29 November 2019 Follow us on twitter @woodhouse_grove

Great Expectations…. 21 senior students from Y11 to Y13 (plus two featured performers from Y7) have been rehearsing since September for their production of ‘Great Expectations’.

They opened the show last night to a fantastic audience of family, friends and school members and gave a brilliant performance. In particular Joseph Myers, who plays the lead role of ‘Pip’, did not step off the stage out of character from the moment he started the show. A huge achievement of line learning and acting skills!

Congratulations to the whole cast for a brilliant production. The final performance takes place this evening in The Grove Theatre.

London Institute of Banking & Finance…

Congratulations to Y13 students Josh Firth, George Galins, Finn Payton and Louie Williams who achieved excellent grades in their finance exams over summer. They were awarded certificates from the London Institute of Banking and Finance.

Let the Canvassing Begin...

We are holding a school ‘general election’ with four candidates presenting a two minute pitch to the full school assembly on Monday. The four candidates, whose speeches must include Education, Law and Order, Brexit, the NHS and Environment are;

Jen Holland for Liberal Democrats

Emma Illingworth for the Green Party

Abbie Nott for Labour

Eddie Freeman for Conservative

All students and staff are invited to cast their votes on Tuesday lunchtime and we are looking forward to comparing our school results with the actual General Election results on 12th.

Senior Maths Challenge…. A great performance by our Y12 and Y13 Maths students in the Senior Maths Challenge. Michael Cavaliere was best in school, best in Y13 and qualified for the next round, the Senior Kanga-roo, along with Rory Gallagher. Henry Li was best in Y12. In total, there were 2 golds, 6 silvers and 17 bronzes awarded. Well done to everyone who took part.

Historical Association Debate... Last week, WGS hosted the Historical Association Debate, an annual competition where students present a 5 minute speech on a key topic and are judged on their research and questioned on their work.

This year the topic was 'Should we judge historical figures by the morals of today?' Some students took a philosophical approach, considering 'morality' while others used a historical approach, looking specifically at the work of individuals such as Winston Churchill, Mary I and Roosevelt.

Our two entrants, Rory Gallagher and Catherine Voronina, performed very well in what was a high standard of competition.

Reading & Speaking Competition The senior reading and speaking competition took place last week with 10 students from Y11 to Y13 taking part. During an exciting afternoon of poetry reading, the students excelled with some beautiful and emotive renditions that almost reduced the judges to tears. Y13 student, Ravleen Kundola was awarded the senior reading and speaking prize by Mrs Nulty and Ms Oakley for her beautiful recitation of Imtiaz Dharker’s poem ‘Minority’.

Ravleen will now enter the national ‘Poetry by Heart’ competition and Sophia Nwachukwu, Y11 will be our KS4 entry in the regional heats.

Christmas Fair… Thanks to everyone who supported the Christmas Fair on Saturday. FOWG next event is Quiz Night on Friday 7th February. Early bird tickets are only £10 including hot food and are available from www.ticket source.co.uk/woodhousegroveschool

Leeds Cross Country Success… Thanks to everyone involved with hosting the Leeds Schools Cross Country last Saturday. We appreciate conditions were challenging from a weather and parking perspective, however, we did do rather well! Our U13 girls won with just 14 points (1st Maisey Bellwood, 3rd Georgina Rayner, 4th Eilidh Molloy, 6th Phoebe Turner, 9th Grace Ross and 31st Lily Bickle) and our U13 boys also won the team event with 19 points and an impressive 9 WGS runners (1st Archie Peaker, 4th Joey Hall, 5th Harry Bates, 9th Cameron Bojas, 12th Barnaby Steere, 17th Jacob Best, 26th Daniel Rutter, 32nd Ibrahim Khan and 41st Leo Horsley). Imogen Idle came 12th in U15 girls and we had 3 representatives in U15 boys (2nd Ben Hill, 6th Thomas Steel, 11th Philip Wright).

Wishing our Junior teams all the best at next Saturday’s National Finals.

Netball… Congratulations to Maisie Bickerton who has been selected for Leeds Rhinos U19 netball squad for NPL 2020.

Last week, Harrogate Grammar School brought 4 teams to play our U12 netballers and now 100% of Y7 girls have represented the school in netball. 12Green W16-11 POM: Scarlett & Belle. 12Red L9-13 POM: Olivia L. 12Maroon L1-15 POM: Izzy B. 12White L0-13 POM: Isabella.

Christmas Food Bank Appeal... Thanks to everyone who has donated food and toiletries to the Christmas Foodbank Appeal. The second delivery of 23 crates went this morning much to the delight of the staff at the distribution centre. The first delivery went earlier in the month. The deadline for anyone still wishing to donate items is next Friday.

Individual Successes... Cameron Ford, Y10, has retained his place in the British Canoeing England Talent Squad. He has been selected for both K1 and C1 categories for white water slalom racing. This involves a huge commitment to train at least 2 evenings a week and most weekends at Tees, Notingham or Lee Valley, London. He has also been invited to attend specialist C1 training evenings in Nottingham.

Congratulations to footballers Jonny White, Y12 who has been selected for the ISFA U17 national squad and also to Daniel Francis, Y13 on his selection to the ISFA U18 national squad.

Vinter House Teamwork….. Vinter did some more team building today to work together in year groups to spell VINTER. Well done to Y8 who won this mini competition.

Rugby….. Last Friday, many of our Y7 boys had the opportunity to play in a mini rugby afternoon against teams from Harrogate Grammar School and Bradford Grammar School. It was a great learning experience as many had not played competitive rugby before.

Leeds Lieder…. Our choir have just returned from a morning at Leeds Lieder where, with a number of other schools they performed songs by composer Aaron Copland.

Solo and Chamber Concert….. Last Wednesday, over 35 pupils performed in the Solo and Chamber concert. The Senior Sax Group particularly shone with their rendition of The Bear Necessities, among a host of excellent individual performances.

Bag2School... We are still accepting donations for Bag2School on Monday and Tuesday next week. Thanks to everyone who has donated so far.

Please email news items to mcmanus.lm@woodhousegrove.co.uk By submitting copy and photos of your child you are giving parental permission to publish.