Cotswold News March/April 2015

Netballer Bethan: one to watch...
P A G E 6
Congratulations to Year 9’s
Bethan Gabriel for her fantastic
achievements in netball.
Bethan, at 13 years old, is the
youngest to be selected to play for
the U17 Regional Netball Academy.
Meanwhile, she Captains
Hucclecote’s U14 team, (which
has recently qualified for the Nationals);
and if that was not
enough, Beth is also the youngest
player competing in an adult netball
league for the Hucclecote
Tornadoes.
Bethan also works every Tuesday
night and Saturday morning at a
local gym club, gaining as much
experience as she can in order to
fulfil her ambition of one day becoming
a PE Teacher.
‘The level of commitment
needed for this level of training,
not to mention all the matches, is
enormous,’ says Miss Tattersall,
PE Teacher, ‘And all this is on
top of school work too! We are
so impressed by Beth, her maturity
and her quiet determination
to succeed. She is an inspirational
young person and I have
no doubt she will go far.’
Another young netballer to
watch is Bethan’s sister, Ellie
who is in Year 7. At the age of
11, Ellie has been selected for an
U14 netball squad as part of a
netball satellite programme.
A huge ‘WELL DONE!’ to
both girls!
Where are they now?
We always look forward to news from alumni and recently
had the pleasure of a return visit from Liberty ‘Libby’ Oliver
and Alicia ‘Zuzu’ Stranack. Libby is now in her final year of
Fashion Photography at Falmouth University and was
staging a shoot in our school gym with old classmate Zuzu
modelling. Zuzu meanwhile has just been signed by Chrysalis
Records and we hope to be hearing a lot more from her in
the future! Both Libby and Zuzu sent messages of thanks to
staff for their support over the years adding ‘We wish we
knew then what we know now!’ and ‘We were so lucky.’
Zuzu sent both her apologies and thanks, in particular, to Mr
Pascoe for his patience as her Mathematics teacher!
We are delighted to hear that Lorna Rainey, a particularly accomplished textiles student, has won herself
a place with George Davies’ design company. While we would love to take credit for the introduction,
this is entirely down to Lorna and her considerable talent! We wish her every success.
Finally the last word goes to Sophie Martin who is just finishing an Art Foundation Diploma at Banbury
College following her A* performance at A Level Textiles last year. Sophie has accepted a place at the
London College of Fashion to study Fashion Textiles: Embroidery. She writes to Miss Franklin, Head
of Textiles: ‘The course sounds really great. It focuses on surface decoration from 3D laser cutting to
printmaking and I'm really excited to start. I just wanted to thank you for teaching me everything I
needed to be able to achieve my goals. It is only now that I have been able to truly realise just how much
you were able to prepare me for my future in fashion and textiles. So thank you!’