The Chronicle - February 2024

THE

CHRONICLE February 2024 edition

“Oh yes they did!”

Our Year 7 thespians put on some wonderful pantomime themed performances this half term, including ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Peter Pan’, ‘Three Little Pigs’ and ‘Cinderella’. An enormous amount of fun and creativity was on display as they performed for their audiences.

Bravo!

YEAR 8 SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL Year 8 pupils took part in round 2 of the English-Speaking Union’s Performing Shakespeare competition, which encourages pupils to discover and express their excitement for Shakespeare, by inviting them to perform a monologue from Shakespeare’s texts. Crucially, students must also introduce their performance, thereby enhancing their public speaking and engagement skills. The competition not only brings to life the Shakespeare study requirement in the curriculum in an innovative and exciting way, but it also enables students to develop their creativity, confidence, and ability to express themselves. We had a range of monologues from villains, sprites, lovers, to politicians! All pupils worked really hard on their introductions and performances, dedicating a lot of time to learning these by heart. The English department are very proud of all pupils that took part and of the tremendous performances at the event last night.

2 prize winners: Sasha W-L, Harry S 3 highly commended: Finlay H, Ella-Kate R and Catherine W In the next round, our winners will be competing against other local schools and we wish them well!

SURREY SATRO CHALLENGE A team of Year 12’s, 10’s and 9’s tackled the 3rd heat of the Surrey SATRO challenge. They faced a tricky logistics challenge: transporting the most food parcels from A to B in record time!

All team members showed amazing teamwork and problem-solving skills, but our Year 9’s were unstoppable! They came out on top in their age group heat, securing a spot in the grand finale next month!

Many congratulations to all our team members, and especially our Year 9 champions! We’re so proud of your hard work and dedication!

Year 9 Winning team: Ash V, Mackenzie H, Adeline I, Jinny P and Frederick G.

A LEVEL PHOTOGRAPHY A level photography students were adding to their portfolios this term, with independent work in our on-site dark room.

Students have been taking landscape photography around our 100 acres, developing the film, contact sheets and then choosing images to blow up into developed photos. zie H, Adeline I, Jinny P and Frederick G.

SIXTH FORM CRIME SCENE TO COURT ROOM A level students enjoyed a full day of crime scene to court room action this term. The day began with a recording of a 999 call from a woman who stumbles upon the lifeless body of her best friend. The call is disconnected abruptly and there appears to be a suggestion of foul play with a man’s voice as the last thing heard calling out. This is the point where students were challenged to start thinking about all the questions, they would need to ask in this situation, if they were the phone operator or if they were the officer called to the scene. At every point in the day, the students were challenged to think like an investigator but to be mindful of both the evidence and their own unconscious biases. By the afternoon, all the students returned to be briefed about the trial process and what to expect in a courtroom. Everyone took a role - judge, juror, witnesses, barristers, and solicitors and got stuck into a mock trial where a verdict was reached, which in this case was a ‘not guilty’ verdict. The students had a fantastic opportunity to reflect on careers within the criminal justice system and put their own powers of deduction and investigation to the test.

JGP INSPIRE LECTURE SERIES With the Joyce Grenfell Programme of inspire lectures continuing this half term, we welcomed more fascinating speakers to Claremont. These academically enriching talks included triple paraolympian, Kelly Grimes and forensic psychologist, Fiona Gabbert. 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 after the half term break.

SIXTH FORM ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY Sixth form art and photography students were taken on a day trip to both the Tate Modern and the Tate Britain galleries in London. Documenting artworks through image taking and drawing, year 12 students seized every opportunity to gain inspiration for their A level coursework project and year 13 students were able to accelerate their ideas for the externally set assignment. Despite a lot of walking between galleries, students acted with great maturity documenting details along the way, the boat trip across the Thames was a welcome rest for tired legs.

SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS RUGBY SEVENS

We are incredibly excited for Aaron M who has been selected to represent Cobham (and England) at an international U12 Rugby Sevens tournament that will take place in Monaco 18-21 April. The tournament features 24 teams selected from 24 countries around the world and takes place over 2 days. We wish him and his team the best of luck!

MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

During the Walton Athletic Club Awards ceremony on 19 January, Lucas received the U15 Male Athlete of the Year accolade in recognition of his outstanding achievements in 2023. The award was presented to him by none other than Sir Mo Farah. Lucas showcased his prowess with a remarkable personal best of 52.85 meters in Javelin during the previous season.

SURREY YOUTH FENCING CHAMPIONSHIPS The Surrey Youth Fencing Championships took place on 14 January. It is very exciting that seven fencers from our Senior School and 5 from our Prep School are all training on the team. Jack K, Yoojoo K, Arabella F, William H, Eleanor G, William N, Jagger C, Max B, and Peter S all competed for team Claremont and did really well. The next event is the South East Regionals which is the qualifier for the British Championships. Good luck to Yoojoo K and Arabella F as they look to qualify.

LAX TO THE MAX Congratulations to our Lacrosse teams!

On 25 January, Claremont Lacrosse competed in the U13A and U14A County tournament at Caterham. On Wednesday the 31st Claremont Lacrosse was selected to compete in the U15 South Schools Tournament which brings the best schools in south together to compete. Claremont beat out Berko, St Swithun’s, St Paul’s, and Queen Anne’s to make it to the semi-final. It was a tough 2-1 loss to Guildford High School, but the girls played very well and set Claremont in brilliant stead for nationals.

SMASHING IT AT TABLE TENNIS During the U16 County Table Tennis competition, Michael D (Y10) and Ash V (Y9) showcased outstanding performances. Throughout the tournament, both players demonstrated exceptional skills, with Michael advancing to the semi-finals after securing victories in all three of his pool games.

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/

HOUSE UPDATE It has been a very busy half term for house events in the Senior School.

Pupils have competed for house points in a wide range of activities including chess, trampolining, pancake decorating, designing a way of carrying an egg down a zip wire, badminton and Valentine’s card making.

House events are very popular and it is lovely to see so many pupils getting involved.

Stanmore are currently top of the leader board this half term but the other houses are hot on their heels.

With many more competitions and events to run before the end of the year, there is still all to play for.

It is still anyone’s game!

Chess Competition

Egg on a zip wire

Badminton

Valentine’s Card Making

Pancake Decorating

Trampolining

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