French lecturer Professor Richard Parish of St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, came to speak to the Senior French Society about Baudelaire, the father of disreputable poetry and deeply influential writer, and particularly about the poem ‘Remords posthum’. 

With a capacity audience of Fifth to Upper Sixth Form pupils filling the Raymond Lee International Suite, Prof Parish took Oundelians through the morbid eroticism of this work, line by line.  He set up the distinction between the noble and living on the one hand, and the base and dead on the other, worked into the imagery of the poem, as well as the semantic choices of the register used. 

The idea of topos was explored, with the iteration of the carpe diem idea in Horace being echoed in Ronsard (and Herrick), but that Baudelaire's great innovation was to add a sensual charge, and to subvert the meaning of the text into a poem of seduction.

Our guest also encouraged pupils first to 'feel' a poem and figure out what it is about - including to state the obvious - before looking at the phonetic and grammatical aspects of it to support the meaning. 

W Gunson

For the fifteenth year, Ian Clark led a group of pupils and staff to Kenya, spending five days around the town of Gilgil, north-west of Nairobi, working at partnership schools and orphanages in the area.

The group then spent three nights in the Masai Mara, based at Governor’s Camp, with the aim of linking with some local schools on a digital project to be coordinated by Head of Digital Strategy, Dai Barnes.

Finally, back in Nairobi, the pupils visited the innovative sports project at Sadili Oval, situated on the edge of the Kibera slums, which aims to empower children through sport.

Naomi Jones, Director of the Stahl Theatre in Oundle, also joined the trip to look at a drama partnership with Ngecho School in Gilgil and Liz Dillarstone, Head of Community Action, furthered already strong links with Gilgil Special School.

Lower Sixth former, Harry Curtis (G) has been awarded second place in the Geographical Association’s National Physical Geography photography competition (14-18 category) for his entry ‘Splitting image’ taken at Robin Hood’s Bay, North Yorkshire.

The judges said that Harry’s entry, ‘reminded us of the intricate relationship between geology and physical geography, and the different forms of Earth’s sculpture through time’.

Harry took the photo after finding a sizeable ammonite whilst walking along the beach. A storm the previous night had eroded the cliff face, causing rocks containing fossils to surface onto the face and fall onto the scree debris below. He recognized the ammonite by the jet black rock-like substance which makes up the fossil, caused by the process of permineralisation.

Over millions of years, the shell of the ammonite would have gradually decomposed under layers of silt and sand, and the cavities left by the shell would be gradually replaced by minerals from the sea causing a rock like impression to form in its absence. When Harry split open the rock, he revealed 200 million years of geographical processes.

Harry’s prize was a Páramo jacket, and he will also be invited to attend the Geographical Association Awards Ceremony in April 2016, which is part of the Geographical Association Annual Conference to be held at the University of Manchester. 
 

The Leys, with several national swimmers in its team, were among the strongest opponents Oundle would face this year. However, Oundle approached the recent Gala with determination, and the senior boys won their age group, which is a remarkable achievement.

Finn Clarkson (Sc) gave his all throughout, and competed in many events with technical grace; George Robertson (F) was also notable for competing in both age groups.

Ryan Ho (C) stunned the crowds with his spectacular display of a technically perfect breaststroke, achieving a record time of 35 seconds. A massive 32 PBs were broken.

Eleanor Macintosh (K) supported with verve, and also excelled in the front crawl. Carla Cox's (W) swimming debut was equally as impressive as was Maddy Farley's (L) win in the butterfly; Carla does not do swimming as her sport, and her efforts were noted. Although they did not win, Oundle can be proud with the manner in which they competed. Despite the loss, swimmers managed to break two records and 33 personal bests were achieved.

The Squash Club played away at Uppingham. The 1st V were at a disadvantage before the matches even started due to two of the players being injured. Harry Daniels (G) and Sam Boscawen (B) were put to the test filling positions 4 and 5, but they lost their matches 0-3. Jack Murphy (B) made a gritty comeback while entertaining the crowd with some outrageous trick shots and won his match 3-2. Alex Swanston (G) and Dylan Martens (L) both won their matches in convincing fashion, 3-0 each.
On unfamiliar courts, a foreign scoring system and with two players down, the 1st V won against the odds, 3-2.

The 2nd V did not get as much joy as the 1st V, losing 1-4. However, Alec Bruce-Gardyne (Ldr) managed to overcome his opponent in a five game thriller, ending 3-2.

Outside of School, at the East Midlands Regionals championship at Leicester, Dylan Martens (L) finished 3rd in the tournament. Competition included some of England's top U19 players, including the number 1, who placed first.

Oundle's mixed first and second badminton teams produced their best performance of the season against Oakham, winning 14:4 and 13:5.
 
Oundle's squad cooperated well and applied varying strategies to give their opponents many unpredictable shots. There were many strong and accurate smashes from Francis Yiu (Sc) and Teck C Cheah (Ldr, while Sophie Crowe (K) also showed a high standard of consistency in her double and mixed games.
 
In the 2nds,  James Clayton (L) hit a variety of shots to different positions, giving his opponent an intense match. Tilly Cooper (D) showed outstanding performance in all her games as well. Ben and Chris Bird (L) worked extremely well as a pair, only making very few mistakes.

Oundle 1st XI team travelled the short journey to play Stamford School. It was a Stamford push back so Oundle began strong, aggressively and quickly, soon obtaining the ball from the opposition and pushing it high. Immediately Oundle had shots at goal from our forwards but unfortunately for us their goalie made some quality saves preventing the team from scoring an early goal. Short corners did occur, yet Oundle continuously failed to score. Oundle kept possession for the first 25 minutes, constantly trying to penetrate their defence towards our high forwards and finally the ball was given to Anna Hodgkinson (N) by Frannie Aldridge (K) where Anna skilled passed their goalie and dribbled the ball over the line. This gave Oundle a cushion and from this began to play brightly with Lucie Baker (L) pulling the strings at set-piece before half time.

In the second half, Lily Craven (Sn) and Polly Baker (L) delivered the ball consistently well to Hebe Hughes (K) on the right wing for her to use her pace in order to give the ball to the forwards in the D. Hebe sprinted down the wing and pushed to ball to Dora Nicolle (W) who managed to nutmeg the keeper, making the score 2-0.

Oundle continued to dominate the rest of the fixture, with the Stamford keeper proving a tough nut to crack. The side looks in shape for the end of season run in.

Doug Russell (Ldr)

Between the 8th and 15th of November, I travelled with five other pupils from Wymondham College and Thetford Grammar School to Berlin as part of the UK delegation to the 43d session of the Model European Parliament. This is an international event, where delegations of politically interested 15-19 year olds from across all twenty-four countries of the European Union and the four candidate countries get together to form a mock European Parliament.

Before they arrive, the delegates are assigned to one of ten committees, each of which is given a different topic to discuss. After a quick tour of Berlin and the opening ceremony, at which the German Europe Minister and the European Commission’s Ambassador to Germany gave a speech, each committee spent three days writing a resolution focused on the issues raised by their topic. We were all based in one of the German Federal Ministries until this was finished.

Each committee is overseen by a Committee President, who is someone who has been a delegate before, and can guide and advise the committee on how to write their resolution, which was my role for the session.

During the evening, we had the opportunity to visit different parts of Berlin, such as the Reichstag and the British Embassy.
After a day’s lobbying, where delegates had the opportunity to attempt to alter and amend each other’s resolutions, it was time for the general assembly. This was based in the Bundesrat, and gave delegates the opportunity to debate and vote on the resolutions that had been tabled.

However, the second day was very much overshadowed by the horrific events in Paris, where many people had friends or family living in the city. A minute’s silence was held and a letter of condolence was written to the French Embassy.
Gathering together with so many politically-spirited people from different countries was a life-changing and unforgettable experience for all involved. I would strongly recommend signing up to go to the next session.

Kieran Marray (L)
 

The election of a house “Oracle” to co-ordinate their efforts is the first step for all Third Form pupils, on their road to complete the hardest and most cryptic quiz they will encounter at Oundle.  Seventy questions, in many cases riddled to be partially Google-proof, tested all pupils on the whole scope of knowledge from literature to science to theology to arts to social history to geography to maths and more, all wrapped up in wordplay and lateral thinking. 

The Triv Quiz is set up as a house competition, with the express aim of showing that things must be known and enjoyed before they can be properly explored, or answers and skills drawn from them (nescis nisis intellegis) – that is, the ability to source knowledge is not enough, since one first has to know what question is being asked. 

It is also an exercise in research skill – pupils (and quite a few staff teams who threw their hats in the ring to give pupils extra competition) had ten days to ask anyone in the world for the answers, including their teachers, search engines, parents and so forth. 

The range of approaches was instructive, and – perhaps of equal importance – pupils had an enormous amount of fun and head-scratching delving into obscure areas of human knowledge to discover the answers. Congratulations to the Laxton Boys, who take the trophy this year from last year’s joint winners, St Anthony and Laxton Girls. 

Question papers and answers are available here.

W Gunson

The Royal Society’s Biology Week 2015 saw Oundle pupils participating in Senior and Junior Scott Soc talks, alongside quizzes, and competitions taking place during lessons. New this year was a whole school photography competition, for which pupils from across the School sent in their nature and wildlife photographs, and there were prizes for each age group. 

The overall winner, and winner of the Third and Fourth Form group, was Oscar Salvesen (Ldr), for his photo titled ‘Predator in the Garden’.

The Science Essay Prize, now in its third year, has seen a year-on-year rise in high quality submissions. This year saw a diverse range of essay titles, from ‘Aquatic Ape Hypothesis’ by Charles Shelley (S) to ‘An introduction to graphene and its possible applications’ by Andrea Veronese (C). There was also plenty of interest in quantum physics - Dr Brian Cox would be proud.

All of the essays were read by Mr Peck and Dr Bessent, before a shortlist of two was agreed for each age group. Mr Peck and Mr Evans then judged the shortlisted entries and eventually decided on four winners. The winners all combined excellent communication skills with detailed understanding of the scientific material:

First and Second Form: Charlie Dickinson (L) – ‘Will the world run out of food or will burgers save the day?’
Third Form: Evan Ball (G) – ‘Is time travel possible?’
Fourth and Fifth Form: Rebecca Siddall (L) – ‘The fabric of reality’
Sixth Form: Isaac Uwins (G) – ‘Can we ever cure Alzheimer's Disease?’

An economics team from Oundle has made it through to the Area Final round of the Target Two Point Zero - The Bank of England and The Times Interest Rate Challenge. 

At the Regional Heat in Leicester in late November, the team assessed the economic conditions and the outlook for inflation, and determined what monetary policy they would set to achieve the Government's inflation target of 2.0%. The team’s decision was presented to a panel of judges, alongside seven other schools.

The team - Ali Mason (F), Nico Lethbridge (S), Charlie Law (S) and George Chatterton (F) - recommended an interest rate of 0.5% compared with the Bank of England’s official rate of 0.5% set by the Monetary Policy Committee on 5 November 2015. They also recommended a total of £375bn of asset purchases under the Asset Purchase Facility, compared with the £375bn agreed by the MPC on 5 November 2015.

The group performed particularly well in the ten minute question round. The questions from the MPC members were challenging, and each team member responded in an astute, considered and factual manner.

The chair of the judging panel, Alastair Cunningham, said: ‘An exciting heat. While all but one team came to the same policy decision, the breadth and diversity of evidence brought to bear was impressive’.

The Area Finals will be held in six locations in February.

The Rugby 1st XV played against Haileybury School on Saturday. Despite tough weather conditions Oundle played an attractive brand of rugby, especially in the second half, which rewarded the crowd who braved the cold. There was an impressive debut from Harry Lowther (Sc) and from Nico Lethbridge (S) who contributed to the score sheet on what will no doubt be a memorable day for him. It was a comprehensive 38-6 victory in the end.

The Colts A team played against Haileybury at home. Both sides had to adapt their game to some blustery winds and cold rain. The home side scored the first try with a driving maul all the way from the 22m line. At half time the morale was in favour of Oundle with a score advantage. Despite Haileybury dominating the territory in the second half, Oundle’s defence proved impenetrable. With another forwards try from Oundle, the game ended 12-0.

On Saturday, the Oundle 1st XI girls hockey played against Stowe in the final home game of the season. Stowe had first push back, however Oundle chased from the very beginning and won possession, and soon after, Hebe Hughes (K) took an opportunity to score. Stowe had a few close goal shots but Minna Coke (D) in goal made some incredible saves and didn't let one ball past her. Soon into the second half, Oundle won a penalty flick. Anna Hodgkinson (N) maintained her concentration under pressure and scored the second goal. Anna then set up an aerial pass for Dora Nicolle (W) to score the third. The final whistle blew and the score was 3-0 to Oundle.

On Thursday, 17 Oundelians travelled to Wellingborough to compete in the first round of races leading to the English Schools Cross Country Championships. The runners finished strong in all categories with 15 of them qualifying to go through to the county race. George Roberts (L) came 4th in BU19, Amelia Cookson (W) and Sacha Wight (K) came 1st equal in GU19. Archie Parkinson (L) and Eleanor Macintosh (K) both came 1st in the U15. They are hoping for a similar performance in January when competition will be more challenging.

Also on Thursday, the squash club competed against Oakham away. The 1st V lost only 1 out of the 16 games played in total. As each member of the team commanded such a convincing score line it would be hard to pick out a star performer. This is a particularly encouraging result, not seen in a match against Oakham in such fashion in recent memory.

The 2nd squash V were equally impressive, winning 4-1. Ryan Cheng (Ldr) performed especially well in coming back from a 0-2 deficit to win his match 3-2. Harry Daniels (G) and Alec Bruce Gardyne (Ldr) played very well, winning 3-0. This result is a sign of how much the 2nd V have improved this season; against the same team four weeks ago it was a much closer affair.

Oundle’s mixed badminton teams competed against Uppingham on Saturday. The 1st team, unfortunately, despite great effort, lost a tight match 8-10, while the 2nd team continued some outstanding performance, winning 10-8.
 
In the 2nd badminton team, the girls and boys double pairs did extremely well in their games, winning 6 out of 8 double games. Catherine Warner (N) and Augusta Williams (K), as usual, displayed a great deal of cooperation and teamwork, giving their opponents some tough games.

Dylan Martens (L)

The Senior History Society was privileged to host Professor Richard Overy, a former Cambridge and KCL academic, currently teaching at the University of Exeter, who came to Oundle to deliver a talk on his current project, the history of WWII.

Professor Overy thought the often used ‘good versus evil’ approach was far too simplistic, and made it clear that his own book would not be directed by such moral guidelines. He explained how he was concerned with three areas in particular: time, space and definition.

The first area, time, was all about breaking the concept that WWII started in 1939 and ended in 1945. Professor Overy’s approach is at odds with this notion ; he believes a complete history of the war would need to start earlier and end later. He used the situation in Asia to illustrate this, suggesting that war there had begun in the early 1930s with the Manchuria crisis and would only end with the Korean War. He felt the same could be said of Europe when looking at the 1930s and the Cold War conflict.

The second focus, space, was primarily to do with the geographical spread of the war and its three dimensions on air, sea and land. Professor Overy was keen to point out that WWII was not just a European conflict but a global one. Historians have often concentrated on the war from their own country's point of view, and in his opinion, this was not good history.

The third and final area, definition, was about the many different kinds of war which combined to create what Churchill first defined as ‘WWII’. War between states was the obvious first one mentioned, then came civil wars, including the Ukraine, China, Greece and Italy amongst others, civilian wars (the fight of civil defences against bombing), wars of resistance and the war against the Jews. Overy feels the need to make these distinctions because state wars were often separate to civil conflicts, Italy being a good example. He seeks to understand the different motives of the different groups. For instance, the Jewish Brigade, which was formed as a section of the British army in 1944 and sent to Italy to fight the Germans, he argues, was motivated by the idea of a free Israel.

He concluded by saying that the war should be seen through the prism of ending empires, and explained his belief that the duty of a historian is to detach himself from what he is writing.

I look forward to reading his new book when it is published. 

Alexandre Verge (G)

On 29th November, the Oundle School Combined Cadet Force RAF section were victorious at the Air Squadron Trophy Regional Competition held at RAF Cranwell. 

Fifteen cadets from all four year groups took part in the event. The competition comprises seven events: Drill, Aircraft Recognition, RAF Knowledge, Shooting, First Aid, Fitness and Command Task. 

The Oundle cadets performed very well, winning the Drill, Aircraft Rec and RAF Knowledge competitions. They came second in the Shooting and fourth in the First Aid.  As a result, they were placed first in the region, beating Kimbolton, who have won the Regionals for the last four years and who are current national champions.

Captain of the Oundle team, Sergeant Peter Anson (F) won the award for the highest scoring cadet in Aircraft Recognition.

Preparation for the competition was all completed in the cadets’ own time. They arranged and led the training in an impressive demonstration of personal commitment.

The Oundle cadets are now through to the National Finals in March.
 

On Wednesday 25th November, four pupils, James Duckitt (G), Gordon Lin (C), William Parker Jennings (Ldr) and Alice Sze (N), took part in the Regional Heat (Northants, Beds, Herts and Cambs) of the annual Royal Society of Chemistry Top of Bench competition, held at Kimbolton School.

In the first of two practicals, the team had to carry out various ion tests on unknown substances and then use a table to work out the identity of the substances from the results that they had obtained. They also took a general knowledge quiz, with questions ranging from how Antoine Lavoisier died, to questions on electrolysis.

At the end, it was announced that the Oundle team had won the competition with a score of 47 marks out of 69, performing particularly well in the ion testing section. This is the fourth time that Oundle have won this heat since 2009.

The team will now represent the region in the national final in March, which will involve over thirty teams.

This year, a group of pupils decided that they wanted to expand their cultural knowledge by joining the International Society Vol on Thursday afternoons. For six weeks, they researched cultural aspects and traditions of different countries, prepared a presentation and discussed and reflected on what they had learnt from their research.

Some of the research allowed the pupils to learn about the cultures and traditions of the friends they were working with. Topics included a comparison between festivals in India and Spain, the Martinstag in Germany and the Day of the Dead in Mexico, traditions in America and China, a comparison between German and Japanese food, and between Chinese New Year and the Russian Maslenitsa.

The quality of the presentations was outstanding and it was extremely difficult to decide on the winners, but the prize went to Seci Fung (By) and Anastasia Yusova (By) because of their dynamic presentation and their interaction.

M Viruete Navarro

On the 5th of December, the Oundle 1st XI hockey team had their final match of the season against Uppingham, greatest of rivals. Uppingham had first push back and unfortunately, Oundle started the game having to attack into the strong winds. They had an aggressive start and put Uppingham under a lot of pressure. However after the first five minutes, they fell apart for the rest of the half, allowing Uppingham to score a goal at the beginning. Hebe Hughes (K) skilfully pushed the ball into a defender’s foot, giving them a short corner. Frannie Aldridge (K) flicked the ball beautifully at goal, and Dora Nicolle (W) just managed to deflect the ball in, which evened the scores for us.

After half time, they went straight back, ready to fight properly for the win. The match was thrilling for end-to-end hockey with buckets of goals. With not much time to go, Oundle pushed the ball into attack and with Flo Garnett (D) and Polly Baker (L) both on the defence wings, they had many attacking drives as they consistently drag flicked the ball over Uppingham sticks. With Oundle in possession for most of the second half, the team were devastated when in the final five minutes, Uppingham scored just before the final whistle, winning 4-3.

In the last badminton match of the Christmas Quarter, the boys badminton team gained victory (3-6) in the away match against Bromsgrove, but unfortunately, the girls experienced a significant defeat (7-2), primarily due to the well-planned strategies of the opposing team.

The 1st XV had a busy week. The U6th played what could be their last fixture on Two Acre, with a 24-3 win against Rugby. With dire conditions and a strong wind in the 1st half, Oundle kept it tight and resorted to their renowned rolling maul. The scoreline does not do any justice to Rugby, who were within a score at half-time and tested our midfield with a stand-off who took the ball to the line exceptionally well. In typical Oundle fashion, once they wore down their opponents, they were able to release their high-flying runners and play a strong brand of off-landing rugby. Joe Green (B) and Freddie Johnsrud (Ldr) were at the heart of this, and proved very difficult players to defend against. The victory confirmed an unbeaten record on Two Acre this season. Their last loss at home was k in September 2014.

On Tuesday the XV took part in the last 32 fixtures of the Natwest Cup, playing against Langley School. The team didn't allow Langley to have any influence on the match. The Oundle maul was imperious, with Isaac Uwins (G) scoring a hatrick from the back. Zac Berrill (StA) pestered their defence all day, and also scored his first try for Oundle. The 50-0 result puts them into the last 16. They now face Warwick, who beat King’s Worcester 36-3 during the week.

Doug Russell (Ldr)

During the Christmas holiday the German department took a group of Third Form German pupils on a tour of Germany that combined all aspects of German culture.

On the first morning we went to Wolfsburg, 'die Autostadt' where Volkswagen makes its cars. Everyone was amazed by the size and scale of the factory. The tour around the Autostadt started with an exhibition about the different stages of car manufacturing, which was very interesting. After this we went to the pavilions of all the Volkswagen owned brands where we had a chance to sit in all the cars. The most amazing part was the car towers where new cars are stored before being picked up by the buyers.

The second part of the tour was around the factory itself on a very fun bendy bus. Everyone in the factory was hard at work doing their own tasks on each car.

After all this excitement we travelled back to Hanover for the 'Hanover is cool' tour, which ended near the magnificent town hall of Hanover. Following this we all had time in the Christmas market to buy some traditional food.

The next day we were all ready for a new adventure on the tram system. The teachers gave us tasks to talk to people in German to find out different things about German culture. Between us we found out a lot about the Germans and Hanover that we didn't know before.

The second half of the day involved travelling to Hamelin where we had an amazing tour around the old city lead by the Pied Piper himself. We wound in and out of all the narrow alleyways and lanes of Hameln while the Piper played tunes and danced. After the tour we went to the Christmas market to have hot chocolate and waffles, and buy presents.

On Sunday we had the opportunity to go to a very beautiful castle in Bückeburg. The tour of the castle, home to the Prince of Schaumburg's family, was amazing. We had the chance to see the decorations and the huge halls that were 500 years old. For the second half of the day we watched a horse show hosted by the castle owners. The horses danced and did tricks to music, telling the stories of famous fairy tales.

On the final day we all spent time shopping in the Hannover Christmas market. Everyone bought traditional German souvenirs for their families and completed their research packs.

Our final meal in Germany was at an old brewery where we all had schnitzel or currywurst. Another hour in the market ended our trip to Germany, before we got on the train back to the airport.

William Stairs (L)
 

The netball VII began the 2016 season with a tournament at Bedford Modern School. Their first game was indoors against the NHS B team. The shooters were quickly able to get their eye in, which was clearly reflected by a final score of 36-0. Next in the group stage was Stowe. The defence proved strong at vital times. In particular, Izzy Myers (Sn) performed well. The final score against Stowe was a 13-1 win. For their third match they faced Wellingborough. Anna Hodgkinson (N) and Lucy Varley (N) were able to convert the opportunities consistently, leading to a winning score of 11-3. The final match in the group stage was Kimbolton. Hebe Hughes (K) and Flo Garnett (D) put great pressure on Kimbolton, while the defence was resolute with Mairi Donaldson (N) working well. The final score was 9-5 to Oundle. They met Felsted in the semi-final. Izzy Myers intercepted consistently and the shooters, Ellie Joseland (N) and Dora Nicolle (W) got in almost every shot. Ruby Goodall (L) ensured the game was played on their terms, and after an intense second half, the final score was 13-10 to Oundle, taking them through to the final against Wisbech School. The team maintained the same work rate that they had demonstrated from the beginning of the tournament, and when the final whistle blew, the score was 22-7 to Oundle, who won the tournament without losing a single game.

The Netball Club also travelled to Perse for their second tournament of the season. Unfortunately, the games didn’t go as well as at the previous tournament and the team were fifth at the close of play. Overall, the team has made a positive start to the new season, and are full of confidence for the fixtures ahead.

Elsewhere in the Club the U16C netball team played a closely fought match against Trent 2nd, losing 21-15. The U14E netball team had an outstanding victory against Bloxham, winning convincingly, 18-0, as did the U16Bs, who played against Bloxham and made a promising start to the season with a 24-9 win.

The boys hockey 1st match on Saturday was a tough fixture against a well prepared 1st team from Rugby School. The team got off to a poor start, and Rugby scored two goals before Oundle knew what was happening. After that they regained control and held most of the possession for the remainder of the match, although they didn't manage to capitalise on their opponent’s mistakes as much as they would have liked. Rugby then managed to put two more goals in when Oundle’s concentration slipped. However, Oundle then scored a well worked short corner routine with Max Norris (F) putting in the finishing touches. The final score was 4-1 to Rugby. As a new team playing together for the first time, it was a decent debut, with new members proving themselves to be indispensable in all aspects of the game.

At the start of the Quarter, the 1st XI football team played away at Rugby School for a pre-season tournament. They quickly dusted away any Christmas cobwebs, and with very little team training won four out of four matches. They returned with a trophy and plenty of confidence for the forthcoming season.

Dylan Martens (L)

That a school trip was allowed to go ahead less than a month after the Paris attacks of November 13th is testament to the history department, which held its nerve whilst almost every other school cancelled its trip. Naturally, security was tight around the city, with armed guards and metal detectors an omnipresent reminder of the constant state of alert. However, it would be wrong to say that Paris was subdued during our visit, with the French state doing all in its power to keep museums and sites of interest open.

Our first day alone encapsulates the varied approach taken during the visit; beginning in the Royal Chapel of Sainte-Chapelle and finishing beneath the Louvre pyramid. Undoubtedly one of the most striking architectural spaces in Europe, the stained glass cage of the gothic chapel set us firmly in the mediaeval mind-set, providing an impressive picture of the importance of its absent relics and the Church itself to the French state.

Furthermore, with cleaning of the windows only recently finished, our group was able to see the vibrant stained glass as originally intended. After walking to the only two surviving original towers of the adjoining palace, we were treated to the first of Mr Mather’s infamous ‘spiels’. Ranging from theories as disparate as the fall of the Templars, the defenestration of wayward ministers, and the architectural damage of Paris’ many uprisings from 1789, the students braved the wind and the cold for a masterful summation of 600 years of French history filled with murder, infidelity and mad tyrants.

Having next visited the Conciergerie, which housed Marie Antoinette and countless other French aristocrats destined for the guillotine, we took a momentary pause for lunch before marching on the Louvre. To describe the Louvre as large would be an understatement; it would take a lifetime to get to grips with its many corridors, courtyards and alcoves. Not only were we able to visit the remains of the ancient battlements of the original palace below, but the group’s thirst for historical knowledge was more than sated by a collection ranging from the earliest Giotto’s to the huge historical paintings of French romanticism. Come the evening, as recompense for the constant attention and walking (more than 20km on one day) needed to take in the city, we were rewarded with dinner at one of the nicest restaurants that Paris had to offer.

Although the visit was historical in its focus, a significant amount of time was spent in galleries, guided by Mr Mather’s near encyclopaedic knowledge of the fine arts. Over the rest of the trip we were to visit such sites as the earliest gothic cathedral, St Denis, Napoleon’s resting place in Les Invalides, and the finest collection of French 19th century art, housed in the Musée d’Orsay. Our final visit was to the great monument of royal absolutism, Versailles, leaving the city early to escape the crowds and catch the Eurostar before lunchtime.

For the first time, I was able to leave a capital without that nagging feeling of missing so many important places, although this is not to say that there was nothing more to see. The trip showed all those present how best to approach a city break: one should wake up early, get out and keep going. To be exhausted, but exhilarated by a fantastic city is surely preferable to leaving well rested and wanting more.

Finally, I feel that the efforts of the staff involved should not go unnoticed. For Mr Pendrill, the elder statesman of the group, this was his glorious return to taking history trips after holding the departmental fort whilst others took students abroad. Mr Mather was our celebrity tour guide, returning from retirement to act as a historical non exec., invaluable for the extent of his knowledge. Mme Barron embarked upon the trip as matron with a mere eleven hours’ notice, providing care, the local language, and a no nonsense approach that saw any tourists too liberal with their flash photography in Versailles shown the error of their ways. Lastly, Dr Habsburg was the architect and executor of the entire visit, always leading from the front.

Will Stewart (B)
 

Seeing that Christmas was a matter of days away, it seemed appropriate to begin the English Department’s literary tour of London at the home of Tiny Tim’s creator. After exploring the rooms in which Charles Dickens composed the staples of English literature, we continued south through the London streets, where, after a lunch around St Paul's, Shakespeare awaited us.

The tour of the Globe Theatre was informative, and had an additional layer of kookiness, thanks to our tour guide, who seemed as interested in the local birdlife (in particular, a one-legged pigeon), as the hundreds of years of history beneath our feet.

From the Globe, we continued along the South Bank until we discovered the reason for London trip rule two: keep your eyes open and off the ground. We were rewarded by a circular plaque, no larger than a sewer cover, in an alleyway on a residential street next to the sole remaining wall of Marshalsea Prison. It read “John Dickens, the father of Charles Dickens, was imprisoned here for debt from February to March, 1824”. Dickens had tried to hide this fact during his life, and to witness why the trip’s rule were in place, was an amazing end to the first day’s walk.

After some free time, followed by a hot meal to stave off the freezing winter winds, we saw Ian Hislop (unplanned), and a performance of As You Like It (planned), at the National Theatre.

The next day, Chaucer drew us into the City of Westminster, and from Westminster Abbey, we followed the river.  After passing Cleopatra’s needle, we arrived at the National Portrait Gallery for a scavenger hunt to find Jane Austen’s portrait; a test of our exploration skills, which some of us failed, becoming side-tracked by the other portraits. After asking directions from one of the attendants, the tension escalated as we tracked down room 17, where we had been told the portrait was located. We were so distracted scanning the walls of the gallery for a plaque bearing her name, that Austen's eyes must have watched us power past.  We reached a dead end and realised that we had missed her yet again, at which point we asked another attendant where exactly in the room the portrait was. Somewhat bemused, she directed us to a miniscule canvas no larger than a sheet of A5. A slight anti-climax at worst, and a good workout at best.

After lunch, we had the pleasure of coffee with Dr Paula Burn, an authority on Austen, whose passion for the subject rubbed off on us, and not long after we had sat down we were all chatting about the misconceptions about one of our greatest authors.

Somerset House followed, where we spent an hour at the mercy of a cold, frictionless hell. The ice-skating was enjoyable, although stressful, and this sense of instability and uneasiness was a metaphor for what was to come.

That evening, Pinter’s Homecoming made the pizzas in our digestive track turn glacial in the icy pauses. We were treated to an incredible experience, and we left the play bowled over by the performances from the cast, especially John Simm as Lenny, whose menace loomed over proceedings.

The final day began outside the British Library, which offered fascinating insight into Alice in Wonderland, Handel, and the Magna Carta. Following this, we explored the haunts of the Bloomsbury set, taking a slight detour to admire the blue plaques along the streets surrounding UCL. We followed  Mr Hipperson’s brisk pace, before ending our tour of London’s famous literary attractions outside the Foundling Museum.

Henry Sleight (L)

A group of eight Fourth Form German pupils entered the Goethe-Institut’s Digital Days Competition and won first prize in the interview-styled ‘Reading Competition’ on the theme of Geschenke – giving gifts.

Over 700 pupils from across the UK took part in the competition and almost 100 were involved in the Reading category, making it very difficult for the selection panel to come to a decision and to choose the very best.

Pupils were asked to take part in an interview reading competition about Christmas presents and to record a video of the group. The panel judged the idea for their entry to be extraordinarily unique and creative. They also cited the thorough and high-standard of implementation, along with a strong demonstration of their German language skills to be very convincing.

As the winner of the competition, the group was awarded a cash prize of £80. Forty-five other pupils from Oundle who participated in the competition were also awarded presents from the Goethe Institute to commend them for their efforts.
 

Register for the race now! The Oundle School Virtual Balloon Race will virtually launch from the School’s SciTec Campus during Climate Week, 7-13 March.

Balloons will be subject to live weather conditions as reported on Yahoo Weather during race week, and entrants will be able to track the progress of their balloons online. We are delighted to have the support of Al Jazeera International weather presenter and meteorologist, Everton Fox, who will be talking to a group of students during Climate Week on a variety of related topics.

The Oundle Society is encouraging everyone in the Oundle Community to participate in the race by purchasing a balloon for just £5 (£3 for pupils) during the coming weeks.

Prizes will be awarded to the balloons that travel the furthest. Read more about the race event and enter a balloon on the race website, here.

All profits will be allocated to the SciTec Campus project (Oundle School Foundation Registered Charity number 1075698).