THE "FIRST THURSDAY" NEWSLETTER

NEWSLETTER OCT 1997 No. 41

GOVERNORS

The Governing Body re-elected Robin Terry, Director of London Fancy Box as their Chairman at the first meeting of the new school year on Tuesday 16th September. Walter Robertson was elected the new Vice-Chairman. The Governing Body gave thanks to Bob Joslin who has served as Vice-Chairman for two years and who will continue to play a valuable role as a First Governor on the Governing Body.

The Annual Parents Meeting takes place on Wednesday 15th October at 7.00 pm in the Great Hall at the school. Please read your copy of the Annual Report of the Governing Body. Feel free to take the opportunity to send a written question in prior to the Annual Meeting so that we may provide the relevant information for you. Please come along on the night to share with the governors how the school operates and to explore how the governors and staff are developing your school's aims and plans for the coming year. Refreshments will be served by the PFA and a concert of instrumental music will be presented by the school after the meeting at 8.00 pm.

We look forward to seeing you.

Robin Terry - Chairman

LIBRARY/ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Last term the School Library, in conjunction with the English Department, set about highlighting reading for pleasure among, in particular, the Lower School boys.

As part of this drive the school was fortunate enough to be chosen to review a selection of fiction books published by Penguin/Puffin Books for their termly magazine Puffin Post.

It proved to be a very enjoyable and successful venture culminating in a double page feature of the boys' reviews appearing in the current Autumn Term Puffin Post Magazine. Well done to Tom Freeman, Edward Smith, Stuart Inglis, James Eaton, Stephen Hughes, David Watt, James Eberlain, Dean Scoggins, Sam Cairns, Chris Hadley, James Garlick, Louis Myers and Andrew Lightwing, former Year 8 pupils.

During this academic year it is planned that a similar project will be undertaken with another year group and more budding reviewers given an opportunity to develop, and show off, their literary skills and talent. So keep on reading boys!!

Mrs L George - School Librarian

SKI-ING

There is an information evening regarding the resort, clothing and equipment being held on Tuesday 14th October 1997 for the parents of the pupils booked on the February 1998 ski trip.

A series of ski lessons for the pupils on the trip will take place from Thursday 6th November to Thursday 4th December.

Information concerning possible trips in 1999 and/or 2000 will be sent out via the pupils in the New Year.

YEAR 11'S TRIP TO YPRES - 24th September

On the 24th September, Mr Falconer, Mr Haines, Mr Davies and Dr Jackson took a party of forty Year 11 History students to Ypres in Belgium. We are studying the First World War in History and recently we have been focusing on the battles centred on the Ypres Salient and so this was an excellent opportunity to broaden our thoughts and see the trenches and other paraphernalia of war for real.

We all collected in Astor Avenue for departure at 8.15, minus one boy who had unluckily not turned up on time. However, we set off on the backdrop of general chatter and the rustling of packed lunches, and arrived at the port having just missed the first ferry. (By this time shades of last year's Sixth Form History trip must have been flashing through Messrs Falconer's and Jackson's minds). Fortunately this gave time to our absent friend (who shall remain nameless) to requisition the services of Mrs Pardoe who managed to drive him to the port in time to catch the ferry (breaking the land speed record en route).

After a delicious breakfast on board of chips, burger and chocolate milkshake and a thorough exploration of the arcade rooms, our ferry had arrived at Calais. We bundled into the coach and were driven directly to Sanctuary Wood. Here Mr Falconer handed out worksheets - "Work Sir? D'you think that we're here to work?" exclaimed one stunned individual. Here we had the choice of walking in the original trenches and tunnels and after much joking about who had the best wellington boots we stepped into the bone dry trenches. Perhaps age had affected the trenches as they were not as deep as we had expected but as Mr Falconer pointed out the sandbags had long been removed and the trenches had been silted up. Certainly the eminently visible shell holes and panels of corrugated iron sparked off our imagination as to what it really would have been like. In the tradition of the trenches one of our group ended up a casualty - for the seemingly innocuous action of standing up in a tunnel!

We were then ferried to Tyne Cot memorial, which is the largest British (and Commonwealth) cemetery in the world. Here, after gasping in awe at the sheer size of the place, we rushed about trying to complete our questions in 35 minutes. After much discussion about how the graves were organised (and some blatant cribbing) everybody managed to complete the task in hand.

Our final stop was the town of Ypres itself where we walked under the resplendent Menin Gate. Covered with the name of every single Commonwealth soldier who had lost their lives in the Ypres Salient 1914-1917 and for whom no known grave exists. After quickly scribbling down our answers we set off into the town to make our various purchases.

At 4.30 we all struggled aboard laden with Belgium chocolates (and other unsavoury items of modern Flemish culture!) At 4.40 Messrs Falconer and Jackson crawled up the stairs to howls of supercilious laughter.

Despite this mishap we managed to catch the ferry, a l'heure, and arrived in Dover only 15 minutes late. After three well-earnt cheers for the drivers we happily bundled out of the bus to Mr Falconer's threats of not handing our work in.

All our thanks to Mr Falconer for a well organised and enjoyable trip.

Alex Langridge - 11CA

MUSIC

London Mozart Brass Ensemble Visit

On Tuesday 16th September five members of the London Mozart Players Brass Ensemble visited the school. This was organised by the Dover and Deal Business Partnership and was sponsored by Folkestone & Dover Water Company. It was part of a week long series of visits to local schools by the Players.

The afternoon started with a workshop in which the DGSB Big Band, and some younger musicians, practised 'Watermelon Man'. This piece was well known to most band-members. Nevertheless the Brass Ensemble were still able to help the individual sections of the band by trying to teach as much of their wide-ranging knowledge of jazz musician ship as they could in the short time that they had with us. This lunchtime workshop was followed by a concert and demonstration given by the Brass Ensemble. This started with the newly improved version of 'Watermelon Man' played by the DGSB Big Band.

The concert and demonstration was given to Years 7, 8 and 9 accompanied by musicians from all other parts of the school. A trumpet, trombone, French horn and a tuba were demonstrated to us. Other less common instruments were also demonstrated, these included a cornet, piccolo, sackbut (predecessor of the trombone) and a didgerido. The players showed their skills and versatilities by showing us how the didgerido can say its name, displaying circular breathing and playing the hosepipe! This was a home-made teaching aid which showed how the sound in a trumpet, and indeed any other brass instrument is made. It consisted of a length of hose, a mouth piece and a kitchen funnel. A trumpet player played the Trumpet Voluntary on this home-made instrument which provided much entertainment for the audience.

The workshop was a great success, improving the skills and styles of the musicians in the Big Band. The concert and demonstration were very informative and a lot about the playing and evolution of brass instruments was learnt. The visit was very informative and enjoyed by all.

Michael Quinn - 11CH

Donation

A donation of £120 has been presented to the charity Cancer Research Campaign by the school's musicians. The money was raised principally through a collection in aid of Cancer Research taken at the end of the Choral Concert in June, supplemented by monies raised at other recent musical events.

FORTHCOMING CONCERTS

The first musical event of this term will be the Autumn Concert to be given in the School Hall on Wednesday 15th October in connection with the Governing Body's Annual Parents Meeting for 1997. The concert will present a variety of instrumental music including contributions by the Jazz Group and Big Band and is set to start at approximately 8.00 pm preceded by a choice of wine and cheese or light refreshments.

Looking further ahead the main event will be the annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols by Candlelight on Wednesday 17th December at 8.00 pm in Charlton Church. This term the school's musicians will also provide music at Junior Prizegiving and Guest Evening and give a charity Jazz Concert in December.

Mr R Davies - Director of Music

PFA

Thank you to all those who attended the PFA annual meeting last week. We were pleased that two new parents offered to join the committee which next meets on Thursday 13th November at 7.00 pm at the school and we would be pleased to welcome any more new members then.

This Friday, 3rd October, we are holding the first of this year's Wine and Wisdom evenings and we hope as many of you as possible will come along. Organise a table of eight, or just come as individuals and we will allocate you to a table on the evening. It starts at 7.30 pm and the cost if £3 per person. We would be grateful if each table would provide a prize for the raffle. Either contact the school in advance to book your table, or just turn up on the night. It promises to be a very enjoyable evening! The next Wine and Wisdom evening is on Friday 28th November and other coming events include a Barn Dance/American Supper on Saturday 31st January 1998.

Copies of the cassette of the school's music, produced by Pharos Enterprises, are now available for sale, price £5. Please order your copy through the school. All profits go to the PFA funds.

200 Club

The 200 Club has started a new season and the winners of the September draw were:

1st (£25) Mrs M Betts (165), 2nd (£15) Mr D Stockdale (161) and 3rd (£10) Mrs B Brown (71).

If you have not yet joined the 200 Club, or renewed your subscription, please send your name and address and a cheque for £11 (to cover the remaining eleven draws for this school year) to the 200 Club Secretary, Mrs C Dunstone c/o the school.

OLD PHAROSIANS

The latest association newsletter was published in August and has been distributed to more than 600 members throughout the world keeping them in touch with each other and with events at the school.
Are any of the dads of the new Year 7 pupils old boys of the school? Do you belong to the Old Pharosians? If not, now is an excellent time to join. Membership forms are available from the school.

On Saturday 27th September it was the Old Pharosians' Day. The AGM was held in the morning at 10.30 am. when Mr Denis Weaver was elected as the new President. He, as well as being an Old Pharosian, served on the Governing Body of the school for 24 years and during that time was Chairman.

Elected as Vice President was Dr Tony Bradley, Emeritus Professor of Law at Edinburgh University now working as a Barrister in London.
Grateful thanks were expressed to the outgoing President, Rev. Dr. Michael Hinton, former Headmaster.

In the afternoon the traditional football match against the school's 1st XI was held. Our recent excellent 1st XI's have now become Old Pharosians which led to a 10-0 defeat for the school.

The annual dinner was held in the Great Hall in the evening when Mr Weaver proposed a toast to the school and entertained the company with many reminiscences of his school days. The Headmaster responded and was able to give a very positive report about the school.

SPORTS

The local District Schools 7-a-side Tournament held on Saturday 20th September proved to be a very successful morning out for the younger school teams. In particular the new Year 7 boys acquitted themselves extremely well drawing with Astor School in their final after extra time in a very evenly matched game. They were most unfortunate to lose in a 5 penalties finish.

The Year 8 games were on a league basis and the team steadily improved during the competition to come runners up to Archers Court.

The Year 9 team eventually lost on goal difference alone, having not lost a game, coming second to Walmer School.

The Year 10 side, although not losing a game, lost on the total number of goals scored, coming runners up to Sandwich.

Year 11 with two and in some cases three full side games already played during the week were looking rather tired before starting their first league game and they eventually came 5th in their age group.

Our thanks to the referees and Castle Community School for hosting a very enjoyable morning's competition.

County Cup latest news........

Year 11 won 2 -1 after extra time against Maplesden Noakes School from Maidstone in the first round of the County Cup, both goals were by David Tizzard, the second being from an incredibly narrow angle. Overall an excellent team performance.

The team travel away on 3rd October to Howard School, Gillingham in the second round.

District Cup Results -v- Walmer School:-
Year 7 won 11 - 0
Year 8 won 5 - 1
Year 9 lost 4 - 3
Year 10 won 4 - 3
Year 11 lost 6 - 0

1st XI Match Reports

Wednesday 17th September:

Dover G.S. 3 Tunbridge Wells G.S. 6

A very disappointing start to the season. I expected TWGS to be strong this year but I didn't expect us to play so sloppily, particularly in defence. Many players were found wanting in terms of fitness and concentration, and to cap it all we didn't play to our strengths.

For the first twenty minutes the teams were evenly matched and if anything we had more of the game and several clear chances but then TWGS scored three quick goals. All three were the result of slack marking or lack of forethought when their forwards outpaced our back line or threw a long throw over our flat back four. There was clearly a need for a sweeper!

The second half started in much the same vein with a couple of missed tackles allowing TWGS to sweep forward and tap in a short cross. But suddenly the game swung back our way with three quick goals: Paul Johnson scoring (at last) after a slick interpass; James Durrant hammered a long free kick over the goalkeeper and, under pressure, one of the TWGS centre backs turned a cross into his own goal. I really thought that we could salvage a draw but Marc Garrood had to leave the field with a calf strain and then Stuart Dodd broke a finger in a tackle and we were suddenly down to 10 men. Before we had chance to reorganise, the nippy TWGS forwards scored another two quick goals to wrap up the game.

I was pleased that the team didn't give up and there were several good individual performances. We can only improve!

Monday 22nd September

Chaucer 2 Dover G.S. 4

It's good to get a win but this was a disappointing performance against a very poor Chaucer side. The very small pitch and bumpy rock-hard ground didn't help but we still didn't play very well or, at least, we should have finished better. I gave up counting the number of missed chances but it was well over 20 in the first half alone.

Chaucer had the lead twice, completely against the run of play with their only decent striker being left unmarked and allowed to run through unchallenged to beat Ian Matthews. Our front two strikers didn't 'click' as a unit too often chasing the same ball and standing facing our midfield when they should have been making angled runs.

John Spence decided to take on Chaucer alone and was brought down twice for penalties, both converted by Gary Beeden. Gradually our superiority began to tell and Gary Beeden completed his hat-trick with a superb free-kick from 30 yards into the top right hand corner. Chaucer pressed forward for an unlikely equaliser, managed to hit our crossbar with a long shot, but thanks to an early clearance by Ian, Lee Neiles was able to beat the Chaucer keeper (who had a good game) to the through ball to make the score more representative.

Hopefully, we will improve, particularly our "first-touch", and our concentration regarding marking. One or two players are well below last year's levels of performance!

Wednesday 24th September

Rainham Mark G.S. 3 Dover G.S. 1

For 70 minutes of this match it looked as if we could win against a strong Rainham side. It would have been nice to have had a full squad available but all of our recent injuries on the hard ground, and our match on Monday, meant that we simply "ran out of steam".

In the first half the teams were fairly evenly matched with few chances and the defences controlling the game. But, after moving Ian Banks into midfield and leaving Lee Neiles up front on his own, we discovered a pattern of play that dominated the game. Lee scored a fine goal from an early through ball and we had several chances to go further ahead - Ian hit both posts, Jon Spence had a header cleared off the line and Lee came close again.

As we tired though, it became harder for John Castle to keep the defence together, and with Ian Banks leaving the field after pulling a thigh muscle, Rainham came right back into the game. Their first goal was caused by the defence not moving up together and two more following in quick succession caused more by our exhaustion than Rainham's ability.

I was very encouraged by the pattern of play and tactics in the second half, and when we are at full strength again, I feel that we could develop into a good team.

Mr S Bailey

2nd XI Match Report

Wednesday 17th September 1997

Tunbridge Wells G.S. 8 Dover G.S. 0

The newly formed team travelled to Tunbridge Wells for their first game of the season only to be humiliated by a stronger and better side. Our team was seriously under strength with four boys from year 11 having played the previous night. No sooner had the match started we found ourselves one down. The defence were having to play very deep to combat the speed of the Tunbridge players which was often the undoing of our side. Their superior height was playing a big part in the game and this nearly resulted in a goal when Tom Scrivener was beaten in the air and Dean Oliver had to clear off the line.

Ten minutes later we found ourselves 4 - 0 down which soon became 5 - 0. The defence were finding it hard to cope with the pressure and pulled Russell Cramphorn into defence for the first 20 minutes of the half. The forwards, Adrian Bailes and David Tizzard, were constantly being either pushed off the ball or beaten for pace by the strong Tunbridge defence and with both players tired from the previous night the prospects didn't look good. With half-time drawing near and the depleted defence close to giving up we made a substitution. Peter Chatfield, who started at right back came off for Mark Doel who played a good part in plugging the leaky right side of defence. All the team, especially Scrivener, were relieved to hear the half-time whistle.

The start of the second half saw the introduction of Ryan Stockdale and Craig Ruffles. Unfortunately, neither player could do much to help the cause although Stockdale could have had a hat-trick when 3 passes from Andrew Gollop put him in acres of space .... all attempts were wasted. The defence were starting to play well as a unit when Chris Searle came back into the defence and Kevin Herbert moved up into midfield. Then came injuries to Andrew Gollop and Russell Cramphorn and then 3 more goals. Tom Scrivener had a disappointing game by his standards and as the game drew on Tizzard and Herbert were too worn out to run.

Things were looking up for the side and a lot more possession resulted in a corner, only our second of the game and like the first, it was wasted. The closest we came to scoring was when the Captain, Dean Oliver, ran from the defence, playing a one two with Stockdale, with the resulting strike hitting the Tunbridge crossbar. This slightly boosted morale but then the team remembered we were 8 - 0 down and all morale was lost again. There were good performances from Chris Searle and Russell Cramphorn, yet a lot more work will have to be put in next game.

Mr M Grant

Fixtures

1st XI:- Sat.4th Oct. Norton Knatchbull (A); Wed. 8th Oct. Oakwood Park G.S. (A); Wed.15th Oct. Queen Elizabeth G.S. (H); Wed. 22nd Oct. Howard School (H). Wed.5th Nov. County Match -v- Sussex.

2nd XI:- Wed. 8th Oct. Oakwood Park G.S. (H); Wed. 15th Oct. Queen Elizabeth G.S. (A).

Tues. 7th at 4.00 pm Yr 7 & Yr 9 XIs -v- Astor (A)

Thurs. 9th at 4.00 pm Yr 10 XI -v- Astor (H) and Yrs 8 & 11 XIs -v- Astor (A)

Sat. 11th at 10.00 am Yrs 7, 8, 9 & 10 XIs -v- Norton Knatchbull (H)

Tues. 14th at 4.00 pm Yrs 7 & 9 XI -v- St Edmunds (H)

Thurs. 16th at 4.00 pm Yr 10 XI -v- St Edmunds (A) and Yrs 8 & 11 XIs -v- St Edmunds (H)

Tues. 4th Nov. at 4.00 pm Yrs 7 & 9 XIs -v- Archers Court (H)

Rugby

Thurs. 9th Yr 8 at Ashford RFC

Mon. 13th Yr 8 at Canterbury RFC

Wed. 15th Rugby -v- SLGS (A)

STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAYS AND HALF TERM

There are two staff development days leading up to the half term week. These are:

Thursday 23rd October and
Friday 24th October

and therefore the school will be closed to all pupils on those days. School restarts on Monday 3rd November.