Speech Day 2015
Last Saturday saw the whole school come together to celebrate the achievements and successes of the last academic year. In a packed marquee Upper School Head Laura Aspinall gave a brilliant and amusing opening address before handing over to Chair of Governors, Sir Thomas Ingilby, and then Headmaster Mr Sample. Main School Head Boy James Neilson-Clark entertained us with his reminiscences about life at Cundall before welcoming the guest speaker The Rt Hon Lady Justice Eleanor King DBE to the floor. Dame Eleanor offered the pupils some sound advice about finding and following their own particular star in fulfilling their personal and career ambitions, before presenting this year’s prizes and trophies to their deserving recipients from throughout the school. Main School Head Girl Ellen Watkins took the unique and all too apt theme of mud, in all its various guises, to sum up her experiences so far of life at Cundall Manor, before Upper School Head Boy James Gordon, with eleven years of material to draw upon, an abundance of charm and mastery of comic timing, brought the day’s proceedings to a hilarious close.
GCSE Art and Textiles Exhibition
Last Wednesday saw the staging of this year’s GCSE Art and Textiles Exhibition in the School Gym. The Art Department transformed the room into a wonderful gallery space that really showed the students’ work off to full advantage. Visitors were able to peruse the portfolio books laid out on the tables, chronicling the development of the students’ work from conception through experimentation and on to finished product. The final pieces hung around the room and gave a clear indication of the wealth of diverse and inspirational talent our Thornton pupils have.
Cundall’s New Scout Group
On Thursday 23rd April, 1st Cundall Manor Scout Group had its first Investiture Ceremony, during which four leaders and 22 cubs were welcomed into the Scouting community. The ceremony was conducted by the District Commissioner for Easingwold, Andrew Garner (also known as ‘Wolf’). It is wonderful to see so many young children starting out as cubs and we hope that the pack can go from strength to strength. The future for the Scout group is to extend downwards to create a Beaver Colony and then perhaps look at Scouts as we become more established. The investiture meant that the 1st Cundall Manor Scout Group could then take part in Sunday’s St George’s day parade through Easingwold. Scout leaders Mr Bayne and Miss Baggaley escorted the pack as they joined the rest of the local scouting community for this memorable event. (You can see a video clip – courtesy of the lovely Sue Johnson – on our Facebook page)
Summer Fair
This year we are holding three competitions at the Summer Fair and we are looking forward to all ages getting involved. Pre-Prep – Fruit/Vegetable Animal This competition is open to all ages in Pre-Prep from Nursery to PP2. Please make a Vegetable/Fruit Animal of any kind or size. Please bring your entry to the Summer Fair by 12noon and ensure that your name is clearly marked on the under-side of your entry. Entry fee £1, Prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Forms 1-4 – Miniature Garden Create a Miniature Garden in a seed tray. Please bring your entry to the Summer Fair by 12noon for judging and ensure that your name is clearly marked on the bottom of the seed tray. Entry fee £1, Prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Places. Forms 5 and Upwards (Including entries from parents and relatives over 13 years) To celebrate the splendour of our county, photographers young and old are being urged to get out their cameras and capture images depicting “Yorkshire”. All entries must be mounted on card and submitted to the school office by Friday 15th May. Your name should be clearly marked on the back of the card and, if not a pupil, then you should state who you are related to at Cundall Manor School. All photographs will be returned after the competition. Entry fee £1, Prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Home Produce Stall As well as these competitions there we also be a ‘home produce’ stall where we would be very grateful for any donations of home-made food items such as fresh vegetables, home-made chutneys, jams, eggs etc. Any donations can be made during the week commencing 11thMay or on the day at the Summer Fair, donations of cakes and other freshly prepared produce can be delivered to the kitchen on Either Friday 15thMay or on the day of the Fair itself. As usual the Fair will include a children’s toys and games stall; please can any donations of toys, games and DVDs be left in the foyer of Main School and/or Pre-Prep. The Friends would appreciate as much help as possible on the day of the Fair. If you can spare a few hours please email Susan Edwards (susanedwards03@yahoo.co.uk.) for more information. Thank you
ISA Drama Festival 2015
Congratulations to everyone who took part in the ISA Drama Festival this term. Mrs Riddell has the latest news: “Despite a very early start, eighteen Cundall drama students arrived at School, brimming with enthusiasm, on Sunday 8th March. Initial difficulties with fitting the scenery on the bus were solved by sheer determination and brute force (if you’ve ever tried to fit three children, the dog, the cases and the duvets into a car for a trip, you’ll know what I mean!) This was Cundall’s first attempt to compete in the ISA Drama Festival, a well-established Drama event with a national profile. ISA schools across the country compete against each other for a variety of awards. Cundall Manor took two short productions: an adaptation of the well-known play, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Gandhi in the Shed – a comedy based around a family trying to put their unfortunate grandparent into a care home. We had a couple of hours to compose ourselves, dress and put on make-up and then we were on. Schools are given five minutes to set up in an unknown theatre space, in front of an unknown adjudicator and an unknown audience…terrifying! Our senior group performed first, with flawless characterisation and comic timing; the juniors second, using the unfamiliar space with such confidence, you’d think they were a professional touring repertory company! Our performances were well received by the audience and the adjudicator gave us some very useful, constructive criticism, complimenting the students’ ability to characterise and create believable roles. I was extremely pleased with everyone’s performance and I felt very optimistic for the outcome, to be announced after the completion of the southern heats in a couple of weeks’ time. When the results did come through, I was delighted. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory won the Oxford Cup for best junior school production and Francesca Banks added to her long list of performing achievements, winning the Audrey Vowles Shield for best junior girl performer. This is a wonderful result and testament to the talent and dedication of those involved. The pupils had quite a task, competing against some very experienced and specialist drama schools (especially in the senior categories) I would like to thank every student who took part and a really big thank you to Annabel Hartley, Zaila Barker and Pippa Adamthwaite-Cook, who stood in at the last minute.”
Cundall Manor Equestrian Success
Our Equestrian Team were out in action on Saturday at Northallerton Equestrian Centre. The team, consisting of Jemima Fawcett, Kate Sanderson and Issy Saxby, finished third with Kate being placed 5th individually and Issy 2nd. Well done girls!
York and Ainsty Hunt
We welcomed horses, hounds and riders to Cundall Manor last week for the York and Ainsty Hunt’s annual ride out. It was lovely to see so many turn out on such a sunny morning, and to see many of our pupils joining in on their ponies.
Francesca does it again!
Hot on the heels of celebrating her award of a musical scholarship to Stowe last week, we are, once again, delighted to bring news of Francesca Banks’ second Scholarship Award! This time the musical supremo has been offered a full Music Scholarship to Uppingham. Again, Francesca has had to practise and rehearse very hard for this award, and according to Uppingham’s Musical Director, gave a very good account of herself at her recent assessment and interview. Uppingham has a very well deserved reputation for excellence in all aspects of music and musical theatre and it is no surprise that Francesca has opted to take up this scholarship rather than the Stowe one, perhaps even less so since Francesca’s two brothers both moved on from Cundall to Uppingham. Congratulations Francesca on another remarkable award!
Cundall Ski Trip 2015
An early start on Saturday 3rd January saw 40 students begin their trip to Serre Chevalier, in southern France, for the annual ski trip. An epic 4 hour transfer from Geneva to the resort, anticipation was high for the following day’s inaugural ski. Having been greeted at the hotel door by our instructors the following morning, the more advanced groups headed straight up to find some more challenging slopes whilst those new to the sport began perfecting their snowplough. After the full day of skiing there were already stories bouncing around the tables at dinner and everyone had clearly enjoyed their first day. Progress was rapid through the week with all groups honing their skills and becoming increasingly adventurous and travelling further afield. Some made it to the very top of the resort, others as far as Briançon; the highest town in France. Some tackled the resort’s black runs, recording the highest speeds of the week, whilst for others the calling of the snowpark and boardercross couldn’t be ignored. There were inevitable crashes, many of which were caught on film but none of which caused serious alarm or injury. In true Cundall spirit, our skiers were pushing their skills and their daring to the limits and everybody made outstanding progress. Special mention must go to Ed Lake who moved up through three groups, Sam Youmans and Harry Hodgson who achieved speeds of 90kph, and the whole beginner group who learned to ski backwards!. Everyone was rewarded for their efforts through the week with an ESF ski school badge that should be worn on blazers with pride. A huge thank you goes to Mr Kirby, Miss Reah, Miss Baggaley, Mr Coates and Mr Liley for accompanying the trip and giving up a week of their holiday. Also to the fantastic instructors for teaching and entertaining us all week; Eric, Christophe, Stéphane, Gaspard, Sanna and Mannou.
Staff v Thornton hockey
In front of a capacity crowd (the whole school were invited down to watch) and on our brand new all-weather pitch, the Games Department’s end of term was marked with a hugely entertaining three way tournament between the girls and boys from Upper School and a dozen plucky staff. Not only was this a fabulous opportunity to show off the new pitch to the whole school, it also proved a genuine showcase of superb sportsmanship. The girls and boys found themselves equally pitted (drawing their match 1-1) and even outwitted by the staff (who won both their games 2-1); at all times though their attitude was positive and courteous, as exemplified by Ben Mewes’ compliment of Mr Woods’ tremendous save of one of Ben’s goal attempts. The tournament was also a chance for our new Hockey coach Mr Couttie to meet pupils and to demonstrate the level of skill and tactical hockey he looks forward to passing on to them henceforth.