Friday 4 November 2016

Year 12 Geographers flew to Sicily over Half Term to explore the island and its natural wonders. From day one we saw how Mount Etna dominates the entire region. It towers over the settlements, some of which are now partially buried in relic lava flows whilst others rely on it for fertile soils and bountiful crops. We had the privilege of going up Mount Etna, seeing some of its many craters and touching lava still hot from eruptions in recent years. We climbed Grand Cratere on Vulcano Island which though challenging provided spectacular views over the archipelago. Using knowledge from our recent studies in class we could explain the formation of the landscape around us and therefore appreciate its significance even more. Awe and wonder geography at its best. JRR

Life on a volcano!

Year 9 and 10 students went on a netball tour to Barbados over Half Term. It was a great experience and lots of fun. The first bit of netball we played when we got there was a training session lead by two Bajan coaches. We learn a lot about the Bajan style of play and how they are extremely hungry for the ball. For the matches the teams split into two and two. Our first two matches were against local schools while the second two where againsT local clubs. During the games we learned that the Barbadians are often extremely good at defending and intercepting the ball. Throughout the trip we constantly

HAVING A BALL IN BARBADOSBY JOSIE improved our defending skills. We

had some really tough, close matches throughout the week, but we learned from the matches that we lost and improved with each fixture. The two A teams even had the opportunity to play against the under 16 Barbados national squad at the National Stadium which was a great experience. As well as playing netball we also went on day trips including a jeep safari of the island, a cave trip, a trip to the beach, a shopping trip into Bridgetown and a catamaran cruise which including snorkelling with turtles. It was an amazing trip and we learned lots not just about Bajan style of netball but about the island as well.

2

CLASSICS UPDATEJuliette Chatenier presented a recent Classics masterclass about Oriental religions in Ancient Rome. She explained that the traditional state religion of Rome was seen as boring by many, a highly hierarchical and conservative set of rituals which left the individual with no sense of involvement or belonging. Many Romans increasingly sought spiritual fulfilment of a more personal kind in the religions of the Orient. ‘Oriental’ in the title of the talk, she told us, referred to the world of the Eastern Roman Empire and the countries on its

borders, places like modern Turkey, Egypt and Iran. Juliette focussed particularly on the cult of the Anatolian Great Mother goddess, the Magna Mater, Cybele, and linked it to the worship of the Persian god Mithras, popular with Roman soldiers particularly. She showed how such cults were accepted by the Romans more and more as they developed a tolerant attitude to religions from other Eastern countries. In contrast, the religious practices

of the west were largely suppressed when the Romans came, part of

the snobbery of the conquerors, who saw the cult of druidism and its ceremonies as dirty

and primitive. The east was the ‘old world’ for the Romans, its peoples cultured and educated, its religions full of sanctity and

mystery. The influx of slaves and others from the east following the Roman conquest of these areas led to a growing awareness of and interest in the gods of these places. Juliette quoted a scholar from a previous century explaining the process: “Chambermaids were influencing the minds of their mistresses.” The new religions were often mystical and secretive, giving the adherents a strong sense of belonging, of unity, promoting a more egalitarian attitude amongst the followers and stressing the importance of the individual’s personal involvement in the worship, with many rituals involving ecstatic experiences and visions. Thanks to Juliette for opening up a fascinating and unusual aspect of the Classical world to the senior

Classicists. NMM

PARENTS CHOIRYou are warmly invited to come along and sing in the parents choir which will perform alongside the school choir in next term’s Choral Concert on Thursday 9 February. Rehearsals this term will take place on Saturday 26 November and Saturday 10 December from 10am-12pm in the Emanuel School Concert Hall. We will be sing JS Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Refreshments are provided and no previous singing experience is needed. Do come along and give it a go! There will be more rehearsals next term. Any questions or for more information, please email the Director of Music (Tim Rhodes) on tim.rhodes@Emanuel.org.uk

BEING STREETWISEBY BEN On Wednesday period one and two the whole of Year 6 and 7 had a funny, quirky and dramatic road safety talk. Sponsored by Wadsworth Council, it was fantastically delivered by Rhys, Rob and Riana. During the first half we watched a play consisting of three characters in school, showing situations where young people can be in danger of road accidents and why everyone needs to take care around roads. During the play each charac-ter had at least one near miss (almost being hit by a car) and towards the end of the play an unseen character called Chloe was hit by a car and seriously injured. After the play was over, the three actors shared some har-rowing statistics, emphasising just how important it is to stay safe around busy roads. We also played a debating game argu-ing whether accidents were the fault of cars or pedestrians, first in pairs then in the whole hall, imitating the House of Com-mons. To finish off everyone filled out an evaluation sheet to say how much we learned and everyone confirmed they had thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

A statuette of the Mother Goddess Cybele in her chariot pulled by lions

CAROL SERVICES: This year’s Carol Services will be held on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 December at 7.30pm in the School Chapel. There will be an Organ recital beforehand at 6.30pm. Tickets and further information will be available in the near future so watch this space.

3

CONGRATULATIONS EWAN Ewan Day-Collins is currently studying History at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He has recently written to tell us that he has won a scholarship following the second year exams, and is now a Senior Scholar and the holder of the “Sir Herbert Butterfield Prize” in his final year. Well done Ewan! MHB

We welcomed everyone back after Half Term with a special Halloween Lunch. The menu featured witch’s brew followed by spooky sausages, chilli-ng jackets, slimy salad and for dessert, bat wing brownie and cauldron sauce or evil pixie pumpkin pie. The dining rooms were decorated

with pumpkins, ghouls and ghosts and we even had a few witches on hand to help serve lunch. The day went very well

and it inspired a few of the boys to look even more ghoulish than normal! PS

HALLOWEEN LUNCH

COMEDY NIGHTEPA Comedy Night. Monday 14 November, 8-10pm. Look out for an Eventbrite invitation which will be going out soon.

BURNS NIGHT CEILIDH By popular demand the Burns Night Ceilidh is back and will take place on Friday 27 January 2017. More information to come.

MODEL UNITED NATIONS 18 students from Year 11 and the Lower and Upper Sixth took part in the Model United Nations at Sutton Valence School. They represented different countries and debated current affairs throughout the day. The students were extremely impressive in their knowledge and debating skills, with many of them winning prizes and receiving praise from staff from the schools attending. HVC

WORLD FOOD DAY To mark World Food Day the catering team held a Hot Chocolate and Brownie sale on last month in the Terrace Room at morning break. The sun shone and we sold over 150 cups of delicious hot chocolate and 150 freshly made chocolate brownies. All of the proceeds, £130.00 will be shared between the school charities and the Sodexo Foundation’s Stop Hunger charity. Thank you to everyone who came along and helped us raise funds. PS

BIOLOGY WEEK Thank you to all the students who came along to enjoy the activities that included a Bio-Bake Off, Fossil Hunt, Public Dissection. Winner of the Autumn themed photography competition will be announced soon. DMP

4

THE SNOWFLAKE FAIRSunday 20 November, 11-3pm

For more information please email info4snowflakefair@gmail.com

SPORT1ST XV v ROYAL ALBERT & ALEXANDRA SCHOOLFINAL SCORE: 26-14 (WON)

BY BENIntensity before kick off was good and we had an effective warm up; however we looked lethargic when starting and it took us a while to get our shapes and patterns in place. Half time couldn't come soon enough and we needed to regather and rethink. Our set piece had been strong and we'd stolen the opponent’s ball in the line out. We needed to improve our postive tackling and pick up our line speed in defence. In attack we just needed quicker and better quality ball and to the space over the ball at the ruck. The second half was a far better performance and three tries from the captain among others rendered us overall victors.

NETBALLU13A v WICKAM ABBEYFINAL SCORE: 28-17 (LOST)

BY LOLAThis was our second cup match of the season. We were eager to win the game, scoring a lot of goals by Libby and Ginevra with help from Charlotte, Izzie, Nicole and Bella. Rosie and Carolina played GD very well getting down the court and Neve protecting our goalpost. In the last quarter we tired and conceded too many goals.

U13B v THOMAS'S CLAPHAMFINAL SCORE: 28-1 (WON)

BY VICTORIAWe played very well with Rose getting every shot in the hoop. Nicole covered every inch of the court. Scarlett played great in defence blocking the ball from going in to the D. We were very pleased with our win.

U13B v HARRODIAN 8-7 (WON)

BY VICTORIAIt was a tight and competitive match, but Nicole, Sophie and Topanga made the difference in the last few minutes to see out the win. Player of the Match Topanga.

U13C v HARRODIANFINAL SCORE 10-0 (WON)

BY PAOLOI thought we played great since it was our first time playing together as a team. There was amazing defending from Dalia, making it hard for the others to shoot. In centre there was Connie and Festa (who got player of the match) who played outstandingly.

13A v HARRODIANFINAL SCORE: 24-10 (WON)

BY LOLAWe were nervous because we knew that our opponents were a strong team and we had had a close score in a previous tournament. When we got there we got straight into the game. In the first quarter we got off to a great start with the score at 9-3 to us. In the second quarter we had a few fresh pairs of legs and ended the half at 13-7. It started to rain in the last quarter and was very wet with everyone was dropping the ball. Player of the match Ginevra.

U13D v HARRODIANFINAL SCORE: 22-2 (WON)

BY MADDYMargot and Miffy were outstanding, scoring all our goals. Holly and Emily played center, swapping every quarter. Lella was a very fast wing attack. Maddie was an excellent goal keeper and threw in some amazing back lines. Towards the end of the match it started to rain and it became quite slippery underfoot. It was also very difficult to handle the ball.

U14C v HARRODIANFINAL SCORE 18-1 (WON)

BY JOSIEThe centre court worked well together, getting the ball down to the D, where the shooters were extremely accurate. Amelia was the highest goal scorer. Lauren and Isabella worked well in the D together. Player of the match went to Josie. Lola played very well, doing excellent defending.

SURREYS MATCH REPORT

BY ANNAOur first match was against Coloma, which we lost 11-3. Our second game was against Nonsuch. Milly, Eva, Grace and Emma passed the ball fluently down the court. We won 11-1. The third match was a Riddlesdown with Natacha and Edie defending the D very well. We won 10-7. The next match was against Wellington and everyone played very well from Libby at GK all the way through to Emily as GS. We won 10-2. Our last match was against Royal Russel, which we lost.

RUGBY

5

U12 A MATCH v ELTHAM COLLEGE FINAL SCORE 10-5 (WON)

BY TOMThe Emanuel boys were fired up and ready to play Eltham. It was a strong and confident warm up from Emanuel, determined to continue our winning streak. The referee’s whistle blew and the game was underway. It was a solid start from both teams; Eltham pushing deep in to Emanuel’s half, but their defence was just as good. The game went on but there was still no try from either side. In the last five minutes of the first half, Emanuel started creating chances and won a scrum 5 metres from the try line. We won the scrum and Ben smashed through their defence and placed the ball over the line. We were 5-0 up when the whistle went for half time. In the second half, Eltham came out strongly, and after a couple of minutes they were threatening to score, being deep in our half. Their pressure paid off and they scored with 10 minutes left of the match. Emanuel re-grouped and won the ball in the ruck. Andrew passed to Matthew who powered over the try line. In the last couple of minutes Emaunel were defending but a win from their scrum meant we could kick the ball in to touch for the final whistle. Overall there was some superb brave tackling from Oliver, Louis, Zeeshan and James. Then there was some amazing rucking from Max, Issac, Hughie and Martin and finally some great back line moves from Tom, Hal and Thomas.

RUGBYA DOUBLE WIN AT PAIRS HEAD OF THE RIVER

Over half term we had four senior girls crews entered into Pairs Head of the River. Pairs Head is one of the prestigious Tideway head races and takes place annually with over 400 crews entered this year in either doubles or pairs. The race is held as a time trial over 4,800m. This year was a first for Emanuel, winning not one but two girls’ events. Izzy and Kathleen (Year 11) sculled extremely well and steered a perfect course to win Women’s Junior 16 double sculls, finishing 27 seconds ahead of Walton RC. The other win came from Mariella and Darcy (Upper Sixth) in the Women’s Junior 18 Pair. They drew on their experience and pushed hard over the 16 minute course, winning with a lead of 0.5 seconds over LEH who finished in second place. Our two other crews competed in the Women’s Junior 18 double scull event. With 26 entries this was a big event, with lots of crews fighting for the best line to stay in the stream. Unfortunately the older crew of Issy and Jess (Upper Sixth) got held up in a few clashes with other boats whilst overtaking, meaning they lost a bit of time, however they stayed focused and worked hard to finish in

10th place. The younger crew of Orla (Year 11) and Rosamond (Lower Sixth) showed great potential for the future by finishing sixth in the Junior 18 category after a very committed performance. All of the crews raced well in what were some tricky race conditions and produced some very good results for the start of the season. HEB

The Senior Boys had two crews in the Pairs Head of the River race. Jake and Jude had a very encouraging row to come 4th/18 in the Junior 2x event. Both boys have achieved the qualifying time for entry to the GB Junior trials later this month based on their 2k test, although with the number of crews allowed to race restricted to 150 it is by no means certain that they will have done enough. All the same this result in the Pairs Head shows they will be a force to reckoned with in doubles events this season. Although Ben and Roshaan did not go as well as they had in training, and they certainly came off the water feeling they had not sculled their best, they should not be too disappointed with their position of 13th/18. MR MARRIOTT (ROWING COACH)

ROWING

Jack Beaumont (Rio 2016 Olympic Finalist, 4x), Kathleen Beams, Izzy Thomas, Darcy Jennings, Mariella Hayes, Alan Sinclair (Rio 2016 Olympic 2-)

(right) Jake and Jude [117] moving past the Royal University Medical School crew [104], one of the 14 crews they overtook during the Pairs Head of the River race

6

NETBALL TOUR TO BARBADOS

2016