Game(s) for anything!

There’s been a buzz about the boarding houses of late and that’s not because the daddy long legs have been out in force. Come Monday night, there has been a pounding of trainer-clad feet down the corridors and stairwells and the occasional muffled thump as dimpled rubber hits concrete or carpet (yes you know you shouldn’t Thomas!).

“What are you going on about?” you may ask. Well, indoor sports fever has hit the Ashford School boarding community and it’s spreading! With the brand new sports hall now open, our boarders now have the opportunity to keep fit, learn new skills and have fun out of the cold and rain.

Under the leadership of Mr Butt, the new set of evening sports activities has got off to a roaring start and our Head of Boys Games couldn’t be happier. He explained to me just how important the state-of-the-art facility will be: “The [new] sports hall will have a massive impact on boarders lives and we now have a good resource to keep boarders active and enthused.” Mr Butt  then added “We have been able to do lots of activities which just weren’t possible before. This along with employing some outside coaches to take sessions and has transformed the activity program.”

Looking at the list of activities below, you can see his point.

On six days out of seven boarders will be able to make use of the new sports hall and on four of those nights have the benefit of the following specialist coaches:

·         My Hyde (Football) is an ex professional football who played for Leicester in the premier league. He is also a UEFA B coach.

·         Mr Gray (Volleyball) is a national league volleyball player

·         Mr Luker (Karate) has represented and captained the United Kingdom in Karate from 1994-2000 and has coached numerous people to national level.

·         Mr Sunderland (Basketball) is a Basketball coach who coaches the south of England team and runs the basketball academy at the north school who are one of the top schools nationally.

This is on top of our existing team of dedicated sports staff. The new facility has clearly begun to pay dividends. On Thursday our first V basketball team took on the North School, regulars in the top school competitions around the country (see above). In the corresponding fixture last year our team went down to a thumping 80-point loss. Though again defeated, this time out they restored pride in the jersey by coming out on the wrong side of a narrow 41-60 score line. Returning from the match our boarding hoopsters were far from despondent: “We lost, but it was a good game.” said Jeff. “Better than last year!” added captain Jeffrey. I spoke to Mr M. live from the side-line with 7 minutes to go and the pride in his voice was audible.

It’s certainly clear that with our new sports hall and the dedication of staff and students, the sporting prowess of Ashford School is on the up.

In other sporting news, our boarding rugby players have all had a busy few weeks, with some notable successes. On Saturday our first XV, with many first choice players missing, took on and defeated a strong Cranbrooke School 3^rd XV 19-5. This was their second victory on the bounce after last week’s win over St Lawrence. New boarder and now first choice prop forward Mwaniki set up tries in both games, the first coming from a deft reverse flick pass. Our Under 13s also trounced Buckswood 52-0, while the Under 15s narrowly lost by two tries to one to the same opponents.

On a sporting themed blog it would seem odd to mention music, but it appears that our senior rugby boys will be taking to the Brake Hall stage in the near future to encourage the school to sing up. Sounds like that could create quite a buzz too.

Evenings, a Prime Time for Fun!

One of the things that makes boarding at Ashford School such a positive experience for everyone involved is the wide variety of activities that the boarders can take part in, in the evening and on the weekends. We have already heard about one such Saturday trip, but we'd like to now make special mention of the weekday activities.

Co-ordinated by Mr Butt, organised and run by the boarding staff and enjoyed by all, the newly re-vamped activities program has hit the ground running. We will have a special sport-themed blog next week, but we would like to mention that, as part of their evenings, the boys and girls can benefit from, amongst other things, the coaching of an ex-professional footballer and an England volleyball player.

This week, though, the focus is on fun and there's no day that you can have more of it than on Tuesdays! Fun Tuesday, run by Mr Dudley and Miss Carwardine, has been a fixture here at Ashford School for a while now. Between 17:30 and 19:30 every week, junior boarders (Years 6-9) can indulge themselves in mind blowing variety of activities

This blogger was privy to a Fun Tuesday planning session and let me tell you, I'd like to be a junior boarder! There's a veritable cornucopia of craziness being put forward! We have murder mystery nights, a make your own pizza evening, a picnic, Laser Quest and tonnes more. What was even more evident than the range of activities on offer, was the enthusiasm and the willingness of the organisers to use their time to bring fun and laughter to our boarding pupils. Indeed, as Mr Dudley explained to me, "Plans [are already] being made for the Christmas Party!" Fun Tuesday, it's coming your way, every week, with attitude!

If you've room for more fun after all that, 20:00 Tuesdays evenings in Alfred House is time for Prime Time! Run by Mr Kadinopoulos and aided an abetted on most nights by Mrs Single and others, Prime Time aims to bring a healthy dollop of British culture to our overseas boarders in the guise of game shows and quizzes.

Already sampled by our cosmopolitan connoisseurs: Dragons' Den, Would I Lie To You?, Pictionary and The Great British Quiz and there have already been some unforgettable moments:

During Dragons' Den Maria and Yana tried to convince the Dragons that a huge, black leather bean bag could also be marketed as lightweight, waterproof body armour, a designer dress and quite astonishingly, a hat! I say 'astonishly' as Yana had the job of modelling said accessory. How she didn't collapse under the weight of it we'll never know!

Would I Lie to You? saw Mrs Single convince the students that the upside-down lid of a tagine was the result of an after-school pottery class and Mr Vaughan, in tones that defied anybody to think otherwise, sold everyone on the fact that he rode motorbikes in competitions across Wales as a child.
There was also Yuri's cool head, under tiebreaker pressure, to win the Big Quiz.

However, the most memorable and nail biting event occurred in the midst of our Pictionary evening. Imagine, if you can, the scene when, behind on points and faced with a rapidly diminishing 90 seconds to extract the word 'Explore' from Joon's ever more frantic drawing, Frank coolly stopped the clock, with the correct answer, at 1 min 29.1 seconds!

New Adventures In Boarding roving reporter, Jonathan, canvassed some of the participants on the new Tuesday activity. Here is his summary of the opinions voiced:

"The activities brought a lot of enjoyment to people, through the very well-designed games. These were brilliant ideas, such as Would I Lie To You. People said this game was like a TV show, in which they had a good time sitting and listening to stories told by the staff. In addition they found it interesting to know more things about the staff. One person said he found himself unable to distinguish lie from truth.

In the next two activities, The Big Fat Quiz and Pictionary, people said it was exciting and fun because there was competition between different teams and nationalities, such as Korean and Russian. There were also prizes."

Once again, we have the wonderful view of boarders of different cultures united together in fun. Not only this, boarders from across the senior age range were always present (including all three of our house prefects) and just to show that it wasn't just about the prizes, after her team triumphed in the Big Quiz, Vlada distributed the winnings amongst the other contestants.

Evening activities, whether on Tuesday or otherwise, will continue to be your appointment with frivolity, fairness and above all, FUN!

United in diversity

As promised in the last blog, here are a few of the names that make boarding at Ashford School as great as it is:

Brooke and Refuge: Yr6-Yr13 Boys
Mr Single, Head of Boarding at Ashford School
and Housemaster
Mrs Cashdan, House Matron
Mr Munteanu, House Tutor
Mr Dudley, House Tutor
Mr Forse, House Tutor
Jessica, the cat.

Brabourne: Girls' House
Mrs Single, Deputy head of Boarding
and House Mistress
Mrs Connel, House Matron
Miss Cawardine, House Tutor
Miss Jelfs, House Tutor  
Mrs Barber, House Tutor


Mrs Penfold, 'Floating Matron'
Mr and Mrs Rayner, House Tutors at Brooke and Refuge and Brabourne House

Alfred: Yr10 - Yr13 Boys
Mr Vaughan, Housemaster
Mrs Eagle ,House Matron
Mr Kadinopoulos, House Tutor
Mr Atkinson, House Tutor
Mr Straw, House Tutor
Dr Wood, House Tutor


Now, each and every one of these people are dedicated to providing a home from home for our 150 plus boarders (apologies to any I may have missed). In this too are Boarding Captain, Bruce; Deputy Boarding Captain and Head of Brabourne, Vlada and Joon, Head of Alfred, and it's them along with all our boarding boys and girls that really make the place what it is.

What with the new school year well and truly under way and what with so much going on, it is often easy to forget that many of the boarders here are new to Ashford and also new to Britain! Thousands of miles from their homes in China, Russia, Kazakhstan and others, they are trying out life in a different culture, with all the possible shocks that could bring.

With this in mind, during the last week, we have been asking some of our new boarders what their first weeks in Ashford School and boarding have been like. Here are some of their thoughts, but first some words from the present Year 13 Boarding Captain, Bruce:

"It has been my honour to be a part of the Ashford boarding community. As this was my first time being in a boarding school, I was really concerned about how it would be before I came here. This thought was then erased by the warm welcome from the staff and the past boarders. Ashford creates a comfortable environment for boarders to socialise . There are loads of social activities in school , such as trips and workshops during weekends."

Yr 10:

Alex: "By the end of the first week I liked everything: people, food, sports, teachers and of course, mates."

Angel: "[over the first week] The boarding house has filled up with love and joy and I've got to know lots of friends. Everyone has been very generous and friendly."

Jonathan: "I like school assemblies because I can share that feeling that I am a part of the school...We can think of ourselves as a body, this makes us feel close...In sports activities people always praise and encourage each other."

This feeling of unity was echoed by Vova who "liked the system of boarding that mixed people from different countries together. This helps to improve language skills and make new international friends."

Wonderful demonstrations of these points of view were to be seen this last week as a number of boarders turned up on damp Saturday morning at Ashford Rugby Club to cheer on their friends as Ashford School took on (and narrowly lost to) Buckswood.

Boarding Captain Bruce (more from Bruce in later blogs I'm sure!) was in the thick of it, making tough tackles and taking a nasty knock himself, though he soon cheerfully shook it off. New boarder Mwaniki was only making his second appearance; seasoned campaigner Michael put in some ferocious hits and generally got in Buckswood faces and Subair threatened with some sparkling runs and had a deserved try controversially disallowed. Over on the Development 15 pitch, boarders Chak, Howard, Islam, Farid, Dan, Petr, L.A., Yuri and Mischa all put in sterling efforts in a brave defeat. Well done to all the boys!

On Thursday night it was the Chinese Autumn festival to mark the Autumn Equinox and Bruce had organised a Sparkler night in which, with the help of Mr Cowan and Mr Vaughan, the boarders joyfully lit up Upper Nightingale Field. Though it is a Chinese festival, boarders from many countries joined in with the festivities and Mr K even learnt a bit of Cantonese (thanks Kevin!)

The following day, before even the last crumbs of Moon Cake had been swept up from some of the rooms, Bruce was canvassing our Eastern European boarders as to what festival they'd like to celebrate later in the year.

Keeping up our different cultures' traditions can comfort those so far from home, but sharing them with others keeps our community strong.

Wet and wild at Chessington

Hello everyone and welcome to Adventures in Boarding, the Ashford School boarding blog. We will introduce you to some of our members next week, but first an adventure at the World of Adventures.

Adventurers

Though a smudgy blanket of cloud had settled over the M25 and begun to spatter its raindrops somewhat absent-mindedly across the landscape, it hadn’t dampened the atmosphere aboard the boarders’ coach for Chessington World of Adventures.

Filing though the gates of the park, bright umbrellas began to sprout amongst the group and waterproofs were shuffled on epitomising the spirit of ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ as they dispersed toward the many attractions.

Accessiorising Chessington style

Aiming for a leisurely start, a number of the group headed for the zoo. While the gorillas were taking a rain check, Mehnaz and her group marvelled at the languid majesty of the Asiatic lions and the Sumatran tigers.

Down at Sea Lion Bay, teachers Mr Kadinopoulos and Mrs Byles were educated and entertained by Danté who, with his trainer, demonstrated the differences between sea lions and seals, the dangers posed to his kin in the wild by both sharks and people (plastic) and even indulged in a spot of front-flipper break dancing – has to be seen to be believed.

Mr Single, though, headed straight for the rides, first taking on the bone-juddering Rattlesnake. Snake hunter turned paparazzi at the lunchtime roll-call as Mr S snapped away, producing grins and groans aplenty with cries of “Just one, more. That’s it! Nice big smile! Just one more!”

It's scarier than it looks

Its behind you!

Back with the animals it was feeding time too, though all agreed we’d rather stick to our sandwiches than join the tigers in their enthusiastic dismembering of ‘rancid horse’, while in the Creepy Cave Mrs Single distinguished herself with her knowledge of all things lizard.

Sumatran take away.

The reptilian theme of the afternoon continued in Wild Asia as both boarders and teachers braved the spinning, swinging Cobra ride, though reactions were varied. Some, who shall remain unnamed, clung on for dear life. Terrence and Caviar, however, flung their arms in the air while wearing face-splitting smiles and Frank sat cross-legged, arms behind his head as if enjoying a nap on a sunny Sunday morning.



Various thoughts on the Cobra

Back at the meeting point, it was clear that many had enjoyed much success at the park’s various ball games – Vladimir and Faisal clutching bespectacled ‘Minions’ – the Top Shot award though should probably go to Yana who left with a bag full of stuffed toys!





Minion 2



Minion 1

 

 

A busy day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More happy snapping followed with YiJin doing a hilarious and quite passable impression of Mr S! 

Everyone was full of smiles – Jonathan grinning from ear to ear as he told us about his encounter with ‘The Vampire’ –and everyone agreed that, despite the weather, it had been a thoroughly enjoyable day (many were even planning a return trip).

As with all trips, thanks must go to the staff (especially Mr Single) for making it possible and giving up their Saturday for the children and to our boarders for being such happy and courteous ambassadors of Ashford School. I’m sure we’re all looking forward to many more Saturday afternoon adventures!