Chipping Campden Sees Stars
- Emily and Harvey
- Jan 5, 2017
- 4 min read
Credit Chipping Campden School
Dr Michael Foal, CBE, Opens Chipping Campden School STAR Centre
Wednesday 16 November 2016 was a busy and important day at the school. After many months of planning and hard work our new Science Training and Research (STaR) Centre was finished and an amazing VIP was coming to declare it officially 'open for learning'.
As part of our mission to extend high quality science teaching and as a holder of a Space Education Quality Mark working with the UK Space Education Office (ESERO-UK) to provide Space Education we had a full days programme of Primary and Secondary schools from around the area coming to hear what life in space is really like and where studying science can lead.
Over 400 children from 11 Primary Schools, and 300 from the Ogden Trust Science Partnerships with Secondary Schools came to hear about the astronaut's journey from scientist to Commander of the International Space Station and his 26 year career with NASA. The young people sat enthralled as he showed pictures and videos and described
Credit Chipping Campden School
Visit of former vice-chairman of Arsenal FC, David Dein
The school was recently privileged to welcome David Dein, former vice-chairman of one of the most influential football teams in Britain (Arsenal), for a talk with Year 10. Dein was responsible for bringing Arsene Wenger to North London but is well-remembered for the role he played in bringing about the Premier League, with Arsenal being one of the five founding members.
Dein began his talk with an inevitable dig at Arsenal’s rivals Tottenham Hotspur, consisting of a joke that he’d seen a Tottenham season ticket nailed to a tree and would take the nail instead of the ticket. Despite his Arsenal connections, Dein is a historic figure in the Premier League as he sought to remove male-domination and football hooliganism from the game. Since its beginning, the Premier League has been a huge success story, attracting both the world’s best players and managers. It set out with 4 different aims (to be the best show, to have maximum interest, to be a commercial success and to have a cultural and social responsibility) and it has accomplished each of these aims successfully – the Premier League is now shown in 229 countries and with the TV’s interest it has become a major commercial success.
Dein’s other interest away from the formation of the Premier League is also, of course, his period as vice-chairman of Arsenal. Under Arsene Wenger, whom Dein is partly responsible for bringing to North London, Arsenal have won a total of 18 trophies and have become a major force in English football. Dein spoke of how he motivated his millionaire players, using not only money and trophies as an incentive but talking of their pride and reputation being at stake every time they walked onto the pitch. He also talked of three values which can be taken by every person, regardless of circumstance: hard work, courage and vision. With these three assets, you can achieve anything and Dein presented a strong case for these values, looking at how successful and influential he has managed to become in the world of football.
Dein concluded the session with his life motto: "You don’t get anywhere unless you stick your neck in" – really emphasising the importance of seizing opportunities and putting into practise the three values of courage, hard work and vision.
Credit Chipping Campden School
Former Chipping Campden Student, Matt Gotrel, SHINES bright
We are delighted and proud to learn that former pupil Matt Gotrel has been awarded an MBE for services to sport in the New Year's Honours list. Matt, 27, who departed to go to University from the 6th Form in 2007, was a member of the gold-medal winning Men's 8 rowing team at the Olympic Games in Rio last year. He was also part of the squad which won the World Championship in 2015. Matt paid us a visit in October this year to talk about his experiences and the training regime ...required to become an Olympic Champion. In a series of assemblies for every student in the school Matt told students about his route into the GB Rowing Team and put some of his success down to the daily 4-mile cycle to and from school which helped to develop the steely determination that has enabled him to become a world-class athlete. Congratulations Matt!
Read about it in the Cotswold Journal: http://bit.ly/GotrelMBE
Credit Chipping Campden School
Award winning British novelist, Kazuo Ishiguro visited students at Chipping Campden school on Friday the 18th November to answer questions about his award winning book Never Let Me Go.
Offering a previously unseen insight into arguably one of his most famous works, Ishiguro discussed deeper meaning, symbolism and character insight with year 10 and 11 students studying it at GCSE as part of their English examination.
Afterwards, Ishiguro spoke with students in the library while signing books in the library about any queries they had left. Ishiguro spoke of his inspiration to write Never Let Me Go after multiple attempts and rewrites of hoping to find a way to restrict the lifespan of the protagonist’s lifespan without the presence of nuclear materials. Significance also lies within the deliberate decision to leave the novel without a resolution; Ishiguro remarks that the lack of an ending lends a certain element of dignity and hope as people always find a capacity to hope. The presence of the man with balloons also plays a connotation as it could perhaps be seen as a metaphor for the young people growing up in such an intimately confined environment. The string of the balloons may represent the separation they may experience if they are cut away from each other, drifting like balloons torn from their singular identity.
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