March 2014
T o
B e ,
R a t h e r
T h a n
S e e m
T o
B e
Olympic rower inspires Year 7
2014 Dates for
your Diary
End of Term:
Friday 4th April
2014
Easter Holiday:
Monday 7th Tuesday 22nd April
(Note: Inset day on
22nd - pupils not in
school)
Start of Summer
Term for students:
Wednesday 23rd
April 2014
Bank Holiday
Closure: Monday
5th May
Also inside this
issue:
House Points Update 2
Shakespeare for Y9s
2
Word of the week
2
Berkshire Book
3
Running for Charity
3
School Prospectus
3
Sport Relief
4
Forest Skiing
5
Forest Fifths
5
Sainsbury’s Voucher 5
As part of Sport Relief
2014, Matt Langridge Olympic Bronze medallist
in the 2012 Men’s Eights came along to inspire Year
7, and graciously allowed
students to hold and pass
his medal around.
the main competitors for
Rio? Are you humble, or
can it all go to your head?
Matt talked about how he
became a rower, and the
dedication it takes to be an
athlete. He was completely
candid in the face of relentless Year 7 curiosity and
many thought-provoking
questions. These included:
What is it like to be watched
by the world when you compete? Which has been your
hardest race? What is it like
when you stand on the
Olympic podium? Do you
Iget
firstreally
joined
The Forest
34
nervous?
What
years
ago,
progressing
was the security like at the
through
roles
until
Olympicvarious
Village?
Who
are
securing my current position
in January 2002. I have thoroughly enjoyed my years of
leadership of The Forest and
can reflect on the pleasing
trend of improved results
over the past decade. For
now, there is plenty to occuThemy
Forest
its expanpy
time, begins
in particular:
sion plans, with planning
discussions
onapplication
Leading the
development
going.
of our new Sixth Form CenDesigns
new purpose
tre and for
an the
adjacent
3G allbuilt
sixth form
weather
pitch.centre offer
our sixth form students, the
to have
a state
opportunity
Roofing and
electrical
re- of
the
art
independent
space
furbishments.
for learning.
Strengthening our quality of
He gets only one day
off a month from
training, which takes
place normally from
6am - 4pm every day.
Year 7s came away with a
sense of how much work
Matt, and indeed any committed athlete, has to
do.
find out what you’d like.”
There was a final request
for an arm wrestle from
Adontay Alstrom, which
Matt accepted (see below).
We won’t say who won!
Year 7 wish Matt good luck
in Rio.
Matt told Year 7s that
“There is a sport out
there for everyone;
it’s about trying
different things to
see what suits
you, and
to
Plan ahead for
Forest Sixth Form
Girls can now apply to enter
our sixth form, and the numbers of both sexes is therefore expected to grow each
year. The new block takes
this into consideration, and
they will have plenty of
space to study. The two floor
design incorporates great
facilities, and will allow sixth
formers to transcend to the
next step on their educational path.
Stuart Jackman, director of
sixth form said “We are really
pleased with the design, and
can’t wait for it to get started.
The facilities will be a super
addition to the school, and
allow students the confidence to know that staying at
or coming to The Forest to
study, is the best path they
can take.”
March 2014
Page 2
House FRS League—Autumn and Spring Terms
Place
Score
= commenda
tions
less
dis
credits
Score
House
Trend
1st
55252
2nd
53532
3rd
52950
Ashdown
4th
51795
Sherwood
Bramshill
Langdale
5th
49251
Kielder
6th
47956
New
7th
47301
Windsor
450 years of Shakespeare’s England
“In the twinkling of an eye. ” *
* So says Launcelot,
Shylock’s servant, in Act
2 Scene 2 of ‘The Merchant of Venice’.
So many famous sayings
have entered the English
language through the
brilliance of Shakespeare's
work. Throughout the
Spring term, the boys have
been studying The Merchant of Venice and Othello by William Shakespeare.
To complement this, the
English department recently took 70 Year 9 pupils to
the Globe Theatre in London. We wanted the boys
to experience the delights
of the Globe theatre, and
being a “groundling” (a
groundling was a person
who frequented the Globe
Theatre in the early 17th
century and was too poor
to pay to be able to sit).
The boys had a fantastic time, collecting ducats, dancing in masks,
and being splashed by
hot tub water! Who said
Shakespeare was dull?!
The performance
of Merchant of Venice
was aimed at KS3 students, interpreting the
play in ways that meant
Year 9 could really access the plot and language. The boys stood
and watched transfixed
for over 90 minutes,
and had a fantastic
time!
Words of the week for Forest
School Uniform
Request
If your son has
grown out of his
blazer and/ or P.E.
kit, all donations will
be gratefully
received. Please
take your donations
to the school office.
Ask your son what these words mean—he
should have seen them
over the last few weeks
around school.
Gelid: extremely cold
origin: Latin, ‘gelidus’,
meaning ‘extreme cold’
synonyms: icy; frosty
Echelon: a level or
rank (in an organisa-
tion, society or profession)
synonyms: ruin; fiasco;
catastrophe; disaster
origin: French, ‘echelon’,
meaning ‘rung of a ladder’ synonyms: tier;
grade; standing
Beguile: 1. to influence
through flattery, or 2. to
charm/divert
Debacle: a complete
collapse or failure
origin: Latin, ‘baculum’,
meaning ‘stick or rod’
origin: Old English,
‘wigle’, meaning ‘magic’
synonyms: 1. deceive;
cheat. 2. amuse; entertain.
March 2014
Page 3
Pen2Page - Berkshire Book Award 2014
So what would your superpower be? What is
the truth about Catwoman? And how exactly
does a snake play the
piano? All these questions and
more,
were resolved by
poet A F
Harrold.
He was
helping
members
of Forest
Book
Group, alongside nine
other schools and librarians, to take part in a lively discussion about the
six books on the Berkshire Book Award 2014
shortlist. Pupils then voted for their favourite. The
result was a dead heat
between three of the
books - Light, After Tomorrow, and Ketchup
Clouds.
Thanks to School Librarians who organised this
event, and the Educational Library Service.
B
erkshire Book Festival Wokingham
Schools General
Knowledge Quiz was held at
The Forest. Competition
between Emmbrook, The
Forest, The Holt, Luckley
House and The Piggott was
fierce, but the overall winner
was Luckley House who won
by just five points. The Forest team gained a respectable third place. Thanks go to
Ms Quinion, who stalwartly
provided refreshments to
both competitors and their
accompanying librarians.
The Forest Year 7 quiz
team: Olly Warner, Finley Callender, Nathan
Smith and Massimo
Giamattei Thanks also
go to Matthew Swindley
and James Miller who
updated the scoreboard.
Running for charity
Sixth Form students ran the
Reading Half Marathon to
raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust and Diabetes UK. So
far, they have raised a whopping £1,100.
cer Trust as a group They do
excellent work for people of a
similar age to ourselves who
suffer cancer. Running to
raise money was the least we
could do to support a charity
that believes teenagers shouldn’t stop
Conal, Jake, Joe, Nick, Gregor and Alistair
being teenagers just
because they have
cancer. This experience
really helped to push us
further in both sports and
our studies.”
The rules state a runner must
be over 17 to enter a marathon, and in their very first half
marathon, the Year 12s above
all managed a sub-two hour
time.
Around seven young people, aged between 13 and
24, are diagnosed with
cancer every day in the
UK.
If you would like to make a
donation to the Forest Runners please visit
https://www.justgiving.com/
ReadingHalfTCT
Conal Watterson said, “We
decided on the Teenage Can-
Many congratulations to
Year 7 William Brown and
friends. Along with his brother Tom and the 1st Sonning
Scouts, he successfully completed the Green Park Challenge and raised £530 for
blood cancer charity Anthony
Nolan.
William’s mum recently received a life-saving bone marrow transplant through the
charity in 2011, and because
of this, his friends decided to
join in and support it too.
Alex Hildrew, Head of Community Fundraising at Anthony Nolan, said, ‘The fundraising that William is doing
makes such a big difference
to people with blood cancer. It
costs £100 to recruit each
person to the Anthony Nolan
register, so fundraising is a
vital part of our lifesaving
work.” If you would like to
make a donation, please
contact the school office.
Help our School Prospectus to take shape
Year 7 parents - we really
need your input for our
next Main School Prospectus. Yes it‘s already
been 18 months since you
went through the admissions process, and a new
group of parents will be
starting the same route this
Sept. We want to know
what information you, as a
parent, value within a Prospectus. You may want to
consider: Do we need to
provide more information on
particular topics? Should we
give more on specific subjects curricula in Year 7? Do
we provide too much information? Do you welcome the
exam breakdown info? What
info best represents our
school? And even ..What is
missing? And anything else
you may think is needed/not
needed! We look forward to
hearing from you.
Please send your views to
office@
forest.wokingham.sch.uk
Tom, Year 7 and
his younger
brother finish the
Green Park
Challenge
March 2014
Page 4
Team
L Van Nieuwenhuizen,
B Cosshall (11)
01:03.58 1st
L Van Nieuwenhuizen,
B Cosshall,
M Almutari (11)
01:07.47 2nd
S Woloszyn,
J Turner,
G Nyazika (13)
01:13.31 3rd
Individuals
R Sidhu (11)
01:00.32 1st
K Scott (E)
01:01.31 2nd
S Woloszyn, (13)
01:02.18 3rd
1100+ students run a
mile for Sport Relief
and running against times part in a fun run to raise
Organising both a timed
set by national standard
money for Sport Relief
triathlon and a whole
triathletes.
2014. Some lads did far
school ‘fun run’ has been
more than the expected
no easy feat for the
Added to that, we’ve
mile.
school’s P.E department.
seen great effort and caBut with a little help from
maraderie in a brilliant
There is still time to add a
colleagues and students,
series of fun runs by each donation, so please visit:
that’s exactly what they
year group.
www.justgiving.com/
achieved—all to promote
ForestSportRelief2014
It’s great to see the ena healthy lifestyle and to
tire Forest cohort taking
raise funds for Sport Relief 2014.
We’ve seen amazing efforts within
the triathlon, with
both teams and
individuals pitting
their fitness and
abilities through
three disciplines,
swimming cycling
Year 8s Joshua Zeller, Tom Davis and Jordan Tully keep on running for
Sport Relief. Well done to everyone who took part.
Sign up to Forest
School Twitter
ForestSchool
@ForestWinnersh
for alerts on school
emergencies, key notices and trips info.
Roller Racing
for Sam
Year 9 Tag Rugby Leaders
commended
Sam Oliver
rides into
second place
in the U15
boys BSCANational Roller Racing
competition
2014. Sam
had to complete 2 races,
each one over 500 metres
with one from a standing
start and one flying start.
Well done Sam on a fantastic achievement.
'Thank you' to you and
all The Forest referees
who did such a brilliant
job today at the Wokingham Primary
Schools level 2 Tag
Rugby Festival at Reading Rugby club. Over
200 primary pupils from
years 3-6 played today.
The boys did you (Mr
Tate) and the school
proud with their attitude behaviour, impeccable manners and enthusiasm. They refereed with confidence
and authority well beyond their years.”
G Lappin,
Bulmershe School
Skiers found snoring during Lego movie!
O
nce again intrepid pupils from
The Forest set
out in February half term
on an epic and tenacious
journey to the USA. Bad
weather meant the first
plane was cancelled. Fortunately The Forest spirit
of resilience and the flexibility of Reading and Wokingham coaches meant
we departed for Heathrow
only four hours late. ‘To
cut a long journey short’,
we arrived in The Margate
Resort on Winnipesaukee
Lake one day later than
expected.
Gunstock and Waterville
had terrific snow and the
skiers and snowboarders
set out for the piste on
Sunday afternoon.
‘Kitting out’ as ever was
interesting, with certain
individuals attempting to
put the left ski/snowboard
boot on the right leg and
then complaining that it
was ‘too small!’
In the evening, staff and
pupils embarked on some
exciting apre ski events
like ten pin bowling and
movie night. During the
latter event, the boys
were ensconced in the
action of the Lego movie
whilst Mr Buckner, Mr
Rattue and Mr Thompson
March 2014
Page 5
rested their eyes for a
moment!
The Boston stop-over was
once again an exciting
treat, getting on the Boston Metro with three staff
and 25 boys and making
sure the same number
came off! Fenway Park,
Bunker Hill, SS Constitution, Harvard University
and Quincy market added
a cultural interest.
Departing the USA was
just as difficult as trying to
get there, with a six hour
delay for the flight home.
Eventually we landed at
Heathrow and met parents back at school with a
very exhausted group of
students.
“It was a pleasure to
take this group of
young men
away ,and once
again the Americans
thought we were a
‘public school’. This
is a testament to the
boys’ behaviour and
attitude throughout
the trip and for this I
thank them. My
thanks must also go
to Mr Rattue and Mr
Thompson for their
efforts in making the
trip so easy and enjoyable.”
Mr Buckner.
Forest Fabulous Fifths play Cockthorpe School
On a sunny but very windy
day in March, The Fifths with
just 11 players took to the
field against Cockthorpe’s
3rd Team.
The Fifths started with purpose, taking control of the
midfield they created several
good chances, finally scoring
from a header from James
Parker (the goal machine)
from the far post.
This galvanized Cockthorpe,
who with the wind
behind them, made a
series of attacks with
quick balls from the
back to score two
goals. Half time saw
The Fifths 2-1 down,
but still confident.
The second half started with
both teams creating and
missing good scoring chances. Then a blow for The
Fifths. A collision of heads
saw defender Michael Njoga
leave the field with an egg
shaped bump growing larger
by the second on the side of
his head. Cockthorpe’s
school nurse took him to
the first aid room to be
checked over.
So with 20 minutes to go
and The Fifths down to 10
men, could they hold out?
Both teams went for a win.
No sitting back and parking
the bus for these boys—they
were going for it.
The Fifths repositioned to
create a 3 man defence,
leaving 2 up front. Parker
’the goal machine’ forced
some desperate play from
Cockthorpe’s centre half,
who under pressure played
a ball back to his goalie,
who came off his line to collect it, missed it, and had to
watch the ball trickle over
the goal line leaving a score
line of 2-2.
Sainsbury’s Active Kids Vouchers Needed
W
e are still on
the hunt for
Sainsbury’s
vouchers - everyone collected means more sports
or cookery equipment for
school. We’re aiming to
use some of the vouchers
to provide basketball
hoops for the playground.
Please send your son in
with vouchers, either give
them to form tutors or hand
them in at the collection
point in the office. Lets get
to it!
Deadline for getting your
vouchers in-store is 20th
May 2014.
A publication of
The Forest School
Academy Trust Registered Office:
Robin Hood Lane,
Winnersh, Wokingham RG41 5NE