Week 17 wss newsletter

Week 17

The Barometer nd

22 January

This week at Wetherby Senior School Monday 25th ‘Going Places with Geography’ day at the

Monday Clubs 10:30-1530

Royal Geographical Society – CANCELLED Year 9: Games

11:00-13:15

WSS All Stars – CANCELLED

13:30

Whole School: Talk by Henry Fraser

13:30

Tuesday 26th Year 7: Games

Tuesday Clubs 11:00-1315

Wednesday 27th 14:00-16:30

Official Opening of Wetherby Senior School

19:00

Thursday 28th 14:00-16:30

Session

Friday 29th Year 9: Walkabout Foundation Workshop

11:10

Choir

13:30

HM Assembly – Hinde Street Methodist

15:00

Saturday 30th & Sunday 31st

SlowMo Table Tennis Mandarin Family History

Thursday Clubs

Football Year 9: QPR Professional Coaching

Church

Chess & Backgammon Fencing Football Quiz Yofit Music Tech

Wednesday Clubs

Year 7: Games

Year 9: Games

Art & Design Basketball Future Writers Videography Ukulele

Code Table Tennis Grub Club

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Dear Parents, In the modern world, so many of us have become slaves to our phones and I, as much as anyone, rely on my phone for news, emails, tweets…and the occasional phone call. But I like news, always have done; I like being up to date and knowing what’s going on. I often think that the most exciting place in the country must be a newsroom when a major story is breaking and, of course, I always like to know everything that's going on at Wetherby Prep and the Senior School! I would like to think that the staff at both schools and I are very responsive to emails but, amongst my communications, there are occasions when I get messages that are so intriguing that they need immediate action or explanation.

An example of this occurred as I was on the train home on Wednesday night. The message, from an old prep school friend and now close neighbour, said simply, “Come quick - I’ve created the Land of Mordor!” Now I’m not a big Tolkien or fantasy genre fan but knowing Jim Matthews, the sender of the text, and what he does for a living, I replied immediately, “Be there in twenty mins.”

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Jim, along with his brother, Trafford, run the family brick making business, set up by their grandfather, a brisk ten minute walk across fields behind our house. They have the only wood-burning brick kiln in the northern hemisphere and the kiln, lit that afternoon and powered by 28 fire holes, was evidently burning majestically. It was

an awesome sight in its own right but the real treat was to scale the ladder to look over the top of the kiln. He was absolutely right. Jim had indeed created his very own ‘Land of Mordor’, with a glowing, flame-licking surface, stretching far into the distance on the top of the kiln. It is difficult for a picture to convey the drama of this extraordinary process, or my experience on Wednesday, but it was a most impressive sight and a perfect example of one British manufacturing industry that is alive and well in South Bucks, neither tainted, interfered with or ‘improved’ by modern technology.

Have a good weekend…

Nick Baker

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Resilience Week Miss Lillington writes…

Next week we have two special events taking place: on Monday 25th the boys will hear a talk by Henry Fraser and on Friday 29th the Walkabout Foundation are running a workshop with the Year 9 boys. With these two events in place, next week will be a fantastic opportunity to really promote the theme of Resilience.

At Wetherby the term Resilience is perceived as having the following learning attributes:

You are ready, willing and able to get on with learning.    

Recognising and reducing interruptions Absorbed in your task Noticing what is out there Sticking at tasks without giving up.

Monday 25th January: Henry Fraser Talk As the Headmaster mentioned in Friday’s assembly, Henry Fraser will be visiting the school to speak to the boys on Monday 25th January. Here is a link to his website: http://www.henryfraser.org/ Friday 29th January: Year 9 Walkabout Foundation Workshop On a similar theme, some representatives from the Walkabout Foundation are coming into school on Friday 29th Jan to run a workshop with the Year 9 boys about living with paralysis and the work of the charity. It will also be an opportunity for the boys to find out how the money they have raised so far will be used to help people live a more independent life.

Here is a link to their site: https://uk.walkaboutfoundation.org/

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From the Art & Design Department Mr Meyer writes‌ This week, for the first time this year, Year 9 moved into the Design & Technology Department. This will provide them with an opportunity to design and build a bedside bookcase. In doing so, they will use a number of machines and tools to help aid with this process from a band saw to sanding belts. During my school days, I used to find that there was a lot of waiting around in DT with too few machines and too many boys. However, due to the well-equipped nature of the department's suite, there are often as little as four pupils per machine. Below are some of the drawn designs which they have started to transfer onto wood.

Jack Henniker-Gotley

Armand Sharda

Sebastian Burckle

Jack Connolly

Oliver Lind

Ben Dye

Niclas Stick

Louis JĂŠgou

A Teacher Example

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From the French Department Mrs Diamond writes‌ Year 7 and Year 9 have been doing spontaneous speaking practice this week, which is skill they need to develop for the GCSE exam. See below some questions and sentences they have come up with and they need to carry practice at any opportunity.

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This week Year 7 have completed Unit 4 on the topic of describing pets and will have an assessment on their learning (chapter 4A-4E) next Tuesday 26th (7A) and Wednesday 27th (7B).

Strategies to revise for the assessment:   

Review grammar rules from the French Red folder, Review exercises done in GIA grammar exercise book (grey workbook) Review vocab, grammar and strategies from the Tricolore 1 French Textbook (all sent home for the long week-end)

Topics are: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

pets, colour etc.(see sommaire p 41) Using adjectives in French Using negatives le verbe avoir and how we say “you” (tu-vous) in French

Further practice can be done (using boys’ logins) on:   

VocabExpress, Learn vocab section Unit 4 (https://www.vocabexpress.com/login/?redirect=%2Fhome%2F) Kerboodle Chapter 4A-4B (interactive activities) (https://www.kerboodle.com/users/login) Linguascope (http://www.linguascope.com/)

Finally, thank you to all the parents who returned their consent form for the Language trip to Bruxelles. If you have not given yours back please return it asap. The form is attached with the newsletter again this week.

Bon week-end et bonnes revisions!

From the Games Department Mr Sullivan writes…

The winter term has started in earnest and the boys have already excelled in a number of sports. Next week the boys will be tested on their fitness by participating in the bleep test. Please ensure your son brings a water bottle to their Monday or Tuesday games session. The bleep test is a multi-stage fitness test in which they must do 20m shuttle runs in time with the bleeps until the bleeps get too quick for them. This will

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give me a better understanding of the boys VO2 max rate (maximum oxygen uptake). Good luck!

On Thursday 28th January 2016 the Year 9 boys will be coached by QPR professionals. This will be a great chance to show off their fitness, teamwork and skills. Have fun!

Players of Week: Well done to Adam Ahmed-Mekky, George Gerson and Joshua George-Oppong for their outstanding teamwork and participation in the trail matches! All that hard work has gained them selection for the 1st team. Keep it up!

Year 7 Rugby Holland Park A vs Wetherby Senior School A Mr Meyer writes‌ Conditions were extremely different to the ones experienced at Holland Park in November.

Then the weather was wet and cold whereas on Wednesday conditions were dry and bright. Holland Park team members were noticeably bigger but the boys didn't appear too phased by this as they felt confident in their own ability. Going into this game Mr Sullivan and the games team looked at the three fundamental

areas

of

rugby:

handling,

communication and tackling. And from the very outset it was clear that we had these key areas in our game. Wetherby Senior boys were excellent throughout, offloading in the tackle; running great lines and rucking in what was a largely dominant first twenty minutes with Himat and George (2) scoring our three tries. Holland Park started to claw its way back into the game and suddenly it was 20-15 to the home side at the half-time interval.

During the opening exchanges of the second half, a shuddering tackle from Beau and a number of runs from Jacques saw the away side slowly come back into the game. As the game wore on the hosts began to tire and Himat capitalised on this by scoring in the corner.

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An spectacular swan dive from Adhemar in the dying moments of the game capped an excellent victory in what was Wetherby’s first match of the season.

This was a superb team effort from each and every one of the twenty-four man squad.

Year 9 Football Wetherby Senior School vs. Cardinal Vaughan Mr Betts writes.....

After several good training sessions and a disappointing cancellation last week, the boys were eager to get the first game underway. Today's opponents were Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School.

The first half was very much in favour of CVMS. They had good team chemistry and were confident on the ball, which they utilised well and were able to grab a couple of quick first half goals as a result. The Wetherby boys were on the back foot for a lot of the half but managed to withstand heavy pressure on several occasions.

After a well needed break we came out to start the second half. The change in attitude from all the boys was phenomenal. Everyone picked themselves up and the confidence they had gained at half time was demonstrated in the football to come. Oli and Luke combined well with Will and Gulliver to make some excellent attacking breaks down the left and right wings and we started to test the opposition GK with some strong efforts. The defence of Rahul, Matthew, JP, Nelson and Zach improved minute by minute, finishing with a superbly strong back line.

There were many positives to pull from today's fixture as well as many things we need to work on in training. With QPR coming next Thursday for a session, the boys can really think about the football we want to play and learn from the best!

A special mention today must go to our Man of the Match. Sean Masri gave one of the finest debut keeping displays I've ever seen. He made save after save at either end of the pitch, the majority of which were far from straight forward.

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It was great to get the first game in for Wetherby Senior School and Mr Sullivan and I are really looking forward to what is to come!

Wetherby Senior School (B) vs. Cardinal Vaughan (B) Mr Meyer writes...

History was created on Thursday when Wetherby Senior School played Cardinal Vaughan School at Wetherby Sports Ground. Having the astroturf pitch to ourselves, Wetherby and the visitors were able to spread play around a large playing surface. Wetherby kicked off in there all black strip and immediately felt the away team's pressure with three goals coming in the first ten minutes. Although we were able to tackle and defend to an extent, Cardinal Vaughn found ways through and scored a plethora of goals after the break. The home side should not feel disheartened by this loss, but take away the many positives: Armand and Vadim's tackling, Hamoud chasing every ball, Paul's shot stopping and Massi's dribbling. In training we will work on passing, finishing and positioning.

Cross Country Mr Meyer writes...

The 42nd Knole Run took place at Sevenoaks School on Saturday of last week. We had two boys representing Wetherby Senior School: Matthew Monaghan and Manuel Costa. In what was a challenging and undulating course in the heart of West Kent, the boys held firm and never gave up as they ran the 5.8km circuit. They did the school and, more importantly, themselves extremely proud. Well done to them indeed.

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And finally…

Boys do you think athletes are getting faster, better, stronger?

Yes or No? Why? How? Please watch David Epstein: Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger?

When you look at sporting achievements over the last decades, it seems like humans have become faster, better and stronger in nearly every way. Yet as David Epstein points out in this delightfully counter-intuitive talk, we might want to lay off the self-congratulation. Many factors are at play in shattering athletic records, and the development of our natural talents is just one of them.

Please click on the link: https://www.ted.com/talks/david_epstein_are_athletes_really_getting_faster_better_stronger

Have you changed your mind?

I would like to know!

Sports Quote of the Week ‘You win some and lose some. NO YOU DON’T! You win some and learn some' Follow us for results and updates on Twitter via @WetherbySSports #teamwetherby

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From the History Department Mr Warner writes‌ After a week with their noses pressed to the historical grind stone the boys in Year 9 have begun to produce some very interesting research projects on the Great War. Topics range from the impact aviation had on the war to questioning how far the sacrifices made were worth it. I look forward to seeing the finished articles on Monday morning.

Thank you for the interest shown so far in the Year 10 Normandy Battlefields tour. There are still spaces left so if you would like your son to attend please email me or fill in the reply slip.

From the Maths Department Mr Dawson writes‌ This week Year 7 have been learning about co-ordinates. The boys started by seeing how we use co-ordinates in everyday life from maps to video games. In our first lesson we solved a murder mystery using clues linked to co-ordinates to get back to the basics.

Later in the week we saw how computers use co-ordinates in the most basic of video games right through to the complex calculations

How do you think coordinates are used in a simple game like this? computers must do with coordinates to reshape and size 3D objects made from polygons

in

the

blockbuster games.

latest

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Grub Club Miss Lillington writes…

In Grub Club this week, the boys learnt how to make shortbread as it is nearly Burns Night (Monday 25th January)! They also learnt that fruit pastels explode when you bake them inside biscuits for too long!

Star baker this week was Jacques O’Connor who decorated his shortbread so beautifully!

From the Wetherby Learning Community Miss Lillington writes…

Learning to Uke As part of the “Wetherby Community of Learners” scheme, I have decided to take the opportunity to learn how to play the Ukulele!

After listening to many of the boys performing in assembly, I was inspired to learn a new musical instrument. When I was at school, I learnt to play the cello and I passed my Grade 7 when I was in Year 10.

However, I stopped enjoying playing because I found it rather serious just playing to pass exams. It is always

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much more fun learning to play an instrument when you are part of a group and I found that when I went to university, it was difficult to commit to playing in an orchestra. Now I live in London, lugging a cello around on the tube is no easy task! So the ukulele seemed like the perfect instrument for me: it is fun to learn, very sociable and small enough to not upset my fellow commuters!

This Christmas, I bought myself a Ukulele and since the start of term I have attended the Ukulele Ensemble which is run by Miss Valentine every Monday. It has been great fun learning new chords with the boys each week (some of whom have helped to teach me).

Each week, I have also been to Ukulele Wednesdays at The Albany. Essentially, every Wednesday evening, the basement of the pub fills up with people of all ages and abilities, shouting out a song they want to play, followed by a good strum and sing-a-long. I’ve made good progress since Christmas and my aim for this week is to master the chords for “Hotel California” in memory of Glenn Frey from the Eagles.

And now for something completely different…

Mr Hasthorpe writes…

Teaching 9.1 about the Rutherford alpha scattering experiment took an unexpected turn at the start of term, but the resulting break has provided an excellent opportunity to study the

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medical uses of X-rays in class. At Wetherby Senior we do strive to make our science lessons memorable!