Thursday 17th July

I could not believe it when Mrs Foster (our Head Master’s wife) came up to me in Pevenseyall and told me that my Mother was on her way over to school to take me, and my friend Max Sutton to the world wide premiere of Harry Potter!!  So instead of going to Little Tea and prep I was rushing up to dorm to pull on my Sunday best for the red carpet event in London.

When we arrived at the Red Carpet we immediately saw Emma Watson who was being interviewed by Japanese TV crew – she looked amazing in a long green dress. There were thousands of people along the red carpet behind barriers.   As we walked along the red carpet we saw Helena Bonham Carter, the Wesley twins Fred and George (and got their autographs) Alan Rickman, Luna Love (sp) and we had our photo taken with Malfoy.

Commenting on the event William said:  ”it was an amazing atmosphere – a great experience and we got loads of autographs and photos of the stars.  The film was great – a few “jump moments” and a fantastic end to the series.  Long Live Harry Potter, and definitely go and watch the movie!”

Max added:  ”the red carpet was amazing the first person we saw was Emma Watson…the film was not as scary as the others, there were some really funny parts and the audience clapped – everyone should see this film!”

Pictured:  L to R – William Kelley, Malfoy, Max Sutton

The members of the Ones had a delightful Leavers’ ball with delicious food, energetic dancing and lots of fun.  The marquee looked magical, decorated in  House colours and fairy lights.  The boys were suave and debonair in dinner suits, and the girls, without exception, looked beautiful.  Will, Charlie, James, Laila, Flo and Anthony spoke for their Houses, and their warm and witty speeches were entertaining and heartfelt.  We all agreed that it was a fantastic evening.

The Windlesham Horse show was blessed with glorious sunshine and no members of our teams disappointed.

In the first class we fielded three teams who came third, fifth and sixth. For many of our riders it was their first show.  A special mention needs to be made of George Laing, Matilda Leng and Minna Howorth who rode beautiful clear rounds!

Copthorne narrowly beat Windlesham in class two leaving us in second place. All team members and ponies enjoyed clear rounds in the jump off which is no mean feat! Jemima Taylor was the star rider in class three going clear but the whole team deserves prize for skilled jumping which placed us second.

Thank you so much to the team of Windlesham staff who spent many hours ensuring a fun day out for the children.

Jo Kay

Nail-biting finishes are always great for sporting events and the Inter House Cricket Final between Hunt and Raleigh was up there with the best!

Hunt posted a healthy total of 126 for 4 after a shaky start as Clancy, Hobson, Okokuru and Burnford fell with just 33 on the board. Ralph Outhwaite and Toby Hurry then got into their stride – Toby was dropped on 4 – and shared an unbeaten 93-run partnership, with Ralph scoring 49 and Toby 42.

Hunt had a dream start with Hurry yorking Henry Martin in the first over and then Dongsung Kim bowled an absolute ‘Jaffa’ to Max Hanka who nicked it to ‘keeper Otto Pyper to make it 7 for 2 off two overs! Henry de Klee and Will Line then put on 75 and although were up with the rate, when Ralph bowled Will for 31, the Hunt team really got their tails up. John Vignaux came and went without scoring bringing Colt, Rory Law to the crease. He and Henry added 29 before Henry ran himself out for 51, going for an impossible third run! At 117 for 5 with just two overs to go and 10 needed to win, the next Colt was Charlie Line. Blomfield bowled the penultimate over and gave away 5 runs as Rory and Charlie scampered between the wickets. Joe Burnford was called to bowl the last over and immediately shattered Charlie’s stumps. Miron Kiselev dug out a Yorker and Rory Law flew down the track for a single, leaving Miron a bit non-plussed and even worse – run out! Now another Colt, Tom Law, joined his bother. Joe bowled a no ball and a single was run. With four balls left Raleigh needed three to win. Tom nudged one into the covers for a quick single. The atmosphere on the pitch and on the side-lines with a sizeable and very vocal crowd of supporters was electric. Three balls two to win and there was plenty of animated discussions between the Hunt hierarchy to get the fielders in the right place. Joe bowled and Rory tucked the ball away past the inner ring of fielders to grab two runs and a thrilling victory for Raleigh.

House matches bring out the great and the good, as well as the less experienced and mix them all together. Whatever level of cricket the boys involved in this match play, they will remember the ins and outs of this game for a long time, as it see-sawed with both teams experiencing highs and lows and loving every minute.

Many thanks to all the parents and supporters for making such a great atmosphere and special thanks to Mr Law for umpiring in the midday sun and to Mrs Law for scoring. Phew – I’m off for a beer!

As Chinese Premier, Wen Jia Bao, shook hands with UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, British education could be at the forefront of a new era in Sino British relations.  UK schools are blazing a trail when it comes to learning the world’s most spoken language.  Windlesham House pupils are leading the way, triumphing at the recent national mandarin Chinese competition in London, winning first and second prizes.  The pupils were awarded with a huge cup and also received signed certificates from the UK Association for the Promotion of Chinese Education.

In order to encourage people to learn Mandarin Chinese and have a platform for students to enjoy and perform what they learn, the Association for the Promotion of Chinese Education hosted its annual nationwide Mandarin Reading Competition on Sunday 26 June.   This year, competitors came from schools across the country and all pupils over five years old were welcome.  Sessions were held in Edinburgh, Manchester and London.

Teacher of Mandarin Chinese at Windlesham House School, Lin Li Wu comments:

‘I have been teaching Chinese for many years at Windlesham House School and find that the most effective way to stimulate learning is to offer fun learning, drawing, singing and dancing activities – all in Mandarin Chinese.  We also encourage the students to use the language to speak in public as this enables us to gauge their learning attainment through public feedback.  The best way for them to learn to speak in public is for them to join UK competitions. ‘

Accompanied by Mandarin teachers, Lin Li Wu and Dan Mei Dong, the Windlesham House school team comprised Gabriella and Scarlett Riley, Robbie, Callum and five year old William Owen, Isaac Kilroy and Edward Lillingstone-Price.   All their many months of hard work certainly paid off.   Asked what factors led to the pupils’ success, resident visiting Mandarin teacher, Dan Mei Dong commented:

‘The secret is to ensure that the children enjoy really learning Chinese and we are always looking for ways to make sure that the children love learning it. ’

Miss Dong has spent two terms at Windlesham House School and is a teacher from China’s Han Ban which is affiliated to the Chinese Ministry of Education and aims to promote the study of Mandarin Chinese around the world through its Confucius centres.

Windlesham pupils will have a major role to play in the future as the relations between China and Britain become ever closer.  During meetings with former Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Chinese Premier Wen stressed that enhancing communication and cooperation between the world’s big powers is particularly important in the face of a variety of global challenges.   The opportunities for Sino British education related initiatives are massive as governments on both sides realise the importance of increased education links.   Greater mutual understanding is the key – as great Chinese philosopher Confucius wrote:  ‘Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star.’

James Glasse

What a fantastic day for the first Mummy’s rounder’s match. The visiting team had 8 players to Windlesham’s 14, so we lent them 3 players to make it 11 a side. We played 4, 15 minute innings giving each team 2 opportunities to bat and field. As the match went on so did the standard of play. I won’t name specific people but there was some very good hitting with a number of full rounder’s scored. Equally there was some inspirational fielding and impressive catching which resulted in a very close match with Windlesham winning by ½ a rounder.

Final Score Windlesham 21 ½ rounder’s Dorset House/ Westbourne House 21 rounder’s

The mother’s netball vs. Dorset House will be the next challenge and we start training in September. New Mummy’s always very welcome.