Edition 51 March 2012
SUTTON VIEWS The Voice of Sutton Valence School
‘I’m looking forward to contributing all I can to one of the finest Schools in the land’ Pinocchio Page 4
Kit Car
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We were very pleased to be able to announce in February that Malcolm Gough had been appointed as Head of the Prep School from September 2012. Mr Gough, who was born in Zimbabwe, attended Graeme College, Grahamstown, studied Law and History at Rhodes University and completed his Masters in International Marine Law at the University of Cape Town. Coming to England in 1989 as a gap student convinced him that teaching was very much for him, so he stayed and completed his PGCE in 1994.
'Help for Heroes'
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Information A member of the United Westminster Schools’ Foundation Registered Charity No. 309267 Founded in 1576 by William Lambe
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For information about Sutton Valence School or to request a prospectus, please contact:
• the Admissions Office at Sutton Valence on 01622 845206 or email enquiries@svs.org.uk • Sutton Valence Preparatory School on 01622 842117 or email enquiries@svprep.svs.org.uk
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Continued from front page An ISI inspector for the past ten years, Mr Gough is currently Head of Teaching and Learning and formerly Director of Studies at The Schools at Somerhill, Tonbridge. Married to Sophie, they have two young children, Madeleine and Huxley, who will both be attending the school. When he’s not at school he also tries to find time to both watch and participate in sport, to go scubadiving, to read, enjoy wildlife and the outdoors and to play the guitar. Delighted to be joining the School, Malcolm said, “From the moment I walked through the doors of Sutton Valence Prep, I
was struck by the warm and strong sense of community. There is a dedication to the process of learning by pupils, parents, teachers and staff in all areas which is supported by the governors and leaders. I soon realised that this continues right through to the final years of the Senior School and I am hugely looking forward to contributing all I can to this, one of the finest schools in the land. This will be a wonderful environment for our two children to be part of and as a family we greatly look forward to a long and happy association with Sutton Valence.”
United Westminster Schools Models UN While Youth Speaks Gary Gibbon, Political Editor of Channel 4 News, opened the second session of the United Westminster Schools Model United Nations last term. The five schools in the Foundation (Grey Coats, Queen Anne’s, Emmanuel, Westminster City and Sutton Valence) sent pupils to attend in the role of a delegate representing the views of five countries each (25 countries in total). Each school had a number of ‘resolutions’ to prepare and on the day delegates had to lobby delegates from other schools to gain the necessary five signatures, which meant their resolution could be debated. If they could not secure enough signatures they did not get to debate their proposals. The Sutton Valence team represented the views of Poland, USA, Chile, South Africa and
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Japan which required in-depth research and preparation to understand each country’s economic and political standpoints to back up their resolutions. Two resolutions, those of Julia Shtunderenko and Ed Collins, gained sufficient support to be debated, but it was Ed’s, on reducing the effect of climate change, which impressed the judges most. To expand his argument, Ed proposed
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three initiatives. Firstly, a major, global reforestation programme to grow indigenous trees to create sustainable, bio-diverse forests to provide fuel for energy and absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In conjunction with this, he suggested that it be made mandatory that all new fossil-fuel fired power stations designate and build sites suitable for the implementation of carbon capture and storage technology once it is fully developed; whereupon it should be freely distributed between all participating member countries. And finally, member states should be called upon to implement the carbon credit system on major TNCs (Transnational Companies), which would allow market mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the money medium. Gary Gibbon and the judges were so impressed by Ed Collins’s clear, controlled and convincing delivery of his proposals that he won the award for outstanding delegate. The model UN is now an annual event and is much anticipated by Sutton Valence pupils who have been honing their debating skills during the School’s public speaking and debating House Competitions and in the Rotary Youth Speaks competition this term.
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Our two public speaking teams took part in the second round of the Rotary competition, where they were up against a number of schools from Kent and Sussex, who, like them, had won their first round contests - so the competition was tough. The junior team was made up of three pupils from the Second Form (Ella Capaldi, Jessica Grindlay and, as main speaker, William Grabowski, pictured opposite). They spoke amusingly about 'Sports which are not in the Olympics, but should be'. William even managed a few jumps on a pogo stick at the beginning of his speech! The judges made them runners-up in theír category, saying it was a very close-run thing. We agreed, but thought they deserved to have won. Our senior team consisted of Henry Farmer, ably assisted by Sophie McGannan and Anton Evans, speaking about the relevance or otherwise - of chivalry today. This able trio thoroughly trounced the opposing teams to emerge as victors. They will now progress to the southern counties' round and after that, if all goes well, they could be heading to Wales for the national final.
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Pinocchio At the end of last half term, Years 3 and 4 put on two spectacular performances of Pinocchio in the Bates Hall. In the afternoon of Tuesday 7th February, the cast had the chance to hone their acting and singing skills in front of the whole School, in preparation for the big event on Wednesday evening. An excited audience of parents and older siblings were treated to a fantastic spectacle with donkeys, ballerinas, soldiers, jack-in-theboxes and policemen all playing their parts alongside the main characters. With colourful and very professional costumes, made by Mrs McNama and Mrs Sagrott, the cast brought alive the traditional tale of the little puppet who dreamed of being a boy and whose nose grew every time he told a lie. With so many outstanding performances it would be unfair to single any one out, so well done everyone, it was a fantastic production.
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Senior School Highlights Max Harrison competed in the Champions of Tomorrow ballroom competition in Blackpool. In his category, he came first for Latin. The following boys have been selected for the Kent County Cricket Club winter training squads: Under 17 Harry Bee and Harrison Wells Under 14 Joseph Deveson Under 12 Tom Lazarides Anna Baker, Fourth Form, after a long selection process, has been selected to play in the U16 England Hockey squad. Anna travelled to Cardiff during half-term to play against Wales, where she scored two goals in England's 5 - 0 victory. An excellent debut!
Charlie Gellett (Fourth Form), won a silver medal at the South East qualifier of the British Youth Fencing Championships at Eltham College at the beginning of February. Katie Vernon (Fifth Form) is through to the elimination rounds of the final of the Mid Kent Young Musician of the Year – best of luck to her. Megan Gerrard (Upper Sixth), has gained her Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. The Judo team competed in the Independent Schools Boys’ Judo competition recently. The team of Praag Dogra, Tom Lucas, Adetoun Owolabi, a yellow belt who won Silver and Joshua Aucaamp, an orange belt who won Gold, had a long day and had to work hard in their groups. All represented the School with pride and aplomb, well done. A big thank you to all those who collected and brought in their pennies for the Penny Race. The event raised £224.83, which will buy 5 bicycles for the girls at The Nishay School in India. Kent Schools Athletic Association has selected James Bryant, Upper Sixth, to represent the county in the England Schools Cross Country Championships as a result of his showing in the National Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill. He ran in the U20 category and finished the 10km run in 72nd place out of 200. Well done! The Fives team took a trip to Tonbridge School this half term. No sooner had the match begun, than Tonbridge became painfully aware of the hubris of fielding a ‘B’ team against such seasoned and dexterous
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opposition. The Sutton Valence team started as they meant to go on, securing convincing victories in all four singles matches. Next came the doubles, in which the first pair of Joseph Leale-Green and Emily Royer displayed admirable teamwork in defeating their opponents. The second pair of Oliver Aucamp and Joshua Pembrook were business-like in their dismantling of both Tongridge’s pairs. Altogether, Sutton Valence won the match by 132 points to 39, without conceding a single game. Man of the Match was Oliver Aucamp who won his singles game by 11 points to love and produced some highly memorable shots. Netball The U15 Netball team have been the sport stars of the term! Undefeated in every fixture, they have now gone on to win the Benenden Tournament. They played against schools larger than Sutton Valence and, traditionally, stronger, but the scores speak for themselves: 16-16 against King’s Canterbury, 34-4 against St Bede’s, 25-12 against Benenden and 47-2 against Kent
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College Canterbury. An incredible 122 goals were scored in 120 minutes of play.
However, not to be outdone, the U12 team won the Weald of Kent Tournament on 28th February. In the preliminary rounds they shone with wins against Hillview, Tonbridge Girls Grammar School, Tunbridge Wells Girls Grammar School and the Weald of Kent Grammar School. Finishing top of their group they went on to beat TWGGS B team in the semi- final. They then faced TWGGS A team again in a nail-biting final. With a draw on the scorecard at full time the game was decided by sudden death Golden Goal. Captain Emelia Hollingsworth sealed the victory with a terrific shot!
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Little Voices Raise The Roof! The Prep School played host to more than 160 visiting Primary School children for their annual Singing Day on Tuesday 13th March. The combined voices delighted parents and teachers alike during the day’s singing tuition and concert finale.
Mrs Heaton said, “The children worked extremely hard to tackle some challenging material in a very short time. I was delighted with their response and with the polished and expressive performance they gave in the concert.”
Proud parents filled the School’s Bates Hall to hear the impressive results of an afternoon’s coaching from Head of Music, Mrs Wendy Heaton.
Music plays a very important role in life at the Prep School and singing is an important part of the curriculum. All children are encouraged to sing, play and perform, both by themselves and with others.
Children in Years 3 and 4 from eight schools in the Maidstone area joined our Junior Choir to learn some top singing techniques, before they all delivered a grand concert to parents and teachers at the end of the afternoon.
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Mrs Heaton said, “We believe that music is for everyone. At every stage we aim to engender enjoyment of music, whilst developing skills and building confidence.”
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Girls are Clear Winners in Kent U18 Schools Rugby 7s
Our Girls Rugby Squad was delighted with their win in the Kent Schools Rugby 7s U18 tournament on Monday 5th March, hosted by Benenden School. The 'round robin' tournament was between Benenden, Mascalls School, Maidstone Grammar, The Judd and Sutton Valence.
20 - 5. The following game, against a Mascalls side that contained a Kent player, saw them win by an impressive margin of 39 - 0. In their toughest challenge, they then faced last year's champions, the Judd School but after a well-fought battle Sutton Valence girls came out 12 - 5 winners.
The squad of Amy Wombwell (Captain), Amy Baxter, Emma Baxter, Lauren Cansick, Hannah Davies, Nanki Dogra, Kaya Jago, Phoebe Fryer, Betsy Nally, Sophia Schultz, Marie Schobinger and Sophie Taylor have been training with Lindsay Mitchell, Maths teacher and Jacques Van Vuuren, 2nd XV coach, since September, but this is the highlight of the season so far.
Lindsay Mitchell said, "I am so pleased for the girls. They have all worked hard in training and throughout the competition showed commitment and great teamwork. Their victory was thoroughly deserved."
In the competition, Sutton Valence's first game was against Maidstone Grammar School, who in their first match had posted an impressive victory over Benenden, however this did not deter the girls who won
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Unfortunately for Maidstone Grammar an injury prevented their final match against Benenden being played, but Sutton Valence came through as clear winners, being the only team that was unbeaten. Four days later, the Senior School hosted our U10 Prep School Rugby 7s, now in its second successful year. With fourteen
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schools taking part, including our Prep School, it was a busy day of coaching and match play. Our rugby coaches and referees were out in force, along with members of the 1st XV, all under the direction of Phil Smith, Director of Rugby, who had organised the day. “Since joining the School in September, I have refereed at several prep school tournaments and have been very impressed
Kit Car Some years ago, David Froud, who then had four grandchildren at the School, generously donated a sum of money to enable the School to buy a kit car. Housed in the garage down by Lambe’s, a succession of budding engineers and car enthusiasts worked on the car in their Activities time. Finally, at the end of the Michaelmas Term, Mr Wesselink and this
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by the standard of play”, he said. “Today’s performances were no less commendable and, in fact, we saw some outstanding tackling and tactical play, particularly from Freddie North, Wellesley House, who was our ‘Man of the Tournament’. In the end St Michael’s, Otford, ran out worthy winners at the end of a tightly fought match against The New Beacon, last year’s winners.
year’s group unveiled the car to the School and Mr Froud, who was delighted to take a drive in it. It was always the intention to sell the car to fund the purchase of another for future engineering students to work on, but with work still to be done on the electrics this may not be possible for some time. In the meantime, over 20 boys and girls have gained valuable engineering skills and a lot of fun bringing the car to life.
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Primary Hockey Festival One hundred children, in ten teams, from eight primary schools and the Prep School plus twelve coaches and umpires and SVPSPA arrived at the Prep School on Friday 16th March for the Hockey Festival.
Stubbings (Hockey coach), Sutton Valence Hockey Club and Prep School sports staff, the children were moved around twelve training stations where they were shown how they could improve their skills.
Will Fuller, Head of Boys Games, had organised a fun-packed afternoon for the children with coaching sessions followed by a tournament. Using expertise from the Senior School, including ex-GB player and Head of Hockey, Dave Mathews and Diccon
Using both Astropitches there followed an enthusiastically and well-fought series of matches, fuelled by refreshments kindly provided by the parents’ association which ended with the Prep School as the eventual winners.
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The Independent Curriculum for Independent Thinkers Sutton Valence Preparatory School is one of the first independent schools in Kent to introduce the Independent Curriculum for Years 3-6. The Independent Curriculum (IC), which was launched in September 2011, offers a new programme of learning, whereby children go through the steps of applying knowledge, understanding and being able to communicate it, not simply
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repeating what they have been taught, but truly understanding it. It is this key difference which sets the IC apart from the traditional curriculum as all three areas of discovering, applying and communicating are given equal emphasis within the classroom. Previously, more emphasis was placed on the discovering
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element and this did not provide the essential platform for pupils to become the independent thinkers, which is so important in today’s workplace and society in general. There is a requirement for all schools today to better prepare their pupils for the next stage in their education journey. Not only does the IC encourage higher order thinking, but it is genuinely crosscurricular and provides a relevant toolkit of transferable skills for the children. For example, the child who is confident and has the ability to create a pie chart in their Maths lesson also independently understands the same technique can be used in their Geography work too. Furthermore, by developing and instilling independent thinking into the pupils, it allows those who may not naturally be ‘top thinkers’ to develop that skill, to become more confident and to think broadly and outside of the box.
Saracens debut win! Congratulations to Nathan Earle (Groves 2011), who left us at the end of Fifth Form in 2010. His nine minute first team debut for Saracens ended in a 41-14 win over Worcester Warriors in the LV=Cup on January 29 2012. He then started in the No. 14 jersey on his England U18 debut against France at Fylde in late February this year. Nathan also played hockey and was in the U16 team which won the Kent Schools Championship. But rugby has always been his first love and he left Sutton Valence to join the Rugby AASE programme at Oaklands College, St Albans, where he is studying A-level history, psychology and PE with a view to going on to university.
Claire Corkran, Deputy Head, was delighted to be asked to contribute to the Independent Curriculum and has written all of the content for the area of PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) education. “At the Prep School” she said, “we have been using aspects to enhance our teaching and learning. English, PSHE and RE planning is now closely linked with the IC and other subjects will follow soon.” “The IC fits so well with the ethos of our School, an environment where we aim to provide children with creative, inspiring learning experiences as well as preparing them for life beyond school,” Claire concluded.
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Cadet hits the high notes Our very special congratulations to James Aburn who, after being selected to attend the Band Camp at RAF Cranwell, has been asked to join the Air Cadets National Concert Band. Not only did he perform in the final concert performance before high ranking RAF Officers and their guests, but he also won the highest award for the course, the Golden Lyre. James is pictured here with the badge on his arm.
'Help for Heroes' Charity Day Pupils at the Prep School were asked to dress up at the beginning of March as a real life hero, as part of our Help for Heroes Charity Day. All the children (and staff too!) made a great effort with their costumes.
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There was no shortage of nurses, soldiers, vets, firemen and police officers at the School today. We even had a guest appearance from The Queen and one of her Corgis.
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St Dunstan’s Final Challenge For the second year running, Sutton Valence School CCF has seen off cadet groups from all over the country to win the St Dunstan’s Challenge Trophy. The competition involved a team of 10 cadets from Third Form (year 9) to Upper Sixth (year 13) taking part in a 25 kilometre night walk, for which they had to gain sponsorship. Sutton Valence CCF beat Huddersfield ACF by securing £1700 for the walk. The trophy was presented to the Cadets by Simon Brown, seen in the middle of the front row of the picture. Simon was shot by a sniper in Iraq, while serving with his engineering regiment.
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Simon travels the country on behalf of St Dunstan’s and has undertaken several expeditions to raise awareness of the organisation, including twice crossing Costa Rica through the jungle and walking across the Sahara Desert. Whilst in Iraq, he served with the School’s new Adjutant, Major Prem Ale, a Gurkha formerly of 36 Engineer, Maidstone. This will be the final St Dunstan’s Challenge as a new competition will be started next year when St Dunstan’s change their name to Blind Vets UK.
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Head of School, Lucy Baxter Headmaster's Assembly beginning of term I decided over my holidays not to preach to you about working hard to reach the best of your ability, or finding the right balance between work and play because I know and we all know that our parents and our teachers will remind us of it throughout the year – ad infinitum! Instead I want to quote Latin – ‘Carpe Diem’ - this is from a poem written by Horace in the 1st Century and it translates as ‘seize the day’. I interpret it to mean taking every opportunity as it is presented to you, for example not only the amazing trips that SV offers, but the sport, music and CCF to name just a few. Try saying ‘Yes’ and take a risk. Last term I thought I had taken too much of a risk agreeing to be involved in Sweet Charity while juggling other commitments, but the end result was definitely worth it and I got a splendid sense of achievement. It might make you anxious, or scared, but sometimes the hardest routes lead to the best results and give you the greatest pleasures. It’s all very well working hard and achieving stupendous exam results, but what kind of person are you beneath those grades? Perhaps your lives are already jam-packed full of exhilarating hobbies: maybe you rock climb in the Himalayas, play the violin for a famous orchestra, or maybe you just socialise with a few friends on the weekend. But these are things you hopefully enjoy doing and don’t involve work that you begrudge, and this will influence the person you are and want to become.
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I often find myself worrying: worrying about exams coming up, or even worrying about this speech, as my sisters will tell you, but we can’t waste our days worrying about the future because ‘Today’s trouble is enough for today’. Of course if you want wonderful results work hard, but then don’t waste your spare time complaining about how busy you are because that defeats the object. Instead fill it. Fill it with interests that you enjoy, something that you find fun. Therefore, I ask you all to make this the year that you live for the moment, maybe go a little crazy, like George Hughes did when he cycled from John O’Groats to Land’s End. That seems a little crazy to me, as it’s not something we could all do in hurry! And don’t end the day with regrets, because once the day is gone you will never get it back. I would like to finish with a quote from a DreamWorks’s cartoon classic, Kungfu Panda, ‘Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.’
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