Dear Parents and Friends,

The School Play last week showcased some of the highest quality School drama that I have experienced. The staging ‘in the round’ was intimate and challenging and the cast outshone almost everything that we have seen recently on the Royal Russell stage as they excelled themselves in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. I know that all who enjoyed this production will take away some very strong images and memories of the drama that unfolded. The success of the performances was highlighted by the amazing collaborative effort that was completed behind the scenes, with pupil led lighting, sound, stage management, makeup and wardrobe teams contributing so much. My congratulations to all involved.

On Monday morning, our Chapel service was led by St Andrew’s House who shared their thoughts and observations on the theme of Advent. Their message of supporting and giving at this time of expectation is reinforced by the collection of goods for the Croydon Foodbank, which is currently growing outside the Senior School Office. If you have any more items to donate, please could these be brought to School by Friday 8 December.

The Autumn Concert was held in front of a full Auditorium on Monday evening and we were treated to a festival of ensemble playing and singing including the Orchestra and Second Orchestra, Swing Band and Second Swing Band, Jazz Band, Choristers, Barbershop, Chamber Choir and Chamber Trio. It was wonderful to see so many young musicians performing for the first time and to be able to hear some brilliant individual performances. Ola Macieszek thrilled us all with her Chopin piano solo.

On Tuesday evening, we held a very successful Year 7 Parents’ Evening where I was delighted to hear such positive feedback from parents and pupils and to see such a bright future for the School within this year group. A reminder for Year 12 pupils and families that their Parents’ Evening is on Thursday 7 December, next week.

Year 11 have been working hard for their GCSE Trial examinations which started yesterday. The Art candidates have been completing their ‘conflict portraits’ and I was delighted to see the quality of their final pieces.

In Sport this week, there has been a great deal of varied activity including an outstanding performance from our 1st VII Netball Squad who won their match at St. George’s Weybridge to progress to the last 16 of the Independent Schools’ National Cup. Congratulations to Lucas and Eivie who both competed brilliantly at the British Biathlon finals in Solihull last weekend. The final ISFA squads were announced this week and we have made history by having the most players ever selected from any one given school. We have had a total of 11 players selected in the U16 and U18 squads, who will now go on to play Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as going to the National England Football Centre in Burton this December. This weekend, there are fixtures for football against Westminster and for hockey against Woldingham.

ADVENT and CHRISTMAS SERVICES 2017 We have two Chapel Services in the week ahead to which parents are warmly invited. On Monday 4 December, the Advent Carol Service will be in Chapel at 7.00pm. The music at this service will be led by members of the Chamber Choir and Choral Society. The School Christmas Service of Lessons and Carols will take place on Sunday 11 December at 6.30pm in Great Hall. Year 7 are expected to attend this traditional event, and we hope that parents and other members of their families will be able to join them.

With best wishes,

Headmaster’s Weekly

Newsletter

1 December 2017

Chris Hutchinson Headmaster

From the Chapel

School Services

In Monday’s presentation by St Andrew’s House, George and David read an explanation of the meaning of Advent, written by Max and Peter. Mr Tansley read John Betjeman’s poem, Christmas, which begins, The bells of waiting Advent ring, and ends claiming that if the Maker of the stars and sea [did] Become a Child on earth for me, then God was man in Palestine And lives today in Bread and Wine. In Thursday’s service Ben Preston read the Epistle and Collect for the First Sunday in Advent from the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer (1662). This was part of his recent reading in the Cranmer Awards competition, in which he came second.

Answer to Quiz 119 In Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi Christ, raises two fingers and a thumb in a blessing (representing God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit).

Quiz 120 November 30th is St Andrew’s Day. Of which countries is he the Patron Saint? Prizes for pupils.

Calling all Knitters and Crocheters, Ideal Christmas Holiday Activity

St. Thomas’s Hospital has run out of bonding squares in its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Bonding squares are pairs of 5 inch by 5 inch knitted or crochet squares (any colour, design and wool – it needs to be machine washable). One square is put with the poorly baby, the other with the parent and then these are swapped over daily. They are crucial for premature or poorly new born babies and parents who are separated at such a stressful time. Pairs of squares may be handed to Mrs Stone of our School Admissions Office or sent to: St. Thomas’ Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7EH.

Advent Service of Lessons and Carols 7.00pm Monday 4th December in the Chapel. This service will begin in darkness. The first Advent candle will be lit as we begin our preparation for the Christmas celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Light of the World. The Chamber Choir will sing carols to music by Palestrina, Handel and Gardner, as well as a Taize' chant. There will be appropriate Bible readings. Our hymns will include O Come, O Come, Emmanuel; Long ago, prophets knew; and Lo! he comes, with clouds descending. Do come and join us for this special and memorable service.

Historical Society Trip

Last week the Historical Society members travelled to London to attend a conference on Russia. The day composed of five lectures from leading academics on topics ranging from the end of the Tsars, to Stalin’s dictatorship, as well as British women visitors to the USSR. Although our GCSE and A level courses do not cover the entirety of this period of Russian history, the day was useful for A level historians whose coursework is on the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and, more generally, widening our understanding of such impactful occasions is beneficial for any historian.

The first lecture, presented by Dr Daniel Beer from Royal Holloway, was about the last Tsar, Nicholas II and his abdication following the February Revolution which, in turn, led to the end of the 300 year Romanov Dynasty. Dr Beer spoke at length on Nicholas’s characteristics and upbringing that led him to become a largely unqualified and spiritually-driven leader. He wholly pinned the downfall of the monarchy on Nicholas.

Following this, Professor Robert Service who is, perhaps, the most well known historian when it comes to the Russian Revolution, gave a speech on revolution and the rise of communism within early 20th century Russia. Professor Service suggested that the Bolsheviks and Lenin could have achieved success in the October coup via their analysis that without political change, in the form of a proletariat revolution, world wars would continue to take place and harm Russian society. Professor Service asserted that Lenin had an overarching influence in facilitating the insurrection in October, labelling him the “chief architect of Bolshevik political imagination”. When opening the floor to questions, Historical Society member Ella Jones practically stumped Robert Service, an Emeritus Professor at Oxford University , with her question, quite the achievement.

After a quick lunch break, the lectures resumed with Dr Andy Willimott’s talk on Lenin’s New Economic Policy (NEP) of 1921. His in-depth lecture covered everything from the foundations of the policy, to its impact and response. NEP was a step in the USSR’s progression toward state capitalism, but appeared to almost do the opposite with its creation of so-called NEPmen who took advantage of the opportunities for private trade it provided.

Dr Jane McDermid, from the University of Southampton, was our penultimate speaker. Her lecture covered the entire span of the USSR’s lifetime and focused on British females whom visited the socialist state. Dr Jane McDermid spoke about several individuals such as Beatrice Webb and Nancy Astor.

Each story she told was different, depending on each woman’s perspective of life in the USSR; some women marvelled at the supposed equality on offer, while others saw it as having a somewhat backward culture. Dr McDermid’s lecture made the USSR appear less alien and isolated.

Lastly, Martin McCauley gave a final lecture on Stalin: dictatorship and legacy. McCauley argued that Stalin’s sweep to power marked a dark time in the history of the USSR. Stalin did not shy away from using violence to keep his state under control, illustrated by the 850,000 opponents he had executed in 1938 for the fear that they would resist. McCauley’s lecture was both extremely informative and interesting.

Overall, our trip to this Russia conference was enjoyed by all Historical Society members who truly learnt a lot about this engaging period of history we do not get the chance to cover in our lessons. Thanks goes to Ms Worsfold and Ms Young for helping organise and take up on this trip; we look forward to more in the future.

Max Shirley

Year 10 Yule Logs

Year 10 Food Preparation and Nutrition pupils cooking up their first design idea for the festive season. They had to re-invent the Christmas Yule Log - they had the brief of not to use any non-edible decorations. The Year 10s were fantastic this week, creating this in just over a double lesson.

They are about to embark on their creation of the Royal Russell School Christmas Gingerbread House Street in the next couple of weeks, watch this space!

Jordi Major

Foodbank Appeal

As part of this year’s fundraising efforts, the Student Council have decided that they would like to support Croydon Foodbank once again.

Last year, over £1139 was raised and as per last year, we will be collecting food and toiletries to donate to the Foodbank. If you would like to make a donation, please bring in your contributions by the 8th December and leave them on the wooden table outside the Deputy Heads’ offices.

Tiffany Wood

The Dog Ate My Homework! John Baron has been teaching Science since 1995. This week he received his first genuine case of “the dog ate my homework Sir”!

Autumn Concert On Monday, the Autumn Concert was presented in the Auditorium, to a very large audience. This was a particularly notable event in that every school instrumental and vocal ensemble performed: The Choristers, Barbershop, Chamber Choir, Orchestra, Swing Band, 'SB2' (Junior Swing Band), 'O2' (Junior Orchestra), Jazz Band and Chamber Trio. A wide range of musical styles were presented. Although the focus this time was on ensemble singing and playing, we also enjoyed an excellent piano solo, Chopin's G minor Ballade, performed for us by Ola Macieszek, Year 12. None of this could have been achieved without the commitment and efforts of all of our talented pupils. Particular thank are due to Mrs Ford, who ran this event, and to Mr Millward, as well as to our visiting music teachers who coach the various ensembles: on this occasion, Miss Cameron (Jazz Band), Ms Griffith (Chamber Ensemble) and Miss O'Hanlon (Vocal Ensemble).

Year 13 Biology Trip On Wednesday, Year 13 Biologists set off for a day trip to Wakehurst Place, a house and botanic gardens in West Sussex. Managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Wakehurst is protected by the National Trust. Also, it is home to the Millennium Seed Bank, the largest wild plant seed bank in the world. Collecting seeds and preserving them in-situ offers an economical and effective way to save seeds and keep them for posterity. In the future, they can be germinated and reintroduced to the wild or used in scientific research. The exceptional plant collections and vital scientific research provided us a context for all stages and types of learning. We had the opportunity to study the application of gene technologies in plant classification and conservation. We conducted a DNA profiling experiment by undertaking gel electrophoresis with fast gel staining protocols and studied DNA wood samples, checking to see if any were from illegal sources. Additionally, we cloned cauliflower by using a method called micropropagation, which is the regeneration of whole plants from small pieces of stock plant. Each of us have produced our own clones and we brought them back to school to allow them to grow. In this trip, we’ve learnt the basic of DNA sequencing techniques and the convention of endangered species. Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed what was such a fantastic day enriching our A level knowledge and gaining new practical skills helping us grow as young scientists. The trip was educational and all the students had a lot of fun and felt like real geneticists. By Christa, Serena and Dylan Biology Ambassadors

To Kill a Mockingbird Last week saw the culmination of 10 weeks of hard work. The Auditorium was set up ready for the Senior Schools production of To Kill a Mockingbird. We played to a packed house for three nights and rave reviews. A note from the Director:

Welcome to this year’s production of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. An ambitious project and one that cuts to the heart of past and current issues around racism and inequality, the play different groups of people become scapegoats for society’s ills. We have added to these complexities by performing in the round; another first for us here at Royal Russell and I do hope you will see the incredible work that the children have put in to make this a very professional performance. My desire to do this play became even more determined by the riots in Charlottesville in August this year. Where did so much hatred come from? And why had we learnt nothing?

We are in trouble if we decide that people from any group, religion, colour or culture is somehow less than us and not to be trusted. It is surely not a world we want to build and it is not a future we want for our children.

I will leave the final words to Nelson Mandela, taken from his book A Long Walk to Freedom “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

Elayine Cripps

From the Sport Department

BASKETBALL

The U16 basketball team picked up their first win of the season with an outstanding team performance against St Paul's School on Tuesday afternoon. The team managed to pull away with a 82-70 victory which saw an all round team effort at both ends of the court. The match was dominated by captain David Ho who put on a spectacular offensive display and managed to score a Royal Russell School record of 61 points. Well done to all the boys!!!

FOOTBALL

The final ISFA squads were announced this week and we have made history by having the most players ever selected from any one given school. We have had a total of 11 players selected in the U16 and U18 squads, who will now go on to play Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as going to the National England Football Centre in Burton this December.

The players selected were, Daniel Mamas, Alex Taylor, Ben Leeson, Kyrigue Garvey-Williams, Omar Belazregue, Lewis McGillicuddy, Camron Gbadebo, Rylan John, Josh Newbury-Teeluck, Adam Aziz and Lochlan Greenwood. A massive congratulations to them all.

Royal Russell U13 1st XI extended their unbeaten run to 8 games with a hard fought 1-0 victory over Ibstock Place. The game started at a frantic pace with Ibstock looking to press Royal Russell from the first whistle, whilst Royal Russell aimed to hit Ibstock on the counter. This allowed for a great game of football, contested with physicality and sportsmanship. The first half finished 0-0 with both teams having close chances, however 10 minutes into the second half Royal Russell broke the deadlock, scoring from a corner after Ibstock were unable to clear their lines. Royal Russell were given a fright in the latter stages with Ibstock hitting the bar after some good work down the right hand side. Royal Russell’s next opponents are John Lyon in the Quarter Finals of the ISFA Cup.

The Girls U12A team travelled to Dorset to play Emmanuel Middle School in the first round of the ESFA U12 9-a-side Schools' Cup for Girls.

Emmanuel confidently took the kick off and were passing the ball well, until suddenly the Royal Russell attackers broke for goal and with some good passing around their defence managed to slip the ball passed the Goalkeeper, making it 1-0 to Royal Russell.

Again, Emmanuel had possession and were using the width of the pitch. Unfortunately for them we managed to take the ball and score another goal. Royal Russell began to dominate and scored another two goals during the first half. 4-0 at the break.

The second half continued in a similar fashion. Emmanuel played well down the left wing but they could not make it past the Royal Russell defence. Royal Russell attackers were quick to seize on every opportunity and were able to score another three goals, including a penalty awarded for handball in the box.

The final result was 7-0 to Royal Russell. Goal scorers were Charlotte Walker (5), Cassie Exall and Millie German. Royal Russell will now head to Bournemouth to take on Glenmoor and Winton Academies in the second round.

HOCKEY

The return fixture against Alleyn’s was a fantastic display from both our U13A and U13B girls. The A team started the game in an aggressive style, we quickly found ourselves with the upper hand in the game, testing Alleyn’s defence on multiple occasions. We were very unlucky not to find ourselves in the lead. However, on the counter Alleyn’s looked threatening and the deadlock was broken less than 5 minutes from the end.

The B team had a very similar start to the match, starting hard and fast the girls were testing the Alleyn’s defence and 5 minutes into the game we broke the deadlock with a brilliantly taken goal by Millie Wood. This started a goal frenzy with two quick goals from Lily Ray and Khalia Charles. We were 3-0 up with 5 minutes to go but Alleyn’s answered back with two quick goals, leaving the match 3-2 and with a nail biting last 3 minutes to the end of the game. Fantastic effort to all the girls who turned up, helped with getting the pitch ready and braving the near freezing weather conditions.

BIATHLON

Congratulations to Lucas and Eivie who both competed brilliantly at the British Biathlon finals in Solihull last weekend. After qualifying through the rankings of this tough event, they both competed really well.

Lucas ran a solid 1600m race and swam a good 200m, in a very tough group. He finished in an amazing 7th place individually and with the help of two other boys from Whitgift Modern Pentathlon Academy the boys were crowned U17 Boys National Team Champions.

In the U12 group, Eivie ran a personal best in the 800m and swam well to finish a brilliant 46th out of 70 biathlete. Over 300 athletes entered the qualifying rounds in the U12 girls group with the top 70 selected to compete at the National finals.

Well done, a great weekend of fantastic achievements.

NETBALL

Wednesday saw our first VII take on Colfe’s School in a friendly match at Royal Russell. With a few injuries, this allowed us to give the opportunity to some of our second VII players. Mariana stepped up and played exceptionally well in defence, taking numerous turnovers. The girls maintained their focus for the entire 60 minutes and focused on their own targets and prepare for their cup match taking place on Tuesday. The final score was 73-21 to Royal Russell.

On Tuesday, the girls headed over to Weybridge to compete in the next round of the Independent Schools Knockout Cup against St George’s College. Maya Linter, as captain led the team well and ensured they were well prepared. During the first quarter, the game was going goal for goal. We worked the ball through court well and with an excellent transition speed on a turnover, this allowed us to end on a goal and finish the first 15 minutes with an 8-6 lead. The half time score was 20-12 to Royal Russell. This was a result of our defensive players reading the game exceptionally well. Our attacking players were there ready to take the ball through court and with strong decision making we converted almost every turnover to goal. In the third quarter, we had a slight dip in our performance. We began to forget our strategy and tried to match St George’s play. The shooters were on 100% accuracy in this quarter, however we only gave them two shooting opportunities. Our ball placement began to fall short and we made various unforced errors. St George’s took full advantage of this and the quarter ended 22-23. It was the first time in the game we lost our lead. After a tense team discussion at quarter time with both coaches, the girls went back on court more determined than ever. The last fifteen minutes were tiring but the adrenalin kicked in. The team spirit on and off the court was vital and it gave our girls the encouragement they needed. The girls continue their winning streak and finished the game with a huge win of 36-31. Congratulations Maya Linter, Jada Springer, Rheanna Thomas-Grant, Jasmine Palmer-Garrick, Morgan Faulkner, Libby Jones, Maddy Longhurst, and Eddi Morrissey - down to the last 16 in the country!

HOUSE SPORT During Junior boys 5 a side football this week, Keable beat St Andrew’s 2-0 and Cambridge were too strong for Oxford running out 4-1 winners.

Royal Russell School

Coombe Lane : Croydon : Surrey : CR0 5RF

www.royalrussell.co.uk Patron: Her Majesty The Queen

Diary Dates

Sunday 3 December Boarders Activity - Christmas Shopping at Bluewater

Monday 4 December Year 9 Geography Data Collection Trip to London

Wednesday 6 December Theatre Society Trip to Aladdin

Thursday 7 December Year 7-9 Choristers Carol Singing in the Whitgift Centre

Thursday 7 December 2nd Hand Uniform Sale - 3.00pm to 4.15pm

Thursday 7 December Year 12 Parents' Evening - Great Hall

Friday 8 December History Association Debate

Friday 8 December Boarders Snow Ball

Sunday 10 December Year 11 German Trip to Christmas Markets

Sunday 10 December Senior School Christmas Carol Service -6.30pm

Great Hall - All are most welcome

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