Science Day

It's been another really successful week for Ampleforth as we continue to build up momentum, the great school that we are.  Following on from the success last weekend of the College Golf Team, who beat the Old Amplefordians for the first time in many years, it was great that our girl hockey teams kept up their winning streak with almost exclusive victories against Barnard Castle. It was also wonderful to see the 1st XV rugby team play well and impose a very impressive 17-0 win over Hymers College (a serious rugby school) and then in the first round of the national cup, trouncing King Edward VI School 47-17. Alongside this, the 2nd XV were victorious over Tranby. Being graceful in our sporting approach, we did deliberately lose some matches to give a sense of fair play! Congratulations also to Poppy, Olivia and Elizabeth (all in Year 8) who won the 70cm Showjumping class at Northallerton and now head off to the NSEA National Championships. Hats off to John (DO13) who took part in the gruelling Paras 10-mile off-road endurance race on a difficult course carrying 35lbs (based on the 10-miler in the Parachute Regiment's P Company test). He smashed his target and finished in 2hr 20 minutes - impressive work.

On Tuesday, we welcomed students from Terrington Hall and Brackenfield Schools for an exciting Science Day, solving crimes with DNA samples and enjoying explosive chemistry sessions before a tour of the school with some Old Terringtonians. We also hosted William Bancroft from the Good Schools Guide, who spent the day meeting students and staff and seeing round the school. He was very impressed, as have all our Inspection visitors been, by the wonderful sense of community here and the strength of the school in so many areas. He said it was an enjoyable and fascinating visit and that our students were super - a comment echoed by all of our visitors. We look forward to his review in due course.  

Dr Dunn spoke about our international diversity at Assembly. He told the story of the Orendain brothers who travelled to the College in 1908 from Guadalajara in Western Mexico and later went on to form Atlas Football Club, one of Mexico's largest clubs whose nickname is "The Rojinegros" - a tribute to their red and black home strip - the Ampleforth influence lives on. They play in Liga MX, the top division, and in 2022 won their third league championship against Pachuca. Today, more that a century on, we are deeply proud of the international diversity of our community. Around 30% of our students come from 36 countries. As Dr Dunn said, diversity is a strength in itself, and we are a culturally and educationally richer community for everything that every Amplefordian brings to the valley, wherever they are from.    

Best wishes,
Peter