www.tauntonschool.co.uk 26 April 2013 www.tauntonschool.co.uk

26 April 2013
PGL LIDDINGTON
Forty eight!! Wow - the largest group to venture out from
TPS into the wilds of Wiltshire. After a late night (for some),
Tuesday morning brought us a freezing cold day with archery,
climbing, survivor and airoball (basketball on trampolines).
Some of our Year 6 pupils did well in helping out the younger
pupils with their harnesses for the abseiling and the trapeze.
The trapeze was new this year. A tall pole needed to be
climbed first; then from standing on top of it, the children had
to jump off and grab the swing. Survivor saw the children in
groups making a shelter and then they had a go at making fire
using a flint and a striker under supervision of an instructor. The quad bikes and mountain biking were again favourites of many. Paddy and Anna proving to be speed-demons
on the track. No one (again) got too lost on the underground tunnel trail although it was
cold, damp and very dark! The zip wire and big swing provided some with speed and excitement. Canoeing was fun with games of balance and the challenge to avoid getting too
wet (unavoidable for a few of us! A shame no children managed to splash the staff this
year as there weren’t enough canoes to go round).
Our accommodation was fantastic and
Annie, our group leader, was fun and
very well organised, keeping the children
going between activities and after tea. It
just leaves me to say a big thank you to
Miss McKeith , Mrs Finch, Mr Springer
and Mr Williams for their help and good
company all week!
Mr Ashmore
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PAGE 2 NOTICES
Headmaster’s Surgery
Mr Etchells would like to invite you to attend his Headmaster’s Surgery held from 8.00am on Tuesday mornings.
Surgery will now be held in his study (in Thone, opposite
the School Office), instead of the Library. Please feel most
welcome to pop in for chat; no appointment necessary!
Cricket Fixtures
Can parents please check the calendar for fixtures
their children may be involved in throughout the
term and let staff know if they have a clash as early
as possible. School fixtures, however, should
normally take priority. Many thanks
Mr Craig Williams
May Half-Term FAB
Children in Years 3 to 8 will be bringing home a
letter and booking form next Friday for the FAB
activities during half-term.
There will be two day trips: the Hawk and Owl
Centre on Exmoor on Tuesday 28th May and Seaquarium at Weston Super Mare on Thursday 30th
May. All enquiries, as usual, to Mrs Gaskell via
e-mail on [email protected]
Student Teacher
We welcome student Emma Keep to the Prep School, who is
teaching some French and Spanish alongside Miss Descy this
term.
Any unwanted DVDs out there?!!
If you have cleared out your cupboards recently and have any
unwanted ‘U’ or ‘PG’ rated DVDs, we would be very grateful as
they are very for second Prep time in the younger year groups.
If you have any, please hand them in to the Front Office. Thank
you.
Mrs Drew
Golf Hobby
Unfortunately, I have not had enough support for the golf
hobby even after opening it up to the rest of the school. It is
therefore not financially viable and I apologise for this. I will run
it again in the Autumn Term, where I hope to get more pupils
interested.
Mrs Tucker
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Summer Term Key Dates
Grandparents’ Tea Party
Friday 10th May (2.00 – 3.30pm)
Exeat
Saturday and Sunday 11th and 12th May
Half-Term from
Friday 24th May (12.35 pm) to (inclusive)
Sunday 2nd June (evening)
Year 8 Leavers’ Ball
Saturday 8th June (7.30pm)
Summer Fair
Friday 14th June (5.00pm)
Pre-Prep Celebration Day
Friday 21st June
Parents’ Day
Saturday 22nd June
End of Term
Friday 27th June (4.00pm)
NEWS
Year Two Forest School on Uppers
Year Two enjoyed a beautifully ‘dry’ visit to our new Forest School site on Uppers this
week. As part of our cross-curricular learning, the children were equipped with clipboards and activity sheets. The Literacy focus was to find adjectives to describe various nouns in the Forest School environment. The challenge was made harder by the
addition of discovering a pair of words for every letter of the alphabet. Elise hoped
to spot a zebra, but we were out of luck! Thank you Year Two; you were impeccably
behaved.
The Year Two team
TPS Cubs at St George's Day Parade
through Taunton last Sunday afternoon
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Wedding of Natasha Huckle
We are pleased to announce that Natasha
Huckle married on Saturday 20th April to
Ben Ballardie. It was a beautiful event,
the sun was shining and the occasion was
enjoyed by family and friends. We wish
Natasha and Ben a long and happy future
together.
Miss Huckle will now be known as Mrs
Ballardie.
Performing Arts Department
Creative children get busy over the Easter holiday!
A number of children were involved with Music and Drama activities over the Easter holidays. Here are some of their stories.
The NCC Easter Course 2013 by Tessa Lewes and Emily Buckland
This year the NCC course was held in Shrewsbury School. When we arrived it was noticeably colder than Taunton. This was Emily’s first course but we very quickly made some new friends. Every day had the same routine, sight-reading, rehearsals, recreation and mealtimes. During the recreation there would be different activities from chilling out to going swimming. Every evening
there was something to take part in, there was movie night, swimming night, a disco, the cabaret etc. The food was really tasty
and there was so much to choose from. We performed a rap about the NCC on the Cabaret which everyone enjoyed. There was
five and a half hours of singing each day so our voices became very sore! There were lots of chances each day to work together
as a choir and we were both in the Blue Choir. We had brilliant conductors which made our rehearsals very interesting and fun
and we learnt lots about how to sit, behave and sing in a choir. We learnt very quickly some new songs due to having so much
time working on them. We showed what we had achieved at the end of the week with a concert which everyone performed in
where we sang ‘It Might as well be Spring!’, ‘You Raise Me Up’ and ‘May the road rise to meet you’, which our pianist had written.
It was such a privilege to sing with other people with lovely voices and it sounded beautiful in the hall. Overall we recommend
auditioning for the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain because it’s a very fun trip but you also learn things you will never
forget.
The NCO Easter Course 2013 by Amy Lloyd Jones
During the Easter holidays, I performed with the National Children's Wind Orchestra of Great Britain at a concert in Hertfordshire.
I was selected to play for the orchestra following an audition before Christmas and attended a week long residential course at
Queenswood School before the concert. The orchestra played a range of mostly modern music by composers such as Behrman,
Williams and Johnson which was very enjoyable although quite challenging because the musicians playing in the concert were of
a very high standard. In addition to long hours of rehearsing, there were a lot of other activities during the week including netball, swimming, tennis, football and a disco. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and concert and made a lot of new friends.
Well done to you all. You have certainly ‘Seized the Day’.
Mrs Hornsby
Pictured in the photograph are Amy Lloyd Jones, Tessa Lewes, Emily Buckland, Chris and Simone Gerontis,
Billy Hemmings and Amelia Layzell
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NEWS
“Pirates” Ahoy!
Year 4 exploded with fun as they excitedly worked
towards a performance of the musical production
‘Pirates!’
It was a real delight to work with the Y4 team. The
children worked with an abundance of energy, enjoying every minute of their singing, acting and dancing.
Their behaviour throughout the week was quite outstanding. A huge thank you to the Y4 teachers Mrs
Stunell and Mrs Finch and Mrs Drew who directed it
so effectively.
On Tuesday 23rd April there was a Brass Demonstration
by two of our Visiting Music Staff, Mr Jeremy Loysen and Mr
John Hammonds. Years 3 and 4 enjoyed ‘having a go’ on the instruments and there were plenty of weird and wonderful noises
being heard from the Centenary Hall.
Mrs Hornsby
Val Maddocks
Parents, former pupils and colleagues here at TPS will be saddened to hear of the death of Val Maddocks after a brave fight
against cancer.
She will be remembered for her cheerful positive and professional approach to her teaching and her care of the pupils. Val will be
sorely missed by her friends and colleagues on the staff here. As a school, we would like to send a message of our good wishes
and love to Val’s family at this saddest of times.
Andy Manners
Chairman, Common Room
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NEWS
Take One Painting Exhibition
Nursery and Pre-Prep children welcomed their families to their ‘pop-up’
exhibition on a wet and rainy Friday
22 March.
Inspired by The National Gallery, this
half-term our focus was Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s famous painting, The
Umbrellas (Les Parapluies).
The National Gallery has been promoting the use of a single image
for cross-curricular work in primary
schools through the Take One Picture scheme to highlight how subject
areas support and inform each other.
Using the painting, the children were
able to successfully bring together all
areas of the curriculum ‘under one
umbrella!’.
Mrs Riggs
The Farm comes to the
Nursery and Pre-Prep
Departments
THE usual hubbub of Taunton PrePrep and Nursery Departments was
replaced by more unusual noises on
Friday morning. Courtney’s Farm visited the Nursery Zero children, bringing along chickens, lambs, piglets and
ponies for all the children to meet.
The Nursery children are currently
looking at the topic of animals so they
all got a chance to discover first-hand
all of their qualities. Each child went
into the various pens while Courtney’s Farm staff talked about what
food the animals ate and answered all
of the children’s questions.
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“STARGIRL”
THE first feature film produced by the new Taunton Prep School
Filmmakers’ Club has been receiving critical acclaim.
‘Stargirl’ was filmed and directed by Mr Nigel Cousins, a Taunton Prep School parent and organiser of the Filmmakers’ Club,
and the cast was mostly made up of Year 8 students from the
school.
Since the premiere, ‘Stargirl’ has been entered into the Cambridge Film Festival – the UK’s largest film festival, receiving
14,000 worldwide entries – and has also been entered into the
London Zero Film Festival, held in July this year.
In addition, the entry into the Cambridge festival has validated
‘Stargirl’ for pages on IMDb – the Internet Movie Database.
MaKe Easter Workshop
Monday 8th to Friday 12th April
Report by Amelia Layzell
(Year 8)
We began working on a new play that we
had to write, rehearse and then perform
on Friday 12th April. The show was
performed in three acts. Act one was a
mixture of poems and songs, Billy Hemmings performed a speech from Henry V.
Act 3 was also a collection of monologues
and songs.
We raised £120 for Autism UK, the charity
we all voted to support for the week.
Amelia Layzell
www.tauntonschool.co.uk
House Captains
Loveday House Captains
Tia Hawkins and Olly Butters
Dowell House Captains
Henry Bosworth and Amina Dasuki
Cooper House Captains
Will Doherty and Maddie Kimber
Roberts House Captain
Armand Capart and Rachel Sheldon
Well done to the following boys
who represented Wellington Rugby Club on their tour to Cornwall:
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Paddy Doherty
Will Newton
Archie Robinson
Oliver James
Tom Gannon
Mr Bailey
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BOYS’ SPORTS
U13s Sevens Squad
For the first time in the Prep School’s history, the U13s Sevens Squad travelled to South West London for the Annual National
School Sevens Tournament - the largest schools rugby tournament in the world. The Tournament included competitions for
Prep Schools, Junior schools, U16s, U18, one term playing schools, two term playing schools and an U18 girls’ tournament.
64 teams took part in the prep schools tournament with TPS
narrowly missing qualification to the knock out rounds. In
monsoonal conditions, the U13s beat Aldro 12-7 in their first
match. However they had a poor start to their second match
against St John’s Northwood, letting in two tries. However we
came back to score two more tries through Toby Squires but
we were unable to convert them, losing the game 14-10. We
therefore needed to win our next game by a large margin and
for St John’s Northwood to lose theirs in order to qualify for the
knock out stages.
TPS played superbly winning their game 45-7 but St John’s also
won and therefore went through as leader of the group.
The boys deserve every credit for their efforts and were superb
ambassadors for the school both on and off the pitch.
Thanks must go to Mr Springer who helped coach and support the squad as well as to Mr Kelly who was there supporting the
boys, before taking the U18 squad to their tournament.
Parents braved the elements as well and thanks to Mr Lee, Mr Wyatt, Mr Bosworth and Mr Ogle for their unfailingly support.
Well done to all the boys and look I look forward to seeing how their rugby carers progress in the U14s at Taunton school.
Team: Henry Bosworth, Nathan Williams, Toby Squires, Henry Lee, Tommy Wyatt (Captain), Patrick Lee, William Ogle, Finn Harrington, Eliott Watson and Joey Rogers
Mr Bailey
ROUNDERS’ RESULTS and NOTICES
Years 5 and 6 Rounders Practice
Saturday 1pm to 2.30pm
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Meet on the playground at 12.45pm
Practice will be on Uppers from 1.00pm until 2.25pm. If
raining it will be in the Prep School Sports Hall
Parents welcome to drop off/pick up from Uppers: please
arrive promptly for pick up at Uppers.
Any girl not picked up from Uppers will be escorted back to
normal Centenary Hall pick up area
Please have lunch before arriving and bring water
Please sign up on the sports board
Girls’ Rounders Year 7 and 8 Rounders training
Results
Saturday 20th April
1.00pm to 2.30pm
v Wellington Junior
School (at home)
U11
Won 12 - 8
There will be an optional rounders
session this Saturday 20th April.
All are welcome.
U10A
Won 16.5 - 7.5
Please meet on the playground at
12.45 following lunch.
Mrs Gardner
www.tauntonschool.co.uk
SPORTS
GB Schools’ National Biathlon Finals
On Sunday 28th March, (when most of us were starting to relax
into the holidays), George Tester and Archie Robinson were
competing in the GB Schools' National Biathlon final at Crystal
Palace sports stadium. It was a very cold day which made the
task that much harder to get their muscles ready for the challenges ahead. However, they ran and swam superbly; George
Nirva Patel (Year 7) has been selected
to play in the first pair in the senior
schools First team Tennis squad. She and
her partner played their first Matches
against King's College and won 6-2, 6-4
and 6-1. Well done Nirva!
gaining a comfortable first place in
both the run and
swim and ensuring he became the
Year 6 Biathlon
Champion for
2013, retaining his
title from his Year
5 win! Well done
George, we could
not be prouder
of you! Archie,
who is new to this
sporting competition, gained a very
credible 41st place
nationally and is
keen to continue
to train in preparation for next years
competition. Well
done Archie!
I have many
registration forms
available for collection for anyone
who is interested
in entering biathle
(run, swim, run)
competitions and training days on various dates and venues. If
you would be interested in entering any of these please come
and see me and I will give you the forms to take home.
Mrs Cooling
Edward Shattock - 11th in the
UK in the 13&U age group
Edward is now ranked 11th in the country
at 13&U.
During the Easter holidays, after having a
fantastic time in Portugal on the TS Tennis
Tour, Edward Shattock, Year 8, played his
first tournaments since winning his 5th
Somerset County Championship Singles’
title in a row last summer.
Despite breaking the middle finger of his
racquet hand in a rugby match in November, Edward trained hard throughout the
winter and is determined to continue
working hard so that he keeps improving.
He reached one final and four semi-finals
and played better and better in each
tournament in what was a promising start
to the Summer season.
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Well done Edward!
PTA News
PTA Events
Tennis Club Off to a Great Start
Tuesday 30th April
at 8pm
PTA Meeting
Old Library
The PTA’s arranged Tennis Club met for the first time on Wednesday evening. Parents
and staff joined in for a club that will run every Wednesday evening in the Summer
term. Tim Drew kept us all in order with some warm up drills, coaching and then
arranged some friendly doubles matches. It was a great evening despite the strong
winds – or that was my excuse anyway!
Monday 13th May
from 8am to 9am
Parents' Coffee Morning
in the Pre-Prep Hall
We still have a few places left, so if you would like to join in for a fun and sociable
game of tennis, for all standards of play, please contact [email protected]
Tuesday 11th June
at 8pm
PTA Meeting
Centenary Hall
Saturday 29th June
at 7pm
Summer Ball
Somerset County Cricket Club
Spring Plant Sale
The PTA will be holding a Spring plant
sale outside the Pre Prep school gates on
Friday 3rd May from 3pm.
We already have a number of plants to
sell, including, Foxgloves, Sweet Peas,
Courgettes, Tomatoes, Garden Peas,
Strawberries and many others. Please
come along and support us and the
school. If any parents or staff have a few
spare seedlings or plants to donate for
us to sell, please could they leave them
inside the Pre Prep gates at morning
drop-off on Friday 3rd May.
Summer Ball Tickets
Parents who have ordered Summer Ball Tickets may now collect them from the Senior
School Reception. Please could you collect them as soon as possible. Any queries or
problems, please contact Jenny Metherall on [email protected] asap.
There are still a few tickets remaining - please see the poster and order form at the
back of this Courier..
The PTA Ball Committee would be very grateful to receive digital photos (.jpg)
or video (.avi, .mpg, quicktime etc) from any phase of Taunton School of the current
Upper Sixth for display at this year’s Summer Ball. Please send to this e-mail:
[email protected], with information such as the event, names, year or a topical
title in the subject line by 31 May 2013.
8pm Tuesday 30 April
A tour of Pre-Prep facilities with Kathy McLauchlan
followed by PTA meeting - EVERYONE welcome!
Come along to find out what's going on throughout the school, meet with other parents and teachers. Agenda items include a
discussion of parent communications, including The Courier and Parent's Directory, and the proposal for child-designed Christmas
cards and School calendars
For more information contact Anna ([email protected])
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