The Boarding Review
Welcome to our new staff
Taniel Trueman
My name is Taniel Trueman. I have recently moved to Steyning from Durban, SouthAfrica. I am a qualified teacher and enjoy working with the youth of today to transform the future.
I love all types of animals, exploring new places and trying new food. I am so excited to be joining the Steyning Grammar Family as a new Resident Boarding Tutor in Bennett House.
Georgia Barnard
I joined the team here at Boarding after February half term and I have been made to feel incredibly welcome. I live off site, in Chichester with my partner, our son Luca and our cat Villy.
I graduated from the University of Southampton with a degree in Nursing and went on to work as a Registered Nurse in University Hospital Southampton on the Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Unit. So it is safe to say that my job as Health and Wellbeing Lead here at Steyning is wildly different to my previous job!
It is already evident that boarding is a lively, diverse, friendly and dynamic environment, where support is in abundance and each other's differences are celebrated. It is very exciting to now be a part of that.
Quizn’t
Despite the advertising and creation of a bespoke quiz it was too early in the term and most students spent their evening relaxing and settling back into Boarding for the new year. All except two valiant souls who took it on.
After much careful marking and deliberation Ms Templeman was able to confirm that their team had won! Congratulations Carlo and Dan.
MasterChef
Four teams of would-be Chefs gathered in Bolton dining room for this year’s Boarding MasterChef challenge. Having bought their ingredients at Tesco the day before, and with a central bank of spices and herbs, they were eager to make a start.
With the final dishes completed it was just up to the Judges to make their final deci-
The Sew & So’s pop in
If you remember back you will recall that our students made a number of screen printed hangings based on their homes and images from the countries they live in. These have now moved on to the next stage with sewing being added to the cloth. Mrs Duke & Mrs Bucket came in to display how the work had gone so far and to offer opportunities to add to the sewing later this term.
Alast goodbye Katharine, our outgoing Matron, had stayed on part time to cover the handover period to Ms Georgia Barnard, our incoming Matron, and there was an informal meeting of our ancillary staff to wish her well on her last day.
Chinese New Year
As usual Ms Templeman went above and beyond expectations with her event preparation. The decorations were, as usual, spectacular, but this year, the Year of the Dragon, had not only themed gold and red iced doughnuts but a team of professional dragon dancers! (They were particularly spectacular so please do look on the school website for the video.)
Boarders rallied round for the preparation of the event by making a hugely long red and yellow paper chain and then, on the day, laying up the tables, putting on the chair covers and stuffing new year celebration envelopes. It looked fantastic.
What made this year’s celebration even more special was that we had over thirty Chinese students visiting us for two weeks. Austin, the leader of their group, presented our Headmaster, Mr Whitehead, with a scroll after his welcoming speech.
In previous years we have had our students perform a simplified version of the Lion Dance but this year, with our special visitors, we had a troupe of professional performers in. They were stupendous and the energy they displayed was phenomenal.
In the previous picture you can see the lettuce that the Lion consumed in the dance. Most of it went in the direction of Mr Whitehead who proved a dab hand with a mop brush.
When the lion eats the lettuce and spits it back out at business owners and audience, it symbolizes blessing them with wealth and prosperity in the new year.
Freya, one of our paper chain heroes, found the lucky red envelope with the £10 note in it. Very well deserved.
Ahuge vote of thanks go to our Chef, Woody, for all his efforts.
Welcome to our visitors from China
Twenty nine students and three staff came to spend two weeks in Boarding with one week being in school and the next doing activities and trips during the half term holiday.
After arriving on Friday evening our guests met up with their school buddies who they would follow for lessons, on Saturday for brunch. On Sunday some of them joined in with the Boarders’football on the school astro pitch.
On Monday morning it was time for breakfast before the short walk to school. At the end of the day some went to play football again whilst others, as can be seen here with Jerry in the music practice room, took time to explore our Boarding facilities.
Afew activities!
Making Tie-Dye T-shirts
Building spaghetti towers
Building model rockets
Launching model rockets!
Boarding “Olympics”
Art Club
Asad goodbye
We were sad to see our Chinese students leave and many had said their goodbyes to their new English school friends the week before. There were a few words from Mr Leighton and the giving out of certificates both for the two weeks and for Rocket Club. Allen had a special addition to his certificate showing his rocket stuck in the highest tree on the school playing field.
Mr Leighton’s personal prize for the students he thought had done particularly well went to Melinda andAllen.
With Jerry being the last student to board the coach it was time for our guests to leave.
When going round the rooms later we were delighted to find a note left by Enzo, one of the keen footballers, and have given it to his Boarding friendAnthony. It was a pleasure to meet you as well Enzo.
Boarders’Sew’in
Every Boarder was asked to put a stitch or two into the 4 screen printed panels and there was a great turnout!
Cultural Day
Kiki and Sammy, as Head Girl and Boy, organised an evening of events, after a multicultural meal, to celebrate the diverse countries and backgrounds of our Boarding students.
Several students cooked foods from home which proved very popular, as did the “photo booth”.
Toilet Twinning
Each of the Houses is tasked with giving an assembly once per year. Wykeham decided to do theirs on the problems of sanitation and clean water in some countries in the world. Anthony and Noah, in Year 11, led this and gave an excellent presentation.
Wykeham House twinned a toilet a few years ago and so the challenge that
was put out was for students to donate £60 in loose change to pay for a toilet in Bennett House to be twinned. As an extra twist Anthony and Noah asked staff to donate so that a second toilet, in Bolton House, could also be twinned.
After just over a week the staff had hit their target whilst the students were £4.81 short. After a quick rummage around by our laundress and cleaning staff their collection of lost/found coins was added and we were 8 pence over!
Congratulations toAnthony, Noah and Wykeham House and to all our students and staff for their efforts and contributions. The money will be sent off and we’ll show you the places we have been twinned with in the next Review.
I’m a Boarder….
The second challenge were huge pickled gherkins.
Wykeham & Bennett Houses both put in teams with Bolton House divided into teams of year 12 and Year 13 students. It wasn’t long before the Year 12 team began to show their resilience with several tasks going their way.
GET ME OUT OF HERE!
Once again Boarders turned up to brave the culinary delights of this year’s challenge. The first round involved dried grubs and, whilst all succeeded, it was the dryness that caused the greatest problems.
Next was the challenge to identify the “unusual” combination of ingredients that had been, literally, blended together. One point for each in a variety of combinations. These included sardines, chocolate cake, tomato ketchup, chicken and prawns…. amongst others. Again the year 12 students proved to have the best “taste”.
In a brief respite from edible challenges the next task was to find the laminated stars. They were, naturally, hidden within a tank of fish guts, eyes included and the students blindfolded. YUCK!
Wykeham and the year 13 students tied for first place and, after a lot of handwashing, it was time for the penultimate round of “Spin the Wheel”.
Whilst Ms Templeman was unable to source the dried edible tarantulas this year she excelled herself with the final task. Listed as one of the most unpleasant tasting foods in the world were the fermented Herring from Sweden. As the tin was opened the front row of the audience leaned backward from the smell. With an amazing show of willpower each participant managed to score full points by chewing for 30 seconds and then swallowing.
Congratulations to the Bolton Year 12 students for their fortitude in winning this year’s “I’m ABoarder Get Me Out of Here!”
Charcuterie Table
Ms Templeman & Mrs Cazot went to town on a brilliant Charcuterie table for a Saturday evening activity. Cold delights of all kinds were beautifully presented and eagerly consumed by happy Boarders.
Model Club
Taking a break from building his two stage rocket Jacob put together this ping-pong ball gun. After the initial construction a lot of time was spent seeing just how many elastic bands could be added to increase the power.
On the Hustings
Four candidates from Year 12 applied for the positions of head girl and head boy of Boarding. This year it was decided to appoint these posts for the Summer term to allow our current incumbents, Kiki and Sammy, to concentrate on theirA-levels.
After putting in written applications to Mr Leighton, and an initial round of interviews with staff, it came down to the “
Hustings”. Each gave a speech and then those who would be in Boarding next year voted for their chosen candidates.
It was a close run contest with all the votes being counted during a brief recession. With no obvious front runners there were tense moments and the Boarders drum rolled their tables in expectation of the results as they were read our by Mr Leighton. Congratulation to Jesnia and Jay as our new Head Girl and Boy. Commiserations to Muna and Dan though it was decided to appoint them as deputies due to the closeness of the votes. We look forward to great things from a strong team.
Wykeham House half term prize draw
The fourth Wykeham House draw of the year was a “things” one. There was a fairly eclectic collection ranging from a remote control car kit, a basketball and football, each with a pump, and a table tennis bat and balls. There was also the ever popular Amazon gift card. Bulking out the prizes were a collection of “extremely inexpensive” wireless earbuds purchased at very low prices from a number of sites…. with the hope that at least one or two might be reasonable.
As usual the law of averages took a holiday with two of our year 11 students taking several of the main prizes.
Boarding Gym
With the induction sessions done, the forms signed and all the equipment serviced and tested the Boarding Gym is now open. Younger years are supervised by Boarding staff whilst Years 12 and 13 have access throughout the day as their free time allows. We owe huge thanks to Ms Templeman for originally sourcing the machines during the COVID lockdown and now for relocating them to Bolton House. (We don’t really have this many machines… But we do have some large mirrors on the left hand wall.)
Easter Egg painting and Hunting
The final two events in the run up to Easter were the Easter egg painting competition and the Easter egg hunt.
The painting competition was won by Tosan and Michaela with a great micro-floral design. Each won a “Golden Ticket” for the end of year prize draw.
On Sunday evening staff hid small paper egg cut-outs around the Boarding site. After their evening clear-up students eagerly sought these out to exchange for a chocolate egg and a bag of sweet goodies.
Easter Service
The Easter service in StAndrew’s & St Cuthman’s Church is the traditional end to our second term. Even though Steyning Grammar is over 400 years old there are nearly another 600 years to add on to that for the church.
The message was given by the Rev. Frank who has been a great friend to us over the years but will be moving on to Harrow later in the year.
Also making a last appearance was Muna, in year 13, who sang beautifully for us accompanied by Mr Reeves on the piano.
Wykeham Karting
The six winners of the third Wykeham House half term draw lined up on the grid to pit their skills against each other. Four in particular have been close rivals for some time with Matthew defending his current title against his rivals Jacob,Alden and Jeremy.
After the first practice session Matthew was marginally faster but everything was still up for grabs.
In the end experience won out with Matthew winning with a fastest lap of 33.103. Alden was second with 34.280 and Jeremy third by less than one tenth of a second!
