Once again we are holding the annual SA Bike ride around the beautiful Peak District over 2 courses one of 50k and another of 100k.

Entries are open to teams of 4/5 and this year, for the first time, individual entries as well.

If you would like to take part in the ride as part of a team but are not sure who to ask please contact Siobhan Watts on Siobhan@firstascent.co.uk and we will put you in contact with other riders looking to form a team.

There will be a standard entry fee for all of £25 per team member and individuals, but all SA parents will be expected to raise an additional £100 in sponsorship for the event.

Should non-parents wish to raise sponsorship towards the event that would also be fantastic but not expected.

We will be setting up an event link with Just Giving to allow easy sign up and donation.

We would ask as many parents as possible to get involved with this event and choose which course you wish to ride and gather a team to do the event with you.

If as a Parent of the school you do not feel able to take part in the ride we would greatly appreciate it if you would look to support the event by sponsoring one of the riders or teams with as much as you can afford, for there sterling efforts to cover these distances and raise much needed funds for the schools future capital projects, which your children will benefit from.

Please help where you can and be there to cheer the riders home in the early afternoon…..we hope!

Entry forms and gift aid sponsorship forms are available on the school web site www.sanselms.co.uk under latest news.

Please download an entry form and return on line or by post to the address on the entry form by 19/5/2013, as numbers are limited.

Each and every rider should complete an entry form.

S. Anselm’s Foundation Bike Ride Team.

SA_Bike_ride.docx

SA_Bike_ride_gift_aid_Official_Sponsor_Form.docx

SA_Sportive_9th_June_2013_entry_form_2.doc

Another busy week at S. Anselm’s School, capped off by a wonderful weekend. The evenings have seen our Common Entrance examinees working hard and really beginning to build up some good momentum with their exams now just around the corner. For everyone else, we have been able to get outside to play tennis, manhunt and of course the new craze, top court tootle.
We have had some new faces in the boarding house this week and it’s great to see so many younger pupils come and enjoy their stay.
This Sunday was action packed. We had boarders waking early to go to play tennis tournaments, cricket festivals, county hockey tournaments, sailing. It’s great to see that our boarders are really making the most of all the opportunities available.
For the rest of us, the plan was to go and take part in a “Fun” run at Chatsworth House. Mr Wood joined Mr Carr, Mrs Whawell and Co. in a school team at 9.30am taking part in the 10km race whilst the rest of us had a nice leisurely breakfast and headed up to see them come crossing the line before our own run at 11.30am.
Mr wood finished in the top 10 in an incredible time of around 39 minutes.
The children had all dressed up, some of the boys had managed to borrow skorts from the girls, there were some onsies, an Elvis costume, lots of pyjamas. Some of our Slieve Mor girls had attempted to tie themselves together to do a 5 legged walk but had to settle for attaching themselves together on their wrists for safety reasons.
I managed to persuade Mr Wood to do the 3km run as well by suggesting we run it all backwards, he couldn’t resist the challenge and we regretted our decision within the first few hundred metres but managed to get all of the way running backwards.
After the run, all of the children were queuing up for a free massage, but were devastated when they were told it was for 16+ only.
We headed back to school for a bbq in the sunshine on the bottom field. The year 8s organised themselves into a huge game of rounders. We played some parachute games, some cricket, some American Football. It was an amazing atmosphere but we couldn’t let one whole day go by without the year 8s working, so they had to go off inside for an hour, which to their great credit, they all went and did incredibly well. The tempter of a trip to Bakewell if they worked hard was clearly enough persuasion.
Our Church service last night was led by Mr Weller and the year 8s. It was superb, our year 8s really are now very confident public speakers.
The day was capped off brilliantly with a fantastic roast dinner and the evening’s entertainment on this occasion was provided by Iona, Violet, Grace and Sophie who sang beautifully.
One week to half term, I never quite understand where the time goes.
Mr Bonner 
 

Despite the chilly weather, Year 1 came well prepared with coats and waterproofs at the ready and thoroughly enjoyed their outing to Yorkshire Sculpture Park on Friday. The outing supported work they’ve been completing related to Henry Moore and Andy Goldsworthy. They were delighted by the monumental size of many of the sculptures, the different materials used to create them as well as the breath-taking setting. The children sketched whole sculptures and also created more detailed drawings of parts of sculptures. A lively but enjoyable day was had by all. They will be using these sketches and the experience to create their own Henry Moore type sculptures in school. LS

Travelling from various parts of the country, the team met on Friday night at a hotel near Gatwick airport. Preparation began with a high carb supper, followed by intense hydration and a discussion of tactics. Early nights were grabbed by all the competitors as it was going to be a 7am start for the boys from Bakewell.

Breakfast was a quiet affair as they focused on the challenge that faced them. Travelling to the venue the squad seemed in good spirits and confidence was running through the team following the warm up.

The race itself went by in a flash but the boys swam their hearts out. They missed out on the title by a fraction of a second but their second place finish was a fantastic achievement, especially considering that 6 of the 8 will be back next year to compete and surely take the crown!

Well done to Sam W, Louis S, George W, Arthur L, Adam S, Thomas G, Shea J and Russell F!

A huge thank you must also go to Mr Phillips for taking the squad down to Crawley, to Mrs Brailich for all her hard work with the boys' swimming in PE lessons and to Di Lee for all the training she has done with them in lessons and swim squad sessions.

Thank you also to all the parents who transported, supervised, organised, encouraged and supported the boys over the two days. Chester to Crawley via Bakewell and the Globe in London, quite a journey!

A team of thirty-nine boys and girls from years 6, 7 and 8 were selected to represent our school at the Worksop Preparatory Schools Athletics Meeting on Tuesday. All of the pupils have been training hard and competition for a place in the team was tough, as we were only able to enter one athlete in each event. The teams had a fantastic afternoon, with all of our boys and girls competing to the best of their abilities and dominating in a variety of events. Overall we had NINETEEN GOLD MEDALS and EIGHT SILVER MEDALS and won three of the six team competitions, FANTASTIC! Our athletes also smashed eleven of the meeting records and equalled one of them.

The team results are below:

Year 8 Girls – 2nd place overall ; Year 8 Boys – 1st place overall

Year 7 Girls – 3rd place overall ; Year 7 Boys - 1st place overall

Year 6 Girls – 1st place overall ; Year 6 Boys – 4th place overall

Several of our athletes achieved personal bests and the majority achieved seasonal bests in their events. Our performances in the Discus were outstanding with four of our six competitors in this event securing 1st places. We also had great success in the Javelin; still a relatively new event for our school; with us securing three 1sts and one 2nd. Our sprinters also had a good day, with six individual gold medals; and an additional gold for the awesome year 7 and 8 boy’ relay team in a faultless race, that saw them in second place for the majority of the race, before pipping Witham on the line and smashing the meeting record by three seconds! The girls’ relay team also ran well, with Elfie CE running a blistering second leg, but went on to finish 2nd overall. Top performances of the afternoon saw Juan L winning both of his individual events and then taking a 3rd gold with his stunning performances in the relay, whilst Mwela M took gold in his individual event and the relay. A special mention for our youngest team members; George L and Francesca Rh, who ran in the Year 6 100m races, a year young; both will be back next year I am sure.

All of our gold medallists are listed below: (* denotes new Worksop Meeting Record!)    

Year 6 Girls: Tara O’R - Long Jump, 3.49m; Sophie C – Discus, 14.20m*; Holly D – High Jump, 1.20m*=.
Year 7 Girls: Emily Ho – Discus, 16.43m*.                                                                                                        Year 8 Girls: Elfie CE – 200m, 31.96sec; Clare T - Javelin, 23.72m;  – 200m; Imo C – Shot Putt, 7.28m.*
Year 6 Boys: Sam W – 200m, 31.9 sec*.
Year 7 Boys: Mwela M – 100m, 13.68 sec*; James L – 200m, 31.67 sec; Ludo L – Javelin, 29.77m*; Henry L – Discus, 22.13m*; Angus E – High Jump, 1.45m.
Year 8 Boys: Juan L – 100m, 13.11 sec and Long Jump, 4.90m*; Ali C – 300m, 50.58 sec*; Monty H – Javelin – 26.88m; Jacob Bradbury – Discus, 22.40m*.                                                                                                       

Year 7 and 8 Boys 4 x 100m Open Relay: 1st place overall, 56.72 sec*, George M, Mwela M, Lewis S and Juan L.

Thank you to all of the parents who came to support, Anne Taylor for assisting us with transport and the athletes themselves for giving us so much to cheer about! My thanks also go to the S. Anselm’s games staff, who have assisted me with the timekeeping and measuring in the PE and games sessions; with particular thanks to Mr Tadman for his help with the year 8 javelin and discus coaching and our Hallam student Miss Moore for her coaching, enthusiasm and fantastic assistance with processing the class results. The next meeting is the Regional IAPS Athletics Meeting in Leeds on Tuesday 18th June, which promises to be a hugely exciting event and will give our athletes another opportunity to showcase their talents. Good luck for the rest of the season everybody!

Mrs B

It was on, then it was off, then on, then off then back on! On Friday 3rd May the U13A Dreamteam made it a hat-trick, playing in their third IAPS National Netball Finals at Wellington College. What different weather from the Regional rounds, where it was difficult to see from one end of the court to the other, due to the thick, gloopy fog! There was bright sunshine from the offset and the temperatures topped 25 degrees.

Despite us now being in the summer term and curently training hard for athletics matches and rounders fixtures, the girls were only too glad to fit in a bit of extra break time netball prior to the tournament and I cannot fault their enthusiasm, energy and dedication. Having had the pleasure of coaching them for three years they have been a joy to work with, always taking on board tips and strategies to improve their game and working their socks off. On Friday they faced the best IAPS Netball teams from the whole of the UK (the best of the rest) , and certainly held their own - narrowly missing out on a place in the quarter finals by a mere one point, to finish ninth overall - one better place than last year. The majority of the teams there on Friday and also many of those knocked out in the previous regional rounds have far more girls to pick from than us and as various people have told me from other schools, these girls certainly have punched above their weight from under 11 age to present. As your coach I am immensely proud of each of you girls and all you have achieved. S. Anselm's have now had one, sometimes two teams in the IAPS National Netball Finals every year for the past eight years - an amazing achievement!

The results:

V Hawthorns, Won 6 - 5

V Daneshill, Lost 4 - 7

V Clayesmore, Won 6 - 3

V Feltonfleet, Lost 5 - 9

V Port Regis, Drew 7 - 7

V Greshams, Lost 5 - 11

The top 8 (four from each group) progressed through to the quarter finals, with us missing out by one point!

A huge thank you to the S. Anselm's staff who assisted me with making the arrangements for the girls' trip to the Nationals; Mrs Elvin for accompanying us to the finals; all of the parents for their fantastic support throughout the season and last Friday; and finally to the Dreamteam themselves - teams such as you do not come along that often, it has been quite a journey, thank you for so many happy and fun memories, I will treasure them!!

The Dreamteam are: Georgia R (Captain)  - GD, Imo C - GK, Amelia W - WD, Poppy S - C, Elfie CE - WA, Clare T - GA, Emily Hin - GS, Lulu J - WA / WD.

Mrs B - Manager / Coach.

On Thursday 4th May the Year 4 children spent the morning at Grove Farm the home of the Bonsall family. We were blessed with lovely weather and the morning was very interesting and informative. It was an excellent introduction to the geography topic on farming. We looked at the type of farming due to the high location and the undulating landscape.
The children learnt a great deal about daily life on a dairy farm. One fact that surprised the children was that calves are born with a full set of razor sharp bottom teeth. The morning ended with the children bottle feeding some new born lambs. In the classroom the children wrote thank you letters to Mr Bonsall and had a lively discussion on different types of farming. 

Never have things gone so smoothly when packing the buses to leave for one of these trips. So smoothly in fact that we managed to leave 15 minutes earlier than planned. We had a fantastic journey up to Ardrossan which meant we were able to get the earlier ferry over to Arran. The crossing was pretty windy and many of the kids loved being outside where the ‘splashy waves’ were according to Lulu J.

We arrived at the very picturesque Lochranza Youth Hostel early which gave us an opportunity to unpack and then prepare for the evening meal. The children took charge of much of the week which included doing the cooking and very nice it was too. It was as we woke up the next morning that things became somewhat more complicated. Having driven past Goat Fell, we noticed that the snow level was down to around 400m leaving the mountain still in very much Winter conditions. Unfortunately this meant we could not attempt the mountain. Instead we did some archery in the morning – some more successfully than others! We followed this in the afternoon with some mountain biking where everybody did brilliantly, even the now aptly name Fallinson – he knows who he is. That evening we had a fantastic meal at the Lochranza Hotel where the children were impeccably behaved.

We were due to sail back to the mainland on the Tuesday morning but the wind had really picked up and we had reservations as to whether the ferry would be sailing. On arrival at the port we were told that it had been cancelled. We found a place called the Auchrannie resort which let us use their huge sports hall and swimming pool for a couple of hours. A quick swim for some many daft games later we went back to the ferry port to find that the next ferry was to be running. As we arrived back in Ardrossan we went straight to ASDA as we had to stock up on food and drink that would last us for the next few days. The previous evening, the children has been split into their groups and were asked to decide what they would like to eat and drink for each meal. They then had to produce a shopping list for all of the essentials. On top of this we asked them to work out a budget. There were some interesting figures – one group thought it would cost £45 to feed 7 people for 4 days and another though it would cost £250. A very interesting task and if the first group were correct then they are welcome to do my shopping for me!

We arrived at Largs Marina where we met our Skippers; Peter Henderson on Moonrise, Ian Barbour on Skua, Deirdre Ward on Boarding Pass 1 and Sally Gregory on Bluebird. We stowed away all of our gear, stocked the cupboards and fridges with food and drink and settled down for a nice evening meal aboard each of the boats. By this time the wind was really picking up and thoughts turned to the following day – would we be able to get out of the marina safely? Well, in a few short hours we had our answer. The winds were pushing force 9, boardering storm force. There was no way we could get out of the harbour. The morning was spent on the boats learning about charts, knots and the workings of the boats. In the afternoon we went to Braehead where they have an amazing high wires course within a shopping centre. I must give a special mention to Ami W. who despite a genuine fear flung herself off a very high platform attached to a wire – a very brave effort.
We spent the evening on the boats and were hopeful of calmer conditions the next day. We woke to whistling through the masts which meant strong winds again. We spent the morning going for a short walk and, as we noticed that the winds were subsiding we quickly got back to the marina where, at last, we were able to motor out. The first couple of hours were amazing – still fairly strong winds, big waves and four stunning boats were a great way to start the sailing. Each person had a go at helming the boats, putting up the sails and navigating. That evening we spent in Holy Loch Marina and awoke to the most glorious of days. Dark clouds and rough seas had given way to crystal clear skies and still waters. This did mean much of the day was spent motoring but fun was had by all as wars were waged between boats with water pistols and water bombs. An hour or so of swimming in the sea and paddling some dinghies and it was time to return to Largs. Despite the weather, a truly spectacular couple of days where the children were fabulous company. To quote Peter Henderson, one of the skippers; ‘Had a great few days out with the kids from S. Anselm's prep school. The kids should be proud of themselves as they were a credit to their parents and teachers showing respect to their elders and great manners. Makes me still have faith in the young generation.’

On our return journey we stopped at Patterdale and stayed at the Youth Hostel there and in the morning had a few hours of retail therapy in Ambleside. Overall, another hugely successful trip where the children were as well behaved as we have come to expect. I would also like to thank all of the staff who helped on the trip – Mrs Hunter, Mr Bonner and of course Mr Wood who made the journey up there at the very last minute. 
 

It is overseen by one of our teaching assistants, Mrs Serena Taylor, who provides toys and games for the children to use. If the weather is kind, the group sometimes moves to the nursery garden where there is then an opportunity to mix with some of the nursery children and staff.

It seems a very long time ago that we were building snowmen on the last day of the Easter term. What an amazing first week back we’ve had. I have to say that the children have all settled back into school so well this term. The weather has most certainly played its part. The children (I include Mr Wood and Mr Bagley in that) have spent every evening out on the grounds playing Manhunt. For those that don’t know, it’s basically tag, but a lot more tiring.
Our year 8s have been working very hard. They have all been working for an extra half an hour after supper to help prepare for the exams which will undoubtedly come around all too quickly. It has been incredible and speaks volume for the children here that there have been very few murmurs or complaints at being locked up for longer when everyone else is outside in the late evening sunshine.
As a reward for their hard work and because we had no time for Bakewell on Sunday, Mr Phillips and I took all of the year 8s down to Bakewell after supper on Saturday evening. The Co-op didn’t know what had hit it. It is amazing how many sweets one can buy for a pound!
Both School House and Slieve Mor have seen dorm changes, which seem to have been very well received, there seems to be a great buzz about the school at the moment and especially in the evenings.
This weekend, we took all of the boarders to an outward bound centre to work on our teamwork skills. I have attached a few photographs, so you can get a feel for the activities. We split the children into five groups keeping them within their year group. The centre put on a range of activities, including climbing, Jacob’s ladder, leap of faith, mine field and a couple of tricky low ropes courses.
As is always the way, everyone really threw themselves into it with arms being raised into the air in each group to volunteer to go first at this or to try and get another go at that. The woods were full of screams and shrieks as crate towers came tumbling down and people attempted to overcome their fear of heights. The team leaders were full of praise for them all.
As is customary now, the Sunday supper was a fitting way to end the weekend. If you are able to make it to a Sunday service, we openly invite you to join us for a wonderful and entertaining roast. This Sunday, Elfie and Poppy entertained us all with an a capella rendition of what they term a “mash up” of songs. It was superb!
After supper, it was of course letter writing, followed by a game of hide and seek for all down the school corridor. I have to say, trying to hide in a limited space with 60 children isn’t the easiest of tasks.
It really has been an incredible first week back. All of the children are on very good form. We have quite a number of new boarders and it’s great to see all of our experts rallying around to make them feel at home. We really are very lucky and very proud of them all.

Mark Bonner

The finals are in Crawley on Saturday 11th May. Good luck to all involved and fingers crossed for this final race!

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, 6 members of the Chapel Choir travelled to Stowe School in Buckinghamshire for their Prep Schools' Choral Day.  We stayed overnight in the Best Western at Buckingham and had a full day of rehearsals before Choral Evensong in the chapel.  The pupils were a credit to the school and seemed to have a great time.

Congratulations go to some of our pupils for passing instrumental exams recently:

Frankie R ABRSM grade 1 guitar 119/150
Cameron H Rockschool grade 1 drumkit 71%
Matthew W Rockschool grade 1 drumkit 75%

Well done to you all!

We have a busy time ahead with the Buxton Music Festival (May 3rd) and Evensong at York Minster (May 13th) the first big events.  

First we all looked around the exhibition of Lowry paintings, noticing how the artist’s style developed over the years. After lunch we split into two groups for our workshops. These were based around a theme of Pop Art. All the children learnt how to improve their drawing techniques. One group produced interesting portraits of Mrs Pryor, done either with the wrong hand or without looking at the paper whilst drawing, then worked in teams to create a Pop Art painting, featuring a character and stencilled lettering The other group worked on portraits and individual pictures.

Year 5 have had great fun investigating flooding this term in Geography lessons.

We started the year by locating the world’s major rivers and mountain chains and from this start we have thought about why some rivers and more likely to flood and how the risk of flooding could be reduced.

Our investigation took us to Bakewell, where we observed the flood plain and also looked at how the River Wye has been used to power Arkwright’s early textile factories. The children produced a detailed photo montage back at school, labelling features on the river, both human and natural.

Finally the children have explored the form of rivers and how the landscape changed downstream by making clay models in Art. There really was super work and a few samples are shown here!

As is always the case, a very busy week at S. Anselm’s. The boarders have really taken to the common room, at one stage on Monday night, we had 20 people playing table tennis at the same time. Although the quality isn’t great (yet) the atmosphere is amazing with everyone (boys and girls) getting involved and laughing at everyone else.
Tuesday was a special night, the showpiece of Boarder’s got talent led by Miss Flack. There were lots of great acts (and one dodgy sketch by Wood et al. doing the 4 Yorkshire men) including Tikara and Emily singing and dancing to each other, Victoria and Lucia dancing and doing gymnastics all around the floor, Jess and Imo dancing which soon got all everyone else up to join them, David and George S performing the compulsory trained dog act although the dog wasn’t so well behaved this time, Jonah Greetham being brave enough to get up on his own and play the drums. It was superb, no need for winners, they were all winners and those who didn’t get involved were left ruing their decision.
Friday night saw the year 7 boys out for their sleep out in Sheffield. This is a whole review in itself, so let’s just say, it was great fun until it rained and it wasn’t so much fun.
This Sunday we were able to send lots of different groups of children out to lots of different places. 9 of our boarders went off early to Oundle for the rugby 7s. Unfortunately, after a drive through torrid conditions, they returned having only played one game because the pitches were flooded and there was snow, hail, sleet, to sum it up, the weather was quite bad.
Mrs Taylor took the remaining year 7 boys, the year 7 girls and our junior boarders off to Millers Dale for a long walk. As always, they came back absolutely buzzing, all with different stories to tell

It was a delight for me to take eleven boarders for a long walk on Sunday. With a combination of Years 4, 5, 6 and 7 we hoped there would be something for everyone. A brisk walk up the hill behind Cressbrook Mill gave us a wonderful view of Miller’s Dale and ample opportunity to play hide and seek. The children, armed with their own sandwiches made after breakfast, pestered us for lunch from about 11.30 but we managed to hold out for an hour longer after which they were full of energy, the young boys covering probably three times the distance of everyone else! We finished the afternoon with a Bradwell’s ice-cream at Monsal Head and returned to school, some more caked in mud than others, in time for church.

SRT

Mr Salt, Mrs Elvin and Mrs Price took a group of year 8 girls plus David Wright on a walk from the school. The staff involved praised the children, and they all had a super time. Highlights being falls from David and Gabby. Unfortunately, we don’t have any photographic evidence of the falls or indeed the outing.
Mr Speed, Mr Gerard-Pearse and Mrs Watts kindly took a group of us out mountain biking. Mr Speed had organised a 20 mile loop under the instruction, let’s make it hard work and fun. Boy, did he deliver. We aimed to be back around 3pm, we returned at 4.45pm very, very muddy. What a day though, up hill stretches for the quad burn, technical tracks through woods, huge puddles and Mr Carr waiting for us at Miniglow car park for a much needed picnic.
Church was fantastic, three of the best hymns we sing at school all in one service, Rev. Tony’s sermon was brilliant as always. Tony always uses props which really get our children engaged in the story, this evening he passed round 8 jars which were all covered but all containing different smells. Poor Iona seemed obsessed by the smell of the lavender but every time she sniffed, she would gag but always go back for more.
Supper, as always was a great way to top off a brilliant day with all of the boarders enjoying the fresh air and countryside and mark the start of the last week of a fantastic term.
Hope you all have a cracking Easter.
Mr Bonner

Mr Wood and I were lucky enough to take out our year 7 boarders on Friday night to sleep outside next to Sheffield Cathedral (which as many of you will know is right in the heart of Sheffield city centre) to help raise money for The Archer Project.
The idea of the trip didn’t phase many of them, only Mwela had any real concerns. However, as the day of trip arrived, more of them started to realise the enormity of the task given the weather wasn’t expected to be on our side.
We arrived in high spirits and we took the boys to McDonalds which was just across the road. By this stage the boys had seen where we were going to be spending the night and the excitement and nervous anticipation was electric.
We returned to the project and were given a talk about the work the project does followed by a tour around the facilities available to those who need it. It was clear that our boys were listening intently and taking in all of what Tracy and Tim were saying, I think maybe them offering large bars of chocolate possibly helped.
We set up camp around 8.30pm before Gavin (one of the projects’ clients) gave us each soup and a roll. Gavin was a great help, he had sourced lots of cardboard for us all and assisted us in preparing our beds for the night.
At this stage, all of the boys just thought we were out camping, the reality hadn’t really set in. I took a group of four for a tour of what a big city is like at night. We saw some of the typical scenes you would expect and promptly headed back to the group.
Mr Wood and I really couldn’t have asked for a better group to be there with (although it was a great shame that Barnaby was too ill to join us). We had an awful lot of fun, we played a few games of sleeping lions with a few weird and wonderful forfeits, some of the boys sung songs for us all and of course as is customary when out of school, the boys decided that as soon as Mr Wood and I were in bed they would raid us.
Around midnight, we decided that enough was enough and it was definitely bedtime, although it was still very light and very noisy. Then of course, the rains came. At first the drizzle was refreshing but it didn’t take long before it became a nuisance.
Within an hour or so, we found ourselves lying in pools of water, soaking wet sleeping bags, soaking wet clothes and five of the boys had to go inside to get dry. They then had to spend the rest of night sleeping on chairs in the project.
The rest of us stayed outside and battled on, an hour or two later around 3.30pm Henry had to go, unfortunately putting a roll mat over the top hadn’t made his sleeping bag much more water proof than before.
Five o’clock eventually came around and it was deemed a sensible enough time to get up. Mr Wood had refused to roll over all night because his left side (the side he had been sleeping on) was soaked but his right side had been dry. During the night as the other guests had decided to call it a night and retreat inside they had deposited their umbrellas and drier pieces of card on him but even an umbrella doesn’t help too much when you are sleeping in a pool of water.
Credit and praise really has to go to all of our boys who did more than give it a go. Extra special praise must be given to Ludo, Angus and Max who stuck out the whole night with us. Amazing determination and they even claim to have got some sleep.
In the morning, we all had bacon and egg sandwiches and then headed over to the fountains for a wash before getting back to school. We all got welcomed back to the dining hall with a cheer and then the boys were off for a lovely warm shower and two hours of sleep.
A great effort by our boys. We have raised over £1,500 so far (and the website is still open) which will go a long way to helping Tracy and Tim and all of their volunteers run the project.

Congratulations to our U13A Netball team on qualifying for the third consecutive year for the IAPS National Netball Finals next weekend at Roedean School, Brighton. This is the ninth consecutive year that we have had a team qualify for the Netball Nationals and this team are only the second ever to qualify at U11, U12 and now U13 level - a fantastic achievement! The tournament saw the best teams from our huge region battling it out to claim one of the three places at the National Finals, with teams competing from Scotland, Cumbria, South Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, West Midlands and Leicestershire. With a tough tournament draw, the girls kept their heads and worked their socks off to ensure they kept a clean sheet throughout all of the initial round games and semi final, winning all of these games convincingly. With their place booked for the Nationals they then played two finals. All of the results are shown below. 

The U13A squad are: Georgia R - Captain; Imo C - Vice; Emily H; Clare T; Elfie CE; Poppy S; Lulu J; Amelia W.

Thanks to all of the parents and Mr Phillips for supporting the girls throughout the day and all of the staff who gave up their exeat to accompany the team. Well played Dreamteam - your coach is very proud of you all!!!!!

“Champions aren’t made in gyms.

Champions are made from something they have deep inside them –

a desire, a dream, a vision.” Muhammad Ali.

Initial Rounds:

v Cargilfield, won 5 - 2

v Bromsgrove, won 6 - 2

v Winterfold House, won 5 - 2

v Westbourne, won 10 - 0

v Witham, won 7 - 2

U13A were winners of their group.

Semi-Final: v Bilton Grange, won 6 - 2

Final  1: v Spratton Hall, lost 3 - 7

Final 2: v Sedbergh, drew 5 - 5

U13A qualify for IAPS Nationals, Brighton for third consecutive year!

Wednesday – This will be another busy day, with our U9A and U8A teams at the Westbourne Netball Festival, 2pm at the Barlborough Hall School, Sheffield; and our U11 girls in action at the Shrewsbury Netball Tournament SY3 8SG, also from 2pm. Our U10 and U12 teams will play Wellow House at 2pm at home; and our U13a, U13b and U13c teams will play Trent College at 2.30pm also at home.

Saturday – We wish our U13A girls the best of luck at the IAPS National Netball Finals, Brighton, commencing at 10am. Meanwhile, our U9A, U9B and U9C teams will be playing away at Foremarke Hall. These matches commence at 10.30am and will involve all of the girls from years 3 and 4. All parents should have received an email detailing all of the arrangements, please reply to Mrs Brailich asap with you travel options, donna.brailich@anselms.co.uk.

Next week - A reminder that the rearranged senior netball matches against Mount St Mary’s will be played on Tuesday 19th March, at home at 3.30pm.

On Wednesday it will be the Mums turn, with them in action at 2.30pm against their Year 8 Daughters, an occasion not to be missed!

For the boys the weather has meant the Under 9 fixtures against St Peter and St Paul's and the U11 S.Anselm's tournament have had to be cancelled. The U9s are in action against Barlborough tomorrow, kick off 2pm at Barlborough, and the U13 sevens squad head to the Terra Nova 7s Tournament, first game at 1pm.

On Friday there is a NEW fixture for the U9 A & B against Birkdale at home, ko 3:45pm and the U11 hockey squad travel to Trent College for their festival, first game 2pm.

On Saturday all the Year 7 & 8 boys travel to Ranby for two hockey fixtures, starting at 2:30pm and there is also another NEW fixture for the U11 A & B against Birkdale at home, ko 2:30pm.

Finally, on Sunday our U13 7s squad travel to Oundle for the IAPS tournament, first game 11:45am.

Good luck to everyone representing the school and please keep an eye out for emails and notices about selection, location changes and cancellations due to the weather.

On the 5th March we set off on our Roman adventure to Chester. First of all we went to the Dewa Museum where we met our guide, Tristan, who took us to a dark, gloomy room on a boat called a Galley. There we were introduced to Grapus, the oarsman, who showed us how to row in time with his drum beat. We rowed all the way to Britannia!
After that we set off for the Baths where we learnt about what the Roman soldiers did after a hard day’s work. Their slave would put oil mixed with lavender on them and then scrape it off. This meant they were clean before they went in to bathe. When in the water they would relax, drink wine, eat glis glis (dormouse covered in honey!) and hold meetings. Then Tristan showed us the sponge on a stick which the Romans used to wipe themselves with!! The room really did pong!
Following on from that we headed to the ‘Hands On’ room where we had the opportunity to try out lots of different things. I made a mosaic, tried to lift a weight that was about half as much as a soldier would have carried, fired a catapult, played a Roman God game and had fun trying on the really heavy armour.
After lunch we met a Roman soldier who taught us all the Latin words for our equipment like scutum which means shield and lorica segmentata which is an upper body protector. We all wore red tunics and carried shields. We practised different battle formations and imagined what we would do if we bumped into a nasty Celt! Next we marched around the town chanting sin, sin, sin, dex, sin. It was lots of fun. My favourite part of the day was experiencing all the different things in the ‘Hands On’ room. I had a great day and found out so many interesting facts about the Romans.
Talulla 

Our Roman adventure started at 9am when we set off on our journey. When we arrived in Chester we first met Tristan at the entrance and he told all the teachers they were going to be slaves! Then we walked into a rather smelly, dark room and went inside a boat. We met Grapus the oarsman and all had to row to the beat of the drum.
Secondly we came to the bathroom. Tristan and I washed John with olive oil and lavender mixed together. We then scraped the oil off with a blunt hook called a strigil. Next we went down the cellar and found a Roman footpath. We learned that under each layer of soil there are different eras – Post Medieval, Medieval, Saxon and finally came Roman. The last part was very ‘hands on’ where we could put on different armour and play with a variety of Roman games.  I tried on all the armour and Miss Flack took a photo of me!
After a quick lunch break, we met a soldier with a very loud voice who marched us to a courtyard and taught us about war weapons and protection. He also asked if we knew the Latin names and we did know most, such as gladius means sword. Next we marched to the Amphitheatre and the soldier told us about what happened there. Finally we marched through the streets chanting sin, sin, sin, dex, sin. I loved the day!

Lily-Niamh 4E

To conclude our topic on ‘People who help us’ Reception were visited by a Paramedic today.
Dave Humpleby kindly managed to borrow a 4x4 off road ambulance which the children had a good look around.
He then talked to us about the important role of a paramedic and the kinds of things they do. He took our temperatures, fixed broken legs with a splint, showed us the oxygen masks, lots of bandages, lotions and potions and even measured our heart rates – proving Mrs C does have a heart after all! Thank you Mr Humpleby for visiting us and answering all our questions.