1 Issue No 20/2015-2016
Thetford Grammar School
The small, friendly school that gets results for individuals.
26th February 2016
Dear Parents and Pupils,
I do hope that all enjoyed a pleasant half-term break and are fully refreshed to start this
extremely short second half. Easter holidays are imminent, now only three weeks away.
During the holidays Mr Theo Bailey, Facilities Supervisor, and his team have availed us of a
number of improvements, particularly painting and decorating in Losinga and the L-Shaped
Block. We have also replaced older items of furniture in Cloisters and Old School. I am
certainly very happy with the upgraded and fresher appearance. I do hope that you have
noticed a distinct difference and that you are also pleased with the results.
As part of many exciting events leading up to World Book Day on Wednesday 3rd March, we
started on Monday 22nd February with a wonderful celebration of reading and literature
with the Bumper Book Quiz in Williamson Hall as part of a Guinness Book of Records
attempt to have the most number of people concurrently taking part in a book quiz. Mrs
Julie Settle, TGS Librarian, organised this beautifully on behalf of the school with many
members of staff, external stewards and, of course, pupils thoroughly enjoying their
afternoon of thought-provoking, literary questions.
Yesterday was our Senior School Open Afternoon for prospective pupils. We received a
number of visitors, adults and their children, touring the school and seeing classes in action,
culminating in refreshments and questions in my study. Our visitors were all extremely
complimentary about our school, the teaching staff, the pupils and their very able Sixth
Form tour guides. My thanks to all involved.
This morning I am looking forward to hearing Mrs Scott talk to us, in our Whole School
Assembly in Williamson Hall, about her considerable charitable endeavours. She is training
to take part in the London Marathon in aid of MS.
A reminder that our Focus Group meeting for all current parents is on Tuesday 8th March,
starting at 8.30am. I, and other members of staff, shall be delighted to welcome you to the
school to talk about a number of current issues. As always, clear communication and
dialogue are important, so that we can consider any changes and improvements for the
benefit of all stakeholders.
I do wish you all a very happy and healthy weekend.
Mr Mark S. Bedford
Headmaster
2 Issue No 20/2015-2016
GRIMM TALES
The half term ended with a flourish as the Drama
Department performed its latest extravaganza in the
form of their own version of the Grimm Brothers
Fairy Tales entitled ‘Grimm Tales.’
As with every school production the Opening Night
ended a frenetic period of after-school rehearsals,
Sunday rehearsals and all day rehearsals during the
days running up to the first performance. This year was also special as it was the first
production by our new Head of Drama Mrs Boyce; and without a doubt we can all say that
the school production for 2016 was an outstanding success.
Each story followed the
general plot line of the
modern versions such as Red
Riding Hood; however every
version offered a dark twist
to each narrative, which was
in keeping with the original
tales. As a result many of the
young actors had to act out
the gory as well as the sweet parts of these well-known tales.
Outstanding performances came from many pupils; particularly old
stalwarts such as Emily Scott, Charles Mead, Ben Doyle and Alfie
Bloomfield. However this
year we have had an influx of excellent actors lower
down the school and as a result we were equally
impressed by the talents of Miranda Patalidis-
Thomas, Madeleine Trussell, Jenni Kingsnorth,
Rosabella Coleman, Franzi Elders, Charlotte Ogilvie,
Isabelle Murfitt, Louise Macrow, Oskar and Luca
Prior alongside Evangeline Bedford and Euan Miller.
We also saw different styles of performance this year
with puppetry, silhouettes, physical theatre and
lighting being used to augment each tale. Christian
Eade and Euan Miller's version of 'The Bird, the
Mouse and the Sausage' was an excellent example of
the way Mrs Boyce used puppets, lights and shadow
to turn a short tale into something darker.
3 Issue No 20/2015-2016
Similarly she used the whole ensemble to create a
dark forest simply by grouping the performers
together and asking them to move in subtle ways to
portray the threatening wood as a backdrop to show
off the talents of Michael Heslop and Alfie Bloomfield
in 'Iron Hans'.
Other excellent performances came from Andrew
Forbes, Gabrielle Hunter-Short and James Sibley
who all cemented their reputations as fine actors in
their latest performances for the school.
Overall this year's school production was an
outstanding success and I paid tribute to all the
performers and our back stage crew of Emily Neary,
Evie Pettingale, Isobel Tod, Sophie Rose-Land, Zoe
Kendall and Joseph Ramsbottom; as well as the
technical crew of Gus Altuccini, Oscar Lane, Roberto
Castillo-Olivares and Rory White. Hair and make-up
was provided by Cecily White and Sophia Colasante
while Megan Gallacher did a fine job of
photographing the performances.
Three Y13 students, however, must be thanked for
their tireless work in many other productions not just
the 2016 version. Emily Bell, Finn Humphris and
Ross Gallacher have either performed, directed, lit or
organised part of every show during the past six
years and Grimm Tales was to be their last
production. Both Mrs Boyce and I thanked them for
all their efforts and wished them well for their future
careers.
Mr Bradley Young
Head of English
SENIOR SCHOOL PRODUCTION REVIEW
The opening to the play was exciting and mysterious. I loved it as it got the audience really
engaged and interested. As the play went on I liked the layout and overall presentation. The
play was divided into short stories that kept me interested. The transition between stories
was smooth and fast. My classmates also loved it.
4 Issue No 20/2015-2016
The backdrop and decorations were detailed and I got the impression that everybody had
really worked hard on this play. The riddle to work out in the interval was also a good
addition. Even though I only saw the first half I thought it was absolutely wonderful and I
wish I could have seen the second half.
5 stars!
Cathy
Year 6
SPRINGTIME IN PRE-PREP THIS WEEK
Spring has sprung in Pre-Prep this week and the pupils have been enjoying planting their very own beanstalks, sunflowers and potatoes! Furthermore, pupils will care for their pots and are all very excited to watch them grow.
Miss Francesca Atkins
Teaching Assistant
ICT REVISION
Half term may have been a holiday for some of our
students, but our Y11 ICT and Computing Twilight students
did not want to stop. They came in for two days with Mr
Foreman to develop their skills with spreadsheets,
programming and website design in order to reach the
highest standards possible ahead of their GCSEs.
Mr Mark Foreman Head of Computing
5 Issue No 20/2015-2016
Y2 MATHS LESSON
This week Y2 have been looking at multiplication and division and how they are connected.
The children had to make the sum '4 x 3 = 12' into a word problem. Once they had thought of
a good word problem, they drew a picture to make it into a poster. Elliot, Gabriel and Harry
made a multiplication sum and Connie used division.
Mrs Julie Foreman
Class Teacher
WORLD BOOK DAY
Alex Scarrow is the award winning author of the Time Rides series and
will be with us on Monday 29th February. After his talk to Y7 – Y9 he
will be holding workshops with Y7 and Y8. There will be time after his
talk for book signing and a range of his books will be for sale at £6.00.
On World Book Day Thursday 3rd March we will start the day with a
Whole School Read during form time – make sure you bring a book to
read (or newspaper, magazine, etc). Prep School will be dressing up as
their favourite Book Characters.
6 Issue No 20/2015-2016
Don’t forget you can enter our Tasty Book Competition on Friday 4th March – more details
attached. Our previous competitions have shown some very talented culinary creations and
Mrs Settle is looking forward to seeing this year’s entries.
All children will receive £1 Book Tokens. These can be spent on special £1 books (see the
list at http://www.worldbookday.com/books/) at book shops or can be used with the
Scholastic Book Club magazines. (Alex Scarrow is unable to accept them - the books he is
selling are already discounted from the RRP.)
If you would like to place an order from the Scholastic Book Club magazines you can do
this online at http://schools.scholastic.co.uk/thetford-grammar or send in your order to Mrs
Settle by Monday March 7th.
Mrs Julie Settle
Librarian
TASTY BOOK COMPETITION
Have you ever been inspired by the fabulous food featured in books such as the wonderful desserts in Hogwarts or the chocolate in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Well now is the chance to try out your baking skills and raise money for the library at the same time. Friday 4th March is Tasty Book Competition Day – to enter the competition you will need to make at
least 6 individual fairy cakes, biscuits, tarts, pies or one cake, biscuit, tart or pie that can be cut up. All entries must be inspired by food mentioned in a story book or decorated in a way that is inspired by a particular book. The poster attached to the newsletter gives you more details.
Mrs Julie Settle
Librarian
PREP SCHOOL BOOK CHARACTER DAY
Thursday 3rd March promises to be one of the highlights of the Prep School year as we will
be celebrating World Book Day with our annual Book Character Day. Pupils are invited to
dress up as a book character and many have already begun planning their costumes. If you
haven’t chosen which character you’re going to be, don’t worry, there’s still time! We will be
holding several exciting activities during the week for all pupils to enjoy.
Mrs Nicki Peace
Head of Preparatory School
7 Issue No 20/2015-2016
BUMPER HOUSE BOOK QUIZ: GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS
OFFICIAL ATTEMPT
On Monday we took part in a world record attempt to achieve the most
people taking part in simultaneous literary quizzes. At 2:00pm the
Williamson Hall was full with over 100 pupils from Prep and Senior
School joining forces to compete for their House, organised into 4 tables per house in mixed
ages from Y4 to Y9. The quiz master was myself and a small army of invigilators were also
in attendance – Sixth Formers and staff marking, scoring and recording plus independent
witnesses were part of the verification process for such an enormous event.
The eventual winners of the House Competition were the
teams from Reeds with 118 points, closely followed by
Millingtons in second place with 114.5 points. Millingtons
Table 4 team were commended for having the highest
table score of 35 points. Mrs Settle said that she was
‘delighted with the success of the event’ and thanked
everyone who participated.
We are looking forward to World Book Day on 3rd March when the result of the Guinness
World Record attempt will be published.
In the meantime do you know the answers to these questions from the quiz?
1. E. Nesbit wrote a classic story about two sisters and a brother – Roberta, Phyllis and Peter.
What was it called?
2. In The Wizard of Oz, who dies when Dorothy’s House lands on her?
3. What do the following have in common: Dinah, Orlando and Mog?
4. Who has a grumpy teacher called Mr Fullerman in a famous series of books?
5. Angie Sage is the author of which famous series of fantasy books?
Mr Bradley Young
Head of English
PRE-PREP NEW OUTDOOR KITCHEN
Pre-Prep pupils have also had a rather special delivery this week. Mr Jenkinson has been exceptionally generous and made Pre-Prep pupils their own outdoor kitchen. They have taken great pleasure in washing up their pots and pans and are all eager to make some mud pies. Special thanks to Mr Jenkinson and his team for producing such a wonderful gift.
Miss Franchesca Atkins
Teaching Assistant
8 Issue No 20/2015-2016
SPORTS RELIEF FRIDAY 11th MARCH
Pupils in the Prep and Pre-Prep School, as well as volunteer Senior
School pupils, are taking part in a sponsored Kilometre-Conga at lunch
time on Friday 11th March our Non-Uniform Day. This is to raise money
for Sports Relief on 18th March. We are aiming to raise as much money
through pupil sponsorship as we do through the £1 donation for non-
uniform. Pupils are being encouraged to wear at least one item of their House colour for the
conga event and we hope that pupils not partaking will offer lots of support on the side-
lines. The kilometre will be measured out around the field on the Fulmerston side of the
school and all sponsorship monies will be collected during the week beginning 14th March.
Photographs will follow!
Miss Daniella Dunsmore
Charities Co-ordinator
BAKE SALE TUESDAY 1st MARCH
This will follow an assembly presented to all
pupils by Mrs Sallyanne Scott. Mrs Scott is raising
money in support of MS and today she presented
details of her marathon training and motivations
behind her fundraising initiatives to the whole
school. To support Mrs Scott, we are hosting a
whole-school bake sale outside the Languages
corridor and the Prep school on Tuesday 1st
March. Any cakes and bakes will be gratefully
received in Roger North or the School Office. If your homemade cakes include any kind of
nut products please label them accordingly. Thank you for your support!
Miss Daniella Dunsmore
Charities Co-ordinator
AU REVOIR THETFORD GRAMMAR SCHOOL
A message from Nicolas who has been spending this week
with Y7 pupils. It was lovely to meet you Nicolas.
‘J’ai beaucoup aimé venir dans votre collège pendant cette
semaine. Merci de m’avoir accueilli de cette façon, les élèves et
les professeurs sont très gentils. Le collège anglais change
beaucoup par rapport au collège français. Les cours ne durent
que 40 minutes, les terrains de sport sont très grands, on fait
des cours de théâtre, on peut acheter des gâteaux à la recreation, les classes sont plus petities
et les professeurs sont rigolos! Ce sera pur moi un excellent souvenir.
Merci pour tout!’
Nicolas
9 Issue No 20/2015-2016
I really enjoyed spending a week in your school. Thank you for making me feel welcome,
students and teachers have been very kind to me. School in England is very different from
school in France. Lessons last only 40 minutes, sports fields are really big, you have Drama
lessons, you can buy cakes at break time, classes are small and teachers are fun! I will have
great memories of my stay here.
Thank you for everything.
Nicolas
CONGRATULATIONS
Michael Heslop in Y7 has been offered a part in the ensemble for
‘Goodnight Mister Tom’ with the Cambridge Arts Theatre in May. Well
done Michael – break a leg!
Congratulations to the following pupils who received certificates from Mrs
Peace in a Prep School assembly this week.
George Bullen Thomas Hayden Gabriel Galveias
Connie Foreman Sophie Peace Arlo Greenwood
Thomas Lyes Sam Sidery Owen Wortley
Joshua Kriehn-Morris Maia Foreman Ethan Harris
Cassidy Goodwin Ben Mason
Also, well done to those pupils listed below who received their Norfolk Winter School
Games Cross Country certificates this week.
Arlo Greenwood Thomas Hayden Matthew Kendall Ryan Bourne
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music certificates were awarded in assembly
this morning. Well done to the following pupils:
Tom Bercovici Grade 1 Singing - Merit
Elliott Sanders Grade 3 Singing – Merit
Finn Humphris Grade 5 Singing – Pass
Sophie Ogilvie Grade 2 Piano – Pass
Elizabeth Wright Grade 3 Piano – Pass
Kate Doyle Grade 3 Piano – Pass
Jacob Wright Grade 4 Piano – Merit
Kirishoban Sanjeevvijay Grade 6 Piano – Pass
George Rupp Grade 7 Piano – Pass
Shaswathan Sanjeevvijay Grade 1 Alto Saxophone – Pass
Finn Humphris Grade 7 Violin – Pass
George Rupp Grade 5 Cello - Pass
10 Issue No 20/2015-2016
MATCH RESULTS
Tuesday 23rd February U12 Netball v Thetford Academy
U13 Netball v Thetford Academy
Won 8 - 1
Lost 6 - 7
Thursday 25th February U13 Netball Area Tournament:
1) Northgate High
2) Thetford Academy
3) Old Buckenham
4) Wymondham College
Won 8 - 1
Won 6 - 0
Won 5 - 2
Won 5 - 2
NEXT WEEK’S FIXTURES
Saturday 27th February U11 Football Tournament (A) Finborough 9.30am
Tuesday 1st March U15 Football v Eccles (A) 2.30pm
U18 Netball v Finborough (H) 4.00pm. Pick up 5.15pm
U18 Football v Finborough (H) 4.00pm. Pick up 5.30pm
Wednesday 2nd March Y4 – Y6 County Swimming Gala UEA 12.30pm. Return TGS 5.00pm
Y7 – Y9 County Swimming Gala UEA 9.00am. Return TGS 1.00pm
U12 Netball v Finborough (H) 2.45pm. Pick up 4.00pm
U14 Area Semi-Final v Old Buckenham High School 4.30pm. Pick up
5.45pm
Thursday 3rd March U15 Area Netball Tournament @ Thetford Academy 4.00pm. Pick up
5.45pm
Friday 4th March U11 Hockey v Glebe 7-a-side (A) 2.30pm. Pick up 5.00pm
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Monday 29th February Y7/8 Workshop with Alex Scarrow
Pre-Prep – Y2 Pirate Adventure with Mandy Hartley 11.30am
Tuesday 1st March Charity Bake Sale in aid of Multiple Sclerosis
Wednesday 2nd March
Y8 Parents’ Evening Williamson Hall 6.00pm – 8.30pm
County Schools Swimming Gala at UEA 12.30pm
Thursday 3rd March World Book Day
Prep School Book Character Day
Y4 - 6 ‘The Story of Mary Anning’ with Mandy Hartley at
11.45am
Y4 – 6 Fossils with Mandy Hartley 1.40pm
Y10 Skills East Careers Fair
Friday 4th March Tasty Book Competition
General Studies talk Old School 11.00am – 12.00pm. Parents
11 Issue No 20/2015-2016
welcome
Monday 7th March Y7 Castle Hill, Thetford visit
Tuesday 8th March Parents’ Focus Group 8.30am – 9.30am.
Wednesday 9th March Y12 visit to Nottingham University – depart 8.00am.
Y6 Crucial Crew visit at Letton Hall 8.45am
‘Eggstravaganza’ for Pre-Prep School
Thursday 10th March German Exchange Outbound
Friday 11th March Non-Uniform Day in aid of Sport Relief
Sponsored Kilometre-Conga
SIXTH FORM GENERAL STUDIES
Parents are invited to attend Sixth Form General Studies on Friday 4th March, when Dr Lee
Jarvis, Reader in International Security at UEA (and author of Anti-terrorism, Citizenship and
Security) will be our guest speaker. The event will take place in Old School from 11.00am-
12.00pm. Please register your interest through the school office.
Mr Stephen Spencer
Head of Sixth Form
PRE-PREP EASTER ‘EGGS’TRAVAGNZA OPEN MORNING
We are holding the above event on Wednesday 9th March in the Goldcrest Classroom from
10.15am – 12.00 noon. If you have any friends or family who have pre-school children all are
welcome to attend. Please see the attached flier.
Mrs Nicki Peace
Head of Preparatory School
LOST PROPERTY
Ethan Harris ‘Patrick’ Rugby sock – named
Hamish Russell Blue Sondico Shinpad
Gabriel Galveias Black gloves – they have a ‘star wars’ picture on each one.
ATTACHMENTS
Tasty Book Competition Poster click here
Easter ‘Eggstravaganza’ Poster click here
FORTHCOMING LETTERS
Y6 Under 11’s Football Tournament at Finborough School
Y4 -5 BBC Radio 2 – 500 Words Competition
12 Issue No 20/2015-2016
Y4 – 6 County Swimming Gala at UEA
Y6 Crucial Crew Visit
Y7 Castle Hill, Thetford visit
Y8 Y8 Parents’ Evening
Y11 Leavers’ Day Celebrations and Y11 Prom
Y11 Study Leave arrangements
If you would like a printed copy of this newsletter please contact the office.
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