The Ludgrovian - Spring 2021

THE LUDGROVIAN SPRING 2021

‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might’ Ecclesiastes IX v.10

Contents • • • • • • •

Lent Term Highlights Keeping minds and bodies active at home Back to School Children’s Mental Health Week Exploration Centre wows the boys Getting involved in our community Newcomers to the Ludgrove family

Welcome from the Headmaster On the evening of Monday 4th January 2021 when we realised that the School would be unable to open physically, I was disappointed of course but also quietly confident that we would rise to the challenges ahead. This confidence was based on two things. Firstly I knew that we had a tremendously talented staff room and secondly that the Ludgrove boys being second to none, would roll their sleeves up and get stuck into Virtual Ludgrove 2.0.

It has been heart-warming to witness flavour of school life this term. We were over the last 12 weeks everything the delighted to welcome most of the boys Ludgrove community has achieved and back here on 8th March and those still I hope the following pages give you a overseas were very much with us in

spirit as well as on our hybrid of remote learning that was developed for the last few weeks of term.

We finish this term basked in glorious sunshine with the gardens and grounds springing into life. I hope this reawakening of nature marks the start of a return to school life as it was before Covid-19 with the Summer term being closer to ‘normal’.

We will continue to work within the government’s guidance and sincerely hope to welcome parents to matches – more details will follow nearer the time.

However given the intention that Covid restrictions will end on 21st June, we have decided to move Sports Day to Saturday 26th June rather than on Saturday 12th June as originally scheduled. There will also be an art, pottery, and CDT exhibition. The school calendar for next term looks packed and there is much to look forward to.

I wish you all a Happy Easter!

Spring 2021

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Spring 2021

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Take a look at the Lent Term Highlights The boys may well have spent the majority of the term remote learning but that hasn’t stopped them being busy, or the team at School!

St Patrick’s Day

Keepie Uppie Challenge

National Day of Reflection to mark the one year anniversary of the UK’s lockdown

Safer Internet Day

Planting Leavers’ Trees

Design a bookmark winners

Walk Your Dog Month

Lockdown self portraits

Teachers’ Pancake Race

Delivery of Lego Mindstorms for Coding

Miss Bridge’s handmade birthday cards O

Cross Country winners: Juniors - Henry, Tintin and Ludo; Seniors - Oscar, Ollie and Peter Success in the Intermediate Maths Challenge

Mothers’ Day cards

Mock CE exams

Online talks with sporting professionals Mark Alleyne and Olly Morgan

British Science Week

John O’Groat’s to Land’s End Sets Challenge

Inter Set General Knowledge Quiz

Snow Day!

Spring 2021 With the news of a national lockdown announced just two days before the start of the Easter term, Ludgrove was able to leap into action to revise and update its successful Virtual Ludgrove online learning facility and provide parents with a new guide the evening before term commenced.

In the Virtual Ludgrove guide Mr Barber wrote: “Once again, we are embarking on a period of virtual learning and - having learnt valuable lessons from the first lockdown -

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Keeping minds and bodies active at home are confident that the whole Ludgrove community will once again rise to the occasion. As we know, change can be difficult and there will be challenges for us all but I have no doubt that we will overcome these and again grown stronger as a school.”

The following nine weeks were packed full of lessons, activities and challenges to keep the boys active in body and mind.

John O’Groat’s to Land’s End Sets’ Challenge

School Covid Testing Hub

Covid testing has been carried out weekly for staff on site since the January lockdown. With procedures already in place, it was a relatively easy task to upscale the system to test twice weekly for Years 7 and 8 on their return.

Ludgrove boys love a challenge, especially one that involves competition between Sets, so the PE department asked “who can reach Land’s End from John O’Groat’s first?”

The answer was Drake who got there first clocking up 2,200km on the way. Well done to all the boys and parents who between them walked, ran, skated and cycled 8,500km during the challenge.

CHALLENGE HALL OF FAME

Henry covered the largest distance with 235km overall, 220 km of which was on foot!

Fergus has a ‘mention in dispatches’ for consistent exercise and being supportive and encouraging of others in his Set. William was a lower school legend with the biggest contribution from the VIs. Last but not least, Mr French headed the leaderboard for the teaching staff.

Estates Team works flat out to get the grounds looking top notch

The old Art block was quickly converted and a team of volunteers organised ready for the first boy on 8th March We are proud of our clean bill of health throughout the Covid pandemic with no members of the School testing positive in that time. This is a testament to our rigorous procedures and the relative safety of our fortnightly boarding model.

While everyone was busy working on line, the Estates Team was beavering away pruning, jet washing, painting, transforming the old Art block, laying tarmac in the car park and turfing the high jump area behind the Exploration Centre in readiness for the boys return.

With everything ‘top notch’ outside, Housekeeping was a blur of activity inside the School making sure every nook and cranny was spotless.

Thank you to both teams for ensuring Ludgrove was ready and looking its best for when our families returned for the first time in 2021.

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So happy to be back at School!

Eighty-six days on from the boys’ last day at Ludgrove at the end of the Michaelmas term, excitement was set to maximum when the boys arrived back at Ludgrove on Monday 8th March.

First back through the doors were the VIs, who bounded up the stairs to their dorms, followed by the Top Year who were swiftly processed through the new Covid Testing Centre in the old Art Block.

Once back, the boys quickly got back into the swing of things enjoying, amongst other things: a menu of all their favourite dishes; lessons in the new classrooms in the Exploration Centre; a packed programme of experiments and coding for British Science Week; high energy Games lessons; Sunday Funday fun and high jinks and, most importantly, time to rekindle friendships and the opportunity to make new ones.

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“Express Yourself”

Ludgrove community supports Children’s Mental Health Week “Well-being lies at the heart of a happy school.” This was the message from Mr Barber when he launched Ludgrove’s raft of activities in support of Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week.

From discussions in class and art projects such as Poetry Pigeons to “Shelf Help” reading list for boys and parents, special four-legged guests in Learning Support and Mrs Barber’s Cupcake Challenge, the

School fully embraced the charity’s work to highlight the importance of our children’s emotional well being.

The week was brought to a fun finale with both boys and teachers embracing ‘Dress to Express’ day with gusto. Everyone went all out to dress with finesse and, in doing so, contributed nearly £700 towards Place2Be’s overall fundraising total of £63,000 - well done everyone!

Dress to Express

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P Poetry

Each year during Children’s Mental Health Week we shine a spotlight on the importance of children’s mental health, but our work doesn’t end here. Place2Be’s vision is for all young people to have the support they need to build lifelong coping skills and thrive.

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children and young people have a diagnosable mental health problem, and many continue to have 50% these problems into of those with lifetime adulthood. mental health problems first experience Ludgrove families received 1 in 10 invaluable advice in preparing symptoms by the their sons to return to School boys aged 5-19 with a age of 14. thanks to a webinar produced mental health condition

by Place2Be exclusively for our are excluded in some Place2Be parents and teachers. Thank you to Clinical Lead, Cecilia Corbetta for provided 1-to-1 form from school her words of wisdom in “Building resilience in children during and post pandemic” and Q&A support.

counselling for more than 645 family members.

Last term, Ludgrove unveiled the state-ofthe-art Science facilities housed in the new Exploration Centre. This term the completed Art, CDT, Ceramic and Coding rooms also opened their doors to the boys heralding the full opening of the block.

Whether it’s high octane experiments in Science, getting creative with clay in Ceramics, being inspired in Art, learning how to use the equipment to build pieces in CDT or using the latest technology to programme robots in Coding, the boys have been eager to get inside the Exploration Centre and use these wonderful facilities in their lessons.

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Exclusive webinar

Exploration Centre wows the boys

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It’s official - when the boys returned to Ludgrove at the beginning of March they came back to the healthiest place in England according to a survey by the Office of National Statistics.

An abundance of sports clubs, exercise groups and ‘fantastic’ parks and countryside have all been cited as reasons why Wokingham topped the list.

As if to prove the point, the grounds were treated to a double rainbow over the Chapel.

Part of our community

Ludgrove has always worked hard to support our local community. This was clearly seen during last summer’s lockdown when the School helped local school age children by teaming up with the Wokingham Council-run Grub Club.

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Newcomers to the Ludgrove Family Spring has definitely sprung at Ludgrove with the family swelling in numbers thanks to a brace of babies being welcomed into the world and two new members of teaching staff.

Firstly, we are delighted to introduce our youngest recruits to the School community: Master McCraw In January, the McCraws welcomed Fergus to their family. This bonny boy has quickly settled into Ludgrove life and can be seen taking in the School grounds from the vantage point of his buggy.

Miss Turner Just before the end of term, our new baby count was doubled with the arrival of the Turners’ little girl, Adeline. We can’t wait to see her when the term starts in April.

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McC Master

Welcome two new teachers

Over six weeks, more than 600 of the School’s favourite meals were cooked and hand delivered by staff to vulnerable families – they truly had a taste of Ludgrove.

When the country went back into lockdown at the beginning of 2021, Ludgrove reached out once again to the Grub Club and swung into action with Lockdown Deliveries v2.0.

Over two months, staff volunteers put together food and activity packs and then delivered them to vulnerable families. The School provided fresh fruit and vegetables using our local supplier, Fletchers Greengrocers, and the Grub Club added other staples and activities. Thank you to our dedicated volunteers.

Pensioner penpal scheme We know that Ludgrove boys are excellent letter writers because parents love the results they receive in the post. These talents have now been employed by some of our scribes who are writing letters to local pensioners as part of the Link Visiting Scheme. Well done boys!

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Although the start of the New Year meant that the boys were once again learning on line with Virtual Ludgrove, we were pleased to welcome two new members of teaching staff to the boys, albeit remotely.

Mr Carter has taken up the reins in Div II and Ms Livermore is looking after the boys in 6L.

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Lockdown restrictions mean that our families haven’t yet been able to get to know these new faces. However, as soon as guidelines allow, Divs parents will be able to get to meet and build relationships with these first class additions to our teaching team.

Thanks Gappers Unfortunately the boys have only had three weeks with our current cohort of Gappers, but they have made this unusual time at School very much easier with their cheery and helpful personalities. Thank you to (from left) Miss Davies, Miss Panikian, Mr Gill, Mr Whittley, Miss Craig-Harvey and Mr Richardson.

Spring 2021 Mention the word ‘Stump’ to any past or present Ludgrovian and they will immediately think of the School’s unique game played come rain or shine and at any time of the day, throughout the year. It is as dear to the boys as Camps or Grub.

‘Stump’ goes back to the days of Arthur Dunn, the School’s founder, in 1892. It is played with a narrow, shaved down bat, a tennis ball and a solid wicket.

The first mention of Stump is in a record of the Winter term 1934, when it mentioned:

“Winter practice at ‘Stump’, when played properly, improves bowling and batting beyond recognition. Those who have done best in the Elevens have been ardent ‘Stump’ players.”

How lovely that the boys enjoy the same traditions today as their predecessors did over one hundred years ago.

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Ludgrove ‘classic’ that never goes out of fashion

OL Diary Dates GOOD NEWS FOR GOLFERS - THE GOLF DAY HAS BEEN REARRANGED AND WILL NOW TAKE PLACE ON SUNDAY 25TH SEPTEMBER 2021.

All details to be confirmed but it is likely to be held at The Berkshire Golf Club, Swinley Road, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 8AY. Timings and costs will follow in due course.

OTHER OL EVENTS Unfortunately, restrictions in place over the last year because of the Covid

pandemic, has meant that many of Ludgrove’s much loved and enjoyed events have not been able to take place.

The Old Ludgrovian Sets’ Football should have taken place at Burton Court, London in October and the OL Annual Drinks would have been hosted at The Turf Club in London in November 2020.

We hope to start reorganising these, and our other popular events, as soon as guidelines enable social events to go ahead. Please keep an eye on the website for details of all rearranged OL events and how to book tickets or take part.

Contact us: For enquiries regarding registrations for OL events, to update your contact details, or to send us news, please visit the OL section on the website or use the email below Telephone: 0118 978 9881 Email: development@ludgroveschool.co.uk Website: www.ludgrove.net Address: Ludgrove, Wokingham, Berks, RG40 3AB

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