During this term’s field days, Year 12 pupil Jack worked in a local Break charity shop. The manager of the shop gave him the task of sorting through a bag of coins and notes that had been donated. With an interest in antique money, he spotted what he thought was an old £50 note. He took it back to school and researched further, discovering that it was a note from 1876. The note was fragile and battered which is to be expected for a 150 year old bank note, but Jack reached out to some bank note specialists to get an appraisal. He had the find valued and then approached collectors, managing to secure £200 for the note. He then gave this money to Break charity. On reflection of the event, Jack said, “I learnt something important that day which is to follow your gut instinct as it is usually always right.”
A group of 22 cadets enjoyed an action-packed start to their summer holidays by attending the CCF Tri-service Adventure Training Camp in Snowdonia. They stayed at Capel Curig training camp, ideally located for a range of adventurous activities across the beautiful Snowdonia National Park, and experienced a rotation of mountain trekking across the Glyders, paddlesport on Llyn Padarn and mountain biking in the trail centre at Coed Y Brenin. In addition they were immersed in a full day of white water rafting and canyoning at the National White Water Centre and another day of climbing and high ropes at Adventure Parc Snowdonia. The cadets involved had a fantastic week of fun and challenging activities, creating some unique memories along the way.
The overall winners of our STEAM Primary School Competition, which is held in the school’s Dyson Building, have been announced. Congratulations to Hattie, Charlotte and Delilah from Reepham Primary School who have won this year’s trophy, funded by The James Dyson Foundation. Their superb work was scored on success, performance, and design.
11 primary schools took part in the final, including Reepham Primary, Astley Primary School, Sheringham Community Primary School, Tunstead Primary School, St Mary’s Roughton, Aldbrough Primary School, Langham Village School, Wells-next-the-Sea Primary School and St. Peter’s Easton Primary School. The pupils were challenged with navigating three different tasks; building and launching rockets, coding sphero bots to complete a predetermined course in the fastest time possible and building a model space station whilst exploring a ‘real’ space station using VR goggles.
Since February, we have welcomed over 30 local primary schools, including over 610 pupils, to take part in the competition, with pupils leaving ‘excited and inspired’ after enjoying the tasks. Working closely with The James Dyson Foundation, the Dyson Building is now a hub for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education in Norfolk. This project has enabled a large number of children to work with Gresham’s staff in the Dyson Building, inspiring them to consider STEAM subjects as future careers. It has been a very popular event, one that will also happen next year with the hope that even more schools will take up the offer to come and compete.#
We are delighted to announce excellent results in the 2023 IB Diploma Programme. Our students once again achieved a 100% pass rate and our average point score was 35.7 out of a possible 45, significantly higher than the 30.24 global average.
63% of examinations were awarded a Level 6 or 7, equivalent to an A or A* at A Level. 17% of our students achieved a world class score of 40 points or above (the equivalent of 4 A* grades), while 63% achieved 35 points or above – the equivalent of A*A*A at A Level.
We are incredibly proud of all our IB pupils and would like to congratulate them on their impressive successes. Alongside their IB studies, this cohort have made outstanding contributions to music, drama, sport, debating and other co-curricular activities during their time at Gresham’s.
We wish them every success as they head off to a wide range of destinations including; King’s College London, Newcastle University, Bath University and many other international destinations.
Saturday 1st July was an excellent celebration of our Senior School pupils. Guest speaker Jonathan Beckett, CEO of Burgess Yachts (OG 1971 – 75) addressed the gathering and presented the prizes. Speeches were also given by Heads of School Tanya and Anton, Headmaster Douglas Robb and Chairman of Governors Michael Goff.
On Friday 30th of June all the houses competed in our annual sports day. It was an extremely successful afternoon and there were many great performances on both the track and field. It was also great to see so much support from family and friends. A big thank you and well done to all the athletes that took part. The results are shown below.
| Juniors | 1st | Farfield | 150 |
| 2nd | Woodlands | 149 | |
| 3rd | Tallis | 113 | |
| 4th | Howson’s | 83 | |
| Seniors | 1st = | Howson’s | 125 |
| 1st = | Woodlands | 125 | |
| 3rd | Tallis | 124 | |
| 4th | Farfield | 120 |
| Juniors | 1st | Edinburgh | 91 |
| 2nd | Oakeley | 82 | |
| 3rd | Queens’ | 67 | |
| Seniors | 1st | Queens’ | 89 |
| 2nd | Oakeley | 75 | |
| 3rd | Edinburgh | 72 |
Congratulations to Edinburgh and Woodlands who were the overall winners!
On Monday 12th June, Norfolk Roads and Armed Policing Team came to deliver their presentation ‘Can you see me?’ to our Year 12 pupils as part of their Wellbeing Programme. This event aims to demonstrate to young road users the various blind spots surrounding a lorry and therefore raises awareness of the potential dangers to pedestrians, cyclists, motor cyclists and drivers.
Mats were placed on the ground around the lorry to indicate areas that were visible and not visible to the driver. Pupils participated as pedestrians and some volunteered to sit in the driver’s seat in the cab, giving them first hand experience of the driver’s view.
As well as being highly informative, it was also good to meet Jill, who told us about her 25 years of experience working for Norfolk County Council driving a gritter lorry. Lorry driving is often still perceived to be a man’s job and so she was a great example of someone challenging stereotypes to follow her own interests and ambition.
On 21st June, Augusta Samuel from ‘ItHappens Education’ spoke to our Year 10 pupils via a live webinar on the subject of vaping. Her highly informative, interactive talk explored the following areas:
- Smoking compared to vaping
- Prevalence of vaping & smoking with young people
- The law
- Short-term consequences & long-term risks of vaping
- Disposable vapes
- Why vaping is so addictive
- Harm Reduction advice & how to get support
Pupils had the opportunity to ask questions and offer their views using Mentimeter on their phones, creating a highly interactive experience and ensuring the content was entirely relevant and pertinent to them.
We all learned some interesting and unexpected facts which hopefully will impact positively on our young people and empower them to make responsible, healthier choices.
All the World’s A Stage and certainly our stunning Theatre in the Woods is a fantastic backdrop for any event – but for Shakespeare it is simply magical. Pupils from years 9, 10 and 12 performed sonnets, monologues and scenes on a perfect Midsummer Night. The Dream created a framework for other plays to be woven in, with well-known plays As You Like It, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth alongside lesser known plays Henry 1V part 1 and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Special mention must be made for guest performer Chips the dog who, despite the appearances of a lion and a bear, kept his focus and showed himself to be a natural on the stage.
Raphael C has been offered a place at RADA The Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts. RADA is a highly competitive and prestigious Drama School and Raphael’s achievement in gaining a place reflects both his determination and talent. We wish him all the best for his undoubtedly dramatic future. Break A Leg Raph!