Summer - Dame Allans

DA ME ALLAN’S SCHOOLS
2012 SUMMER NEWS
Message from the Principal
This stage of the school year has a curious Janus like quality,
when we are looking forward to so many new experiences,
but looking back, too, over the past year and beyond at
Dame Allan’s.
This newsletter looks back over some remarkable
events and individual achievements of the past
few months; inevitably it can only convey a
small amount of the vast range of individual,
team and school endeavours, so
apologies to those who are not
included. This issue does, however,
demonstrate how staff, fellow
pupils and the wider Allanian
family support the individual to
achieve excellence in academic,
cultural and charitable endeavours.
I am particularly proud of the wide
variety of charitable work which takes
place, often as a result of individual
experiences, laying the foundations for
Allanians to take a leading, responsible role in
the wider society. Indeed some of the charities we
have supported this year have been founded or run
by former pupils.
This is direct result of the ethos of the Schools.
When Mrs Norah Virgin returned to Fenham last month, she
was visiting what was to her ‘the new school’ she moved to
from the College Street site in Newcastle. Next term we will
welcome pupils to the latest ‘new school’ at Hunter’s Moor,
trusting that they too will be able to return in later years with
their own happy memories.
Vizavis at the
South Bank
Vizavis have just won the Youth Dance England
regional final and will now perform in London in
July as part of U.Dance2012.
U.Dance2012 is Youth Dance England’s
flagship event taking place at the
Southbank Centre this summer.
They are staging some high-profile
performances in the Queen Elizabeth Hall
and Royal Festival Hall on three consecutive
evenings, which will “showcase some of the
best youth dance groups from across the UK”.
Over 100 groups applied and Vizavis are one of only
12 to be selected.
This is a magnificent achievement and a well deserved
recognition of the group’s enormous talent. The group
performed a dance entitled ‘Once Bitten’ which takes its
inspiration from the American TV series,‘The Vampire Diaries’.
Their journey to the Southbank started in January when the selection
process, PULSE North East, began. The process comprised three
levels of performance, culminating in two groups being selected for the
north east regional finals in April at ARC in Stockton.
So this is also a time for looking forward. Our Sixth Form
students are preparing for their final A level exams, supported by
dedicated staff and anxious parents, as they look forward to
moving to life beyond Dame Allan’s at their chosen universities
and new careers. Within the Schools, pupils will soon begin
preparing to make the transition to the next stage of Dame
Allan’s, whether it is to a new form or a new School within the
Dame Allan’s family.
And we look forward to welcoming new pupils and parents to
our new Nursery and Junior School at Hunter’s Moor and to
the Boys’ and Girls’ School and Sixth Form here at Fenham.
www.dameallans.co.uk
Stop press
Suzie Barwise Munro has been selected for the Great Britain Pony
Club Mounted Games Team to compete at the International
Games in Australia. She travels to Australia at the end of April
where she will compete in New South Wales, following two
weeks of sight seeing and cultural experiences combined with her
preparation for the games.
S
port
Sports
shorts
Rugby Cup Double
County Cup:
The Under 13 team produced an
outstanding performance in the
County Cup final against RGS. The
boys dominated the game, with
excellent tackling laying the
foundation for an impressive victory.
• The Year 6 rugby team won the
plate competition at the Durham
School 7s.
• Sam Aiston, Year 3, has been
signed up by Newcastle United.
• Abigail Tate has qualified to
compete at the British Team
Gym Championships to be
held in May in Gloucester.
• Jonathan Orritt has been
selected for the North
England rugby academy.
• James Appleyard has been
selected to represent
Northumberland in the
Under 14 County Cup tennis
championships in Wales.
• Suzie Barwise Munro was
selected to represent
Northumberland in the
English Schools’ Cross
Country Championships
held in Somerset.
The rendition of “We Are The
Champions” on the way home will
live long in Mr Benn’s memory.
Durham Sevens: The Under
13s then played in the Durham
Sevens competition the
following day and Mr Benn
admitted to some worries as to
how they would perform after
their tremendous effort in the
County Cup. His worries
were misplaced.
• The DAS first XV team won the
plate competition at the Keswick
Rugby 7s.
• Charlotte Cooper is now ranked
10th in the UK in the Under 15
age group for squash.
They played very well indeed to go through the group stages in second
place and qualify for the main cup competition.
The team met the undefeated group winners and tournament
favourites, St Martin’s Ampleforth, in the semi-final and played brilliantly
to win 21-17 in a thriller, the first time St Martin’s had been beaten
this season.
Their reward was to play Aysgarth in the final, where a great individual
try from Chris Treanor with one minute to go put Dame Allan’s ahead
and they then saw out the game to win 10-7.
Knock out
hockey season
This year’s Under 16 hockey squad has had a fantastic season, going
from strength to strength.
Under 15 Cup
The Year 10 rugby team played NSB at Blaydon RFC in the Tyneside U15
cup final. Although the game was played in difficult conditions, wind and
driving rain, both teams adapted well and produced a hard fought, physical
cup final which ended in a 12-12 draw.This result meant that the trophy
was shared.
They are the undefeated league champions and have two knock out
cups to their credit, too. They completed a remarkable cup double,
beating Berwick Academy in the final of the County Knockout Cup
before going on to beat Central High in the final of the Tyne and Wear
Knockout Cup.
For the record Esh rewards
enterprise
The Archivist’s Society has been incredibly busy this year. Several
consultations took place with professionals who assisted the archivists
in their task to interview those who experienced what the original
Hunter’s Moor Hospital was like. The archivists also made a visit to
Woodhorn Colliery and were fortunate enough to speak with several
professionals about their experiences of conducting oral interviews as
well as view the highly fascinating artefacts the Colliery had in their
possession. The Society would like to thank Dr O’Connell as well as
other staff members at the Colliery for the time (and humour) they
provided.
The group were able to put their new-found skills to good use in
conducting an interview with Professor Mike Barnes (Clinical Director
of the Hospital for over 18 years) whilst other interviews took place
with former staff and patients of the Hospital (and for this, the Society
must also thank Dr Graham for the tremendous amount of time and
effort she has put in to provide us with a list of interviewees). The
archivists hope this will be an interesting source of knowledge to the
Juniors about their new school, as well as contribute to a local history
group’s research on the old site.
Sixth Form students took part in a Business and Enterprise Challenge
organised by Esh Group, the main contractors for the new Nursery
and Junior School at Hunter’s Moor.
Also on the Society’s agenda was the aim of cataloguing all the
materials within the Schools’ Archivist store (the mysterious blue
door situated along from the Geography corridor). Eric Smith, the
Schools’ official archivist was especially helpful in dealing with our
curiosity. With the store containing maps going as far back as the late
19th century (as well as various modes of headgear which would
today be labelled vintage classics) there was certainly a huge
spectrum of Dame Allan’s history which needed to be scrutinised and
properly conserved – several of these articles were in a poor state
whilst many artefacts, it was discovered had gone missing several
years ago.
The students delivered their final presentations at Northumbria
University’s Business School and each was presented with a certificate
recognising their achievements before the Newcastle Eagles game
later that day.
After applying for funding from DASPA, the group have purchased the
acid-proof paper required to preserve these artefacts and hope to
put several pieces on display (here’s hoping that those marvellous
hats will be among them). Also as a result of the funding, the
Archivist Society now have their very own (rather nifty) microphone
which has already proved indispensable in conducting various oral
interviews and no doubt will continue to be so.
The construction company
ran a six-week programme
for 34 students giving them an insight into the complexities of ‘real life’
business and the expectations of employers.The programme
involved contributions from business mentors at KPMG,
Northumbria University, Room 501 Publishing and Tarmac.
Team Endeavour UK - Matthew Armstrong, John Mason, George
Todd, Patrick McPhillips and Jeremy Anderson - won the Most Viable
Business Concept Award, with Team iSong winning the award for
Best Slides and Support Material and Foundations taking the award
for Best Vocal.
The Archivist Society was run with great vivacity by Holly Nielsen in
her capacity as “Head Archivist” (or to give her official moniker
among the group “Lord High Chief Archivist”) whilst the Society
remains wholly indebted to Mrs Devine for her useful advice on how
best to go about the tasks the Society’s members had set themselves.
With the Year 13’s soon leaving to go off to universities, (their
experiences as archivists no doubt proving invaluable in their various
courses including history and law) the next generation of archivists
will soon step into the breach. If you are interested in joining, do feel
free to attend our meetings in the next school year when we will be
researching past Dame-Allan’s pupils who were evacuated in WWII
to Wigton, Cumbria.
n
Work on the new Nursery and Junior School is well on target for our September
opening and these photographs which were taken in March show. Pupils and new
parents will have an opportunity to visit before the end of term. For more information
please contact Mrs Miller, Registrar.
ew chapters
Picture
Perfect
Last term two excited pupils had a sneak preview of their new school
at Hunter’s Moor.
Year two pupils had been painting their ideas of how the new Nursery
and Junior School will look when they move in this September. Two
lucky pupils visited the site with deputy head Mrs Deborah Farren.
“They haven’t seen the site since it was a big hole in the ground, but
they, and their fellow pupils, are all eagerly awaiting the big move,”
explained Mrs Farren. “They were keen to see where their Year 3
classroom will be and were thrilled to know they will have an upstairs
classroom with views looking across the Town Moor.”
Both pupils had clearly painted the distinctive library in the new
building and were excited to learn that their artistic skills would still be
needed in future.
“The pupils will be able to decorate part of the library themselves to
support the topics they are studying. The central part of the library will
be comfortable and informal to encourage the children to enjoy
reading and feel cosy.”
They all left Hunter’s Moor speculating about how to transform the
library into the Gruffalo’s cave.
Time travellers
Junior pupils had their own presentation on Archaeology Uncovered,
from Dr Mark Jackson from Newcastle University, following his work
experience talk to the main schools.
Mark explained how archaeologists are time travellers as they dig deeper,
peel the layers back and ask questions as they go back through the ages.
They were captivated by Mark’s photographs of an expedition and a dig
the university team is working on in Turkey and were amazed to be able
to handle the archaeological artefacts.
Mark enthusiastically described investigating, photographing, recording
the human remains, the settlement and the coins, the pottery from the
5th century, explaining how the dig has been challenging and rewarding
for the team.
No joking
matter
There aren’t many careers sessions that involve truly terrible jokes,
worthy of a health warning.
Building
their future
j
Mrs Whitehouse, head of careers, made sure the Junior
School pupils took part in the full programme of events
for National Careers Week. After her lively assembly,
many pupils have already enjoyed trying the quiz on the
First Job Explorer Database (JED) and the entries for this
year’s When I Grow Up Competition were evidently
inspired by these activities.
juniors
But then there aren’t many careers talks for eight year olds. Last month
Edward Young, a workforce development programme leader at NHS
North East challenged the pupils to think about the breadth of skills
needed in a modern NHS.
This particular group of junior pupils groaned and laughed at Edward
Young’s jokes: “Q:What is bright red and dumb? A: a blood clot!”
There was a serious underlying message though. There are many careers
and opportunities for young people within the NHS, which Edward
cleverly demonstrated by matching careers to the pupils’ favourite
subjects. If their favourite subject was art they might try medical
illustration or art therapy or geographers might like to study why
certain illnesses are more common in particular countries or regions.
Palaeontology was a tough call though!
Above all, the pupils were encouraged to respond to the key question:
“Do you know enough to care?”
Sun
Spots
This year’s Science Week coincided with the largest earth bound solar
flare for several years - good planning by Mr Downie?
Year 7 and 8 boys were able to catch a glimpse of this natural
phenomenon caused by huge magnetic storms on the surface of the
sun. Whilst it is important never to look directly at the sun with any
optical instrument, the boys safely viewed the earth-size sun spots
using a special technique which projects an image onto white card.
Public speaking
competition
The only people who were lost for words at this year’s Public Speaking
Competition were the judges.
This year, the judges who kindly gave their time were Nick Glover
(former Head of Lower School), with Brian and Jennie Hannaford
(Former English teachers at Dame Allan’s Schools) together with Old
Allanians Stephen Davies and actor Alex Kinsey.
The winners were Nicola Lines who spoke about “Slugs” (Year 7-9
DAGS), James Loraine, “The Footballers’ Battalion” (Year 7-9 DABS),
Rafaella Keavney "Media Communications' (Year 10-11 DAGS), Pushan
Basu, “On Being Indian”, (Year 10-11 DABS), and Lizzie Mansfield,
“Neutrinos” (Sixth Form). Oscar Redman was awarded a special runner
up prize in the DABS Year 10-11 category for "Should Oscar run?".
The Izzi
Trust
The Izzi Trust has written to thank
Dame Allan’s for their continued
support of Aubrey Mfele and his
school at Re-E-Lwele in Zambia:
A gripping ending
Ananya Sandhu of 9M is the winner of the Tyneside Cinema’s
competition to find an alternative ending to The Hunger Games.
Students were asked to rewrite the last scene of the film, based on
Suzanna Collins' bestselling novel, imagining how the story could have
ended for Katniss and Peeta.
Students from all over Newcastle were invited to take part in this
creative writing exercise, and, according to Mrs Gold, 9M surpassed
themselves producing several excellent pieces. The judges were
equally impressed: "A gripping ending that we really could imagine
happening. Ananya cleverly developed the Hunger Games narrative
to give it a great twist."
das
Ananya won four cinema tickets with snacks
and drinks, and a copy of the coveted
"Mocking Jay" pin from the film.
“Izzi Trust is proud to share
wonderful pictures of the dream
you realized for Pecanwood
College’s partner outreach school,
Re-E-Lwele in the North West
Province this morning.
Please find attached wonderful
pictures for you to share with all
that helped and made the donation
possible ....
Kind regards
Frith Wesley”
Izzi Trust www.izzitrust.co.za
Taking
flight
Tom Allender and Alexander Taylor of the Year 9 STEM (science,
technology, engineering and maths) club have successfully designed and
built their very own propelled glider.
Over a period of several weeks the boys had to consider the effects of
drag, load, thrust and centre of gravity to make sure their balsa wood
plane would take to the air. The materials for the gilder were kindly
donated by DASPA and much of the work was done under the watchful
eye of school technician Nick Leas.
The next project for the STEM club is to build a working hovercraft - cross
channel ferries beware!
Hit the back
of the net!
The Dame Allan’s Year 10 team
of Charlotte Gunn, Charlotte
Cooper, Ella Ramshaw, Stewart
Beddis and Matthew Zelinski
topped the table in the Newcastle
United Enterprise Day.
After a team talk from Mr Ogg,
the pupils arrived at the Sports
Direct Arena at St James’ Park.
Ryton festival
Their prize was tickets for
the Newcastle v Bolton
Wanderers match in April and
a signed football.
Dame Allan’s pupils gave outstanding performances at this year’s Ryton
festival with four pupils winning their class:
Charlotte Gunn recalls that:
“Everyone was quite nervous and
wanted to do the school and
ourselves proud.”
Karol Basta won the cup for Public Speaking (16 yrs and under) Lizzy
Mansfield won the cup for Solo Acting (Open age class). Thomas Boyle
won the cup for Bible Reading (16 yrs and under) and Finlay Ward won the
cup for Verse Speaking (11 yrs and under).
Runner-up certificates were awarded to: Charles Smith for Public Speaking
Caroline Dawson for Verse Speaking and Erin Boyle for Bible Reading.
Lizzy Mansfield was awarded an impressive 90 marks and has been offered
a bursary to spend a week during the summer holidays on a drama course.
They were set the allencompassing task of re-designing
a football club.
After a creative and intensive day,
punctuated by a VIP tour, the
students re-designed every
aspect of Bedlington Terriers,
transforming them into
fiercesome wolves,
culminating in building stadium
and finding sponsors.
After a tense wait while the
judges reviewed the day’s work,
Charlotte remembers the
emotion of the day: “It was a
great shock when the judges read
our team name as first place
winners. Not only had we come
in a top position, we had won
overall out of around 20 teams!”
So, they were over the moon,
rather than sick as the
proverbial parrot.
World Champions - again!
Livvi Place and Lauren Wales have achieved a remarkable double.
Ahead of the Game
Two teams of Year 10 girls won through to the National Finals of the Girls
School Association (GSA) 'Ahead of the Game’ entrepreneurial
competition.
The girls, who dance for The Kelly Hendry Dance School’s U13 minor
team, have won the Irish Dancing World Championship title in Belfast.
This is the second year in a row they have won the World
Championship, having won the world title in Dublin last year. Livvi and
Lauren also danced as part of the U19 team that finished in 10th place.
Eleven teams from GSA schools across the North took part in the
competition in March. After a lecture from Claire Young, a previous “The
Apprentice” finalist, the girls were given a brief and four hours, including a
working lunch, to plan and present a business proposition for a retail unit
on a high street.The girls had to submit detailed written proposals as well
as give a two minute presentation in front of their peers, staff and three
external judges.
Of the 11 teams, only four progressed to the next round and two of them
are from Dame Allans! The winning team members are: Katie Metcalf,
Natalie Cook, Fiona Mansfield, Hannah Gillott, Charlotte Gunn, Sophie
Chan, Nanxi Wang, Rafchana Khanam and Katelyn Hamlin.
The next round takes place in October when the teams will have to turn
their ideas into reality.
Masterchef
This new competition was divided into two age groups, and was open to
pupils in the Boys’ and Girls’ schools.
The theme of the Senior Masterchef was ‘Celebration’, with chefs planning
a two course meal fit for their chosen celebration. The six finalists then had
to cook and present their menu under the critical eyes of the guest judges,
to a strict time limit.
This year’s judges, Nick Shottel, former manager of 21 Queen Street and
now operations director of the 21 Hospitality Group and Chris Eagle, head
chef of Broad Chare were very impressed by the quality of the food and
presentation.
The Senior Masterchef is James Kell while the Junior Masterchef is the aptly
named Mark Carver.
Budding Medics
As well as the careers talks by NHS North East, aspiring medical students
have been able to see for themselves what is involved in a career as a
doctor or nurse, thanks to Northumbria NHS and the Freeman Hospital.
Six Year 12 students took part in a Medical Masterclass Day at
Northumbria NHS Healthcare, which fuelled their enthusiasm for the
career, while ten students from Year 11 who were interested in
healthcare and/or medicine enjoyed a day at the Freeman Hospsital
finding out about the diverse range of career paths available in the NHS.
Finally, at the end of term, two Year 11 girls, Abigail Watson and Annie
Ledingham, took up a four day nursing placement at the hospital.
Investment
success
Following the success of the economists in The Times/Bank of England
Target 2.0 challenge, a student investor team from the Sixth Form
has reached the regional final of Institute of Fiscal Studies Student
Investor competition.
This is an impressive achievement, making them one of the final 80 teams
from an overall field of 9,200. The winning team comprised Head Boy
Tom Hudson, Jack Harrison,Tim Lewis and Barney Green.
Elected Mayor
Careers
straightened out
A team from Dame Allan’s won a new competition, the Tyneside Rotary
Debating Competition, sponsored by the Newcastle Rotary Club.
They reached a difficult final, coming up against a most experienced
RGS team.
The motion the team were asked to oppose was “This House believes
Newcastle would benefit from having an elected
Mayor”.The team wisely consulted Head of Politics
Mr Oliver for some up to date ideas and information
before the debate!
Old Allanian Daniel Farnell returned to School to run a Physiotherapy
Workshop and Presentation. The dedicated practitioner from North East
Clinic gave an inspirational presentation to students about the variety of
skills and treatments a physiotherapist may undertake in a day’s work.
Harry Cunningham, Lizzy Mansfield and Jess Pack
narrowly won the competition in a competitive
debate, but one held in a most positive atmosphere.
Daniel showed students how he could make a difference to a patient,
using Matthew Cooper as a willing actor. After physiotherapy proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation - and
“cupping” on his legs, Matthew was amazed that
he could reach his toes; something he had never
been able to do! Matthew is now keen to study
physiotherapy at university.
Winning print
S
One of the speakers at the Careers Convention, NPSolutions,
sponsored a fantastic competition for Sixth Formers to design and
write a four sided brochure for pupils either entering the main school
or the Sixth Form.
ixth form
Lizzy Mansfield won the competition with an entry that was judged to
have the best design and content and was
awarded the generous prize of an iPad 3.
Thanks to all who entered and to Adam Brenner
of NPSolutions.
Charity record
breakers
This year’s charity prefects, Charlotte Summers and Alex Waugh have
had a record breaking year.
The Harvest Festival collection for the People’s Kitchen produced the
biggest collection ever, helped no doubt by the competitive element
they introduced. They were proud their fellow pupils had been so
generous when the staff took time out to show the officers who
delivered the produce round the Kitchen.
Their main charity this year was Education for the Children, whose UK
Grants Fundraiser is Rhiannon Tuck, daughter of Dr Tuck. The charity
works with some of the poorest children in Guatemala to provide
them with an education as a positive alternative to a life of begging.
Charlotte and Alex set a target of £600 to pay for hearing aids for
Carlos Humberto Burrion Garcia, but have far exceeded this figure.
Indeed the DAS Factor, this year won by Sally Hunter, with Barney
Green as runner up, raised over £495.
New officers
The charity prefects work with their fellow officers to support the
pupils throughout the schools to raise money for their own preferred
charities, with the Northern Brainwave Appeal being another major
recipient this year.
Sports Captains
Anna Phillips, Andrew Durham
Main School Form Prefects
Nayab Ali, Joseph Sweeney
Junior School Liaison
Sarah Richardson, Jamie Vening
Tours
Jessica Pack, Matthew Cooper
Dining Hall Prefects’ Rota
Edward Pinches, Amy Lyall
Charitable Giving
Lizzy Mansfield, Patrick McPhillips
Old Allanian James Moon has already been in school to make an appeal
to the students and incoming officers for the Little Wings charity he has
set up.
The new Head Girl for 2012-13 is Ruby Lawson and the Head Boy
is Harry Adair.
The officers are:
New school
Old Allanian Mrs Nora Virgin paid an impromptu visit to the Schools at the
end of last term. As Nora Muse she went to school at College Street before
moving to the ‘new school’ here at Fenham.
“I remembered the Newsom Hall, the gymnasium, dining hall, the library
and of course the quadrangle as if it was yesterday,” she wrote in her letter
of thanks to Dr Hind, saying that her visit to Fenham “was, without doubt,
the highlight of my nostalgic return to Newcastle.”
She was fascinated to learn that we are opening another ‘new school‘ in
September at Hunter’s Moor. We trust that the new Nursery and Junior
School pupils have as many happy memories as Mrs Virgin.
Allanians dinner
The laughter echoed round the Newsom Hall at the end of March, as
Allanians gathered to celebrate the Society's centenary. Former pupils from
the Boys' and Girls' Schools and the Sixth Form from the 1930s to the 22nd
century reminisced about time spent in the Schools and the part they played
in so many people's lives.
Daspa ball
Canon Nicholas Darby
Rev. Nicholas Darby was installed as Honorary Canon at St Nicholas
Cathedral on Sunday March 25th at a special Choral Evensong. Canon Darby
is a valued support to the pupils and staff of the Schools and will continue in his
role as Schools’ Chaplain and vicar of St James’ and St Basil’s Church.
The DASPA Spring Ball was a lively success last month. The evening was
kicked off in spectacular style by the school dance company, Vizavis, who
performed three stunning and, in the words of Mrs Clough, “sassy’ numbers
to set the tone for the evening.
das family
The DASPA committee and their helpers had masterminded a
memorable evening, which raised over £4,400 for the Schools.
Particular thanks must go to Honor McPhillips and Fiona
Emmerson for their sterling efforts.