STRS in the News - Spring Term 2003

 New focus for Founder's Day Celebration will raise money for Link School

Our plans to celebrate the school's foundation in 1666 are to take a new turn this year.

A series of events are scheduled and will include:-

showing our Year 7 pupils the sites where the school started (St John's Northgate, the Cathedral, the Guildhall and The Old School House) and explaining their significance;

a week of assemblies in which aspects of the school's history will be explained;

fund-raising to support our link with the Parvatiben Muljibhai Madhvani Girls' School, in Jinja, Uganda.

The idea behind the latter is that our pupils should be more actively involved in doing something to commemorate the school's foundation. The school was founded in the will of Sir Thomas Rich, made on 16th May 1666. In this he bequeathed to the Mayor and Council of Gloucester "the sum of six thousand pounds to be disbursed by them in purchasing land that shall be of the yearly value of three hundred pounds or upwards", which was to be spent on "the yearly maintenance for ever of twenty poor boys with diet, lodging, washing, clothing and other necessaries in blue coats and caps" and an annual payment to "an honest, able schoolmaster" who was to reside in the Hospital and teach the boys to write and read. It seems appropriate that, in the spirit of Sir Thomas Rich's generosity, we emulate his benevolence by raising funds to enable twenty poor children to receive an education. In the UK education up to the age of 16 is compulsory and free - however that is not the case in Uganda. We would like to provide funding which will allow twenty children to go to our link school who would otherwise not be able to do so.

We are in the process of finding out more about the Uganda school - Mr Seales and Mr Crewe are to spend two weeks there before Easter. We estimate that we would need to raise the equivalent of between £12 and £15 per month per child. However, if we find that providing such support is impractical, we shall support a charity (Action Aid or Plan) which organises a "Sponsor a Child" scheme along very similar lines. The intention is to receive reports of the children so that our pupils can see the benefits of their activity.

Home page for Uganda Link Project

Founders Day Week

The first week in April saw a frantic series of fundraising events which admirably augmented the charity fund for our partner school in Jinja Uganda. The aim is to raise £3500 which would enable 20 children to gain and education who would otherwise not do so, emulating Sir Thomas Rich's philosphy when he founded our school.

Headmaster Mr Kellie wrote in the newsletter -

"I have been delighted and impressed by the ingenuity and energy of pupils in devising schemes for raising money and the enthusiasm with which they have organised events."

The events staged included: a cake sale, penalty shoot-out competition, Junior Drama Club staged 'A Pardoner's Tale', James White (7B) was sponsored to stand all day, a Bring-&-Buy sale, Shave the Teacher, Free Dress Day, No Homework Day, Uganda Quiz, the choir being sponsored to sing all of Psalm 119, Rock Concert, indoor cricket, 7-a-side rugby, Music Fair. Previous to these the Sixth Form had put on a Fashion Show which raised £600.

Penalty Competition



Year 7 Cake Sale

 Fashion Show run by Sixth Form is a big Success!

21 March 2003

We began the Show fifteen minutes late; not, unusually, due to technical difficulties (thanks to Richard Parker, Toby Stewart and Alasdair Burchill) but due to the overwhelming response of the public who kept flooding in through the door! The reason - to see over fifty Tommies lads and lasses dressed up, strutting their stuff as models to help raise money for our newly forged link school in Uganda.

It obviously worked - although much of it came together on the final day, with myself and Andrew Adams, as the evening's compères, frantically writing our scripts as we saw the clothes, and the section leaders - Nick Day, Martyn Adlam, James Williams, James Farley and Shelley Portlock, Kait Gazzard and Sascha Kerkof - all worked hard to organise and choreograph their aspiring 'models'.

We had everything from skateboards flying across the stage, to full bridal wear and ballroom dancing, thanks to a variety of clothes leant to us by our sponsors : D2, Top-2-Toe, Marks & Spencer, Horace Barton, Chanticleer and Hargraves Sport.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and by the end of the evening we had raised about £400!

Thanks to everyone who took part from balloon blowers and decorators, car stewards, banner painters, the PTA, through to wardrobe managers, the models themselves and Mrs Cormack-Hicks, who managed (just!) to stay sane throughout it all!

Sarah Thurlow

 Staff Rappers get Respect!

14 March 2003

As part of the Comic Relief Red Nose Day fund raising events some of the more extrovert members of staff put their reputations on the line and before a sizeable audience strutted their stuff right on down, to determine who was da' rap king (or queen) and who was da' clown. In all ser-i-ous-ness it was na' all funney, as for da' red nose day, they raised lodes a money!

Well done to Luke Leighfield and other year 11 boys for organising this fun event. Amazingly they induced staff to take part and raised £186 for Comic Relief by charging pupils to watch!

 Individual Achievements

Congratulations to:-

Nicholas Walkeley (U6C) who has made it through to the final of the prestigious Gloucestershire Young Musician 2003 competition.

Samantha Lyons (L6T) on her selection for the Gloucestershire U18 netball team which will contest the Alex Barlass Tournamnet in Middlesborough in March.

Chris Surman (8R) who has been selected for the gloucestershire County Cricket U12 squad.

members of 8B for organising a disco for Years 7 & 8 pupils from Rich's and The High school Denmark Road, which raised over £400 for Blue Peter Waterworks Appeal.

 Venture Scouts Successes

Survival Weekend - 18-20 January 2003

A gruelling Survival Challenge Weekend was organised by unit "old boy" Dan 'Mad-Dog' Wright, who brought his experiences and expertise to bear in creating survival challenges for two teams from the unit.

Assisted by the miserable wet and windy weather conditions, the teams underwent a true examination of their hardiness, initiative, leadership and character as they moved from one challenge situation to another over the 3-day period.

They had to build their own shelters, light fires, prepare and cook their own meals "backwoods" style, test their mettle on various ropes courses, rock climbs and a cave crawl, beat the clock over a variety of navigation exercises, execute a 'military style' operation on a paintball range, all the while keeping a level head and sense of humour!

Gloucester Scout District Swimming Gala - 25 January 2003

Sam Coe, Alasdair Burchill & Robin Griffiths display their medal haul which secured the 44th's position as outright winners of the U18 section of the District Swimming Gala held on Burn's Night at GL1

Cotswold Marathon - 15 February 2003

Once again the school's Venture Scout Unit - or rather we should call it Explorer Scout Unit following the Scout Movement's restructuring for the New Millennium - brought home winner trophies from the annual Cotswold Marathon.

The fastest team around the 36 mile course in 7hrs 54mins brought home the Lowry Trophy - Peter Lloyd, Dan Stone, Phil Hanson & Adam Griffiths.

The 44th also won the Lowry Junior Male Team trophy - Andrew Hitchcock, Gavin Hardy and Tim Dalton completing the course in just over 11 hours.

The unit entered several other teams in both the 36 and 18 mile events and everyone completed their respective courses in good times. Well done!

Most of the walkers from the unit were sponsored to raise money for the "Crack Cancer Campaign" - a special well done to them and thanks to all those who sponsored them for this extremely worthwhile cause.

 Eight Heading for Oxbridge

The school is proud to announce that eight of its current Upper Sixth Form have successfully completed the Oxbridge interview process and been offered places for next September, provisional on their A Level grades. Six of the eight are pictured here.

Akshay Nair, Tariq Piperdy, James Hodge and Michael Smith have been offered places at Oxford, while Cambridge College places await Tim Grant, Richard Parker, Darrell Woods and Michael Foxcroft.

 Undefeated U13 Rugby Team

The U13 'A' XV continued their excellent form during the second half of the Michaelmas Term to finish undefeated. The basis of their success has been the way all of the players have always worked well together as a team. The squad has had strength in depth and displayed tremendous team spirit and determination to always play to best of their ability.

The highlights of the second half of the season were the hard fought games against Crypt away (5-17) and a powerful Bishop of Hereford Bluecoat XV (14-12) at home. The Hereford result was particularly pleasing as the side was without five regular squad members.

The U13 'B' XV played only two games during the second part of their season. They narrowly lost to Crypt (12-5) in an evenly balanced and exciting game which was settled in the dying minutes when Crypt scored a break-away try from deep within their own half. The side bounced back however to beat a well-organised Bishop of Hereford Bluecoat XV by 15-0, scoring three tries in the process.

Our picture shows six of the successful U13 Team having just received Merit Awards from Clive Stuart-Smith at last term's Final Assembly.

Both the 'A' & 'B' squads should be congratulated not only on their performances this season but also on their attitude in training which has been first class. Chief coach Mr C D A Carter tips the side as " .. one to watch out for in the future."

.... new news coming shortly ...

Compiled by PCR