Having a Field Day with HMS Collingwood in Portsmouth, the school’s Navy Cadets. First up some team building with a spider’s web – every member of the team having to edge their way through the sections without touching the rope! For those caught with hands in pockets, press ups!
All students in Year 10 join the school's tri-service CCF. For further information, please click here.
So much that could go wrong in trying to put on a play in 24 hours! In the end, the Drama Department triumphed, raising £600 for Brain Tumour Research and again proving how a thoroughly professional team can achieve anything! Just one mishap – Emily Hallett, playing a seagull, as well as a turtle, managed to badly sprain her ankle mid-way. But determined that the show must go on, she found a couple of crutches previously used as props and limped on for the rest of the performance.
Not just our rugby players at the Howden Rosslyn Park National Schools Sevens this week, but the Pipes and Drums! The Band kicked off the world's largest school rugby tournament, marching on to the RE1 show pitch and forming a channel.
Come and enjoy our musicians and singers in action at Christ Church in Woking on Saturday 23rd March, as we welcome in the Spring with the Spring Concert. Tickets and refreshments are bookable on the school's Box Office page. The concert will feature all the school's three jazz bands, three choirs, orchestra, two string groups and the senior trio (national chamber music finalists). Here's a taste of what's to come from last year:
First, second and third places for Gordon’s students in the Woking Rotary Club’s Young Writer’s Competition on the theme of ‘Rebuilding’. The wordsmiths were presented with certificates of achievement by the Mayor of Woking, Cllr M IIyas Raja (far right) at a ceremony at the Woking District Rotary Club with President David Clayfield and Dorothy Flower. Franklyn French-Flynn, winner of the heat with his poem on the war in Gaza, will now go forward to the District Final.
The Gordon’s team came away as winners of two competitions at the National Schools Golf competition, the individual stableford and team event at Tandridge Golf Club. Zach Mathews won the stableford with 44 points, finishing an impressive eighth in the scratch event and first in a field of 56 golfers. Congratulations all!
Gordon’s has been recognised by the National Centre for Computing Education with an I Belong Certificate for the school’s commitment to encouraging gender inclusion in computer science. As part of the school’s interventions for improving gender balance in computing, a Girls’ Code Club has been introduced. And the curriculum now features an AI unit with female role models and information on careers in AI. Female students have reacted positively, reporting that they enjoyed the course on AI, feel confident about the topic and its application and found it interesting. Pictured is the Girls’ Code Club in action. For more information on Computer Science at Gordon's, please click here.
Thanks to the generosity of the Flower Man in Goldsworth Park, a host of golden daffodils will be sold to students tomorrow as gifts for Mothering Sunday, with all proceeds going to Angus' Army to support Angus who is undergoing treatment at the Royal Marsden in Sutton, and the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Pictured delivering the blooms is Kim from The Flower Man in Goldsworth Park.
Heading to Germany, Cara Falconer, who will be part of the Scotland team taking on England, Germany and The Netherlands in the Easter 4 Nations competition. Cara, who has played for Scotland for the past three years and is Gordon’s First XI Team Captain, has also been selected for Scotland for a series against Canada later this month. Her selection follows the news of her gaining a prestigious scholarship for Academic and Sport for the University of Massachusetts, USA. Congratulations Cara!
The amazing landforms and dramatic scenery of Iceland, were experienced by GCSE and A Level students as part of a five day enrichment trip. The group visited thermal baths, Geysir, Guilfoss Waterfall and Lake Kleifarvatn, ending the visit with a journey across Solheimajokull glacier. Here are some of the highlights:
Firm friends, Math Jones and Mitchell Newell will face each other in their toughest challenge on Sunday as Math pulls on the red jersey for Wales and Mitchell the blue for Scotland in the U18 international development game in preparation for possible selection in the Six Nations Competition.
The two backs joined Gordon’s Sixth Form under the Harlequins Partnership Programme in September and were assigned the same boarding house, Balmoral. They also attend many of the same lessons together and of course their rugby training for both Gordon’s in the ACE League and Harlequins U18 team.
They were selected to play for their country last weekend and will travel to Wales today to prepare for their big game on Sunday.
Fly half Math was born and bred in Wales. Rugby has been in his blood since the age of six (although for five years he was signed to Swansea City Football Academy!). His selection for Wales is a dream come true: “I found out on Sunday last week. It was mad, I was buzzing. So happy” he said.
For Mitchell, a winger, it’s been a meteoric rise, having only taken up the sport three years ago. The former swimmer, who was in touching distance of national swimming competitions, gave it up to play rugby for Chichester where he was discovered by Harlequins. “It just progressed from there” he said, adding that his call up had come as a surprise - “I was quite shocked because I am quite new to rugby so I am still learning.”
Their great friendship will be cast aside on Sunday as they compete against each other for their country’s although Mitch laughed: “It will be funny, a good laugh on the pitch”.
He continued: “Leading up to the game you get into the mentality that you are going out and you’re going to beat the other team. You don’t really think about who is playing in the other team. You are just narrow-visioned. You have your team around you and you fight for them until the final whistle and then obviously you go back to being mates.
Math agreed: “It’s just part of the game. You have to get into a certain mentality otherwise you would get hurt on the pitch. But you don’t hold grudges after the game.”
Director of Sport Jamie Harrison said: “Both these boys thoroughly deserve their call up. We will all be rooting for them”.
Can our students make a difference to you? The last time Gordon’s held Make a Difference Day, 70 students slept in cardboard boxes on the Parade Square; 21 black sacks of rubbish were removed from the school site, Brentmoor Heath and Portsmouth Beach; 41 vehicles were cleaned on the Parade Square; hedgehog homes were made; potatoes harvested; leaflets dropped and a graveyard cleared. Students helped facilitate a sports day at Tringham pre-school sports day and organised a sports festival as well as providing help/activities at the Lakeview Care Home, Therapy Gardens; Gracewell Care Home and Frogmore Junior School. They also made cakes for an afternoon tea for the elderly in the Rec. The school is now looking for ways in which to help the community on 3rd July. If you would like students aged between 11 and 17 to be involved in a project or charity you are running, please complete this form: https://forms.office.com/e/1fXZjBrgUJ
