School Office: 01737 649000 Weekly Newsletter Issue No.7 – 2015/2016 6th November 2015

The following items can be found within this week’s Newsletter: Whole School

Chaplain’s 500 (pages 2-3) Prep Projects (page 3)

Whole School Photograph (page 3) Bag2School (page 4)

Shakespeare Schools Festival (page 5) Weekly events update (page 5) Trips on Wise pay (page 6) Christmas Fair (page 7)

Christmas Market (page 8) Junior School

Junior Judo (page 9) Diary Dates Autumn Term (page 10)

Star of the Week & Golden Book (page 11) Sixth Form

Sixth Form News (page 12) Next Week’s Menu (page 13)

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give”

- Winston Churchill

WHOLE SCHOOL

Chaplain’s 500

O quam gloriosum est regnum, in quo cum Christo gaudent omnes sancti. Amicti stolis albis,

sequuntur Agnum quocumque ierit.

It is odd how ancient languages, entirely unknown to us, can convey so much. Boys who never

learned Latin (and who might reasonably be expected to despise it), often show an affinity for its

words, pronouncing them entirely naturally and accurately. What about an Easter service in

France? An archbishop invites an Eastern Christian every year to sing the first Easter gospel in his

cathedral - but in Aramaic, the daily language of Jesus of Nazareth. The sound of these syllables,

emanating from someone close in region and language to the Resurrection, is breathtaking.

Words are more than literal and rational content. They are the vehicle of profound instincts across

centuries, a means of sharing these through time. In the universal themes of religions, language is

fundamental. Half the mental impoverishment of young people is a linguistic impoverishment.

They have been deprived of metaphor and symbol. Many do not laugh well - because real humour

involves risk and play with words.

Boarders returned on the most important festival after Easter and Pentecost – All Saints Day. Add

its neighbour, All Souls Day, and there could not be more relevant background to Remembrance

with its reminder of human madness, war dead, terrorism, and our dark side. What happens after

death, personal or national? Where, what or to whom are we heading?

The Latin above is seared into my mind through music. How glorious is the kingdom where all the

saints rejoice with Christ. Clothed with white robes, they follow the Lamb, wherever he goes. As a

literal promise, this fools no one. The idea that we go to a physical place in clouds around the time

of our funerals, to get dressed up in shining textiles, still less to follow agricultural animals about,

is silly and not what the text means. As a final destination, this depresses more than it inspires!

The English word heaven comes down from Middle and Old English words. Like the Greek word

ouranos it translates, it originally meant ‘sky’ or ‘firmament’, and later acquired an additional,

parallel meaning of the "place where God dwells". In different faiths, heavenly beings like gods,

angels, spirits, saints, or venerated ancestors live there. It was widely believed that heavenly

beings could descend to earth, or earthly beings ascend to Heaven in the afterlife, or in exceptional

cases, enter Heaven alive, as stories suggest about Elijah and the Virgin Mary. In an interesting

book called Inside the Neolithic Mind, two researchers have argued that the essential religious

structure and language of heaven, common to many civilisations, is neurally ‘hotwired’ into

mankind.

The Prep Projects have been handed out on 2 November with a due date 13 November:

Year 7 History Prep Project

Year 8 Art Prep Project

Year 9 Geography Prep Project

Faced with the ending of lives we know and value, the life deprivation inflicted by terrorism and war,

we need a working hypothesis about where we are going. Concrete thinking is of no use.

It makes us void and meaningless. The traditions of East and West encourage an outlook which is

symbolic, optimistic, fostering justice, love, truth, celebration. It is dynamic, not a ‘nothing’ like that of

the concrete and rational world. Perhaps our choice about this future – or our refusals to choose –

define how we end. No one is supplying us a blueprint for what happens next. Our choice is between a

nothing (with all that offers) or a constructive leap of faith informed by a wealth of past history,

memories, music, art, sacrifice, effort and commitment.

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine – et lux perpetua luceat eis. Rest eternal grant to them, O Lord –

and let perpetual light shine upon them. We will remember them.

Whole School Photographs

Dear Parent/Guardian,

The proofs for the whole school photographs have been sent out to all pupils. If you would like to

place an order please do so online.

Thank you

THIS MONDAY !!

ANY BIN LINER WILL DO !

YES…

adults’ and children’s clothes, shoes (tied together please), hats, belts, handbags and soft toys.

We get 40p a kilo for all of the items we collect-the heavier the

better! BRING AS MANY BIN LINERS AS YOU CAN

NO…

BEDDING, CURTAINS, TOWELS and HOUSEHOLD LINEN CANNOT be accepted

(refer to www.bag2school.com for details)

THIS INCLUDES STAFF

Bag2School will be collecting from our school on

MONDAY 9nd NOVEMBER FLEXI BOARDERS & STAFF drop off bags from 7.30am to 9.00am

DROP OFF areas are: Gatton Hall Lawn/ Dining Hall St Andrews Car Park/ bus shelter BOARDERS RETURNING ON SUNDAY can leave their donation bags at their houses PLEASE NOTE THAT WE WILL ONLY BE COLLECTING UNTIL 9am

HERE’S WHAT’S GOING ON OVER THE COMING WEEK…

Thurs 6 Nov Hollywood Bowl

Juniors

Thurs 12 Nov

Shakespeare Festival All

Sun 8 Nov

Spectre, Cinema (12A)

Year 7 +

Sun 8 Nov Science Museum & IMAX

Sun 8 Nov

Scuba Diving All

Tue 10 Nov K2 Climbing

Juniors

THIS SATURDAY

18 RAAS pupils from Y7-Y13 will be performing their production of Macbeth at the Leatherhead Theatre on Saturday 7th November at 7pm as part of the Shakespeare Schools’ Festival. There are places available for boarders to attend through the boarders’ trips programme, however should you (and your friends and family) wish to attend as well and support us in this exciting venture, tickets are available now through the theatre box office: https://www.leatherhead-tickets.co.uk/select_seats.aspx?perfid=5695. We hope to see you there!

TRIPS AVAILABLE ON WISEPAY

Fri 13 Nov

The Snow Queen ballet Harlequin Theatre

£12.50

All

Fri 13 Nov

Hollywood Bowl £9.95 Y7-Y9

Sun 15 Nov

Godstone Farm

£8.00

Tue 17 Nov Elf the Musical

£55.00 £60.00

Pupil Adult

Sat 21 Nov Barbarians v Argentina,

Killick Cup, Twickenham £20.00 £60.00

(under 16) (over 16)

Sun 22 Nov Coral Reef, Waterworld

£6.50

Wed 25 Nov The Bodyguard Musical , Hawth Theatre

£35.50 Y9- Y13

Sat 28-Sun 29 Nov

Overnight Survival Camp £10.00 Y7

Sun 29 Nov

Dressed by Angels- Costume House visit

£14.00 £20.00

16 years + under Over 16 years

Sun 29 Nov

Brooklands Motor Museum and Mercedes Benz World

£10.00

Sat 5 – Sun 6 Dec

Overnight Survival Camp £10.00 Juniors

Sat 12 Dec

Aladdin, Harlequin £14.00 Y7

Tues 15 Dec

Jack & the Beanstalk, Hawth Theatre

£17.95 All

2016 Tues 19 Jan

Nutcracker, Hawth Theatre

(St Petersburg Classic Ballet)

£29.50 All

Fri 22 April Priscilla Queen of the Desert Musical, Hawth Theatre

£37.50 Year 10+ OVER 15 yrs old

JUNIOR SCHOOL

JUNIOR JUDO

Junior school judo activity entered an event at the weekend in Carshalton dojo, they did extremely well.

Within her group Emma took the bronze medal as did Annabel. Annabel also competed in another group

with bigger girls and achieved a silver medal. These results will be added to other events they have

participated in and go towards their Olympian Scheme medal at the Club awards night in December where

they will find out how well they have done and which award they will get.

Well done girls for being so brave and competing well.

Rachelle Sexton (Judo Teacher)

Diary Dates Autumn Term 2

Thursday 5 November – Football Vs Salfords (Home) Tuesday 10 November – Netball Vs St John’s (Away) Wednesday 11 November – Football Vs Merstham (Home)

Wednesday 11 November – Remembrance Service Thursday 12 November – RAAS Christmas Market in Gatton Hall 7:00pm – 10:30pm Friday 13 November – Comedy Club 4 Kids, PAC 4-5pm Friday 13 November – Football Vs Wray Common (Away) Tuesday 17 November – Football Vs Sandcross (Away) Wednesday 18 November – Netball Vs Merstham (Home) Friday 20 November – Mufti Day for Christmas Fayre Monday 23 November – Y6 RAF Museum Trip Friday 27 November – Mufti Day for Christmas Fayre Saturday 28 November – Friends of RAAS Christmas Fayre

Wednesday 2 December – West End in Schools Pantomime – Jack & The Beanstalk Friday 4 December – 7.00pm Christmas Play ‘The Good, The Bad & The Donkey’

Saturday 5 December – 9.30am Christmas Play ‘The Good, The Bad & The Donkey’

Thursday 10 December – House Point Reward Trip

Friday 11 December – Indoor Athletics @ Dunottar Assemblies for the Autumn Term

Please Note: Assemblies will take place at 8:35am in the PAC. The dates for the class assemblies are subject to change so please check with your child’s teacher nearer the time if you intend to come and watch. 5S – Wednesday 18 November 5C – Wednesday 25 November 4M – Wednesday 2 December 3P – Wednesday 9 December

Wednesday 16 December 2:00pm

Break up for Christmas Holidays (Seniors 2:30pm)

Star of the Week

Autumn Term

Week 6 3P Keira Hankin For always working hard in all subjects and for

always helping those in need.

4M Leon Benson For always setting an excellent example for

behaviour and embracing his role as ‘timetable

monitor’ in the class.

5C Ishaan Zharotia For working hard in all lessons across the

curriculum.

5S Anisa McIntosh For being a helpful and kind member of our class

and ensuring our classroom is always tidy.

6L Joe McCallion For much improved and more mature behaviour

this week.

6S Kailen Gill For an improved attitude towards his work. This

has resulted in some excellent writing.

The Golden Book

Autumn Term

Week 6

Jaleel Rudder 3P For excellent use of adjectives in literacy.

Jessica Owen 3P For brilliant work with pictograms in numeracy.

Harry Shepherd 4M For an outstanding result in his science

assessment and an overall improvement in the

quality of his written work.

Violet Jahnke 4M For consistently high levels of work in literacy and

numeracy.

Lily-Jayne Love 5C For using some ambitious vocabulary when

describing her setting in literacy

Webster Makwati 5C For excellent knowledge of determiners in literacy

Summer Hicks 5S For a great piece of descriptive writing about a

jungle setting.

Sophie Ford 5S For great description in literacy.

Liv Ashley 6S For an excellent newspaper article, including all

the steps to success

Ota Imina-Uwagboe 6S For excellent participation in all maths lessons

this term – resulting in an excellent assessment

result.

Cody McCarthy 6L For writing a superb personification poem.

Luke Betts 6L For responding well to advice and editing and

improving his work.

SIXTHFORM

The Sixth Form community has returned from various scatterings across the UK and the world. After a

short breather for half term we have come back to mountains of work in preparation for our fast

approaching mocks.

The girls’ netball team, captained by Desi Mamudu, achieved a tremendous victory over Glenthorne

High School in Sutton 18:3, while the boys’ inter house football has already begun with Kent vs

Gloucester this Thursday.

UCAS Application: the first 4 applications have now been sent and the rest of the applicants are putting

the finishing touches to their personal statements. The wait now starts to hear whether or not the

University of your choice will offer you an interview. Good luck to everyone.

Year 13 is attending a ‘Safe Drive, Stay Alive’ presentation next week at the Dorking Halls, Dorking. The

event is co-ordinated by the Surrey Fire & Rescue Service with the aim of making young people aware of

their responsibilities as drivers. Previous years that attended said that the presentation had a

considerable impact on them and certainly made them more aware of just what is needed when driving.

Edward Fremont-Barnes