YEAR 7 NEWSLETTER SPRING TERM 2007

Netball
The following girls played in the Year 7 Tournament in January against all the island schools: Nicola Harris, Megan de Garis, Anouska Falla, Chloe Austin, Jessica Savident, Jodie Taylor, Emily Kendal, Lauren and Becky O’Hanlon.
Les Beaucamps were the overall winners, with a most promising team and although our team did not win, they all played well and Mrs Breban was very pleased with their match play. WELL DONE, GIRLS!
Under 12 Island Netball
Lauren and Becky O’Hanlon were both selected to play for Guernsey in the Inter-Insular in Guernsey this year. Great achievement!

Boys’ Hockey Tournament
We entered 2 teams in this competition. The B team - Chris Wray, Ciarán Gentle, Sam Van de Velde, Sam O’Connor, Matthew Coleman, Joe Cunningham, Harry Andrews & Charlie Tostevin - played well in the group section but our A team came first in this competition beating Elizabeth College in the final. This was an outstanding achievement considering our relative inexperience of the game. Well done to…..Jamie Salmon, Sam Green, Adam Russell, Gareth Davies, Michael Haimes, Michael Ferbrache and David Campbell, who were on the winning side.
Great stuff, lads!

RUGBY RESULTS
We beat La Mare de Carteret 49-0, St Sampson’s 35-5 and both the A team and the B team won against Les Beaucamps 50-5 and 55-5 respectively.
League champions! Nice one, boys!
House rugby
1st Hill
2nd Fulford
3rd Stewart
4th Roughton

Luke Chart, Tom Ogier, Alex Conlan and Dominick Ehmann have represented school in the Schools’ Badminton League and have played well in a league with players predominantly from Year 10 – this bodes well for the future, boys!
Tom and Dominick were runners-up in the final of the doubles’ competitions and received a medal for their efforts.

David Campbell came 15th in the under-13s Hampshire Cross-Country Championships which helped the Guernsey team to win gold. This was a fabulous achievement especially given that David has another year in this age group!

All the girls participate in their House fixtures and here are the results for this year.
Hockey . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Netball
1st Stewart . . . . . . . . . . .1st Stewart
2nd Fulford . . . . . . . . . . .2nd Fulford
3rd Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3rd Roughton
4th Roughton . . . . . . . . . 4th Hill

Several of our students took part in the Music and/or the Speech & Drama section of the Eisteddfod:-
Naomi Burton played the keyboard; Luke Chart played the ‘cello; Natalie Le Page, Kasey Watson, Jake Hatcher-Delbridge all took part in the Speech & Drama section; Alex Wilson won the electric guitar class; Clara Coleman won the Under-12 solo with her singing and also sang in a choir; Megan de Garis won a trophy in the Arts and Crafts section for her lace; Darryl Martel won classes with his poetry recitation, his musical character study and the musical trio section with his two brothers.
In addition to all these commendable individual performances, the Junior Choir won their section with their rendition of ‘A Whole New World’ and ‘Fat Sam’s Grand Slam’. The training orchestra came second in its class – they played ‘Match maker’ and ‘Country Gardens’.
It is great to see so many students giving of their time, not only for the competitions themselves, but with all the training and rehearsals as well.

School Spring Concert
This is always an enjoyable evening and it was lovely to see so many Year 7s taking part in the Junior Choir and the training orchestra.
Choir members: Naomi Burton, Megan de Garis, Heather Ewert, Jake Hatcher-Delbridge, Lucy Riley, Jordan Solway, Ciara Smith and Claire Turner.
Training orchestra: Clara Coleman, Hannah Rickards, Joanna Ravenscroft, Jess Savident, Chris Wray, Alex Conlan, Luke Chart, Jordan Solway, Jack Merrien, Darryl Martel, Emily Gill, Alex Wilson, Clarice Parrott, Lauren Hunt, Megan de Garis, Nicola Harris, Naomi Burton, Sam Van de Velde, Daniel Tostevin, Hannah Brehaut, Roanne Sanchez-Watts, Laura Butler, Oliver Thompson, Dan Robinson, Heather Ewert, Joe Shillito.
What a wealth of talent we have –keep up the good work, folks!

Commendations and more commendations!
The students have been working really hard and have been rewarded with credits and commendations. Our first Gold Award (for 9 commendations) was awarded at the beginning of this term to Gareth Davies and others have since joined him in reaching this accolade. Keep up all this fantastic work and effort!

The tutor group with the most commendations in a term are crowned our winners and last term it was 7.1 who were awarded the shield. Wonder which group will win it this term? Answer to be announced soon….

Dance Festival
This took place in January and many Year 7 girls took part for their dance schools. The standard as ever was extremely high and the girls are to be congratulated on their performances and the dedication shown before such a huge event. Natalie Le Page won an individual award – well done

Science Week
Year 7s were invited to take part in a ‘Gecko Trail’ (a scientific treasure hunt) one lunchtime during Science Week and this proved to be a lot of fun. Michael Griffith-Dixon and Jack Merrien won and were presented with their prizes in assembly.

During their Maths lessons recently, the Year 7s took part in a Mathematics Trail. This involved moving around the school and solving mathematical problems – the students thought it was great to break out of the classroom, lots of fun was had and lots of calculations were done too!

The Maths department also held a school Mathematics Team Challenge for students in years 7, 8 & 9. The winning Year 7 team consisted of Kasey Watson, Callum Williams, Martin Prigent and Nathan Hazzan who were all awarded certificates.

Inter-house gymnastics competition
The following students took part for their houses: Lindy Holland, Joanna Ravenscroft, Lauren Hunt, Ellie Le Page, Chloe Austin, Lauren O’Hanlon, Jessica Savident, Daisy Doardo, Hannah Rickards, Elizabeth Pill, Alicia Munro, Joe Shillito, Paul Gardner, Luke Davies, Kasey Watson & Daniel MacDonald. They took part in events such as pairwork, groupwork, rhythmic floorwork, box & trampet and vaulting,
Joe Shillito was named the ‘Best Boy Gymnast’, Paul Gardner was the ‘Most Improved Boy Gymnast’ and Lindy Holland won ‘Most Improved Girl Gymnast’. Well done!
It was fantastic to see so many getting involved especially the boys – this was the first time in 11 years of the competition that boys have entered – Mrs Davies and Mrs Breban were thrilled with them and hope this will encourage others - thanks, boys!
The overall house winner was Stewart!

Our peer mentors took an assembly towards the end of last term and they launched a competition for the Year 7s, in which the students had to match photographs of the peer mentors taken when they were in Year 7 to their names. The photos were delightful- there’s something special about your first photo at secondary school! The winner of this competition was Megan de Garis, who received a box of chocolates for her efforts.

The peer mentors also ran a Dodgeball competition one Friday lunchtime, which was extremely popular and filled the gym with noisy, excited Year 7s. A week later, they ran a quiz for the students too. We are grateful for their organisation and their enthusiasm. Mrs Gaudion is yet to get even with the Year 7 student who, in the Guess-the-Age-of-the-Teacher round, put her down as 67! – perhaps this job is getting to me!!

Platinum awards have now been reached – yes, Heather Ewert was the first to achieve this fantastic award – the result of 12 commendations! She has since been joined by a couple of other students – Kasey Watson and Gareth Davies.
Well done and thank you all for your great work and contribution to school life.

Tutor group assemblies
Tutor groups are paired, where possible, to plan and perform an assembly in front of the whole school, which can be quite a daunting experience for Year 7 students, with an audience of over 1,000 people! However, we have had 2 assemblies from Year 7 so far: 7.1 & 7.4’s theme was “global warning and how we can help save the planet” and 7.2 & 7.5 did an assembly about “confidence”, in which Charlotte Le Marquand took the lead role with great conviction. Needless to say, both assemblies were brilliant! They were well researched and beautifully presented and we now look forward to 7.3’s assembly which takes place during this last week of term.

As ever, we are grateful to all the members of staff who give so freely of their time so that the students can do so many different activities.

An extremely busy term! May you all have a happy and restful holiday. Happy Easter!