What a Tuesday! February 26th 2008
Date: Tuesday 26 February 2008
An unbelievably busy day, involving the whole of the St Edmund's Community in some shape or form!
The day began with the pupil body, and the School fabric itself being used by the county police to help train their 'drugs dogs' team in learning how to identify suspicious substances on the person or secreted on the premises. Not one pupil was challenged by a dog - and the whole of the campus was equally free from suspicion. Good news indeed!
Lunch time saw the first set of this year's House Council meetings, with elected pupil representatives sitting down to discuss formally 'whole School' issues, and then forward minutes to the Headmaster for his scrutiny. Warneford House, for example, discussed items as diverse as the new School logo and 'bag dumping'!
Three boys' Hockey matches were played, with one draw, and two defeats to report. The 1sts, with one player 'red-carded', went down to a 0 - 5 defeat at the hands of King's Canterbury. The Under 14s lost 2 - 3 to King's Rochester - goals from Oliver Jackson and Oli Kirkness - and the Under 15s managed the only point of the day with a 3 - 3 draw away to King's at Rochester, with goals from Jon Clarke, George Smith and James Attwood. A late equaliser by King's gave them a well-deserved share of the spoils.
Four Netball matches were played against King's Canterbury, and certainly we were on the receiving end of drubbings at Under 14, 15 and 2nd VII levels. The 1st VII result is yet to arrive on the teleprinter! - It finally has reached the newsdesk, and it proved to be the best of a bad day at the courts, with an 18 - 36 defeat, the first real setback for the senior squad this season.
The final A-level Music recital of the season took place at 5.00pm in the Ivy Coleman Recital Hall. Daniel Caplen, classical cellist and jazz pianist, offered a wide-ranging palette - J.S.Bach, Chopin, Ernest Bloch, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Mingus. An audience of sixteen warmed to his jazz more readily than his cello! He was followed by Oliver Jones, who showcased the allegro from J.S.Bach's Violin Concerto No.2, the first movement of Beethoven's 'Spring Sonata', and Kreisler's 'Praeludium and Allegro', composed originally as an encore piece. Both young men had clearly given their all in terms of preparation and public performance. Thanks to all six of the candidates whose recitals I have had the privilege of hearing.
And the day ended with drugs again! Parent Charlie Oakes, who works with the Scrine Foundation, accepted an invitation to come and help to inform other School parents about the current drug scene in Canterbury, and offer salient advice on how parents might respond to suspicions that their offspring might be dabbling with drugs. An audience of over 100 entered wholeheartedly into a 'question and answer' session to end the evening, and then looked at the samples which Mr Oakes had brought with him. One thing is clear - many parents would appreciate a return to the School lectures of the past in which the pupil body had been informed - first-hand, often by experienced adults - of the reality of substance abuse, or alcoholism, or other health-related issues.
And a titbit from Wednesday: our progress in the winter Tennis League came to an end when the Mixed Doubles quartet of Harry Callaway, Leon Lai, Katie McNie and Charlotte Pack were knocked out of the competition by a team from St Bede's School, Hailsham. The best performance was a narrow 5 - 7 defeat for Callaway and McNie.
