On Saturday 27th November Windlesham hosted the London College of Music’s Music Theatre exams. Young people from around West Sussex came to take their exams adjudicated by London College of Music examiner Gerald Collins. Mr Collins told exam organisers, Fiammetta Ryan and Matthew Bright that he had had a ‘thoroughly enjoyable morning’. Windlesham pupils Rebecca Nielsen, Eliza Windus, Bea Corkhill and Jemima Spurr took the exam and performed songs from the shows. We look forward to receiving their results!

This year our Christmas Shoe Box Appeal is for the Trussell Trust, a small charity based in Salisbury who work with children and adults in Bulgaria especially the very poor Roma communities who are often overlooked.

Just over 100 boxes were collected throughout the school and these will make a wonderful difference to the lives of these very poor people this Christmas.

An enormous thank you to everyone who contributed to our appeal.

Ashley Butlin/Head of  Science

On a chilly morning in November, Nigel Parkin, the Head of English from Haileybury School, visited us to perform ‘A Christmas Carol’. He asked for no lighting, wore no costume, used no props and needed no stage. I was rather nervous to say the least as I had no recommendation accompanying this performer, only an email from the school offering his services. But to say I was pleasantly surprised would be a complete understatement. He was simply brilliant!

The whole school assembled in the Malden Family Theatre and he proceeded to introduce himself and give a brief background to Dickens and this most famous Christmas story. He then seemed to transform from a respectable looking English professor to Ebeneezer Scrooge himself and the tale began to unfold. He wove his magic amongst the audience transporting us into Dickensian London and we all escaped the present day for an hour becoming totally engrossed in this other world. Interestingly, many of the children were able to describe the ghosts to me afterwards and their language and detailed descriptions were simply astonishing.

It was a magical performance from a very talented actor and storyteller and the children, whether they were aged seven or thirteen, benefitted in so many ways. It showed them the magical effects of raw storytelling, the power of their imaginations and the brilliance of Charles Dickens’ writing. We all left the theatre feeling very much in the spirit of Christmas and inspired to ensure that this Christmas should be about the important things in life – family, giving to others and love.

Lucy Beedell / Head of English

On Tuesday 2nd November we went to Anne off Cleves house. We all went inside, some people called Alison and Joanna told us all the rules. Our class were fist to do the drama and acting. We did a play about Tudor life. I was Catherine Parr in the play and I had to ask someone if they wanted to marry me! It was quite embarrassing but then I got over it. I really liked it when I got to drop dead on the floor! I thought that Oliver’s costume was really cool. After that we went to the cooking workshop and Alison told us all about the different things in the kitchen, like a spit that was used to roast meat. You had to keep on spinning the metal pole. When Alison had finished, we started to make some herb bags and I used rosemary and lavender in my herb bag. Then we used something called a pestle and mortar. A pestle and mortar is this something that you use for crushing herbs. We had to write a letter because Anne of Cleves was having a party and we had to write an invitation. After lunch we went to the gift shop, I bought some Tudor money and a key ring. Then we all went to the park. I found a really big leaf! We also made flowers out of leaves and they were really colourful.Then most of the girls played hide-and-seek. After that I was covered in mud! Then we went back to the mini bus and drove all the way back to School.

By Valentina.

Congratulations to Claudia Kelley for coming 3rd in the Sussex County Fencing Championships which took place on Sunday 21st November 2010!

Talented trumpeter Theo Golden has performed the Last Post at two Remembrance Services this year. The first at 11.00 a.m. on Thursday 11^th November in Windlesham’s All Saints Chapel and the second at the church of St Mary Magdalene in Rusper. Theo is pictured at the ceremony at Rusper’s war memorial with his grandfather, Lewis Golden OBE, who served with the 1st Airborne Division during the Second World War and saw action in North Africa, Sicily, North Italy and most notably at the Battle of Arnhem where he was adjutant of signals.  His grandfather who took the salute this year at the church parade in Caythorpe, Lincolnshire on behalf of the veterans of airborne signals, said that Theo’s performance was note perfect and that he was very proud of Theo for taking part in the service at Rusper.

Our team of Ones had an amazing and unforgettable trip to India.  It was an extraordinary ten day adventure in the south-east region of Andhra Pradesh which involved working at St Joseph’s School for a week with visits to see life-transforming community initiatives linked to UK charity, CRED Foundation. Inspirational leader Paul Sanderson MBE led this CRED team which was a made up of three groups representing Windlesham, Littlehampton Academy and St John’s Ambulance.

The team provided an activity week for 600 children at St Joseph’s packed with academic lessons and fun-filled activities such as sports, art, textiles, drama and music. The parachute from LW and the Kwik Cricket set donated by our Games Department was particularly popular, especially when they hit our bowlers for 4! One highlight was seeing our Ones take part in a Stop The Traffik Freedom Run, running hand in hand with the Indian and British flags side by side. This is part of a global initiative supported by the United Nations as people trafficking is now the world’s fastest growing crime and there are 15 million trafficked children in India alone. Our team ran with hundreds of pupils some of whom were previously street children begging at railway stations where they were vulnerable to being trafficked in the days before they were rescued and given a free place at St Joseph’s School.

Mr Justin Blake who led the team from Windlesham along with Mrs Sarah Clancy reflected enthusiastically on the trip, “From eating curry every meal without any fuss, to working and playing tirelessly every day with hundreds of children in high temperatures, our pupils were tremendous ambassadors for Windlesham. It has been a real privilege for us to play a part in making a difference to the lives of so many special children from disadvantaged backgrounds and I imagine this life-changing experience will live with our Ones forever. Mrs Clancy and I are very proud of the whole team.”

We would like to thank everyone who has donated in support of St Joseph’s which is the only school to provide bursaries and free education to poor families for miles around. Windlesham have so far raised an amazing £4000 for St Joseph’s new building programme, £2250 which came from fundraising in World Awareness Week. Well done for playing your part in this superb total! Highlighting the positive impact of the trip on her personally, Laila Petra, reflected, “From now on, whenever anyone mentions India I will forever think of this amazing trip. If other children in our school have the opportunity to go to India as part of a CRED trip in the future I would encourage them to sign up as soon as they can!”

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Oh Happy Day!

The annual Windlesham Inter-House Song Competition was held on Friday 5^th November 2010.  The fact that this was the night Guy Fawkes planned to raise the roof was not lost on the children.  With the Houses ranked in their colours and costumes like a rainbow across the MF Theatre, the MC (Anthony Hutchings) was hard pressed to guide the communal frenzy through to its climax, but that he did.

Bader, resplendent in shades of purple, sang a very rhythmical version of ‘The Clapping Song’ – even splitting into parts between their clapping and hand-jives.  It is always a tricky thing breaking the ice at eisteddfods like these, but they mixed mauve with moves and got all the feet tapping in the auditorium.  Drake was a little more sedate as they paid tribute to the King with their offering of ‘Suspicious Minds’ – although they did launch forward in several well-timed moments of tortured passion (despite the cool composure of their young ‘con-duck-tor’).  Scott House, in some excellent and well-choreographed leaps and arm-sways, brought the 70s back to life with a very Sweet rendition of ‘Ballroom Blitz’.  Raleigh House wrote their own song about their rhinoceros mascot and put Windlesham into the melody in more ways than one.  Their blue-striped hats were very eye-catching and almost eclipsed their little Russian go-go dancer!    Grenfell turned their backs on the audience – but only for effect.  When Jolly crooned, “You’re just too good to be true…” over his shoulder and the Grenfell girls perched on their chairs to chorus behind him, everyone knew the cabaret had begun!  The House which won over the Houseparents this year, though, was Hunt.  Even the Fonz would have approved of the number of thumbs-up gestures in the rock ‘n roll revival of ‘Happy Days’ which reflected the up-beat mood of the evening.   All six Houses combined to sing Happy Birthday to Ollie Milne-Skillman (each in their own key, of course), and, all too quickly, the rainbow dissolved for another year.