THE SKINNERS’ SCHOOL Newsletter – July 2015

Summer

2015

(Pictured left to right): Fraser Barber, Adam Selway, Charlie McVickers , Eliott Lindsay

Pictured above are the first recipients of bursaries awarded by the Goldsmith Foundation, which was

created from the will of former Head of Science, Len Goldsmith. This awards bursaries, to Year 13

students intending to study either Medicine or Engineering at university. The happy students, are from

the left: Fraser Barber (Engineering), Adam Selway (Medicine), Charlie McVickers (Medicine), Eliott

Lindsay (Engineering).

Future potential applicants will need to apply through Mr Fleming, the closing date being 31 March in the

student’s final year.

Craig Fleming Assistant Headmaster

WINNERS OF THE LEN

GOLDSMITH AWARD 2015

The day began with an early start at 4.30 am, and I wandered into the kitchen, where I found myself eating breakfast and dreaming of flying fighter jets with Tom Cruise. The next thing I knew, I was bound on a coach for RAF Wittering with my fellow recruits. When we arrived at the base we were taken to the briefing room and were instructed on emergency procedures, which involved abandoning the aircraft via the canopy, complete with a parachute. Practising the drill was actually quite entertaining and kept us occupied whilst eagerly awaiting our ascension. Judgement day had finally arrived when I was summoned to the equipment room, where I received a flight suit and com.

After a short time, and with a thumbs up from Mr. Coltella, I made my way across the runway to Uniform Echo, the plane to which I was assigned. As the canopy on the aircraft closed, I knew there was no turning back. Following some last minute pre-flight checks, the Tutor was hurtling down the runway, and then touching off the ground. What ensued was the

highlight of the trip without a doubt. At 3,000 feet, I was handed control of the plane. I began with basic movements, rolling the plane onto its side and levelling the wings with the horizon. It wasn’t long until I was clipping over clouds and curving round in huge arcs which filled my stomach with butterflies. Taking control of the Tutor was empowering in itself, and the view from the cockpit offered a fresh perspective of the stretching countryside below. The show really kicked off when the pilot asked if I’d like to try some aerobatics, to which I said ‘yes’! We began with a full vertical loop, which is far more terrifying than that of a rollercoaster. With a sudden yanking of the control column, the plane is pulled to face the sky, when for a few heart stopping moments an alarming beep begins, warning of a stall. At this moment, weight is non-existent, until the plane dives back to earth, and 3Gs of force are exerted on you, which I can honestly describe as the feeling of your heart entering your mouth. There really is nothing quite like it. You can imagine what was going through my mind when the pilot asked me to pull my own loop! In retrospect, the only thing I regret is not being in the air for longer. I joined the RAF section in the hope of flying one day, which I am glad to say I have now accomplished. To anyone who is thinking about joining in the future, I urge you to do so. Even though the opportunity to fly doesn’t come around very often, you will find yourself reaping the rewards when it does.

Dan Ilsley

SKINNERS’ FLYING HIGH !

7 Yellow’s study of poetry ended in a Poetry Slam celebrating their work. Each student was given the

opportunity stand and perform their own poem. We also watched live Poetry from Kate Tempest's

'Cannibal Kids' and Benjamin Zephaniah's 'Money'. Students were allowed to eat sweets and crisps,

and drink fizzy drinks (as a one-off!): at the end of Period 5 on Tuesday 7th July, it's safe to say they

went home possibly a little hyper, for which I apologise!

Karen Wright

Sunday On Sunday we had no lie-in because we had had to get up really early and be at school by 4:50 in the morning! After a 12 hour journey (including the ferry) we finally got to the hotel where we could relax and play some games.

Monday On Monday morning we had to wake up at 7:00 to have breakfast at 7:45 and be on the coach at around 8:30 – this then what we would have to do every day. Our first trip was to the Radiotelescope in Nançay which happened to be the 3rd largest in the world. It was very interesting as we learned all about space with lots of interactive sections as well as going to the planetarium where we could see loads of stars and planets. After lunch we walked into the town of Romorantin to interview the French public. This activity was challenging at first but soon became quite fun. We were also allowed to see all the shops.

Tuesday In the morning visited some wine caves which were really cool because they were new to most of us. After our tour we got to taste some wine in the shop which was quite nice. In the afternoon we went to Clos Lucé otherwise known as Leonardo da Vinci’s house. This was a great experience for us as we saw many of his inventions inside his huge house and all the lovely gardens around it – some of us even saw a peacock!

Wednesday This was possibly the best day, the day we were all waiting for… FUTUROSCOPE! The theme park was absolutely huge with so many different attractions to see! Futuroscope was different to normal theme parks

because of its awesome architecture and because it had loads of different rides which weren’t just roller coasters - such as a 4D Rapids ride which was hilarious! After the many fun hours at Futuroscope we were quite exhausted and made our way back to the hotel knowing we had a really fun day.

Thursday On our final day of activities we did 3 things – the first thing was going to Amboise Castle where Leonardo da Vinci is buried. We saw loads of historic rooms and furniture inside the castle. After lunch we visited the animal park in Autrêche which was really interesting. We saw some really awesome animals including wallabies, boar, stags, deer, emu, ostriches and bison! The park was really nice as it was in the countryside.

Our final activity on Friday Was going shopping. Most People had saved some of

their money for this day so they could buy some

treats for the journey home. The shopping was

quite fun because we spent Euros rather than pounds

and could try some French snacks for a change.

Friday

This was the last day of the trip. We still had a 12 hour journey to come, but at least we didn’t have to wake up really early! As you can guess, the journey was very long and boring, but when we got back we were all telling our friends and family what a great time we had!

This trip wouldn’t have been possible without Mr Renaudie and the other staff – thank you/merci beaucoup! The pictures below show some of the great places we visited during the week.

Noah Lyons 8G

LOIRE VALLEY TRIP 2015

82 cadets and their officers from the CCF picked the hottest week of the year so far for Annual Camp at Longmoor in Hampshire. Along with a dozen or so other schools, many from the Independent sector, they took part in a variety of activities laid on by the resident Cadet Training Teams, including survival, climbing, kayaking, shooting and fieldcraft, the latter involving mock house clearance, a new skill for everybody. There was also time for our own 24 hour Contingent Exercise and a Competition Day, where our B team convincingly won the March and Shoot competition from around 20 other teams, bringing a fitting conclusion to a successful week’s training.

If the small number of boys who were lucky enough to have finished their AS exams before May half term thought they were in for a largely uninspiring first week back, they were very much mistaken. While we all know of Mr Fleming’s uncanny ability to spring weird and delightful experiences upon his sixth form students, his revelation to us on that Monday morning that we would be learning Italian for two hours came as quite a surprise. The news undoubtedly disgruntled some who believed themselves to have waved goodbye to languages the previous year, however, upon meeting our teacher (who Mr Fleming referred to as Stef) we were all taken with the whole experience and, dare I say it, very much enjoyed it. Italian is a beautiful language – the most beautiful in the eyes of many. If one has any sort of familiarity with similar mechanisms from French or Spanish, then it comes very naturally. If not, then its intuitive, structured nature is remarkably easy to pick up and indeed many of us were speaking ‘very impressively’ within a short space of time. Overall, we all managed to get a huge amount from just a short morning learning a new language. Apart from the useful phrases and expressions we learnt, we were reminded of the great benefit and importance of learning languages, as a window into a different culture and a gateway into greater learning and understanding on a worldwide level; a truly positive experience for all.

Conrad Will, Year 12

PARLI ITALIANO?

STEM SUCCESS Two of the school’s projects were shortlisted for the KM ‘Bright Sparks’ Awards – the Solar Kiln design and the AESOP project. Pictured below are the boys involved. For a short video about their work, please click on the vimeo link above/

https://vimeo.com/128905141

Congratulations to Nathan Davey and Lukas Ratcliffe who became South East's 'Senior Engineers of the Year‘.

Skinners’ were up against 8 schools – including Invicta, Dartford and Simon Langton, but the judges were impressed with the combination of 'real engineering, innovation and commercial application', which led to Nathan and Lucas being overall winners.

A summary of the training activities is detailed below, written by Oliver Knudsen in form 7B. Mr Peter Longbottom, a paramedic, came in to teach Year 7 how to save someone’s life using resuscitation. The first subject we covered was CPR. Most of the people had heard of it, and knew what it was, but no one knew what it stood for.

C - Cardio (heart) P - Pulmonary (lungs) R - Resuscitation

Mr Longbottom showed us a recording of someone puncturing a vein in their leg. He then told us to listen to the recording of the call to the emergency services following the injury. The man from the ambulance service went through 5 steps. Nature of emergency, address and phone number, causes of the accident, if they’re breathing and if they’re bleeding. After that, we were taught how to manage an incident. Assess for danger, then make the situation safe, give emergency aid and get help. We practiced this on our classmates, along with DRABC. Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing and Circulation. We introduced ourselves first, and then shouted in the casualty’s ear, asking them to open their eyes if they were closed. If they still didn’t respond, we tapped them on the shoulders. If, after that they still didn’t respond, our group lifted their chin up to get their tongue out of their airway so they could breathe. We then put our ear to their mouth and looked down their chest for signs of breathing. Our final exercise was another practical. We tried chest pumps and rescue breaths. Our group was split into groups of five, and we were each given a mannequin to practise on. We gave 30 chest pumps, then 2 rescue breaths. We continued on this for the rest of the course. As you can imagine, this was everyone’s favourite part……...

In accordance with the current pastoral programme for Year 7, in which boys are being encouraged to take up the challenge of learning a new skill, St John Ambulance visited Skinners’ on July 1st and 2nd, 2015 to teach their certified ‘Young first aider – resuscitation’ course. Lasting two hours, all Year 7 boys developed essential skills that will undoubtedly benefit them and the wider community. With an additional 150 Young First Aiders in our midst this was of course a highly beneficial experience.

Chris Johnson Head of Year 7

YEAR 7 FIRST AID AWARDS

CLUB 2000 WINNERS

April: R Ferry - £120 J Andrews - £80 M Gonella - £40

May: L Grasby £120 S Williams - £80 M Arnold - £40

Pictured below right is Joshua Wakeling who recently raced in a Snowsports South skiing race, which was held at Bowles, Eridge. Joshua was placed 3rd in the 11-12 age group. Jack Hilliard (left), came 1st in the 17-19 category.

Daniel Jarworski (pictured left), Year 12, pictured in Turin where his Acro-gymnastic Club were representing Great Britain. Daniel and his partner won Gold in the pairs routine.

Marcos and Andreas Purse representing the Guatemalan team, are currently taking part in the RS World Sailing Championships being held in Travemünde, Germany & Bruinisse, the Netherlands. The boys are pictured above with the Guatemalan flag, and left wearing their team shirts.