Fierce Competition in Sport
Fierce competition in sport this week with the Inter-House Netball and Hockey - congratulations to St Margaret's and St Cuthbert's & St Thomas' for the Intermediates and to St Bede's and St Dunstan's & St Oswald's for the Seniors.
The 1st VII and U14A netball girls saw draws against Barnard Castle with the 2nd VII taking a win over them. In hockey, there were wins across the board for the boys against Aysgarth and some impressive wins for the U18A, U18B and U15A against St Peter's.
The OA Schola Weekend was a huge success as the returning singers joined our Schola and the Ampleforth & Ryedale Concert Choir to sing Mozart's Requiem to a packed Abbey. Afterwards, Edward Seymour gave a moving speech recognising Fr Henry as the constant seam that runs through our musical life here having sung with the Schola since it first formed 53 years ago; he's still going strong today and his service to the Choir and College is an inspiration. Huge praise to Lizzie Rohan and Emma Craig for organising such an exciting weekend and to her and for making the Windmill look so beautiful for the OA Schola dinner.
We have been busy celebrating Culture Week, an idea stemming from our equality, diversity and inclusion group. On Monday evening, we joined together in the Main Hall to enjoy national dishes and dress from across the world. John Devitt and Eric Knutsen, Head of Computer Science, shared daily emails shining a light on the great variety of people who have advanced the learning in Science, Maths and Technology. There have been colourful displays around the school and in Houses, students have been sharing stories about their different cultures and trying new food. The poetry jam in the library went really well and Denise, our librarian, will produce the resulting anthology for Exhibition 2024 ‘the music of words from across the nations’.
On Tuesday we also welcomed more than 100 pupils from all over the UK for the Da Vinci Decathlon, a global multi-disciplinary competition designed to challenge and stimulate minds as pupils compete in various challenges including code breaking, engineering, art and poetry, and cartography. Prep schools travelled from Hertfordshire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, and we were honoured to also welcome the Director of the Decathlon, Sherry Bieman, all the way from Knox Grammar School in Australia. Our pupils embraced the challenge and came first in the Science, Art & Poetry, Legacy of Da Vinci and Cartography challenges with both our Junior and Intermediate teams coming second in the competition overall. Sincere thanks go to Jayne Potter and Piers Butler for organising this high-octane event.
Today, Fr Ambrose, Harriet Langdale, and I are heading to Germany for a series of prospective parent receptions in Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne and Dusseldorf. We are hugely grateful to Mrs Lensing-Wolff who has been instrumental in setting up these events. Sadly, I will miss this weekend's OA Super Saturday of Sport but I look forward to hearing all about it on my return.
All best wishes,
Peter
