About
Oundle
Christmas Quarter 2015
The Head Reflects
The Head reflects on her first two Quarters at Oundle - pg 3
Modern Languages Initiative
The Modern Languages Department is involved
in national teaching initiatives - pg 6
Long Service Awards
Over the summer, five employees clocked up 190 years of service - pg 16
1
CONTENTS
REFLECTIONS
Pg 3
ACADEMIC
Pg 4
ARTS
Pg 10
CCF / DofE
Pg 13
OUNDLE SOCIETY
Pg 14
COMMUNITY ACTION / CHARITY PG 17
SPORT
Pg 20
BEYOND OUNDLE
Pg 24
OUNDLE IN PICTURES
2
Christmas Quarter 2015
Pg 28
REFLECTIONS
www.oundleschool.org.uk
New Head’s Reflections
My early days at Oundle have been reassuring and exhilarating
in equal measure. Both responses are a result of the wonderful
Oundleness of Oundle.
Reassurance has come from the realisation that the things that
drew me to Oundle are real. I have always liked Oundelians
and OOs because I have found them to be interesting,
intelligent, decent people. I recognise these qualities in my
pupils, from the very youngest to the most senior. Equally, I
have long regarded Oundle as an impressive place of learning,
leading the way in educational thought and practice. I
encounter this ethos in so many areas within the Oundle of
today, and this is certainly not restricted to the academic. I
think of the commitment I see to the joy of learning for
learning’s sake, in Trivium and Vols for example. I reflect
also on the fresh thinking devoted to meeting the needs of
teenagers in 2015, evident in Oundle’s focus, among other
things, on digital strategy and teenage mental health.
our parents, of great affection for our town, of the support of
OOs and benefactors surrounding us, of teachers putting up
teams to compete in a Third Form quiz and fearing they might
be beaten by the pupils…
With so much to praise, we might wonder what remains to be
done. However, one of the very best things about Oundle, to
my mind, is that this is the question constantly on our minds.
What do we value as a School and how can we use the skills
and energies of the whole community to enable us to do the
very best we can in living out these values? While this attitude
prevails, Oundle will continue to flourish.
Sarah Kerr-Dineen
Head of Oundle School
Exhilaration is a daily experience and our pupils and staff never
cease to impress. I think of deeply impressive pupil-directed
drama, of OSCAR Radio, of worthy sporting battles successfully
fought, of musicians inspiring the lives of all, of community
involvement that is central to the lives of those involved,
of proper leadership training, not least in the CCF, of pupil
sculpture framed in expertly tended grounds and gardens,
of support staff completely committed to the lives of our
pupils, of children treating School mealtimes with respect and
enthusiasm, of care and understanding shown for individual
pupils, of spontaneous appreciation for the commitment of
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ACADEMIC
Christmas Quarter 2015
Splitting Image
English Department News
Harry Curtis (G) was awarded 2nd place in the Geographical
Association’s National Physical Geography photography
competition for his entry Splitting Image taken at Robin
Hood’s Bay, North Yorkshire.
The English department has had a busy start to the year, with
theatre trips to London and Leicester (Measure for Measure at
the Globe and A Streetcar Named Desire at the Curve), a trip
to the cinema to see a live screening of the National Theatre’s
Hamlet (with Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role), poetry
readings, discussion groups, visiting speakers and competition
entries. Of the different poetry readings that have taken place,
certainly the most poignant was Poems for Remembrance in
November, where members of the Third Form read a selection
of WW1 poetry on OSCAR Radio to mark Remembrance
Day. All Third Form sets are learning about WW1 in both
English and History before their trip to the Somme battlefields
next September. Oxbridge hopefuls have been covering topics
as diverse as humour and narrative in American Psycho,
Hemmingway and the idea of the tragic hero and the Theatre
of the Absurd. The Clare Society has heard from two visiting
speakers so far this year: Professor Dame Gillian Beer, formally
president of Clare Hall, Cambridge, who spoke about Lewis
Carroll and the writing of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,
and critic and journalist Erica Wagner, who spoke about
Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Special mention must also go to
the Second and First Form teams who competed in the East
England Regional round of this year’s KidLit Quiz, coming 3rd
and 5th respectively. In the first few days of the Christmas
holiday, the department will take its annual trip to London
to visit sites of literary interest, including Poets’ Corner in
Westminster Abbey and the Dickens Museum.
The judges commented that Harry’s entry, ‘reminded us
of the intricate relationship between geology and physical
geography and the different forms of Earth’s sculpture
through time.’
Damson Young (Sn) commented ‘Greeted by an opulent Mad
Hatter’s tea party (with thanks to the huge generosity of the
catering staff), the staff Common Room was transformed and
became an ideal surrounding for Dame Beer’s seminar on the
two Alice in Wonderland books. Twenty-five fortunate pupils
were able to spend an hour and a half learning about the
man behind Wonderland, learning not only about the books’
subtleties but also the roots of the author himself.’
Full Marks
What is History?
At the beginning of November, 185 Fifth and Sixth Form
pupils took part in the UKMT Senior Mathematical Challenge
competition. This is a tough competition challenging the
pupils’ problem solving abilities. Thirty pupils were awarded
Gold certificates, sixty awarded Silver and seventy awarded
Bronze. Kevin Law (Sc) scored an outstanding full marks on the
paper and was awarded the certificate for the best result in
School. Arthur Thomson (StA) and Jasper Poon (StA) achieved
the highest results in their respective year groups. A number of
pupils performed well enough to qualify for follow-on rounds
and five pupils have automatically qualified for the first round
of the British Mathematical Olympiad, placing them in the top
1000 pupils who took part across the country. A further twenty
pupils have qualified to take part in the Senior Kangaroo paper.
The Mathematical Olympiad for Girls is a competition aimed at
girls in Fifth Form or above to encourage and inspire as many
girls as possible to get involved in advanced mathematical
problem solving. Rebecca Siddall (L) scored 32 out of 50 which
meant that with distinctions awarded for any score above 20
marks, Rebecca was amongst the top scorers in the country.
‘What is History?’ was the question with which Michael
Bentley, Emeritus Professor of Modern History at the
University of St. Andrews, opened the first Senior History
Society meeting of the year. Professor Bentley then proceeded
to strip away common conceptions of historical study,
suggesting that the study of History could only commence
once an historian had made a judgement on the nature of
‘time’ and ‘the past’. Dr John Adamson, of the University of
Cambridge, also challenged standard interpretations of the
subject, arguing that a desire to reimagine the early Stuarts
Kings as Protestant emperors was central to the political
movements which underpinned the march to Civil War in the
17th Century. The Society then turned to considering 20th
Century events, with Professor Mark White, of Queen Mary,
deconstructing the iconic status of President Kennedy and
Yang Wen Zheng, Professor of Chinese History at the University
of Manchester, offering an analysis of the motives behind the
excesses of Mao’s Cultural Revolution and its consequences for
the future of Chinese politics. 4
ACADEMIC
www.oundleschool.org.uk
National Poetry Day We Will Rock You
This year’s National Poetry Day saw the walls of Old Dryden
lined top to bottom with poster-sized poems by different
writers and from different time periods, which pupils and staff
enjoyed reading as they made their way to and from lessons,
and which certainly intrigued passers-by, who craned their
necks round the door to see what everyone was looking at. At the same time, the English Department’s Instagram page
hosted a visual anthology of favourite poems from across the
School community. Just about every kind of poem and poet
were represented in a glorious celebration of the richness and
diversity of poetry in general and of the depth of interest in it
at Oundle.
In October, Sixth Form Germanists went to the Goethe Institute
in London and also to the V&A Museum to take part in a
German museum challenge and celebrated Oktoberfest in style.
In November, pupils met Peter Schneider, the author of their
set text at Cambridge University and sat in on a lecture given by
him on his experiences of a divided Berlin. Pupils eagerly await
the results of a translation competition run by the DAAD and
have been nominated as one of seventy schools to participate
in the EU Young Translators competition against other young
Europeans. Head of German, Emily Wagstaffe attended an
address at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office given by
German Ambassador, Peter Amman and Neil McGregor (British
Museum), and gave an interview on Radio 5 Live, where she
taught German to the tune of We Will Rock You!
Father of Disreputable Poetry
In November, French lecturer Professor Richard Parish
(St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford) came to
speak to the Senior French Society on Baudelaire - father
of disreputable poetry and deeply influential writer, and
particularly his poem Remords posthume. With a packed
Adamson Raymond Lee International Suite of Fifth to Upper
Sixth formers, Professor Parish took Oundelians through
the morbid eroticism of this work, line by line. He set up the
distinction between the noble and living on the one hand,
and the base and dead on the other, worked into the imagery
of the poem, as well as the semantic choices of the register
used. Our guest also encouraged pupils first to ‘feel’ a poem
and figure out what it is about (including to state the obvious)
before looking at the phonetic and grammatical aspects of it
to support the meaning.
Top of Bench
James Duckitt (G), Gordon Lin (C), William Parker Jennings
(Ldr) and Alice Sze (N) took part in the Regional heat
(Northants, Beds, Herts and Cambs) of the annual Royal
Society of Chemistry Top of Bench competition, which was run
at Kimbolton School , facing opposition which included the
Perse School and the Leys School in Cambridge and Bedford
School. The ten teams competing tackled two experiments
on ion analysis and an iodine clock reaction followed by a
quiz. Oundle team won the competition with a score of 47
marks out of 69, performing particularly well in the ion testing
section. This is the fourth time that Oundle have won this heat
since 2009. The team will now represent the region in the
National final in March.
Outstanding Results
Over the summer, pupils performed outstandingly in their Sixth Form examinations, with 26% of grades awarded at A*
for the second year in succession. 65% of results were graded A or better, the best performance of the last five years. Just
under half of the pupils were awarded three A grades or better and over forty pupils achieved at least four A grades. Seven pupils scored four A* grades with Michael Hutchinson (F 15) achieving five A* grades. 40% of Cambridge Pre-U grades
were awarded at D1 or D2 level (the latter equivalent to the A level A*). As a result, twenty-six Oundelians have confirmed
their places at Oxford or Cambridge Universities, the second highest figure in the last dozen years. Fifth formers were once again awarded a brilliant set of GCSE results, maintaining the School’s reputation as one of the
foremost academic co-educational schools in the country. 54.4% of grades were A*, beating the previous year’s performance by 0.1%. It is the fifth year in a row that the A* percentage has topped 50%. Over 85% of grades were A* or A. The
number of pupils achieving exceptional grades is a School record, with twenty-five pupils achieving at least ten A* grades
and fifty-four pupils (over 25% of the cohort) scoring at least nine A* grades. 5
ACADEMIC
Christmas Quarter 2015
Work Experience
Modern Languages Initiatives
During the summer, Fifth Form and Lower Sixth pupils
attended placements with numerous employers covering
a diverse range of exciting careers. Placements ranged in
duration from a four week marketing internship at Mulberry,
two weeks at Wright & Wright Architects to one day at the
Hulton Archive, Getty Images.
The Modern Language
Department has enjoyed
involvement in several
teaching initiatives this year
on a national level. Head of
Department, Sara Davidson,
was honoured to be made
Chair of the Independent
Schools’ Modern Languages
Association (ISMLA) back
in February. This is a
body which supports and
represents all independent
school modern language
departments across the
country. Since then, she has been blogging on language issues
for the Guardian and has been contacted by policy makers
from the DofE to give advice and views on the national MFL
teacher shortage.
Various employment sectors were explored, including
legal placements at Pinsent Masons, Freshfields, Ashursts,
Greenwoods, VSH and Peterborough Magistrates Court, and
finance placements at Lloyds Bank, Barclaycard and PwC. In
the science sector, pupils were fortunate to spend time at
the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, Huntingdon
Life Sciences, the Daresbury Laboratory, Cancer Research
and the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences at The University
of Edinburgh.
This year also saw an increase in the number of placements
with charitable organisations, including World Child Cancer,
CLAPA, Waging Peace and PCVS. This year six pupils were
presented with a Summers Hunter Award on Speech Day for
the engineering work experience placements they attended
during summer 2014. The quality of the placements attended
were superb with Jemima Burgess (L) placed at Airbus, Jamie
Hembury-Gunn (C) at McLaren, Christian Monaghan (StA) at
Illmor, Morgan Ball (C 15) at AMEC, William Cundy (Sc 15) at
Williams F1 and Alec Murphy (Ldr 15) at AB Sugar. To qualify
for the award, the pupils submitted a 500 word report about
their placements: what they learned about the company,
the skills they developed during the week and its impact on
their future career. The pupils each received a certificate and
cheque for £200. She has acted as senior consultant for BBC Languages as
they revamp their GCSE Bitesize German website, and more
recently attended two high profile meetings in Westminster
on the topic of modern languages. The first meeting was
a roundtable discussion on the UK pedagogy for modern
languages with Schools Minister Nick Gibb. The group
consisted of some Heads of Department, University professors,
language consultants and HMI inspectors, and met to discuss
what the UK is doing wrong in its teaching of languages and
how we can improve and encourage more young people
to continue with them. The second meeting, The National
Language Policy Workshop, was held at Cambridge University
where presentations were given from the MOD, FCO, GCHQ,
UKTI, and the Departments for Education from England,
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on their national policy
for languages. England did not have one! Following the
meeting, Sara was invited to attend meetings of the All-Party
Parliamentary Group for Modern Languages, which means that
there is more to come.
International Exhibition
As the world marks seventy years since the liberation of
Auschwitz, an international exhibition looking at how Germany
confronted the Holocaust was shown in the Yarrow Gallery. Led
by academics from the University of Leeds, with Nottingham
Trent University’s Professor Bill Niven acting as historical adviser,
Germany’s Confrontation with the Holocaust in a Global Context
is part of a series of activities examining post-war responses of
Germans to the crimes committed in their name: responses of
silence, outrage, reconciliation and memorialisation.
STEM Visit
As part of the STEM focus at Oundle, fifteen pupils recently
visited the Corby branch of Benteler Automotive. They were
given an extensive tour of the factory, seeing, amongst
other things, the construction of a track rod end for the new
Evoque. The trip was eye-opening, and especially useful
in terms of giving budding engineers a true taste of the
engineering world.
6
ACADEMIC
www.oundleschool.org.uk
Sixth Form Lectures
Challenging Talk
The Sixth Form Lecture Series included talks from:
Magnus Jeffery (StA) commented ‘In what proved to be a
challenging talk, breaching both chemical and biological
topics, Dr Jess Healy, Excellence Fellow in Pharmaceutical
and Biological Chemistry, UCL kept everyone riveted as she
described what her team was doing in the search for new
antibiotics. Having demonstrated the need for new antibiotics,
and explained the current situation and theory, we learnt of
her team’s usage of ‘fragment-based’ drug discovery, and the
goals for the future. The talk served to increase our knowledge
and standpoint on the relevance of antibiotic research, and the
fascinating science involved.’
Dr Tommy Wide (S 02): Culture and Conflict: Afghanistan
Schola Cantorum Concert
Sir Charles Pollard (Sc 63) and Peter Woolf: Restorative Justice
Dr Clementine Beauvais, Cambridge University: Intelligence
and Testing
Lucy Bailey: ‘Mugabe and the White African’
Professor Vic Gatrell (Hunter Memorial Lecture): Sex, Satire
and Caricature
Chaplain General, the Reverend David Coulter: The Concept
of Remembrance
Revd Andrew Studdert-Kennedy: After War, is Faith Possible?
Dr Dmitri Levitin, Fellow of All Souls: The Making of the
Modern World
Mike Hurst: A History of Popular Music
Hack Day
In October, Sixth Form computing pupils attended a local
‘Hack Day’ set up by a pupil from Bourne Grammar School.
This day was part of a Major League Hacking (MLH) event
that was taking place world-wide. Pupils enjoyed projects
ranging from an LED display connected to a raspberry pi (a
micro-computer) that played a re-imagined version of Snake;
a web app designed to rate the ‘cheekiness’ of your day out
at Nandos; and a selfie stick that used artificial intelligence to
automatically tag everything that appears in your snaps. The
oddball selfie stick made by Thomas Dudley (L) and Hugh Wells
(L) won the competition for ‘best hack of the day’.
New School Apps
Following on from the launch of the new School website this
year, an Oundle School app is now available on both Android
and Apple platforms. The app offers access to School news,
the School calendar and other key website information
including the calendar filter subscriptions, sports fixtures and
Quarter dates. Once loaded, content remains available offline
but as with all apps, connecting to the internet and refreshing
the content will ensure continual updates. Both the calendar
and sports fixtures tools, hosted on the website, are kept up
to date and synchronised with the main School system. Simply
search for ‘Oundle School’ in the Apple Store or on Google Play.
LJS Pupils Explore WW2
Save Our Spires
Year Six pupils at LJS enjoyed a fascinating day of visits and
activities which complemented their History topic of WWII.
Their first port of call was the American War Cemetery at
Madingley, where they heard the stories of some of the men
who had lost their lives during the war and who are now either
buried in the cemetery or listed on the wall of the missing.
They then headed to Duxford, where they had the chance to
take part in a ‘History Detectives’ workshop, handled artefacts,
had great fun dressing up, tried their hands at semaphore
and Morse code, hid inside a Morrison shelter (all at once!),
learned how to use an old-fashioned dial telephone, weighed
out sweet rations, and learned how to deal with incendiary
bombs. They then took part in a History/English/Remembrance
session run by Oundle’s Archivist, Elspeth Langsdale, who
brought down books, reports, letters and photographs from
the School Archive, all pertaining to pupils at the School shortly
before or during WWI, many of whom then died in combat.
Deputy Housemaster and French teacher, William Gunson won
the National Churches Trust’s ‘Save our Spires’ photography
competition, announced at an evening event attended by
Joanna Lumley in Central London on 1st December.
7
ACADEMIC
Christmas Quarter 2015
Triv Connections
Top 40
During the Christmas Quarter,
pupils were tasked with the
following idea: pick any topic,
and any format, and produce
a piece of original, researched
work to the best of your ability.
‘Only connect’, as Forster said
– pupils choose two different
ideas, clashed together to inspire
new lines of thought, based only
on their personal fascinations: a
chance to indulge in reading and
creating for no reason other than pure interest. Topics chosen
ranged from the links between Banksy and cave paintings, done
as a gallery piece; an essay on the rise (and coming fall?) of
the Scottish National Party; a sculpture connecting money and
trees; a composition of remixed and originally composed music
for piano, alluding to as many pieces of well-known work as
possible; a discursive essay on the Northern Powerhouse, and a
wide array of other intriguing subjects. This year, over 35,000 UK and overseas candidates took
the Royal Society of Biology’s Biology Challenge, with Ben
Hutchinson (Sc) scoring in the top 40. His impressive result
meant that he was invited to attend an Awards Ceremony
at The Royal Institution on 2nd July. The Biology Challenge
consists of two thirty minute online papers. 228 Third and
Fourth (Year 9 and 10) Oundle pupils took part this year with
twenty-seven achieving a Gold grade.
Triv Quiz
The election of a house ‘Oracle’ to co-ordinate
their efforts was the first step for all Third Form
pupils, on their road to complete the hardest
and most cryptic quiz they will encounter at
Oundle. Seventy questions, in many cases riddled
to be partially Google-proof, tested all pupils on
the whole scope of knowledge from literature to Science to
Theology to Arts to Social History to Geography to Maths and
more, all wrapped up in wordplay and lateral thinking. The Triv
Quiz is set up as a House competition, with the express aim
of showing that things must be known and enjoyed before
they can be properly explored, or answers and skills drawn
from them (nescis nisis intellegis) – that is, the ability to source
knowledge is not enough, since one first has to know what
question is being asked. Congratulations to the Laxton Boys,
who take the trophy this year from last year’s joint winners,
St Anthony and Laxton Girls. Junior Scientists Enjoy Falconry Display
The inaugural Junior Scott Society event saw Simon Allen from
Hill Farm falconry centre visit with six raptors: Harris Hawk,
Peregrine Falcon, Lanner Falcon, Red Tailed Hawk and best of
all, a male Goshawk, were all discussed and handled. Simon
has been a falconer for over forty years and was well placed to
answer questions and allow pupils to hold the birds safely.
Target 2.0 Regional Champions
George Chatterton (F), Ali Mason (F), Charlie Law (S) and Nico
Lethbridge (S) competed against eight local schools (including
Stamford, Uppingham and Oakham) in the Bank of England
Target 2.0 regional competition, where they had to present
a fifteen minute talk to members of the MPC. Eloquently
justifying why they agreed with the current interest rate and
level of quantitative easing they beat off the opposition and
now progress through to the Area final in February.
8
Explore the Archive
Over 200 people attended an Open Morning on Saturday 14th
November discovering the stories, the facts, the places and the
people that have been at the heart of our community, with a
display of WW1 stories, letters and photographs as well as film
footage from the decades and photographs of Oundle Town.
The Archive has many collections of interesting documents,
photographs and publications which tell the story of the
School and Town, the history of education and the way of
life down through the ages. The 13th October 1915, was
the most costly day of the Great War for Old Oundelians.
Robert Clive Harvey (C 12), Herbert Selwyn Scorer (Lx 03),
Donald Ewen (S 05), Charles Shortland Gray (C 09) and Harold
Henry Walton (Lx 12) were all killed on this same day at the
Battle of Loos. The School commemorated this centenary in
Cloisters on 13th October 2015. Similar commemorations
continue to mark the anniversaries of the deaths of Old
Oundelians lost in the Great War.
ACADEMIC
www.oundleschool.org.uk
Prestigious National Engineering Scholarships
Oliver Starling (Ldr), Jack Townend (Sc), Thomas Kirkup
(Sc), Lucas Podmore (Ldr) and Henry Orlebar (L) have each
been awarded a much sought-after Arkwright Engineering
Scholarship that identifies them amongst the country’s future
leaders in engineering and related areas of design. Scholars
are selected for their potential as future engineering leaders
by assessing their academic, practical and leadership skills in
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
sponsors and with everything that this collaboration can offer,
giving them invaluable opportunities outside the classroom.’
Jon Baker, the new Head of the Oundle’s Patrick Engineering
Centre commented ‘We are very proud of our Arkwright
Scholars. An Arkwright Award helps open the gateway to
an engineering career by putting the recipient in touch with
Polyglot-in-Residence
In celebration of Oundle’s European Day of Languages the
School’s Modern Languages department invited a perfect
role-model to speak to pupils. Hyperpolyglot Richard Simcott,
often referred to as the ‘Ambassador for Multilingualism’, was
flown over from Macedonia to spend a couple of days in the
department. Richard, who is originally from Chester and who
previously worked for the Foreign Office, has studied forty
languages and uses over twenty of them on a weekly basis in
his personal life as well as his work.
Head of Modern Languages and Chair of the ISMLA
(Independent Schools Modern Languages Association), Sara
Davidson commented ‘Over 700 pupils came into contact
with Richard over the weekend. The crowd that gathered
around him at break, quizzing him about the languages he
could speak, was proof of the impact he had and his almost
‘celebrity’ status. My favourite moment was when the Third
Form (Year 9) pupils asked him questions in Dutch, Russian,
Mandarin, Thai, French, Spanish, Italian and sign language
and then requested that he spoke French in a scouse accent.
None of this fazed him!’
Notable Achievements in Chemistry Challenge
Focus on Environmental Issues
At the end of the last academic year, several pupils were
successful in the annual Cambridge Chemistry Challenge,
with notable achievements from Winnie Liu (W), who also
scored 100% in both of her Chemistry AS modules, Francis
Perumatantri (C) and Clovis Parker-Jervis (Sc) who all received
Gold medals. The top score in the School went to George
Marshall (Sc), who achieved a Roentgenium award, placing him
within the top 0.7% of the 9000 entrants. George travelled to
The Wellcome Collection in London to receive his award. The
presentation day consisted of a series of mini lectures about
an element of their choice given by the winners to teachers
representing forty-two schools, as well as several members of
the Cambridge Challenge Committee, including fellows from
the University of Cambridge and Oxford, and the Managing
Director of Aramco. George gave a stimulating lecture on the
chemistry of Palladium, explaining how it is used in catalysis and
the purification of hydrogen gas, despite the high expense of the
pure metal. He was awarded a crystal trophy of a 3d orbital.
The School continues to focus on its environmental position,
with exciting plans for Climate Week 2016 (with keynote
speakers Mike Berners-Lee and Ghillean Prance) and the
new Sustainability Committee. The ESOS (Energy Saving
Opportunity Scheme) report was signed off by the Estates
Committee in November, and from the simple suggestions
embedded in it, the School could reduce its carbon footprint
by at least 600 tonnes of carbon a year, and if extended across
the whole School, well over 1,000 tonnes. The Buildings
Department is moving to a position where 100% of waste it
creates will be actively recycled or sent to energy generation,
and thus none will hit landfill – and we are looking towards
extending this across the School, hoping to move to a ‘zero
waste’ position in the long term.
Spanish Society
In October, the Spanish Society welcomed Dr Paul O’Neill
for a much anticipated talk titled ‘Linguistics, Language and
Identity’. He began by speaking of his experiences abroad
on a farm in Spain, where he discovered the importance and
variation of pronunciation through mispronouncing a word.
Due to his Geordie accent he found it difficult to differentiate
between two phonetic sounds. Fourteen schools from across
the country took part in The Hispanic Theatre Festival 2015,
which comprised each school’s ten minute play adaptation,
performed in fluent Spanish and complete with costumes and
props. With prizes up for grabs and a reputable panel including
a Professor of Spanish from Oxford University and members of
the Spanish Embassy, the stakes were high.
9
ARTS
Artist in Residence
The Art department is pleased to welcome Joshua
Waterhouse (S 07) back to the School as ‘Artist In
Residence’. Joshua is a hyperrealist artist living and working
in London. Inspired by artists of the Northern Renaissance,
Joshua draws on an inherited tradition while producing
work with a definitively contemporary approach. Joshua
paints in a way that is highly meticulous, producing
portraits with a heightened sense of realism, where every
surface detail is given equal consideration. After completing
a Foundation in Art and Design at Edinburgh College of Art,
Joshua studied Fine Art at the University of Aberystwyth,
graduating in 2014 with First Class Honours. He also spent
a year in Paris studying Art History at La Sorbonne and
was recently elected an Associate Member of the United
Society of Artists. Currently living in Camden, Joshua divides
his time between working on private commissions and
independent projects
New Music Society
An old hand to New Music Society events, Freddie Wilson
(StA) opened with his multiple talents of guitar, piano and
voice followed by Phoebe Gammell (K), a pianist with a voice
confident in power and more subtle tones. James Stringer (Sc),
with whom the Society will be in safe hands next year, treated
his audience to a characteristically lively piece, followed by
Angus McRae (StA) with a new found confidence for singing.
Cazzie Winterton (D) followed with two of her own songs and
some well-known covers brought together collaborations of
performers, including the debut of Max McCulloch (F).
10
Christmas Quarter 2015
Music-Making It has been a typically extraordinary two Quarters for musicmaking and what finer start than a meeting and concert for all
the Music Scholars. Getting the academic year off to a further
flying start was the Bardolino Trio from Prague performing to
the Third Form, offering exotic takes on fusions of Moravian
folksong, gypsy music and Peruvian drumming and playing
alongside Oundle’s string players for a rousing finale. Schola
Cantorum of Oxford provided workshops for the Chapel Choir
and a concert as part of the Sixth Form Lecture series. Over
Field Weekend, Wednesday Afternoon Musicians enjoyed a
trip to the Malvern Hills having also played a concert for the
Duke of Gloucester to raise funds for Fotheringhay Church. The
Chapel Choir under Choral Fellow, Ben Horden, sang Evensong
at Worcester Cathedral where they met up with newly licensed
former pupil Matthew Gibson (S 15), who is currently a Choral
Scholar at the cathedral.
Prep School Days for both Brass and Strings had some 260
prep school musicians enthusiastically playing green violins
and pink trombones, whilst the great-guru-Russian-pianist,
Alexander Ardakov offered great touches of serenity.
Remembrance Sunday is something the School does so
admirably with trumpeters in the community to offer Last Posts
whilst the CCF Marching Band, Drummers and Pipers added
ceremony to the streets. At Musical Opportunity concerts,
younger players demonstrated their potential, and at the
New Music Society concert, song-writers offered creativity in
the relaxed atmosphere of the Senior Club. There were ten
lunchtime concerts in St Peter’s Church – the last one offering
a performance of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf to LJS pupils
in Year 4 and our own First Form. Symphony and Chamber
Orchestras were joined by the Chapel Choir this year for a
stunning final concert of the Quarter, and Into Christmas offered
drama and entertainment with favourite festive classics.
ARTS
Radley Bagpipe Competition
Will Parker-Jennings (Ldr), Ross Donaldson (Ldr), Freddie
Woodd (B), Hugo Meynell (Ldr) and Alex Forbes-Leith (Ldr)
all performed extremely well against stiff competition from
Radley, Abingdon, Stowe and D’Overbroek’s in the recent
Radley Bagpipe Competition. From the eleven competitors
in the U18 class, Freddie secured the Silver medal and Hugo
deservedly won the Gold medal on his birthday.
Teeming with Theatrical Activity
The Stahl has been teeming with theatrical activity this season
with high-quality productions from pupils and professional
companies alike. The Great Gatsby, brought to us by the
brilliant Blackeyed Theatre Company, made for a dazzling
start to the year transporting packed houses to the heady,
hazy nights of Roaring Twenties America. In October we went
walkabout with Waiting for Godot – performed in the School
Cloisters. Director Charlie Rogers (S) and Assistant Director
Tom Younger (G) played the central roles of Valdimer and
Estragon and together they made a compelling tragic-comic
duo. Coco Brown (W) was a strangely beguiling, but none the
less brutal, slave-master Pozzo, alongside Axi Hobill’s (Ldr)
tender portrayal of the much maligned Lucky. Ed Hodgson (Sc)
as the Boy, communicated an innocence and fragility which
gave the play both depth and emotional weight.
www.oundleschool.org.uk
‘Staging a Beckett play is a task which most professional
directors would be daunted by, but to do this outside,
with an all pupil cast was hugely admirable.’
Naomi Jones, Theatre Director
Stahl audiences were then
treated to a theatrical
reimagining of William
Golding’s dystopian novel,
Lord of the Flies. Hetty
Hodgson’s (D) all-female,
Dryden House production
forced audiences to
question whether the moral
degeneration of children,
depicted in Golding’s text,
was in fact gender-related.
Through excellent direction
and the convincing
performances of Catie
Gilchrist (D) as Jackie (Jack) and Susanna Gillespie as Rosie
(Ralph), the production chillingly demonstrated girls to be
just as capable of these unspeakable acts of cruelty as their
male counterparts. Watching brutality dominate as Jackie
and her camp’s pragmatic morality began to unravel made
for a truly captivating evening in the theatre. The Michaelmas
Quarter was brought to a poignant close with Paines Plough’s
Every Brilliant Thing, a moving, yet surprisingly funny piece
of interactive theatre chartering a young boy’s journey from
childhood to adulthood as he attempted to cope with his
mother’s recurrent suicide attempts. This was followed,
straight after Exeat by Sweetshop Revolution’s visually
stunning dance/theatre piece I loved you and I loved you.
Later dancers taking dance as their Tuesday afternoon sport
option were fortunate to participate in a workshop led by
the choreographer of the piece, Sally Marie, and dancer,
Dan Watson.
The Christmas season was brought to a magical close with
a whole School production of Alice by Laura Wade. Marking
150 years since the publication of Lewis Carroll’s childhood
classic the play, directed by Naomi Jones brought the familiar
characters into an unexpected, contemporary setting.
Molly-May Keston (Sn) excelled as the eponymous heroine,
perfectly combining pre-teen volatility with an affecting
innocence and charm whilst Hugo Beazley (StA) delighted as
the enigmatic White Rabbit.
Backstage at the Stahl has gone from strength to strength
this academic year with the return of Thursday voluntaries
and the transformation of the top room into a technical
theatre teaching space. Pupils from all years have benefitted
immensely from these changes and as a result have been
able to make significant contributions to the technical
elements of all in-house productions.
11
ARTS
Prevailing Lies
Christmas Quarter 2015
Yarrow Exhibitions
This October, ninety-two pupils from First Form to Upper
Sixth exhibited paintings, prints and sculptures in the first
exhibition of its kind for many years in the Yarrow Gallery. Sixth
Form paintings by Antonia Simon (W), Freddie Wilson (StA),
Cazzie Winterton (D), Kitty Petrides (D) and Mamie Nicolle (W)
were particularly striking, and it was a joy to see printmakers
hold their own amongst Oundle’s finest. Holy Telfer (L) won
particular praise for her remarkable portraits and Lydia
Turner’s (Sn) ceramic virus series was thoroughly thoughtprovoking. In November, Facets - a group of textile artists - put
on a show called Hanging by a Thread. The artists within the
group work and interpret their chosen themes very differently,
collaborating occasionally to produce a joint work, which in a
way, shows that textiles and thread are a shared passion and
draw people together. At a recent presentation ceremony in Belfast, Henry Worsley
(Ldr) was awarded first prize in the Cinemagic Young
Filmmaker (under 15s) Competition. Entries could be about
anything at all from fact or fiction, comedy or drama, news
programme or documentary and Henry wrote, shot and
edited a ten minute short film entitled Prevailing Lies - a
short psychological thriller about a young girl suffering from
depression who starts to question her reality.
Henry commented ‘Ultimately, what I wanted to craft was a
film which represented loneliness and fear of being different in
an interesting philosophical light. The film stars my close family
and friends, and was shot on a tight budget of only £200. The
film will now be shown at next year’s Cinemagic International
Film Festival, but even more importantly, it spurs me on all the
more to pursue a career in the film industry.’
To view Henry’s film on Youtube visit:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkNxv9shSkU
Photo of the Week
Photography Club Captain, Lucy Purnell (D) said ‘Photo of the
Week helps us to develop our technical skills in a pressure
free environment. This is essential because it means we can
later apply these skills when we take photos of important
events. Photo of the Week also helps us to be more
creative with our photos because the title is often open to
interpretation.’
Lizzie Lee (Sn) added ‘Photo of The Week is the essence of
creativity within our photography. Titles such as ‘orange’
allow us to explore so many different options on the theme
and that creates such diversity within the team. Selfappraisal in every session means that every member of the
team improves every week.’
12
OSCAR on Air
OSCAR’s four week broadcast got off to a flying start with new
shows from all around the School. Broadcasting all aspects of
School life, OSCAR (England’s longest running school FM radio
station) hosts shows varying from debating to science, music
to drama, sport to German, radio plays to chat shows. With
over a hundred pupils involved in directing, presenting or with
technical aspects, OSCAR radio brings together everything that
makes Oundle so special. With over 1000 website views per
day, OSCAR allows all aspects of school life to be accessible by
people inside the School and out.
CCF / DofE
CCF Field Weekend
During the September Field Weekend, the various CCF
Sections were deployed in all directions around England and
North Wales to complete a wide variety of activities. The
Naval Section was based at Rutland Water for the weekend,
sailing, kayaking and completing the high ropes and team
building courses. The Army Section split in half: the Advanced
Infantry Company heading to Yardley Chase training area to
conduct Section Attacks and low level training, whilst the 120
Fourth Form Cadets remained at Oundle to make full use of
the small bore range to complete an introductory shoot with
the Number 8 rifle. On the 100th Anniversary of the Battle
of Loos the Cadets also watched the film My Boy Jack, about
Rudyard Kipling’s son who died at the Battle, alongside ten
Old Oundelians. The RAF Section travelled widely over the
weekend, visiting the RAF Regiment at RAF Honnington, and
then in the 75th Anniversary year of the Battle of Britain,
www.oundleschool.org.uk
the Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane of the Battle of Britain
Memorial Flight at RAF Conningsby. The Adventure Training
Section split in half, divers heading south to Portland Harbour
for a chilly weekend of diving in the English Channel, and
the remainder of the Section heading to North Wales for
a weekend of walking, kayaking and mountain biking in
Snowdonia. Perhaps the greatest excitement was reserved for
the Fire and Rescue Section who stayed in Oundle, but had
the opportunity to play with their new toy, a new fire tender,
complete with ladders, pump and hoses!
Remembrance
The weekly rehearsals of the CCF Marching Band culminated
in another fine performance at the head of the town’s annual
Remembrance Parade on Sunday 8th November. Led by Drum
Major Angus McRae (StA), and Band Captain Bethany Peck
(L), the Band, Pipers and Trumpeters performed in the Market
Square during the Service, leading the Act of Remembrance
with a moving rendition of the Last Post.
Silver DofE
In October, seven groups of pupils took part in their Silver
practice expedition to the Peak District, a big step-up from
Bronze level for the pupils in terms of the demands upon their
physical fitness, navigation and campcraft. Their familiarisation
route on the first day led to the top of Hollins Cross, where
they were met by staff who tested them on their ability to
take bearings and their general observations of the landscape.
On the second day, the route that the pupils walked took
them around Kinder Scout. In the evening at camp, the
groups had many stories to tell and had clearly learnt a lot
about teamwork during the day! On the final day, there was
competition amongst the groups as to which would reach
the finishing point first. All groups were seen at lunchtime
at Ladybower reservoir and despite a few aches and pains
were in good spirits. At the finishing point staff welcomed six
of the seven groups in, but there was no sign of the group
that all had thought would be first! Eventually, two of the
final group’s members emerged over the brow of a hill from
a northerly direction, rather than the westerly expected with
it being clear that a frustrating navigational error had been
made. Despite this the expedition was a success and the pupils
made progress in their expedition skills in preparation for their
Qualifying expedition at Easter.
13
OUNDLE SOCIETY
Christmas Quarter 2015
William Laxton Society Update
Old Oundelian Magazine Issue
The William Laxton Society held a very successful event in
July with a tour of St Paul’s Cathedral followed by a drinks
reception at Charles Russell Speechly LLP, at which the
attractive tax efficiencies available for legators remembering the School in their wills, were discussed. In July,
Jay Cartwright (S 71) succeeded David Bailey QC (N 83) as
Chairman. We would like to thank David for all that he has
done for the Society during his tenure.
OOs will have noticed that this year’s Old Oundelian magazine
has a fresh new design. The magazine’s new editor, Simon
Redfern (Sc 75), has brought in a variety of new features whilst
still retaining some of the old favourites. This year’s edition
includes interviews with Norman Smith (G 77) who is the
Assistant Political News Editor at the BBC and Anna Turney
(K 97) who has retired from her successful paralympic skiing
career and become a motivational speaker. If you haven’t
received a copy of the magazine or would like another one
please contact the OO Club Secretary, Jane Fenton, with your
address at [email protected]
Plans for the Society include a more specific recognition
of membership, with invitations in the pipeline to School
events which might be of interest. Periodic email updates
highlighting School news are planned, and engagement
by WLS Members in the progress of the School will be
encouraged.
Telephone Campaign Overview
As a result of our August telephone campaign, we are delighted to announce that we have raised over £120,000 in
donations and pledges for our Bursary Programme along
with other projects. This will make a very real difference
in our ability to deliver these projects. We would like to
thank all of those who took the time to speak with our
callers, and our OO callers who worked so hard and so
professionally during the course of the campaign. We will
be running a similar campaign from the 20th July to 7th
August 2016.
Drinks and Links Events
In September, the OO Club held two very successful Drinks
and Links events in London, for those in the Engineering
and Technology sectors, and those employed in Media,
PR and Digital Commerce. Speakers’ topics included news
programming and experiential marketing. Many thanks
to Guy Beresford (G 78) and Alice Weightman (W 92) for
helping to arrange these events. The OO Club will be holding more of these networking evenings in the future for
other popular career sectors - keep an eye out for details.
Oundle Society Events for 2016
At the Oundle Society we are always exploring ways to
improve and vary our events programme in an effort to
appeal to the whole Oundle community, especially current
parents. Over the coming academic year, we will be aiming to host a variety of regional events in London, Scotland
and the Midlands in the hope there will be something to
suit everyone. At the time of publication, we are currently
looking forward to the first of these events at The Club at
The Ivy, London, on Friday 4th December.
New President for the OO Club
Following the highly successful tenure of Ian Hodgson (Sc
78) as the OO Club’s President for 2015, next year’s President will be Arthur Marment (D 77). Arthur has been a
stalwart supporter of the OO Club for many years and runs
the OO Tennis club. He has also had two children at the
School. We look forward to him taking over the reins and
wish him every success.
14
Upcoming Multi-sports Weekend
The 2016 Multi-sports weekend will take place on Saturday 5th
and Sunday 6th March. Last year OO teams from twelve sports
competed against teams from the School and the School was
the overall winner. If you are an OO and you fancy playing in
one of this year’s teams please contact the OO Sports rep - Al
Gordon (C 69) at [email protected] - who will be able to give
you further information.
USA/Canada Trip
We are pleased to announce that plans are currently underway
for The Oundle Society to visit America and Canada in late
May 2016. This is a ‘Save the Date’ for all friends of the School
‘across the pond’, to put the end of May 2016 in your calendar
as we will be visiting locations across the continent to meet up
with as many friends as possible.
OUNDLE SOCIETY
Update on The Oundle Society
from Matthew Dear, Director of
Development
www.oundleschool.org.uk
Wedding Bells for Former OO Club Secretary
It could barely be a more exciting time to be involved with
Oundle, as development plans continue apace and we
work alongside our new Head to steward and advance the
School. In the Oundle Society, we are looking to offer an
events programme with something for everyone. Our new
e-newsletter is designed to keep everybody informed, and
we hope to meet lots of new faces, as well as catching up
with old friends.
The rapid emergence of the SciTec Campus is thrilling for all
involved, and we offer our heartfelt thanks to those generous
donors who have enabled us to get this far. We are turning
our attention now to the fit-out of the Patrick Engineering
Centre in particular, and, to this end, we have produced a
leaflet detailing the equipment we hope to install, and for
which we require further support. If you do not have a copy,
please pick one up at any of our events or contact the Society
office.
We are likewise deeply grateful to all those who enable
our Bursary and Scholarship Programme to widen access
as fully as it does, and we are also refining plans for further
major development of our sports facilities. We do all of this
mindful that the pupils of today benefit from our centuries
old tradition of philanthropy, and that we are charged with
inspiring a similar legacy.
We are delighted to report that during the summer holidays,
former OO Club Secretary Chris Piper (Sc 71) and his partner,
Oundle Music Department Secretary, Tina Minney, celebrated
their wedding with a ceremony in Kent. Chris and Tina have
been together for many years but decided that the time had
finally come to tie the knot. They spent their honeymoon in
China, and the trip was kindly donated by Old Oundelians as
a retirement present to Chris. We are sure all OOs will want
to wish Chris and Tina many happy years together as husband
and wife.
Oundle School Virtual Balloon Race
To coincide with Climate Week in March 2016, we will be
launching the ‘Oundle School Virtual Balloon Race’. The whole
School community, including parents and OOs, will have the
opportunity to purchase a ‘virtual’ balloon or balloons which
will be ‘launched’ from the SciTec Campus at 5pm on 7th
March and will be subject to weather conditions during that
week. Contestants will be able to track the progress of their
balloon on line and prizes will be awarded to the balloons
that travel the furthest. The project is being supported by Al
Jazeera Weather Presenter and meteorologist, Everton Fox,
who will also be talking to some of our pupils during Climate
Week. All proceeds will go towards the development of the
SciTec campus.
OO London Dinner
On 30th November the OO Club London Dinner was held
at The Hurlingham Club in Putney. The lavish surroundings
hosted just under 200 Old Oundelians for the biggest OO
dinner of the year and the guest of honour was the new Head,
Sarah Kerr-Dineen, who got the chance to meet a wide range
of OOs of all ages. The food and wine were excellent and the
guests enjoyed reconnecting with their old School friends –
many of them staying on to chat over a drink long after the
dinner was over.
15
OUNDLE SOCIETY
Long Service Awards
Over the summer, five members of staff were recognised for
their long-service to the School.
Gerald North - Carpenter - 45 years’ service.
Stephen Turner - Electrician - 40 years’ service
Derek Forscutt - Plumber - 42 years’ service
John Chester - Painter - 33 years’ service
Nash Abdullah - Head Electrician - 30 years’ service
Christmas Quarter 2015
Lee Palmer, Maintenance Manager, added ‘I would like to thank
them for their excellent commitment and loyalty to the School
and the building department. Their customer focus is brilliant
and their continued support and positive attitude towards many
changes through the years has been a huge contribution to
our success. Also what a great example to an apprenticeship
programme they are and investment by the School.’
Nick Davis, Buildings Manager commented ‘When I arrived
at Oundle three months ago I was amazed and excited by the
range of skills we have ‘in house’ and when we approached
New College Stamford to discuss taking on apprentices, they
were equally excited by this group of skilled operatives who are
perfectly placed to share their in-depth knowledge and make
succession planning really work for us all.’
Events Calendar January - June 2016
Links
Hepburn Music Competition – Late February
Facebook – facebook.com/oundlesoc
Birmingham Concert – Tuesday 8th March
Twitter – @oundlesoc
OO South West Lunch – Wednesday 16th March
Website – oundleschool.org.uk/society
Oundle School at the Royal Automobile Club –
Thursday 22nd March
Facebook – facebook.com/oldoundelian
Over 60s Lunch – Thursday 14th April
Website – oundleschool.org.uk/Oundle-Society-OO-Club
Twitter - @oldoundelian
Edinburgh Drinks Reception at The New Club – April/May
Oundle in the USA and Canada – Late May
OO Sports Lunch – May
OO 1976 Reunion – Wednesday 8th June
Henley Regatta – Wednesday 29th June
The Coldest Crossing
Angus Dowie (F 14) and Archie Wilson (StA 14) are launching an expedition to become the world’s first people to cross
Iceland, unsupported, in Midwinter this Christmas. They have already acquired support from sponsors such as Sony, BMC and
National Geographic along with names such as Sir Ralph Fiennes and Ed Stafford. A TV documentary will be produced of the
expedition by Camp4Collective. We are very proud that these two OOs will be representing the School on such a public level
and wish them all the best for their journey. Angus and Archie are still in need of sponsors. To find out more, please visit the
website at www.thecoldestcrossing.com
16
COMMUNITY ACTION / CHARITY
Community Action Field Weekend
Community Action pupils had a busy Michaelmas Field
Weekend. On Saturday 26th September, 112 pupils and seven
members of staff headed to Birmingham to experience a night
under cardboard in a car park at St Basils, one of the largest
and most successful agencies in the United Kingdom working
with young homeless people. For one night, pupils had a taste
of the reality experienced by the thousands of young people
who sleep rough. As well as raising awareness of the plight
of homeless people, the SleepOut raised in excess of £8000
for this very worthy charity. Various talks on the work of St
Basils were given throughout the evening by organisers and
residents. On Sunday, over 200 visitors to the School, hosted
by over 150 pupils, took part in Have a Go Day, participating in
various activities from swimming and badminton to crazy golf
and face painting and even traction engine rides around the
School’s grounds. Finally, on Monday, pupils attended a series
of talks beginning with volunteers from the new youth café
at Fletton House, a local Oxfam volunteer who has recently
returned from Rwanda, and a fundraising team from Lepra.
The weekend finished with talks about ‘Modern Slavery’ by
International Needs executive directors from the UK, Ghana
and Canada.
www.oundleschool.org.uk
‘The event provides an opportunity for fund and
awareness raising and also helps new pupils to the School
get a taste for philanthropic activities. Some stalls were
just for fun (throwing sponges at teachers and an egg
roulette game!) whilst others raised awareness of real
issues such as a memory testing game for Alzheimer’s UK.
Last year, the School raised in excess of £114,000 for local,
national and international charities with Fourth Form
(Year 10) pupils also involved in the Big Give Philanthropy
In Schools programme. We look forward to building on this
in 2015-2016, with many different charity initiatives
already planned.’ - Ian Clark, Head of Charities
Rewarding and Enjoyable Experience for All
For a week in August, thirteen current Sixth Form pupils and
seven former pupils spent a week volunteering for Children’s
Country Holiday Fund (CCHF), a charity that provides a
countryside action packed holiday for disadvantaged children
from London. The week’s activities took place at School and
hosted twenty-seven children from Birmingham. Activities
throughout the week included water sports in the School
pool, a trip to Grafham Water, a scavenger hunt, a day at
‘Tree Ninja’, a trip to the local bowling alley, a visit to Warwick
Castle, and a circus skills session. A trip to Wicksteed Theme
Park which saw children enjoying the dodgems and the log
flume was followed by a Talent Show which provided an
opportunity for the children to show off their amazing dance
and hoola-hooping skills.
Holiday organiser and Head of Biology, Penny Rowe
commented ‘This holiday camp gives our pupils a greater
appreciation of the difficulties that some children face and
have to deal with as they grow up. It also gives our pupils a
real opportunity to make a difference and help children who
come from a very different background to their own.’
Annual Charities Fair
In mid-September, Lower Sixth Form representatives put
together a variety of games and stalls for the School’s annual
Charities Fair. Pupils chose a variety of charities to support,
including the Adam Rogers Trust, Bloodwise, Wateraid and the
British Heart Foundation. Wood Green animal shelter and the
local Air Ambulance were also represented, and a total of just
under £1000 was raised.
17
COMMUNITY ACTION / CHARITY
Christmas Quarter 2015
‘Making its own sunshine’
Operation Christmas Child
In early August, an eighty-strong volunteer group, comprising
current and former pupils and five pupils from other local
schools, ran the 2015 Oundle School Mencap Holiday (OSMH),
now in its 33rd year. Not only does Oundle Mencap give a
week’s holiday to forty children with learning disabilities, it
offers their families a week’s respite from care whilst enabling
Sixth formers to learn about caring for young people with
learning disabilities in a safe and protective environment.
The theme of the 2015 holiday was ‘Wild West’. During the
week the children fashioned giant wagons from cardboard
boxes, built totem poles from empty milk bottles, made dream
catchers and rainmakers and enjoyed Wild West-themed
games and plays which, in accordance with OSMH tradition,
involved plenty of singing and dressing up.
Third and Fourth Form girls in New House have been busy
helping Ms Caroline Rees to pack Christmas boxes for
Operation Christmas Child. Samaritan’s Purse is a charity
helping those who are in need in Eastern Europe, Africa and
Central Asia. Thousands of churches, schools and businesses
across the UK and Ireland are already part of this charity and
the New House girls have packed more than sixty boxes filled
to the brim with toys, sweets, hygiene items, socks, gloves
and hats. Next year they hope to encourage the whole School
to get involved in Operation Christmas Child and make more
children smile.
Kate Taylor, Holiday Leader, commented ‘Our children had the
most fantastic holiday once again. We say that we run one
holiday for forty children, but really we are providing forty
bespoke experiences, tailored to the specific needs of each
young person. The commitment and energy of our volunteers
who do this is just amazing. The thank you letters and emails
have been pouring in, with many of the children already
counting down the days until next year’s holiday.’
Over the August bank holiday weekend, the fourth Oundle
Mencap Outdoors holiday took place, a camping weekend
for young adults with learning disabilities. Almost fifty young
people and volunteers camped in the village of Wadenhoe,
near Oundle, and enjoyed cooking outdoors, craft activities,
collecting firewood, horse riding, climbing, archery – and
bowling in Peterborough on the wettest day!
Parent Feedback: ‘Once again, thank you so much for
organising the wonderful camping holiday last weekend. The
logistics are amazing, when you start packing everything up,
you begin to realise how much is involved. Our son enjoyed
every minute of it, despite the weather and hasn’t stopped
talking about it since. How you all manage to cope when it
didn’t seem to stop raining, I can’t imagine. Huge thanks as
ever - it is definitely the highlight of his year.’
For more information on Oundle School Mencap Holidays, visit
www.oundlemencap.co.uk.
18
Old Uniforms Shed New Light
A very special shipment of twenty four boxes of ‘retired’ school
uniform left Laxton Junior School over the summer to find a
new home at New Light in Kolkata, India - www.newlightindia.
org - an inspiring organisation focused on allowing the children
of sex workers to enjoy a safe and healthy childhood and
prepare them for a brighter future where they can expect
to lead productive lives. They do this through healthcare,
nutrition and education.
Oundle Charity Venturers
The JimJam Girls have designed a pair of School Pyjamas in
pink and blue to raise money for the Anthony Nolan Trust.
Oundle’s first ever ‘Silent’ Disco was held in late November
to raise money for charities in Kenya. The money raised will
go to improving living conditions in orphanages and schools
that were visited on the Kenya trip over the October Exeat.
Souvenir playing cards are on sale, featuring a photo of the
market place in the heart of Oundle town. All proceeds will
be donated to local charity, Volunteer Action who provide
invaluable services for the local senior community. At a cost of
just £4, cards can be purchased at forthcoming School events
or by email: [email protected].
COMMUNITY ACTION / CHARITY
ISC Community Action Conference
www.oundleschool.org.uk
Crafts for Charity
In November, four CA pupils attended a national ISC
Community Action Conference in Birmingham at which they
gave presentations on community initiatives (including a
clothes collection for Syria) at a StudentMeet session. The
pupils also heard from a number of interesting and thoughtprovoking speakers, including John Bird, founder of the Big
Issue, George Fielding, ambassador for the ‘iwill’ campaign and
Alex Ntung from Project for Education in a Diverse UK.
Katie Orr (D) commented ‘In September 2015, the body of
a three year-old Syrian boy was found on the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea. The photographs of the boy circulated
around the world and attracted the media’s full attention
to the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis. Over the summer
holidays, I became gradually more aware of the situation
and above all the upcoming winter and decided, along with
Magnus Jeffery (StA), to organise a clothing collection for
Samara’s Aid to be taken to Refugee Camps. The School
community was so responsive and we managed to gather
together 268 boxes of clothing’
The Community Action Crafts for Charity group raised £148
through the sale of their felt poppies for the Royal British
Legion. In the run up to Christmas, the girls made and sold
tree decorations with the proceeds to Shelter, a charity
supporting the homeless.
Apricity Fashion Show
‘Apricity’ is a beam of warm light in the midst of dark winter, and this summed up Seb Goold making light of a bad situation which
inspired Antonia Simon (W) and her team to put on the Apricity Fashion Show in Chapel on 15th November. At the age of nine,
the rugby-loving Seb suffered a life-changing accident that resulted in him undergoing thirty operations and eventually having his
leg amputated. However against all odds, he has chosen to look entirely on the bright side and is now determined to become a
paraplegic athlete. Over 400 people attended a vibrant and impressive event, raising over £4500 in the process to help the Seb
Goold Trust move towards equipping Seb with new equipment.
19
SPORT
Christmas Quarter 2015
International Line-up at Hockey Conference
Impressive Rugby
Six hockey scholars attended the sixth MT13 OSAKA annual
hockey conference at Repton School, which attracted one
of the best line-ups for a number of years, including Florian
Fuchs (International Hockey Federation Young Player of the
Year 2012), Christopher Ruhr, a fellow German international
and Toon Siepman, a leading expert in drag flicking who has
worked with some of the world’s top drag flickers. Georgie
Pringle (W) was lucky enough to have a one on one session
with Toon Siepman. As well as leading international stars,
players from local clubs were also involving in the coaching
of the players.
The rugby club’s season has seen many good performances
across all the teams. In the seniors the 1st XV made an
impressive start, winning five out of seven games and losing
only narrowly to NatWest cup holders Bromsgrove and a
strong Harrow side. At the time of publication they are still
going strong in the NatWest cup. The 2nd XV also won five
games with many players fighting to break into the 1st XV. The
3rd XV had a mixed season with some very close games going
against them, whilst playing some good quality rugby on a
strong circuit. The remaining teams remain unbeaten, showing
huge amounts of depth in Oundle’s rugby. The Colts As have
had some very close games not going their way but drawing
against Bromsgrove was a great effort against a strong side.
Both the B and C teams have won four games each and are
looking to improve on this by the end of the season. The Junior
Colts As started very strongly including a couple of hard fought
wins against Harrow and Stowe. They were unfortunately
knocked out of the NatWest cup in the 4th round by a strong
Spalding Grammar side. The Bs have played very well only
losing to Radley, and are looking to finish the season strongly.
The C and D teams have put in some good performances
against strong oppositions winning several games each.
Squash Coaches
The squash season started with the usual enthusiasm, with
Mollie Schofield (K) and Dylan Martens (L) setting a fine
example as captains of Girls’ and Boys’ 1st teams respectively.
The Boys 1st V performed impressively and at the time of
publication were on top in all inter-school fixtures. Home and
away victories against Uppingham (both 3-2) and Rugby (5-0
and 3-1) together with wins against Oakham (4-1 at home)
and Bromsgrove (4-1 away) were convincing. Over the years,
victories against Stamford have been few and far between,
so the 4-1 win away from home at the end of September
was noteworthy. As a Northants county player, Dylan has established himself
as arguably the strongest number one on the circuit. 20
Collaborative Choreography
In October, the School welcomed a member of the
Rambert Dance Company to run a full day’s workshop for
anyone interested in dance. The day comprised a general
contemporary style warm-up followed by an introduction
to contemporary dance, repertoire and then choreography.
For the repertoire, dancers chose to focus on A Linha Curva
which is a strong dance filled with rhythmic pulses performed
to percussive music. The irresistible samba-inspired lines
and curves, blended with a Brazilian style and contemporary
dance technique which sparked much enjoyment as the
dancers were challenged to keep pace with the driving rhythm.
Dancers from the Elite Academy of Dance in Grantham and
Oundle’s School of Ballet were also invited to attend the
workshop. The choreography part of the workshop provided a
platform for exciting collaboration between all groups, and at
the end of the day the dancers showcased their ideas to a very
appreciative audience.
SPORT
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Relocation to Rutland
Cricketing Talent
In the Michaelmas Quarter, the Sailing Club moved to Rutland
Water for a trial period which brought with it the benefits of
improved wind conditions, the opportunity to train with other
schools, and the sense of a more focused sailing environment.
Rutland Water will now be the Club’s permanent home.
Unfortunately the main event of this season (the BSDRA
Midlands Championship) was cancelled owing to lack of wind,
but sailors managed to have a few matches against local
schools in windy conditions, with mixed results.
Last year’s 1st XI cricket captain Benedict Graves (F15) led from
the front and became one of the country’s leading all-round
cricketers of the season in the HMC Schools statistics to be
published in Wisden. With 894 runs at 68.76, including four
centuries and 99 not out against Eton plus 40 wickets at 15.30,
he is one of the leading all-rounder cricketers in English Public
School cricket in 2015. Ben was judged the all-rounder of the
Silk Trophy at the end of term festival played against Eton,
Shrewsbury and Hilton College, KZN. He is currently spending
the winter with Merwe Genis, Oundle’s overseas cricket
professional, whilst on his Gap year placement at the Cape
Cricket Academy in Stellenbosch near Cape Town. He will
join the Durham University MCC Cricket Centre of Excellence
when he returns to the UK. Looking ahead to the future, we
have an amazingly talented young cricketer at LJS and OTCC in
Will Park, who won everything going at the recent Northants
Cricket awards at the County Ground, Northampton. He will
be joining Oundle next year and should be acknowledged for
his outstanding achievement for his County at cricket. Will
was Cricket Captain for Northamptonshire U10s and received
the Lords Taverners Centurion Award (with 117 against East
Northants District), batsman of the year and Players’s Player.
Excellent Prospects
Eventful Eventing
At the end of his last eventing season Richard Coney (L) began
riding his new six year old horse who had not evented before.
They won their first novice U18 event at Oasby, finishing the
2014 season on a high. This year’s season started well with
them winning the U18 at Lincoln, placed 2nd at the Belton
Horse Trials and then winning at Weston Park at the end of
April. The summer was incredibly busy seeing them selected
to ride at Millstreet in Ireland for England at the end of August
and selected for the Midlands U18 team at the national U18
novice eventing Championships at Weston Park in October,
where the team won the overall competition. Next year,
Richard hopes to be selected for the British U18 European
eventing team.
House runners gathered for the annual Gale Mile in the
sunshine which broke following a lunchtime tempest that
had, thankfully, cleared by the scheduled start time. As the
cloud cover changed briskly throughout the afternoon, it was
pleasing to see that the highly charged crowd of spectators
remained for the duration of the event providing such a vocal
support that staff on the megaphones were having a hard time
being heard! When the gun signalled the start, the runners
were ready and provided the sort of hotly contested afternoon
of sport that House events are famed for. In the Senior House
Girls’ races, Wyatt’s intermediate team prevailed to prevent a
Sanderson clean sweep and seven girls (Gigi Campbell-Breeden
(Sn), Sacha Wight (K), Ruby Goodall (L), Miranda Joicey (W),
Sophia Ogilvie (W), Isabella Wythe (N) and Thalia Garnett (D)
ran under six minutes for their lap. In the Junior Girls’ race,
Olivia Mardon (L) ran the fastest lap on six mins exactly as the
Laxton First and Second Form teams (with Matilda Somerville
-Cotton, Alice Bennett and Matilda Lanni) won their event.
Fisher House dominated the Boys’ events winning all three
sections and claiming the overall trophy with Laundimer in 2nd
place and Sidney in 3rd. Harry Evett (B) and Edward Wilson
(F) ran the joint best time of the day for the Senior Boys in
4.49. The story of the day however was the Laxton First and
Second Form Boys’ team who not only won their race but also
defeated all of the Third Form teams and finished in a time
of 22:44 which compared favourably with many of the Senior
teams! Oundle seems to have some excellent prospects for
cross-country in the coming years. In the Midland road relays,
Archie Parkison (L) achieved the second fastest time and in the
National road relays, he was joint-third fastest. Douglas Stark
(B 11) competed for England in the Home Countries Decathlon
competition and came 2nd.
21
SPORT
Christmas Quarter 2015
County Champions
Road to Wimbledon
After a disappointing pre-season start at King’s Canterbury,
with Oundle having to hand back the trophy after a five year
unbeaten run, the U14, U16 and U18 Girls’ hockey teams are
all county champions. In fourteen matches against local rivals,
Oakham, earlier in the season, Oundle won twelve and only
lost two, scoring forty-nine goals and only conceding twelve. Over the summer, after triumphing in the County Tennis
Finals, Pippa Bourne (L) enjoyed an outing at the All England
Club where she played in front of former British No.1 Tim
Henman as part of the HSBC Road to Wimbledon National
U14 Challenge Finals. Pippa made it to the second round at
the iconic venue before losing to the sixth seed and eventual
finalist. Some 20,000 promising young tennis players from
all over Britain competed in pursuit of a prestigious place at
Wimbledon, with Pippa among the top 144 boys and girls to
have earned the right to play at the National Finals.
Team of the Year
The 2014-15 U14 netball team was recently awarded runnerup in Northamptonshire Sports Awards ‘team of the year’.
Sienna Rushton (Sn) has been successful in gaining a place
in the National Netball Performance Programme for the East
Midlands Region. She will train at Loughborough University
every Wednesday evening and has been given an extensive
training programme.
The U14, U16 and 1st Netball teams are all through to the
Regional Finals to take place in January after success in County
Championships.
Records Broken
On 24th September, Oundle competed in their first swimming
competition of the year, a multi-school gala, at which the
School managed to secure its place as a leading school for
swimming, making five out of the eight finals against strong
competition. Finn Clarkson (Sc) competed for the Senior team,
winning a Bronze medal. The Senior girls were impressive,
with Vice-Captain Eliza Dundas (D) leading from the fore,
and setting example with her attitude. The Senior boys won
multiple medals in medley and freestyle races, with Ryan Ho
(C) impressing all the teams with his speed. Finn Clarkson,
however, gave the swim of the gala, and gained back 15m to
secure 3rd place, despite being in Fourth Form. Eleven PBs
were gained in this gala and there were also two records
broken; Ryan broke the 50m Breaststroke record which has
been held by Sam Woodfield (L 09) since 2008. The other
record was achieved by James Alley (G) breaking Bruno Ngou’s
(G 13) time.
22
SPORT
Oundle hosts England Cricket Captain
and Olympic Gymnast
Over the summer the School’s new J M Mills Cricket Pavilion
played host to the NatWest U13 National Club Championship
Finals, and to the delight of both the young players and the
watching cricket fans, Ashes-winning England Captain, Alastair
Cook presented all six teams with their medals and held an
excellent Q&A session with all of the players.
www.oundleschool.org.uk
Activate Camps held a number of their specialist sports camps
at the School including their new Louis Smith Gymnastics
Academy (LSGA). They hosted forty gymnasts from across the
region, and participants on the three day course were put
through their paces and also got to meet the Olympic medal
winner, Louis Smith himself.
‘We were delighted to host the NatWest U13 and U15
National Club Championships for the second year running.
It is a fantastic opportunity for young cricketers from
all over the UK to come together in competitive spirit
and having the U13 prizes presented by Alastair Cook
will be something they will remember for life.’
Susie Raby, Enterprises and Events Manager
Coached by England Goal Scorer
Dora Nicolle (W) commented ‘It was absolutely amazing to have dynamic goal-scorer England and GB Centre Forward, Sam Ward
coach us. He took a small group of forward players and ran us through some shooting drills. The skills he was demonstrating
seemed impossible; however it was remarkable to see how much we all learnt. A few of the skills that he brought into the drills were
completely unfamiliar but after practising them time and time again we finally got them.’
23
BEYOND OUNDLE
Christmas Quarter 2015
Supporting Nongoma Friendship
In the lap of the Gods!
In July, twelve pupils and staff visited charities in Nongoma,
Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. They were accompanied by
Howard Smedley, founding member of the Oundle charity,
Nongoma Friendship, a charity formed in 2011 with the aim
of forging a link between the communities of Oundle and
Nongoma. In preparation for the trip, pupils fundraised over
£10,000 for Nongoma Friendship and then spent a week
helping out at Bhekanani Centre with their Food For Learning
programme, which provides daily meals and support for over
eighty vulnerable children.
Henry Sleight (L) wrote ’To read about the history of Athens,
or Greece in general, is incredible. To experience it at first
hand, led by knowledgeable guides (our teachers) with the
same passion for the site as the locals was a life-changing
experience for me.’
William Brettle (B) commented ‘It was rewarding to see the
enormous difference our fundraising has made, whether
through the Bhekanani feeding centre or through regular food
parcels to those most impoverished.’
Challenging Heights and Terrain
This year’s Combined Cadet Force Adventure Training (AT)
Camp was stationed in Capel Curig, Wales, where cadets and
staff were able to experience some stunning scenery within an
excellent open environment for testing their AT skills.
Anthony Orr (F) commented ‘We had to apply many of the
different techniques we learned indoors on the climbing
wall. By the end of the session, even the most challenging
routes were being scaled with ease by climbers who were less
confident to begin with.’
24
The scenery was complemented with the knowledge that, for
example, an unassuming rocky outcrop was the setting for the
pupils’ AS Greek set text, as the location of the murder trials in
Athens.
Henry added ‘To connect that which you have only
experienced on the page with a real, tangible, location, and
to have actually stood in the footsteps of the authors, provides
a deeper understanding and context around the work. It was
also very powerful to stand near the Stoa where Socrates
had discussed philosophy.’
Dragons, lanterns and skyscrapers
A group of pupils who are studying Mandarin visited China,
providing them with the opportunity to observe and
experience both the traditional culture and the modern life
of China - from dragons, lanterns and chopsticks to the many
bright signs and shining lights, skyscrapers, shimmering smart
phones and an everlasting rush hour. The pupils spent the first
five days of the trip in a primary school in Meishan, teaching
English to pupils from Grade 1 to Grade 5.
George Garber (S) commented ‘The trip turned out to be so much
more than just about learning the Chinese language, making me
realise how diverse the world is. The way of life, the culture and
the social understanding are simply so different from ours.’
BEYOND OUNDLE
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Experience of Tertiary Education in Hungary
Jellyfish to High Ropes
The Biology Department took a group of Lower Sixth Form
pupils to the University of Pecs in Hungary for a week-long
study visit at the Microbiology Department in the Faculty of
Science. They received five mornings of excellent lectures and
seminars, and also undertook three afternoons of laboratory
work. One of the most exciting talks was entitled ‘How to
Mend a Broken Heart’, which focused on the treatment of
hypoxic heart disease using cell therapy. Lab work included
DNA electrophoresis on a bacteriophage’s DNA, which resulted
in the satisfaction of seeing the fragments ordered by size
under UV light.
Laxton Second Form started Field Weekend with glowing
jellyfish and leaf-carrying ants at The Deep, followed by acting
out Dracula at Whitby Abbey. They enjoyed a morning of
fossil hunting and a unique football-rounders game on the
beach at Robin Hood’s Bay, followed by fish and chips and
ice‑creams. For the first time, every single pupil made it the
whole way round Aerial Extreme’s high rope course. Whitescar
Caves were a real highlight with the limestone remains of coral
from as far away as the Caribbean, as well as shining stalactites
and the evil ‘Witch’s Face’. Fascinating Insight
In the first week of the summer holiday, seven members of
the RAF Section travelled to RAF Lossiemouth, near Elgin,
Scotland. Lossiemouth is the home of the Northern Quick
Reaction Alert (Interceptor), and also has a squadron of
Typhoons and one of Tornadoes. The cadets saw aircraft and
associated support trades, looked at weapons and took part in
adventurous training activities. A trip to Kinloss enabled a visit
to the National Air Rescue Co-ordination centre, which gave
a fascinating insight into the complexities of using aircraft in
rescue missions. Cultural activities included a trip to Loch Ness
and Fort George. The RAF section recently won the Regional
heat of the Air Squadron Trophy Competition at RAF Cranwell
and are through to the National Finals in March.
‘Everyone enjoyed the visit to the Cathedral which was so beautiful and full
of history which we were able to learn about using audio guides in Spanish.
The salsa lessons were hilariously funny and everyone enjoyed it so much
thatI am now trying to set up a Salsa Club at School!’ - Frankie Hooper (L)
Study, Salsa and Sights
During the first week of the October Exeat, thirteen Sixth Form Spanish pupils and staff travelled to Salamanca for a week
of Spanish lessons, as well as cultural visits and free time to explore the magnificent city. Each morning, the pupils had
four hours of lessons at Salminter Language School.
25
BEYOND OUNDLE
Intellectual Curiosity in Madrid
A group of A level artists travelled to Madrid to visit galleries
and art exhibitions including La Reina Sofia, with its huge
red terrace looking out over the city and stone corridors that
looked into the garden.
Bella Cholmeley (Sn) said ‘Our favourite piece as a group at La
Reina Sofia was Picasso’s Guernica which was incredible to see
first-hand.’
Art teacher and trip organiser, Michael Case added ‘Pupils
were on terrific form throughout the trip and I was delighted
with the intellectual curiosity they showed. They were also
such good company. This was a thoroughly worthwhile and
enjoyable trip.’
Christmas Quarter 2015
joined the trip to look at a drama partnership with Ngecho
School, Gilgil and Liz Dillarstone, Head of Community Action,
furthered already strong links with Gilgil Special School.
Hugo Beazley (StA) commented ‘Having not worked with
special needs children before I was a bit apprehensive,
however, the kindness of each individual child shone through
so much whilst at Gilgil Special School that it made the
whole experience completely magical and something I shall
remember for ever. With such a small group we all felt we were
able to speak to each child properly, making friendships that
seemed as if we had known them for life.’
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing
At the start of the summer holidays, forty-three pupil
musicians and members of Oundle School’s Jazz Orchestras
(OSJO1 and OSJO2) along with six members of staff performed
in four concerts: two at the renowned Montreux Jazz Festival,
one in Lausanne, and one just on the French side of Lake
Geneva in the beautiful town of Lugrin.
Saxophonist Hugo Walford (S) commented ‘The extravagant
recording equipment scattered across the stage in Montreaux
was intimidating but we rather enjoyed being individually
miked and sound-checked! The stage was set… and it was
fantastic to see hundreds of people gather and listen to ‘Music
in the Park’.’
Director of Music and tour leader, Quentin Thomas commented
‘It was a very happy tour – great company, superb food, a
wonderful itinerary and inspirational venues fuelled the week.
Thank you to all the staff who supported the pupils on tour.’
Oundle pupils engage in Kenya
For the fifteenth year, a group of pupils and staff visited Kenya,
spending five days around the town of Gilgil working in schools
and orphanages and three nights in the Masai Mara working
through Governor’s Camp, with an eye to linking with some
local schools in a digital project to be coordinated by Oundle’s
Head of Digital Strategy, Dai Barnes. Back in Nairobi, the pupils
visited the innovative sports project at Sadili Oval, situated on
the edge of the Kibera slums, which aims to empower children
through sport. Naomi Jones, Director of the Stahl Theatre, also
Exercise Cornish Adventure
During the first week of the summer holidays, four Cadets
from the Royal Navy and Adventure Training Sections sailed
in a naval yacht from Plymouth to the Channel Islands. The
voyage took them in glorious weather to Newton Ferres,
Salcombe, Dartmouth and St Peter Port, and included
sightings of dolphins and a whale. The highlight of the trip
was the daily cake, baked on-board and prepared in time for
afternoon tea by a new cadet ‘chef’ each day. In addition to
duties in the galley all the cadets also completed their RYA
Day Skipper qualification. 26
BEYOND OUNDLE
Extensive Knowledge
Cara Nicholson (Sn) wrote ‘Looking out across the Bavarian
Alps, we sat quietly on the former site of Adolf Hitler’s house.
Through the trees nearby, we could see tourists thronging
around the entrance to the museum, blissfully unaware of
the unofficial site so near to them. Mr Pedley’s knowledge of
this part of Europe is extensive, granting us the opportunity
to visit sites that the public might overlook. We were offered
a fantastic insight into the Habsburg Dynasty and other key
areas of history that were concentrated around central Europe.
The packed itinerary included spending nights in Budapest,
Vienna, Artstetten and the Berchtesgarden.’
Tactical Training
The Army Section Summer Camp was held at the Barry
Buddon Training Camp, Angus, Scotland during the first week
of the summer holidays. Ninety-four cadets attended the
camp which provided a variety of challenging and enjoyable
activities. The most demanding phase was a twenty-four hour
exercise requiring the cadets to utilise their infantry skills in
a tactical environment. Other highlights included a live firing
range day during which cadets fired the Cadet Rifle and the
Light Support Weapon, and a day of adventurous training
pursuits including coasteering and mountain biking.
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Helping Hands and Climb for Childhood
Cancer Charity
After hearing the father of Niamh and Founder of Niamh’s
Next Step, Chris Curry, speak at the Community Action Field
Weekend talks in April, three current and two former pupils,
Peter Christianakis (F), Frankie Hunt (Sc), Alex Verge (G),
Jamie Sherlock and Joe Waind, put their plan to climb Mount
Kilimanjaro into action over the summer, reaching the highest
peak and raising an impressive £5500 for the charity. Niamh’s
Next Step was set up in December 2012 after the Currys lost
their amazing little girl.
Peter commented ‘As a group we can easily say that the
climb was one of the most enjoyable and most satisfying
achievements of our lives, especially doing it for such a good
cause. The whole climb was very surreal with many high and
lows. Once the sun started to come up we could finally see
what we were climbing towards - it seemed so close however
this was not the case! As well as the altitude sickness playing
tricks on our mind we could only walk about 100m at a time
and had to rest for 10 minutes because the air was so thin and
everyone was so tired. However the feeling of reaching the top
and looking out over the other peaks above the never ending
sea of clouds is one which will be hard to beat.’
Over the summer, touring Mont Blanc, Rafe Trundell (B), Jamie
Hembury-Gunn, (C) and George Mitchell (B) raised £1545 for
3H Helping Hands for Holidays, a charity providing holidays for
the disabled and respite for carers.
Model European Parliament
In November, Kieran Marray (L) travelled with pupils from
Wymondham College and Thetford Grammar School to Berlin,
as part of the UK delegation to the 43rd session of the Model
European Parliament. This is an international event, where
delegations of politically interested 15-19 year olds from
across all twenty-four countries of the European Union and
the four candidate countries get together to form a mock
European Parliament.
Kieran commented ‘The delegates are assigned to one of ten
committees with each committee overseen by a Committee
President, who is someone who has been before as a
delegate, so can guide and advise the committee on how
to write their resolution, which was my role for the session.
It was a life-changing and unforgettable experience for all
involved, and I would strongly recommend signing up to go to
the next session.’
27
OUNDLE IN PICTURES
Christmas Quarter 2015
RAF Air Squadron Trophy Winners
Field Weekend Talks
Special Needs Sports
Bramston Air Raid Shelter
Art at Abbott House
Chapel Choir at Worcester Cathedral
Photo Club
Lucy Purnell (D) - Photo Competition Winner
About Oundle is edited and published by Liz Dillarstone, email [email protected]
To keep up to date with the latest news visit the School website www.oundleschool.org.uk
Photos by School Photographer, Ivan Quetglas, Team Captain, Lucy Purnell (D), Tally Carter (L), Lizzie Lee (Sn), Anna van de Braak (L),
Bella Cholmeley (Sn), Max Hanka (F), Pavel Lipskiy (B), Stefan Rogers-Coltman (Sc), Alex Barker (N), Minna Dundas (Sn),
Clara Goodman (W), Natalie Peckett (Sn), Flora Smith (N)
28
Printed on
FSC paper