King Edward VI Grammar School

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King Edward VI Grammar School Encouraging Excellence, Nurturing Talent

THE LUDENSIAN February 2011

Fiddler Sells out - Page 4

Say No to Returning Treasures - page 5

CCF Awards and Promotions - pages 6 & 7

Louths Heritage - pages 8 & 9

Yet another sell-out show! Congratulations to all those involved in this highly successful production of Fiddler on the Roof. The show ran for five performances at The Riverhead Theatre to highly appreciative audiences in fact, there was a well deserved standing ovation on the last night. Carole Ashcroft & Andrew Shaw. Photograph by Andrew Appleton.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

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From the Headmaster

Foundation House Resurrection

Dear Parent/s, Ever since I arrived at the School we have been involved in an on going game of chess with the buildings, and School site. Our hopes to restore the Schools old boarding house, The Limes, were dashed by some very early funding cuts imposed by the previous government. However during the process we had formed an excellent working relationship with Lincolnshire County Council, and eighteen months later I am happy to announce the resurrection of Foundation House: well the back of it at least. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the building, Foundation House was previously Louth Cottage Hospital. The School acquired it for boarding accommodation in the 1970s, and then converted it to classroom use in the 1990s. However, whilst the rest of the site has enjoyed a continued programme of refurbishment by the School and the Local Authority, Foundation House was left to deteriorate: primarily due to a lack of funding. Following our failed boarding bid we were able to persuade the local authority to invest in our strategic plan for the site. Fortunately they accepted the logic of our arguments, and crucially understood the strategic importance of Foundation House in that plan. Details of the plan are outlined overleaf, and also in the about us section of our website. Phase one has been funded as a joint project from a Government Capital Grant, and the Local Authority. We are now moving into evaluating the planning, costing, and fundraising implications of phases, three, and four. Many thanks to Mark Hunkin (Deputy Head), Rachel Mowbray (Business Manager) and Nick Sopp (Site Manager) for all their work in helping bring about the resurrection of Foundation House. James Lascelles Headmaster

The props at the back of Foundation House were first put in place as a temporary measure back in the 1990s. Work is commencing on a new base for Art, Graphics, and Photography that will bring these three subjects under one roof for the first time, and allow even greater creativity to burst forth. In addition the Academic Support Department (SEN)gets a new base upstairs.

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From the Headmaster.. Phase One - Improvement of the main site

Refurbishment of the Library with Wolfson Foundation monies. [Completed]

Refurbishment of the Edward Street Hall Tuck Shop - Jamie Oliver Food in Schools [Completed]

Landscaping of Quad, refurbishment of Quad Corridor, and Edward Street

Hall (Currently being planned for Easter/Summer 2011) Phase Two - Resurrection of Foundation House (Part 1)

Refurbishment and extension of accommodation for, Art, Graphics and Photography Creation of new Academic Support/Mentoring Department [SEN]

The completion of the above is an important step and enables us to convert the old Art Department

classrooms located behind the Sports Hall into a base for the Sports Studies Department, as well as creating a dedicated common room for Years 10 and 11.

The following potential plans are currently being evaluated

Phase Three - New Sixth Form Centre (?)

Conversion of old Art Accommodation off the main car park into a new Sixth Form Centre

Creation of Sixth Form Caf, and dedicated Sixth Form Library/Study Centre

Phase Four - Foundation House (Part 2)

Refurbishment of the front of Foundation House

Creation of a new Humanities base to bring History, Geography, and RS together under one roof.

Mathematics

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FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

King Edward VI Grammar School and Edwards Theatre Company have staged yet another fantastic musical at the Riverhead Theatre. Fiddler on the Roof, directed by Carole Ashcroft, with five performances from 1st February, was their latest enjoyable and thought-provoking production. The wonderful set, from the village houses and shops with their interior and exterior possibilities, to the amazing graveyard of Tevyes dream story was a beautifully realised Anatevka, conveying both the past and present of the village and filled with colourful and authentically-costumed characters. At the end of the play, there was a real sense of history in the moving use of an almost empty stage and the recurrent symbol of the suitcase as one by one the family and their neighbours left for a future in America and, more terribly, Siberia, Cracow and Warsaw. Everyone in the company is to be congratulated on his or her contribution, whether as part of the large cast or in the orchestra, or as one of the talented and efficient backstage team. The music, directed by Andrew Shaw, and played with real feeling, was a major part of the audiences enjoyment of the story. There were many very convincing individual performances. Sam Bell cleverly conveyed Tevyes complexity and his struggle to make sense of a changing world in which he is suddenly vulnerable. His singing and that of Kate Finnie, as his wife, Golde, was a highlight. Kate, too, conveyed the difficulties of accepting change in the village where she has always been confident in her role of matriarch. Their daughters were beautifully cast, each of them finding her own way into the future. Josie Flowerss Tzeitel was joyful, her happiness reaching out to the audience and complemented by Domonic Ramsdens accomplished singing as her husband, Motel. Eleanor Ordish, too, sang beautifully in her role as the thoughtful and determined Hodel. Her love for the passionately political student, Perchek, played very convincingly by Jack Amey, was touchingly realised. Lizi Robsons quiet intellectual Chava and Jack Melletts Fyedka, full of nervous energy, made another very believable couple. Ellen Parkes and Tia Charlton were charming as the younger daughters. The rest of the villagers, too, were brought to life well. The audience enjoyed Emma Barnabys well-developed sense of the comic possibilities of Yente, the matchmaker and Matthew Bruce as the Rabbi and Craig Greaves as the Inn-keeper gave well-judged performances. Seremma Hotsons screaming Fruma-Sarah, hand in hand with Camilla Findlay as Grandma Tzeitel, was both funny and frightening. Her widower, Lazar Wolf, in a memorable performance by Chris Stuart, embodied the shadow of the past and the force of tradition: the audience was glad when Tevye rejected his claim on Tzeitel and allowed her to marry Motel. More excellent casting was evident in the occupying Russian force. TJ Zukowskyj, both sympathetic and cowardly in his role as the Constable, was ably supported by Rory Bain, Max Demery, Lewis Humphrey, Philip Marshall and Austin Roberts, and their dancing, like that of the villagers, was a real highlight. The choreography, by Melissa Hommel, was impressive throughout. The Fiddler, (Josephine Aitchison), belonging to no particular time or space, brought to the audience the melancholy not only of the villagers situation, but that of the Jewish people as a whole. This was a production of which the whole company should be very proud. Chris Dowse

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DEBATING

In the early 1800s, British officials prized the Elgin Marbles a highlight of ancient Greek civilisation off the walls of the Parthenon, spirited them out of Athens and deposited them in the British Museum, where they remain today. In West Africa, British forces looted the Benin Bronzes in such an orgy of violence that some of these priceless African artefacts, also on display in the British Museum, still bear scorch marks. In todays more enlightened age, is it time that Britain returned these treasures to their countries of origin? Absolutely not - at least that was the argument put forward by Wesley Potterton and Davey Brett of King Edward VI Grammar School t this month, during a first round heat of the Mace National Debating Competition against Caistor Grammar, judged by Patrick Purves, partner at Bridge McFarland Solicitors. The two schools drew, but beat the other two participating schools, Skegness Grammar and Hymers College, on points. Both King Edwards and Caistor now go through to the second round in Yorkshire later this month. The two King Edwards sixth formers put in powerful and at times frantic performances, arguing with hands visibly shaking that returning such artefacts would cause a popular backlash that would risk toppling the British government. They added that the treasures should be viewed as British, and that in many cases other countries were too unstable to ensure their security. Caistor countered that the treasures should be treated like stolen property; that there was a clear moral duty to return them; and that foreign countries are perfectly capable of looking after their own national treasures. King Edwards students in years eight and nine are also due to