A busy boarding Christmas

Hello again all. Dare I say, “Happy Christmas.”? No, perhaps not yet. However, ‘tis the season to be merry, or, if you’re an Ashford School boarder, ‘tis the season to be very, very busy. The lead up to Christmas always offers all kinds of chances to become involved with things that otherwise you wouldn’t, but we’d say that this year has been more jam-packed than most.

An enterprising bunch:

During the winter term Mr Kendal brings his Young Enterprise group together. This like-minded collection of entrepreneurs forms a company; allots different roles; designs and markets a product and sells it in the school. This year has seen the emergence of DNA and their range of accessories made entirely from offcuts of wood from the DT department. Their eco-friendly designs included hummingbird pin badges, heart-shaped hair bands and wooden bow-ties with antlers all created using a laser cutter and doing their bit to reduce the millions of tonnes of unused wood produced by UK schools.

Included in the marketing pitch was a presentation to the whole school, never an easy job at the best of times, but what made it more impressive still was that the entire team was made up of boarders with English as a second language. Ably led by Tom, who also produced the stunning film that accompanied the presentation, with strong contributions from Eddie, Michael and Nick (among many others) DNA piqued our interest and that afternoon sure enough there was a queue outside the refectory with pupils and staff eager to get their hands on a sustainable yet stylish Christmas gift. The guys soon ran out of stock and had to take orders. Looking forward to the prize-giving in the Spring!

Hysterical history:

When teachers say “Challenge yourselves”, “Take yourself out of your comfort zone” We’re not sure that even they could have envisaged the scene last Friday in Brake Hall. A group of Brooke and Refuge boarders, co-ordinated with the EAL department’s Mr Munteanu, put on a fantastically funny and fascinating stage show, illustrating the multi-layered story behind the name of our junior boys’ house and its namesake Arthur Brooke. The performers were: Toki (as the cucumber cool narrator), Johnathan, Robert, Victor and a standout performance from William as Queen Elizabeth the First. To learn all those lines, in a foreign language and perform them in front of your peers and teachers with such aplomb, takes some courage. Take a bow, boys!



Will the 1st



 

Winter Wonderland:

It’s one of the highlights of the boarding year, when everyone gets together to celebrate the coming of the Christmas holidays. This year the event was held in the refectory and as usual it began with a wonderful meal put on by Jura and the catering team (thank you all!). It had been weeks in the planning. Mandy and her team of helpers, led by Savio, had the refectory looking beautifully festive and the boarders did the same (the post room had been filling up with parcels from clothing catalogues for at least the month before!). So the crackers cracked, the plates piled high, the paper hats took on jaunty angles and the foreign members of staff tried to find the humour in the cracker jokes (there isn’t any, that’s why they’re funny!) After the meal Savio’s boys cleared the tables like seasoned stevedores in in less than ten minutes and the disco began. There was a slow uptake at first, but Toki soon had people up on the floor following his lead. Many dance offs were had, bow-ties loosened and shoes kicked off. When the lights came on again just after 10 it was the same table operation, but in reverse and faster. It was done in 5 minutes…or was it? Chak spotted the error and the teams moved into action again. It less than 10 minutes it was over and everyone went home to nurse aching feet and stomachs filled to bursting. A great night!

A Cracking Christmas Concert:

Christmas is a time when generally most people around the school will be looking to wind down. However, for those involved in the various singing and instrumental groups, things are heating up. They will have been rehearsing for most of the term to warm up for the two big festive events: the magical Carols by Candlelight at St Mary’s Church and the barnstorming Christmas Concert. As always the boarding community played its part to the full.

The very well-attended evening began with a swing as the Wind Band got into the spirit of the season with the ‘Jingle Jive’ involving Brabourne’s Miso (oboe) and Celini (flute) and Brooke staff member Mr Vafidis on sax. Miso was also involved in the newly formed Baroque Ensemble’s first live outing next before the budding Elastic band took us to the movies with the Transformer’s theme.

This year’s concert included some very strong singing, including the superb emerging a cappella group, ‘The AshTones’ set up by Mrs Hawker and Mr Vafidis and including Alfred boy Zachary, with their moving tribute ‘Alleluia’ to the recently departed Leonard Cohen. It is worth pointing out that Zachary only joined the school last year, in the ASIC programme and was now performing, in English, front of staff, parents and students. Zachary and Mr Vafidis where members of the senior jazz band that brought an end to the first part of proceedings. Just before this new Brooke boys Toki and Lucas joined their Year 7 colleagues in a rousing rendition of Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.

Despite a minute’s interruption by a more classically minded insect (very cooly dealt with by Mr Hall) the orchestra, including Celini, Demi, Conan and Mook took us on a Starlight Sleigh ride before Zachary, Maria and the chamber choir took up the Christmas baton with the classic carol ‘Ding, Dong, Merrily on High’. Govind and James performed a virtuoso duet (we’ve run out of adjectives for these boys) and Mr Hall’s Ashford Youth Jazz Orchestra ended the more formal contributions.

What made this year particularly special was the addition of audience carols, sung by all in attendance, backed by the several amazing school choirs. We kicked off with a rousing ‘Good King Wenceslas’ followed by the choirs’ ‘Tomorrow will be my dancing day’. The belting ‘Oh Come all ye faithful’ was the penultimate number. The concert ended with a rousing ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’ from all the choirs.

The Headmaster, Mr Buchanan, described his pride in a later Twitter feed (@AshfordHead if you would like to follow him) and as boarding staff and pupils left the hall that evening, they too felt the same pride for their colleagues and peers, but also a light-heartedness and thankfulness in having shared something special at this joyous time of year.

Congratulations to all those who performed (good luck to choir on Tuesday) and to all the music staff: Mr Hall, Mr Knox and Mr Powell, Mrs Hawker and Mr Vafidis for their time, leadership and encouragement.

A Fond Farewell:

Before we head off on our holidays, we need to say farewell to our gap students: Mr Meinke, Miss Carson, Miss Clozier-Jones and Mr Jarvis, for all their help, support and good humour over the last year. We wish them all the best of luck in their continuing studies back home. Come back soon!

And so, as the last of the suitcases are packed and the taxi drivers fill up their schedules for the end of term, it just remains for us to wish you all a very happy holidays and see you all again in 2017!