Skinners' School - April 2022

Newsletter April 2022

The first school trip abroad for over two years departed on Saturday 2nd April.

The U15 Cricket squad has travelled to Dubai and Abu Dhabi with Messrs Burrows and McGroarty where they will be spending a week honing their cricket skills and playing four matches. There will also be time for sightseeing, visiting the Atlantis Waterpark, going on a desert safari and dining under the stars.

s Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

Following our appeal for

Ukraine at the

beginning of March, we

UKRANIAN APPEAL

medical supplies for

have been informed that the 130 boxes of supplies were delivered directly to Ukraine (see their journey in the pictures).

The Senior and Junior concerts which took place in March showcased the wide range of musical talents of Skinners’ students, as pictured in rehearsal on this and the following page.

The total raised for DEC Ukrainian Humanitarian Appeal was over £400 between the concerts.

NEWS FROM THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT

In the Bracken Cup at Somerhill, for Year 7 and 8 runners, pictured right, it was Harry Wrigley who led home the team in a superb 4th place finish. Next home was debutant Oscar Graffin in a hugely encouraging 10th place.

Overall, the team finished in 6th position amongst 15 teams.

Harry Wrigley (Year 7) represented Kent in the South East Inter Counties Championships in Essex, finishing in 42nd place.

Congratulations to Tom Parker, in Year 10, on his selection for the Kent County Hockey squad.

Kavin Karunakaran (Year 7) had a fantastic weekend in early January at the University of Birmingham Badminton Tournaments. He played brilliantly in all three U13 events , winning Gold in the Singles and Mixed tournaments and Silver in the Doubles.

Congratulations!

SPORTING ACHIEVEMENTS Matthew Taylor placed 13th in the English Schools Cross Country Championships and was part of the Kent team that won the Senior Boys Team Competition.

Haris Duke and Ollie Evans (Year 8) took part in Sussex Overland scout hike in March. It consisted of walking 40km over two days with a 10kg backpack and camping overnight. They did practice treks every weekend from January to build up to the event and finished 5th out of 26 teams competing.

RUGBY SEVENS It has ben good to get the Sevens season back on track after having two years off due to the pandemic.

We have seen some excellent skills on display; from the brilliant pace of many, to some unbelievable offloading and work rate from others. It was a pleasure to be at so many of the tournaments and watch each year group play and see how many boys have developed their knowledge and understanding of the game. Handling, contact and decision making are all key areas of the game and the type of training involved has helped the boys to develop their skills.

Well done to all involved over the last ten weeks.

Truman Sullivan

The Senior production of Amadeus in January was a triumph. Huge thanks to Claire Fenton and Helen Kirk for inspiring such a spectacular performance. Cast, musicians, crew and directors were magnificent; special thanks to Simon Hendry in the Music Department.

“What a fabulous evening. What a huge amount of talent and dedication from everyone involved.

Well done and thank you all.”

“We were absolutely blown away by the talent on show! The hard work certainly paid off”.

“Thank you for an absolutely incredible performance. It was breath-taking. Well done to you all. ” “Brilliant, just brilliant.”

“Enormous thanks to you all for the incredible production of Amadeus, yet another wonderful Skinners' School performance”.

“OUTSTANDING” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In late March, Years 7 to 9 took to the stage to fight for the House Drama title. Participants were given a script called Rainbow’s Ending, a nonnaturalistic play warning of the dangers of consumerism through allegory. After exploring different aspects of the script, they formed groups to create their piece. These pieces could be extracts from the text or their own ideas based on key themes or characters. The results were outstanding: all students should be very proud of themselves .

Many congratulations to the groups representing Atwell and Knott for coming 3rd and 2nd respectively and to the winners, Max Maclean, Oliver Coleman Smith, William Harrison, Carlo Cureton (with Zach Jackson on lighting), who were also representing Knott. It was a truly spectacular afternoon, showcasing the talent to an outside judging panel. The future looks very bright for Skinners’ Drama.

Joseph White Year 11

HOUSE DRAMA

Congratulations to Hal Gordon (Year 12), who represented the school at the National ARTiculation final at the National Gallery and duly won the competition with his brilliant analysis of the poster for the film version of Malamud’s The Fixer. Due to contracting Covid Hal was unable to attend in person, taking part online. Neil MacGregor (The World in 100 Objects) applauded him for overcoming the handicap of not being in the auditorium. He thanked Hal for sharing an image few would know and for leading us through this image via the themes of isolation and oppression, all combining to give the unsettling effect of the victim alone with no hope of justice. He stated how Hal’s presentation had ultimately left everyone all feeling astounded that Saul Bass’s poster had not in fact been chosen to publicise the film – smart feat of Hal’s presentation structure.

Leo Hillier

NEWS FROM THE CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT Our team, Keeping up with the Chemdashians (team name credit to Thomas Neale), went to Cambridge on Saturday 19th February to compete in their annual Chemistry Race at the Department for Chemistry. Covid struck again, meaning Thomas Neale unfortunately had to pull out, so we were down to four players against teams of 5. Matthew Bentham, Thomas Bygrave (Year 13) and Sam Schipper and George Waterson (Year 12) excelled to place themselves 12th out of 51 schools, and importantly beat the Chemistry team from Judd! Well done to all involved.

Huge congratulations to the Skinners’ boys who earned certificates in the Chemistry Olyjmpiad. Well done to everyone who took part.es Gold: Tom Neale,, Matthew Bentham, Rone Newitt, James Quill, Alfie Hodgkinson, Benedict Keen.

Silver: John Frame, Oscar Chatfield, Daniel Fidler, Luke Peters, Jake Wright, Theo Norton, Daniel Record, Samuel Schipper, Xavier Lake, Henry Taylor & George Waterson Bronze: David Zou, Louis Fielding, Maxime Desbrousses

DISSECTION CLUB In what has become a very well-attended lunchtime fixture, students have been provided with the opportunity (many thanks to the PA) to dissect a range of organisms and structures such as fish, pigs' trotters, and brains. As they delve deeper into how structures and anatomy enable complex functions and movements to take place, budding biologists are able to explore the subject beyond the curriculum. The numbers have so far surpassed expectations

with over 40 in attendance on occasions!

It is not simply just guts and gore, however: we look to instil the development of practical skills beyond dissections.

To this extent, we have also explored the vascular bundles in celery as we use microscopy and staining techniques upon phloem and lignified xylem.

Nathan Lines

#BreaktheBias International Women’s Day

on 8th March sparked the imagination of staff and students.

• Mr Mitchell devised a special Form Time Quiz based on famous and influential women throughout history.

• Miss Davies also created a quiz to make students think about gender bias, how we can change, and the celebration of women’s achievements in various fields.

• The PE Department had a celebration of women’s achievements in sport.

Pictured below are some photos of the library audit where they turned around all the fiction books written by men, and those where the author just uses their initials*, leaving those books we know to have been written by a woman with their spine or front cover facing out. * In an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine in 2017 JK Rowling said "My publisher, who published Harry Potter, they said to me, 'We think this is a book that will appeal to boys and girls', so they said, 'Could we use your initials?'

"Because, basically, they were trying to disguise my gender. And obviously that lasted about three seconds, which is wonderful."

WELLBEING WEEK; MENTAL HEALTH AND LGBTW+ On Thursday 10th February a bake sale was held under the covered way to raise money for MindOUT, a charity based in Brighton dealing with the mental health of LGBT people. The event was a huge success and raised over £400.