Dear Parents and Friends, Last weekend our Boarders enjoyed a wintry ice skating trip to Hampton Court on Sunday afternoon. At the same time, a team of five students and Mr Parham were completing the ‘Grim Challenge’, a terrific test of endurance and resilience and a great credit that they all finished this in one piece!

Our MUN team travelled to Benenden on Monday accompanied by our Media students and staff who produced three MUN films. It is a great credit to our Media Department that we are invited to other schools to share our expertise in this way. As well as providing some experienced committee chairs, our younger delegates, many at their first conference, all performed very creditably.

At the end of last week, Year 11 GSCE Art students were completing their trial examination and some fantastic final pieces were created which are shown later in this Newsletter. My congratulations to those students and to Ms Baldwin and Ms Hewitt for the excellent work that these students have produced.

On Wednesday, the Sixth Form Assembly was led by individual Houses, presenting on a theme of their choice. There was a wide range of interesting presentations including a Christmas Quiz and arguments that ‘High School Musical’ is the best film of all time! Thanks to Mrs Culbert for organising this event and for the excellent range of Wednesday lectures we have enjoyed throughout the term.

The Junior School has been very busy this week and I have enjoyed the Key Stage 1 Performance, the Early Years Nativity and, last night, a splendid Upper Junior Christmas Concert which featured string and percussion ensembles, individual performances and the Upper Junior School Choir.

With singing in mind, we all enjoyed the first Senior School House Singing Competition this afternoon. Each House sang a Christmas song in front of the judging panel of myself, Mr Millward and Miss O’Hanlan. At the end of a very entertaining afternoon, the Judges are pleased to announce that Buchanan produced the winning performance, with Oxford a very close second.

I hope that all will be in the same fine voice for the Carol Service which starts at 6.30 pm in Great Hall on Sunday evening.

This has been a busy week for our sports teams and there is plenty to celebrate. The Under 14 Basketball Team continue their unbeaten run with a victory over Dulwich College and particular mention should also be made of a very strong Under 13 Table Tennis Team who continue to perform well against strong opposition. Congratulations to Hollenden on winning the Girls’ House Badmington last night and to Cambridge for their House Table Tennis win. Good luck to all footballers competing against Whitgift in the final Saturday fixture of the season tomorrow morning. Good luck also to the Jazz Band who are playing at a reception held by the Mayor of Croydon in the Town Hall this evening.

A reminder that term finishes on Wednesday,17th December, at normal time, after Christmas lunches and the final Senior School Assembly. With Best Wishes,

Chris Hutchinson

Headmaster

Royal Russell

School

Headmaster’s

Weekly Newsletter

12 December 2014

From the Chapel

In the School services on Tuesday boys of St Andrew’s House spoke about human rights. They quoted from The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. They pointed out how much of it was based on Biblical teaching of the value of each human being, who is created in God’s image. God becoming a human being in Jesus, which is the Christmas celebration, has made humanity holy. St Paul tells how each person is a temple, a dwelling-place of God. Thus hurting people is an attack on God.

On Saturday, the 13th, the Church honours St Lucy [Italian: Santa Lucia]. Lucy died as a virgin martyr at Syracuse, Sicily in 304 A.D. when Diocletian was the Roman Emperor. According to a legend her eyes were gouged out as part of her torture. In paintings St. Lucy is frequently shown holding her eyes on a golden plate.

Lucy is a patron saint of the blind and those with eye-trouble. Lucy means light, with the same root as lucid which means clear, radiant, understandable. May St Lucy inspire Russellians to be lucid!

Service of Lessons and Carols

All are invited to attend our annual service of Christmas Lessons and Carols on Sunday at 6.30 p.m. in Great Hall. The light provided by hundreds of candles creates a special atmosphere for the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Light of the World. On this third Sunday of Advent the third candle of our Advent wreath will be lit. There will be Bible readings, carols for the choir, and carols for us all!

Bible Quote: submitted by: Sam Roberts:

"This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118 verse 24). Georgia, Chapel Warden, comments: This quote tells us the importance of living each day as it comes. Life can be unpredictable and it is essential that we take advantage of the many opportunities given to us. At a time when Current Affairs is more about the difficulties that face humanity, we can show our gratitude for

our circumstances by thinking positively every day. The Chaplain adds: This verse reminds us that every day is a gift from God. In a busy day do we have enough time to thank God for it and rejoice?

Chapel Quiz 30: The present Pope is the first to choose the name Francis. What name has been

the most popular name for Popes?

Answer: John. The last one was Pope John XXIII. However there have not been 23 popes named

John! There was no Pope John XX because Pope John XXI wanted to correct what in his time was believed to be an error in the counting of his predecessors John XV – XIX.

Chapel Quiz 31: “Good King Wencelas looked out on the Feast of Stephen”. What is the date of

the Feast of Stephen?

Bible Typo: "Treacle Bible" : In the 1549 edition of the Great Bible, Jeremiah 8:22 was translated

Is there no tryacle [treacle] in Gilead? Modern translations usually have balm or medicine instead.

Pupil Howler: When Mary heard she was to be the Mother of Jesus, she sang the Magna Carta

[presumably an English version of the Magnificat ].

St Lucy (1521) by D. Beccafumi

Nativity (1440) by

Fra Angelico

Benenden MUN 33 Royal Russell students attended the 7th one-day Benenden MUN conference. This is a really well run conference which particularly helps new delegates experience MUN for the first time and we took a relatively inexperienced team of delegates who enjoyed a great conference. All of the students spoke at least once and James was lucky enough to address the GA and take points of information. Georgia, Ella and Maria were also invited to chair committees and all three did very well. Eight of our Media Studies students, as part of RRS MUN TV, were also commissioned to make three short films of the conference for Benenden, and these films can be seen on our website: http://mun.royalrussell.co.uk/2014/12/09/benenden-mun-2014/ or at http://vimeo.com/1853productions

Year 13 Art and Design Photography Educational Journey Last Friday, the Year 13 Photography students visited Tate Modern and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The purpose of the visit was to gather first-hand reference material for the Unit 3 Personal Investigation. At Tate Modern, students viewed the outstanding ‘Conflict Time Photography’ show which contains work made by artists and photographers from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Chloe Shirley, whose investigation focuses on objects used in narrative, was hugely inspired by some of the adventurous forms of presentation in the show. Richard Holmes, who is studying aerial photography, will be looking at Sophie Ristelhueber’s work in more depth having seen her piece Fait 1992 and Mirena Boyadzhieva, whose interest is reflections in water, was fascinated by Simon Norfolk’s haunting image. After viewing some very thought-provoking photographs, the group moved onto the V&A where they were booked in to view a selection of iconic prints in the museum’s archives. Due to extensive renovations in the Museum, the journey to the prints and study room took ten minutes passing through locked doors, empty corridors, up and down service lifts and abandoned galleries to finally arrive at probably the most important collection of photographs in the world. Here, students were able to handle and appreciate many of the photographs covered on their A level course so far.

View of the V&A print room Camera-shy Year 13 Photography students

En-route to the V&A Print Rooms Richard and Ella viewing photographs

Year 12 House Presentations This week it was the turn of our Year 12s to present their own Assemblies. The students were split into their Houses and had to prepare 5 minute presentations on any topic of their choice. All Houses provided interesting talks with different and inventive presenting styles and ideas.

Madden House debated the Chapel being the heart of the School’s community and possible improvements that could be made, while St. Andrew’s provided a factual presentation about small countries like Monaco and San Marino. The Keable boys talked about the recent GRIM Challenge which saw several of the boys trek through knee high mud.

Hollenden created a Christmas themed quiz, confusing everyone with Guess the Backward Christmas Song followed by Buchannan strongly arguing High School Musical to be the best film of all time. Reade meanwhile quizzed the students with Dinosaur facts and even dressed up some of the pupils as prehistoric creatures!

Oxford House highlighted the importance of teamwork with a sing-a-long of One Republic’s Counting Stars. And finally, Cambridge and Queen’s pupils showcased their boarding life which mainly consisted of fun activities and a lot of sleep! Queen’s even made their own media video to show.

In all, every House exceeded last year’s House assemblies and we were all delighted by the informative and joyful presentations we had.

Such was the high standard of all the entries that the judges (Sandra Culbert and Kieran Taylor ), had an incredibly difficult job in selecting one winner.

As a consequence first place prizes go to:

Madden for their PowerPoint discussing Chapel and community. Queen’s for their video on life in Queen’s and Buchanan for their powerful argument as to why High School Musical is of such great cultural significance.

Runners up prizes go to:

Keable for their presentation on The Grim Challenge, Oxford for their singing and the importance of team work, Reade for their work on dinosaurs – we particularly liked the Johndaviesasaurus! Cambridge with their talks on life in Cambridge, with a special award for Howard Ma and his impassioned plea about Cambridge Laundry Services and Hollenden for an amusing and well planned Christmas quiz.

Quote of the day has to go to Duncan Hui: “I thought that we had made a video but it turns out we didn’t get round to it!”

Prizes will be presented via Houses in Tutor time.

GCSE Art and Design

Last week in Art and Design, Year 11 GCSE students completed their two-day [10 hour] trial exam on the theme of ‘Contemporary Portraiture’.

This project began with an independent trip in the summer holiday to the BP awards exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Inspired and enthused by what they had learnt there, they went on to develop their own designs for a painting, or in Wilf’s case, a series of mono prints based on the work of Egon Schiele.

There were some tremendous pieces completed during the two days; Maria Slatter’s enormous diptych of her grand-parents, Alex Haigh’s close-up of Phoebe Kelly and Jing Lu’s portrayal of a local Tibetan woman she photographed for the project.

The students worked industriously, and in silence, for the whole exam, which obviously paid off, as the work they have produced is of an exemplary standard.

News from Foodland The Year 7 students have been super busy this week as they have designed their own super healthy breakfast smoothies which they made this week. They were also set their Autumn Term design and make assessment task which saw them, in a week, design and then produce an edible decoration which was suitable to be displayed in the dining hall at the end of term dinner. Such fantastic work was completed. The winner will be announced next week in the Headmaster’s Newsletter along with pictures of many of the entries.

Year 9 students made Aussie Meat Party Pies this week. They were learning about the importance of temperatures and safe cooling of high risk ingredients when cooking. They also investigated the use of standard components to compare short crust pastry that they made previously for party quiche with pre-made pastry. The comparison also included the differences between the short crust for the pie bases and the puff pastry for the pie lids. Students chose different flavourings, finishes, and discussed glazes as well as how to make pies healthier, such as no base pastry, using mashed potato instead of puff pastry and lean meats. Gelatinisation was revised with the use of corn flour for thickening the pie filling’s gravy.

Boarders go Skating at Hampton Court Our Boarders enjoyed a fun afternoon of skating at the Hampton Court

Ice Rink.

Tapas en Galicia On Tuesday evening, the Sixth Form, Mrs Missan, Miss Conde and Mr Bueno took a trip to our favourite Tapas restaurant, Galicia. The food was deliciosa as always and the atmosphere was great. Jack and Mr Bueno got some publicity as they were mistaken for famous actors! It really was an enjoyable night!

¡FUERA! Our Year 9 and 10 students who study Spanish received a visit from The Onatti Theatre Company who performed their most recent play, ¡FUERA! The play presented them with the opportunity of learning and revising Spanish in a fun and entertaining environment. Some students even got involved with the play and performed with the actors who were telling a tale of the love / hate relationship of a brother and sister. ¡Qué bien lo pasamos!

Royal Geographical Society: China’s Future Mr Parham and an elite bunch of Sixth Form Geography students endured the cold weather to venture up to Kensington for the latest instalment of Royal Geographical Society Monday Night Lectures. The focus of the talk, given by Timothy Beardson promoting his book ‘The Stumbling Giant’, was the future of China. The RGS was sold out for this talk (despite it being free) and people were queuing in the aisles to listen to what proved to be a fascinating 55 minute display. Most people believe that China is in line to take over the world with its manufacturing might and growing global influence. However, Mr Beardson painted a dark and gloomy picture for China which could see them fall as a global superpower. Whilst I do not wish to spoil his book, a Christmas request from Santa for many of you (I’m sure), he retold an interesting prophecy of China’s future being undermined by its ageing demographic situation and future population collapse. In addition, its lack of investment in public services and military, and the potential for future conflicts over water resources and territory, could lead China into an uncertain future. It was pleasing to hear the students engage in discussion, most of the way home, and for it to have such relevance to the A level Geography course. I hope that the talks in the new year are as fruitful as those we have heard this year.

The Grim Challenge A group of five Sixth Formers (Holly, Oliver, Ed, Dariusi and Paul) and Mr Parham set out to do something a bit different! Normally the word GRIM conjures the thought of foreboding, ugly and unattractive – this race lived up to expectations. The event is an 8+ mile event based at the Rushmore Arena in Aldershot, more commonly known to locals as the ‘tank testing track’. The weather was cold and the health and safety officer announced at the start of the race that there was lots of water on the course (understatement!) and not to run into the puddles (lakes) through fear of tripping, falling and cracking your head. Not what you want to hear at the start. The course was challenging. Hills, uneven tracks, knee deep puddles extending for 100-200m and clay pits with army netting covering them were added to the course – like running 8 miles was not hard enough first thing on a Sunday in Aldershot. We all completed the race, though some of us looked worse than others with Holly covered head to toe in clay!

At the end of the race there were tales of desperation, falling over, other race-goers who had sacrificed themselves to the mud and water and a general sense of achievement that we had done something worthwhile. Mr Parham finished in 1hr and 3mins, Darius

in 1hr 14mins, Holly and Oli both in 1hr

20mins, Paul in 1hr 22mins and Ed in a highly

respectable 1hr 26 mins.

The plan is now to set up another challenge

for the New Year, the Beast in the East in

Orpington. Make that your New Year

challenge.

Linda Ge (Y12), Holly (Y13), Oliver (Y13) and Tristan (Y13)

The Ondaatje Theatre at the Royal Geographical Society

Calendar Creation!

SENT TO PRINT!

The Open Morning parents voted….. the students waited in anticipation….. the Geography ‘My Place’ Calendar is now available for purchase…..

Earlier in the term, Year 7s mustered their creative and inventive talents to submit a photograph they thought represented ‘My Place’, a theme open to interpretation and a challenge that sparked a lot of ingenuity and interest.

Sammie Edwards’ entry featuring a cheeky Meerkat in its enclosure won overall and we are able to celebrate a range of winning photos in our 2015 Geography Calendar.

They cost £8 each and all money goes to Royal Russell’s charity this year Teens Unite. So send your order requests to slok@royalrussell.co.uk and arrange payment at the school Reception and as the New Year unravels enjoy a mix of wonderful photos generated by our students.

Word of the Week

Use it in a sentenceBob is feeling indisposed today, having come down with a sore throat in the night. He is disinclined to do any work, but can't quite get out of it since indisposedness is only slightly sick, not quite the same as being really, mostly sick.

• Slightly unwell• Unwilling or reluctant

If you are indisposed you are feeling unwell. You are under the weather. You are ailing. You are probably looking forward to the end of term.

If you are indisposed you may also be hesitant, unenthusiastic and lacking in motivation.

From the Sport Department Buchanan made it the double by winning the Junior badminton after the Seniors won their competition. Queen’s had a strong performance for second place with Hollenden in third and Reade fourth. Buchanan now have a significant lead in the overall competition, but things are tight for the remaining three places. Currently Queen’s are second, Hollenden are third and Reade are fourth. In netball this week, sadly, we have had schools cancelling on us. Please look out for the rearranged dates on www.royalrussellsport.co.uk. In the fixtures that were played, the U12A team won 13-4 against Oasis Shirley; the progress made by the shooting pair was great to see, earning Kathryn and Emily joint player of the match. In tricky conditions the U13A team beat Woodcote; the wind made it hard to shoot but we came through as 8-4 winners. Megan’s play-making ability meant she was voted player of the match. The first and second teams played Riddlesdown. Both teams lost what were close games after Riddlesdown pulled away in the last quarter. Cambridge also made it a double in the table tennis after winning Thursdays Junior boys event. St Andrew’s, with top seed Liam Smith in imperious form, were 2nd. Madden came 3rd, while Oxford beat Keable on points difference. Cambridge still lead the table, but 2nd place has changed again with St Andrew’s overtaking Keable. Oxford are in last place but with the galas next week, Mr Greaves will be hoping for a strong performance from his swim squad with National record holder Raffy Ryder in the vanguard. Last weekend, Junior football played Lingfield Notre Dame and came away with 4 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss. The U15B’s 5-0 rout, with both Arn-Fabian and Nikita so close to a hat-trick, must have been the pick of the performances. Senior football in midweek had more of a battle against Wilsons. Mr Dear’s 2XI scrapped hard for a 2-3 loss with goalkeeper Bogdan an excellent replacement and it was good to see Mr Bueno’s 4XI get a well deserved run-out.

U14 Basketball Team continue their unbeaten season with

victory over Dulwich College

Swimming Success

Saffron has been selected to compete for Beckenham swimming club in the National Arena League at the Southern Region Premier League Final where they are hoping to qualify for the National finals in Wales next year. This would be a fantastic experience as all the top swimmers in the country will be there and Saffron would be rubbing shoulders with Olympic hopefuls! It has been a busy three months for Saffron, she's been competing most weekends and during the week and has enjoyed many wins and medals, all the hard work has paid off as she now has 7 County qualifying times and is close to 3 more! Well done Saffron and Good Luck.

Table Tennis Following on from the U13 County Table Tennis Cup where Royal Russell were runners up, the team have played two further London South and Surrey league matches. They lost 8-2 to Coombe Boys’ and beat Whitgift 8-2. Congratulations to Liam Smith, Daniel Zhang, Charlie Jones and Lucas Humphries.

All our Sport news can be found at www.royalrussellsport.co.uk

With an expanding fixture list to improve school sports, can parents please be aware that all

pupils, including Year 11, 12 and 13, will need to be available for Saturday fixtures from next

September 2015.

Please check out our Sports Website, which you can see via the address below and also follow us on

twitter @RRS_Sport

Diary Dates

Friday 12 December Jazz Band Perform at the Mayor of Croydon’s Charity Reception

Sunday 14 December Senior School Carol Service. 6.30pm. Great Hall. All Welcome

Tuesday 16 December Informal Christmas Concert. 4.00pm. PAC. All welcome

Wednesday 17 December Senior School Christmas Lunches

Wednesday 17 December Year 12 and 13 Geography Trip to Lanzarote

Wednesday 17 December Autumn Term Ends

Tuesday 6 January Year 7 Entrance Exam

Wednesday 7 January Spring Term Begins 8.15am

We welcome your feedback. Please send to Ciara Campbell, Marketing and Communications Manager

email: ccampbell@royalrussell.co.uk

Royal Russell School Coombe Lane : Croydon : Surrey : CR0 5RF

www.royalrussell.co.uk 020 8657 4433

For all our latest news…….

Follow us @Royal_Russell and @RRS_Sport

Christmas Carols by Candlelight Concert at

Croydon Minster

The combined Choirs of Croydon Minster will perform a wonderful evening of carols and seasonal classics on Sunday 21st December at 6.30pm. The music will include well-known items such as ‘I Saw Three Ships’, ‘Ding Dong, Merrily on High’ and ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’, as well as some less familiar works by James MacMillan and Peter Warlock. Tickets are £10 (concessions £5) and will include mince pies and mulled wine. The concert will be under the direction of Ronny Krippner (Director of Music), with Tom Little (Sub-Organist) at the organ. Proceeds from this concert will go to the Friends of Music at Croydon Minster which works to extend and enhance the musical tradition there. For more information, please go to www.croydonminster.org. Tickets can be purchased in advance from the Minster office at 020 8688 8104 or on the door.