Seven schools across the London Borough of Merton turned up to compete for the title of ‘Merton Borough Champions 2011’. Years 7W and 9U came a very respectable 3rd place in each of their tournaments, while Years 8V (pictured) and 11S won all of their games and were crowned ‘champions’.

Well done to all of the girls who took part.

Rob Moore has racked up 211 caps for England and Great Britain and made his Olympic debut at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games where he was a member of the team that finished 9th. He made his second Olympic appearance at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, and will make his third Olympic appearance in the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Ben Marsden has 87 caps for England and Great Britain and competed alongside Rob at the Beijing Olympic Games. Ben is now a qualified hockey coach and Director of Hockey at Wimbledon Hockey Club, which is currently sponsored by Hall School Wimbledon.

Dressed in their GB Olympic tracksuits, Rob and Ben introduced each other to the children and silenced them with an impressive list of achievements from their professional hockey careers to date. Some of our children already know Ben and Rob, having been coached by one or both of them during school hockey lessons.

Rob brought in bronze, silver and gold medals won at previous European Championships and then talked through a selection of photos of Ben and Rob taken during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The children were also treated to some exciting video footage of the England hockey team winning gold against Germany at the 2009 European Championships.

Finally, the floor was opened up for questions and the children quizzed Rob and Ben on when they first started playing hockey (about the age of 11), the speed at which Rob can hit a hockey ball (about 80mph!) and what food they ate when they were living in the Beijing Olympic Village (they have a food marquee in which caterers, brought in specifically for the event, are able to provide every type of food possible – Chinese, Indian, Mexican, British… – for the 6,000 athletes living in the village!).

The children thoroughly enjoyed the assembly and were reluctant to leave the hall while Ben, Rob and the medals were still there! We are certain that the children will take on board the athletes’ sound advice – to take every opportunity and put everything you’ve got into everything you do – both in their sporting and other fields.

Hall School Wimbledon is very grateful to Ben and Rob for their time and will be avidly supporting and following Rob on his road to London 2012: http://hsw.co.uk/news/supporting-rob-moore-on-his-road-to-2012

At Beavers Holt, all pupils gathered in the front playground and a group of Year 6X pupils recited the poems ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae, ‘We Shall Keep the Faith’ by Moira Michael, and ‘For the Fallen’ by Lawrence Binyon.

The ringing of the bell signalled the start of the two minutes’ silence after which former R pupil, Tom Mudie, played the Last Post on his trumpet. Hall School Wimbledon was delighted that Tom, who left The Downs last year, was able to take time out from his new school, Habersdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College, to return to Beavers Holt and keep up this tradition.

Meanwhile, over at The Downs, break stopped at 10.50am and lessons were paused as pupils, teachers, office and kitchen staff gathered together on the top playground. More than 200 members of Hall School Wimbledon, each wearing a poppy, lined up and listened as Mrs Healey, on behalf of Mr Hobbs, reminded everyone of the history, meaning and purpose of Armistice Day. ‘The Ode of Remembrance’ from Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘For the Fallen’ was also read at the Senior School, by 11S pupil, Josh Porter:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. 
At the going down of the sun and in the morning 
We will remember them.

The two minutes’ silence was observed before Charlie Penny, another 11S pupil, played the Last Post on his trumpet, marking the end of HSW’s observance of Armistice Day 2011.

A small selection of photos of Armistice Day is available to view in our Photo Gallery.

The next day, the Geographers carried out their field work on the Glenderaterra Beck, which courses down the valley between Lonscale Fell and Blencathra while the others walked to Derwent Water along the Borrowdale Valley before taking a motor launch from Lodore Falls to Keswick.

Yesterday, the children went back to the mountains, visiting the Honister Slate Mine, in between preparing for their GCSE Speaking and Listening Controlled Assessment. At 3.30pm they were back at base for toasted Bryson’s Plum Bread and tea by the fire at Borrowdale.

Today was our poetry workshop. With a preliminary introduction to the Romantic Poets, and especially Wordsworth, we drove (not walking this time!) to Dove Cottage. Dove Cottage is where William Wordsworth lived during his most prolific period at the turn of the nineteenth century. Wordsworth preferred a sparse diet – with a breakfast and lunch of porridge and a supper of bread soaked in milk. So we duly began the day with porridge (served with treacle) and this evening we will have bread and butter pudding (after chili con carne, served with dandelion and burdock!). We sat out of the rain at the end of the day, eating Sarah Nelson’s ginger bread in Grasmere. Tomorrow night we have our Sketch Show and High Tea before the long drive home on Sunday, at the end of a glorious era of field trips for the S Year Group.

A selection of photos taken by Elizabeth Harris (GCSE English Teacher) is available to view in our Photo Gallery.

From the Wandering Aengus Centre
By Caroline Harding

Today, 45 of us set off up one of the Lake District National Park’s tallest mountains, Dale Head. Having got up at 8.00am, we sat down to the usual Hall School Wimbledon breakfast of eggy bread, Cumberland sausages and bacon. We then organised our day bags and set off with our guides. We were all feeling mildly apprehensive, not only by the looming mountains above us but with the difficult prospect of walking 20km.

As the walk progressed, it soon became clear why we were doing the walk. The surrounding landscape was staggeringly beautiful and I was shocked at the sheer scale of the mountains. After what seemed like hours of marching, we finally reached the summit of Dale Head. Feeling exhausted but euphoric, we gazed upon the magnificent beauty that is the Lake District.

Four hundred and fifty three (453) IGCSE/GCSEs were taken by HSW pupils from Years 11R and 10S in the 2011 examination season:

• 84% of these were graded at A* – C
• 36% of these were graded at A*/A

Please visit our GCSE Success 2011 page to read about some of our pupils who did particularly well this year. In addition, hear what their parents have to say about their GCSE results and their time at Hall School Wimbledon.

Interpreting our Results

In Year 8 all Hall School Wimbledon pupils take the ISEB Common Entrance Examination.

London’s ‘top’ boys’ schools (remembering that Common Entrance is, strictly speaking, a boys’ examination), which might include St Paul’s, King’s College School Wimbledon and Westminster, require candidates to achieve ‘at least 65%’.  London’s ‘middle range’ schools, which might include Emanuel, Epsom College and St John’s Leatherhead require candidates to achieve at least 55-60%.  Other, very good, London schools set a pass mark of at least 50%.

Using these broad categories of: at least 65%, at least 60%, at least 55% and at least 50% we have revisited our results for the R year group (8R Common Entrance and 11R I/GCSE).  If we were a selective school requiring candidates to score ‘at least 65%’ and only accepted those children that did so, how would our results look?

It is clear (and you would need to study the actual published results of specific schools) that children are performing as well or better than they would do at other schools with more competitive entry requirements.  This is the crucial test for a mixed ability school to pass. Can children achieve top quality GCSE grades at a mixed ability school? Yes they can.

If you compare ‘like with like’ then… our results are ‘as good as’ KCS.

This year Epsom College recorded that 16 children achieved nine or more A*/A grades from a year group of 132 (12%)*. Well, 7 HSW children achieved nine or more A*/A grades from a year group of 45 (16%)!

As to Emanuel School (essentially an 11+ school with their own 13+ entrance examination – citing a requirement of at least 55% at 13+), in their recent Public Examination Report for 2011** they give the figure of 55.5% at A* or A with 99.2% of GCSEs at A*- C.  The direct equivalent for HSW is 64% at A* or A with 97% of GCSEs at A*- C. (see above)

*  “College Celebrates as GCSE results Rise”

** Public Examination Report for Current and Prospective Parents GCSE and A2 results August 2011 (available online from Emanuel School Website)

In Year 9 all HSW pupils take NFER [National Federation for Educational Research] cognitive ability tests, which generate a set of predicted GCSE grades. Essentially these tests measure potential.  They generate individual predictions, including the probability of a child scoring 5 GCSEs at A*- C and the ‘best possible’ and ‘most likely’ grade in each GCSE subject that he or she may take.  Each year we have carried out an exercise calculating each individual’s total GCSE score (A* = 8, A = 7 etc) and comparing that with the total of that individual’s ‘most likely’ grades.

The R year group as a whole scored 11% better than the most ambitious predictions of their potential grades.

Published HSW IGCSE/GCSE Results

Parents should be aware that the results released on our website might vary from those included in Government and Press generated league tables.  If a child sits his or her I/GCSEs ‘out of year’ (in the case of an August birthday perhaps) then these results, good or bad, are excluded from league tables.  Any GCSEs taken in Years 9 or 10 are excluded from the calculations. Furthermore, IGCSEs are not included in certain league tables, creating the impression that children have not taken examinations in core subjects.

A further two Hall School Wimbledon pupils have been Highly Commended. They are Sarah Williams in Year 3A (Year 2 when she entered) and Tommy Walters in Year 6X who was in Year 5 when he entered the competition.

Louise has been invited, along with two guests, to the grand prize giving where she and the other junior winners will be presented with their awards by author Frank Cottrell Boyce and our Chair of Judges, screenwriter Michael Crompton. This will take place on Friday 7th October, at the Big Tent on Wimbledon Common. Louise and the other winners will each receive a special CD recording of their entries, read by professional actors including William Gaminara (Silent Witness). These will also be available to download from the Wimbledon Bookfest website.

Sarah and Tommy’s entries will be published in a Young Writers’ Competition 2011 celebration book along with the winning entries and the other Highly Commended entries. Copies of the book and certificates will be sent to HSW to be presented to Louise, Sarah and Tommy. Congratulations to all three pupils from Hall School Wimbledon pupils and staff!

Mr Hobbs, Headmaster, provides the answers…

“Quite simple googling revealed the magic – ‘swarming bees hotline’ provided by the Wimbledon Beekeepers’ Association and only half an hour after our call for help, ‘Phil’ turned up with a cardboard box and blue pashmina (carried not worn).

By now, fierce rain was reducing visibility and the bees joined wings and drooped from their post. But Phil knew his stuff. The pashmina he laid on the ground, and then the box he positioned in the middle. He then raised the post above the box and gently thumped it down. The bees obligingly fell off, in and around the box. I glanced around nervously – it all looked a bit too ritualistic for a Putney Vale Saturday afternoon; Phil in his khaki overalls with net mask, me sheltering under an inverted rubble bag.

Happily, no-one was about and over the following hour, Phil and I sat and watched the bees slowly seek out their Queen under the (now) inverted box. I learnt a lot about bees from the obliging expert. Numerous dead bees that surrounded the box had just ‘run out of energy’ – I knew the feeling. Little trails of half-formed combs appeared on the box’s edge from the zealous but disorientated bees. After two hours of patient watching (keeping?), the bees were all wrapped up and safely in the boot of Phil’s estate.

‘How much do I owe you, Phil?’ I asked. He replied ‘Oh, nothing at all, we’re a charity,’ and then looked both intrigued and amused, ‘Do you know how much these bees are worth?’

Between £300 and £400 for our 9,000 bees apparently! The hive of bees will be briefly fostered before being found a permanent home.”

Hall School Wimbledon is grateful to Phil at the Wimbledon Beekeepers Association for his expert help and efficiency. Phil encourages you all to find out more on their website and, if you ever want to become a beekeeper, you know who to ask.

On Friday, our pupils experienced a full day of school and were given the opportunity to practise their German during a 2-hour workshop led by Frau Seiffert and Frau Brandenburg, before spending an enjoyable and eventful weekend being entertained by their host families.

Monday began with a boat trip along the river Elbe to the centre of Hamburg, where staff and pupils visited the Speicherstadt (the warehouse district) and admired the modern developments of the port. This was followed by a trip to the Miniatur Wunderland – the world’s largest model railway museum with 12 km of tracks. After a stroll through the city, crossing some of the 2500 bridges in Hamburg and stopping to marvel at the impressive neo-renaissance city hall in the main square, our group took a break for some lunch and a spot of shopping. The day ended with a climb to the top of the 132-metre high Baroque spire of St Michaelis church – tiring but completely worth it for the spectacular views of the city!

On Tuesday, our group visited the Beatles museum – a treat for the music fans! After a nice evening wander through the Treppenviertel in Blankenese, the suburban quarter with narrow pedestrianised streets and 4,864 steps (!), a game of beach football with our exchange partners provided a lot of fun and laughter on the last night.

There was just enough time to say goodbye and thank you on Wednesday morning before HSW pupils and staff headed back to Wimbledon.

Alex, who was part of the K year group at Hall School Wimbledon, is pictured here in his HSW uniform.

The school is very proud of Alex’s elevation to the World Cup squad and wishes him and the England squad all the best for tomorrow and the remainder of the World Cup.

Throughout the Summer Term, our Year 8U pupils were given the opportunity to read some of the Carnegie nominated books and share their thoughts on the Carnegie website. Mr Hobbs, the Headmaster, kindly bought sets of books so that the children could enjoy reading them together in class. Some groups have managed to read three or four of the nominated novels.

Please visit the Carnegie Shadowing website to read our pupils’ reviews:

http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/grouphomepages/index.php?GroupID=3861