Strictly Ballroom . . . Orchard Style!

On Friday 20^th September, together with the other Houses, the Orchard Boys stepped out in style.  They were taken to Queen Anne’s Girls School in Reading to participate in Ballroom Dancing Classes.  This is an annual event which ends in a Black Tie Ball and Ballroom Dancing competition against the Oratory school in Woodcote.

Tom Banks kept up with the pace,  despite being surprised by the speed of the Jive.  

James Sloman is a born leader on the dance floor, if ever I saw one.

Ruaridh Sheppard’s snake hips was a sight for sore eyes.

Will Janes what a smooth operator. William Simpson silent but with a deadly swerve, a sight to behold.

And the new additions to the House, Henry Waller and Harry Wiggins glided through it all effortlessly.

Harry Chapples, just so cool, took it all in his stride.

George Lawley's beautifully postured look, almost a pro.
Charles Marsden and Jonnie Graham suave and sophisticated  

And finally, Harrison Balchin and Adib Wain kept bringing it all together.

Poor Matron was just exhausted but a great time was had by all. Well done!

Written by Julie Knight, Orchard House Matron

More Summer Achievements

Cosmo Hearnden, Seb Newman, Ollie Potter (Welsh) Henry Blois Brooke (Skipwith) and Felix Hearnden won a bronze medal at National Championships in Nottingham J14 (coxed quad).  Barry and Mr Fitton gave up massive amounts of their time to coach them and go up to Nottingham to watch them race – great achievement for all boys and coaches.

Stories from the Island...

When the normal school day was over, the year 9 Orchard pupils went down to the boat house with their belongings to stay the night on the island, based about 150 feet down the river. When we had all been ferried across the river, we started to unpack the boat and set up camp in our strategically located camp spot. We were each given 2 tarpaulin sheets to improvise as a tent, as many pegs and string as we needed. After we had set up our rather hopeless attempts at ‘tents’, we returned to the storage tent to wash our hands in the river – and then with hand wipes – and set up portable barbecues. After all the fire from the barbecues had gone we all got one piece of chicken, a sausage, plus, a burger. After the food had all been cooked and eaten, we put the barbecues away and started a fire. When we had the fire going, we roasted marshmallows - burned marshmallows more like – and sat around for a while relaxing and laughing at silly jokes that really weren’t that funny, before stumbling blindly through the dark to our camp sites. It took us all a while to settle down and even longer to get any sleep. Although if we remember correctly, there was a particularly loud and obnoxious swan during the night, so not all of us got our beauty sleep. After a night of restless sleeping – of which a handful of pupils slept perfectly, to the annoyance of the other students – we got up and packed away our tents, pegs and knot-ridden string. We then greeted the other students and shared stories of what happened in the night. We then packed our belongings away and put them on the boat, to which, ferried us back across the river to begin another day at school.

Paragraph by Brett Fullard and Andy Hildred

Pastoral Parents Meeting 21 September

Pastoral Parents Meeting 21 September

Dear Parent/Guardian,

I am writing to invite you to the Year 9 Pastoral Parents Meeting on Saturday 21 September.  Parents will be listening to a talk by Mr Karl Hopwood, a specialist in online safety, which he will be repeating for pupils at 11am.  The itinerary for the morning is as follows:

9am to 9.30am                  Coffee

9.30am to 10.30am          Karl Hopwood talk to parents in the Old Vikings Room (the room off the Great       Hall)

11am to 12                       Karl Hopwood talk to pupils in the Old Vikings Room

Pupils will be free to go home after their sporting commitments as usual.

I do hope that you will be able to come to this important pastoral occasion and would ask that you email Sue Bond, the school secretary, so that we can organise catering and seating; her email is sbond@shiplake.org.uk

With best wishes

Mrs Sarah Krause

The Island awaits....

This week, Orchard Year 9 boys will be heading to the island for their island adventure.  Let's hope the weather is not too inclement for them...

Hopefully there will be some pictures and stories from the evening to publish soon!

2013 Speech Day prizes

As the 2012-2013 academic year drew to a close, Shiplake College announced its traditional list of prize winners.  Orchard house students were recipients of a number of awards and the list can be seen below.

Year 9 Prize          Jack Leigh

Year 10 Prize        Edward Warren

GCSE Prizes         Harry Chapples (French) 

                             George Lawley (History) 

                             Adib Wain (ICT) 

                             George Le Roy (Spanish)

GCSE Results 2012           Max Hearnden

A Level Results 2012         Zahra Govani

Governors’ Prizes              Tom Waldron (Business Studies) 

                                          David Causer (Economics) 

                                          Piers Chen (Media)

Special Awards                  Tom Jones (Asclepian Prize – Visual Arts)

                                          Chloe Reeder (Service to the Community)

                                          Thomas Howe (Trotter Trophy – International Sportsman)