THE "FIRST THURSDAY" NEWSLETTER

NEWSLETTER JAN 1997 No. 34

A TASTE OF JAPAN

Mr Fumiaki Takenata from Japan has joined the staff for three months. He will teach pupils about the Japanese culture, language, calligraphy, religion etc. and will enrich the curriculum by contributing to various subjects.

STUDENT TEACHERS

The school will welcome three more students from Christ Church College, Canterbury for their second short teaching practice. This will last for four weeks from 20th January. The student teachers coming are:

UNIVERSITY SUCCESS

Miles Williams, a former student, was awarded a Bsc. Hons. degree (Lower Second Class) in Geography at Roehampton Institute in London.

Sebastian Gough, the Head Prefect, has been successful in receiving a conditional offer for entrance to Clare College, Cambridge. He will study Natural Sciences, specialising in Biochemistry. Competition this year was very keen and Sebastian has done extremely well to reach this stage.

MUSIC

Carol Service. On Wednesday 18th December at 8.00pm the school choir presented the annual Service of Nine Lessons and Carols by Candlelight in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Charlton, Dover. The event was very well attended. Five carols for all to sing were interspersed with ten pieces sung by the school choir, the music covering a wide range of styles from medieval plainsong through traditional favourites including Harold Darke's "In the bleak mid-winter" to three pieces by contemporary composers. The nine Bible readings were read by pupils, parents, governors and members of staff. A new feature of the service this year was the inclusion of the school brass ensemble who played impressive fanfares to introduce the last two carols. After the service coffee and mince pies were served in the Church Hall to bring to a close a very successful evening of music.

Meridian Television. On the last day of term after Final Assembly the school choir and brass ensemble with Director of Music, Mr Richard Davies, made their way to Dover Castle to perform two carols as part of the 'Meridian Tonight' programme broadcast between 6 pm and 7 pm on Friday 20th December. The venue within the Castle grounds was the gallery outside the secret wall tunnels which provided a backdrop of the Eastern Docks, the whole programme being centred around the Port of Dover. Shortly after arriving at 4 pm the choir recorded the first carol, "Ding Dong Merrily on High" and this was shown to introduce the final part of the programme. The second carol, "Angels from the realms of glory" was accompanied by the brass ensemble in an arrangement made specially for the occasion by Assistant Music Teacher, Mr David Harding. This item was performed live to round off the broadcast and involved the musicians taking over from the presenters at the end of the programme. The choir and brass players had ample time to chat to the Meridian team during their three hours on location and collected autographs from Ron Loebeck, Geoff Clarke and Kate Garraway.

Forthcoming Musical Event..... The main musical event this term will be the Spring Concert to be presented in the School Hall on Wednesday 12th March 1997 at 7.30 pm.

HELP THE AGED

Back in October a fund raising event was held among Years 7 - 9 to raise money for this worthy cause. A good number of boys in those years filled in a quiz sheet or did this and took part in a sponsored work out in the gym. Since then they have been collecting their money and earning 'T' shirts and water bottles in return. The total amount raised is over £630 - a splendid effort by all concerned.

CHRISTMAS DINNER

The traditional Christmas dinner was held on Thursday 19th December when in addition to those pupils who chose to have the lunch, some 40 members of staff, PFA and Governors enjoyed the meal as well. It was a particular pleasure to welcome the former Headteacher, Mr Reg Colman.

PFA

The Christmas Draw took place on Thursday 19th December in the Headteacher's Study. The winners were as follows:

Apologies - the date of the next PFA meeting was notified as 13th January it should have read 15th January.

200 Club

Congratulations to Mrs S Greenland (81) who won the prize of £100.
The winners of the December draw are as follows:

1st prize (£25) Mr & Mrs W Eaton (164), 2nd prize (£15) Mr D Stockdale (161) and 3rd prize (£10) Mr J Wills (32).

The next draw will take place on Thursday 16th January.

SE ENGLAND CYCLO CROSS CHAMPIONSHIPS, CRABBLE 8th December 1996

The school entered a team in the novice event, held for the first time at Crabble on Sunday 8th December. Craig Whitehead (Year 11) dominated the race from start to finish and he was followed home by Michael Crebbin (Year 10) and David Edwards (Year 10). All three won trophies and the school easily won the team event, especially as David Tizzard (Year 10) came fourth, Mark Beaumont (Year 11) fifth, and Ross Cooper (Year 10) sixth!

The prize for the team event was £100 of sports equipment courtesy of Dover District Council. The boys received a T-shirt and certificates in school assembly. Dover District Council are hoping to make the event annual.

SPORTS NEWS

Basketball Results - Year 10

Harvey G S 49 - Dover G S 32

Dover made a good start surprising their opposition by taking an early lead. However this advantage gradually diminished as Harvey gained confidence and followed a well rehearsed game plan. Harvey managed to build up a strong lead which wasn't helped by our poor shooting. This included two interesting shots from the free throw line. Half way through the second half Dover managed a spirited comeback with baskets from Adrian Bailes and Alistair Marsh. However, this wasn't enough to stop Harvey running out winners. Even though Dover failed to win the match the team's overall performance provides promise for future matches after Christmas.

Rugby Results

Year 7. Congratulations to all Year 7's who played in the tournament. Excellent tackling and some strong running led to Dover teams clinching first and second place. This is a promising start and bodes well for fixtures after Christmas. Commendations went to Mark Artis, Ben Cheeseman and Mathew Carley for the best tacklers of the tournament.