FAURE'S REQUIEM

FAURE’S REQUIEM | Mrs Love and the Music School presented a wondrous concert of vocal and choral pieces on Thursday, 1 December. The crescendo of the evening was a full recital of Faure’s Requiem, performed by the St Leonards Choir (made up of 70 pupils) and the School and Gown Orchestra (pupils, school music staff members and University of St Andrews performers). Played to a packed house of 130 in the auditorium, the audience were mesmerised by Requiem solos from Kieren Smith, Kate Moran & Jack Boag. A magical event and a true highlight of the Autumn Term calendar – congratulations to all the performers involved.

The next week, the St Leonards Choir went on to a St Andrews Carol Concert in Holy Trinity Church, joined by singers from Waid Academy. A warm up for the Carol Service perhaps, the Choir represented the school and led congregational singing. They also performed 'In the Bleak Midwinter' by Harold Darke. It was revealed afterwards that they had raised £1928.42 for Worldwide Cancer Research. An excellent evening’s work!

JUBILEE VICTORY

JUBILEE VICTORY | On Thursday, 1 December, St Leonards golfers hosted Glenalmond school on the St Andrews Links Jubilee course. It was a first round match of the ISGA (Independent Schools Golf Association) foursomes tournament and resulted in a successful day for the St Leonards team, who were victorious in all three of their matches (3-0). Ben Caton partnered Cathi Graf, winning their match on the 13th, while pair Pol Berge and Laetitia Veeser secured their victory on the 14th. Charlie Webb and Philip Maintz, who both made their St Leonards golf squad debut in this competition, also won their round on the 14th - a fantastic set of results from the St Leonards golf team confirming an early win, with an especially excellent score for Charlie and Philip's starting round. Next up to beat are Loretto in the second round of the competition next term! Good luck Team Golf!

SPORTS SUCCESS

SPORTS SUCCESS | Elsewhere on the sports field and in the pool, we enjoyed many successes in the lead up to the end of term. Here are some sports snapshots:

The rugby teams were victorious against Harris Academy and against Lathallan; our swimmers performed well at the Fife Schools Championships; the Girls Christmas Hockey Festival was held before the end of term – a morning of hockey sticks, tricks and Christmas jumpers for the Year 8 – 13 girls. The chilly morning was rounded off by delicious hot chocolate for all!

Our St Leonards boys and girls compete for the school in an array of sports and Daniel Greenwood has added another impressive accolade to our list. The Year 10 student has been selected to represent Scotland in the Under 15's Ice Hockey Team. As well as continuing his preparation for GCSEs, he will be travelling to international tournaments over the next few months. Good luck Daniel!

ITALIAN AB INITIO

PARLIAMO ITALIANO | Sixth Formers at St Leonards who have been learning Italian from scratch had a taste of undergraduate life when they joined a class of St Andrews University students of Italian. Catherine Bouchard, Kirsty Thomson, Sam Osborne, Alex Eccles, Alisha Young and Meggie Gibbins have chosen Italian ‘ab initio’ as part of their two-year International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Their teacher at St Leonards, Mario Prisco, said: “Our Year 13 students brilliantly gave presentations about several different Italian cities and were involved in a subsequent discussion. At the end there was fun with a quiz. It was a challenge for our pupils to present in a foreign language that they’d only started learning just over a year ago, and they were great.” Dr Prisco said the combined lesson at the University was held with first-year students who had studied Italian in their schools. He said: “We plan to continue this ‘school and gown’ partnership by having two joint lessons each academic year.”

ECONOMICS CONFERENCE

ECONOMICS CONFERENCE | The Year 13 Economics class travelled to Loretto in November to attend an Economics Conference. Organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), there were a number of interesting talks for students covering topics such as the future of the Eurozone and the Scottish Independence debate. The students also participated in careers workshops and gave presentations that were highly praised. A profitable day ‘out of the office’!

ST NICHOLAS DAY

ST NICHOLAS SERVICE | Held in St Leonard’s Chapel, St Nicholas Day was celebrated in style by our younger pupils on Tuesday, 6 December. The afternoon service included German readings as well as carols from the Year 7 Choir. Final year student Bjorn Franke coached the Junior School class in the run up to their performance, practising the traditional German St Nicholas carol. This marked the end of their first taster term learning German, finding chocolates from St Nicholas in their shoes!

CHRISTMAS FAIR

GIFTS GALORE | Thank you to everyone who visited the Junior School Christmas Fair. Bustling from the beginning, ‘The Avenue’ stalls with beautiful gifts, Santa's grotto, the children's stands and the Parents Association Retreat Café were a huge hit! A grand total of £1150 was raised on the day – all the proceeds going to the Save the Children appeal to support desperate children in Aleppo, Syria and Yemen. Well done to everyone involved, including our CAS students and a big thank you to our fabulous Parents Association for organising the Winter Wonderland event – here are some photographic highlights.

TUDOR CHRISTMAS

TUDOR CHRISTMAS | Our Year 8 History class were busy bees in the last week of term – in keeping with their Tudor topic, they formed a production line, creating traditional and rather beautiful Tudor Pomander Christmas gifts. They decorated their oranges with ribbon and cloves – why, I hear you ask? From the middle ages to the 1700s, pomanders were carried and held to the nose or hung in rooms to ward off bad smells, freshen clothes and act as a perfume. They were also believed to prevent illness and infectious diseases, and these oranges studded with cloves and rolled in spices were a popular item at the Tudor court. If you received a Tudor Christmas Pomander, do please cherish it!

CHRISTMAS MIX CONCERT

CHRISTMAS MIX | Another highlight of the autumn calendar, the Christmas Mix was once again, a joy to watch. All the usual festive favourites were enjoyed, including Christmas performances from the Folk Band, Jazz Band, Show Choir & Concert band. An outstanding close-harmony swing setting of Jingle Bells a la the Puppini Sisters was delivered by Iona Mclean, Ines Hayward-Daventry and Olivia Carslaw, and of course, Love's Angels' rendition of Carol of the Bells. There was also a selection of non-festive pieces including Albinoni's Adagio in G minor, played on the violin and the piano, Ave Maria performed by the voice of an angel, Olivia Carslaw, at her final Christmas Mix - this is the same piece that she sang in her first Christmas Mix in Year 8.

The audience participated in style, jangling their keys along to the beat 'Sleigh Ride' piano duet, and singing the concert out with an encore of White Christmas. A wonderful evening enjoyed by all.

SENIOR SCHOOL CHRISTMAS LUNCH

TURKEY AND TRIMMINGS | Festive cheer was experienced in the CDR in the last week of term, as our Senior School and Sixth Form students enjoyed their Christmas Lunch. The decorations were up, party hats were on and all the boys and girls enjoyed turkey and the trimmings! Thank you to Laura and her catering team for a scrumptious festive meal!

MERCY'S VISIT

MERCY'S VISIT | On Tuesday, 13 December, Year 12 student Rhiannon Scott and her tutor group welcomed Mercy Sakala to school. Mercy is the Deputy Head of Kazemba Primary School in Zambia and she travelled to St Andrews to understand our teaching methods, with the hope of implementing some of these in her own school, and improving the overall standard of education in Zambia.

The Year 12 tutor group researched the St Andrews University programme, Volunteer Zambia, and as a result focused their CAS project on fundraising for Mercy’s school. They organised collection points for donations of stationery items, which were handed to Mercy. She spent the day at St Leonards, being interviewed by students and joining some of the classes in the Junior and Senior School. Thank you to everyone who donated to Project Zambia.

D&T DRAGONS DEN

DRAGONS' DEN | Before the joyful Carol Service at Holy Trinity Church to mark the end of a busy term, some St Leonards Year 8 students had a very important task to present to the ‘Design & Technology Dragons’ Den’. Once again, Head of Art & Design, Donna Rae set the brief of creating a logo and packaging for a product of pupils' own choice. The assignment involved a series of processes including researching different logos to develop ideas, experimentation, and teamwork to decide on the best design, documenting every step in their sketchbooks.

Once happy with their chosen design, the students had to present to the judging panel 'Dragons'. ‘Super Studz’, ‘Froca’, ‘Robotic Prosthetics’, ‘Fleur de Lis’ and ‘Pet’s Delights’ were the varied range of products reviewed, from chocolates, to sports shoe boxes, to a prosthetic arm kit! After a very difficult decision, the Dragons crowned Super Studz the winners (Archie Clarke, Robbie Logan, David de Woolf, Zak Kunwar). The judges felt they clearly understood the brief and tackled it well, delivering a seamless pitch. This school competition gave a taste of how graphic design is used in businesses. Well done to all the teams who took part, and roll on next term’s challenge!

CAROL SERVICE

CAROL SERVICE | Holy Trinity Church on South Street, St Andrews, looked magical as ever at this time of year as our boys and girls skipped down South Street to take their seats. Thank you to all who attended the beautiful service, to the readers and the choir - you were all truly wonderful! A special thank you to Mrs Love, our inspirational Director of Music. The retiring collection was divided between Holy Trinity Church and to the Lucie Blackman Trust in memory of Former Pupil Antoine Maury (1994-2016).

TERM END

TERM END | The last day of term would not have been complete without a Christmas jumper! Pupils AND staff came into school on the final day sporting their favourite festive knit, raising money for Project Zambia! Here are some photographs to prove it!