Issue 22 – 9 March 2017
DEAR PARENTS
Unlike last week, which was a bit of a ‘slow news week’…this week I have loads to tell you!
Firstly, I need to inform you how amazing the Inter-House Music Competition was and what very talented sons
you have. There were some really exceptional performances from the boys, Akondu Iyoko had us rocking in our
seats with his drumming, and the boys even gave a spontaneous cheer at the end. Dexter Bevan and Roger Cai
were the overall winners of the U9 and U11 Music Cups respectively. Mrs Gaunt (the adjudicator) said that
Dexter sang like an angel and that Roger, who plays just about every instrument imaginable, was an extremely
talented young man. At the end of the competition I asked the boys to raise their hands if they had been involved
in the heats and the finals. At a guess, I would say that approximately 70% of the boys in the school had entered
the competition. Being the most non-musical person ever, I am full of admiration for all of the boys who took part,
well done QEGLETs!
Last Saturday was the QEGS Junior School Dinner Dance, which this year was held at ‘The Space’ in Wakefield.
It was a great event…good food, good music and good company. My table was placed by the photographer who
had the job of taking ‘studio type photographs’ of some very unruly parents, I have to say….I haven’t laughed so
much in ages! I won’t say anything else other than Mr Evans, Mr Smith and Mr Bowser you made my night; I
won’t be looking at you in the same light again, especially when it comes to pink PVC hats and blond plaits!!! A
HUGE thank you to Sarah Marshall, Saminah Yunis, Sue English, Julie Woolhouse and Lucy Otter who did a
superb job in organising the Dinner Dance and for raising so much money for the school coffers, well done,
ladies!
Of course, this week is Science Week and what fantastic experiences the boys are having. It is very quiet in
school today as most of the boys are out on trips. I loved watching the Year 1 boys (and Mr Cook sitting with his
legs crossed and a straight back, what a good boy he is) sitting on mats in the Owl’s Nest, having a yoga lesson
with Mrs Anderton. It was so peaceful and relaxing and the boys were taking it very seriously, I just wish I could
have joined them but I was rushing off to go on the Year 6 Rugby 7s trip to Warwick, not quite so relaxing!
Hopefully, your sons will be telling you all about Science Week and what they have learned. Thank you to Mrs
Roddy and Mrs Pitchford for organising such a fantastic week for the boys.
Yesterday, we returned from the Warwick 7s ‘Festival’, the boys were an absolute pleasure to take away. They
were well-behaved, excellent company and they played very well, winning 5 out of their 7 games. When we
arrived back home the first thing parents asked was, ‘Did they win?’ Well, as you know, there are no winners and
losers anymore – just everyone’s a winner and everyone got a ‘taking part medal’, which we received before the
competition even took place! Anyway, you know my thoughts on this so I won’t dwell on it any longer!
Quote of the week…On Tuesday evening, we took the Warwick Rugby boys to Frankie and Benny’s for a meal,
followed by tenpin bowling. We arrived back at the hotel at a reasonable time so that they could get a good
night’s sleep before the tournament the next day. We were just sending the boys off to bed and reminded them
that they needed to get straight to sleep when one of them turned around and said, ‘What is it we are doing
tomorrow?’ Even the rest of the boys groaned at that comment!
Stars of the week…From a Year 1 parent… ‘I would like to nominate Miss White and Mr Renshaw for ‘Stars of
the Week’.
I feel that Miss White has taken the time to really get to know my son and understand his lively personality, as a
result my son absolutely loves having her as his teacher and his progress has been fantastic.
My son also loves Mr Renshaw's music classes and often comes out of school chatting away very animatedly
about what he has learnt in music. He is clearly very inspired and can regularly be heard practising his scales or
singing songs he has learnt. I'm hoping we have a budding musician on our hands as I can't play a note!
Boy tip of the week…This week a couple of parents have mentioned to me that there was a very good television
programme on Panorama about children and sleep, here is the link if your child has sleeping difficulties, there are
some good tips to follow:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39140836
On a final note…A message from our Sainsbury’s Voucher Guru, Mrs Heather Cooke
(Mrs Milner-Moore, Mrs McKinlay Smith and Mr Hen-Boisen, you really are going to have to up your game!!)…
‘With reference to last week’s ebulletin, at one point I was considering going double barrelled thinking this could
be the key to success in collecting the most vouchers. However I have decided to stay as a simple single
surname and stick with terrorising family, friends and staff whilst befriending anyone who works for Sainsbury’s.
I have found this strategy, together with bin dipping, to be the most successful so far and I am considering writing
a guide for parents!!!!’
…Who knows, the guide could be a number 1 bestseller!
Louise Gray
SCHOOL EVENTS
Inter-House Music Competition
A brilliant morning for both performers and audience alike! Our adjudicator, Geraldine Gaunt, was most
impressed with the boys’ confidence and playing.
U9 Strings
U9 Voice
U9 Piano
U9 Woodwind
U9 Drums
U11 Guitar
The overall winners were:
Sachin Ragu
U11 Orchestral Strings
Dexter Bevan
U11 Voice
Ajay Kumar
U11 Piano
Matthew Hen-Boisen
U11 Brass
Oliver Whyte
U11 Woodwind
Nathan Waters
U11 Drums
Oliver Mitchell
James McKinlay-Smith
Roger Cai
Harrison Pye
Nikhil Kasisomayajula
Akondu Iyoko
The House Cup was won by Cave
The Haigh Cup for an outstanding performance by an U9 boy was won by Dexter Bevan
The Cocup Cup for an outstanding performance by an U11 boy was won by Roger Cai
Congratulations all!
Mrs Rogers
Forest School Sessions
These are the session dates for this half-term. A reminder that we will be out in all weathers so
warm and waterproof clothing, as noted in the clothing list sent out as part of the original letter,
is very important. A copy of the letter can be found on the school website letters archive
section.
Tues 14 Mach:
4J
Tues 21 March:
4C
Tues 28 March:
4H
Tues 4 April:
3P
Mr Thompson
Collection of cricket equipment for the Ceylon Cricket Foundation
In conjunction with the Ceylon Cricket Academy, run by Sri Lankan born ex-professional cricketer and coach,
Tharindu Perera, this year saw the launch of the Ceylon Cricket Foundation, a cause close to Tharindu’s
heart. The charity’s ethos is to raise money to go to grass roots cricket in Sri Lanka so the children get some
basic cricket equipment to enable them to gain more skill and knowledge to enhance their passion for the sport of
cricket. Tharindu Perera: “I have had the idea for many years to start a charity to help underprivileged children to
play cricket. I remember when I was playing in Sri Lanka the difficulties we faced playing the game we loved
through lack of equipment.”
Tharindu has worked with QEGS JS for a number of years and is a highly skilled and valued member of the team.
To support the charity, we are encouraging parents/boys to bring in old/spare cricket kit/equipment so that this
can be sent out to Sri Lanka. Any items are accepted (clothing, shoes, bats, balls, gloves, pads, etc.) so please
have a ‘Root’ around and ‘Stoke’ up some support for this very worthwhile cause (sorry!). Tharindu will be
coming into school to speak about this on our up-coming Health and Fitness Day, and we ask that all items for
donation are brought into school on Tuesday 28 March.
Mr Tiffany
MasterChef 2017: ‘A Traditional Dish’
It’s been a very busy MasterChef week with two heats taking place.
On Monday Savile contestants Arsh Gupta, Edward Hunter and Ethan Chan produced delicious and colourful
dishes from around the world. Congratulations to Ethan Chan who will go on to the final with his ‘Sweet and Sour
Chicken & Rice’. Wednesday saw the Bentley Heat with Zach Hussain, Nicholas Marshall and Timothy
Spawforth competing and the guest judges, Mrs Lindley and Mrs Pye who are both Bentley staff themselves.
Congratulations, Timothy Spawforth will go on to the final with his ‘Prawn Siciliana’ with homemade spaghetti (I
guess I know what I’ll be eating for the next few weeks!) Commiserations to the boys who cooked up a storm in
the heats but will not be going further, I hope you keep cooking at home because you are obviously all very
competent chefs.
A reminder that the next MasterChef heats:
Freeston: Friday 17th March – Aditya Krishnan, Edward Moran and Lucas Fisher:
Judges: Mr Charlesworth and Mrs Spawforth
Cave: Thursday 23rd March - James McKinley-Smith, George Bailey and Joshua Hen-Boisen:
Judges: TBC and Mrs Spawforth
MasterChef Final: Tuesday 4th April, Judges: Mrs Gray plus a guest judge (TBC).
Please email me with any queries regarding timings or equipment ([email protected]).
Mrs Spawforth
NOTE
PTA Dinner Dance
A very big thank you to all of the parents who supported the Dinner Dance on Saturday evening. It was a really
fabulous occasion, with 'The Space' looking resplendent in school colours and parents so smart that Mrs Gray
didn't recognise them! Thank you to your generosity we raised over £2,500 - a magnificent amount. This will go
towards a substantial purchase for the boys in the near future. A particular thanks to Mr & Mrs Boulton, Mr & Mrs
Vincent and Mr & Mrs Marshall for kindly donating the raffle prizes.
PTA
QEGS – Y7 PARENTS’ EVENING
Please note that the date has been altered for the New Parents’ Evening in Senior School and will now take place
on Monday 19th June. Timings to be confirmed. There will be no parents’ evening on 28th March as previously
communicated.
Mrs Stuart-Brown
Lost Property and returning other boys’ kit
Please could I ask that you check all your son’s PE kit and school uniform. A few pieces of clothing have gone
astray and it is so easy for things to be scooped up into bags, washed and worn without checking name labels. If
you do have anything that does not belong to your child, please return this to school and we will endeavour to
return the item to its rightful owner. Recently there has been a recent build-up of lost property. Many items are
named and can easily be retrieved with your sons taking the time to look through for their items. Unfortunately,
many unnamed items are also regularly found, making it almost impossible for these to find their way back to their
rightful owners. Please encourage your sons to take responsibility for their own kit/uniform by checking the main
lost property box (in the games changing room) regularly. If you would like to check the lost property box with
your son, we suggest Monday or Friday at 4.00pm as there are no boys changing for after school clubs on these
days. In order to prevent a build-up of lost property we will have a clear out at the end of each half term with
unnamed items being put into the ‘nearly new’ clothing stock.
J Tiffany
LETTERS/ATTACHMENTS
To download from the school website – www.wgsf.org.uk
RESULTS
QEGS Invitational Cross Country – Friday 3 March
In terrible conditions, we won this event, with a particularly strong showing from Y4 (claiming the top 5 finishers)
Individual medals went to:
U8
U9
U10
Max Hutton (silver) and Noah Tordoff (bronze)
Tom Hutchison (gold), Sam Wood (silver) and William Hunter (bronze)
Will Evans (silver) and Daniel Marshall (bronze)
Well done to all of the QEGS Flyers!
Thank you, parents, for your support, and to the marshals and staff for doing a great job in torrential rain.
Mr Harvey
HOUSEPOINTS
The weekly totals for each House are as follows:Junior School W/E: 03.03.17 Term to date
Bentley
346
3369
Cave
186
3111
Freeston
256
3209
Savile
216
2913
COMING SOON
W/C – 13 March
10th
Y4 Bikeability
5R – Leeds Wall
13th
Y6 – Mountain Biking – Sherwood Pines
14th
HMC Rugby 7’s U11 (Away)
4J – Forest School
15th
Y5 Parents’ Evening
17th
Y5 – Mountain Biking
Visiting English Show
Centenary House - Book Fair
19th
National Schools’ Rugby Tournament
Centenary House Weekly Term to date
Bentley
237
1649
Cave
242
1614
Freeston
240
1353
Savile
288
1683
CENTENARY HOUSE NEWS
The boys will be worn out by Friday evening with all the health and fitness activities they have undertaken this
week. The theme of Science Week at Centenary House this year has been linked to having a healthy lifestyle by
keeping active, enjoying a balanced diet and looking after our bodies and minds. And boy have we been active
and healthy!
The week started with a healthy ‘life workshop’ with a range of fun activities for the boys to work around based on
all aspects of being healthy including eating healthily, looking after our bones, our teeth and our muscles and the
importance of exercising, sleeping and drinking water. In the afternoon each class took part in a fitness workout
with the instructor. On Tuesday the boys took part in yoga sessions in the Owl’s Nest followed by PE sessions
led by Year 10 boys from the senior school, who were great role models for the younger boys and demonstrated
the importance of warming up and cooling down after exercise. On Wednesday the boys attended workshops on
looking after our teeth led by Mrs Hunt. The boys loved using the tablets which dyed their teeth purple to highlight
which areas of their teeth they were brushing properly. Mrs Norgate, Matron, also came across to lead sessions
on looking after our bodies and keeping clean and healthy. Thursday saw a range of playground activities for the
boys to enjoy and tomorrow there will be skipping workshops for each class to learn how to skip and perform
skipping tricks. Skipping ropes will be for sale throughout the day at a price of £4 so that you can continue the
skills at home.
This week we have also been encouraging the boys to try different fruit and vegetables, which they have
thoroughly enjoyed and I am proud to say most of the boys have joined in with the tasting. The boys have been
given a range of different fruit and vegetables as morning snacks, and Year 2 boys have been making smoothies
for the rest of the school to try at break. The boys in reception have been reading the story of ‘Oliver’s
Vegetables’ and have been making vegetable soup and different salads using the vegetables from Oliver’s
grandad’s garden. They have really enjoyed peeling, chopping and grating the ingredients as well as tasting their
completed dishes.
On this note, please can I remind you that all snacks brought into school should be of a healthy variety. Fruit and
vegetables are the preferred snack in place of cereal bars and crisp snacks that are beginning to creep in. These
snacks often contain a large proportion of sugar or salt, so please continue the theme set this week and
encourage your son to eat fruit and vegetables for his morning snack.
Also, please can I remind you that dogs should not be brought into the playground before or after school. Some
of the boys are not confident around dogs and the playground needs to be a safe secure environment for them.
Next week sees the start of the ‘Book Fair’ at Centenary House. The boys will bring home a leaflet showing some
of the books on offer. A wider range will be available at school. The Book Fair will be open from 3.15pm to 6pm
every day from Friday 17th up until Thursday 23rd March. Commission will be earned by the school for every book
we sell. This will go towards buying new books for our library. It is also a chance for you to encourage your son
to read by choosing some exciting books together. Maybe you could also choose a new bedtime story to share
together, or a cookery book to continue the healthy eating theme.
Mrs Butler
IMAGES OF THE WEEK
JUNIOR SCHOOL
Inter-House Music Final
Science Week
Warwick
CENTENARY HOUSE
Keeping clean - car wash in Reception
Telling the time in Reception
Healthy Activities