On Thursday 15 October, two teams from St Andrew’s Prep attended the inaugural Eastbourne College Public Speaking Competition. Six schools took part in the event with eleven teams competing overall. The he speeches were written without staff input and were practised largely in the children’s own time. The standard was incredibly high and all those taking part performed superbly. 

The St Andrew’s teams relayed their speeches without a single mistake and when it came to the judging, Sophia Titterton-Manos, a Year 6 St Andrew’s pupil, picked up the prize for the most persuasive closing speech. A section from Sophia’s winning speech entitled Endangered Animals follows: 

“There are many ways that you can help, from simply making a donation to taking part in fundraising events. You could join Team Panda and run, cycle or swim your way to helping the cause. You could even adopt an endangered animal either for yourself or as a gift. For Christmas this year, I’ll be asking Mum and Dad for a Giant Panda! As American Politician Jay Inslee once said, “What is a fish without a river? What is a bird without a tree to nest in? Remember that YOU can make a difference.”

The St Andrew’s Prep Under 13 team bumped into football legend David Beckham last weekend as they competed at the National Prep Schools six-a-side tournament.

Beckham, the former England captain, was watching his son Romeo on the sidelines as his team competed alongside St Andrew’s at the football tournament held at Rokeby School in Kingston-upon-Thames.

Beckham happily posed for pictures with the St Andrew’s boys and gave the team a few words of encouragement.

Chris Pinch, Joint Director of Sport said, “It was great for the team to meet one of their heroes. It took everyone by surprise to see him there. One of our boys spotted him and shuffled towards him and asked him for a picture. Luckily he happily obliged.”

For the fifth year in succession, St Andrew’s Prep has hosted a group of South American students from Buckingham School, Colombia. In association with Rosemarie Mooney of Veditravel, the school welcomed the students on its purpose-built integration boarding programme. The students, aged between ten and twelve years, joined St Andrew’s (full-time) day and boarding children for all academic lessons, including French and Latin! They also took part in co-curricular activities including badminton, basketball, drama and shooting which form part of the school’s curriculum. The students especially enjoyed the evening activities and were impressed by the St Andrew’s indoor swimming pool and expansive playing fields where they played football or just enjoyed the company of their fellow boarders. 

A tailor-made weekend programme of trips and activities was arranged for the group, including a day of team building during the first weekend to help establish friendships and a sense of community within the House. Other trips included a weekend visit to Oxford and day trips to Cambridge, Canterbury, London, Brighton and Thorpe Park. 

Headmaster, Gareth Jones, said: “It has been a real pleasure to have the Colombians with us again. Their smiley faces have given everyone a lift and we hope our pupils have learnt a great deal about meeting every challenge with a positive attitude. Certainly, in terms of a greater cultural understanding which is so important in the modern world, everyone has benefited. This is an important link and we look forward to its continuation for many more years.”

Many congratulations to the girls and boys of St Andrew’s who represented the school in the Eastbourne College Junior Schools Invitational Gala which was held at The Sovereign Centre last Thursday.

The children demonstrated a superb mind-set and swam brilliantly. The boys’ team won their competition for the second successive year and the girls were just nudged out of first position by two points, but came a very deserving second. Well done to all.

The St Andrew’s Prep sports hall development remains on target for completion in the Summer of 2016. Over the last few months, and as specified in the planning conditions, archaeological officers have been on ‘mitigation watch’ following the discovery of ‘pottery of interest’ which was found during the ‘trial pit’ digging phase. 

However, the concrete pad has now been laid in preparation for the steel frame to go up in October. While the site may not look overly-developed at this point in time, considerable ground works relating to drainage and utilities have been completed. 

Once the frame has been built, which should take a matter of weeks, the roof and wall cladding will make the building watertight for the winter months, ensuring working on the interior can take place. In the meantime, our fingers are crossed that the Indian summer is here for a while.

The Project Zulu choir, based in a township in South Africa but on tour around the UK to coincide with the Rugby World Cup, visited St Andrew’s Prep last week.

The 26-strong choir of multi-talented boys and girls, aged between 9 and 15, based themselves at St Andrew’s for two days and performed a rousing concert in assembly to the whole school and parents. The choir danced and sang traditional Zulu folk and gospel songs a cappella to an enraptured audience. During their short stay with us, the choir also performed at Eastbourne College and St Wilfrid’s Hospice before heading to Brighton to perform in and around the Rugby World Cup Fanzone on Brighton beach.

The aim of Project Zulu is to raise funds to support the educational development and community opportunities within the Madadeni Township, KwaZulu-Natal to increase lifelong learning prospects for young people.

All funds raised by the tour will go towards the building of new classrooms at Sithobelumthetho Primary School to help reduce overcrowding in their classes. The children are currently taught with over fifty pupils per class.

If you would like to make a donation to Project Zulu, please visit this page: http://178.62.12.15/pages/donate

World record-breaking marathon runners Rob ‘ Marathon Man UK’ Young and Adam ‘Tango’ Holland brought the international Champions Walk for Peace to St Andrew’s Prep today on their 1900-mile torch relay around the country. Young and Holland started their ‘torch for humanity’ relay at the Great North Run in Newcastle on 13 September – one running with the torch, the other one cycling. 

Young and Holland ran from Littlehampton to St Andrew’s Prep (42 miles) arriving bang on schedule at 1.45pm and gave an inspirational talk to the fascinated prep school followed by a jaw-dropping question and answer session. The runners were very generous with their time as they posed for photographs and gave autographs before the children lined the path and cheered and clapped them as they set off for Maidstone (47 miles). 

Young holds the world record for completing the most marathons in a year (370) and, just weeks ago, finished the longest ever run without sleep (87 hours and running 373 miles). Young was also listed in the Independent on Sunday’s Happy List – highlighting 100 people who have helped to make the country a better place to live. Holland holds the world record for the fastest ten marathons in ten days. 

The Champions Walk for Peace was launched in Kenya’s troubled North Rift Valley by some of the World’s top athletes in July. It was set up to raise funds to establish a ‘peace school’ and a peace-building education programme in the region to prevent more young people being drawn into ethnic violence which has left hundreds dead and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. 

To find out more about the Champions Walk for Peace, visit the facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/championswalkforpeace.

On Tuesday afternoon, a small core of St Andrew’s Prep pupils were invited to Eastbourne College’s Memorial Ground to watch the mighty South African team in one of their final training sessions before they play Japan at the Brighton Community Stadium on Saturday.

With just four days to go until the team’s World Cup campaign begins, the squad appeared relaxed and happy to mingle among the children and pose for photographs and sign autographs.

Chris Pinch, St Andrew’s Prep Director of Sport commented, “I have never seen the boys as excited as they were today. They have come back to school buzzing and so enthused about the forthcoming World Cup.”

On Thursday evening Mark Tomsett, Head of Boarding, and his wife Trudy hosted a special boarders’ welcome drinks reception and supper. The evening provided a wonderful opportunity for our new and experienced boarders, tutors and heads of department to get to know each other a little better. 

Mark said, “it was a fantastic evening. The boarding house was full to capacity with more than 40 children staying overnight in the House. I am especially pleased to see how well our local weekly and full time boarders across the year groups are interacting with our overseas and flexi boarders. There was a lot of laughter in the dining room and that, along with the safety and welfare of the children, is my primary aim”.

The benefits to pupils of boarding at St Andrew’s are wide and varied as the school tries to instil confidence, self-discipline and motivation in the children; but the boarding house is also a fun place in which to be with an ‘extended family’ to mix with, trips and activities to enjoy and the relaxing house environment and school grounds to take advantage of at one’s leisure. In short we hope it provides a very different and enriching experience to one the children would get at home.

Our thanks to Holroyde Howe for the superb pulled pork burgers and and berry cheesecake which went down a treat!