Beachborough Newsletter: Friday 7th June 2024

Head TeacherHead’s Blog: 

“The harder the conflict, the greater the triumph.” Bernard Law Montgomery

These words encapsulate the indomitable spirit of resilience and perseverance, demonstrated by those who courageously fought on the beaches at Normandy 80 years ago, in what was arguably the most significant victory of the Second World War.

“We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, … the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon.” President Ronald Reagan spoke these words to an audience of D-Day veterans and world leaders on the 40th Anniversary of this infamous battle. To me, it captures perfectly the atmosphere of an event that I am fortunate never to have experienced.

This morning, Form VIII, supported by Mrs Howard, lead a very special assembly to mark the 80th Anniversary of D-Day and shared with us the exploits of our very own second Headmaster, Eric Sprawson.

Eric was born in Wells, in 1910, and spent much of his childhood in India, where his father worked as a surgeon. At the age of 13, he travelled back to England to attend Rugby School.

In 1942, Eric joined the RAF and Bomber Command, as a Squadron Leader and shortly after was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. A medal awarded for acts of valour, courage and devotion to duty. On the 6th of June 1944, Eric was aboard a Lancaster bomber, having been given the objective of destroying two bridges at Caen. As his aircraft was running up to the bomb target, he was hit by tracer bullets and his Lancaster caught fire! Eric and his crew baled out and he safely landed in a small French village and was fortunate to be rescued by a group of French civilians. Incredibly, he hid with the residents of the village until he was rescued by the Allies.

At the end of the War, Eric returned to India with his family and served as the Headmaster of Rajkumar College, but with coming of independence in 1947, Eric returned to England and held a number of teaching positions, before in 1954, becoming the second Headmaster at Beachborough, following the 48-year tenure of Fredrick Chappell. It has always been believed that Eric introduced the term “Ghab” for the 11.00am snack, perhaps an Indian word learned in his childhood.

In the assembly this morning, we were very privileged to be joined by Eric’s son Robert and his grandson Rupert, who bought with them Eric’s original logbook and his medals for the children to see.

We felt that it was important for the Beachborough community to remember our brave former Headmaster, and we have had a special plaque engraved to be mounted on the wall in the Manor House, so that his incredible story will not be forgotten by future Beachburians.

My thanks go to Form VIII and Mrs Howard for sharing Eric’s story.

On Saturday, 25th of May, our fantastic Goblin Team participated at the Renishaw New Mills races and I am delighted to announce that we won! We are now all set for Goodwood or as Mr Perronet calls it “The Big One!” on the 30th of June.

Our best wishes go to the 15 pupils (5 from Form VIII, 7 from Form VII and 3 from Form VI) who are today representing Beachborough in the IAPS East Area Athletics Regionals at Bedford.

We also wish the very best of luck to Gabriel F, Beth J and Julia M for their participation in the IAPS National Swimming Championships at London Aquatics Centre, at the Olympic Park on Saturday. All have done exceptionally well to qualify from their regional heat and now get the chance to compete for Beachborough on a national scale. Miss Mulcahy and Mr Usher will be there to cheer them on.

Finally, thank you to all of you who completed the Parental Voice Survey, your comments and thoughts are much appreciated. We will now take some time to analyse the results and comments, we plan to share highlights from the feedback early in the Autumn Term.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Simone

The Beachborough Racing Team’s Success! 

On Saturday 25th May, the Beachborough Racing team competed again at Renishaw New Mills, in Wotton-Under-Edge, in Gloucestershire.

Funky Phoebe won the competition, taking 1st place in all its races: slalom, drag, and sprint, half a lap ahead of the opposition! Arty Abby came 3rd overall.

We will now be preparing for Goodwood, which takes place on Sunday 30th June, where about 85 cars are expected to compete!

A huge well done to the team: Emily, Huey, Otto, George, Sophie, Ayla, Max, Max, Dougy, Harry, Isabella, Leo, Leo Arthur, Henry, Zach, Morris and Major! And a massive thank you to all parents for their support, to Chris Smith for taking the photos, and of course, a huge thank you to Paul for his continuous dedication to the team.

Nicolas Perronnet

Beachborough Colts A v Winchester House match report: written on Wednesday 5th June 2024, by Mr Blithe

A bright but chilly day accompanied by a soft wicket greeted the teams today, as we took on our foes from just up the A422. THIS is the one I want! The toss or the new variation of rock, paper, scissors was won by the visiting captain, and he elected to bowl first, so in we went. Ben and Sam opened up and got off to a flourishing start, although the calling and quick singles left a little to be desired! We sauntered to 21 before the loss of Ben for 3, which was disappointing as I thought we’d started strong, and the boys were batting well on a very slow surface. Freddie strode in confidently at 3 and set about the bowling with some fine shots. We lurched on to 33 before Sam batted well, hitting a four and a six but came a cropper for 13 at the hands of their slower bowling. Freddie also hit a six and a four in his innings but again, succumbed to dawdling delivery and we were 44/3 off 6 – Will was next to fall, missing a sluggish straight one without the score moving on, although he had scored a nudged and nurdled 5 form 11. 44/4 and was I starting to fret! The batting order had been shuffled since our last match together, and in came Ralf, who would need a captain’s innings to rescue us from this mire… which to some extent he did, he and Raff combined to steady the ship and they put on a healthy partnership. Sadly, Ollie and Raff went too early. Ralf and Alex demonstrated how not to back each other up. Calamitous calling and a flukey throw saw Ralf run out, stranded halfway down the track – not what we needed. Nonetheless, it was a decent knock of 34 from 25 in which he hit two sixes and a four, which took the score onto 94/7, somewhat healthier now. The tail barely wagged, although Arlo was not out at the end with 14, which included a 6 and one for his memoirs a ‘5’, thanks to some sloppy WHS fielding, hey ho! We finished in the eighteenth over on 117 all out, which I’d have been pleased with at 44/4! A plethora of missed opportunities I feel, to go on and score substantially more runs by many in the team today.

After tea, we took to the field with a fairly simple game plan, bowl straight, pace off. The slow damp pitch will help us if we let it. We’d never been in a position where we’d not posted a great score and 117 was certainly achievable. Especially as I was led to believe that ‘they’ve got a few good players’. I stopped short of reciting the words to Jerusalem, as time was going on, but I think they got the point…

Ben opened and started well, although going for seven. Ralf took the second over and got the early breakthrough that we needed, bowling their opener with his second ball and Sam caught their number three behind with the last ball of the over – a terrific start, Ben came back on for his second over and with his second ball got the plumbiest of plumb LBW’s, Winchester were wobbling at 13/3. Dare to believe…? Will was next on to bowl and although the figures don’t show it, he did bowl very straight as instructed. He should be pleased with his accuracy today. Ollie came into the attack, sporting a rather snazzy pair of sunglasses. In his first over he snaffled a wicket, caught and bowled and Raff threw in a pinpoint accurate throw from the boundary to secure a run out – 38/6, an eventful over indeed! The visitors scraped together almost twenty runs when Freddie came on and bowled beautifully (below), to dislodge their 7th wicket.

Will came back on to bowl and continued with his straight line and length, and I was pleased to see he also got a wicket, their score had managed to creep up a bit, so this intervention was timely. Alex’s spinning fingers caused mayhem once more, and Ralf took a great catch off his bowling. Ian and Arlo mopped up the tail and we’d seen off the visiting adversaries for 92 in just 14.2 overs, a comfortable win in the end, although some casual observers on the boundary felt it was close at times, frankly I thought this victory was never in doubt… ‘In England’s green and pleasant Land.’

Man of the match today, is Ralf, runs, wickets and catches, good lad!

 

U10A St Edward’s, Oxford Cricket Festival

On Wednesday 5th June, the U10A cricket team took part in the St Edwards, Oxford Cricket Festival. Our first game was against Chandlings School. We won the toss and chose to field. The matches were a 10/10 format with 8 ball overs and additional bonus points awarded for runs scored and wickets taken. Some excellent bowling from Beachborough limited Chandlings to 44-6 from their 10 overs. Wickets from Jamie S (3-4) and Fergus T (1-11) and 2 excellent run outs made scoring difficult. Beachborough then went into bat and made light work of the total, reaching 45-1 in 4 overs. In traditional cricket, the match would be over, but in order to get as many bonus points as possible, the match had to be played out. This gave an opportunity for others to get a bat. After 20 overs, Beachborough reached 93-2, comfortably winning the game and picking up 7 bonus points on top of the 10 points for the victory. It was an excellent start and a good team effort.

Our second game was against a strong Cheam side. We lost the toss and batted first. In this format, anything over 90 runs from 10 overs is a competitive score. This was the challenge to the team. We got off to a slow start and lost a few key wickets early on. This didn’t faze us, and we remained patient and a super innings from Fergus T (20) and Henry L (30) along with good contributions from Leo S and William G gave us a total of 86-4 from our 10 overs. We knew we needed to bowl well to be in with a chance, and in true Beachborough style, that is exactly what we did. Our first 8 overs were exceptional and Cheam we behind the run rate. We weren’t taking lots of wickets, but the bowling was straight and Cheam struggled to score. Cricket can change very quickly and with 2 overs to go, the victory was all but ours. Cheam needed 26 to win. The pressure got to us a little bit and we began to panic and made some silly mistakes. This enabled Cheam to score freely and with 2 balls remaining of the match Cheam passed our score of 86. They ended the match on 91-4 but we gained 6 vital losing bonus points.

The final game of the afternoon was the 5th-6th place play off. We were up against a very strong Caldicott team. We won the toss and fielded first. A devastating opening spell from Henry L (2-7) and Fergus T (1-14) laid a strong platform for the rest of the innings. Caldicott knew that had to score more runs and with this came risks. Leo S bowled a lovely spell of 2 overs (2-17) and 2 fantastic run outs by Otto P restricted Caldicott to 82-7 from their 10 overs. The game was there for the taking, but we needed to bat sensibly and build partnerships, and that is exactly what we did. We were patient, respected the good balls, and punished the bad balls. A 50-run partnership from Henry L (28 not out) and Fergus T (24) put us in the driving seat and after 6 overs, we were 75-3. Fergus T hit the winning runs with a beautiful pull shot and victory was ours. It was another tremendous game of cricket, and I was absolutely delighted with the team played. They showed real composure and determination in what was a very successful day.

Jamie S and Henry L were voted best bowler and batter of the day, and received a ball and mini bat from St Edwards head of cricket Ed Ellis.

I would like to congratulate the whole team for a terrific day’s cricket and extend my gratitude to the wonderful support and encouragement of the parents who came and watches.

Mr Stoop

 

The 4th Team cricket boys’, after their victory at Winchester House! 

The Beachborough Book Fair…

Club Credits!

CLUB CHILDREN CREDITS AVERAGE
CHAPPELL 94 274 2.91
CARDER 86 234 2.72
BOARDMAN 91 228 2.51
SPRAWSON 91 281 3.09

The Results are In: 

In the Colts A girls match against Winchester House, Evie C B was accidentally hit by a ball to the sternum whilst batting, but bravely carried on to finish the innings. A true example of resilience!

St Edward’s School County Cricket Festival

On the final day of the half term break, Sunday 2nd June, four pupils from Beachborough, Ralf B, Ben S and Emilie S in Form VI, and Isabella B in Form V, represented a select Prep Schools’ boys and girls team respectively in an U11 county cricket festival, for the Wynyard Gibb cup, held at St Edward’s School in Oxford. They played three matches against Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Hampshire and all of them performed exceptionally well on the day against high quality opposition. Ralf captained the Prep Schools boys’ side against Hampshire, whilst Ben took 2 wickets against Gloucestershire in 3 overs and conceded only 4 runs. Emilie and Isabella were part of the Prep Schools girls’ side, who beat both Oxfordshire and Hampshire and have come on leaps and bounds with their cricket this term, their selection for this event a reflection of that. Well done to all 4 pupils for being great ambassadors for Beachborough last Sunday!

Mr Usher

U13A Girls’ making Beachborough History by playing the first ever Twenty20 Hardball Cricket Match

On Wednesday, the U13 Girls arrived at Winchester House to play in the first ever Twenty20 Cricket Match. We won the toss so our wonderful Captain, Isabella G, decided to field first. Tilly G stepped up first to bowl against two very strong County batters. In 3 overs, Tilly had 17 ‘dot’ balls and 1 wide, which was phenomenal! Our initial plan was to have 5 of our team bowl, but as the batters were very hard to eliminate, we decided to change our game plan and 9 girls out of our squad bowled. In Lily’s second over, she bowled a great ball which was struck by the batter and fielded in by Bhim onto the stumps – at last, a batter was out! Winchester ended their batting rein on 165-1.

Evie and Mary stepped up to bat first and Evie faced some incredibly fast balls! However, on the second ball, Evie managed to get a 4! Mary and Evie played so well against very strong bowlers. Tilly had a fantastic batting innings, scoring 24 runs in total and finally being caught out. Bhim, Kitty and Grace had a great innings, gradually increasing the score. In the 20th over, we were bowled out with 2 balls remaining. 90-10 was our final batting score. I am incredibly proud of how much these girls have achieved over this Summer Term. They have learnt so much and developed into great cricketers. Well done to a fabulous first Twenty20 match. Finally, a massive thank you to Mr Ashmore who is always there on hand to help with tactics and is a great ‘assistant coach’!

 

Mrs Howkins

The Link: Monday 17th June

Is your child part of the Learning Zone? Please do come along to the next Link Meeting.

We’re excited to extend an invitation to our next Link meeting, where you’ll have the opportunity to connect with parents whose children are at the end of their Learning Zone journey.

Join us for a friendly and insightful session where you can ask questions, hear about their experiences, and gain valuable top tips from parents who have navigated the Learning Zone journey before you. It’s a fantastic opportunity to connect, share stories, and build a supportive community together.

We can’t wait to see you there!

The deadline for our virtual pet show entries, has been extended to Monday 17th June!

Donations can kindly be made, by visiting our JustGiving page:

Beachborough School is fundraising for Dogs For Good (justgiving.com)

Thank you for your ongoing generosity!

What’s on next week?

Mon 10th
All Day – LAMDA EXAMS – PP1 & PP2, Forms III, IV, V, VII & VIII
Form VIII Post Final Exam timetable
All Day – Form VIII Trip to Drayton Manor
5.15am – Form VI – Residential to Normandy departs.
6.00pm – Flute Concert Mrs Sharam (The Whybrow Theatre)*

Tues 11th
Whole School Pastoral Meeting
8.30am – 10.00pm – Form IV Production Dress Rehearsal to Boardman children (The Whybrow
Theatre)
10.00am – 3.00pm – Visit from the Good Schools Guide
10.00am – 11.00am & 11.30am – 1.00pm – Form VIII Showcase Rehearsal (The Whybrow Theatre)
1.00pm – IAPS East Area Regional Athletics Championships (select Forms IV and V pupils) at
Wilberforce Road, Cambridge*
2.30pm – Mixed Boys’ and Girls’ Cricket: U9 Jets and Spitfires v Milton Keynes Prep (H)*
2.30pm – Mixed Boys’ and Girls’ Cricket: U8 Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Cyclones and Wildfire v
Swanbourne House (A)*
4.00pm – Full Governors Meeting

Weds 12th
Forms III-VIII – Club Assembly
9.00am – 12.30pm – Form VII Wetlands Morning
9.00am – 11.00am – Form VIII Showcase Rehearsal (The Whybrow Theatre)
1.00pm – 3.30pm – Boys Cricket – 1st XI @ Stowe
2.30pm – Boys Cricket: 2nd XI & 3rd XI (A)*
2.30pm – Girls Cricket: U13A girls XI v Spratton Hall (A)*
2.30pm – 4.00pm – Form IV Production (The Whybrow Theatre)*

Thurs 13th
All Day – LAMDA EXAMS – PP1 & PP2, Forms III, IV, V, VII & VIII
1.45pm – 3.00pm – 2+ Discovery Event
9.00am – 11.00am & 2.30pm – 5.00pm – Form VIII Showcase Rehearsal (The Whybrow Theatre)
3.30pm – 6.00pm – Meet the Head of The Boardman (New & Existing parents)*
6.00pm – 8.00pm Form VIII Showcase Performance (The Whybrow Theatre) *

Fri 14th
1.00pm – 5.00pm – Form VII (all) Stowe Chemistry Afternoon (12.30pm lunch)
6.30pm – 10.00pm – Form VIII Formal Dinner & Boarding
10.30pm – Form VI – Residential to Normandy returns
Sat 15th 13TH June 10.30am – Collection of Boarders
Sun 16th 9.00am – Beachborough & Brackley Triathlon at Stowe School

Interested in attending a Discovery Event, for Reception Class 2025?