cranleigh-matters-issue-34

Cranleigh Matters The Cranleigh School Newsletter CRANLEIGH EX CULTU ROBUR

Issue No 34 Summer 2009 www.cranleigh.org

Cranleigh School, Cranleigh Surrey GU6 8QQ Telephone 01483 273666

Lord Patten of Barnes Opens The Emms Centre Wednesday 20th May saw Cranleigh School welcome The Rt Hon. the Lord Patten of Barnes, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, as guest of honour at the formal opening of the spectacular new Emms Centre.

After a short welcome by Guy Waller and Anthony Townsend, Chairman of the Governing Body, Lord Patten took to the stage for his opening speech. He began by endorsing the importance of the core subjects – Modern Languages, Sciences and Mathematics – in the national curriculum, and the importance of these subjects for those of us who live in a civilised society. He later added that “The young people who have the advantage of your dedication and teaching, the advantage of a wonderful school like Cranleigh, deserve to be told of their obligation to put something back into the community.”

The official unveiling of the plaque was then followed by a short reception, during which guests were able to look around the Emms Centre.

The Emms Centre is named after David Emms, OBE, a much loved former Headmaster of Cranleigh School (1960-1970), and a man dedicated to the provision of education – a passion he pursued throughout an illustrious career that included, alongside three Headships, the positions of: Chairman of the HMC, Deputy Chairman of the English-Speaking Union, Chairman of the Joint Educational Trust, President of ISCO and Deputy Pro-Chancellor of City University.

Designed by leading architects Pringle Richards and Sharratt, equipped with 21st Century facilities and incorporating extensive energy-eff icient features (including utilising energy from Cranleigh’s own two wind turbines), the Emms Centre has been individually designed to house the School’s Science, Maths and Modern Languages Faculties. It covers 3,500m² and includes laboratories, classrooms, computer rooms, a lecture theatre for 150+ people, offices and a soaring 20-metre high atrium – a natural hub for the School and, with its huge palm trees and colourful display of UVIth artwork around its walls, a striking setting for this Wednesday, when 200 guests gathered for the inauguration ceremony.

Guy Waller added, “The opening of this spectacular academic centre represents a major milestone in Cranleigh’s ongoing development, underscoring Cranleigh’s position as one of the UK’s leading independent schools and reinforcing our commitment to first-class education. Not only does it provide outstanding educational facilities for our pupils, but we very much hope that it will also serve to inspire an ongoing stream of students to specialise in these crucial, and nationally declining, subject areas. As such, it is extremely fitting that it is named after an extraordinary man who has given so much towards the furthering of education – and almost fifty years to the day that he was appointed Headmaster of Cranleigh.”

WEB-SITE Some articles in this newsletter appear in a fuller version on the web-site. For the latest news go to www.cranleigh.org

Helen Wareham Competition “A wonderful synthesis of competition and concert” was the summary of the Helen Wareham Competition given by adjudicator Mark Shepherd, Director of Music at Charterhouse, Old Cranleighan and sometime winner of the competition.

Frederick Hickman was awarded the woodwind prize for his exciting account of Coates’s Saxo Rhapsody; Alex Griffiths gained the brass prize for his evocative performance of Curnow’s ‘Rhapsody for Euphonium’; Tory Sawyer gave a confident and exciting performance of the third movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, gaining the strings prize as a result. In the vocal section, winner Dominic Murray gave a dramatic performance of the Count’s Aria from Act Three of ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ in which he displayed consistently articulate diction, evocative accounts of the varying emotions and admirable agility in the passagework.

Tory Sawyer after her performance

Cyril Dashwood, patron of the piano prize, congratulated winner James Reynolds on his tempestuous performance of Liszt’s ‘Un Sospiro’, in which the rubato was extremely well judged and in which the performer truly invited his audience to share in the thrill of the music.

Rounding off the evening, Director of Music Marcus Pashley highlighted the important role that such competitions can play in making pupils strive for the best of which they are capable.

Toby Moschard

Brass Competition The evening of Friday 27th February saw the annual Brass Competition and adjudicator Marcus Pashley chose three Senior brass players to go on to the Helen Wareham Competition: Sam Sutcliffe, whose witty performance of ‘Acrobat’ was the most entertaining piece of the evening; Peter Westcott, who played the fiendishly challenging last movement of the Strauss Horn Concerto no. 1 with great panache; and Alex Griffiths, who gave us a rhapsody by Curnow on his plangent-toned euphonium.

In the Junior section third prize went to Oliver Harris on trumpet with a really confident ‘Danse Macabre’ by Gregson. Runner-up was Millie Crane, who made a trombone aria by Pergolesi seem effortless. The clear winner was Henry Harrod, playing a Hook sonata on trumpet with impeccable musicianship.

Strings Competition The Junior Performance section of this year’s Strings Competition, held on Wednesday 11th March, was won by Louisa Golden for her memorised playing of ‘Tarantella’ by W H Squire.

Second was another young ’cellist, Ian Lee, in the Largo from the Chopin sonata.

Third place went to harpist Rowan von Spreckelsen for his exciting performance of a piece by Ortiz.

In the Senior section two violinists won through to the next stage of the Helen Wareham Competiton: Sam McCagherty for his calmly confident Wieniawski and Tory Sawyer, who played a challenging Haydn concerto movement. The third qualifier was the multi-talented Katherine Chevis, who played a ’cello concerto movement by Vivaldi.

Combined Cranleigh Choirs in Cathedral Choral Concert A packed audience of many hundreds filled Guildford Cathedral on the evening of Friday 13th March for two choral works, Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’ and the ‘Chichester Psalms’ by Leonard Bernstein. An augmented Cranleigh School Chapel Choir joined with Cranleigh Choral Society and the choirs of Cranleigh Preparatory School and St Edmund’s School, Hindhead.

The soloists in ‘Carmina Burana’ were the distinguished soprano, tenor and baritone Fiona Clucas, Philip Sheffield and Adam Green. In the Bernstein psalms the central treble solo was sung by IVth Former Bruno Broughton and there were also solos from pupils Hilary Cronin, Tory Sawyer, Edward Griffiths and Dominic Murray, who also sang a solo in ‘Carmina Burana’. The conductor, Director of Music Marcus Pashley, commented, “I was thrilled with how everything came together on the night and especially proud of Bruno, who sang in the performance even better than in rehearsals.” An audience member described the performance of the Bernstein as “sublime” and the Orff as “overwhelmingly powerful”.

The orchestra featured many of Cranleigh School’s music teachers including leader Sophie Langdon and Andrew Fuller, whose ’cello solo in the Bernstein was one of the highlights of the evening.

Cranleigh Girl Tops Maths Competition Congratulations to IVth Former Teresa Yoon, whose results in the Olympiad Maths Paper gained her a distinction: she was rated among the top 1% of all 50,000 candidates who entered the UK Intermediate Maths Challenge this year.

East Play Does It Again James Copp’s first production at Cranleigh made a riotous impact on the first-night VCT audience on March 3rd. Michael Pertwee’s play ‘She’s Done It Again’ is set in a hotel even more rundown than the famous ‘Fawlty Towers’, but the owner, Freddy Gimble (Ben Durston), is younger and more charismatic than Basil. As Pop, George Blurton made a convincing old drunk and as the Bishop of Upton Ben Clifford gave an outrageous parody of a guffawing, gullible cleric.

Tax inspector Rodney Percival was played as an über-nerd by Oli Katz, and his glamorous secretary Sylvia was given great energy by Pip Mansergh. Sam Jennings played the senile, retired gynaecologist Professor Hogg with uproarious aplomb and was well supported by the dotty daughter, Ada, of Georgie Banks. The other South girls in their twinned House’s production were Tilly Guess as the chavvy Faith and Lexi Short as vicar’s wife Mary Porter.

Sam Thomson made a big impression as the hapless vicar, Hubert Porter, and, as Whisper Grogan, Will Collier brought excellent comic menace to the stage.

Junior Play: Arabian Nights Dominic Cooke’s adaptation of ‘Arabian Nights’ delighted and thrilled the VCT audience in late May. It was all carried off with admirable deftness and lightness of touch by director James Copp: scenes slid effortlessly into each other, whilst the narrative carried on clearly in the background.

Light overcame darkness, as in all good stories. By the end the austere and humourless King (played with considerable gravitas and authority

by Marc Sadler) had melted and succumbed to the charms of his wife Shahrazad’s storytelling. Mara Waters was excellent in this latter role, demonstrating endless patience with the petulant King and calmly directing the storytelling.

The young cast was a mix of raw talent and vibrant potential that is extremely exciting for the future of theatre at Cranleigh. Fergus Brown led the Forty Thieves with menace and they operated in huge crescendos of Spanish mutterings. Sam Barrett played a suitably obsequious Vizier; Rosie Peters commanded tremendous presence on stage as Amina; Adam van Schaik as Masud and Lydia Markwick and Isabelle Simpkin as the two sisters all shone in their roles, but the show was stolen by Cranleigh’s comedy duo, Jon Oldfield and Thomas Lyster.

Even playing the part of a couple of adjacent doors with a red X daubed on each, they held the audience’s attention, acting purely with their eyes. I am sure that we will be seeing a great deal more of all these actors in future productions.

Mark Jenkins’s lighting design was tremendously atmospheric and he led an able technical team to produce some fantastic effects. The stage design was very clever: infinitely flexible and versatile. It was a mark of the clarity of James Copp’s direction that the stage had relatively few props but, that they served many purposes. This was a tremendously entertaining evening to round off the first half of term.

Paul Crosfield

Cranleigh Hosts Cicero Competition The Cicero Competition is a world-renowned event, an annual competition for VIth Form pupils from all over Europe involving rigorous tests in Latin translation and knowledge of the wider classical world - this year the topic was The Myth of Odysseus. The third annual competition took place simultaneously (on March 21st) in Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Andorra, Greece and Hungary. This year nearly 70 pupils congregated at Cranleigh to take part from schools as widely spread as Gloucester, Bristol, Malvern, North London and Kent. The Right Hon. Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, is the patron of the competition and supporters include Boris Johnson, Sebastian Coe, and Tony Robinson.

Head of Classics Rod Jackson commented: “It was a great honour to host the English candidates for this very prestigious competition.”On the CICERO web-site (Certamen In Concordiam Europae Regionum Omnium) Cranleigh School parent Sebastian Coe writes, “I am delighted to support the Cicero competition along with its dual aims of encouraging understanding and communication between school students across Europe and of promoting the study of the classical heritage shared by all Europeans.”Cranleigh pupil Henry Wilson was “delightfully surprised” to receive a third prize.” “Third in Europe is quite an acclamation and boosted my hopes of getting a place at Oxford,” he added.

Devizes to Westminster International Canoe Race 2009

Although the weather this year was considerably kinder, the Cranleigh team had to overcome all the other challenges this demanding event involves. At 125 miles and with 77 portages around locks, the team of nine pairs all completed the gruelling race, finishing an impressive third in the boys’ junior doubles (a four-stage race for those under 19) and second in the girls’ team event. Our fastest boys’ pair of Mike Holford and Joe Knight set a new Cranleigh record, finishing in 19 hours 35 minutes, and our first girls’ pair home was Georgie Syms and Sara Williams, who also broke the Cranleigh record, finishing fourth in 22 hours 44 minutes.

This year also saw two Cranleigh ‘firsts’. Our first OC female paddler, Lucy Garrard, teamed up with James Silcock (ex-Bryanston) in the ‘Endeavour’ class (the four-stage race for senior doubles), recording a time of 20 hours 46 minutes to finish third. Two other OCs, Matt Emery and Rob Hardwick, entered the senior doubles event – a continuous race and the longest canoe event in the world – completing this ‘canoeists’ Everest’ in a remarkable 34 hours 46 minutes. Not only is this a major achievement in itself, but they were the youngest pair in the event.

Phil Parker

Cranleigh School Win Surrey Netball Trophy Having already come third in the South of England back in January, Cranleigh’s U14 netball team played in the Surrey Finals on Sunday March 8th. This was always going to be tricky as the expectation was that they should win, having done so well in Nationals.

The team secured victories in all the section matches and then came a resounding 12-3 semifinal win against Sutton and a triumphant final (11-6) against JAGS. Sally McLaughlin, Cranleigh School’s Head of Netball, commented, “The defence was awesome, shooting was fantastic and centre court linked the two ends brilliantly.”

Stone Farm

CCF Easter Camp A party of twelve army cadets accompanied by three staff members set off right at the end of term for a week’s adventure training camp based at Ffridd Farm in southern Snowdonia. The weather was quite kind (!) and we managed a varied programme of adventurous activities. Owing to the size of camp we split down into two groups, which made it possible to stay within the prescribed ratios for qualified staff on each activity. The main activities were a guided walk up Cnicht – “The Matterhorn of North Wales”, rock climbing, exploring old slate mines, mountain biking, gokarting, an obligatory visit to Harlech Castle and paintballing. The trip culminated in a two-day, overnight expedition out into the Rhinnogs. For this latter activity the weather held off during the day, but blew up as we set up camp at the remote Llyn Perfeddau. The OC managed twelve hours’ sleep, but is not entirely sure that all the cadets were quite so well organised or as comfortable! Certainly a fairly “positive” approach was called for in the morning to get people up and going.

Once again the weather smiled on the ten of us as we set off to the closest “real” climbing to Cranleigh – the Southern Sandstone Outcrops in the East Grinstead and Tunbridge area of the Weald. Most of the group were more used to the indoor experience of Craggy Island and found the lack of garishly coloured bolt-on hand-holds somewhat disconcerting to begin with. However, the superb location, set in woodland on a little sandy crag and looking out over a reservoir, and judicious encouragement from the staff soon had everyone scrambling up numerous routes and pushing their grades. New techniques were taught and quite a lot of skin was lost trying to master the art of “jamming”.

We all found that this made a gentle, relaxing day prior to the big push towards exams.

Simon Young

As ever this was a great trip to a wonderful part of Wales. Much was learnt, particularly about the importance of working as a team and listening to advice from more experienced members of the party. On top of which, a good time was, as they say, had by all.

Simon Young

Editor: PETER LONGSHAW - Photography: STEPHEN OWEN - Design and Typesetting: JOHN SANDFORD