For the final enrichment talk of the academic year, we were delighted to welcome Jake Fiennes, Director of Conservation at Holkham Estate, to talk to Year 13 pupils about his book publication, ‘Land Healer – How Farming Can Save Britain’s Countryside’.

Jake gave an absorbing and enriching insight into Land Healer the story of Jake’s ambition to bring back flora and fauna – by reclaiming our traditions and trialling new experiments. Following the farming year and the natural cycle of the seasons, Land Healer chronicles a life of conservation and is a manifesto for rethinking our relationship with the natural world.

In the first week of the Easter Holidays, the Rifle Club enjoyed a very wet, and slightly cold, Easter Training week. In total, 15 members of the team, along with five members of staff, headed to Bisley for the week. Three pupils had already travelled to Bisley the previous day and were taking part in ‘Maple Taste’, a training / selection weekend for forthcoming GB cadet rifle team tours. Harry P and Jonny W were both training with the British Cadet Rifle Team ahead of their three-week tour to Canada in August and Georgie B was hoping for selection to the UK Cadet Rifle Team for the ten-day tour to the Channel Islands, also in August. By the end of the Rifle Clubs week at Bisley, the UKCRT team selection had been announced and Georgie B had been successful. Many congratulations to Georgie B on this thoroughly deserved achievement.

After their weekend with the GB cadet training, two of the three Gresham’s pupils (Jonny W headed off on DofE) then joined the rest of the Gresham’s team for the remainder of the week. Unfortunately, Georgie C had to leave the Camp after the weekend due to academic commitments.

The team had an excellent week of shooting but, other than on the first day, the weather was basically wet every day, all day. The training always starts at short range (300yds) and then over the course of the week we shoot over increasingly longer and longer distances. By the end of the week, the team were shooting over a distance of 1000yds. Shooting is not just about firing the perfect shot, although this is clearly important, there is also a lot of personal admin required and record keeping to be done. The evenings were spent learning the skills of plotting and coaching, which are both very important skills to have as the wind can have a massive effect on a bullet even at short range, let alone at 1000yds.

The new members of the Rifle Team did particularly well during the week and if they can shoot as well as they did, in the conditions we faced, then they can shoot well in almost any conditions. Very well done to them all.

These sorts of trips do not happen without the assistance of many people and thanks must go to Mrs Liberman, Capt. Scoles, Tony Clarke and Owen Liberman who all gave up their time to assist with the smooth running of the camp. It was a fantastically successful trip.

The U15 Girls cricket team went to the Lady Taverner’s National Indoor Tournament Qualifying Round at UEA and won 4 out of 4 matches to top the group and qualify for the County Finals. They scored 567 runs and conceded only 194 in four good wins.

The U15 girls then returned to UEA for the County Finals of the National Indoor Tournament. With 5 wins out of 5, scoring 642 runs and conceding 439, they became County Champions and progress to the Regional Finals in Cambridge on 27th April.

After the Easter holiday, the School Shop will be operating from a new location upstairs in the Cairns Centre, which is accessed via the Sports Entrance at the Senior School, located on the left-hand side of the road. The new arrangement will allow the School Shop and FOGS Second Hand Uniform to be collocated in the same building, making access to either or both options much easier for parents.

The new shop floor should be more welcoming, comfortable and easier to navigate, which, combined with streamlining of stock management, should make the shopping experience far better for parents and pupils. A new online portal will be available at some point during the first half of the Summer Term, providing parents the option of buying online and collecting (or arranging for their children to collect) from the shop or House at school. 

More details about this will be sent out next Term after the final checks have been carried out with the new system, but we hope this will be a welcome addition to uniform purchasing options. Arrangements for the traditionally busy ‘back-to-school’ period, late in the Summer Term and Summer Holiday period, will also be sent out during the Summer Term, but we certainly wish to encourage as many parents as possible to get ahead of the crowd, avoid the bottlenecks which occur at the end of the summer holiday, and try to complete these purchases for autumn early. 

Miranda, Sarah and Tracy will be keen to see you in their new location, so do pop in when you can to meet them after the Easter break and let them guide you through any uniform or kit purchases you need to make or plan.

The company consisting of principals, ensemble, a corps du ballet, student orchestra and crew took triumphantly to the stage to bring the Lent term to a dramatic end with four performances of Phantom of the Opera. This melodramatic musical saw audiences taking to their feet to applaud the amazing talent, dedication and student professionalism that put Andrew Lloyd Webber’s extraordinary musical on the Auden stage. Dressed with a proscenium arch, gauzes and stage boxes the audience were taken from Holt to Paris for a spectacular night at the opera.

The 1^st VII netball team challenged the 1^st XV rugby team to what has become an annual netball match last week. The boys arrived full of bravado to impress the packed balcony in the sports hall but the girls have worked hard  on their skills and technique this season. This paid off and the girls stole the game with a final score of 6-21. Well done to Players of the Match Mojuba and Trent.

Pupils recently took to the obstacle course in the woods with our woodland education manager. Mr Braithwaite guided them around the course, the regain and rope climb at first glance seem a relatively easy challenge, but pupils found that they needed to dig deep in their reserves of perseverance and resolve, but this didn’t affect their good humour in trying to complete the tasks.

Just before the end of term, the Senior School celebrated their Annual Chapel Easter Egg hunt. This fun event took place in the woods with pupils searching for a share in 800 chocolate eggs. All pupils had a chance to take part and they had a brilliant time running to find them!

Bronze:

Pupils have been busy working towards completion of their bronze DofE award this term, most just needing assessor reports for the final two sections. The past two weekends have seen seventy-two Year 10 pupils completing their assessment expedition over two days in the surrounding North Norfolk countryside. Each weekend there were six groups of boys/girls covering six different routes finishing at Kelling Heath camp site.

Silver:

Year 11 pupils have spent the Lent term completing preparation and planning for their assessment expedition which will take place in the Yorkshire Dales next term. All pupils should have completed the volunteering, physical and skills section by the end of the Lent term.

Gold:

Year 12 pupils are packed and ready to go to the Peak District at the end of term to complete their gold practice expedition. Five groups (29 pupils), will be based in the Hope and Edale valley.

Year 13 pupils have worked very hard to complete all sections of their award which they have been working towards for the last eighteen months. At this stage as a group, they are ahead of schedule and many already have had their gold award approved by the DofE.