Page 1

WEEKLY BULLETIN — 27 may 2016

From the Headmaster The senior students have begun their AS Level and GCSE examinations in earnest, with A Level’s starting after half-term; we wish them all continued good luck. For the rest of the school the Summer Term sees the start of many exciting trips and school events. This meant a busy week for the Modern Languages department as we welcomed local junior schools to our MFL Mastermind Quiz, which saw Aberdour School crowned as winners; our Second Form students embarked on their Spanish trip to Andalucia and this morning the First Form took off on their French trip to Château du Broutel. We were so fortunate to have over 100 children from local junior schools pass through the doors of RGS the past week, with the I’m a Geographer: Get Me out of Here Quiz and the MFL Mastermind. It really is an honour to watch our staff and students warmly welcome these schools to RGS, and show them a glimmer of life as a Reigatian. Special thanks needs to be given to Fourth Form students Molly Mundy and Tom Allen who brilliantly compered the geography event and to a host of wonderful Lower School students who made the MFL event so much fun. The Summer Concert took place last night at St Mary’s Church and saw wonderful performances from our RGS musicians, with so many of our younger students taking part. I always feel privileged to see so many of our students performing with such passion and dedication, the array of talent inspires us all. Student News Well done to Jasmine Foster and Charlie Seymour who ran the Dorking Colour 5K for the Rainbow Trust last weekend. Neither of the students had run this distance before, congratulations girls! Congratulations to Bernadette Cheng-Whitehead who was awarded the Reigate & Redhill Festival Arts Council Shield for Brass following her performance in the Grade 7 & 8 Brass Class. This is a fantastic achievement. Sport News Tom Allen has been invited to join to the Harlequins Elite Player Development Group after his strong performances over the season for the Surrey and Harlequins U15 sides.

On Tuesday we held the first ever Choreography Slam at RGS. This was a fantastic celebration of dance and original choreography by students at RGS. A professional choreographer was invited to adjudicate the performances which included styles as diverse as Ballroom, Ballet, Tap, Contemporary, Acro and Street. They awarded prizes for Best Original Choreography and Best Dance Performance to Caspar Meurisse and Purvaja Sivakumar. Purvaja performed a charismatic Bollywood routine that she had choreographed herself, whilst Caspar performed his own choreography and held everyone’s attention with a beautifully engaging ballet/contemporary performance to the music of Swan Lake. Malvika Santosh was second with a marathon tap routine, with Maddie Wright and Lily Florida-James coming third in the Dance Performance category with an upbeat tap dance duet. Amelia Dean was placed second for Original Choreography, with the trio of Hana Bashir, Sereena Pallana, and Jyothika Menon coming third. The standard of performance and choreography was excellent across the board and it was a real treat to discover the hidden talents at RGS. We were thrilled to be hosting this event and our dance club entertained the audience with a sassy street dance routine to Uptown Funk. We also welcomed the RSM dancers to perform their Titanium routine. It was inspiring to see the warmth of the audience, the creativity and hard work of RGS students and the care with which all pupils had prepared their dances. Thank you to Miss Hare for orchestrating this new initiative. Please continue to email me via headmaster@reigategrammar.org with any news items, questions or feedback. I wish you all a restful half-term. With my Best Wishes Shaun Fenton, Headmaster

Page 2

Last Friday, Third Form Classicists visited Caerleon Roman Fortress and the Roman Baths at Bath to learn about life in Roman Britain. The students visited the barracks and amphitheatre at Caerleon as well as hearing a fascinating talk on military life and weaponry before discovering the real locations and inspirations of stories in the Cambridge Latin Course at Bath. Highlights included discovering the original Vilbia curse tablet and trying the Bath waters, not to mention exploring two thousand year old public toilets in the barracks at Caerleon. The chance to dress up in military dress was a popular segment to the day.

On Tuesday the Second Form students took part in the school’s annual run to Tadworth, in aid of The Children’s Trust, Tadworth. They com-menced their 5K run from Reigate Hill to finish at Tadworth Cricket Club, New Road, Tadworth, where the Mayor of Reigate & Banstead, Councillor Joan Spiers, greeted the runners. First to reach the finish line for the boys was Theo Lewis who ran the course in 23 minutes 8 seconds, with Lucy Broderick and Lily Grant finishing as joint winners for the girls with a time of 27 minutes 18 seconds. Well done to everyone that took part and thank you to all of the families and friends who sponsored the students. Please can sponsor forms and sponsor money be collected and brought into school after half-term. As a school we have raised over £119,000 for this charity since 1989, and we thank you all for the continued support.

Page 3

DofE Notices With peak DofE expedition season here please check kit

list advice and training pages for help via: https://rgsdofe.wordpress.com/training/ https://rgsdofe.wordpress.com/kit-list/

Please remember that RGS DofE students must finish previous awards to continue with the next. Students may see Mr Collins in the DofE office at lunchtimes to get help with any aspect of DofE.

2017 dates are now being put on the dates page here:

https://rgsdofe.wordpress.com/dates/

NOTICES

RGS Cantata Choir Come & Sing

Event

Saturday 11 June 2016

2.00pm – St Mary’s Church 5.30pm – Informal concert

6.30pm – Refreshments at St Mary’s Church Centre

You are warmly invited to join the RGS Cantata Choir for a choral Come and Sing day at St Mary’s Church,

Reigate on Saturday 11 June 2016. No experience required. Suitable for anyone who

would like to enjoy some choral singing in a relaxed, friendly environment. The music will be a selection of movements from Haydn’s The Creation and The Armed

Man by Karl Jenkins. We’ll meet and rehearse for a few hours then give a short performance to an audience of

family and friends. The day will finish with refreshments at a social gathering at St Mary’s Church Centre.

RGS Cantata is a friendly choir, open to the RGS

community—parents, relatives, friends, RGS and RSM staff, current and former pupils of the school.

In March 2017, the RGS Cantata Choir will join with all school choirs to sing Fauré’s Requiem

with full orchestra and soloists at the prestigious venue, St John’s Smith Square in London—an

opportunity not to be missed! We are actively recruiting new members and would

love for you to join us. For more information about the Come and Sing event, or about joining the choir, please contact Tali Glynne-Jones, Head of Choral Music, via

tgj@reigategrammar.org

The RGS Foundation is looking for runners to take part in

this year’s Run Reigate to raise vital funds for the Changing Lives bursary fund. Whether you are interested in the 10k

or half marathon, why not run for Team RGS.

To register your interest or to find out more, please contact Hazel Cornick on 01737 222231 or email

hkc@reigategrammar.org

Page 4

For all sports news, fixtures, results, venues etc. please visit the RGS Sports pages: link.

NOTICES CONTINUED

The Box Office for Much Ado About Nothing will go

live to the parents of the cast and crew on Tuesday 7

June (via a Promotion Code) and to the rest of the

school community on Thursday 9 June. Parents of

the cast and crew will be sent the Promotion Code

by email on Monday 6 June.

The show runs from Tuesday 28 June until Friday 1

July, with performances starting at 6.00pm. The

venue is at the Headmaster’s House, One Chart

Lane.

Any queries, please email:

boxoffice@reigategrammar.org

NEARLY NEW UNIFORM SALE

Many thanks from everyone on the

PFA Nearly New Uniform team for all

of the contributions of stock that you

continue to provide. However, our

last sale was such a success that most

of the stock that you have donated

has now gone!

We have another sale coming up on

Saturday 18 June and we really need to

have something to sell!

So if you have any uniform items that

you no longer need then please think

about putting them through the

Nearly New sale. We are particularly

looking for smaller sizes given the fact

that prospective parents will be

invited to attend, but of course any

items will sell and would therefore be

very gratefully received!

If you are interested in selling items

then please go to the PFA pages on

the school website where the very

simple instructions are outlined

including price guide, percentage splits

for sale price, etc. Thank you from

THE PFA

PLEASE SUPPORT US!

PARENTS’ ONLINE

PAYMENT SYSTEM

The following trips, services and items are now available for payment via

the Parents’ Online Payment System.

TRIPS AVAILABLE FOR PAYMENT German – Berlin 2016

History & Politics – USA – 2nd Instalment

MUN – The Hague

An email from the RGS Drama Department will be sent out to the whole school with details on the audition process for the next RGS Drama Production Brief Encounter which will take place at the end of the autumn term. A copy of the Brief Encounter Audition Information, Brief Encounter Application Form and Brief Encounter script will be attached alongside the email.

Page 5

Page 6

Diary dates Changes from the published calendar are in BOLD

May HALF TERM 28 Sa DofE: Third Form Bronze training expedition (by

invitation) (returns) 29 Su Second Form Spanish trip (Andalucía, Spain) (returns) 30 M First Form French trip to Château du Broutel (returns) 31 Tu Golf v Pedagogues: Ladies (RHGC) 14:10 June 6 M Staff Training Day: School closed to students (except public exams) Drama: Much Ado About Nothing cast Shakespeare

workshop (DS) 09:00-16:00 Golf v Staff: Juniors (RHGC) 16:30 Governors: Education & Welfare Committee Meeting

17:30 7 Tu Term starts 08:30 Fourth Form Language Oral Exams * NEW * District Rounders: U13A&B (Oakwood School) 15:30 Golf v Epsom College: U13 (A) (Walton Heath GC)

15:30 Heads of Department Meeting (Rm15) 16:00-17:00 Drama: Lemons, Lemons, Lemons Third & Sixth Form (DS) 16:00-17:30 Fourth & Fifth Form (DS) 18:00-19:30 Public Performance and discussion (DS) 20:00-21:30 8 W Drama: Much Ado About Nothing rehearsal 16:00-17:30 District Athletics: U12 (H) 12:00 Boys’ Tennis v St John’s: U15, U14 (A) 16:30 11+ Parents' Information Evening (PMH) 19:30-21:00 Cantata Choir (RR) 19:45-21:45 9 Th UCAS planning visit to Southampton University

08:30-17:00 * NEW * Girls’ District Athletics League: U15, U14 (H) 16:30 Parents’ Forum: Drugs 19:00-20:00 10 F UCAS planning visit to Bath University 08:30-17:00 * NEW * Individual Swimming Cup: U13, U12 16:00-17:00 11 Sa County Athletics v Kingsmead (A) 09:00

Cricket v Christ's Hospital: U15A&B, U13A&B, U12A (A) 14:00 U14A&B, U12B (H) 14:00 Cantata Choir “Come & Sing” Rehearsals (St Mary’s Church) 14:30 Informal Concert (St Mary’s Church) 17:30 Reception (St Mary’s Church Centre) 18:30 12 Su Drama: Much Ado About Nothing whole cast rehearsal (CH/Main School) 10:00-13:00 13 M Lower Sixth Form students return to lessons Staff Meeting (PMH) 16:00-17:00 Golf v Charterhouse: Staff (RHGC) 17:00 Governors: Finance & Foundation Committee Meeting

17:30 14 Tu Junior Maths Challenge-follow on 09:00-11:00 Crimebusting Event for junior schools (BL) 16:15-17:45 15 W Primary Schools Drama Conference (DS) 12:30-15:30 Cricket v Churcher’s College: 2nd XI (A) 14:30 16 Th Trinity Group Heads of Chemistry Meeting (HW) Lower Sixth Form UCAS Day (6FC) 09:00-15:50 European Union Referendum Debate (PMH)

16:00-18:00 17 F First Form English trip to Globe Theatre

(London) (Departs) 07.50-16:30 (Returns) CCF: Climbing Weekend (Capel Curig, North

Wales) (departs) 14:00 First Form End of Year Disco (PMH) 19:00-20:30 18 Sa Music: Three Choirs Festival (The Minster, Croydon) Cricket v Wilson’s: U12&B (A) 09:30 U13A&B (H) 09:30 PFA: Nearly New Uniform Sale (PMH) 10:00-11:00 Cricket v KCS: 2nd XI, U15A&B (A) 10:00 U14A&B (H) 10:00 1st XI (H) 10:30 CCF: Army Section Exercise (Pirbright)

16:00 CCF: Royal Naval Section Trip (HMS Bristol)

16:00 19 Sun CCF Climbing Weekend Returns 20.00

For all sports news, fixtures, results, venues etc. please visit the RGS Sports pages: link.

Europe: In or Out? Parents and students are invited to attend a ‘Question

Time’ style EU Referendum Debate on Thursday 16

June at 4pm in the Peter Masefield Hall.

Brexit speakers:

Trevor Kavanagh (Old Reigatian) - Former Political

Editor of the Sun and now Associate Editor

Crispin Blunt MP (Reigate & Banstead) and Chair of

the Foreign Affairs Select Committee

Remain speakers:

John Vincent MEP & Lib Dem candidate for

Runneymede and Weybridge

Sam Gyimah MP (East Surrey), Minister for Children

and Education

Tickets: Seats will automatically be reserved for

Politics students. For parents and all other students

wishing to attend please visit the RGS Box Office via

www.reigategrammar.org to obtain tickets. (Please note that here is no charge for this event).