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February 2012
Dear Parent
The old Red Lion Block, which saw so much scholastic endeavour over the years, is now no more so it is pleasing to see how smoothly the English and History Departments’ have settled into the temporary classrooms. Both departments are very pleased with their temporary facilities, reporting that the rooms are bigger, warmer and better sound-proofed than their former home. These more spacious and well-appointed classrooms are a foretaste of what is to come when the new William Jones Building opens its doors in September 2013.
As in previous years the GCSE mock examinations identified a number of boys who performed poorly because of lack of revision and these boys have been provided with support, via the Raise-a-Grade programme, to help them prepare thoroughly for their GCSE examinations in the summer. Experience has shown that this intervention strategy bears fruit. In addition, Dr Winter has circulated the details of the numerous subject surgeries offered by academic departments to Housemasters and Tutors who have been asked to encourage the boys to attend.
The House Drama competition this year, on Friday 23rd March will feature the play, Up ‘n Under by John Godber and Houses are already preparing enthusiastically. The following week will see the main drama event of the term, in the shape of the Joint Schools’ Production of Tom Stoppard’s On the Razzle at HMSG which will feature a large number of our boys in leading parts. It should be quite a show.
Our musicians have been very busy in the first half of term. On 2nd February eight boys competed for the Kent-Dodsworth Prize for Brass Players before an external expert adjudicator, Mr Stuart Essenhigh, former principal trumpet of the Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra. Sam emerged triumphant with Nick a close second. The Chamber Choir travelled to Windsor Castle on 8th February and sang Evensong in St. George’s Chapel only two days after the Diamond Jubilee of the Accession. Their programme included Orlando Gibbons’ anthem Great King of Gods, written for the coronation of James I, in acknowledgement of this occasion. The Chapel was packed with a large party of family members and friends who had travelled from Monmouth. The day after they repeated their Windsor programme in a concert at Coleford Baptist Church in aid of the music bursary offered by the Royal Forest of Dean Herbert Howells Society, in which concert they were joined by Haberdashers’ Monmouth Senior String Orchestra (joint with HMSG) under their conductor Mrs Ruth Friend. We look forward now to the grand Choral and Orchestral Concert at Wyastone Concert Hall on Tuesday, 20th March. The rousing programme features Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
Piers (VI.2) and Helen of HMSG formed half of the Wales team which achieved its best ever result at the World Schools Debating Championships, reaching the Grand Final in a competition between 48 nations taking place in Cape Town, South Africa. Sadly, they lost their final debate against Scotland, but on the way to the final, Wales won 6 of its 8 initial debates, achieving a ranking of 7th place after the preliminary rounds. They then defeated India and Ireland in the first two knock-out rounds, going on to meet England in the semi-final, defeating them by 6 judges to 1. The World Schools Debating Championships is an annual event, first organised in Australia in 1988. The Welsh team is selected from outstanding competitors in the Wales Schools Debating Championships, organised by the Welsh Centre for International Affairs with support from the British Council. This is the first time that the Welsh Team has reached the Final. Our own school debating teams have also been very successful recently. For the first time, two of our teams have reached the Grand Finals of the Cambridge Union Schools’ Debating Championships. Piers and Helen had a stirring victory in their semi-final in Bristol on Thursday, defeating an excellent team from Badminton Girls’ School, Bristol - and so continue their run of recent triumphs. Meanwhile, not to be outdone, Alex and Alisdair also secured their place in the finals with a narrow and exciting semi-final victory over teams from both Howell’s School, Cardiff, and St. Mary Redcliffe School, Bristol. Both Monmouth teams will now compete in the Grand Finals, which will be held in the illustrious surroundings of Cambridge University later this term.
This year’s Football 1st XI is a young team, being nearly all boys from VI.1. They lost by a single goal in a 9 goal thriller against Wycliffe College at the beginning of term, but followed this with a promising performance against a strong Millfield team which they lost narrowly 2-0. Their first victory was a 3-0 win against Rougemont. The 2nd XI beat Millfield 3-2 with Will scoring with the last header of the game from a cross by Head of School, Jamie; it was a match of high drama, much enjoyed by the home crowd! The U14 XI has made a very promising start to the season beating Wycliffe 10-1 and Rougemont 6-1. The round of matches against Malvern College unfortunately fell victim to the freezing conditions but most recently, in front of a large crowd the 1st XI dominated the Old Monmothians for long periods but were unable to capitalise on the numerous chances they created and eventually lost 2-1. Last year’s captain Michael Asprou proved to be the match-winner with two well-taken goals. Playing for the Old Monmothians was a member of the school from the 1970s who has gained international honours for the Welsh over 50s team!
Monmouth School’s Golf Team will represent Wales at the ISGA Home Internationals over the famous links of Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland on the weekend of February 25th to 28th. They currently lie second in the inaugural Borders Golf League after three matches. This league was instigated by Monmouth School and was designed to replace many of the “friendly” school matches with a more competitive format and is proving highly successful. The team has also reached the Final of the ISGA match-play Plate Competition.
As I close, as ever I wish bon voyage to the boys who will be enjoying school trips this holiday. First away are the U12 Rugby players for their Blackpool tour in the company of Mr Bevan, Mr Hartley and Mr Williams. Next off will be the Ski Trip to Les 3 Vallées based in Méribel, accompanied by Mr Vickers amongst a number of keen staff skiers.
Finally, the VIth Form Classics trip is off to the Peloponnese and Mycenae, led by Dr Murgatroyd. We wish them all a wonderful time. We also wish good luck to the four rowers, James and Robbie in the J18s, and William and Daniel for the J16s, all selected to test themselves in pairs over 5000m in Boston, Lincolnshire for the Great Britain Long Distance Trials over the holiday. Those who do well are invited to the next stage of the selection process which is the Spring Trials in Nottingham at Easter. The potential prize is a place in the team for either the World Championships (Bulgaria) or the Coupe de la Jeunesse (Spain).
That all sounds very exciting and very demanding, so I wish them all well; for those of you with gentler ideas for a Half-term holiday, I wish you much peace and rest from the school routine!
Yours sincerely
Dr S G Connors
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A School of the Haberdashers’ Company