Senior School Newsletter – 25 February 2022 Dear Parents, Families and Friends, I know that many of you are concerned and worried about the invasion of Ukraine and the consequences for those innocent people caught up in the conflict. The German foreign minister spoke for Governments across Europe and beyond when she said yesterday that “We woke up in a different world today” and whilst the images may seem far away, they are very real for those Royal Russell pupils and families who live in Ukraine or who have relatives in that region. Royal Russell is proud of its international outlook and our International Community plays a central part in defining our identity within our inclusive and welcoming family. So it is more important now than ever, that we recognize the differences that define us as individuals and celebrate those elements that make each of us distinctive and allow each of us to be our authentic selves. On Tuesday evening some sixteen pupils from Russia and Ukraine attended a service in Chapel to offer prayers for peace. The short service was particularly special because Russian pupils prayed alongside their Ukrainian friends. Neither desire conflict and war. They want only peace and so we will continue to pray for both our Ukrainian and Russian colleagues, friends and families during this crisis. At our Assembly this morning, Ms White and the and the pupil Diversity and Inclusion Group gave a presentation on LGBT+ History Month and an update on activities including a special film screening next Wednesday. Thank you to Ms White, Ayo, Maryam, Anna and Wendy who shared such a powerful message this morning.
Three teams competed in the STEM Problem Solving Challenge yesterday evening and congratulations go to the Year 12 team who won the competition and also to the Year 11 team who came third and Year 9 team who came second in their respective key stage categories. I was delighted to welcome potential pupils and families to our offer holder event this morning. Year 12 Ambassadors, Year 8 guides and the Year 10 panel of Archie, Priscilla, Vrutik, Ella and Minwoo were able to give an authentic account of their experiences as pupils and answered questions with both confidence and openness. There was a very real buzz of excitement from our visitors and it was wonderful to see such strong interest in joining the School at both Year 7 and Year 9 in September 2022. In the first week back after half term our sport fixtures have got off to a great start with netball, football and basketball fixtures against Dulwich College, St Dunstan's and Millfield School. This weekend we have 16 netball matches away at Lingfield College, football matches against Wilson's School and on Monday the U13A team play their ESFA semi-final match away at Lingfield College. After a rush hour concert on Wednesday afternoon, Pupils and staff from the music department have been busy preparing for the sell-out Music Dinner which will be held in Great Hall tomorrow evening. Staying Covid Safe On Monday 21 February, the Prime Minister announced the ‘Living with Covid-19’ plan. There are two significant changes for schools: 1. Changes to testing in education and childcare settings and children’s social care services From Monday 21 February, the Government is removing the guidance for staff and students in most education and childcare settings to undertake twice-weekly asymptomatic testing. 2. Changes to self-isolation and daily testing of close contacts From Thursday 24 February, the Government removed the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test. Adults and children who test positive will continue to be advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for at least 5 full days, and then continue to follow the guidance until they have received 2 negative test results on consecutive days. In addition, the Government will:
· No longer ask fully vaccinated close contacts and those aged under 18 to test daily for 7 days, and remove the legal requirement for close contacts who are not fully vaccinated to self-isolate. · End routine contact tracing. Contacts will no longer be required to selfisolate or advised to take daily tests. Staff, children and young people should attend their education settings as usual. This includes staff who have been in close contact within their household, unless they are able to work from home. The School Leadership Team met on Wednesday evening to discuss these changes and we have decided to operate with the following guidelines, subject to a weekly review, through to the end of this term on Friday 1 April. 1. Pupils in the Senior School and all staff will continue to wear face coverings in corridors and communal areas. Staff and pupils are welcome to wear face coverings, in other areas, especially where there may be crowds of people or reduced ventilation. 2. Visitors to the School will be expected to wear face coverings in corridors and communal areas. For events organised in School, we may advise the audience to wear a face covering if the venue is going to be crowded. 3. Staff and day pupils are no longer required to test twice weekly. Separate arrangements will apply for boarding pupils. 4. Until 1 April, if you have symptoms of Covid-19 you should arrange a test and you should stay at home and avoid contact with other people. If your test result is positive, please follow the government advice; this means you should stay at home for five full days. Following the five day isolation, you should return to school when you have received two negative LFT tests on consecutive days or when the full 10 day period has elapsed, whichever is the sooner. There will be no contact tracing, self-isolation or daily testing required for close contacts. Regular handwashing and cleaning of surfaces remains a key part of our control measures. We also advise that classroom windows remain open to enable good ventilation during lessons. After 1 April, the guidelines will change again and we will update you in time for the start of the summer term.
Using Common Sense As we enter this new phase of Living with Covid, our best advice is for the whole School Community to exercise strong common sense and collective responsibility. Alongside the Covid guidance in place until 1 April as outlined above, please follow the long-established pattern that if you are unwell with illnesses other than Covid, you should stay at home until you are well enough to return to school. Online Learning For the remainder of this term, our guidelines for online learning will not change. If a pupil is at home and unwell with Covid, they should not take part in remote learning. If a pupil is self-isolating because of a positive Covid test and has recovered sufficiently to be well enough to attend online lessons, they should do so until the end of their period of isolation. Any pupil absent for illnesses other than Covid is at home because they are not well enough to attend school, and so they should not attend online lessons. We will update this guidance after 1 April, once new guidelines come into force. As ever, thank you all very much for your support as we enter this new phase of living with Covid-19. Please do get in touch with us if you have any questions. With best wishes, Chris Hutchinson
Royal Russell Junior School History Club On Wednesday, Chloe (Y12 Historian), gave an excellent presentation to the Junior School History Club on Black British History. After engaging the students with their current knowledge, she took them through the ages from Black Tudors, to Mary Seacole, to the Windrush generation, the Bristol Bus Boycott, the 1965, 1968 and 1976 Race Relations Acts, the start of the Notting Hill Carnival, the role of Olive Morris in the 1970s and finishing with a discussion of race relations today. It was an extremely well planned and interesting presentation.
Saturday Library Opening The Library will be open for exam study and independent revision from 10am to 12 noon on the following Saturdays, for year 11 and year 13 pupils, leading up to and during the public exam season : 23 April / 7 May/ 14 May/ 21 May /11 June Please contact library staff if you require any further information. Russell Talk On Thursday, Ho Chun Wong delivered a very interesting and comprehensively researched Russell Talk about how our Amazon packages get to us. He thoroughly explained the various stages as to how Amazon packages are delivered, from the time we click order online, to the time it gets to our door. He also interestingly explained what goes on behind the scenes with Amazon packages including workers’ rights and specific facts and events concerning the poor working conditions they experience. For example, the eye-opening statistic that 600 ambulances were sent to Amazon factories between 2015 and 2018 in the UK, which was mainly a result of poor working conditions. Overall, it was a very carefully explained and interesting talk exploring unknown facts about a very well-known company opening up peoples’ eyes to the reality of Amazon, and exploring all the stages which lead to us receiving our Amazon parcels so quickly and efficiently. Sofia Elaheebocus, Year 12.
School Travel Plan We are committed to regularly reviewing the School Travel Plan and as part of this, it is important we have accurate statistics on how our pupils travel to and from School. We welcome your comments and would be very grateful if you could take a few moments to complete the survey at the below link. If you have more than one child at Royal Russell please complete only once for your eldest child. Royal Russell School Travel Survey can be found at https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=laRVpWYSdEy3D0wKJ0Lci3wMNOnl21Llxwho8oopR9UQVQ5UjVJRldIMkc0VzFKU1gwOE43S jRSNC4u Could ask you to complete this survey by Friday 11 March. Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this survey, all information will be treated in the strictest of confidence. We look forward to share the results with you the later in the Summer term. Madres Paralelas - Spanish Cinema Trip On Tuesday, following a trip toTaco Bell, Spanish students in Year 12 and 13 went to the David Lean cinema in Croydon to watch a Spanish film called Madres Paralelas by the acclaimed director Pedro Almodóvar. The film was very interesting, although complicated at times, incorporating both a mix of emotions and the historical context of the fallout of the Spanish Civil War in the modern day and provided a great opportunity to practise their Spanish comprehension skills.
February Half Term CCF Camp During the half term break over 75 cadets from our combined RRS Army and RAF Sections headed to Lydd Ranges in Kent for our February camp. After what seemed a long coach journey, we finally arrived at our billets and had just enough time to give everyone the weekend’s camp briefing before cadets got their heads down to sleep early. Saturday had us all up with a 6am roll call and the choice of a hearty cooked breakfast, before we split off into our allocated Sections for the first day’s events. Army Sections had a rotational timetable organised to complete assignments, starting with firing blank rounds in the OBUA “village” (also known as Operating in built up areas) then moving on to shoot live rounds at the 25-metre range overlooking the Romney Marshes. It was pretty windy and freezing cold out there, but everyone did themselves proud and completed the courses. Once everybody had finished activities for the day and dinner was over, cadets came back together for an ‘exciting’ 2 hours of weapon cleaning to ensure all the rifles were safe and presentable for use the next day. In the evening, we were able to relax and chill out with friends and it also gave older cadets the opportunity to get to know this year’s intake better. Sunday morning was spent indoors learning different aspects of first aid, enabling cadets to cope with anything from a nosebleed to delivering CPR. The Officers then kindly organised a Physical Training session which had us sprinting around the base, playing dodgeball and competing on who could do the most push ups. Just as the weather took a turn for the worst, we left camp to enjoy the afternoon back out on the Marshes at the long firing ranges. In winds reaching 34mph and hailstorms, the Sections competed at target shooting from 100m, 200m and 300m. By 5pm we returned to the cookhouse for dinner, so everyone had time to freshen up before our ritual quiz and bingo night. As usual, it was a rowdy and entertaining evening with lots of healthy competition and only a little cheating from all tables! Unfortunately, once again, the Officers took the victory over the NCO team with just a 5-point difference and third place going to “Reuben & James & Co”. Monday morning was more leisurely for cadets this year as they finished off weapons and camp cleaning. Final parade saw everybody achieving at least a GP Rifle Pass for shooting and some cadets receiving additional awards and promotions – Stanley Harrison, Roan Ecott, Solana Munroe received their Marksman badges for outstanding shooting. Congratulations to Holly Seymour, Megan Wood, Stanley Harrison, Toby Cascarini, Chloe Rayner and Inca Lillifelth on becoming Lance Corporal, Molly Swain and Francesca Deguingand for making Full Corporals and a special well done to Lucas Heath Pampin on reaching Staff Sergeant. Thank you too, to all the Officers for organising another great camp and giving up their half term for us. Ethan Edney – Regimental Sergeant Major
Delicious recipes from Year 7 Year 7 have been planning and making a ‘Salad in a jar’ this week, to include all sections of the Eatwell Guide. Their task included preparing a vinaigrette or dressing, cooking their carbohydrate (rice, pasta, potatoes or couscous) and chopping at least 6 different textured, coloured and flavoured vegetables and herbs. The focus was on cutting skills and presentation and layering of a well balanced, portable lunch with a cooked protein of choice. Year 7 had a chance to taste some new ingredients and flavour combinations and they produced a wonderful selection of salads. Mrs Saunders
Year 10 Mini Burger Challenge Year 10s completed their practical task for the Hamburger Project. This involved them producing 12 mini burgers which would be suitable to be eaten as finger food. They made their own bread, mayonnaise, salads, relish and patties all based on results that pupils discovered as they trialled each of the components. A most successful afternoon of burger production from the Food department.
Year 9 Cookie Challenge Year 9 Pupils started their cookie challenge today as they try to discover what will happen if they change an aspect of a recipe. The research component of the task was difficult for some pupils to face: having to evaluate 4 cookies which already exist on the market. From here, pupils will design their own experiment to see what happens if they were to change an ingredient or process in the control recipe.
Biology field trip On the 11th February, the Year 13 biology students went to Wakehurst, a botanical garden in Sussex, carry out practical experiments that we have been learning about recently in our studies. During the day we carried out gel electrophoresis, which allowed us to observe different sized fragments of DNA. Later in the day, we used cuttings to clone cauliflower, which gave us practice working in sterile conditions, which will be useful to many of us in university and beyond. We were also given the opportunity to observe some of the most recent scientific work carried out by scientists at Wakehurst and Kew gardens, including visiting the Millennium seed bank. It was an interesting day, and a great last biology trip for year thirteen students. Thank you to Mrs Barton, Ms Semple and the biology department for a fascinating trip. Bel Leyland, Year 13
From the Sports Department Football U13 Girls’ Football Congratulations to the U13’s girls’ football team who came away from the Croydon Schools 7 a side tournament as 1st place winners. They managed to finish the day unbeaten with 3 wins out of 7 and not conceding a single goal. A brilliant achievement for their first time playing together in a competitive environment. Scores were as follows: Royal Russell 1-0 Thomas Moore Catholic School (Sophia Hamoda) Royal Russell 0-0 The Laurels Royal Russell 0-0 Coloma Convent Girls School Royal Russell 1-0 Woodcote High School (Lottie Gowland-Smith) Royal Russell 0-0 Croydon High Royal Russell 3-0 Harris Academy Purley (Elissa Demetrious, Lottie GowlandSmith and Ava Barton) Royal Russell 0-0 The Archbishop Lanfranc Academy Well done to all 10 girls who took part and performed incredibly well. Mardea Otin, Elissa Demetrious, Sophia Hamoda, Ava Barton, Lottie Gowland-Smith, Mia Harrison, Suraya De Almeida, Eva Nichols, Keira RudichGoodbody and Lauren Silvera. The player of the tournament was Elissa Demetrious.
From the Sports Department Dulwich U18A 3-0 Royal Russell U18B London Cup Quarter Finals The boys competed well in what was a difficult game. Dulwich took the lead when Zac Jennings made an initial great save off a corner but the Dulwich player was on hand to follow up on the 2nd phase. Royal Russell were still in the game but a mistake in midfield just before half time allowed Dulwich to make it 2-0, when a shot from the box was tapped home by their striker. Half time, 2-0. Royal Russell came out the second half well and competed throughout but it was soon to be 3-0 following a wide free kick. Credit to the Royal Russell players who continued fighting and got a goal back when a great Theo free kick found Joe Odell who headed home. However, the linesman with what seemed a really close call chalked this off. A good learning experience for the 2nd team competing against Dulwich’s 1st team with also 4 U16’s involved in the game. Coach’s MOTM: Phelan Matheson Players’ MOTM: Calum Firth
From the Sports Department U18A 1st XI Team 1st XI march onto the final game of the season with a 2-0 win over Millfield in the HUDL League. A difficult first half playing against the wind and not playing the normal sleek passing football the score remained 0-0. The second half was a very different affair. Total dominance in possession, 50/50 tackles and plenty of chances created. The first goal came from Cameron Dobell’s free kick over the wall 1-0. The second goal came minutes later from a solo run from deep with Louis Saville dancing past three players before rifling home past the Millfield keeper, 2-0. More counterattacks created, two further strikes hitting the post by Kawa and Saville before the final whistle was blown. 3 points and a clean sheet. Well done to all involved. Senior Futsal Our first senior Futsal fixture was a huge success Saturday afternoon v Kew Rangers Futsal Club. The game started frantically with both teams familiarising themselves with the surface and environment. Kew scored first 1-0, but goals from Cameron Sinclair, Abdul Sbaiti and Emile Jamois made it 3-1 at half time. The second half was a challenge with only one sub rotating round and conceded two late goals to make it 3-3. A great afternoon and development experience for all boys involved. More futsal to come this summer!
Netball On Wednesday, our senior squads travelled to St Dunstan's for a block fixture. We played three teams and were all closely contested. 1st VII Royal Russell - St Dunstan's 7-7 A strong and very physical game of netball for the seniors 1st team on Wednesday afternoon against St Dunstan's. A strong start from Russell's attack and defence put us quickly in the lead, however battling with strong winds and a very physical match it became a challenge to really accelerate the game. With some tactical changes at half time the girls went into the second half positive and strong. Defence continued to pressure St Dunstan's and made some fantastic turnovers but with only a 20 minute match we were unable to secure a good lead and finished the game with a draw. Great work from everyone. Players’ Player- Amy Tree Coach’s Player - Charlotte Walker 2nd VII Royal Russell – St Dunstan’s 7-7 The second team started strong and took a good lead. Kaylah Black moved well and scored our opening goal. By half time it was 5-5. The second half saw Nadra Webb take to the court in the wing defence position. She was very feisty and fought for every ball. The score finished level and was a good game all round. Royal Russell deserved the win and were the stronger team on the court. 3rd VII Royal Russell – St Dunstan’s 2- 9 The 3rd team travelled to St Dunstan’s on what was to be a windy yet competitive game of netball. The girls started strong with some excellent through court attack and great interceptions. After the first half the score was 4-2 to St Dunstans, the girls fought hard to bring the ball through court and again stopped some attacking play by St Dunstans, however, we were not able to capitalise on our chances. St Dunstans managed to score 3 consecutive goals and proved to be too strong for our girls on this occasion, with a final score of 9-2 to St Dunstans. The girls played brilliantly considering it was the first match ever, after only one training session, for Zina and Afra. Congratulations to Carey Robinson who was awarded Player of the Match.