Congratulations to the girls U15 cricket team who have made it to the national semi-finals

The team have made it through to the School Sport Magazine National Semi-Finals which will take place in September. After an amazing season, the girls U15 cricket team won the National Quarter-Finals after beating King’s College.

Earlier in June, the team became County Champions in a hard-fought match against Norwich High School for Girls. A great game saw Grace lift The Nicola Woodhouse Trophy for the first time and they remain unbeaten and take on The King’s School, Worcester on Tuesday in the National Cup Quarter Final. Well done and good luck, girls!

Year 9 and 10 pupils have been taking part in The Big Help Out

Our Year 9 and 10 pupils have been taking part in The Big Help Out, taking part in a variety of voluntary initiatives to give something back at the end of this academic year. Members of Tallis; Woodlands and Edinburgh houses went litter picking in Holt and High Kelling helping to keep our communities tidy.

Grufts 2023 raised £200 for the Olpalagilagi School in Kenya

Just about 20 dogs and their owners turned out on a baking hot Father’s Day to contest various classes at Grufts 2023. Although we had hoped for rather more contestants the rings were happily busy and most dogs went home with a rosette. A great deal of fun was had by canines and humans alike and just over £200 was raised for Olpalagilagi School. This will go towards an extension for a severely overcrowded, corrugated iron dormitory, improving the conditions for the boy boarders. Thank you very much to all who came along and took part, and also to those who just bought lots of cakes from the tea stall.

The Careers Department have held events and organised work experience covering a variety of sectors this term

Year 12 Conference

This was an event for all of Year 12 and parents to give information and advice on some of the different pathways available post Sixth Form.

Mrs Mousley and Mrs Osborne had organised an excellent variety of topics & speakers for pupils and parents to choose from, including.

• Why go to university & how to choose your course – University of East Anglia (UEA)
• Performing Arts/Drama school applications with Mrs Futter & Ms Corrigan
• Careers in Sport – David Hunter, Chief Executive & Clerk of the Course, Fakenham Racecourse
• How to write a good personal statement – University of Sheffield
• Joining the Army/Officer Entry/Army Medical Corp – Army Outreach
• Applying to Study in USA & Overseas – The University Guys
• Sourcing a Degree Apprenticeship – Exeter University
• Creative courses / Art School / Being a student in London – OG Molly Cook
• Agriculture Study
• Being a Gappie – OG Finn Lowe
• Engineering courses – Sheffield University
• Being a Norland Nanny

Lotus Cars Trip

This trip marked International Day of Women in Engineering.

Gresham’s pupils were invited by Lotus Cars to attend the day at their training academy in Norwich. Mrs Osborne took nine female pupils, from Years 10 and 11, on the trip who showed interest and ability in science, technology, design, engineering and maths.  

In the morning they enjoyed talks from Lotus female engineers and an insightful and encouraging talk from Elizabeth Donnelly, CEO Women’s Engineering Society.

The afternoon was interactive with a production line exercise and time spent in the simulated learning workshop environment.

Zinnia-Claire, one of the pupils on the trip, said, “I loved the trip! I was inspired by both the people and the cars. This was a fantastic experience and it encouraged me to potentially pursue a future in engineering.”

Summer Work Experience

Year 13 pupil Tanya P had a week’s work placement with Holkham Estate where she was given an insight into the diversity of the work at the estate.

Tanya said “It was really insightful and interesting to learn about all the different aspects of the estate.

My time in the land and property area was really helpful to understand different developments and rental properties for my future career. I found everyone at Holkham incredibly friendly, approachable and happy.”

Read more on the Holkham blog. 

Other Work Experience placements

Year 12 pupil George will be doing a week’s work placement in July with stockbrokers Barratt & Cooke.  Mr Coventry, Mr Mack and Mrs Osborne interviewed a high calibre of applicants from current Year 12 for the placement. This is a yearly opportunity offered to one pupil from Gresham’s and one from Norwich School.

Erin L in Year 12 is doing a three-day placement with OG Jeremy Dugdale, Barrister at Law, Octagon House Chambers.

Year 12 pupil Jimmy T will be doing a placement with North Norfolk Railway to further his insight in engineering.

Year 12 pupil Erin L has completed her work experience at Norwich Crown Court. Erin said, “just finished 2 days of work experience, was very interesting! Spent Monday with Jeremy, attending his cases and spent the Tuesday with a judge, where I got to sit in on lots of different family court cases and 1 criminal case!”

Visit from The Academy of Robotics to Gresham’s

We enjoyed a visit from William Sachiti and Jill Lloyd from The Academy of Robotics based at the former RAF base RAF Neatishead. They visited pupils in the Dyson Building.

They said, “it was an absolutely fascinating visit. We were so impressed by the level the students are working at. It’s an incredible space to work in, but it was also abundantly clear that the level of work produced by the students is very much driven by the passion their teachers have for their subjects and for sharing this knowledge with the students”.

Degree ApprenticeshipS

Congratulations to Year 13 pupil Henry B for securing a degree apprenticeship with Richard Utting Associates. 

Henry will be starting as a Trainee Quantity Surveyor in their Norwich office. Henry will benefit from a comprehensive inhouse training programme, as well as part-time day release at Anglia Ruskin University, studying a BSc (Hons) degree in Quantity Surveying.

Congratulations to Year 13 pupil Archie W for his perseverance and dedication in research, work experience and application for the PCDA (Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship) with Norfolk & Suffolk Constabulary.

The whole process has taken 9-12 months from application to rigorous assessments, culminating in an in-depth, testing interview. This was an extremely intensive process alongside doing A levels.

Year 12 pupils travelled to Kenya to work at Olpalagilagi Primary School

A group of 10 lucky Year 12 pupils and two members of staff travelled at the start of half term to spend two weeks on the southern edge of the Maasai Mara. They were hosted in superb style by the Cottar’s 1920’s camp. The key focus of the trip was to work at Olpalagilagi Primary School, where each of the Gresham’s pupils taught up to 80 children at a time with few resources to hand. In addition to this, activities included litter picking, erosion control work, learning from the local community about Maasai culture, and of course the odd safari to look for the Big Five took place.  

Miranda and Serenity attended the Wells Literary Festival to listen Professor John Mullan

Miranda and Serenity attended the Wells Literary Festival ‘Sea Fever’ to listen to Professor John Mullan speak on Charles Dickens. Using extracts from his recent book, ‘The Artful Dickens’, Professor Mullan led his audience through the weird, wonderful and often humorous aspects of Dickens’s style. Listening to this eminent academic speak locally was such a privilege – we look forward to attending the festival again next year!

Congratulations to our U15 girls tennis team who have been crowned county champions

Congratulations to our Year 10 girls, Francis R, Jemima M-E, Romilly H and Zelie B who have been crowned county champions. It is an event made up of four singles and two doubles, and they had an exciting match in the county final to beat Norwich High School 4-2. They now go on to the East of England finals in September, good luck girls!

Well done to Farfield who have won the Year 9 Inter-House Debating Competition

This term has witnessed a quite outstanding Year 9 Inter-House Debating Competition. There was not a weak team across the seven houses which meant strong teams such as Howson’s, Tallis and Woodlands exited at the first-round stage. 

The semi-finals saw Queens’ triumph over Edinburgh opposing the motion ‘This House would abolish SATs for schoolchildren in England’, with Farfield successfully proposing the motion ‘This House would follow the lead of France and ban short-haul flights in the UK wherever viable train alternatives exist’ against Oakeley.   

The final was a rematch of the first-round tie but with the reverse result as Wild Card Farfield (Will, Connor and James) successfully defended the motion ‘This House would introduce a cap on the price of basic food items in Britain’ against the opposition, Queens’ (Ilana, Charlotte and Evie). 

Farfield now hold the Carolyn Thomas Trophy for 2022-23 and join Queens’ (Seniors) and Tallis (Year 10 and 11) as Wild Card teams who lost their first match but went on to win the competition.  

We resume in September with a new house, Arkell, entering the Senior competition for the first time.  

Our Eco Team delivered a brilliant talk to highlight their work this year

Members of our Eco Team delivered a brilliant chapel talk to highlight their work this year. The boys discussed how they are creating a wildlife area as part of their Community Action and Service project and highlighted the importance of minimizing food waste and recycling. They gave a quiz at the end with reusable cups as prizes. We are now submitting our entry for this years Green Flag Award and would like to thank all of our Eco Team for their hard work this year.