Both Prep and Senior School staff and pupils had a very jolly day wearing Christmas jumpers today to support Save the Children UK and The Treehouse.
As part of their education into financial markets, the Sixth Form Economics pupils partake in a Fantasy Stock Market Investment League run by Mr Mack. The pupils have performed well this term with the three hedge funds currently sitting in large profits.
The league works by each pupil being given £5,000 fantasy money and they then choose how they would like to invest by carrying out their own research. So far the Year 13 are sitting on 25% return in 9 months, The Year 12 IB class are sat on 13% return and the Year 12 A Level group are sat on 15% return.
This teaches pupils about the importance of doing their own research. They learn to not put all their eggs in one basket and to spread the risk whilst competing in a ferocious battle of investment. One pupil will be crowned champion in the summer term. Individuals who are starring so far are Barney Payne and Louis Hart whose investment into Tesla at $200 a share looks to have been a shrewd move giving them a 200% return on their money in 9 months. Other notable performances have come from Dally Armstrong (31%) and Hector Robb (19%). But of course it is all to play for with the markets being so volatile currently and we look forward to seeing who takes the crown in the summer term!
During the Michaelmas term, the charity knitting group set out to knit cannula covers for new-born babies hospital. The knitted sleeves looked like small cylindrical tubes that fit over a babies arm. They are used to stop the new-born from scratching the cannula out or damaging the skin around it. During the first lock-down, Year 13 pupil Abbie Boast knitted 35 sleeves. The rest of the knitting group contributed a further 16 when we returned to school in September. Abbie is currently in the process of donating them to the James Paget Hospital in Great Yarmouth.
We have had a total of five rounds over five weeks of competition, with four franchises competing for the Sir John Gresham Cup.
Each franchise consisted of a rugby, hockey, football, swimming, shooting and badminton team through out all the age groups in Senior School.
All teams competed every week. First place received four points, second place received three points, third place received two points and fourth place received one point.
After the five rounds, the final scores are as follows:
The Fishmongers – 135 points
The Holt Huskies – 135 points
The Golden Grasshoppers – 130 points
The Dyson Dynamos – 113 points
It was a brilliant competition and The Fishmongers won 1st place due to having more wins than the Holt Huskies.
Our last week saw us competing in fancy dress for the Oddballs charity and a special mention must go to smiffys.com who supplied fancy dress accessories to the pupils.
Recently, we have started the journey to become an international Green Flag Award Eco-School. Our school is now part of this global community working to create environmental change for the benefit of future generations. In order to achieve the award, Team Eco, lead by Thomas Larner (Woodlands), have been trying to find more ways to be Eco friendly such as using biodegradable cups in Tig’s. Greshams’ senior school has now earned the bronze award and are working towards the silver award next term.
Year 13 A Level French & Spanish Pupils presented their research projects to Year 12 pupils and staff in an informal event that brought together language pupils. Pupils spoke about a wealth of cultural topics, which were all sparked by their own interests. These topics included the Coca plantations in Columbia, the role of women in post-Franco Spain, the housing projects in France, the French approach to sustainability in the built environment and the role of the Resistance in the liberation of France. Questions from the floor gave the pupils something to think about and it was fantastic to have pupils joining from home in a blended learning environment. Many thanks to all who took part.
The economics society produced a fantastic lecture for one of our Friday academic enrichment slots. Economics pupils Joe Nash, Dally Armstrong and Elyzia Wong lead the lecture based on an overview of economic ideas including Classical, Marxist and Keynesian Economics. The pupils spoke on these ideas before opening up to a question and answer session at the end of the lecture. Mr Kinder and a large contingent of Year 13 economists fielded the questions, meaning it was a tough ask for on the spot quick thinking and responses. The pupils all dealt with this well and gave fantastic answers.
On Saturday, the girls hockey programme finished the term with its annual Inter-House competition. This year, due to the bubble system, there were four age categories; Senior, U16, U15 & U14. The competition was played with a competitive spirit throughout and it was exciting to see the improvements made by so many of the girls this term.
In the Senior competition, Edinburgh came out as eventual winners beating Queens’ in the last match to secure victory. The U16 tournament was very close with Queens’ winning on goal difference. The U15 tournament was more straight forward with Queens’ beating both Edinburgh and Oakeley to be crowned champions. The U14 Queens’ team also ended up victorious.
Congratulations to Queens’ who were crowned House Hockey Champions for 2020. Edinburgh finished second and Oakeley were placed third.
Many thanks to the pupils and staff for making the day a success.
The Auden Society had something for everyone a their most recent meeting. Mr Hipperson opened with TS Eliot’s Journey of the Magi and, although not the most cheery of poems, it was an excellent opportunity to explore what we know of the ‘Three Wise Men’, using evidence from the Bible and Eliot’s imagined narrative perspective of the magi in his poetry. Mr Hipperson illustrated the links between Eliot’s own dramatic conversion to the Anglican faith and the allegorical aspects of the poem. George L followed with a sensitive response to J.R.R Tolkien’s Christmas Letters, written to his children between 1920-1943, but published posthumously in 1996.Tolkien fans in the audience were unaware he had written letters to his children every year, developing the escapades of Father Christmas and his accident-prone polar bear. George beautifully read one of the letters aloud and then posed the important question of whether Tolkien’s daughter-in-law’s decision to publish the letters violated the intimacy of a private memory between father and child, or whether these concerns are outweighed by the valuable insight they give into the early inspirations for the fantastical worlds Tolkien later created.
Lucy M, Auden Society President, then brought us to A Christmas Carol, which, for many, is the epitome of Christmas. Lucy highlighted the technical brilliance of Dickens in creating a humorous narrator, as well as pausing on the detail Dickens gives in his characterisation. Lucy’s discussion of Dicken’s original text led us perfectly to our final speaker, Emily R – and what a finale it was! Emily’s assertion that The Muppets Christmas Carol is the best adaptation to film surprised many, after all, who can resist a green felt frog singing about the woes of poverty in an Americanised Victorian London? Her passion for the film shone through as she talked us through her extensive research; much to our surprise there are over a hundred lines of the original novel in the film. Her argument for The Muppets Christmas Carol being the best film adaptation was persuasive, although Mr Hipperson, despite his love of musicals, may need more convincing!
This was a wonderfully festive evening and brought our first term of thought-provoking literary discussion to a close. The Auden Society will meet again in February.
Year 3 and 4 pupils performed The Match Girl’s Christmas for their 2020 Michaelmas production. The musical combines Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of The Little Match Girl with the story of the Nativity. With only a week to prepare, the children worked hard on their reading, singing, acting and dancing to produce a wonderful show.