Number 15, 3 February 2006 - SD Online Home

Vol.15 No 15 www.sdonline.org.uk www.stdunstans.org.uk 3 February 2006
Debating
Congratulations to Natalie Graham, Lucy
Cunningham, Emily Kidd and Joe Ashmore
who, in two teams, took part in the Oxford
heat of the International Competition for
Young Debaters last month. Over 60 teams
took part in this heat which was one of seven
held. Both the St Dunstan’s teams finished in
the top 16 and therefore qualified for the final
in April. There they will take on 59 other
teams from top schools in the UK and
Ireland. To have two teams qualifying from
the heat was a wonderful achievement for St
Dunstan’s, a feat matched by only one other
school on the day; Westminster. Well done
and good luck for the final.
This week saw the final of the Lower School
House Debating Competition. An
Usherwood team, made up of Zoë Plummer
and Charles Brooke, proposed the motion:
This house would ban mobile phones in public.
Opposing the motion were Hecker,
represented by Evangeline Atkinson and
David Harris. It was a high quality debate
with all speakers delivering well researched,
effectively argued and articulate speeches. Mr
Amy judged the final and gave the victory to
the Usherwood team. The Stuart and Forder
teams performed admirably in earlier rounds,
and particular mention should be given to the
Stuart team, Jo Kelen and Philip Thomson,
who were unlucky not to make the final.
Mathematics Competition
After the group stage, the first knockout
round of the Hans Woyda inter-school
Mathematics Competition took place last
week and St Dunstan's winning streak
continued. The team made up of Jack Daniels
of Year 12, Rajiv Patel and Edward
Davenport of Year 10 and Richard Odufisan
of Year 9 beat Eltham College away by a
margin of 11 points with a score of 30 to 19.
St Dunstan's is now through to the
quarterfinals, and will play St Paul’s at home.
This is the furthest St Dunstan’s has ever
reached. Let’s hope the team can continue
from strength to strength and win the Cup!
Lower School Disco
On Friday evening the pupils of Years 7, 8
and 9 donned their party clothes and headed
for the refectory for the Family Society Lower
School Disco. There was some excellent
music and some great dancing, particularly by
Mr Freakes! While the pupils were discoing,
their parents enjoyed an informal get together
in the Sixth Form Common Room. It was a
lovely occasion with excellent food provided
by parent and expert chef Meg Hindle.
Thanks to the Family Society for making both
events possible.
Prom Concert
Twelve pupils from the Junior and Senior
Schools took part in a Friday Prom Concert
last week featuring woodwind instruments. It
was a lovely varied programme and all the
pupils gave good performances. Well done
especially to Amy Provan and Eleanor Kay
who rushed back from a hockey match just in
time to perform their pieces at the end.
Sudan Trip
At half-term Headmistress, Mrs Davies, is
flying off to Sudan to visit some of the
displacement camp schools that St Dunstan’s
College has been supporting through the
Education Action International Charity. She
will see a number of schools including St
Dunstan’s partner secondary school in
Khartoum called Kinetti. She will see for
herself the excellent work of this charity
which is helping some of the least privileged
children in the world. The schools urgently
need basic equipment and resources such as
pencils, pens, notebooks, rulers, solar
calculators, blackboard paint, beads, maths
equipment, sewing needles, paints, paint
brushes, atlases, simple text books, art and
craft materials, rubbers, sharpeners and
educational posters. Donations of any of
these items would be gratefully received and a
St Dunstan's College
collection box is situated behind reception.
Mrs Davies will take any donated equipment
and hand it over in person when she visits in
April.
Congratulations and keep up the good work
to the 15 members of staff who have
embarked on a sponsored slim to raise money
for Education Action International.
Rugby
The U12 A and B teams travelled to
Orpington to face St Olave's last Friday. The
A XV match was keenly contested with St
Dunstan's College playing up the slope. There
was some fine work by Conrad Clarke, Alex
Saleh, Murat Mullali and Euan Johnson in
defence as they battled against an onslaught
down the slope. Eventually though, the
opposition sneaked over for a converted try.
This did not dampen the spirits and the team
continued to attack. Tom Beresford-West
marshalled his backs while George Howlett
had his best game so far, probing the
defences of St Olave’s and delivering a steady
stream of ball. Murat was unlucky when
having pressured the opposing fly half, he
stole the ball and set off unopposed only to
be brought back because the advantage was
not played. To the team’s credit no one
complained - an excellent example of good
sportsmanship. The second half saw the team
pressuring St Olave’s especially in the lineout
where Albert Smith nicked some of their
possession. Just as things were looking good
the opposition stole the ball close to the line
to score. Once again the team lifted itself and
created good attacking positions. From one of
these Khalil Lewis-Brown powered off the
edge of a driving maul to score and Tom
converted. More pressure and more attempts
to keep ball in hand were to no avail and the
final whistle went with the score standing at
7-10. This was an excellent display. The boys
played with great heart and great
sportsmanship - what more can we ask for!
The B team found its opposition too strong
especially when it came to tackling. SDC
managed to hold St Olave’s at bay for most of
the first half, when it was playing downhill.
Unfortunately, the team was not strong
enough to hold the opposition back in the
second half when it was playing up hill. Bad
luck, but well done to all who played.
Basketball
The U19 Basketball squad faced Latymer
Upper in the LISBA U19 Cup Quarter Finals

on Monday night. Our team, made up of a
mix of Year 9, 10, 12 and 13 pupils had to
face a Latymer team made up exclusively of
Upper Sixth formers, four of whom were
taller than our tallest players. It was clear we
would be up against it both physically and in
terms of experience.
The first quarter began well with Captain
Garvey Seaton and Antony Faithfull ensuring,
with some tight marking, that their taller
players could not get any ball. These two with
Aaron Takan boxed out superbly and pulled
down countless rebounds. Julian Addo ran
the fast-break at every opportunity and
created scoring opportunities. In the second
quarter Jeremy Nnanyere played outstandingly
in defence. He put his opposite number under
so much pressure that he struggled to get the
ball into our half giving us considerable
territorial advantage. A succession of quick
baskets followed from Philipp Ghouri and
Junior Anin for a half time lead of 22-18
The third quarter saw some fantastic team
play with eight of the squad scoring. Aaron
Seaton, playing Centre, showed real maturity
controlling the defence. He linked well with
Kadeem Simmons-Bah to create breaks which
Junior converted into points. Julian also made
some crucial steals. However the height
advantage of the opposition began to tell as it
slowly brought the score level at 39-39.
In the final quarter there was some excellent
play from Junior who was the top scorer with
14. Unfortunately in our desperation to block
shots we gave away fouls which the
opposition converted and this proved the
difference between the teams. The boys
fought right down to the final stoppage
before the buzzer. Even with only eight
seconds left to play they all marked their men
so tightly that Latymer could not bring the
ball into play giving us a last chance to score.
Unfortunately Latymer’s defence was too
strong and it won 53– 49.
Without doubt this was the best match the
squad has played. It was a real team
performance with every player scoring points.
Playing with guts, determination, tremendous
athleticism and considerable skill, they were
fine ambassadors for the College.
Football
The 2 nd XI took on Royal Russell this week in
their first match of the season. The
opposition was a settled team playing its 15 th
fixture. The SDC team played really well and
was unlucky not to come away with a draw.
The score was 3-3 before Royal Russell
sneaked a winning goal in the final moments
of the game. SDC’s goal scorers were Joe
Woodford, Jack Smith and Gabriel Adebiyi.
Message from the Head of
the Junior School
It was with great sadness that we learnt, on
Monday, of the death after a short illness of
Carole Love, a member of our Pre-Prep afterschool
care team. She was a caring and warm
person who looked after the children with
great good humour and dedication. Carole
was a familiar face to many students in the
Junior and Senior schools alike having worked
at St Dunstan’s since September 1996. She
was popular with children, parents and staff
and will be greatly missed.
I am sure you will all join with us in sending
our deepest sympathies to Carole’s family. We
have decided to buy a bench with a plaque in
her memory for the Pre-Prep playground. If
you would like to contribute to this fund
please hand your donation to the Junior
School Office or your child’s form teacher.
Nursery Class
On Saturday, the Pre-Prep held a special
Open Morning to launch our Nursery Class
which will open in September. It was a real
success with 31 families looking around, all of
whom were impressed with the Pre-Prep
Department’s facilities and approach to early
years’ learning. It was particularly gratifying to
welcome a number of current parents who
spoke warmly about life in the Pre-Prep.
There is a lot of interest in the places on offer
and only a few remain. Anyone who is
interested in securing a place for this
September or registering for future years
should contact Mrs Scard as soon as possible.
Hampton Court Trip
Year 4 spent a cold but entertaining day at
Hampton Court last week as part of its study
of the Tudors. On arrival the party spent
some time touring the Tudor Palace. One
group went for a session on Investigating Henry
VIII while the other continued investigating
the building. This included an unexpected
explanation of all the pictures in the Haunted
Gallery. A highlight was the visit to the
kitchens especially as there was a roaring fire
and everyone was so very cold!
The session on Henry was very good, and
included looking at pictures as evidence and
discussing the how portraits reflect what the
subject wanted people to see. We also looked
at documents that revealed what Henry
owned. His possessions included 17 pairs of
glasses - without their cases. As always the
visit to the Palace shop was a particular
highlight for the pupils.
Football
Congratulations to the U9 football squad who
achieved a fantastic victory in a 12-school
tournament at Alleyn’s on Tuesday. The
squad of Gaetan Oster, Henry Fisher, Adam
Smith, Max Twyman, Erran Gordon, Zac
Manley O’Brian, James Corbett and Johnny
Regnier won its group convincingly beating
Alleyn’s B 3-0 and Reay 2-0. In the knock out
stage the team first took on Alleyn’s A. After
a slow start and having conceded their only
goal of the afternoon, the boys really started
to play well and won 4-1. In the semi-finals
against Eltham College the team defended
furiously and scored a fine break away goal.
Eltham was awarded a penalty near the end
but James made a fantastic save to secure a 1-
0 victory. The final against St David’s was
another close contest but thanks to great
defending, fierce tackles and determined
teamwork SDC won 1-0. Throughout the
afternoon James Corbett performed heroics
in goal, Jonny and Erran worked hard in
defence. Henry, Adam, Gaetan and Zac
dominated the midfield and provided lots of
excellent balls for striker, Max, to latch on to
with great success.
Last Friday St Dunstan’s hosted a mini U11
soccer tournament. St David's, St
Christopher's and Breaside all attended.
Against Breaside, the boys played quite well
but never really shook off the cold. Although
they were always in charge, poor options and
missed passes kept the game very narrow and
Breaside's defended tenaciously for a 0-0
draw. Against, St David's, the boys never
really got going. Again, poor passes and a lack
of communication caused the team to lose its
way a bit. St David's scored early in the
second half and neither side looked like
scoring after that, resulting in a 0-1 loss. The
upside was a fantastic display of goalkeeping
by Eddie Jones who made three or four
excellent, athletic and brave saves.
Finally against St Christopher's SDC suddenly
found space and rhythm in a well-balanced
and good game. At half time the scores were
0-0 but Oliver Fox scored straight after the
break and this opened the floodgates and
demoralised the opposition. Two more goals
followed and SDC won 3-0. By the end of the
afternoon all four teams had won 1, drawn 1
and lost 1 - and all the players had learned
more about the offside rule and playing on a
bigger pitch.
CEM 02/02/06