onwards - South Wilts Grammar School for Girls

ONWARDS
®
March 2015
School Transport
Michele Chilcott (Headteacher) and Hilary Angel (School Business Manager) met with
Mary Douglas (Unitary Councillor for Salisbury St Francis and Stratford at Wiltshire
Council) and Paul Shaddock (Traffic Technician, Wiltshire Council) on 30 January 2015
at 3.45pm. They watched the end of school process at the front entrance and saw that
cars were parked on the single yellow line opposite the buses (no parking between 8am
- 6pm), cars stopped on double yellow lines to pick up pupils, buses blocking the drive
and the difficulty of pupils crossing the road behind the buses.
The following suggestions have been made for improved safety:

Pedestrian crossing nearer the Old Peoples’ Home;

20 mph speed limit;

Move bus stop further up the road;

Parking wardens to reinforce parking restrictions;

Applying “No Loading” restrictions;

Improving the street lighting;

Re-educating pupils and parents on road safety.
These suggestions will be put forward to Wiltshire Council for consideration. The school
will update their travel plan and may be able to apply for funding through the “Taking
Action on School Journeys Challenge” for any agreed improvements. A Parent Voice
meeting was held on 4 February and school transport was discussed.
Parents are asked not to drop off or pick up their children near the bus stops. It is much
safer to drive further along the road. It is illegal to park outside of school on double
yellow lines at any time or the single yellow line between 8am and 6pm.
(Mrs H Angel)
E-Safety – The thinkuknow.co.uk website offers many useful tips regarding e-safety
for a range of different aged children and also advice for parents. The following advice
is taken from one of their pages:
Reach an agreement – A good way to set boundaries with your child about what
they can and can’t do online is to create an agreement with them. Here are some
examples of the areas you might want to discuss:

Limits on the amount of time your child spends online, or playing computer games;

Having regular screen breaks – at least five minutes every 45-60 minutes;

Not sharing any pictures they wouldn’t be happy to share with you;

Not giving out personal details, such as mobile phone number and address, to
people they don’t know and trust;

Coming to you if they are concerned. Or, if not, knowing where they can go for
independent help and support.
You can introduce an agreement after watching one of the Thinkuknow films.
(Mr S Jones)
March
2015
Page 1
Transport
E-Safety
Page 2-3
World Book Day
Page 4-6
Maths
Page 6-7
English
Page 7-8
Science / Computing
Page 9
Art / MFL
Page 10
MFL
Page 11-12
Chairty
Page 13-14
Music
Page 15-22
Sport
Page 23
Calendar
ONWARDS
World Book Day
This year we took part in a competition for World Book Day and had
some fantastic entries from students who responded to the challenge
of imagining a world without books. There was an excellent team effort
from 8N who put together a whole book of reasons why we need books
in our lives, but I thought you might like to read a couple of the
individual responses from girls in Year 11:
Why We Can’t Live Without Books (1)
The truth is we can. I say this as a devoted bibliophile. Books don’t make our hearts beat,
don’t make our bodies strong. We can live without them, but we choose not to.
They don’t make our hearts beat, they make them hammer and soar and break. They can’t
make our muscles strong (excepting a few of the heavier tomes), but they can change our
minds, our very souls. We are what we are because of the knowledge and understanding
stored in books, because they hold the key to ourselves. They are the hopes and dreams and
terrors of those who write them. Those who must let the worlds of people inside their heads
out, for others to see, in the hopes of other’s understanding. A book is all the love of it’s
creator, but a read book is a meeting of minds. It is the author, long dead, somewhere far
away or never really there in the first place taking their reader’s hand and showing them the
world, any world.
Books lead us to people; they start friendships and strengthen them. You can have an easy
conversation with a stranger if you’ve both read the same book. There is something magical
about the idea of people all over the world reading the same words, knowing the same
characters. That people who never existed can be real to so many people. Isn’t that strange,
that people who never existed can make us laugh and cry and understand ourselves better?
That they can help us to do the thing we all strive for; understand ourselves, better than some
real people? Isn’t that something magical?
Books are where we keep our hopes and dreams for the future, our regrets about the past and
our belief in the present. They are our great store of hope. Without them, so many would be
forgotten. In them we keep our histories, and even though we have the internet now, we have
not left behind the books. They are our apologetic and loving link to the past and our great
love letter to the future.
The truth is, we can live without them. But the other truth is that we never will. Why would
we?
(Louise Osmond 11E)
Why We Can’t Live Without Books (2)
Every book is made of 26 letters. The letters make words. The words make sentences.
And the sentences make a story. Sentence after sentence. Again and again. See! I’m even
doing it. Books are a necessity to the people of today, and yesterday, and tomorrow. They
have shaped our modern society to what we see around us today and they will continue to
shape it forever.
So why can’t we live without books? Because they are the fuel for our imagination, the food
for our brains and they let us daydream. About what? About anything. Even if it doesn’t exist.
Especially if it doesn’t exist. The characters which appear in books are there for us to aspire
to; they are the awesome versions of ourselves who lead us in everyday tasks. Where would
we be if we didn’t have a Harry Potter or a Hermione Granger in our lives?
Cont.
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ONWARDS
There is another reason: books are us. They show us that everyone is unique, different, but
made of the same stuff. All made of 26 letters, but just in a different order, a different format,
to make different words and sentences and most primarily – different stories. Everyone has a
story that they want to tell, and many novelists and writers use books to communicate their
stories but just through different characters. I think of a bookshelf as a packet of sweets, all of
them are used for the same purpose, but there is always something different about each one
of them.
Anything else? Reading is a gift. Literally, a gift. Without realising, reading a book could open
up so many doors. For example: it could improve your spelling, help with communication,
improve essay skills, broaden your vocabulary, expose you to valuable knowledge ... do I need
to continue?
I’m missing something obvious – reading is just plain fun.
So there you have it: without books there would be no use for those special 26 letters, or
words, or sentences, and stories wouldn’t exist. We need stories. They need us.
(Kelly Frost 11W)
How SWGS celebrated World Book Day
5 March 2015 was World Book Day and the theme of the day here at SWGS was Harry Potter.
Staff dressed up as characters from the books and the students had the task of matching the
character to the member of staff. Prizes were given for the first correct entry (Lily Elkins 7A),
and the first name drawn from all the correct entries (Daisy Cooper 9E). They will each
receive a £5 book token.
Students also had the opportunity to try on the Sorting Hat to discover which Hogwarts House
they were in, or to put their name in the name generator to find out their Harry Potter name.
All the students received a £1 World Book Day token to spend at their local bookshop, either to
exchange for one of the specially published £1 WBD books or to put towards a full price book.
More information can be found at http://worldbookday.com/books/.
(Mrs C Gardiner - Librarian)
3
ONWARDS
Salisbury Schools’ Book
Award 2015
The Salisbury Schools’ Book
Award takes place annually and
involves students reading the 6
selected books and voting for
their favourite. Those taking
part attended the award
presentation at St Edmund’s
School, Laverstock on 17 March,
where the author Teri Terry,
gave a very entertaining account
of her life as a writer and the
inspiration behind her books.
There was also plenty of time for
questions and book signings.
The winning book this year was ‘Slated’ by Teri Terry.
(Mrs C Gardiner - Librarian)
MATHS
On Tuesday 10th March, Jess Richards, Coco Bradley, Ella Reeve and Sibella Egerton went
to Parkstone Grammar School in Poole to compete in the regional heat for the Team Maths
Challenge. In the morning we did the first two rounds, the first round was just ten questions
that we had answer altogether and we did very well, getting all of them right. Filled with
confidence, we did the next round - a cross number, for this round we split into two pairs, one
pair had the down clues and one pair had the across clues, but we weren’t allowed to talk to
each other! After lunch we had the
shuttle round, where again we worked
in pairs to answer four lots of four
questions, we found this round the
most difficult and struggled to answer
the questions within the strict time
limit of eight minutes. At that point,
we thought that our chances of
coming in the top three had gone!
The fourth and final round was the
relay, both of our pairs were on
different tables. Pair A had to answer
a question and then take it to the
teacher to get it checked, if right, they
then took a question to Pair B and it
carried on. We had forty-five minutes
to answer as many questions as we
could - we managed a total of twenty-three correct answers in that round which we were all
very pleased with. At the end they read out first, second and first and very unexpectedly, we
came first, which means that in June, we get to go to London to compete in the final. Thanks
to Mrs Munford for helping us practise and supporting us on the day; we all thoroughly enjoyed
the day and we are looking forward to doing it again.
Ella Reeve
4
ONWARDS
MATHS … conitinued
On the 10th February, South Wilts hosted the Maths Feast. The Maths Feast is a team Maths
competition. The challenge consisted of 6 different rounds ranging from card matching activities and problem solving tasks to building a stack of origami Columbus cubes. The rounds
varied in difficulty and covered topics
such as Set Theory and Venn diagrams
which we had not yet learnt about in
school. South Wilts put forward two
teams of four, in team one there was:
Harriet Quigley, Ellie Russell, Amelia
Rogers and Sophie Wright and in team
two there was: Katie Franklin, Georgie
Poyntz-Wright, Issy Boggust and Ellie
Byerley. With good teamwork, we were
able to solve some of the more complex
maths problems that would have been
hard to figure out on our own.
Overall, team one placed first, beating all the fifteen other teams taking part, a great achievement. Although the Maths throughout the competition was challenging, on the whole it was a
great afternoon and we all enjoyed taking part.
Katie Franklin 10B
Intermediate Maths Challenge
We continued the SWGS tradition of a large cohort of enthusiastic
mathematicians taking part in the Intermediate Maths Challenge,
and all did exceptionally well.
Nationally the most able students are called upon to compete in
more challenging competitions: this year 5 students have been invited to compete in the
Olympiad rounds. They are:
Juliette Littlewood and Emily Hedger (Year 11)
Georgina Poyntz-Wright and Sara Ha (Year 10)
Jessica Richards (Year 8)
This is a particularly demanding competition, and we wish them well.
In addition 11 students have been invited to compete in the European Challenge. They are:
Natasha Carter and Zoe O’Neill (Year 11)
Ellie Byerley, Amelia French, Emily Leckie, Katie Franklin, Eleanor Fitzgerald,
Sophie Wright (Year 10)
Gisselle Kinghorn, Abigail Burn, Lottie Page (Year 9)
Congratulations to all of them, and to those who were awarded certificates in the Intermediate
Challenge on the next page:
5
ONWARDS
MATHS … continued
Bronze Certificates were awarded to:
Year 11: Hazel Cutler, Helen Forrest, Honor Jackson, Anna Jorgensen-Stephens,
Niamh McCormack, Phoebe Phillips, Eleanor Piggott, Bethany Puzio,
Lucy Ramsdale, Heidi Scott, Amy Webster
Year 10: Rachel Armitage, Rebecca Beard, Hannah Beck, Leona Beeson, Charlotte
Nicholls, Jessica Robinson, Rashi Sharma, Tara Sharp, Alice Uloth
Year 9:
Grace Attfield, Yasmin Bourne, Katy Cutler, Lauren Lee, Eleanor Nelson,
Thea Ralph, Ella Reeve
Silver Certificates were awarded to:
Year 11: Hannah Collings, Ella Fletcher, Georgina Gorvin, Stephanie Jung,
Charlotte Lewis, Isabel Mcnulty, Sally Morris, Alice Risebrow, Georgie Rubega
Year 10: Katie Biddlecombe, Stephanie Brown, Sophie Butler, Emily Canham,
Phoebe Cleary, Eleanor Conboy, Freya Croager, Laura Defty, Bethia Evans,
Sasha Horney, Alice Lane, Jessica Lloyd, Harriet Quigley, Hanna Smith,
Rosie Taylor, Olivia Vosper, Chloe Wright
Year 9:
Vivien Aebischer, Jessica Barrett, Lucy Coleman, Sibella Egerton,
Erica Humbey, Jessica Lee, Henrietta Rowe, Amber Thomas
Year 8:
Bree Hamilton
Gold Certificates were awarded to:
Year 11: Olivia Bourne, Natasha Carter, Laura Coakley, Tanvi Dabke, Anna Feest,
Emily Hedger, Juliette Littlewood, Alexandra Nikolin, Zoe O’Neill, Emma Pike,
Kiera Reavill
Year 10: Ellie Byerley, Eleanor Fitzgerald, Katie Franklin, Amelia French, Sara Ha,
Emily Leckie, Georgina Poyntz-Wright, Rebecca Richards, Ruth Walker,
Sophie Wright
Year 9:
Abigail Burn, Gisselle Kinghorn, Lottie Page
Year 8:
Jessica Richards
ENGLISH
World Book Day
The English department organised some activities for World
Book Day, including a book swap at lunchtime and a ‘shelfie’
competition: girls and staff were encouraged to take a picture of
their bookshelves. Congratulations to the winners:
Daisy Mowle, Laura Wilson and Mrs Clark, whose shelfies are
displayed in the English corridor!
Mrs Coundley
6
ONWARDS
ENGLISH … continued
Writing Club
Review of Propeller’s Comedy of Errors
The girls have written a joint play this
term, which they are now ready to rehearse and perform, and have been
busy entering competitions.
Year 9 were given the choice to go and see, at
BWS, Shakespeare’s ‘Comedy of Errors’ by The
Propeller Theatre Company. Almost the whole year
went, and enjoyed it immensely. It ranged from
drama to comedy, of course, and was very engaging.
Aimee Underwood in Year 7 was successful in the ‘Young Writers’ competition and had her poems published in a
book, ‘Mini Monologues.
Hollie Folkard-Tapp, who helps to run
Writing Club was one of 10 students
highly commended in the highly prestigious TS Eliot Shadowing Competition. Part of her competition entry
was published in the March edition of
Emag.
Aspiring writers, please join us at
12:00 on Mondays in 08.
Mrs Coundley
The essence of Shakespeare was kept intact, with a
slice of the company’s originality and humour. One
of our favourite parts was observing the whole process of the backstage chaos as the actors prepared
for their next scene.
Although there were confusing parts from the nature
and speed of the Shakespearian language, the play
was so well presented that it was very easy to latch
back on to the story line again.
We think that it was extremely humorous, and it was
very impressive that such a long play was shortened to less than an hour. We both really enjoyed it
and would like to see it again.
Fabia Alexander 9E and Tegan Campbell 9A
SCIENCE
Through the Speakers in School programme Mrs Stammers arranged for Professor Melanie
Welham, the Director of Science at the BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council), to visit the school on the 25th February 2015. Miss Drysdale was
privileged to introduce her to the AS general studies students and a selection of the Year 11
scientists. Prof Welham spoke about her career in science, the importance of biological
sciences to our future and her own research into the use of differentiated embryonic stem
cells.
Year 7 Science Club
Since November, Year 7 students have come along on Wednesday lunchtimes to enjoy getting hands on with a variety of experiments and demonstrations, assisted by the sixth form science prefects. They have made their own coloured sparklers,
charged themselves up on the Van der Graaf generator and made
slime. The prefects have led dissections of hearts and lungs and
students also photographed weird and wonderful specimens under
the microscope, including spiders’ legs. Recently, we have cleared
the pond to provide the growing tadpoles with clear water to explore
when they emerge from their frog spawn. The students have
brought some of the frog spawn inside to observe and we are proud
to say that the nurturing has been very successful. So much so, that we have had to thin out
7
ONWARDS
SCIENCE
Year 7 Science Club (continued)
numbers by returning hundreds of tadpoles back into the
pond to give the rest more room to grow. We look forward to watching them grow and monitoring their metamorphosis. After Easter, we plan to get outside more to
make rockets and vehicles powered by elastic bands,
amongst other activities. We welcome newcomers and
any suggestions from students for activities they would
like us to have a go at.
Mrs Aydemir
Biology Olympiad 2015
A record 6,189 students from 582 schools took part in the British Biology Olympiad (BBO) this
year, compared to 5,057 students from 492 schools in 2014.
Dr Andrew Treharne MBE CBiol FSB, Chair, UK Biology Competitions said: “This is another
record-breaking year for participation and the standard of entries was as high as ever.
Well done to all our students who participated in this extremely challenging National Competition. We are delighted that so many girls were particularly successful.
Congratulations to this year’s medal winners:
Silver medal – Hollie Folkard-Tapp
Bronze medals – Ginnie Baker, Katrina Gaffon, and
Katherine Toomey
COMPUTING
The IBM trip was extremely fun, as well as educational. We started the day with a video
informing us about all the objects/electrical devices that IBM have created over the 100 years
they have been running. It was really interesting to see that some of the most important
electrical devices we use today were first created by IBM. A man then talked to us about what
he does at IBM and demonstrated how you can change an animation on the computer using
coding. He also told us how coding can be used in animation films, music and games. The
rest of the day we went head to head against 10 other schools, competing on computer games
created by people at IBM. All the games were very different; on some of the games you had to
programme a character/robot so that you could overcome a certain aspect and others you had
to move characters and collect coins to win as many points as possible. There were a
possible 100 points to be awarded / earned on each game. Most of the games were really
good and they helped teach us about coding, but in a fun way. It was also really nice as we
got to work as a team to complete each game and work with people we don’t normally work
with. At the end of the day we regrouped; not only did we find out who won out of the 10
schools at the computer games but we also did a final battle where they used one of the
games we had played earlier that day. We came 2nd to last in the big competition but we didn’t
mind as we’d had such a good time. However we did come 2 nd in the final battle so that made
up for it! Although we didn’t
do that well in the
competition it was a really
fun day and I would definitely
recommend it to anyone who
was asked to go.
Yasmin Bourne 9N
8
ONWARDS
ART
‘Old and New’ Exhibition at Salisbury Library
On 6th February we attended the Private View at the Young Gallery in Salisbury Library, at
which some of our Year 9 had an exhibition from our Old and New projects. We previously
had to produce a piece of art work related to this theme, but it was
completely up to our own interpretation what we came up with.
We all looked at an Artist and had to create a piece inspired by
their work. 25 pieces were selected for the exhibition which ran
alongside other displays from many different Salisbury schools.
There was a huge variety
of work presented, ranging
from fimo models to paintings to dresses. The other
schools’ displays were
very good, but discounting
the A’ Level work, ours
was the best!
By Charlotte Plane and
Verena Mallinson
MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Linguistics Olympiad 2014
Easter Egg competition
Students from Years 12 and 13 took
part for the first time this year in a Linguistics Olympiad, in which they had to
try to solve a variety of linguistic problems. We were thrilled to hear recently
that, of the 1402 students across the
country who took part, three of our girls
were awarded a (very rare) certificate:
Anita Monserrat (silver), Megan Arnold
(bronze), Amelia Powell (bronze).
The MFL department
recently ran an Easter egg
competition for pupils
studying German in Years
7 and Years 8 (2nd
language). In Germany,
people decorate eggs and
then hang them on
branches brought indoors,
or even trees outside.
There were some beautiful
entries and the department had real difficulty
judging them. The results were as follows:
Spelling Bee
All Students from Year 7 took part for
the first time this year in a Foreign Languages Spelling Bee. In Round 1, the
students spelt the most words accurately in a minute and got through to
Round 2. A team of 4 made it through
to round 3 and will compete against
other schools from the South West region. The girls going forward to the regional final at Norton Hill School are:
Imogen Lee, Isobel Siggers, Sarah
Bailey, Bethany Rojas-Hindmarsh.
Overall winners –
Sarah Bailey 7E and Natasha Miskin 8A
7N – Esme Blake (winner);
Ella Waterworth (runner up)
7E – Emily Monk (runner up)
8A – Annunziata Connolly and
Cara Dixon (runners up)
8B - Helen Zheng (winner);
Isabel Holdsworth (runner up)
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ONWARDS
MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES ... continued
Primary Outreach
On the 9th March, 8 year 10 girls visited the local infant school Wyndham Park Lodge in order
to teach French and Spanish to 12 of their gifted and talented pupils from their Year 1 and 2
classes. In pairs, we each prepared a 15 minute activity for the children to do which taught
them something new in French or Spanish.
The three French groups chose a wide range of topics to teach covering colours, animals and
clothes, and the Spanish group also chose to do colours which was very useful because the
children got to experience the colours in different languages.
The children participated in a wide range of activities including bingo, finding different colours
around the room, working as a team to find items of clothing and colouring. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience and we are all looking forward to going back again in the
summer term.
Amelia Rogers
Languages Day
On Friday 6th February, our MFL Department hosted a Languages Day for Year 9. In the
morning we had guest speakers who taught small groups an introduction to their language.
We had a choice of the language we wanted to learn including: Urdu, Japanese, Russian,
Chinese, Arabic and several more.
We learnt the basics such as counting,
greetings and a little bit about the
culture surrounding the country of
origin. In Japanese we were taught
about the scripts used such as Kanji
and were given authentic Japanese
foods. In Russian, we learnt the
basics of the alphabet and how
dissimilar they are to English, also we
learnt about the country itself and facts
about the culture, such as it has 8
different time zones!
A competition was hosted for lunch
and so we got into groups and brought
in our own lunches consisting of a
variety of foreign foods. The teachers
judged them and whoever had the most diverse and creative meal won.
The afternoon consisted of bigger group activities, such as storytelling where a visitor told a
story in two different languages simultaneously. We also had a group talk with a “trilinguist”
who told us about his history and work in the languages field. We also did “international
dancing” to familiar music with a foreign twist and had a music quiz where we identified the
language of certain songs from around the globe.
All in all Languages Day was a real success and we would recommend continuing this event
as it teaches people languages in an informal and creative way. It gave us a taste of
international culture and the day was overall very enjoyable.
Trelawny Rogers and Anwen Howells
10
ONWARDS
CHARITY FUNDRAISING
LEPRA charity event
Odd Socks Day
Year 7 have been very charitable this term!
They had the challenge from Dawn
Williamson, a representative of LEPRA
charity, to raise up to £25 each for the charity
in whichever way they felt they could. As well
as the introductory visit from Dawn, she and a
friend came to do a Street Dance session with
the girls. This was very well received, and I
got to see some funky dancers! Wow!
February and March have a busy couple of
months with a number of tutor group events
and whole school events happening.
Oddsocks Day for Stars Appeal was embraced by some but unfortunately not by all.
However over £300 was raised to go towards parent Lesley Greasley’s fundraising
and Grand Canyon
Trek.
It was only when Dawn again returned to hand
us our plaque a couple of weeks ago that we
realised the stupendous effort of the Year 7
cohort. They have raised over £2,000 for
LEPRA which means that people suffering
from leprosy overseas will get the aid they
need. This was an amazing result, I was
flabbergasted.
Well done to all!
Sedona Jamieson’s
fantastic tights!
Mrs Timperley
Other Charity Events
13D held a cake sale just before half term and 12I a Valentine’s raffle. 8B held a ‘Round the
World’ themed event and raised an amazing £175. Sugar and chocolate seem to be the
theme for March with 8E, 11A, 10E and 9A all holding their events before Easter. 8E raised a
fantastic £224.09!
Red Nose Day
Friday 13th March was Red Nose Day and to support this students brought in 50p
contributions with the option of wearing a red nose in school.
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ONWARDS
CHARITY FUNDRAISING … Continued
Quiz Night and Hog Roast
On Saturday March 7th the annual Hog Roast and Quiz night was held in the main hall.
Charity prefects, Cassie Rist and Molly Judd were comperes for the evening and had also
done a fantastic job collecting raffle prizes from local businesses and friends. The raffle alone
raised £221 for the school charities.
Salisbury Hog Roast provided the food for the evening and a variety of refreshments were for
sale during the quiz too.
The charity prefects wrote the quiz rounds which included a picture round, geography, TV and
Film, and Art. 11 teams competed to be declared quiz winners at the end of the evening and it
became quite competitive when running totals were announced at the halfway point!
The overall winners were a combined SWGS and BWS sixth form team who called
themselves ‘Quiz on my Face’.
Quiz on my face’ team – Hog Roast and Quiz night winners
A very big thank you to all who supported this evening. A fantastic £600 was raised to add to
our ever growing fund for Lucy’s Days Out, Teenage Cancer Trust and Water Aid.
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ONWARDS
MUSIC
Congratulations to Helena Green who has successfully auditioned to be a chorister at
Winchester Cathedral – a great achievement which will give her the opportunity to sing in
many services and concerts.
SWGS Chamber Orchestra Music For Youth – 10th February – Article by Anita
Monserrat 12J
At 8 o’clock in the morning on Tuesday 10th February, a group of bleary-eyed musicians with
a collection of violins, violas and cellos set off to Richard Taunton College in Southampton.
Upon arriving, we were shown to a (somewhat cold) warm-up room where, for the next 40
minutes, we did some last-minute playing of our pieces before going on stage. The
unmistakable sounds of a jazz band echoing through the corridors did help to ease the preperformance tension. Walking into any concert hall to give a recital, either solo or as an
ensemble, is always extremely nerve-wracking – not to mention an unfamiliar venue with an
audience of complete strangers including a panel of judges! I’m very proud to be a part of a
group that handled it with such professionalism and all our hard work preparing ‘Andante
Festivo’ by Jean Sibelius and ‘Sarabande’ by Camille Saint-Saëns paid off. The feedback we
received was extremely positive (despite forgetting to introduce ourselves and our pieces)
and all the girls should be very pleased with themselves for playing as a ‘real chamber
group’. It was also very humbling to see how music had brought together such a diverse
group of people, ranging from a choir of disabled teenagers singing a very impressive
‘Queen’ medley to a primary school’s bongo arrangement of ‘Uptown Funk’. Of course, none
of this would have been possible without the hard work of our coach, Mr. Parsons! A big
thank you also goes out to Mrs McGuinness who was our Number One Fan for the day.
School Concert – 17th March – Article by Isobel Finlay 13D
This year’s Spring Instrumental Concert began with the beautifully moving piece Nimrod by
E. Elgar from the Senior Orchestra, conducted by Mrs Poppleton, followed by Dvorak’s
Slavonic Dance Op. No. 2, another wonderful piece that was performed confidently and
fluently. The Guitar Ensemble, a small collection of guitar and ukulele players, followed
changing the tone with excellent performances of the popular song Hey Soul Sister by Train,
sung by Georgia Clarke, and You Make Loving Fun by Fleetwood Mac, sung by Annabel
Salisbury, both arranged by Mr Wilkinson who organised the group. A confident performance
by Katherine Wise of Tchaikovsky’s Chanson Napolitaine was next, portraying her talents
well, followed by Ana Gibson’s performance of her own composition, Minuet, an interesting
and charming piece written in her music lessons showing her creative flair both in
composition and in performing. After this came Daisy Eveling and Juliette Littlewood’s
interpretation of ‘Prelude’ from Five Bagatelles by G. Finzi which was performed flawlessly.
To finish the first half, the Training Orchestra, a group of younger but skilled players,
performed well known and well loved music from the Wizard of Oz which delighted the
audience.
After the interval, the Senior Orchestra captivated the attendees again with music from the
soundtrack of the successful Disney film Hercules written by A. Menken, a light-hearted and
contrasting piece to the Orchestra’s previous performance. This was followed by Esther
Bersweden’s composition See that I am God. The piece was performed by Esther along with
Charlotte Bateman, Tegan Eldridge and Jess Hammond, all incredibly talented girls who
were both showcasing their own talents whilst supporting their friend’s wonderfully composed
piece. The vocal trio of Claire Baines, Anwen Howells and Trelawney Rogers performed
next with a piece inspired by the Andrew Sisters entitled Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, a jazzy
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number in which the group sang and danced professionally while still having fun performing,
which was obvious to the audience who smiled and danced along with them. The sheer number of girls who independently chose to perform in this year’s concert is amazing and truly is a
sign of the confidence, aptitude and self-sufficiency of the students at South Wilts, as well as
proof of all the hard work that their teachers do behind the scenes in order to provide the support and guidance needed to allow these students to develop. After the vocal trio came the
Junior Choir, a large group of talented young singers who presented an entertaining rendition
of Jonah-Man Jazz and O Waly Waly which, despite their young age, was fluent and expressive. Following this was the Chamber Orchestra, a select group of musicians who performed
Sarabande by C.C. Saint-Saens, which allowed each member of the orchestra to shine, revealing magnificent ability in each of the individuals. The last to perform was Wind Band, who
played three works including music from Chicken Run, the much loved animation, the soundtrack from Disney’s the Lion King and the soundtrack from The Blues Brothers. This last performance was fun and cheerful, leaving the audience in bright spirits for their journey home.
This concert was a tremendous success, with greatly varying musical styles and genres,
demonstrating the vast musical talent that flourishes in the school. Forthcoming events include
A Cappella choir singing Evensong at The Queen’s College Oxford on 18th April, the Joint
Choral Concert with Bishop Wordsworth School on 2nd May and the Open House Music Concert on 7th July, where any students wishing to showcase their musical talents may do so.
Many thanks to all who participated and organised this concert. Their work made the recitals a
resounding success.
Thank you to our excellent Music Captains: Charlotte Bateman, Esther Bersweden,
Tegan Eldridge, Jessica Hammond, Claire Prince and Annabel Salisbury for all their enthusiasm and hard work and for the encouragement they have given to our younger students.
Forthcoming Events
School Concert – Tuesday 17th March – 7.00pm – School Hall
A Cappella Workshop with David Halls – Wednesday 25th March
A Cappella Evensong – Saturday 18th April – The Queen’s College, Oxford
Joint Choral Concert for SWGS Senior Choir and BWS Choir – Saturday 2nd May –
7.30pm – Salisbury Cathedral
Open House – Tuesday 7th July evening – 5.30pm - School Hall and other rooms
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Badminton
Congratulations to the KS4 Badminton team that played in the County Final held at Tidworth.
Whether they were actually going to arrive there might have been a problem as this was when
the unexpected snow hit Salisbury! The girls made a huge effort to get to school and we
arrived safely. We lost against Isambard: the eventual winners, but won against every other
school played resulting in 2nd Place and Runner up Medals.
Well done to: Bea Young (C) who did not lose a match, Lexi Lay, Izzy Boggust, Emily Canham
and Abigail Collinge.
Netball Yr 10
The three Year 10 Netball teams all played against St Mary’s Calne in exciting and challenging matches. The C team narrowly lost 7-4 after a second half comeback; Rachel Burgess
(Centre and Captain) was named player of the match. Due to illness, team changes had to be
made for the B team but despite this they played with great determination and enthusiasm.
The result being 14-8 to St Mary’s with Rachel Herring being voted player of the match. For
the A Game it was tightly contested throughout the 4 quarters with fantastic play from both
sides. They narrowly lost 12-9 with Ellie Fitzgerald being voted Player of the Match. All 3
teams were a credit to South Wilts both in their play and team spirit. They all enjoyed playing
challenging opposition to test their mettle against the best in the area. Well done girls!
A Team: Jodie Ball, Anna Tuck (C), Ellie Fitzgerald, Annabel Ditchfield, Tara King,
Harriet Legg and Ellie Russell
B Team: Steph Brown, Alice Uloth, Bea Young, Jess Robinson (C), Tallulah Hastings,
Rachel Herring, Mathilda Julien
C Team: Freya Croager, Ali Wood, Katie Young, Amelia Rogers, Rachel Burgess (C),
Prescelli Annan, Becky Beard
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Area Tournament Qualifier for School Games
Netball Year 10
The Year 10 A & B Netball team played against local schools to secure a place in the School
Games Level 2 Competition to be held in April. The B Team got off to a flying start by winning
over Leehurst Swan 13 – 3. A narrow loss against Godolphin A of 3-5 and again at St Edmunds A 3-9 resulting in 5th place overall. Despite competing against mainly A teams the girls
played with confidence and determination, never losing sight of the end goal. Well done.
The A Team went from strength to strength. In their first game against Trafalgar they quickly
got into their rhythm winning 16 -2. Their second game was against Godolphin B winning 13-0
which resulted in the team going through to the Semi-Finals. We met Godolphin A team winning 8-2 then finally meeting St Edmunds A team in the final. A fantastic game with both sides
working hard and determined to win. SWGS A Team did win the game 10-4 resulting in them
being placed 1st and qualifying for the School Games Competition. Well done girls on an excellent evenings play and good luck in April!
A Team: Jodie Ball, Anna Tuck (C), Ellie Fitzgerald, Annabel Ditchfield, Tara King,
Elise Wolfarth and Ellie Russell
B Team: Prescelli Annan, Alice Uloth, Bea Young, Jess Robinson (C), Tallulah Hastings,
Rachel Herring, Harriet Legg
A Team
B Team
Year 8 Netball
Both teams were keen to get another match under their belts before the festivals in March so a
friendly against St Edmunds was hopefully going to give the girls a chance to practice what
they had done in training. The A team started well dominating possession and going 7-0 up in
the first quarter despite some sloppy passing. Flossie Ball, GK, didn’t have much to do but
when the ball came into the defending third she intercepted the St Edmunds pass to their GS
with ease. The game did not prove to be challenging at all. Each quarter SWGS added more
goals to the score with little reply from the opposition. The final score was 21 goals to 1. Kirin
Sahota was voted Player of the Match. St Edmunds B team were missing players so they only
brought 5 resulting a High 5 match rather than 7-a-side. After the first quarter it was obvious
that St Edmunds were struggling so SWGS mixed the positions so everyone had a chance to
shoot (and take a little bit of glory!). The final result was SWGS 20 St Edmunds 1.
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Year 8 B team have also played Leehurst Swan A team and won 9-3 with Lexi voted player of
the match. The B team also played Clayesmore Yr 9 C team and won 5-4 with Georgia Scott
voted player of the match. Well done!
Year 8 Netball Festival and School Games Qualifier
A team results in Round 1 were 10-0 win over Trafalgar and 11-0 win over Godolphin B team.
In the semi-finals the A team played SWGS B team(!) and won 9-3. In the final SWGS A
played Godolphin A team and won 11-3 so festival winners again- brilliant! They go on to represent Salisbury in the School Games in April.
B team results were 8-1 win over Leehurst Swan, 3-9 loss to Godolphin A team but a 2-1 win
over St Edmunds in the 3rd/4th play off so finished in third place overall. Well done to all players! (Molly Martin, Helena Dougherty, Delilah Sturgis, Georgia Scott, Riminy Jenkins, Lexi
Brown, Daisy Ullyatt, Tahya Truckle, Alice Mawdsley and Sally Twentyman.
SWGS year 8 A netball team played against St.Mary’s Calne in their toughest match yet.
Whilst St.Mary’s Calne seemed to have possession of the ball most frequently, the SWGS A
GD and GK always got the interception before they had a chance to shoot. The mid-court area
was quick and fast with WD, C and WA taking it up the court. There were some great feeds
from Kirin Sahota and Coco Bradley, into the shooters, allowing them an opportunity to score.
Fortunately, most of the shots went in, resulting in an 18-3 win to SWGS A. Well done to all of
the team, especially for only conceding 3 goals. Also, congratulations to both Sedona (GA)
and Darcy (GD) for being players of the match. Thanks to Riminy Jenkins for standing in as
GK and doing a great job! Written By Darcy Arnold-Drewett team captain.
The B team played St Marys C team and won convincingly 13 goals to 2. A great way to finish
their season. Well done to Molly Martin, Helena Dougherty, Delilah Sturgis, Georgia Scott, Lexi
Brown, Daisy Ullyatt and Sally Twentyman.
Year 7 Netball
The B team played Leehurst Swan A team and won 14-4 with Florence Walker voted player of
the match. Well done to all involved.
The A team played St Mary’s Calne Yr 8 B team in a great match which saw all players having
to use their skills from training and their fitness as they played 4 quarters of 10 minutes each.
SWGS won 20-11 which is impressive as they were playing girls a year older. (Zoe Shaddock,
Molly Hole, Izzy Fuller, Alice Cutress, Lucy-Jane Matthews, Imogen Lee, Issy Siggers and
Sophie Davidson).
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U12 SWGS A VS. U13 St. Mary’s Calne B
After tossing the coin, we had the first centre pass, which was a good, early advantage for us.
In the first quarter we had a slow start, but we then started to find our feet. We knew that we
could improve if we got in front of our opposition, and it worked as by the end of the second
quarter they were still in the lead, but now it was only 10-9. We carried on to play some really
good netball, gaining some quick turnovers and pushing on in front of St. Mary’s, gaining an
extra 7 goals, with them only scoring an extra 1. In the final quarter we showed some of our
best teamwork which then made the score 11-20 to us, even though we were playing the year
eight B team. Well done SWGS!
Zoe Shadlock Year 7 A team captain
Year 9 Netball
Salisbury Tournament success
The U14 A and B teams competed in the Salisbury festival tournament held on Thursday 12th
March at Godolphin. It was a successful tournament with the A team being unbeaten in all
games and winning overall and the B team coming 4th on goal difference to Godolphin B. Well
done to all the girls who took part and for the captains who have organised and been dedicated all season, Abigail Robertson and Molly Morrison.
SWGS A v Bryanston A 10-18
On Thursday 26th February, South Wilts’ U14 A team played Bryanston, an Independent
school from Dorset. After the 1st quarter we were 2 down but still very much determined to
bring it back to win the game. Unfortunately they upped their game as well and fought hard for
their win. They were an extremely strong team with some very athletic players. The overall
score was 18-10 to Bryanston. We realised during this match that there was some work that
needed to be done however we played the best we could and unfortunately the score didn’t
show that. Well done to Claudia Bailey for player of the match and the rest of the team; Tash
King, Skye Allen, Emily Wall, Katy Cutler and Georgie Strawson Abigail Robertson (c).
B team 14-37
On Thursday 28th February our B team played Bryanston, they were a strong side and won 14
-37. The team played well in general but things we could work on were centre passes, overhead passes and shooting. The girls who played were, Jess Lee, Sarah Coldwell, Sibella
Edgerton, Rosie Madzarevic, Jojo Garot, Erica Humbey, Molly Morrison. The player of the
match was Molly Morrison.
SWGS A V CLAYSMORE A 29-16
Thursday 5TH March, South Wilts U14 A’s played Clayesmore, another school from Dorset.
After some intense training following the match from Bryanston, we managed to get into the
flow of the game a lot quicker and finished the 1st quarter of the game 2 goals up. We went
back into the 2nd quarter having upped our game again and this proved to be one of our highest scoring quarters, Tash King was on fire with her shooting not missing a single shot for at
least 10 continuous goals. At half time it was 16 – 9 to us. The 3rd and 4th quarters proved to
show great results too. Overall we scored 29 goals to 16. It was great to have such a successful win! A massive well done to Tash King who was given player of the match, and rightly
too. And to everyone else showing amazing team spirit; Claudia Bailey, Skye Allen, Katy Cutler, Emily Wall and Georgie Strawson.
Written by Abigail Robertson (c)
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SWGS B v CLAYSMORE B 18-8
On Thursday the 5th March our B team played Claysmore, the final score was 8-18 to us which
was a huge improvement from the week before. The team played really well and the centre
passes were a great improvement from the last match. To improve we could slow down the
play and mark the players more closely. The team was Katy Weir, Lily Sainsbury, Bethan
Oliver, Abi O’reily, Sibella Edgerton, Erica Humbey, Sarah Coldwell, Jess Lee, Molly Morrison.
The player of the match was Bethan Oliver.
Written by Molly Morrison ©
U16 and U19 Netball
Thank you to all the U16 and U19 team and recreational players for their commitment to training and matches this season. We have had some highs and lows against some tougher competition this year – highs being 3rd in the county at U19 level, close matches vs St Mary’s
Shaftesbury and St Swithun’s and the U16s winning the first festival, coming runners up in the
2nd and drawing with Dauntsey’s in a real nail biter towards the end of the season. Let’s use all
we have learnt to take us forward next season. Thank you to my captains – Millie Lewis, Sarah
Brown and Kiera Reavill and thank you to Juliette Glennon-Alty and Mrs Glennon-Alty for all
their fantastic help with umpiring. Much appreciated!
Miss Weir
Bryanston Cross Country
Congratulation to all the girls who travelled to Bryanston Relays on Thursday 5 th March. It was
a gorgeous sunny day and some excellent team and individual results. The Junior girls team
came 1st overall, a fantastic achievement.
NAME
Individual time
Place
JG
Abigail Burn
9.28
1st
JG
Izzy Goulding
11.16
21st
JG
Louise Webb
10.15
5th
JG
Charlotte Holman
11.22
25th
JG
Sacha Moore
11.22
24th
IG
Rachel Lang
11.42
45th
IG
Izzy Backhouse
13.18
n/a
IG
Kiera Reavill
10.34
16th
IG
Beth Puzio
11.10
34th
SG
Isabel Dickson
10.58
22nd
SG
Alice Ultoh
11.07
23rd
SG
Jasmine Thayer
9.49
3rd
SG
Emma Pike
10.50
18th
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England Netball Youth Umpiring Award
For the first time at SWGS Year 11 Core PE students had the opportunity to opt to follow the
Youth Umpiring Award between September and Christmas in their PE lessons. The course enabled them to learn how to umpire at school level and they practiced within lunchtime clubs as
well as lessons. England Netball moderator ,Pat Salter, came to observe a selection of umpires
as 41 girls had paid for the assessment. She had never been involved with a school or club that
had entered such big numbers before and she was pleased with what she saw, passing every
girl! Congratulations go to the following: Beth Puzio, Lara Mayhew, Beth Moloney, Helen Forrest, Sally Morris, Miranda Clifford, Emma Pike, Lily Jackson, Molly Hayter, Jessica Smith,
Kiera Reavill, Emily Hedger, Hannah Quirk, Phoebe Wing, Matilda Bryant, Charlotte Robertson,
Georgina Gorvin, Grace Rudman, Chloe Cross, Anna Feest, Hannah Pickup, Amy Webster,
Sarah Brown, Olivia Bourne, Niamh McCormack, Hannah Kidner, Natalia Fedyszyn, Honor
Jackson, Alex Nikolin, Lily Jackson, Emily Harper, Lucy Higson, Kitty Bradley, Hazel Cutler,
Sammy Cole, Heidi Scott, Celeste Conn, Suzie Costley-White, Claire Baines, Anna Jorgensen
Stephens, Charlotte Lewis and Chloe Butlin.
Kayaking-Nationals Schools race
The National Schools Kayak Championship is organised and run by the Devizes to Westminster (DW) Organisation, Marsport and Canoe England. Jodie and I came 3rd overall (1st out of
ladies), coming 3rd in the 20km race and 2nd in the sprints. The 200m sprints were knock out
rounds and the 500m sprints were done by heats and then finals. This was a good chance to
race K2 as most races are K1.
Kayaking
In a kayak, the paddler is seated in the direction of travel, and uses a double-bladed paddle.
Kayaks have a rudder, which is operated by the feet of the paddler in the front.
There are two disciplines; sprint (the Olympic discipline) and marathon racing. In Sprint racing,
you race over 200m, 500m or 100m in a K1, K2 or K4. The number being the amount of people
in a boat.
In Marathon racing you race in a K1 or K2 over a certain distance determined by if you are a
boy or a girl and by how old you are. This can range from 20km up to 40km.
Training: 6 days a week (Monday off)
4 gym sessions a week- These sessions can vary but this is the average session:
bench pull (40kg)
Single arm row (15kg)
Standing press (10kg)
Lat pull down
Chins (max)
8 reps x4
6 sessions on the water, sessions can include:
6x1000m
3x1500m
10x200m + 2x500m
4000m time trials.
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Gent Marathon
I have been selected to be part of the British canoeing team for the Gent Marathon, an international race, in Belgium on 28th March. Invitations are based on the commitment and performances observed at winter training days and local/regional time trials.
Jodie and I on the start line of the 500m at the National sprint regatta (Nottingham).
By Harriet Quidley and Jodie Ball
Lucy Jane Mathews- Athletics
Recently Lucy travelled to Sheffield to compete in the under 15
girls’ 60m hurdles at the British National Indoor Athletics Age
Group Championships.
At only 12 years old and therefore still in the under 13 age group
which is not represented at national level, she competed in the
age group above with girls up to the age of 15. She recorded a
new PB of 9.81 seconds which is a new club record at her athletics academy in Southampton, and although she was not expected to go through to the next round was only 3 hundredths of
a second away from qualifying for the semi-finals.
Congratulations to Lucy Mathews on her continuing success and
growth in athletics.
Tennis
Congratulations to Isabel Dickson and Anna Rolfe for being selected to represent Wiltshire in
U18 girl’s tennis Team in the County Cup. The team played in the County on Friday 27th to
Sunday 29th February in Newport. The team were unfortunate not to go through but they
have the summer league to look forward too.
County Young Coaches Academy
The County Young Coaches Academy aims to provide an opportunity for 25 young people
aged 15 – 18 to gain greater insight into the requirements of being an ‘Outstanding’ Coach in
a Sport of our choice (in our case, hockey). Sammy and I wanted to apply for this course because we felt it would give us a good understanding of the roles and responsibilities of a
sports coach, and that we would be taught skills that we could put to good use in the future.
We were, therefore, very pleased to hear that our applications had been successful. To date,
we have attended several workshops in Devizes and Chippenham covering nutrition, performance analysis, strength and conditioning plus a FUNdamental Movement Skills session.
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Towards the end of the program we will be given a personalised mentoring session to be held
at Bath University – this is something we are particularly looking forward to.
Both Sammy and I feel we are very lucky to experience this wonderful opportunity to learn from
qualified individuals in the world of Sports Coaching and Science and are extremely grateful to
Miss Allen for encouraging us to get involved.
Lara Mayhew & Sammy Cole (11E)
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ONWARDS
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