The Headmaster's Blog

There have been many highlights this week. In no particular order, the arrival of the ‘Landy’ on Wednesday was certainly one. I took the train up to Huddersfield on Tuesday morning to collect the newest addition to the Woodcote fleet – a 2003 Land Rover Defender G4. I had arranged for it to be liveried in school colours with the crest on the bonnet, ‘Woodcote House School’ down the sides and the website address on the rear tyre cover. Arriving back at Woodcote after dark, I parked it on the front lawn and let the boys discover it for themselves on Wednesday morning on their way to chapel!

Here it is….

Three boys have been off to sit scholarships this week – William went to Harrow for his Music Scholarship, James to Charterhouse for Art and Felix to Oakham for Sports – we are keeping our fingers crossed for all of them….

On Wednesday the 1st XV and Under 9s took on Papplewick and the Colts As played Dorset House at home. The Colts added to their tally of victories with another impressive win, but the accolade must go to the 1st XV who took on a side far bigger and with some very impressive scalps to their name. Three quick tries in the first half shocked the visitors into gear and the second half belonged to Papplewick. They went 17-15 up with 4 minutes left, even after relentless defence and fearless tackling from everyone on the Woodcote team. However, in what turned out to be the final play of the game, Alfonso went over in the corner and Woodcote were victorious, 20-17. What a game!

On Thursday the Junior End was transformed into a World War II classroom in the morning and then all the boys were ‘evacuated’ to a 1940s village in the afternoon, as part of their History syllabus. I took some prospective parents down to have a look, to find the boys being ‘caned’ for having dirty fingernails and having to wash their mouths out with soap and water – all very authentic! Mrs. Woodall spent the afternoon dressed in period costume and Mr. Nick was a German spy! The boys loved it and learnt an enormous amount. In the afternoon our senior and junior Cross-Country teams went over to Sunningdale for the annual fixture against Sunningdale, Hall Grove and St. George’s. I am delighted to report that both teams were victorious and I was thrilled to be able to present the boys with their medals and the trophy at assembly the following morning.

Last night we had a lecture entitled ‘What on Earth’ by Christopher Lloyd. This was one of the best lectures we have ever had, as Christopher went through his 20 most important moments in the history of the world, from it’s creation 40 billion years ago right up to the present day. He wore ‘a coat of many pockets’ – each pocket containing an item related to his top 20 moments which he allowed the boys to ‘pickpocket’ throughout the evening. This lecture was exactly an hour long and he kept all the boys spellbound for the entire time – no mean feat. Their answers to his questions were very impressive indeed and I learnt an enormous amount.

Sadly today there are no matches, but the boys are all looking forward to settling down to the Internationals later. Tomorrow there is Chapel (weather permitting) followed by Chess and Pingers versus Sunningdale and I am taking the boys Ten Pin Bowling at Pine Ridge.

I can’t believe that half term is less than a week away….so much to do and so little time.

That is all.

Ok…I promise not to go on about it too much more, but the highlight of the week remains James Wallis’s Art Prize which was splashed all over yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph (p. 15) So not only a bag of cash but some fantastic publicity for the school – we are thinking of renaming the Art Room, ‘The Wallis Collection’!

Whilst we were all away in London, the Pingers Team went over to Papplewick and notched up their first victory of the term – no cash prize, but huge congratulations all round nonetheless for winning a very tough match.

Wednesday heralded the arrival of Bishopsgate for some Rugby fixtures, with Woodcote victorious in three out of four.The Firsts and Colts A piled on massive scores and were both looking for their first real test of the season – hopefully against Sunningdale on Saturday, but more on that shortly.

On Friday evening the Boarders and a few Day Boys were treated to another evening of Bingo, hosted by our regular caller, Mr. Lyddon – great value entertainment and great fun.

Saturday saw the first leg of matches against the ‘Dale. Sunningdale brought their Firsts and Colts A here and we took the 2s, Bs and U9s to them. I was lucky enough to watch most of the 1st XV game which was won comfortably in the end by Woodcote, although Sunningdale rallied strongly in the second half. The return fixture promises to be a cracker. There were good wins for both Woodcote Colts teams and the U9s, with Sunningdale coming out on top in a hard-fought 2s game. All the boys are looking forward to the second leg in a month’s time.

In the early part of Saturday evening the boys were entertained by a chap who came to teach them how to play the African Drums. Everybody got involved and the noise emanating from the gym was tremendous. We shall certainly have another session of this in the future!

African Drums - Session 1

Mr. Beharrell has a go

On Sunday afternoon, the squash team took on Horris Hill at Wellington and beat them 6-4 but were back in time to take their turn on the Formula One Racing Simulators. These were a huge hit with the boys as they raced against each other on various circuits around the world. The simulators had been hand built by the guys who brought them over and were incredibly authentic – right down to vibrating ferociously every time the boys skidded off the track or crashed into the safety barriers, which seemed like most of the time from where I was watching! It turns out that this company also have go-karts which they can bring on site, so we may well book them for a Boarders’ Grand Prix on Dominies one Sunday in the latter part of the Summer term.

The F1 Simulators

High Excitement!!

This week is a little quieter as it is an Exeat weekend, but there are matches for the U8s and U9s on Tuesday against Dorset House (good to renew fixtures with them) and the senior teams (1s, 2s, As, Bs) play Hall Grove on Wednesday.

Just a reminder that there is a Parents’ evening for all parents with boys in Juniors 1 and 2 on Sunday evening at 6:30pm in the gym. I look forward to seeing you there.

Have a great Exeat Weekend.

That is all.

OMG! as I believe the young would have it. What a night! Yesterday evening, various members of staff escorted James W up to London to a private view of the 20 finalists in the Daily Telegraph School Art Prize at the Saatchi Gallery. These 20 were chosen out of 12,000 entries from around the world, so to have his picture hanging in the gallery was an incredible achievement in itself.

James with his painting at the Saatchi Gallery

I am a philistine when it comes to art and wouldn’t recognise a good picture or some nifty artwork at any distance, but looking around the room, I didn’t think James had a prayer. He was, after all, competing against 17 and 18 year old finalists, some already at art college.

After an hour of wandering around the collection, trying to work out why someone would want, or need, to paint a pig’s head on top of a snowball, the Editor of the Sunday Telegraph took the floor to introduce the Big Cheese from Deutsche Bank whose job it was to hand over the cash to the winners.

Well, you won’t believe what happened next.

1st runner up…..James! Second place out of 12,000 entries!! CHARTERHOUSE SIT UP AND TAKE NOTE! The boy wonder is an artisitic genius. As the announcement was made, the place erupted. Mrs. Lyddon dissolved. Mrs. Rees started dancing; the Saatchi gallery had never seen anything like it before. James’s parents were there, as was his granny who had come all the way up from Wales to be there for the evening. It was perfect….

Once order had been restored, a couple of other prizes were awarded to the winner and second runner up, but James could not stop smiling – he said that he had never smiled so much and that it was actually beginning to hurt! I’d imagine that he’s still smiling now.

Once James had been congratulated by all the judges and most of the assembled crowd, the staff left him with his parents and granny, and slipped quietly away for a celebratory pizza.

We are all so proud of him….

Prize? Oh yes, I nearly forgot….

James’s picture won 5 large for the Woodcote Art Department and he also pocketed a grand for himself!

Not bad for a day’s work.

That is all.

Good evening all – here is my first blog of the new term. I should probably have wrapped up the end of the Michaelmas term with a final blog letting you know how wonderful the end of term was, especially the carol services which I thought were the best yet, but as so many of you came to them, I didn’t really see the need!

This term has started well, if perhaps a little quietly, but there are already a few events to report. On Friday we were very fortunate to welcome Ed Chamberlin, the presenter of ‘Super Sunday’ and ‘Monday Night Football’ on Sky Sports. He spoke to the boys about how to get into journalism and what it takes to put his programmes together. He also displayed an encyclopaedic knowledge of football, perhaps not surprisingly, and admitted to being a life-long Southampton fan…come on the Saints! The boys were totally engrossed by his talk and I have never seen so many hands-up when he opened the floor to questions. Thee were some pretty good ones too, and one boy even had the audacity to ask how much he got paid, as he wanted to know whether it would be worth his while applying for such a job in the future!

Ed Chamberlin with the boys on Friday night

Saturday saw the opening fixtures of the rugby season. I was concerned about the state of the pitches after a reasonably hard frost on Friday night, but Holman was on hand to inform me that the frost would thaw by 11:30am which it duly did – almost to the minute. No one knows the grounds like him! Milbourne Lodge arrived, and our 1st XV and Colts A both recorded comfortable wins to set their seasons in motion. Our Under Nines went away to Milbourne but returned with a less happy outcome. They will undoubtedly come across weaker opposition in the matches ahead. Sadly the 2s and Bs missed out on their fixtures, but they are geared up for Bishopsgate on Wednesday.

On Sunday the boarders were entertained by a Circus performer who spent the afternoon teaching them the skills of plate-spinning, stilt-walking, juggling, diabolo, and feather-balancing to name but a few. It was great fun and we shall definitely have him back for more in the future.

Plate-Spinning

Stilt-Walking

Practising Circus skills....

This week we are off to see one of the boys’ pictures which is currently hanging in the Saatchi gallery in London, as he is down to the final 20 out of 10,000 entrants in the Daily Telegraph school art competition…there is a £10,000 prize for the winning entry – fingers crossed! Friday night is Bingo Night and then Saturday sees the first leg of matches against Sunningdale. There will be a Ski Sale afterwards and then there is an African Drums workshop in the afternoon / evening. On Sunday there will be a Formula One Racing simulator at Woodcote for the boarders to enjoy.

It should be a great week – especially if we win 10 grand!

That is all.

Apologies for the lateness of this latest blog. The end of term has rather caught up with me as I sit in my study furiously trying to write Headmaster’s reports before the end of term Carol Services.

Much has happened since I last wrote: The Junior Play passed off without major incident. I thought the House Music competition showcased some pretty impressive talent and it was great that every boy in the school was on stage at some point on the Sunday afternoon, either in the play or House Shout. That the Reds won the competition is still the subject of tremendous debate!

The excitement of that weekend was swiftly dampened by the impending school exams which began the following week, but I am pleased to say that the results were pretty positive and it was a stroke of genius to have them a week earlier than normal, the boys being less tired and also allowing us an extra week to hand them back and iron out any snags.

A short Exeat followed for R&R before the onslaught of the final ten days. Bingo on Friday night was followed by Cinema trips to ‘Arthur Christmas’ and ‘Hugo’ (both highly recommended) and Ice Skating for the choir. We have dormitory charades tonight and then Prize Giving on Wednesday followed by Christmas Lunch and the first of our two Carol Services. There is then the Christmas (Break-Up) Supper – that’ll be two turkeys for me in one day – and finally the second Carol Service on Thursday morning, before the end of term.

Sorry – no pictures today as they take too long to upload and I must get back to my reports. The DVD of the play and House Music are available though. Let me know if you’d like a copy.

That is all.