3-7 years (co-ed) Glyn House
7-11 years (co-ed) The Castle
11-18 years (boys) ecole
Virtual Learning Environment
The Latest News from Ewell Castle School
Maths students shine in Team Maths Challenge National Finals
Congratulations to Dongsong Rhee (Y9), Jae-Jin Lee (Y9), Hyung Chan Chung (Y8) and Jason Lee (Y8) for their outstanding success in the recent Team Maths Challenge National Finals. The team achieved seventh place out of 86 schools taking part at the competition held on 21st June at Lawrence Hall in London - a fantastic result!
( posted: 9:30 AM, 01/07/2010 )
Ewell Castle student wins Maths Competition
Congratulations to Seungwoo Ko (Y10), who recently came first in a UK Maths Competition held by LSE!UK (The Korean Scientists and Engineers Association in the UK)
( posted: 2:30 PM, 01/07/2010 )
Y7 &8 Drama Production - Big Bad
After many weeks of rehearsals, students from the year 7 & 8 drama club produced two excellent performances of the much awaited production of Big Bad on 18th and 19th May. The 14 young boys acted with great maturity and flair, with many budding actors for the future. Thank you and well done to all involved.
( posted: 10:45 AM, 27/05/2010 )
Ewell Castle Team Through to UK Maths Challenge Finals
Congratulations to the Junior Maths Challenge team (Don Sung Rhee, Jae Jun Lee, Jeong Hun Lee and Hyun Chan Chung) who are through to the national finals of the UKMT Mathematics Challenge in London on 21st June
Following an impressive performance in the qualifying rounds, when they came 2nd out of 30 local schools, the boys are hoping that the speed and accuracy of their mathematical calculations will stand them in good stead for further success.
( posted: 3:00 PM, 20/05/2010 )
Congratulations to Team Ewell Castle Moonwalkers!
Congratulations to the ladies of Team Ewell Castle, who successfully completed the Playtex Moonwalk in aid of breast cancer through Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday morning.
A big thank you to everyone who has sponsored us and supported our fundraising events - we have raised a fantastic £4,500 so far. We would love to reach £5,000 - if you would like to sponsor us, it is not too late - just click on the link to go to our online fundraising page. Alternatively donations by cash or cheque can be submitted to the school office.
( posted: 10:00 AM, 17/05/2010 )
Ewell Castle Ladies - Playtex Moonwalk 15th May
On Saturday 15th May a group of 15 female staff will be taking part in the Playtex London Moonwalk - a walking marathon which takes place in Central London through the night in aid of breast cancer. Most of the team will be doing the Halfmoon Walk (13 miles), while a handful of brave souls (Debbie Bellenger, Kate Wallace, Cheryl Leeds, Morven McClean, Mary Way) have signed up for the full 26 miles. We have been training hard for the past few months, walking the highways and byways of Surrey and beyond in our black and fluorescent pink Team Ewell Castle T-shirts; we have also been fundraising (including a jewellery sale, Mufti day, Krispy Kreme doughnut sales) and, together with the generous donations of our family and friends have so far raised about £3,500. We would like to reach our (extended) target of £4,000 by the night of the walk.
As you may be aware, one of our colleagues at the Junior School is currently absent from school fighting breast cancer - it is in support of her and others known to us personally that we decided to sign up.
If you would like to support us in our fundraising donations can be made online at www.justgiving.com/ewellcastle (the advantage of this means of giving being that we can claim back the Gift Aid). Alternatively donations can be made by cash or cheque (made payable to Ewell Castle School).
We do hope that you will support us and thank you in advance for your support and generosity.
( posted: 9:30 AM, 11/05/2010 )
Steven Savile returns to Ewell Castle
Ewell Castle Old Boy Steven Savile paid the school a visit on Wednesday 24th March to talk to boys in the Lower School.
Steven is a successful writer, having had a number of science fiction and horror books published as well as some children's books linked to popular television programmes and blockbuster films including Star Wars and Jurassic Park. He has also worked on television programmes such as; Dr Who, Torchwood, Stargate and Primeval and some computer games including Warhammer.
He entertained the boys with stories of his school days at Ewell Castle (1980 - 1984) and gave them an insight into the work of a writer, be it tapping away at his computer in Stockholm coffee houses, (he now lives in Sweden), working at home till the early hours of the morning, or more glamorously on a film set.
We look forward to Steven being able to return in the not too distant future and treat other generations of Ewell Castle boys to his stories.
Mr M Coleman
( posted: 2:30 PM, 31/03/2010 )
J4 Visit The Natural History Museum
Year 4 went to the Natural History Museum on Friday 5th March. When we arrived we went straight to the Lets Investigate Lab where we talked about and investigated all the different things nature has given us - animals, plants and much, much more.
There were lots of interesting things in there including a stuffed fox, crocodile head and even a giant tortoise skeleton, I could go on and on, but the best bit was we could touch and handle most of it! Next we had lunch and then headed upstairs to look at and learn about the dinosaurs! The room we went to was packed with skeletons with their own facts too! Did you know T-rex means King and if it fell over it would have almost certainly killed itself with its weight of 200 ten year olds? After we had passed through there we went in to see the moving T-rex (which is very life-like)! It was very impressive with its swivelling eyes and defining roar.
All in all, I think everyone enjoyed it.
Emily Swepson (J4N)
( posted: 11:30 AM, 12/03/2010 )
The Countback Kid comes to Ewell Castle Junior School
Mathematics is one of those subjects that should be explored in a variety of ways if it is to be fully accessible to all children. On March 5th 2010 we were fortunate enough to be visited by the Quantum Theatre Company who presented The Countback Kid - a mathematically based play on calculation and problem solving.
The uses of negative numbers, divisibility rules, place value, number lines, odd and even numbers, written calculations and partitioning were ingeniously thread into a play set in the Wild West. The pace was fast and the children had to concentrate in order to benefit from the presentation but they definitely enjoyed themselves and answered any questions with confidence.
Back in class afterwards, the Year 5 and Year 6 children carried out challenges to reinforce their understanding of negative numbers and divisibility rules whilst the younger children focussed more on odd and even numbers and place value.
The Countback Kid was, in the words of the children: educational, energetic, enjoyable and very amusing!
Mrs D. Goff
( posted: 11:15 AM, 12/03/2010 )
The Grand Multiplication Challenge 2010
Once again, the commitment shown by children, staff and parents in preparing for this event has been very impressive. Special congratulations should go to those who scored 100%:
In Year 2 - Holly Cottam and Saskia Keogh
In Year 4 - Eric Lee
In Year 5 - Calum Clifford, Lachlan John, Eloise Brown, Brandon Hammond and Christopher Stone
Keep up the good work everyone! Learning your multiplication tables will set you up for life - so keep practising!!
Mrs D. Goff
( posted: 11:00 AM, 12/03/2010 )
Charity Week at the Castle
The School's charity week was held the week before half term to raise money for 'The Wings of Hope' charity which provides free education for those living in poverty in India and Malawi. The week involved many different events including pizza and cake sales, sumo wrestling and the 'Great Escape' where two teams of Sixth Formers had a day to travel as far away from school as possible for free whilst the pupils placed guesses on a giant map of the UK. The total raised was over £1200 so a massive thank you to all the boys who helped us break our target, it will be going to a truly worthy cause.
We will now wait to see if we have progressed to the semi-final of the competition, where the selected teams deliver their presentations to an esteemed collection of judges including Sir David Jason in the House of Lords.
Andrew Biden (Year 13)
( posted: 2:30 PM, 08/03/2010 )
J1 and J2 visit to the Barbican
On Tuesday 2nd March, children in J1 and J2 visited the Barbican to listen to a concert by the London Symphony Orchestra. They heard the story of Sleeping Beauty, told through music, and of how Prince Charming rescued her after many adventures. The children thoroughly enjoyed listening and, in particular, participating in the performance by joining in with all the actions that the Narrator suggested and singing two songs.
( posted: 9:30 AM, 05/03/2010 )
Public Speaking Triumph
On Saturday 27th February the Ewell Castle Public Speaking (Senior) team, Davia Sen, Rhys Laverty and Tim Richards, won the Rotary Club Youth Speaks, District Finals held in Farnham. So far they have beaten five schools (including Reigate Grammar School) in the local event, three (including Cranleigh) in the Area Finals and a further three Area winners (Including Farnborough Hill and Lingfield, Notre Dame) in the District Finals.
In addition to winning the District Finals and progressing to the Regional Final on March 13th they displayed dominance of the competition with Rhys Laverty winning the award for Best Speaker (to add to a similar accolade at the Area Finals) and Daiva Sen winning the award for best Chairman.
If they are successful at Regional Level they will progress to the National Finals on May 8th in Stratford upon Avon.
( posted: 4:15 PM, 01/03/2010 )
Chris Grayling MP Visit
On Friday 26th February, Shadow Home Secretary and Epsom and Ewell M.P. Chris Grayling, visited Ewell Castle School to face questions from about 70 Sixth Form students from Ewell Castle and Greenacre School for Girls as part of the Sixth Form enrichment programme.
This has become an annual feature of the 6th form Enrichment Programme and is the 4th such 'Question Time' that Chris Grayling has attended.
Following some introductory comments from Mr Grayling areas covered by questions included; constitutional reform, the recession and credit crunch, immigration, MP's expenses, Law and Order and the upcoming General Election among others.
Mr Grayling has also arranged for our Upper Sixth Form students to visit the House of Commons later this month.
( posted: 3:45 PM, 01/03/2010 )
Senior School Ski Trip 2010
On Friday 12th February 2010, 6 staff and 42 boys headed to the Ski Welt region of Austria for Ewell Castle's annual ski trip. For the fifth consecutive year we returned to the Gasthof Kammerhof: set on the banks of the Inn River in the centre of the pretty village of Angath we had sole occupancy of the Tyrolean style guest house.
Set in spectacular scenery between the Wilder Kaiser mountain range and the Kitzbuhler Alps, the Ski-Welt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental ski circuit offers a huge variety of skiing exploring the area: our advanced ski group toured during the week the resorts of Itter, Soll, Scheffau, Ellmau, Going, Brixen, Westendorf and Hopfgarten, the 8 interconnected resorts comprising the massive Ski-Welt circuit. Beginners were taught on the nursery slopes of Soll and Hopfgarten for the first days of the trip, but made rapid progress to the higher peaks of the resort. This year we were lucky enough to reach the resort after a week of snowfall, but have 6 days of clear skies and sun-shine for our own skiing.
Each day began with a buffet breakfast and was followed by a 10 minute coach ride to the ski slopes for 5 hours of skiing per day. The Hohe Salve, the highest point of the Ski-Welt, was quickly reached by our boys as they then skied the red run back to Itter, the longest run in the Ski-Welt. As an alternative, all abilities skied down towards Hopfgarten using a wide variety of pistes which are served by 6 chairs and 3 drags. The Ski-Welt is an intermediate skier's paradise, but with enough variety to keep even our most adventurous skiers happy for a week.
As ever our ski trip was about much more than simply skiing for 5 hours every day, as Ewell Castle boys both excelled and embarrassed themselves regularly both on and off the slopes! Our daily 'Suits of Shame' were awarded after dinner each evening and worn on the slopes the next day, attire for which there were always many nominations. Mr Blencowe wore the suit for his inability to stay in line with the rest of his ski group and consequently taking them out on a regular basis; George Thorpe wore it for nearly injuring Mr Ryan as he skied so close to the edge of the piste that a slalom pole was not his only victim.
6 days of skiing truly brought out the best in Ewell Castle's boys. By the end of the week, each ski group competed for bronze, silver and gold medals in a hotly contested slalom race. Our podium positions were:
Maarten's group (who had never skied before this week):
Gold - Hamish John;
Silver - Sam Conibear;
Bronze - Joe Casey.
Christian's group:
Gold - Dominic Bernard;
Silver - Nick Boxall;
Bronze - Daniel Crego-Bustelo.
Lisa's group:
Gold - Craig Short;
Silver - Josh Mould;
Bronze - Jordan Angel.
Matt's group:
Gold - Jason Britton;
Silver - Sungmin Cho;
Bronze - Tom Radley.
Jason Britton also took home a cup for fastest slalom time.
Many certificates for excellence both on and off the slopes were also awarded daily: Simeon Carter, Luke Bowdery and Joe Casey all took to skiing 'like a duck to water'. For their helpfulness and well mannered approach: Simeon Carter, Daniel Crego-Bustelo, Connor Hiza. For their 'tidy' skiing: Priyank Patel, Jordan Angel, Ollie Larrissey. For their ski jumps: Jason Britton and Sungmin Cho. For improved skiing and perseverance: James Deadman, Nial O'Sullivan, Sam Clunas and our 'man of the match' for all round positive attitude Ollie Larrisey, Nick Boxall and Stephen Hadley. Our skier of the week was aptly named as Stephen Hadley who impressed both instructors and staff with his well mannered and enthusiastic approach to all aspects of the ski trip - he even acted as our German translator one evening!
As well as skiing every day, we ice-skated, bowled, swam, quizzed and performed during the evenings. An entertaining and enjoyable trip ...
... bring on February half term 2011!
( posted: 3:00 PM, 01/03/2010 )
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
On Friday 8th January, Nursery went to see Goldilocks and the Three Bears at the Polka Theatre. Unfortunately, not all of Nursery children were able to come to the show due to the large amounts of snow we had during the week. Because of this Reception were invited to come with us and we watched a fantastic adaptation of a traditional tale. A fun morning for all!
Mrs C Leeds
( posted: 2:00 PM, 22/02/2010 )
Ewell Castle Ladies Walk the Walk
Towards the end of 2009 a few staff from Ewell Castle's Senior and Junior schools started talking about undertaking the challenge of Walking the Walk - a 26 mile or 13 mile walk through London's night time streets with decorated bras to raise awareness and money for breast cancer causes. 'A few' soon became 17 walkers as we all shared stories of friends, family and colleagues who we would be supporting in our own challenge.
Over the next months we will all be training and fundraising hard and it would be great to enlist as much Ewell Castle community support as possible - take a look at our justgiving website, or watch this space for more details.
Team members:
Kate Wallace, Debbie Bellenger, Mary Kaegler, Sophie Brack, Tracey Wilkins, Ellen Shepherd, Morven McClean, Cheryl Leeds, Holly Seager, Clare Alford, Madhu Puri, Liz McManus, Claire Genge, Debbie Hillman, Nicole Brown, Catherine Nightingale, Mary Way
( posted: 5:45 PM, 11/02/2010 )
The Nuffield Foundation Scheme
The Nuffield Foundation Scheme run very successful bursary schemes that provide opportunities for young people in schools and colleges to participate in scientific research projects during their summer vacations giving them an insight into the world of scientific research and development. Thana'a Mohajer Thaker (Year 13) was very lucky to be offered one of these 1000 bursaries in the UK and spent six weeks last summer at Imperial College working with practicing scientists.
Thana'a had to submit a project which was entered for the National Science and Engineering Competition. He has just heard that his project has been chosen to go through to the finals of the competition. This will mean that Thana'a will have to showcase his work for a three day all expenses trip in March at the Manchester Central, Manchester where he will be judged in the Senior category for the science strand of the competition. We would like to wish Thana'a luck for the competition and will keep you updated on how he does.
Mrs R Din
( posted: 5:00 PM, 11/02/2010 )
Enterprise Week
Enterprise Week took place from 16th November. The aim was to give every boy in school an experience of the entrepreneurial spirit. To achieve this, the week started with an assembly describing the two main qualities of entrepreneurs: creativity and risk-taking. Each year group then took part in an organised activity.
For the lower school, Year 7 created as many high-quality paper aeroplanes given limited resources forcing difficult choices and team-work. Year 8 participated in a World Trade Game where teams represented countries with different resources, and technology which encouraged thinking about global issues such as exploitation. Finally, Year 9 demonstrated their team-working and persuasive skills with their own Dragons' Den involving creating a new energy drink.
Higher up the school, Years 10 and 11 took part in the Bradford Business game which involved designing leaflets to strict buyer requirements whilst managing purchasing of raw materials and financial resources. The experience made boys think about working together, leadership and time-management. As well as creating leaflets, teams put together a 3-minute PowerPoint presentation. We were lucky enough to have employees from Proctor Gamble to facilitate and give feedback on the presentations (and some prizes!).
Finally, Years 12 and 13 were given a Apprentice-style' task. Groups had to pitch for a franchise (ranging from selling soft drinks to cakes) and an area in the school to sell them. During the week they had to buy their stock, and promote their business. They were then given break-time on the Friday to trade. In twenty minutes, £794 worth of sales were made! The winning team got to keep their profits (£122 between eight people), whilst one team chose to donate their profits to charity. The remaining teams' profits were given to charity - a total of £168!
Where possible each subject area incorporated enterprise thinking into part of a lesson that week. Languages examined advertising and products from different countries; Science obtained use of 'Segway'; personal transport device for analysis (and much fun for the head of science); PSHE discussed how different entrepreneurs succeeded; Maths practised some business calculations; RS debated the morality of profit; History examined the effects of the Great Depression and economic policy; English discussed how to improve the school, and Art created a display explaining the process of textile-design.
Acknowledgement must be given to Surrey Education Business Partnership for running the World Trade Game and the Bradford Business Game. Thanks also to the staff for their support in making the week be useful and interesting for the boys.
Mr. J D'Souza
( posted: 1:00 PM, 16/01/2010 )
Whodunnit
Well, the cat is truly out of the bag and the murderer of 'Whodunnit' is safely behind bars! The school production has now come to an end and the boys are looking forward to their next theatrical venture. (Although, to tell you the truth, the boys are really sad that it's all over! They enjoyed the play so much that they didn't want it to end.)
All the players must be commended for an excellent group production with amazing performances from the complete cast: Matt MacMillan, Daiva Sen, Rhys Laverty, Yusef Sheikh, Rikin Patel, Tim Richards, Ed Chalkley, Alex Bustos, John Duggan, Kane Rodney and Jonathan Campbell-Slaughter. Their acting skills were of the highest level, mixing comedy and intrigue in equal measure. Praise must also go to the technicians: Alasdair Bell, Christopher Smith, Jonathan Keung, Matt Brewer, Harry Ward-Smith, James Howe, Callum Pittman and Ramsay Kirkhy. After such a successful production, and standards having once again been set very high, we look forward to Ms Renouf's Year 7 & 8 play 'Big Bad'. We would like to wish you all Happy Holidays and a healthy New Year.
Mr. Bader-Clynes and Ms. Renouf.
( posted: 9:00 AM, 13/01/2010 )
Planning Permission Granted
I am pleased to announce that the application for planning approval and listed building consent for the pro-posed Castle development was successful. The Planning Officers complimented the school and its team of architects (Barnsley Hewiit & Mallinson [BHM]) and planning consultants (Land Use Consultants [LUC]) for the design and landscaping.
The new building will provide on the ground floor a new kitchen and dining hall as well as the entrance foyer. On the first floor there will be 4 new classrooms and a 6th Form cafeteria. The second floor will provide 2 further classrooms and balcony area.
Mr. A Tibble
( posted: 9:00 AM, 11/01/2010 )