From the Second Master
Dear all,
It was wonderful to see so many of you at Wykeham Day on Saturday. I hope you enjoyed the festivities despite the weather's best attempts, and had a restful Exeat.
WEEKEND ARRANGEMENTS FOR BOARDERS
Details for this weekend can be found here. Please access the Parent Portal via the link below to inform us of your child’s plans for this weekend by 23:00 on Thursday 20 June. Log in, select 'Interactive Forms' and 'Weekend Sign Out' to complete the form.
SCHOOL HOLIDAY ARRANGEMENTS FOR BOARDERS
In preparation for the end of term, parents of boarders should complete the School Holiday Arrangements form, which is also accessed via the same route on the Parent Portal; under ‘School Holiday Arrangements'. Please complete the form by 13:00 on Friday 21 June. Regulations concerning our duty of care continue to change, such that we are required to hold more extensive information for certain pupils in particular circumstances: thank you therefore for the time you put into providing these details.
School goes down at 11:00 (Leavers after Domum) on Saturday 29 June. Other pupils may leave after Commendā on Friday 28 June with the agreement of their Housemaster.
Thank You Gifts
As we approach the end of the academic year, we understand that parents may wish to express their gratitude to staff through thank you gifts. From the College's perspective, we would like to emphasise that there is no obligation or expectation of gifts in any circumstances.
If you are organising a collection for a joint gift, please be mindful that parents have a wide range of financial circumstances and not everyone will be able to afford to participate or wish to contribute. Please also note that our internal policies do not permit staff to accept gifts of cash or vouchers of any amount, and staff will donate these to the College or the College's nominated charity.
Thank you to all who joined us at Wykeham Day this weekend. For those who couldn't attend, you can watch a highlights video taken by our cameraman during the sunnier parts of the day!
A gallery of photos is also available here. Please use the password provided in your covering email.
Carry for Climate
As part of Wykeham Day, the charities committee organised a 'Carry for Climate' run; a race to see which team could carry a dummy on a stretcher the furthest.
The winning house was Chawker’s with an impressive 72 laps of the course.
Thank you to all who have donated so far. Over 2000 pounds has already been raisied, but any further donations to help the committee reach its target would be much appreciated.
You can donate, here.
Community Service
Performing at Winnall Primary School and the Royal Albert Hall
Last year, after a rigorous multi-round audition process, Nye (X) earned a place on the National Youth Orchestra (NYO).
As part of his responsibilities as a member, Nye does outreach for local school children, and last week he visited Winnall Primary School. While there, Nye spoke about his musical journey, explain what the NYO is, and what it does to try and inspire new generations of musicians.
Nye also took the students through some warm up exercises, showed how the trombone makes its sound, discussed other instruments in the orchestra, played some pieces and answered questions. What was meant to be a 20 minute session ended up going on for 40 minutes, with both Nye and the children enjoying it immensely.
Nye will soon take his talents from Winnall to the Royal Albert Hall, where, on August 10, he will be playing in a full Prom as part of the culmination of the NYO's summer tour.
Champions Crowned in Baxter Pot Final
Last week, the finals of the inter-house chess competition, Baxter Pot, took place. The competition is for teams of 5, with College splitting their two best players across two teams.
This year, Beloe's were clear winners, having been seeded 2nd behind College. This win was made even more impressive by the youth of the Beloe's team, comprised of Kirin, John, Hans, Tristan, and Monty, none of whom are in VIth Book.
Congratulations!
Pupil wins Inspirational Young Stars Award
Last summer, Nico (X) raised £4,200 for UNESCO Voices for Future Generations, National Trust Wicken Fen and Cambridge University Botanic Garden by kayaking 67km from Cambridge to the North Sea.
The money was used to raise awareness and funds to protect children’s rights from the impacts of our global Climate Emergency.
As a result of his three day 'Paddle to the Sea' expedition, Nico has won one of the main awards in the Inspirational Young Stars Award of The Cambridge Independent.
Congratulations Nico!
Trips
A Deep Dive into the National Oceanographic Centre
Last week, Amelie (C), Ella (C) and Tabitha (I), along with Mr Rogers and Dr French, were hosted by Dr Veerle Huvenne at the Southampton Oceanographic Centre (NOC), a centre for marine research excellence, and one of only a small group of similar instituitions.
Activities included a visualisation of ocean current and temperature modelling, a tour of the ocean floor sediment laboratory and archive, the latter a vast room of carefully labelled tubes of seafloor sediment columns, kept at a chilly five degrees Celsius.
In the somewhat warmer laboratory space, hundreds of thousands of years of earth's history were laid out, representing about a thousand years per centimetre, in multi-coloured muds.
The group then toured the marine engineering department, taking in autonomous submarines, underwater robots, and specimen tanks.
Finally Dr Huvenne gave a fascinating presentation on underwater canyons which descend from the continental shelf into the deep Atlantic, while also detailing the damage caused by deep sea trawling.
This was an excellent opportunity for our pupils to speak to research scientists, find out about their projects and also gain very useful insights into further study and career paths in marine science.
Events
What's On
Parents are welcome to join us for College events. Events taking place over the coming weeks are highlighted here, but please find the full schedule at the links below.
For Domum bookings, please click here. When booking, please log into an existing Winchester College Society account, or create a new account.
Music Diary Talks & Lectures
Food
Eating Sustainably at Winchester
To further our green ambitions, the College caterers, Chartwells partnered with Foodsteps, a company that helps organisations measure the carbon footprint of their food.
Their platform produces insights of the College’s boarding house menus, giving each dish a rating from A (very low) to E (very high).
During a meeting with the College’s food committee, it was agreed that this information would be valuable for pupils, and since May half term, we have been labelling our weekly boarding house menus to raise awareness, amongst both pupils and staff, of the environmental impact of the food we eat.
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