Chamber Choir sing Evensong at Keble College, Oxford
Last Wednesday our Chamber Choir joined forces with Stowe School’s Chapel Choir to sing Evensong at Keble College, Oxford. As a school, we have been attending the Stowe Schools’ Choral Festival for the last 12 years and our choir has always made a tremendous impression. As a result, we received a special invitation from the Director of Music at Stowe to go and work exclusively with their choir and sing at an Oxford College. Our day started with rehearsals at Stowe in their amazing new Music School. After a visit to the tuck shop mid-afternoon we set off to drive up to Oxford. There was great excitement on our arrival as we took in the wonder of the buildings which make up Keble College. The chapel is awe-inspiring and beautifully ornate. We organised the seating positions and practised processing in and out of the chapel before going into the final rehearsal. The service started at 6.00pm. The sound was truly stunning as the acoustic in the chapel enhanced the rich, pure tone of the choirs. The repertoire which we had chosen was quite demanding and challenging; it certainly took many of our children out of their comfort zone! Our choir rose to the occasion and performed superbly. Francesca Banks was the soloist in the Magnificat in G by Stanford and gave a thrilling performance. This was a truly amazing experience and a very special event. Well done to all of our choristers on their hard work and wonderful achievement. It is a precious memory which will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Videos of the Chamber Choirs performance can be seen by following these links: Cundall Manor at Keble College Part 1; Cundall Manor at Keble College Part 2
Form 1’s trip to Marrick Priory
Form 1 had a great time at Marrick Priory this weekend. Despite the changeable weather, the children got on with the activities in true Cundall spirit and did not moan at all. As a result, they had a fantastic time building shelters, firing arrows, crawling through tunnels, descending through the roof of the building to the floor below, climbing walls, completing a low ropes course and devouring ice cream. It was a real pleasure to take the group and they were a credit to themselves and the school. Tiredness did kick in towards the end with one child falling asleep during our last meal there. They all deserved the day of rest that the bank holiday Monday provided.
ESB excellence
Just before breaking up for the Easter holidays, pupils in Forms 2 and 4 completed English Speaking Board (ESB) examinations that tested a range of their speaking and listening skills. The children, parents and teaching staff worked hard to prepare these very challenging and exacting exams; each child is judged by an independent assessor whose standards and expectations are phenomenally high! We are delighted to report that the two year groups posted a wonderful set of scores with all children passing with flying colours! Indeed, 52% of Form 2 pupils and 58% of Form 4 pupils achieved a Distinction, the Board’s highest level of attainment! The assessors told us afterwards that this is an unprecedented level of achievement so well done to all for their hard work and commitment in producing such an excellent set of results. The photograph shows the children who achieved the level of Distinction in their ESB exams.
Form 2’s Highlights at Low Mill
Form 2 enjoyed their fun-filled adventure at Low Mill near Askrigg. We took part in an exciting programme which included canoeing, caving and abseiling as well as two very beautiful evening walks. The skilled instructors and cooks kept us safe, happy and extremely well fed. Highlights included putting our faces in the lake to ask the fish for permission to canoe, squeezing down the natural underground slides when caving, and dangling off the edge of a viaduct like Spiderman whilst abseiling. Many thanks to everyone who helped make the weekend such a success.
Easter Concert
On the evening of 26th March (the last Thursday of term) we held our Easter Concert in the gym. It was a wonderful evening, with so much talent on display. The Chamber Choir opened the concert with an extremely competent and sensitive performance of ‘Scarborough Fair’. The two parts were beautifully held and the tone was pure and strong. They then sang one of their favourite songs ‘My Heart Will Go On’ from The Titanic. Again, this was sung with great feeling and sensitivity. Brass Group then gave a sound performance of ‘Au Clair De La Lune’, followed by a very lively ‘Gospel Rock’ with each member demonstrating their improvisational skills! It was great fun and it was good to hear how our brass players are progressing so well. The Junior Choir were tremendous. They sang Cesar Franck’s ‘Panis Angelicus’ which is demanding for children of such a young age. They then had a lot of fun with their rendition of the traditional song ‘The Mermaid’. Our soloists for the evening provided us with a great variety and range of music, from the Chinese guzheng, which Gabriella plays so magically, through to piano, cornet, clarinet, guitar and singing. We had a few guitar/vocal ensembles and the Boys’ Choir brought the evening to a rousing finish! It was an evening which showcased some of our greatest musical talent and there certainly was plenty on display, from Form 1 all the way through to Thornton. It is so exciting to witness our children’s musical progress and the great maturity with which some of them perform, especially some of our singers – Alannah Creed, Sarah Sullivan, Hollie Potter and, of course, Francesca Banks. A special mention must also go to Olivia Turner who was extremely brave and gave a very accomplished performance, accompanying herself on guitar in ‘Someone Like You’ (Adele). A further highlight of the evening was Charlotte Hoggan’s rendition of FourFiveSeconds and also Sophie Helferrich singing Black Velvet. These two girls have performed in many concerts throughout their school life at Cundall and their confidence and competence was a pleasure to witness. Many congratulations to all who took part and for making this such a memorable evening.
Easter Egg Competition
There were some wonderful entries into this year’s Decorated Easter Egg competition and we are always grateful to all those pupils whose incredibly imaginative creations brought so much colour and humour to our entrance tables in Main School and Pre-Prep. The winners, who all received their chocolate prizes are as follows: Main School: 1st Prize: George Dunn 2nd Prize: Emilia Praud 3rd Prize: Amelia Bullock Thank you every one who took part in the competition.
Trebuchet Challenge
With so many budding engineers (and equally enthusiastic and practically minded dads) in our midst, the Easter trebuchet Challenge promised to be quite a spectacle. As trucks and trailers started to convene in the main school car park on the last day of term, it became quite apparent that the assembled crowds of spectators from Pre-Prep up to Thornton, would not be disappointed. (Virtually) all homemade and (virtually) all adhering to the underlying counterweight dynamic, the apparatus ranged in size from tiny (fitting into the palm of a Pre-Prep hand) to enormous (based on a full size pallet), and in material from Lego to bamboo! As the competition unfolded, it became apparent that size does not necessarily matter as some of the largest contraptions failed to reach the distances recorded by some of the more diminutive devices, the unpredictability adding to the excitement and suspense of the spectacle. Although not technically a trebuchet, full credit must be given to the enormous entry designed and built by our most senior physicists, Thornton pupils Antony, Ben and Grayson. Such was the force with which their catapult expelled its cargo that the humble egg disintegrated in flight! (Further attempts with an orange, whilst not permitted within the rules of the challenge, did demonstrate the catapult’s impressive trajectory.) Thank you to everyone whose sterling efforts made for such an entertaining morning and congratulations to our winners – the Throup siblings and Wilkinson brothers.
Egg and Spoon Race
There was much scrambling of eggs around the grounds of school as pupils from Pre-Prep all the way through to Thornton took part in a succession of egg and spoon races. Staggered by age groups, the races saw pupils hurtling around the main school buildings and the lawns whist simultaneously trying to keep their crème eggs from falling out of their spoons (for which various methods, of varying degrees of legitimacy, were employed). Most eggs and runners made it to the finishing line, some rather worse for wear by that point than others!
Waterbabies Coffee Morning
We were delighted to be able to host our second coffee morning for the Waterbabies swimming group who use our pool for their baby and toddler swimming lessons. Just before the end of term, the youngsters and their parents joined us for Easter themed refreshments and a recital in the library; The junior choir offered a short but perfect programme of amusing and uplifting songs on a waterbased based theme, all carefully selected and accompanied by Mr Fitzsimons.
Form 5 Mary Poppins Production
Form 5 embarked on an ambitious project to perform Walt Disney’s magical “Mary Poppins” which came to fruition last Thursday night. Most of the songs were included along with as many of the animated animals as possible. After just seven weeks of rehearsal time, the Company performed magnificently to provide the audience with a joyful and toe-tapping evening. Special mention must go to Alannah Creed as Mary Poppins who sang stunningly and also Charlie Black as George Banks. Olivia Turner and Tabitha Cockerill were marvelous as the two children Jane and Michael, looked after and entertained by the kind sweep Bert who was played superbly by Eve Roberts. The whole cast acted and sang its socks off to give Pamela Travers something to be very proud of.