Happy Christmas!
Happy Christmas from Gordon's! Two Carol Services heralded the start of the festivities. To view, please see below.
Happy Christmas from Gordon's! Two Carol Services heralded the start of the festivities. To view, please see below.
Celebrating Christmas in the beautiful surroundings of our Victorian Chapel of St Edward the Confessor last night and tonight at the Carol Service. The congregation heard pieces from the Boys’ and Girls’ Choirs, Semper Fidelis Singers as well as members of the school’s Brass Group and Orchestra. Proceeds from the ticket sales and retiring collection will be supporting Mind mental health charity, Safe Passage for child refugees and Compassion UK releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name. Here's a sample from the dress rehearsal, featuring the whole choir.
Cheerleaders, zombies and a multitude of Father Christmas’s. The Sixth Form Dance Off, saw girls’ and boys’ Houses link to perform their masterpieces in front of the tough judging panel of Deputy Heads Rob Pavis and Andrew Reeve together with Head of Sixth Form Sandra Radford, who were marking them on a strict dance criteria of creativity, difficulty, formations and transitions as well as teamwork, timing, eye contact and showmanship. In the end, Augusta and Sandringham, dancing to Party Rock, won the coveted award!
Congratulations to our talented young chefs, Noah Hopkins and Megan Brock, who took part in the local finals of Future Chefs at Crawley College today. Noah presented the judges with a chicken mousse ravioli with a mustard and cream sauce. But Megan's salmon tortellini in a dill and pea sauce proved the winning combination, earning her the top spot in the competition and a place in the regional finals early next year. Noah and Megan competed against ten others in designing, cooking and presenting a meal for two costing up to £5. The industry judges were looking for workmanship, skills, techniques, creativity and presentation as well as composition, taste and flavour in the timed test.
Wowing capacity audiences over two nights, the Lower School's polished performances of the musical Matilda Jr, based on the children's classic by Roald Dahl, featured a student cast as well as production team. A fantastic team effort that captivated and enchanted all.
Piping to mark their respects to those who lost their lives to COVID. Five of our pipers attended a ceremony this afternoon initiated by the community alongside the National Trust and Royal British Legion, where families planted trees in remembrance of loved ones at National Trust Runneymede. Pipe Major Matt Carter, planted a tree in the name of the amazing work that the teachers and pupils achieved during pandemic. After a minute's silence, the pipers played the Lament, Flowers of the Forest; a fitting tribute. To see more about what the event was today, tune in to BBC London at 1830.
Tonight sees the second night of the sell-out performances of the Lower School production of Matilda Jr the Musical. Both the cast and production team are Key Stage 3 students, all of whom have been working tirelessly since their return to school in September and by all accounts the show is an absolute triumph.
The latest edition of Semper Fidelis, packed full of highlights from the past six months is now available online. News, pictures, features, House reports, insights, art, drama and much more. Hard copies will be available in Houses soon. To view, please click here.
A novel fundraiser for students, to be sponsored for reading, is an absolute success story with a phenomenal £1,810.50 raised for ‘Read for Good’ Charity and an amazing 86,541 pages devoured by KS3 bookworms. Twelve students read over 1,000 pages each in the 14 day readathon, which saw Years 7, 8 and 9 with their heads buried in their favourite books and reading to Sixth Form volunteers. China House topped the reading leaderboard with Buckingham House in second place. The money raised for Read for Good will send books and storytellers into hospitals to brighten up the days for sick children. Congratulations all on reading your way to such a fantastic result!
Congratulations to the Semper Fidelis Choir, who entertained Their Royal Highnesses The Earl and Countess of Wessex at the McLaren Headquarters on Monday with their singing, and today they learned they had won the Thompson Chamber Choir Cup at this year's Woking Music Festival.
The Pipes and Drums have been awarded Best Drum Corps in the Pipe Band contest hosted online by Lathallan School. Individual pipers also excelled, receiving first place in solo contests. The competition is a great start to the 80th Anniversary year of the Pipes and Drums playing in West End! Congratulations to all those taking part. For more information about the Pipes and Drums, click here.