Our Prep pupils have experienced a fantastic first week of online learning. From visual Geography lessons to improving lateral thinking, online learning has been fun and engaging.
Congratulations to our Director of Cricket Chris Brown, who has been appointed Head Coach for the England and Wales Cricket Board South & East Regional team. They will be competing in the Bunbury Festival which will be held at Loughborough from 1st – 6th August 2021.
Year 11 pupils Georgie Clarke and Ben Hunt have been selected for the 20 strong United Kingdom Cadet Rifle Team (UKCRT) squad, who will be touring the Channel Islands in August 2021. They were both hugely honoured to have been selected for the squad and had no hesitation in accepting their places. The next part of the process, Covid-19 restrictions permitting, will be to impress the selectors during a selection weekend, and to secure their places in the final team of 12. Last year’s tour unfortunately had to be cancelled, so we can but hope that the same does not happen again in 2021. This is a terrific achievement for them both and we wish them all the very best.
As we were unable to welcome you to school this Christmas, we would like to share with you this wonderful whole school Carol Service. With readings, Christmas songs and Carols performed by our Pre-Prep children, the Prep School Chapel Choir and Schola Cantorum, it’s the perfect accompaniment to your festive celebrations. Enjoy!
You can watch it on our YouTube channel here https://youtu.be/crVHKQpUCt8
One of the focal points for Christmas at the Prep School for Years 7 and 8 is always the annual Christmas Dinner. COVID has had an impact on so much this year but we were keen to retain some semblance of normality in these tricky times and offer our senior pupils a Christmas Dinner which followed the protocols introduced this term in the Dining Hall.
Therefore, one evening became a socially distanced two. An early start and an early finish with the cancelling of the traditional post-meal disco led to a resharpening of a focus on being together. The adapted games offered enough entertainment to mimic the usual celebration successfully. What never changes is the quality of the food; Garry and his catering team found a way to prepare and serve a delicious feast for which we were all so grateful. Each evening was enjoyed by those in attendance and it offered a tiny slice of Christmas joy at the end of a slightly different term.
Our annual House Music competition this year was, for the first time, exclusively online. The three categories still maintained tradition, including Instrumental, Part Song and Unison, but with a twist. Both Instrumental and Part Song were performed and filmed, however Unison was recorded for each house in separate year group bubbles, and then handed back to houses to create their own music videos.
The performances and films were broadcast on Friday 11th December, with exceptional judging from outstanding musicians. Instrumental was judged by Yolanda Brown, a well know musician and broadcaster on the BBC and Part Song was judged by Mark De-Lisser, an incredibly well know vocal coach, director and arranger. Andy Cato from Groove Armada judged the Unison Category. An exciting House vote was included, enabling the school community in house and at home to support their favourite house – other than their own. The results were revealed in a live broadcast from Fishmongers Recital Hall and the successful houses were as follows:
- House Vote Instrumental Winner: Farfield
- Judges Vote Instrumental Winner: Farfield
- House Vote Part Song Winner: Edinburgh
- Judges Vote Part Song Winner: Edinburgh
- House Vote Unison Winner: Tallis
- Judges Vote Unison Winner: Oakeley = Edinburgh
- Overall Winner: Edinburgh
The commitment and time put in from all houses and pupils was hugely appreciated, and the traditional chanting resounding around the school grounds. Well done to all involved, the event was a triumph.
Links to the films can be found here:
Click here for Instrumental & Part Song
Click here for the live results
Gresham’s Girls have released a single every Christmas for the past four years, the proceeds of which have gone to the School Charity of the Year. Last year, the first compilation was released, and this year the boys decided they too wanted a share of the limelight. Thus Gresham’s Guys was born and two singles were created for 2020.
The process for recording Duran Duran’s Ordinary World and Pray by Take That started in September with rehearsals in separate year groups to comply with the bubble system. This resulted in separate recording sessions and extensive production, led by Mr Cooper, Mr Myers and Music Technology students. For the first time this year, The Young Media Leaders took it upon themselves to create accompanying music videos.
The tracks can be downloaded for free below, so please do donate to our Charity of the Year, the Treehouse.
Please click here for the Gresham’s Girls single.
Please click here for the Gresham’s Guys single.
Please download and support the charity by clicking here to donate.
Year 12 members of the Gresham’s BTEC Agriculture Group delivered a lecture reviewing elements of developments in agriculture over the past two centuries. It included sections on ‘The Development of Farm Machinery’ delivered by William Alston, ‘Social Change Related to Changes in Agriculture’ delivered by Megan Foyster, ‘The Development of Crops Through Selective Breeding’ prepared by Tom Towler and ‘The Development of Livestock Species Through Selective Breeding’ prepared by Ben Wilcox. The audience was both in the room and online, a sign of the times, but our speakers coped with this admirably and they took questions in a very accomplished manner. Links were also made with OGs who had a significant impact on agriculture and thanks go to Mr Kinder for providing this information. The BTEC Agriculture course is in its first year here at Gresham’s but is proving to be an exciting opportunity for our pupils. Anybody interested in finding out more about the course should contact Mr Beales on [email protected]; he would be very happy to chat it through.
The Michaelmas production for the term was ‘We Will Rock You’. The cast, mainly made up of Sixth Form pupils, also included four Year 10 pupils participating virtually and eight Year 11 pupils singing backstage behind screens. The performance was filmed and made available for viewing online. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, they did a fantastic job of putting on an excellent show.
Excitingly, the live band was made up entirely of pupils which was a great addition to the show. The live performance was put on twice, with the broadcast available to watch on three separate occasions. In total, around 200 households tuned in.
The production was a huge achievement for all pupils and staff involved.
Charles Addison, a Year 12 pupil, has used his own initiative to raise money for the charity Oddballs, a foundation which is used to spread awareness of Testicular Cancer. He encouraged his fellow pupils to dress up for games and donate money to the charity.
Charles, who has supported the charity for a number of years, said “it is important to spread awareness of Testicular Cancer as it is not spoken about widely enough, especially between young men.”
A virtual assembly was organised after Charles made contact with the charity, enabling them to speak directly to our pupils. Oddballs spoke about the importance of regular checking and the facts about Testicular Cancer. The next step was organising the sports tournament, which asked players of hockey, rugby, badminton, swimming and shooting to wear fancy dress whilst playing on a Saturday morning. The fancy dress retailer ‘Smiffys’ also played their part by kindly providing the pupils with fancy dress accessories.
Charles said “I am happy with the outcome and I am glad the talk was delivered as I feel it is an important subject.”
