Notes & Comments

Public Speaking Competition

Elements Public Speaking Competition 2018/19

For our Elements students, this was their first experience of the English Department's Public Speaking Competition. The whole year group take part and it is an opportunity for students to experience speaking in front of a group of people. Each student is asked to choose a poem to recite; the reading should take a minimum of two minutes.

The choice of poems was pleasingly varied and included poignant war poetry, romantic love ballads and hilarious monologues. Initially these were performed in front of a class and each teacher chose two students to go through to the final. The final was held in the Douay Hall with the whole year group as the audience. This is an enjoyable experience for audience and judges and, hopefully, for the finalists too. The judges had a difficult task to decide the winners, but they made their decision.

1st place: Sophie Macneill 2nd place: Harvey Cass Joint 3rd place: Nathan Mamonkita & Millie Hudson Runners-Up: Qmarlah Lynch, Adriana Cassera, Finn Doyle, Aaron Beyzade, William Reville, Imogen Richardson, Finbarr Staunton, Christian Cartlidge-Rainford. Rudiments Public Speaking Competition 2018/19

In preparation for the competition, all Rudiment students selected a piece of prose to read. Harry Potter, Lord of the Flies and War Horse were some of the choices. During lessons, time was given to help students decide on a suitable tone of voice, speed of delivery, and to consider when to pause. Prep was set to allow further rehearsal time.

Heats were held in classes and teachers selected a total of ten finalists who later performed in front of all their Rudiment peers. The standard was high and, following discussion between the judges: Mr. Petty, Fr. Peter and Mrs. Ager, a decision was finally made.

1st place: Hester Evans 2nd place: George Keogh 3rd place: William Lang 4th place: Nicole Englishby Runners-Up: Ellisse Alexander, Sylvie Allen, Kian Barton, Jake Berry, Nancy Coates, Anthony Hadji-Hannas, Jake Mackail, Bethany Curtis-Copeland.

Having gained confidence in speaking in front of others whilst in Elements and Rudiments, our Grammar students are given the extra challenge of writing their own speech. The topic is 'Great Lives' and students choose a person worthy of their admiration. The choices are always varied, and sometimes surprising. Students are free to choose an historical figure, sportsperson, performer, or simply a neighbour who has overcome adversity. The only requirement is that students should be able to speak about the person with enthusiasm.

The delivery of the speeches was as varied as the nominated people. Whilst some were witty and amusing, others were touching and brought a tear to the eye. After a struggle, our judges selected the winners.

1st place: Honeysuckle Plummer 2nd place: Molly Gaughan Joint 3rd place: Sophie Nichol, Mayura Pusparajah Runners-Up: Shyanne Asante-Adjei, Bridget Craghill, Joshua Crook, Arabella Mardell, Kyah Oti, Charlie Price-Jenson

Public Speaking Competition 2019/20 The closure of the College due to the coronavirus pandemic prevented the English department’s Public Speaking Competition from taking place in its usual format. However, as we approached the end of the Trinity Term, students were increasingly confident working remotely and using the technology at their disposal to enhance their learning. A decision was therefore made to utilise ‘Flipgrid’, a free and accessible online platform that allows students and teachers to produce video discussions, for this year’s Public Speaking Competition. All students in Elements, Rudiments and Grammar were encouraged to take submit entries. The Elements competition involved poetry reading. Finalists were judged by Mrs McCann and Mrs Ager.

1st place: Olivia Hendley 'Three Little Pigs' Roald Dahl 2nd place: Leah Edwards Amor ‘Newsbook’ Emma Hackett 3rd place: Cornelia Scott ‘Good morning Dear Students’ Kenn Nesbit Runners up: Thomas Hipkin, George Storey-Braun, Freddie Masters, Lucy Harris, Jude Byrne, Oluwaloni Akinola, Millie Gibson, Zach Entwistle.

Rudiments 2019/20

The Rudiments competition involved reading an extract of prose. Finalists were judged by Mr West and Mrs Appleford.

1st place: Evangeline Grimsdale ‘Missing Me’ Sophie McKensie 2nd place: Aaron Beyzade ‘Below Zero’ Dan Smith 3rd place: Anna Burton ‘The Maze Runner’ James Dashner Runners up: Scarlett Gale, Roisin Devonald-Smith, Ayami Rajapaksha, Erin Bowen, Moronfoluwa Alomaja, Sophie Macneill. Grammar 2019/20

The Grammar competition was inspired by BBC Radio 4’s ‘Great Lives’ series. Students were asked to write a deliver a speech on someone who they felt had lived a ‘great life’. Competition finalists were judged by Mr Curran and Mr Woodward

1st place: Ellis Kontkowski ‘Florence Nightingale’ 2nd place: George Keogh ‘Sylvester Stallone’ 3rd place: Hester Evans ‘Emmeline Pankhurst’ Runners up: Fabrizio Ciraolo, Rai-Lee Prince, Kiera Ferns, Bethany Curtis Copeland, Abigail Hallam, Evie Kelly, Kian Barton, Jake Berry, Emma Church. Congratulations to all of Bounds on their fantastic effort with these competitions. They were a wonderful way to end what had been a challenging term for the students!

Summer School

Introduction

St Edmund’s College has a long-established tradition of welcoming international students and our Summer Schools have been offering programmes to students from over 50 countries for 25 years.

We offer a fully integrated experience where they can learn, explore and develop through a mixture of classwork, excursions, artistic expression, sports, fun, relaxation and socialising. All Summer School students live in the St Edmund’s College boarding houses and we pride ourselves on the variety of activities on offer, ensuring that there really is something to excite and stimulate everyone.

2019 This year, we welcomed 333 students from 42 countries to live and learn with St Edmund’s College over the summer.

Students enjoyed Global Skills in English lessons as well as fun activity options for all abilities and interests, ensuring an amazing experience for everyone. Whilst the day-to-day activity options are always popular, the opportunity to experience education outside the classroom is always an exciting adventure. As such, offsite excursions are met with eager anticipation by students and staff. Some excursions are educational, others are for sight-seeing but all are an opportunity to combine culture with fun as we explore the UK together.

This year’s excursion highlights included visiting Wembley Stadium, touring the historic Tower of London, exploring the impressive Ely Cathedral, and a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. Overnight trips to Bristol and York were also firm favourites for both students and staff.

2020 In light of the ongoing challenges Coronavirus (COVID19) presented globally, we were unable to offer a Summer School in 2020.

Whilst this was a great disappointment to everyone involved with the Summer School, our primary concern was for the safety and wellbeing of our students, staff and their families.

What next?

Planning has begun for a new multicultural Global Skills International Summer School, as well as Academies and Day Camps aimed at UK students.

With a mixture of students studying English language, students who are already native English speakers and British students attending future summer schools, we hope to create a truly multicultural and international experience for all our students.

Animal Club and Dog Show

Animal Club – Period 7 (Trinity 2019-Lent 2020)

Having started off in April 2019 as primarily ‘Lamb Club’, visiting Farmer Rob’s orphaned lambs, this P7 activity has expanded and moved from strength to strength over the year. We have built bird boxes, butterfly feeders, squirrel feeders, been on nature walks, had photography competitions, made bird feeders/food, had a visit from a local dog breeder, Mrs Howell and Dolly the Dalmation, planned the dog show, took part in the ZSL Instant Wild wildlife monitoring app, took Winston and Clemmie Mostyn (the whippets) for a walk around the school site. A highlight was visiting Mr Walker’s house on site to do the Big Garden Bird Watch and meet his bearded dragon, Diego, and 3 gorgeous dogs Milo, Rex and Wilson – thank you!

Dog Show

Tails were wagging on March 11th 2020 when our students saw the first St Edmund’s Dog Show which was pawsitively fantastic! Animal Club had spent the previous couple of months planning this event; choosing the rounds, designing the arena and advertising to the rest of the College.

Over 30 furry entrants arrived at the front of the College to our specially set up arena for what promised to be a fantastic event during Charity Week 2020. Each pup was greeted at our ‘reception’ area by Mrs Lang to register and receive a doggy treat.

Our furry friends were welcome to take part in all or a selection of 3 special rounds: Agility, Beauty and Waggiest Tail.

Armed with their stop watches, Animal Club members timed how many wags each dog could do in 30 seconds. A massive challenge recording this as so many of the dogs were very excited and happy!

The crowds cheered on as many of our staff and students sprinted round the agility course, through tunnels, in and out of poles, over jumps, along the balance beam and finally mastering the seesaw, perfectly commentated on by Dr Eves.

Thankfully we had the expertise of local dog breeder and parent Mrs Howell to judge the beauty round as we had many wonderful dogs of all shapes and sizes ranging from little Harvey the French Bulldog to Dolly the Dalmation and Winston and Clemmie (Mr Mostyn’s whippets!). The atmosphere was fantastic and one that I am sure will stay with everyone for a long time. The afternoon concluded with all of our dogs parading around the main arena and receiving a rosette for participating.

Special mentions must go to Dan Walker and his team for not only setting up an arena for us but also building the special seesaw and balance beam for the Agility round and Mrs Howell for suppling lots of equipment and being our guest judge.

Winners: Waggiest Tail: Arnee (Jacob Colligan, Elements) Beauty: Coco (Georgia Davies, Poetry) Agility: Poppy (Oliver and Phoebe Wild, Prep) Judges Choice:Beryl (Ellis Jones, Elements)

Maths Challenge Report 2019/20

Edmundia in Lockdown 2019/20

Although it has been a strange end to the school year with the challenges of COVID, we are delighted that we have still been able to run the Maths Challenge, providing our students with an opportunity to stretch themselves. They should be very proud of the results that they have achieved.

Senior Challenge Over 100,000 students across the UK sat the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge. The top 60% of students nationally receive a gold, silver or bronze certificate in the ratio 1:2:3.

Pupils at St Edmund’s College achieved 1 gold, 8 silver and 17 bronze certificates. The Best in School was achieved by Edward Hartley (Rhetoric 2), with Ho Ching Cheung (Rhetoric 1) and Nina Bayford (Poetry) achieving the best marks in their respective years.

Around 1,000 invitations to the British Mathematical Olympiad Round 1 are sent to pupils who score highly in the Senior Challenge each November. Edward Hartley also qualified for this with his outstanding result. Intermediate Challenge This competition is aimed at Grammar, Syntax and Poetry. The top 40% of students nationally receive a gold, silver or bronze certificate in the ratio 1:2:3. Pupils at St Edmund’s College achieved 4 gold, 10 silver and 13 bronze certificates. Annie He (Poetry) achieved the highest result in the school, with Alan Wang (Syntax) and Eric Zhao (Grammar) achieving the best marks in their respective years.

5,500 pupils from across all three year groups are invited to sit either the grey or pink European Kangaroo papers. Annie He, Alan Wang, Haou Yan and Samuel Franks qualified for this competition.

Junior Challenge This competition is aimed at Elements and Rudiments. The top 40% of students nationally receive a gold, silver or bronze certificate in the ratio 1:2:3. Pupils at St Edmund’s College achieved 5 silvers and 10 bronzes. The Best in School was achieved by Patrick Marshall (Elements), with Thomas Cresci (Rudiments) achieving the best in his year.

By the time that this edition of The Edmundian is published, it is my sincerest hope that COVID-19 is a thing of the past, in which case the last thing that any readers will want to see is yet more content about the global pandemic that has affected us all so deeply. However, it would be remiss not to take a few words to record St Edmund’s journey through these historic times, and more specifically the tremendous resilience and spirit that everyone, none more so than the children, displayed during these tumultuous months.

I will always vividly remember sitting in a Heads of Department meeting during the week after the February 2020 half term break. There was great uncertainty as to how the impending COVID-19 pandemic would affect the UK and its schools, which required us to draw up contingency plans to be implemented in the event that St Edmund’s was instructed to close. Staff and students are well versed in using the Firefly VLE platform to set, submit, mark and return work, so there was a degree of confidence in the room should this be needed to facilitate remote learning. However, little did we know that when Mr Fry (Director of E-Learning) stood up to address the room, we were about to be introduced to somebody who is now a familiar friend to staff, students, parents, priests and politicians alike the world over. Everybody, meet Zoom…

As the weeks that followed this meeting passed, the number of coronavirus cases increased, and it became increasingly inevitable that schools would soon be closed. Monday 23rd March was the first official day of remote learning, however, it had started for many the week prior, in which the number of staff and students in isolation had steadily increased. Some teething IT issues aside, it was a smooth transition, and it was not long before Zoom lessons and home schooling was being referred to as ‘the new norm’.

The degree of adaptability and resilience shown by the students during this time was astonishing. There was a clear sense of purpose and determination amongst members of the Edmundian community, which united to ensure that we could continue our mission aim of developing students in mind, body and spirit. The fact that many parents were also having to adapt to working from home themselves, and in many cases also manage the online learning of multiple children, on multiple devices, on multiple platforms, and at multiple schools, was certainly not lost on us as teachers!

During this strange time, every effort was made to replicate the school day and the St Edmund’s experience as far as possible. Life at Old Hall Green has always been about far more than the academic curriculum, so all our spirits were lifted by images of the PE department doing Joe Wicks-style workout Zoom lessons, to ensure that

students were able to keep active throughout the lockdown. A small number of co-curricular activities were also able to continue, among them the Dungeons and Dragons activity, which was kept alive by Mr Chapman and a small number of enthusiastic students over Zoom.

The professionalism of the College’s teachers shined through not only their delivery of academic lessons, but also their outstanding pastoral care of the students. For many tutors and tutees, Tuesday afternoons became the highlight of their working week. These weekly tutorial slots provided some respite from the monotony of lockdown learning, with tutors offering quizzes, bingo games, challenges to recreate childhood photos and scavenger hunts to liven up their charges.

Perhaps the most unique treat was afforded to Mrs Armitage’s Elements tutor group, who were kindly visited by Lisa the Goat! Lisa lives on Cronkshaw Fold Farm in Lancashire, who became known for their #GoatsOnZoom initiative, to help people spice up their virtual meetings. Amongst such madness and fun, these tutorial sessions were also used to help students reflect on and understand the tragic circumstances that were playing out all around the world during the historic pandemic. Many students took it upon themselves to produce care packages to be sent to key NHS workers, whilst others took the time to write to those in local care homes and hospices, many of whom were experiencing stark loneliness and isolation during the lockdown.

Helping to further strengthen the sense of community and solidarity throughout the pandemic were the St Edmund’s social media feeds, which received a boost in popularity from parents and Edmundians keen to stay in the loop. They were also used by various departments to set daily sporting, musical and artistic challenges for students and parents, and who can forget Mrs Ager’s infamous Word Wednesday posts, designed to broaden students’ vocabulary, and challenge them to be more adventurous with their word choices throughout the week. Social media also became a vital means through which the Catholic life of the school was able to make its way into families’ homes, with Fr Peter Lyness

recording weekly lockdown reflections from our beautiful Chapel, which were then distributed via YouTube. I should like to take this opportunity to thank all the teaching, admin, grounds, domestic and catering staff who continued to come into school during this time to support our provision for key worker children. This small group of pupils worked in school every day, joining in Zoom lessons and completing their work with minimal fuss. On Monday 1st June 2020, along with primary schools all over the country, St Edmund’s Prep School opened its doors to welcome back students in EYFS, Form 1 and Form 6. Congratulations to all of the staff and students who did a splendid job of rising to this challenge and following the overwhelming amount of government rules and regulations which were implemented to keep everyone safe. It was at this time that we were first introduced to the concept of student ‘bubbles’, and it was wonderful to see the students end a rather taxing term in school, with their friends, and able to enjoy the sunny weather. The following weeks, just before the end of term, saw Syntax and Rhetoric I students also invited back into school, one House at a time, when they were given the opportunity to catch up with each other, their tutors, Housemasters and Heads of Year.

With no prize-giving festivities to conclude the Trinity Term, the academic year ended online, with a virtual speech day uploaded onto YouTube, filmed in the Chapel with Mr Mostyn, Head Boy Oliver and Head Girl Nada, and House assemblies taking place over Zoom.

It was a strange end to the strangest of terms, and one which will not be forgotten any time soon. Despite all of the hardship that so many families faced, and continue to face, with COVID-19, the spirit of Edmundia shone through, and it is with immense pride that I shall always look back on this time, for the way in which everyone in the community came together.

Avita Pro Fide! Mr L Woodward