YEAR 2010/11 Activities CCF has had a busy year, not least in
Adventure Training, with almost 180 boys camping and walking on the Ridgeway. The Naval Section stayed on board HMS Belfast, and
was succeeded at Easter by Harry Richards (Dragon, d) as Head of Corps. Capt Chris San José joined the Army section from the Oxford University OTC, and assumes command of the Army section from September. We say farewell to Lt Simon Thorn, who has commanded the Naval section for the last three years; he is succeeded by Lt Richard Jackson, husband of the Head of History and a former regular Naval officer. 2010-2011 has been an exceptional year
for the Radley Duke of Edinburgh unit with record numbers of Awards achieved by some very special Award participants. Thirty-six of our 6.2 leavers will shortly be going up to the Palace to receive their Gold Award. Their successes have proved a real inspiration to others, encouraging our Fifth-form and Remove participants, for example, to maintain the momentum and determination required to meet the various DofE challenges. We end the year therefore with a fifty-strong cohort of Bronze Awardees eager to embark on the path to Gold!
held their own Trafalgar Night Dinner in London. The Army section carried out two field exercises at Bramley; the RAF section visited RAF Brize Norton and RAF Benson, as well as the air show at RAF Cosford. A large number of boys attended both Naval Section courses, and the RAF summer camp at RAF Brampton/ Wyton. Charlie Palmer (Cottesmore, b)
Last July Mark Jewell, Emilie Danis and Susan Allen led a group of eleven 6.1 boys to Moreni (a small town in central Romania) where the boys taught English to schoolchildren aged 11-18 at a local secondary school. This continued Radley’s now well-established annual ‘summer school’ programme in the town. The boys planned lessons on topics of cultural interest to deliver in pairs to classes of around thirty children, helped by Romanian students of their own age who acted as interpreters. Other activities were organised including sports, drama and Scottish dancing. The visit was rounded off by a Celebration event involving musical and dramatic items performed by both sets of students. This was a very successful and challenging educational experience for the boys who adapted very well to the demands on their capacity for team-working, planning, building personal and professional relationships and on their creativity and resilience. It was greatly enjoyed by all participants and we have been warmly welcomed back this year.
Last July Gareth Hughes led a group of eleven 6.2 boys to Kerala (south India) for four weeks. The first half was spent assisting local skilled craftsmen in the building of one new house (and a verandah on another house) for the poorest families in the village where we have been working for nearly 15 years. As this is an area subject to monsoonal flooding, the buildings make a real difference to the lives of those accommodated. This group of boys worked hard and with good humour learning a lot about team-building and planning. The remainder of the trip saw them travel in the region in small groups, where they developed personal independence and experienced much of this culturally enriching part of the world. Radleians were once again involved in Community Action Projects. Three Concert parties visit residential homes each Wednesday across South Oxfordshire. Boys teach languages to Primary School children. The link with the Oxford Academy continues with 5th Form boys teaching their Y8/9 children Latin and with dons teaching Maths and Physics on a weekly basis. As in previous years, a great deal of Charity work has taken place across the year 2010/11. The Radley Foundation launched the Armed Forces Fund in November to memorialise Lt.Col. Rupert Thorneloe and Lt. Dougie Dalzell by raising money to pay for the education – at Radley, Downe House or St Mary’s Calne – for children whose fathers (or mothers) were killed or wounded in action. To date £532k has been raised.
Arts In Drama it has been an exceptionally busy year. The Haddon Cup in October saw the 10 socials’ Shells in fine form – the standard grows increasingly professional. The dons also limbered up with ‘Daisy Pulls it Off ’. The main College Play was a Robert Lowe adaptation of several Noel Coward plays, ‘L’Hôtel de Paris’. The set (Matt Barker) and costumes (Lianne Oakley-Rowland) allowed a superb cast of boys, and girls, drawn from schools all over Oxfordshire, to produce excellent performances. The
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