Chess Success
Congratulations to Patrick and Nicholas Cunningham and Matthew Mairs on their recentinclusion in the Yorkshire chess team to participate in the North of England Counties Chess Championships. Representing the Under 9 team, Patrick won two of his three games, helping the team achieve a very creditable fourth place finish. Not to be outdone, older brother Nick and Matthew represented the Under 11 team and helped their team achieve a very impressive second place and silver medal finish! Superb results for our boys to be part of. Patrick, Nick and Matthew now look forward to representing Yorkshire again in the next stage.
Rotary Club Technology Tournament
Early Tuesday morning a minibus of intrepid engineers set off for the annual technology tournament at Catterick Leisure Centre. This year saw the intermediate teams defending their trophy with much hope and optimism. With 6 schools represented by a number of teams the tournament started with the aim to build a working model of a cable car. With much pondering and scratching of pencils and heads, the Cundall teams came up with some excellent ideas, especially the team comprising Harry Hodgson, Tom Dicken, Josh Hall and Sam Youmans who came a very creditable 3rd in their competition. Well done to all of the competitors.
Harrow, here he comes!
Massive congratulations to Monty Powell who has secured a much coveted scholarship to Harrow School. We are delighted to announce that following his recent visit to Harrow School, where he sat no less than 4 days of exams and interviews, Form 6 pupil Monty Powell has been awarded a place and a scholarship at this hugely prestigious Public School. This is the first time in Cundall Manors 50+ year history that a pupil has been offered a place at Harrow, much less an academic scholarship. It is testament to both his academic flair and exemplary work ethic. Well done Monty!
Form 4 visit York
Form 4 enjoyed a full day out in York on last Tuesday. The morning and early afternoon were spent at Barley Hall where the children completed a tour of the Tudor building as well as participating in workshops on Arms and Armour and Tudor Medicine. This was followed by a short walk across the city to the Jorvik Dig where the children had the opportunity to develop their archaeological investigation skills. Next was a much needed ‘pit-stop’ at Pizza Hut and then the day concluded with an eerie ‘Ghost Walk’ where the children, together with some of their parents, heard a series of chilling tales of supernatural happenings at various places in the city!
Form 3’s Trip to Barley Hall
Hot on the heels of Form4’s hugely successful visit, Form 3 enjoyed a day out at Barley Hall in York. Naomi Cooke takes up the story: “As soon as we go there we met four people dressed up as Tudor people. It was really funny! They then told us to go inside Barley Hall, so we did. We went into a really big hall – they told us it was called the Great Hall. We saw that there were lots of clothes piled up on the benches; we all had to dress up in the clothes to look like Tudor children. Afterwards, we got shown around by Master Paul and he taught us how to set a table for dinner in Tudor times. We then made some soap out of sheep’s fat, water and herbs. We had lunch in the Great Hall and then got taken to a different part of the Hall, this time by Master William. In the school room we had a go at writing in Latin using quills and a pot of in. It was quite tricky to avoid getting blobs of ink on the page! We also did some maths using Latin numerals. That was our fantastic day at Barley Hall!”
Debating Masters
Congratulations to the Upper School debating team who won last Wednesday’s heat of the English Speaking Union’s annual public speaking competition. James Gordon chaired proceedings with great authority, Ross Sullivan spoke very ably on the topic of whether minorities can ever be safe within democracies, and Edward Kettleborough questioned the speaker from St John Fisher’s School to great effect and . The team have won a place in the North of England finals at Leeds Grammar School in early March.
Shrove Tuesday celebrations
Whilst the Early Years celebrate Pancake Day… The children of Reception and Nursery took part in a pancake relay! The Reception children competed to earn points for their house, and it was a very close contest! Normans got off to a great start on the first run, with George Hill taking an early lead. Tom Moody put the Stuarts out in front with a fine second run. Tudors fought back in the 3rd, with a fantastic effort from Austen Clarke. However, the Stuarts proved difficult to beat and, despite a late surge by Emilia Sample for the Saxons, the Stuarts were crowned Pancake Relay Champions! Well done to Tom Moody, Jack Potter, Harry Baxter and Alfred Abbey! …Leckby celebrate Crepe Tuesday Mme Cooke’s Leckby French pupils from Leckby celebrated pancake day French-style. In the new kitchen, they learnt the names of the ingredients and followed the recipe in French. The highlight of the afternoon was obviously eating the very tasty ‘crepes’. Nutella (a French favourite) was generously generously spread over them and pupils commented: “C’est délicieux!”. All pupils involved had a fantastic time and would like to thank the Friends of Cundall for allowing us to have such a fantastic resource as the new kitchen.
World Book Day
Last Thursday was a colourful day. Pupils from Pre-Prep all the way up to Thornton dressed up in costumes reflecting their favourite literary characters in a mass celebration of World Book Day. At the top end of Upper School, the theme appeared to be ‘Fairy Tales’ and girls and boys alike entered into the spirit of the theme with gusto. It was an extraordinary sight seeing Mr Sample teaching in full costume (Long John Silver?) and Mrs Ballantyne (Miss Haversham) and the rest of the English department leading by example. In Main School, the costumes were as varied as they were plentiful, with some amazingly colourful and inventive creations on view. In Pre-Prep, the theme was ‘Where’s Wally?’ and it was lovely to see all the children in their costumes. After a competition to design a new outfit for Wally, the winners were Joely Kay, Xenia Nettleton and Imogen Newbould, well done girls!
Harrogate Festival of Speech and Drama
Congratulations to all the students who took part in The Harrogate Festival of Speech and Drama last weekend. The competition was stiff, with Cundall competing against some very experienced and skilled performers from specialised drama schools and other establishments from all over the north of England. Henry Calvert wowed the judge with his confident and humorous performance from the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and received a distinction, closely followed by Ben Early, who achieved a commendation for his well-pitched portrayal of the Pied Piper. Francesca Banks also excelled, achieving a distinction for her reading and poem and Niamh Wilson and Niamh Watkins performed brilliantly, both receiving a commendation. Just as we thought Cundall had peaked, Alannah Creed triumphed in her reading class, winning first place and a trophy, and Jake Telfer followed up his success last year by winning distinctions in all three of his classes. Laura Aspinall bravely went solo and was commended for playing the role of Martha from The Secret Garden and not to be out done, Charlotte Hoggan and Cordelia Longstaff also did well, achieving a commendation from the judge. Finally, Quentin England and Shanna Majewski rounded off a very successful weekend with their very enjoyable (and unusual) piece called Skungpoomery by Ken Campbell. Many thanks to parents and pupils for giving up your weekend and thank you also to Mrs Fearn for producing such well- prepared performers and entertaining drama.
Leckby Business trip to Rudding Park
Once again the Leckby pupils were entertained royally at Rudding Park, enjoying scallops with cauliflower puree as part of the experience. The pupils were particularly taken with the Private Cinema and the Presidential Suite with its bullet proof doors and bomb proof bathroom! Many thanks to Mr Peter Banks for hosting such an insightful and enjoyable day.