

Vince Cable

In March, we were privileged to receive a lecture from Sir Vince Cable entitled ‘Money and Power’; a fascinating evening in which Sir Vince discussed the world’s most influential political leaders’ impact on economics, before taking some fantastic questions from Churcher’s students and the rest of the audience. Sir Vince was also kind enough to meet with Sixth Form Politics students beforehand, to discuss his thoughts on the major issues of the day and to give advice to those interested in a political career of their own. The event, in conjunction with One Tree Books, who organised a book signing afterwards, raised a substantial sum for the charity Off the Record, a young people’s mental health charity in Twickenham, before sending Sir Vince on his way with a bottle of Churcher’s own Tercentenary fizz.

Second Year London Trip

It's not every day you get to take part in the Norman invasion or an be an Elizabethan prisoner, but our Second Years managed it in April! At the Tower, some groups were treated to a Norman workshop where a Norman knight got the pupils to re-enact the Battle of Hastings, whilst other groups enjoyed an interactive Elizabethan workshop and a tour around the ramparts. They then headed to the Dockland Museum to see the slavery galleries and focus on the Transatlantic trade. Overall, a great educational experience and no one got left behind at Traitor’s Gate!

CCALS Napoleon

It was a real pleasure to welcome back Professor Doyle, who gave an excellent lecture to our Sixth form historians. His focus was on the seemingly inexorable rise of Napoleon, noting that Napoleon had a huge amount of luck, being in the right place at the right time, as well as having fortunate connections. As well as luck, he was also incredibly canny at seeing what was in it for his career. However, he also conceded that there was an element of military brilliance in the Italian Campaign of 1796, whereby he started to dictate both internal and external policy to the Directory. Once he had succeeded after the Coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799, he had the knowledge to consolidate his grip on power. By winning the war, healing the schism in the Catholic church, and restoring order to France, he laid the path to becoming France’s first Emperor.

CCALS Mrs Thacther and Me

It was a delight to welcome Mrs Thatcher’s private secretary between 1982-86, Tim Flesher, to Churcher’s College. Many of our Sixth Form History and Politics students attended, alongside a good number from Godalming College. Tim gave a really engaging lecture telling us about his time at 10 Downing Street, writing speeches and preparing assiduously for the gruelling PMQs twice a week. Whilst he didn’t support some of her harsher economic policies, he admired her hugely for her immense hard work and fortitude. He also outlined why she was Britain’s most important PM since Churchill: first, due to her ability to defeat the miner’s strike, which in the long term helped Blair redefine the Labour party. Second, her resilience after the Brighton Bomb, and her strength in carrying on with the Conference. Finally, her role as a world leader was incredibly influential during the latter stages of the Cold War. Her ability to see the potential in Gorbachev, and be a guiding light to Reagan, gave her unprecedented power in foreign affairs. Overall, a fascinating insight into what it was like to work for Margaret Thatcher.

The rise of Napoleon: was it all his own making?ChurchersCollege.com

Paris Trip

40 Sixth Formers went to Paris on our French Revolution tour in the Easter holidays. The erudite Mr McLearie returned to be our guide around many of the sites that, up until now, have just been in a textbook. We saw the monumental tomb of Napoleon at Les Invalides, the Champs de Mars, the Tuileries, the Conciergerie and of course the palace of Versailles where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette lived for most of their life. We all enjoyed the trip down the Seine, scaling the heights of Montmartre, delicious French breakfasts in the hotel and a lot of crêpes!

Music

A Level Enrichment

In March, A Level musicians enjoyed an exciting day in London as part of their ongoing music enrichment programme. Our first event was a piano masterclass at the Royal College of Music in which renowned pianist Richard Goode put an academy student through his paces playing Beethoven. We then attended Choral Evensong at Westminster Abbey to witness the Abbey choir on top form, and their performance of Stanford’s beautiful motet, ‘Beati quorum via’, was sublime. After a quick bite to eat, we then headed over to the Royal Albert Hall for a ‘Classical Spectacular’ Concert featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and various other ensembles.

Billed as ‘the UK’s most popular classical show’, we were treated to a programme of well-known classics by Strauss, Wagner, Verdi, Handel, Elgar and many more, with added laser light show and pyrotechnics.

BSO Trip

Alongside our busy calendar of performing events in recent months, our GCSE and A-Level Music students found the time to actually witness a concert as audience members – what a treat! Portsmouth Guildhall was to host The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra performing an entire concert dedicated to the genius of John Williams’ film scores, and we couldn’t miss it! From the excitement of Indiana Jones and the wonder of Jurassic Park all the way through to the thought-provoking Schindler’s List and iconic Star Wars, the students were delighted to witness some of the best film music ever written performed by such a fantastic orchestra.

Senior Cabaret

Cabaret is always a very popular event at College, not just because the bar is open throughout the evening!

Due to the pandemic, the last Senior Cabaret was in 2019 and for its muchanticipated return, there was a whole host of talent on display, so much so that to allow as many talented performers the chance to shine, the programme was quite different on both nights. The pupils had put together an amazing display of solos and small vocal ensembles. To contrast with those, the larger ensembles including the Jazz Band, Senior Jazz Quintet, SSA Choir, Blues Group, Senior Chamber Choir, Barbershop and Senior Choir entertained us throughout the evening.

Musicians Dinner

It is always sad to see our Upper Sixth Musicians leave Churcher’s and we are left wondering how we will manage to replace their talent and skill when they move on to pastures new! This particular year of musicians, all 30 of them, will be hugely missed. Even given the disruption due to Covid, they have achieved so much during the last seven years. Musicians, parents and staff enjoyed a wonderful three course meal, each course interspersed by some final solo and ensemble performances, together with speeches from the leaders of our ensembles.

Spring Concert

The Spring Concert is one of the musical highlights of the year and this year was no exception as the Senior Choir showcased the mighty Mozart Requiem. This work has never been performed by a Churcher’s choir, but with only half a dozen rehearsals, the choir managed to produce a very memorable performance. The College Orchestra

performed a mixture of works, including the Overture to the Marriage of Figaro, the Vaughan Williams Folk Song Suite and a medley of pieces by George Gershwin. The SSA Choir sang Ta ta ta, lieber Mälzel by Beethoven, a humorous dinner party piece, rounding off a highly entertaining and highquality concert!

Strings and Piano Concert

In March, our string players and pianists treated us to a wonderful concert in the Music Auditorium. The concert featured all four of the College string quartets, together with the guitar group, Junior Strings, Junior Choir and a cello ensemble that totalled no less than seven cellos! There are too many outstanding performances to be able to mention them all, but as well as numerous string and piano solos, we enjoyed a Marimba solo from Jayden Siu and a magical harp solo from Mara James.

Petersfield Festival

After missing this amazing event for the last two years, the students were thrilled to again be performing at the Petersfield Festival Hall on two nights in March alongside students from other local schools. Both of the Youth Concerts were sell-out shows featuring many Churcher’s ensembles and soloists. The Combined Wind Band and the Jazz Band were highlights of musicianship and collaboration, featuring students from Churcher’s, TPS and Ditcham Park School, providing an even bigger, better sound as well as forming key links between local musicians and schools. Smaller vocal and instrumental ensembles also featured on both nights alongside a truly excellent solo moment from Sixth Former Nellie Lofthouse.

Junior Concert

On Wednesday 18 May, the Auditorium was host to the Junior Concert, marking the final performance opportunity for the key ensembles of the Lower School. Audience members were entertained by strident renditions of music from Pokémon and Mulan, before the Junior Strings got them moving with a medley from Grease! Some smaller ensembles showcased their skill with stunning performances from the Brass Group, Saxophone Group and a Second Year String Quartet. The Junior Chamber Choir moved affairs to a vocal setting with a tender arrangement of Moon River, and the Junior Choir ended things with a bang (and a band!) as they performed four movements from Bob Chilcott’s Jazz Songs of Innocence.

Chamber Choir Evensong

With lockdown restrictions finally behind us, the Senior Chamber Choir sang its first Choral Evensong for a number of years on Sunday, 20 March, this time at St. Peter’s Church. As ever, the choir rose superbly to the challenges of this liturgical event in which a surprising amount of music is sung in quick succession. The Preces and Responses were sung to a setting by Philip Radcliffe, and the Canticles to Thomas Walmisley’s rousing setting in D minor. The musical highlight was the anthem - Haydn’s emotionally volatile ‘In Sanae et Vanae Curae’, ably accompanied by Mark Dancer on the organ. The choir sang beautifully throughout the service, and their musical versatility was demonstrated as they performed ELO’s ‘Mr Blue Sky’ at the Senior Cabaret the following week!

Grandparents Afternoon

Second Years Tahlia Horwood, Alfie Barton, Annabel Chrismas, Teddy Giffin, Isabelle Fogelin, Angus Cockburn and Ruari Watt entertained a very appreciative audience of Grandparents in the Sports Hall, whilst the Grandparents enjoyed a cup of tea and copious amounts of cake, having been proudly shown around the school by their Grandchildren!

Code Quest

Every year, Lockheed Martin hosts Code Quest, a computer programming competition where teams all over the world solve 20 to 30 challenging problems created by Lockheed Martin engineers and computer programmers. This year, on April 30, there were 1,600 students and 627 teams competing across 14 virtual locations across the globe. Churcher’s teams have had great success in the past, winning both Novice and

Advanced categories in the UK last year. 19 UK teams entered this year and Churcher’s were the team to beat! Our Advanced team of Ed Jackson, Kit Matthewson and James Restell (last year’s Novices!) won, posting a fantastic score of nearly double that of the second placed team. Not only have they won an amazing trophy but they have all been offered two weeks’ work experience at Lockheed Martin.

Oxford University Computing Challenge

The Oxford University Computing Challenge is an invitation challenge for talented UK students to produce programmed solutions to computational thinking problems. Invitations go to the top 10% in the country in the Bebras competition, a problemsolving exercise with progressively harder challenges and which is open to all. A large number of Churcher’s students were invited to this stage based on their results and received a few Merits and Distinctions, with Sixth Former Oliver Fogelin invited to the final, the only one from Hampshire, where he achieved an impressive 15th place in the country (having sat the competition at 7pm and in full costume from having just performed in the school play!). The graph shows the excellent blue line success for Churcher’s against both Hampshire and the country as a whole.

STEAM

Greenpower

On Sunday 8 May Churcher’s saw a return to action for the Greenpower team at Goodwood Motor circuit. Sadly, technical issues with the car hampered our efforts to put in a competitive performance on the track, something to which even the best Formula 1 teams can relate! However, in the face of such adversity what must be celebrated is the comradery and team spirit shown in abundance by the Churcher’s team, summed up beautifully in this picture! The valuable experience taken from this, our first race back since the pandemic, will serve us well as we look forward to our next event at Dunsfold on Sunday 15 September.

SpaceX

On 1 April 2022, two lucky classes joined Fourth Year Rufus Knight and his father, Andrew (who is a Satellite Engineer) for a video call from outside the SpaceX control room at Cape Canaveral, Florida, where the countdown had started for the launch of the EnMAP satellite. Andrew had been working on this Earth Observation Satellite for several years and was able to give us a real insight into the complexities of the launch process, as well as introducing us to members of the SpaceX team. Rufus’s English class and Dr Whittle’s Upper Sixth Physics class enjoyed the opportunity to ask questions and a recording of the call is available on Firefly for those who would like to find out more.

Rube Goldberg Machine

Our Upper Sixth Physics classes had a very special last couple of lessons where they had the chance to build a Rube Goldberg Machine (similar to Richard Hammond’s Crazy Contraptions!) Given just 90 minutes to design, build, test and execute their Goldberg Machine using various apparatus from the Physics labs, ingenuity, teamwork and some creative ideas are all needed to ensure success. Oh, and it was super good fun before the exam season started!

SATRO Challenge

Having won their heat of the SATRO Problem Solving Challenge, our Lower Sixth team (Tobias Bower, Elliot Medley, James Moses, Liv Sexton, Daisy Taylor and Jess Watling) put on another impressive display of teamwork and engineering skills in the final, constructing a vehicle that would propel itself down a slope without the use of wheels. Although the team did not make the podium on this occasion, they were delighted to receive an award for the highest points total in the heats, out of all the venues and year groups taking part. Well done!

Sixth Form

Leavers' Day

On 20 May, the Upper Sixth enjoyed their Leavers’ Day. The Ramshill Variety Performance lived up to its billing, with several musical performances, as well as some stand up, a dance extravaganza and the Women in STEM go Live. There was also a special guest

Life Skills and Enrichment Talks

The Sixth Form has had some excellent speakers this term. The Lower Sixth had a fascinating talk by Rick Findler on his role as a war journalist and photographer. We also had a visit from Patrick Foster, who spoke about the perils of gambling and gaming, including the dangers of cryptocurrency. He also spoke about his experiences of poor

mental health, and how important it is to look after ourselves both mentally and physically. Barry Evans came and spoke about drug and alcohol addiction; Barry has been coming to the school for nearly a decade and passes on an important message. Our final guest was Alexandra Ruddock who spoke at Churcher's for the first time, about her work in antiracism, and as co-chair of BLM in Portsmouth.

performance from the staff band, Queen tribute act ‘It’s a Kind of Tragic’. Following a final assembly with the Headmaster the students enjoyed a BBQ, and an ice cream van arrived to serve dessert.

Alex Ruddock

Patrick Foster

Rick Findler

Careers

Life Drawing

The Art Department has introduced life drawing as a new extra-curricular club for A Level students. Short courses help then to develop their skills and confidence when drawing from life, using local life models who come into school in the evenings. It is a pleasure to see the students grow in confidence and some of them flourish, where they may not have done so during their personal portfolio projects. It is also a valuable experience when applying to university, as all creative courses look for this in pupils’ application portfolios. As David Hockney said, “Learning to draw is learning to look”, and this is very much a focus of the life drawing classes.

Why Digital?

Career Bites

Over the last term, our Career Bites talks have included ‘Music Careers’ with Ash Howes, ‘Allied Health Professions: a career as a dietitian’ with Claudia HoskinsHeinemann, ‘The World of Brand Design Agencies’ with Jim Burton, ‘Why Digital? A career choice or an inevitability?’ with OC Chris Parker and ‘Careers in the Green/Environmental Sector and Finance’ with James Bowling. These aim to introduce students to a wide range to careers, roles and sectors in an informal and accessible way and are open to all year groups and parents. Always concluding with a lively Q&A, they are mainly hosted on Teams, meaning they are recorded and available in perpetuity on Firefly!

Careers Convention

On the evening of Thursday 17 March we held our first Careers Convention for two years. The Sports Hall was packed with pupils and parents visiting the exhibition of more than 40 companies, Higher Education and gap year providers. It was great to see some OCs back too – Toby Swindells (2017, Carter Jonas) and Martin Kidd (1973, Vokins Chartered Surveyors). In tandem, we had a fantastic mini-lecture programme running in the new Music Auditorium with talks from Deloitte, E&Y, BAE Systems, Raleigh International and The London Interdisciplinary School and also on subjects including a career in Nursing, Software Engineering and Solution Architecture in Finance. It was wonderful to see our largest careers and HE event back!

Women of the Future

We were absolutely delighted to secure places for a group of Lower Sixth girls at the Women of the Future’s Ambassadors Reception at the Aviva Headquarters, London, in May. Our girls were thoroughly inspired by the talks, all with the theme ‘Supporting your next steps…’, from successful women (a Superintendent in the Metropolitan Police, Head of Market Access Policy for HM Treasury and HR Director for TSB). At the end of the reception there was a networking session which was a wonderful opportunity to make contacts and develop their networking skills. The girls felt it was very beneficial for them to step out of their comfort zones, but also commented that they felt completely supported and welcomed by everyone that was there, but particularly liked Baroness Goldie, Minister of State for Defence, and her words of wisdom.

Networking Event

The new Music Auditorium was the perfect venue for a wonderful evening of networking in March. More than 70 volunteer networkers put our Lower Sixth students through their paces whilst they practised their networking skills over drinks and canapés. Advice, anecdotes and experience were shared and, after a slightly nervous start, the students soon found their networking feet and obviously thoroughly enjoyed meeting such an interesting and supportive group of parent-volunteers. Thank you to all our brilliant volunteers for putting everyone at ease and well done to the Lower Sixth for throwing themselves into the occasion.

Clay Pigeon Shoot

Over the past academic year, Churcher's College CCF has offered Clay Shooting as a regular activity for the first time. Cadets from the Third Year upwards visited Longmoor Ranges eight times in a variety of weather conditions and with increasingly difficult

targets. The 'Top Gun' award for the year goes to Oliver Hewett (Fifth Year) for his mastery of driven, crossing, and overhead targets. Thanks go to the Parents' Association for their kind donation of the traps, without which there would be no club, and we look forward to the National Cadet Clay Championships next year.

CTT Range Day

In March, eight cadets represented the CCF at a CTT range day at Longmoor. Following two five-round grouping practices, cadets zeroed their weapons to adjust the rifle sights for their individual characteristics, and then fired a further five-round scored group. Grouping is measured as the longest diameter between the impacts of five shots (the smaller the diameter the better). The cadets all grouped well, and Sgt Maria-Luisa Bertani achieved the smallest at a very impressive 40mm. We then moved on to the ETR (Electronic Target Range) for scored shoots from the prone position at 100m and 200m. Each cadet fired 20 rounds at figure 11 targets (life-sized profiles) for each distance, with the targets falling when hit.

The overall score was then the total number of hits combined over both distances. Rory Hodges was best shot with 39/40, followed by Elliot Davies and Ollie Hewett with 35 and 34 respectively.

Military Skills Competition

In March, ten Churcher’s cadets from Fifth Year to Upper Sixth checked onto Longmoor Camp for the 11th Brigade Military Skills Competition. Led by Sgt Major Holly Giles and 2i/c Sgt Bas Taylor, our cadets operated as an Army Section, organised as two fire teams. Issued with rifles and sustained on dinner from a 24-hour Operational Ration Pack, the team bedded down in sleeping bags on the wooden floors of the spartan SF Base accommodation. A full day of military challenges culminated with Communications, where the two fire teams worked independently against the clock to solve a radio spec card-sort puzzle, assemble a military radio, decode a Morsecode message and complete a radio-check with the other team. The day ended, as is customary, with rifle cleaning before returning to Churcher’s. The cadets performed extremely well throughout the 24 hours and finished a superb second out of 26 CCF and ACF teams.

RAF Field Day

After a long Covid-induced wait, 14 of our Third and Fourth Year RAF cadets were invited to tour RAF Odiham to experience life on an RAF base. Cadets received a hands-on tour of the Chinook helicopters, handled a wide variety of both modern and historical weapons in the armoury (including the very large mini gun), and underwent water survival training.

Trafalgar Dinner

On Friday 13 May, Sixth Form NCO members of our CCF, Officers and visiting guests all came together to celebrate the success of Lord Nelson at The Battle of Trafalgar. In what has become one of the highlights of the school year, our cadets were extremely proud and honoured to be welcomed to a traditional Mess Dinner Evening. Greeted by our young Third Year Naval cadets, all guests enjoyed a superb evening of food, wine, speeches and singing, with our guest of Honour, Mr Michael Tibbs OBE, taking his place at top

table and delivering an extraordinary speech and account of his time in the RNVR during WWII. 100-year-old Michael is one of the very few remaining veterans of WWII, where he saw active duty as a submariner. Michael shared details of his missions during the war, including the horrors of torpedo attacks and depth charge near misses. Accompanied by a delicious three course dinner served by our wonderful catering team, a string quartet and some loud singing of sea shanties, it was undoubtedly a Trafalgar Dinner to remember.

Military Visits

On a Parade Evening in early May, we were delighted to welcome Major P Sydenham, Commanding Officer of 11 Brigade Cadet Training Team, who visited us with the specific wish to present, in person, the Silver medals to our team of Army cadets who had achieved an extremely impressive 2nd place overall in the Brigade Cadet Competition. It was the first time in a number of years that we had entered a team into this highly prestigious competition, where cadets are required to display not only teamwork but also a very high level of competency in the military skills required of a young soldier.

On the same evening, we were delighted to welcome OC Commander Bill Evershed. As a former lead cadet in our CCF Naval Section in the 1950s, it was wonderful to welcome Bill back into school to present a special trophy to our current Leading Naval Cadet, Cadet Warrant Officer Mark Childs.

Modern Languages

GermanGermanOlympiad

Under the guidance of Norman, our Language Assistant, students from the Second to Fourth Years entered the Oxford German Olympiad 2022. This year’s topic was Der Rhein. All entries were of a high standard and the images give you a flavour of the kind of work the students have produced. While everyone received a certificate recognising their hard work, Third Years Abigail Harrison, Letitia Nickols, Cecily Morrogh, and Jessie Lofthouse received a special mention as their entry was highly commended. Very well done, everyone!

Spanish

All of our A Level Spanish students enjoyed a live streaming of La Casa de Bernarda Alba, performed by the Cervantes Theatre, along with typical Spanish tapas. Who says A Levels aren't fun?

Virtual Exchange

As we were still unable to embark on our exchange with the Mariengymnasium in Warendorf due to Covid restrictions, we ran a virtual exchange organised by the UK-German Connection. Norman created a padlet-board which enabled our Third Year German students and their counterparts from Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, to exchange cultural information, which you can view by scanning the QR code. The cultural exchange was a fun way to bring participating students into closer contact with young people in Germany and made them find out about each other’s interests. This has been a very fruitful substitute for a life exchange but we are looking forward to going to Warendorf again in person during the next academic year!

Poetry Evening

A wonderful cultural evening was had by all at the Modern Languages Evening of Poetry and Performance at the end of last term. Students, parents and staff enjoyed celebrating our linguistic talents and diversity with performances in Spanish, French, German, Bulgarian, Italian, Russian, Mandarin, Thai, Romanian and Hindi.

Drama & Dance

It Runs in the Family

The antidote to the end of January blues was to be found in the Assembly Hall as the Senior Production of It Runs in the Family brought the house down! Ray Cooney's comic masterpiece combines all the classic ingredients of a farce... frantic running in and out of doors, mistaken identities and frenetic costume changes, providing an evening's much needed mad-cap entertainment and heartfelt belly-laughing from the audience! The set was excellent too, with the window used to great comic effect and the working clock a reminder of the looming deadline of the Ponsonby Lecture on which Dr Mortimer's knighthood rests. The enthusiastic cast wonderfully conveyed the growing sense of chaos, with fabulous comic timing, Mr Crossman in a comedy wig and, one suspects, some unintentional bruising by the end of the two nights' performances! Indeed, the performance proved such a success that it has since embarked on a Hampshire-wide tour, with our fearless cast treading the professional boards in Winchester and Alton!

Quirky Bird Theatre

We had a very eagerly awaited visit from Quirky Bird Theatre Company, who put on a unique workshop for our A Level Drama students. Not only did students have the opportunity to watch a performance of their set text ‘That Face’ by Polly Stenham, but they also got to try their hand at performing and directing extracts from it, too. The workshop was fantastic and

it was fascinating seeing our very own Studio 45 turned into a theatre, as Quirky Bird brought their entire set for the play, providing our students with an authentic theatrical experience. The workshop leaders were so impressed by the talents of our students that they even invited some of them to audition for their next touring production!

Dance

The Dance Squad had a wonderful time performing in the Modern Language performance evening at the end of the Spring Term. The use of tambourines was a new challenge for the group but they aced it on the night! The Senior Dance Group performed in Senior Cabaret too, their first performance as a group and they showed their team work and performance skills perfectly. The use of the new mirrors for the extracurricular dance groups have also been used for the Lower Sixth enrichment programme. Not only have they had a go at ballet, jazz and contemporary, some even had the chance to have a go at tap dancing. Even the teachers are getting on their tap dancing shoes at the Friday after school class, happily tapping their troubles away!

Sport Athletics

The First and Second Year athletics teams have made a strong start to the season. The Second Year girls beat off some stiff competition at the first round of the track knock out competition at Winchester, qualifying in third place to reach the county semi-finals. Unfortunately, this is where their journey ended against a very strong field, but running an age group up, they learned a lot and can take lots of confidence into next year. The First Year boys also qualified for the county semi-finals, winning their first round at St Swithun’s, before putting in a quite exceptional performance by winning the event at Lord Wandsworth College by a huge 10-point margin; they progress to the knock out final at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth on 29 June.

Cricket

Churcher’s College was honoured to host the legendary Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) for a very special cricket match as part of the school’s 300th anniversary celebrations. Head of Cricket, Rob Maier explained, “I wanted something amazing to add to our fixture list for the 300th celebrations and the MCC delivered by kindly accepting our invitation to join us for a special ‘Tercentenary Cricket Tournament’. Our cricket ground looked beautiful and the Churcher’s team started well, putting the MCC in a spot of bother at 40/2. Unfortunately, it was at this point that the heavens opened and we were forced to abandon the match. However, it was an amazing experience for the Churcher’s first team players. The crowning glory came after a delicious lunch, when the MCC presented us with a commemorative plaque which will take pride of place in the pavilion.”

Rounders

Tennis

Churcher’s pupils are making the most of the return to normality for this year’s tennis season. Participation in the sport has grown to its greatest level, with all the courts full at every training session. Our boys have won 70% of their matches so far and the girls, 55%. Most Saturdays see us playing two schools with A and B teams representing Churcher’s and our U15 boys are unbeaten in the LTA Inter School Tournament. Our in-house Davis Cup style tournament for the U12-15 is also proving very popular, and highly competitive, demonstrating that tennis at Churcher’s is in rude health!

Water Polo

Earlier this term, the Churcher’s College Water Polo 1st Team travelled to Northampton School for Boys for the National Plate Finals. Within the first minute of our first match against KCS Wimbledon, we had conceded a goal, but we fought back hard, found our groove and won 4-2. Our next match against St Bede’s and St Joseph’s saw us out-swim and out-play them, securing a comfortable 7-2 victory. Defeat at the hands of the excellent St Ambrose saw us out of a chance at the title, but we were left with our third-place play-off, and another match against KCS Wimbledon. With rolling substitutions throughout the second half, we took the lead with a close game at 4-3 with three minutes left to play. We were desperately holding on to avoid conceding a goal and remained solid in defence to secure third place in the competition. A podium finish on Churcher’s College’s first ever appearance at the Finals!

Henry Plewes

Before half term, we hosted a Rounders Festival for the First to Fourth Year girls. More than 80 students took part in mixed-year group teams. The standard of rounders improved enormously over the course of the afternoon and the girls all thoroughly enjoyed themselves, especially as the afternoon was rounded off with a BBQ and ice-lollies in the sun!

Art &

Big Draw

Ms Roff has encouraged the pupils in the lower school to think of the environmental issues that we all face. The national theme of the project was Change, with pupils encouraged to use a number of materials to create the leaves of a tree. They were asked to pledge one change that they would make to their lifestyle that would make a difference and have an impact on climate change. Pupils considered fast fashion, walking to school and reducing plastic use, to name but a few. The work was hung outside as an art installation within a natural setting, encouraging students to share ideas of how a large community can make subtle changes to the way they live –but also being of an aesthetic impact, too.

Photography Competition

Sixth Former James Hill was the deserving winner of First Prize in the Art Department’s photography competition! His photograph, consisting of 300 individual 1.5 min exposures was incredibly impressive, showing two galaxies 11.5 million light-years away. Well done!

Dressing the Ship

To mark this tercentenary year, the Art Department have launched a project called Dressing the Ship – a flag design project, encouraging pupils, staff and alumni to reflect on their experiences of being a Churcherian. 100 designs from the school community will be made into our very own set of nautical flags for use in future celebrations!

The Crossing

Textiles

During Easter, pupils embarked on a threeday textiles course, experimenting with expressive printmaking techniques, weaving and embroidery before creating their own top incorporating these skills.

The Crossing is a Third Year project inspired by the plight of refugees across the world. Students were challenged in their project to think about what might influence someone

to have to leave their home and move to a different, unfamiliar and often scary place. Whether war, politics, famine or fear many people across the world are forced to leave their place of heritage, comfort and identity. Inspired by a photograph of an immigrant boat which had washed up on East Wittering beach in December 2021, Miss Humphries took a group of Third Year students back to that beach in June to install their art sculptures based on tent designs, with messages and materials that represent the fears each migrant faces.

In Other News

Equestrian News

The Churcher's College Equestrian Team was thrilled to welcome OC (17) and International Showjumper Harry Charles to share his experiences on the sport and competing at the Olympics, generously giving his time to answer a variety of questions from our pupils. He certainly inspired our ever growing team of equestrians, which continues to go from strength to strength!

Rubik's Cube Competition

Six pupils recently battled it out to see who could solve a Rubik’s Cube in the shortest time. Each cube was scrambled using official World Cube Association algorithms and placed inside a box so that it couldn’t be seen. The participant then had 15 seconds to analyse the cube and start their solving attempt. Each participant completed four solves and the average of their best three times are taken. The top three are as follows:

Reuben B. (1st year) – 23.20 seconds

Jake L. (1st year) – 31.31 seconds

Reuben Q. (1st year) – 39.10 seconds

Congratulations to Kieran K. on achieving the quickest time, smashing the pervious Churcher’s record of 19.10 seconds!

The Grill Lecture 2022

Baroness Floella Benjamin blazed onto the stage at Churcher’s College to give the 2022 ‘Grill Lecture’ in May. She delivered her impassioned and moving story of ‘Coming to England’ from Trinidad as a child, and her continuing journey that’s lead her from children’s television, all the way to the House of Lords. There were tears, laughter and more than one song, with the Baroness captivating the audience with her warmth and generosity of spirit. Earlier in the evening she met with Sixth Form R&P students, along with the eponymous Judy Grill, former Head of R&P at Churcher’s. Regaling them with tales of her own experiences, she was generous with her time, hugging, encouraging and championing the students; all left feeling uplifted and enthused.

ESU Regional Final

Churcher’s College was delighted to play host to the English Speaking Union South Regional Final of the public speaking competition in March. The setting of the new Music Auditorium gave the students that chance to show off their skills of oratory. Eight teams battled it out over topics such as free contraception in schools, the decriminalisation of cannabis and whether university degrees are being devalued. The Churcher’s team of Amy Green (Speaker), Jess Lin (Chair) and Katie Withers (Questioner) performed admirably, with Amy speaking from the heart on the topic, ‘Britain owes an apology for the Empire’. The judges certainly had their work cut out and took their time deliberating, but in the end it was a team from St Catherine’s who won, followed by runners up, Seaford.

Success Outside School

Continued International Success!

We are delighted to report continued sporting success for students featured in our last issue, in a couple of cases for the last time as they prepare to leave Churcher’s after A Levels. Since playing for England last summer, Will Porter has been selected for both the Great Britain Elite Development Programme and the England U21 squad, for whom he hopes to play this summer in Belgium and potentially in the Sultan of Johor Cup in Malaysia in October. Lowri Hegan’s acrobatic trio represented Great Britain in early June at the International Acro Cup in Rzsezow, Poland and won the gold medal! They performed three routines, scoring 27.15 (out of 30) to win over groups from Poland, Israel and Ukraine. Not to be outdone by his sister, Ben Hegan has since travelled to sunny Zwolle in The Netherland for a first taste of international hockey. Four tough games in four days over the Easter weekend provided valuable experience on this international journey, starting, unfortunately, with a 6-3 loss to The Netherlands, although Ben did make the scoresheet.

Ping Pong Paul

Alberto & Milo

Congratulations to First Years Alberto Browning-Sanchez and Milo Lawson, who were recently selected to represent Hampshire Under 13s at hockey, playing matches against Berkshire and Sussex in early May. Although unfortunately Hampshire lost both games, Alberto did score his first goal for the county and we look forward to reporting on further hockey success for these promising young players!

Congratulations to Second Year Paul Beddington who won the Haslemere and District Table Tennis Junior Tournament, held in Petersfield on May 20. In what proved a decisive victory, Paul won all 15 of his games and was delighted to be awarded the shield. Paul will no doubt be showing off his talents on our new outdoor table, recently installed in the school grounds near the swimming pool.

England Karate

First Year Evelyn Forbes has just returned from Croatia, where she represented England alongside her father in the 1st World Sport Shito Ryu Karate Federation Championships and 8th European Shito Ryu Karate Federation Championships. Alongside the fantastic team success of the England squad, who came third out of 22 countries, father and daughter both enjoyed individual spots on the podium: Evelyn achieving silver in kumite and eighth place in kata for the Worlds and bronze in kumite and fourth place in kata for the Europeans. Matt won the gold for his category in kata and three bronze medals in kumite for the Worlds, and a gold, a silver and three bronze medals for his categories at the Europeans! Huge congratulations to you both!

Hockey Excellence

Churcher's College continues to be well represented in the England Hockey pathway, with more than 20 players representing Junior Academy Centres through to Junior International level. A massive thank you to the parents and coaches who support the pupils and to the players themselves for their continued dedication to hockey. We are very excited to see how this group of players progresses throughout their time at Churcher's College.

Of these, five Churcher’s pupils, representing Havant U16s, won the Havant U16 National Tier 2 Championship (Plate) which took place at Cambridge University Sports Ground in April. Very well done to Milly Morris, Lotta Jordan, Lauren Palmer, Annie Rowley and Poppy Kilpatrick!

Professional Football Beckons

Upper Sixth student Sam Paul leaves Churcher’s to embark on an exciting new phase in his already successful footballing career. He started playing for Petersfield Town Juniors at the age of seven and by nine he had been scouted by a few professional clubs, with Reading being the first to offer him a place in their Academy. It was a gruelling timetable – training after school three times a week with matches at the weekend, but all his hard effort has resulted in a professional contract, with Sam playing for the U23s in the Premier League 2 for the coming season. We wish him every success!

Alberto and Milo (Hampshire Hockey)

Ben Hegan

Will Porter

Lowri Hegan

A busy term!

A Visit from the Farm

The farm came to visit us and all years absolutely loved handling the variety of animals and learning more about farm life. The turtles and lambs were a particular favourite!

Jubilee Celebrations

The Junior School loved celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee with a number of events! 5B started the celebrations with an assembly about the Queen and her life of service to the country. There followed the judging of the Jubilee Cake Competition: students had paid to enter their Royal themed cakes with the money raised split between UWS Mude and DEC Ukraine appeal. The cake competition was judged by Miranda Gore Brown, who was very impressed with the children’s creativity and the standard of the entries. Lunch took place on the field and all the children enjoyed a BBQ and the chance to relax before the exciting events of the afternoon unfolded. The infants performed a super concert to their parents. This was followed by the announcement of the cake competition winners, dancing on the field to a live band, the arrival of an ice cream van and lots of picnicing and eating of cake.

Award Success

Congratulations to our students who were the deserving recipients of The Margaret Wilson Award, chosen by the Liphook Community Magazine Committee. Margaret, the magazine’s Production Manager and later President, was an ex-Chemistry teacher and passionate about Liphook. Amongst her many interests was creative writing and this eponymous award of a £25 book token was presented to our students for a piece of Creative Writing. Well done

Yoga trust

Let's cook... Making a river

Soft play in the garden

unicorn! Spotting signs of Spring Cheep, cheep...

Nursery blossom

Bug hunting with Mr Forbes

Exploring different fruit

Swimming

Reception children have absolutely loved their introduction to the Senior School swimming pool this term. Each Thursday, they have ventured off on the bus with bubbling chatter to then meet their amazing coaches for an hour of fun swimming coaching.

Reception

Maths is so much more fun when done practically!

Outdoor Brick Play

We love taking our learning outside in Reception. Here we were investigating patterns in “number” and the children grabbed the bricks to create this wonderful repeating pattern model.

Outdoor Learning

The outdoor classroom is a regular learning spot for Reception children. Each week has a different focus, here we baked bread over the fire and make seed ball bird feeders. And every time we turn over a tree stump, there is always a new creepy crawly to greet us!

Volcanic Experiment

We have loved doing small science experiments in the classroom this term. Here the children made a volcano erupt by mixing bicarbonate of soda with vinegar. The reaction prompted different “wow” levels, but the demonstration eruption was spectacular!

Pond Life!

The pond is a fantastic place to pond dip! We found tadpoles, which we observed in our classroom for a few weeks before we returned them to their natural habitat.

Our PE lessons throughout the year teach us so many new skills!

Thank you Arabella for bringing in your bantams!

Cricket

A fantastic start to cricket this term! With the girls’ cricket programme going from strength to strength, we’re seeing many more mixed gender teams and it’s been great to have more girls involved in the hardball programme!

Year 2 Rugby Festival

Year 2 took part in their annual U7 rugby festival, this time hosted by Brookham School. It was an action-packed afternoon of with back-to-back matches. The children played exceptionally well and demonstrated fantastic skills and team work.

Churcher's U11 Rugby 7s

The annual Churcher’s U11 Rugby 7s Tournament proved to be a huge success once again. With 13 teams competing across two tournaments, it was an afternoon of competitive and entertaining rugby. In the B team round robin event, Churcher’s put in a fantastic performance and finished in 3rd place, taking home bronze medals. In the A team round robin event, Churcher’s went into the final match against Prince’s Mead with both teams on five wins. With ferocious tackling and putting Prince’s Mead under constant pressure, Churcher’s won the match 2-0 and were crowned Tournament Champions!

U11A Rugby Team

U11B Rugby Team

Hampshire Primary Swimming Relays

Putting all their hard training this year into action, the Elite Swim Squad travelled to Hart Leisure Centre in Hook to compete in the Hampshire Primary Schools Swimming Relays. The turnout was good and competition was tough, but putting their nerves to one side the squad got down to business and put in a great performance. Each event was split into two heats with the A Teams swimming in Heat 1 and the Bs and Cs in Heat 2. There were strong performances across all teams but a particular well done must go to Event 7 A Team swimmers, Emily, Sophia, Oliver and Dougie for taking home bronze medals for their 3rd place finish!

Y6 Swimming Gala

The Year 6 House Swimming Gala proved to be a fantastic way to finish off the Spring Term. Our simmers put all their hard work into practice in a fantastic event, with a number of very closes finishes and some excellent Butterfly Exhibition Races. The much-anticipated ‘Fastest Sprint Races’ were hotly contested and congratulations go to the Boysmedallists.Sprint

Race: Girls’ Sprint Race:

1st – William Oliver 1st – Sophia Monk

2nd – Oliver North 2nd – Lucy Maier 3rd – Luke Hall 3rd – Cecily WalkerNanovich-

With every swimmer giving their best, the overall wining House changed places many times throughout the Gala. The final finishing positions saw Hamble in 4th, Rother in 3rd, Meon in 2nd and Arun the winners in 1st place. Congratulations to Arun House and very well done to every child for a fantastic

Captain Scott adventures Den building

Making a den in the woodsHard at work!

The only way to eat Hula Hoops!

Proud gardeners Trip to the woods

Making bird seed cookies

Investigating the pond as part of our topic on habitats

Creating homes for our minibeasts in the Infant digging area

Melting chocolate for a fruit fondue helped us study melting and freezing We made recycled footballs inspired by ideas from a rural Kenyan village

Learning to bat and field in our games lessons

Sewing heart-shaped cushions for Mother's Day

Easter Service

This Easter, CCJS held its first Easter Service event in St Peter’s Church. The children excelled themselves, filling the Church with wondrous melodies and it was a beautiful evening enjoyed by all.

Music Monitors

In Year 6, the children have roles of responsibility where they work alongside the teacher and help out! Our Music Monitors for the year, Cecily and William, have been fantastic in supporting concerts, acting as stage hands, leading vocal rehearsals, helping out in assembly and generally being music rock stars!!

Tea-Time Concert

As always, we continue with our Tea-Time Concerts as an opportunity to children of all ages to gain experience of performing in a relaxed and friendly

Petersfield Music Festival

Year 5 took part in the annual Petersfield Music Festival earlier in March. It was a worthy event singing alongside other local schools and the theme this year was that of saving the planet. What a great experience for the children!

CentreSustainability

Campfire Day

In the first week back after February half term, Year 3 had a fabulous campfire day completely immersed in the Stone Age to complement their History topic. Once they had learnt how to flint knap and make a fire, it was time to settle back and enjoy some hot dogs!

Engaging learning

ScienceMeasuring

Getting Creative

Year 3 have loved being creative, exploring printing techniques and creating some fabulous sunrises in Art Club!

Massage

Massage has been introduced to the school programme for Year 3 – a handson opportunity for them to build strong relationships with their classmates!

Summer uniform time

Learning all important fractions skills and working together as a team

Weaving at Stone Age Campfire Day

After learning about volcanoes, we made some and watched them erupt. It was very exciting!

We learned about the different sounds different instruments can make

We made some terrific teeth!

What better way to learn about life cycles than hatching out chicks!

Our circuit worked. Hurray!

Every single child in Year 4 gave us a spectacular performance in their production of 1722 The Musical - Junior. As HMS Churcher’s sailed from 1722 to 2022, the children took us through the history of Churcher’s College over the past 300 years. The audience were treated to songs, poems and dances, all chosen around the theme of ‘working hard and being kind’. A real triumph!

Enjoying our Outdoor Space

We have been making the most of the outdoor space, when weather permits, to enjoy some quiet reading. Surely, few things are better than being outside, immersed in a book with the sun on your back!

Young Shakespeare Company

The Young Shakespeare Company returned in the last week of the Spring Term and enthralled the children in their rendition of The Tempest. The actors brought the play to life for the children by performing sections of the play and explaining the characters and plot as they went along. Children were completely absorbed and contributed to key parts of the play as directed by the main cast.

Mary Rose

Learning about Africa

In Geography, the children created a fact file about Africa. Inspired by one of the children's parents, who spent time in Tanzania as a child, we were fascinated by the tribal shield, decorated gourd and photos of the wildlife, people and topography of that country. Our book in English is The Hunter, which is about a girl called Jamina who befriends a young elephant. Both Jamina and the elephant are lost and are seeking to return to their homes. This week the children used pictures from the book as inspiration for their creative writing.

Solar System Assembly

5R have enjoyed learning about the solar system and presenting some of their findings during the class assembly. One of the highlights was creating a fruit solar system. Distances of the planets from the sun were measured using toilet paper and our largest planet, Jupiter, was represented by a water melon, with the smallest planet, Mercury, represented by a pepper corn. The toilet paper was useful for scaling our model as each piece represented 30 million kilometres! The children also enjoyed the challenge of investigating why the moon changed shape over the course of a month and why we experience solar and lunar eclipses on Earth. Our scientific studies perfectly complemented our English topic, which culminated with the children writing a biography of Chris Hadfield - the famous Canadian astronaut - who wrote our book, The Darkest Dark.

Charity

CCJS students have been very busy raising funds for the British Red Cross and the DEC. Year 6 teamed up with Reception to plant 900 sunflowers seeds! They were sold at the end of term, with the aim of growing the tallest sunflower. Remaining seeds were planted on the school site to be sold in bunches at the end of the Summer Term. Also, our Year 6 children and families worked together to raise just over £700 for the British Red Cross at a cake sale, a great example to all the children of what can be achieved by working together! Combined with the £398 raised for the DEC that’s a total of more than £1,100! Well done all!

A Trip to London

Year 6 enjoyed a fabulous day out in London visiting the Tower of London, cruising down the River Thames and touring Westminster Abbey. So much was learnt about the importance of these historical sites and the impact which they have had on British history. It was amazing to

see how these sites embody the core British Values of democracy, tolerance, the rule of law, respect and individual liberty. 6H had fun putting on an assembly all about this day plus the other fantastic components of our citizenship curriculum.

World Book Day

Year 6 had a great time designing and wearing hats to represent famous historical figures, as we reflected on our own School’s history.

Brightstorm

Year 6 have enjoyed getting their teeth into ‘Brightstorm’ by Vashti Hardy, a tale set in another world where everything is similar, but not quite the same...

Land and Wave

Year 6 spent a whole week away at Land and Wave in Bournemouth. There were lots of fun activities to do including: climbing cliffs, spotting fossils, burying each other in the sand, stand-up paddle boarding, lighting fires and learning how to prepare partridge and trout to cook over it, as well as much, much more. It was an awesome week and a lot of fun, showing how much Year 6 have grown in independence and resilience.

Masterchef Postponed due to Storm Eunice, 6M enjoyed taking part in their Masterchef afternoon with the help of some willing family members. It was great fun and highly competitive. The winning dish was a chicken katsu curry, however all teams produced a surprisingly delicious