Carols

Looking ahead to the end of this term, which is looming up:

I hope to be able to say Happy Christmas in person at the Carol Service, to which all faiths and none are very welcome. The boys will betaken there by coach from school.

It’s in St Mary’s, Henley (the big church near the bridge – parking may be possible over the bridge at the Leander club) at 1130 on Fri 12 Dec.

Spring Term - thoughts and dates

The Spring Term in Burr

We are planning a theatre trip at the start of next term – we’re all going to the Royal Albert Hall for see the Cirque du Soleil’s show Quidam, on Sunday 11 Jan. I’ve always wanted to see them live, having caught other shows on TV, and everyone who’s seen them tells me it will be wonderful. I’m afraid there will be a charge of around £45.


So I hope everyone will be in for the first weekend. That’s the only complete weekend – but on Sunday 1st Feb I hope that all boarders will be back for a special service at 1930, marking the memory of the Holocaust. A few years ago I visited the memorial near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin – an extraordinary attempt to do justice to the scale of the crime.


Sundays in Burr are now supervised by a team of Housemasters, and Saturday and Sunday nights either by myself, Mr Rich Starr the Resident Tutor, or Mr Kevin Dolan, the Senior Tutor. I’m always grateful to parents who let me know by Thursday of any special plans for weekends: I need to share this information with my colleagues. At the other end of the scale is the wonderful Mum (I will not name her even under torture) who texted me half an after bedtime one Sunday to let me know her son would not be coming back until the following morning. I was then able to recall the search parties and stand down the helicopter.

Cross Country - round two

An excellent run by James Rossi Bull, who came first in year 9 (year 10 were in an exam this afternoon and could not run), Alex Baker who came third in year 12, and plenty of other impressive efforts. Matron went shopping this morning, and provided Mrs Lowndes with doughnuts and hot chocolate to serve to everyone after the race.

Tutors and sixth formers

All of year 13 and the Burr tutor team took a night out at the Chef Pekin in Henley last night, with no agenda other than eating well and relaxing. I took the opportunity to award House Colours to Jeremy Pattie and Melissa de Haan, who are great Chapel Wardens, to Alvin Tang who has been a very reliable house prefect, and to Nick Gong whose outstanding work and reliable duties brings much credit to Burr. Nick has offers from UCL and Southampton. I also awarded House Colours to Aussie gapper James Hall, who's done a lot for Burr, including coaching several Burr boys in the U 15 A XV.

Talking of rugby, we did: the fixtures today are against Magdalen College School, where Mrs Michelle Baker's husband Matt is a Maths teacher so there will some divided loyalties on the touchline this afternoon.

Surprise visitor was a local landscape gardener, Jack Mercer, who left last year.

Many thanks to Mr Charley "The Chef" Smith who organised the tables, Mr Rich Starr for bringing his camera, and Padre Ru Jarvis who stepped in to look after Burr to allow all tutors to be together.

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Duty Day

Wednesday is Burr's duty day: a good sunrise, and a good team clearing up after breakfast

Thousand year old words

When the Chaplain took the Burr House Communion this evening, he used some of the words from the ancient order of Compline - which will be our Sunday evening service this week.

Vist we beseech thee, O Lord, this House

And drive far from it all the snares of the enemy.

Let thy holy angels dwell herein to preserve us in peace

And may thy blessing be upon us evermore.

Podcasting for mock revision

Craig Henderson and others have been learning how to make podcasts - short radio programmes stored as mp3 files - to compile revision notes to carry about on an iPod, mobile phone or other mp3 devices, and slip in sixty seconds of revision while waiting for lunch, or on a minibus to an away match.

Be online or go under

This was the title of a series of four short talks organised by the Stationers' Company - five ICT students from year 12 and I went to it last night. Harrison Lewis reports:

Last Monday five ICT students from year twelve were taken to the magnificent Stationers’ Hall, next to St Pauls in London by Mr Lowndes for a talk on why companies would struggle without a website. We listened to five different speakers express their ideas on the subject. One speaker believed that the older generation used Facebook more than the younger. We all strongly disagreed. Despite this all speakers believed that we are being left behind in modern day technology and that we need to catch up!
Interesting slogans from Bill Murray, of Haymarket Media Group (the company headed by Michael Heseltine, MP for Henley until 2001) included: “a meteorite has hit our business – we have to evolve at a fast pace. It’s survival of the quickest”, and “there’s no recession in digital media”.
Mr Lowndes was named mastermind of the night by Professor Clive Holtham after answering several questions which some thought were unanswerable. The Professor’s talk covered 100,000 years of ICT evolution, from Babylonian clay tablets to the Rank Xerox Alto (the first PC), and looked to the future of mashups, combining technologies and delivery systems.
Another speaker, Richard Withey, who developed The Times Online edition, looked ahead to the last newspaper being published in April 2043 – and more immediately, to online advertising revenue overtaking television in the UK in 2010 or even earlier.
Most quoted website of the evening (after The Times) was PopBitch.Com.

Cross Country Running

One of the highlights of the sporting calendar, and a good day for Burr - huge congratulations to Alex Barker, James Rossi-Bull and Jamie Albon. It was a damp, muddy day and the first session of the standards' phase of the sport.


Girls
1st Welsh
2nd Burr
...


Juniors
1st Burr....

(Individuals: 1st Yr 10 - Alex Barker - 3rd Yr 9 James Rossi-Bull)

Seniors


Seniors
1st = Everett
1 st = Welsh
3rd Skipwith
4th Burr ....

(3rd Yr 13 - Jamie Albon)

Long weekend

It was good to see many parents at the year 12 conference on Thursday, and two very diligent Dads who arrived early to meet their sons after the year 9 rugby tour on Saturday - so early they happened to be here to watch all of the England-Australia game.
The doors are now open (to those who know the code) for early returners for the Aladdin rehearsal this evening.

Welcome new readers

It's always good to hear about people who read the blog - I know that we have a reader in South Africa, and also that Miss Arnold (Head of Design and Technology, and much more) has been scoping out the blog.

Feel free to comment :)

Singers

Among the choirs who seemed to be working everywhere this weekend, my spies tell me that Matthew Smith and Harry Griffiths did a particularly fine job at Dunsden on Saturday night.

Remembrance Sunday

Many thanks to the parents who joined us for Remembrance Sunday - it was good to see Adam and Alex in their House Colours ties as they places wreaths at the village War Memorial, and Jamie carrying the CCF standard.

A facebook friend asked me what I was remembering -
this is what I replied:

Dad's stories of battles in N Africa and Italy - the Sgt Major of the Guards sitting on a white horse as the infantry went past Dad's gun battery on the way to the front line at El Alamein; the tough time the infantry had at Anzio during a counterattack. His relief at being back with the guns. His meeting with the Pope in Rome.
My mum's aunts who tottered out of the house after it was gutted in the blitz, each with three hats on her head.
The food parcel from Australia with the rather gritty powdered soup, which turned out to be the ashes of great-uncle Wilf.
My grandfather who was captured at Kut al Amara in 1916 , and nursed many of his friends as they died of 'flu after the Armistice two and half years later, in Turkey.
My uncle who didn't come back from Cologne one night in 1942- Leslie Manser VC.
My (step) brother's father who didn't come back from Burma, where he died on the tennis court at Kohima in May 1944 - Jack Randle VC.
My Sapper friend Steve, 30 years in bomb disposal, who lost his heel clearing a minefield in the Falklands in 1983 - and ran a half marathon a little later, delighted that his new plastic foot didn't get blisters.
And others :)

We back the Bank

The price of Chapel Wardens in Burr has been reduced in line with Bank of England interest rate cuts.

Great concert

Wonderful music from huge bands, the orchestra, and man of the moment Arthur Carroll (with Richard Coppock backing him up).

All the pics are at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/charly.lowndes/20081107Concert#

Busy busy

It seems to have been a hectic week. Mrs Lowndes has been orchestrating the collection of funs for the Poppy Appeal - one collecting tin (from the village, not the College) included:

a plectrum

a screw

a piece of all-Bran (her favourite contribution)

East Caribbean 10 cents piece

2 Rands

pre-Euro Deutschmarks

1 Bank of Scotland Pound

Various Burr boys were involved in a puzzle evening at the Babbage Society on Thursday (thanks to Mr Starr and his phone for photo surveillance).













All of year 9 and many others have been involved in preparations for tonight's concert. 9 of the year 12 boys have disappeared on a Geography Field Course - year 12 have started doing duties which run from waking everyone else, to putting them to bed several hours later.



Matron Julie Hardy has been unwell, but we have managed somehow with lots of help from Mrs L, and the Laundry Ladies.

Charlie Boutwood and others continue to plan a Duke of Edinburgh Gold expedition by sailing, which I think is first for Shiplake, and unusual anyway - a considerable challenge for planning and preparation. He and other CCF members have been preparing for the Remembrance Day parade on Sunday, when we join other organisations under command of the Royal British Legion at the war memorial in the village - this is after our school service, in the Great Hall at 1045. All are welcome.


Maintenance man Mark Long has built a wall, with a door in it, for what will become known (optimistically, perhaps) as The Quiet Room, with three computers in it and enough space to work on prep. One regular quiet user is Curtis Tseng, who sat the UK Mathematics Challenge this week and found it "quite hard" which makes a change for him.


We cheered Shinsuke Haskimoto's birthday, the election victory of Barack Obama, and Ollie Warkins-Murphy's contribution to the Food Committee.


And in between all this excitement, lessons, sport, meals and reading the papers continues.