Focus Magazine Spring 2022

Spring 2022

Drama

Annie

Just after half term, the lower school production of Annie transported the Sports Hall to depression-era NYC! With seamlessly choreographed set changes and a treasure trove of fabulous costumes, the staging heralded a triumphant return to lower school musicals!

It was a delight to be able to see and not just hear the live orchestra, who did such a fantastic job with the wonderful melodies. Special mention also for the choreography; the dancing from the young orphans to the adults was wonderful and the energy of the cast for the entire show was hugely impressive! The well-deserved standing ovation was testament to the fact that whoever coined the phrase that one should never work with children or animals had clearly never met the pupils of Churcher’s College. Bravo!

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Senior

Alex Lawther Workshop

It is not often that our GCSE and A Level students are lost for words but they were completely starstruck when none other than TV and film star Alex Lawther popped in to teach them! Alex is a Drama veteran, having studied here at Churcher’s himself, so we were absolutely delighted to have him back in the

studio doing what he does best. Our students were blown away during the workshop, where they explored the use of space in theatre, as well as a Q&A session and of course, a bit of time for the obligatory selfie! Many thanks to Alex for taking time out of his very busy schedule to come back to his old stomping ground.

1722: The Musical

Just before Christmas, 1722: The Musical told the story of two spirited contemporary students, Fin and Theo, who are set a research project into the history of the College as punishment for poor behaviour. This is when something magical happens; their weighty historical tome opens a portal into scenes from College life through history, from the original declaration of Richard Churcher’s will, through to 2023, where history is about to repeat itself! From the gifting of the site at Ramshill in 1888 to the harrowing experiences in the trenches of the First World War and the admission of girls to the Sixth Form in the 1980s, key moments from Churcher’s history combine to teach our anti-heroes some valuable lessons. Accompanied by a musical score of chart-topping hits that perfectly complemented the storyline, this really was a tour de force for our performers.

LAMDA Success

LAMDA pupils Noah Wharton and Rufus Knight in fourth year came first at the Chichester Festival for Music, Dance and Speech with their slapstick comedy duologue 'Mousehunt'. The Adjudicator was so impressed with their performance that they have been invited to perform at the Festival's showcase concert at Chichester's Minerva Theatre.

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History

Holocaust Memorial Day

In January, Fourth Year students assembled in the Lecture Theatre to hear the thoughtprovoking testimony of Holocaust survivor Eva Clarke, in a live webcast given to remember Holocaust Memorial Day. She and her mother were the only survivors of their family, 15 members of whom were killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau. She talked about her indomitable mother who survived three concentration camps: Theresienstadt Camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Mauthausen. When Eva was born at the gates of Mauthausen she weighed just 3lbs and was wrapped in paper to keep warm. If the camp's gas chambers hadn’t been blown up on 28 April 1945 and the Americans hadn’t liberated Mauthausen just days after Eva’s birth, neither mother nor child would have survived. This testimony was gripping and deeply moving.

CCALS Napoleon Lecture ACADEMIC LECTURE SERIES

From hope to terror:

The French revolutionary rollercoaster, 1789-94 Prof David Andress Monday 24 January 2022, 4:30 - 5:30 Lecture Theatre - refreshments in the gallery from 4pm

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ChurchersCollege.com

Prof David Andress gave an interesting lecture on the tragedy of the French Revolution, charting the descent from the period of consensus in the early stages of the revolution in 1789-90, to the period known as 'the Terror' in 1793. He put forward many explanations; the main being the character of Louis XVI: a people pleaser, who was not as capable a ruler as his grandfather Louis XIV had been. Another factor was the war that began in 1792; this militarised and polarised an already febrile political landscape. A final interesting point that was raised from the Q&A session was that the urban poor were not a precursor to the Marxist proletariat, as they had no agenda other than wanting to be less hungry.

Overall, the lecture was a helpful revision session that galloped through the course our students have been studying.

Senior Trip to the Trenches

100 of our Third Years had a great time at the ‘Great War Huts’. As we could not get abroad for the traditional Battlefields trip, the trenches came to us (or rather Suffolk). Our pupils were transfixed by a great talk from a true expert, who let them all try on military outfits and have a go with the (not loaded!)

guns. They then moved seamlessly onto a cemetery tour, hearing the personal accounts of the men who died, as well as remembering the dead by the war memorial. They finished the day in the ‘trenches’, which felt more real than the trenches on the Somme. These had been used on many film sets so were replete

with barbed wire, shell holes etc. We then explored a 'field hospital' where pupils heard about the casualty clearing stations and the roles of nurses. "It was a great experience, and it was a good way to understand more about World War I.” Eleanor Burton

WWI Competition

The Third Years once again produced some magnificent pieces of art work and poetry, for our annual World War I art competition.

We had ten winners: Monty Zaltman, Meg Cowley, Zak Wightman, Ari Wilks, Frankie Trask (below who copied out every name of the men who died in Hampshire), Fin Edington, Freddie Maugham Taylor, Imi Rengger, Fred Hughes and Alice Franklin.

Their work is on display in New College.

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Adventurous Activities CCF

Clay Pigeon Shooting

As the Clay Shooting Club continues to gain popularity, many cadets have now progressed their shooting to engage increasingly complex targets and with growing confidence on the shotguns. Well done to all who attended and braved the weather; we now look forward to the Cadet Clay Championships in June!

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Exercise Sharpshooter

In early November, 16 Army cadets practiced their livefiring on a sunny autumn day at Ash Ranges. The shoot comprised two rotations of 20-round group and zero practice followed by sight adjustment and a 5-round scored group at 100m, using deliberate rates of fire (10 rounds per minute). Cadets enjoyed an opportunity to review and improve their technique in building up and maintaining a stable and consistent firing position between rotations. While one group was firing, the other manned the butts, manually raising and lowering the targets and applying paper and paste to cover the bullet holes. Later in the afternoon, the cadets were able to experience rapid fire from three firing positions – prone, sitting and kneeling. Our “top gun” was L Cpl Rory Hodges, who was awarded his master marksman badge. He was closely followed by L Cpls LT Dixon and Dom Porter, who earned ‘First Class Shot’. Eight other cadets met the standard for “marksman” and the remainder earned their GP rifle badges.

Senior

Devizes to Westminster

Despite the dark and cold, the squad has continued to train hard on Sunday mornings.

This term the paddlers have encountered a variety of challenges ranging from frozen sections of the canal where ice had to be broken to progress, aggressive swans determined to capsize them, sections of the canal under repair where the only option

was to run with the boat on shoulders and some biting winds and chilling conditions for capsize and recovery drills. As anticipated, this year's squad were not to be put off and reached the 6 February ready for the BC K2 50km challenge. This involved paddling the entire 50km of the Basingstoke Canal, including 26 portages, and was

perfect preparation for the next phase of the programme. The squad returned re-invigorated after the half term break, straight into the build-up races, which sees them race against many other crews. We wish them the very best of luck for the main event itself, the DW Marathon on Easter weekend.

Exercise Striking Tiger

In March, over thirty Fourth Year Army cadets took part in Exercise Striking Tiger as a completion of their APC Basic syllabus following. The field day gave the cadets an opportunity to use the L98A2 rifle following their series of Skill-at-Arms lessons and Weapon Handling Tests. All cadets were instructed and then exercised on the foundational tactics of conducting an ambush and engaging enemies as a two-person team. All of the cadets came away from their battle exercises with big, camouflaged smiles, and although these were later tested during weapon cleaning the field day was a great success!

Ten Tors Challenge

There may be many challenging outdoor events in Britain today, but Ten Tors stands alone in terms of scale, ambition and the fact that it is aimed solely at young people.

All those who attempt the challenge, which takes place every May on Dartmoor, will undoubtedly remember it for the rest of their lives; for many it is a life-changing experience.

Training has been taking place since November as our students seek to build skills in navigation, teamwork, campcraft, managing challenging terrain, and leadership as well as physical fitness, strength, endurance, and resilience. Training in the South Downs and the New Forest, each session has increased in complexity and duration. In March, the teams completed a tough training weekend in Dartmoor - despite clear blue skies and relatively dry terrain, they endured freezing overnight temperatures. They will return to Dartmoor in April for a second training weekend in advance of the event in May.

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Sixth Form

Football

Since the start of the year, some of the Sixth Form boys have enjoyed playing football together after school. Having asked Mrs Mann if she could find us some opposition, and with Mr Calverd coming on board to offer his coaching skills, they were delighted that she organised the very first fixture against Midhurst Rother

St David's Day

Spring arrived in the Sixth Form on 1 March as Ramshill was festooned with daffodils to celebrate St David’s Day. It was a wonderful lift to the mood amidst the gloomy weather, and in particular for the Upper Sixth with mock exams approaching.

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College in November. With enthusiasm and confidence riding high, this proved a thumping victory for Churcher’s, winning 5-1 and with Kwadwo Asante gaining the honour of being the first official Churcher’s football goal scorer!

A further three fixtures brought another win, a draw and a loss. With some 25 participants

from Upper and Lower Sixth, and an inclusive spirit where everyone gets to play, the team are looking forward to expanding their squad and fixture list next year, giving some the opportunity to represent the school in the sporting arena when they may not otherwise do so.

UCAS Careers Fair

On 4 March the whole of the Lower Sixth travelled to Brighton for the annual UCAS Careers Fair. It was an opportunity to speak to representatives of well over 100 institutions of higher education, as well as organisations like the Armed Forces. Lucia Sparks reflected, “It was a really useful day, and I spoke to some universities I had not considered before.

It’ll definitely help me when it comes time to apply.”

Senior Careers Events CCC - Charities

On Friday 26 November we hosted our final Coffee, Croissants and Careers of the term, concentrating on careers in the charity and not-for-profit sector (also known as the third or voluntary sector). We had representatives from charities of all sizes – from small, local ones to well-known national and international names. It was brilliant to learn about the vast array of roles in this sector and the opportunities available.

Material Science

We were delighted to welcome back OC Harry Payne, current PhD researcher at Imperial College, to share his knowledge with students interested in the field of materials science. In his first talk, Harry described the content and applications of a Materials Science and Engineering degree. He followed this up with a presentation explaining the fascinating field of Non-Newtonian Fluids and how these can be applied to develop Liquid Armour. With the help of some student demonstrators, Harry showed how a ‘shear-thickening’ fluid, such as a cornstarchwater mix, flows less easily when subjected to a larger force, almost turning solid when the audience tried to remove a partly submerged golf ball from it. On the other hand, a ‘shear-thinning’ fluid, like tomato ketchup or honey, actually flows more easily when the applied force is increased – handy if you want to squirt it from a bottle! Liquid armour, worn by soldiers, can be made light and flexible when not under stress, but is still able to stop a bullet or a blade. Judging by the questions they asked, our students have plenty of potential to drive further innovation in this field in the years ahead.

History and Politics Trip

Our Upper Sixth History and Politics students had a fantastic day out in London, especially as it was our first school trip since Covid started! The historians made their way to the Cabinet War Rooms, and saw the bunkers used by Churchill and his military team.

They saw the famous map room, Churchill’s study and a huge array of memorabilia of both the Second World War and the Cold War. Meanwhile the Politics students went to the Supreme court, taking in a tour of the Court’s museum, learning about its crucial

constitutional role and sitting in on a murder trial. We all joined together in the afternoon and had a brilliant tour of the Houses of Parliament. We accessed both the Lords and the Commons (where we saw Johnson and Starmer and witnessed some debating).

We were taken to the lobby and the Great Hall, and even had a visit from Damien Hinds MP who gamely answered some probing questions about ‘Partygate’ and Putin. We finished the day with a lively workshop debate in the style of the debating in the Commons.

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Sport

U13 Hockey

Our U13 boys A Team enjoyed a great day at the In2hockey tournament for Hampshire. Undefeated in the group stages and scoring freely, they unfortunately lost in the semi-final by a single goal to Walhampton. The boys did superbly well and thoroughly enjoyed the tournament, well done all!

1st XI Hockey

Churcher’s 1st XI played Bradfield in the last sixteen of the ISHC. The match was a great showcase for school sport with both sides playing intense, physical and skilful hockey. With the score even at 2-2 with fifteen minutes to go, the game was set up for a nail-biting finish.

Bradfield scored from open play in the dying minutes and were able to hang on until the full-time whistle. The final score: 3-2 to Bradfield.

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Senior Athletics

It has been an incredibly successful term for our cross country runners, with the Second Year girls team winning the Hampshire Inter Schools Cross Country Championships as well as the Highfield Invitational in the team-based events. They all also qualified to represent South East Hampshire at the Hampshire Championships in March. The Second Year boys also put in a strong performance at Highfield, coming away with the top prize, while the First Year boys and girls put in a sterling effort to come third in their respective events. All told, over 35 students from first to fifth year have been able to progress to represent the South East region at county level, perhaps the highest we’ve had to date! However, Third Year Ela Pemberton is stealing the headlines; having won the South East Hampshire event, she came fifth at the Hampshire Championships and went on to represent the county at the inter-counties event featuring the top runners from Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Essex and Berkshire. After an outstanding performance in finishing sixteenth, Ela heads off to the national championships in March.

We wish her every success.

Swimming

ESSA Hampshire Championships In September, six teams entered the ESSA relay gala for Hampshire at St. Swithun’s School: boys’ and girls’ teams in junior, intermediate and senior categories. All teams swum with great perseverance which resulted in some amazing achievements culminating in the junior girls winning both their freestyle and medley relay with a very impressive swim from Lily Johnson bringing home both the relays. The inter boys secured a gold in their freestyle relay with some great times especially Fin Glazebrook and Julius Uprichard. In addition, our senior boys won both our freestyle and medley relays, which meant that we achieved a place in the National finals for both of our relays.

ESSA National Finals After our success in the county rounds, our senior boys’ teams were fast enough to be placed in the top 30 schools in England, thus securing a place in the ESSA national finals at the Aquatics Centre in London in November, for both our freestyle and medley relays. We were seeded 11th for the freestyle relay and 10th for the medley relay, which we were very happy about, however we needed to be in the top 10 to make it into the finals, something we all knew we could accomplish. Overall, after coming up against some big swimming schools and coming 8th and 9th in England, I think this is a real achievement for us all!

Tom Hogg

Waterpolo

Congratulations to the U18 Water Polo team who competed in the semi-finals of the National Plate Competition in February.

The team won three out of the four games, narrowly drawing with Warwick School in the last 30 seconds of the game. The team won the Competition, progressing through to the finals, the first Churcher's team to make it to this stage of the competition. Well done and good luck!

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Modern Languages Boules

A quick ‘boules’ or ‘pétanque’ game at lunch time this term proved quite competitive, with teachers, First Years and Sixth Formers trying to get as close to the “cochonet” as possible… lots of fun and giggles but we look forward to be doing this in the Summer, when the sun shines and the ground is less muddy!

Meet the Assistants!

Lisa Bonjour! Je m’appelle Lisa et je suis très heureuse d’être l’assistante de français à Churcher's cette année. Je viens de la très belle région de la Bretagne en France, connue autant pour sa gastronomie que pour ses magnifiques paysages. Et bien que l’année scolaire ne soit pas finie, je suis déjà très satisfaite de mon expérience qui me permet de partager mes connaissances et de continuer à éveiller l’intérêt et la curiosité des élèves pour la culture francophone avec les autres professeurs et assistants du département des langues. Selon moi, c’est une expérience particulièrement enrichissante!

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Norman Hallo! Mein Name ist Norman und ich bin 23 Jahre alt. Ich komme aus dem wunderschönen Köln, der schönsten und wichtigsten Stadt Deutschlands.

Meine Zeit am Churcher‘s College ist großartig.

Die Arbeit mit den Schülerinnen und Schülern macht mir viel Freude! Besonders gut gefällt mir die Arbeit im Modern Language Department, da es einfach schön ist durch den Flur zu laufen und jeden Meter eine neue Sprache zu hören. In meiner Freizeit reise oder unternehme ich etwas mit den anderen Assistenten.

Ich werde die Zeit am Churcher’s College sehr vermissen. Glücklicherweise konnte ich hier viel erleben und werde mit vielen tollen Erinnerungen zurück in die Heimat reisen.

Sara ¡Hola a todos!

Me llamo Sara y soy de Madrid (España). He tenido la suerte de trabajar como auxiliar de conversación de español en esta increíble institución como es Churcher's College.

El personal, en especial los profesores del Departamento de Lenguas Modernas y los estudiantes me han acogido muy bien durante estos dos cursos y hemos aprendido muchísimo los unos de los otros. No me voy a olvidar de esta etapa de mi vida y de lo mucho que he aprendido en este centro educativo a nivel profesional y personal. Y por último, pero no menos importante, esta experiencia no hubiese sido igual sin mis compañeros Lisa, Norman, Verena y Charlotte. Es maravilloso aprender nuevos idiomas y conocer nuevas culturas, por eso… ¡Os animo a aprender un nuevo idioma y a ponerlo en práctica viajando!

Un cálido saludo.

Senior

Spanish Theatre

The Spanish Department was excited to welcome back the Onatti Theatre with their production of ‘El Campamento’. It certainly lived up to our expectations and kept the Third Year Spanish linguists amused and challenged. The two actors performed with plenty of enthusiasm and our students were fully engaged. The delivery was clear and well-paced ensuring that all our students could follow the play and enjoyed a boost to their comprehension skills.

St Nikolaus

On 6 December, First Year German students were once again treated to a St Nikolaus celebration. Our German language assistant Norman gave a presentation and they then received traditional German biscuits in their shoes, which had been placed under their desks, as is traditional in Germany and Austria on the night of 5 December. Everyone enjoyed the goodies and they then sang Lasst uns froh und munter sein which is a catchy German St Nikolaus song. Much fun was had by all!

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Music Brass and Woodwind Concert

Just before half term, we were treated to a wonderful evening of music, showcasing our talented woodwind and brass players. One of the benefits of the new auditorium is that the large space gave us the opportunity to involve performances by both the Junior and Senior Wind Bands in the same concert. Both of these large ensembles produced such impressive performances, the Senior Wind Band starting the concert with the ‘Cartoon Symphony’ followed by ‘Night Beat’, complete with bicycle bells, various percussions effects and even screams coming from the woodwind section! There were a total of 96 performers in the concert, with 11 ensemble items, together with a number of solos, which highlighted the strength and depth of the woodwind and brass playing in the school.

Enrichment

A Level musicians have attended several enrichment events this term, including a Conducting Workshop with distinguished local conductor, Robin Browning. Robin took the students through some of the ‘moves’, and each had turn at conducting a small ensemble. They also enjoyed a trip to Poole to hear members of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra perform, analyse and discuss two of the A Level set works. The outstanding

performances were followed by a Q&A session with the players and a composition workshop. Most recently, A Level and GCSE musicians attended a concert given by the BSO at Portsmouth Guildhall. The programme was entirely devoted to the film scores of John Williams, including the themes from ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Jurassic Park’, as well as more introverted cues from movies such as ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’.

Save the Children Concert

Churcher’s musicians joined forces with The Petersfield School and Ditcham Park School shortly before Christmas to raise money for the charity Save the Children. Representing Churcher’s were the Jazz Band, with soloists Matilda Shapland and Olive Fogelin, together with the Junior Choir.

Carol Service

It was a joy to be back in St. Peter’s Church for our carol services and given how much the school has been increasing in size, the number of services also had to increase to four. All of the Churcher’s choirs (Junior,

Junior Chamber, Senior, Senior Chamber, SSA and Barbershop) were involved, with a particular highlight being the candlelit service in the evening with the Senior Choir singing the Matin Responsory by Palestrina.

Rock Showcase Concert

Having been more than two years since we were able to put on this special evening, it was amazing to see the progress that has been made by some of our contemporary music specialists! The audience were entertained by the Blues Group and the Senior Jazz Quintet before the Singer Songwriters took the stage to show how powerful one voice and a simple accompaniment can be. Harry Marden’s two self-penned songs were particularly outstanding and other highlights included Rupert Haworth’s rap from ‘Price Tag’ and a fantastic version of ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’, featuring a mini gospel-choir of backing vocals, which nearly brought the house down!

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Senior

Lunchtime Concert

The first concert of the new year, was a delightful lunchtime concert in St. Peter’s Church, which featured soloists from the First Year, through to the Upper Sixth, with the Junior Chamber Choir setting the scene at the start with ‘The Sound of Silence’ and the Second Year string quartet (Tahlia Horwood, Annabel Clements, Isabelle Fogelin & Jac Browning) finishing the concert in style with a John Williams favourite, ‘Raiders March’.

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Computing

First Years having fun programming the BBC microbits

Bebras Challenge

The UK Bebras Challenge, held last November, is designed to identify problem solving and programming talent in the UK, with the top 10% then invited to enter the Oxford University Computing Challenge (OUCC). It is divided into four categories, from Elite (Sixth Form) to Junior (First year). We did amazingly well as a school, with 41 students achieving the Gold level required to be invited to the OUCC! The next round was held in February and nationally more than 13,000 students qualified.

It requires students to solve as many problems as possible in one hour. This was very much harder and only about 20 students from each category get through to the final. We are extremely proud that Oliver Fogelin in the Upper Sixth achieved full marks 66/66 and is invited to the final which takes place in March.

National Museum of Computing

Our Fourth and Fifth Year GCSE Computer Science students enjoyed a trip to the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park where they learnt about the history of computers, wrote their own compute games, tried out old arcade machines, experimented with creating their own Artificial Intelligence bots, and even saw some of the computers that helped us end World War II in action!

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Third Years learning about computer hardware and how to build computers

Computing in Action

The Sixth Form Computer Scientists were delighted to be able to attend this year’s Computing in Action lectures in London in person!

Senior

STEAM

SATRO Science and Engineering Challenge February saw a welcome return to face-to-face competition in the SATRO Problem Solving Challenge, which sees teams from schools all over the country competing under time pressure to design and build a device to overcome a tricky engineering problem. Teams from the Second and Third Year (Gabriela Cassidy, Annabel Clements, Eleanor Pritchard, Anthony Eldridge, Oscar George, Monty Zaltzman), Fourth Year (Evan Cocksworth-Jones, Alfie Greggs, Olly

Hambly, Annabelle King, Will McIntyre, Noah Wharton) and Lower Sixth (Tobias Bower, Elliot Medley, James Moses, Liv Sexton, Daisy Taylor, Jess Watling) headed to Heathside School in Weybridge for the Regional Heat.

The teams had 90 minutes to design and build a device that would accurately measure a time of ten seconds, switching on a light once the time had elapsed. Quality of design and

construction was crucial, especially to ensure that the device would function reliably when the judges came to test it. All three teams produced ingenious solutions, in each case making use of a calibrated set of ramps which a marble should, it was hoped, navigate in exactly the required time. Our Lower Sixth team were delighted to see their device measure a time of 10.2 seconds, enough to win the Heat despite some stiff competition!

Schrödinger Project

In December, the Science Faculty launched a six-week programme to help inspire, encourage and develop skills for independent science projects which will provide a foundation to build upon in the Sixth Form.

At the core of the programme was a fiveweek project chosen by the students, for example investigating the underlying physics behind earthquake resistant buildings or bike suspension. There were also opportunities to attend talks and take part in other enrichment activities to support and extend their GCSE Physics. We were delighted that almost 30 students chose to participate in this extracurricular club, culminating in a presentation evening for their fellow students, teachers and parents.

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English Debating Success

Is gold better than God? What is a legacy?

Two challenging questions that were posed at the English Speaking Union Branch Final at the end of January. Two teams of Churcher’s students did battle at the auspicious Bishop’s Palace, Chichester. Matilda Hill’s emotive speech on the value of faith, and Jess Lin’s entertaining thoughts on how we are remembered once we have departed this earth, won high praise from the judges and provoked a great deal of debate. Our speakers were ably supported by our Chairs, Mariana Houghton and Isabella Leidtke, who worked with teams from Seaford on such debates as ‘Are we growing into an ever more angry society?’ and ‘Social media does more harm than good’. The final members of the team had, perhaps, the biggest challenge: our Questioners were Eddie Lewis and Katie Withers, who put Seaford through their paces, with Katie winning the title of ‘Best Questioner’ on the day. There was a touching nod to our former Head of English, David Cave, with the ESU honouring his memory by awarding the David Cave Trophy to the winning team from Seaford. Our Team 2 were runners up and have progressed to the Regional Finals being held here at College on 21 March.

World Book Day

To celebrate World Book Day, forms were challenged to decorate their classroom door with a book cover relevant to their department setting and the results were inspired! With too many great entries to choose one winner, a range of prizes were awarded from the cleverest to the most relevant. At lunchtime, the Library hosted a World Book Day party, complete with a book-themed selfie-station, decorate your own bookmarks, literary quizzes and, of course, cake!

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Senior

In Other News Equestrian News

The Churcher’s College equestrian team were out in force again for the NSEA National Schools Show Jumping Qualifier held at Merrist Wood in Guildford on 26 February. Second Year Millie Butterworth on Kilcoman Cream was clear in Classes 1 and 2 and Fourth Year Ellie Jackson on Miss Milieu competed in Class 3 as an individual. In Class 4 the metre team spanned the year groups, consisting of Ellie Jackson and siblings Bels and Clemmie Foster; there were over 50 competitors in the classes and the girls held their own. In Class 5, the one metre ten, Clemmie riding Billy Bug was placed and qualified for the National Schools plate which is to be held later in the year.

Green Day

As an accompaniment to COP26, Churcher’s College staged their own COP 26.5 Green Day in aid of Marine Life. Students were able to plant plants for their classroom, learn about water use and eat insects; the new protein of the future. Students brought in green cakes which raised £222.40. One coral was bought in French Polynesia for the proceeds and the rest was sent to Coral Vita; a charity that won this year’s Earthshot Prize for the category Revive our Oceans.

Model United Nations

The Junior contingent of the Model United Nations Club have been working hard this term to prepare for their upcoming conference at Reigate Grammar School in May. Pupils in the Second and Third Year have been meeting to hone their debating skills, and all this hard work culminated in a passionate, highly reasoned and exciting first debate on the issue of abortion. Pupils representing Germany, the UK, USA, UAE, Poland, Chile and China successfully argued from the varied points of view of each country, with due consideration given by pupils to their respective country's religion, demographic concerns and stance on human rights. After much fierce debate and a few comments by Germany towards the USA delegates which sparked uproar from the room, the resolution written by Poland had three amendments agreed by the committee and was passed (despite fierce objections by the UK and the USA).

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Trips

Hitting the Slopes!

How many obstacles can be put in the way of getting a few pupils to go for a little ski?

Originally intending to take 45 pupils skiing, as a consequence of the pandemic there was clearly an appetite for renewed international travel, with 215 pupils registering their interest. After much hoop-jumping, departure day finally arrived for 83 pupils and 11 staff… as did the much-publicised storm Eunice! Our crossing was surprisingly not too tumultuous with just a few ‘green’ looking faces on the ferry. Our time on the slopes was loved by all, with ten ski groups of varying ability from beginner skiers, up to the top ability group who pushed the instructor to cover huge distances each day.

The weather was a mix of sun and snow with excellent quality snow/powder for us all to play in. Après ski was varied; we sledded, swam, bowled and our pizza night morphed into an impromptu dance fest with both staff and pupils enjoying their moment in the limelight!

Petworth House Art Trip

A recent visit to the galleries at Petworth House and Newlands House provided GCSE and A Level Art students with a valuable opportunity to relate their subject matters to context found in the art world, as well as to discover ideas to move their projects forward. The Newlands House Gallery displays the personal collection of artist Julian Opie, and is set up in a way that places his own artwork adjacent to the pieces from which he took inspiration. Opie’s work provides clear examples of how the students can take inspiration from other artists to progress and develop our own creative techniques, as well as finding similarities with their own concepts in unexpected ways.

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R&P Trip

The R&P Department ventured to Portsmouth Masjid where we were welcomed by Iman Mainul. Hereafter we went to Christchurch, where our students had a chance to ask all their pressing questions to members of the congregation. It was a thought provoking day; just how we like it.

Senior

Success Outside School

Ben and Emma Dakin

Senior School siblings Ben and Emma Dakin made the local press with their volunteering efforts for their DofE awards. They were chosen to cut the celebratory cake marking the ten-year anniversary of the Alton foodbank, where they have both been helping clean the foodbank and warehouse. Founded by local churches and community groups working together to alleviate hunger in Alton and surrounding villages, more than 120 volunteers have been involved in its operation over the last decade.

Ben Hegan

Fifth Former Ben Hegan has been selected as part of the England under-16 hockey squad.

Already a key member of Havant Hockey Club, Ben excelled over several training and assessment camps recently and will be part of the national youth set up in the months ahead.

He has already featured for Havant's first-team this season and scored twice on his debut Division One South appearance and will now train with the national U16s, as well as being involved in an eight-nation tournament to take place in Germany in July.

Lowri Hegan

Sixth Former Lowri Hegan’s gymnastics trio have been selected to represent Great Britain at an Acrobatic World Cup series event in Poland this June. She has been training in acrobatics at Southampton gym club for seven years and has been working in her current trio for just over a year. She currently trains between five and six days a week for about 20 hours. Last year, Lowri’s trio were selected as one of the few across the country to compete in two different trial events for World and European championships at the national gymnastics centre in Lilleshall. Unfortunately, they were forced to pull out of the second trial due to injury so have had to work extremely hard to be ready to compete again. Lowri has always aspired to represent Great Britain: “Being selected to represent Great Britain is a real honour, knowing that our work has been recognised by the national coach as being of high enough quality to represent our country - I am very excited to compete with a Union Jack on my leotard!”

Frank Berry

Frank Berry organised a beach clean as part of his Master's Award and invited his classmates to a Marine Conservation Society Beach Clean at Southsea Beach on 5 March. Frank, along with his brother Felix, completed the same beach clean in 2018 and Frank was keen to do it again as it is a cause close to his heart.

The clean started at 10am and concluded with bacon sandwiches at midday. Frank, Tom and Nate were so enthusiastic about cleaning the beach, the sun shone and they collected a sizeable amount of rubbish!

Orla Brady

Ollie Williams

Fourth Year student Ollie Williams has been selected to represent West Sussex in the next World Scout Jamboree in South Korea. This is an incredibly exciting and well-deserved opportunity to experience being a part of the global scouting community; more than 40,000 Scouts from 150 different countries will be participating in the Jamboree in the Summer of 2023. During the course of the Jamboree, Scouts will develop leadership and life skills through activities designed to challenge participants to learn about global issues and how to become active citizens.

Congratulations to Ollie on this wonderful achievement and we look forward to reporting further on his Scouting adventures!

Second Year Orla Brady has just returned from the British Shooting Schools Pistol Championships in Cannock, Staffordshire, where she finished in an admirable fifth place in the final of the Junior category, against a field of 52 competitors. Orla started shooting in 2018 through Pony Club Tetrathlon, a multi discipline sport comprising of shooting, swimming, running and horse riding. Last summer she won the area qualifier and went onto compete in the Pony Club Tetrathlon Championships in Warwickshire. In January, Orla came second in her area Pony Club Winter Triathlon and has qualified for the National Finals of the Winter Triathlon series, taking place at the end of March. Last September, Orla was invited to train with the South East Regional Pistol Squad, based at the National Shooting Centre in Bisley. Her aim for this season is to finish as high as possible in the Winter Triathlon and to qualify for the 2022 Tetrathlon Championships.

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300th Anniversary 300 Pennies

Pupils have responded with great energy and inspirational ideas to the ‘300 Pennies Challenge’ to raise money for the Richard Churcher Foundation. We will be celebrating their efforts on Founder’s Day at the end of the Spring Term.

4D 4D made the most of the three evening performances of 1722: The Musical in the run up to Christmas, pooling their 300 pennies to create a fantastic raffle, offering top prizes of Churcher's own sparkling English wine and branded beer! The audience were wonderfully supportive of their efforts and they raised a fabulous £355 for the Richard Churcher Foundation! Very well done to 4D and their very persuasive raffle selling team!

4G In December, 4G pooled their 300 pennies and used the total to run a stall at break time offering Christmas snacks and drinks, raising more than £200 for the Richard Churcher Foundation!

Churcher's Will

Churcher’s College was established in 1722 with a generous bequest from Richard Churcher in his will to provide an education for ten or twelve boys from Petersfield in the arts of writing, arithmetic and the mathematics of navigation.

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Will Kennedy First Year William Kennedy raised £200 for the Richard Churcher Foundation by completing a sponsored swim. “I used my £3 to pay the fee for a Just Giving page. This enabled me to send a digital link to my friends and family. I started my 30km swim in the October half term and finished swimming before the promised deadline of 25 December. I have to thank all my supporters for enabling me to do this brilliant challenge.”

Junior Dress Up Day

The Junior School children continued the 300th Anniversary celebrations with a historical dress up day, with some fabulous costumes on display from across the ages!

Year 3 brought a week-long celebration of the 300-year anniversary to a close with a fantastic historical dress up day!

Junior School Mosaic

The whole Junior School has worked together with freelance mosaic artist Kim Porrelli to create a beautiful mosaic. Everyone was given the opportunity to add their own tiles and the children also completed the leaves as well as designing parts of the image. Every class created a bird and if you look carefully, you can find the animals that represent our five school values - the dog, penguin, squirrel, owl and swallow. The mosaic is a stunning tribute to the 300th Anniversary and was unveiled with pride by the children in a birthday celebration.

Tercentenary Wood

1,500 pupils and staff from the Junior and Senior Schools were supported by some amazing parent volunteers to each plant a tree for the Jubilee over three days in February, to create the Tercentenary Wood for Petersfield.

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Chinese New Year

All the children in Nursery to Year 4 enjoyed a special workshop by Earthsong to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year. The studio was filled with beautiful, colourful resources and the children were thrilled to create their own dragon dance, learn how to create music with Chinese drums and try out fan and parasol dances.

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Guild Charity Events

Junior

We encourage the children as part of the Guild Award to raise money or support charitable initiatives of their own choice. We are very proud that since September the children have raised almost £3000 for various charities.

The photos were of children’s stalls at the Christmas Fayre as well as a recent cake sale and a crocheted animal initiative run by some Year 5 pupils.

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Music

Assemblies

Here at CCJS we understand the importance of performing to an audience to help our confidence. We take turns to perform in assembly to all of our friends. It is very scary at first but we are improving all the time!

ABRSM

Each term the children who are ready, prepare for their ABRSM music exams. We are so very proud of them!

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Rock Band

Some children in year 6 have formed a Rock Band. We are learning songs by Oasis and Bryan Adams! We love coming together in our break times to make music and cannot wait for our first concert!

Junior

Guitars

We love our instrumental lessons here at CCJS! Here are Mrs Happel’s guitars getting ready for their first performance.

They make a beautiful sound together.

Well done everyone!

Year 5 Orchestra

Children in Year 5 love playing music so much that they have formed a Year 5 percussion orchestra and meet in play times to play together! They are currently learning ‘It’s All About You’ by McFly!

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Nursery

Making new friends Campfire fun!

Making rangoli designs during Diwali Using coloured sand to make rangoli patterns

Colour mixing magic

Reading in the book shed

Concentrating hard

Dressed for a party!

Mark making in the sunshine

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Gold at the end of the rainbow

The school turned white...

Junior

Reception Building up our fine motor control, and having a go at sewing!

Practical number work- matching numerals to their physical representation on the ladybirds

In our Reception Class it is all about exploration, discovery and investigation, embracing new skills and developing into resilient little learners! We try to incorporate these skills into everyday life and take our learning outside whenever possible. We learnt how to tie reef knots when making willow fish by the camp fire and had a go at camouflaging animals in the sensory garden. We then made our own class book to share in the book corner. We love working in pairs to increase our negotiation skills and learning from one another. All in all, what a lovely busy couple of months with lots of fun learning along the way!

The outdoor classroom... working together with making knots

Let’s write our name in the frost!

Reception Feelings Assembly

Making a hula-hoop train!

The autumn leaves were beautiful this year, framed with frost, too! We collected lots for our science table!

Reception Class love frosty mornings

Nothing beats sharing a funny story with a friend!

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Sport

Churcher's Development Squad

The introduction of the Churcher’s Development Squad has been a great addition to the sporting line up on Wednesday and Thursday match afternoons. Any players not selected to play in a fixture against an opposition school spend the afternoon developing their sporting skills across different areas, ranging from a sport specific focus to transferable skills such as teamwork, communication and problem solving.

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Highfield Cross Country

Runners from Years 3 to 6 took part in the annual Highfield XC event.

For once the weather was perfect, but the competition this year was fierce! Putting in a fantastic effort across all the age groups the Churcher’s runners managed to secure notable finishes with 2nd place U10 girls’ team and 4th place U11 girls’ and U11 boys’ teams.

Junior

Swimming Galas

Showcasing all their hard work in swimming lessons, Years 3 and 4 took part in their House Swimming Galas in an effort to win the House Swimming Cup. Very well done to the winning Houses, Year 3 Arun and Year 4 Rother.

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Year 1

Discovering the globe

Captain Scott's base camp

Loving reading in Class 1

Making a Christmas wreath

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Enjoying the Toy Museum

Junior

Year 2

Year 2 finding dinosaur clues in the sensory garden

Year 2 making cornflour slime to investigate solids and liquids

Unearthing dragons with careful archaeology skills

This amazing room at the Science Centre made everyone look different heights

Celebrating advent with homemade Christingles

Creating slime at the Winchester Science Centre

Reinacting roles from a Crimean hospital

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Science

Eggsperiment

Circulatory System

Year 5 have been studying the circulatory system, making 'blood smoothies' containing white blood cells (marshmallows), red blood cells (raspberries), platelets (hundreds and thousands) and plasma (pineapple juice) who knew blood could taste so good! They have learnt about the different properties and functions of these blood components and looked into antibodies, antigens, and different blood types. They have also

been studying how the heart works: 5R used a giant diagram and the children were deoxygenated blood (blue bibs) and oxygenated blood (red bibs) as they traced their way around the chambers of the heart absorbing oxygen in the lungs and releasing it in the body. 5B used twigs and stones to create the outline of the heart chambers and then walked the route of the blood around the heart and body.

Year 5 have been investigating what would happen to eggs when placed in a jar of vinegar and food colouring. As the eggs sit in the vinegar, some of the water is absorbed through the egg's membrane during a process called osmosis. After a week, the eggs had expanded and now had a coloured, rubbery texture. This experiment is linked with our human body topic to show how nutrients can pass through our arteries to our vital organs.

Critical Thinking

In Year 3 Science, children begin to take on a more independent approach to investigations, devising their own and exploring their ideas about what makes a fair test. Opportunities to make predictions and draw conclusions based on their own evidence encourage critical thinking and teamwork. Learning to record findings and ideas forms an important part of these lessons.

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Junior Forces

Year 5 have been investigating forces, specifically, they have been finding out which is the best surface for the roads in Petersfield to stop cars quickly - which surface has the most friction? A variety of surfaces on ramps were used to investigate the children’s ideas - some children chose to measure the speed of the cars, while others measured stopping distance.

Pulleys

Year 5 took their learning outside and realised how easy it was to pull a trolley full of children with many pulleys compared to just one pulley.

They recorded the number of pulleys and the amount of rope pulled to move the trolley 1m. With the wooden lever, they experimented with moving the fulcrum different distances from the load, trying to find where the best place was to easily lift the load.

Gears

Children have applied their understanding of gears and friction to a bicycle. What gear ratio is the best for going uphill? Where on a bicycle would you require maximum/minimum friction?

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Year 3 English

Poetry workshops, online author visits and role play all form part of the broad and varied range of activities in English lessons. Children explore their ideas and creative thinking together, plan and prepare for writing before taking to the page.

Maths

Power Maths was truly in action this term – children enjoyed the opportunity to bring the subject alive in their lessons. Times tables challenges gave everyone that wonderful feeling of progress and achievement every week.

Stone Age

Stone Age Studies Outdoors...

Outdoor Learning

Outdoor learning plays an important role in our curriculum in Year 3, whatever the subject or focus for learning. Children have enjoyed many cross-curricular activities in our outdoor environment based on our Stone Age and Rocks and Soils work this term. Technology too supports children as they delve into subjects by developing their knowledge and research skills together.

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...and back in the classroom with technology at hand

Junior

Year 4

Thank you everyone, for a lovely Campfire afternoon!

4TR enjoyed pumpkin pie after our Thanksgiving Assembly... yummy!

Year 4 Assembly

Madeleine made a spiky hedgehog on our campfire afternoon

History - it all happened a very long time ago!

Delicious smores!

This is my tree - I love this tree!

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Year 5 Map Reading

In Geography, Year 5 children have been poring over maps of the local area and sharpening their knowledge of O.S. map symbols. With the use of four and six-figure grid references and their understanding of the symbols, they have been able to identify and pinpoint local places of interest. They then put their map skills to the test by creating a route around the sensory garden using compasses, coordinates and the number of steps as a guide. The aim was to visit several garden features and end up at the spot of the buried time capsule - X marks the spot!

English

Continuing the study of their English book, Arthur and the Golden Rope, the children have used Post-it notes to introduce and describe Arthur's journey from his village to the great hall in the land of the gods. The children used this information to create a recount of Arthur's voyage.

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

Year 5 journeyed down to Portsmouth historic dockyard to the Mary Rose Museum as part of their Tudor topic. The children spent an informative session in the science labs, investigating replica and genuine articles from the recovery of this ship. They thought about the practicality of the materials used or whether there would be a modern-day replacement. In their other session, the children were introduced to the wonders of King Henry’s flagship and toured the museum, topping up their knowledge and understanding for work back in class.

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Junior

Year 6 Citizenship

Throughout the Spring Term, Year 6 contemplate the meaning of being a good citizen and how they can contribute to our community. They participate in a number of workshops and events including learning some basic first aid, how to survive in the water and how to cook a basic healthy meal during their Masterchef competition. As well as learning how to keep themselves healthy and happy, Year 6 also focus on understanding how laws are made and the importance of democracy and the other core British values - respect, tolerance, rule of law and individual liberty.

Year 6 Peer Mentor training

Milestones

In November 2021, Year 6 went on an intrepid adventure back in time to the era of the Victorians at Milestones Museum of Living History, Basingstoke. It was an enlightening day, particularly when dressed as Victorian children and sampling the lessons taught over a hundred years ago. The Victorian teacher was terrifying, but thankfully nobody got the cane. It was a wonderful way to end the history topic and experience first-hand what life was like in the 1800s.

Parliament

Year 6 Positions of responsibility awarded

Year 6 enjoyed finding out about the UK and what makes a democracy. They had a virtual tour of the House of Parliament so that they could understand how democracy works in the UK, the process of making laws and the safeguards put into place.

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