Orchard are Senior House Cricket champions 2013!

Orchard House overcame a very strong Welsh team to become Senior House cricket winners for this year.  Welsh batted first and put on a solid 67 runs in their 12 overs.  Orchard's Toby Stevens was the star bowler, taking four wickets for only seven runs.  He was well supported by the rest of the bowling attack; Johnny Graham (who also took a wicket), Harry Wallace, Ruaridh Scott and Reiss Simpson.  Orchard's team were missing a few key senior players so some of the Year 9 were drafted in to provide backup and all performed admirably in the field.

Orchard the took the field to bat with Stevens and Wallace opening.  A controversial caught behind decision saw Stevens leave the field early and Orchard were on the back foot but a near 40 run partnership between Simpson and Scott (including a six from both players and an unbeaten 31 from Simpson) meant that Orchard quickly reached the required total and when Scott was eventually caught, Charles Marsden came in to help pick up the last few runs and confirm Orchard as the champions.  A fantastic effort from the entire team.  Well done boys!

Here is a photo of the winning team moments after their victory was confirmed.

(l-r) Callum James, Johnny Graham, Ruaridh Scott, Reiss Simpson, Harry Wallace, Toby Stevens, Charles Marsden, Angus Munro, Harry Emmanuel, Oliver Walker 

More House rowing success!

More congratulations to members of the Boat Club who picked up awards on Thursday at the Annual Boat Club Dinner. Junior Half Colours were awarded to Seb Newman, Cosmo Hearnden and Jack Leigh; with Harry Rushent picking up Senior Half Colours. Tom Waldron picked up a 3^rd VIII Long Service Award whilst Senior Full Colours were awarded to all members of the 1^st VIII boat, amongst them, Orchard boys, Daniel Barrett, Ehren Elcock, Max Hearnden and James Girling: with Daniel Barrett and Max Hearnden picking up hard-earned Blazer Badges. Fantastic effort, guys!

ICT access from September 2013

Letter from the Headmaster:

Dear Parents,

Over the past few years, our ICT network has undergone rapid change in almost every area as we move towards implementing our strategy of fully integrating ICT into the classroom. We have invested heavily in ensuring that our network, especially the wireless network, is as fast as it can be and capable of supporting the many hundreds of devices that are brought into the College every day.

Many of our pupils already bring laptops or tablets in to school and we now feel that the infrastructure is in place to recommend that every pupil at Shiplake has some form of mobile device to bring to lessons.

Having a laptop or tablet is not an absolute requirement in order to attend the College, but we feel that the benefits are very clear. More and more prep. is being set online, many of our teachers are using ICT interactively in the classroom or distributing resources electronically. Pupils are using their devices to work collaboratively, to produce work using video and audio or to access our online library. ICT no longer takes place once a week in a room full of desktop computers, but should be fully integrated into teaching and learning at Shiplake. We feel that goal can be achieved most effectively by recommending that all pupils have a mobile device from September 2013.

In order to give parents the widest possible choice, we have deliberately designed our network so that virtually any type of device can be used. Mobile phones, Windows laptops, Apple Macbooks, iPads and Android tablets are all currently being used on site.  Mr Balderson has put together a guide for parents considering buying a device. He can be contacted on sbalderson@shiplake.org.uk if you have any further questions.

Gregg Davies
Headmaster

With further guidance from the Head of ICT:

As far as the College is concerned, our only requirement is that it can connect to our wireless network (which all modern devices can) and that it has a web browser, in order to give parents and pupils the widest choice possible. A basic laptop would be entirely sufficient, but our current pupils have a wide variety of devices, including iPads, MacBooks, Windows laptops, Android tablets and many others. The only real constraints are personal preference and budget!

If you are considering buying an iPad, we would strongly recommend using an external keyboard as well, in order to be able to complete longer, written preps more easily.

Simon Balderson
Head of ICT

Shiplake College Scholar's Concert

The picture below is of the four Orchard boys who performed so magnificently at the Scholars’ Concert on Thursday evening!

(l-r)

Charles Marsden

William Simpson

Fred Ellis

Gregory Holt

Shiplake College Regatta

Click on the poster to expand to full size.

Matthew Hoggard visits Shiplake College

Matthew Hoggard MBE, a member of the Ashes winning England team in 2005, visited Shiplake on the 6th June to deliver some training sessions to a range of school cricketers, including a number of boys from Orchard.  The photo below is of the 15A team and pictured alongside Matthew are Orchard boys Ollie May, James Dinsdale, Ed Farrar, Alex Bradley, Ed Warren, Ben Arnold and Greg Holt, as well as Mr Kersey and Mr Seccombe.

Orchard House Concert - The Extended Cut!

Please see the extended highlights of the house concert in the video above which contains more performances and information on the performers involved.  Enjoy!

More rowing success...

At the beginning of half term a large contingent of rowers from the school and in particular from Orchard House went up to the National Schools Regatta. Despite a disappointing Friday when all competition was abandoned leaving our J14 crews without a race, the weekend produced several finalists for the College and two medal performances from Orchard’s Max Hearnden and James Girling in the 1^st VIII and Coxed Fours boats – a fantastic achievement.

Orchard appointments

Following the appointments of Charlie Hancock and Ruaridh Scott as school prefects for the next academic year, more of Orchard's senior members have been awarded positions of responsibility.  Congratulations go to Alex Collis who has been made a lower school prefect and Oscar Burgess, who will be taking on the role of chapel warden.  We wish each of these boys good luck in their respective roles and we are confident they will do the house proud!

Orchard House concert 2013

Sorry for the delay in getting this up.  Here is the first cut of the Orchard House concert highlights.  A fuller version  will be going up over the next week or so.