Accent 18 - Ashcombe School

Life in the Sixth FormMurder at Ashcombe ManorIt was a dark, cold night, and all thatremained to be seen of Lady VictoriaFletcher was a chalk outline on thecarpet. Ashcombe Manor, otherwiseknown as the Sixth Form CommonRoom, had been the scene of a terriblecrime.At one of the Sixth Form’s mostsuccessful socials ever, over sixty‘friends and acquaintances’ of theLady gathered together in grief (or wasit…?) for the inquest. Everyone had amotive, everyone had an alibi, butsomebody was lying and, with this inmind, Jonny and I swapped our HeadBoy and Girl hats for those of two notso-secretdetectives.Mozart played on repeat in thebackground, characterising the classycharm of this wealthy estate, whilstToby Barker stepped neatly into hisrole as the lurking butler, Kingfisher,plying the guests with Sainsbury’sfinest cheese straws and orange tango.Highly convincing statements were putforward by all present: Reverend JesusN’Tati Lutwama Serugo Lugo (Ed Judge)had been far too busy ‘counting’ themoney from the Parish Poor Box toWorld Cup Fevercommit a murder; Mr Gould theCornish farmer (Marco Lopez) hadbeen preoccupied with his ‘vegetable’patch, Mr Slaughter the Gamekeeper(Tom Stenton) had far too many gunsto ‘polish’ and Crazy Al the HomelessBum (Richard Jolly) had beenengrossed in his favourite soap opera,‘Temptation Island’, in the basement.(Sadly, this was actually the case). MrGoddard (Mr Woollett) would havebeen tending to one of his many‘observation stations’, whilst MissRoberts (Mrs Roberts) was probablytrying to escape from the attic. LittleZoe Fletcher (Miss Ricciardi),meanwhile, was still cherishing ‘thelolly and the hug’ that had been givento her by a mysterious figure in thekitchen …It was sweet, little, vegetarian Miss Hallwho eventually stepped forward as thepsychotic, gun-wielding maniac whohad orchestrated the night’s events.With a glint in her eye, ‘Roberta’ (or‘Bob’, by preference) claimed thatgetting rid of the ‘old bat’ had all been‘rather good fun’, and this seemed,aptly, to sum up the entire evening.Chloë KeedyAs The Ashcombe runs its own version of the World Cup at lunch times in theSports Hall (more of that in the next issue of this magazine), the Study Centrehas been getting in the mood by promoting football literature. Study Centremanager Annette Page says the magazines and books on display are subject tomuch browsing, and that the pupilshave taken a keen interest in featuresabout the teams that she has linked to amap of the world.Christmas BallThe question of tuxedoes andevening dresses once again tookprecedence over less importantmatters of coursework and universityapplications for the Sixth Form lastDecember as preparations for theAnnual Christmas Ball got underway.As always, a tooth and nail fight fortickets ensued, the great majority ofSixth Formers keen to get their handson one of the 170 golden tickets.The evening itself was a great success.Sixth formers were wined, dined andthen humiliated as part of a comic MiniAwards ceremony arranged by theSenior Prefect team. Mickaela Wall wasawarded for making the ‘MostRidiculous Comment’ of the year so far,which involved a mix-up between‘Rhinosaurs’ (yes – Rhinosaurs) andUnicorns, and Jack Conway won the‘Jack Trick Award’, a special awardtailor-made to fit the man attending histhird consecutive annual Christmas Ball.In a more complimentary fashion,Chloë Cooke and Sam Cumming wereawarded with the “best dressed” titles,and Alex Patterson celebrated hisnewfound status as ‘King of theChristmas Ball’ by means of a slowdance with his new Queen, the one weall call Mrs Roberts!The remainder of the evening wasspent on the dance floor, boogying tothe beats of DJ Mr Charles Coe, andgenerally having a good old festivetime.Chloë KeedySlapton Field TripAs part of the A level Geographycourse all students must produce acoursework report analysing datacollected in the field. In order tocollect this data, 19 students spent aweek in Slapton field study centre inDevon. The students workedextremely hard collecting andpresenting data on ecologicalsuccession, urban morphology andcoastal processes and management.Despite the adverse weatherconditions - driving rain and sea mist -and lumpy beds, excellent data wascollected and the students had a goodtime. The fieldwork tutor commendedthe students on their fieldwork skillsand attitude.8