Six Windlesham children were entered for this national competition. They had to prepare a two course meal for two people in just an hour and a half. This year Richard Ockelford, Head Chef, at the Yorkbourne Restaurant, Mill House Hotel, Ashington, and his sous chef Craig Holden kindly gave up their night off to come to Windlesham and judge.

Becx Radford presented the most mouth-watering, fragrant, oriental chunky chicken stir-fry that just burst with the flavour of    peppers and spices, followed by a warm chocolate brownie, garnished with strawberries and raspberries.

Oliver Allman cooked a succulent chicken breast wrapped in salty Parma ham, served on a bed of French beans, drizzled with a creamy fresh basil sauce. Rounding off his meal was a ramekin full of rich chocolate pots layered with just crushed raspberries.

Seb Wood prepared a delicious vine ripened cherry tomato topped crispy Bruschetta starter. His main was a creamy Gruyėre       layered, garlicky Dauphinoise potatoes served with lamb cutlets finished with fresh thyme and peas.

William Heagerty kept a cool head to tackle a demanding lemon chicken with a timbale of fragrant jasmine rice. He           complimented this with a dessert of hot chocolate soufflé, a fine dining classic with a gooey centre, served with vanilla ice cream.

Mhairi McLay delighted the judges with a divine combination of sweet potatoes and grated cheese gratin, succulent lamb cutlets with Madeira and redcurrant jelly sauce, and sautéed mushrooms. This was finished with a dreamy dessert of creamy blackberry mousse.

Laura Tipple skilfully prepared a spinach and ricotta stuffed cannelloni in a tomato and basil sauce, finished with shavings of melted cheese. For her dessert Laura prepared a fabulous soft chocolate mousse, with a touch of brandy.

The whole competition was a fine dining buffet of sheer delight. Laura Tipple, the winner, and runner up William Heagerty go through to the next round in January.

At the end of the evening, all the children left smiling and happy to have achieved this challenge. Good Luck to Laura and William. A huge well done to all our Young Chefs.

If you have not done so already please log on to the parent portal with the codes sent out to you via email.  This will  be the place to get important school information, download documents, read sports reports, timetables, paid activities information and much more; currently on line are the photo albums for Hairspray, Normandy and Fun in the Snow.  Your child’s end of term report will be online from Friday 17th December.

The Chapel and Pevensey were packed for the traditional candlelit carol services held on Thursday 9th and Friday 10th December.  The Chapel Choir, under the expert direction of Mr Hutchings sang a wide range of Christmas music both ancient and modern. The lessons telling the Christmas story were beautifully read by children from the 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s and the Bidding Prayer was read by Mr Foster.

The snow must go on!

In a snow-necessitated-change to the scheduled performances, on Saturday 4th December at 12 noon and 5.30pm, 87 children in the Ones and Twos pulled together as a cast and crew (as if professionals on tour) to give us two         stunning productions of the musical ‘Hairspray.’  The spirit of our young people in these extremely difficult circumstances was delightfully willing and energetic, but also disciplined and considerate. Even ill members of the cast or those already   committed elsewhere at the newly arranged times made it on stage in costume and smiling! Overall, it was the best behaviour during make-up calls and backstage I have known in four years.

Audiences have remarked at how the children    surpassed themselves with the quality of their singing and, in some cases, pretty tricky dance moves and comments have also been made on the depth of the      characterisation from the principals and the continuous acting from many of the chorus members.

The role of Tracey was shared by the sparkling Sabrina Keegan and the lovely Lolly Cross. Tracey’s mother, Edna, was presented masterfully by an incredibly mature Jolyon Reid and the love duet between him and Hamish Griffiths-Lambeth’s loveable Wilbur was a comedy highlight for many. Lucy Sherriff and Rebecca Nielsen characterised      beautifully and precisely as Penny and Amber respectively and Alasdair Tod’s Corny Collins and Henry Martin’s Link Larkin looked as though these actors would be very comfortable in front of real cameras one day. Lovely comic   characters were also created by Matilda Otway as Velma and Katy Jones as Prudy.  Will Line showed off his moves as the cool dude Seaweed and Laila Petra sang with power and charisma as Miss Motormouth.

The production team would once again like to thank all the staff involved in this huge team effort. The children looked and sounded wonderful on an impressive stage with fantastic special effects; thank you to anyone and everyone who played any part large or small and congratulations to all the children!

Otto Pyper had a remarkable chess match for Windlesham against Reigate Grammar on Tuesday 7th December as he secured a winning draw, after 105 minutes, against one of the top U18 chess players in the country.

Otto is outstanding by U12 standards and has a grade of 127. However, his 17 year-old opponent had a grade of 200! Otto’s performance is even more impressive when you take into account that World Grandmasters have grades around 220.

Sadly the match was lost 1½ – 4½, with Jake Olszowski winning very well indeed. But this was an U18 match (national knockout competition) so progress to the next round was always going to be difficult – well tried though!