Queen Elizabeth School

Transcription

NEWSletter
Queen Elizabeth School
Christmas 2012
SCHOLARSHIP AND CARE — SINCE 1591
headaward
lines
ARTS
CONTENTS
Headlines
Noticeboard
Messages from Headteacher Chris Clarke
1
Important messages about mobile phones and lost property
4
Reports from around the school, including new clubs
6
On site
Off site
Educational trips, including outdoor pursuits and visits abroad 14
Performing Arts
Concerts, festivals and a WW2 drama 22
Learning matters
Focus on
Visits from poets, writers, astronomers 26
Another “Interesting Elizabethan”and a new careers guidance system 37
QESA news
Sports desk
Fund-raising for QES with the Parent/Teacher Association 41
Thirteen pages of sports reports, and a poem from Miss Pakeman 43
THANKS to
S Armitstead, S Bennett, A Blackburn, J
Brown, Rosie Burd, I Burnett, William Bush,
Zoe Butler, C Carrington, C Clarke, Josh Clegg,
Tom Crackles, R Daglish, Ben Darlington, E
Denby, E Denby, S Dent, Bethany Dinsdale,
A Donnelly, R Eaves, C Falcus, S Garne, O
Gaskell, R Gerrard, H Gray, C Harrison, J Hartley, Alex Hilton, C Holman, Jack Horrocks,
Catherine Hunt, Hannah Hunt, Laura Hunt,
J Jackson, Erica Jeffery, Amy Leadbetter, D
Lequitte, S Lomax, D Longley, J Merritt, Mary
Mitton, H Pakeman, A Rawson, Alex Robinson, Jess Ronan, Libby Rushton, P Rushton,
Rose Russell-Cohen, Zack Scott, D Sharratt,
Hannah Smith, Katherine Snow, Sam Stott,
K Vose, A Wilkinson, D Williams, J Winstanley,
Eleni Wrigglesworth.
Apologies for any omissions - please tell Editor
QUEEN ELIZABETH SCHOOL
ate more courtyard potential
to test the imagination of our
student Landscape Committee.
For a copy of the Kirkby Lonsdale Arts Scene booklet contact Helen Baines on 015242 71275 0r email
h.baines@queenelizabeth.cumbria.sch.uk
Dear Parents
If you’ve driven past QES along
the A65 recently, you will have
been struck by the illuminated scaffolding rigs (pictured
overleaf ) shining through the
wintery haze. Completely engulfing both the Music building and Springfield House, the
steel structures are the foundation for the tented canopy
offering protection from the
elements to the workmen who
are replacing the complex roof
structures.
As well as replacing the Music
Building roof, we’re taking the
opportunity to add in another
floor of music practice rooms
to meet the ever-increasing
demands of avid musicians. In
addition to this, as well as replacing the many facets of the
distinctive Springfield House
roof and rendering the whole
building rot-free and weather
resistant, we’re exploiting the
disruption to extend what has
been the 6th Form Common
Room to create a much larger
state-of-the-art learning centre for our post 16 students.
The extension to the Common
Room will be styled sympathetically to accord with the
lovely Victorian Burnett Building opposite and will help cre-
We’re extremely fortunate to
be undertaking these projects
in times of such economic austerity with grant support form
the Central Maintenance Fund
set up to help Academies deal
with serious and expensive
estate issues. Our Director of
Business and Finance, Steven
Holmes has been the driving
force behind the projects and
he and our Governors’ building committee have done a
fine job not only with the bids
but also in engaging local architects and builders to ensure
quality and value for money.
This unseasonal spurt of new
building and refurbishment
obviously causes logistical
challenges when the work
has to be carried out during
term-time in this financial year
to meet strict government requirements but we are delighted to have this sort of problem
to cope with especially coming
in the wake of the building,
now completed which we undertook in the summer.
Just after the half term break
we moved into Studio 26, the
new drama and dance studio
built onto the Sports Hall (pictured overleaf, top) to meet
the growing curricular and
extra-curricular need, further
demonstrating our commitment to remaining one of the
top performing arts’ schools
in the country. Recently, we
had the official opening of the
Philip Castle Building, which is
the new two-storey structure
attached to the New Close
Building at the main entrance
to school (pictured overleaf,
below). Lots of people have
walked past it without noticing as it looks like it has always
been there, so naturally does
it occupy its space. It comprises meeting rooms and
kitchen/toilet facilities on the
ground floor and a large conference room on the first floor
to answer the demands of our
Teaching School brief to train
new teachers, develop existing staff and help support the
work of other schools in the
region.
Philip Castle, after whom this
beautiful building is named,
was the headmaster of QES
from 1966 until 1989, one
of only five headteachers to
serve the School in the 20th
Century. Philip, a popular, decent and very capable man,
saw the school safely through
some significant threats to
its very existence during the
education re-organisation of
the 1970s and was at the helm
when the School very successfully converted from Grammar
to Comprehensive school. It
seemed highly appropriate
that his contribution to creating the foundation for all the
successes we all enjoy today
should be recognised in his
name being given to a building which stands as our commitment to being in the very
forefront of education in the
21st Century.
Significantly, at the opening
ceremony we were able also
to give public thanks to our
architect, both a QES parent
and herself a former pupil of
the school, our builder who
himself has children at QES
and to our furniture supplier,
a former QES head girl whose
family connections with the
school go back to 1918 when
her grandmother taught at
QES. This seems to say so much
about the strength of the QES
community and the nature of
the area round about and it is a
good illustration of why we define the QES Value of ‘Respecting the Past and its Traditions’
in terms of the recognition we
give to those whose efforts in
the past promote the conditions within which we prosper
today and into the future.
I’ve mentioned the performing arts and, in particular,
music which seems always to
occupy centre stage at QES
in the weeks leading up to
Christmas. However, one of
the delights of this term has
been the Astronomy week, a
formal celebration in an amazing variety of events, assemblies and lessons of incredible
levels of interest in astronomy
and astro-physics in particular
and the enjoyment of science
in general. QES A level science
groups are absolutely bursting at the moment, more and
more students are heading off
for courses and careers in medicine, science and engineering
and recently there has been a
palpable sense that Science as
a subject is regaining that capacity to induce wonder, awe
and excitement in young people. Certainly, the interest and
willingness among young people in using science to explore
the ‘big’ questions was very
clear during that week.
And I suppose that if there is a
special time at QES for tuning
in to deeper and more pro-
found issues then it is in the
dark wintery days just before
Christmas when School with its
music, light and atmosphere
really is the best place to be.
At the end of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a sick child is cured
and a bad man turns over a
new leaf and becomes generous and affectionate. Good
triumphs over evil, good heartedness and good cheer over
poverty and misery. Yet two
‘meagre, ragged, scowling,
wolfish…’ creatures haunt the
novel’s aftermath. Produced
from under the cloak of the
Spirit of Christmas Present,
they are Ignorance and Want,
two waif-like children who
have pointed an accusing
finger at succeeding generations since the 1840s when
the novel was published just
a couple of years before QES
moved into Springfield House.
And from Springfield House,
re-roofed and ready for the
next two hundred years, succeeding generations at QES
have striven to transform and
eradicate Ignorance and Want
through the ministrations of
our Scholarship and Care. And
inducing the kind of optimism
Dickens inspires at the end of
his famous novel and suggesting the widening 21st Century
horizons of Scholarship and
Care, our focus this Christmas
has been on ensuring continuing support for the upkeep
and education of the children
in Sekwe House, the spirit of
QES in the ‘warm heart of Africa’.
The new Studio 26 addition
to the Sports Hall buildings
From all of us at QES we hope
you have a lovely Christmas
and a very Happy New Year.
The new Philip Castle building
noticeboard
Lost Property Matters
We know how difficult it is
for parents when their child
comes home and says they
haven’t been able to find their
PE kit, glasses, keys, project
folder, tie etc.
We are as committed as ever to
trying to help parents out with
this one and wanted to let you
know about recent improvements to our lost property “department”.
We are now based in a larger
office on the main corridor in
school. This means that everything is on rails, in storage
crates or on pegs and is easy
to look through if you’ve lost
something.
The entire school site is “swept”
for lost property on Friday after school. All the new “found”
items are processed on Monday morning and if the item
is named it is returned to its
owner straight away. Usually
there’ll be a note in the class
register telling a pupil to come
along and collect it.
Sadly, items are often nameless and end up being ticketed,
catalogued and stored in the
lost property office. At the
moment there are over 250
items in there including coats,
uniform items, PE kits, shoes,
trainers and dozens of sets of
keys to name but a few. (The
keys are a particular concern
for us because of the obvious
security issues for you.)
The office is open to pupils at
break time and it’s right by the
Main Hall so it’s really easy for
them to pop in and look for
something. Mrs Wilson will be
there to help them.
The office will also be open
for 15 minutes at the end of
school. Again, it’s near the areas where pupils wait for buses
so there’s no excuse for not
checking in there if they’ve lost
something.
We are finding that pupils who
routinely leave their PE kit lying around in the hope that it
will still be where they left it a
week later are falling foul of the
Friday “sweep” when they go
back for it so a few reminders
about bringing it home after
each PE lesson would be really
helpful – our PE staff are reinforcing that message too.
Of course, making sure that all
property is named is an enormous help and means you get
it back really quickly.
If you are missing something
and wondering if it’s sitting
forlornly in our lost property
office, please do encourage
your son or daughter to go
along and look for it. By all
means pop in yourself during
the opening times if you want
to have a look for it.
Even though we’ve expanded
our storage area, we can’t hold
onto things for ever: much of
the clothing will be recycled
at the end of each half term.
Please don’t leave it too long
to look for items mislaid in the
past few weeks.
We are looking forward to reuniting you with your property!
Alison Wilkinson
Mobile phones
Mobile phones in school,
and out of school for that
matter, continue to present
an issue for us.
We are increasingly concerned
about the number
o f
pupils who are trying to sneak phones
into school but,
even more worryingly, about the
increase in the
anti -social and
unsafe use of
phones, particularly the
use of cameras and
Blackberry messaging .
Some of our pupils have had
to face serious sanctions for
irresponsible use of camera
phones and/or messaging services and some cases have had
to be reported to the police as
they involved what amounted
to criminal behaviour.
We are very grateful to those
parents who help us to keep
their children safe in school by
making sure that the phone is
left at home, in their safekeeping ,each day and we are urging all parents to do this.
We continue to undertake belongings checks and to confiscate phones: they are placed
in our office safe until a parent
can come in to school and collect them.
There are a small number of
pupils whose journey home
at times means that a phone is
useful for safety reasons: they
need to hand their phone in at
the office at the start of the day
in a named envelope and collect it after school.
Unfortunately some of the
more serious issues are the
ones that have happened at
home or at sleepovers and so
we are sharing this information
with you just to raise awareness of the dangers of camera
phones and messaging.
If you are at all unsure about
how to monitor your child’s
use of a mobile phone or how
to advise them about safe and
appropriate use then get in
touch with us. We have dealt
with enough pupils in difficulty thanks to the inappropriate
and unsafe use of technology
to be in a good position to advise you!
The Pastoral Team
Winter weather
Thinking about staying warm and dry
You CAN wear coats – just not
inside school buildings. Because the pullover is a fleece
and will keep you warm outside, the best thing to have is
a rolled up waterproof in your
school bag and then
you don’t have the
problem of what to
do with your coat
when you’ve taken
it off. Please just
wear sensible water
proofs as your outer
layer though- we don’t allow
hoodies, sweatshirts, fashion
coats, denim jackets etc.
Think carefully about visibility when buying a waterproof
jacket: the best ones have reflective strips or piping. Look
out for bags with reflectors or
light colours on them too.
It’s a really good idea to wear
a base layer under your uniform on very cold days.
This year we are embarking on a new and exciting venture to develop,
in conjunction with the
South Lakes Federation
of Schools, a school-based
teacher training programme called South Lakes
School Direct. This offers a
pioneering new route into
teacher training.
For further information
see the National Teaching
School advert in the Learning Matters section of this
newsletter.
Make sure your shoes are
sturdy ones that can cope
with wet paths and puddles:
we’re still advising people
against coming to school
in canvas pumps and ballet
shoes!
On snow days, by all means
wear your snow boots/
wellies if you’ve got a bit
of a trudge to the bus stop.
Ideally bring a carrier bag
to put them in and change
into school shoes when you
get here. We will try to find
you somewhere to put your
bagged up boots- but you
might have to tote them
around a bit sometimes.
When you’re in school you
don’t need snow boots on as
the pathways will be cleared
and you will be inside
unless you are going
between lessons or
to lunch. We ask that
you spare a thought
for our site staff and
stick to the paths,
wipe your feet and keep
the carpets as clean and dry
as possible.
Get yourselves black scarves
and black gloves if you want
a bit of extra warmth. Again
bear in mind that you’ll need
to put them in your bag
when you’re inside the school
buildings.
Get yourself a brolly…. and a
carrier bag to put your books
in to keep them dry inside
your school bag if it’s not
very waterproof.
Remember to have a Plan
B just in case the weather
prevents school attendance:
know where to go and what
to do if the bus can’t get
to you in the morning or if
the school has to close. It’s
time to re read the Enforced
School Closure advice on the
Starting at QES section of our
website.
Make your preparations now
and then we can stay safe
and warm this winter.
A.Wilkinson
ONsite
Charity Team bring in the funds
The QES Charity Team lies at
the heart of the QES values,
giving us the opportunity
to make a difference to the
lives of others.
This year the team intends to
do no different. Throughout
the school calendar the charity
representatives play host to a
selection of events designed to
raise funds for a range of different charitable organisations.
The first event kicking off the
list was Pink Week, which aims
to raise money for those who
have been affected by breast
cancer, amounting to thousands of people each year in
the UK alone. The pink collection boxes are taken to the
shops of Kirkby Lonsdale and
allow the public to make a contribution to the cause. Alongside this, the annual church
service was held in St Mary’s
Church and allowed people
the opportunity to remember
friends and family in a moving service which brought the
whole community together. An
individual tree was selected to
become the space for people
to decorate with pink ribbons,
again in remembrance of loved
ones. Sixth formers also joined
in and showed support by
wearing pink ties for the week.
With Pink Week coming to an
end in early November, attention turned to the highly anticipated Year 7 disco, which
is aimed at the youngest
members of the school and is
usually a fun filled evening of
music and dancing. Band night
was also another success. Local
bands took to the stage, giving
As the Christmas season approaches, it is time to turn our
attention to the Christmas Fair
and the newest event, the Santa fun run, which will take place
on 9th December and helps
raise money for the homeless
shelter in Morecambe.
us an evening of live music and
brilliant entertainment.
In late October, the immense
planning for the annual Talent
Show began. The main hall
was transformed into a stage
where some of QES’ most talented students performed to
compete for the title. After
auditions, rehearsals and a live
performance, Eleanor Stuart
singing her rendition of Popular from Wicked and Faye Bowness singing Whitney Houston’s I Will Aways Love You came
out as joint winners ahead of
some brilliant acts (pictured
opposite) which ranged from
a pianist to a rapper as well
as many others. Proceeds of
the show go to support the A
Breath for Life charity (see letter
of appreciation opposite).
A role in the charity team has
highlighted for me the amount
the chosen charities rely on QES
to help and support them. The
position has been challenging, and it is clear the amount
of responsibility and commitment needed is considerable.
But making a contribution to
both the school and the charities has been one which is very
rewarding. Team work skills
are vital but it is also so important to work independently so
your opinions can be voiced to
make each event as successful
as possible.
Talent Show competitors
with awards and certifcates
The rest of the school year
promises to be another one
packed with several exciting
events to suit everyone and
most of all allows us to take
part in changing the lives of
many people.
Alex Robinson Year 13
Charity Team officials
at the Year 7 disco
T
Sponsored Walk 2012 raises £9000
United Nations Association Biennial Debate
he last week of the summer
term had been dominated by poor weather, so
much so that Sports Day was
postponed on two occasions.
However, the final Thursday
saw clear skies and dry weather, so spirits were relatively
high as people set off on the
sponsored walk around Casterton, Brownthwaite, Bull Pot,
Barbon, Underley and back
to school. The going was particularly tough on the very wet,
muddy and incredibly overgrown foot paths early on,, but
few of the participants seemed
deterred. Gradually walkers
dried out and were welcoming
of the water stops provided on
the way round.
In early October students
from QES sixth form took
part in a UNA debating competition on the theme of the
Millennium Development
Goals.
Students involved were Izzy
Pearson, Kester Johnson, Olivia
Gates, Rosie Russell Cohen and
Zoë Butler. Each student represented a separate country
and after a month researching statistics, development
projects and various reports
each prepared and performed
two speeches at the event in
Kendal.
The walk has raised £9000 and
a cheque for £1000, just over
10% of the total has been handed over to the charity team
who will decide which charities
should benefit. The remainder
will be spent on improving the
school environment for the
benefit of students.
The speeches were focussed
on whether the Millennium
Development Goals could
be met. Representing Bangladesh, Izzy gave her speech
with confidence and sophistication, using her knowledge
of the country to speak of the
troubles Bangladesh has faced
throughout the years as well
as looking at the goals from a
worldwide perspective.
THE QES Student forums have
been putting forward suggestions as to how this should be
spent. At present clocks on
the end of West Block, visible
from the field and improving
the quality of sound in assembly venues are some of the
schemes that are under consideration.
The organisers would like to
congratulate all walkers and
thank the local police for their
invaluable help and voluntary
organisations for allowing
us to use their facilities. Local landowners and farmers
deserve a huge thank you for
their understanding in allowing us access onto their land
and to their facilities. Of course
without the support of parents
and staff this would never happen, so thanks again.
We are hoping to repeat the
exercise on Thursday 18th July
2013 so please note that date
in your diary. Well done and a
huge thank you.
D.Longley, J.Jackson,
O.Gaskell, R.Gerrard
Olivia, representing the USA,
had a very difficult task of
defending the country after
being criticized for lack of support to other nations while
also speaking of the USA’s success in reaching the goals. She
highlighted the huge amount
that Americans contribute to
international aid projects.
Zoë focused on the education
system in Poland and championed its success to the other
nations, suggesting they follow Poland’s example.
Rosie also had a difficult
speech to make as her country, Israel, has been criticized
by many for its involvement
in the problems of the Middle East. Rosie countered this
with a bold argument that
her country needed to defend
itself against threats from the
region, suggesting that Israel
was a nation searching for “real
and lasting peace”.
Kester, who represented New
Zealand, had a very different approach to the debate,
launching a passionate criticism of the developing world’s
failure to meet the targets.
Kester’s dramatic performance
used a number of rhetorical
techniques and clearly swayed
the audience to such an extent
that the judges awarded him
first place in the competition.
Olivia’s more measured approach came in a close second.
Overall, it was a fun, knowledgeable experience with a
brilliant result as QES keep the
trophy for another two years.
Well done everyone!
Zoe Butler 12W
Landscape Committee ready for Spring
Mr Holmes asked for suggestions for trees to be planted by
Studio 26 and agreed to our
idea. We wanted something
unusual so have gone for three
baby Monkey Puzzles (pictured right). These will grow,
we hope. Thanks to QES pupils
and staff we collected 2569
Morrisons Tokens and have ordered everything from a spade
to a grapevine, from a rake to
a variety of carrots named after
our theatre: Harlequin. They
are multi-coloured! The vegetable beds (pictured at right)
are now ready for winter planting.
Sam Stott, Zack Scott
and Ben Darlington
Each winning letter design was
combined into a magnificent
new sign that can now be seen
in the D&T foyer. (See colour
picture in Snapshots section)
cre8 club members then
turned their skills to designing
and making Christmas decorations to sell at the QESA Christmas fair and as a final project
before Christmas will be making electronic cards using conductive ink.
Crazy
crochet club!
New for this year, Ms Eaves
is running a crochet club.
Every Thursday lunchtime
a small group of students
get together, and with the
help of Mrs Gibson, are
learning the now fashionable art of crochet. We are
making simple bracelets
and flowers at the moment
but as our skills improve
we hope to
start making all sorts
of wonderful things!
10
R.Eaves
New Design & Technology club
cre8 club started in September this year
as a Resistant
Materials and
Graphics club
for Year 9 pupils. Their first task
was to manufacture a new sign
for the Design Technology department based on winning
‘Sign Design’ competition entries completed by KS3 pupils
in July.
So far this year we have
planted 100 red tulip bulbs
and 200 mini daffs. There
are now six new shrubs in
the West Block bed as well
as snowdrops.
GCSE Graphic Products
logo project update
Following the Year 10 logo
competition reported in last
term’s newsletter, Cumbria
Squash and Racketball are now
using competition winner
George Carr’s logo on their
website and t-shirts etc.
The club have presented
George (now in Year 11) with
a club t-shirt as a thank you
for all his hard work. Well done
George!
J.Merritt
Thanks to cre8 club members
for all their hard work in manufacturing the sign: Jack Haigh,
Sam Butterworth, Alex Briggs,
Frank Koncynski, Tommy Drinkall, Beth Clare, Olivia Budd, Will
Brown, Olun Gunn, James Maxwell, Peter Mitchell, Harry Huddleston, Stephen Cockram, Catrina Salisbury Faye Bowness,
Trudi Beuzeval, Ellie Chambers,
Kirsty
Burton,
Florence Jones,
Harvey Williams,
Angus Galbraith,
Bethany Porter,
Katie Oston, Tom
Woodend, Jack Wren, Harry
Barnett, Joe Gorst, Peter Eastaby, Oli Stretten, Cobi Hoare,
George Parrott.
Congratulations to the winning ‘Sign Design’ competition
winners (designs below):
D - Mollie Smith
E - Cameron Duhig
S - Beth Clare
I - James Maxwell
G – Florence Jones
N – Luke Tomlinson
T – Rebecca Chandler
E – Florence Jones
C – Tom Martlew
H – Victoria Wray
N – Dominic Ramwell
O – Ruban Ketchen
L – Aimee Goggins
O – Joe Gorst
G – Olivia Lawson
Y – Connie Sutton
cre8 club for Year 9 pupils can
be found in the D&T department every Tuesday lunchtime
at 1.30. Exciting new projects
will follow in the spring term.
K Vose
Solar Schools
A group of sixth form ecowarriors have launched a
campaign to bring clean solar power to QES.
The project, which
is run in collaboration with the climate change charity 10:10, aims to
raise money to buy photovoltaic panels to go on the roof
of school. Alex Casement (Year
12), said: “We want QES to play
a leading role in raising the issues of climate change and
sustainable energy. Solar panels are one of the ways that we
can highlight these important
ideas while reducing our carbon footprint.”
See how we are doing at www.
solarschools.org, or follow the
link on the QES home page.
Science Club
This half-term in Year 7 Science Club the focus was on
the Biology department’s
activities, which ranged from
forensics to giant rabbits!
Every week, 15 dedicated
pupils made positive contributions and asked intuitive
questions about the content
of the sessions. The department awarded prizes to Robbie Garland, 7L, and Zachery
Hill, 7L. One of the prizes was
a butterfly house kit. These
students showed particular
enthusiasm and interest in
the sessions and we look
forward to seeing them next
term in the Chemistry department’s Science Club.
Alex Hilton and Mary Mitton,
Year 13 Biology Officials.
11
Astronomy in the Physics classroom
Year 7 Drama Festival 2012 - Narrative poetry
Edgar Allen Poe’s
The Raven
Beowulf by an unknown
Anglo-Saxon poet
Homer’s
Odyssey
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The Physics department have
recently hosted Professor Andrew Newsam, a researcher
and lecturer in Astronomy at
Liverpool John Moores University.
As well as providing a series
of engaging talks as part of
his Astrotour, A-level Physics
classes were given an hour
with Andrew to enquire about
particular areas of the Physics syllabus. We were looking
forward to meeting Andrew
and the opportunity to learn
more about what we had been
taught in lessons.
We all enjoyed the discussion,
even though it raised more
questions than it answered
about space and the universe.
It seemed that the hour was
not long enough and many of
us chose to stay after the bell
to talk some more.
Tom Crackles
New Year 7 Chemistry club
The chemistry department
have recently set up a Year 7
chemistry club, and with help
from some A-level students it
has been a great success. The
aim of the club is to offer an
exciting and engaging club
for lower school students who
have enjoyed their chemistry
lessons. With activities ranging from making fireworks to
using chemical identification
techniques the sessions have
been fun and interesting. The
club has proved very popular
with lots of pupils attending
and with more exciting practicals planned for the next few
weeks it is set to be a continuing success.
Tom Crackles
Science taster lessons voted a great experience
I loved the QES science taster
sessions because they were a
great experience of what science was like here.
12
It really showed you a different
side of science as some Primary
schools haven’t got the equipment or appropriate environment to do really advanced
(and really cool!) science. We
did really fun experiments including trying different fruits
to see how many volts they
produced. Overall I had a really
good time and learnt lots of
new things but without feeling
it was an actual lesson.
Rachael Fell 7W
Before I came to QES I had
some taster science lessons
with Mrs Glaves in Lab 2. In
the lessons we found out what
happens when you mix certain
chemicals and water together.
We also made butter from
cream by putting it in a jar
and shaking it. We then got to
eat it on some bread. Overall I
enjoyed our Science taster lessons at QES.
William Bush 7E
The Gresford Mining Disaster
by an unknown poet
Wordsworth’s
The Prelude
13
OFFsite
Duke of Edinburgh Silver and Gold Awards
long day over, the whole group
slept soundly with the teachers
arriving from a meeting with
Dan to the sound of snores accompanying the pitter-patter
of drizzle landing gently on the
tents.
The penultimate day saw the
group eager to start on the
river as Dan had said the day
before “the exciting part was
really on the third day”.
A
s part of
my Silver
Duke
of
Edinburgh Award,
a group of twelve
students and four staff set
out on a canoe trip into the
depths of a wild, (very) wet,
Scottish countryside.
We travelled to the edge of
Loch Tay to start a four day expedition. The first night after
travelling up from school in
the bumpy mini-bus the group
spent the night in the comfort
of a dry warm bed at Culdees
Bunkhouse, with the adventure
beginning the morning after.
We met the canoes that would
be our mode of transport for
the week in a little town at one
end of the lake called Killin,
where the weather set a trend.
It was raining.
14
That day the group spent
the relatively short distance
along the lake shore getting to
grips with their boats and trying to find the most effective
stroke. That night the group
(which combined both silver
and gold award participants)
was spent in the wild, without
any facilities in a wood just off
the shore of the loch with the
steady drip of water off the
fern leaves mixed with the hiss
of the nearby waterfall being
the background lullaby for all
of the campers.
Another drizzly damp day
dawned and with the camp
leaving with as little impact on
the flora and fauna as possible
we left with the target of getting onto the river. Whilst on
the loch that day we began to
realise how truly wild and untouched some of the Scottish
countryside is as we encountered a wild osprey’s nest and
the osprey itself flying high
above us. After reaching the
start of the river we met ‘Happy
Dan’ who was to be our guide
to the rapids of the Tay River.
Our first challenge was to practice ‘ferry gliding’ and getting
in and out of eddies, then, after
passing Dan’s tests, we met our
first set of rapids with beating
hearts.
Capsizing avoided, we were allowed to camp at a recognised
site which, after one damp
night of torches and ferns and
a stream ‘sink’ as the available
bathroom, provided extremely
welcome showers and hand
dryers with everyone in the
group being very thankful for
the warmth. With a difficult,
That day we were met with a
stretch of rapids that set our
adrenaline pulsing through our
blood. Dan told us what to do
and then each boat had to wait
their turn watching the one infront disappear down into the
depths and then be brought
up again on what looked (to a
rapid novice) like a tsunami of
dark brown, frothy, water.
Our time came and Rosie
and I took a deep breath and
screamed our way up and
down on the waves until Dan
and the eddy were visible.
Then, shaking with the relief of
survival and with the adrenaline still pulsing through us; we
waited until each one of our
eight boats had arrived safely
through.
Adding to the joy of completing our first and most difficult
set of rapids the sun chose that
moment to break through the
grey cloud cover. The day ended in another camp and after
lugging all our equipment up
the hill to the SCA campsite
we settled in for the night with
the unfamiliar silence of dry
weather.
The final day dawned and the
whole camp was buzzing with
the exciting prospect of a night
not under canvas but in the
Bunkhouse. The final day was
the only day that waterproof
trousers were not needed, a
novelty that we all were happy
to experience!
With the sun on our necks and
ducks as our only guides, the
teachers and Dan had dropped
behind because the river was
so tame and mellow for the final stretch, the six pupil boats
set out for our last day in the
Tay valley with rolling green
hills as our protection.
With no capsizes, only one ‘fall
in’, and only one boat getting
stuck, I would like to thank the
QES staff that accompanied us,
and ‘Happy Dan’, our guide, for
giving us the opportunity to
take part in such a successful
and memorable experience.
Jess Ronan 12T
L
ast
summer, a group
of twelve of
us went up to Loch
Tay in Scotland to
complete our Gold Duke of
Edinburgh expedition.
We spent our last night in civilisation at Culdees Bunkhouse
and set off in the morning for
Killin, where we started our expedition. After waterproofing
and securing our dry bags and
barrels, we set off on Loch Tay.
We canoed about 15 kilometres to our first ‘campsite’
– woodland on the shore of
the loch for our ‘wild’ camp.
In the morning we packed up
our soggy equipment and set
off to conquer the rest of Loch
Tay. We also tried (and failed)
to master the art of sailing
with canoes, tying our boats
together and using an emergency shelter sheet as a sail.
Eventually we made it to the
east shore of the loch, where
we met Dan, our instructor
for the next few days. We then
set off down the River Tay and
learnt how to ferry glide and
break in and out of eddies to
prepare us for the white-water
stretches of the river that were
yet to come.
Having enjoyed the privilege
of a campsite with showers
and toilets, we began the next
stretch of our expedition and
spent our last 2 days focusing
on technique, with some grade
2 rapids to battle with. We
spent our last night in Scotland
back in the bunk house and
took full advantage of the hot
water!
Rosie Burd
15
Amnesty group
QES Amnesty International
Group was well represented
at the Amnesty International North West Conference
held in Lancaster on 17th
November.
Warhammer World
Tuesday
20th
November
marked the Warhammer World
Schools’ League Open Day.
This was a chance for students
to get a flavour of the Warhammer hobby and also to experience the very impressive venue
of Warhammer World, pictured
below.
QES took fourteen students,
many of whom had very little
experience of the hobby previously. By the end of the day, all
were hugely enthusiastic about
collecting, assembling, painting and battling with their own
armies. The Warhammer World
staff were excellent and led a
number of workshops to introduce new players to both the
gaming and the painting sides
of the hobby.
16
The more experienced members of the group were able
to play a series of matches
against players from other
schools. Each of our students
tasted both success and defeat
but, more importantly, really
enjoyed the experience and
picked up a lot of tips which
will come in handy when the
school league starts for real
in March. Even Mrs Bennett
found the trip enjoyable. She
was quoted as saying, “The coffee was excellent.”
A.Rawson
Mr Rushton, Kate Mee (Yr13),
Rose Russell-Cohen (Yr12) and
Evie Russell-Cohen (10Q) heard
speakers and took part in workshops on the key human rights
issues of the year including the
latest on the UK Bill of Human
Rights and the ‘Snooper’s Charter’ (concerning secrecy and internet details privacy).
We joined the protest march
to Lancaster Castle in solidarity with Syria and heard eyewitness accounts from Syria,
including the impact of the
psychological trauma resulting from the war. The speakers really brought home to us
that the stories we see on the
news are not just sensationalised reports but are about real
people’s lives and their terrible
suffering.
Rose Russell-Cohen (12E)
L
Art Department visit to Florence 2012
ast summer the QES
Art department went
on its first trip to Florence. It was an excellent opportunity for budding artists and photographers to
gain inspiration in the birthplace of the Renaissance.
With phrase book in hand, we
set about exploring this beautiful and revolutionary city, with
its Brunellschi architecture at
Basilica di San Lorenzo and fantastic galleries: Museo Bargello,
the Galleria del Academia, and
the Uffizi to name a few.
San Lorenzo church is an imposing building and the design of the arches creates the
effect of them flowing from
one to the next. The magnificent central dome is framed by
a gold border with hundreds
of individual flowers. One can
only wonder at the immense
wealth of the Medici family
which paid for all this glorious
art and magnificent buildings.
The wall paintings or frescos
are amazing. How the artists managed to get the right
perspective and proportions
when painting on ladders or
in cramped positions, is beyond me. I learnt that a fresco
by Giotto, revolutionary for being the first to have painted
people facing in different directions.
is created by painting directly
onto plaster whilst it is still wet,
which means that the dyes
sink in to the plaster, thus making them extremely difficult to
restore.
During the trip we also went
to see chapels belonging to
the Medici family, who ruled
over Florence for hundreds of
years. Over the centuries they
employed great artists to create the chapels, Michelangelo
designed the stairs, but the exterior of the chapel is yet to be
completed, despite numerous
architects submitting ideas.
One of my favourite chapels in
Santa Croce church was Beata
Umilia na de’cerchi, which contains the preserved relics of the
blessed Unuciliana, a Florentine nun who was worshiped
even during her short life for
her modesty, charity, obedience and miracles. Amongst
the wonderful frescos was one
No wonder artists such as
Francesco Botticini, Anton Domenico Gabbiani, and Bernandini Luini found this city so
inspirational; not forgetting of
course the Renaissance greats
of Michelangelo, Donatello, Da
Vinci and Giotto.
A friend and I decided to go
up the tower of the Duomo.
Finally reaching the top, we
clung onto the steel wire, convinced we could fall off at any
moment! Once relaxed we enjoyed brilliant views of the entire city, and even tried to seek
out the others in the square
below, but they were so small
it was impossible to see them.
This report has only scratched
the surface of the QES trip to
Florence, which has left us
all with happy and inspiring
memories. On behalf of everyone I would like to thank Mr
Gabrysch, Mrs Denby, Mrs Wilson, Mr Rushton and Miss Appleton for giving up their time
to take us on the trip.
Hannah Smith
17
GCSE Art trip to Dalton Zoo
On our day to Dalton Zoo the
weather definitely wasn’t
zoo type weather as it was
quite wet and windy.
When we arrived at the zoo
it got even colder, if that was
possible, because of the wind
blowing up the hill, but that
didn’t detract from the fun of
seeing the different animals.
At first we went to go see the
lemurs to take pictures of
them. This was a bit of an unexpected experience as the
lemurs were walking around
with the rest of us. Then we
saw the emus which were also
walking around. That was a bit
of a surprise for everyone but
it meant you were able to get
up close to the animals which
helped a lot when taking pictures.
When we went to look and
take pictures of the rhinos
that was a bit of a scary experience at first, but luckily they
were definitely not walking
around with us. After that were
the monkeys, a lot of different
types, from spider monkeys to
baboons which were all lively
and loud.
When it came to drawing some
of the animals’ shapes and features we visited the giraffes
first which were inside (see
picture below), which wasn’t a
surprise as the weather seem
to get even colder as the day
went on.
The hardest of all the animals
to draw were definitely the spider monkeys because as they
never seemed to stop moving, until they seemed to take
an interest in the books we
were drawing in and then they
seemed to slow down a bit. By
the end of the day, after lunch
and the visit to the gift shop
we went back to the minibus
with a few pages of drawings
and a lot of photos.
Sarah Fillingham Year 10
The students are now working
on ceramic animals inspired by
their visit. A special thank you
to Mr Gerrard who accompanied us and drove the minibus.
E.Denby
Liverpool
Biennial
This Art Department trip in October with Year 12 and 13 Art,
Photography and Expressive
Textiles students was great.
It was really useful for everyone’s projects because we
got to see such a range of
work, from Turner to the John
Moores painting competition.
I really liked the special exhibitions that were put on for the
Biennial. It was a great experience and inspiration, that we
all really enjoyed.
Katherine Snow
A
Girls in Engineering
t the end of the summer
term Lydia Taylor and
Briony Lambert attended a
Girls in Engineering Day as
part of their work experience week.
Highlight of the day was the
Propulsion Lab Show presented by Starchaser Director Steve
Bennet. Starchaser was the first
privately owned company to
build and successfully launch
a rocket that is capable of carrying people into space and
are hoping to become the first
private company to use reusable suborbital spaceships for
space tourism.
The presentations by Steve
explained his life long fascination with space and his science
show, consisting of smelly and
noisy interactive demonstrations, explained the complexities and challenges of space
travel. Other sessions included
a team challenge, ‘practical
aerodynamics’ and the manufacture of fuel cells from fruit
juices.
The day also offered the chance
for the girls to speak to women
in different engineering fields,
from the executive director
of engineering at Sellafield to
fledgling engineering apprentices just starting out in their
chosen career.
Many thanks to Mrs Dixon for
organising the trip and to Mr
Evison for chauffeuring.
K.Vose
The Physics Olympics
On 6th October Alex Colton,
Thomas Hudson, Rosie Gardner and I went to Liverpool
University for the day in order
to compete in the Physics Olympics, a physics competition,
comprising various challenges
against 28 other teams from
schools and sixth form colleges
from across the North West of
England.
Our first challenge was to identify four Higgs Boson particles
from a chaotic mess of 80 other
diagrams of particle collisions.
This is basically what the Large
Hadron Collider, based at CERN
was built to do, so needless to
say, we all enjoyed it.
18
Launch of the
Starchaser Rocket.
Other challenges throughout
the day included making and
modifying paper aeroplanes
in order for them to fly an extremely awkward route, and
building a rocket to be fired
from a trebuchet. Ours flew
nine metres before crash landing!
We also had to design our own
signalling system to guide a
blindfolded Alex around an
obstacle course. After a lot of
finger clicking, clapping and
just two collisions with trees
we finished in about three
minutes.
The best activity of the day
was where we had to find the
co-ordinates of a gamma radiation source within a large
cube, using a Geiger counter,
by working out the combinations of co-ordinates where the
most radiation was emitted.
After working it out, we found
out the radioactive source was
antimatter which annihilates
normal matter!
Throughout the day we had
to complete a quiz, which involved calculating the mass
of the universe, the number
of the molecules of water in a
raindrop and the power used
by the Mars Rover.
.
We all thoroughly enjoyed the
event, and to our delight (and
surprise) we came third overall,
and had a great day!
Laura Hunt 12K
19
H
ome again it now
seems impossible to
think that we packed
so much into thirteen funfilled days. But we did and
this trip for twenty- five Year
10 and 11 students was as
successful as any we have
taken in the twenty years it
has been running.
Because of airline difficulties
we arrived late in the USA, but
we were determined not to let
the loss of a day in the US capital interfere with our itinerary
and Monday morning saw us
early at the Capitol for our private tour of the centre of government. Once again our guide
David had made time from his
busy work schedule to show us
round and had arranged for us
to be able to sit on the floor of
the House of Representatives
in the seats reserved for the
most senior Democratic Senators, immediately in front of
the Speaker’s desk.
20
Leaving the Capitol we hurried across the road by the
Supreme Court to the Folger,
which stands immediately behind the Library of Congress,
for our first view of the stage
on which we were to perform
in two days’ time. From the
Folger we went down onto the
Mall to get lunch at the kiosk
just across from the Air and
Space Museum, our next port
of call. It was while relaxing
over lunch that we had our first
opportunity to fully appreciate
how beautiful the city looked.
2012 is a special year for it is
the centenary of the gift of
cherry trees from the people of
Tokyo– and twenty- one years
Washington 2012
since we first got the invitation
to participate in the Shakespeare Festival. The unusually
warm weather had caused the
trees to bloom early and the
pathways along the Tidal Basin
and the white marble buildings
on the Mall were surrounded
by masses of pink and white
blossom. How we loved strolling beneath boughs weighted
down with flowers and when
the breeze from the water
along the tidal basin made it
seem like a miniature snowstorm of pink petals.
“The stretch of
the Mall between
the Capitol and
the Washington
Monument is
surrounded on both
sides by some of
the finest museums
and galleries in the
world”
The stretch of the Mall between
the Capitol and the Washington Monument is surrounded
on both sides by some of the
finest museums and galleries in the world and over the
course of our stay in the city
we made a point of visiting as
many as we could.
We visited the American History, where we took part in a reconstruction of the civil rights
Greensboro silent sit-in, the
Natural History, the Museum
of the Native American Indian,
the Botanical Gardens, the Air
and Space, the Holocaust Museum, the Newseum, which is
the museum dedicated to the
freedom of the Press, the Hirshorn Museum of Modern Art,
the Hirshorn Sculpture Park,
the Sculpture Garden of the
National Gallery of Art and had
educational tours of the West
and East Buildings of the National Gallery, the one housing
art works from the 15th to the
twentieth century, the other
to twentieth century and contemporary art.
Wednesday 23rd was our day
at the Festival and we wondered whether we would be
able to cut the mustard with
our A Midsummer Night’s
Dream. There were some very
interesting performances from
the American schools, including one from the French International School from Bethesda,
Maryland, scenes from Macbeth in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.
No need to have worried, the
group gave it their all and were
well rewarded. We received
three individual excellence
in acting awards for Michael
Harkness
(Peter
Quince),
Eleanor Benson (Titania), Inka
Spragg (Puck) and awards for
all the Fairies and the DreamCatcher.
I felt that what distinguished
the group was that it was a real
team effort and what made it
so satisfying was to see people who had never been on a
stage before and who had felt
so nervous at the prospect actually enjoying the experience.
They did themselves and the
school proud. Naturally we had
to celebrate that night and did
so by booking the hotel restaurant for a party.
Thursday was the day of the
big walk, as the tour of the
monuments and memorials has come to be called. We
started our tour at the towering obelisk dedicated to first
president George Washington,
which stands central on the
Mall between the Capitol and
the Lincoln Memorial.
Although the group had received detailed information
about the city’s memorials long
before leaving for the US – and
even more on actually coming face to face with them! – it
was only when they saw them
in situ that the symbolism and
their significance in relation to
other events in American history became apparent.
Leaving the Monument we
made our way along the Tidal
Basin to the domed Jefferson
memorial on whose marble
walls are inscribed the words
of the Constitution. A statue
of Thomas Jefferson stares out
across the water to face his
successors in the White House,
as though challenging them to
disregard it at their peril.
The magnificent memorial to
Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
the president who steered the
country through the Depression and the Second World War
followed. The only president to
serve four terms in office, each
term is designated its own outdoor “room”.
As FDR’s “New Deal” created
jobs and prosperity by building huge hydro-electric dams,
water is cleverly used to symbolise his achievements.
“Being in a city
where such a high
percentage of its
citizens are AfricanAmerican gave our
students a powerful
appreciation of
the civil rights
campaigns”
The war years “rooms” also use
waterfalls, the chaos of war depicted by violent tumbling falls
and peace by ordered ones.
A statue of FDR, seated in his
wheelchair, for he was crippled
by polio aged 39, testifies to
the greatness of a man of vision who did not allow physical
disability to stand in his way. A
statue of Farla, his pet dog, sits
with her bronze ears polished
to a burnished gold so many
people have stroked them,
including, naturally, countless
QES contingents.
It was exciting to visit next the
newest memorial, that to Martin Luther King. A huge polished statue of the civil rights
leader is seen rising out of a
massive unpolished marble
block, the rough stone suggesting that the civil rights
struggle is not entirely over.
Facing him in the distance is
the Jefferson memorial and
behind him the Lincoln, where
he gave his famous “I have a
dream...” speech. Words from
that 1963 speech are carved
onto the rock. Being in a city
where such a high percent-
age of its citizens are AfricanAmerican gave our students a
powerful appreciation of the
civil rights campaigns.
A lunch of burgers and fries in
blazing sun by the Lincoln Memorial was followed by visits to
the Korean, Lincoln, Vietnam
and World War Two memorials
and a walk to the White House.
What a fabulous day!
Friday saw us off to Annapolis, state capital of Maryland,
where our students were given
the chance to experience life
as an American teenager with
students from Broadneck High
School and their families. Saturday night saw them all partying together, then it was off
midnight bowling for many,
trips to Baltimore, the Annapolis shopping mall and various
restaurants and eateries.
On Monday morning we hurried to the United States Naval
Academy where our old friend
Commander Jim Knorr was
waiting to give us a tour. After
a 20- minute film outlining the
training of the midshipmen,
we were lucky enough to catch
the noon march by two thousand midshipmen lined up in
formation and led by a pipe
band.
Back in DC we visited those museums still left on our schedule,
went to see Shear Madness, the
longest running comedy in
the states and had a last night
party at one of the craziest Italian restaurants you could ever
find. It had been a wonderful
opportunity to broaden horizons, a great experience and
one we will all remember with
real affection.
Diana Sharratt
21
performingarts
The term in Music
Carnival of the Animals:
the Scholars’ Road Trip
Back in July, the Year 10 and
11 scholars took to the local
roads and visited seven primary schools with their performance of Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens. They also
performed at QES to a packed
Harlequin Theatre, completing
their busy week with one more
primary school visit the following morning. The younger
pupils made a wonderful audience for our players, who acquitted themselves like professionals and even did their own
roadie chores. Despite a couple
of instances of oversleeping by
those who had broken off their
study leave to join us, all went
smoothly, and it was a fantastic way for the Year 11s to end
their two-year course as Music
Scholars.
Westmorland Gala Concert
This annual event features the
best players from local schools
and is hosted by a different
school every year. October
2012 was at Casterton School,
and QES was represented by
the String Quintet, featuring Holly Chalcraft, Rhiannon
Neale, Freya Rock, Rachel Todner and Amy Thompson on
harpsichord. They were the
finale item, and certainly lived
up to it with a magnificent performance of a movement from
L’Estro Armonico by Vivaldi.
22
Berkeley Ensemble:
Fingal’s cave
The Berkeley Ensemble, now
a set of familiar faces at QES
since they approached us to
become our resident ensemble in 2010, returned on Octo-
ber 24th for a flying visit which
included two hours of composition workshops with Year 11
and the rest of the day with the
orchestra, preparing for the
evening’s concert. Their work
with the different sections of
the orchestra was the making
of a concert showing the pupils’ very best playing in some
very difficult music. Well done
to all performers!
Their next visit will be in February, when they will be performing and recording some of our
Year 11 GCSE students’ compositions. Look out for tickets for
that event!
Festivals this term
The QES Festival series has
started again this year with two
concerts, the Brass Festival on
November 8th and the Clarinet
and Saxophone Festival on November 15th. There were some
really brave beginners and
some very accomplished older
players, with performances
from the Saxophone Quartet
(now a bit of a local hit), the
Clarinet Group and the Brass
Group starting off their respective concerts with playing that
just seems to get better every
year. Well done everyone!
Salt Pie Lane at the Gregson
The Folk Group, Salt Pie Lane,
played their first ever ceilidh
on Saturday 10th November,
keeping what were probably
Scholars’ Road Trip
their latest hours as a performing group since they began
doing regular concerts. Many
thanks to Mr Beale and Jess
Wood’s dad for sorting out
our equipment, and to Fin and
Callum, two able sound technicians. This group has gone
from strength to strength since
forming with its current members two years ago, and hope
to revisit Sedbergh Folk Festival
and maybe travel further afield
with their fabulous talent over
the next few months!
J.Hartley
Berkeley Ensemble
Salt Pie Lane
Future events
(Still to come at time
of writing)
±
Advent Service
Sunday 2nd December at
St Mary’s Church at 6pm
(no tickets needed!)
±
Year 7 Music Showcase
Wednesday 5th December, 6pm and 7pm in the
Main Theatre. Tickets
from Mrs Prior @£2.50
(children free) via pink
reply slip.
±
Christmas Concert
Tuesday 18th December
in the Main Theatre, 7pm.
Tickets from Mrs Prior
@£5 (£3).
Berkeley Ensemble
Saxophone Festival
Clarinet Festival
±
Carol Concert
Thursday 20th December at St Mary’s Church, 7pm.
No tickets needed.
23
Paul Pfeuti Trust Grant
I was awarded a grant by the
Paul Pfeuti Young Musician
Trust to help with the cost of
attending the National Schools’
Symphony Orchestra Course.
I was delighted to be selected
for the course, and was really
excited when I arrived at Malvern College on 15th July. It
was fantastic to meet so many
people who share my love of
music. There were players from
different schools all over the
country so it was a privilege to
be able to represent QES.
The week began with a full rehearsal very soon after we’d arrived. I was unsure where I’d be
seated as the standard in the
orchestra was very high, and I
was really pleased to be given a
place in the first violins, a great
source of orchestral experience
for me as I haven’t played first
violin in an advanced orchestra before. The parts were very
technically demanding but fun
to play!
The start of the week was
mainly sectional rehearsals,
which were hard work as the
first violin tutor was tough on
technique meaning you had to
be constantly aware of everything in the music. The second
half of the week was mainly full
rehearsals. It was amazing see-
ing it all come together as the
week progressed. We played
for six or seven hours a day
as there was a lot of music to
be covered in a short space of
time.
The concert at the end of the
week as part of the Three Choirs
Festival was a huge success. We
played Peter and the Wolf and
a newly-commissioned suite
by composer Patrick Doyle. It
was a wonderful feeling playing with such a strong orchestra, and I feel I can take a lot of
experience back to my school
and county groups.
Freya Rock 11M
Media studies film-makers
Every summer term, after the
exams are over, the Media
Studies teachers set their students a production challenge,
with two cinema tickets as a
prize. The aim of the challenge
is to build on the skills of the
AS course and prepare the students for the greater demands
of practical work at A2.
T
BTEC Performing Arts - Betrayal of Angels
hree sold-out nights
in October saw the
production of the Year
11 BTEC Performing Arts
Group’s new devised play,
Betrayal of Angels.
This was an unusual GCSE
performance. Set during 1945
in the chaotic crisis facing
Germany towards the end of
World War II when the Russians
attacked, the play is essentially
about a group of eleven German school-children escaping
from the wrath of the incoming Russians on a plane for the
last of the faithful.
The plane crashes in a dark valley and the children find themselves stranded with nobody
to help them. Deserted and
disorientated, they must work
together in order to try to survive and reach safety.
However, their journey is
fraught with danger. Some of
the children bear life-threatening injuries and the girl who
had declared herself their
leader, Lena, controls and manipulates them on a journey of
fear and terror in a bid to make
their way out of the freezing
valley alive.
With the help of Mr Brown,
Mr Fleming, Kate Jones and
former pupil James Shields, we
wrote, directed and performed
the play. What made the process and performance more unusual and interesting were the
filmed parts, which were the
product of a wet and gloomy
day out on Hutton Roof Crags
in full costume and makeup,
which was unfortunate for
the hikers we came across. We
worked hard to achieve a sophisticated performance that
made the audience think about
what they were seeing and the
response we got was amazing.
It was extremely rewarding to
see our ideas take shape, our
hard work pay off, and to have
it to be so successful and positively received.
Cast: Sally Button, Didi Davies, Jordan Telfer, Thomas
Miles, Eva Lee, Amy McPherson, Holly Watson, Rachel
Tickle, Imogen Milne, Jess
Metcalfe and Isabella Lishman.
Written and directed by the
BTEC group, Mr Brown, Mr
Fleming and James Shields.
J.Brown
Amy MacPherson and Rachel
Tickle (Rachel is a Cartmel student
enrolled on the BTEC Young
Apprentice course at QES).
This year’s task gave students
the chance to choose their
own project, and the standard
of the results was high. The
judges had real difficulty deciding between a range of submissions in a variety of styles.
24
The winner was Daisy Barlow
with a music video, a very creatively-shot interpretation of
Oranges which she performed
herself and filmed in a range of
locations around Windermere.
Runners-up were Rob Eaton
and Aisha King.
25
learningmatters
T
Language College News - Barcelona Trip
he Spanish department took 48 Year 9
students on the Barcelona trip in July, and for the
7th Year running enjoyed
a wonderful week mixing
Spanish traditions and language, culture, art, sport,
scenery, food (and quite a
lot of fun too!).
Thanks to the Year 9 participants for being a lovely group
to take abroad, and thanks too
to the tireless staff who accompanied them.
Josh Clegg describes the trip
below.
S.Lomax
O
n Sunday 8th July,
we got to the airport
early for our flight.
The only downside of this
was that there was a seven
hour delay, but it was fine
because this meant that we
could go to Frankie and Bennies for dinner.
We eventually arrived at the
hotel at about 4am Barcelona
time, and had a few hours sleep
until we had to get up again.
On the Monday there was a really great buffet with a wide variety of foods. We then visited a
place called Las Ramblas, which
contained a huge market. I
bought a coconut smoothie,
and it was incredible. We then
had the opportunity to buy
Barcelona FC shirts, and then
we went to Nou Camp, the
Barcelona FC home stadium.
It was absolutely huge, and
it can seat 98,787 people! We
then returned to the hotel for a
swim and dinner, followed by a
Spanish Quiz.
On Tuesday we visited the
Joan Miro museum, which was
full of very interesting artwork,
and we also visited a park
which housed the world’s largest bench, and the house that
the architect Gaudi stayed in
while the Sagrada Familia cathedral was being built.
On the Wednesday, we visited
the Montserrat Monastery. We
used the cable car to get to
it, which was quite exciting.
The monastery is still home to
monks and nuns, and it is all
quite unique.
We then visited a water park
called Aqualeon, which allegedly houses the world’s only
pride of “Aqua Lions.” We were
told that the park lets the lions
out into the park at night for a
swim! The rides were also very
good. That night was flamenco
night, and we even had the opportunity to have a go!
On Thursday, we walked down
to the beach to buy stamps
and send postcards home,
and also to practise ordering
drinks in Spanish. After that,
we went to the theme park! It
housed Europe’s biggest freefall ride, at 73 metres.
Sky and I were the only people
to go on it, and it was absolutely brilliant! There were also a
host of other exciting rides that
we spent the afternoon riding.
That night was spent packing
and at the disco. Some of us
had a shot at dancing to Spanish disco songs, and the local
people were keen to show us
the correct steps!
On Friday we awoke early, and
took the coach to the airport,
and the plane back to England.
26
The Barcelona trip is absolutely amazing, and I would recommend it to any Year 8s for next
year!
Josh Clegg
W
Language College News - Paris Trip
e were some of the
ninety lucky pupils who took part
in the annual Year 8 Trip to
Paris and Ypres in July this
year.
After arriving in France we
stopped off at Vimy Ridge, a
memorial museum for those
who died fighting in WW1,
which was really interesting
and here we got to look around
the trenches. From here the
two coaches split to two different hotels in Paris for the rest of
the week.
After our first night in Paris we
spent the morning at Aqua
Boulevard, a big water park
with lots of different rides , before visiting the Sacré Coeur, a
famous Roman Catholic church
at the summit of Montmartre,
the highest point in Paris. We
then experienced some proper
French culture when we had
our portraits sketched by some
Parisian artists in Montmartre.
We finished off the day with
a fantastic boat trip down the
River Seine. We got beautiful
views of the Eiffel Tower and
other famous French monuments like the Notre Dame.
France that we weren’t visiting,
like a small Stade de France
and the Palace of Versailles, all
in perfect miniature
We then all had a delicious
dinner at a crêperie where
again our French was tested
as we had to order our meal
in French, before we spent the
evening at Tour Montparnasse.
We took a lift 59 floors up a 210
metre skyscraper office block,
to the top where we had amazing birdseye views over Paris
and we could see for miles.
Next day we visited the Science museum and then walked
down the Champs -Elysées.
Here we got a fantastic view
down to the Arc de Triomphe
- which we then climbed to the
top of! It really gave us all a feel
of the scale of Paris.
We had a rather spooky end to
our last full day in Paris, when
we visited the Père Lachaise
Cemetery. Here we looked
around the very strange and
eerie grave yard with the impressive grave stones, where
some famous celebrities are
buried including Jim Morrison
from the Doors.
We then headed back to the
hotel for the Fancy Dress Competition. There were painters,
the Three Musketeers, Beaux
Baton students from Harry Potter and even Napoleon came.
Next day we left Paris to go to
Park Asterix. We had lots of fun
on the different rides, but only
a few people dared to go on
the exceptionally scary seven
looper rollercoaster.
Before coming home we spent
one night in Ypres in Belgium.
Ypres had been a key town
which had been bombarded
by Germans throughout most
of the war. That evening, we attended the last post that happens every evening to commemorate those who fought
and died in WW1. It was a very
emotional and moving ceremony that made us realise just
how destructive the war was.
We had an amazing trip, learning about the culture and language of France and seeing
famous historical monuments.
We got to know people from
our year better and had a fantastic time we’ll never forget.
Hannah and Catherine Hunt
Next day we visited the markets of Versailles, full of stalls of
local produce. We learnt some
new phrases, so we could buy
different things from the market and Mr Hill was particularly
interested in the snail stalls.
We then spent the afternoon
at France Miniature, where we
got the opportunity to find
some other famous parts of
27
O
Language College News - Berlin Trip
n Nov 27th, 25 Year
10 and 11 pupils
set off for a week
in Berlin, accompanied by
Mrs Gray, Ms Motch and Mr
Rushton.
This was a joint History and
German trip, experiencing German language and culture, especially the atmospheric German Christmas markets, but
also recent German history. We
visited the Checkpoint Charlie
Museum, Sachsenhausen concentration camp and ascended
both the Television Tower and
the government Reichstag
building for panoramic views
of the city. Here’s an account of
the trip from Jack Horrocks.
H.Gray
A
s many of you will
know, Germany has
a long and incredibly
interesting history.
For me, studying German history through my World History
GCSE has been an amazing
insight into some of the largest events and conflicts of the
last century. When the chance
arrived to visit the country, I
couldn’t pass up this amazing
opportunity.
28
Not only was it a step into the
home of some great historical events, it was also a step
into a different culture. Every
morning, we were presented
with a typical German breakfast, consisting of cold meats,
cheeses, bacon and a whole
host of different foods. Sadly
for Mr Rushton, it was a meat
lover’s paradise, but I am sure
he still enjoyed the trip as
much as the rest of us. We also
had the chance to experience
the famous German Christmas
markets. These markets are a
festive meeting place to mark
the start of advent, selling
handmade Christmas ornaments, local delicacies (such
as lebkuchen) and traditional
German handicrafts.
ative and thought-provoking
places I have ever visited. Seeing the harsh and brutal reality
of the prisoners’ lives during
Hitler’s regime was a sombre
and sobering experience.
The trip also presented to us
the opportunity to visit many
historical places and museums,
including the Reichstag (German parliament), the Brandenburg Gate and Sachsenhausen
concentration camp. The Reichstag building was incredible, and it gave us information
on the history of the Reichstag
and German politics.
As the trip was a History and
German speaking trip, the nonGerman speaking members of
the trip had to learn some “survival” German - basic phrases
that would help us communicate with the public and shop/
stall owners, including phrases
for asking for something, saying please and thank you, and
helping us if we got lost. The
German-speaking members
of the trip also had to have an
interview and a conversation
with a native German.
The visit to the Brandenburg
Gate allowed us to see the previous divide between east and
west Berlin (below) and had a
lot of history about the people that wanted to escape the
communist east side of Germany. Overall though, I found
Sachsenhausen concentration
camp one of the most provoc-
Overall, we have to thank QES
for providing us with these
opportunities. The trip was
thoroughly enjoyable and an
amazing experience for everyone involved, and I would definitely recommend it to budding historians and German
speakers! Danke für das Lesen!
Jack Horrocks
Virtual
Paris Day
a blast travelling about the
UK, meeting lots of wonderful
people, and enjoying some of
England’s finest vistas just out
my back door.
In September, we once again
celebrated the European Day
of Languages with our now annual Virtual Paris Day, when the
whole of Year 7 were taken off
timetable for a day of French
activities.
We began with a French
breakfast in the hall, followed
by workshops on cultural aspects such as French art, Parisian sites and the traditionally
French pastime of ‘boules’ as
well as language workshops on
a traditional French song and
all the transactional language
required for a day in the French
Modern
Languages
clubs on offer!
Mandarin Chinese lessons
with Qimei Li. Monday lunchtimes in Room 19.
German club with Ms Katamba.Tuesday lunchtimes
Italian club with Miss Jeffries
and Mr Guidici. Thursday
lunchtimes
Spanish Play
coming soon
We are hoping to have the
Spanish Theatre Company
Dreampark coming into
school on their annual visit to perform the Spanish
play Fuera de Pista about a
school skiing trip. This will
be at the start of May for all
Year 8s.
S.Armitstead
This year we welcomed three
new members of staff to the
department.
Miss Jeffries:
I teach French primarily. I
read French and Italian at
the University of Oxford and
then went on to complete my
PGCE in Modern Foreign Languages at St Martin’s. I have
been eagerly watching for a
vacancy here for some time! I
have thoroughly enjoyed my
first few months and have met
some remarkable students
and staff. I have particularly
enjoyed setting up an Italian
club for upper school students.
I think the culture, history and
language of Italy is fascinating
and something with which students can really engage. Thank
you to everyone for making me
feel so welcome.
Miss Daniels:
I hail from Oregon on the west
coast of the United States. I primarily teach 7th and 8th grade
(equivalent of Years 8 and 9)
Spanish at Oregon Episcopal
School in Portland, Oregon. I
am here in England for the year
as part of a teacher exchange
with Miss Sargeant. This year
is quite the incredible adventure and I am loving my time at
QES, getting to know my Years
8, 9, and 10 Spanish students,
and learning all about a different culture and educational
system. In my free time in Oregon, I am a member of one
of Portland’s premier choral
groups, take classes to learn
other languages, read, write,
camp in the mountains, and
whitewater raft among other
fun activities. Here I have had
Miss Katamba:
I’m from Lancaster originally
and after a long stint away living in various parts of the UK
and spending time working
in Germany and France, I have
returned to the north west
and am delighted to be teaching German and French at Key
Stages 3-5 at QES. I’m excited
to be part of such a dynamic
forward-looking staff - and
of course the pupils are great
too! I am running a German
club every Tuesday lunchtime
for those pupils who think
that they might be interested
in taking German in Year 10.
Activities include German X
Factor and Bundesliga games,
and nearer Christmas we’ll be
exploring German cuisine and
films too, and are always keen
to try out new ideas!
capital.Year 7s thoroughly enjoyed their day. Prizewinners
were Katherine Newell, who
won the quiz, and 7E for being
the best form on the day. Félicitations!
H.Gray
New staff in ML
29
Introducing the new careers guidance system
Mrs C Harrison, Director of
Impartial Careers Advice
and Guidance, introduces
the new careers guidance
system available at QES and
at home
U-Explore is an independent
and impartial careers platform
that inspires young people
about their futures and places
them in control of their own
learning and progression.
Not only does your child now
have access to U-Explore at
school, they can also log on
24/7, wherever they have an
internet connection. They can
get access to a wealth of exciting careers features, including
over 2,000 written and video
job profiles across 14 industry sectors, 360-degree virtual tours of real work environments and advice on how to
apply for a college or university
course, work experience placement or even a job.
How should my child use it?
There is no structured route
through U-Explore. Your child
can log on at any time for instant access to completely impartial information, advice and
guidance that will help them
to make informed choices
about their future options. If
your child has no idea where
to start, they can begin their
journey by searching by their
favourite subjects, interests,
30
Go to www.u-explore.com
and click the User Login tab
at the top of the page.
their best skills and qualities
or even the qualifications they
are studying for.
You could sit with your child
and discuss any thoughts they
already have surrounding their
future, encouraging them to
make notes in the Notepad
(found in the toolbar to the left
of the page) or ‘like’ any jobs,
qualifications, workplaces or
learning environments that
they are interested in. These
preferences will be saved in
your child’s individual Profile,
which can also be accessed
from the toolbar to the left of
the page.
What if I want to use
U-Explore myself?
That’s fine - many adults have
used U-Explore to find out
more about opportunities for
themselves. We would, however, ask you not to log in using your child’s user details as
this affects the tracking data
the school uses. Instead, please
register yourself by following
the instuctions in the box at
top right.
What do I need
to access U-Explore?
Access to a PC with broadband
connection and Flash Player in-
Click the Register button.
SNAPshots
Lots more colour photographs on our website: www.queenelizabeth.cumbria.sch.uk
Geography students
at High Force
Duke of Edinburgh expedition canoeists
attempting a sail (p.14)
Enter your personal details
in the About You section.
In the About Your Establishment section, select QES
from the drop down list.
Enter your child’s school
year and tick the Parent
box.
In the Registration Code, enter: [42339].
Create a memorable username and password for
yourself.
Sponsored Walk (p.8)
At the Holcaust Memorial
in Berlin (p.28)
Click Register then log in
using your new username
and password and begin
exploring!
stalled. The latest Flash player
can be obtained from http://
www.adobe.com/uk and click
on the Downloads.
We hope that you and your
son/daughter will enjoy using U-Explore to start thinking
about and planning for the
future.
C.Harrison
Director of Impartial Careers
Advice and Guidance
31
Barcelona 2012 (p.26)
snapshots
snapshots
Decorative owls
from the Crochet Club (p.10)
Amy MacPherson, Imogen Milne, Holly Watson in “Betrayal of Angels” (p.25)
QES Art on display
at the Westmorland Show
7M in costume for their performance of
“Bishop Hatto” in the Year 7 Drama Festival (p.13)
Elliot Street, Dan Smith and Jordan Challis
selected for the Year 9 Excel rugby program
(p.52)
A still from Daisy Barlow’s
music video “Oranges” (p.24)
Landscape Committee
members in the greenhouse
The new Design Technology sign (p. 11)
32
Kate Mee and Kellie Jones, charity
officials at the Year 7 disco (p.6)
Carnival of the Animals.
Scholars’ roadtrip group at Melling (p.22)
33
snapshots
A
Year 8 Rugby Team on the
Isle of Man, with proud coach
Eleanor Stuart and Faye Bowness with Talent Show awards (p.6)
Brendan Cleary in his
USA Rugby Union Kit (p.52)
Briony Lambert and Lydia Taylor
with the Starchaser rocket at a
Girls in Engineering Day (p.19)
At the Liverpool Biennial exhibition
with an Art Department trip (p.18)
34
Introducing the QES Business School
n
often
unsung
strength of QES is the
flexibility of the education it provides and individual departments’ ability
to adapt to suit the evolving needs of the students.
The Music Department has
the Scholars. MFL has the
Linguists and now Business
Studies has the Business
School.
Although still in its infancy,
the Business School has seen
a number of diverse and engaging activities in its short
life. Aiming to give budding
entrepreneurs and future captains of industry a taste of the
commercial and professional
world, the Business School students are developing skills at a
notable rate.
The course started with a variety of in-class tasks targeting the
main areas of business. Mainly
practical, these developed the
core skills needed in business.
“The best part of Business
School is doing the fun parts,
for example when we made
the zoo,” commented Ellie
Mackereth, 10W, in relation to
a task about Human Resource
management, a sentiment mirrored by George Plumbridge,
10M, who stated: “I love the
practical aspect of lessons”. The
development of core areas included student presentations,
marketing a cereal with high
levels of radiation and the now
infamous “Egg Protection Unit
Challenge”, where students
were tasked with producing a
product to stop an egg from
cracking. Henry Porteous, 10L,
described this as “interesting”.
“another special
chapter in the
QES story”
Targeting different learning
styles, Business School “involves all of the theory side of
Business but with added practical challenges which makes
it very interesting, informative
and fun” (Ned Lambert, 10S).
Alongside the in-class lessons, the Business School has
welcomed a variety of guest
speakers from different backgrounds and industries. As
Tom Carratu, 10L, enthused:
“When someone says guest
speaker, all I hear is learning
opportunity”. These talks have
taken place in a professional
boardroom setting and have
enriched the learning process
considerably, matching theories with a practical grounding.
All “amazing guest speakers”
according to 10K student Jordan Burrow, the visitors have
included owners of franchises,
experienced marketers and
design company directors. We
hope to continue this link with
the local business community.
In addition we have undertaken a school trip to Kirkby
Lonsdale, investigating the
types of business that flourish
and identifying opportunities
for new businesses in the area.
There are more exciting trips in
the pipeline.
The Business School has started better than anyone could
have envisaged, and it’s mainly
down to the commitment, enthusiasm and positive attitude
demonstrated by its students.
We are now hoping to build
on this success and create yet
another special chapter in the
QES story.
I.Burnett
35
Astronomically successful Andy
QES went astronomical between 19th November and
22nd November as Professor Andy Newsam, Director
of the National Schools’ Observatory, visited us as part
of his nationwide AstroTour.
During the three-day visit Professor Newsam met lots of pupils and students and gave lectures and answered questions
galore! On Monday evening,
interested pupils, students,
families and staff packed the
Main Hall (despite the appalling rainy and windy weather!)
to hear all about the use of telescopes at the forefront of Science to locate Near Earth Objects (i.e. asteroids that might
hit us!) and to detect and analyse Gamma Ray Bursts.
The hour lecture was followed
by questions, mainly asking
how we would deal with an
asteroid heading for Earth if
we found one. The answer is
to paint one side of it white by
the way…
On Tuesday, Year 10 spent an
hour listening to Professor
36
Newsam talk about how telescopes are used to look back
in time, discover new Science
and about how astronomers
work in collaboration across
the world.
As Director of the National
Schools’ Observatory, Andy
also discussed the Liverpool
Telescope and the Asteroid
Watch project in which anyone
can help identify, locate and
track asteroids using images
from the Liverpool Telescope
(see the link below).
Andy spent lunchtime with a
selection of pupils and students
from Years 10 – 13 discussing
dark matter and answering
questions. The day continued
with pupils from Leck, Burton
and Melling primary schools
coming into QES and listening
to Andy talk about being an
astronomer, completing Moon
mosaics and answering questions.
We obviously impressed Andy
(and tired him out) as he posted these comments on Twitter
on Tuesday evening…
@AstroAndyN - Great day
at QES in Kirkby Lonsdale.
Everyone is so friendly
around here! #AstroTour
@AstroAndyN - ... Though
I’m now shattered of
course #AstroTour
On Wednesday 21st Andy gave
the same lecture as Tuesday
but to Year 8 pupils, enjoyed
a lunchtime Q&A session with
pupils from Years 7 – 9 and
spent an hour each with our
Year 13 classes helping them
develop their understanding
of the astrophysics areas of
their A Level course.
It was an amazing few days at
QES and it was wonderful to
see our pupils so engaged in
Astrophysics and keen to quiz
a ‘real’ scientist!
I thought it was amazing; it
was sooooo interesting I never
knew any of those facts. Personally I thought it was brill
and a good way to learn about
the Universe!!
Erica Jeffery Year 8
I thought it was very interesting and fun as he made a
point of getting us all involved.
It was also interesting finding
out about the Sun and all the
other stars in the Universe.
Libby Rushton 8S
Thank you to everyone involved in making the events
a huge success – particularly
Helen Baines, the Site Team,
Café Q, the Science Department and of course pupils,
students and parents of QES.
Andy has requested some
feedback so we would both be
very grateful if you could do so
by following the link below.
C.Carrington
Links:
Asteroid Watch: http://
www.schoolsobservatory.
org.uk/activ/asteroidwatch
Feedback:
http://www.
schoolsobservatory.org.
uk/astrotour/feedback
The lecture was eye opening
about the Universe - I had no
idea how big and wonderful
it was! It was very interesting
learning about the planets,
space, the Sun and asteroids! It
was an amazing lecture!
Charlotte Christmas 8L
Here are some comments
from pupils who saw the lectures:
It was very interesting and I
know a lot more now. Thank
you Professor Newsam.
Bethany Dinsdale 8S
I think the AstroTour was really
interesting and I loved learning about what there was out
there in the Universe. Professor
Newsam was really funny and
made it easy to understand
and kept you listening with his
funny comments. He also answered lots of questions that
we had all been thinking, e.g.
will the world end on the 21st
of December 2012? The answer
is no for all you wondering! I really enjoyed it. Amy Leadbitter Year 8
37
In the Libraries
W
e have had a busy and
enjoyable term in the
libraries.
Hannah Hodgson in Year 10 is
running a creative writing club
on Mondays, and all writers are
welcome to join. Anne Pearson
will be visiting the club before
Christmas to give tips on entering her Cumbria-wide writing
competition.
Year 11 student Megan Stevenson holds a great reading club
for Year 7 on Tuesday lunchtimes – all Year 7s welcome! In
our Year 8 and 9 reading club
on Thursday lunchtimes we
read The Spook’s Apprentice in
readiness for our visit from Joseph Delaney – more below.
38
Our Archives Club runs on Tuesday lunchtimes – details of our
findings this term at right
.
This term we have invested in
six Kindles available to borrow;
Year 10 students have been trialling them and we have had a
very positive response. While
we all agree that the instant
gratification of downloading
a new book as and when we
want and having many books
at our fingertips on one device
is excellent, many of us say that
we are not ready to give up on
print just yet! Evidence of the
students’ continuing love of
“old-style” books is plain to see.
Our recent Scholastic book fair
made over £600 worth of sales.
Thanks to all our student helpers for making this a success
and in turn giving the Library
a further £300 to invest in new
fiction.
C.Holman
Mike Garry event
As we neared Remembrance
Day and thought of former
QES students who had fought
and lost their lives in the two
World Wars, the Archives Club
explored the story of the
school in wartime. Something
that struck us was that our
newsletters during the Second
World War shared the QES crest
with that of South Shields Girls
School, because we accommodated evacuees from the
north east. We were delighted
to discover online the digitised
newsletters of South Shields
from the same time. One
newsletter from 1940 contains
touching accounts of the new
lives of evacuees living here:
“Evacuation has been a
never to be forgotten experience for us all, but now
that we have been away
for some months, we are
almost beginning to look
upon ourselves as natives
of Kirkby Lonsdale, and
when friends come from
home, we show off its beauties with a definite sense of
ownership…”
The author of this piece goes
on to describe the attractions
of the area:
“We went skating on the
river Lune which, for fortyfive years, had not been
frozen.” Apparently the last
great frost before this was
in 1895, “when a coffee stall
was set up on the ice for the
refreshment of the skaters”.
Some of us would enjoy the
opportunity to experience
something similar this winter!”
The writer concludes:
“And so the weeks pass.
We do not find that we are
bored. In fact, at times, a
day seems too short to cram
in everything we want to do.
Yet we have time to think of
home and of the old school,
and from Kirkby Lonsdale
we wish you good luck.”
In return, students who stayed
in South Shields contributed
poignant poems about their
differing lives: the fear of falling bombs and the happiness
of getting out of school tests
on account of air raids! There’s
even a comic poem on the return of some of the Kirkby Lonsdale evacuees:
The Return of the Evacuees
(With apologies to Sir Walter Scott)
Our e-vacuees have come out of the West,
Of all this fair country South Shields is the best,
For thought it is dangerous, they know, to return,
And although a hard lesson they’ll
probably learn,
They’d rather be here and stand up to the test,
Those e-vacuees who are back from the West.
So boldly they went into room Number Three. –
“O, sir, we take English, though we haven’t
a book,
For the girls that have stayed there have all that
we took;
And though we’ve come back, we hope you
don’t mind,
But the best of the group we have left right
behind;
We’re really quite serious, it isn’t a jest,
We’re e-vacuees who’ve come out of the West.
L. Brown. Lower VI
If any family members have
memories of QES in the past,
the Archives Club would be
delighted to hear them.
C. Holman
In September we celebrated
National Poetry Day by inviting back another special
visitor, the performance
poet Mike Garry.
Mike is a dynamic and entertaining speaker who removes
the formality that some people
expect of poetry and makes
it accessible to everyone. His
poems reflect how he sees the
world and focus particularly
on some of the grittier aspects
of urban life in his beloved
Manchester. Since he last visited us Mike has been working
with some big names, including a tour of the country with
the amazing punk poet John
Cooper Clarke, with whom he
Student
Librarians
2013
Throughout November the
Library has been recruiting new Student Librarians
ready for the New Year.
shares a sharp view of society
mixed with brilliant humour.
This time around Mike met
with Year 11 students, many of
whom have gone on to explore
more of his poetry and that of
John Cooper Clarke. This might
not be the last time we see
Mike at QES!
C.Holman
As always, due to the high
volume and very high
standard of applications,
choosing our final fifteen
has not been an easy job!
It is important that our Student Librarians have the
ability and motivation to
learn new technical skills,
but equally they must be
good with people, and enjoy contributing to the QES
community. In return for
their time and effort, they
gain work experience, make
lots of new friends, and are
invited to the summer and
Christmas Library parties,
held in their honour!
After much deliberation we
have chosen our cohort for
2013, and are very pleased
to welcome the following
students to our team:
Tamsin Somers 7S
Rachael Fell 7W
Jessica Massey 7L
Matthew Wickes 7Q
Edward Hodgson 7Q
Ethan Telford 7K
Harry Mason 8E
Tom McCreadie 8L
Bela Jones 8K
Charlotte Christmas 8L
Caroline Marsh 9K
Rachael Stott 10S
Lucy Burrell 10E
Kyle Macdonald 11S
Zoe Butler 12W
C.Holman
39
I
Spook’s Apprentice author event
t was a huge pleasure to
welcome Joseph Delaney, author of the popular Spook’s stories, back to
our school in November.
Joseph first visited us in 2010
to talk to our then Year 9, and
also met with Year 5 and 6
students at nearby St. Mary’s
School. He was a big hit with
our students and when, this
September, we had new Year
7 students joining the school
who declared themselves fans
of Joseph’s many books, along
with many older readers (including a number of staff!), we
had to invite him back.
This time Joseph spoke to Year
7 and 8 students. He began
by describing the lonely and
frightening world of Thomas
Ward, the Spook’s Apprentice.
Being a seventh son of a seventh son, Tom is destined to
help rid the county of its evil
witches and boggarts.
The county is based on the historic boundaries of Lancashire
that stretched as far north as
Coniston and included the
Furness peninsula. Joseph has
drawn on local folklore and
legend for his plots, and several places—Priestown (Preston)
and Caster (Lancaster)—are
recognisable.
40
The main theme of Joseph’s talk
was the many witches in his
books, as 2012 marks the 400th
anniversary of the trials of the
Lancashire (Pendle) witches.
He showed us amazing illustrations from his books (right
column) of the Lamia witches,
both the domestic witch Meg
I
Celebrating Olympians
n Britain the summer
of 2012 will long be remembered for its sporting
achievement, but also, alas,
for its precipitation, making
it the wettest in one hundred years.
(the love of the Spook’s life)
and her feral sister.
For the first time in my sixteen
years at QES we were unable
to stage our annual athletics meeting in July. We always
have a reserve day in case of
bad weather and we have, on
occasions, had to avail ourselves of this, but this year was
so wet that Mr. Wynne and I
were unable to mark out in
advance of either of the scheduled days. We even considered
having a curtailed version of
Sport’s Day on the last day of
term but it dawned drizzly and
it was deemed too dangerous
for the athletes.
Finally we learned about the
new film of The Spook’s Apprentice. With a big budget behind
it, the producers have made
certain changes that they hope
will make it a box office hit. It
is called The Seventh Son; Tom
Ward is in his 20s instead of a
young teenager; and the boggarts are vast monsters that Joseph thinks have more in common with King Kong than the
smaller creatures he depicts in
his writing.
Undeterred the PE staff suggested that we could stage
an Olympic Celebration event
during the first week back in
September. For us it meant
keeping in the lines of the running tracks and field events
which would normally have
been allowed to fade out over.
Unfortunately we were unable
to fit it into a busy timetable
which was a shame as we had
marked out the Olympic rings
in glorious technicolour overlooking the 100 m finish line
Whether the film proves as
good as the books won’t be
known until late next year, but
in the meantime many Year 7
and 8 students will be enjoying
reading their signed copies of
The Spook’s series.
C.Holman
I must confess that my enthusiasm in the run-up to London
2012 was not all that it could
have been, but after that amazing opening ceremony it all
changed. It was incredible to
see our British history played
out in such a way taking us
had invested time and effort
into their development. Many
an interview with a medallist
ended with thanks to others
for their help. John Inverdale
made this telling comment, almost in the form of a question:
‘You need a parent or a teacher
to inspire you’.
from a largely agricultural
economy to one of ‘dark satanic mills’. The Olympics were
surely a resounding success
for the organizers, as were the
Paralympics. The crowds were
phenomenal in their support
of our athletes even though
some felt that they put additional pressure on the competitors because of their high
expectations.
I am sure that we were all immensely proud of our former
pupils who represented Team
GB in the Olympics and Paralympics. Pictured opposite are
Tom Young, who reached the
final in 8 Swimming events,
coming fourth in five of them,
and Alex Rutlidge and Ciaran
James, who competed in the
women’s and men’s Water Polo
teams respectively. Congratulations to you all!
To take 65 medals, including twenty-nine Golds ,in the
Olympics and 120 medals in
the Paralympics was indeed
a monumental effort. Whilst
much of the recognition should
go to the athletes, they themselves were giving great credit
to their coaches , parents and
other family members who
Here at QES we are proud of
the efforts of our students
whether it’s on the athletics
track or in the classroom, and
you deserve much credit for
your achievements. We are
also blessed to have committed and inspirational teachers
and support staff who work
unstintingly for the good of
the pupils.
Equally important is the support that parents and guardians give to their children, and
it is much appreciated by the
school. Increasingly students
are benefitting from the involvement of parents in their
education, and in the same
way that our Olympic athletes
acknowledged their families’
input, so parental backing is
vital in a school setting. Since
1591
QES
has offered
“Scholarship
and Care” and
our hope is
that parents
will
continue to help
us with the
scholarship
side and we
will commit
to
helping
you with the
care.
S.Dent
41
Interesting Elizabethans
In the second of her series about famous former QES students,
Diana Sharratt looks at a pupil who got his face on a banknote
W
hen Mr Clarke first
suggested a section on interesting
Old Elizabethans in each
forthcoming edition of the
school Newsletter I thought,
“What a great idea!”, not realising at the time that he
intended me to write it!
2012 being the year of the London Olympic Games gave me
my obvious, starting point, my
late husband, Harry Sharratt,
a former Olympian. But who
to choose as my next subject
posed a real problem, for there
are so many interesting people
to choose from. So, I put my
hand into the serendipitous
lucky bag of names and came
out with -- Lawrence Hargrave
For many years these words
were on the wall of my classroom, a teacher’s typical exhortation to their students
to aim high and I like to think
those who passed through
that classroom still remember them. Browning’s poem
Andre del Sarto was written in
1850, just a few years before
a rather shy, retiring boy, Lawrence Hargrave, came to QES
as a boarder. I wonder if Robert
Browning’s work was part of
classroom study for him?
In 1856 Lawrence’s father, John
Fletcher Hargrave, sailed with
his eldest son Ralph and his
brother Edward to New South
Wales in the hope of bettering
his fortunes. Another brother,
Richard, was already established in Australia as a member
of the Legislative Assembly for
New England and John hoped
to make a successful career in
law for himself. He left his wife
and three youngest children
behind and it was then that
Lawrence was sent from Kent
as a pupil to Queen Elizabeth’s
Grammar School in faraway
Westmoreland.
He certainly possessed an
adventuring spirit, however.
His father intended that he
become a lawyer but whilst
he was being tutored in law
he was offered a trip to the
Gulf of Carpenteria on the
schooner Ellesmere and his father agreed to let him go. The
ship sailed to the tip of Cape
York and the islands of the
Torres Straits, into the Albert
River and circumnavigated the
Australian continent. In 1867
he became apprenticed in the
engineering workshops of the
Australian Steam Navigation
Company. His appetite for exploration had been whetted
and he later sailed as engineer
on several expeditions to Papua New Guinea. In Sydney he
worked for some time in the
foundries of Chapman and Co
and then on 1st January 1879
he was appointed an assistant
astronomical observer, a position he held for five years.
Be that as it may, Hargrave certainly embodied the principles
RB advocated, which is why he
There are various accounts of
how young Lawrence came to
join his family in New South
Lawrence had always been a
great lover and keen observer
of the natural world. He stud-
“Ah, but a man’s reach should
exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a heaven for?”
42
is one of the legends of QES,
the only Old Boy to have had
a postage stamp issued in his
honour and whose image was
for several years on the back of
an Australian banknote.
Wales, the most romantic
claiming that in 1872 he and
a group of young adventurers left for Australia in search
of gold. When their ship was
wrecked off the Queensland
coast, Lawrence, after exploring the hinterland, settled in
New South Wales. The truth is
probably more prosaic. When
he was about fifteen, his father
sent Ralph back to England to
fetch him.
“one of the
legends of QES”
ied the way snakes and fishes
moved and the motion of
birds in flight and it became
his dream to discover a way for
human beings to fly. To do this,
however, he would need to be
in a position to devote himself full-time to his inventions.
Luckily, the inheritance he received from his father made
this possible.
John Fletcher Hargrave, had
indeed made a successful career for himself in law, eventually being made a judge. He
was a shrewd man who had invested wisely in land and so on
his death his sons found themselves very well provided for.
Lawrence leased out part of his
land to a coal mining company
and the £1000 a year income
from that (a very substantial
sum in those days) enabled
him to pursue his dream of becoming a full time inventor.
One of his major inventions
was the box kite and on the
12th November 1894, on the
beach at Stanwell Park, he
climbed into a construction
made from four of his box kites
attached to the ground with
strong piano wire and succeeded in rising about 12 feet
into the air. He had flown!
All over the world people were
working on producing flying
machines and when the first
European aircraft were built,
they too used constructions
based on Hargrave’s box kite
(shown on the Austalian banknote, above). Although the
Wright brothers claimed that
they had not been influenced
in any way by Hargrave, their
design was definitely helped
by his discovery of the cellu-
lar kite and his investigations
into curved wing surfaces as
opposed to flat supporting
surfaces.
Global Citizenship, one of the
core values for present day QES
students, would have been a
term unknown to Lawrence
Hargrave, for it is well over a
century since he attended the
school.
But his generous spirit was a
true embodiment of the concept. Unlike the Wright brothers, who jealously guarded and
patented their designs, he refused to patent his inventions,
for he passionately wanted
what he had discovered to be
available for the rest of the
world to build upon.
His only son, Geoffrey, who
was his fellow inventor, was
killed at Gallipolli in 1915 and
shortly afterwards Lawrence
became ill and died of peritonitis on 6th July.
In 1965, fifty years after his
death, Australia issued a commemorative stamp to mark
their “father of aviation” and for
several years until 1995 his face
was on the back of the Australian twenty-dollar bill.
Diana Sharratt
Chronicles of a
Sixth Former
November. The month postreturning to school and the
month before that house
down the road displays seven
times as many Christmas lights
as you, and refuses to remove
them until mid
January. Yes, that’s
right, festive season is well and
truly upon us,
jingle bells,
jingle bells
and all that.
And at QES, at the moment,
the little Christmas elves bringing good cheer come in the
form of luminous jacket wearing, hard hat donning builders,
pottering around the place, in
order to make the school even
more of a great environment
(thought it was impossible,
huh?) for us to spend five days
a week in. We’re quite spoiled
really. Change is a ‘coming!
Joking aside, Christmas is a
time to appreciate what you
have, as there are many, many
people in the UK who will be
alone this Christmas.
Just fewer than 4 million children are currently living in
poverty. If you do have unwanted Christmas presents,
I can’t stress enough not to
leave them lying in the corner
of your room, or tucked slyly
away from family underneath
your bed. The next time you
pop into town, take them to
a charity shop and support a
worthwhile cause. Have a great
Christmas!
Eleni Wrigglesworth
43
The 200 Club
M
alawi 2012: where to
begin to describe a
venture that was so much
more than a sightseeing
holiday, more akin to a trip
that was life changing, one
that hopefully would alter
the way the QES participants viewed the world?
The 22 pupils and five staff from
QES saw so much to admire
and enthral us over during our
two-week stay. From the natural wonders of Mvuu Game Reserve and Safari Lodge where
we saw elephants, warthogs,
hippos, crocodiles and a huge
variety of birdlife, the stunning
rock sculptures of the Mulanje
plateau, the everyday trials of
life in the typical Malawian village of Namala, the warm and
rapturous welcome that we
received at Open Arms Mangochi, it was all so inspiring and
life affirming. It was never going to be a journey in which we
basked in luxury and relaxed.
44
We were crammed into a mini
bus driven by the wonderful Peter, we stayed in some
very basic accommodation
in mountain huts and tents,
(frequented some incredible
toilets!) but we still enjoyed
many of the comforts which
are denied to many of the native Malawians.
We were continually reminded
just how tough normal life
can be and how so very hard
many native Malawians have
to graft to make a living. However they all seemed to have a
great sense of optimism and
never seemed to complain. It
is a country on the ascendancy
thankfully, a nation which does
have cause for hope.
They are setting great store by
newly elected President Joyce
Banda who celebrated her
100th day in office during our
stay. We were nearly caught up
in her motorcade!
The highlight of the trip for
many was our time spent at
Sekwe House and meeting in
person Sam and Eric, Ephraim,
Chikondi, Agnes and Elton. It
was marvellous to see the material benefits of our fundraising and to see these wonderfully bubbly kids thriving and
happy in a loving home.
The 200 Club is an easy
way to support the
fund-raising efforts of
the Association without
having to feel committed to attend meetings.
I
would like to welcome all
the parents and carers of
pupils who have joined
the school this year, whether in Year 7, joining 6th Form
or because you have moved
to the area.
It made us all determined to
carry on and enhance our support for Sekwe House as the
cheery and lively kids there are
definitely ‘one of us’, integral
parts of the QES family!
Our Association consists of
nine officially elected members, as well as about twenty
other parents who regularly
help out at events and attend
committee meetings.
Personally (and I know I speak
on behalf of all the staff ) it was
a privilege to spend time with
such a mature and socially responsible group of Year 11s.
We can all be proud of them!
R.Gerrard
Most departments within
school benefit from money
raised by the Association. Last
year we donated just over
£12,000 to various projects and
departments across school.
None of this would be possible
without the generosity of parents, carers, friends and staff
who all help us to raise money
to provide valuable funds to
benefit the pupils in different
stages of their learning.
Mugs for Sekwe
An art competition ran for Year
8 in October to create a design
for mugs to be sold in aid of
Sekwe House. The theme was
Urban Art.
Well done to Georgia Brown,
Susie Duxbury and
Danielle Littler who
were all chosen
as winners by Mr.
Weston and Mrs.
Kaye. The mugs are
on sale for £3.50 for
one or £10.00 for three.
E.Denby
of the committee. Even if you
are unable to help out at our
functions, please come along
and support the event, donate
prizes, buy some raffle tickets
or join our 200 Club.
The QESA webpage
We update our QESA website
on the QES homepage on a
regular basis. This will keep
you informed about any news
of future events, as well as
committee meeting dates and
minutes.
Our meetings are friendly and
informal so, please come along
and support us in any way that
you can and maybe bring along
some new ideas. We have now
included information about
the Association, the 200 Club
and how to join as well as information about where the
money that we have raised has
been spent within school.
Each year, as QES pupils leave
the school, there are always
valued QESA members who
leave us too. We all have busy
lives, juggling work and time
with our families, meaning any
spare time is very precious.
If you haven’t already done so,
please take a look and if you
have any suggestion as to how
we could improve our webpage further, please do let us
know. We are always open to
new suggestions and welcome
your views and ideas.
However, there are many ways
that you could help without
feeling obliged to becoming
actively involved as a member
Year 7 Family Quiz Night
We held a quiz night on Friday
19th October for Year 7 pupils
U16 hockey team
and their families. It was a per-
It works like a small lottery where you pay a
yearly subscription of
just £15 and are then
entered into regular
draws throughout the
year.
Individual prizes of up
to £100 can be won in
each of our draws. To
join the 200 Club of find
out more information,
please contact our Club
Secretary,
Christine
Gibson, via the school
office.
Further information, as
well as a booking form
to join is also available
on the QESA website.
Lucky winners at the
recent draw at the Year
7 Family Quiz Night are
as follows:
New Member
£100 Mrs Anna Bateman (193)
Current Members
£100 Miss Caroline Smith
(209)
£50 Mrs Maggie Kelly
(235)
£25 Mrs Kim Chapman
(331)
£25 Mr & Mrs M. Palacio
(334)
45
fect opportunity to introduce
new parents to the Association
whilst they enjoyed a fun-filled
evening with all the family.
Congratulations to the winning teams “Top Bananas” and
the Year 7 Staff Team, “The Blue
Slips”. The evening raised £226.
The AGM
We held our AGM on Wednesday 10th October. Jayne Leaf,
one of my assistants, resigned
from the committee as she
has moved away from the
area. Jayne has been a valued
member of our committee for
many years, co-ordinating the
refreshments at most of our
events, as well as using her creative and artistic flair with her
table decorations and Christmas hampers. Jayne was also
in charge of the administration
of our visiting craft stalls at the
Summer and Christmas Fairs, a
job which takes up a lot of time
and effort, as I have come to
appreciate since I took over the
role myself this year!
We also said goodbye and
thanks to Helen Caton and Karen Powell, whose children have
all now grown up and flown
the QES nest. Both Helen and
Karen have also been valuable
assets to the Association over
the years, Helen as one of our
Events Co-ordinators, serving
refreshments at Parents’ Evenings and all of the events in
the QESA calendar and Karen in
her role as secretary. A very big
thank you to all three ladies for
their support and commitment
over the years and I wish them
all the best for the future.
46
Ana-Maria Guzman, who has
been a dedicated committee
member since her daughter
joined QES last September, has
agreed to work alongside Priscilla as my new assistant. The
nominations for committee
members were voted in and
elected as follows:
Chair Diane Lequitte
Asst ChairPriscilla Yilmaz
Asst ChairAna-Maria Guzman
Secretary Pat Redfern
Treasurer Caroline Milne
200 Club Secretary
Christine Gibson
Events Co-ordinators
Julie North
Dianne Moore
Jane Lloyd
Second-Hand Uniform
We are now selling secondhand QES uniform. A list of
available items is posted every
Monday morning during termtime, under the Parents’ section of the QES website. Cash
payments are preferable as this
simplifies any returns and refunds. To obtain 2nd hand uniform, please send your child
into school with an envelope
and the following information:
¾ His/her name and surname
¾ Form
¾ Item/s and sizes needed
¾ Full payment
We will have an update about
the Christmas Fair in the next
newsletter. I hope to continue
to make our Association a success, benefiting hugely from
the help and support of the
parents, carers and staff who
have given up so much of their
time already. On behalf of the
QESA, I wish you all a happy
and relaxing Christmas and my
very best wishes for 2013.
Diane Lequitte
Dates
for your
diary
±
Ladies’ Pamper
Night
Thursday 7th March
±
Kendal College
Dinner
Wednesday 20th
March
±
Spring Fair
Sunday 12th May
±
Car Boot Sale
Sunday 30th June
Match and event reports from the PE Department
tactical awareness. A new ‘find’ lessons) taking up the sport
Netball
for the B team has been Isobel
and making a commitment to
Year 7 netball
What a great turn-out at netball practice. The vast numbers
make for a noisy, but exciting
time and skills are being honed
to perfection. We played our
first game in November ….outside….just before it got dark…
with a massive 2 – 1 win! Well
done girls. As I write this we are
anticipating another fixture,
this time with A and B teams
and a tournament all in the
same week. Fingers crossed for
great team efforts. Keep it up
everyone.
Year 8 netball
Very early on in September
they had their first fixture
which was a bit of a shock to
the system but resulted in a
6-2 win. A great start to the
season. Since then the B team
have had a loss and a 9-0 win
and have a tournament next
week. Following on from their
early win the A team have
won 13-3 and they too have a
tournament next week. Special mention must be made of
Sarah Parker who is attending
QES for a term, away from her
home in New Zealand. She
has been a very valuable addition to the team and has also
played for older year groups
as she is such a talented player.
Thanks Sarah for all your efforts
and we wish you all the best
for the future. Come back any
time (please). Our home grown
talents include Fiona Crackles
as GD, who has a quick witted and tireless response to all
situations in the game. Vicky
Lawson is also a tireless GA
and works hard to improve her
Harpham who has an eye for
the net and has a high goal
scoring percentage as GS. Well
done to everyone who has
played in matches or continues
to attend practices.
Year 9 netball
The Year 9s were well on their
way back in September with
a 13-7 win and the South
Lakes schools Netball tournament where they acquitted
themselves very well, coming
third overall. I have been very
impressed with the improvement in effort and overall
game awareness of the players, which has come about
over a very short space of time.
Keep it up girls. They have two
more games before the end
of term and I am very hopeful
of a committed response by
the teams….in other words I
think they’ll win! (Famous last
words). Many congratulations
to Georgina Atkinson and Mary
Atkinson for being selected for
the U14 Netball Development
Squad who train regularly in
Windermere with other talented players from South Lakes
schools. It’s great to see the
good work and commitment
to practices, girls.
H.Pakeman
Senior Netball
U15s have had a couple of
friendly fixtures as well as their
district tournament. We were
able to put out ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams
for a fixture against Kirkbie
Kendal in October and it was
great to see some new players
(inspired by their Bench Ball
training. Keep it up girls! At the
tournament the squad played
well and managed a couple of
wins. There was a good level of
individual skill but more practice is needed in team play and
we can only do that as a team!
U16 had their district tournament in September and
despite little time to prepare
as a team before then, they
played superbly, finishing runners-up and going through
to the county final. In the full
county tournament we came
up against a very strong QEGS
team in our first match which
caught us napping! Having
lost this we rallied and won our
next two matches but disintegrated a little in our final match
and didn’t manage to progress
to the semi-final stage. Consistency is vital in tournaments
and this will be something
to work on for next year. Well
done, girls! Lots of real potential in the squad.
U18 tournament was postponed until mid October due
to the weather which gave us a
little more time to prepare and
we have benefitted with a few
players now regularly attending Kirkby Lonsdale Netball
Club senior training. Conditions underfoot were not good
on the day and we managed
two wins, a draw and lost two
games. Consistency, again was
a problem in some matches
but on the whole there is some
real talent within the squad.
Attendance at training started
off really well with many play-
47
Match and event reports 2
ers from Year 10 through to
Year 13 coming along. Unfortunately training became a bit
sporadic due to fixtures and
meetings and as a result numbers have dropped off. The bad
news is that we will lose the
Sports Hall to exams for most
of January so Senior Netball
will resume in February. Enjoy
your Christmas and come back
fired up for a new term.
J.Winstanley
ranked against each other. In
Year 7 Emma Whitaker was
the highest ranking in her age
group, of all of our qualifiers
followed by her sister Charlotte Whitaker in year 10. Millie
Sykes and Jacob Aubrey in Year
8 have also qualified and we
wish them all the best of luck
for January.
H.Pakeman
Biathlon
There has been an on- going
theme in all the cross country
events this season, and that
has been the mud (pictured
below).
This year we had nine entrants
for the Schools’ Biathlon event
and four of them have made
it to the Macclesfield semi-finals in January. This is a swim
and run event and entries are
Cross country
The ESAA English Schools’
Cross Country Cup started back
in October at Cockermouth
School where we had Junior
boys and girls, and inter boys
and inter girls teams entered.
That course was probably
the muddiest one so far, with
constant rain beforehand but
a small window of remission
whilst the running took place.
Amazingly we had both our inter girls and junior girls’ teams
in the top three teams which
qualified them for the next
round. This took place at Tarleton and once again our Junior girls were in the top three
teams and qualified for the
English Schools’ final in Bolton.
The finish line at Tarleton was
an uphill bog which would
test anyone’s spikes and wash-
ing machine afterwards. The
course at Bolton was undulating and boggy in parts and frozen in others, a freezing cold
but sunny day.
I am very proud to say that the
QES Junior team came 11th
in the country having beaten
508 other schools in the process of the competitions. Of
the 140 runners in the race on
the day Emma Whitaker was
19th, Scarlet Dale was 22nd,
Samantha Bland was 24th and
Imogen Gorst was 117th. Their
other team mates who contributed to their success were Abbie Barnes, Harriet Dennison,
Jemima Lovell, Isobel Shannon
and Millie Sykes. A fantastic
achievement girls and I think
we can safely say that our QES
girls know how to deal with
MUD….they thrive in it. Many
congratulations.
In Mid October we entered the
Year 7 event in Penrith. Not so
much mud at this venue but
we still had some great results
with the boys coming second
out of 27 other schools and
the girls coming first out of 29
teams. Well done to all the runners.
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Five of our Year 7 students
were then invited to represent
Cumbria at an Inter-counties
championship in Stafford. They
were Will Richards, Joe Fell, Samantha Bland, Emma Whitaker
and Imogen Gorst. Some of our
talented runners from other
years were also invited to represent Cumbria and they were
Josh Newbold, Jacob Aubrey,
Ellie Lambert, Scarlet Dale and
Chloe Halhead.
What an amazing season it has
been so far and we are really
looking forward to the South
Lakes District Schools’ Cross
Country trials which will be
on 11th December at Cartmel.
We are entering 70 students
where we are anticipating
even more success …..as long
as it’s muddy! We think there is
every chance of that! So keep
running everyone and very
well done.
H.Pakeman and R.Daglish
Junior hockey
It has been another successful
and hectic start to the hockey
season, with numerous tournaments in September as
well as a busy programme of
fixtures. At U14 level, most of
our friendly fixtures with local
schools are to take place in the
Spring term. However, we were
very successful in the district
tournament, winning our pool
group and going forward to
the County Final. Our squad,
which included five very talented Year 8 pupils, went on to
beat Queen Katherine School,
Appleby Grammar School,
Austin Friars, and Windermere
School to become county
champions.
The next round saw us travel to
Cheshire to represent Cumbria
in the North-West semi-final.
The girls battled hard, win-
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ning their first match against
Greenbank School but losing
to a technically very strong
and well drilled Kirkham Grammar School. We went through
as runners-up of our pool to
play the winners of the other
pool, Stockport Grammar
School. Despite some excellent
teamwork and some amazing
goalkeeping from Abbie Symons, we lost the match 4 – 0.
The girls did themselves proud
and we received some very
complimentary feedback from
the umpire of our games, who
was impressed with our team’s
discipline and commitment
throughout the tournament.
Well done, girls!
Our U12 team are yet to have
a match as unfortunately the
weather has not been kind
to us. However, there is most
definitely potential for the future as there is a good deal of
talent in the year group. I am
looking forward to their first
match later this term -weather
permitting!
The U13 team go from
strength to strength. The A
team, who remain unbeaten,
are currently South Cumbria
Mini Hockey Champions having beaten Queen Katherine,
Kirkby Kendal, Kirkby Stephen,
Dallam and Casterton en route.
The team are playing later this
term in the County Final. We
will keep you posted.
50
Special mention needs to be
given to Fiona Crackles and
Scarlett Dale who are members of the U16 Indoor Hockey
team, who are currently North
England Champions. Fiona and
Scarlett are an integral part of
the team despite their tender
age. Well done, girls.
A.Blackburn
Senior hockey
The senior hockey teams at
QES are continuing to perform
well at county and regional
level. It is an exciting time with
indoor and outdoor competitions on the go. This month
the Under 15 team won their
area tournament, beating Sedbergh and Ulverston and scoring a crucial equaliser against
Kirkby Stephen.
“It is an exciting
time with indoor
and outdoor
competitions
on the go”
The Under 16 team went to
the North West Final and beat
Blue Coat (Liverpool) 11-0,
Kirkham Grammar 7-0 and
Queens School (Chester) 70. This performance put the
squad through to the North Final to be played on Friday 7th
December in Leeds. It will be
tough but the girls are in with
a shout of making the National
Final. The same team are also
competing for the Indoor Regional title on Sunday 2nd December. Good luck with these
tournaments, ladies.
Many of the players representing school in these teams have
been selected for the regional
development squads. In Year
11 this includes Sasha Cotton,
Amy Cordukes, Beth Cordukes,
Alice Clews Smith, Lauren Challis (all of whom also played for
the North of England), Didi
Davies and special mention
goes to Rachael Harkness who
has been selected to go to England trials as a goalkeeper.
S.Garne
Rugby
Senior Squad
Squad
members:
Callum
Sheldon, Sam Haddow, Tom
Thatcher, Sam Weltzien, Adam
Weatherill, Sam Steele, Chris
Berry, James Bonwick, Fred
Witt, Joshua Hayton, Richard
Sayer, Henry Fell, Jack Percy,
Rufus Gates, James Atkinson,
Connor Launder, Jarred Collis, George Carr, James Wroe,
James
Greenall,
Brendan
Cleary, Josh Maddock, Ryan
Terry, Harry Ralston, Jed Armitage, Will Clarke, John Gibson,
Callum Freear, Finlay Rooney,
Josh King, Joshua Barrett.
Since pre-season in September
I have seen a group of 28 individuals become a squad size of
30 with key values of support,
commitment, ambition and enjoyment becoming fundamentally important to the squad.
Every year the senior squad
changes dynamics completely,
making coaching quite difficult
in the early stages to ensure
that each and every player gets
the opportunity to evolve as a
player and more importantly a
person. The captaincy this year
has fallen to Richard Sayer,
ably assisted by Tom Thatcher
towards the back end of the
season. This year has seen the
likes of Jack Percy, Rufus Gates
and Harry Ralston force themselves into important first team
players, followed closely by a
band of Year 11 players keen
to get their hands on senior
rugby. Names like Sam Weltzien, Adam Weatherill, Robbie
Williams, George Carr, Finlay
Rooney and James Wroe all
very exciting prospects for the
future.
The season kicked off with the
annual pre-season training
during the summer involving 26 keen rugby lads ready
for the season. It was here we
could say hello to Fred Witt
(Sedbergh) and Callum Freear
(Heysham) who have become
instrumental to the development of the squad. Mr Lucas
and I laid down the foundations for development which
the players have used as their
basis for progression. The message is simple- enjoy the game,
look out for each other and
commit to training.
Myerscough is always a tough
and creative fixture. Treated as
a training game both squads
brought big numbers to the occasion keen to cast an over the
new and existing talent within
both set-ups. Myerscough preseason training showed right
from the start with a dynamic
and organised set-up and a
game plan focused on running rugby. QES showed excellent defensive commitment
but lacked the organisation to
maintain defensive phases. Despite excellent tries from Tezza
and Brendan, Myerscough ran
in 34-12 victors but it was clear
were the training efforts were
to be focused- defence.
It was the first year that the
Senior squad had visited
Queen Ethelburgas to meet
up with an old friend of the
school, and also the first time
that the squad had been on
the road. Again a large squad
was taken to try and claim our
first private school scalp of the
season and the lads did not
disappoint. Defence was the
word, and from the start it was
clear that we would be tested,
but team spirit and unity was
clear, and QES had most definitely arrived to play. We were
winning the physical battle
up front, with scrummaging
dominance about the best I
had seen with Sam Weltzien
putting in a performance well
above his years.
The next game, undoubtedly
always the toughest of the
season, was contested by LRGS
2nd XV. LRGS are able to put a
lot of time and effort into their
training, and with their large
numbers of squads to call from
Senior Rugby Squad after beating
Nelson Thomlinson in the VASE
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they always prove to be incredibly tough to compete against.
However, QES always work
them to end, and a spirited
start saw us score an excellent
team effort, expertly finished
by Josh Maddock. We were
not able to keep up with their
physicality however and they
ran in 41-7 winners.
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The second half turned out to
be our time, however, with the
lads showing a lot of heart. We
ground out 3 scores by excellent individual efforts winning
with a 31-26 scoreline.
“I spent most of
the game watching
our 2nd XV run
rampant against
MHS”
The big derby of the year is
always Kirkbie Kendal with a
fierce rivalry through all teams.
A little disappointed that we
did not compete as well as we
could have last game, we were
keen to show off how well
training had gone. QES hit the
gas right from the start showing excellent maintenance of
possession in the pack stringing phases together and consistently crossing the gainline.
This momentum was effectively converted in the backline
with excellent running skills
from Brendan and Josh Maddock in the centres. It was the
first game that James Greenall officially arrived, showing
excellent leadership of the
backline and confidence in the
shapes that had been taught
him. We ran 74-0 winners, with
the game getting stopped early for obvious reasons.
The next round however was
a different story facing LRGS
1st XV. The enormity of this
fixture was clearly evident having been beaten by the 2nd
XV 41-7, and apprehension
was definitely the atmosphere
within the team. However we
were keen not to let them have
it all their own way, and really
took a game to them that they
weren’t expecting. A spirited
start saw us score an excellent
team effort, expertly finished
by Josh Maddock in the opening minutes, however their
strength out wide was enough
for them to finish the game 5712. The fact this result was not
too far from the 2nd XV fixture;
progress was clearly evident.
Following Kirkbie Kendal was
the start of our Daily Mail campaign and competing against
Queen Elizabeth Grammar
School, Penrith on the road.
QEGS is always tough, and
their excellent rucking technique made life very difficult in
maintaining possession of the
ball. We fell behind at the break
by 2 scores and struggled to
gain any parity over the ball.
Wednesday 17th of October
saw us travel to Morecambe
High with two teams, the first
time that we have been able to
observe all of our potential at
once. Morecambe High seem
to play a style of rugby, that
most schools would not allow,
often showing physicality outside of the laws of the game,
but nonetheless the due to its
physicality it’s a worthy fixture
to play. I spent most of the
game watching our 2nd XV run
rampant against MHS 2nds.
The majority of our team was
year 11 playing against players who were either a year or 2
older but they took the game
on. Outstanding defence from
Dan Maguire, excellent sniping
skills from Sam Steele and leadership qualities from Jarred
Collis allowed the 2nd XV to
run in 27 points to 14. The 1st
XV lost 20 points to 7 but, from
what I can understand the
score flattered the performance on Morecambe’s part.
Momentum has started to
build now. Training numbers
remain high allowing for our
set-piece to be amongst the
strongest we have faced. Ullswater saw us put everything
together for the first time
showing outstanding linkage
between forwards and backs.
Individually we were working
at around 70% but the consistent shape and intent was
enough to win by 30 points.
Tom Thatcher converted his
performance into a hat trick.
Barnard Castle saw everything
spring to life. This was our first
time visiting Barney, in an attempt to raise the quality of
our friendly fixtures. We played
aggressive, committed go forward rugby applying all the
principles we have been working on in training. The backline
was creative and organised,
able to take on all of their
men at ease. The pack could
play the short game and wide
game with excellent set-piece
dominance over their opposition. This really is an indication
of how far the squad has come
and the fact that performance
earned them a 19-7 victory was
all the sweeter.
The next round of the Vase was
to be contested against Clitheroe Grammar, a school with
a good rugby pedigree and
needed our A-Game in order
to progress in the competition. From the word go, QES
showed the same quality that
they has against Barnard Castle. We played with intent and
purpose, able to control the
ball effectively with our short
game, and excellent creativity
based on well worked shapes
out wide. The team has arrived
playing exciting expansive
rugby at will. Our defence is
quick and intense, not allowing our opposition in room to
breathe.
Our final games are against
Morecambe High, QEGS Penrith, Austin Friars as well as any
cup run that we earn the right
to play. It has been an absolute
pleasure being involved with
such nice, committed lads and
I look forward to the climax of
the season. I am sure that the
lads would share my gratitude
on very personal levels with
Mr. Lucas who has committed
his time and energy into helping to develop the squad. This
is a relationship that continues to flourish both between
coaches and players, and together with the efforts of Garry
Holmes, Rugby Development
Officer for the South Lakes and
Barrow, we are truly allowing
every player to reach their potential.
D.Williams
Year 11 Rugby
Squad: Robbie Williams, Adam
Weatherill, Josh King, Sam
Steele, Sam Merckel, Charles
Eddy, Rufus Gates, Jack Percy,
Sam Weltzien, George Carr,
James Wroe, Ben Lardner, Joe
Portmann, Angus Verhagen,
Harry Ralston, Finlay Rooney.
A lot of the rugby lads have
worked hard as part of the
senior training, and although
games are limited at their age
group, they have showed how
much they have learnt playing against bigger teams. They
have played games against
Dallam, Settle, Morecambe,
Barnard Castle and Queen Elizabeth Grammar School.
“big performances
from the QES side
allowed them
to run out 14-0
winners”
The first game was a battle between friends. It was going to
be about who wanted it more
and big performances from
the QES side allowed them to
run out 14-0 winners. Settle is a
new addition to the fixture list
coming from a league background. This told the players
that they were in for a physical
contest, however as long as we
played rugby, they would not
be able to compete with the
shape. George Carr and James
Wroe were pivotal in ensuring the team maintained their
shape and played organised
rugby. The team played with
confidence both in attack and
defence, with superb perform-
ances from Robbie Williams
and Harry Ralston. Barnard Castle and QEGS were played on
a separate pitch to the 1st XV
under the expert management
of Mr. Lucas, but it was reported that both games showed
promise and potential.
D.Williams
Year 9 Rugby
Squad: Alex Briggs, Frank
Konchinski, Josh Belt, Sam Butterworth, George Lamb, Elliot
Street, Rufus Chesney Benson,
Luke Tomlinson, Seb Moore,
Kyle BH, Regan Coates, Toby
Brennand, Harry Huddleston,
Harvey Williams, Will Brown,
Robbie Collis, Dan Smith, James
Pickard, Will Hindle, Cameron
Thornton, Ted Holbourne, Jordan Challis.
Any coach will tell you that the
relationship between player
and coach is very important,
and I was truly lucky to inherit
this team from year 7. I feel
privileged to work with such
a committed and eager set
of lads. This squad is showing
progression well above their
years- able to produce creative
backline shapes, movement in
the lineout, and a scrummaging capability that is forcing
local teams to stand up and
take notice. Captain this year is
Robbie Collis, who was chosen
off the back of his commitment
and organisation last season.
The first game saw them play
Queen Katherine School at
Kendal and was a chance to
show how much they had
moved on from last season. The
first 2 years were frustrating for
the team as we set out to forge
53
a team performance based on
the team, rather than build a
team on the performance of
individuals. This season has
seen the fruits of those labours
pay off more than even my expectations. We ran out strong
winners scoring 64 points by
the end of the early call off of
the game.
The second game was the derby game against Kirkby Kendal.
This fixture has seen epic battles over the last 2 years, and
all games have been close. The
season ended 1-1 between the
2 sides last year, and this was
the game we had highlighted
as important to symbolise
team progression. The atmosphere in the morning was
heavy with expectation and
willingness to perform. The
starting whistle was like a gunshot kicking every QES player
into game mode, focused on
producing effective shape with
commitment and intensity of
play. Playing up-hill in the first
half QES still managed to run in
7 tries based on confidence in
the game shape that we have
been working on in training.
The second half saw another
4 tries before they threw in the
towel 10 minutes early. It was
clear to see that all the hard
work has translated onto the
pitch, and that players are truly
progressing very well.
54
Momentum carried through
into the next game against
Dallam where a heavy mix-up
of positions allowed all players
to experience a different position. Regardless of this mix-up
of shape, we still managed to
run in 4 scores in the first half,
and 3 in the second based on
excellent team-working skills
and good shape.
“The forwards
produced excellent
go forward
ball, based on
physicality and
intensity”
The focus of the next game
was to turn around a result
from Year 7 which saw us lose
to QEGS Penrith 21-7. The
squad knew that QEGS field
a couple of very strong players, and therefore required all
the momentum that they had
built up from the first games
in order to get a result. The
weather was not conducive
to throwing the ball about to
show off some exciting rugby
but apparently that message
did not get through to our lads.
The forwards produced excellent go forward ball, based on
physicality and intensity, and
when that ball went out to the
backs they attacked from deep,
inspired to put together a performance unlike any other.
Truly awesome!
Heysham was unfortunately
cancelled due to the weather,
so our next game took us to
Morecambe where we looked
to continue our unbeaten run.
Morecambe are a tough physical team, but in the past have
lacked shape and structure.
However they’ve provided
both of those in bucket loads
so far this season. Playing
Morecambe requires an at-
titude, a step up in physicality
where it’s embraced and given
back through intense defence
and physicality of attack. Luckily, we had it, and showed the
parental crowd rugby that
would have impressed on the
TV. A 29-7 victory has ensured
that the unbeaten run this season continues.
I need to send out a massive
thank you to all the parents
who turn up regardless of
weather to watch these lads
play. I know it means a lot to
each and every one of them
so thank you. A big huge thank
you also to Mark Butterworth
who continues to be a pivotal
member of the coaching setup, and no doubt responsible
for the progression within the
pack. It’s an absolute pleasure
to work with Mark, and we
can’t thank him enough for his
efforts!
D.Williams
performance of the season so
far. Particularly pleasing was
the solidarity and team ethic,
despite a heavy defeat. Robbie
Nicholson and Lewis Williams
emerged as real leaders during
this game and promoted positivity throughout the squad.
In the remaining games, the
gradual effect of training started to show.
Captain Ben Darlington warming up
with Byron Evans (behind) and David Lewis
came the themes of Monday
night training. By the time we
toured the Isle of Man these
areas were forefront in players’
minds. As usual, the Isle of Man
tour was a fantastic learning
curve and, despite two losses, the level of performance
clearly rose over the course
of the weekend. The Sunday
match, against a very strong
King William side, saw the best
A high scoring draw against
QEGS Penrith and a very narrow
win against Heysham (again
high scoring) were pleasing
results but clearly highlighted
tackling as an area to be addressed. I was delighted that
the players took this seriously
and produced a much more
committed defensive performance against a very classy Lancaster Grammar side. Unfortunately, the Grammar firepower
Year 8 Rugby
2012 Season Review
The Year 8 rugby team could
be defined by one word at the
start of this season: “potential.”
There was clearly so much potential quality in a team full of
athleticism and intelligence.
This was raw talent at its purest
and, if it could be harnessed,
this was a team that could be
very special indeed.
Early wins against Queen Katherine School and Dallam gave
the players some confidence
but clearly highlighted the areas that we would need to develop in order to compete with
tougher opposition. Handling,
physicality and teamwork be-
Robbie Nicholson in the middle of
a maul v. King William
55
was too much and, ultimately,
we were brave in defeat.
So far, the team had enjoyed
good performances and good
results but never both together. As it turned out (due to later
cancellations) the Morecambe
fixture was the last chance to
put both elements together.
I am delighted to say that the
best was most definitely saved
for last. QES enjoyed the vast
majority of possession, with no
sign of the previous handling
errors. A patient and wellstructured game plan earned
a 14-0 win, an excellent result
against a traditionally strong
rugby school. All that potential
from the start of the season
had been realised.
As coach, I have thoroughly enjoyed this rugby season. It has
56
been my pleasure to work with
such an enthusiastic and committed group of players. I am
particularly grateful to Sam Tallon, who led from the front on
the pitch, and to Ben Darlington who has been instrumental in helping me organise the
players and has achieved an
unbelievably consistent standard of performance in matches.
Congratulations to everyone
involved with Year 8 rugby this
year. I look forward to seeing
you take that potential even
further in the next few years.
A.Rawson
Representative Rugby
We have had an excellent level
of representation so far this
year across all age groups. At
the senior level we had seven
lads selected for county trials
this year including Jed Armitage, Josh Maddock, Brendan
Cleary, Jarred Collis, Chris
Berry, Richard Sayer and Tom
Thatcher with all players being
asked to represent the newly
restructured Club Cumbria
squad. Brendan also managed
to get selected for North Trials a year before his time and
was asked to train with the
American Rugby Union Squad
while they were in Britain. Callum Sheldon (pictured right)
has managed to put his name
about at the elite level with
selection for the Newcastle
Falcons regional squad and the
Scottish Exiles training squad,
both a year ahead of his time.
We also have representation
Rugby Seniors for the
Club Cumbria squad
kicking and even some Ozzie
rules! It was great fun to be a
part of and I look forward to
the next one……
D.Williams
Football
Callum Sheldon in
Scottish Exiles kit
in the Excel program for talent
development with Lewis Dennison, Tom Carratu and Jamie
Simpson being selected for
U15 and Jordan Challis, Elliot
Street and Dan Smith being
selected at U14 level. This is a
superb reflection on how our
rugby at school is progressing
and I wish all the players congratulations and good luck in
their upcoming training.
D.Williams
U12 and U13 Rugby Camp
The rugby camp that ran during half term was a huge success with 28 rugby lads all keen
to progress their skills. The current year U13s and U14s are a
very special cohort and will be
important in the future plans
for rugby as they progress
through school so it was cracking to see so many of the players keen to further their skills.
We covered handling, rucks,
game shapes, game tactics,
Year 7 football
The Year 7 football team have
started with a bang! Unbeaten so far this season, the
team have progressed to the
fourth round of the English
Schools Cup which is a fantastic achievement for them. They
face Montgomery High School
away in Blackpool which will
be a tough test but one that
they will relish. Numbers to
dinnertime training have been
excellent and a real plethora of
a talent has been unearthed.
The season started with a first
round fixture at home to Ulverston Victoria High School.
On a wet and windy evening,
QES started the better team
taking the lead with a well finished goal by winger Jordan
Cragg. Matt Salisbury added
a second with a thunderous
shot from the edge of the box.
QES were cruising and playing some lovely football. Luke
Blackburn and Haydn Holmes
looked solid at the back and
Joe Fell was pulling the strings
in midfield. Duncan Lyall added a third shortly before half
time, bursting onto a through
ball and slotting the ball coolly
past the goalkeeper. Ulverston
pulled one back at the beginning of the second half but this
only kick started QES back into
gear and they added a fourth
late on, Jack Armstrong getting the goal. The game fin-
ished 4-1 to QES and for the
team’s first performance, they
looked as if they had been
playing together for years and
there were high hopes for the
second round game away at
Dallam.
QES started from where they
left off against Dallam and
came racing out of the traps.
Tricky winger Toby Twiname’s
deflected effort opened the
scoring and a Duncan Lyall
tap in made it 2-0 at half time.
Dallam pulled one back with a
sloppy goal from a corner and
they had a spell of pressure
which Ashley Fisher in goal
and the strong QES back four
did well to see off. Alex Lardner
and Matthew Clarke were having solid games at full back and
Twiname was running Dallam
ragged down the wings. Ethan
Foster was playing intelligently
between midfield and attack
and more goals were destined
for the second half. Foster added a much deserved third and
further goals came from Lyall,
Cragg and debutant James
Lawson with a composed finish. The game finished 6-1 to
QES.
The next round brought QES’
toughest opponents to date.
Ribblesdale High School made
the long journey to Kirkby
Lonsdale in what was an entertaining open game. QES started the brighter team, with a
number of chances being created but not converted. Would
QES regret missing these
chances? Ribblesdale, against
the run of play, took the lead
midway through the first half
with a deflected goal after
57
QES failed to clear a corner.
Ribblesdale then had a long
spell of pressure on the QES
goal and QES had to defend
well as a team to repel their
efforts. Holmes and Blackburn
were colossal in defence and
kept QES in the game. With the
last kick of the first half, Cragg
beat his man down the right
wing and played an excellent
cross into the front post where
the rampaging Lyall met it to
smash the ball past the keeper
into the net. QES were back in
the game against the run of
play and went into half time all
square.
The start of the second half
found QES under more pressure but despite all their possession Ribblesdale created
very little. QES hit Ribblesdale
twice on the break. Firstly, Lyall
broke down the left and played
the ball across the box for
Cragg to scramble home. Then
in the last minute, Lawson got
beyond the Ribblesdale back
four, squared it to Cragg to
score his second of the game
and secure the game 3-1 to
QES. An excellent team performance from the boys and
the cup run continues. A big
well done to all the boys who
have played in the games and
attended training. Also, a thank
you must go out to the parents
for their continued support.
Friendlies commence in the
New Year where more of the
boys will gain an opportunity
to represent the school.
R.Daglish
58
U13 Football
Squad: Byron Evans, Robbie Nicholson, Robert Lawlor, Angus
Maguire, Gareth Winter, Lewis
Williams, Mackenzie Leach, Elliot Morris, Jack Belcher, Max
McMilmurray, George Clokey,
Dan Power, Sam Horrocks,
Liam Ryan.
“to get a result, we
need to focus more
on our technical
ability”
The U13 football squad has put
a lot of effort into their progression this year. We have realised
for us to get a result, we need
to focus more on our technical
ability and maintaining possession for longer periods of time.
Our first round in the cup was
against Dowdales, a school
renowned for the football ability. We started spritely, keen to
make a mark on the game early
and apply pressure in the right
parts of the pitch. Dowdales
took a while to settle, as we
played the ball well up front.
Jack Belcher enjoyed some
success behind the back four,
with Gareth Winter and Lewis
Williams controlling the situation from midfield. However
Dowdales managed to find
their form, and produced some
excellent teamwork moving
the ball very effectively around
the field. Their focus was quick
passing, and too often we were
caught short in defence.
The first half finished 2-1 to
Dowdales with a mixed bag
of performance. The second
half started much like the first,
QES starting to maintain possession of the ball well, and
not committing to the tackle
area ensuring we could always
apply pressure. Unfortunately
Dowdales managed to find the
back of the net again despite a
sterling effort from TK in goal
finishing the game 3-1 winners. The game showed that
the players are starting to think
they can work more effectively
as a team, and I look forward to
honing their skills after Christmas.
D.Williams
Year 11 football
The Year 11 football team
have made it into the quarter
finals of the county cup for
the second year running, and
this time they will face Dallam
School. The team have really
progressed this year and are
looking strong to go further
in the county cup. The first
round game was a tricky game
away at Ulverston Victoria High
School. This year group have
not played Ulverston since they
were beaten by them at the
start of Year 9 so it would be
a good way to see how far the
group of lads have developed
over the past two years. QES
started the stronger, with Joe
Dickson putting QES into an
early lead. The central midfield
partnership of Joe Portman
and Alex Danvers were pulling
the strings and more chances
were created but not converted. QES eventually doubled
their advantage with Ralston
slotting past the keeper.
QES then took their foot off
the gas and allowed Ulverston
back into the game shortly before half time. QES were under
a bit of pressure at the start of
the second half but the solid
defence of Toby Blackburn,
Henry Fell, Richard Herron and
George Pickering held firm.
QES then finished the game
off in the second half when
George Whitaker was played
through and he calmly stroked
the ball past the Ulverston
goalkeeper. The game finished
3-1 to QES.
The second round brought
another away game for QES
at Kirkbie Kendal. On a miserable evening on a heavy wet
pitch QES knew it was going to
be a battle. The year 11s have
developed a determined edge
to their game this season, and
that is especially seen in Ben
Lardner who was getting stuck
in to the Kirkbie Kendal defenders, giving his opposing
full back no time on the ball
and running him ragged. QES
opened the scoring through
a fine Joe Portman strike from
the edge of the area which
whistled past the keeper into
the bottom corner. QES were
dominating the game but allowed Kirkbie Kendal back into
the game cheaply.
A lack of closing down allowed
Kirkbie Kendal’s best player
to score two excellent strikes
from 25 yards and suddenly
QES found themselves 2-1
down and chasing the game.
No need to panic though as
a fine George Pickering cross
was coolly chested down by
the outstanding Harry Ralston,
who slid the ball into the path
of the onrushing Lardner to
pass the ball past the advancing keeper into the back of
the net. QES were deservedly
back in the game and went in
at half time 2-2. The second
half arrived and the game
was starting to get a little bit
heated with both sides putting
in some big tackles. The 2-2
draw was preserved with an
outstanding one handed save
by Eddie Wilson.
“the game was
starting to get a
little bit heated
with both sides
putting in some
big tackles”
This save sparked QES into life
and they started to play some
excellent football on what was
a heavy pitch. Kirkbie Kendal
were reduced to ten men after
two awful tackles by a Kirkbie
Kendal player, first on Blackburn and then on Lardner.
Angus Verhagen was starting
to stamp his authority on the
game and the goal came from
an excellent finish by Ralston
after the Kirkbie Kendal goalkeeper had miskicked a clearance: Ralston controlled the
ball about 30 yards from goal
and curled the ball past the
goalkeeper into the empty
net.
QES were resolute in their
defending for the next ten
minutes, with the exceptional
Blackburn and Fell standing
strong to anything Kirkbie
Kendal threw at them, and
nearly added a fourth with
Whitaker and James Parker being denied by some excellent
goalkeeping. The final whistle
arrived and QES had won a
tough game 3-2. Well done to
all the lads who have played
and attended training so far
this season. I look forward to
seeing how far this team can
progress, not only in the county cup but in their remaining
years at QES.
R.Daglish
6th form football
The 6th form football team has
been highly enjoyable for me
to coach this season. Numbers
at training have reached as
high as 30 which is excellent to
see so many pupils getting involved in football in 6th form.
On a number of occasions
we have been able to field a
first and second team so all of
the lads have enjoyed an opportunity to play competitive
football for QES against other
schools. A special mention
must go out to Michael Sharp
for his excellent captaincy so
far this season, and also to
Henry Treverton who led the
second team with much dignity and aplomb. Unfortunately,
the cups came too early for the
team this season and they were
knocked out of the County Cup
and English Schools Cup early
on in games they should have
won. How they lost the game
against Kirkby Stephen still
baffles me and they went down
to a last minute goal away at
Kirkbie Kendal when a win was
certainly on the cards.
There was a satisfying cup win
away at Dallam, 5-2 to QES.
This was an excellent team performance from QES, with early
goals coming from ex Dallam
pupil Matty McVey, a thunderbolt from Alex Danvers and a
59
smart finish from Sam Kelly.
Lawrence Duncan and Alex
Meeks have formed a formidable partnership at the heart of
the QES defence and full backs
Henry Fell and Callum Barker
were both solid. Ben Lardner
and Stephen Baxendale added
further goals in the second half
and QES deservedly ran out 5-2
winners.
The boys have enjoyed some
excellent friendlies against local schools this season. A squad
of 18 6th formers made the trip
up to Ullswater. Led by Mr Gerrard, QES dominated the game
but failed to capitalise on their
chances, coming away with a
1-1 draw, Sam Kelly with the
goal. A rematch is pencilled in
for after Christmas where QES
will be looking to get the win
they deserved.
60
A first and second team went
up to QEGS Penrith for what
were two very entertaining
games. The first team unfortunately lost 4-3 in a thrilling encounter. Again, QES were the
better side for large periods of
the game with the outstanding
Michael Sharp scoring a brace
and also hitting the crossbar
with two screaming efforts.
Lawrence Duncan scored the
other goal for QES but some individual errors cost QES dearly
and QEGS held on for the 4-3
victory. The second team enjoyed their first game of the
season, unfortunately losing,
but playing well in spells. Joe
Dickson was the goal scorer for
QES. Sam Portmann got man
of the match for an excellent
performance in goal and has
recently been rewarded with
a run in the first team. Again,
QEGS are coming to QES for a
rematch after Christmas where
revenge is in order.
“On a small, boggy
pitch QES battled
bravely for
the full game and
ran out
3-1 winners”
The next fixture saw another
double header but this time
against Lancaster Royal Grammar School. QES had been
showing the passion and intensity good enough to win
any game but just needed to
add that moment of quality
to ensure victories came more
regularly. On a small, boggy
pitch QES battled bravely for
the full game and ran out 3-1
winners.
An own goal from the Grammar and a George Whitaker
strike put QES 2-0 up. LRGS
pulled a goal back but organised defending from Ben Lardner, Lawrence Duncan, Alex
Meeks and the excellent Josh
Norman meant that QES held
firm and scored another goal
late on, Will Wilson finishing off
a flowing QES move. Joe Portman was a real handful in the
middle of the park and Sharp,
McVey, Kelly and Baxendale
were a threat going forward
throughout the game.
The second team were beaten
2-1 in a very close encounter.
Ben Wallbank was given man
of the match for an excellent
individual performance. Adam
Flowers, playing in net was the
goal scorer for QES. Flowers
raced up to coolly dispatch a
penalty that was awarded for
QES. Josh Forrest went close
twice to equalising for QES and
Niall Parkinson was pulling the
strings in midfield. Matthew
Fell and Wallbank were solid
at the back for QES and Callum
Barker provided a cool head in
central midfield. Just like the
QEGS Penrith game, the second team had battled valiantly
without gaining a result but a
rematch is on the cards for after Christmas.
Morecambe High School
came to QES for a fixture on a
very wet and quick Astro turf.
Unbelievably, the two teams
could not be separated and
the game finished 0-0. Two
very well organised and resilient teams ensured that it was
a very tight game. Josh Norman ran his socks off in midfield. Lawrence Duncan was
excellent at the back and Alex
Meeks was simply outstanding
in the heart of the defence, repelling everything Morecambe
threw at QES. Both teams had
a number of chances to score
but could not capitalise on
them. The game was played in
an excellent spirit and I cannot
ask for any more effort from
the boys.
The next friendly was played at
Morecambe Globe’s 3G pitch
on a chilly Wednesday evening
against Our Lady’s High School
Lancaster. QES took an early
lead when an excellent Matty
McVey run and shot was de-
with Iggy Park players
flected in past the OLHS goalkeeper. QES were then hit
three times by the OLHS counter attack and suddenly found
themselves 3-1 down. QES had
to match OLHS’ physicality to
get a foothold in the game.
Niall Parkinson got QES back
in the game, finishing an excellent Sam Kelly run and cross
emphatically into the top right
hand corner. A definite goal of
the season contender. OLHS
then went 4-2 ahead when
their striker completed his
hat trick by scoring a rebound
after Harry Still had saved his
penalty.
Captain for the day Josh Norman led by example, getting
QES back into the game just
before half time, smashing in
from 6 yards after the OLHS
goalkeeper had spilled a shot.
4-3 to OLHS at half time. QES
were dominant in the second
half, with the ever impressive
Alex Meek and debutant centre
half Henry Treverton looking
strong at the back. Josh Forrest
was playing well at right back
and Sam Kelly got QES back
on level terms, scoring a penalty after Will Wilson had been
felled in the box.
McVey then added a further
two goals to complete his hat
trick in an impressive man of
the match performance. QES
could have added further
goals, with Will Waterton and
Sam Kelly going close but QES
ran out 6-4 winners in what
was a very entertaining and attacking game.
The season has been enjoyable
so far, with excellent numbers
and commitment at training
and both the first and second
team have really progressed
this season. I look forward to
the rest of the season, working with an excellent bunch
of players to see how far the
team can push themselves and
progress.
R.Daglish
Queen Elizabeth School vs
Ignatius Park College
The QES Australia touring side
who are jetting off to Australia
next summer had a taste of
what it will be like to play an
Australian team when they
hosted Ignatius Park College
in what was an entertaining
encounter. Iggy Park, as they
are known, arrived at QES on
the Friday night and spent the
evening with their host families. The Cumbrian weather
was a shock to the Australians
as they are used to 25 degrees
heat minimum all year round!
Dallam School kindly leant us
their fantastic 3g pitch for the
fixture on Saturday morning.
Both teams arrived early on
Saturday morning with bleary
eyes despite my warning to
get to bed early the night before. Obviously late night FIFA
was too hard to resist for some
of the lads!
QES did start brightly in what
was a very open and enter-
61
taining game. QES opened the
scoring early on through Harry
Ralston. The floodgates seemed
to open at both ends then and
there was plenty of goalmouth
action and some excellent finishing on show. QES eventually ran out 6-3 winners, with
Ralston scoring four, and Joe
Dickson getting the other two.
Man of the match was given to
Alex Danvers who controlled
the game in the middle of the
park. The game was played in
an excellent spirit and gave the
QES boys their first experience
of playing against Australian
opposition as this is the team
that I am taking to Australia
next summer.
The day did not end after
the game. All of the players
brought a tray of food and we
used Dallam’s indoor facilities
to serve the food. A big thank
you to all the parents who went
to a lot of effort preparing and
serving the food and Sarah
Greenwood from Dallam for allowing us to use their facilities.
A bus was booked from Dallam
to go to the Reebok Stadium
in Bolton to watch them play
Exchange of pennants
against Crystal Palace. The Australians enjoyed spending all
their money on replica shirts
and souvenirs. The game was
not much of a spectacle and
I am sure that people would
have paid a lot more money
to watch the QES v Iggy Park
game rather than the dour encounter that was Bolton v Crystal Palace. All of the lads did
get a treat though as Palace
wonder kid Wilfried Zaha stole
the show with an amazing solo
performance. Zaha made his
England debut only a couple
of weeks later and he is sure
to go onto be a top player in
the Premier League. The game
finished 1-0 to Palace and the
lads enjoyed booing Bolton off
the pitch.
The Saturday evening and all
day Sunday was left for the
boys to keep their Aussie tourists entertained. Some went to
Blackpool for the day, others
visited Old Trafford, and some
took them for a stroll around
the Lake District. Overall the
hosting process was a big
success and the lads enjoyed
meeting and getting to know
their guests. A big thank you to
all the boys and their families
who hosted the Australians.
Also, a thank you goes out to
Mr Williams for hosting the
Australian staff. The Australians
really enjoyed their stay at QES
and that is down to the kind
hearted generosity shown by
the boys and their families. Roll
on Australia next summer!
R.Daglish
Football Camp
A half term football camp was
run to raise money for the
forthcoming Australia Sports
Tour. A number of pupils from
Year 7, 8 and 9 turned up for
a two day camp dedicated to
football. The pupils showed a
great attitude during the camp
and a wide range of skills and
techniques were practised
throughout the two days.
A big well done to all the boys
who participated and I look
forward to running the next
football camp in the future.
R.Daglish
County/Morecambe
Representatives
There are a number of footballers at QES who have represented county this term and
been playing for the Morecambe Football Club Development Squad. Ben Lardner
in Year 11 made the County
football team. Michael Sharpe,
Lawrence Duncan, Matthew
McVey and Sam Kelly, all in the
6th form, represented County
this term in a number of games
against other regions.
Angus Verhagen, Alex Danvers
and Joe Dickson have been
playing for the Morecambe FC
Development Squad against
other academies. And finally,
Sam Kelly in 6th form was offered a full time place in the
Morecambe Academy. A big
well done to all the lads who
have represented County and
Morecambe FC this term. It is
a fantastic achievement and it
is down to your commitment
and hard work when attending
training sessions and representing your school and your
clubs over many years.
R.Daglish
Judo Coaching
QES has had the privilege of
having an international Judo
fighter coaching a group of
students throughout this half
term. Danny Harper (below),
who has represented Great
Britain at a number of international competitions and is the
current Scottish Open champion, has been coaching students
on Tuesdays after school. The
students have been practising
their judo technique and have
really enjoyed the coaching.
Danny is coaching in a number
of other local schools trying
to increase Judo participation
in the county. On the back of
Judo’s success at London 2012
where Team GB won two medals, numbers are increasing in
Judo across the county and
Kendal’s Judo Dojo, where preOlympic training camps were
held for a number of athletes,
is becoming a very busy place.
We have been impressed with
Danny’s professionalism and
quality this half term and all
the pupils have enjoyed learning from his high level of expertise. At the end of the block
of coaching the pupils will get
the opportunity to visit the
Football Camp
62
63
Dojo in Kendal and train where
Olympians have trained which
will be a great experience for
the pupils. You never know,
one day you may see Danny or
one of our pupils battling it out
on the mat at an Olympics.
R.Daglish
Australia Tour
Well, the year has arrived! It’s
officially a touring year! The
rugby, football, netball and
hockey teams will be travelling around Australia playing
competitive fixtures and taking in all the tourist opportunities that we can fit in for three
weeks during the summer.
The fundraising team is working hard to raise as much
money as possible, and so far
have engaged in a Christmas
and spring fair, cake stalls,
bag packing, using an easy
fundraising shopping website,
compiling a recipe book and
tour brochure and Christmas
shopping at Brown and Whittakers in Ingleton.
64
Up-coming events include
the next Christmas and spring
fairs, bag packing in Kendal
and Kirkby Lonsdale, a pamper
evening in support of Mother’s Day, a variety show, two
more cake stalls, race night at
the rugby club, a gala dinner,
sports camps, FIFA tourna-
Our PE staff work long hours, so much so that
they are often the last to leave the building as it is
locked up for the night. Sometimes they can’t leave at
all. Miss Pakeman recalls a traumatising experience.
T
he night I got locked in school,
Made me feel a bit of a fool,
But it wasn’t my fault.
Miss D turned the key with a jolt
And it was too late so I sat on a stool.
In the dark with just the light of my phone,
I called Mrs Blackburn, as I was very alone.
She laughed so much,
We lost touch,
And I was getting scared and gave out a moan.
No member of staff came my way.
By now I was thinking I’d have to stay.
But a man caught my eye,
So I shouted ‘Hi’
And Mr Higson saved the day.
He waved at me through the glass door.
I jumped up and down on the floor.
He turned and left me,
Hopefully to find a key,
And panic mode hit me once more.
The minutes went by so slow.
Higson came back with Foster in tow.
They opened the door,
I was free once more,
It was an enormous relief, you know!
Then I went home and had a large glass of wine. Traumatised, I was. The moral of the story is…if a (certain)
member of staff unlocks a door for you and then relocks it
after you’ve gone through, don’t believe them when they
say the door IS open at the other end!
ments and individual sponsorship from the players.
The kit has been ordered and
we are very proud to go back
to Kukri for all our kit needs. It’s
all go in the run up to the tour.
Players will be engaging in in-
tensive training after Christmas
that will include circuit training
and specialist sports training
in an attempt to prepare our
players for the intensity of
physicality they will endure in
Australia.
D.Williams

Queen Elizabeth School

Transcription

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