Rodborough Chronicles December2013

We wish all our readers a very happy Christmas

Inside this Edition Charity & Fundraising Welly Warriors Friends’ events Musical Miscellany A Musical Christmas Christmas Market Mechanics Chandler Citizens Armistice Poetry Green Notes Silver D of E International Scouts Theatre Trips Christmas Quiz Gingerbread Olympic Hopes Surrey Hockey National Judo Godalming Kayak Sports

3 4 3&5 6 7-9 10 11 12 13 14 15 15 16-18 18 19 19 20 21 24 19-28

Dates for your Diary

6 Jan Spring Term Begins 16 Jan Year 11 Consultation evening from 4:30 Dining Hall 15 Jan Year 9 DofE Parents Info Evening 6:30 Main Hall 22 Jan RS Factor Semis 5pm 27 Jan Year 7 Road Safety Theatre Presentation Reg/P1 30 Jan Year 8 Consultation evening from 4:30 Dining Hall 5 Feb RS Factor Final 7 pm 6 Feb GCSE Revision Skills evening for Y11 Parents 7pm 7 Feb Year 9 Surrey Skills Fair 10-14 Feb Year 11 Work Experience Week 10-14 Feb Y10 Drama GCSE Assessment week 11 Feb Year 9 1st Aid Day 14 Feb INSET – School closed 15-23 Feb Ski Trip Stubai 17-21 Feb HALF TERM

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Adult and Community Learning Courses Rodborough School SPRING 2014 Spanish – Level 1 – Term 2 Course No GTM4000G Thursday Evenings 16/01/14 to 03/04/14 11 Weeks Time: 7.30 pm - 9.00 pm

Italian – Level 3 – Term 2 Course No GTM1001G Monday Evenings 13/01/14 to 31/03/14 11 Weeks Time: 7.30 pm – 9.00 pm

Spanish – Level 2 – Term 2 Course No GTM4001G Thursday Evenings 16/01/14 to 03/04/14 11 Weeks Time: 7.30 pm - 9.00 pm

Creative Writing Course No GTM3001G Wednesday Evenings 15/01/14 to 26/03/14 10 Weeks Time: 7.15 pm - 9.15 pm

Please note that ALL courses STOP during Half Term Week 17 Feb 2014 to 21 Feb 2014

Italian – Level 5 – Term 2 Course No GTM1000G Monday Evenings 13/01/14 to 31/03/14 11 Weeks Time: 7.30 pm – 9.30 pm

Soft Furnishing Curtains/Blinds & Home Textiles Course No GTM2000G Tuesday Evenings 14/01/14 to 25/03/14 10 Weeks Time: 7.00 pm – 9.00 pm For more information please contact Karen Warner (Centre Manager) 25 West Street Farnham GU9 7DR Tel 01483 518558 Email: farnham.aec@surreycc.gov.uk Web: www.surreycc.gov.uk/adultlearning Life is like Make-Up: You can’t cover up the truth.

Life is like Superglue: Once used it Can’t be undone.

Life is like a flower: It is delicate, So treasure it.

Life is like a knot: All you do is Tangled into it.

Life is like glasses: Once you put them on They show you The right way.

Life is like a pen: It’s yours So draw!

Jasmine Hawkins 8CST .

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Fundraising

This term has seen a great deal of fundraising, with the announcement of our plea for a major Library Refurbishment and with pupils’ commitment to supporting Awutu-Winton School in Ghana. Year 8s have The devastating tropical storm in the Philippines required our also been raising money for urgent support so THANK YOU to everyone who has already the new school allotment given so generously of their time and money. project.

There is still just time for the school to benefit from your lastminute online Christmas (and regular) shopping without costing you a penny more. Please remember to click our Fundraising link (on the black bar at the top of every page on our new website) before navigating to your favourite online store. In this way Rodborough earns a percentage on your shop.

Thank you.

Mrs Smith would like to thank all her Year 10 Food Technology students who helped to raise £161 towards the new Library Refurbishment at Rodborough Friends’ Christmas Market. They went into mass-production for 3 consecutive evenings to produce handmade sweets to sell during the evening. Hannah Brittain, Connie Chase, Chloe Crick, Thea Garguilo, Grace Hambly, Amy Lake, Samantha Lewis and Kieran Roberts deserve a special mention as well as Y11’s Amy Goldup, who helped with the production.

Star of the evening, for her extraordinary selling skills, must go to Molly Fergusson!

Thank you all.

Reporter Ms Ward Winter Sessions Collaboration between our own vocalists and musicians and local band, Sammy Rat and the Resonators, rocked the Main Hall on Saturday 7 December. We were treated to a great selection of Christmas music expertly performed by all who took part. The Folk Rock provided by the Resonators was augmented by the Rodborough Jazz Band to magnificent effect elevating the music to another level. Our vocal group's harmonies, singing alongside Sammy Rat and Ali Collins, added depth and sweetness. Three local hand bell ringers added a truly Christmassy sound All in all, this was a terrific festive to many of the carols and songs. event! Many thanks to ALL our performers and organisers, who made www.sam it such an enjoyable evening.

Particular grateful thanks to the Friends of Rodborough, Mrs Yeadon, the Rodborough Jazz Band, Rodborough Vocal Group and the Hand Bell ringers for another successful fundraising event in support of the refurbishment of our Learning Resources Centre.

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Reporters Molly Cowell and Polly Grant Welly Warriors Welly Warriors have been busy raising money and planning for the new project ‘GROW’.

GROW aims to make Rodborough even greener by creating and maintain a fully functioning allotment plot on the school grounds. So lettuce tell you what’s been happening…

We want to start by buying water containers (ones that don’t leek!) to harvest rain water for our produce. We will also create a greenhouse to shelter our produce – as you know there’s not mushroom at the moment on the Rodborough premises for an allotment because of all the other marvellous things going on but Mr Ewing has agreed for us to use an area near his classroom. We will use giant gro-bags – one for each Year 8 class. We’ll keep it simple this first year by growing potatoes. Spud be good fun!

The programme will be incorporated into our Food Technology and Science lessons and we will personally experience the joys of sowing, growing, cultivating and harvesting healthy herbs and vegetables, lowering the Carbon Footprint into the bargain.

Chive got a feeling that future students will be using allotments for many years to come, taking up our legacy, the project growing with the students. Thank you to Witley Parish Council for supporting our venture. It’s probably thyme to stop these terrible herb & veg puns now and let Polly tell you about our cake sales so, “That’s your allotment for now!” MC

Right, let’s get down to business! We are the Wellie Warriors™ and we have been working hard to fundraise for our school allotments.

To kick everything off, we started our fundraising with cake sales.

Three cake sales. Who can resist a slice of cake? All the form groups have run sales (two at a time), and every single one was successful. The cakes sold out in a matter of minutes and everyone was happy (because of cake). Yum. And we raised £329.50!

We have plans for the future of our allotments and hope that everyone will help us, as help is very much needed! There are two Wellie Warriors™ in every Year 8 form group. They are identified by a little green wellie on their sweatshirt. All money already raised will go towards compost, water barrels and other necessities for making our gardens. PG (Polly and Jordon are Wellie Warriors™ for 8LKE)

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Friends’ Christmas Market

Reporter Mrs Howick The 2013 Friends’ Christmas market was a resounding success with the return of many popular stalls spiced up with the injection of new ones.

A couple of stalls were run by our own students: Year 9s sold hand-decorated flowerpots, pre-planted with Mr Ewing’s ‘mystery seeds’. This forms part of our fundraising appeal to help Awutu-Winton school in Ghana.

Other students were selling items to raise funds for the Philippines Disaster Relief fund. We hope to add to this fund with a number of events on our special mufti day (more about this elsewhere in this The ‘Mystery Seeds’ flew off Year 9’s Awutu stall! edition).

Our school business enterprise, Print IT, were also very busy advertising and selling a wide variety of their wares from beautiful pupil-designed Christmas Cards to their bespoke canvas printing service.

More students were helping the army of Rodborough ‘Friends’ by circulating through the dense crowds selling hand-made sweets and cakes.

There was a really impressive array of craft stalls, selling a wide variety of wares including original wax artwork, jewellery, wooden clocks, chutneys and beautiful hand-crafted wooden gifts. New this year was a very popular stall selling cut-price designer label clothing. Not to be outdone, your dog could also look the height of fashion wearing a special Christmassy bandana!

No-one went hungry – the Friends’ tea and cakes stall did a roaring trade, as did the much anticipated eat in or take-away curry stall, provided by the ladies from Elstead’s Islamabad centre. Other popular stalls were the nail bar and unique henna ‘tattoos’. There were so many wonderful stalls, as well as a raffle with super prizes – I’m sorry I can’t mention them all!

An event like this takes a huge amount of organisation and we are indebted to our wonderful ‘Friends’ for putting on such a great evening. Both car park and hall were full to bursting when I called in and the atmosphere was fabulous. Thank you.

‘Thank You’ from our DT Department Thank you to those kind parents who have donated coppiced wood, bamboo and building quality timber for our students’ use. The increased variety of materials has boosted their creativity as you can see …

If anyone else has similar items that you would like us to use please bring them along to DT!

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Musical Miscellany

Reporter Mrs Yeadon

Rodborough Young Musician of the Year 2013

The audience was treated to an excellent evening of music as students competed for the Young Musician of 2013. As in previous years the standard of performing was very high. It was really interesting to see a wide variety of instruments being played; the first time for many years that we have had both an oboe and a bassoon in the school.

The performances were adjudicated by renowned pianist and organist, Mr Hugh Potton.

The Junior winner was Eleanor Choi with Holly Giles as runner up and, in the Senior competition, Jonny Ford won the category with Ellie Page as Runner up. The audience was treated to an excellent duet performance from Elizabeth Knatt and Eleanor Choi. The overall winner, with an expressive and mature performance, was Jonny Ford.

S Factor: A Date for your Diaries …

The RS Factor will soon be here – please reserve the dates now …

The Semi-Final starts at 5pm Wednesday 22 January 2014 in the Main Hall The FINAL begins at 7pm on Wednesday 5 February 2014, also in the Main Hall Music Exam Update

Congratulations to Ellie Page for passing her Grade 7 Flute exam this term.

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Carols at the Clockhouse …

Reporter Joseph Kleeman

A group of choristers from Trinity Trust Team’s Christian Union entertained regulars of The Clockhouse Day Centre with a rendition of Christmas Readings and Carols in celebration of the Christmas Story.

The nervousness was almost too much to bear as more and more people came in to the centre but, once we started, the nerves subsided and we began to enjoy ourselves!

At the end we were able to share refreshments and mingle with the older people. They were very appreciative saying that they had enjoyed our visit and we were invited to come again.

I enjoyed going out into the community because we were able to make people happy.

Thank you to Andy and to Hyekyeong for organising the event and for taking us.

… and at The Harbour too

Our vocal group popped across the road last Thursday afternoon and entertained clients of The Harbour and their friends with a concert of cheery carols and arrangements of popular Christmas songs. Thanks to Mrs Yeadon for arranging all the music and & Ms Moyler for organising the trip.

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A Musical Christmas!

Unsurprisingly, Christmas is a really busy season for our Music Department.

Here in school they have been busy with their two big Christmas events – their Concert in the Dining Hall on the penultimate Wednesday of term and their Carol Service in Milford Parish Church (St John’s) on the final Wednesday (sadly, after we go to print).

Out in the community they have been even busier, with concerts at The Pepperpot, Godalming (again sadly after we print), The Clockhouse (TTT’s CU) and The Harbour – not to mention the ‘Winter Sessions’ evening!

There are a vast number of different groups requiring training and rehearsing in the music department. Arguably the most demanding is the Staff Choir – an ad hoc group who muster each Christmas to try Mrs Yeadon’s patience!

We are all very lucky to have such a dedicated team of musicians – instrumentalists, vocalists and, of course, our enthusiastic, dedicated and talented leaders!

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Christmas Concert

Reporter Ms Ward

Parents, staff and music fans gathered together in the Dining Hall on the evening of 11 December to enjoy an informal Christmas Concert performed by our musical groups, under the guidance of Head of Music, Mrs Yeadon. A huge variety of numbers were expertly played, with our pupils demonstrating the merits of hours of music practice.

The evening started with a tuneful rendition of Rutter’s “I wish you Christmas” by the staff choir and was followed by several numbers from the Wind Band, Vocal Group, Sax Group, String Group , Clarinet Group and, finally, the Jazz Band. Special mention must be made of Holly Giles who sang “Have yourself a merry little Christmas” with the Jazz Band – a song we have traditionally associated with the deeper tones of Chris Waters, last year’s Head Boy. With Chris in the audience watching, Holly’s pure tones made a very pleasing and completely contrasting sound.

Congratulations to everyone who took part and thank you for giving us such an enjoyable evening. Many thanks, too, to parents who support their children and the school by collecting pupils from rehearsals and encouraging them in their musical pursuits.

Photo George R

We hope that many of you were able to join us at St John the Evangelist Church Milford for our Christmas Carol Concert on the last Wednesday of term.

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German Christmas Market Trips to Cologne – December 2013 Demand from Year 9s to be part of this year’s expedition to the German Christmas Market in Cologne was unprecedented, resulting in TWO trips being planned.

As this edition of Chronicles goes to print our second group are out in Germany – hopefully having as good a time as the first, whose photos and comments appear on this page!

Thank you to ALL the staff who made these trips possible.

“I really enjoyed going to Germany – the chocolate museum was really interesting and it snowed!” Pippa Schulp “Der Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) was the most amazing thing I have ever seen, it was so big!” Elli Moore

“I loved going to Germany – it was amazing! The Christmas Market was so pretty and it really felt like Christmas had come early!” Kaela Wetton STOP PRESS

Our second trip returned on Saturday and all report that they had a wonderful (if exhausting) time!

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Sinterklaas Celebration

Reporter Mrs I Hermie Many European countries have a tradition of celebrating St Nicholas’ Day and there are many different ways of doing this.

In The Netherlands and Belgium, we traditionally put out a shoe and we hope that Sinterklaas will visit and leave some sweets behind or a small present.

So, on St Nicholas’ Day, 63 students left a shoe in room 104 in celebration of Sinterklaas (the Dutch name for Saint Nicolas/ Santa Claus).

They were delighted to find the shoes filled with sweets when they returned the following morning!

Go Kart Mechanics

Reporter Miss Spencer A group of Year 9 pupils were offered the opportunity to take part in the twilight GASP motor vehicle project until Christmas. So far, they have worked on Quad Bikes and GoKarts. They will try them out at Dunsfold after Christmas.

Well done to those taking part.

“I have really enjoyed working on the Quad Bike and Go-Karts!”

Past Pupil News …

Elizabeth Rawlinson (Class of 2005) has written to let us know how her career is shaping …

“My main passion at Rodborough was Drama and, with the help of Mrs Fjord-Roberts, I managed to get into Hurtwood House 6th form for my A Levels.

Since then I have started my own theatre company.”

You can find out more about Elizabeth’s company, Erratic Dramatics from her website: http://erraticdramatics.co.uk/

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Chandler Citizens

Reporter Laura Gill

On Tuesday 22 October, 12 Rodborough students (6 from Year 7 and 6 from Year 10) took the short minibus journey down memory lane to their old junior school, Chandler. We had been selected by Mrs Chambers as 'responsible' students to speak to Year 6 pupils about moving to secondary school and becoming responsible citizens.

Once we had arrived and commented to each other about how small the main hall now seemed, we were split into groups containing two Year 10s and two Year 7s and sent into the three Year 6 classrooms. After giving a presentation to the class about life at Rodborough, including details of our prefecture, School Council, Eco responsibilities, subjects taught etc. we asked if any Year 6s had questions for us.

We were met with a wall of silence so we gave them 2 minutes to chat to the person next to them before 3 nervous hands were raised with the first questions, "How do we know who the prefects are?" was one. "What happens if we get lost?" was another, and our personal favourite, "How hard is it to get a detention?" Now the silence had been broken there was no stopping them! "How do we get on School Council?" "What do you make in Food Tech?" "Who is the best teacher?" The questions continued and, to our surprise, we always found an answer!

Eventually it was time to leave. Once back on the minibus we breathed a sigh of relief: we'd done it! As we drove back we reflected on the things we had said. Rodborough is full of opportunities that we have started to take for granted; even though we had gone to Chandler to inspire younger students, I believe we also inspired ourselves.

Governors’ News

Following a Parent Governor election in the Summer, a new Parent Governor, Mr C Wood, was elected for a four year term of office from 19 June 2013. Following a recent Staff Governor election, Mrs M Fjord-Roberts was elected for a four year term of office from 20 September 2013. Congratulations to our new Governors and we look forward to working with them over the next four years.

At their Autumn term full board meeting on 6 November, Governors decided that Part 1 of our Full Governors’ Meetings should be open to the public as in previous years. If any parent wishes to attend a meeting they should inform the Clerk (Ms P Ward in the school office) beforehand so that the necessary arrangements for catering and seating can be made.

Further information is available in the Governors’ area of our website, www.rodborough.surrey.sch.uk

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Armistice Poetry

Year 9 have been studying the work of poets of the Great War. They have then been writing their own ‘Great War Poems’. The standard has been very high. Anneliese and Sam read their poems at Awards Evening - their poems are printed below for all to enjoy…

For Every Poppy that has Fallen

There Ever will be War

For every poppy that has fallen, A man has fallen with it.

For every bomb that has exploded, A body has gone with it.

For every gas attack that went off, Several souls have been starved.

For every life that has been taken, We will remember.

The trenches of hope littered across the desolate field.

The cadaver of justice, its demotion from role.

The afflicted panoply of remains, wretched and congealed.

The buried steel and the rusted soul.

This is war.

For every trench that was dug, Lives will have left us.

For every man that was shot down, Thousands of tears were shed.

For every injury sustained, Prayers will have been said.

For every life that has been taken, We will remember.

As the shriek of lead is propelled through the thin air And the cloud shades the ambience revealing the shadow of obscurity Supressing the fire of slaughter and holding the flare.

Standing ground never run, never flee.

This is war.

For every bullet that was shot, A man’s blood has poured out.

For every cry that was screamed, A last breath has been shed.

For every Remembrance Day we have, Soldiers will be remembered.

For every life that has been taken, We will remember.

The earth forgotten and disregarded, miniature and acute.

The deathly silence echoes across the vacuum, life is now fake.

Galactic conflict from star to star as the young follow suit.

Weapons highly advance but humanity’s actions will never break.

There ever will be war.

Anneliese Jay

Sam Renforth

This award-winning photo of soldiers patrolling a poppy field in Afghanistan was taken by former Rodborough pupil, Corporal Rupert Frere.

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Green Notes

Reporter Mr Ewing

This autumn has seen the Eco Team start a couple of new projects and work on one or two older ones.

The Canadian Memorial Garden has had its plant stocks boosted with a range of herbs kindly provided by Pepperpot Herbs.

Herbs are some of the best plants for school gardens as they can withstand the long summer holidays without needing much care and provide the Food Technology department with instant flavours and garnishes!

We have also successfully seeded the two lawn areas around the Arts and Craft garden and the new grass is now looking really good.

Our two new projects are really exciting. The first is to create some seating between the bus shelter and the cycle shed and a supply of sandstone slabs and Bargate stone have been kindly donated by parent, Mrs Farlow. These materials will be incorporated into a beautiful and robust bench-type installation in the New Year.

Our other new project involves reinstating the Rodborough Pond. Underneath the concrete slabs between the Maths block and the Drama huts once stood the old Rodborough Pond. It was home to frogs, newts and pondweed and much loved and visited by yesteryear’s biology students. As the school expanded, however, so the pond site was lost. A chance conversation between the Eco Team and Mr Smith gave us the green light to go and look for a new site for a Rodborough pond, which will now be at the far corner of the back playing field in a more natural setting, where development work is unlikely to disturb it for some time yet!

Two Saturday morning work parties, aided greatly by Adam from Earthscapes, saw the site cleared and the shape of the pond excavated. Now we are pricing up a liner and hopefully, come spring time, frogs and newts will once more find a habitat here at Rodborough!

Reporter Mrs Watson Maths ‘Friendly’ In November, three Year 9s were selected to represent Rodborough at St Catherine's School in Bramley in a "friendly" Maths quiz against several (mostly private) schools from the Guildford Area. Max Holland, Sam Renforth and Alex Thompson had to tackle some very tough questions that tested their Maths, logic and problem solving skills.

We have not entered a team into one of the quizzes for many years so none of us knew what to expect! The boys got a bit worried when they saw some other students revising - maybe not so ‘friendly’ any more! They did very well to come 5th out of the 13 teams, beating many well-known local private schools. Well done boys!

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Silver Expedition

It was a surprisingly sunny Friday morning in October that saw 30 Year 11s embark on their perilous journey to the New Forest for their Silver Duke of Edinburgh expedition.

For the next three tiring days, the five groups would battle it out, navigating their way through the wilderness as efficiently as possible to beat other groups into the comparative comforts of camp before sundown.

Dodging all manner of perils, including an over-zealous German Shepherd guard dog who chased Group 2’s chef Jose, all teams eventually found the campsite – even if one of those teams did take until 9:30 pm to arrive!

Reporters Ben, Max & Morgan

Group 2 – ready to go

We set out on Sunday morning safe in the knowledge that the majority of our 35K+ walking was behind us. If we thought it would all be plain sailing, however, we were wrong! Imagine our surprise when we discovered we were in the middle of the autumn pony round-up! Other hold-ups were less exciting - Zach’s obsession with his hair and our obscure ‘tooth brushing exercises’ to name just two causes for delay!

Photo – Morgan Masters Before too long, despite these delays, all five teams and their kit were safely on the bus and homeward bound. Thank you to Miss Mackay and all the D of E team for their help, guidance and support throughout both our Bronze and our Silver award processes. It has been a great experience so far. We now need to concentrate on our GCSEs but look forward to our final expedition after the exams next summer!

Scouts make ready for Japan Rodborough scouts, Calum August (Year 11) and Tom Hatch (Year 9) have been chosen to represent Godalming at the 2015 International Scout Jamboree in Japan.

They expect to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and, hopefully, be present at the Memorial Ceremony marking 70 years since this terrible event.

The boys will also be working with and getting to know the locals, gaining cultural understanding as they investigate their themes of Science and Technology and the Environment.

Calum and Tom will spend the next few months actively fundraising for this opportunity of a lifetime.

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The 39 Steps

Several Year 10 students travelled to London’s Criteria Theatre to watch the Olivier Award Winning ‘Best New Comedy’, The 39 Steps. The play is based on the classic Alfred Hitchcock spy thriller – successfully remodelled as a comedy for the stage. www.love39steps.com sums up the show, “This wonderfully inventive and gripping comedy thriller features four fearless actors, playing 139 roles in 100 minutes of fast-paced fun and thrilling action.”

Here are a few summaries from our students …

The 39 Steps is a brilliant play and I thoroughly recommend www.love39steps.com going to see it. The small number of props and set added huge impact. The actors are incredibly talented and it is brilliant fun!

I loved it and know that everyone else did too.

The Hitchcock references added humour to the already hilarious piece.

Absolutely fabulous!

Hannah Hassall I really enjoyed The 39 Steps An outstanding, comical The 39 Steps was very clever – and it gave us a really good start and totally inspirational their use of so much physical to our Drama coursework. performance! theatre was brilliant!

Katie Collins Hannah Brittain Charlotte

Year 8s’ Creative Christmas Capers

Reporter Mrs Chambers On 5 December a group of Year 8 girls visited Winchester Christmas Market as stimulus for their descriptive writing. th

We visited the many stalls taking in the sights, sounds, many tempting smells and subsequently delicious tastes!

Several of the girls chose to take advantage of the outside rink and were soon gliding around – with only a few bumps and falls!

In our lesson the next day we fed back our experiences – the effects on the different senses and our favourite moments – and the girls then feeling fully inspired, began to create their vivid descriptions.

A memorable day – both in terms of powerful writing and Christmas shopping!

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Noel Coward Theatre The theatre trip to the Noel Coward Theatre to see Michael Grandage’s adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was enjoyed by all. The cast was studded with famous names including Sheridan Smith, David Walliams, Susannah Fielding, Katherine Kingsley, Padraic Delaney and Gavin Fowler.

Polly Jennings, Molly Cowell and Karla Metherell take up the story …

The play was incredibly funny.

Despite bein in Shakespearian language, the actors’ actions and the director’s interpretation made it easy to understand. The stage design was great and incorporated the themes of the play with fairy lights and a realistic looking moon.

The costumes, especially the fairies’ hippy costumes, were stunning!

Sheridan Smith portrayed Titania in a really melodramatic way. She was really over the top with her movements and facial expressions!

www.telegraph.co.uk

Bottom (played by David Walliams) was the star of the show with his camp behaviour and rude antics! We just loved him! We were incredibly lucky to go backstage after the show!

Despite being so O.T.T. on stage, David Walliams was very modest and sweet in real life. When we had our photo taken with him he wanted to make sure that he looked as professional as possible and he kept checking his tie!

As we walked down the corridor to his dressing room we were lucky enough to meet other cast members, including the actors who played Demetrius and Lysander, and we managed to get the lion’s autograph. We also met Denise Van Outen and Quentin Blake!

The amazing opportunity to go backstage was because Polly’s family are friends with Henry Everett, who played Peaseblossom and the hilarious ‘Wall’. The experience was a once-in –alifetime, fabulous opportunity and we loved every minute!

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Year 9 Theatre Trip to War Horse

Quotations from Year 9s

Fifty students from Year 9 recently travelled to London to see War Horse to support their study of World War One poetry (see separate article), Many of the students had read the book prior to the visit.

“I couldn’t believe how realistic the horses were.

After about five minutes I completely forgot they were puppets.” Emily Porter

“War Horse was incredible as it shows the difficult side of war through the eyes of a boy.

It was so powerful and really moved me.” Holly Giles

“I enjoyed the performance and thought the horse movements were very realistic.” Tom Dallyn “The production was very creative.” Jordan Walsh

“After a while you completely forget that there are people controlling the horses. I loved it – especially the goose!”

Sam Renforth

“I thought it was an excellent play and the tank was cool!” Tom Little

“War Horse was a great experience. It made me realise the reality of war which we hardly think about and don’t remember as we should. After reading the book and watching the film, I still found it amazing.” Aida Mulugetta-Lopez Images from www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Christmas Quiz

How many items would ‘my true love’ have sent me in total in the sung version of The 12 Days of Christmas?

Answer on page 25 RODBOROUGH CHRONICLES

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Gingerbread Houses Several hopeful teams gathered excitedly in the Dining Hall on Tuesday 10 December to take part in something that has become a Rodborough pre-Christmas tradition – the making of Gingerbread Houses!

Each team had purchased a kit and had brought along icing sugar and decoration.

The standard of creativity was very high as the teams, who ranged from Year 7 up to Year 10, happily piped and decorated their houses.

Structural stability proved difficult with this year’s houses but everyone had a great time and became very sticky! Well done everyone!

Gingerbread Challenge has set a seasonal creative cooking

Mrs Smith challenge…

Using the instructions and recipe on the main Food page of OpenHive, make some seasonal Gingerbread characters. Then photograph them and upload for all to enjoy!

Here are some fabulous reindeer from Maddy in 7KGU. What can YOU make?

RYA Junior Cadet Squad Olympic Development

Information from RYA Youth Racing Manager Mr D Truswell

Ben Shorrock (10BPE) has been selected for the RYA UK Youth/ Junior Squad. This is in recognition of Ben’s potential to progress within the British Sailing Team with the aim of progressing onto the Olympic Development programme.

Ben’s selection onto the squad recognises his training and competition commitment over a period of several years. It is hoped that Ben will represent Great Britain at major international events in forthcoming years.

Weekend training is intense and involves a range of activities – from time on the water to fitness training, classroom based theory and working with specialist coaches and support staff.

We wish Ben every success with his long-term sailing ambition and are sure that his peers will support him whilst he is working hard both at school and at his training.

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Surrey Hockey Squad

We thought you would like to see these two e-mails about our talented Hockey players …

Dear Mr Smith,

I hope that you recall that in May of this year two students from Rodborough school became National U12 Hockey Champions. The students were Alexander Smith (8CST) and Max Greenhalgh (7EDA).

I would like to advise you that this week both of these students were selected as part of the Surrey county squad for 2013-14 season.

I am also pleased to also advise that in addition to these two boys, Ross Ferguson (9JWI), has also been selected into the squad.

The Surrey squad will, between Jan and April 2014, enter a county league where they will play seven other counties from the South- East of England (Hampshire, Berkshire, Bucks, Oxon, Kent, Middlesex and Sussex).

Over a thousand young people took part in the trials to be selected for the Surrey Hockey Squad and many of those were from hockey playing private schools (such as Reeds and Cranleigh).

For these three boys to be selected against such competition within the County is, I believe, a reward for all their hard work and persistence, combined (of course) with no lack of talent.

They have often trained or played in matches three to four times a week in order to get to the standard required for the County squad.

Sir, I believe that the boys’ selection reflects well on the school and that I felt you should be aware of the achievements of three of your students.

Regards Gary Smith Dear Mr Smith, Further to Gary Smith’s email relating to the boys success in reaching the county squads, I am pleased to advise you that one of your Year 11 girls, Jess Crathern, has also been selected to play for Surrey. This is particularly pleasing as our girls’ section is not as strong as Guildford boys’ so for Jess to have progressed is testament to her hard work. She and the three boys do have to show extra commitment training 3 or 4 nights a week in order to compensate for the fact that the vast majority of their team mates are in the private sector and are playing hockey regularly at school. Incidentally, both Jess and Ross now play for Guildford Hockey Club’s adult teams, which is a reward for their hard work and dedication to their sport.

You may also be interested to learn that a former Rodborough pupil, Helena Sharp, was awarded the “Young Sports Volunteer of the Year” award at the Godalming Sports awards last week. This was in recognition of her work last season at the club, working with the younger age groups together with taking a lead in the coaching of her own peer group. She is an inspiration to the juniors, encouraging them to aspire to play in the adult teams and look to volunteer to help with coaching and umpiring.

Kind regards Andrew Fergusson Head of Junior Section, Guildford Hockey Club

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National Champions

… and another e-mail – this one about National rankings!

8 December 2013 Dear Rodborough School

My name is Peter Swettenham and I'm the Witley Judo Club Coach. I have been very fortunate to have taught, or still teach, many of the children who attend Rodborough School.

I'm sure that you will be very pleased to hear that one of your Year 7 boys, Jamie Mansfield, won the National Judo Championships yesterday at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. His older brother Leigh (Year 10) also performed brilliantly to come seventh despite having to compete in the weight group above his own. I'm sure that you, like me, are very proud of their achievements.

Best wishes Peter Swettenham Additional Information:

Mr Mansfield

Both boys had just moved up into new age bands (Cadets for Leigh and Pre-Cadets for Jamie). Leigh fought in the lowest weight category available to him in Cadets, which he is very light for but he fought very well achieving 7th place overall, which had earned him his first British Cadet ranking points - a great achievement which he has worked hard for. The 4 top ranked players can represent Great Britain at the European and World Championships.

Jamie had a wonderful day and fought to the best of his ability and was crowned British Champion 2013/2014 by taking Gold in his weight group, an amazing achievement that every competitive Judo player aspires to. As British Champion Jamie is now selected for the full England Squad and will train with Britain's best throughout the year at Centres of excellence in Walsall and Dartford earning the right to wear the England Rose on his judo gi.

House Competitions – Girls’ Football

Reporter Tasmyn Prytherch

In the past four weeks, four Year 11 GCSE PE students planned, organised and prepared several inter-house football tournaments for the lower years as part of their GCSE course. This ranged from making certificates to organising the individual matches.

Throughout the course of the competitions, 130 girls represented their form group. This was an impressive turnout, with everyone hoping to win the tournament for their house! The winners were: 7KGU (Webb), 8PCR (Webb), 9JWI (Webb) and 10JBE (Owen) each winning 100 house points for their form. A well done to everyone that took part, and especially the winners, Webb!

Also, a special thanks to the Year 11 girls that took the time to plan the tournaments: Charlotte Smith, Tasmyn Prytherch, Helen Staite-Gardner and Katie Sellar.

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Inter-House 5-a-side Boys’ Competition

Reporter Mr Farrell

The Year 8 Inter-House 5-a-side was won by 8HAL (Owen). The team were Max Aboutorabi, Archie McEachran, Dan De Caestecker, Alex Pawsey and George Horn.

The Year 9 Inter-House 5-a-side tournament was won by 9 PWI (Webb). The team were Will Cooper, Jack Bareau, Jackson Brooks, Rowan Bartlett, Elliot Housden and Will Rawson.

The Year 7s played an Inter-School 5-a-side tournament with an A team and a B team.

Both teams were unbeaten in their respective leagues.

The A team were Alex Skelton, Ben Smart, William Bodman-Smith, Will Ryman, Charlie Chennell and George Wilcox.

The B team were Ollie Ridsdale-Smith, Ollie Jones, Toby Onabanjo, Adam Curry, Aaron Moorey and Toby Patman.

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Gym & Dance Show 2013

Reporters Annie Greenan & Kezia Denne

Rodborough Sports Leaders organised a competition for Years 3 to 6 from:  St Bart’s  St James’  Busbridge Juniors  Chandler Each school created Dance and Gymnastic routines to perform for their friends and families. All the groups/ soloists put in a huge amount of effort. Whether it was learning a piece devised by their teacher, devising their own piece, or organising costumes or music, everyone was really enthusiastic! The groups and soloists took turns to perform. Annie Cross and Shannon Lee had the unenviable job of judging the entries and their choice of winner were: 1. St James’ Bollywood Dancers 2. Chandler’s Naughty Girls 3. St James’s Hoola Hoopers The competition was a huge success and I think that everyone who took part or came to watch thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

Reporters Jess Ridsdale-Smith & Laura Neuhaus Year 10 Netball Tournament Our Year 10 tournament was eagerly awaited by the whole team and, when the day finally came round, everyone was determined to do their best.

We arrived at Gleblands and, after a quick warm up, began our first match against Guildford County.

This concluded with a draw and we moved on to play Howard of Effingham, our main competitors. The tension built as the match got underway. We fought to win but had to be content with another draw. Already tired out, our team moved on to play Glebelands.

Disappointingly, we lost by a fine margin to the Glebelands after an exciting match. Next, we played Broadwater and Woolmer Hill. Both games were won successfully so we finished the tournament on a high.

Impatiently we waited for the result. It was better than we had thought as we were announced as the runners up. Pleased, the team departed with another great year’s tournament to talk about.

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Success for Year 10 Girls’ Basketballers!

Reporter Aggie Farlow-Hoare

Anna Stevenson, Laura Neuhaus, Olivia Moriano, Jess Rathbone and I came together to become the Year 10 Rodborough Girls’ Basketball team. We set off to our first tournament at Woolmer Hill with keen coach, Jonny Powell, full of excitement and anticipation.

Our first game was against Guildford County, which we won 4-2 with Laura's amazing 3 pointer.

Our second game was against Glebelands whose team included a member of the England Basketball squad but nothing could hold us back and we won!

With our first 2 games behind us we were full of confidence and, with Jonny’s and Miss MacKay’s support from the side lines, we began our next game against Woolmer Hill. There was a great deal of falling over in this game, including Anna ending up on the floor with the ball just rolling down the court. With baskets being scored from both sides the final score was even at 2:2.

After a short break the red-faced team set up for their final game against Broadwater. Within the first 2 minutes we were level and, with a final push from the team, we managed to squeeze a basket past them to finishing off at the top of the table with a third win.

We were all so happy. We collected our winning medals and wore them with pride. Miss MacKay and Jonny were both very proud of Rodborough Year 10 Basketball Girls’ first tournament win!

Kayak Progress

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Reporter Mrs Howick Stella and Sarah-Jane, both from 7SKE, joined Go Godalming Canoe Club in the spring.

They have been working hard learning the skills necessary to take their 1* awards and were delighted to be chosen to share the club’s ‘Most Improved’ shield.

The girls told me that they have thoroughly enjoyed the sessions which are held at the boathouse behind Homebase in Godalming on Thursday evenings during the spring and summer and they are looking forward to sessions starting again next year.

Quite a few Rodborough pupils take part and Stella and Sarah-Jane have met new friends through the club. They would thoroughly recommend the club to others and will be happy to talk to you if you would like to find out more.

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Year 1 Multiskills Festival

Reporter Bella Perry

On Tuesday 5 November, our group of Young Sports Leaders hosted around 80 Year 1 pupils from Witley and Busbridge Infant Schools in our Sports Hall for them to learn different skills such as throwing a beanbag or jumping over small hurdles.

There were 12 stations each run by 2 Sports Leaders. The leaders had to devise their own activities, for example on one station you had to jump over hurdles carrying a beanbag and at another station you had to balance a beanbag on a tennis racket and run in and out of cones.

The children were split into groups and off they went. As some Sports Leaders didn't have stations they circulated, helping where necessary and seeing the children having lots of fun!

They had the hard task of picking out individual children to give stickers to - such as those with the biggest smile, or those who ran the fastest. It was hard to decide as ALL of the children were laughing and having fun and the Sports Leaders running the stations were incredibly enthusiastic and really encouraging the children to participate.

It's fair to say that most of the children looked like they would have been happy to carry on for several hours but I think the leaders deserved a well-earned rest when the hour was up!

We all enjoyed it and, judging by the amount of noise they produced, every child enjoyed it too! Thanks to Miss Mackay for organising the festival and thanks to Witley and Busbridge Schools for bringing such enthusiastic (and LOUD) children!

Christmas Quiz

Question on Page 18 Answer: 364 individual items (Did you think 78? Then you forgot to add all those repeats!)

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1+3+6+10+15+21+28+36+45+55+66+78 Do you know the name for this sequence of numbers? ‌ Answer on page 27 VOLUME 10 ISSUE 2

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Shout Conference Six Year 9 students represented their year group at this year’s Shout Conference at Surrey Sports Park.

Reported by Year 9 Delegates

This event is designed to provide young people with ideas and opportunities to deal with current issues they face such as drugs, anti-social behaviour and personal safety.

This is a multi-agency event designed to get feedback from cross section of young people (aged 13-19) to help shape their futures.

Sam, Lois, Fraser, Kira, Holly and Ella take up the story …

"When we arrived at the Surrey Sports Park Centre we were greeted with T-Shirts and wristbands. We were then split into groups of 8. The day was packed with various group activities - many of them interactive. Most activities were based on our safety; however, there was also a lot about the internet and anti-social behaviour. We all thoroughly enjoyed the thought-provoking day!"

Rodborough’s participation in the event was arranged by Head of Waverley Federation, Wendy Crocker, who wrote, “Thank you for sending such a super group of students. Fraser stood up in front of the packed hall and fed back from his group and there were lots of positive contributions from everyone. They won a box of chocolates and Fraser won the Headphones raffle (he collected the most raffle tickets from the market place event)."

Surrey Schools Biathlon

Ella Hargreaves

On a cold and rainy Sunday back in October, a team from Rodborough attended the Surrey School Biathlon at the K2 Sports Centre in Crawley.

We had pupils from various age groups running and swimming during the day; the distances varying according to age category.

In the Under 12 category (50m swim, 800m run), Lola Wright took third place in the girls overall and Callum Gregory came sixth for the boys.

Our Year 8 girls (Polly Downes, Millie Puddephat, Rosie Bickerdike and Ollie Bingham) came 5th as a team in the Under 13s and also achieved some great times for both the 100m swim and 1600m run.

Finally, in the Under 16 girls’ category, Ella Hargreaves was placed 4th overall with a 200m swim and a 1600m run.

Well done to everyone involved for your fantastic achievements and let's hope that we can take an even bigger team to next year’s event!

Considering Rodborough had never entered a team before, everyone put in a great effort and achieved brilliant times and placings. Huge congratulations must go to Lola and Callum who passed through to the next round.

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Project Ability

Reporters Jacob Pink & Sophie Richardson After attending the 2012 Surrey Young Ambassadors’ Conference last year, we began to think about how we would implement these values at Rodborough. We have been working hard to make positive contributions to sport and physical activity at The number one aim of Rodborough and started by planning extra-curricular Project Ability is to have clubs and inter-house activities.

Our main inspiration, however, came when we more young disabled attended the Sports Ability Conference, where we pupils taking part in met Team GB Wheelchair Rugby player, Steve Brown, competitive sport who gave a truly inspirational description of his ‘road to glory’ and the showed us the possibilities for sports for ALL abilities.

The day was thoroughly entertaining and inspiring and it was a combination of this event, together with encouragement from our teachers, that led us to set up a SportsAbility club here at Rodborough.

The club started out as a twice a week lunchtime activity for pupils with special educational needs. We set up the hall for sports such as table tennis, sitting volleyball and polybat (an adaption of table tennis). Word soon spread and the club has become really popular and is Rodborough has been chosen to become now flourishing with new Surrey’s Lead Project Ability School activities such as boccia and hockey on offer too.

Popular demand means that Sports Ability activities are now run by both Young There will be 50 lead Project Ambassadors and SEN teachers almost every Ability schools in England, each lunch time. Our Sports Ability club has been a success for all involved; we have enjoyed selected for their established seeing the pupils develop their skills and expertise in engaging young confidence and it has been a fantastic disabled people. These schools opportunity to see wheelchair users getting can improve the quality, and involved in the sports too. extend the provision, of physical It is extremely rewarding to see pupils developing as the year goes on, and we have activity for disabled pupils. certainly noticed the progressions made by participants and leaders alike!

The club will run for the remainder of this academic year and we are confident that future Rodborough Young Ambassadors will continue to run and evolve these clubs in the future.

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Youth Sports Trust Young Ambassadors

L ast

Reporter Sophie Richardson

September, Rodborough renewed its commitment to the Young Ambassadors programme by enrolling Jacob and Sophie (now Year 11s) as Young Ambassadors and, this year, Nat and Laura (currently Year 10s) joined the scheme too.

All four Young Ambassadors represented Rodborough on 5th November, at a Conference held at Surrey Sports Park for Young Ambassadors from Our Sports Ambassadors model their official polo shirts across Surrey.

Inspired by London 2012, the Young Ambassadors Programme was created to develop young people who have shown a keen interest and ability in sports and Sports Leadership by allowing them the resources needed to increase participation as well as promoting the benefits of taking part in physical activity. The conference was aimed at helping us to achieve this.

Ambassadors from schools all over Surrey were split into five groups on arrival. Our first activity was to discuss the responsibilities of being a Young Ambassador. Conversation was initially reluctant but the unlimited tea, coffee and biscuits soon woke us up! We spent the rest of the morning finding out about new ways for us to make a difference and about the opportunities available to us as leaders in Surrey.

At lunchtime and we dispersed around the Sports Park exploring the market place area where there were details of a variety of sports organisations, and visiting Starbucks! We were soon back to work to learn about ‘Change4Life’ and experimenting with the equipment supplied in the themed bags to create new, all inclusive games using the ‘STEP’ tool, which we had discussed earlier.

The final item on the agenda was a talk, delivered by Jacob and Sophie, about the work done as Young Ambassadors last year at Rodborough. This was followed by discussions of possible further steps to be taken upon return to school.

All in all this was a thoroughly worthwhile, enjoyable and informative day!

Reporter Ross Fergusson Coaching Haslemere Flyerz Aggie Farlow-Hoare and I recently helped to coach and umpire small sided hockey games for the Haslemere Flyerz Hockey Club at Woolmer Hill Sports Centre. The boys I helped had a really good time. The games were fun and everyone tried really hard. At the end of the evening there was a penalty shoot-out, which they all enjoyed.

I really enjoyed myself umpiring the games and the coaching was great because I could pass on the skills I have learned at my club.

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