Autumn Term 2006 Events

The Inter-House Quiz on the last day of term was a less nail-biting affair than last year’s, as Spartan went into an early lead which the team held onto until the end, although Trojan became more threatening in the final rounds.  As this is Spartan’s first win for eight years, we must congratulate them and their victorious team of Stephanie C, Naomi G, Samuel N, Christopher B and Peter H.  Well done

Poems published In October, a number of poems were submitted for inclusion in the next `Young Writers” anthology.  Congratulations to the following poets, whose work has been selected for publication:-  Naomi A, Kimberley B, Edward G, Bryony G, Georgia G, Naomi G, Joseph G, Alex H, Sophie-Rose H, Reuben M, Naomi N, Joseph O, Siman P, Laura R, Imogen S.

A new club was started up in the second half of the autumn term with a number of pupils meeting on Thursday lunchtimes to learn survival skills.  The survival training sessions, run by Mr. Hatherell and Mr. Harrowven, have included a variety of activities, including the art of successful camouflage (apparently this was so successful pupils could have remained hidden all afternoon had the bell not rung!),  how to fillet fish,  bait hooks and prepare wild food. 

Thursday 7th December - the Wind Band played at the Southampton Novotel, providing a suitably festive start to Southampton Magna Rotary’s Annual Dinner Dance.

On Monday 4th December, pupils helped to make our Senior Citizens’ Christmas Party a huge success.  78 local Senior Citizens enjoyed an afternoon of festive fun, including a superb buffet tea, a quiz, a raffle, poetry reading, music and carol singing.  We should like to take this opportunity to thank Waitrose in Portswood for kindly donating boxes of biscuits which were given to all guests at the end of the afternoon.

Pupils of the Gregg School decorated a tree as part of the St. James’ Church Tree Festival at the end of November.

Our annual "Next Step" evening for Year 11 was held on Wednesday 11th October and was a great success,giving pupils and parents the chance to obtain information on an extensive range of courses from the Further Education and Sixth Form Colleges who attended. 

The Annual ISA Regional (London West) Art Competition was held on Wednesday 11th October at Sherfield School near Hook.  Work completed by twelve pupils during the last academic year was entered by this school and once again the high quality was noted by the adjudicator. 

There was one winning entry, in the Under 16 Textiles category, a piece of weaving by Jessica R who left us this summer.  Georgia C, another leaver, was placed second in this category.  In the Under 16 Painting category, the entry by Laura W was highly commended as was Andrew G's entry in the Under 16 Three-dimensional category.  

Jessica’s winning entry will be presented at the National Competition, which will take place during the Heads’ Autumn Conference at Gerrards Cross in November.

Jeans for Genes Day on Friday 6th October where invited pupils to come to school in non-uniform day raised an impressive £628!  Well done everyone.

Thank you to everyone who supported the MacMillan Coffee Morning.   We raised £221.68!  

A big thank you also for all the tins of soup donated for our Harvest Festival.   There were so many sent in that the representative from the Society of St. James remarked that he feared for his car’s suspension!!!

Pupils in Year 10(1) and 11(1) Maths groups spent a day visiting Bletchley Park, the historic site of secret British codebreaking activities during WWII and birthplace of the modern computer.

After a talk on the mathematics of codebreaking, pupils had the opportunity to tour the park, and hear stories about the 9,000 people who worked there and who cracked the famous “Enigma” code amongst others.

The day ended with information about the history of computing and the chance to try out many of the fore-runners of today’s computers

Early Maths Success - Congratulations to our Year 10 pupils who sat the Maths IGCSE examination a year early this Summer.  Two pupils achieved A* passes, with a further 8 gaining A grades.  These pupils are now following an A/S level course in Maths.