Dear Parents and Friends,

On Friday evening last week the Sixth Form Committee and Mrs Culbert arranged a fantastic Sixth Form dinner which started with a reception in Great Hall, moved to the Dining Hall for a three course dinner served by the Catering Department and then back to Great Hall for a disco. The Committee worked extremely hard to ensure that both venues were transformed into an Alice in Wonderland themed tea party and I was delighted by the warmth of atmosphere that was created. It was certainly great to see the Sixth Form finding a moment to relax at a very busy time in their working schedule.

Our MUN programme continued its successful run with a visit to the City of London MUN Conference, where once again Royal Russell delegates shone. Congratulations to Aisha Dosanjh who was awarded Outstanding Delegate. We are now putting preparations in place for our 35th Annual International MUN Conference to be held in October and our new 2016 Officers are listed in this newsletter.

Last weekend our Year 12 and 13 Drama students were busy rehearsing ahead of the examination pieces this week. They performed on Tuesday and Wednesday for the examiner and, despite some nerves and tension, both were extremely successful. Congratulations to Miss Cripps, Miss Davenport and all the students involved

At the start of this week, I was delighted to welcome Miss Beresford, Head of Collingwood School and Mrs Mallett, Head of Cumnor House School for Girls for a tour of our School, as we continue to nurture relationships with these important feeder schools.

On Tuesday morning the Geology field trip left for Paignton under the experienced direction of Mr Tanner. Year 12 and 13 students have spent this week discovering the joys of rock formations(!) in preparation for their AS and A2 examinations next term.

On Thursday, we welcomed the Year 9 and 10 French exchange students from Cours Saint Charles, Orléans and I would like to thank those Royal Russell families who are hosting the students during their stay with us. The French students will be joining lessons through this week and participating in a full Royal Russell program.

Next week we will be visited by a team of twelve inspectors from the Independent Schools Inspectorate. This is a great opportunity for the School to show the very best of our Royal Russell educational experience. Thank you to those parents who have already completed the online Survey which will form part of the feedback from this process, the closing date for giving your views is Sunday 13th March. A formal report will be issued by the inspection team and I will share this with parents once it has been published.

In Sport this week there has been a great deal of activity, with solid football wins against Worth School and some outstanding results from our young netballers in the end of season Croydon Schools’ Tournament. We look forward to fixtures with Langley Park School for Boys in Hockey over the weekend.

The Music Department has been busy preparing for the Spring Concert which takes place at 7pm in Great Hall on Monday evening. Looking ahead, the Year 13 Parents’ Evening is on Tuesday 15th March, the Junior School Open Day on Wednesday 16th March and the Year 12 Higher Education Evening on Thursday, 17th March at 7pm in the Auditorium.

This evening I am very much looking forward to joining Cambridge House pupils and parents for their House Chapel Service.

With best wishes,

Headmaster’s Weekly

Newsletter

11 March 2016

Chris Hutchinson Headmaster

From the Chapel

School Services

After Hollenden’s School service last week, Reade House girls this Monday talked of followers of Jedi, the main protagonists in the fictional Star Wars universe. It began as a joke, when, after a national campaign, 390,127 people stated in the 2001 census of England and Wales that their religion was Jediism. After hearing of the impersonal force of Jediism, we prayed to our personal God for our mothers, as it was the day after Mothering Sunday.

Lenten Candles

Mothering Sunday is the middle Sunday of Lent. Now in the 5th week of Lent we have extinguished the 5th candle, as we approach the darkness of Good Friday.

Passion-tide Passion-tide is a name for the last two weeks of Lent, beginning this Passion Sunday and ending on Easter Eve. In some churches, all crucifixes and images may be covered in veils (usually violet, the

colour of vestments in Lent). The veiling was associated with Passion Sunday's Gospel (John 8:46-59), in which Jesus "hid himself" when some people picked up stones to throw at him. The word, Passion, comes from a Latin word meaning suffering.

This painting was for a hospital chapel in Alsace. This Crucifixion showing a harrowingly - detailed, twisted, and bloody figure of Christ on the cross, flanked by, on the left, the swooning Virgin Mary being comforted by John the Apostle, and pointing to the dying Saviour. Mary Magdalene kneels, wringing her hands in grief and prayer. At the feet of the Baptist is a lamb holding a cross, symbol of the "Lamb of God" slaughtered for man's sins. Blood flows from its chest wound into a chalice. The image has both emotional intensity and terrible realism.

Answer to Chapel Quiz 69

Mothers without children are senior nuns, who have taken a vow of celibacy. They are in charge of other nuns, called sisters. A monk is called brother or, if he is ordained, father. When a new community of monks or nuns is founded it is called the daughter house; the founding monastery, abbey or priory is called the mother house. Happy families!

Chapel Quiz 70

What is the difference between an abbey, a monastery and a priory? Prizes for pupils.

Ready for Jedi: Seonni, Zenab, Francesca, Al-

ice and Megan

The Isenheim Altarpiece (1515)

by Matthias GRÜNEWALD

French Exchange Students Arrive

17 young French students arrived at Royal Russell after a rather long journey from Cours Saint Charles School, Orleans, eager to meet their English partners from mainly Year 9 and 10. They travelled via Eurostar and were greeted by Mrs Mawer at East Croydon station at 1.00 pm, rather exhausted and very hungry! Their English partners came to meet them in the canteen at 1.30 pm and off they went to their lessons, not much time to socialise. I am sure it will be an excellent experience for all pupils involved. I hear from the students that lots of visits in London have been planned for the weekend. Our group will be going to France on Thursday 24th March until Tuesday 29th March and we are going to visit many sites in Paris and the Chateau de Chambord.

City of London MUN

Fourteen pupils descended on City of London School for their annual MUN Conference on Saturday. After a short period of lobbying, the opening ceremonies commenced, including a very interesting keynote speech, given by Gadi Zohar, the former military service Head of Civil Administration in Gaza, and a member of the Israeli Negotiation Contingent with the Palestinians, which resulted in the Oslo Accord in 1995. The quality of debate was high. The experience and technical knowledge of the Royal Russell students was clearly apparent. Josh Frost acquitted himself superbly as the UK ambassador in the Security Council. Skanda and Nikolai provided some of the most animated debating I have seen for some time, and the day finished with Aisha Dosanjh receiving an Outstanding Delegate award – one of only five such awards given to over 200 delegates. Well done to all on another outstanding overall performance by Royal Russell pupils, confirming their place at the top table of schools participating in MUN.

Royal Russell International MUN Conference

The invitations went out this week to schools in the UK and around the world to invite them to our 35th annual conference which takes place from Friday 21st to Tuesday 25th October. Over the last two weeks, Royal Russell students have been applying for officers jobs at our conference. Over 30 students applied and Mr Keable-Elliott, the Director of MUN, announced the successful applicants on Wednesday.

MUN Officers 2016-2017

Secretary General and Head of RRS MUN

Georgia Covill

Head of Mini MUN

Stevie Palmer

Presidents of GA Scott Stephens

Aisha Dosanjh

Maybellene Kisseih

Presidents of the Security Council

Pippa Messent Watling

Rolanda Yung-Hoi

Heads of Secretariat

Roman Podkovyrin

Katie Thompson

Kohsuke Kino

Freya Pettitt

Head of Media, Events & Live Production

Valerie Mashynets – Head of Media

Ella Armitage – Head of Events

Alex Haigh – Head of Production

Heads of Press

Jamie King

Max Shirley

Other Committee Chairs

Josh Frost

Alex Loire

MUN Officers RRSiMUN 2015 - 2016

Library News

This year’s Trinity Schools’ Book Award came to a close with an award ceremony at Trinity School on Wednesday evening. Over the past few months, our Year 9 pupils have been reading books on the shortlist which was themed “Voyages and Journeys”. Mrs Colyer and Mrs Harris took a small group of pupils to the event, and all enjoyed meeting the attending authors: Philip Reeve, Paul Dowswell and Matt Dickinson. The authors held a question and answer session which enabled pupils to gain an insight into the life of a writer and to discover the inspiration behind a story. The overall winners of the pupil competition were announced and a wonderful display of all entries was available for all to see. Paul Dowswell performed a sea-shanty style song written by a pupil from Emanuel School recounting the life of a “powder monkey” trying to survive on an eighteenth century warship as depicted in his book.

We also held a competition within school and pupils were invited to submit either a book review or creative response to one of this year’s books. The winners were Anya Lewis (Buchanan) and Nafeesah Riaz (Queen’s) for the best creative responses to a book on the Junior and Senior shortlist respectively. Both girls were awarded a certificate for their entries.

ANYA LEWIS – NORTHERN LIGHTS

Matt Dickinson, author of The Everest Files will be visiting Royal Russell on Thursday 17th March to

run a travel writing workshop for pupils in Year 8. He will also be hosting a question and answer

session at lunchtime and all pupils are welcome to attend. As well as writing, Matt is a professional

cameraman and mountaineer who has summited Everest! We are looking forward to hearing him

talk about his adventures and inspiring us to conquer our own mountains.

NAFEESAH RIAZ – LIFE OF PI

Sixth Form Assembly The last two weeks’ speakers were Ashley Clift and Irvinder Bakshi who came to talk about careers in medicine and law respectively. Ashley Clift’s presentation was informative and his use of audience participation engaged the students including a strong debate over the interview question “should a heart transplant receiver be told whether the heart came from a heroin addict”. He talked about the comparisons between hospital television programs and the portrayal of junior doctors in the media. From personal experience he described the upsides such as job satisfaction and emotional connection with patients. He also described some of the downsides including the demanding nature of the work. His presentation was informative and especially motivating for those considering medicine. Irvinder Bakshi came to us from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She came here to talk about law careers and alternative debate resolution systems that are cheaper and more efficient than going directly to court. ADR is used everywhere from inter workplace arguments, football team disputes to multinational disagreements between countries. Her speech also made the students look into the possibility of careers in law and the applications of it in wider society. Scott Stephens

From the Music Department The Spring Concert will take place on Monday 14th March, at 7.00pm in the Great Hall. This occasion will combine the Senior and Junior Schools’ Choirs and Orchestras, presenting a wide-ranging programme, featuring all of the school ensembles. Refreshments will be served in the Dining Hall during the interval. Do come along if you are able to- it promises to be an excellent evening.

Later in the week, come and celebrate the arrival of our new grand pianos with a recital on Friday 18th March. Please note the new time - this will now take place at 5.00pm (not 7.00pm as advertised previously). The recital will take place in Room A10, and will be preceded by a glass of bubbly, from 4.30pm. We will enjoy a short recital, featuring Verity Burcombe, Alex Franklin, Katarina

Simic, Ignacio Vasquez-Castro and Tim Zhang. Katarina will be performing a slightly extended programme.

16th March Charli Hopkins - Oxbridge Talk (Library)

23rd

March Taken - Boy Band – Cyberbullying (Great Hall)

Coming Up…...

From the Sport Department Football Unfortunately a lot of our football matches were cancelled this week due to the adverse weather conditions. We enjoyed a thrilling block fixture against Worth School last Saturday with a multitude of goals scored; following these results, both our 1XI and 2XI are in pole position to win their respective SKIL leagues.

Fantastic intra-school competitions occurred with our U13 and U15s during their games afternoon's - it would take more than the weather to dampen their spirits!

We have an exceptionally busy week ahead with our 1XI playing two semi-finals and two SKIL league games in a week. We are also looking forward to an U12 National Cup match away to Wye School on Friday afternoon.

Boys’ House Sport

It has been a busy week! Next week is (as usual) probably going to be even busier! Please keep up to date via www.royalrussellsport.co.uk Follow us on Twitter @RRS_Sport There are more pictures from Thursdays sport on that feed.

In boys’ House sport we enjoyed the Junior hockey tournament. In the end, despite a number of close matches, Cambridge emerged as the winners, St Andrew’s were second on goals scored from Madden, then Keable and Oxford.

So that means that in the overall table positions, the lead changes hands again! Cambridge are now in front on 181, Oxford are second on 175, St Andrew’s third on 171, Keable fourth on 161 and Madden are fifth.

Next week is Senior hockey and the week after is WHOLE SCHOOL CROSS-COUNTRY. With masses of points on offer – best get training!

Trampolining

Last weekend, Royal Russell hosted the Croydon Schools’ Trampolining Championships. A fantastic competition, with great results for Royal Russell students. Well done to all the students who competed.

Amelia - U14 Elite Croydon CHAMPION.

Connor - U14 Novice Croydon CHAMPION,

Grace - U14 Novice Croydon CHAMPION.

Anna and Emelie - U14 Novice runners up, Ellie - 4th and Becky 5th. TEAM CHAMPIONS!

Emily - U14 Elite 3rd place, Maddy 4th and Jemima 5th. TEAM CHAMPIONS!

Ella - O14 Novice 3rd place. Brilliant! Well done.

From the Sport Department Hockey A great week of Hockey lies behind us and a lot of fixtures are still coming up.

Our U13 boys showed great effort in representing Royal Russell in the highly competitive London Cup.

Using the time in Monday’s games and Tuesday’s afterschool club, our U12 boys were well prepared for their London Cup. Losing to Kingston Grammar School in a thrilling 5:4 cracker, our youngsters improved quickly to reach the quarter finals by ending the game against Trinity in a draw.

Whitgift turned out to be too strong this year, but the boys showed great improvements and incredible effort and promised to come back stronger than ever.

In a physical match a mix of U13 and U12 players proved to be ready for next year, playing 0:0 against a Trinity U14 team on Wednesday.

On Saturday we will see our U15’s, U13’s and U12’s play against Langley Park in a five match block fixture, before we finish the season with our U12 C and D teams playing against Trinity on Wednesday.

Netball Last Saturday we travelled to Reigate Grammar for an exciting Year 7 and 8 block fixture. With snow, rain and freezing conditions, the girls all played their socks off. Well done to the Year 8A team and in particular Abigail Taylor for player of the match, a very close match with a lot of noise to contend with from the crowd. A well deserved 15-15 draw.

The week was then based around building for the Year 7 and 8 end of season Croydon tournament being held at Royal Russell. The school was buzzing and there was high quality netball being played on the courts and on the MUGA.

This is the best year we have ever had at an end of season tournament and the girls should be very proud of themselves. The Year 7B team came second in their competition and the 8B team came 3rd. Thanks to coach Maddy Longhurst of the 7B team, her players of the match were Ellie Baker and Jemima Earring. A special mention to Rosie Ray for a huge improvement on the netball court this year and representing the Year 8 team in Year 7 - well done.

The highlight was definitely the Year 7A and 8A team. Both teams were undefeated throughout the whole tournament and won overall. It was great to see a clean sweep and the girls wore their medals with pride. Sienna Truter has now proven herself as a GS and with some excellent feeding from Servaise, the two were unstoppable. The Year 8's were in a different league. Well done to Jemima Longhurst and Emily

Giles at either end of the court for yet another outstanding performance and winning players of the match.

Once again we are hosting the Year 9 and 10 end of season tournament on Tuesday. Please do come and support.

The best Junior House netball competition on Thursday we have ever had. The standard was amazing and the competitiveness between the girls was clean and contested. In 4th place were Queen’s, 3rd Hollander,

2nd Buchanan and 1st (by one goal) were Reade. Senior House netball next Thursday. 4:00 start.

Well done to all.

Comedy Night Saturday 19th March LAST

BOOKINGS NOW!

Don’t be disappointed; The last few remaining tickets are limited to first come, first served. No need to book a whole table its very informal - come individually, as a couple, group together or bring family and friends - all are very welcome! Tables sizes from 4 to 10.

BOOKINGS: melaniejhc@yahoo.co.uk or www.royalrussell.co.uk/Comedy

For our second Comedy Night, The Joke Club have lined up Phil Reid, Paul Ricketts, Phil Butler and Danny Posthill - of BGT fame - compered by Sally Anne Hayward, A terrific and highly talented group of comedians. It will be a fantastic evening, from 7 'till late. Tickets cost just £15. Proceeds to the 1853 Pavilion Fund, however the evening is all about having fun with family, friends and colleagues. Great Hall is transformed as a comedy club - seeing is believing! Ticket price includes a complimentary drink and light snacks. Cash bar serving beer, selection of wine and soft drinks. Bookings by email, Melanie at melaniejhc@yahoo.co.uk. For full details www.royalrussell.co.uk/

comedy (Please note over 18’s only)

@RRS_MusicDept

@RoyalRussellMUN

@RRS_Library

Second Hand Uniform Sales If you have any uniform or sports equipment that is no longer needed and in good condition, then please can you leave it in the brown box, opposite the shop door.

Next Sale:

Monday 21st March 3.00pm to 4.15pm

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Diary Dates

Friday 11 March Cambridge Chapel Service 6.00pm All Welcome

Sunday 13 March Boarders’ Trip to Tower Bridge Experience

Monday 14 March Spring Music Concert 7.00pm Great Hall All Welcome

Tuesday 15 March Year 8 Geography Lunchtime Cake Sale

Tuesday 15 March Year 13 Parents’ Evening

Wednesday 16 March Junior School Open Morning 9.00am to 2.00pm

Wednesday 16 March Year 7 Geography Trip

Thursday 17 March Year 13 Economics Trip to Eton College

Thursday 17 March Higher Education Evening 7.00pm Auditorium

Friday 18 March Haileybury MUN Departs

Friday 18 March Grand Piano Recital 5.00pm A10 All Welcome

Saturday 19 March 1853 Society Comedy Night 7.00pm Great Hall

@Royal_Russell

@RRS_Sport

@RRS_History

@RRS_Chemistry

We welcome your feedback. Please send to Ciara Campbell, Marketing and Communications Manager

email: ccampbell@royalrussell.co.uk

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