wellow-wise€¦ · wellow-wise . wellow-wise ... as charles kay and brian jones ... ‘missis’,...
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Telephone (01623) 861054 Facsimile (01623) 836665 E-mail: [email protected]
A Half-Termly Newsletter from Wellow House School Wellow Newark Nottinghamshire
From The Headmaster
I am enjoying my final term at Wellow House School reflecting on lots of fond memories generated over the
past twelve years. It has been a great honour to lead such a wonderful school through testing times and a
period that has seen a lot of development of the site. I trust the new team will continue to develop the school
long into the future and maintain the ethos that you and past Wellovians bought into and helped foster over the
years since Robin and Elspeth Forbes founded it in 1971.
The first half term has brought with it a very mixed bag of weather, which has affected the number of fixtures
we have been able to fulfil. There have certainly been an unusual number of coughs and colds, which have led
to more days’ absence, of pupils and staff, than throughout the mild spring term. Hopefully, all will return in
good health to give their end of year examinations their best shot after some productive revision. As I remind
the pupils every year, the correction week is the important week where we all learn from our mistakes. As
Frank Wilczek stated, ‘If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a
big mistake’.
We welcome back Joanna Crook and Rebekah Hawley after their maternity leave. We trust they will settle
back into the routines of school life quickly and soon feel that they have never been away. We also welcome
Kathryn Reast back into the Prep department after her successful work with Year 2 in Pre-Prep. We have a
good number of new starters in the school this term, seven in total across the year groups, which bodes well for
the future, and a number of trial days coming up in the summer term.
Salvete
Alexander Guest Arlo Dolby
Macy Dunkinson Samuel Robinson
Max Dunkinson Freya Moss
Chloe Dunkinson
We wish them all long and happy careers here at
Wellow House School and trust we will be able
to uncover whatever talents they may possess.
Valete
Lysander Starkey
It was with great sadness I had inform you that
Mr Neil Houghton passed away just before the
start of the term. Brian Jones and I represented
the school at his funeral and Mr Jones produced
an obituary that you can read here on the next page. ABOVE: Over 70% of Year 8 have won scholarships!
Vol 22 Number 5 27th May 2016
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Neil Houghton
Of course, a fitting obituary for Neil
Houghton would take about 45 minutes to
read and leave your head spinning. Cricket
has Dickie Bird; English Table Tennis had
Neil Houghton. They were stamped out of the
same mould of eccentric sports enthusiasts.
RIGHT: The 1999 Table Tennis Team,
with trophies from The IAPS National
Prep Schools’ Championships, The
Worksop League and the Notts Schools’
Championships.
This school team picture shows two IAPS national champions and the
son of a table tennis world champion, who heard about us from the other
side of the world and sent his son to Wellow. It is easy to forget what a
force the school used to be in the world of table tennis. Neil’s best pupil
became UK schools champion, his Derbyshire county side was national
champions many times and he helped at least a dozen boys to reach
England standard. He coached at Wellow for over 25 years, supporting
our players at numerous tournaments and coaching our pupils to two
national titles, two Worksop League titles and county schools’ titles too
numerous to mention. He helped me look after the boarders for three
years, giving me an evening break by supervising prep sessions. His academic abilities were formidable: he had
an M.Ed in Health Education and twenty years’ experience as a biology teacher and prep sessions showed that
he was also a sound mathematician and Latin grammarian.
Some of you will know that I led Outdoor Pursuits for many years. Neil was my source of objective
information about obscure medical conditions and he told me what I had to do to enable children to take part
who might otherwise have been left at home. When I turned up at Health and Safety Committee Meetings
apparently well informed about the risks of Legionnaires’ disease or Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, it was due to
the briefing I received from Neil. He helped your children in many ways you never knew of. English Table
Tennis will definitely be a less colourful sport without him.
Brian Jones
Elspeth Forbes
Elspeth Forbes, Nick Forbes’ mother, also passed away during the
first week of the term. Wellow House School owes her much for her
contribution during its early years. Mrs Lynda Milner has kindly
produced an obituary for her, below, as Charles Kay and Brian Jones
were very much influenced by her contribution to the development of
Wellow House School in its early days, with a largely boarding
community, which she played a major role in.
The successes of both Cundall Manor and Wellow House could
never have been achieved without the partnership of Robin and
Elspeth Forbes. It is them that we have to thank for the unique ethos
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they engendered.
‘Missis’, as Elspeth was always addressed, was much more than the Headmaster’s wife, taking a full part in the
day to day cleaning and catering supported by a minimal number of staff; she managed the laundry for the
whole school and prescribed much more than the basic medical needs of the boarders. It was always difficult to
prise the last few customers out of the evening surgery before bedtime where many of the day’s achievements
and disappointments were sympathetically analysed. A small handful of Strepsils or a spoonful of jungle juice
sorted out most problems.
Many will remember the bat gas, a distinctively scented air sanitizer, which was delivered from a large pump
up spray gun. Missis had a routine every evening to spray the dormitories and any bodies which happened to
get in the way as she did her rounds. This was repeated in the mornings in the classrooms before lessons, no
doubt to kill off any day bugs!
There was, however, one time of the evening when the sitting room door was shut (which was most unusual as
children were allowed to wander in at any time of the day) and a notice went on the door, ‘No knocking on this
door before 8 o’clock’. This was Missis’ time to watch Coronation Street, have a few drags on a Pete
Stuyvesant and a well-deserved glass of Amontillado! Woe betide anyone who disturbed this rare chance for a
respite from the hectic pace of her day!
Mrs Forbes always played a full part in the life of the school, just as a mother would in her own home with her
own children, thus creating the genuine family atmosphere in the schools both at Cundall and Wellow.
Together she and Robin provided a space for young folk to find a secure foundation for life - for some in the
midst of trial and tribulation. Our gratitude will never be sufficient for all that Elspeth was to those who loved
her most dearly.
The canal trip went extremely well and the crew worked hard on the locks to ensure we made sound progress
each day and kept to schedule. We were blessed with good weather throughout the week and the children had a
great time at the Black Country Museum, especially when tucking into the Fish & Chips made with beef
dripping, and whilst spending a day at Drayton Manor Park.
I was presented with a brass compass and sundial, along with a scroll detailing the boats I had hired over the
past 25 years with Anglo-Welsh (although have been narrow boating with school parties for the past 30 years).
A lovely gesture from the company and the photograph and write-up is now on the Anglo-Welsh website.
I look forward to venturing out
on the British Waterways in the
future and Anglo-Welsh have
offered me a sound deal on my
next trip with my friends and
family.
I hope that all those children who
have enjoyed the opportunity of
experiencing life on a narrow
baot for a week go on to enjoy
future trips with their family and
friends in the future and
remember the crew they first
ventured out onto the British
Waterways with.
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Mr Larby & Mr Wilson have again been as industrious as usual
during the holiday. They have been busy enlarging the toilet spaces
in the girls’ toilets, replacing the water tank in the boys’ shower area,
marking out all the pitches and the new floor has gone down in the
Science Room. They have also tidied up a lot of areas around the
school and I trust we will all help them keep the school in a highly
presentable state. We said a fond farewell to Mr Larby at the end of
the Easter holiday and look forward to Mr Wilson keeping the school
in good working order in the future. RIGHT: Farewell to Mr Larby
Welcome Mr Bob O’Hara, the new bursar. You may well have
already spotted him around the school, especially looking at the
action on the car park in the mornings and evenings. He took up his full time role in early May. We will give
Mr Peter Moore a royal send off before half term, after he has helped Mr O’Hara gain a full understanding of
his role within the school, acquiring a full handle on the finance and business management of the site and all
the employees within it.
Baco have developed the old Library into a teaching kitchen for the future use of pupils throughout the school.
They have completed most of the walls around the swimming pool; removed the pear tree from beside the rear
fire exit and put base and first stage of the walls for the kitchen extension and rest room. The development of
the school is moving forward.
National Bronze for Wellow House
School Ski Team
It was pleasing to see Wellow enter a team
into the national Prep School Ski
Championships again this year after their
success in winning two years ago.
Four of our top skiers, Alex & Emma
Germany (who ski usually around twice a
week, at ski centres, throughout the year
and then abroad during the winter holidays)
+ Jorge and Isabel Vere-Laurie (fresh back
from their term in France, skiing each day
and competing regularly) teamed up to ski
in the competition on Monday 25th April.
They performed extremely well in their
respective age groups and as a team came
third in the rankings for schools spanning
Prep School ages 7 – 13. This bodes well
for the team over the coming years.
Jorge Vere-Laurie finished second in his
age group and he is pictured on one of his
two runs on the day.
RIGHT: Jorge gets a good low body
position for rounding a pole in the
school’s recent fine showing at the IAPS
Skiing Championships. While the school
didn’t retain the cup, the team did very
well to achieve a podium finish again.
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Scholarships
Scholarship Awards abound this year, which highlight the excellent all round education Wellow House School
provides:
Year 8
Teni Akinyosoye Academic to Oakham
Eliot Braton All Rounder to Stamford
George Coen All Rounder to Stamford
Simon Elliott-Bateman Academic Scholarship to Worksop
Augustus Haste Sports Scholarship to Oakham
Augustus Haste Sports Scholarship to Stamford
Ewan Laughton Sports Scholarship to Stamford
Felix Leckie All Rounder to Stamford
Benedict Murray Art Scholarship to Worksop
Kelsey Pearce Sports Scholarship to Repton
Kelsey Pearce Sports Scholarship to Worksop
Rhian Pedley Academic & Art Scholarship Worksop
William Stinchcombe Academic Scholarship to Worksop
Year 7
Callum Thompson Academic Scholarship to Lincoln Minster
William Hill Sports Scholarship (Golf) to Worksop
This is a fantastic achievement and the staff should be praised for preparing the pupils so well and the children
themselves for performing to potential on the day. (BOTTOM: the scholars looking proud of themselves.)
We have a number of staff leaving at the end of term: Mrs McGill, Mrs Adley, Mrs Rogerson, Mrs
Oxborough, Mrs Beardsley and Miss Grimwood. We will celebrate their contributions to the school on
Speech Day, where our guest speaker will be Mr W. Penty, Headmaster of Trent College.
I look forward to seeing all those who can make the Summer Ball this year and thank WHSPA, in advance, for
all the hard work they put into putting such a
fantastic event on. The Wellow Ball has certainly
gained recognition in the local social calendar, so
ensure you have booked your place for Saturday
25th June.
I am looking forward to seeing a good number of
Wellow children performing in the Wellow
Maypole Day celebrations – dancing around the
maypole. This is scheduled for Monday 30th May
this year and I hope they are blessed with a dry day
despite a number of the rehearsals being impacted
by rain.
The Headmaster
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Jools Constant’s Visit to Wellow
Comedian Jools Constant brought his
award-winning online safety show to the
Year 5 to 8 children on Wednesday 20th
April, before talking to a group of
twenty parents who attended his later
show. As well as making both groups
laugh, he also warned everyone about a
number of precautions we can take
online to ensure that we use the internet
and social networking sites for the great
resources that they are, rather than
putting ourselves in danger or risking
our reputations through unwise
comments or photo sharing.
The show for the parents explained the
philosophy and content of the children’s
show, before giving them some pointers as
to how best to help their children (who have never known a pre-internet world) to navigate this new section of
their lives safely. Jools also had a chat with a number of parents individually afterwards.
Thanks to all those parents who came to take advantage of this opportunity and to all the children for being an
attentive audience.
Dan O’Kane, Senior Teacher
Year 3 and 4 Trips
Year 3 and 4 had a great day out at Woolsthorpe Manor where they visited Isaac Newton’s house, made and
fired rockets and explored the experiments in the science discovery centre.
Year 3 created collages inspired by Sir Peter Blake’s exhibition on their exciting recent visit to The Harley
Gallery.
ABOVE: Scenes from the recent trip to The Harley Gallery, with everyone looking fascinated.
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ABOVE: More scenes from The Harley Gallery trip.
September’s Residential in Picardy, France
A good number of those in the current Year 6 and 7 forms have paid
their deposits for September’s exciting Wellow House first: a five day
residential to the Somme region of Northern France. Pictured here is
the lovely Chateau du Broutel where they will be based for their team
building and visits to the Somme Battlefield (in the 100th anniversary
year of the First Battle there), the French coast and market towns and
even an artisan chocolatier!
Could I remind those parents who have not yet paid that the final £350
payment is due in a cheque made out to Wellow House School by
Friday 17th June, please.
(RIGHT: I checked out all the visits & facilities over Easter.)
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Pre – Prep News
The Queen’s 90th Birthday
As part of the preparations for the Her Majesty's 90th birthday party, Year 2 children wrote letters to the Palace
asking the Queen if she would like to join us. In their letters, children asked what flavour birthday cake she
would like, what dress she may choose to wear, which are her favourite party games and whether she was
looking forward to any presents in particular, along with many more party planning questions.
The children were overjoyed to receive a reply from the royal household. As expected, Her Majesty already has
plans for the 14th June but was very grateful to receive the birthday wishes and sentiment from the school.
Easter Bonnet Parade
Just before the end of last term, the whole of Pre-Prep participated in a fabulous Easter Bonnet parade. The
children worked extremely hard to produce some creative and imaginative Easter bonnets! Well done to
everyone for an amazing
effort!
RIGHT:
Some of the wonderful
designs for Easter
bonnets that we saw in
school in March.
Pets at Home Trip
Year 2 pupils enjoyed gathering information for their non-fictional writing with a trip to pets at home. Children
looked at how information is presented and what’s included in an information leaflet before creating their own.
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Year 2 Maths Trip
Year 2 pupils enjoyed real money maths
during a recent trip to Tesco. Children had
been working on addition and subtraction
problems within £1. To make the learning
even more exciting, children went to Tesco
to spend their £1, adding up the shopping as
they went before working out the change at
the checkout. All items purchased were then
donated to the Ollerton and Boughton
Foodbank, which were gratefully received.
More Scenes from Recent Trips
Clockwise from left: Harley Gallery, Canal Trip, Harley, Tescos
twice and Warwick Castle, where the Year 7s enjoyed a history trip.
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Simon Elliott-Bateman’s 500 Word Story – Shortlisted by the Radio 2 Judges
My head scraped along the rusty metal tin-can of a car with a sickening screech. I could feel the metallic taste
of blood in my water-drained mouth. Three tall men stood over me in luxurious dark suits. Two of them had
gas masks concealing their faces. The mountainous creature in the middle however, was extremely bulky with a
heavy cigar lolling between his fat lips. He simply smiled at me, quite politely. And all because of that smile, I
knew I was in for a rollercoaster ride of torture and torment.
Enormous lights stared down at me with incredible intensity. It took me a moment to gather my bearings and
remember what had happened to me.
October 23rd 1940. It was a stormy night, all damp and dark. Lightning flashed before me as I crept slowly into
the building. I let myself show a goofy smile in gladness as I heard German voices and the sound of a radio.
This is what I had come to do. To disable the German radios in Britain. I jumped into action and took the two
men unawares. I took the remains of the men outside and hid them in the dustbin. And even that was more than
they deserved, I thought. I then leaned over the wooden table and began my work on the radio. “I’ve taken
control Churchill,” I whispered over the telecom.
“Get out of there soldier! Now! Jerrys are surrounding the building. I repeat, get out…” The iron door hit the
floor with a thud and I met the barrel of a gun aiming at my head. I dived through the boarded-up window with
extreme force, creating a wave of splinters flying in all directions. I ran headlong through the shady side-alleys,
ignoring the demands of the German spies. My heart pounded so painfully I thought it would fly out of my
mouth. My lungs throbbed. My legs trembled. My eyes closed when I received a bullet in my shoulder.
That is what happened to me. All because of that failure, I am now here. In this white room of doctors
attempting to torture England’s secrets out of me. Yet I will not yield, that was the oath I swore to myself.
Now you can call me an oath breaker. Their methods of torture were certainly undesirable. Maybe the Jerrys
will win this god-forsaken war. All I know is that I want no part in it, this was a politician war but only fought
by glory-hunting farmers and boys too young.
That night I dreamed of more torture than I had ever imagined. Or maybe it did happen. I can no longer tell
anymore. Night and day roll into each other meaninglessly. All I can do is hope and pray for my wife, Alyssa,
and my sweet son, Hugo.
I can feel the life sapping from my body, leaking its contents into the air. Maybe one day they’ll look at me like
a hero. But that day, is not today.
Great Start to the Cricket Season – U 13s, 11 As and 11 Bs Unbeaten at Half-Term
At the time of writing, the Under 13 cricket team is unbeaten, with an impressive victory over Westbourne by 6
wickets (Eliot 3 for 12, Ewan 32 n.o. and Gusto 14 n.o.) and then a much tighter affair against Grace Dieu,
eventually won by 5 runs (George 15, Eliot 11, Eliot 3 for 8, Toby 2 for 11), in which Simon and Jayden held
their nerve bowling under pressure and Ewan captained well. The Under 11s have been led well by Bradley
Lucas and both they and the Under 11 Bs remain unbeaten at time if writing. Keep it up!
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Year 7 Visit Warwick Castle
In the final week of the Easter Term, Year 7
visited Warwick Castle to complement their
studies of medieval warfare and The Wars of the
Roses. Here’s what they thought:
I loved the dungeons because they
were so scary, particularly the bit
where we got judged guilty or not
- Fred
I enjoyed the Kingmaker Tour
because it was interesting to see
how the blacksmiths made the
weapons – Devan
I remember seeing the body being
dissected in the dungeons! – Henry
I liked the maze because there
were lots of interactive bits, where you had to get your
passport stamped in different eras – Sophie and
Charlotte
I really liked the bit when we climbed the very steep
staircases to the battlements and we could see down
for miles – Una
I loved the dungeons because the plague doctor was
still in the dark for ages & then jumped at us - Verity
I liked the Kingmaker Tour, as we discovered that
ginger-haired people got to get drunk and wee into
buckets to help wash clothes! – Izzy S
I loved the dungeons because they were thrilling and
made you jump – Izzy M
The dungeons and the sweet shop were thrilling in
different ways! - Hannah
The Horrible Histories plays and the enthusiastic class
both made my day enjoyable – Mr O’Kane
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Win Hill – Year 4 trip
We went on a trip to Derbyshire to Hope Valley and also to climb a
mountain called Win Hill. It is called Win Hill because there was a
big battle with two armies, one army stayed at Lose Hill and one army
stayed on Win Hill. So basically you know who won – obviously it
was the army on Win Hill! The climb was steep. When we got to the
top, there was a beautiful view, you could see lots of buildings but
mostly fields. Whilst eating our lunch at the top, the wind was so
strong that it blew George’s cap off. However, Mrs Beldon came to
the rescue and got the hat. When we went down the mountain we had
to be quiet because the sheep were very fierce because they were
protecting their babies. We had an amazing time.
Amelia Gibson
Prunella’s Great Escape – Phoebe Skelton’s Shortlisted 500 Word
Story
Once there was a girl called Prunella. Her mum is Queen of England, they’re incredible rich. However,
Prunella isn’t an ordinary princess she’s different. She hates wearing all the fancy cloths, the fancy food, but
most of all she hates the fact she can’t go outside by herself even though she was fourteen. She always has to
be with a Royal Guard. Even if she is just going out to the garden. Prunella new this was for health and safety
reasons but Prunella’s dream is to explore the world ON HER OWN!!
Prunella had tried to escape many times but it never worked. One time she almost did it by climbing
through her bedroom window but her mum’s dog Gertie saw her and started barking (stupid dog grrrrrrrr).
Prunella’s been working on another escape plan. All she needs is a parachute that her mum has, because
she had to parachute out of a helicopter for a ceremony, and a chimney in the Castle. Now she just needs to
wait for nightfall, then ‘Operation Escape’ is go.
Night had fallen. Prunella snuck into her mum’s room and got the parachute, then found the nearest
chimney and started to climb. Prunella got out of the chimney an hour later.
When she noticed her parachute was heavier than before, Prunella looked behind her, there was a poker
from the fireplace hanging off it. It must have got caught when she was climbing up. Prunella tried to detach it
from her parachute but it was proper stuck so she left it, and double-checked her parachute was secure, and got
a big run up leapt in to mid-air and opened her parachute. “This is amazing,” whispered Prunella as quiet as she
could, still keeping in mind she’s escaping, (and there’s Guards outside the front gate).
After a while Prunella wasn’t moving anywhere because her parachute had got court on a gargoyle.
Prunella was hanging there for five minutes at the max, when suddenly a Royal Guard at the gate turned
around. Prunella panicked and did the first thing that came into her mind…which was do the Egyptian dance.
Lucky though it actually worked, the Guard didn’t notice. However, Prunella couldn’t celebrate yet she still
needs to get down. There was a tree just to the left of her if only she had a long pointy thing to attach on to the
tree so she could pull herself towards it. Suddenly something poked her bottom continuously; Prunella looked
behind her it was that poker. Prunella had forgotten all about the poker.
She got the poker, attached it to the tree, pulled herself towards the tree and grabbed onto a branch, and
took the parachute off. The tree was right next to the wall so Prunella climbed to the other side of the tree and
jumped onto the wall and climbed down it. Prunella couldn’t believe it she had actually done it she had escaped
her prison for fourteen years.
Well done to both Simon and Phoebe: two shortlisted stories for the first time for Wellow House!