A member of the UnitedWestminster Schools’ FoundationRegistered Charity No. 309267

Founded in 1576 by William Lambe

InformationFor information about Sutton Valence School or to request a prospectus, please contact:

• the Admissions Office at Sutton Valence on 01622 845206 or email enquiries@svs.org.uk

• Sutton Valence Preparatory School on 01622 842117 or email enquiries@svprep.svs.org.uk

SUTTON VIEWS

Edition 52 July 2012

During the Easter holiday Sutton Valence show jumpingteams had a very successful debut against 13 teams atthe Inter Schools Competition and scooped a range ofprizes. The junior team, made up of William Fowler,Timmy Bentley and Angelique Taylor from Pre prep andPrep, had an exciting first outing and came sixth in theteam event. Our senior team was Harriet Fowler SVPS,Victoria Fowler (First Form), and Verity Smith (First Form)who all successfully completed clear rounds and came

Charles Dickens Evening Page 4

Tour de l'Angleterre Page 7

Forest School Page 10

The Voice of Sutton Valence School

Sutton Views July 2012 1

Continued on page 2

Interschools ShowjumpingApril 2012

2 Sutton Views

third in the team competition after anexciting jump off ridden by Verity onCupcake. Victoria also won the individualcompetition coming in just six secondsahead of the King's Canterbury rider. It wasa great performance by a very young squadof able riders up against much oldercompetitors.

Continued from front page

This term has been a showcase of thediversity of musical talent we have in theSchool. Over the Easter holidays the JazzBand undertook their first foreign tour! Veryearly one morning an excited group ofmusicians and a coach loaded with

Foreign Tours, SixthForm Farewell andFifth Form Rocks

instruments, drum kits and PA systems leftSchool heading for Paris.

Their first performance was at a beautifulbandstand in Le Jardin de Luxembourg, infront of an appreciative audience numberingin excess of three hundred. They performedfor an hour which included vocal solos fromZoe Deighton-Smythe and Harry Keep. Thefollowing day they were up early as they wereperforming at Euro Disney. After setting upthe equipment there was time for a ride enmasse on Space Mountain, before theperformance in the modern state of the artConcert Hall. In front of another veryenthusiastic audience, they performed suchclassics as The Chicken and Soul Bossa Nova.The band, and staff, then made a dash for therides until 9pm and the day was rounded offwith a fantastic light show and fireworks.

The last day gave them a chance to relaxand sightsee, taking in a boat ride, a walk tothe Eiffel Tower and a tour of Paris with a

July 2012 3

wonderful commentary by Mr Horley,Director of Music, before the long drivehome. Imagine their delight when awaitingthem at home was an email inviting them tothe Eastern European Jazz Festival, after theorganiser had heard them in Paris. Well doneeverybody!

Towards the end of term the School’schamber groups performed at St Peter’sChurch, Boughton Monchelsea in a concertthat was seen as a farewell for the UpperSixth Form musicians. The first half beganand ended with the Chamber Orchestraperforming Mozart’s 29th Symphony andHaydn’s Farewell Symphony, which, duringthe final few minutes, see all the musiciansget up and leave. The second half wasdominated by the String Orchestra playingHandel, Grieg and a superb performance ofElgar’s Serenade for Strings.

Thanks must go to the soloists and to theSixth Form choirs who performed socommendably. The finale with JamesMarriott and Hannah Clifton singing Time tosay Goodbye resulted in several misty eyes.Well done to everyone who performed,

during what turned out to be a veryemotional evening.

Earlier in the term, a Fifth Form Rock Bandconsisting of Richard Cantillon on lead guitarand vocals, Toby Chapman on bass guitarand backing vocals, Will Morris on rhythmguitar and Alex Hollingsworth on drums,held a lunchtime charity concert in aid ofDementia UK.

The atmosphere was buzzing withexcitement as the band prepared to startperforming. As the clock hit 1:30, they struckthe first note, setting the atmosphere for thenext half an hour of rock. With a variety ofrock music ranging from Muse to Red HotChilli Peppers and Foo Fighters, Groves Hallwas packed with pupils and teachers alikeenjoying the music and donating to charity.They raised a staggering £158.95 indonations.

Richard would like to thank everyone whocame and donated, everyone who helped setup the hall and equipment and to the bandfor the fantastic performance they gave.

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Congratulations to Emily – County JuniorGolf Champion Fifth Form pupil Emily Royer has been

crowned Kent’s Junior Champion after animpressive win at Wildernesse. It wasparticularly impressive as she was playingwith the holder of the county Ladies title andheld a 5 shot lead over her and a 4 shot leadover her nearest rival after 18 holes. Thecompetition was halted after 27 holesbecause of the atrocious weather makingplay impossible due to flooded greens. Thisalso comes on the back of Emily recentlyfinishing runner up in the England U16 Fiveschampionship, whilst concentrating onrevising for her GCSE exams.

Charles DickensEvening This year marked the 200th anniversary of

the birth of one of this country’s most famouswriters, Charles Dickens. As part of ourSchool’s celebrations, a group of studentsand staff devised a promenade performance,based on his life and works.

Mrs Luxford, Miss Pena, Miss O'Brien andMr Brook worked with a core group of Firstand Second Form pupils to rehearse anumber of scenes during their co-curricularactivity sessions and other scenes weredevised by Third Form LAMDA students. TheLower Sixth drama class wrote a script basedon the short story The Signalman, choosingto film their piece so that they could use

Towards the end of term, the wholeSchool community took part in as manyOlympic sports as we could to cover2012km. We played handball, volleyball,basketball, swam, walked, rowed, cycledand run. As well as pupils taking part,members of staff wore pedometers whilstcarrying on with their normal day and anumber of parents also took part. In total,we completed the fantastic distance of2124km and 325m. Thank you toeveryone who helped run and organisethe challenge and to everyone that tookpart, it was a great joint effort whosesponsorship will be welcomed by ourfour House charities.

Gold Challenge

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editing techniques to make theirperformance as atmospheric as possible. Anumber of teaching and non-teaching staffalso gave generously of their time and playedcameo roles.

The audience braved the slightly chillyweather and the event began with a picnicon Prefects’ Lawn. The performers then ledthe audience around the School, stopping toperform scenes in a variety of locations. Theevening culminated with a very unsettlingscene from Great Expectations, which wasperformed in the candle-lit chapel.

Mrs K Luxford Director

The Easter holiday was a busy time forthe CCF. Two cadets, Thomas Brunger andJames Costin were both on Level 2 SeaKayaking Courses in North Wales. Despitethe weather being cold (snow!), they hadan enjoyable time and passed the course,which was also contributes towards theirGold D of E Award.

The National Signals Competition tookplace at DCCIS Blandford. The team, OliverBateman, Harry Percival, Guy Thomas,Oliver Aucamp and led by Andy Thomas,gave their best in all areas – voice, line,antennae, march and shoot and The Cube.Expectations were high at the prize giving;the team was not disappointed and camefourth in the overall competition. Theexcellent leadership and signals knowledgeof Andy Thomas was recognised with himbeing awarded the Howell Trophy for Best

Cadet Signaller. An additional bonus for thegroup was meeting L/Cpl Beharry, the onlyliving holder of the Victoria Cross.

Five members of the Army Section, AlecKelly-Jones, Edward Bower, LewisBurnham, Sophie McGannan and WillKelly-Jones, took part in the advancedleadership course at Nesscliffe. This is thehighest leadership course that a CCF cadetcan take in the UK. Verbal feedback givento the cadets at the end of the week longcourse was extremely positive and all fivehave been promoted to Sergeant.

Thomas Brunger (Head of School) spentthree days in Somerset on the Duke ofWestminster Award selection event. Hewas one of 21 cadets selected for the eventfrom over 20,000, a very notableachievement. Unfortunately an injury

CCF Activities

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Claire Corkran, Deputy Head said, “We’reall delighted to have received so manyballoons tags back and especially from so farafield. Our pupils have really enjoyedplotting all the destinations on the map”.

As part of the national Jubilee celebrationsthe Prince’s Foundation for Children and theArts held Face Britain to create a uniqueimage of HM The Queen. Children wereinvited to submit a self-portrait which wouldbe used to make the picture of the Queen’sface. This was then projected ontoBuckingham Palace. Years 3 to 6 at the Prep

prevented him playing a full and activepart in the event, but Guy Horridge, theExecutive Director for CVQO commented,“what a tremendous achievement it wasfor Thomas to reach this far in thecompetition and he should be immenselyproud of this”, which we wholly endorse.

At a dinner at the Weald of Kent GolfClub, James Marriott (Upper Sixth) waspresented with an individual award by theBritish Legion in recognition of the supporthe has given them at their Remembrance

Parades for the last four years.

The Easter break ended with sixty twocadets travelling to the Lake District for aweek of adventurous training. Thisincluded mountain biking, kayaking,climbing, ghyll scrambling andexpeditions. All cadets tried somethingnew, set personal goals and pushedthemselves to achieve what they thoughtwas impossible and the followingexpeditions were completed: 17 Gold, 15Silver and 23 Bronze.

Prep School Jubilations!The whole of the Prep School celebrated

the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with atraditional street party style lunch outside.Proudly wearing their own crowns and sittingunderneath rows and rows of bunting flags,all individually made by the pupils. It reallywas a feast fit for a Queen! Afterwards therewas some fun country dancing andtraditional three-legged races on the Head’slawn.

In the afternoon over 500 red, white andblue balloons were released into the sky,each with a pupil’s name attached to it.Almost 20 balloons were returned to theSchool Office, ranging from various placeswithin Kent and several from France,including a school and a potato farmer. Thewinning balloon belonged to RachelClements, and was discovered in a field nearMulhouse, which is on the French Swissborder! She wins a prize, and the School willbe sending one to the family that returned it.Many of the balloons reached the Pas deCalais region.

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Tour de l'AngleterreThirteen Sixth Form boys and two

members of staff left School on the last dayof term on the second leg of their 460 milecycle to Land's End.

Having completed the first leg from NorthForeland Point the day before, they weregiven a rousing send off by fellow studentsand staff to make their way south to BlindVeterans UK in Ovingdean. The groupcycled in support of the charity and to datetheir pledges and donations are on course todouble their target of £5,000!

As they left, Jamie Walsh, the master incharge who organised the ride said, “This hasbeen a fantastic School community effortwith many people giving significant amountsof time and money to support the team anda charity the School has been associatedwith for a number of years. We would nothave been able to do this without their help.

The boys have all been training andfundraising for almost 3 months and theircommitment and enthusiasm has been a realcredit to them. I have no doubt this willcontinue on the ride and that they willachieve something they can rightly feelproud of.” The ride is Mr Walsh's 'swansong’; he is leaving School with his family toteach in Sharjah (UAE).

Five days later, having cycled throughsummer monsoons and suffered emotionalups and downs they finally reached LandsEnd, where they were cheered across the lineby waiting parents.

As a fund raising event, this ranks as thehighest total in memory raised by a group,surpassed only by the whole School event,the Sponsored Walk. Congratulations to theteam, they have much to be proud of!

School submitted portraits and becameGuiness World Record holders for the ‘mostartists working on the same art installation'.The portraits can be viewed by going to:

http://www.facebritain.org.uk/ andsearching for Sutton Valence PreparatorySchool.

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July 2012 9

10 Sutton Views

involved in the activities and games. At theend of each day there was an opportunity forparents to become involved too.

Mrs Crampton explained, “Within theForest School, children are taught to use full-sized tools, they play and learn theboundaries of behaviour, both physical andsocial, within the woodland environment.They establish and grow in confidence, self-esteem and become more self-motivated. It’sa fantastic learning experience and what’smore it’s all within a five minute walk fromthe classroom!”

We declare our Forest School programmeofficially open! As an innovative educational approach to

outdoor play and learning, the philosophybehind a Forest School is to encourage andinspire individuals of any age throughpositive outdoor experiences. Mrs PhilippaCrampton, Year 1 teacher and a trainedForest School leader welcomed David Hunt,an experienced woodland practitioner to theSchool to lead a range of exciting woodlandsessions, which encouraged problem-solvingand group communication. The childrentook part in a range of activities from woodcarving to working a pole lathe, making soapfrom Horse Chestnut leaves, to mixing andtasting fresh nettle soup!

During the two day opening in May,children from Reception to Year 2 were all

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Grandparents’ DayBack in May, on, thankfully, two dry days,

we welcomed over 200 Grandparents to theSchools; the most that have attended forseveral years.

At the Prep School they arrived after lunchand then went off round the site with theirgrandchildren to see their work. After verycomprehensive tours they returned to thedining hall for a well-earned cup of tea,sandwiches and cakes.

The following day at the Senior School theywere welcomed by the Headmaster overcoffee and biscuits, they toured the Schoolwith their grandchildren and then sat downto a delicious lunch in the Music School. Wewere delighted to hear from letters to MrGrindlay that they had had a lovely day, howimpressed they were by the behaviour of allpupils and the sense of community withinthe School.

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At the penultimate Headmaster’sAssembly we were fortunate to have HughRobertson as guest speaker. Hugh, Ministerfor Sport and Olympics, lives in SuttonValence village and took time out of his busyschedule to speak to the School about thedevelopment of the Olympic site and thehistory of the event. Illustrated by a slideshow he gave the pupils an interesting viewof the London Olympics culminating in aninspiring video of athlete’s successes overthe years.

Sitting in the audience was our ownOlympic hopeful, Peter Bannister, LowerSixth who had met Mr Robertson when hewas selected as a Torchbearer by Lloyds TSB,proud Presenting Partner of the London 2012Olympic Torch Relay, because of hiscommitment and dedication to his sport of

Canoeing and for inspiring his peers throughmentoring fellow colleagues in hiscommunity.

Peter, who achieved Bronze in the K4 atthe Boulogne International Regatta, is anathlete on the Lloyds TSB Local Heroesprogramme which supports future stars ofTeam GB and ParalympicsGB on theirjourney to London 2012 and beyond. Hesaid, “I am extraordinarily proud to berepresenting Canoeing and to have beenselected to carry the Torch as a possiblefuture Olympic athlete. This is a greathonour and an experience I will carry withme all my life.”

Peter carried the torch throughHarrietsham on 19th July.

Olympic Fever

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Olympic Hockey TripOn Saturday 6th May, Mrs Allison, Head of

Girls Games, took a group of Prep Schoolhockey players to watch the GB Hockeyteam play Australia in the Olympic test eventat the Riverbank Arena.

It was a group of very excited youngstersthat went up to London and spent the daylooking round the Olympic Park beforetaking their seats behind the goal to watchthe first match, Germany v India. However,the second match was the one they hadbeen waiting for: GB against Australia!

And what an exciting match it proved tobe, with our own Ashley Jackson scoring twospectacular penalties. Sadly, GB could onlymanage a draw, but everyone agreed thatthe atmosphere and the opportunity to seesuch fantastic hockey at the Olympic Parkwas something they’d remember for a longtime.

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Annual Poetry CompetitionThe Prep School welcomed the poet Mr

James Carter at the end of summer halfterm, to judge the annual PoetryCompetition in the Bates Hall. Parents wereinvited to watch as pupils from Years 1 - 6took centre stage to individually recite apoem of their choice. Mr Carter then had thevery difficult job of choosing a winner fromeach class. Kindergarten and Receptionrecited their poems as individual classes,along with some splendid actions and evenpainted faces!

Mrs Barr, Head of English and Drama said,“I was as impressed as ever by theirconfidence and the effort they had gone into learning their poems. Class winners or not,they all deserve our congratulations”.

Every child in the Prep School wasgiven the opportunity this term to be apublished author in the School’s veryown book. Initiated by Mrs Sally Barr,Head of English, the book is acelebration of the children’simagination and talent and gives aglimpse into their passions andinterests.

As Miss Corkran, Deputy Head, saysin the foreword, ‘the theme of thebook is School’ and contains ’manydifferent pieces of work thatincorporates a wide range of non-fiction genres, including recounts,poems, persuasive letters and evenadvertisements’.

‘We are Writers!’

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Senior School Prizewinners

Olympic Rings

Prep School Prizewinners

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Extract from the Headmaster’s Speech The greatest strengths of Sutton Valence

are the community and the relationshipsbetween staff and pupils. This year we havere-introduced a properly functioning Housesystem supported by vertical tutor groups.Whilst doing this we have also highlightedthe first two years of the School as a separateentity allowing them greater nurturing,increased scrutiny and higher standards andexpectations being instilled from a youngerage.

I believe that the more pockets of small andsupportive communities one can createwithin a community, the greater the overallsupport and care each individual will receive.Without question, Sutton Valence is asupportive and tolerant community and onethat values the individuals of which it iscomprised. Rather than trying to make us allthe same, which can only result indiminishing our diversity and compromisingthe strength of our community, SuttonValence celebrates differences and delightsin individuality.

There is no doubt that sports teams, musicensembles and drama groups create suchpockets of support and mini-communitieswithin the whole; as do many academicdepartments (particularly at A level), theCCF and the co-curricular programme. Theaddition of Houses and vertical tutor groupsadds to the levels of care and support weprovide and I am pleased with how manygood things have emerged during this initialtransition year.

Change is never easy and there will alwaysbe pros and cons to anything, but the pros ofthe new system definitely outweigh the cons.

Pupils and staff tell me that they enjoy thevertical tutor groups and strongerrelationships across the whole school arebeing forged with excellent examples of rolemodeling and peer support cropping up inevery House. A burgeoning sense of houseidentity and pride is emerging and the newHouse competition programme has allowedall sorts of new competitions to be started,different talents recognised and oldertraditions resurrected.

In recognition of the importance of ourHouse competition, the Chairman of theGovernors and Mrs Baughan have presentedto the School “The Baughan House Cup” forthe winning house across all disciplines thatform part of our annual competition. I wouldlike to ask Mr Baughan to present this fineand decidedly-heavy trophy to the winner ofthis year’s competition.

Having added in today’s sports day results,I can announce to you now that in fourthplace is Lambe’s, third place is Founder’s,second is Clothworkers’ and therefore thewinning house is Holdgate.

Compiled and edited by Helen Knott, Development Manager