The Chronicle - December 2023

THE

CHRONICLE December 2023 edition

Claremont 100 Campaign Reaches £60,000 Milestone Members of staff, pupils, Friends of Claremont, corporate sponsors and charity representatives gathered together for a celebration tea to mark the huge milestone that has been achieved towards the Claremont 100 campaign. The school has now raised over £60,000 for our five local charities: Momentum; The Grace Dear Trust; East Elmbridge Foodbank; Shooting Star Children’s Hospices and Rentstart.

At the celebration tea Mr Brierly thanked the sponsors, the Friends of Claremont, pupils and members of staff for their hard work and efforts in raising such a substantial amount of money and presented each charity with a cheque for £12,066.92.

The Claremont 100 campaign is a testament to the generosity and spirit of giving that thrives within the school community. These funds will make a profound difference in the lives of countless individuals and families.

The Claremont 100 scheme will continue this year with more fundraising opportunities including a fun run, sports themed Gala Day and family activity days. Well done to all pupils, families, teachers, alumni and the wider community on helping us achieve this goal.

For full press release please visit our website.

REMEMBRANCE SERVICE On Friday 11 November, the Senior School gathered to mark Remembrance Day. Services were held in the Great Room and sports hall to allow all pupils to pay their respects. We were honoured to host Mayor Councillor Richard Williams and the Lady Mayoress, along with governors and the headmaster, at a moving service. Performances included singing from Jordan A, Alfie S, Chloe W and Isabella L, singing by the Senior School choir, music from the school orchestra and some poignant drama vignettes.

Mr Cartwright our deputy bursar, who spent 16 years in the army, spoke about his reflections during the observed two minutes of silence. Wreaths were laid during the school service. Our head boy and girl, Thea H and Toby R, represented Claremont at the Esher Civic Service, along with Mr Brierly, at Christ Church on Sunday 12 November.

ANTI BULLYING WEEK This year anti-bullying week was Monday 13 to Friday 17 November. In support of this, pupils were encouraged to wear odd socks. The purpose of wearing odd socks was to celebrate our unique differences and stand united against bullying. There were some excellent socks on display with a variety of fun colours and patterns! Well done everyone!

PARLIAMENT WEEK UK Parliament Week (UKPW) is an annual event, spreading the word about what Parliament is, what it does and how you can get involved. To celebrate we welcomed our local Elmbridge MP, Dominic Raab to a Q&A session. Sixth formers also ran various assemblies to inspire interest and engagement in Parliament, politics and democracy.

MUSIC SCHOLARS PERFORMANCE

Our annual scholars concert took place on Tuesday 28 November in the historic Great Room in the mansion. A huge congratulations to all our very talented music scholars who participated. Each of them demonstrated their great technical skills, which highlighted their dedication to their craft and instrument.

Parents, staff and alumni enjoyed listening to the harp, voice, cornet, drums, guitar and piano. The performances of works by composers ranged from Mozart to Justin Timberlake and a song from the musical Godspell, the musical performances were very much enjoyed by all.

Clubs

WARHAMMER CLUB Warhammer club is a fantastic opportunity for pupils who enjoy both a creative and board gaming outlet during lunchtimes. Pupils can enjoy painting their own intricate battle statues and when complete, can feel proud playing the board game with their very own artwork.

CROCHET CLUB On Wednesdays pupils are welcome to come to crochet club where they have the opportunity to learn a useful life skill. Pupils in this club are currently learning how to complete complex stitches and even make fingerless gloves - very handy for this time of year!

CAROL SERVICE Our annual carol service took place on Wednesday 6 December at Christ Church in Esher. Years 7-9 gathered in the morning and Years 10-13 gathered at midday service to sing carols, listen to readings and enjoy musical performances by our talented orchestra and soloists. On their return to school, pupils enjoyed delicious treats such as chocolate brownies and hot chocolate, the perfect way to end the lovely, festive occasion.

CHRISTMAS HAMPER COLLECTION FOR EAST ELMBRIDGE FOODBANK Tutor groups across the whole Senior School collected an enormous amount of Christmas produce for families in need in the local area during November. Over 50 boxes, containing items from Christmas crackers to tea bags and biscuits, with a total value of over £1500, were donated to East Elmbridge Foodbank. Thank you to everyone for your very generous donations which were very gratefully received by the foodbank.

HOUSE UPDATE This half term our pupils have been busy battling for house points. It has been wonderful that so many pupils have entered house events this year.

There is a real sense of house spirit amongst the pupils.

The house firework photography competition saw Cecily F and Rosie H take first and second place, both part of Radnor house. Third place was awarded to Theo H from Norwood house.

The modern foreign languages competition had Rosie H from Radnor winning for her languages menu, Seb S from Longcross winning cartoon, and Orla S from Radnor winning the photo entry.

Oliver P from Norwood was also the winner of naming the new, site electric vehicles ‘Mario’ and ‘Luigi’.

FIRST GIVE CHARITY As part of a social science project, Year 9 have raised over £550 for local charities (Rainbow Trust, Momentum, Cheer, Rentstart, Down’s South London) over 6 lunchtimes.

These lunchtime activities included ventures such as sweet selling, a bake sale, wearing brightly coloured items, guessing the number of sweets in a jar, ticket treasure hunts and running a teacher’s football match. We were honoured to welcome the Mayor of Elmbridge, external judges and representatives of the five charities to attend the final of the First Give charity presentations. Congratulations to the Momentum team, the winning charity who will receive £1000 towards their work. Also well done to the Down’s South London team, who received a special commendation for their work. Well done to everyone in Year 9 for raising money and awareness for such amazing causes.

The Christmas card design competition was a clear sweep by Norwood with the winner Elea F and runners up Lulu G and Freddie G, who are all part of the house. The house Christmas tree decorating competition was won by Longcross, followed by Norwood and then in joint third were Stanmore and Banstead.

The house song competition took place during the last week of term with Stanmore taking first place for the second year in a row. The question still remains … who will take away the house cup at the end of this year? It is still anyone’s game!

JGP INSPIRE LECTURE SERIES With the Joyce Grenfell Programme of inspire lectures continuing this half term, we welcomed another series of fascinating speakers to Claremont. These academically enriching talks included the granddaughter of the most decorated WW2 spy, Sophie Parker and three time BAFTA-nominated engineering presenter, maker and pyrotechnician, Fran Scott. During each talk pupils got to ask questions and deepen their knowledge on the specific speaker’s fields and experiences, creating valuable takeaway messages. The next JGP inspire lecture will take place during the spring term.

SIXTH FORM PANTOMIME This year was the fourth sixth form charity panto. We have enjoyed Peter Pan, Aladdin, Snow White, but this year we had Cinderella! This took us on a not-so-far trip to the prospering Kingdom of Esher where the Baron, evil Baroness and their children of Joyce, Grenfell and Cinderella live.

This panto performance brings together the sixth form community; it is written, directed, acted and altogether run (with the assistance of teachers) by our very own sixth form students! The performance helps to teach our students the benefits of leadership and teamwork. All money raised from this event will contribute to the fundraising targets for the charities that we are supporting this year through the Claremont 100 Initiative. These are Momentum, Rentstart, Grace Dear Trust, East Elmbridge Food Bank and Shooting Star Children’s Hospices.

SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS GYMNASTICS UPDATE

A huge congratulations to our Claremont gymnasts who have been competing in multiple competitions this term.

Our U13 gymnastics squad competed at the 2-piece Independent Schools Gymnastics Competition where they walked away with the bronze medal. Also a big congratulations to Ethan who secured a bronze medal on his vault at Piper’s Vale.

THE KARTING KID

Harry T’s podium streak continued over October half term! Harry competed in the Rotax Max Golden Trophy Grand Festival in Genk, Belgium. It was always going to be tough racing against 32 other drivers from 14 different countries with some of Europe’s greatest micro drivers.

However, after three hard fought days full of racing Harry finished in the final P3. Harry also took part in the TVK championship where he held the lead for most of the race and crossed the line P1 making him the TVKC 2023 Karting champion. This meant he joined the likes of previous winners Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and George Russel. A huge well done to Harry T for these impressive accomplishments!

FUTURE OF FENCING Yoojoo K and Arabella F bravely entered a very tough U13 National Event on 19 November 2023. Yoojoo finishing 8th and Arabella finishing 12th. The best fight of the day was Yoojoo’s last 8 fight against another opponent nearly two years older than her and ranked 5th in England’s U14s. Arabella also fenced beautifully, displaying some really good techniques which will serve her well in the coming year. She is achieving consistently impressive results and improving every time she competes.

SUCCESS IN SIGHT Congratulations to Matilda C who attended the 45th National Scout Rifle Championships 2023 over the half-term break. Over the past few months Matilda’s achievements include: U14 Team Rifle – 2nd Place, Silver (33 teams competing); U14 Team Pistol – 1st Place, Gold (33 teams competing) and U14 Junior Connaught Team – 1st Place, Gold (42 teams competing). The Junior Connaught award (overall national U14 champions) was first presented to Baden Powell in 1925, so quite some history on the shield! Well done Matilda.

CLAREMONT 1ST XV On Friday 8 December the 1st XV played their annual flood lit game to round off their season.

This year they took on St James.’ With both touchlines packed, Claremont started the strongest. St James pushed hard but tackling from player of the match Sean H kept them at bay with Claremont winning 19-17. Great end to a positive season. Thanks to all the leaving Year 13’s for their dedication to the school and team.

They will be missed.

Further information and details regarding all sports achievements this term are available via the school website: https://www.claremontfancourt.co.uk/whats-on/sports-fixtures/

TRIPS Trips both home and away took our pupils to a range of educational, inspiring and fun places. Here are some images from the wide variety of experiences offered.

FRIENDS OF CLAREMONT UPDATE Thank you so much to the Friends of Claremont for running an amazing Christmas fair!

From glitter tattoos, to cosy grottos, from mouth watering sweets and hot chocolate, and a bouncy igloo, to feeding one of Santa’s reindeer and to the Jellytastic Family Magic Show, we hope you enjoyed the whole festive experience. Here are a few highlights from our winter wonderland…

Please come along to our next good as new sale which will take place on Saturday 20 January.

TICKETS FOR ALL PTA EVENTS ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH: www.claremontconnect.co.uk/events

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