Swimathon Raises Over £5,000!

48 Belmont swimmers raised £5,168.18 when they completed more than 4,000 lengths in a 60 minute sponsored swimathon. The money was for Cancer Research UK. The swimmers presented their cheque to 19-year-old former Belmontian James Ellen as a contribution towards his fundraising efforts for Cancer Research UK. James completed his epic walk in June, covering 1049 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End via the Three Peaks in only 10 weeks and 1 day.

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James Completes His Epic Walk!

Since the last progress report I safely crossed the River Severn and started on the final leg of the journey meeting up with a friend and old Belmontian in Exeter for the night. It was then on to the South West Coastal Path which gave tremendous views and interesting walking with some steep gradients on much of the path. I had a rest day in Barnstaple and then stayed in a wonderful Bed and Breakfast just on the Cornish Border. In the end I wasn't charged for the night and the couple were very friendly offering my tea, cake and newspaper on arrival and washing done ready to wear the next day!

It was a tremendous feeling to cross into Cornwall and on Wednesday, 18th June I clocked 1,000 miles. Saturday, 21st June dawned a wet, windy and misty morning, I put on my wet clothes from the previous day and started to walk the last 9 miles to Lands End. I arrived at 11.20 am to be greeted at the finish line by family and friends waving a banner and balloons - what an emotional moment it was to cross the finish.

Thank you everyone for the interest and support you have given me over the last 10 weeks, it really has been appreciated and hopefully I have managed to raise a good sum of money to go to my causes.

James
21st June, 2008

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Activity Week at Belmont

Belmont children were able to take part in a wide variety of activities during the annual Activity Week. Years 3-5 enjoyed a wide-range of extra curricular activities in the school grounds, which included a Leadership course for year 5. Year 6 used the week to rehearse their annual play, which this year was The Wizard of Oz. The play was performed to parents and friends over two evenings and was a huge success. Year 7 went on a Geography Field Trip to Dale Fort in Pembrokeshire and Year 8 travelled to an Activities Centre in Buxton, Derbyshire.

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Trip to Epping Forest

Year 4 had a wonderful trip to Epping Forest where they enjoyed activities such as pond dipping, foraging for animals amongst the undergrowth, and performing scientific experiments with flora and fauna. Overall, it was an extremely enjoyable day in which the children were able to learn a great deal about animals in their natural environment.

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South Africa Tour Summer 2008

A boys' rugby team, a girls' hockey team and a group of musicians will be travelling to Cape Town in South Africa in August 2008. The tour will be based around SACS school in Cape Town where Mr Ince (English Teacher) and our gap students come from each year. This will be a great opportunity for pupils to get to know more about South Africa. Accommodation will be partly in a hotel and partly with host families from SACS school.

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Update from James Ellen

Well I have walked 805 miles, successfully reached the summit all of the 3 peaks in snow, wind, rain and glorious sunshine, walked up and down countless undulations and met many generous people, all willing to do that little bit extra to help me out. As I write this sitting in Chepstow, poised to cross the River Severn and on to the final leg of the trip, it has hit me that it will all soon be over.

Apologies for so few updates but it is amazing how time just seems to slip away in the evenings and combined with fatigue it leaves little time to do anything else but get myself sorted out for the next day.

Having crossed out of Scotland, wearing shorts (the only time so far that I have worn them whilst on the trip), I moved into the Lakes and had some of the best days so far culminating in reaching the summit of Scafell Pike (on the12th May) with my brother, uncle and his dog Digger. I walked the Cumbria Way and rested in Windermere before moving round through Cheshire and into North Wales. My friend, Ross, met up with me and we climbed Snowdon (on the 24th May) in good weather but it was very windy on the summit. We then moved down through Wales joining up with The Offas Dyke Path, which proved to give some fantastic walking, and views.

I am excited to tackle the final few weeks with my body getting stronger all the time and with renewed vigour and determination to reach the finish at Land’s End on Saturday, 21st June. I hope to see some of you there!

James
5th June, 2008

See earlier story for full details of James' fundraising aims.

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Lower School Summer Concert 2008

Parents, Staff and Pupils enjoyed the huge range of musical talent covering each year group with music ranging from the Junior Wind Band's performance of ‘Feeling the Blues’, to the Junior Choir's enthusiastic rendition of ‘Colours of the Wind’ and ‘Under the Sea’.

Individuals, Duets and Ensembles enthralled the packed hall, which proved, once again, that the range of musical talent in the Lower School is as rich and diverse as always.

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A Day Out at Whipsnade

Year 6 enjoyed a lovely day out to Whipsnade Zoo the day after their exams finished. The sun shone and they managed to walk all the way from the penguins, past the hippos, lions and giraffes, and still get to the sealions in time for the show.

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Visiting Hogwarts

Ellie Georghiou was lucky enough to win a day at the Harry Potter film studios. The day included a tour of all the sets and an opportunity to see scenes from the new movie being filmed.

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Belmont Supports the Air Ambulance

Dr Anna Dobbie came to speak in Assembly about London's Air Ambulance which is one of Belmont's charities for this term. The Air Ambulance does invaluable work in emergency medicine and is only partly funded by the NHS. The children will be selling raffle tickets and the two lucky prizewinners will receive a flight in the Air Ambulance. The raffle is being drawn at the Friends of Belmont Fun Day on Saturday 21st June.

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U11 Mill Hill Junior Open Tennis Tournament

On Friday 2nd May 14 U11 Tennis Players competed in the Mill Hill Junior Tennis Open at Gosling Park, Welwyn Garden City. The competition started with group stages, which saw several of our players through to the quarterfinals. Congratulations to Lasse L, Charlie R, Hannah P and Gaby S, who all reached the quarters. A big round of applause also goes to Sheena R and Alex F who both made it through to the Semi-Final stage of the competition – well done! Overall, the day was enjoyable and all players showed great dedication and sportsmanship.

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Foundation Fashion Show

The first Foundation Fashion Show was held at Mill Hill School. The event was organised to raise money for our partnership schools in India, Nicaragua and Ethiopia. Pupils and staff from all three parts of the school were amazingly professional as models and Belmont's Bollywood Dancing Group entertained a very large audience and looked spectacular in their Indian costumes.

For a full report of the evening click here to go to the Mill Hill School news page.

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Greetings from Ben Nevis!

James Ellen is well into his record breaking walk from John O’Groats to Land’s End, via the Three Peaks (see earlier news story further down this page). He sent us this update:

“Well, it has taken me 14 days so far and at the time of writing I am in Kinlochleven, south of Ben Nevis. I have walked a total of 211.7 miles taking in the Moray Firth Coast, including the Cromarty and Dunnock Firths, and then on down along the Great Glen Way from Inverness along the banks of Loch Ness and the Caledonian Canal. The views have been incredible and so far I have only had to wear full waterproofs for four days.

“I have dealt with some pretty painful blisters, sore spots and a ‘mystery’ ulcer on my feet along with aching shoulders, and this led to me offloading some kit in Fort William.

“Ben Nevis was a great challenge and did not disappoint on my first attempt to the summit. My brother and I dealt with knee-deep snow, biting winds and 20m visibility, but we made the round trip in 6 hours 15 minutes.

“Overall it has been a great start to what will be a trip of many more adventures I am sure – with over 800 miles to two peaks to go!”

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Belmont School Hosts Chinese Cultural Evening

Red Chinese lanterns, regarded as a symbol of brightness, happiness and reunion, hung in rows around the Jubilee Hall for our Chinese Cultural Evening. The evening started off with a Chinese Martial Art display by two Disciples and The Master from the visiting Shaolin Kung Fu Troupe.

Phillip Poon and Ariane Lim then welcomed the guests in Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, followed by an introduction to Chinese culture, including an explanation of how the animals were chosen for the Chinese zodiac. Christos Theodorou and Nathan Davies demonstrated the Chinese social etiquette of different types of bows.

The evening continued with Jack O'Donnel, Georgie Marlborough, Beau Jessup and Yasmin Nihat from the Mandarin club reciting two well known Chinese poems, and several children performing Chinese compositions.

For the finale, two lions from Hup Ching Lion Dancer Trouper performed a dance in which the lions ate lettuce and oranges before scattering lettuce leaves among the audience to symbolise the spreading of good luck. The evening concluded with a Chinese meal.

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18 Teams Compete in Oti Race

The Inter Schools’ Oti Race proved to be another excellent sporting occasion and produced exciting finishes in both the girls’ and boys’ events. On a bright and sunny afternoon 18 teams from 13 different schools assembled on the start line for the six-legged 1400 metre relay event. As hosts, Belmont welcomed competitors from the local area, and entered four teams (two boy and two girls) of our own. Although traditionally this is an event for the older children in the school, this year two boys from Year 4 (Matthew Berrick and Matthew Braham) represented the school along with our established runners from Years 6, 7 & 8.

Overall the boys’ competition was won by Mill Hill County in a time of 32:20 (fastest lap 4:45) with Gayhurst second in 32:47 (5:01) and Kingshott third with 32:58 (5:05). Belmont came a very respectable fifth led by Joe Whitby's excellent time of 5:19.

For the girls it was a different story, and they successfully defended their title for another year, winning the event in 38:51. Sophie Humphrey’s excellent 6:05 led the way, with no fewer than four of Belmont’s girls finishing in the fastest ten. St Martha’s came second and Kingshott again were third.

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Silver Medal for Swimmer Emily Dean

Emily recently returned from a week’s training with American Backstroke record holder Mel Nash. She went on to compete in the Middlesex Championships where she not only improved on her personal best times but also came away as Silver Medallist in the 1500m freestyle and was 4th in the 800m and 400m freestyle competitions.

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Amber Matthews as Oliver and Sophia Levy as Dodger

More Oliver at Belmont!

More than 70 pupils took part in the latest Belmont production of Lionel Bart’s ‘Oliver’. This thoroughly enjoyable evening presented a fantastic display of talent, especially in the singing – which was full of beautiful harmonies, solos and group songs. The play was a dazzling success with top performances all round, and it was great to see virtually a whole year group involved.

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“So You Really Want to Learn History?”

Questions such as ‘why Britain has a parliament and a monarch, why there is a tower of London in the city of London, why there is a love-hate relationship between England and its neighbours of Wales, Ireland, Scotland and France’ and ‘why so many people quarrel about the Middle East’ are all answered within the clear narrative of Belmont Head of History, Bob Pace’s new book.

‘So you really want to learn History: Britain 1066-1500’ covers the Medieval Realms section of the Common Entrance paper, and is the first volume of Galore Park's eagerly awaited Key Stage 3 History course. It encourages a chronological approach to the subject, strengthens the appreciation of historical evidence through the use of contemporary sources and provides exercises to test students of all abilities.

The book covers topics from the Norman Conquest to the end of the Wars of the Roses and has different activities at the end of each section. There are a variety of sources and all key words are highlighted and explained in the glossary. It is written very clearly and is easy to follow.

Mr Pace, who is in his 20th year at Belmont, was born and raised in the United States, 343 years after his ancestors left London for the New World. He has spent nearly all his teaching career in Britain and is presently Head of History at Belmont, Mill Hill Preparatory School. He is also co-editor of the SATIPS History broadsheet and the chief setter for the History Common Entrance examination.

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Old Belmontian on Record Walk Fundraiser

19 year old James Ellen sets off on 12th April to walk from John O’Groats to Land’s End, via the Three Peaks of Great Britain – Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon. According to official records, James will be the first person ever to complete the End to End walk and include the Three Peaks of Great Britain in one continuous effort.

James is currently on his Gap Year, and will be going on to study Music Performance at the University of Westminster. He hopes to raise a total of £3000 for Cancer Research UK, The Army Benevolent Fund and the Mill Hill School Combined Cadet Force Corps of Drums. James, who was last year’s Senior Monitor at Mill Hill School, has a passion for music, playing drums, percussion, saxophone and flute, as well as being an accomplished singer. He is also a commissioned Combined Cadet Force Adult Instructor, and outdoor pursuits are close to his heart.

James plans to walk without a support team, either camping or staying the occasional night in a B&B or hostel. He hopes to be joined by friends and family along the way for various sections of the walk.

We will track James’ route on the news page – but to read more or make a donation please go to his website www.the3peaksjogle.co.uk.

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UK Mathematics Challenge

On Thursday 7th February, 29 able mathematicians from the top sets in Year 8 and Year 7 sat a difficult and challenging paper in the UK Intermediate Mathematics Challenge. This challenge is undertaken by over a quarter of a million pupils up to 16 years of age, from schools around the country. Our pupils should be applauded just for taking the challenge - but they all found it very rewarding, and we will await the results. The UK Junior Challenge takes place early next term, and the pupils will have gained confidence from challenging themselves so we are sure that success will follow.

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Chamber Choir Sing at Stowe

The Belmont Chamber Choir travelled to Stowe School in early February to take part in the Prep Schools Choral Festival. The Festival is an annual event, attended by approximately 500 pupils from a range of Prep schools. The Belmont Choir took part in sectional rehearsals before joining Stowe School's full Choir to sing Evensong. Although the repertoire was challenging in places, the Chamber Choir rose to the challenge and sang with confidence.

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Belmont Competes in General Knowledge Quiz

'Who is Clarice Bean's younger brother?' 'Which motor company has recently launched the world's cheapest car?' These questions and more were tackled by Belmont pupils from Years 6, 7 and 6 in the SATIPS (Support and Training in Prep Schools) General Knowledge Quiz. Thousands of Preparatory School pupils from across the UK are involved in this tough competition which took place on Thursday 7th February, and the results should be announced towards the end of term. In the meantime we wish them all the best of luck.

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Belmont Judged “Highly Successful”

The Independent Schools Inspectorate Report, just published, concludes that Belmont is “highly successful in achieving its aims”. It reports that pupils achieve their full potential and become confident, independent and respectful young people through a wide range of stimulating educational experiences.

Click here to read the full report in PDF format.

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An Evening with Sir Steve Redgrave

We were delighted to welcome five-times Olympic Gold Medallist Sir Steve Redgrave to a Charity Evening at Belmont in mid December. Sir Steve's presentation to pupils, parents and teachers highlighted the crucial role that the support of his family played in his success - as well as the importance of constantly setting himself achievable targets to raise the level of his performance.

His speech was particularly pertinent for many of the talented sports pupils from Belmont and Mill Hill who were inspired to hear the words of probably the greatest athlete Britain has ever produced. The presentation was followed by a Charity Auction that raised nearly £3000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care and Belmont School sports equipment.

Lynn Duncan - Headteacher of Belmont School, Sir Steve Redgrave, Paul Tanner - Managing Director of Alan Day Volkswagen

The School would like to thank Paul Tanner, Managing Director of Alan Day Volkswagen, for making the evening possible, and author and stand-up comedian Mark Billingham for keeping us all entertained as the compere for the evening.
 
 
 

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England Captain Coaches Team

60 Belmont netball players enjoyed a thrilling morning's coaching from England International Netball Captain Amanda Newton at the School on Saturday 2nd February. The girls were really excited about the opportunity, and Amanda kept up their enthusiasm with constant coaching tips and loads of support and encouragement. All of the girls showed improvement by the end of the session, responding well to Amanda's drills and adapted games, while Charley Jacobs and Emily Warnakulasuriya were awarded with signed netballs for exceptional effort and skill. The morning was judged a tremendous success with all of the girls gaining valuable experience.

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Belmont Visits No. 10

Three Belmont pupils from Y3 were lucky enough to be asked to help to present 'Bobby Bear' to Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street in support of the charity "Child Victims of Crime". Bobby is the first teddy bear to be granted permission to wear the official Metropolitan Police Uniform. Celebrities and Senior Police Officers have joined forces to promote the Charity through the sale of Bobby Bear with 50% of the profit from each bear sold donated by the manufacturer to the charity.

The Prime Minister requested that Bobby be officially presented by Sir Ronnie Flanagan GBE MA Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary. Maddy Hookway, Beau Jessup and Karan Patel - all from 3KP - signed the official No 10 Visitors' Book after a tour of the cabinet rooms and official waiting rooms, and were each given a Bobby Bear signed by the Prime Minister.

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Saqlain Mushtaq Cricket Masterclass

In January, thirty of our talented cricketers were fortunate enough to spend the morning with cricket star Saqlain Mushtaq, the former Pakistan International. With 208 wickets at test level and 288 in One Day Internationals, Saqlain is a highly accomplished player, and is credited as being the first off-spinner to bowl the 'doosra'.

The session took place in Mill Hill's indoor net facilities where our enthusiastic cricketers from Years 5 to 8 listened and watched attentively to the passionate cricketing expertise of the off spinner. Saqlain, who finished the session with a demonstration of his bowling repertoire, had a wonderful manner with the boys and they were inspired by the whole experience. We would like to thank Mill Hill for the use of the nets and Saqlain for his time and high quality input into the development of cricket at Belmont.

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