Scholarship | Gaiety | Humanity
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Scholarship | Gaiety | Humanity The Moretonian 2020 1 Email: [email protected] Moreton Hall, Weston Rhyn, Telephone: (+44) 01691 773671 Oswestry, Shropshire Web: www.moretonhall.org S Y11 3 E W /MoretonHall @MoretonHall Charity Registration Number 528409 2 The Moretonian 2020 Contents 4 Principal George Budd's Reflections 55 Lacrosse National Finalists 8 Opportunity At Moreton 56 Lacrosse Nationals 9 Divisionals 58 Fond Farewell 10 Special Awards 62 Making of A Moretonian 12 News Highlights 63 Tribute To Katy Tanner 16 The Holroyd Community Theatre 64 Housemistress' Highlights 18 Head Prefects’ Speeches 66 A Room with a View 20 Careers Fair 67 The Old Moretonian 22 Moreton Enterprises (Pages Reversed) 24 Chicago Moreton First 26 Face2Face 2 Reflection 28 Beauty and The Beast 4 A Tribute to Mrs Ford 30 Bridging The Gap 6 Moreton First News Highlights 32 Wellbeing At Moreton 8 Moreton First Awards 34 The Rylands Diploma 9 Moreton First Means Business 36 The Lady Barbirolli Music Society 11 Playing and Learning Outdoors 38 The Jenner Society 12 Reception 40 The Bronwen Society 14 Year 1 42 Bioscience Essay Success 16 Art Gallery 44 History In The Making 17 Year 2 45 Girls Do STEM 18 Year 3 46 The New Woman 20 Year 4 47 Widening Horizons 22 Year 5 48 The Economic Outlook 24 Year 6 49 Photography 26 Moreton First Sport 50 Art Gallery 27 Sport Highlights 52 Sports Highlights 28 Bombs In The Night The Moretonian 2020 3 Principal, George Budd, reflects on his first year at the helm. 4 The Moretonian 2020 I’ve had a copy of the 2019 Moretonian in my office Over the past three terms, we’ve had conversations all year. I’d often thumb through the articles in a quiet with Old Moretonians, current staff, former staff, moment with a cup of tea, and think about how I School Council and the Upper Sixth Prefects. We might write something that somehow captures the were starting to settle on a broad set of descriptive magic of the first year at Moreton. However, as we phrases which somehow encapsulate what it is to have seen, history and epidemiology had other ideas come to school here; and then lockdown started and and have rather written the script for me. we transitioned to remote learning. Nevertheless, we have continued to work apace on this document I cannot express enough my gratitude and recently launched Moreton Hall ʻValues, Vision & Commitmentsʼ on Speech Day. and appreciation for the warm welcome my wife, Nicky and I have received from This is a comprehensive reflection on that which we hold dear and the future development priorities the entire Moreton community. for the school in the coming years. We expect to launch this in the summer. I’ll come back to the It’s been a year of getting to know the school and values - but clearly any review of the year would not its culture through events and informal chats over a be complete without a commentary on the brilliance coffee in Moreton Enterprises on a Friday morning. of my colleagues in delivering an engaging, balanced, This is a truly unique place where a blend of trust, inspiring and fulfilling education and on the flexibility, mutual respect, self-confidence and independence determination and dedication of our pupils. come together in such a special way to mean that our alumni have developed the resilience for whatever the world throws at them. It has been so impressive and humbling to see this evolve and so heartwarming Our pupils are always the highlight of any event; be that speaking at an Open Day, acting or backstage to receive so many positive comments in a Drama production, playing or singing in a Music from our parents and guardians. concert or producing extraordinary work for an Art exhibition. The humility with which our pupils Alongside COVID-19, business as usual has continued go about their work and lives is one of the core and the school has seen some major enhancements ingredients of the success enjoyed by this fabulous to the estate. Of course, there’s the wonderful new school and is why I so enjoy reading our Holroyd Community Theatre (HCT). We’ve kept now-weekly eNews. the vision for the HCT alive with an online summer event following the magical first shows of Chicago Throughout the year, we’ve been considering the core and Beauty and The Beast and the heartwarming values of the school. We refer to these values a lot, community Christmas concert. alongside the Moreton Magic, but after a great deal of searching we concluded they hadn’t been written down anywhere. The Moretonian 2020 5 We’ve opened our new reception area, refurbished Turning back to our core values; one unintended the staff work and social spaces, created a new school side effect of the lockdown was that Nicky and shop, revamped Moreton Enterprises, built a home I walked more laps than I care to count of the for our new CCF, opened up the view of the school school grounds walking our dog, Beth. I’ve taken from the A5, added new signage, built dedicated PE the opportunity to explore all the corners of the changing rooms for Moreton First, and Lloyd-Williams Moreton site; it’s remarkable how much you can and Stables Houses have new common room spaces. miss when you pass something every day - although I have greatly missed the interactions with our The place is looking spectacular. pupils on my way to the office in the morning. Whilst we often say it’s the people One thing I spotted was the plaque outside the main who make Moreton, those people entrance to the Front Hall which pays a touching tribute to our transformative former Head, Bronwen benefit from the right environment to Lloyd-Williams, and details the various new buildings work and study which our ongoing the school benefitted from under her leadership. investment in the estate provides. Something I saw was that it also reminds us that Bronwen's courage and vision gave the school its core values of Scholarship, Gaiety and Humanity. 6 The Moretonian 2020 There is a certain irony that we had spent the Bronwen's final value of humanity has been shown best part of a year working with our community in spades this year. Even living under lockdown to define our values, only to discover them on a here in the UK, we have seen a remarkable amount 70 year old plaque right outside my office during of support for our key workers and NHS staff lockdown. These values certainly still ring true across in particular. Applause has rung out across the our community today and guide all that we do. country each Thursday evening in recognition for all they do. A number of our pupils undertook It has been a pleasure to see such voluntary work with local charities, engaged with fundraising by designing t-shirts, running a marathon engagement, creativity and excellence at 3km a day or a myriad of other initiatives. in the work produced during our We shall never know how Bronwen would have period of remote learning. viewed the school today. I suspect that she would be proud to see her three core values so visible, shining Certainly very scholarly and most impressive. through and being the hand on the tiller for all we do. Our values are right front and centre on our new website and in the Community Vision We would all do well to remember these three values 2030 document, setting out our vision for the - scholarship, gaiety and humanity - in the coming year school’s progress over the next 10 years. as we adapt to what is being described as the “new normal” - whilst elements of social distancing may Even through lockdown, we’ve seen the remain, we are stronger than ever as one community. continuation of the fun, joyous and expressive side of the school with choir rehearsals, digital theatre and incredible artwork. As I’ve said, we opened the amazing new Holroyd Community Theatre earlier this year which further espouses George Budd, Principal the gaiety running right through the school. No doubt there will be many opportunities to continue this when we return to being one community back at school, hopefully in the not too distant future. Not least, we need to say a proper goodbye to those staff and Upper Sixth students who are leaving Moreton at the end of this term. We will find the right time to do just that. The Moretonian 2020 7 Moreton Can Give Children From any Walk of Life an Opportunity. Jenny Keaveny on behalf of Moreton Families sums up the last seven years Being a parent of a Moreton pupils to optimise every opportunity because, you never know, maybe your child is a budding star in pupil has been a very proud time the making! They give so much to children who wish for me, and I have witnessed to pursue a career in the Arts, and I will forever be truly grateful for the support that they have given first-hand what this school can Megan, through the good times as well as the contribute to a child’s education. more challenging. This whole journey began with a meal out for my The concerts and productions have always been birthday (the number of which I won’t disclose!), absolutely fantastic, but my greatest memory (excuse where I received a chance comment from a relative the pun) would have to be the first production I went that perhaps Moreton was somewhere to consider for to see, where Megan played Grizabella in Cats, and Megan’s secondary education.