Pate’s Progress

Inside:Pate’s students visit NASAGirls’ Sports Tour to South AfricaMidsummer Nights Dream

Issue 26 Spring 2010

Forthcomingevents at Pate’s....

And so it is now 2010. The last decade has flown by but some things remainconstant – the grammar school remains committed to providing our unique

blend of education maximising academic learning, enabling happy school days andsupporting personal development as children grow into young adults. All manner ofgovernment initiatives and educational innovations have come and gone. Anyteacher not keen to learn more and try different strategies to improve isn’t worthy ofthe status but equally fads and gimmicks should be treated as such. One massivechange over the last decade has been the place of computers so that the teenage‘digital natives’ at Pate’s now have ICT provision, e-learning support and atechnologically rich environment that continues to develop apace.

As we look to the future, we should cherish all that is so good about our school. Itwas pleasing that, at a university reunion event for Patesians last year, a number offormer students told me how the teaching they received at Pate’s meant that theystarted their university studies considerably ahead of their peers from other schools.

Over the coming months and years education will become a political and economicproverbial football and I do fear that our opportunities to provide the extras thatmake such a difference will be threatened by cuts across the public sector. I see thatfunding difficulties will be an issue for all schools but I do hope that the localpoliticians will be vocal in their support for selective education.

Despite political and economic uncertainties, I believe that we can all look forwardwith confidence so that the next decade at Pate’s can be just as successful as any inthe past. That is because of the superb staff, supportive parents and governors butmostly because of the calibre of young people at Pate’s. It is a privilege to spend timewith them.

I would urge any former students to be intouch – come back and visit as my guest andplease do drop me a line to tell me what youare doing now. It would be super to hear fromyou and I would be really pleased to sharenews with others through future editions ofPate’s Progress.

Shaun FentonHead master

The Head MasterWrites......

Spring Term 2010

Sat 30 Jan Welsh National Opera in school hall

Tue 2 Feb Berlin Wall Lecture

Thur 4 Feb Charity Comedy Evening withDavid O’Docherty

Fri 5 Feb Wine and Cheese Tasting –Sports Tour Fundraising

Tues 9 Feb Concert – Ensemble EveningThur 11 Feb Charity Valentine’s Day EventsWed 24 Feb Lunchtime Musical Concert

Dance EveningFri 26 Feb Parents’Association Quiz NightSat 27 Feb Orchestral Concert in school hallMon 1 Mar Geography GIS Master Class

Sat 6 Mar National Festival Music for Youth

Sun 7 Mar Competition at Pate’s

Wed 10 Mar Spring Concert

Wed 17 Mar Middle School House Debating

Sat 27 Mar Parents’Association Spring Fair

Tue 30 Mar Jazz Evening

Wed 31 Mar Pate’s Lecture – Sir BrianPitman

You are warmly invited to these events, pleasecontact us for more information.

How to contact us ...Pate’s Grammar SchoolPrincess Elizabeth WayCheltenhamGlos GL51 OHG

Tel: 01242 523 169Fax: 01242 232 775Email: office@pates.gloucs.sch.ukWebsite: www.pates.gloucs.sch.uk

Ellie Binnie on top of Cleeve Hill

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In this issueOn the cover...Winter skills2009 in the CairnGorms

4 - Trip to NASA5 - Music at Pate’s

- Youth Film Critic Awards6 - Outdoor Education, CCF and

trip to Ontario

7 - Link Ethiopia8 - Make your Mark Challenge

Building Development9 - A Taste of China

Partnerships in Learning

10 - Alumni- A new teacher’s firstimpressions of Pate’s

11 - Girls’ sports tour to SouthAfrica

13 - Sport15 - Midsummer Night’s Dream16 - Art at Pate’s

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In October, 56 students spent three days atthe Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

Among the highlights of this was the dayspent on the Astronaut TrainingExperience. We took part in trainingactivities, received lectures on the structureand engineering behind the space shuttleand carried out a full-size Shuttle LandingSimulation, which was amazing. Some of useven got the opportunity to touch a tyrethat had been on a space shuttle! At themuseum everyone took the opportunity totouch a piece of space rock that was ondisplay, we can now say that Pate’s hastouched the moon!

We were taken to the two main launch padsat Cape Canaveral and were able to seeboth the Space Shuttle Atlantis,which was rolled out while we werein Florida, and the new NASA rocket,which had a successful launch theweek after we returned to the UK.Although the launch had had to bepostponed from the day of our visit,we were fortunate to be there on theonly occasion when there have everbeen two different types of spacecraftin the hanger at the same time, anhistoric moment. We visited theAstronaut Hall of Fame and had avery interesting guided tour aroundall the exhibits; we were amazed byjust how small, cramped and fragilethe space capsules actually were. Infact we came to realise that the earlymissions were no more than sending

men into space riding on a missile. Wesuddenly realised that astronauts do nothave a glamorous job, but an incrediblydangerous one. The solid rocket boosters ofthe shuttle are enormous and, again, wewere able to appreciate that these were fullof an explosive fuel. Although we knewthat fuel was dangerous, seeing it up closecombined with the sheer size of thespacecraft made it take on anotherdimension, something you can’t imaginewhen just watching a launch from adistance on a TV screen.We had lunch with Space Shuttle pilot JohnMcBride, who was able to answer lots ofquestions, and we had group photos takenwith him. We also saw an IMAXpresentation of life on the InternationalSpace Station and enjoyed a space shuttlelaunch simulation.We had an airboat ride on the everglades,but, unfortunately, didn’t see any alligators,however the bird life was very good and wedid see a Bald Eagle and its enormous nest.No trip to Florida would be completewithout a visit to a theme park and wewent to Universal Studios and had afantastic time on all the rides andsimulations.Overall this was a fantastic school trip; welearned so much about space travel and thedifficulties and complexities of applyingscience to problem-solving. We were reallyinspired by what we heard, so much so thatsome of us are thinking hard about ouruniversity courses already, so that maybe inthe future we can be involved in the spaceprogramme in Europe or America.

Take off......

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I really enjoyed the NASA trip! It was amazingbecause we learnt so much but it was really fun. Ilearnt how the world is going to generate electricitywhen we run out of fossil fuels and I found out somuch information about rocket launches and rockets.I really enjoyed going on all the simulators in theAstronaut Training Experience because we got tounderstand how the astronauts trained and what itwas like to be in a real rocket. I enjoyed doing the roleplay of a rocket mission because we experienced howhard it was for the astronauts to control the rocketand how many different things they had to do at once.I also loved the theme parks because we got to spendtwo whole days on roller coasters! Overall, the NASAtrip was great fun. Pippa Matthews 10G

Science Departmentvisit to NASA

Chinese horizonsOn 13th July, 13 budding sinologists

embarked on a long journey (about 20hours) to China. We arrived a day later inBeijing. As soon as we stepped outside the airconditioned terminal, the sticky heat truly hitus and we took many days to recover. For thenext few days we would stay in a campuswith thousands of other students from the UKand the USA. We saw the sights and exploredthe city, visiting the must-see places such asthe Forbidden City, the Great Wall andTiananmen Square in the rain. Despite thegrowing casualties to swine flu and thelooming prospect of quarantine, our groupmanaged to escape Beijing on 19th July andtravelled across China to Shanghai.We spent two weeks in Shanghai on alanguage course, which really improved ourMandarin. In the afternoons we toured thesights of the city, including the Oriental PearlTV Tower and the older parts of the city. Wealso had a try at haggling in the markets to

buy surprisingly cheapdesigner clothes andwent to restaurantswhich served manyweird and wonderfulfoods.One day we went toSuzhou, a less built-upcity nearby. This includeda boat ride around theVenice-like canals and atrip to a traditional operahouse, where Fran, ourvery own concubine, andElliot took part in theshow.At the end of the twoweeks in Shanghai, wewent back to Beijing andstayed in a five star hotelas a prize for being braveduring the swine flu outbreak. We visited theTemple of Heaven, went on a rickshaw tourthrough old Beijing and did a last spot of

shopping before finally beginning the longjourney home

George Wright – Year 13

Culture

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Lunchtime Concertin CheltenhamTown HallThe invitation to perform at Cheltenham

Town Hall as part of their lunchtimeconcert series was an excellent opportunity forsome of our most able musicians to showcasetheir talents outside school. Despite thetorrential downpour there was a goodaudience who clearly enjoyed the fantastic

performances, some were even moved to writeand express their appreciation.Three chamber ensembles framed the concertin the form of a senior flute group, Year 12string quartet and Year 12 sax quartet. Allthree ensembles provided slick performances.In addition to this, there were several stunningsolo performances. The youngest performer,Rebecca McNaught (cello), performed KolNidrei accompanied by her brother Jonathan.Her performance was impressive by anystandard, her tone quality and sense of line,outstanding. Jonathan later performed twosolo piano pieces, and, as we have come to

expect, shaped two technically demandingpieces with impressive maturity. WilliamPercy performed another, very different stapleof the cello repertoire. The deceptively simplecharacter piece The Swan leaves no room forthe slightest error, and William’s beautifulperformance was flawless. We also heard fromSusie Bagnall (soprano) who provided acommitted rendition of Pieta Signore withremarkable support and shape. TomoyaForster showed how beautiful the altosaxophone can be and why he is shaping upfor a career in music!

The music department’s contribution to theAfrica day involved a singing workshop

and a drumming workshop. Our drum andpercussion teacher Sam Gerard kept 25 Year 9pupils enthralled as they put together complexpolyrhythms on the new African drums. In theroom next door the singers mastered four partharmonies in a variety of African songs. Thewhole day came together in the hall as bothsingers and drummers gave the rest of theschool a taste of African Music.

Charity ConcertOn Wednesday 4th November over 100

musicians from across Years 7 – 13 cametogether to raise £600 for the charity LinkEthiopia, in the school’s annual CharityConcert. The evening showcased pupils of allstandards, opening with a rousingperformance of Dvorak’s Sonatina Symfonikafrom First Orchestra. Equally valued howeverwas Training Orchestra’s performance ofseveral children’s songs, with many membersstarting lessons only this term. Training

Orchestra also featured Robin Hedley 7G,Pate’s first harpist! Year7 also featured heavilyin Junior Vocal Group, singing ‘Hallelujah’and ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, while their oldercounterparts in Senior Vocal Group performedtwo songs from the musical ‘Guys and Dolls’.Both halves of the concert were brought to atoe-tapping conclusion, with performancesfrom Junior and Senior Jazz.

African Drumming

Ientered the young Film Citic Competitionand as my favourite film of 2009 is Slumdog

Millionaire, I wrote a review of that. A fewweeks later, I was surprised but very pleasedwhen Mr Allinson told me that I had won thesecondary school category.On Thursday 15th October my Mum and Itook the train to London, the home of theBAFTA building, where the awards ceremonywas being held. It was a very grand building,full of gold and marble. We were given VIPpasses. We then went to the awards ceremonyin the Princess Anne theatre which was hostedby Blue Peter presenter Joel Deffries. It beganwith a short trailer for National Schools FilmWeek (15-23 October.) The awards werepresented by figures from different areas ofthe film industry. The biggest excitement came

when Joel announced who would present theFilm Club awards to me – Tom Felton, whoplays the villainous Draco Malfoy in theHarry Potter films. Some of the youngerchildren, evidently confusing him with hischaracter, cowered in their seats and the littleboy sitting next to me waved an imaginarywand at him! Tom presented me with a trophyand a certificate.Afterwards, I hadphotos taken withTom and heautographed mycertificates. Unlikehis character, he wasvery friendly anddown-to-earth inspite of being

famous. I wondered about asking him if hisfamous and brilliant quote “I like geography. Ilike to know where places are” (on a poster inD212 along with the words of Confucius,Gandhi and Einstein) still holds true for him,but decided against it.I was very proud to have won a nationalcompetition. I didn’t have the chance to makea tearful Kate Winslet-style acceptance speech,but I would like to thank my Mum for takingme to London, Mr Allinson for tellingeveryone about the competition and the FilmClub and Film Education staff for organisingsuch an exciting day.

Rosemary Collins Year 12

Lights, camera, action: my day at the Young Film Critic Awards

CCF Field DayIn October I enjoyed a CCF field day and

camp out. During Friday every new recruitfrom both the Army and RAF sectionsjourneyed to Cleeve Hill where our activitieswere based. We were divided into groups,each led by a NCO from Year 12 or 13. Firstthere was a station where we were told aboutD of E and were briefed about the awardsystem, the requirements and the benefits of it.Next we were reminded of how to prepare ourfood and given a taste of the new ration packcontents. Many of us were surprised to seeMarmite, Tabasco sauce and Lucozade sportdrink flavouring items that made the rationpack more flavoursome and enjoyable! On thetop of the hill we learnt about navigation andhow to use it effectively and accurately. We putour skills and knowledge to the test bycompleting a few navigation tasks on the hill.We persevered through the cold conditions,enjoying the new experiences. The mostpopular activity was abseiling. Lt Col Woodallled the abseiling, making sure everyone was

safe while at the same time ensuring everyonewas having fun. We also learnt about first aid.Lastly, we learnt how to use and look aftertents, which will be a vital skill in futureexpeditions and camps. The next day we wokeup to prepare our breakfast rations of food,

such as bacon, beansand beef. Next, wewere briefed about ourrota for the day, whichincluded a session onhow to prepare andlook after your kit andpolish your boots,before receiving ourCCF kit. As well as thekit issue procedures,we revised andpractised the drill thatwe had learnt over thefirst few weeks ofFriday night sessions.We spent time on thefield navigating andpractising our newskills.

The whole event was very exciting and madeus all very eager to continue with our CCF andto get stuck into the opportunities it has.

Ellie Wilson 9R

Annual Camp 2009On Sunday 12th July 2009, cadets from

Pate’s Grammar School CCF set off fromCheltenham to Crowborough, Sussex, in searchof knowledge, fun and exploration. The weekof excitement kicked off with adventuroustraining, getting all the cadets pumped up andready for the next four days of hardcore effortand enthusiasm.As always, every day was packed withopportunities to learn, have fun and developskills – social, physical and leadership. Apersonal favourite day of mine was field craft,which involved running around, getting dirtyand firing lots and lots of rounds! As well asfield craft, the day down on the ranges alsoproved to be one of the best. On previousAnnual Camps range days have just beenshooting, however this year there was a bitmore variety, such as an assault course, airrifles, laser tag and even paintballing, which

left a lot of us slightlybruised, but definitelywanting more!On the final day, thecompetitions got off toa good start in themarch and shoot, withPate’s dominating theopposition and gainingour first victory of theday. This was not to bethe only success. Ourpatrolling section camea close second, andHattie Nicholas toppedit off by winning theprize for the best archeron camp.Annual Camp isalways a highlight of the CCF calendar, whichleaves me with only one thing to say – bring onAnnual Camp 2010.

Jen Cockett 12B1

Ontario Tigerventurer 2009Pate’s Grammar School took part in an

exciting wilderness canoeing experience inOntario, Canada.The two parties rolled through Desert Lake,North Frontenac, and engaged with the

training programme very well, eager to pick upthe skills needed for the two expedition phases.Sunny days were interrupted by heavydownpours and much of camp life took placeunder tarps. Groups learnt to cook on openfires, a skill that is little practised in the UK.Much fun was had lighting these fires withbirch-bark and fire-steel.John Albinson, former Professorfrom Queen’s University (Kingston,

Ontario), joined one ofthe teams on the CrotchLake circuit. John’sexperience and campfiretalk gave the team a realinsight into canoe-life inCanada. The MawaskaRiver, despite taking uponly two days, proved tobe the highlight of thetrip. A late spring and aparticularly wet Julymeant that the river wasvery high. Kinston,Ottawa, Toronto andNiagara all provided

R&R opportunities for the groups. Thehighlights were many but the street performersin Ottawa and the Blue Jays game stand out(especially the commentary from our waiter inthe Hard Rock Café who gave us acommentary while we dined in stadium sideseats).

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Outdoor Education

Relaxing a'er an action packed day

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Asmall group of Sixth formers went tohear Antony Gormley – the sculptor

who created the Angel of the North - andQuentin Blake, among others, talk abouttheir work and their personal, creativeprocesses. This was such a fantastic day(for students and staff!), highlighting

different facets of art anddesign and the possibilitieswithin these. We returnedwith autographs and thefeeling that we would just liketo sit down with QuentinBlake and have a cup of teawith him!During House Art, the Gallerywas bursting at the seams, fullof work responding to thetheme of ‘Viewpoints’ withevery House displaying arange of drawing, painting,

sculpture and photography. Theinvolvement of students throughout theschool in this competition must becommended; we have been inundatedwith high quality entries once again. Forthe first time the competition was openedup to staff, proving that it is not just the

students who are creative!And, as if we couldn’t fitanything else into analready packed year wehave had our Artist inResidence, SimonPackard, duringDecember, and Year 11, 12and 13 students will bejetting off to New York inFebruary half term…!

It has been a busy and exciting start to the school yearfor the Art Department, with many visits to galleries

and museums taking place, and House Art taking overthe Gallery.

Within the first couple of weeks of the new schoolyear, Year 10 spent the day at Nature in Art atTwigworth, gathering resources and ideas for theirfirst coursework project, Natural Forms. Studentstook part in a wire sculpture workshop, met RobertCox, the artist in residence, and sat in the sunshinesketching from sculptures within the grounds.A week later, Year 12 and 13 students travelled toLondon to visit the Tate Modern and Tate Britain.Students were able to experience a wide range oftraditional and contemporary artwork, and to selectartists that will influence their personal projects. Witha range of work exhibited within these galleries, allstudents came away inspired and buzzing with ideas,looking forward to getting back into the classroom tostart their own masterpieces!

In October, Year 9 visited the Pitt Rivers Museum andthe Natural History Museum in Oxford. These are twofascinating, exceptional museums with over five millionartefacts and specimens, including dinosaur skeletons,fossils, shrunken heads, textiles, jewellery, ceramics andweaponry – almost too much to pack into a single day!

Life drawing classes havebegun in earnest, taking

place once every two weeksfor Year 12 and 13 students.Pate’s is one of only a fewschools in Gloucestershire thatprovides this opportunity toits students, an opportunitythat is paramount inimproving students’ drawingskills, enabling them to createan exciting portfolio of workin the process.

Art

Africa FlexibleLearning DayPate’s has just set up a link with a

secondary school in Ethiopia called TanaHaik and much of the money raised onCharity Day this year went towardsproviding Tana Haik with its firstcomputers for the 4,000 students to use. Togive Pate’s students a feel for the culturaldifferences and issues facing students inAfrica, the day before Charity Day saw ourAfrican Flexible Learning Day wherestudents across the whole school wereengaged in activities related to Africa.Assembly began with students learninghow to greet each other in Swahili and thenNicki Storey, a former student, gave aninspiring presentation about her time inEthiopia working with charities.Students then dispersed across school to ahuge range of different activities for themiddle part of the day. Year 7-10 studentswere involved with:African art – print work and making masksAfrican Music - singing and a drummingworkshop.Scrap Recycling – making toys and jewelleryout of aluminium cans, wire and bottle topsAfrican Safari – making presentations aboutsome of Africa’s wildlife and conservationissues.Water for Africa – making systems to raiseand purify water.Drama - stories from Africa,an African dramaworkshop.

Shanty Town – in families, students built theirown shanty house out of cardboard on thefield and then had a role play exercise wherethey were set different challenges and tasks todo.A Newspaper in a Day –25 students produced a fantastic 16-pagenewspaper looking at African issues andreporting on all the activities going on aroundschool.The Sixth Form spent the morning in a mockUnited Nations, set up in the hall, wheregroups of students represented differentcountries around the world and discussed theissue of aid, using currant buns unequallydistributed to represent the relative wealth ofthe different countries! In the afternoon therewas a series of workshops covering a varietyof African issues, including AIDS, streetchildren, African politics and African films.

Finally, at 2:45pm the whole schoolcame back together in the hall for acelebratory “showcasing” of all thathad gone on during the day, withphotos, video, interviews andperformances highlighting all thefantastic work that had been producedin the preceding four hours! This finalgathering clearly did justice to animpressive day where Pate’s studentsshowed once again how impressivethey are in throwing themselves intonew challenges, grappling with difficultissues and working together across agegroup and year group boundaries toproduce extremely high qualityoutcomes.

World Links

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Link EthiopiaIn 2009, Link Ethiopia was set up as part of

the current Year 9’s Year 8 Leadership andCommunity lessons. Our task was to set up aproject within either our local area, country orwith an international one, in order to helppeople and contribute to an outsidecommunity. In my group, 8RY of last year, wedecided that we would like to make adifference to the lives of those outside ourcountry. We felt that it would benefit others bygiving them support and introducing them toanother culture; consequently it would be avaluable experience for us and we coulddevelop skills that we could use in later life,such as fundraising and leadership. Whencarrying out our research we found LinkEthiopia. Link Ethiopia was founded over 10years ago and has dedicated its work tohelping and supporting the education systemin Ethiopia. When we looked into the currenteducation system in Ethiopia we wereshocked to discover that not every child isfortunate enough to go to school; facilitieswithin the current schools are very basic andthe resources are inadequate for the students.Tana Haik is the school we have been linkedwith. It is home to 4199 pupils, with a total of37 classrooms and class sizes of over 65! As itis not possible to fit all the students into theschool in one go, the school operates a shiftsystem where half of the students come toschool in the morning and the other half in theafternoon. The aim of the link is for bothPate’s and Tana Haik to have regularcommunications with students from another

culture and background to help usunderstand what it is like being a student in avery different country. In the future we hopeto set up an Internet blog with them. We alsohope to raise money to provide extraresources for the students of Tana Haik.Currently they only have one computer usedfor administration, but that is about to change!We are all very proud to say that Pate’s hassucceeded in raising over £2,000 so far forTana Haik, which will provide somecomputers for the students to use and trainingfor the teachers. At Pate’s we take for grantedthe facilities we have and the opportunities weare given. The computers will provide basicskills that will help set students up for life,

contributing to their university success. OnWednesday 15th July 2009, the Link Ethiopiateam alongside Mr Bruce, our teacher link co-coordinator, and the rest of the teachers atPate’s organised an Ethiopian day forstudents. Many African-related activities tookplace, which involved all the students andthey spread awareness about the link.A huge thank you goes to Mr Bruce and therest of the teachers at Pate’s for their help andsupport during the preparations and therunning of Ethiopia day and also to thestudents at Pate’s for taking part andcontributing to helping our link school.

Ellie Wilson 9R

The team headed by Mr Bruce

Enterprising

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Make Your MarkChallenge 2009Year 12 Economics and Business students

took part in the annual national enterprisechallenge, along with 73,000 other students, aspart of Enterprise Week on Monday 16thNovember. The brief this year was to “Developa cool creation with low carbon credentialsbased on a local inspiration”. Six Pate’s teamsspent the day in school creating a newinvention or innovating an existing product orservice. They had just over four hours todevelop their idea, research competitors andestimate their first year profit, before having topitch to judges within school.The winning school team, led by HenryBradley, developed an electrical goods

recycling service called “Skippy Scrappage”.The service provided a number of skipsaround Cheltenham for people to be able torecycle their old kettles, toasters, TVs, etc, freeof charge and more conveniently thanusing landfill. Revenue would begenerated from the metal weight withineach skip, which was estimated at £8 acubic metre, and from advertising spaceon the skips.Skippy Scrappage were entered into thenational Make Your Mark competitionand were selected as Regional Finalists,held at The Watershed Media Centre inBristol on Friday 27th November.Despite a professional pitch and greatacting by Oscar Miller, they narrowlymissed out on reaching the nationalfinal. The team consisted of HenryBradley (Captain), Karim Tair-El-Bar,

Mark Milton, Oscar Miller, James Fesemeyerand Mohammed Moolla.

Mrs Howell

Our enthusiastic and ardent tour guiderevitalised our excitement for the banking

city of Germany, the financial capital ofEurope. We weren’t only introduced to thebanking history of the city, but also the culturaland historical account of the beautiful city.The economic relevance of this trip involvedvisits to the European Central Bank and theFrankfurt Stock Exchange, while our visits tothe Opel car factory and Possmann applewinefactory increased our business knowledge.Entering the European Central Bank (ECB)involved a high degree of security but onceinside we were educated on the main tasks ofthe ECB. Today, the Frankfurt Stock Exchangeis an international trading centre, which is alsoreflected in the structure of its participants, ofwhom some 140 of around 300 marketparticipants come from abroad. As well asreceiving an idiot’s guide to the structure andworkings of the Stock Exchange, our visitinvolved observing the trading floor from thevisitors’ gallery. Overall, the economicrelevance of the trip was extensive; introducingus to two large European establishments whichdirectly relate to the UK economy.Valuable business experience was gained fromour visits to the Opel factory and Possmannfactory. The history of applewine in andaround Frankfurt Main, Germany goes backover 1,200 years. Frankfurt Main represents theheart of German applewine culture. Our guideat the factory revealed the fermenting process

for the high-quality applewine. This wasfollowed by a tasting session of the widevariety of applewine produced at the factory,complimented with a round of pretzels as well.

Our final activity was our visit to the Opel carfactory in Russelheim. Adam Opel was thefounder of the brand, which has producedsewing machines, bicycles, motorbikes, carsand even refrigerators under the familybusiness. It is owned by General Motors and

echoes the production of Vauxhall cars aroundthe world. We left Frankfurt in the early hourstotally overwhelmed by the historical andcultural essence of the modern banking city

and content that we had all had such awonderful and educational experience. Wewere asked frequently “You like it inFrankfurt?” and yes we did!

Dana Singh 13BG

Economics and Business Trip Frankfurt “You like it in Frankfurt?”

We have now started a £5 million buildingdevelopment programme to update the

school buildings and facilities. Twelve projectshave been identified and these include a newFitness Suite, a re-organisation of the ScienceLaboratories, Information Technology-enhanced classrooms, and new FoodTechnology, Drama and Outdoor Pursuitsclassrooms; but the flagship project is a newSixth Form Centre and Refectory. Thedevelopment will be funded by a mixture ofGovernment funding and support from thePate’s Foundation, from which we already have£3.5 million. However, we need to raise andadditional £1.5 million through our ownefforts. We have already reached £100, 000 ingifts and pledges through the generosity ofmany individuals, for which we are extremelygrateful.

Building Work AlreadyCompleted

Over the last two summer holidays, two ofour science labs have been redesigned and

refurbished . The labs now have smartboards,multimedia projectors and modern, movablefurniture to allow a flexible learningenvironment. A Fitness Suite has also beenconstructed in the attic space above thechanging rooms. There has been extensivedevelopment of our Information Technologyresources and infrastructure. We now have anew server room with significant upgrades toserver performance and storage capacity,which has given us a resilient, reliable high-performance network to serve our schoolcommunity and its ever growing use of ICT.

Mrs ParkBuilding Development at Pate’s

The new IT suite

Say “cheese”

The team in full swing in Bristol

How to Explore theUniverse A tale of telescopes, timetravel and extra-terrestrials as 35 Year 9pupils, with Mrs Harding and Mr Head,attended a lecture at St. Edward’s School,organised by the Institute of Physics. 2009was the International Year of Astronomy(IYA) celebrating the 400th anniversary ofGalileo’s use of the telescope to study thenight sky. The IYA is intended to stimulateinterest not only in astronomy but in sciencein general, with a particular slant towardsyoung people. The show involved hands-ondemonstrations, giving students theopportunity to do some astronomythemselves using some of the most advancedtelescopes in the world. The main points thatwe took from the lecture were that due toprogress in technology astronomers can nowobserve things further and further away and,therefore, further back in time; astronomicalobservations can be used to learn more about

the origins and future of the universe; moderntelescopes can be used by astronomers to lookat the universe in ever greater detail.The lively lecture was presented by Dr

Andrew Newsam, a Readerin Astronomy Education atThe Astrophysics ResearchInstitute, Liverpool JohnMoores University, wherehe specialises in turning setsof astronomical data into acollection of useful numbersthat can be used in science.Dr Newsam is also Directorof the National SchoolsObservatory (NSO), aproject aimed at givingschool children theopportunity to make theirown observations alongsideprofessional astronomers ontop-quality telescopes. Dueto the late arrival of our

coach, we were fortunate to benefit from theopportunity to ask lots of extra questions,which were answered with enthusiasm.

Partnerships inLearningThe Cheltenham Independent and State

Schools Partnership (ISSP) is managed byPate’s Grammar School. This project aims toenhance the aspirations of gifted and talentedpupils from seven Cheltenham schoolstowards higher education. 2009 was a verybusy year with over 14 separate events,including a sport’s science day, an engineeringday, a science day and a spy day. The yearculminated in a summer school held at DeanClose Junior School with the theme ‘The sky isnot the limit’. 120 Year 10 pupils were treatedto a programme of events, including visits to

Oxford University,London’s Royal Societyand Airbus, Bristol. Onthe final day, the pupilsused their new-foundexpertise to rise to the‘Flying Start Challenge’ ofbuilding an aircraftpowered by an elasticband; the winnersdesigned the aircraft thatstayed airborne for thelongest time.

J McKechnie

As part of our Inter-State School Partnership (ISSP), we hosted ourfirst event of this academic year. Around 80 students from five

local schools, Pate’s, Winchcome, Pittville, Bournside and ChristCollege, participated in an action-packed day entitled ‘A Taste ofChina’. The students who took part were all studying languages fromYears 9 and 10. During the course of the day, they attended a variety of

workshops ranging from Kung Fu to Origami to Mandarin for Tourists,all equally challenging and enjoyable. As part of the event, all studentsand tutors enjoyed a fantastic Chinese buffet lunch to help everyonefully immerse themselves in the Chinese culture. A Chinese Café ranthroughout the day, demonstrating the tea ceremony and giving

students an opportunity to ample typical Chinese snacks.This they did with trepidation but most reported that the Zongzi,which is a special kind of dumpling usually made of glutinous rice andwrapped in bamboo, was delicious! The day was a huge success andour very grateful thanks go to the Chinese Children and ParentsAssociation for providing a wonderful array of activities which reallygave all involved ‘A Taste of China.’

Sharon Stratford

A Taste of China comes to Pate’s

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Learning and beyond

David Davies MPPate’s LectureAutumn 2009The Pate’s Lecture Series continues to attract

nationally renowned speakers. Recently wehave enjoyed the visits of social entrepreneurLord Mawson. Professor Burland of ImperialCollege London, lead engineer in the project tostabilise the Tower of Pisa, Anne WiddecombeMP and Sir David Pepper, Director General ofGCHQ. In October, the Pate’s Lecture wasdelivered by David Davies MP. Grammarschool educated, David Davies has had adistinguished career. He has been Minister ofState at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office(1994-1997), Conservative Party Chairman andShadow Deputy Prime Minister. Between 2003and 2008 he was the Shadow Home Secretary

in the Shadow Cabinet, under both MichaelHoward and David Cameron. Davies hadpreviously been a candidate for the leadershipof the Conservative Party in 2001 and 2005,coming fourth and then second. Recently hehas also been a vocal supporter of grammarschool education.On 12 June 2008, in a surprising andcontroversial move, Davies announced hisintention to resign as an MP, and wasimmediately replaced as Shadow HomeSecretary. This was in order to force a by-election in his seat, for which he intended toseek re-election by mounting a specificcampaign designed to provoke wider publicdebate about the erosion of civil liberties in theUK.As a backbencher he has continued tocampaign for civil liberties. His principledstand probably damaged his career in politicsbut he believed in the issues too much to standby.

At Pate’s, David Davies talked about theerosion of civil liberties in the light of the rise ofanti-terror legislation. He also challenged Pate’sstudents that their privileged education hereimplied that they needed to make a differencein their communities or professional life latereven if, as in his case, standing up for theirvalues harmed their own career prospects.

During my time at Cheltenham GrammarSchool I was awarded one third of the

Upper Sixth Physics prize (a dictionary!) forbeing the first boy at the school to get over 80%in all three physics papers and in the practicalexam (tough in those days!). I also managed tosqueeze into King’s College at Cambridge. I leftCambridge for Liverpool in 1960 to do a PhDin nuclear physics. In 1964 I gained my PhD,was appointed to a lectureship and became theleader of one of the two largest research groupsin nuclear physics. In 1966/7 I had a year’sleave-of-absence at the Chalk RiverLaboratories of the Atomic Energy of CanadaLtd. I learnt all about the new high resolutiongamma-ray technologies they had developed.I was very privileged indeed at Liverpool tosupervise 25 PhDs, six of whom are nowprofessors, six are leading research scientists

and the rest are scattered about industry.Together we had great successes. In 1983 and1986 we made major discoveries of a veryelongated form of nuclear matter –“superdeformed” nuclei. These discoveries andtheir follow-ups made a major new test of thequantum theories of nuclei. They haveestablished nuclear spectroscopy as a leadingscience and the technologies and resultingphysics are a major part of most of the newdevelopments currently proposed in oursubject.I moved on to become the Director of the“National Accelerator Centre” outside CapeTown in July 1995. I managed to save thelaboratory from closure in 2001 and changedits name to iThemba Laboratory for AcceleratorBased Sciences (iThemba LABS) in 2002 and Iretired in 2005.

Since then I have been lecturing on quantummechanics and nuclear physics to a GraduateSchool (MSc) that I set up with the two“Historically Black Universities” of WesternCape and Zululand. I am now back intoresearch and I am currently supervising threePhD and several MSc postgraduates.

Professor John Sharpey-Schafer - Cheltenham Grammar School 1949-1957

John (right) with a ‘Jolly Miller’ in Tibet.

David Davies MP with the Head Master and old boy,Mark Coote, prospective Parliamentary Candidates forCheltenham

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Alumni

Dream RealisedFootball fan and Pate’s old boy Jon Palmer haslanded the football followers dream job. Forthe last three years Jon has been the chieffootball writer for the Gloucestershire Echo, ineffect the voice of the Robins.After a journalism degree at SouthamptonUniversity, Jon did some freelance workbefore taking over from the legendary DerekGoddard at the “Echo”. During his time there,he witnessed Cheltenham Town secure onepromotion and one relegation and has takencoverage of their exploits to new levels in hispaper.A goalkeeper in his football days at Pate’s, Jonhas also found time to write two books aboutthe club’s history, “Cheltenham Town FC, 50Greats” and Cheltenham Town FC – ClassicMatches”. Jon is now highly respected by theplayers and backroom staff at the Robins.Football is not just his job, it is his passion.

A new teachers’first impressionsIwas asked to write a short paragraph about

my first thoughts of Pate’s. A question myfriends, family and past pupils have beenasking me a lot over the last few months is“how’s the new school?” After some thought Ialways reply “different”. This is as succinct as Ican be about such a change as I’ve experiencedin coming to teach here. In almost every way itcan be, Pate’s is the polar opposite of my lastschool. In some ways that’s a good thing and inothers, a bad thing (mostly it’s a good thing!)I was considering my task shortly after theshort Remembrance Day service onWednesday the 11th of November. The eventitself was a sort of microcosmic encapsulationof many of the features that make it special toteach here. The service involved no adultsexcept for one teacher to ring the bell on thehour from within the school. Students arrivedquickly and quietly and arranged themselvesin the quad with the minimum of direction. Atalented young man sounded the Last Postbeautifully in front of all his peers asrepresentatives of the CCF stood by with flagand wreath. The school stood in contemplativesilence and after the end of the two minutes,remained in silence without further instruction

until the wreath had been laid. Moments later,a simple nod from the Head was all that wasrequired to send the students quietly back tocontinue with their lessons, many of whomstopped to thank and congratulate the youngman who had played for them.When I sat down I considered the fact that innot a single one of the schools I have known inmy time could any of that have happened.The Pate’s experience for me has been in alarge part dominated by the maturity andprofessionalism of most of its students, theirability to manage themselves, their talents andtheir willingness to share them with the schoolcommunity, and their emotional intelligence.This one event brought all these facets of theschool together. It was a beautiful experience.

Mr Declan Flemming

No sooner had the girls come off court, than thesquads were back on the coach and travellingacross town to play hockey against Wynberg Girls’School. Pate’s started promisingly, going into anearly lead and maintaining this to a half-timescore of 1-0. However, Wynberg used the secondhalf as a practice opportunity for their ownupcoming tour to Malaysia and put their Senior XIagainst the young Pate’s team. The girls did wellwith the final score being a credible 2-1 toWynberg.

To celebrate the end of a memorable first day inSouth Africa, the squads enjoyed some culturalevening entertainment at Moyo’s, where theysampled South African cuisine and wereintroduced to African dancing.

“Memorable,Humbling and

Emotional”

The Pate’s Grammar School U16 developmentsquads returned from South Africa in August

after undergoing some challenging, highlyemotional and culturally life-changingexperiences.

The twenty-four-strong tour began their 16 daycampaign in Cape Town, in what was reminiscentof a typical British winter’s day: rain, wind andfloods! The newspapers were full of reports of theworse rainfall in 50 years. This promptedmemories amongst the accompanying staff of the2007 Australia tour, when the news on the otherside of the world was the unprecedented UKsummer flooding, particularly in Gloucestershire.

To help get over the long flight, the first day saw ashort visit to a cheetah sanctuary but this wasfollowed by the first netball match against theWestern Provincial Team – Pate’s experienced anearly defeat in this fixture but, after dusting off thecobwebs, the team showed promise for the rest ofthe forthcoming matches.

Over the next few days, the Pate’s tourinterspersed tourist visits with matches. Thesquad bounced back during their secondfixture with an emphatic victory againstBergvliet High School, both at netball and onthe hockey field.

Tourist trips included taking a Peninsular Tourdown to the Cape of Good Hope, the mostpoignant, moving and thought-provokingbeing a visit to the prison known as RobbenIsland. Here, a former prisoner escorted thegroup on a tour of the facility where politicalprisoners were held during apartheid, the mostfamous captive being Nelson Mandela, whowas held captive for 27 years, some 19 of thesebeing on Robben Island. Mr Mandela was ananti-apartheid activist and became thecountry’s president in 1994 in the first fullyrepresentative election following theabolishment of apartheid,

Then came the most emotional and humblingfixtures of the tour, the Township Tour, playingagainst Langa Netball and Belhar HockeyClubs. Belhar Hockey Club was formed onlyfour years ago, with the sole incentive ofkeeping young male and female children offthe streets and free from the risk of drugs. Theyturned up in the back of a local church “mealson wheels” van as they had been unable toafford the taxi fares to the fixture. The girls,aged between 12 and 16, showed tremendouscommitment and courage, and a determinationto try their best. Even though they were losing2-0 quite early on in the fixture, they kept theirheads high.

After the fixture had ended, the Pate’s squadpresented the club with kit, sticks andequipment that we had taken out with us fromthe school collection before the tour. Theirreaction was extremely touching, as their coachburst into tears. One of the Pate’s girls, MaddieLeitch, understanding and responding to theirpleasure and their plight, then responded bytaking the astro boots off her own feet andadding these to the gifts.

"Robben Island was intense, enhanced by thefact that our tour guide had been a prisonerthere" Jess Stamp

The first match was in Pietermaritzburg,another transfer required, and that is when theoutbreak began! We were struck by a severesickness bug that ended with over two thirdsof the squad being affected and culminating ina temporary doctor’s surgery being set up inthe base. The match against Voortrekker HighSchool became a friendly fixture, as we couldonly field 9 out of the 24 strong squad, withPate’s being victorious in the hockey.

Finishing off the tour back in Durban wearrived with, by then, 24 fit and healthy girls,ready for our last remaining fixture againstNorthland’s High School. Pate’s had twoconvincing wins on the netball courts beforetransferring to the astro turf for what provedto be a hard fought hockey match. Wanting toend the tour with a clean sweep, Pate’s foughtall the way to the bitter end scoring the matchwinner with just three minutes of the gameremaining.

The tour ended up withthree wins for hockey andtwo wins for netball fromthe four contestedfixtures each team had.At the end of tour meal,Charlotte Armer wasgiven the “Best Tourist”Award, with Holly Hillbeing awarded “BestHockey Tourist” andEmma Gabbott beingawarded “Best NetballTourist”.

The girls have returnedwith some unforgettablememories andexperiences that will livewith them forever. Theyhave returned focusedtowards their sport,resulting in a term which has seen the mostsuccessful results the school has had for manyyears in the county rounds of the National

Schools Tournaments forhockey and netball.

We then headed off to the suburb ofLanga, completely different from any

other suburb that we had visited on the tour.Walking into the village sports hall, we wereinundated by lots of children within minutesof our arrival. They were seeking theopportunity to gain attention and bephotographed by the girls.

We were victorious in these fixtures,though I think that the girls alllearned some much more valuable

lessons. At the end ofthe matches we went to“Big Mamma’s House”for some more Africancuisine.

A flight to Durbanmarked the beginningof the second stage ofthe tour. Commencingwith a visit to Hluhluweon safari, hoping to seethe “Big Five” – buffalo,rhino, elephant, leopard

and lion - as well as see thehippopos at St. Lucia. What amemorable experience –enhanced by the aptly named“Hawk Eye” of Mrs Dandy,who could spot any animalwithin a one kilometre radius.

Girls Sports Tour to South Africa 2009

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"The view from Table Mountain wasfantastic and unforge-able" Katrina Amos

“Playing against the South African Teamswas a really good experience”

Kat Coleby

"The safari was fantastic,and the whole trip was anamazing experience"

Holly Hill

Sport

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Carson and Morrisstand a school cricketrecordSchool sporting records are difficult to assess but

it is believed that the 1st wicket stand of 158this summer by Callum Carson and Mark Morrisis a record for any wicket in Pate’s history. Carson(108) hit 10 sixes and Morris (50) made their markin a County Cup victory against Wydean for theU14 team. This is Carson’s second century forPate’s, after a 112 not out against Sir Thomas Rich’sU13 team last year.

Stefan leads U15cricketers to repeatfinal victory.Inspired by an excellent all round display from

“Man of the Match” Stefan Franklin, the U15cricket team repeated their 2008 triumph by beatingCounty Champions Cotswold School in the districtfinal in July.Pate’s reached 134 for 9 in 30 overs. Franklin topscored with a blistering 45 and a valuable 50 runstand between Xander Seddon (31 not out) and JoeSharp (19) helped set a useful target.Cotswold were always in trouble, as tight bowlingby skipper Callum Carson, Matt Williams and athree wicket haul from Franklin reduced Cotswoldto 15 for 5, 38 for 7 and an eventual 87 all out.

John Berry

Pate’s rugby player Max Rooley wasgiven the sporting trip of a lifetime

when he became the winner of an HSBCDaily Telegraph competition in May. Alunchtime phone call from mum Claireconfirmed that Max was to be the BritishLions’ official mascot for the first test inDurban in June.Max’s best memory is being on the pitch inDurban before the start, taking it all in. “Icouldn’t believe the noise in the stadium, itwas totally awesome. Even a narrow 26, 21defeat at the hands of the Springboks couldnot dampen the memory of a fabulous trip”.

Goalkicker Joe inexcellent form!Year 8 rugby centre and goal kicker Joe Gare has

hit excellent form for the school’s U13 team.Up to the middle of November he hit 25conversions, three penalties and scored six tries fora total of 89 points so far. Joe practises his kickingat lunchtime at school and also at his club, ConeyHill RFC. At present, his record is an amazing 90%.

Girls’ netballAsquad of 11 girls from Year 10 and 11

represented the school at the countyround.This meant the team qualified for the finalsas winners of their group and met FarmorsSchool in the semi-final.They won the match, meaning that the teamhad qualified for the regional finals! All theteam played some brilliant netballthroughout the afternoon.In a tense final against Cheltenham Ladies’College the match was drawn at full time.After two minutes of extra time, the scorewas 8-7 to Cheltenham Ladies’ College!At the U14 County Tournament, the squad

nearly matched this success. Losing onlyone match out of seven in their sectionmeant the team qualified for the semi-final.A win here would have meant qualificationfor regionals but they narrowly lost out to astrong Dean Close team.At the U18 Tournament, Pate’s went throughto the semi-finals as second in the group.Pate’s had to play an extremely talentedHartpury side, who went on to win the finalagainst Chosen Hill in convincing style.Overall this was the best performance fromPate’s teams in recent years; in every CountyTournament Pate’s played in the finals, andqualified for the Regional Round in the U16age group.

Rugby continuesto flourish at Pate’sPate’s teams have produced some

expansive and winning rugby whileplaying with outstanding team spirit. Thefixture list has become more challenging thisseason with Cheltenham College, Bishop’sHereford and Cokethorpe all additions tocomplete a strong set of fixtures.The U13s and U14s have fielded both A andB teams and beaten some strong rugbyschools, winning over 85% of their fixtures.The U15s still have an unbeaten run goingback to December 2008 but unfortunatelywent out of the National Daily Mail Cup ontries scored, after drawing 18-18 with rivalsChosen Hill.With 60 senior players, the 3 teams havetrained hard and improved both theirperformance and understanding of how towin games. The 2nd XV, in particular, havehad an outstanding season. The 1st XV havehad a good run in the Daily Mail Cup. Thesenior squad is busy fund-raising for theirJuly 2010 tour to Argentina.

Will sets personal best inEnglish schools 800 metrefinalYear 10 student Will Paulson set a personal best800 metres time (2.03.28) in the Junior Boys’ final atthe English Schools’ Championships in July.

The Team

Max coming out on the pitch with Paul O’Connell

Callum and Stefan with District Cup

Dream trip for Lions’ Mascot Max!

Gloucester and England rugby wingerLesley “the Volcano” Vainicolo was on

hand recently at Sainsbury’s TewkesburyRoad, Cheltenham to support the school’srugby tour fundraising. Several of the touristswere bag packing to add to the tour funds,when Lesley spent time with them, askingthem about the school and the tour, posing forphotographs and contributing generously tothe tour fund. Pate’s Grammar School rugbythanks Lesley for his generosity and wisheshim and his family well.

Sport

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Fitness SuiteWith the building work for the new fitness

suite complete, fundraising forequipment has begun. Just before the Octoberhalf-term the first of the fundraising eventstook place, in the form of a non-uniform dayand a sponsored run (or walk). Both provedvery successful, with all pupils (and manystaff) getting involved. Despite a drop of rainin the air, the run was very successful withparticipants completing the one kilometre in astyle of their choice. This ranged fromrunning, walking, carrying a friend, walkingon all fours, and many more entertainingfashions. Most importantly, however, lots ofmoney was raised through the generosity ofPate’s associates. A very successful “Auction ofPromises”, evening was held in November.This rare occasion of Pate’s raising money forPate’s permeates from the eagerness to get the

fitness suite up and running as soon a possible.Once this happens, the suite will play anintegral part of the Physical Educationcurriculum, as well as offering fantastictraining facilities for both our keen athletesand those merely wanting to keep fit.

Super Sub Harryhelps Robins topre season victorySixth former Harry Sharp teamed up with

former Premier League footballers BarryHayles and Elvis Hammond duringCheltenham Town’s 2-1 win at Western SuperMare in July. Replacing Justin Richards in the71st minute, striker Harry had one shot savedby the home goalkeeper, while another effortsailed wide. The Pate’s student teamed upwith Robin’s legend Julian Alsop in a 4-4-2formation.Harry’s selection was reward for beingnamed “Man of the Match” in a supporters’team which took on the League Two club inMay. Harry is now playing in the school’s 1strugby XV as back row forward.Harry scored two tries in Pate’s 33-7 victoryin the Daily Mail Cup first round win atNewent in September.

Girls’ HockeyIt has been a good start to the hockey season

for the girls, with all teams losing only onematch and drawing three to date.The U18, U16 and U14 hockey teams haveplayed in the National Schools Tournamentsthis term.The U18 team played four matches, winningtwo, drawing one match and losing to DeanClose, which made the team runners-up in thesection. We then played a cross-over matchagainst the winners of the other sectionCheltenham College, unfortunately losing 0-2in a hard, fast-paced game. They were eventualwinners, beating Dean Close 1-0 in the final. Agreat achievement nontheless for the girls toreach the semi-finals.The U16 team played seven matches allcounting towards qualification in a round robinleague. The team played some exciting hockeyand allowed only three goals through during

the day, winning three, drawing three andlosing one match to Cheltenham College, theoverall winners. The girls were a verysuccessful third.The U14 team played four matches in theirsection winning three and losing only the firstmatch to Cheltenham College 0-2. We thenplayed a cross over semi-final against thewinners of the other section Dean Close, whohad won all their matches convincingly. Thematch was very close and the girls played somelovely flowing hockey, beating them 2-1 to takethem into the final. We had a long and hardmatch against Cheltenham Ladies’ College,unable to put our chances away in normal time.The girls had to play extra time, again finding ithard to realise our chances against a wellorganised defence. They finally put the ball inthe back of the net, winning 1-0. They are theU14 County National School Champions andqualified to play in the regional round inNovember.

Girls’ TennisThe Pate’s U13 Aegeon Team Tennis team

of Mary Hartley, Rhiana Hande, GemmaFord and Millie Stone repeated last year’ssuccess in winning the county round of theNational Schools Competition and travelledto Bristol to play in the regional round.Here, unfortunately, they had to play TalbotHeath School in the quarter final – the teamthey lost to in the final last year. This is aschool with a tennis centre of excellenceattached, so it was always going to be verydifficult to beat them!The team is pictured in the new team tennisschool hoodies.They now look forward to another successfulsummer season.

The “Volcano” backsPate’s ArgentinaRugby Tour

Girls’ RoundersDuring the U12 District Tournament matcheswere played against Bournside, Cotswold,Balcarras and St. Edward’s. Pate’s won all theirmatches apart from a draw to St Edwards 5½-5½. This led to a joint win in the league with St.Edward’s sharing the trophy as DistrictChampions.The U13 District Tournament was held atBalcarras School. In Pate’s section matches wereplayed against Chosen Hill, Christ College andWinchcombe.The squad won all their games in the sectiongoing into a three-way final with St. Edward’sand Bournside. The U13s played beautifullywinning the games 13-4 and 13½ -3 respectivelyto be crowned District Champions.The U14 District Tournament was held atPittville School and Pate’s played againstPittville, Bournside, Winchcombe and Cotswoldin their section. They won all their matchesapart from a close defeat to Cotswold 4-6. Thisenabled them to qualify in second place andplay Cheltenham Ladies’ College in the semi-final. Pate’s won this tight fought match 5-3,which meant they again met Cotswold in thefinal. This time, Pate’s were victorious, winningthe game by 8 rounders over 20 good balls andbecoming District Champions.

For A Midsummer Night’s Dream,O’Sullivan Productions wove an exotic

garland with which to enchant its audience.The greenwood was entwined withHollywood and more than a hint of vaudevilleto create a captivatingshow. Dance, Jazzand the classicaltheatre was sprinkledwith some glitteringcomic performancesto render us under itsspell.Gemma Wheeler(Helena), GeorgeOrman (Lysander),Becky Masding(Hermia) and OscarMiller (Demetrius)were the earnest andbemused lovers reduced to mere play thingsby the fairies. Their conflicts and confusionswere acted with aplomb by this tightlyrehearsed quartet. Excellent physical comedyand witty delivery marked out the ensemble,whose romantic twists and turns formed astrong strand in the production leading us totheir eventual nuptials.The greenwood juxtaposed that of 20thcentury America but in both the path of truelove proved equally topsy-turvy. The lovers’woes were initiated by the lively and

mischievous Puck(Zach Mobley)whoseintercessions onbehalf of thecommandingOberon (WillValori) weredextrouslyperformed.Oberon’s proudTitania (Georgiedu Mello Kenyon)

remained stately and aloof until falling underthe unlikely spell of the affable Bottom(Patrick Reid).The mechanicals were another highlight.Borrowing inventively from some greatHollywood prototypes, they provided theadded pleasure of spotting the inspiration foreach. Luke Rollason (Quince / Groucho Marx)took charge of his band of players with verve,a cigar and that walk. Luke Skears (Snug /Chico Marx) was an Italian American with anexcellent sideline in lion impersonations. Thebarking delivery of Jamie Park (Robin /Harpo Marx) was a good joke for thosewith (or without) a familiarity with therole model. Sam Lawrence (Snout /Irish American) brought dignity to hiswall whilst Daisy Follett (Flute / and ahint of Jackie Coogan) played both backyard tom-boy and star-crossed loverwith sparkle. Transformed intoPyramus and Thisbe she and Bottomrounded off the lovers’ weddingcelebrations with a masterly serving ofham and slap-stick. Theseus (MikeStephenson) and his Hippolyta (Rosie

Sargeant) ruled the court like Hollywoodglitterati. However, we were not convincedthat they had persuaded Egeus (DuncanMitchell), a crusty old southern general, ofthe merits of Hermia’s match. Philostrate

(Fred Derbyshire)remained throughout thecourt’s dry andunflappable butler.Titania’s fairies (MiaNashe, Jamie Horseman,Jaina Patel, Susie Bagnall,Lucy Smith, MaisyAinsworth, Alice Gwynn& Amy Jackson) and herpage (Paurakh Paudyal)brought grace and

elegance to the proceedings with dance andexquisite acapella.The chorus (toomany to mentionbut you weregreat) danced theirlegs off andflapped with thebest of them, whilethe jazz band(Tomoya Forster,Jack Riley, EmilyAlsworth, NedFalconer & WillWeir), directedfrom the piano byJonathanMcNaught,accompaniedShona Pratt’s feistyvocals; openingmost appropriatelywith Cole Porter’s

‘Let’s Do It’ – which everyone obviously did.The Pate’s audience is in danger of becomingcomplacent. Every November the productionvalues of the previous year seem to be topped.Time, enthusiasm and unsung effort producedsuch a show. Mike Williams & Clive Yatesconstructed a large slice of woodland on thestage which cleverly incorporated a slide forthe delight of the fairies (dance co-ordinatorLizzie Fortin). Debbie Reid’s choreographicexpertise was plain to see as were the effortsof the whole production team on Jack Andrewand Rebecca Etherington’s well managedstage.No Pate’s show happens without the ‘techies’(Dan Bishop, Finlay Shakespeare, Josh Price,Tom Roles, James Melvin, Tom Hayward).

Their cool when the lighting board failed fiveminutes before curtain was considerable. RoryLucas (lighting) had it stripped down andfixed before we noticed; fantastic. As were thecostumes, sets and make-up (Felicia Britton,Lotti Wilkinson, Hannah Robson, FrankiePatterson & Savannah De Villez).However, we save last applause for Rory andJackie O’Sullivan who bring together theschool’s considerable talents and make it allhappen.

Nigel Gardner

Drama

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“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William ShakespeareDirected by Rory O’Sullivan.