Enjoying the spectacle of the Founder’s Day Parade at the iconic Royal Hospital Chelsea, ten of our Year 8 students. Dressed for this auspicious occasion in their Blues, the group will also be be meeting Chelsea Pensioners. The annual Founder’s Day, also known as Oak Apple Day, is held on a date close to 29th May, the birthday of Charles II and the date of his restoration as King in 1660.
Their app Food.it, encouraging users to change their diets for the better, reduce food waste and improve the future of the planet has earned a team from the school’s Code Club a place in the final of the Apps for Good Showcase. Next Thursday the team of four will compete against two other shortlisted teams for the Global Innovations category and present to a panel of industry experts from Spotify. They are also vying for the People’s Choice Awards! Please vote for their app idea to make the world a better place! To learn more about their app and vote for them, please click here.
Congratulations to Kate Brazendale, Izzy Kypri and Luke Brennan, winners of the Woking District Rotary Club’s Young Writer Competition. The students each created a piece of prose on the theme of ‘Environment’. They were presented with their certificates at a recent meeting of the Woking District Rotary Club.
Union Jacks flying from flagpoles around the school as we join the nation in saluting Her Majesty The Queen, our Patron on becoming the first Monarch in British history to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee. Tributes at Gordon's to mark this historical event include the Patron’s Parade on 11th June.
Another great day’s racing for our rowers at the Walton and Weybridge Regatta over an 850m course. Tom and Ben competed in a double and so did Jake and James (in their first ever race!). Immie and Mimi in a double had a great first row and ending up in a ‘dead heat’. This meant they had to spin around on the river and head straight back up to the start and re-race the race! Unfortunately, this time they were pipped right at the finish and lost by ¾ of a length! Mimi and James both ended up in the finals, with James holding level with the other crew until halfway when he managed to push past and win his race. Mimi, in her final, pulled away at the beginning and just kept making the gap bigger, going on to win by three boat lengths – and her first pot!
All the rowers have been supported and encouraged by James G, who due to injury, is unable to compete but cheers them on at all their regattas.
James and Mimi now have their sights set on the National Schools Regatta at Dorney Lake next week.
Their passion and enthusiasm shone through last night as our four Year 9 PSHE groups competed for a £1,000 donation from First Give for their chosen charities. The groups not only raised £2,200 since January for their charities but also awareness of them. The winning team was 9D for the The Hope Hub Surrey Heath. Congratulations to them!
Together for their last Chapel Service at Gordon’s, our Year 13 students, who begin their exams next week. Today’s Service, conducted by the school Chaplain the Reverend Graham Wright, provided one of the last opportunities to be together at school before the Leavers’ Dinner in July. Sandra Radford, Head of Sixth Form told them: “You have worked so hard for this. I wish you the best of luck. You are a pride and joy”.
A spur of the moment decision to ‘give it a shot’ and enter the Linklaters’ Making Links Schools Challenge has earned Head Boy Callum Keigher a runners-up place, £1,000 in online vouchers and £1,000 for Gordon's!
The challenge presented to Year 12 students across the UK by the multinational law firm, was on the theme of change with the brief: ‘We are living through a time of great change. What in your opinion will be the greatest challenges and opportunities in this changing world?’
Sixth Form student Callum was inspired to enter the competition after being told about it by the school and set about producing a PowerPoint presentation with the themes of technology, environment, social and economic.
His submission earned him a place in the finals, a day in which the 20 finalists were treated to a morning workshop on presentation skills before being tasked to produce a two minute video. Four were chosen for the Grand Final which involved talks from two of the firm’s partners and an associate partner about their work and an opportunity for him to present his video to them as well as answer questions from the panel of judges.
Callum, an aspiring Oxbridge candidate said the experience had not only honed his skills in research and presentation but had been really helpful as he is interested in a career in commercial law.
“It was great to see names and faces of people really high up in the law firm that I may want to work for in the future. It was a really good experience overall” he said.
Lieutenant General Richard Cripwell CB, CBE has been appointed the new Chairman of The Trustees of the Gordon Foundation. He took over on May 1st from General Sir Peter Wall, who served as Chairman for seven years.
Commissioned into the Corps of the Royal Engineers in August 1982 until February this year, Lieutenant General Cripwell was Deputy Commander Allied Land Command, the standing headquarters for NATO land forces and was recently sworn in as Lieutenant-Governor of Guernsey, representative of the Crown in the Bailiwick.
His appointment to Chairman of the Trustees of The Gordon Foundation, the original charity established to run the original Gordon Boys’ Home, and now supporting Gordon’s School, continues the close relationship Gordon’s has enjoyed with the Royal Engineers since the Home’s, now School’s, inception as the national memorial to General Gordon, a former Royal Engineer.
Married, with two children, Lieutenant General Cripwell, a keen sportsman, said: “I am looking forward to helping the Gordon Foundation and the school achieve their strategic vision”.
Gordon’s Headmaster Andrew Moss said: “I would like to welcome Lieutenant General Cripwell to the school and very much look forward to working with him. I would also like to thank General Sir Peter Wall on his sterling service to the school.”
Please click here for more information on the Gordon Foundation and full list of its Trustees.
Congratulations to ice hockey player Thomas Flannery, awarded a silver medal after competing with the Basingstoke Bison U12s in the National Finals. Flannery and the team had enjoyed a brilliant run up to the final but were sadly beaten on the day by Sheffield.
After just one year of competing in ILCA 4 dinghies (formerly Lasers), Kaitlyn Wyatt, a student at Gordon’s School has been chosen to represent Great Britain in the ILCA 4 Youth World Championships in Portugal, this August! Kaitlyn has been sailing competitively since 2018 and is ranked in the top five female ILCA 4 sailors nationally. She achieved her selection after a weekend in Weymouth in which she competed in the final of seven ILCA 4 qualification events. It was the largest ILCA 4 qualification event ever held in the UK and featured the largest female contingent. Kaitlyn finished as the leading female sailor with an invitation to represent GB at both the European and World Championships. Sadly her GCSE exams mean she is unable to compete in the Europeans, but the 15 year old will make it for the world championships! Congratulations Kaitlyn and best of luck!
Gordon's golfers combined to put on another winning performance at the Schools' Golf Competition recently held at the Beau Desert Golf Club, coming away with first place in the team event; a first, second and third place in the stableford and a joint first place in the gross competition! Congratulations all!
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