Sports Update: Regional & International Success at Framlingham – Going from Strength to Strength

Hockey

I am extremely proud to report some outstanding recent achievements by College students. Firstly, after representing both Suffolk and Norfolk in the Junior Development Centre tournaments, a number of Framlingham College students have been selected for this summer’s Junior Regional Performance Centres. These days will see players pitting their skills against the best players in the East of England and vying for selection into the Saxon Tigers squads for both Hi-Pac and Futures Cup in the October half term. The long journey ahead will be an exciting one as they look to emulate the success of our own Kitty McWhirter who has worked her way through the system to recent England U21 selection. This is a magnificent achievement for Kitty who has been extremely disciplined in her approach to training; we are all very proud of her.

The Following ten players have been selected: Alex Emsden, Ben Slaven, Luke Quartermaine, Alex Wheatley, Chris Walwanda, William Hunt, Echezeaux Titley, Flo McWhirter, Tildy Paul and Georgie Seymour.

Head of Hockey Jamie Kingstone is delighted with the standard of hockey at the College and is very excited about the future. Not only have the pupils been busy with their hockey, but Jamie himself has been active in his role as England U18 Boys’ Assistant Coach, preparing the team for the European Championships in Vienna.

Rugby

Toby Trinder has been invited to join the England Midlands Training Camp at Loughborough this week under the watchful eye of the England Under 18 coaches. Toby played for Northampton Saints in the Academies Under 15 Festival in April. As a result, he has been selected to attend this two-day camp. This is a real honour for Toby and everyone wishes him the best of luck. Ollie Darwell-Taylor was also involved in the festival, scoring a try against Newcastle Falcons. Will Ponty has recently been invited into the Elite Player Development Group at Northampton Saints. He joins up with Cam Greenhall, Luke Quartermaine and Tom Scovell. All of these boys have represented Suffolk and Eastern Counties this season.

Cricket

Cricketers have been very busy this term and I am delighted that Tim Alexander was selected to play for the Suffolk Independent Schools XI against Essex Under 17s. Tim scored 70 off 59 balls and took 1-11 off 7 overs; his wicket left the scores tied. This was an excellent performance and I know the Essex selectors were very impressed. We have also had a number of pupils representing the county at U14 level and would like to congratulate Ben Boyden who is playing for Suffolk under 14s.

Netball

Alongside her success in hockey, Echezeaux Titley has been selected for the regional netball team. To be playing at regional level in two sports is a tremendous achievement and we are looking forward to supporting Sketch through her programme.

Golf

Golf is fast becoming very popular once more at the College and we are delighted to have Lottie Whyman leading the way. After securing a place on the England Development Programme she was runner up at the Suffolk County Girls’Championships last week, which sets her up nicely for the Independent Schools Golf Championships at The Shire, London, later this month. She will be entering this tournament along with Jamie Taylor and Will Rix and we wish them good luck.

Tennis

Tennis has had a huge amount of success with Flo McCausland representing the county at tournaments around the country in last few months. I am sure you will also have received news recently through the Framlingham College Tennis Club that the 1^st team have become County Champions again.

Simon Sinclair, Director of Sport

Year 9 practice DofE expeditions

Year 9 all set out on Thursday from the College on their practice Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expeditions, putting into practice the skills learned during the year on maps, compasses and navigation. They set up camp overnight at three locations, including some returning to familiar ground at Brandeston Hall. 

The conditions were ideal for walking with a cool breeze, the rain holding off under cloudy skies, and a little sunshine too. All groups navigated their way back to the College successfully on Friday to complete their practice expeditions, and they will now plan their route cards for their qualifying expeditions in September, building on their experiences.

During Year 10 they will be able to complete activities towards their volunteering, physical and skills to gain a Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Those wishing to continue further have the opportunity to go on to Silver and Gold in Year 11 and the Sixth Form.

Gyles Brandreth delights audience at FramSoc

Elusive, fleeting, relative, intensely personal; we were all challenged to consider the various guises of happiness as we sat in the Headmaster Porter Theatre last night engrossed by the preview performance of Gyles Brandreth’s new one-man show, Looking For Happiness.

Of course it was very funny indeed, littered with examples of outrageous name-dropping, topical references and including audience participation but the comedy was also allowed to breathe, increasing its impact, in those moments when the mood was subtly and expertly changed to invite us to ponder and reflect on how happiness can be discovered in the most unlikely of our experiences.

If this was a ‘work in progress’ then audiences at the Edinburgh Festival and the subsequent UK tour are going to leave their theatres happily delighted by what they receive from this truly masterful raconteur.

Year 12 Geographers investigate sand dune ecosystems on North Norfolk coast

Last Friday a group of 33 lower sixth geographers visited the impressive dune system on the Norfolk coast near Burnham Overy Staithe. The weather was bright and warm which helped in the data collection on this otherwise wind swept and remote coastline. 

The dune system is part of the Holkham National Nature Reserve with the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The field research included surveying of the dune relief, identifying characteristics of the vegetation succession and recording the microclimate and soil conditions. This was a most enjoyable and productive fieldtrip in which the various groups followed transects from the strandline and embryo dunes inland to the dune heath.

The photographs show the entire group being briefed at the start of the investigation. Further images will be available on the College website.

Major General Jack Dye CBE MC DL

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Major General Jack Dye. He died on Monday evening at his home in Helmingham, aged 93.

Jack was a great friend and servant of the College and Brandeston, and has been a familiar face here since first becoming a governor in 1975. He chaired our Finance and General Purposes Committee for 19 years, and continued to attend Governors’ meetings right through to the present day in his role as Vice President; indeed he attended last term’s meeting and, as ever, contributed actively to debate with his usual sharp insight.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his widow, Jean, and his wide and multi-generational family.

He was a special man and we will miss him.

Kitty McWhirter selected for England U21 Hockey

Kitty McWhirter, a year 12 student at Framlingham College,  has been selected to play for the England U21 Hockey team in a test series vs Wales Seniors this weekend. The games will take place at Lilleshall National Sports Centre. This is an especially impressive achievement for a 17- year- old student. It will not, however, be the first time Kitty has been asked to play for the U21’s; she was selected to play in a recent series against Germany but withdrew because of her desire to focus on her A/S examinations. This summer is an exciting one for Kitty;with both the U18 European Cup and U21 World Cup looming large in the next couple of months she will be training very hard in the coming weeks to try and impress the selectors for these tournaments.

The Director of Sport at Framlingham College, Mr Simon Sinclair, comments, “We are all very proud of this fantastic achievement. Kitty has put a huge amount of time and effort into her training in the last few months under the guidance of our Head of Hockey, Jamie Kingstone. Kitty is a superb role model for many of our students at the College aspiring to achieve excellence.”

Notorious Old Framlinghamian Sir Alfred Munnings features in the film ‘Summer in February’

Film adaptation tells the tale of this Old Framlinghamian’s ill-feted first marriage . . .

Many at Framlingham College are already familiar with Jonathan Smith’s novel Summer in February as it was only recently a FramSoc book club choice and a group of us also hugely enjoyed visiting Sir Alfred Munnings’ house in Dedham, so it is very exciting to anticipate the film adaptation of this story, which tells the tale of this notorious Old Framlinghamian’s ill-fated first marriage and is released on 14 June.

Sir Alfred Munnings, from Mendham in Suffolk, studied at Framlingham College before moving on to study Art at the Norwich School of Art. His famous painting Charge of Flowerdew’s Squadron has pride of place to this day at the College’s preparatory school, Brandeston Hall, where it inspires future artists.

Summer in February is set in the years running up to the First World War and focuses on the wild and bohemian Lamorna Group, dominated by the charismatic Alfred Munnings (OF). The incendiary anti-Modernist Munnings, now one of Britain’s most sought-after artists, is at the heart of a complex love triangle, also involving aspiring young painter Florence Carter-Wood and Gilbert Evans, the land agent in charge of the Lamorna estate.

True – and deeply moving – the story is played out against the timeless beauty of the Cornish coast, in the far West of England, beyond the reach of London and its stifling conventions.

The author Jonathan Smith will be speaking about Summer in February at the College on Wednesday 6th November as part of the Framsoc Autumn Term programme – the talk is open to all members of the public.

To view more information on the film and to watch the trailer, please visit this link: 
http://www.summerinfebruary.com

 

Rugby: Toby Trinder selected for England U15 Regional Camp

Congratulations to Toby Trinder who has been selected for an England U15 regional development camp at Loughborough University next week. 

This programme will be run by the England U18 coaches, who will monitor Toby’s progress over the next couple of years.

Toby joined Brandeston in Year 8 and has been part of the Northampton Saints Elite Development Programme for the last two years.

We wish him the best of luck.

Year 10 GCSE Drama students visit London for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical

On Thursday, 5th June, Year 10 GCSE Drama students went to see the new musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory directed by Sam Mendes at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. 

They had a wonderful time seeing an ingenious and visually spectacular show with a stunning central performance from Douglas Hodge in the role of Willy Wonka. Students now have to write up a 2000 word review which we are hoping will flow from their pens and laptops like a veritably oozing chocolate river.

Seats can now be reserved for the summer production of Our Town on the 26th, 27th and 28th June in the HPT at 7.30pm. Rehearsals are well underway and we are looking forward to presenting you with this powerful and thought-provoking story about the interlinking lives of people in a small-town, mid-American community. It is not East Enders!

Emily Heldreich joins the Famous Five Birds Band

Emily Heldreich has joined the Famous Five Birds Band and is one of only seven musicians picked by composer Nathan Williamson to play the music he is composing for the soundtrack of a new shadow puppet play being created by Nutmeg Puppet Company. 

Following rehearsals, the soundtrack will be recorded at a Suffolk recording studio and played at eight live Famous Five Birds Band events for children and families this August and September.

Good luck, Emily!