5TH JULY 2016 SUMMER 2016

Dear Pennell Parents,

For one reason or another, it has been a very enjoyable close to the year for us. The trips have come back safely, the Arts Festival was an enormous success, the showcase was superb and Alyssa danced and clapped through most of it. The Dell Play was suitably hilarious, Pennell performed much, much better in the athletics competition this year (3rd overall, 2nd in the Y9 competition thanks to Henry, Theo and Ernest’s wins), the weather has behaved itself and the boys have been smiling. A lot. We will of course be sad to see friends go – the Upper Sixth, Raphael, and Mr. Davies – but we know that they leave richer for the days, weeks, months and years that they have spent contributing to and shaping our community, and we are much the richer for their passing through. In some cases, we have seen ends of eras - the Brassett brothers have spanned 11 years in Pennell – but the cycle continues. We met some of our new Y9 pupils the Sunday before last, and

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“We will be sad to see friends go, but it has been a very enjoyable

close TO THE YEAR FOR US” VIKRANT PHOTO FINISHES

AHEAD IN SPORTS DAYAIDAN AND NICK’S STUNNING

ARTS FESTIVAL PERFORMANCES

PENNELL NEWSBILL SWEEPS ALL BEFORE HIM

IN THIS YEAR’S PRIZEGIVING

The Upper Sixth leavers complete with Pennell bow ties

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my L6th helpers and I concur that they are a top flight bunch of boys. We haven’t met all 12 of them yet but we wish them well as they prepare for their new school. We look forward to meeting the new joiners to the other years at the beginning of term. Add in to this the Pennell House celebration lunch that the Eastbournian Society hosted for Old Pennellians over half term (http://www.eastbourniansociety.org/News-2016-06#news-160605-pennell) and the true scale of the cycle becomes apparent. I was touched to become reacquainted with Culain Morris, the housemaster who presided over the building of “New” Pennell in 1986, and to have met both those who had filled it just after it was built and to tour those who had never been around the “new” house. I am gratified to learn that Pennell still has the same smell (!) but also that the known hidey-holes and access points into the roof have now been closed, much to some of our guests’ disappointment!

Making the most of opportunities Part 2 You may recall that my theme for this year is “making the most of opportunities”. I am delighted to say that we have seen countless examples of this this term. The Arts Festival offers superb opportunities and watching Andrew Ellis, James Barratt and Archie Cooper overcoming their initial discomfort in street dancing and Rory Brummitt-Evans African drumming, Ollie Barwell and James Martin roving photographers (photos on pages 3 and 4 below) while Andrew Lasitsa and Aidan Tam contributed synth and Clarinet to the band in a live (and quite surreal) re-telling of Hansel and Gretel, along with countless other contributions from the house, it was obvious to me that the boys seized the week with both hands. There were masterly performances from Aidan Tam and Nick Atkins in the Tam trio: Brahms and Beethoven trios for piano, clarinet and cello. Aidan also played in the Wind Quintet and the piano sextet (Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2) which involved six pianists fighting at one piano.

Other examples include the Dell Play - “Shakespeare Country” - in which Hugh Turnbull took the part of foppish actor Rafe Duke and Ed Mannhardt was the student director and played the embattled actor Dan Howard.

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Pennell House celebratory lunch

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Christian Trzebinski and Max Walker have recorded more compositions in this year’s Singer Songwriter CD which is available on iTunes (search Eastbourne College) with proceeds going to St Wilfrid’s Hospice. It is a very good standard so do buy it if you can spare £7.99.

And speaking of St. Wilfrids, Nick Atkins and James Martin are to be congratulated on raising over £400 for the hospice in a 5km Mud Run (along with James’ sister Lucy and Hamish Green’s sister Elizabeth). They say, “we did it whilst being the fastest group to finish!! It was cold, muddy and a lot of hard work. 5km couldn't have felt longer! You can

still donate if you want to!” (www.justgiving.com/jamesmartin99)

Prefect Appointments

I am delighted to announce the following appointments:

Deputy Head of School: Charlie Reynolds

Head of House: Ed Mannhardt

Deputy Head of House: James Martin

School Prefect: Hugh Turnbull

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Nick and James on their 5km mud run

Ed

Hugh and Rory

Charlie

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House Prefects

Oliver Barwell

Freddie Betts

Rory Brummitt-Evans

Archie Cooper

Ishaan Kapoor

Aidan Tam

Academic awards and prizes I am delighted with the crop of prizes won by the house this year; it has been a bumper harvest. Nick Atkins is awarded the HV Waterfield prize for music and the Tunstall Practical Science prize. Hugo Mills wins the Platinum Portfolios Business Studies prize while Hugo Najbor takes the RA

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Freddie

Ollie

Archie and Andrew

Aidan

Ishaan

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Henderson Junior Classics prize. In terms of year group effort and achievement prizes, effort prizes were awarded to Freddie Betts for Drama, Aidan Tam for Music and Adam St Paul for Religious Studies while achievement prizes were won by Ishaan Kapoor for Art, Charlie Reynolds for Design and Technology (Industrial Design), Aidan Tam again for Further Maths and Ed Mannhardt for Spanish. Special mention, however, goes to Bill Cao who netted an extraordinary six prizes in t o t a l : a c h i e v e m e n t p r i z e s i n Computing, French, Maths and Physics, the effort prize in History and the NJ Hill Junior Project prize for

Information Technology.

In competitions outside the College, James Martin was awarded a Bronze in the intermediate olympiad for the Biology Society Challenge while Bill Cao and Andrew Ellis both entered the Mathematical Olympiad for the Top 1000 mathematicians nationally. Bill was awarded a distinction and Andrew took gold in the Senior competition.

In the Show HsM league, in Y13 Nick Atkins takes top place, unsurprisingly given that he was one of just 10 pupils in the school to have been awarded a perfect overall effort score of 5 in an eRC; Y12 was won by Andrew Lasitsa; Y11 Alexander Mannhardt; Y10 Max Walker with Jaime Samms close second; Y9 was Henry Turnbull closely followed by Theo Bevacqua and Vikrant Gurung (=2nd) with James Gilchrist-Fisher and Seb Marsh =4th. Henry should also be congratulated on an extremely impressive exam result of 10A*s and 3 As.

In eRC effort, the Pennell Lower Sixth were the best performing house in their year against house average, with our Y11s coming second in their year group.

Congratulations to Max Walker for passing his grade 6 Saxophone and George Brassett and Charlie Reynolds were awarded Creative Arts half colours for DT. Ed Mannhardt and Hugh Turnbull received their full colours for Drama.

Congratulations to Ed Were for contributing to the winning group in the Y10 Enterprise Day at the end of term. Adam St Paul was highly commended for his presentation. And finally, well done to the house for winning the end of term quiz in chapel; an impressive range of general knowledge on display there.

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Alex wins the 100mHugo in the 200m

Henry begins the relay having already won the 800m and triple jump

Jaime in the 800m

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Sporting success The following have been selected for the 1sts this term: Archie Cooper (playing the whole season), James Barratt, George Brassett, Hugo Millns. Jasper Toomer playing up a year for the 2nds deserves a mention with Harry Palmer playing for the 3rds. Max Walker played 15As all season

and Henry Turnbull represented the College in the 14As.

In Tennis, Ivan Loginov captained Santi Emslie and Angus Wilson in the 1sts, while Hugo Najbor and Matt Bergg played up a year for the 2nds. The 15As had Ed Were, Jack Thompson, Jaime Samms, Raphael Michaelides, Bill Cao playing for them. Well done to Ivan on being awarded his full colours.

Of the inter-house tennis, captain Santi writes, “1st pair were James Martin and Santi Emslie. 2nd pair were Jaime Samms and Jack Turner, while 3rd pair Jack Thompson and Ed Were. We  were up against many strong and

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Some reminders and requests: please adhere to the timings of the beginnings and ends of terms/ exeats. These have been made even clearer in the whitebook to avoid any confusion. The Headmaster’s assemblies at the beginning and ends of term are collegiate occasions that allow us all to take a collective breath and either recalibrate for the beginning of term or celebrate busy, successful weeks of industry at the end of term. Mr Lawson looks forward to addressing all the pupils. For my part, the whole house assembly and year group meetings at the start of term are hugely important for setting the tone for the weeks to follow and allows me to emphasise key ideas and to give the boys navigational waypoints throughout the term. For clarity, the Michaelmas term starts at 18.00 on Monday 5th September (earlier for new starters – see separate notice from the school).

With our new community weekend system I will expect all the boys to be in on those weekends (see dates below) and the HsMs have arranged a programme of fun events that will bring us all together as a community – either in year groups or collectively. Please look ahead for the term and plan accordingly. Other weekends, do please continue to email me to seek permission to take your boys out as there will still be activities on those weekends and I would hope that many will be around to enjoy them.

Results day – please see instructions sent from Mr. Gilbert re: accessing results. Best of luck!

Petr launches forth

5TH JULY 2016 SUMMER 2016

challenging teams, but managed to come away with joint 2nd place with Craig, narrowly losing to Powell House. The 1st pair won 4 out of 5 matches, losing to Powell. The 2nd pair won 2 of 5 with tight scores and the 3rd pair also won 2 of their 5. All competitors did their very best and kept their heads up throughout the day which is highly commendable.”

Top golfers this term included Peter Dickinson, Oliver Barwell, Charlie Reynolds and Christian Trzebinski. Congratulations to Christian and Ollie on being awarded their golf half colours. While in rowing Hamish Green coxed the 1st IV – with that rare combination of loud mouth, steely determination and strategic nous.

Congratulations to the swimmers whose season finished this term with two further fixtures. George Brassett, Dylan Price and Angus Wilson all deservedly received their full colours for swimming. Steve Yuen, Adam St Paul and Henry Turnbull also represented the college. I am delighted that the Pennell swimming tradition lives on but we need our pool back!

Well done to Ed Mannhardt for getting his half colours for athletics. Ishaan Kapoor also won his race in the sailing fixture against Bede’s which was also a win overall for the College in that regatta.

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Steven bosses the shot throw

Seb manfully completes the 1500m while others pulled out.

Eddie and Archie, the Parlovian dogs, help bring Pennell in to victory in the punishing Parlov

Ernest winning the shot put, Justin in the 300m and Ed winning the 1500m

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L6th trip to the stock car racing. Pennell Supper Club.

U6th trip to the dogs. TJS and Alyssa

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Final thought for the term

I will let you into a secret; I have become obsessed with grass. I know what you’re thinking but, truly, whenever I walk past a patch of exposed earth I think, “that could do with some grass seed”. I have even looked up online “how to get the perfect lawn” but that seems to require sub-contracting, retirement or unemployment. I told the school gardener that I wanted to put some fertiliser down on the Pennell garden to get the verdant sward, well, verdant-er, but he scowled that that would mean that he would just have to cut it more often. I removed a huge bush that had died from the middle of our lawn over half term and was left with a gaping hole. I grass seeded it so that the girls can rush around without hurting their feet and slowly, inch by inch by inch, it has gradually, over the course of five weeks, come good; a bright green bubble in a bored green bed. And that got me thinking about the boys. You see, some seed caught quickly and was in the vanguard of verdancy whereas some seeds took a few weeks to wake up. Some, sadly, despite my watering and prodding, are still lying there inertly, waiting for a bird to peck it up and carry it off somewhere. The headmaster talks of Christmas daisies but I prefer the humble grass seed for my sibilant similes. Year groups are like my cleared patch of earth. If they are dry and cold we get slow growth and they can take a long, slow time to get to the point; warm and watered and we have quick growth; in short, the ideal conditions for dynamic growth and a fast knitting together and filling of the space. As I start to think about the incipient new academic year, I think of the Year 13s just left, and the new Year 9s to come, and I continue to think how best to provide the right environment for vigorous, strong growth. Richard Maryan, the College groundsman or, as many of us consider him, the thaumaturge of College Field, managed to re-grass in about two weeks the enormous slice at the far edge of College Field that (veni vidi) Vinci dug up for the soak away of P150. Apparently he used something called a germination sheet. Now that I have a word for my metaphor, I shall spend the summer thinking of how to create my own germination sheet.

Thank you so much for all the lovely gifts you gave us at the end of term. As always, you have been so generous. Have a lovely and relaxing summer.

With very best wishes from the Jourdains,

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5TH JULY 2016 SUMMER 2016

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Dates for the diary Thurs 18th August - AS and A2 results available from 8am

Thurs 25th August - GCSE results available from 8am

Tues 30th August - Rugby pre-season starts

Mon 5th September - term starts 6pm (12pm for new Y10,11, 12; 4.15 for new Y9s - see separate notice from Admissions)

Fri 30th September - exeat. U6th parents’ evening 5.15pm

Fri 21st October - half term begins 5pm. L6th parents’ evening 5.15pm

Fri 25th November - exeat. Y9 drama from 4pm and Y9 parents’ evening 5.30pm

Fri 16th December - end of term begins 3.30pm

Community weekends next term:

September 10-11; 17-18

October 15-16

November 12-13

December 10-11