Headmaster's Letter - May 2022

Headmaster’s Letter to Parents

May 2022

Dear Parents It has been good to see many of you this half term supporting sports fixtures, drama and music performances, parents’ evenings or at other events. What follows is a selection of highlights but the second half of term promises to be even busier. As always, thank you for all your support.

Best wishes Michael Punt

Mr Michael Punt M.A. M.Sc. P.G.C.E. Headmaster mpunt@chigwell-school.org

Contents Page 1

Climbing Wall Sixth Form Induction Day

Page 2

Music

Page 3

Music

Page 4

Music

Page 5

Drama

Page 6

Swimming

Page 7

Girls’ Football

Page 8

Girls’ Football

Page 9

Girls’ Football

Page 10

Tennis

Page 11

Essex Women’s cricket Chess

Page 12

Cricket

Page 13

Cricket

Page 14

Duke of Edinburgh

Page 15

Duke of Edinburgh

Page 16

Duke of Edinburgh

Page 17

Speech Day Examination Results

Page 18

Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

Page 19

Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

Page 20

Summer Ball

Climbing Wall We are very appreciative of all the efforts that the Friends of Chigwell make to run events to bring families together and raise funds for extras at the School.

Currently, all their fundraising is to go towards the climbing wall in the new sports centre, which will provide a different range of opportunities for pupils in the near future. Thank you for all your support of them

Sixth Form Induction Day A reminder that a Sixth Form induction day will be held on Tuesday 5th July when students will be given a taste of the work that they will be covering in their chosen A level

subjects. This is an important day in itself but also the occasion when some A level work is set to be completed over the summer holidays.

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Music Through our teaching, especially through the extensive co-curricular

Musicians, presented

programme, we have provided pupils with some life-long and enriching memories. We have uploaded seven

professionalism to compete in our annual Young Musician of the Year competition at the end of April. It is without doubt one of the most enjoyable days of the year and all performers must be congratulated for their part in the making the day a success. The adjudicator, Mr Simon Platford MBE, commented with abundant praise on the exceptional standard and quality of musicianship

concerts and music videos to our YouTube Chigwell Music channel, including montages of some of our Music Technology work from the Fourth Form and Removes.

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Junior and Senior, themselves with

throughout the day. The results of the Grand Final were:

Highly Commended Junior – Niara (Fourth Form) – French Horn

Overall winner – Ben (Middle Sixth) – Bass Trombone

The Chapel Choir had the privilege and honour to take part in the Memorial Service for the Rt. Hon. James Brokenshire MP at St. Margaret’s, Westminster Abbey. Their committed and beautiful singing provoked many favourable comments in the corridors and lobbies of Parliament in the following days.

Highly Commended Seniors – Connie (Middle Sixth) and Amelia (Upper Fifth) – Voice Junior winner – Angelique (Removes) - Clarinet

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The Music Department was delighted to bring together the Year 6 play ‘Troy Story’. As well as being highly entertaining, the cast had a lot of fun working together on this project. The work of Miss Ciara McCarthy and Miss Victoria Vickers in this production was significant.

The final week of this half term, has brought together two further Live@6 recitals from the Third Form and the Fourth Form. What was most palpable was the apparent development, technically, emotionally and musically since their last recital. All the pupils are to be applauded for the music they performed so confidently.

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Drama theatre full once again. Well done indeed to all students involved and to Miss Blake who we thank for all her hard work.

Drama this half term has taken on a Junior focus. Miss Grace Blake’s KS2 Showcase was a wonderful two night run of song and dance. This was very well attended by parents and students and it was lovely to see the

“Troy Story” was the next show to be performed by KS2, the annual production which took place over two nights just before half term. This was a play with songs and involved a collaboration between the music and drama departments. Almost the whole of Upper Two were involved in this show making for quite a full stage and a very full auditorium. Many thanks for all the hard work put in by Dr Mireille Zrinzo, Miss Victoria Vickers and Miss Ciara McCarthy.

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Swimming Swimming is a popular activity this term with over 120 pupils involved in extra-curricular sessions. These have included recreational swimming as well as beginner, intermediate and squad sessions. We were very pleased to have a large squad of pupils from Lower Two to Fourth Form competing in the IAPS swimming last term, representing the School in both individual and relay events. We have eagerly been awaiting the results and are delighted to share that India has reached the final of the U11 backstroke event, so will be competing in the National Finals on Saturday 10th June at the London Aquatic Centre. Joshua narrowly missed out on a place in the final in the U13 Butterfly. We wish India all the very best in June. Many

Junior School pupils have been attending trials for the summer gala, taking place at the end of term.

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Girls’ Football to play their first ever 11 a-side fixture against Forest School, which was a great experience, even though we were beaten 4-0.

The U15s have shown great potential and made steady progress and been competitive in every fixture they have played. They were unlucky to lose against Queenswood who beat us 30, despite our girls hitting the crossbar and the post twice. In our next fixture the girls comfortably beat Braeside School by 5-0. We also competed against a very strong Woodbridge High School where our girls suffered a defeat. However, the girls’ showed admirable courage and perseverance throughout the match.

Girls’ football has flourished this half term; the fixture list has been very busy with all age groups competing against other local independent schools, some competing in IAPS and ISFA tournaments.

The 1st XI had a great start. They beat Bishop’s Stortford High School 3-1, in their first ever girls football match as a senior team. The girls then went on

The U14s have had fixtures against St Edmund’s College and Braeside School. They have continued to work

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hard in all of these fixtures and during games afternoons. We narrowly lost out to St Edmund’s College by two goals to nil. However, in a very close and competitive game against Braeside the girls held on for a 1-1 draw.

and well-matched game and the U12Bs won their match. The U12s also came away with a win against Woodbridge High School. Overall it has been a great start to the season for this age group.

Great commitment has been shown by the U13s in recent weeks; they had a good win against St Edmund’s College and narrowly lost to Bishop’s Stortford College 1-0. The girls have recently competed in the ISFA U13 tournament held at Forest School; the girls were very competitive in every game, losing by only one goal in all the matches they played.

The U11s are a very strong year group in terms of football. The girls opened their account with a loss to a very strong St Aubyn’s side but since then it has been a joy to see them develop.

All of the girls in the year have had an opportunity to represent the School.

The girls have thrived and the results have reflected this, having come away victorious against Forest School and becoming overall winners of the IAPS tournament held at Bromley High.

We have been extremely impressed with the attitude, commitment and desire of the U12s this half term and the vast majority of the girls have represented Chigwell. The girls endeavour to play the game in the right way and show great potential for the future. They have also been competitive in all the matches they have played. During our first block fixture against Forest, all three teams came away with a defeat. We had a very positive Saturday morning against St Edmund’s College; the U12As drew 1-1 in an incredibly close

The U10s, U9s and U8s have also had a fixture against Braeside. The aim of this was to grow participation and allow the girls to enjoy the sport in a semi-competitive manner. It has been a real pleasure to watch them progress over the past six weeks.

As well as all of the above, we have hosted internal events throughout this first half term and we had the senior house football, where over forty-five girls took part.

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Congratulations to Caswalls’ who were victorious after a close-run competition. Following this, the Remove/Lower Fifth house event took place, with over thirty girls involved and Caswalls’ taking victory once again.

their interest in the game.

This year our focus has been to try to grow girls’ football, with the aim of developing a love for the game, improving skills and growing participation. This term, for the first time, girls’ football pre-season took place; we had over eighty girls from U11s to seniors at Chigwell on a Saturday morning. This was a real success and kick started the football term.

We held a Chigwell U10 and U11 Football Festival which was a real success, with over thirty-five girls taking part. We are hoping this can become an annual event, to give the girls more opportunity to develop

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Tennis Pre-season tennis was a first this year and was well attended from the Third Form upwards. After-school tennis clubs have also been thriving with large numbers of pupils from the Third Form upwards attending the sessions. The girls have enjoyed fixtures against St Edmund’s and Brentwood and we have had mixed fixtures against Brentwood and Bancroft’s. Our seniors enjoyed their first fixture against Bancroft’s recently, with eight pairs representing the School from the Lower Sixth. We are looking forward to the remainder of the season.

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Essex Women’s cricket

Chess The chess club this year has been a roaring success. An easing of restrictions has once again allowed the mixing of year groups and those who were interested in this have taken full advantage, with some weeks having more than fifty children from Lower One up to Middle Sixth attending on a Wednesday afternoon.

As a result, with the help of Mrs Paulette Pewsey and Ms Ciara McCarthy, we were able to run a chess tournament at the school on Saturday 23rd April which also doubled up as the first round of the UK Chess Challenge. The tournament was won by Dylan (Lower Sixth), who won six games and drew one game.

Kristian (Middle Sixth) came second and Jani (Middle Sixth) came third.

Well done to Sally (Lower Sixth) who has successfully broken through into the Essex Women’s First XI cricket team this term. She was ever present in their recent T20 County Championship matches where they lost by one run in the final having been unbeaten in seven games up to that point. She is pictured here last week at the Essex County Ground where she opened the bowling in a last ball victory over Kent.

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Cricket Cricket has flourished throughout the term. The 1st XI have had some challenging matches, however the team spirit has been wonderful, with many of the players having exams and still managing to organise their time wisely to mix both sport and academia. Our two best results were against University College School Hampstead who Chigwell beat by 8 wickets in the HMC T20 match at home and Westminster, in which the 1st XI gave a great performance with the ball and the opening batters knocked off the 144 runs without losing a wicket.

The 2nd XI have had an outstanding season despite the results not reflecting the great cricket they have played. With many of the senior players wanting to play more cricket, it has been a real pleasure to see them in action. Not only have they been playing well, many of the seniors have been coming to support their peers on a weekend.

The U15s and U14s have been excellent. Both year groups have been passionate about their cricket and willing to work hard in the afterschool sessions provided. Their work ethic has been one of the reasons the players have improved. The

improvements technically, tactically and mentally have been noticeable.

As they move into the sixth form we hope they will learn the art of winning.

The U13s and U12s have been the heartbeat of the school with some

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great displays on the top field square. It has been good to see these year groups developing so well in the matches they have played so far.

Both year groups have done well and are in contention for their respective Essex Cup Plate Competitions.

The U11 and U10 teams have played a fair number of games away from home which has been good for their development and independence. All of the players in the year group have played in either the A or B teams.

Unfortunately, the U11 girls’ first cricket match had to be cancelled due to the bad weather.

It is wonderful to see the number of Junior School pupils coming to afterschool training sessions and the energy and willingness to learn new skills of those players. It is so important for the pupils to learn the fundamentals as this will give them the foundation and the resilience to do well when things begin to get tough.

Overall the students at Chigwell are showing great promise. The standard of cricket throughout the School is on the rise and the next few years are looking very exciting.

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Duke of Edinburgh The students are now working on submitting all the other elements of the Silver award to complete it by the end of the year and hopefully progress to Gold.

During the second week of May, twenty students from the Lower Fifth completed the DofE Silver walking expedition on the South Downs Way.

During the third week of May, twelve students, from the Lower Fifth, completed the DofE Silver Canoe Qualifying expedition on the River Thames from Lechlade to Abingdon in Gloucestershire following the River Thames. The groups paddled a total of 80km over three days camping at various locks along the way; both groups had to contend with extremely hot weather and thunderstorms.

The expedition assessor was very impressed with the groups’ paddling ability and morale, and praised the School on the pupils’ exemplary behaviour.

They walked a total of 70km over three days; the route started in Arundel and followed the scenic South Downs Way and finished near the small village of Plumpton. The group were extremely lucky with the weather as it only rained on one day.

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Duke of Edinburgh

15

Duke of Edinburgh

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Speech Day As I said in my last letter, I hope that as many parents as possible will be able to attend our speech day celebrations, not least because it will be my last one and I would like to thank you for all your support. The programme for Speech Day and its related activities will follow the usual format: Friday 8th July

2.15pm 3.30pm

Pre Prep, Lower I and Upper I Service in St Mary's Church Pre Prep, Lower 1 and Upper 1 Garden Party

Saturday 9th July 9.45am

Junior School Service at St Mary's Church

11.30am

Senior School Service at St Mary's Church

2.30pm

Speeches and Prize Giving in the Marquee

Parents from all sections of the School are welcome to attend prizegiving in the marquee, after which there will be refreshments. Due to the extensive building that is currently taking place on site, this year the event will take place at the Metropolitan Police Sports Club at Chigwell Hall.

This year’s guest of honour is Professor Gurminder Bhogal O.C. Gurminder is the Catherine Mills Davis Chair in music at Wellesley College, Massachusetts which includes Hilary Clinton and Madeleine Albright amongst its alumni. Gurminder said of her time here: ‘Chigwell School helped me to identify my path and then gave me the tools to forge it. I will always be grateful to the School.’ Having benefitted from a bursary herself, Gurminder has lent her support to our campaign to raise funds to provide more bursaries.

The preacher at the service on Saturday morning will be The Venerable Vanessa Herrick (Archdeacon of Harlow) and the preacher at the service on Friday afternoon will be Reverend Chris Davies.

Examination Results Details of arrangements for results days will be included in my end of term letter but in the meantime please note that A level results will be released on Thursday 18th August and GCSE results will be released on Thursday 25th August.

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Platinum Jubilee Celebrations In 1952 when the Queen acceded to the throne, Chigwell School had just a third of its current role, only boys were admitted to the School and the Music School and new gymnasium (known now as the ‘Old Gym’) were yet to be opened. Pupils up to the Upper Fifth wore school caps, the school orchestra, founded in 1949, gave concerts in New Hall, and the Headmaster was Donald Thomson.

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The world has moved on a great deal over the last seventy years, but Chapel services and assemblies this week have reflected on the service given by the Queen for the majority of her life and each day the lunchtime special has had a Commonwealth theme. In addition, yesterday a Chigwell “Street Party” themed lunch took place on Top Field.

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Summer Ball A ticket order form and details of the Summer Ball to be held on the evening of Saturday 9th July have been sent out by SchoolPost. This is always a very popular event and you are urged to apply for tickets as soon as possible as they are allocated on a first-come first-served basis. Please contact Mrs Tina Page on 020 8501 5711 or tpage@chigwell-school.org Parents from across the School are very welcome to attend the Ball.

Summ u mer Ballll 2022

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TERM DATES 2022 Trinity Term 2022 Half term:

Saturday 28th May to Sunday 5th June INSET Day Monday 6th June

Term ends: Wednesday 13th July Michaelmas Term 2022 Staff meetings and INSET on Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th September First day:

Wednesday 7th September

Half term:

Saturday 22nd October to Sunday 6th November

Term ends: Friday 16th December Lent Term 2023 Staff meetings and INSET on Monday 9th January First day:

Tuesday 10th January

Half term:

Saturday 11th February to Sunday 19th February

Term ends: Wednesday 29th March Trinity Term 2023 (Easter Day is 9th April) First day:

Wednesday 19th April

Half term:

Saturday 27th May to Sunday 4th June INSET Day Monday 5th June

Term ends: Wednesday 12th July