July 2009

Great time had by all during Activities Week

Inside this Edition

The school timetable was suspended last week for our traditional School Elections summer Activities Week.

Report page 26 Annie Able Linguists Day Maths Challenges Young Apprentices Role Models Garden Opening Berlin Trip English Events Spelling Bee Carnegie Shadowing Author Trip Mini-Sagas Jazz Band on Tour Leavers‟ Ball Bug Hunt BP Young Scientists Woman in Black Aberdare 2009 Activities Week Eco Week Rugby Sports Day Cricket Sports Coordinator

P2 P3 P8&22 P9 P10 P11 P12 P13 P14 P15 P16 P17 P18 P19 P20 P22 P23 P24 P25 P26 P27 P30 P31 P32 P34 Playground to Podium P37 Rounders Round-up P38 JSLA P39 Girls‟ Football P40

Dates for your diary 02 Sep 03 Sep 08 Oct 08 Oct 23 Oct 26-30 Oct 18 Dec 19 Dec-1Jan 04 Jan

INSET Term begins for ALL Early Closure 1pm Open Evening INSET HALF TERM Early Closure 1pm Christmas Holidays Term begins for ALL

Thank you Hall Hunter Partnership for your generous sponsorship – story page 29

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New Senior Six

Reporter Jason Bowen Year 10 Our senior positions of Head and Deputy Head Boy and Girl, commonly known as Senior Six, are decided in March each year. Members of Year 10 are invited to apply for these positions in writing.

The positions are filled following an interview process and voting by their peers and the staff. For many applicants this is their first formal interview and can be a gruelling but rewarding experience. I interviewed some of the candidates and this is what they told me: “The teachers were really nice and it was an enjoyable experience.” HS “It was an enjoyable but nerve-wracking first experience for an interview” LR “It was tense but I got through it!” DB “I was very nervous, I feel confident about it now and I look forward to hearing the results.” KS “It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be!” NB “Quite tense, but after a few questions you settle down and start to enjoy the experience.” JB “I was a little anxious but it went fine and was a great experience.” TR Reporter Jason Bowen Year 10 Election time at Rodborough With Year 11 moving out and with new Senior Six Prefects already in place, it was time for new School Council Representatives to be elected for each form. The occasion was designed to be as realistic as possible, even using genuine ballot boxes loaned by the local council, which would be used in the real elections soon after.

Nominees were asked to give a speech in front of their peers as to why they believed they should be the form representative. The rest of the form then voted for whom they deemed the best candidate, in a secret ballot.

Senior Senior Prefects Prefects run run the the polling polling station station for for junior junior years years

Head Girl, Jess Waters, summarised the event: “For the first time, holding elections at Rodborough in this form, it went incredibly smoothly. Everyone took it seriously; all in all, it was a very successful morning.”

Here are a few words from our Head Boy, Jack Tomes: "As a pupil that voted and assisted in the elections, I believe that the practical experience of voting was a very useful and enjoyable experience.

The rest of the prefects involved also agree and we feel that the experience was an important one and taught pupils how important an election is. This method makes the voting fair and there is a safe way of counting the votes and finding the correct results, which is essential in any election.

It made the candidates feel more important and was exciting for them. Finally it makes the voters think about their decision and respect the candidates."

A few words from the Headteacher, Mr Smith: "The senior prefects were keen that the School Council was properly representative of the pupil body. They wanted to show everybody in the school how a proper election would be run. They followed it up with assemblies stressing the importance of using their right to vote and they acted as returning officers to announce the results. The general feeling among students was that this was a worthwhile experience and it will now become an annual event."

And a note from Waverley Borough Councilor, Catie Hipgrave: “I really enjoyed coming into school to help with your Election. It was lovely to see such a friendly crowd of enthusiastic voters. Your prefects did a fantastic job, please let them know, they truly are a credit to the school. I hope by now the newly elected school councillors are settling in to their roles. Thank you very much for having us.”

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Annie

Review by Steve Flook

Audiences roar their approval of Rodborough’s ‘Annie’ Having worked with children successfully for many years, the Production Team at Rodborough decided this year to go one step further and try working with animals in putting on 'Annie' and the three night's audiences showed their appreciation enthusiastically.

Lucy Jacob appealingly played Annie with the right degree of winsomeness and Tom Rathbone got the right air of bemused detachment as 'Daddy' Warbucks, beginning to discover new paternal feelings for the orphan. Hayley Toms as Grace Farrell, managed to blend kindly interest and a patronising attitude towards the girl she plucked at random for a life of luxury. Miss Hannigan is perhaps the show's most interesting character, glued to radio-soaps as she dreams of a life without 'Little Girls' and Emma StanleyThe Boylan Sisters with Bert Healey Clegg‟s portrayal did the character justice.

Of the minor characters, mention must be made of Tom “Ryan Donaldson as Rooster …

Redmond as the English butler Drake, managing to maintain a lofty detachment while still realising that he created a fawning, ingratiating was an essential cog in the Warbucks household. The character of which Dickens character of Franklin D Roosevelt singing about the New himself would have been proud.”

Deal, brought to life by the timing of Tom Simons was a wonderful cameo performance. The comedic high-spot was provided by Francesca Davis as Lily and Ryan Donaldson as Rooster, as they try to prove themselves Annie's parents; the latter created a fawning, ingratiating character of which Dickens himself would have been proud. “…a joy to watch and listen to.”

The two dogs in the production, and especially the golden retriever, Murphy, were an added bonus!

The show really took off in the second half, with the parody of a toothpaste-sponsored show with lovely directorial touches pointing out the idiocy of ventriloquism and tap-dancing on radio.

As usual with Rodborough's recent productions the orchestra and the chorus-work were highlights of the evening. Beautifully costumed, the large chorus were a joy to watch and listen to.

Once again, a slick Rodborough production!

Review by Caleb Rowan, Year 7 A show to remember!

Of all school plays, this has to be one of the best!

Annie, featuring many Year 7s, was a great show and everyone, actors and spectators alike, had an amazing time.

Featuring many songs, including „Tomorrow‟ and „A Hard Knock Life‟, which stay in your head for weeks afterwards, and accompanied by great dancing, this was definitely a show to remember!

“The Orphans made me smile each time they came on stage.

There is enormous talent there just waiting for future productions” MP

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Annie – the musical

Review in pictures “I loved playing in the band for Annie. It was great to play alongside professionals!” TP

“This was my first Rodborough production and I can‟t wait „till next year!” AS

“Even though I had a Chorus part, I still had three costume changes! I had a great time and my parents and grandparents really enjoyed the show.” EL

“It was great fun being one of the Boylan sisters, and it made a change to be blonde!” ES

“I loved playing the smallest orphan as it gave me the chance to act, sing and dance.” HL

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“All the crew were brilliant to work with. Harry, in particular, should be exceptionally proud of himself!” Mr Payne

“The acting and singing were great fun and very demanding. The worst part was having my bald wig removed each night!” TR

“Murphy was great fun to work with and I was really worried when he was poorly during the week before the show!” LJ

Thank you to everyone who made the show possible by lending props, making scenery and costumes, helping behind the scenes and supporting members of the cast.

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Sculpt it’s creative club for young people 11-16 years Want to make your own mosaic or ceramics, wood carving experience too?

Book your place for this new club September term Creative Art Club for 11-16 year olds – Mondays 6.30-8.00 £8 Painting, ceramics, carving stone, wood, wire, mosaics, anything is possible!!!

Please register your interest and book now. Spaces limited.

Summer workshops in August available too!!!

Booking preferable. Ring Ruth on 07769906529 or visit website www.sculptit.co.uk.

Fat Loss and Fitness Bootcamp with one of Surrey’s most popular and experienced Personal Trainers!

A fun, hardworking bootcamp that gives you results, and will change your bodyshape!

Full nutrition plan and bootcamp members’ forum to help you get results between workouts.

You can drop a dress/trouser size in 4 weeks!

Contact Mark for further details – 6 bootcamps a week!

Web - www.SurreyBootcamp.co.uk Email - Mark@SurreyBootcamp.co.uk RODBOROUGH CHRONICLES

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Rodborough Are you interested in hiring our facilities?

Log on to our website to view what we can offer www.rodborough.surrey.sch.uk (click school website then click the community tab)

The Wey Centre Summer Holiday Programme (for 12 – 19 year olds)

Registration at the Café Thursday 23 July 1pm – 6pm Come along and sign up to our programme of activities Youth Café Plus 1pm – 6pm Tuesdays and Thursdays Various activities in Music, Art, Drama & Sport on offer or just come down to chill out.

Internet access and 5 a side football tournament to be confirmed.

Guitar Workshop with Phat Tone 1:15-3:15 Tuesdays All welcome from complete beginners to experts. Bring your own guitar or borrow one from our selection.

Basketball Camp 1:15-3:15 Tuesdays & Thursdays

Dates: 28 July, 4, 11,18, & 25 August Build your own Longboard 3:30–5:30 Tuesdays

Dates: 28 & 30 July, 3, 13, 20 &27 August Live&Direct Extra with Ryan Paul-Henry 3:30-5:30 Thursdays

Enjoy skateboarding?

Like building things?

Then this is for you!

Record, write and learn to play music in our professional music studio

Dates: 28 July, 4, 11, 18 & 25 August

Dates: 30 July, 6, 13, 20 & 27 August

With players from Guildford Heat

PLACES ARE LIMITED – BE QUICK We look forward to seeing you!

For more information speak to the Youth Workers: Haslemere Young People's Centre (The Wey Centre) St Christopher's Road Haslemere GU27 1DQ 01428 656926

Feeling Creative? Write a story and win great prizes for you and for Rodborough!

Check out the Usbourne Young Writers Award 2009 at www.usborne.co.uk/youngwritersaward/

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University of Surrey Linguists Day

by R Denne, A Linegar, V Cook & R Singleton

Hello! Bonjour! Guten Tag! Hola! Ciao! Olá!

Monday 15th June was an exciting day for the gifted linguists of Year 9. The day began with a brief introductory welcome from Surrey University‟s Head of Languages – Andrea Dlaska. Liz Avis and Birgit Linton then outlined the day ahead. After a short break, Rodborough pupils enjoyed a half-hour lecture, „Minding your P’s and Q’s in other cultures’, by Doris Dippold, who explained that in some countries it is unnecessary to say „please‟ and „thank you‟ and that it may even be considered rude! Our second lecture was „Interculturalism‟ by José Fernandez-Tunon who introduced us to foreign greetings and cultural manners. Next time we travel: to Japan we will slurp our noodles in appreciation of the food, to Canada we will burp after our meal and to Bulgaria we will shake our head for „yes‟ and nod for „no‟ (seems odd, we know)!

After a satisfying lunch, we were spilt into groups of 20 to participate in taster “Next time we travel to Bulgaria we will language sessions. Half of our linguists shake our head for „yes‟ and nod for „no‟…” learnt Chinese and Italian, whilst the other half had tasters of Japanese and Greek.

After these sessions we made our way back to the main auditorium for a live interactive quiz. The quiz showed that majority of us love learning languages! After completing the quiz we collected our goody bags and made our way back to school.

On behalf of those who attended, we would like to thank the language department at the University and Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Winter for arranging our enjoyable as well as educational day out.

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Maths Challenges

Maths Correspondent Jason Bowen Year 10

A Challenge for the Juniors You may be familiar with the UKMT and the various Maths Challenges it publishes and sends out.

The UKMT (United Kingdom Mathematics Trust) started in 1996 and is a registered charity aiming to enrich and advance students learning with mathematics. They are extremely successful, organising the biggest maths competitions in the UK. UKMT mainly targets the 11-18 age group, though it publishes several maths books for almost any age.

Years 7 and 8 have now recently sat the Junior Maths Challenge paper. The 25 question paper is taken by the two years‟ best maths pupils. Ranging in difficulty and with penalty points for getting the later questions wrong, it certainly provided a challenge for our pupils as its name suggested.

UKMT tailors the mark scheme so the top 40% of students received a bronze, silver or gold certificate on a 3:2:1 ratio. Some lucky students even qualified for the next round.

From the 110 pupils that took the junior paper, 28 achieved bronze, 15 received silver and 12 were awarded the gold certificate. The best in school, James Brockman, also qualified for the Junior Mathematical Olympiad. Congratulations, James! You can compare the results with the Intermediate Maths Challenge found in the March 2009 paper, which is also on the school website.

Below is a question taken from the junior paper for you try: Q: The currency used on the planet Zog consists of bank notes of a fixed size differing only in colour. Three green notes and eight blue notes are worth 46 zogs; eight green notes and three blue notes are worth 31 zogs. How many zogs are two green notes and three blue notes worth?

A 13 zogs B 16 zogs C 19 zogs D 25 zogs E 27 zogs Joining up for a Team Challenge In April, four young mathematicians, James Brockman and Liam Cole from Year 8 and Michael Evison and Matthew Bradbury from Year 9 took part in the UKMT Team Maths Challenge Regional Finals at Lord Wandsworth College. The Regional Final was a large event, with many competing schools and local media interest.

The event ran from 10am to 3pm, consisting of numerous rounds. There was Group Completion, ten questions of varying difficulty, and Crossnumber, which is similar to a crossword with numbers for answers. Head-to-Head was a round which pitted two teams together to correctly answer a series of questions first. Finally, Relay Race was the round which split the team into pairs to solve problems in turns against the clock.

The team returned, exhausted, at 4pm, proud of their 3rd place in the finals! Each participant received a Helix geometry set and a certificate of participation. Being in the top 3, the team also won a few extra prizes.

Below is a question from the Group Competition – perhaps you can do better than the team?

Q: Two adjacent pipes supply fresh water to a pond. The wider pipe will fill a container in 40 seconds and the thinner pipe will fill the same container in 1 minute. How many seconds would it take to fill this container when both pipes are used together? www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk Chasing the Pink Kangaroo The name may sound weird, but it was inspired by the Australian Mathematics Trust which generated the idea. Organised by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust (UKMT), the Pink Kangaroo is a mathematics paper created by European Kangaroo Foundation (based in Paris). Approximately 3 million school pupils across Europe take part in the Pink Kangaroo, but only 5,500 of those pupils are from Britain.

The pupils chosen to take part in the Pink Kangaroo were those with the best scores in the UKMT paper taken previously. Only three from Rodborough took part though: Nicole Browning from Year 10, and Olivia Nunn and Andrew Cameron from Year 11.

The paper is a one-hour long multiple-choice paper with 25 questions ranging in difficulty. The top 25% scorers were awarded a certificate of merit, while all others received a certificate of participation and a complimentary key fob.

We are pleased to announce that Andrew Cameron was awarded an esteemed certificate of merit – congratulations, Andrew!

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Young Apprentice Update

Reporter Miss Spencer

Phil completed his Young Apprenticeship in Sports Leadership and Management at Guildford Spectrum with Icon Training as part of his Key stage 4 programme. He did 1 day a week at the Spectrum and has done 50 additional days work experience as part of the programme. As well as the 4 GCSEs he has achieved from the YA, he has also earned the following qualifications as part of the programme: Sports Leaders UK Award Junior Football Organiser Award Phil receives his certificate at First Aid in Sport Award the prestigious awards CYQ Introductory Certificate in Exercise and Fitness ceremony NVQ L1 in Sport and Recreation More information and photos at www.learningandskillsawards.co.uk Phil was nominated for Young Apprentice of the Year in light of his Young Apprentice consistent hard work on the programme and his refusal to let his of the Year special needs and dyslexia hamper his progress. Icon were impressed that he never once sought special consideration or extensions to any deadlines but always submitted work in full and on time.

Congratulations also to the other students on the YA Programme who have done fantastically well: David Terry, Jack Noke and Felix Onabanjo achieved Merit overall which is the equivalent of 4 GCSEs at grade B. Aaron Hibberd, Liam Davies, Sammy McPherson and Jordan Massey all passed their YA and so achieved 4 GCSEs at grade C.

VRQ Beauty level 1

All five Rodborough students have successfully completed their vocational Beauty Qualification. In addition to the qualification, Shez was awarded a certificate for Best Facial, Katie for best manicure, and Imogen for the best portfolio throughout the course. Well done to Abby and Izzy too for their achievements throughout the 2 years.

Shez receives her certificates

NVQ Level 1 Hairdressing

Working as part of the Federation and Inter Training Services (ITS), Sophie Lyall, Hollie Gravestock, Louise Sacha and Helena Essex have all completed their hairdressing qualification to an extremely high standard in local salons. They have benefited hugely from the experience and will continue to put it to good use in the future as they continue their studies.

YA Motor Vehicle Studies Motor Vehicle Lawrence Thompson and Kiaya Young have successfully Apprenticeship completed this course and gained valuable skills, as well as Graduates already excellent qualifications.

They have had to complete an in demand by additional 50 days work experience to gain their apprenticeship, Rodborough Staff! worth 4 GCSE grades, and have learned a great many useful skills. They are in demand from staff at Rodborough to help with their car gremlins!

Building Crafts

Adam Marshall, Tirone Harvey and Abi Martin have successfully completed the Level 1 Building Crafts course at Guildford College. The three main elements are of this course are: brick laying, painting and decorating, and woodwork. They have done extremely well and gained high quality results on the course, as well as developing some very useful life skills.

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Business, Media and Childcare at Godalming

Successful students pose with their certificates

As part of their Key Stage 4 programme, Cameron Sullivan and Mylz Furlong Walker have taken a BTEC Business qualification at Godalming College for their vocational day. They have been rewarded with excellent achievements with Cameron gaining Distinction grade overall (equivalent to four Grade A GCSEs) and Mylz gaining Merit (four Grade Bs). Natalie Nichols, Brad Hayes and Ben Blake have done the BTEC in Media and have achieved outstanding results. We await final confirmation of the levels of grading. Namood Malik studied the CACHE Foundation Award in Caring for Children and passed it with merit.

Music Exam Success Congratulations to Mark Evison, Year 10, who recently passed his Grade 8 Drums Exam with a Merit. This is a terrific achievement – well done Mark!

We wish all our Young Apprentices every success for the future.

What are Rôle Models?

Article by Sara Ayerman Year 9 When you think of rôle models, what do you think of? I immediately think of celebrities. I think of Cheryl Cole and David Beckham.

But the more I think about it, the more I realise that they are just ordinary people who I only know about because I watch TV and read magazines.

Think of it this way. If you didn‟t have a TV or you couldn‟t read, then you wouldn‟t know what Cheryl Cole was wearing or how many goals David Beckham had scored.

You would still, however, experience the difference that true rôle models like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King had made in the way we live our lives. It‟s been over 40 years since Martin Luther King died and his actions are still making a difference. The world knows what he did and the world is different because of his actions. This doesn‟t mean that I don‟t love David Beckham or watch football just because of him! But if, in 40 years, you asked me who David Beckham was and what he had achieved I probably wouldn‟t remember him!

There‟s a 12 year old girl in India called Rekha Kalindi who is making a difference right now. She‟s the same age or younger than most of us at Rodborough and she is leading the child bridge revolt, a campaign to stop Indian fathers selling their daughters to be married. At 12 years old, she has spoken to the Prime Minister and has changed and influenced a lot of people‟s lives in India. Shouldn‟t she be a rôle model?

We‟re all human and I guess that‟s our saving grace but, if we‟re having a bad day and we‟re not the best company to be around, we easily snap at our friends or might deliberately ignore someone just because they‟re different to us. We need rôle models who will help us remember the value of friends and difference. Just think of all the people in the world who have changed the world for the better.

Photograph courtesy The Sunday Times 26 April ’09 They are good people and we could try to be like them.

Like any other girl I would love to look like Cheryl Cole. But when I think of all the people in the world with disabilities or terminal illnesses, I realise that I would rather stay as I am but have the courage and selflessness that Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela showed.

You can read more about Rekha‟s campaign at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6168942.ece

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Memorial Garden – Grand Opening

Reporter Mrs S Flew On Tuesday 23 June, we held a small garden party in the glorious June sunshine to celebrate the Grand Opening of the Remembrance Garden.

The garden was formally opened by World War II veteran, Al Cunningham, who is the National President Secretary of the Canadian Veterans of the UK. Mr Cunnigham passed through Witley Camp at the end of WW2 when it was acting as a holding camp for soldiers before they could be shipped back to Canada.

Many thanks to all of the local people, companies and trusts that funded the landscaping costs for the garden: Peter Martin (local County Councillor), the Ratcliffe Charitable Trust, the Sarah Marshall Charitable Trust, the Surrey Gardens Trust, Emery and Orchard, Witley Parish Council and Godalming Town Council. We hope that you enjoyed the special Heritage Edition of the Chronicles that accompanied the opening.

Pupils and helpers have transformed this area from the eyesore on the left to the uplifting garden on the right.

Rodborough‟s three week exhibition at Godalming Museum also proved very popular, particularly with previous pupils from the old Rodborough Hill (temporary) School of the 1950‟s.

Artifacts and pupils’ work on display at Godalming Museum

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Year 10s Storm Berlin

Reporter Lauren Cole 3am on 7 of April, and a coach load of excited Year 10 History and Philosophy & Ethics students were waiting to head off to Berlin to learn about Nazi Germany. 6 hours later, we arrived at Berlin Schonefeld Airport, met our tour guides, Ian and Mike, and began our full day‟s tour. th

The first stop of the day was the German parliament building, the Reichstag, followed by the Brandenburg gate, the Soviet War Memorial, the Holocaust memorial and many other interesting historical places.

The tour guides were able to give us endless information about everything that we visited or drove past whether or not it was related to the tour. We were shown Hotel Adlon where Michael Jackson dangled his baby from the window and were told that markets held on the banks of the river Spree is where the phrase „shopping spree‟ originates! The weather in Berlin was a lot warmer than we‟d had in England, so many of us came unprepared and ended up getting sunburnt. At around 5 o‟clock that evening, we briefly paused at our hotel for dinner before an evening out at a nearby bowling alley.

The next day saw another early start, leaving the hotel by 9 o‟clock. Some of the boys nearly got left behind because they forgot to change their watches to German time! Our first stop that day was the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, where we spent a very emotional but interesting three hours. Standing outside the barracks, where the inmates would have had to stand to attention for hours every morning, we all found ourselves fidgeting, giving us just a tiny insight into their suffering. After that, we drove through Berlin to the outstanding Olympic Stadium, built on Hitler‟s orders for the 1936 Olympics and used for the 2006 Football World Cup. Our final stop of the day was the Bendlerblock, which was where Count von Stauffenberg was executed for attempting to assassinate Hitler. This story has recently been made into a film, „Valkyrie‟, some of the scenes from which were filmed at the Bendlerblock.

That evening we were allowed free time to go shopping and explore the city centre before returning to our hotel to watch a film.

We’d like to thank Miss Sarell, Miss Stirling, Mrs Ebert and Mr Armstrong-Harris for organising the trip and letting us have an amazing and thoughtprovoking time!

On our final day in Berlin we saw the remainder of the Berlin wall and found it ironic that it was being restored as the Germans had tried so hard to get it knocked down.

On our way to the Jewish museum, we saw the famous Checkpoint Charlie and some of the graffiti on the wall. Our last stop that day was the grand Treptower Park Soviet memorial, but most of us were so tired, it was an effort to walk round it! When we arrived back at school early on Good Friday morning, we were all extremely tired but had enjoyed every minute of the trip.

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Students learn from BBC Journalist

Reporter Mr R Honeysett

BBC journalist, Roger Hearing, visited Rodborough last term to speak to a large group of Year 9 students about his experiences in journalism. He spoke to the students, during an English lesson, about his time reporting global events such as the Gulf War, the genocide in Rwanda and the civil war in Angola.

The Year 9 students were encouraged to consider the risks that being a front-line journalist involves as well as discussing the ethics of what should be reported in the national news.

800,000 people were killed in Rwanda’s genocide in 100 days

Year 9 Campaigns Competition

Photo courtesy bbc.co.uk

Congratulations to Michael Evison, George Edwards, Patten Smith and Matthew Bradbury who won the recent Year 9 Campaigns Competition. Their campaign was aimed at raising awareness of the plight of local village shops as supermarkets destroy their trade. To win the competition, the boys created leaflets, interviewed members of the community, created a website and started an online petition.

Well done to all of the groups who competed for the top prize.

Reporter Catriona Campbell An Inspector Calls On April 21, two coaches full of Year 10 English students went to see a production of J.B Priestley’s classic thriller, ‘An Inspector Calls,’ a play that they had been studying in class.

The play revolves around the Birling family, an uppermiddle class family in 1912, having a celebratory dinner when they are interrupted by an Inspector investigating a suicide. The play, which is very symbolic in script form, was staged very cleverly. The auditorium appeared to be split into three time zones: the house of the main characters was set in 1912, the time that the play was set. The area of stage around the house was set in 1945, the time that the play was first performed and the audience, the focus for the Inspector’s final speech, were those watching the play on the night. The production opened with a clever rain effect coming down as the curtain rose, revealing the family completely enclosed in a house so you could only hear the characters, rather than see them. As the play continued, this house opened and its contents gradually spilled out onto the surrounding stage reflecting their downfall.

Seeing the live performance was helpful for our coursework essays as we were able to draw comparisons between the live version of the play, the original script and the 1954 film version.

Photograph courtesy aninspectorcalls.com

Much Ado about Nothing

Reporter Venetia Cook Last term we studied William Shakespeare‟s play, Much Ado About Nothing, and, at the end of term, we were offered the opportunity to see it live at Regent‟s Park Open Air Theatre.

We left school at 5.30pm and set off for London, but were delayed by traffic, so ended up having to run through Regent‟s Park – fortunately the theatre management held up the performance especially for us!

When the play started, we discovered the comedy behind the witty lines and the extravagant plot. From Hero losing consciousness and being portrayed as dead, to Sexton‟s amusing monologues, this crowd-pleasing play had us all in hysterics. It was a very amusing, eventful night, and on behalf of everyone who went, I would like to thank Mrs. Kemp who organised it for us.

Photograph courtesy openairtheatre.org

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Spelling Bee – Feel the Buzz

Reporter James Knatt

We could certainly feel the buzz as we entered the Southampton Odeon for the semifinals of the Times Spelling Bee. After all, we‟d been practising hard for weeks and we‟d soon find out if our efforts had paid off.

The Rodborough Team consisted of: Player A: James Knatt Player B: Mellisa Kennett Player C: Orlagh Anderson and Reserve: Hannah Hayler

Next, it was the Popcorn Break and, after we‟d eaten ours, we headed back into the auditorium for the final round of the contest. The QuickFire Challenge is a 2-minute round where the team has to spell as many words as possible from a chosen difficulty level.

After all the schools (ten from Harder words are worth more points but take around the region) had arrived, we were longer to spell, and therefore this round is all certainly of a nervous disposition, but we knew about tactical teamwork to triumph.* the basic format of the contest from a previous heat (where we had beaten five other schools). * The team accept no responsibility for twisted tongues caused by this alliteration.

The Spelling Bee has three main events: the Spelling Play-Off, the Popcorn Break, and the Quick-Fire Challenge. Each tested our abilities in a different way (well, maybe the popcorn wasn‟t necessarily spelling-orientated, but it was brain food).

The Spelling Play-Off involves all three team members. Ten desks are lined up at the front of the cinema, and the „Spellmaster‟ gives player A from each team a word, then the player B and then the Cs. If you misspell your word, you leave the front of the cinema at the end of your round. However, if you spell it correctly, you gain a point for your team. At the end of the round, Bishop‟s Wordsworth School had two players from its own team tying with each other. They continued to gain points until one of their team was out and, consequently, they had the most points in the first round by far.

Why not challenge your friends and family to a spelling tournament?

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However, even though we tried hard in the second round, Bishop Wordsworth‟s Grammar School (from Salisbury) were still ahead due to their early lead and, consequently, they beat us to it, earning 75 points. Also Bishopsgate (a private school from Egham) just nosed ahead of us with 57 points. Unfortunately, Rodborough ended up with 3rd place, with 53 points, but it was a great experience and we had definitely learnt new skills and improved our spelling.

The team would like to thank Mrs Kemp for organising the event, providing travel to and from both heats and helping the team in practice.

If you want to be in the team next year, or you just want to improve your skills, head along to the Spelling Bee website at: www.timesspellingbee.co.uk where you will find many interactive games and activities to test your spelling.

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Shadowing the Carnegie Medal

Reporters Annie Simons & Katie Baxter Year 7 The Carnegie Book Awards shortlist the best books written in the past year for teenagers and children. Usually six to eight books are short listed. Pupils from around the country evaluate the books against the Carnegie medal criteria and vote for their favourites. The votes are added together to find the overall shadowing winner (The Knife of Never Letting Go). During the same time frame, a panel of Children‟s Librarians read the short list and confer before awarding the acclaimed Carnegie Medal to their favourite (Bog Child).

As well as choosing the most outstanding book (Cosmic), the Rodborough team had a quiz competition against our fellow Waverley Federation Schools: Broadwater, Woolmer Hill and Glebelands. The quiz, for the Waverley Federation Cup, included buzzer rounds, tableaux and making model rounds. Rodborough came second to Glebelands by a single point.

The event was rounded off by an opportunity to meet and mix with the other teams over a slice of Carnegie Cake and strawberries.

Thank you, Mrs Crocker, for awarding the Waverley Federation Cup and to Mrs Howick and Mrs Simmons for organising the day.

The 7 books shortlisted this year were: Cosmic- Frank Cottrell Boyce Black Rabbit Summer –Kevin Brooks Liam Digby is a year seven boy but has Five friends decide to meet up one a habit of being mistaken for an last time and go to a fair. What adult. The beard doesn‟t help. started off as a fun reunion turns into When he wins a „Best Dad‟ a sinister evening as murder and competition he gets the chance to go disappearances commence. Pete is to the world‟s best theme park – still determined to find out where pretending to be his best friend‟s dad…

Raymond has disappeared to but not everyone wants to help him…

Bog Child- Siobhan Dowd Airman-Eoin Colfer Whilst collecting turf, Fergus and his Connor dreams of flying but when he uncle find a dead body of a girl who is charged with the King‟s murder he appears to be 2,000 years old. is sent to prison and has little hope Meanwhile, Fergus‟s brother goes on of getting out alive. When he hears hunger strike and Fergus wonders that Princess Isabella is in danger he whether he should join the IRA too… knows he must try to escape…

Ostrich Boys- Keith Gray The Knife of Never Letting Go- Patrick Ness A group of three friends: Kenny, Todd is the last boy in his town.

Sim and Blake are devastated by He lives in a world where everyone‟s their best friend Ross‟s death. They thoughts can be heard – in a decided to steal his ashes and hold cacophony of never ending noise. their own funeral for him…

One day, impossibly, he finds a hole in the noise. He knows he must run for his life…

Creature of the night –Kate Thompson Bobby lived happily in Dublin, The range of books was fantastic this year and smoking, stealing cars and joy riding all the shadowers really enjoyed reading them. with his mates. He doesn‟t want to If you fancy joining a reading group next term, move to the country. Then they find then see Mrs Kemp. there has been a murder and disappearance in their rented house…

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Reporter Theo Puddephatt Year 8

William Nicholson Trip

In May a group of Years 7 & 8 pupils joined groups from Glebelands and Godalming Junior School at Broadwater to see William Nicholson, well known screen and book writer, talk about his books and his career.

We arrived at Broadwater at 2.00pm and assembled in the hall. Then William told us about his books and how he became an author.

He explained that he started writing books as a child but only started making a living from writing when he reached his late thirties. He told us that as well as writing novels for all ages, he also writes film scripts and has even co-wrote the block-busting film, Gladiator.

He then told us all about his books. One of them, The Wind Singer, is set in a country where everything is dependent upon exams.

Where you live, what clothes you wear, how rich you are, what job you have and everything else is all decided by the results of your annual exams. Children start taking these exams at the age of four and the entire family can be influenced by a poor result. William wrote this series because of his fears for the way pupils have to take so many exams in our education system!

William Nicholson signs autographs for his fans

We then had the opportunity to ask questions. He told us that if you really want something and if you work hard for it, then you will probably get it. He also told us the key to being good at English: read lots of books!

We then had the opportunity to buy a book and get it signed or get his autograph on a piece of paper. We then had to head back to school and arrived at Rodborough at 3.40pm.

I am sure everyone who went to see William Nicholson was inspired and found it very entertaining.

Thank you to Mrs Goldsmith, at Broadwater, for organising the event, to Mrs Bullen for driving us and to Mrs Howick for taking us.

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Mini-Saga Competition

Reporter Mr Honeysett

The response to the recent Year 7 mini-saga competition has been outstanding.

Nearly two hundred entries have been logged on the school website making the English Department‟s job of judging the best entries very difficult!

A mini-saga must contain fifty words exactly yet must otherwise follow all other conventions of a story – not easy!

I placed the suitcase next to him. The bomb; soulfully ticking away, undisturbed. The bunker; with its penetrating lights and a table full of destructive plans. I gazed at him; he had singlehandedly ripped Europe apart along with its people and a whole entire race, soon he would be dead.

Sian Hine

1st

Chuck the caterpillar climbed cautiously up the tree escaping the frog lurking below in the early morning mist. It stretched out his everlasting tongue to get a taste of the caterpillar's succulent cold-blooded body, failing as it gradually moved out of his tongue's grasp. Chuck's escape was over, for now.

Lauren Jordan "Mum I'm really bored what shall I do?" moaned Freddie.

"Why don't you go and clean up the cellar?" answered mum.

"Fine!"

Suddenly, from behind the bookshelf "Thud!"

3rd "Mum what was that noise?" shouted Freddie.

No answer.

"Thud!" There it was again.

"MUM!" Freddie squealed.

Freddie's boredom was now over.

Tom Preston I gripped the wheel, twisting it until it locked. I smelt burning 4th rubber as the tyres struggled to grip the tarmac, almost tipping the car as it turned the corner. I could still hear the sirens behind me. I shifted the gear into third but lost control, the car rolled...

Sam Waterfall 2nd

The forest was still, and the leaves lay unmoving and scattered across the forest floor. Then a cry came from their woody mouths, and flames of blue and white ate at their branched hands. A man came, his eyes life-less and dead, his steps silent, Jack Frost. Winter had come.

Caleb Rowan 6th

5th

Today the currents were forceful. I moved though the water‟s ripples so freely under the ocean‟s surface. The smell of the salt pleased me. Here I was again, the place I yearned to be, away from every other world. I was where my heart belongs and where I consider home.

Portia Nunn

The man stood on the spot, gazing down at the sea. The sun was th setting behind the horizon, illuminating the man with a magical 7 orange light. A second man climbed over the cliff edge and stood there. “What are we going to do?” he asked.

“We wait,” replied his friend.

James O‟Donnell Well done to all of you who took part.

We decided that these seven entries were the best!

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Jazz Band take Austria by storm

Reporter Tom Simons Year 9

Rodborough Jazz Band and her arch nemesis Woolmer Hill recently teamed up to form a Colossus Band to tour Salzburg in Austria.

We departed at 11:30 Monday 25/5/09 from Woolmer Hill.

Unfortunately, our good spirits were short lived as we were next subjected to a gruelling 25 hour coach drive to Austria.

It perhaps would have been close to bearable had the air conditioning not been broken! Despite the suffocating heat and dangerously low levels of oxygen we managed to get to know and befriend our opposite numbers from Woolmer Hill.

The hotel was very agreeable. It had a very nice swimming pool, and a number of us tried to swim every day despite the subzero arctic temperatures.

We had to get up early the next day for our trip to the salt mines where we had a guided tour. We then proceeded to a boat cruise down one of Austriaâ€&#x;s beautiful mountain lakes.

After that we played our first gig on foreign soil. Woolmer hill played first, setting the scene for Rodborough.

We played some of our favourite pieces including Superstitious, Chameleon, Green Onions and The Chicken. We also accompanied the amazing Miss Moyler who sang Jazz Fever and Stand by me. Next day we spent the morning on a very enlightening walking tour around Salzburg city.

Everything seemed to have something to do with Mozart! We played our next gig in the Mirabell Gardens in the shadows of the University of Mozart! That day we had our largest crowd of the week.

On our final day, we started by visiting the amazing ice caves which, for many of us, was the highlight of the tour. The caves, at an altitude of 1700 metres above sea level, gouged kilometres into the mountain. It was, quite literally, a subterranean glacier! We were stunned by the amazing natural ice sculptures, stalagmites, stalactites and columns.

The Castle Hohenwerfen was next on our sightseeing trip. We saw all the aspects of a medieval castle before playing our final gig at St Gilgens band stand, where God showed his appreciation by giving us thunderclaps in time to the music. No need for mere mortals we had the divine drummer!

We would all like to thank Mrs Yeadon, Miss Moyler and Mr Nash for organising the tour for us.

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Leavers‟ Ball 2009 The sun shone and the limos gleamed as our Class of 2009 returned for their Prom. The evening was a huge success – leavers arrived in a wide variety of modes of transport ranging from a building site dumper to a fabulous fairytale horse-drawn carriage!

Everyone looked fantastic in DJs and prom dresses, and the evening was rounded off by an impressive fireworks display.

Professional photographer, Jennifer Scott, was on hand to record the event. Photos may be purchased from http://www.jenniferscottphotography.co.uk/rodborough until 9 August 2009.

Here are some of our own photos of the evening…

Ice Cream Vans were a popular choice this year!

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We‟re Going on a Bug Hunt…

Reporters Sophie Hackett Ramsay & Billie Shail Our class, 7U, went on a bug hunt in the outdoor classroom and found lots of amazing creatures like woodlice and mosquitoes.

One of the mosquitoes was on Mrs Carruthers‟ hand and it was biting her!

When we looked at the creatures under a magnifying glass we could see that they had loads of amazing colours.

We could also what types of habitats they live in.

Other people in my class found centipedes and spiders.

We spent the next couple of lessons finding out about the creatures we had found and creating posters to let people know about them.

Reporters Megan Merrett-Jones & Zoe Sankey Able Linguist Day A dozen pupils from Year 8 had the chance to visit Portsmouth University to take part in an Able Linguist Morning. This involved a number of French activities including pairing up films and TV channels into French genres and a game designed to get us to know each other where we threw a ball from one person to another and the catcher telling the group something about themselves in French.

During our break we had to ask for our food in French before moving on to our next activity.

We watched an advertisement for a Clio in French and answered some questions about the advert.

Our final activity was to create a poster for a Clio to target a younger age group.

We then had to present to the rest of the group.

With the workshops behind us we left the university and headed for the beach where we ate our picnic lunch before returning to school.

We had a brilliant day and learnt a number of things we didn‟t know before our trip.

Reporters Rheanne Burgess & Melissa Kennett We entered the Portsmouth University and were introduced to a man who gave us French Flag stickers. We were then taken to a classroom with groups from different schools and were set a challenge to translate some French instructions. After we had translated them we found that they were instructions to make a pom-pom and we had to carefully follow them to make one.

We were then allowed a break where we had to ask for food and drink in French. After break we watched a power-point presentation, which gave us some information for a „fill out the gap‟ worksheet which we all completed well.

Finally, we went to a huge lecture theatre and were given some University and College packs which included a highlighter, pen, „post its‟ and a college information booklet. We had a nice walk down to the beach and had lunch with the seagulls and watched the Hovercraft going to and from the Isle of Wight.

Overall, it was a good experience for all of us and we had lots of fun.

Thank you to the teachers who organised the trip for us.

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Team Rodborough show their mettle

Reporter Mrs V Raeside Rodborough Young Scientists from Year 9 took part in the BP challenge at BP‟s Sunbury Business Park. This year, helped by a BP graduate, our team was tasked to construct a wind turbine to generate as much electricity as possible. They were competing against 20 other schools from both private and state sectors. After many designs were considered and rejected, the final version of Team Rodborough‟s turbine was constructed from three paper cups with the generator attached to the top. The turbine was powered by four large cardboard windmill sails, angled to collect the wind. The problem of stability was finally solved, after various trails in front of the fan, by adding four long struts to the back to prevent toppling.

Each team needed to use their „budget‟ wisely.

Patten commented, “We had a Rodborough spent almost their entire budget on brilliant day. I was worried that our the materials needed to construct the turbine turbine might disintegrate again but leaving very little for modifications. Drawn to it was fine.” present last, Team Rodborough made the most of their extra time and, whilst watching the twenty other teams try their designs in the final competition, more modifications were added.

Eventually it was Team Rodborough‟s turn to Tom added, “It felt really good to present. Their turbine raced into action, generating have beaten so many other schools – the most electricity of all the designs so far, to especially the private ones!” make Team Rodborough victors!

Well done to you all!

Reporter Tom Simons In June six Year 9 students: Luke Hanley, Annabelle Ford, Mathew Bradbery, Patten Smith, Amy Fifield and Tom Simons, left school to travel to the Sunbury Headquarters of BP Energy Company.

On arrival at BP, the young scientists were briefed on what they had to do. The challenge was to buy materials within a limited budget to construct a wind turbine capable of standing up to a very powerful fan, without collapsing. The catch was that it was a competition against 22 other schools. The aim was to create the highest volts for the least amount of money.

At first, things weren‟t looking good for Team Rodborough. Whilst other teams were half way through the construction phase of their turbines, we were still designing ours!

But Team Rodborough fought back with a valiant effort and soon created a fantastic turbine.

Unfortunately, under test, the blades fell off! We did not give up, however, devising a new method for reattachment. Closer inspection revealed that we‟d put them on back to front! In the final seconds remaining, Hanley managed to reattach the blades to “Old Faithful” and Simons added his own bit of sneaky tinkering en-route to the Judging! Old Faithful was then subjected to gruelling gale force winds, but, against all odds, she managed to pull through winning the trophy for Rodborough!

We would all like to thank Miss Winn and Mrs Raeside for taking us to the competition and BP for organising the competition, feeding us and looking after us so well.

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Woman in Black

Reporter Emma Stanley-Clegg Year 10

In March, 40 excited drama students entered the Fortune Theatre and took their seats in front of the dark, empty stage.

After hearing an introduction, from the understudy of Kipps outside the theatre, the students were even more anxious to see this much spoken about play.

Throughout the production, screams and gasps were heard from all the audience as the horrific haunting of the Woman in Black terrified them to cowering wrecks in the seats.

The Woman in Black is an unusual horror/thriller story, recounting the tale of the disturbed Mr Kipps who, in trying to release his burden of fear, goes to an Actor and together they re-tell his bonechilling story. The horrific sunken, pale eyes of the Woman in Black are enough to make anyone cringe. Her habit of appearing and disappearing in a flash, the sudden black outs and unexplained screams, thumps and whistles create an atmosphere of icy cold fear.

Everyone who saw it, regardless of whether they found it utterly terrifying, couldn‟t deny that it was utterly amazing: the number of useful techniques used and the sheer brilliance of the actors and technicians who created the thoroughly intense atmosphere were amazing!

This thrilling tale is a must see, and certainly will stay with all the GCSE drama students who saw it. In fact, it probably kept most of us up with nightmares for a good few nights afterwards!

Photograph courtesy thewomaninblack.com

Golf Prowess

Reporter Emma Stanley-Clegg

Milford Golf Club held its Club Championship in June. There were over 80 contestants, mostly adults.

Despite this stiff competition, Sam Lemon, Year 10, came in second place, winning £30 and having “a very good time”.

On the first day of the competition, he cleared the 18 hole course in „5 over par‟ (for those who don‟t talk golf, that‟s 74 shots) and on the second day he played even better with „even par‟ (69 shots).

For a 14 year old boy who‟s only been playing golf seriously for 3 years, this is a great achievement. What‟s even more exciting is that Sam will be playing in a National Event on July 30th this year. “I‟ll be practising hard at the golf course,” Sam told me modestly.

We look forward to hearing how you got on, Sam, and wish you the best of luck!

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Aberdare 2009

Reporter Grayson Blom Year 10 The Wales trip, 2009, was a week greatly enjoyed by all. From the long walks on the beach to the gale force winds felt atop the cliffs, there was little we could not say about the beauty of it all.

The bus trip was very wet, long and winding and, crossing the border between England and Wales, all were glad to get off the bus and check out our rooms. We then got ready for our first walk of the trip and were amazed to find the rain had ceased and that the sun was attempting to shine on us!

Our first walk took us through Aberdare Country Park, past disbanded coalmining areas and up The Darren, our local corrie, cliff and nesting site for Peregrine Falcons.

Down again from The Darren it was time to sample our first Welsh dinner and unpack and get ready to go bowling whilst most of the girls made their way to their alternative Our first walk through the Country Park accommodation 15 minutes away.

The following days were spent learning about glaciation and coastal features, gazing at the beautiful scenery and walking. Always walking! The weather was unbelievable – saving rain for when we were indoors! The highlight of our evenings was our trip to the largest indoor climbing wall in Europe at Trelewis. It was a brilliant trip and one that I will remember for a long time.

Thanks to all the staff who took us!

Geography is such hard work!

Studying beaches is Geography, too!

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Yes, we really are doing maths up in the mountains!

Bad hair day!

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Activities Week 2009 Year 10s‟ week centred on the world of work. On Monday members of the Armed Services challenged them with activities designed to encourage team work. On Tuesday these skills were put to the test, with students grouped into „manufacturing companies‟.

The day was spent brokering deals for purchasing raw materials, designing prototypes, entering into manufacturing contracts with the buyers, checking quality of their end products and competitively banking as much money as possible!

The week in photos Planning a product

The companies at work

Best Presentation

Most profitable team Year 9 traditionally break free from the curriculum for one last fling before the rigors of the GCSE syllabus. They could either spend the week at Calshot Activitiy Centre or choose from a basket of daily activities including a High Ropes course, Skiing, Fishing, Climbing and Art. Their week culminated in a walk and picnic, dodging the showers, on Friday.

Years 7 and 8 had many opportunities to extend their learning, with the luxury of spending an entire day concentrating on a single activity. Examples included practicing their French during a visit to Le Touquet on their day trip to France, turning their hand to textiles, and bringing

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Tudor times to life at the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth. Year 8s were equally busy: honing their map reading skills during their orienteering day at Queen Elizabeth Country Park, terrifying the tigers at Marwell Zoo, firing rockets and saving eggs on the field.

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Green Notes Eco Week

An Eco-Update from Mr Ewing

The whole school turned green for the week!

Well, we‟ve done it again! Another Eco Week at Rodborough has come and gone, and more students than ever before have taken part in special eco activities. Departments across the school have laid on eco lesson after eco lesson. In each year group every student has had the opportunity to take part in a special Eco Week activity. The week culminated in the Thursday afternoon sponsored event which has raised over £7000 towards improving the school environment for all of us here at Rodborough. Here are some of our Eco Week highlights: Year 7 cycling day broke all records for the number of students cycling. Over 50 Year 7s took part in the lunchtime cyclists‟ picnic and every child who brought a bike to school spent one lesson during the day receiving some professional cycle training.

Year 8 investigated the micro environments of our school site – checking bio-diversity on the Year 7 lawn, gathering bugs in the woodland classroom and measuring the leaves on nettles.

Why does it always have to be the stingy plants that respond most to light and shade?

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Year 10 were treated to an extended recycling assembly

featuring the undoubted musical talents of the Rodborough recycled band – Mr. Perry, Harvey, Ollie and Johnny. They raised a huge cheer with a fantastic rendition of that traditional recycling song “Because I‟m polystyrene I can‟t be recycled blues”. It was a real tearjerker of a song about a Starbucks coffee cup that ends up in a bin full of rubbish and can‟t come back again as something useful because it can‟t be recycled. Poignant and soulful were two words that sprung to mind!

(We notice that the Starbucks cup in this picture is paper – hurrah!)

Sponsored Event Then came the climax of the week. The whole school took part in a sponsored event to raise money for school environmental projects. From aerobics to basketball, walking to cycling, skateboarding to rounders…. Students and staff threw themselves into their activities with boundless energy and everyone had a good time.

Many activities were run by Year 10s, ensuring that the afternoon ran like clockwork.

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And we raised over £7000 in the process! The students are already working on deciding where the money will be spent. There are a number of projects they want to consider such as: improving the area adjacent to our bus shelter, providing more recycling points around the school, planting more mature shrubs and trees around school….. and that‟s just for starters!

Marshall captured the event in this cartoon …

We also received some excellent and unexpected news when Robert Page contacted strawberry growers, the Hall Hunter Partnership from Tuesley Farm, to ask for strawberries for our traditional Sports Day fundraising Strawberries and Cream event. Hall Hunter not only agreed to donate the delicious fruit – for which we say as big a thank you as always- but they also asked Robert what the The Senior Six sell money was strawberries, kindly for. donated by the Hall Hunter Partnership, to raise funds for site improvements

When Robert explained what we were raising money for he was delighted hear that Hall Hunter Partnership are also to send a cheque for an additional £1,000 towards our improvement project! Thank you SO MUCH!

It‟s not too late to send in additional sponsor money.

Just seal it in an envelope and pop it into the box in Reception.

Don‟t forget to include your sponsor form and to write your name on the envelope!

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Year 8 Rugby Triumph!

Reporter Hugh Brashaw Our hugely brilliant Year 8 rugby team was determined to carry our early season form into the second half of the rugby season.

Our first game of the second half of the season was against Howard of Effingham. In a tight and frustrating game, we prevailed with excellent performances from Tom Rathbone, Sean Burton, Max Onabanjo and Mat McConnell with the end result a close 10-0.

We then went to play away at St Peter‟s. On a pitch with a slope to rival Everest, we put in another strong performance wining a staggering 50-0. Excellent performances from Hugh Brashaw, Alex Kidder, Charlie Butterworth, Sam Gravestock, Ollie Whiteman and Torin Davis ensured this thrashing of St Peter‟s.

After wining our pool, we had a semi-final against Woking High, the team that beat us 7-5 last year in the final. On a warm day we were determined to win. The match kicked off and, after 20 minutes, it was 0-0 with some excellent forward play from Charlie Butterworth, Mat Wythe, Robbie Campbell and Harry Barney.

However, the opposition took the lead late in the first half with a lucky break from nowhere.

We couldn‟t leave this unstopped, so Tom Rathbone powered over the line from a penalty to equalize. In the second half Woking High scored a second try but, again, missed the conversion. Rising to the challenge once more, Tom Rathbone replied with his second try of SWSS Rugby Champions the match, with Torin Davis converting to put us ahead for the first time. In the dying minutes, Tom Hothersall caught his opposite number off guard and smashed the ball down the field. This was caught by Woking‟s full back but an excellent tackle from Hugh Brashaw stopped him from counter attacking and James Ward went over to score a last minute try, taking the score to a decisive 17-10 win.

After a long season every player had one ambition; to win in the final at Imber Court on Saturday 2nd May. On the day the sun shone bright with the finalists at either end, Rodborough and Sunbury Manor. The first ten minutes were the toughest of the season. Charlie Butterworth went off injured with a broken arm, followed by Alex Kiddier with a torn hamstring. Things were looking bleak. We had no choice but to grit our teeth, put our heads down and play through the heat and the pain. In the 15th minute, Sean Burton stood off a ruck and savaged his way through Sunbury‟s defence where he drew the last man and passed to Torin Davis who went through to score our first try. Torin then scored our first conversion, taking the score to 7-0. Five minutes later, Tom Rathbone went through off a penalty move and scored our second try in the corner. The score was now 12-0. In quick succession, Sean Burton scored a well deserved try with Torin Davis making a difficult conversion. The half time score was 19-0. The second half was totally different from the first. Sunbury Manor went over to score in the first minute. After that they attacked and attacked.

Our defence held fast with great tackles from Max Onabango, Torin Davis, George Tomes and Joe Ferguson. Despite the opposition having 90% of the possession our defence held strong. At full time the score was 19-5 with Rodborough winning the match. As Captain, Tom Holthersall, collected the trophy. Mr. Lee looked on proudly at the first ever Rodborough team to win the SWSS rugby tournament.

Huge congratulations to all the team: Tom Hothersall, Hugh Brashaw, Ollie Whiteman, Max Onabango, Joe Ferguson, Alex Kiddier, Sam Gravestock, George Tomes, Torin Davis, Harry Barney, Liam Cole, James Ward, Tom Rathbone, Matt Wythe, Robbie Campbell, Charlie Butterworth, George Dukes, Sean Burton Mat McConnell and, of course, Mr. Lee whose superb training and organisational skills help us through this epic season.

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Footnote from Mr Lee The South West Surrey Schools tournament was formed around six years ago to give a competitive league structure for the rugby playing state schools in the Guildford District. At that time this involved eight different schools. Within two years a parallel league was formed in the north of the County with playoffs involving the top two teams from each league. This brought the total number of schools involved to 18.

In its current format, this was the third final involving a Rodborough team but the first time we have left as champions. Congratulations to the boys - the final was full of grit, determination and total commitment from all 20 players involved on the day. Thanks also to the parents and supporters in the stand – lots of noise was the request and lots of noise was the response.

The running of this competition next year has been taken over by Surrey RFU and will be open to all State schools in the County making it an even bigger competition and therefore an even greater challenge.

And finally ‌ Good luck to the following boys who have been nominated for County Development Squad Trials in August: Year 7

Jack Wilson, Jesse Lewis

Year 9

Tom Simons, Will Johnson

Year 8

Sean Burton, Hugh Brashaw, Charlie Butterworth, Tom Rathbone

Athletics Success

Reporter Mr R Lee Congratulations to Annabel Ford and Bethan Hubbard, who set new school athletics records in the long jump and 1500m respectively at the Waverley Schools athletics trials at Charterhouse earlier this term. Consequently, both were selected to represent Waverley at the Surrey Schools Championship at Kingsmeadow Stadium on Sat 13th June.

Also selected were: Year 9 Tom Simons (discus), Will Butterfield (discus), Alex Bunney (shot) Year 10 Michael Jansen (200m) Year 11 Matthew Schouten (discus), Callum Stubbs (200m) The Surrey Championship is a very high standard event and notable performances were produced by Tom Simons (3 rd), Bethan Hubbard (4th), Michael Jansen (4th and a new school record), Annabel Ford (5th).

As a result of these performances Tom and Michael were both selected to represent Surrey at the Southern Counties competition in Southampton on Sat 20th June.

Tom in action at the Surrey Schools Championships

Images from Sports Day

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Cricket Round-up

Reporter Mr Farrell Rodborough‟s cricketers finished last season unbeaten with 18 wins out of 18 in the district league and cup. At the time of going to pres, they are on course to repeat the feat again this season.

Drawn in the district cup group stage against Woolmer Hill, Glebelands, Broadwater and Kings College, Rodborough have yet to suffer defeat in any year group. The overall effort, attitude, commitment and skill has been outstanding thus far.

The Year 7s have settled in well and are starting to gel into a good team. They are captained by Scott Tilson who has followed the family cricketing …unbeaten so far and rarely tradition. Scott also tops the runs scoring charts. He has troubled… been ably supported by the likes of Jesse Lewis, Jonah Lucas and Ben Starbuck, to name but a few.

Year 8s have gone from strength to strength.

District champions last year, they look set to reach the final again. Unbeaten so far and rarely troubled, captain Torin Davies has been racking up the runs along with his strike partner Sean Burton. Opposition wickets have been tumbling, 7 of which coming from Ollie Welch.

The Year 9 team were district champions too last season. They look set to reach the final again this year. The likes of captain George Dale, James Berry, Luke Thurley, Kieran and Greg Lyall are taking plenty of wickets between them.

The Year 10s continue to dominate their opponents in the district league. Captained by Chris Terry, their top scorer, they too look set to reach the final again this year.

The highlight of the season so far has been the progress and the performances of the Under 15 team. This team has been a combination of the best players from Years 9 & 10 playing together as one. They entered the County Cup for the first time and managed to negotiate a path into the quarter finals. Here, they were drawn against St.George‟s College from Weybridge. In cricketing terms, Rodborough are a big fish in a small pond so the opportunity to play an established private school was a welcome one.

The game was played on an immaculate wicket with superb facilities, something that the boys are not so used to in school matches. After losing the toss, Rodborough took to the field to start their bowling attack. Pace bowlers Grayson Blom and James Berry opened, followed by spinner Chris Terry and Kieran Lyall. It was Lyall who took the first wicket after an unbelievable catch from George Dale at mid-off. Terry then clean bowled the opening batsman. After 20 overs Rodborough had restricted the opposition to just 108 for 4. However, in the final five overs, St. George‟s College realised that they weren‟t scoring quickly enough, so they decided to hit out. They ended up making 54 from the final overs giving them a total of 162 for 8.

The team knew that if they could play their way in and patiently select the right balls to play, that 162 was reachable. The opposition bowling was … a test of character and bravery … fast and hostile. This would be a test of character and bravery. Grayson Blom decided the best form of defence was attack, smashing their opening bowler for a 6 before being caught behind for 16. Chris Terry and George Dale began to build a partnership. Rodborough‟s run rate was above the opposition at the halfway stage, they were on course to make the total. Then disaster struck! Dale was given out LBW with a decision that baffled everybody. Then Terry, on 48, was clean bowled by a toe-crunching Yorker. Rodborough began to wobble, the middle order collapsed and the team were on the ropes. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Upset at being placed lower down the order, Kieran Lyall took guard with a point to prove.

Requiring 10 runs an over for the final 7 overs, Kieran, partnered by Luke Thurley set about reaching the target. He flashed his bat and flashed hard at everything that came his way. His score of 19 not out was a gallant effort but just not enough to secure victory. The team finished 127 for 8, 35 runs short.

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The boys should feel proud of their effort and achievement. They gave St. George‟s College a run for their money. Our players have done Rodborough proud and have put us well and truly on the map. They are a credit to the school. … a delivery of such brilliance that Shane Warne We came close to a semi-final against would‟ve been proud of it …

Whitgift with an Under 15 team made up of only four Year 10s. The opposition coach was amazed that we had come so close to victory, despite playing with seven players who were an age group lower. It all bodes well for next year.

Under 15 Squad: Chris Terry, Ollie Phillips, Ryan Millis, George Norcliffe and Grayson Blom from Year 10. George Dale, James Berry, George Stow, Luke Thurley, Greg Lyall, Louis Stollard-Taylor and Kieran Lyall from Year 9.

Cricket Results 2009 Year 10 Year 7 Year 7 Under 15 Year 8

v v v v v

Broadwater Broadwater Woolmer Hill Heath End Woolmer Hill

Won Won Won Won Won

by by by by by

10 wickets 8 wickets 9 wickets 9 wickets 2 wickets

Year 9 Year 7

v v

Woolmer Hill Glebelands

Won by 3 wickets Won by 5 wickets

Under 15 Year 9 Year 10 Year 8 Year 8 Under 15

v v v v v v

Glebelands Glebelands Woolmer Hill Broadwater Glebelands St George‟s C

Won by 23 runs Won by 5 runs Won WH - unable to play Won by 10 wickets Won by 8 wickets Lost by 35 runs

… I was especially impressed by the exemplary manners and etiquette displayed by our boys …

More Sports Day Images

The Fun Run gets underway …

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Sports Co-ordinator‟s Report

Miss Horne This year has seen even more junior pupils coming to Rodborough to take part in the wide variety of events on offer for them here. They have enjoyed themselves enormously and have learned many new skills. All this has been made possible by the of our Rodborough students both through the JSLA programme and other volunteers. Our students have done us proud, displaying great leadership qualities and tremendous coaching and organisational skills.

I would like to take this opportunity of formally thanking ALL … hard work and dedication … the Rodborough students who have helped at any sporting events / festivals during the past year.

Infant Quick Cricket Back in April we had a number of KS1 students from St James and Busbridge Infant School come over to Rodborough for their Cricket Festival.

The cricket skills and activities were led by Year 11 Rodborough students.

All children had a fantastic afternoon and this culminated in a small game of the younger students versus Rodborough.

Lots of fun was had by all children involved.

Glebeland‟s Dance Show Ellie Cousins and Billie Freeman from Year 11 were invited to take part in the Glebeland‟s Dance Show where they performed their dance “Disturbia”.

They danced really well and did Rodborough proud.

Well Done Girls!!

Infant Football Festival 6 local infant schools attended our annual football festival on Thursday 11th June at Busbridge Infant School.

Our FA Development Officer, Steven Edwards, awarded every participating child with a certificate.

All the children tried really hard with some exceptional goal keeping and shooting taking place.

A number of Year 5 children from St Edmund‟s School helped with scoring, time keeping and refereeing and, despite this being their first experience at this tough job, they did really well.

The St James‟ team managed to win all their matches, so a special Well Done to them!

Sports Partnership Dance Competition.

Eight dancers from Year 10 travelled to Guildford University to perform their Dirty Dancing Medley in a new Sports Partnership Dance Competition.

This was the first Dance Competition we have entered and it was a very exciting but tough event. The dancers performed exceptionally well and really enjoyed this new dance Summer Rounders Festival experience.

A number of students from all years at Rodborough have been helping to teach Rounders at our local Junior Schools. They have been training the younger students, focusing on consistent batting skills and catching in the field in preparation for the Summer Rounders Festival.

6 teams entered the festival this year and what a lovely day it was! There were some closely fought matches with some exceptional fielding producing some close draws. One of the Chandler teams prevailed to become overall winners on the day. A big thank you to St Edmund‟s Year 6s who helped on the day.

Fun Friday A number of students from The Chandler School came over to Rodborough again on one of their Fun Fridays to use the facilities and try some different sports. They each had a session in the Tennis Centre and a session of Urban Rebounding during their enjoyable and successful afternoon.

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Years 8 and 9 FA Cup Challenge Following on from the success of the Years 10 and 11 FA Cup Challenge, it was decided to run a Years 8 and 9 FA Cup Challenge. Word quickly spread and over 10 teams entered. All the boys got really stuck in to this event and there were many spectators for every match.

The Year 9 team „Ben’s Faces’ were champions with the Year 8 „Wellards’ a well deserved 2nd.

Tag Rugby for Year 4 All members of The Chandler School‟s Year 4 came to Rodborough one afternoon to take part in Tag Rugby Skills and Drills. The afternoon ended with some small sided games which the children thoroughly enjoyed. We were really lucky to have 20 talented Godalming College students who joined us to help run the afternoon, so a big „thank you‟ to them.

Sports Partnership Biathlon for Years 7 & 8 Biathlon Debut A team of 16 athletes from Years 7 & 8 travelled to All Hallows School in Farnham for their first Biathlon event.

The Biathlon is a real test of stamina as the contestants first swim 100m then, following the fastest possible change into running shoes, run one mile.

All our athletes performed very well in this „new‟ sport and enjoyed the challenge. The girls, however, stole the glory with Year 7‟s Helena Sharp taking a well deserved third place in her age bracket as did Year 8‟s Katie Beckett. Molly Blagden, however, pulled out all the stops to win the Year 8 Girls title!

The boys after their run

Molly (also swimming) & Katie jump out of the pool and into their running shoes Congratulations to all the pupils who took part in this event.

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Sports Co-ordinator‟s Report continued

Miss Horne

Big Lottery Funded Activities

A number of our new sporting activities are made possible by the Big Lottery Fund and are designed to get more kids interested in sports.

Urban Rebounding

Many Year 7 pupils are enjoying a block of Urban Rebounding. This fun activity, endorsed by NASA, is a great way to bounce yourself fit!

Golf

Thanks to funding from the Big Lottery Fund, we have been able to forge links with Milford Golf Club and send a small group of Years 8 & 9 students for weekly sessions with their professional, Dave Creamer. The group are thriving from the top quality coaching and have made great improvements in all aspects of their game. At the end of this term, the top student will be rewarded with a free summer membership.

Girls‟ Cricket

Our first girls‟ cricket match was played here at Rodborough against Broadwater in early June.

Teams were from mixed years and a short overs match was played. All the girls rose to the challenge, with Katherine Sharp batting for around 8 overs before passing the bat to her younger sister, Helena. The exciting match was nail-bitingly close with our girls losing by a single run!

House Cricket

Our first House Cricket event was for Year 8 and the event was held indoors with the help of our community cricket coach Kim Price. There was a very good turn out and some close matches. 8HK were the victors in this closely fought competition.

Year 8 District Rounders

The Year 7 Rounders team worked really hard and has improved enormously since last year. Their hard training working up to the District Championship paid off. They played exceptionally well on the day, working their way up the table and only to lose by a single rounder!

Special congratulations are due to Molly Field and Alice Ball who were jointly chosen as Players of the tournament.

Indoor Athletics Champions

The Year 8 Indoor Athletics Team competed against 5 other local Secondary schools in the Sports Partnership Competition. They won easily with top performances in many events to take the title Indoor Athletics Champions 2009 – well done to you all!

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Playground to Podium

Reporter Owen Morgan Year 7 For the last couple of weeks, Owen Morgan (7LM) - me, Oliver Bartlett-Scott (7LE) and Joshua Smith (7LM), have been participating in 'Playground to Podium', a scheme designed to find and promote talent in disabled students in England. Josh and I have Muscular Dystrophy and Oli has Cerebral Palsy, so we went along with Miss Smith, Mrs Furlong and Mrs Lukaszewicz.

The first event was on 11th March and we went to Godalming College but it wasn't very good because they were just testing our skills. After this I went to a swimming trial at Charterhouse and I found this one really fun because I love swimming and we played water polo. I felt great doing this because I knew that I could finally keep up with everyone.

After this, we had to wait until 2nd June for the events round. We were all really excited to go to this one and we weren't disappointed - we all had a great time. We had to do four different sports events – Football, Table Tennis, Wheelchair Basketball and Athletics. The highlight of the day was the Wheelchair Basketball; Oli plays Basketball anyway so he was great at it - Josh and I couldn't keep up with him! The day went really quickly which was a huge shame.

Then we got great news. Oli got invited back to a County Assessment for the land based events and I got invited back for the swimming at the Spectrum in Guildford.

Before we did our events, we had a speech by the double Paralympic Gold Medallist swimmer, Giles Long, who gave a brilliant speech to inspire us for the afternoon. With that fresh in our minds, we went and played our different events and had a great time.

Reporter Jason Bowen Sailing for Team GB Matthew Shorrock, 7GM, travelled to Belgium last week to sail in an international junior competition. I caught up with him before he went to ask him a few questions: What boat will you be sailing?

A cadet Where will you be racing?

In Flanders, Belgium When will you be racing?

The week before activities week What is the race about?

It’s a junior international open-event What‟s the prize?

A big trophy I guess How will you make up for work?

I’ll talk to my teachers and catch up on homework, maybe bring some along Are you glad to be going?

It’s great!

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Rounders Round-up

Reporter Miss Shephard

Year 7 District Final Year 7 teams showed great natural talent early in the season and have trained hard to learn the many tactics and rules of Rounders.

Their potential was realised by the A team‟s victory over Broadwater, Glebelands and Woolmer Hill in the Waverley tournament and the B team‟s third placing in the tournament – achieved by beating both Woolmer Hill and Glebelands‟ A teams!

As Waverley Champions, the A team went on to play St Peter‟s, the winning side from Waverley Champions, Year 7 A Team Guildford‟s tournament, a team they had lost badly to earlier in the season.

Armed with prior knowledge of St Peter‟s strengths, the team took part in extra training sessions during lunch and after school in order to prepare themselves for this final. Losing the toss, Rodborough were first in to bat, scoring an incredible 11½ rounders as the result of first class batting and the great tactics. St Peters then came in to bat, scoring 9 in their first innings.

Pressure was really evident, however, in the second innings with our girls managing a paltry 3.5 rounders. St Peter‟s, however, kept their cool and stepped up their game to score 7½; stealing the game 16½ to Rodborough‟s 15.

This wasn‟t all bad news, however, as the team have already shown enormous capacity for improvement and will be able to build on their strengths next year.

Year 9 Waverley Champions The Year 9 rounders team were keen to retain their title as district champions for the third year running. Practice matches went well with them narrowly losing only one match v The Royal. The team trained hard every lunch time for the week leading up to the Waverley tournament. This paid off as the team played magnificently, beating Woolmer Hill, Broadwater and Glebelands with relative ease. Their tally for the tournament was 31 rounders scored, with only 7 rounders conceded. Year 9 are also set to face the Guildford Champions in the district final later in the term.

Eco Rounders Rounders was an incredibly popular choice for our ecofundraising day with 12 teams competing during the afternoon. JSLA students from Year 10 ran the event, splitting the teams into three groups to start. The top two teams in each group then went on to the Cup and the bottom two onto the Shield. Both finals were hugely competitive with Energetic Ewings emerging victorious over Pesky Peddlers in the Shield final and Grassy Giants beating Killer Watts in the Cup final.

The afternoon was enjoyed by all and we would all like to thank the brilliant Year 10s who ran the entire event like clockwork! You are truly honorary members of the PE department!

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Year 10 Rounders Update

Reporters Lila Flint Roberts & Claudia Cadman

Leading up to our District Tournament, we played three matches. These were against Broadwater, Glebelands and Woolmer Hill. Against Broadwater, we had one less player, but still won regardless, with a staggering 18 rounders to 10! Our second match against Glebelands was our toughest but we triumphed with 8 rounders to their 5. Lastly, in preparation for the tournament, we played Woolmer Hill pulling together to beat them comfortably 17 rounders to their 3.

Our Year 10 team comprises: Claudia Cadman, Louise Rose, Melika Jackson, Chloe Harding, Harriet Standing, Katherine Sharp, Jess Waters, Sophie Major, Lila Flint Roberts.

The District Tournament 2009 was held at Rodborough, which was great because we felt much more confident and comfortable. Our first match, against Broadwater, was won 9 rounders to 5 with the help of Melika‟s amazing far left hits into the bushes and Sophie Major‟s bowling. Our second match, against Woolmer Hill, was won comfortably, 11 rounders to 3, aided by Harriet Standing‟s far right hits and Louise‟s great pocket fielding work. Our Final match against Glebelands, found us triumphant yet again, with 7 rounders to 4, thanks, in part, to Lila‟s far throws to Chloe Harding on second base and Claudia Cadman on first.

Our District Final will be played in July against the winner of the Guildford District.

I would like to pass on a massive thank you from us all to Miss Shepherd for being an amazing coach throughout our season, and for motivating us to win!

Reporter Miss Shephard JSLA Update Our Year 10 JSLA leaders have undergone their final assessments for the course. The leaders visited Chandler and Busbridge junior schools and lead an hour PE lesson with the Year 5 and 6 classes. A range of sports were taught including football, netball, rounders and athletics.

The leaders have excelled themselves this year and the primary school visit was the icing on the cake where they put all of their skills into practice.

The leaders have been collecting leadership hours throughout the year helping at school clubs, tournaments and festivals. Several have achieved the Gold Award by notching up 30+ hours leadership. This is a tremendous achievement and all of the PE department thank the JSLA leaders for their invaluable help throughout the year.

58 of our current Year 9s have applied for next year‟s course, which has been renamed Sports Leaders or SL for short. With 50 provisional places allocated the course is brimming and fully booked for next year, making the biggest cohort yet! Good luck to you all. We‟re ready for another successful year.

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Girls‟ Football Update

Reporter Miss Shephard

Rodborough girls have had their most successful year to date.

The U15s reached the 5th round of the National Schools Cup. The U14s reached the semi-final of the District Cup to face longtime reigning champions, George Abbot for the first time this season. Their last game, two seasons ago, saw Rodborough heavily beaten by this well established team.

The match was very tense with Rodborough taking an early lead with whippet, Ellen Macnally, using her pace to storm through the defence slotting home the opening goal.

Rodborough then seemed suffer from stage fright, allowing George Abbot back to take the lead 2-1 at half time. The second half started well for Rodborough with Macnally finding the net again to equalise. George Abbot retook the lead with a sloppy goal but Rodborough responded by sneaking an equaliser to take the game into extra time. George Abbot took full advantage of the extra time by scoring once more. At the final whistle the score stood at 3-2 to George Abbot. Although bitterly disappointed by their loss, our girls were also proud of how far they had come. They are now as determined as ever to take the title next year!

U14s qualify for Surrey 6 a-side Finals The 6 a-side tournament was attended by 12 qualifying teams from across the county.

The girls looked a very strong side throughout the tournament, beating previous adversaries, Heath End, to take the district title. Rodborough won 5 games and lost one, 1-0, placing them at the top of the table in first place. Rodborough had been consistently the best team in the tournament finishing with the best goal difference.

Despite their place at the top of the table, the competition wasn‟t over yet! The top two teams then went head to head and the title of Surrey Champions slipped from their grasp in the final moments of the game. Unlucky girls, you were so close! Better luck next year.

The majority of our U14 team members play for teams outside school as the result of the school-club links scheme run at Rodborough. Many of our other fantastic girls‟ footballers in the school would also benefit hugely from joining a local team.

The school has links with Guildford Saints and Farncombe Youth. Check out their websites for more information.

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