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  • Friends in international head to head

    Published 01/03/24

    Firm friends, Math Jones and Mitchell Newell will face each other in their toughest challenge on Sunday as Math pulls on the red jersey for Wales and Mitchell the blue for Scotland in the U18 international development game in preparation for possible selection in the Six Nations Competition.

    The two backs joined Gordon’s Sixth Form under the Harlequins Partnership Programme in September and were assigned the same boarding house, Balmoral. They also attend many of the same lessons together and of course their rugby training for both Gordon’s in the ACE League and Harlequins U18 team.

    They were selected to play for their country last weekend and will travel to Wales today to prepare for their big game on Sunday.

    Fly half Math was born and bred in Wales. Rugby has been in his blood since the age of six (although for five years he was signed to Swansea City Football Academy!). His selection for Wales is a dream come true: “I found out on Sunday last week. It was mad, I was buzzing. So happy” he said.

    For Mitchell, a winger, it’s been a meteoric rise, having only taken up the sport three years ago. The former swimmer, who was in touching distance of national swimming competitions, gave it up to play rugby for Chichester where he was discovered by Harlequins. “It just progressed from there” he said, adding that his call up had come as a surprise -  “I was quite shocked because I am quite new to rugby so I am still learning.”

    Their great friendship will be cast aside on Sunday as they compete against each other for their country’s although Mitch laughed: “It will be funny, a good laugh on the pitch”.

    He continued: “Leading up to the game you get into the mentality that you are going out and you’re going to beat the other team. You don’t really think about who is playing in the other team. You are just narrow-visioned. You have your team around you and you fight for them until the final whistle and then obviously you go back to being mates.

    Math agreed: “It’s just part of the game. You have to get into a certain mentality otherwise you would get hurt on the pitch. But you don’t hold grudges after the game.”

    Director of Sport Jamie Harrison said: “Both these boys thoroughly deserve their call up. We will all be rooting for them”.

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  • making a difference

    Published 27/02/24

    Can our students make a difference to you? The last time Gordon’s held Make a Difference Day, 70 students slept in cardboard boxes on the Parade Square; 21 black sacks of rubbish were removed from the school site, Brentmoor Heath and Portsmouth Beach; 41 vehicles were cleaned on the Parade Square; hedgehog homes were made; potatoes harvested; leaflets dropped and a graveyard cleared. Students helped facilitate a sports day at Tringham pre-school sports day and organised a sports festival as well as providing help/activities at the Lakeview Care Home, Therapy Gardens; Gracewell Care Home and Frogmore Junior School. They also made cakes for an afternoon tea for the elderly in the Rec. The school is now looking for ways in which to help the community on 3rd July. If you would like students aged between 11 and 17 to be involved in a project or charity you are running, please complete this form: https://forms.office.com/e/1fXZjBrgUJ

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  • Sevens heaven for Gordon's

    Published 23/02/24
    Wow! Congratulations to the Gordon’s U18s, winners of the Gordon’s Invitational 7s Tournament, beating Brighton College 29-0 in the final this evening. A fantastic tournament. Thank you to all the participating schools and supporters and
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  • 'Outstanding' OFSTED Inspection

    Published 22/02/24

    Outstanding in every category! The OFSTED Boarding Report from their inspection last month, found:

    *Students are exemplary, and they are a credit to this boarding school.

    *Students thrive and make excellent progress because of the genuine and nurturing relationships they have with boarding staff.

    *Staff encourage students to develop new talents and skills and to participate in invigorating opportunities.

    *The boarding accommodation is of a very high standard and provides a homely feel.

    The OFSTED team also quoted one student as saying:  ‘It is like home from home.’

    This latest OFSTED report marks at least the seventh time in a row that the school - winner of the Times Educational Supplement (Tes) Boarding School of the Year Award in 2022 - has been judged to be outstanding.

    Headmaster Andrew Moss commented: “We are delighted to have achieved ‘outstanding’ once again. This is testament to the hard work of staff and students and the support of the whole school community".

    To read the full report, please click here.

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  • Friday Nights Lights

    Published 21/02/24

    Some of the top rugby schools in the south of England will be converging on the Back Field this Friday (23rd February) for an invitational U18s Rugby 7s competition under floodlights. Twelve schools will be competing in the Cup and Plate competition. All welcome to what promises to be a great event. The action starts at 3pm and continues into the evening with refreshments available including a BBQ. For those who are unable to attend the fixtures on the 3G will be live streamed here.

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  • Marathon Man

    Published 20/02/24

    He last ran the London Marathon in 2016. Now Director of Sport Jamie Harrison is in training for his next and will pound the streets of London on Sunday 21st of April to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK, as a tribute to his mother, who died of the disease in 2019. Today Mr Harrison launched his fundraising page, on what would have been his mother’s 69th birthday. Mr Harrison (pictured here in the 2016 marathon) would welcome any donations, which can be made here. Bowel Cancer UK: Jamie's page (enthuse.com)

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  • Art from the Silver Screen

    Published 19/02/24

    Bringing film posters to life in Inter-House Art, students recreated their favourite motion picture advertising, with great results! Congratulations to the winners, Victoria House with their depiction of ‘Tangled’, Gravesend in second place for their ‘Usual Suspects’ and China in third place for ‘Birds of Prey’.

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  • Competition Win

    Published 08/02/24

    For his poem on the war in Gaza, Franklyn French-Flynn has won the Woking Rotary Club’s Young Writer’s Competition on the theme of ‘Rebuilding’. The 12 year old will now go forward to the District final. “I thought about the rebuilding they will have to do after the war because there is a lot of damage being done to people's lives”, said Franklyn.
    Though he “loves sport”, Franklyn also enjoys English and wants any future career to feature writing. Last year, in the same competition, Gordon’s students took first, second and third places. This year the Young Writer’s Competition also feature three Gordon’s students in the top three with Daniella Tinegate taking second equal place and Alice Odam and Tara Udassi third equal.

    Please see below for Franklyn's entry:

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  • Careers Fair 2024

    Published 07/02/24

    A host of businesses and representatives of further education at Gordon's last night for Careers Fair 2024, providing students and their parents with a huge range of information and expertise on possible pathways after leaving school. The event was one of many planned for National Apprenticeship Week. For information on what's on for the rest of the week, please click here.

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  • National Apprenticeship Week

    Published 05/02/24

    Two Gordonians, both working for Evelyn Partners, both studying to be Associate Chartered Accountants but arriving there on different pathways. Abigail Jones and Inaara Oliver came back to school today as part of National Apprenticeship Week to talk to students about their journeys to the UK's seventh largest accountancy firm. Inaara obtained a first class degree in Accounting and Finance at Royal Holloway. Abi, who left Gordon’s with three A*s in Maths, Business Studies and Psychology, embarked on a Level 7 apprenticeship with Evelyn Partners. The two, who sit next to each other in the firm’s Guildford office, discovered by chance that they were both Gordonians! Today as well as providing students with an insight into their jobs and pathways into them, they reconnected with their former teachers Mark Eaden, Head of Maths and James Hamilton, Head of Business Studies and Economics.

    For a full list of events for National Apprenticeship Week, please click here.

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  • Sport for All

    Published 05/02/24

    A packed weekend of sport with Gordon's hosting invitational competitions for U16s in Rugby 7s and Netball. Rowers took took to the water in the Hampton Head of the River Race while hockey, football and shooting teams took on a host of schools, and Saturday morning runners took part in a parkrun. 

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  • Belgium Battlefields

    Published 02/02/24

    The First World War Battlefields for students in Year 9 today, who are visiting the Thiepval Memorial to missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme, and Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery as well as museums at Passchendaele and Ypres Salient.

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