Sackville swimmers give a performance of a lifetime at the National Finals

Sackville’s elite swimmers put in several extremely strong performances at the National Schools’ Swimming Finals on Saturday November 16th. This is the pinnacle of schools’ swimming, and fittingly takes place at the London Aquatics Centre. Representation from state schools was once again very thin, and shows how well our competitors did even to reach the last stage of the competition. 

Each team matched or exceeded its seeding – true mark of how well they performed.

• Junior boys freestyle – seeded 25th, came 17th – 2.04.77
• Inter girls medley – seeded 36th, came 26th – 2.15.04
• Senior boys freestyle – seeded 21st, came 19th – 1.45.26
• Senior boys medley – seeded 16th, came 16th – 1.56.50

Some of the students also got to meet Tom Daley during the day as well.

Pictured left to right (first photo) are Rachel Davies, Sam Wiles, Chloe Grantham, Nathan Randall, Abigail Hall, Emily Graziano, Freddie Mabey, Robert Taylor, Joe Lancaster, Henry Young and Oliver Tindale.

We would like to thank the students not just for their excellent results, but also for their exemplary behaviour through the day. Thanks too to the parents who made the journey and gave up a Saturday. Finally, none of this would happen without the leadership of Miss Offler – thank you!

Our top biologists receive their certificates

Congratulations to our year 13 biologists who received their certificates on November 14th for their performances in the Intermediate Biology Olympiad.

Ayo Odeyinde, Jorgie Nunes (not pictured), Matt Tomkinson and Abi Bramwell were all commended or highly commended, and Joe Marrable gained a bronze award.

This is a great achievement for all five students in a competition entered by well over 8000 students from 460 schools. Well done!

Year 13 students get a Virgin masterclass in recruitment

Y13 students studying BTEC Business and WJEC Tourism Diploma were given a masterclass on November 14th by Talent Experience Partners, Sally Williams and Katie Squires from Virgin Atlantic.

The students, who have been studying recruitment and selection, were treated to some excellent advice on applications and CVs. The visitors were helpful answering a range of questions from ‘Can you take notes into the interview?’ to ‘Do you have to dress up for a video interview?’

It was a fabulous opportunity to learn more about how to apply for apprenticeships and jobs in a highly competitive industry and the students expressed how useful they found the experience.

Thank-you very much to Sally and Katie from Virgin Atlantic.

Record number of teams at Children in Need quiz

Sackville’s annual Children in Need quiz on November 12th hosted a record 26 teams of students, parents, governors and teachers. The team were put through their paces by our head team of Lily Kendrick, Ayo Odeyinde, Will Booker and Awatif Castuera Bouzerda, with challenging rounds on sport, geography, entertainment etc, and with the special addition of a round on Thailand, presented on video by Mr Whitehead.

It was a very closely contested evening, with only 25 points separating all the teams. Last year’s champions returned to defend their crown, but the winners on this occasion were the team led by Mr Grant. Over £900 was raised – another record for the quiz!

A big thank-you to all those who attended, and to Mrs Plumb, Mrs Valentine, Mr Watson, Mrs Barden, Mrs Newcomb and Mrs Hadlow for all of their work. The excellent food from the mobile fish bar in our car park was very well-received – thank you to Harbour Fish & Chips.

Most of all we’d like to convey our appreciation to the Head Team who choreographed such a great evening. 

Year 10 sports leaders show the way for primary school athletes

The first week in November saw the East Grinstead heat of the county sports hall athletics championship.

More than 40 of our year 10s were involved, who were commended by the visiting primary schools for their calm professionalism in making the days run so well.

Overall winners were St Peter’s, with Halsford Park in second. Both schools go forward to represent East Grinstead in the next round in January.

Thank-you to all of our sports leaders and of course to Mrs Currie for organising and leading.

Sackville narrowly miss out in debating competition

On the 11^th November, three Sackville Y13 students – Katie Moullin, Imogen Gaines and Awatif Castuera took part in the Rotary Youth Debate Competition held at Chequer Mead. They considered the position that ‘the battle for gender equality is over’ presenting passionate arguments that the definition of feminism was now outdated and that the global position of women was not the same as we experience here in the United Kingdom. They were then presented with a question from the floor from Ex-Town Clerk Chris Rolley.

The team scored very highly and all the teams were within six points of each other. The judges Rex Whittaker, previous town mayor, Helen Farren from Estcots School and Glen Campbell an editor at BBC South East said it was a very difficult decision. Unfortunately, they were unable to retain last year’s trophy, narrowly losing out to Imberhorne School Team B. 

The musical interlude was provided by Sackville students Elodie Ansell and Amber Titchener who impressed the audience with a mix of cover songs and one of Amber’s own compositions. The photo shows Town Mayor, Councillor Danny Favor presenting certificates to the Sackville Team. Many thanks to the Rotary Club of East Grinstead for hosting and organising the event, and to Mrs Fleming for accompanying the team. Congratulations to Imberhorne – we look forward to next year!

Clouds part at Sackville for the Transit of Mercury

We were blessed by a break in the clouds at lunchtime on November 11^th, allowing Mr Bush to set up his solar telescope and show the students the rare occurence of Mercury traversing the sun.

Because the planes of the orbits of the Earth and Mercury are at an angle to one another, the sight of the our closest star with its closest planet in front of it will not happen again until the children in this photo are in their mid-twenties. I’m sure there is a future physics teacher there … 

Thank-you to Mr Bush for giving up his lunchtime to make this happen – his sandwiches were still on his desk at 4pm!

Sackville represented at East Grinstead Remembrance Ceremony

Headteacher Julian Grant was joined by senior students Lily Kendrick and Ayo Odeyinde to lay a wreath at the town war memorial on Sunday November 10th, the hundredth anniversary of the first Remembrance Sunday

The wreath bore a message of thanks to those who sacrificed their lives in the Great War and conflicts since.

Many Sackville students were present at the ceremony, as individuals and members of participating organisations.

The school will as usual observe two minutes’ silence on Monday November 11th.

Callie places 3rd in National Ballroom Finals

Congratulations to Callie Day-Williams in year 9, who travelled to Blackpool over the weekend of November 2/3 to compete in the National Ballroom Dancing Finals for the second year running.

Anyone who has seen Callie Dance will not be surprised to learn that she placed third overall in the ballroom category. As if that were not enough, she also made it through to the quarter finals in the Latin category.

Well done Callie – a rich return for the long journey north.

Luke Waddell presented with Arkwright Scholarship

Our Arkwright Scholar, Luke Waddell of year 12, was presented with his scholarship at the Institute of Engineering and Technology in London on Friday November 1^st. Luke will be sponsored by the Reece Foundation, who will ensure that he gets lots of engineering experience and opportunities.

Well done Luke!