Ben Tait in 'Cats'

Ben Tait recently took part in Starmaker's production of 'Cats', where he played the part of Coricopat, one of the mystic twins. The production Cats is based on the Old Possum Book of Practical Cats by T S Elliot and tells the story of a variety of Cats who are at the Jellicle Ball celebrating. The musical goes through the various characters and tells us about the secret life of the cats and Ben's character is a twin and they can foresee the future. They can foresee what happens to Old Deuteronomy, the leader of the Jellicle Cats and help in his rescue from the mystery cat Macvity. 

Starmaker provides children with the opportunity to perform in a variety of productions ranging from musicals to Shakespeare and Ben has been lucky enough to have had number of main parts including young Tommy in Tommy and the Artful Dodger in Oliver, all of which he has had enjoyed. The next production is Miss Saigon in March 2014.

Open Morning

The day started off with an outstanding drum performance at the front of the school to welcome families. They entered the sports hall for the Headmaster’s speech. The tour guides then took their guests to the day houses or boarding houses. Once they had looked around the very clean houses (Orchard especially), they got to view the different subject areas. They were greeted by the teachers who told them all about their respective subjects that they teach and, on occasion, they were then greeted by the boys too. In the English department with Mr. Miller, we were writing Greek poems. The visitors who came to the department seemed to be impressed with the pupils. In Maths it was a fun experience, not only for the guests but also for the boys because of the games we challenged them to. As always, Orchard made a strong impression on the visitors.

Written by Ollie Simpson, Will Parton, Marcus Hillman and Andy Hildred.

A busy week....

As always it has been an incredibly busy penultimate week of term! Last week saw the results of the house football. The seniors did really well, winning the competition, beating Skipwith in their final match. The junior A team came 2^nd, closely pipped to the post by Skipwith A – avenging the senior team! Next year they will be aiming for the double. The house enjoyed another successful open morning, with all of our boys involved in some way. Many of the boys gave tours to parents, were involved in departments or were helping to organise the day. Parents were notably impressed by the maturity of all of our boys – I am sure that this did not surprise anyone reading this! Further sporting news; the 15s enjoyed a clean sweep of results against local rivals Pangbourne in rugby. The 15As won 27-0, the 15Bs won 42-7 and the 15Cs won 80-0; well done to all boys involved. On Saturday the year 10s leave for Little Chalford for the Duke of Edinburgh trip, “to drag yourself through grass for two days” according to Adam Fletcher! In fact they are looking forward to walking, camping over and generally enjoying themselves outside for 2 days to celebrate the end of term. Finally, last Thursday the CCF field day years 10 -13 were involved in a multitude of activities such as cycling, shooting, sports activities, camp building, face camouflaging, cooking ration packs and a tug of war!

Compiled and written by Mr Morgan and his tutor group. 

Oli Walker's Canoe Exploits

This past weekend, Oliver Walker was competing on the Thames at the National Hasler final which he qualified for. He and his regular canoe partner Matthew Atkins (Pangbourne College) represented Reading Canoe Club in Division 5 K2  - an 8 mile marathon canoe race with 2  portages. They faced very stiff competition and they were the youngest crew in their class – over the season they have steadily progressed and been promoted twice into a higher division following some good results. The boys enjoyed their race and are even more determined to better their performances with some serious winter training!!