Pippa’s Baking Club
It is fantastic to see our Upper School pupils taking on responsibility for their own enrichment as Pippa Cook leads the way in the baking room. Having already gained her Food Hygiene Certificate, Pippa has organised a programme of baking and is instructing and working alongside her peers to create delicious cakes. Mr Bayne managed to get hold of one and stated that they were the best cakes that had been made in the kitchen. (Watch out Mr Kirby, someone is out for your crown!) The young bakers are intending to use this opportunity to raise funds for their Canada Expedition at the end of the school year.
An Oriental Treat in the Boarding House
This weekend the Chinese boarders were set a challenge. They had to plan and prepare a Chinese meal for eight people. They started the challenge by speaking to their parents and asking for traditional recipes that they could cook here. They then set off to York and their favourite Chinese Supermarket, Chi Yip, to gather all of the ingredients needed. Gabriella, Tim and Lucy then had two hours to prepare their food in the school classroom kitchen. They made a delicious Chinese Hot Pot accompanied by a divine egg fried rice. It was wonderful and very spicy, too spicy for some! We are very much now looking forward to the Nigerian challenge even though Michael Jimmy is not!
GCSE Geography Field trip
On Tuesday 7th October sixteen Thornton pupils who are taking GCSE Geography went out into Swaledale to investigate how Cogden Gill changes as it moves downstream. Conditions were perfect for collecting fieldwork data unlike their first attempt on the Monday which resulted in very soggy pupils returning to school due to monsoon like conditions! Well done Thornton we got there in the end.
PP2 Explore Ripley Castle
Last Tuesday PP2 went to Ripley Castle. The children wanted to find out all about the castle so they could compare it with the castle on the island of Coll which they have been learning about. We were given a fascinating tour of the castle and the children particularly enjoyed going through a secret door and climbing up some step spiral stone steps to a room full of armour. Here they were lucky enough to try on a gauntlet which was made in the armouries of Henry VIII. We also found out about the family coat of arms and why it shows a wild boar. In the afternoon the children braved the rain to go on a walk through the grounds to create their own journey stick. They enjoyed searching for objects to attach to their sticks which would remind them of their journey. On their return to school the children used their journey sticks to create linear maps as part of our map making work in Geography.
Sports Report
The last couple of weeks of results have been positive again with the highlight being the victorious under 16 Girls Hockey team being crowned County Champions. This is a magnificent feat given the numbers of girls available at the schools that they beat along the way. In the other school Hockey fixtures the girls have beaten Ampleforth College 3-1 at Under 16s, St Martin’s Ampleforth 6-1 at Under 11As and drew 2-2 at Under 11Bs. Against Ripon Grammar School the Under 13s won 7-0 and the Under 12s won 8-2. The Under 13s and Under 12s also recorded victories over Durham School. At Hill House, the Under 11A team lost 1-7 and the Under 11B team reversed matters with a 4-2 victory whilst against Silcoates School the Under 9s recorded wins by 3-0 and 4-0. The Under 14s encountered tougher opposition in Red House when they went down by 1-4. In netball, against Ripon Grammar School, the Under 14s lost by 5-22 and against the Minster School, the Under 12s lost by 3-12. In boys’ rugby in Upper School, the Under 14s recorded another win in beating Hill House by 49-33; the Under 16s fought valiantly in their 17-44 loss to Yarm as did the Under 15s in losing to Red House by 33-54. The Upper School boys also got their football season off to a positive start with a 2-2 draw against Ackworth School. In Main School Rugby the Under 12s finished a very respectable 8th out of 16 at the Tait 10’s tournament at Barnard Castle and the Under 11s and Under 9s recorded easy wins against St Martin’s Ampleforth by 50-0 and 10-1 respectively. With several players unavailable due to injury the Under 12s suffered defeat to the hands of Hill House by 4 tries to 1, however they made amends in recording a fine victory against St Martin’s Ampleforth by 25-7.