The School Council took a trip to the Town Hall this week to visit the Mayor and Mayoress in his parlour.  They were taken for a tour around the Town Hall and saw the Assembly Room, the Council Hall and the Court Chamber.  The Mayor put on his official regalia and talked to the children about his duties, the chain that he always wears and the Mace that is used on special occasions.  At the end of the visit the children presented the Mayor with a cheque for £251.60, raised at a recent mufti day, for his charity Lark in the Park.

The Junior Chamber Choir at St Andrew’s Prep was delighted to come away as winners of the Hastings Rotary 1066 Choir Competition which was held at the White Rock theatre last Friday. 11 primary age choirs, from all over East Sussex, took part in the finals which were judged by Molly Townsend, Ken Roberts and Peter Georgiardis who said that this year’s competition was the best so far with good on-stage discipline, a variety of musical styles and presentation plus marvellous singing.  

The judges found the final decision very difficult and it was a close call with St John’s Meads, last year’s winners, being declared this year’s runners up. Special commendations were given to Sacred Heart School who had showed great dedication performing with a significantly depleted choir and Westfield School who performed a piece of their own composition and were without doubt the most colourful choir in the competition.  

 
The Rotary club was commended for its slick organisation with amazingly smooth transitions of the choirs around the theatre including allowing all the choirs to sit in the auditorium so that they could enjoy the show.  

VIP guests included Councillor Alan Roberts, Mayor of Hastings, Rotary District 1120 Governor Elect Chris Barnett, and Jeff Top from Appleyard Studios who had donated four hours of recording and mixing time at their studios to the winners. Both the winner and runner up will perform on stage with Tenors Unlimited at their 2013 Christmas concert on the 13th December in St Mary in the Castle.

St Andrew’s Prep is opening a new baby room in the Lodge Nursery.  From September 2013 we will be catering for babies from 12 to 24 months.  Please contact our admissions department for more details on 01323 733203 or email admissions@standrewsprep.co.uk

The St Andrew’s U13 boys team had a fantastic day at the IAPS National Finals at the K2 in Crawley.

The relay team comprised of Jack Casebourne, James Grimmond, Euan McGreevy and Louis Wood came fourth in the U13 front crawl relay and a superb third in the U13 medley relay.

In their individual events, Euan McGreevy came nineth in the U13 breast stroke, James Grimmond came third in the U13 front crawl and Louis Wood, tenths of a second behind the winner, came second in the U13 backstroke. Their combined results placed them second overall. Well done to all the boys.

For the Annual Schools and Colleges Exhibition, over 1,000 children and young people from across Sussex have been inspired by People and Portraits to create their own original portraits, in a range of media. 

This year St Andrew’s Pre-Prep were involved and their portrait was about the identity of children in the school. Each year group took a different part of the school uniform to focus on and put together collages of their results; the background was made up of Year 2’s photography around the school.

The exhibition opened with a private viewing for parents, teachers and local dignatories – the Mayoress Linda Thompson admired the St Andrew’s portrait above.  

Parents were invited to see the newly refitted and refurbished science labs in action today as children from Years 6 and 7 put on some experiments. The two classrooms have been transported from the 1970s to their new state-of-the-art condition and promise to be a fantastic new learning environment. 

Parents and children were also treated to some scientific refreshments – teeth in jelly and sponge surprise!

(The old labs and during the refurbishment)

St Andrew’s welcomed the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire for lunch and a tour of the school.  The Duke is the President of the Eastbourne College Council which is the governing body for Eastbourne College and St Andrew’s Prep.  The Duke and Duchess lunched with the Headmasters of both schools and then enjoyed a tour of St Andrew’s with Simon Severino and posed for a photo opportunity with some of our Year 2 children.

We were very grateful for the time they spent with the school during their busy schedule in Eastbourne.  Later the Duke and Duchess visited the new St Wilfrid’s Hospice, one of the school’s main charities, and Eastbourne Mencap where they received a donation of £25,000 on behalf of the charity.

What a great day for the U12 rugby team who played in the Sussex Cup Final at Worthing on Thursday.
In a superb game of running rugby, the St Andrew’s boys dominated the first half moving the ball and off-loading at speed with Louis Heywood linking the backs and forwards through some excellent passing. The pressure was eventually converted into points with excellent tries from Joe McIntyre and Max Casebourne.
The Brighton team came back strongly in the second half and forced St Andrew’s to defend their line for a 10 minute period but ferocious tackling and superb defence from the backs, Edward Rosson-Jones, Henry Turnbull, Joe McIntyre, Joe Parish and James Young, along with great support from the forwards, Theo Bevacqua, Hal Mills, Ben McKeown and George Edwards superbly led by Alfie Pagram, meant the Brighton team was contained in the middle of the pitch until the final whistle.
Special mention must go to the subs who played a great part in the preparation and training, namely, Lenny Unutzer, Sam Culter, Felix Harffey-Burkill, Charlie Dunton and Daniel Toole who unfortunately broke his arm prior to the final after playing in all the preliminary games.

Chris Pinch, Director of Sport

St Andrew’s Prep received two visits from the late Baroness Thatcher.

The first occasion was the 1972 Speech Day when the then Mrs Margaret Thatcher, Secretary of State for Education and Science, opened the newly built gymnasium, visual aid room, art studio and common room before presenting prizes to the children and giving her own address.  Mrs Thatcher had been invited by one of the Governors, Mark Tindall, who was himself a Housemaster at Harrow School and was at the time in loco parentis to Margaret’s son, Mark.

During her speech, Baroness Thatcher talked of ‘the contribution of the private sector to national education’, said she had been impressed by ‘the happiness and energy of the staff and boys she had met’ and urged the children to ‘find out what they did well and do it with vigour’.

She retuned for the 1996 Speech Day.  Now retired from the Commons, Baroness Thatcher was invited by the Chairman of the Governors, Sir Michael Richardson.  Sir Michael had handled a large portion of the Conservative government’s privatisation programme in the 1970s and 1980s and was a personal friend. 

During this address, Baroness Thatcher talked of the value of effort at school ‘the things which you learn here will stay with you for the rest of your life’, and of her desire to get into politics as she was determined to ‘have a fundamental change in [educational] policy’. 

Baroness Thatcher certainly left her mark on St Andrew’s.