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Since the lockdown began the Music Department has been teaching in the region of 280 individual music lessons each week. Quite an achievement! Our pupils and teachers must be thanked for adapting so seamlessly to online lessons, some of which present their challenges for certain instruments...
In a term where there would have been numerous recitals and concerts, not to mention the semi finals and final of the Woodbridge School Music Competition, Mr Turner is keen to ensure pupils have the opportunity to perform and to share their performances with each other, their parents and teachers.
Having downloaded the necessary software and learnt how to create such a video, Mr Turner messaged every pupil currently having remote individual music lessons encouraging them to submit a performance before half term. This recital is the first instalment of those performances, with more to come in the second half of term!
I believe that music and their individual lessons have helped pupils to maintain an on-going sense of normality, whilst also looking after our mental health. In what has been a very challenging period, music continues to bind us together.
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A Bridge Over Troubled Water
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Ensemble performance is impossible in the current lockdown, but with the expertise of Mr Shepherd and the editing skills of Mr Turner we have managed to combine Swing Band in to the toe-tapping jazz ensemble that we all know and love.
Mr Shepherd came up with the idea and developed the arrangement. He also meticulously contacted all members of the band helping them to perfect their parts and explaining how to go about producing a recording to a click track. Slowly but surely the parts started to come in and Mr Turner set to work!
The finished result is superb and is summed up perfectly in Mr Shepherd's post to members of Swing Band: "You have all played your parts so well, resulting in a stunning performance and something to be proud of. I hope it will become a treasured memory for you all of this highly unusual situation."
Let's see what Paul Simon makes of it!
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Half 'term'
It's been two months now since the beginning of our virtual (virtuous) School…
Friday 19 March
Staff training day. Children at home. Not a loo roll to be bought in all of Suffolk. My contretemps with my bike lock outside Cook…
Monday 22 March
Teams opens…
Laptops out for round one…
Round One…
It all seems a very long time ago.
And what round are we in now? And is this Jeux Sans Frontières, or Avec? (This is a reference aimed at the more mature reader - check out YouTube for some prehistorical nonsense if you don't know what I'm on about... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX19iWZnUZ8 )
But it is nearly half term and the sun is shining (le soleil brille). We have, together, reached another staging point. Lessons, assignments, birthdays have come and gone just like normal, even if the occasions themselves were anything but.
I wonder how many extra miles we have collectively walked, run or cycled as families? How many new recipes have been tried, how many dogs exhausted by the new walkies regimes?
Half term… are we allowed plans? If the weather holds will there be tentative forays to the coast (I think I heard BBC Suffolk suggesting we 'check that the facilities will be open')? Or will life broadly be the same as the previous two months, only without Teams for the teens?
The prospect of some more easing of the lockdown is so beguiling… exciting… daunting. How will everyone behave – how will I behave? Whose words do I hear (the loudest?) and whose do I trust? I confess I have watched Sarah Cooper's lip sync. I trust her.
So Happy Half Term holiday – I hope you find wonderful and novel ways to celebrate it. And my very best wishes to you all. Here's to June…
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Head Boy and Head Girl 2020 -2021
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The Head Boy and Head Girl for next year are Josh Ralph and Sophie Harper. Deputising will be Saif Toubasey and Ianthe Hill.
"Sophie’s absolute passion, dedication and ambition for the School shone through." Says Ms Norman of her interview with potential candidates. "Woodbridge is in her blood (her father, uncle and grandfather are OWs) and her commitment to use her role to benefit others embodies our values. It is not surprising given Sophie’s international upbringing - she joined us from Switzerland in Year 8 - that she is keen to support Mr Pineo and our boarding community progress even further.
Josh joined us in Year 7 from a rather less distant Martlesham, but quickly showed his commitment to learning, and to the School. Like Sophie, Josh’s leadership skills have already been proven through his exemplary commitment to the Army section of the CCF. At interview, Josh spoke in depth about his desire to support the wellbeing of our community with many initiatives that he looks forward to developing."
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Sisters Marina (Y8), Georgia (Y7) and Mariella (Y3) were invited by the English Chess Federation director of women’s chess to join the England women team to play in the online international women’s competition. They played on Thursday evening from 18:00 – 20:00. In England’s group was Austria, Switzerland, Portugal and Czech Republic.
Marina won 1 game and Georgia won 3 games. Mariella drew one game.
A brilliant honour, achievement and fantastic experience in a Women’s International Competition.
Well done to Marina, Georgia and Mariella!
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Y7 Eliza has written this song brilliantly articulating many of our feelings during lockdown as part of her Drama work on 'Home Life'. This is part of Company Three's time capsule recording teenage life during quarantine.
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Mr Goddard has kindly shared his endurance running training schedule early for those who would like to prepare their half-term activities.
'This schedule is week three of our four week cycle, hence only two interval sessions with a chance to up the intensity, weather permitting.
With such a captive audience I thought it the perfect time to wax lyrical regarding the key attributes to bring out the Champion in you (defined here as being the best you can be):
Just my own top five (there are always more)…. for thought and dinner table discussion:
1. Consistency - If only I had a pound for every time I have mentioned this one. Endurance running is a long term adventure and a consistent and patient approach will always reap rewards. Building good foundations, as you would in the classroom, other sports and most areas of life, is key. Not missing sessions and adding miles as the years unfold will all aid optimal performance and reduce the likely disruption due to injury.
For the Golden oldies - perhaps even keep that VO2 Max at an acceptable level (Is that an open door for another biology lesson?).
2. Commitment - With busy lives it will take sacrifice to fit all the training in. To be the best you can will mean regularly testing your limits and progression is unlikely to be linear - that takes commitment!
Great work ethic required.
3. Resilience - That determination and mental toughness, perseverance.
How many times does the Olympic silver medallist look disappointed. Important to manage our expectations and reflect and enjoy the small victories, be that team or individual. The very best athletes are never satisfied, but that takes a certain mental toughness to ensure every performance is given context and enjoyed. Very few will be world beaters, but by managing expectation every achievement can feel like Olympic Gold!
Young athletes will develop and mature at different times. How does an early developer cope when others eventually catch up, how do late developers stay positive and competitive in the early years? How do young athletes cope with a growth spurt that leaves them out of balance and uncoordinated for six months, no matter how hard they train?
4. Smart - Not meaning Biology or Maths smart (although these attributes will help  ), but knowing how hard to train, how often to race, how to rest up before a race and recover from a race. What does a rest day really mean? An all-day football tournament because it is a running rest day is unlikely to tick the box.
What does balanced nutrition look like for an endurance athlete? This sentence deserves its own chapter.
5. Team - probably right up there for young athletes still at school. If athletes are not enjoying being part of something and are not being encouraged appropriately, then endurance running is going to be a tough gig. Support from parents and teachers, balancing that finite resource (time) to fit in your academics, other sport, music, drama and still train at the highest level. Sacrifice from parents in terms of attending training, securing appropriate kit, travelling around the country to race, explaining why a late night party before race day is a bad idea … and so the list continues.
As Peter Snell once famously commented after a tough session in the pouring rain : "There's great satisfaction in knowing you're out there when others aren't".'
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A message from Ms Knowles...
Charities have been hit hard with their fundraising activities. I should have been doing the Midnight Walk for St Elizabeth hospice this May and unfortunately this has been postponed. Thank you to those who supported me and my son Ben last year we raised over £1000 and the whole family the year before which raised a similar amount. With their many shops closed it is so important to support as the charity costs £9.1 million to run, three quarters coming from the local community through fundraising, donations and volunteers.
My youngest daughter Micha is running the Amsterdam marathon on October the 18th using the Great East half marathon in September as part of the preparations- fingers crossed that these happen. She is raising funds for St Elizabeth hospice - a charity close to our hearts for the fabulous care of my mother two years ago.
If you remember Micha and feel you could sponsor please go to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/micha-knowles
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