Dear Parents and Friends,

Last Saturday evening the Great Hall was full of tremendous music making at the annual Music Dinner. A wide range of soloists and ensemble groups enjoyed enthusiastic support from their audience who were then treated to a wonderful meal, provided by our Catering team in the Dining Hall. Thank you to all performers and to the staff organisers, with a special mention to Mandy Wright who masterminded the whole event.

A team of delegates visited the City of London Model United Nations Conference on Saturday and both Ella Jones and Alex Blake were selected as Highly Commended Delegates. The weekend also saw a very successful white water rafting trip by CCF Cadets to Lee Valley Park.

After a busy week of rehearsals, the GCSE Drama students have been performing their final examined pieces today and GCSE candidates were also under pressure with their PE assessments earlier in the week.

Year 12 started the process of formally considering their university options with a visit to Brunel University on Wednesday to gather information from their universities fair. There will be an opportunity to follow up on this for both parents and pupils at the Higher Education Evening which will be held in the Auditorium of the PAC next Thursday evening at 7.00pm On the same day, Year 7 pupils enjoyed the warm spring weather on their Geography Field Trip to Seaford, where they studied coastal processes and coastal management.

Yesterday, we welcomed parents from Parkgate House School in Clapham to their bespoke Open Morning. Our visitors were given their tours by Year 8 pupil guides from Oxford, Cambridge and Reade House who were outstanding young ambassadors for the School.

At Assembly this afternoon, I was pleased to congratulate Terrell Thomas and award him a ‘Copper Chemist’ award for his outstanding contribution to the Science Week demonstrations in the Junior School. It was also a pleasure to recognise the success of the Year 12 team who were finalists in the Surrey ‘Problem Solving Challenge’ held at ACS Cobham yesterday afternoon. The team of Marcus Roberts, Polina Podkovyrina, Darius Layne, Sharon Yi, Peter Nguyen Minh and Christos Christodoulides were runners up in the finals of the competition.

We were delighted to welcome Croydon South MP, Chris Philp to the School this afternoon. Mr Philp met our Sixth Form Politics students and, after awarding the certificates and prizes in Assembly, gave an inspirational address to the School. I’m sure that his message of ‘if you work hard, you can achieve anything’, resonated strongly with those preparing for the public examination season ahead!

Tomorrow we are looking forward to hockey, netball and football fixtures against Caterham, Trinity, Dunottar and Hampton, following some excellent performances in the last week in all sports. Over 350 pupils, staff and parent supporters are looking forward to supporting the 1st XI Football side in the ISFA U18 National Final at the MK Dons stadium on Monday evening.

On Saturday evening, the 1853 Society will be hosting their Comedy Night in the Great Hall and I am hoping that I’m not identified in any headmaster jokes too early in the evening!

With best wishes,

Headmaster’s Weekly

Newsletter

17 March 2017

Chris Hutchinson Headmaster

From the Chapel

School Services

In Monday’s Science Department service, Edgar and Hrishi helped Mr Endersby explain the scientific method – both its wonderful uses in helping us to understand the universe, and its limitations concerning God and spiritual matters such as love.

Lenten Candles

In the third week of Lent a third candle was extinguished as we approach the darkness of Good Friday.

20 Paintings for Lent

Lunchtime meditations on art have included The Mocking of Christ (1442), a fresco in Cell 7 of the Convent of San Marco, Florence, for Dominican friars.

Christ sits on a dais in a luminous white robe and tunic. The great slab of white marble beneath Him adds to the air of radiant whiteness surrounding Him. He is blindfolded, with a crown of thorns about his head. Behind Him hanging from a plain frieze is a screen on which are painted the emblems of his indignities: the head of the spitting soldier, the hands of the buffeters, the hand and stick forcing the thorns down on his head. On a low step at the front of the picture sit the Virgin and St Dominic, who sit with their backs turned towards him in poses of intense meditation - the depth of meditation that the frescoes were designed to assist each friar to attain.

Answer to Chapel Quiz 99

There are no snakes (except pets or in zoos) in Ireland because the land link to Britain was cut some 2,000 years before snakes crossed from the Continent. The story that St Patrick cleared Ireland of snakes may be based on the symbolism of the tempting serpent in Genesis 3. Patrick overcome polytheism in converting the Irish to Christianity.

Chapel Quiz 100

What famous married couple is the link between March 19th [this year 20th] and 25th? Special centenary prizes for pupils!

St Patrick’s Day

Saint Patrick was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, along with saints Brigit of Kildare and Columba.

It is believed that when he was about 16, he was captured by Irish pirates from his home in Britain, and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping. After becoming a priest, he returned to Ireland. Saint Patrick's Day is observed on 17 March, the supposed date of his death.

May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, And may trouble avoid you wherever you go.

City of London MUN

On Saturday we took three delegations to the City of London MUN conference. Although a couple of experienced Hague veterans attended, largely this was an opportunity for less experienced delegates, several who were attending their first conference. The day started with a particularly interesting key note address given by James Robbins, the BBC’s chief diplomatic correspondent, in which he described the best and worst he had encountered in his reporting for the BBC (meeting Nelson Mandela and Muammar Gaddafi, respectively), and concluding with a passionate paean to democracy, freedom and the values enshrined in the United nations charter. Speeches and debate followed on a range of topics from the pressing issue of ISIS to the less well appreciated plight of the Rohingya people. Hats off, in particular, to Dionne Scougul who stepped in as a late replacement with less than 24 hours notice to attend her first conference, debating this challenging latter topic. Ella Jones’ first experience of debate in Security Council looked like it was her fiftieth, and she walked away with the highly commended delegate award. Alex Blake also picked up a highly commended award. Others, including Megan, Josh and Stevie were all excellent. Another successful day for RRS MUN; Well done to all.

Science Week Experiments

As part of Science Week, 7Q did fun experiments in their chemistry lessons. They ignited methane bubbles in their hands.

We also took our chemistry experiments to the Junior School. Terrell Thomas, Year 7 Keable, confidently performed entertaining experiments that the young students thoroughly enjoyed.

White Water Rafting

On Sunday 12th March, a group of fearless cadets from Coloma and Royal Russell left school for the Olympic Kayak Course at Lee Valley Water Park, together with Mr Leggatt and Mr Stathopolous for a morning of White Water Rafting.

After everyone changed into wetsuits and water boots and were given a safety briefing, we were ready to hit the water!

The first raft, containing 8 of us, had a smooth first run, closely followed by the second raft It all seemed too calm… then … they turned the water pressure up and the waves were bigger; the water was faster, resulting in the first man overboard – me!

Mr Leggatt was at the front of the second raft acting as “figurehead” and as the raft plunged down over a ridge, he was engulfed in water!

William Jones seemed to enjoy spending more time off rather than on the raft and even managed to lose a number of oars downstream.

Ella Jones managed to stay on the raft for all 6 runs, not an easy task! Mr S, who was yet to get wet, fell at the last hurdle. He managed to hold on for at least 4 runs before the course finally got the better of him and he too went overboard!

Our raft had one final score to settle – who could be the last man standing? One by one, we grabbed and pushed each other off the raft. Jamie held on valiantly till near the end when I managed to wrestle him off the raft!

We spent a fantastic morning on a unique way of building our teamwork and friendship.

Thanks to Mr Leggatt and to Mr Stathopolous for arranging such a brilliant activity. Jack Stone, Year 13

Surrey Schools Problem Solving Challenge

The Surrey Schools Problem Solving Challenge Competition involves around 1,000 students annually, in trying to solve an unusual engineering/science problem, using very simple materials and working against the clock for 1.5 hours.

There are five area heats around the county, including Croydon and 180 teams enter the competition each year. On Thursday 26 January Royal Russell entered three teams in the Croydon heat of this year’s Competition held at St Philomenas School, Carshalton.

The three teams were competing against 12 other schools and their task was to use straws, plastic, card, cocktail sticks and cotton thread to build a wind powered crane to hoist a packet of polos. This was a particularly difficult task but all three teams performed well. The Year 12 team were runners up so went through to the Final.

The Problem Solving Final was yesterday afternoon at ACS International School in Cobham.

The problem to be solved in this year’s Final was to design and build a cart which travelled to the top of a narrow slope in a straight line. It used an electric motor which had to be switched on by dropping a marble on to it.

The Year 12 team worked really well and were runners up with 545 points - just 15 points off the winning team.

It was an impressive achievement as around 60 schools enter the competition at the start. Awards were presented to the winning team by John Tickle of Brainiac.

Mr Endersby

Year 8 London Zoo Trip

To complement their work on Natural Environment, Year 8 students visited London Zoo last Friday. With instructions to look out for particularly endangered species off they all went, with booklet, pencil and cameras at the ready. Sketches were attempted, notes on the threats the animals are experiencing and their roles in their food chain were made. The gorillas, tigers and penguins were a hit, almost as much as the children's merry-go-round and giant lollies purchased from the café. Thanks from the Geography department to the pupils for their efforts and behaviour and to the accompanying staff. The pupils will be following up their trip by producing a campaign of their choosing, to raise awareness and/or money for a selected endangered animal. Look out for their efforts over next couple of weeks. Mr Grindrod

Boarders Craft Afternoon

Our Boarders spent Sunday afternoon making reel books, telling stories through art. They produced some beautiful ideas as can be seen in these photos.

Mr Jewiss

Year 7 and 8 ‘Smashed’ Assembly We were delighted to welcome, ‘The Smashed Project’, to speak to our Year 7 and 8 students for an hour on Thursday afternoon.

Collingwood Learning, the providers of this programme, presented a theatre style alcohol awareness workshop. Their visit covered the following topics relating to alcohol awareness and this event was complimentary to our existing and comprehensive PSHE programme:

Health and Social Facts

Causes and Consequences

Anti-Social Behaviour

Making Informed Choice

Peer Pressure and Self-Esteem.

Caitlin, Year 7, Buchanan had this to say “The play was interesting but fun as well. It really got me thinking about what could happen to me and my friends in the future if we make bad decisions and do stupid things.”

Josh, Year 8 adds, “Super idea, I loved the play and the way they changed the scenes”.

Nathalie Hart, Deputy Head, Pastoral and Designated Safeguarding Lead

Magical Musical Dinner

On the evening of Saturday 11th March, we were treated to the Royal Russell School Magical Musical Tour, in the Great Hall. The Choristers, Barbershop, Choral Society, Swing Band, Jazz Band and soloists took us on a musical tour around the world, and beyond! We flew to the moon, went down to Penzance, and everywhere in between - and finished up in Amarillo, in a rousing chorus involving everyone in the hall!

Once again, it demonstrated just how much musical talent there is here at Royal Russell, both among the students and the staff - the Headmaster was an excellent Major General in the ‘Pirates of Penzance’ extract!

During the interval, we enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by the Catering Team, and listened to entertainment on the saxophone and piano, from Mr Cook and Mr Tansley.

A special thank you to our comperes for the evening, Sam Phillipson, Francesca Pringle and Lucy Schofield, and to Bogdan Lica, for his photography, to Mr Ford for his piano accompaniment, Mr Coonghe for his tech skills, Miss Cameron, Mr Bell and Miss O’Hanlon for their tireless work preparing ensembles, and, of course, to Miss Parish and to Mr Millward, who put in a huge amount of work.

The evening’s administration was done by Mrs Wright, a former parent, whose expert organisation ensured that the evening was such a success.

From the Sport Department

GYMNASTICS

Hannah, Matt and Rain made us all proud and performed very well indeed at the Nationals finals. There are 12 gymnastics regions in GB and all can enter 2 teams in each section. In the U13 section there were 13 teams who took part and Royal Russell finished an amazing 8th with a score of 106.860, the team in 7th had a score of 106.87 and 6th 106.990 so it was a very close competition. Overall we were 8th on floor, 7th on vault and 5th in the group routine just 0.2 behind 4th place.

Exceedingly well done.

SURREY SCHOOLS SPORTS ACRO

Six Year 8 pupils participated in the Surrey Schools Sports Acro Competition. They all performed brilliant pairs routines and finished in a credible 5th place! An excellent result Well done.

Hewitts are now stocking two new pieces of optional sports kit.

New ‘tech pants’ (below) can be worn by girls and boys for training or as an alternative to the current tracksuit bottoms.

A Royal Russell Under Armour Cricket top is also now available.

NEW OPTIONAL SPORTS KIT

FOOTBALL

Last week our 1XI lost in the Elgin Cup Final to Bradfield 3-0 at Tooting and Mitcham FC. On a night when we were missing 9 1XI players it was always going to be difficult against a very strong Bradfield side. Special mention goes to Nathan Daniels and Camron Gbadebo who played extremely well, playing three years above themselves! Our preparation is very much underway for the big match next Monday against Millfield! Our 2XI and 3XI enjoyed excellent wins against Brighton College last week and our U14s and U15s both secured fantastic wins against Cedars on Saturday. Next week our 1XI also have the semi-final of the London and Trinity Cup before the end of the term. To still be fighting four trophies at this stage of the season is an outstanding, but very challenging situation to be in! HOCKEY

Last weekend the U12A,B and C squads were in action against Trinity School. The B and C teams were set against a very tough Trinity side, but battled throughout the game. Some good defending from Trinity hampered our chances of scoring, and early goals in both the B and C team games quickly put Trinity ahead to win the game. The A team conceded a couple of early goals, but managed to step up their performance to bring the score back to 2-2. A couple of quick breakaways put Trinity ahead for the final whistle, but it was very exciting game to watch! The U13A,B and C sides were in action vs Forest School, again with some very exciting fixtures. The A team finished 5-5 in an end to end game. Well done to Sacha Jennings and Cameron Leishman for some clinical goal scoring. The B team finished 5-4 to Royal Russell in a similarly end to end game, with the team scoring late on in the game to secure the win. The C team took on a tough opposition who had a couple of prolific goal scorers. Well done to all those that contributed to some very exciting Hockey!

NETBALL

Last week the U14s and U13s took to the court for the Surrey finals. Both teams had some really positive performances and it was an amazing achievement to make it this far in the competition. The U13s won 3 out of 5 games and the U14s won 1 out of their 5 matches. All matches were close and the score could have gone either way in the majority of games. For the U13s the players of the day were Servaise and Roshanna and for the U14s the player of the day was Lily. She has shown great ability to listen to feedback and put that into her match play. Well done to all the girls in both teams. It is testament to their hard work that both these age groups are in the top 10 schools for netball in the county. The U18s also had an area tournament last week at Trinity School finishing 3rd. It was a great team performance. Special mention to Marina Marinova. Marina filled in for us last minute and had a fantastic performance. She has showed fantastic improvements in netball this season, well done Marina. The U12 A and B teams had their tournament on Tuesday. They all played really well and gave 100% effort throughout. We are always so impressed by their enthusiasm to play, so well done to this age group! The player of the day was Reanna Blades who made some amazing interceptions through the court and had great movement in attack. Netball Team Photos

All age groups have their team photos next week in games. Please could you ensure they bring in the correct kit. This would be very helpful!

HOUSE SPORT

On Thursday we held the Junior boys’ House Hockey competition. Head of Hockey, Miss Brennan was delighted by the general standard of play and competitiveness shown by the boys. It may also prove a useful warm-up for this weekends set of fixtures! Keable, with Elliot Martinski in excellent form, proved too strong and won fairly comfortably from Oxford who battled well under Jack Beckett’s leadership, Cambridge who had an excellent keeper in Yanning, then St Andrew’s and Madden. Positions in the overall table are unchanged, but Oxford are now only 1 point behind Cambridge. St Andrew’s lead from Cambridge, Oxford, Keable and Madden. Next week we have the Senior boys’ Hockey and a rearranged girls’ Junior and Senior Badminton.

LONDON LIVE 2017 NETBALL TRIP

Last Saturday afternoon, a group of junior and senior school pupils travelled to the Copper Box Arena to watch Surrey Storm take on Hertfordshire Mavericks. Everybody was super excited to support our very own Miss Williams and the Surrey Storm team. The atmosphere in the arena was electric with crowd chants and fitting music being blasted after each goal! Pupils were able to recognise aspects of their own warm ups and set plays on court and were wowed by the speed and the intensity of the game. Surrey Storm put in an amazing performance and won the match 67-45. Heading down to the court afterwards and getting selfies, pictures and the player’s signatures was a definite highlight! Well done Miss Williams!

SWIMMING - THE BATH CUP

The Bath Cup takes place once a year at The London Aquatics Centre. For the last three years we have taken four girls and four boys from the Senior School to this competition. The average age of the pupils taking part are 16 to 18 year olds and teams from across the country take part. There is a Freestyle Event and Medley Event. In the Girls’ Freestyle Event it is broken down into two finals The Aldenham Girls Final (Small Schools) and Otter Freestyle Final. The Medley Event is in two parts to the Dunelm Cup (Small Schools) and Otter Medley. The girls taking part were Saffron Wood, Emily Arnold, Jasmine Palmer-Garrick and Jemima Earing. They are still on the younger side and are gradually each year we have taken part, are working their way up the rankings. The boys competition included Raffy Ryder, Lucas Jones, Titus Lo and Matthew Lin is also in two parts – the Freestyle Event - The Alderman Cup (Small Schools) and The Bath Cup. The Medley Team Event is the Dunelm Cup and Otter Medley. The boys team qualified for the final of the Alderman Cup in 9th Place out of 39 small schools.

SUMMER HOLIDAY SPORTS ACTIVITIES

Our sport courses offer the opportunity to enhance skills in a stimulating and enjoyable environment. Courses run in the summer holidays are available in Netball, Football, Hockey, Cricket and Tennis. All sports are equally open to both girls and boys age 9 to 15 years, from any school and of all ability levels. To book, please visit www.royalrussell.co.uk/holidaysport

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT

Good Luck to Connor Roach-Bowler at the National schools trampoline finals on Saturday in Newcastle!

Congratulations to Megan Driver ,Year 10 Reade House, for an outstanding 4th place in the Downs League U15 girls race.

Week Date Sport Time Cost per Day

Week One Monday 24, Tuesday 25, Wednesday 26 July 2017

Netball, Football, Hockey or Tennis

and Cricket

10.00am to 3.00pm

£25.00

Week Two Monday 31 July, Tuesday 1, Wednesday 2 August 2017

Netball, Football, Hockey or Tennis

and Cricket

10.00am to 3.00pm

£25.00

Week Three Monday 7, Tuesday 8,

Wednesday 9 August 2017

Netball, Football, Hockey or Tennis

and Cricket

10.00am to 3.00pm

£25.00

Week Four Monday 14, Tuesday 15,

Wednesday 16 August 2017

Netball, Football, Hockey or Tennis

and Cricket

10.00am to 3.00pm

£25.00

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If you have any uniform or sports kit that no longer fits your child, please consider donating

this to the uniform shop . We are also delighted to

accept sports equipment such as hockey sticks and shin pads.

Donations can be left in the storage box outside the Coach House Shop, adjacent to the

car park.

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We welcome your feedback. Please send to Ciara Campbell, Marketing and Communications Manager

email: ccampbell@royalrussell.co.uk or feedback@royalrussell.co.uk

Royal Russell School

Coombe Lane : Croydon : Surrey : CR0 5RF

www.royalrussell.co.uk Patron: Her Majesty The Queen

Diary Dates

Saturday 18 March 1853 Society Comedy Night Wednesday 22 March Theatre Society Trip to Comedy About a Bank Robber Thursday 23 March Year 7 Trip to Paris Departs Thursday 23 March Higher Education Evening 7.00pm Auditorium Friday 24 March Haileybury MUN Departs Sunday 26 March Mothering Sunday Service 6.00pm Chapel All Welcome

For next week’s menu, click here

Uniform Shop

Car Park

Save the date for these new 1853 Society events!

Family Barn Dance - Saturday 6 May The inaugural ‘Russellian Ball’ - Saturday 4 November

We are collecting Sainsbury’s Active Kids Vouchers Please drop into Reception

NEXT UNIFORM SALE: Thursday 23 March - 3.00pm to 4.15pm