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Head’s News The first of December brings with it the advent of Christmas; already shops are

displaying their yuletide wares and radio stations have been playing the season’s iconic songs. An excited buzz is in the air. The Christmas period gives our students the opportunity and, with luck, the space to think

more about others, more about the difficult circumstances

that other people may find themselves in and more about their own lives in terms of how they interact with their friends.

Whether they are religious or not, the Kingdom that Jesus describes in the Sermon on the Mount remains as one of the

most extraordinarily bold and challenging accounts ever written or said. In its call for unconditional hospitality, returning those who hate you with love and those who offend you with forgiveness, we hear a demanding, even harsh telling. After all, to offer friendship and love to those who do not reciprocate or to tender forgiveness those who seem not to want forgiveness requires an almost

superhuman level of compassion. Yet Christmas gives the SWPS community the chance to reach those superhuman heights of compassion. We will, of course, fail. We are not perfect. But to try, even though we do not succeed, is in itself valuable and it is part of what the

season of goodwill is all about.

C Muller Head

SCHOOL SORT CODE CHANGE As part of the banking ring fencing changes the school's bank sort code has changed to:

20 92 96 The banks will continue to redirect payments at the moment

but if you do pay money direct to SWPS's Barclays bank then please could you amend your payment details.

Gift-boxes for Mulberry House Well done to the Lower Sixth students for their generosity! They have put

together a number of luxury Christmas gift-boxes containing toiletries and other essentials for the residents of Mulberry House in Guildford, a homeless shelter for young women. Thanks go to all who

contributed to the large collection of boxes, and to Mrs Lawrence for organising and delivering the gifts.

R Lawrence

National Youth Guitar Ensemble Congratulations to Caitlin Pittol-Neville (Y11) who has passed the audition to join the

Nat i ona l Youth Gu i ta r Ensemb le (www.nyge.org.uk). Directed by Helen Sanderson, the NYGE UK London Ensemble gives aspiring and gifted

young classical guitarists the opportunity to experience world-class ensemble coaching. Caitlin was also offered a

place in the NYGE ACADEMY which offers two residential

courses during the Easter and Summer holidays under the musical direction of Gerald Garcia.

T Scrutton

School Concert—Wednesday 29 November 2017 The Main Hall echoed to

music as diverse as Albinoni’s Sinfonia in G, Handel’s Arrival of the

Queen of Sheba, and Williams’ Themes from Jurassic Park, with some Christmas flavours thrown in along the way, during the most marvellous concert this week. The School Choir and School

Orchestra opened and closed the evening, and the Flute, Brass, Advanced Strings, Clarinet, Baroque and Sax groups gave beautiful performances through the evening. A stirring classical guitar solo by Caitlin Pittol-Neville, and a taster of Mr Rickards’ compositions for the forthcoming ‘Arabian Nights’ production in the early part of next year completed

an evening showcasing some amazing talent, including a new instrument now introduced to our orchestra – the type-

writer – which brought back fond memories for the more mature members of the audience!

Congratulations to the Music Department and all involved for

arranging such a wonderful evening.

S Hallsworth

Artworks of the Month Here’s two of our four Artworks of the Month,

for December, selected by the Art & Design Dept staff. These are by Annabel Nicholls (Y10), and Dani Bae (Y11). Take a look at more

student artwork on the

Firefly Art pages.

Left: Annabel Nicholls (Y10)

Right: Dani Bae (Y11)

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Sports News

Karate More congratulations to Maddie Jones (Y9) who competed in individual Kumite and Team

Kumite, winning Gold and Silver respectively! Maddie has recently changed clubs to help her selection chances for the World Competitions and this was her first time competing for them, so a very impressive start!

Biathlon Well done to Alma Thomsen (Y8) who represented SWPS in the British Modern Biathlon

Championship in Solihull on 25th and 26th November 2017. She did PB in her 1600 meter run (5:54:31) and end up no. 28 in the category girls under 13.

Hockey Year 9 On Monday the Year 9

h o c k e y s q u a d comprehensively won the District Tournament, making it 3 tournament wins out of 3 so far this season! Congratulations…Again!

Year 10 20 of the top hockey playing schools in Surrey competed in the County Championships on Tuesday where the SWPS Year 10s gave a fantastic account of themselves, losing only one group game to Tormead in which they could have drawn late on, and beating Lingfield, St Dunstan’s and St George’s

College!! This took them to the last 8 where they narrowly lost 1-0 to Reigate GS, where again SWPS nearly managed

to pull off a victory. The squad played exceptionally well throughout the day and should be proud of their efforts and results. Year 11

The Year 11 hockey squad finished runners-up in the District Tournament on Wednesday at Woking HC. Despite playing well and creating lots of goal scoring opportunities the goals were in short supply. A great effort by all those playing! Mr Goodfield Mr Goodfield will be representing England in the

World League Final in India which will be shown on BT Sport. Their first game is against

Germany on Friday at 11.15am, followed by India on Saturday at 2pm and then Australia on Monday at 11.45am. These will be followed by a quarter final and we hope a semi-final and final.

Sports PE Kit Alleycatz, the provider of our main School Uniform, will now

be supplying all SWPS PE kit. All items will appear on their website and will be available and ready to buy and order from Monday 4 December 2017. The full Uniform Code and PE kit list, as well as the links to order items are available on the SWPS website at www.swps.org.uk/Uniform

New Staff Head of PE: Ms Michelle Law

Miss Michelle Law will join the school full time

as Head of PE in April 2018 and has a First Class BSc degree in Sport and Exercise Science

from the University of Birmingham and a PGCE from Brunel University. Miss Law has previously taught at St Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls in Carshalton where she was Head of Physical Education for five years and Reigate

College teaching A Level Sports Science. Teacher of PE: Mrs Julia Dunlop

Mrs Julia Dunlop is teaching part time and joins us following successful teaching roles at Lady Eleanor Holles and Notre Dame Senior Schools.

She was previously Director of Sport and Well Being at Rowan Preparatory School in Esher. She is a qualified Netball coach and an accredited umpire in both Netball and Hockey.

She completed her teacher training at De Montfort University and we are delighted to welcome her to the school.

Netball Coach: Miss Hannah Foxley Miss Hannah Foxley is an experienced Netball coach and currently coaches at Esher Church School and Oxshott Netball club. During her time at university she was talent ID for GB rowing and rowed competitively up until this summer. Miss. Foxley joins us full time in January 2018 to primarily support Netball but will also be involved in Rowing. She has

a BSc in Sport Management from Cardiff University where her particular focus was on the practical coaching of netball and gymnastics. Netball & Rowing Coach: Miss Helen Roberts

Miss Helen Roberts has returned to the school

following a one year break where she has been working for a Financial Headhunting company. Miss Roberts was a member of our Rowing staff in 2015/16 academic year whilst she was rowing competitively for Molesey Boat club. She previously coached juniors at Cardiff City Rowing club. Miss Roberts is coaching our

students in both Rowing and Netball and holds coaching qualifications in both sports. Miss Roberts has a GLD in Law and a Bachelor and Masters of Arts from Cardiff University.

Lead Netball Coach & PE Co-ordinator: Mrs Rebecca Young Mrs Rebecca Young has previously taught at

both Epsom College and City of London Freemen’s School, and joins us as our PE Co-ordinator and Lead for Netball. Mrs Young has BSc in Sport and Exercise Science and is a qualified Netball and Hockey coach and umpire. In her role as PE co-ordinator she will

lead the implementation of the SOCS sports fixture system for the school.

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Communication System: SOCS—a complete overhaul to the sports communication service is now live and active. We have launched our brand new Sports website available at:

www.SWPSSport.org.uk The new, intuitive layout lets parents, students and staff know what’s on, where and when! This new system also allows you to navigate the entire sports calendar, see team selections, all fixtures and their results, checkout opposing teams recent results and playing records, directions to sporting venues and also boasts a fully

responsive Mobile Web App when viewing on a mobile

smartphone to have all of this information at your fingertips! (Full instruction for the web app available here.)

And in school, the digital signage in the Sports building now displays live match information and results so all students can keep track of

their sporting activities.

!SAVE THE DATE! Junior Sports Tour: Dubai (Netball) - October 2018

SWPS will be running an exciting opportunity for Years 8 & 9 to take part in a Netball Sports Tour to Dubai next October.

The trip will include the below:

Return direct flights from

London Heathrow to UAE

7 days/6 nights in 4* hotel accommodation in Dubai on a twin/triple sharing,

Half Board basis (Breakfast & Evening meal for each night of the stay (6 nights)

Accommodation in twin/triple rooms within 2/3/4 bedroom apartments

Airport transfers in destination & all ground transportation

Dedicated ‘Sporta’ team liaison available 24/7 & use of a local mobile phone

1 training session, 4 Netball fixtures per team and water included at all training

and matches

Excursions TBC but could include - SMCCU Cultural Lunch, Desert Safari (with

BBQ meal), Aquaventure Water-Park, Zayed Grand Mosque, Yas Marina GP Circuit (subject to availability), Dubai Mall and Jumeirah Beach.

More information to follow!

Senior Sports Tour: South Africa

(Netball & Hockey) - October 2018 ...and not to exclude Year 10 & 11, we will also be repeating the SWPS Senior Hockey & Netball Sports Tour to South Africa during October 2018! Full details TBC but previous trips have included

fantastic sports opportunities competing in international matches, visiting historic and educational sites while experiencing the rich culture of South Africa.

Previous years have included trips to:

Robben Island

Table Mountain

A Wildlife Game Reserve

Watch this space for more information and the chance to take part in this invaluable adventure!

Sports News

Please submit any content for Sir William Perkins’s School to news@swps.org.uk

Content is used at the School’s discretion

River Celebration 2018 T-Shirt Competition

Would you be able to design a t-shirt for the 2018 Runnymede River Celebration? Runnymede Borough Council is excited to announce that

planning has started for the 2018 River Celebration Festival which aims to celebrate all things river related. They are asking SWPS students to design a River Celebration t-shirt

for the event, for the volunteers to wear, and perhaps even to sell to fundraise. There is no brief for the t-shirt, just be as creative as you can!

1st Prize is a £30 Amazon voucher & 2nd Prize is a £15 Amazon voucher.

Please send your designs to Suzanne Stronge by email: Suzanne.Stronge@runnymede.gov.uk

BEFORE the 16th February 2018.

https://www.runnymede.gov.uk/article/13035/River-

Celebration-2018

GOOD LUCK!

CHANGES TO TRAIN SERVICES TO CHERTSEY – YOUR HELP REQUESTED!

REMEMBER TO LOG YOUR OBJECTIONS BEFORE

FRIDAY 22 DECEMBER 2017 Can we remind parents of an issue which we raised a few

weeks ago – and once again ask for your help in challenging an issue in respect of the train services used by many of our students to get to School.

You may be aware that the old South West Trains franchise has been taken over by a new franchisee, South Western Railway (SWR). SWR have initiated a consultation exercise around re-vamping parts of their network. The consultation exercise completes on 22 December, with the objective of introducing the changes in December 2018.

You will hopefully by now be aware that one of their proposals appears to have a material impact on the train services which large numbers of our students use to get to

School, and to get home in the evenings. The proposals entail removing the current direct ‘loop’ service from London via Staines past Chertsey to Weybridge, and replacing it by

a half-hourly SHUTTLE train between Virginia Water and Weybridge. This means that:

for many students coming from the Twickenham/

Staines/ Windsor direction, there will be an additional change at Virginia Water. We believe that this could lead

to a variety of concerns – student stress, increased journey times, issues if cancellations occur and even potentially safety issues. Virginia Water is a more isolated station with less shelter, and we know that other schools – for instance, Salesian and St George’s

Weybridge – will also be affected. There could be large numbers of students waiting on the station, from

multiple schools. If a shuttle service was found to be unavoidable, at least a start at Staines would be a more appropriate station.

For students coming from the Weybridge direction, the

train times may mean that students have a much longer wait eg if trains are delayed, before getting the next shuttle.

The School is responding formally to the consultation registering its concerns and asking for the loop service to be retained. It has also mobilised the Governors, other schools, Councillors and local businesses/ organisations to do so. The Rt Hon Philip Hammond, the MP for Runnymede, has kindly

written to SWR on our behalf. I am sure that many of you have already done so. However, if you have not and would like to, the email to send consultation responses to SWR is timetable.feedback@swrailway.com.

The web link to SWR’s consultation is https://www.southwesternrailway.com/contact-and-help/timetable-consultation. We have already emailed a proforma letter to all parents and can provide a copy of it if you would like to get in touch with the Bursary.

The School will continue to keep a close eye on this matter.

We will of course aim to do whatever we can to ensure that all students are able to get to School in the easiest way possible, no matter what. However, with your help, I hope that we can remove this proposal and retain the train journey as it currently is.

Thank you for your continued support on this issue.

Chris Muller, Head

Book of the Week This week’s BotW is ’The Power’ by Naomi Alderman, selected by our Librarian Mrs Vidgen.