24th April 2015 Dear Parents and Guardians, I hope that you and your family enjoyed a lovely, restful Easter holiday. Many activities took place during the break, including the Easter CCF Camp in the Lake District, Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition training, language exchange trips to Salamanca and Montpellier, and several revision classes for public examination Year groups. My sincere thanks go to all colleagues who organised all of these opportunities for your children. I would also like to thank the Chair of our Pastoral & Boarding Governors’ Sub-Committee, Mrs Mary Goldstraw, together with Mrs Marlene Yell and their team, who once again organised an outstanding Opera by Candlelight at the start of the Easter holiday, raising £4361.28 to support our Music Scholars. Two of these Scholars, Alex Beason and Sally Croysdale, both Year 13 students, distinguished themselves at the event, entrancing the audience with their respective, beautiful solos, accompanied by our Director of Music, Mr Edward McCall. We were delighted to welcome our new students on Monday: Henry Tuckwell and Grace Martin (Cygnets); Esha Karia (Year 3); Aman Karia (Year 6); Jenson Curtis (Year 7); Lucy Cadogan (Year 8); Foucault Lesage and Samuel Surridge (Year 9). It was lovely to welcome back our Boarders and their families on Sunday, when we enjoyed a delicious tea in the Refectory. Alongside Year 10’s internal examinations this week, the Preparatory School and Boarding House had their photographs taken Tuesday, while Media Studies Mastermind took place that same evening. Our Year 12 County District Champions Young Enterprise Company acquitted themselves very well at the Regional Finals held at the University of Loughborough on Wednesday, followed the next day with the entire Year 12 attending what proved to be a very successful UCAS Higher Education Convention at the University of Leicester. The highlight of the week must belong to the U12 Boys’ Hockey Team who, as County Champions, travelled to Cannock to play in the Regional Finals. They competed with absolute commitment, winning all of their matches through to the Final, which they won 2-0. At this age group, Regional Champions is the highest accolade, as there is not a national competition. Huge congratulations to all the boys and their coaches. Saturday will see sports fixtures resume, and your presence at such matches is always greatly appreciated. Looking ahead to next week, the Year 11 GCSE Drama Class will be performing on both Thursday and Friday evenings; do come along if you would like a real treat and to support our budding actors and actresses. Wishing you and your family a very happy, healthy and blessed week ahead, Yours sincerely, Gareth P. Lloyd, Headmaster. SENIOR SCHOOL STUDENT NEWS Headmaster’s Assembly 20th April 2015 ## Merit Badge Year 7 Charlotte Flint Maddy Lindop Will Oswell Eisha Patel Year 8 Joseph Evenden Year 9 Isobel Barnard Eve Baxter Outstanding Reward Voucher 1 Year 13 Georgia Chilton Lewis Lancaster Outstanding Reward Voucher 2 Anastasia Benfield-Dexter United Kingdom Intermediate Mathematical Challenge 2015 Over 200,000 pupils from across the UK sat the Intermediate Maths Challenge with roughly the top 6% receiving a Gold Certificate, the next 13%, a Silver Certificate and the next 21%, a Bronze Certificate. Ratcliffe achieved the following results: 20 Bronze Year 9 Molly Edwards, Poom Hirunwiwatkul, Isobel Hose, Owen Sommerville and Sarah Astill. Year 10 Joseph Smith, Philip Gyesi-Appiah, Kwok Lo, Matthew Ward and Olutomi Mosaku. Year 11 Sharon Lee, Charlie Nicholson, Olivia Latham, Daniel Warwick, Henry Stokes, Ivan Chan, Anna Reviakina, Charlene Wong, Katie Winston and Rebecca Astill. 15 Silver Year 9 Charlotte Meadows, Nicole Spencer and Toby Snell. Year 10 David Hippisley-Cox, Adam Stamp and Max Jarvis-Kainth. Year 11 Emilia Lawden, Harry Redding, Thomas Ngai, Christian Waters, Olivia Gilchrist, Jeff Jiang, Arun Stokes, Rasee Lawrence and Lucia Faulkner. 4 Gold Year 10 Nathalie Dawe and Tom Cusack. Year 11 Joshua Leung and Kieran Bonas. Year 9 Best in Year 9 – Charlotte Meadows. Year 10 Best in Year 10 – Nathalie Dawe. Year 11 Best in Year 11 –Joshua Leung. Best in School Certificate is awarded to: Nathalie Dawe Ratcliffe had 3 qualifiers: Nathalie Dawe, Ka Shun Leung and Tom Cusack for the Pink Kangaroo paper which took place on Thursday 19th March 2015. The Kangaroo papers are 1-hour papers taken by over 40 countries worldwide. Young Enterprise Success On Tuesday 24th March, the Year 12 Young Enterprise students and their company Resinate competed at Leicester University in the Area final. They won several awards on the evening, including trophies for Best Product, Best Trade Stand and Best Financial Management, and progressed through to the County Final to be held at Loughborough University. The awards were presented to: Annabel Wright – Managing Director Elena Wheatley Lolade Mosaku Anya Lock Jody Goodfellow Emelia Waterhouse Other Directors that were not at the competition but contributed to the overall business were: Chris Onubogu Seb Dewhirst Oli Thornton Max Wheeler Will Laufs Duke of Edinburgh Success Gold: Anastasia Benfield-Dexter Silver: Evie Akerman and Christopher Curnick Bronze: Yasmin Gill and Olivia Latham Emilia Lawden, Year 11, plays Second Euphonium for a Northamptonshire based youth brass band called Youth Brass 2000. Last Sunday, they travelled to Manchester to compete against some strong opposition in the National Youth Brass Band Championship. For the second year in a row, they won. On the strength of last year’s win, they are travelling to Freilburg in Germany next weekend to represent England in the European Brass Band Championships. As the current British Champions, they have also been invited to represent their country in next year’s European Championships to be held in the French city of Lille. Art is … 114 x 77cm mosaic by Eleanor Brambell and Georgie Pearce, Year 9 Music Examination Results Congratulations to all candidates on these impressive results, and in particular to those who were awarded a Merit or Distinction. Best wishes for your music making during the new term! Mr McCall, Director of Music Student Name Instrument/ Singing Level Result Cameron Gordon Freya Smith Harley Walker Clarinet Clarinet Clarinet Prep Test Prep Test Prep Test N/A N/A N/A Luke Millett Owen Sommerville Charlotte Warburton Charlie Foulds Erin Somerville Zoe Duffin Piano Violin Violin Saxophone Saxophone Trumpet Grade 1 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 4 Grade 2 Grade 2 Pass Pass Pass Pass Merit Merit Tilly Wheeler Caitlin Lawrence Saxophone Piano Grade 4 Grade 5 Merit Merit Ranai Popat Annie Jarvis Daniel Scott Maddy Dunstan Isla Jenks Drums Drums Drums Singing Singing Debut Debut Debut Grade 1 Grade 2 Distinction Distinction Distinction Distinction Distinction PREPARATORY SCHOOL NEWS CERTIFICATES OF MERIT were awarded to:YEAR 6 Alex Thomas Ben Ashford Alex Dring Dominic Goodman Guy Heywood Elliot Lindop Matilda Cregeen YEAR 5 Chelsea Makandeni YEAR 3 Oliver Clark Holly McNeeney Xavier Illsley-Ridge YEAR 2 Eloise Allsager Jaxon Lee Hendrik Tang 1st certificate 2nd certificate 2nd certificate 2nd certificate 2nd certificate 2nd certificate Merit shield 2nd certificate 1st certificate Merit badge Merit badge Merit badge Merit badge Merit badge Olivia Crawley, Year 6, has received a distance award certificate for swimming 5000 metres. Harley Walker, Year 5 has passed his prep test for the clarinet and also received his 3rd kup blue belt red stripe for Tae Kwon Do. Jonah Walker (pictured above) Year 3, has been signed as an Academy Player for the 2015-2016 season at Leicester City FC. He has also received his 3rd kup blue belt red stripe for Tae Kwon Do. Leo Gabriel, Year 1, has been awarded a medal and certificate for completing term 1 of the David Lloyd tennis programme; he has also received a Stage 3 Learn to Swim certificate, and his 50m certificate. OLD RATCLIFFIAN NEWS Robert at his graduation at Cranwell: 26th March 2015 Robert Herrick (2010) successfully completed his "Initial Officer Training Course No 38" at Royal Air Force College Cranwell. He is stationed at RAF High Wickham, prior to commencing flying training on 8th June at RAF Whittering. He had gained a 2:1 Aeronautical Engineering Degree at Salford University before being successful in his RAF entry. Alice Pulford (2007) was the winner of Britain’s Best Volunteer 2015 on behalf of Markel and the Small Charities Coalition. This is a great achievement of her amazing work in establishing and developing the Tilinanu Girls’ Orphanage is Malawi. The award was presented at Ratcliffe College just before the end of the Spring Term. SPIRITUAL NEWS A MOTHER’S PRAYER Dear God, help us to keep a welcome in our hearts for all young ones who are part of our life – no matter what they have done. Give us a forgiving heart, a sympathetic ear and a readiness to share in their concerns. Make us aware of our own weakness and keep us from pride. Fr Ted Mullen, Fr President Chaplain’s Corner Tomorrow, 25th April, is ANZAC Day, a day when Australians and New Zealanders commemorate their soldiers who gave their lives in war. In both Australia and New Zealand, the day begins with a service held at dawn, and also on the cliffs of Gallipoli in Turkey. The origin of Anzac Day is 100 years ago. It begins with a beach landing, facing high cliffs, on 25th April 1915; the first day of the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War. On the first day alone, it is estimated that 754 Australian troops and 147 New Zealand troops were killed – not to mention the Brits, French, Newfoundland, and of course, the Turks. The plan was to attack Turkey, take Constantinople (now Istanbul) and secure the naval passage from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. The Turkish forces were waiting, however. Landing under constant heavy fire, relying on poor knowledge of the area, and the difficulty of the terrain – these all quickly led to a stalemate. For 8 months, little gain was made, and eventually the Allies were forced to withdraw all their plans for marching through Turkey: they ordered a full retreat by January 1916. In all, the Allies lost about 45,000 troops (almost half through disease alone), and the Ottomons 87,000. Those wounded were about 100,000 for the Allies, and 150,000 for the Ottomons. The campaign served as the environment for a particular “Anzac” spirit to grow. Many of the Anzacs came from rural areas, often in drought, where pioneering and hardship were the norm. As soldiers, they earned a reputation for good humour, for improvising and adapting to the challenges, for putting themselves on the line for their “mates”, and for treating fellow soldiers (including officers) with a sense of equality. This reputation on the battlefields gave birth to a new sense of national pride and spirit back home in Australia and New Zealand. The landings on Anzac Day 100 years ago are seminal and defining of the spirit that many Aussies and Kiwis feel is part of their national identity. Among the many dead were two Ratcliffians. They were Cuthbert Peniston-Bird and Thomas Brem. Brother Nigel Cave, a Rosminian military historian, discovered recently that these two young men actually served with the Australian Imperial Force at Gallipoli. They were, in fact, Anzacs. Cuthbert Peniston Bird served in the 13th Battalion of the AIF. He attended Ratcliffe between 1902 and 1907, and was killed in battle on 1st May 1915 – less than two weeks into the Campaign. He was 23 years old, and has no known grave. His name appears at the Australian Lone Pine Memorial in Gallipoli. So does the name of Thomas Brem, a young man who had returned from Dresden in Germany where he was studying as a musician. He attended Ratcliffe between 1897 and 1901. He joined the Australian First Brigade Artillery, 3rd Battery as a gunner. He lost his life on 17th July 1915, age of 27, again with no known grave. Tomorrow is the centennial of Anzac Day. Today, however, marks 100 years of the first genocide of the 20th century, that of ethnic Armenians in Turkey. Pope Francis recently commemorated their death in Mass at the Vatican. Most scholars agree the number of those killed or dying of starvation and disease on the “death-marches” is over 1 million. As lamentable as war is, it is a sad truth that it is sometimes necessary. We must recognise that some atrocities and threats require an answer. More importantly, we have the constant need to build a world of equality, respect for difference, and protection of the innocent. The most noble of human ideals – justice and peace – ought to be our norm, not our hope. Mr Michel, Lay Chaplain SPORTS SENIOR SCHOOL Report as presented at Headmaster’s Assembly on Monday 20th April Hockey On Tuesday 24th March, the U12s played the County Hockey tournament at St Margaret’s Pastures in Leicester. The first two games led to convincing Ratcliffe victories, 9 – 0 against Brookvale and 8 – 0 against Soar Valley. Goals were shared out amongst all the team, with standout performances from Joe Stamp, Owen Lloyd, Alex Tyszka, James Turner and Connor Foster. The final was a very different affair in the guise of old foes, Loughborough Grammar. In an excellent, closely fought game, Ratcliffe won 1 – 0 to seal an unbeaten hockey season and to win the county title for the second year in a row. Archie Heaney scored the winning goal but it was goalkeeper, Will Oswell, who was Man of the Match. Will had nothing to do in the first two games but, in the final, he pulled off a string of fantastic saves to deny Loughborough. Well done to all of the team on the win and also to all those who have played for the A team in their unbeaten season. National Hockey Congratulations to Finlay Butler who travelled to Old Loughtonions Hockey Club for the U16 national finals, winning the final which was staged at the Olympic Park. This is the second year running that his Beeston side has won the competition. Volley Ball On Monday 16th March, the School volleyball team played a thrilling match against the staff. A large squad of students competed well against an experienced staff team, marshalled expertly by Captain, Mr Jones. All games were competitive, but eventually age overcame the exuberance of youth, with the staff winning a closely fought contest. Players of the Match were Jamma Omarov, Ron Cheung and Captain, Phoebe Merriman, for the students; and with her world-class performance, Miss Papadopoulou for the staff. Netball Congratulations to Adelaide Muskwe who has been selected for the U19 England National Academy –an amazing achievement. Equestrian Congratulations to Jade England who competed at the Barlow Pony club tetrathlon on 29th and 30th March in a mixed junior class (14 years and under, girls and boys). She was placed 3 rd overall, and won the best shoot and best swim in this class, while also getting the maximum riding score. Squash and Karate Jake Kirkby, Year 8, passed his Second Kyu Belt in Shotokan Karate and came 20th in the British U13 National Squash Championships. Sporting Fixtures Date Opposition Time Team Thurs 23rd April Sat 25th April Sat 25th April Oakham (boys cricket) 2.00pm 2nd Worksop 2.30pm Mt St Mary’s 11am A H H Sat 25th April Birkdale (boys cricket) 10.30am Loughborough GS (Cricket) MCC (cricket) 3.30pm 1st &2nd Tennis U15A & U15B U15, U14 &U12/13 Rounders 1st U15 U13 U14 U12 U13 11.30am 1st H Gateway (cricket) 11.00am 2.00pm 2nd U15 U15B U12 2nd H H 11.00am 1st, U14, U13 A 9.30am 10.30am Mon 27th April Thurs 30th April 2nd Sat May King Henry VIII (Cricket) Home/Away Meet Time (H/A) A 1.00pm 12.45PM 1.45PM 10.30AM H A 8.15 H 1.00PM
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