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Former England Cricket Captain Graham Gooch OBE was the latest guest speaker at Saint Felix School’s Silcox Theatre, when he visited the school on Tuesday.
The cricket legend reflected on his playing and coaching career, as well as telling humorous anecdotes which delighted the audience of cricket fans.
Speaking exclusively to Saint Felix’s website, Gooch said: “I’ve been coming to Southwold for many years, and I was first introduced to the area by Adnams Brewery - I went to Paris to open a couple of pubs for them about 15 years ago.
“I love this area, it’s just so beautiful. Suffolk’s fantastic – Essex is good too, but then I’m a bit biased. Suffolk’s a lovely county and I think it’s a bit of a hidden gem because it’s very relaxed and it’s always nice to be here.”
Gooch was the most prolific run scorer the country has ever seen, scoring 44,841 runs in first class cricket during a career spanning nearly 25 years. He led England on 34 occasions and played in three World Cup finals.
The cricket star has been an England selector and Essex County’s Head Coach, and earlier this year was inducted into the International Cricket Council’s Hall of Fame.
“Saint Felix is a lovely school and I was absolutely delighted to be invited to come and give a talk,” he continued. “I bumped into one of the P.E. staff at a cricket event in Essex, he asked if I would come and of course I said yes.
“I think it’s crucial that schools emphasise the importance of sport – youngsters are very lucky to have the facilities that they have on hand at school these days. They’re our future sports stars so it’s important to nurture their talent from an early age.”
Asked what advice he would give any budding Cricket stars, the 56-year-old added: “Above all, enjoy yourself. Go out on to the field and do your best, because if you do that and work hard you’ll get more satisfaction from it. If you get more satisfaction, you get more enjoyment.
“You don’t want to be too technical and think you must win this and you must win that – at the end of the day I would have played cricket just for fun.”
The talk was held in aid of The Lord’s Taverners which is one of the UK’s leading youth sports and disability charities and the official charity of recreational cricket. |
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| SAINT FELIX GOING FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH |
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As the country continues to ride out the recession, one local school is bucking the trend as it continues to go from strength to strength. Saint Felix School, in Southwold, has barely seen the new school term get underway and already it’s seen its pupils receive outstanding A level and GCSE results, welcomed new members of teaching staff to its ranks and taken on over 75 new pupils so far this year.
The independent school, which receives no government funding, has undergone an incredible transformation over the past seven years. The school was originally girls only and is now a fully co-educational day school. It offers full-time, weekly and flexi boarding for children from the local region and for international students from countries around the world, including Germany, Spain, Moldova, Hong Kong, Russia, Macau and China.
Headmaster David Ward, who has been in charge of the school since 2004, said he was delighted at Saint Felix’s success: “It’s all about being child-centred here and everything else revolves around them,” he said. “We endorse a high academic level and behavioural standards and we go the extra mile to make sure things stay that way.
“This year’s intake is 75 new children, which means that 20 per cent of this year’s pupils are new. We have a national swimming training programme which provides high quality training and it’s an opportunity youngsters would not normally get. We have a new, state-of-the-art performing arts theatre, and we’re looking to the future with our new Head of Drama and Head of Music.”
Saint Felix pupils excel in the arts, especially drama and photography. The talented team of staff motivate students to achieve to their full potential, and Mr Ward says this is reflected by his pupils’ high spirits: “A happy child is engaged in what they’re doing, and therefore works hard. We’ve got a very high quality of staff here, and the results we get in our exams are evidence of that. We take boys and girls aged from 1-18, and we plan and structure everything with the children in mind – parents invest both time and money in the school and we want to repay that by ensuring their children get a fantastic education.
“Our parents are looking for high standards and consistency, with the best opportunities for their child. We had fantastic A level and GCSE results recently but it’s not just these pupils who are excelling – those pupils who find their subjects slightly more difficult are also doing incredibly well.
“We have wonderful facilities here at Saint Felix which we continue to add to, and over the summer holidays we have opened a new boys’ boarding house
and had various areas of the school refurbished. We pride ourselves on our family environment in which every child is encouraged to excel – we nurture the younger children and encourage independence at the other end of the scale.
“We have a unique relationship between parents, children and teaching staff, and we recognise the cultural requirements of all our boarders. Our international students help us strike a balance between different nationalities, as our local students get to meet other youngsters from around the world.” |
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| Poetry Success |
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Two talented Saint Felix pupils, Caitlin Dobson and Victoria Green, were invited to celebrate their success in the recent National Poetry competition in a presentation ceremony held at The Forum.
The theme of this year’s competition was ‘Animals’, with Caitlin entering her poem entitled ‘Graceful Fox’, and Victoria penning the poem ‘Can’t have a Pet’, all about the frustrations of not being able to own an animal.
Caitlin was the overall winner of the 10-11 age category, with Victoria named as a runner up in the same group. The presentation ceremony was held in celebration of children’s achievements in the competition from all over East Anglia, and each winner and runner up was awarded a certificate and gift – Caitlin was awarded a £100 cheque for herself, along with a £500 cheque for Saint Felix. Along with her certificate, Victoria was given a runners-up goody bag.
Sue Greenfield, an English teacher from Saint Felix’s Junior School, collected the £500 cheque on behalf of the school: “Everyone at Saint Felix is really pleased with the girls’ achievements – both poems were delightful and are just two examples of the writing talent we have at Saint Felix.”
She continued: “I am delighted to collect the cheque on behalf of the school, and we will put the money towards lovely new books for our library.”
Saint Felix has also been given the chance to take a group of its pupils to Norwich City Football Club’s Study Centre, which offers programmes in numeracy, literacy and ICT, using the appeal of football to engage pupils. |
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| Suffolk Festival & Choral Society |
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Choir Win top prize at Suffolk Festival and Community Choir launched
Saint Felix School’s Young Voices choir have won the choral Sacred Songs and Anthems class at the Suffolk Festival of Performing Arts, beating Ipswich Prep School and Arbor Prep School. Saint Felix scored the highest mark of 90 and the only ‘outstanding’ mark of the day.
They also competed against Finborough School and Arbor Prep Boys Choir to come second in the Under 13 Choirs class. As a result of this, they came away with the Promenade Trophy for Junior Choirs and a contribution to the choir’s fund.
Head of Music at Saint Felix, Andrew Jenkins, said he was delighted with the childrens’ performance: “Under the direction of Vetta Wise, our Head of Vocal Studies, and with their accompanist Alison Evans, the choir is going from strength to strength.
“They’re performing exceptionally well against much larger schools – these fantastic achievements at the Suffolk Festival shows the depth of talent that we have at Saint Felix.”
The Young Voices have been asked to perform on the Sunday 15th November in the Suffolk Festival Gala Concert at the Abbey School hall in Woodbridge.
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Choral Society
In January 2010, Saint Felix School will be launching a brand new venture for the local community.
The school will be starting the Saint Felix Choral Society – this will be open to all residents of North Suffolk community as well as parents and pupils of the school.
Directing the Choir will be Head of Music at Saint Felix, Andrew Jenkins. Andrew has been involved in choral music for most of his life as both a Chorister and Lay Clerk at Llandaff in Cardiff. He is also a professional baritone soloist.
For its first season, the choir will perform the ‘Requiem’ by Fauré and ‘Gloria’ by Vivaldi. The concert venue is to be confirmed as it is dependant on the numbers that join the choir.
The Choral Society will only operate during the Michaelmas and Lent terms with concerts in early December and mid March. Rehearsals will be held on Monday evenings beginning on Monday 11th January from 7- 9pm. The first concert will be on Saturday 13th March. |
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| The future of all our business and for the area are our young people! |
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We need to make sure that we lay the appropriate foundations we must start engaging them and to keep their interests here. We must capture the youngsters that go to University and never come back and stop exporting them for the benefit of other towns and cities in the UK.
Together our business should engage them via the Young Chamber, Working with Schools, College & Lowestoft Enterprise initiatives.
to engage with our young people. And since then I stated and we organised events to confirm this approach namely
Employer Event on 22nd February 2008 Our Aim: To identify what skills businesses will need in the future and help to identify how those skills might be acquired.
Will your current workforce’s skills be good enough for your business in 2013?
How will you recruit new people with the skills you need into your business
What can providers and employers do together to secure the future for your sector?
NEXT came the Innovation & Skills Showcase - Driving business success through education
This event - Was about engaging our Youth of the Town and of the Area, to show to them that Waveney and the towns both within and immediately outside has a future for them. Whether they stay here for their higher education or whether they go away they are our future. We want them to see what is happening and what part they can play. This area has a role to play in the changing world order and is vital to the nation’s future prosperity and our future is New Energy and Innovation. Without these and our youth we have nothing.
This event was unique in that it provided a real and powerful line of communication between young people and their local business community.
Business owners had the satisfaction of engaging with enthusiastic young people and sharing the buzz of their energy.
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| New Business Award |
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Innovation & Skills Engaging Education Business award - This new award was proposed by Mick Lincoln during visits to schools locally to engage them in our Innovation and skills event we were presented with a unique opportunity to give recognition to those businesses that consider and value the importance of working with our local schools and educational establishments. And THUS this new category was determined.
Innovation & Skills Engaging Education Business award
• A plaque (gold, silver and bronze) will be presented to the top three businesses who demonstrate their commitment and engagement in working closely with schools and students to enhance their prospects raise their aspirations and show that there is a future for them when attaining high achievement and returning to our area. http://www.waveneychamber.co.uk/Business_Awards_2009/award4.php
Please complete the application form on-line and either nominate your own organisation or an associated business.
In 200 words details of the company and in no more than 500 words why the company is qualified to win this award!
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| The New Student Awards |
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Finally to re-address the skills agenda - a Suffolk wide initiative and L&W now have a number of Young Chamber’s within local schools. However we have extended this to launch our very own Student Awards alongside Enterprise Lowestoft as previously promised.
STUDENT AWARDS with Enterprise Lowestoft & Make your Mark
The Waveney Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Awards – For Young People
The Social Impact Award
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The Young Entrepreneur Award
AND Supported by Suffolk Chamber and Young Chamber
President’s Technology Innovation Award
This final award will see presentations from applicants at our Dragons den style event on October 1st Neptune to showcase your entries.
The chosen finalists in all 3 categories will be invited to present to the audience and the winners will receive their prize money and certificate of recognition during the evening of Monday 16th November where teacher’s friends and family can also enjoy the success.
These awards are being funded via The WEP and hosted by the Chamber during Make your Mark week with Enterprise Lowestoft support
Applications for the Technology Innovation Award can be made on line. The other 2 awards please follow this link http://www.waveneychamber.co.uk/student_awards.php
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| Students attending Chamber business events |
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An excerpt from an email to the Chamber from a teaching colleague Andrew Tink at the Denes about the benefits of attending Chamber Networking events . . .
Feedback from the students has been fantastic on the meetings. It really help to consolidate classroom theory and gives them confidence in their skills. The students find it really interesting to enter the world of business through this platform and enjoy engaging with business professional and devolving interpersonal skills in an applied context. I use this resource to build up student confidence and bring it back into the classroom by allowing group feedback as to the subjects discussed at the lunches. At the last meeting I left the students to sit with other away from you and I to build up their social skills and expose them to a new environment. This has proved to be a great success as the students have made contact with members of the chamber themselves and have been engaged in communicating at a level they should become familiar with to be effective in their careers.
The chamber is an excellent resource for students and teachers and is proving an excellent arena for networking, applying their studies and developing excellent communication skills. Many thanks for this opportunity again
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