SPRING TERM 2016
SPRING TERM 2016
Post talk stroking!
Banbury Rotary Club’s
Youth Speaks Competition Harriet Hope, Rosie Dunbar and Izzy Batt formed Tudor Hall’s senior team for the Rotary Club’s Youth Speaks competition. Having won the first round of the competition which was held at school, the girls attended the second round in Witney. Rosie did an excellent job introducing the team and chairing the proceedings, especially as she stepped in at the last minute and only had a few days to prepare and rehearse. Harriet’s speech, questioning whether ‘celebrity culture is a modern day evil’, was both thought-provoking and funny and was delivered with great flair. Izzy wrapped up the Tudor presentation with a witty vote of thanks and, while she assured us she was shaking all the way through, was the very picture of composure. The girls didn’t win but they gave a great performance and their attitude to the whole competition was one of good humour and professionalism.
TUDOR HALL NEWSLETTER
Charity Mud Run Girls, staff and families took part in the inaugural Mud Run in aid of the Little Princess Charity raising £2,500. Organised by the Charity Committee, the run tested the runners’ mental and physical strength over a 2.5km course around the school grounds and fields. After crawling through mud, scrambling under cargo nets and running through water-logged woods, it was hard to recognise participants on the finishing line!
Jamie and Katie Radford with A P McCoy
AP McCoy tells all at Eton Talk Nine members of the LVI attended a fantastic talk at Eton College by Sir A P McCoy, who spoke about his life as a jockey.
Celebrating HM The Queen’s 90th
On Thursday 21st April, we will be celebrating HM The Queen’s 90th birthday at school. In addition to forming a ‘human 90’ on the lawn and planting a tree with Old Tudorians from the ‘Class of 1953’ to commemorate this momentous occasion, girls and staff will be treated to an afternoon tea party and cutting of Darren O’Neill’s celebratory 90th cake. Girls are invited to dress up for the occasion in red, white and blue. We look forward to Nicola Jones’ corgi Diggle playing a starring role.
CONTACTS AT TUDOR HALL
The Mikado
Michael Paleodimos, Serena Armitage and Shan Christopher Ogilvie arriving at the 88th Academy Awards
OTA Oxford Drinks Alert dog Molly with Steven
Medical Detection Dogs
Life Saving, Life Changing
IIs bowl over Summer Fields
The IIs joined their equivalent year group from Summer Fields School in Oxford for an evening of bowling at Bowlplex at the Kassam Stadium. Kindly organised by Martin Ives of Summer Fields, the mixed teams played a frame before honing their skills in the amusement arcade.
Anna Chambers and Ella Zeigler undertook an assessment for the National Pool Lifeguard Qualification with an assessor from the Royal Life Saving Society. The girls trained weekly throughout Sixth Form and are competent in CPR, first aid, pool rescue skills (including how do deal with casualties with spinal injuries) and have knowledge in creating and maintaining a safe environment at a swimming pool to ensure the safety of all the swimmers. Tudor Girls from previous years have reported using their qualification on their gap year, in part time jobs at leisure facilities and complementing roles such as teaching. A group of LVI girls have also benefitted from attending the course as part of their extra-curricular timetable and will complete their assessment in the summer term.
Headmistress Wendy Griffiths 01295 756200 jlewis@tudorhallschool.com Main School Switchboard 01295 263434 admin@tudorhallschool.com
News from The Old Tudorians’ Association Hot off the red carpet! OT Serena Armitage (1999) and Benjamin Cleary were the 2016 Oscar winners for Best Live Action Short Film, Stutterer, at the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. The OTA hosted a well-attended drinks reception for OTs and members of the Tudor community living, working and studying in and around Oxford at The Varsity Club, High Street, Oxford. OTs (ranging from class of 1980-2015) joined staff, girls, former members of staff and parents for an evening of catching up, networking and general jollity. On Wednesday 8th June, OTs living, working and studying in London are invited to join the OTA for drinks in The Archer Street Bar, 3-4 Archer Street, London, W1D 7AP, from 6.30-9.30pm. On Saturday 11th June, Opera Anywhere will be performing The Mikado, accompanied by members of the school in the chorus, in the Japanese Garden at Tudor. Gates open at 6pm, guests are invited to picnic in the school grounds, and the opera will start at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £30 per adult, children aged 16 and under £10 and current Tudor students free. To buy tickets, see www.eventbrite.co.uk or contact emcgowan@tudorhallschool.com.
Nobel Prize Winners in the making Girls from the LVI attended a particle physics master class at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories in Oxford, one of the UK’s national scientific research laboratories operated by the Science & Technology Facilities Council. As part of the day, they attended a series of talks on the Standard model and particle accelerators by researchers, and toured the Diamond accelerator. They were then given the opportunity to analyse real data from the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva from the ATLAS detector and were the first group to find the Higgs Boson (a subatomic particle whose existence is predicted by the theory which unified the weak and electromagnetic interactions). Teacher of Physics, Joan Shaw, who led the trip, enthused “The girls did brilliantly to be the first school to find the Higgs Boson – Nobel prizes all round!”
Marina Bealby on the podium
Marina attacks the slalom
Registrar Philippa Drinkwater 01295 756259 registrar@tudorhallschool.com Director of Marketing Shanna Wells 01295 756276 swells@tudorhallschool.com
The Medical Detection Dogs Support Charity visited Tudor to give an inspirational talk to Todd, IIs and IIIs. The charity trains dogs to detect the odour of human disease and the girls learned about the Medical Alert Assistance dogs (trained to assist individuals who manage complex, life threatening health conditions) and the Cancer Detection dogs (who aid in the advancement of research into the early diagnosis of cancers through cheap non-invasive tests). Needless to say, the appearance of such amazing dogs on site certainly caused a stir which the visiting yellow labrador puppy seemed to enjoy!
SPRING TERM 2016 / NO25
Head of Communications and Alumnae Relations Emma McGowan 01295 756287 emcgowan@tudorhallschool.com Bursar and Clerk to the Governors Helen Jackson 01295 756202 hjackson@tudorhallschool.com Visits to Tudor Hall Next open morning is on Saturday 14th May at 10.00am. To reserve a place, please contact admissions@tudorhallschool.com
Tudor Hall, Wykham Park, Banbury, Oxon OX16 9UR www.tudorhallschool.com A Registered Charity Reg No. 1042783 Tudor Hall School Limited Registered Number 2995266 Registered Office: Wykham Park, Banbury, OX16 9UR
Memory Wall
Holocaust Memorial Week
To commemorate the Holocaust Memorial Day, held in the UK and other countries on 27th January, Tudor hosted a variety of events over a week long period to remember the 6 million individuals who lost their lives. Girls took part in a Holocaust assembly, the Vs, LVI and UVI participated in Holocaust Remembrance Debates with three other schools, and staff and girls had the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings on a memory wall. Sylwia Holmes, Tudor Music Administrator and Research Associate at the UCL Holocaust Education Centre, who organised the events commented “The aim of the memory wall was to ensure the girls thought beyond the victims’ names, researching who the victims were, where they lived, their language, beliefs, religious subset, clothes, profession, culture and traditions.” You can read Sylwia’s article on Holocaust Education on the IOE/UCL blog, see https:// ioelondonblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/ ive-always-not-been-racist-where-next-forholocaust-education/#more-3345
Half term Ski Trip
Bronze medal for Tudor skier An elated Tudor Ski Team returned from the British School Girls’ Races in Flaine, France. Marina Bealby (Ashtons) won a bronze medal in the Under 21 ‘non-registered skier’ section and the team, competing against a field of 131 skiers forming 48 teams from 31 schools, were placed 21st overall. Huge congratulations to Marina, Jessica Carter (Vs), Jessica Miller (Vs), Lorna Fleming (IVs), Maria Agustdottir (IIIs) and Olivia Belbin (UVI). The girls competed in three races – Slalom, Giant Slalom and Parallel Slalom – over two days in the French Resort. Verity Redrup, Tudor Hall’s Ski Team Manager, commented, “The competition was tough, with teams from all over the UK competing to an extremely high level. Marina has been skiing in the competition since joining the Tudor team in the IIs, so it’s great for her to go out on a high. Huge congratulations also go to Maria Agustdottir (12) who came 63rd in the open Giant Slalom.” February half term saw 28 girls from the IIs to IVs head off to Nassfeld in Austria for the inaugural school ski trip. The girls received five hours of instruction per day, interspersed with lunch on the mountain, and learnt to ski powder in the two feet of snow that fell during the week. The trip provided an excellent opportunity for Miss Redrup to identify future talent.
SPRING TERM 2016
SPRING TERM 2016
U13s Netball
Mark Eckert and Mimi Douglas receiving their certificates and cup
as
om Dana Th
In January, nine girls from Tudor Hall took part in the U13 County Netball Tournament at the Oxford Netball Centre. They were; Tilly Dollar (Captain), Emily Newsome, Grace Chism, Abigail Rutherford, Arabella Batt, Laoise McNamara, Lotty Walker, Fenella Wills and Natasha Stevenson.
Blue Stockings
Dana with Hannah Mills and Sophie Walker
Nanette Godfrey Memorial Lectures
Dana Thomas, author of Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano and Tudor mother, gave a fascinating lecture on two of fashions greatest players. Justine Hardy (OT and daughter of Robert Hardy) founded Healing Kashmir, a small network of charitable organisations aimed at developing and implementing a model of free mental health care and education in conflict and crisis situations. Justine gave a compelling lecture about depression, anxiety and negative thinking, and how to overcome it. Professor Lord Robert Winston, who unfortunately had to postpone his lecture Modifying Humans: where does genetics stop?, has rescheduled for 26th April.
The Banbury Young Musician of the Year Competition 2016 Eight girls made it through to the finals of the The Banbury Young Musician of the Year Competition 2016. In the Junior section, Lian Dancer played Allegro by Vivaldi on the violin and came third, and Tilly Sears sang Sunrise, Sunset by Jerry Bock, coming second. In the Intermediate section, Kitty Veale played Ladies in Lavender by Nigel Hess on the Violin and was placed second, with Grace Sale who came first with her rendition of Song without Words by Felix Mendelssohn on the cello. Mimi Douglas came second singing In His Eyes by Frank Wildhorn, and Mary Eckert, who sang Someone to Watch over Me by George Gershwin, won the section and was presented with the Banbury House Hotel Trophy. Mary and Jenny Look also sang the duet Serenade by Bizet and came third. In the Senior Piano section, Ella Ziegler wowed the audience with Notturno by Edvard Grieg, gaining second place.
SPRING TERM 2016
Tudor in 4 Continents
The girls took part in five matches; winning three, drawing one and losing one narrowly. As the team progressed through the tournament, they vastly improved their positional play and game awareness. Tudor Hall came fifth overall out of ten schools, narrowly missing out on a place in the semi-final. The nominated player of the tournament was Laoise McNamara.
Victoriana felt heart
In early February, the senior school put on a stunning production of Jessica Swale’s Blue Stockings. Set at Girton College, Cambridge in 1896, this relatively new play centres on the struggle of Cambridge’s first women students to be allowed to graduate. Its title refers to bluestockings, a derogatory term for female intellectuals, at a time when the education of women was regarded as potentially dangerous for their health, wellbeing and family life. “Love or knowledge: what would you choose?” The fact that the play champions women’s education made for a rewarding and uplifting experience for everyone involved in the production, with strong performances across the board, matching up to an amazing set. This is one of Tudor’s best productions to date. Degrees for women may have been a dangerous idea in 1896, but in 2016 we hope that this story of four young women fighting for education and self-determination will prove to be an inspiration to all the girls for many years to come.
Lindsey Lea James, Director of Music, enthused “We were really proud of all our competitors; they performed incredibly well but also carried themselves with maturity and poise. We wish Mary all the best in the District Rounds.”
U14A netball team
U14s Netball
The U14s have had a successful netball season, and have played some fantastic matches against tough teams. The U14A team won 3, drew 1 and lost 2 matches. The two losses were by 1 goal only, against strong teams from Headington (22-23) and Pangbourne (10-11). The girls in the squad have played well as a team and continue to build on their performance each match. The U14B team remained unbeaten, playing teams from St Edwards, Quinton House, Headington, Pangbourne, Bloxham and Stowe, working tremendously hard in each match. The U14C team won all matches bar one against Bromsgrove.
This year, Tudor Hall donated a ‘Most Improved Junior’ cup which was presented by Miss Griffiths.
The Ebenezer Living World Matriculation School
Chennai Eight girls from the LVI packed their rucksacks (and lots of art materials and sports equipment) and headed off to The Ebenezer Living Word Matriculation School in Chennai, India, for February half term. The girls tested their leadership and management skills, running daily 3-hour art sessions masterminded by Mrs Craske with over 40 children on 7 tables making a selection of masks, bags and felt animals. The girls also threw a children’s party, complete with pass the parcel and musical bumps, and visited the St Louis School for profoundly deaf and blind children. Thanks to pre-trip fundraising, volleyball and badminton equipment was donated and monies raised by Mrs Granville via the Warwickshire Hunt paid for a new bore hole and pump. Sight-seeing was squeezed into the girls’ timetable with trips to Mahabalipuram and the temples, churches and museums of Chennai.
Fascinator
El Porvenir Primary School
The Composers Series The letters and reminiscences of the great composers offer a unique window into the world in which they lived. Each year, Music Teacher Deborah Siepmann writes the script based on a selection of vivid source material enhancing the enjoyment of music by providing a brief overview of a composer’s life, or a glimpse into a period of music history. She then collaborates with Lindsey Lea-James and Susie Lowe to fuse the music with prose. Clara Petrillo and Kitty Veale performing Sisters
Music School Concert
Congratulations to everyone who performed in the informal music school concert. It was wonderful to see so many girls seizing the opportunity to perform, with some trying out new pieces, some gaining experience before an examination and others working towards performances in external competitions, such as the Banbury Young Musician Finals and the Chipping Norton Music Festival. The following performers gained a notable mention for their performance on the day: Kitty Veale and Clara Petrillo (vocal duet), Ella Ziegler (piano), Poppy James (clarinet), Jacqui Zhong (piano), Molly Nicholson (voice) and Katie Hurst (voice).
This year we were treated to an evening focusing on the Baroque period. With superb dramatic coaching from Susie Lowe, readers Sasha White and Anna Stallibrass brought the period to life with outstanding expression and clarity. They were complemented beautifully by music from Ella Bridgland on the harp, Joey Zhou, Sasha White, Francesca Dove and Kate Kot on the piano and harpsichord, Grace Sale on the cello, Clementine Beale on the flute, Harriet Gough on the guitar, Sophie Simoes, Jennifer Look, Sasha White & Anna Stallibrass Elizabeth Coombs and Martha Prestidge on violin and singing by Lucy Trotter, Mary Eckert, Violet Blackburn and Sophie Walker. Deborah Siepmann commented, “I love the privilege of working closely with my inspirational colleagues who, with their great knowledge of instrumental and vocal repertoire, always come up with beautiful pieces for the girls. As we let our imaginations drift back through time, these wonderful performances from our talented young musicians are always a great joy to hear.”
Needlework workshop
Textiles Trip Sports Workshop U17 Cross Country Team
Cross Country Success Tudor’s U17 Cross Country team won the Oxfordshire Schools Cross Country Championships at Radley College. Jenny Hannah, last year’s U15s champion, won the individual U17s title, with the Tudor team taking the gold medal.
Guatemala U15A netball team
U15s Netball
With a large field of Oxfordshire’s best U17 female runners, Tudor featured prominently in the top 10 in the first half of the race. The team then made their move in the second half of the race, forcing the tempo and leaving some of the early pace setters in their wake. In the final stages, Jenny Hannah found herself in the unfamiliar position of leading last year’s U17 champion and managed to retain her lead of some 15 seconds to finish first. Rose Lord ran with her usual expertise over the tricky course and crossed the line in 5th position, followed by Lucy Scruton who ran an excellent race finishing in 7th position, Jessica Miller coming in 11th place and Flora Ayres a highly respectable 22nd.
The U15A netball team has had an incredible season, winning five of their seven matches so far this term beating some exceptional schools including St Edwards, Bloxham and Stowe. The team put up an excellent performance at their County netball tournament but unfortunately were placed 3rd in their section after meeting some tough opposition.
Jenny Hannah, Rose Lord, Lucy Scruton, and Jessica Miller were all selected for the Oxfordshire County U17 team.
The U15B team remains unbeaten this season, with wins against St Edwards, Headington, Stowe, Bloxham and Akeley Wood. This is an exceptional feat which is a true credit to the strength and depth that Tudor Hall has. Well done to all of those involved.
In the U15 age group, Molly Levene came 6th, Ottilie Dick came 12th, Tilly Dollar was 45th, Mia Berridge was 53rd and Christina Rodriguez Martin came 70th. Molly Levene was selected for the U15 County team.
Five members of the LVI travelled to the rural community of San Lorenzo el Cubo in Guatemala with Mr Edwards and Miss Thomas over February half term for an experience of a life time. El Porvenir Primary School is one of two schools built by Niños De Guatemala, a Dutch-Guatemalan non-profit organisation which works to break the cycle of poverty in Guatemala by providing quality education to those who need it most. The girls worked as classroom assistants in different year groups, introducing the children to ‘It’, ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’ and ‘Hopscotch’ at playtime, and providing a variety of after-school activities including textiles and sport workshops for over 40 children each afternoon. The girls also had an opportunity to gain an understanding of Guatemalan culture, visiting a factory that transforms American school buses into iconic ‘Chicken Buses’ that ferry passengers all over the country, as well as a tour of a coffin making factory. They visited the home of a mother who makes 140 worry dolls a day to supplement her family’s income, and took a boat trip across Lake Atitlan stopping off to see how chocolate is made and take part in a local bracelet making workshop. A highlight was a trip to the local coffee cooperative, De La Gente, touring the plantation on the side of a volcano and then witnessing the process which transforms coffee beans into a tasty cup of coffee. Whilst eating really well throughout the trip, the tastiest meal was prepared by the owner of the coffee plantation – a delicious chicken stew accompanied by tortillas and the spiciest, most flavoursome chilli.
The Vs Textiles trip visited The Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court and the Vogue 100: Century of Style exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery to support their course work. The girls took part in a bespoke needlework workshop with the RSN’s BA Hons Degree Hand Embroidery expert, Angie Wyman, creating Victoriana felt hearts and fascinators. They were then given the chance to see the school’s archive ‘Handling Collection’ which demonstrated to the girls how stitch alters fabric in so many ways. Rebekah Knox enthused “The RSN was amazing, it was especially good to experience what it’s like to be at a school utilising exquisite techniques and ideas in the textile world. I enjoyed making the needle cushions and learning a brand new stitch. We also saw the first year students’ work which gave me inspiration for my new project.” The girls then headed into central London to see Vogue 100 which gave a fantastic insight into the magazine’s history since its first edition in 1916. With magazines from each year on display, the girls saw how the history of fashion, editorial style and photographic approach has changed over the last century.