the

wo o d l e i g h a n
Issue 2 - Summer 2006
OLLIE DALES To create her work, Ollie Dales used cartridge paper and black, blue, purple, red, orange, yel-
ABSTRACT (above) low and pink chalk pastels to create the image. Lines were then drawn and cut every three
pastel, 70 x 50 cm 2006 centimetres. The image was rearranged until a striking work emerged.

 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term

{CONTENTS}
{NEWS} 4 FLOOD!
Awash with change at Woodleigh
B Y T O M B A R C L AY

{ F E AT U R E S } 6 MIND BOGGLING
What’s in your rock pool?
BY LOT T I E S I M P S O N

{ARTS} 8 ENJOYING FOOD

Do you believe in healthy eating?
BY L AU R A R O B E R T S O N -T I E R N E Y

{MUSIC} 13 BRANCHING OUT

Which is your favourite tree?
B Y T O M B A R C L AY

{FOLIO} 22 HEAVE!
Revealing the secrets of Tug of War
BY L E W I S W E LC H

{WOODLEIGH} 24 FILLING IN TIME

The world of drumming
BY ALEX MILLER

{SPORT} 26-33 SCORE!

Highlights from fixtures this year
B Y S TA F F W R I T E R S

{GALLERY } 34 THE JUNIOR BALL

Top outfits
B Y S TA F F P H O T O G R A P H E R S

Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 

NOAH’S
WOODLEIGH
The changing landscape at
woodleigh doesn’t faze the new
wildlife
By TOM BARCLAY YEAR SEVEN
IN MAY no one was going down to the
pitch for a few days. The field on the way
down to the pitches was a lake with the
occasional swimming duck and muddy
island under a tree. But our friends the
flock of sheep got trapped on a small is-
land underneath a tree. Some got into the
school grounds and had a good munch on
some daffodils and other plants around
school. Total havoc! The larger rams were
scaring younger children or younger chil-
dren were scaring the larger rams, I can’t
quite remember.
I have spoken to one of the mother
sheep affected by the floods and she said
“The weather is always changing around
here. Sometimes you are freezing your tail
off in snow, sometimes you are swimming
to save your lambs and sometimes you are
roasting and trying to jump in a water
trough. The worst weather was when it
flooded, the water could have swept away
a fully grown ram.” I asked her lamb how
she was affected and she replied, “Baa!”
At the Garden Fete the traditional duck
race was cancelled. I was going to win. I
had trained for months with ‘Quackers’
building up to the race. The good thing
was that we got to play more Danish Long
Ball, swimming (in the swimming pool
not in the flood) and Football on the new
 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
court. For some people that was bad, but
you can’t play cricket all the time.
Careful to escape the floods are a few
new faces at school in the last year, and
they are either covered in feathers or fur.
Not pupils! Lucy the Labrador puppy is
not such a small puppy and is now just
over a year old. She is not as big as Millie
and Molly, yet. She has a few more friends
now as there is Rocky the cockerel and
Ginger the guinea fowl. Rocky and Gin-
ger are never more than two metres away
from each other. They chase puppies and
people together. They are partners in
crime.
There are even more fowl around
since three ducklings hatched. After being
in the incubator for 28 days. I’m sure they
will be chasing things soon. When they
hatched, they looked very big and you
could hardly see how they could have fit-
ted in an egg. Once the ducklings are out
of the heat lamp they had better look out
for Langton the cat. She remains prime
suspect for injuring Rocky and Ginger
in a previous incident. But now Rocky
knows how to deal with cats and Rocky
protects Ginger, as he wouldn’t want his
best friend to get hurt. I hope that Rocky
and Ginger will mother the ducklings a
bit until they get used to school.
Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 
There’s something moving in that rockpool
By LOTTIE SIMPSON & ALEX MACHEN YEAR FIVE
ONE Friday in June all of year five went
to the beach for a school trip to Boggle
Hole near Robin Hood’s Bay.
This term we are studying sea crea-
tures and the sea shore. We did a lot of
work at the beach.
We measured the length between the
cliffs and the sea. Every five metres we
stopped and put down a square of wood
called a quadrat.
 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
We wrote down in great detail what
was in the square. We even wrote about
the seaweed. We did this twice.
We looked at fossils, different types of
seaweed and different types of shellfish.
We also took two buckets to keep
crabs in and realised that different types
of crabs didn’t always go together hap-
pily.
We also looked for fossils. At first they
were difficult to see, but once the tide had
started to go out we found a lot.
Mr Woolley found a perfect worm fos-
sil and Fred Weeks and Edward Meggin-
son found devil’s toenails.
Near the rocks we saw a lot of crabs –
most of them were shore crabs. We played
in the rock pools before we came back to
school and I managed to get completely
soaked.
 Pirate podcast rocks
Fridays at Woodleigh
By BEN KNOWLSON YEAR EIGHT
HOSTED by Ben Knowlson, Edward
Bloom, Tom Barclay and Thomas Turn-
er, the ‘Pirates of Woodleigh’ podcasting
radio show hijacked Langton’s airwaves.
Almost. The show was recorded live each
Friday evening and uploaded as a podcast
onto the Itunes website.
Mr Tolkien helped with the computer
while Ben, Ed, Tom and Thomas were
running and designing the show. The
show went live every Friday night from
6-7pm.
There was a weekly quiz, top ten
tunes, top ten cars and a debate. Every
week there was a new guest on the show.
We had Mr Hardy and Mel the matron
taking the quiz.
Later in the term the show featured
live sessions. These included Miles Mur-
kett with his guitar and Olivia and Char-
lotte singing a duet. Ben Knowlson also
performed a special falsetto ‘guess that
tune.’
ROCKPOOL Finds
l Hermit crabs
l Starfish
l Fossils
l Limpets
l Sea anemones
l Sea lettuce
l Rocks
l Sea snails
A lot of work went into the show, in-
cluding over 45 minutes of setting it up
and sound checks and hours of heated
debate over the running order and show
contents.
The show nearly never happened.
Only one week before the first show one
of the mixers decided to blow up leaving
only one week to get a new mixer in or-
der for the show to go ahead. (The mixer
did arrive, but only on the morning of the
show). Every Friday evening the produc-
ers and presenter stayed cool, even when
the guests were turning up late.
After all the hard work all the shows
went ahead and it was great fun. I think
everyone had a good time and all the
viewers and crew loved the final quiz item
- ‘guess the flush’. (Especially Thomas’ re-
marks when the toilet flooded on him).
Pirates of Woodleigh is available on
broadband streaming on the internet
from Itunes.
Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 
Eat to live or live to eat?
Ed Bloom sparks a healthy eating debate
By LAURA ROBERTSON-TIERNEY & MILES MURKETT YEARS SEVEN & EIGHT
AT THE recent Rotary Club Youth Speaks public speaking con-
test at Lady Lumleys School in Pickering, Woodleigh were licking
their lips. Our main speaker was Edward Bloom, who performed
an extremely well written and prepared speech about how we
should enjoy food and not worry about how many calories it has
in or if it will take a few years off our lives.
We told our school cook Edward’s views on food and she was
very strongly against most of the things he said in his speech,
almost to the point of concerned outrage.
Edward believes that we should eat what we want to eat, not
what we are made to think we should eat. We should not feel
guilty about what we eat, where we eat, when we eat or why we
eat. Edward says ‘who cares if fatty food might take a few years
off your life’. Cookie’s answer to that is that she does care if fatty
food is going to stop her, or any of the people that she is going to
make her gorgeous food for, live for a shorter amount of time.
Cookie is not concerned that 60% of people do not like veg-
etables, she still puts them as a large part of all her meals. She
thinks that it is essential that children get all the vitamins and
 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
nutrients they need into their diet, although she sometimes gets
frustrated when children do not eat her meals because each one
takes her five hours to prepare. Edward is one of those 60% that
do not like vegetables. He would much prefer to gorge out on an
unhealthy, fatty or meaty meal than have a serving of vegeta-
bles.
‘Avoid a solitary stuffed olive on a plate, mushrooms stir-
fried, chopped lettuce, peppers, radishes, celery and watercress
arranged artistically. It looks great. The colours are fantastic.
There’s so much texture. It must be good for you because the
magazine says so. But the taste is so boring.’ Those are the words
of Edward Bloom describing a healthy salad. His opinion is ab-
solutely clear, he finds healthy food boring and tasteless.
‘If you wish to eat the ground-up spine of a chicken or the
eyeballs of a fish in a fast food restaurant then feel free but how
many of these people actually know and understand what they
are eating? Have you ever thought about the process involved in
Mechanically Recovered Meat? How many people realise that
there is a higher chlorine content in a slice of wafer thin ham
 HEALTHY OR HEARTY?
l Wafer Thin Ham?
l
l
Stuffed olives?
Chicken nuggets?
l Stir-fried mushrooms?
than there is in the school swimming pool.’
On the other hand Cookie obviously thinks that fast food res-
taurants do not serve real food and that it is all made from the
stretchy, fatty, bony and gristly parts of meat and fish. She thinks
that people who eat fast food do not actually know completely
what they are eating.
Cookie believes that healthy food is the way forward and veg-
etables and salad should be served with every meal. According to
her the food that is served in fast food restaurants is total junk.
She makes every single meal that she prepares have at least one
serving of vegetables in and would never even consider serving
food that was made out of rubbish in her school dinners.
Completely on the other side of the fence, in fact quite a few
metres away from it, is Edward Bloom. He believes that people
should eat what they want and not be worried if it is going to
take a few years off their lives.
If people worry about how many calories they consume in
one day he laughs at them and just thinks of what the world
would be like if everyone was a complete health freak.
World Cup fever
hits Woodleigh
By ALAN LEE YEAR EIGHT
LOTS of the footballers in Woodleigh went crazy about the
world cup, even some of the staff. Even the people who didn’t
like football were watching it cheering England on.
When England played Paraguay, everyone was so excited.
When Beckham scored the winning goal by curling it around a
Paraguay defender headed it in to his own goal, everybody was
jumping around and shouting.
Some of the children went to Germany and watched the foot-
ball match. They got to miss school! When we were all in the bus
going to Fyling Hall Mr Woolley had the radio on full blast listen-
ing to football. When England scored Mr Woolley went crazy,
pipping the horn to all the other drivers.
At school now everyone is talking about football whether it
be England, Brazil, or France. The new French girls were watch-
ing the French match. At night when the borders watch the foot-
ball they get to stay up until the match has finished.
At school lots of people thought England will win. But the
others are saying stop being optimistic, Brazil will win the world
cup again!
Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 

2006 party makes a splash
By ROB MEWBURN YEAR SEVEN
THE GARDEN party was a big success
for the friends of Woodleigh and raised
£1500. The only let down was the weath-
er. Highlights included the Louise Pollard
photography stall, Mrs Robinson’s duck
catching, Mrs Turner’s chocolate foun-
tain and Miss Legard’s and Mrs Green’s
spectacular food.
This year’s event took place in the
Gym, and despite the rain went on to
raise over £1500 for the school.
Clayton Hill, in year 7 said: “I think
10 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
TOP stalls
l Hidden bottles
l Bouncy castle
l BB Shooting
that the garden party was very good be- l Bobbing for apples
cause we raised a lot more money than
the years before, and there were stalls l Chocolate fountain
for every one meaning there were stalls
for children and adults.” He enjoyed the l Sponge throwing
sponge throw because he could get re-
venge on people, and he said that it looked l Sweet stall
like every one enjoyed the party because
every one was walking around with a l Duck pond
smile on their faces. Clayton also thought
that there was only one thing bad about it l Make-up salon
and it was the weather.
TOP BREAKFASTS
l des céréales Bon appétit Year Four!
l croissants
By CHARLES SAUNDERS YEAR FOUR
l pain au chocolat

l du pain brioche IN THE Autumn term in a Saturday

French Lesson, year four had a French
l du pain breakfast in the school dining room.
In lessons in previous weeks we learnt
l un café noir the words for different breakfast foods,
drinks, crockery and cutlery.
l des tartines We practised some polite phrases in
French to ask for more or to ask people to
l un jus d’orange pass things to us at the table.
We drank hot chocolate from bowls,
l un yaourt which was fun, and we didn’t use plates.
We ate croissants, brioche, French bread,
pain au chocolat and French jam and but-
ter.
Some people even dipped their bread
in their hot chocolate like French chil-
dren do.
I think it was super. Everything was
so delicious. Some people got so stuffed
they couldn’t eat their lunch.
After this we learned how to order
food and drink from a cafe. We also prac-
tised a role play from memory which we
made menus for and then videoed.
Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 11
12 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
Excitement and
danger as long as
it’s safe
By TOM BARCLAY YEAR SEVEN
ACTIVITIES at Woodleigh are endless.
Riding, swimming, wargaming, judo,
climbing trees, underground dens and
pottery only scratch the surface of what
there is to do.
Personally, I like to go and climb the
difficult trees in break-times with George
Boyes, Mark Thomas and Alex Miller.
The thrill is making targets and achiev-
ing them, but being with my friends is the
part I like best of all.
You can only climb trees with the per-
mission of a teacher in case there is an
accident falling from the tree. Break can
fly by when you are enjoying yourself
with the range of outdoor activities in the
school grounds.
There’s football on the outdoor court,
Tennis, Cricket in the nets, the adventure
playground and badminton in the gym.
But my favourite is climbing. It can be
dangerous, but if you check every branch
before you go on, it’s safe and fun. But
it’s good to have a friend with you, just in
case.
George Boyes, ace tree climber, said: “I
like climbing. It gives me muscles. I also
like the excitement of jumping off.”
Ted Foster and I were half way up a
tree and we both fell, but I grabbed on to
a branch and Ted grabbed on to my leg.
Then my shoe fell off.
Ted was fine and he wanted to do it
again, but if I had done my shoelaces tight
enough he would have not fallen. It was
funny - we were both laughing - it was a
very small tree.
Now I always tie my laces up. Tight.
TOP 5 trees
1
This tree is very easy to climb and
l there are a lot of safe branches.
2
l This tree has a large platform built
into it. The views are great!
3
This tree has blossom in the sum-
l mer. Your clothes will get orange.
4
This tree is near the outside dens
l and can be quite difficult to climb.
5
This is a good tree but you will
l need a leg up.
Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 13
Over 60 and still going strong
By MRS MURKETT ACTIVITY WEEKENDS
ACTIVITY weekends were originally Mr
England’s idea. They allow children to
have experiences which are impossible
on the school premises. From the first ex-
perimental weekend, more than ten years
ago, we have carried on at the rate of five
or six per year. Recently we reached the
60th such weekend.
I, personally, have had some fantastic
experiences over the years and feel lucky
to have been involved.
We have spent many weekends in the
Lakes, the Peak District and the North
Yorks Moors. This has given opportuni-
ties for outdoor activities such as walk-
ing, climbing, cycling, canoeing, sailing,
caving, fishing and camping.
Other weekends have included city
visits to London, Edinburgh, Liverpool,
Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford and, of course,
York. In these cities we have explored art
galleries, museums, historic monuments,
shows, plays and 3D cinema.
There have been weekends of out-
standing achievement. The Woodleigh-
Woodleigh walk/cycle/run events in-
volved travelling 50 miles from the
14 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
school’s original base near Hull. We have
completed the three Yorkshire Peaks walk
twice. We have also canoed down the Riv-
er Derwent. The Wolds Way was walked
over two weekends.
Extraordinary outdoor moments have
occurred, such as: hard-won and breath-
taking views, snowstorms and thunder-
storms, sitting behind waterfalls, leaps of
faith from telegraph poles, catching and
cooking wild fish, camp fires and al fresco
cookery, traversing weirs, water-skiing in
the sunshine and crawling through icy
water into caves full of crystals.
There are more memories from indoor
events such as the Wizard of Oz in Leeds,
Fame in London, or the Chinese State Cir-
cus. We have painted in the Tate Gallery
in Liverpool, visited Edinburgh Castle
and the Tower of London, and seen dino-
saurs in the Natural History Museum. We
have been ice skating, swimming, bowl-
ing and ghost hunting in the catacombs of
Edinburgh.
Recently, on our 60th anniversary
weekend, an intrepid group walked across
Morecambe Bay, following the Queen’s
guide, Cedric Robinson. He guided us
through the treacherous quicksands and
shifting river channels. It was a spectacu-
larly beautiful and awe-inspiring place.
Through being involved with Activ-
ity Weekends with children we have seen
individual achievements, team work and
acts of friendship. We have seen children
developing understanding, skills and con-
fidence.
It has become an important way of ex-
ploring our world and a way of making
education an exciting adventure. Above
all, it has been 60 weekends of fun.
RECENT ACTIVITIES
l Wet, Wet, Wet - national water sports
centre, Nottingham
l Exploring York - including Theatre
Royal workshop
l London Weekend - including Fame
and National History Museum
l Morecambe
Falls
Bay - including Ingleton
 TOP 10
first camp
MOMENTS by
years 6 & 7
l Dean’s spectacular nose bleed graffiti
on Thomas’ tent
The hotly contested rafting
l competition between the boys
and girls. Who won?
l Deep river wading and a severe
soaking
l An impromptu football match won
12-0 by Woodleigh
l Will Megginson managed to
free ice cream!
get a
l Louis Knowlson’s amazing goal
l Water fights in the lake
l Going cycling down exhilarating hills
l Olivia’s amazing capsize recovery in
the middle of Lake Windemere
l Tom Saunders jumped into mud -
waist deep - finding a football
Raft of fun on camp
By TOM SAUNDERS, BECKY SOANES & GRACE MURKETT YEAR SIX
FIRST camp started with a splash. When
I woke up in the morning, I saw blood
marks all over the door to my tent.
Then when all the other people in my
tent woke up Dean started gabbling out,
“I had a massive nose bleed last night,
Saunders! I was shaking you like hell but
you wouldn’t wake up!” He showed me
all the blood marks on his sleeping bag
which were even bigger than the ones on
the tent door.
Louis and Horsley gave even more de-
tails, most of which I didn’t really want
to know and Dean just kept repeating the
same thing.
When we went raft building it was
boys against girls and the girls had a good
design that didn’t fall apart but the boys
had a rubbish design that fell apart. The
girls did well because they worked togeth-
er, the boys did really badly because they
were shouting at each other.
The girls did actually win because
Clayton swam off the raft to touch the
buoy. Then when one of the other boys
touched the buoy Clayton wasn’t on the
raft and when the girls touched it all of
them were on it, so they won.
The boys then said they won even
though they didn’t really. It was clear to
see that the girls had the better built raft.
On Tuesday we went on a long up hill
bike ride. For lunch we stopped next to a
tranquil lake.
There after we had lunch we played
in the lake and had water fights it was re-
ally fun. And most of us didn’t have spare
clothes so we rode back soaking wet!
Good thing it was a warm day.
On the way back, we stopped off at
some shops and went shopping! Although
we only had fifteen minutes, we got quite
a lot of shopping done.
On the way back the mini bus that
Mrs Murkett was driving broke down for
an unknown reason. Luckily the hill we
broke down on had a very helpful garage
at the bottom along with a play ground.
When the rescue bus came there was
only enough room for half to fit in so Mrs
Soanes came to pick up the other half, but
Mrs Murkett and her daughter were left
behind because they couldn’t fit. Miss Le-
gard kindly picked them up.
Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 15
Did you guess the ghost in this year’s
Cabaret in a Day?
By CASSIE BATTYE YEAR EIGHT
THIS year’s Cabaret in a Day was a Mrs
Murkett and Mr Hardy spectacular loosely
based on the story of the Woodleigh ghost
and set in the world of Scooby- Doo.
Ed Bloom played Fred, Laura Robert-
son-Tierney was super sleuth Velma and
Charlie Allenby captured the essence of
Shaggy. Can you guess Mr England’s sur-
prise part , only revealed at the end?
The house plays this year featured a
scene from the BFG by Roald Dahl.
16 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
In the play, Sophie has a good idea be-
cause she wants to stop the giants eating
children. She is going to make a dream fit
for a Queen so she believes in giants and
stops the giants eating children.
Each house worked very hard on scen-
ery, props, learning lines and on creating
a different interpretation of the play.
Elements from all the house perform-
ances were cast in a super show for the
end of term.
The musical in a day in the Autumn
term was called ‘Noah and his floating
zoo’. The cast performed to a packed audi-
ence in the school’s recently refurbished
Jubilee Hall.
The animals, played by years five and
six, danced onto a spectacular 40ft ark,
two by two.
Directed by Mrs Anna Myatt, the play
followed the Bible story closely in eight
scenes and four acts.
Creative projects weave magic into
Woodleigh Art lessons
By GEORGE BOYES & LEWIS RYAN YEAR SEVEN
ART at Woodleigh is my favourite sub-
ject. Year seven have been weaving with
cloth, cotton wool, fish nets and wool. It
all looks very colourful and bright.
Year four have been using leaves and
paint to print pictures of chickens. Year
eight have been doing some good work.
They have been scoring the shape of a
plant and colouring them in with chalk.
However year eight are not the only
year group that have been doing this,
years four, five and six have been doing
this.
Year eight have also been doing some
ink prints using a roller, pieces of card and
coloured paint. Years seven have made
drawings from pastels. After they drew
the pictures they cut them into stripes
and re-arranged them.
The next step was sticking them on to
a blank sheet of paper and then they saw
what their project would look like. They
were all very ‘funky’.
The pupils that have been going to ex-
tra art are making some trees from card,
and then painting them white. Much art-
work has been made for the leaver’s play,
which is at the end of the term.
Over this past year a lot of work has
gone into organising art projects and all
pupils have put a lot of work into doing
the projects. I’m really looking forward to
Art next year.
Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 17
18 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
NURSERY & RECEPTION
RYEDALE FOLK MUSEUM (photo)
spring term 2006

We washed clothes using a dolly tub

and dolly stick. Soap was grated into the
water. We also used bats and a mangle
to get the water out of the washing. Lat-
er on we changed the bed and emptied
out the chamber pot!

Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 19

YEAR FIVE
FIREWORKS NIGHT (below)
autumn term 2005
performance poetry
by Alex Machen & Fred Weeks

A mountain of exploding rockets booming like a fierce cannon.

A riot of big and small sparks blooming like a beautiful red rose.
A hill of firewood melting like an enormous wax candle.
The shine of glow sticks glimmering in the black hole of the night.
A pile of sticky toffee apples daring and red.
Sparklers shimmering like the light of the moon.
An orange flame spitting like a ferocious beast.

20 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term

BOARDERS
PAINTING WITH GLOWSTICKS (photo)
autumn term 2005
bonfire night
by Dean Jackson and Jason Birkett

YEAR FOUR
THE WINTER WIND (below)
spring term 2006
creative writing
by Oliver Hudson

The winter wind

A wave of Christmas through the land,

freezes over the ice.

A pelting tornado of icy stones

Brings stabs of frozen sleet.

Waves of hailstones come like the sea,

In unceasing driving torrents.

Snowy showers and icy storms

Chill you to the bone.

Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 21

 YEAR EIGHT
TUG OF WAR (photo)
summer term 2005
non fiction writing
by Lewis Welch

Tug of war is surely the most stressful, most difficult and the most tactical sport on the
planet. Teachers and coaches all over Yorkshire obsess over exactly how to win.
Woodleigh School is no different and hosts a tug of war competition once a year in
sports day. All of the houses, north, east, south and west go against each other. They
all want to win, it’s one of the last of the sports events but the one that is the most
enjoyable and competitive.
Last year the year eights were much bigger than this year’s year eight but the de-
termination of each house to win it will be as strong and big as ever. Last year south
won it, who had some of the biggest people in the school, like Anthony Hibberd, Sun-
ny Chan, and Ed Procter, so it wasn’t that hard for south but this year, everybody in year
eight is almost the same height so the competition will be fierce.
When we asked Jason Birkett some questions about tug of war he said“ I don’t
know much about tug of war, I think there are nine in a team, but I’m just guessing I
might be wrong. I also think that the person at the back of the rope which I’m pretty
sure is called the anchor, should be a big and strong man. I’ve only done tug of war
twice in two years and that’s at sports day”.
I also asked Mr England and he said, “ I’m sure there are eight people in a tug of war
team as I’ve been doing tug of war competitions since 1991. I do tug of war twice a
year once at sports day where the staff, the parents and the children go against each
other and another time at Huntington stadium with all the other schools in the area”.
The best position to be in, in a game of tug of war, is with your heel dug into the
ground put the other leg slightly bent and the foot pointing to the side. To try and
increase the grip spit on your hands and rub them together, then your hands will grip
the rope tighter. I would put the biggest and strongest person as the anchor. Biggest
point of all… Pull as hard as you can!

Woodleigh tug of war dream team:

At the back – Thomas Turner; and the rest –
Jason Birkett , Alan Lee, Lewis Welch, George Harrison, Clayton Hill, Brad White
and Rhys Smith.

22 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term

Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 23
Drumming hits all the
right notes at Woodleigh
By ALEX MILLER YEAR SEVEN
THERE is a new craze hitting Woodleigh
– drumming! Alex Miller, Jemma Bryson
and Kyden Woodhead are especially good.
Guy Welch, Tom Hoggard, Henry Blun-
dell and George Mewburn are the latest
young guns in year five. But why is it so
popular?
Alex Miller has been playing the
drums for three years, as has Rhys Smith.
Most pupils take drum exams which can
be quite hard.
The teachers at the school help you
learn to read drum music. The drummer
is always the most important player in the
band as they keep the rhythm.
The drummers are all desperate to
play in rock bands. Rhys Smith will prob-
ably be in a band if he keeps up his amaz-
24 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
ALEX’S PLAYLIST
Sugar we’re going down by Fall out
l boy
l Nevertheless by Nevertheless
l The Obvious Child by Paul Simon
ing work. He is a wicked drummer. Alex
Miller hopes he will be in a band when he l Dani California by Red Hot Chilli
Peppers
is about 14.
Alex Miller is on grade three and l Instant Karma by John Lennon
Rhys Smith is on grade two. Alex Miller
doesn’t like doing grades as he finds it l Vertigo by U2
hard. George Mewbern is on grade one
but he has just started. l Living on a prayer by Bon Jovi
Mr Hardy the drum teacher is a qual-
ity drummer. Alex Miller said, “I started
playing the drums because my cousin l All the small things
Blink 182
plays the drums and he’s a drummer and
he’s really cool. Hopefully drumming will
make me famous.” l Sweet dreams are made of this by
Marilyn Manson
Kyden also said “I love drumming be-
cause it is fun and improves my rhythm, I l Enter sandman - Metallica
also like making lots of noise so this is the
right instrument for me.”
 highlights
Packed York Minster created an
l amazing atmosphere for the show
l Laura Robertson-Tierney reading
‘The Brook’ by Alfred Tennyson
l Spectacular bell ringing
l The Lord Mayor in full regalia
The school band playing four songs
l including Dear Lord and Father
l Amazing choral singing by many
different schools
l Weeks of practising made
worthwhile
l AYorklargeMultiple
amount of money raised for
Sclerosis society
Reading about the event in the local
l newspaper
School band plays in
packed York Minster show
By BEN KNOWLSON & THOMAS TURNER YEAR EIGHT
WOODLEIGH school band have played
on many outings, including the school’s
cabaret in a day and last year’s appear-
ance on the television at Durham school.
However this was the big one. The
band was invited to play in a charity con-
cert at York Minster and they accepted
the invitation.
The Minster was full and there were
over 200 people that came to listen. The
service lasted about one and a half hours
and Woodleigh band only played for a
short time.
The band practised for weeks for
the trip out and they played four songs,
which were, Dear Lord and Father, Coun-
try Jaunt, Razzmatazz and Dreaming.
However although we only played a
couple of songs one member of the band
had an extra duty and had to read a poem
in front of all the 200 people.
The poem that Laura read was called
‘The Brook’ and was read very well.
There was not just Woodleigh band
playing there were a lot more perform-
ances, which included bell ringers, chil-
dren singing, charity workers singing and
lots of different poems and hymns were
sung and read.
It was a brilliant day out for all of the
band and their families and it was a very
brilliant experience.
Mr Hardy said “it was a brilliant con-
cert – I was definitely glad that the band
had the time to come and play - it was re-
ally worth it.”
Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 25
Tournaments in
thrilling finale
By BEN KNOWLSON YEAR EIGHT
PHILIP Johnston led the tournaments
this year by winning three different com-
petitions.
On the first day of the summer term
all the students who wished to take part
signed up their name for which competi-
tion they wanted to enter.
There are various competitions to
enter. The choices were: - Badminton,
snooker, tennis, chess and table tennis.
All of the competitions are separated into
junior and senior, apart from the chess.
The results: in the final of the senior
badminton it was Alan Lee V Brad White
and the winner was Alan.
In the senior snooker final Brad played
George Harrison and Brad won.
The junior badminton final was Tho-
mas Lee V Philip Johnston and Philip
26 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
TOURNAMENT
won convincingly.
In the junior snooker final Philip
RESULTS
played Andrew Chapman and the winner Senior tournaments
was once again, Philip.
The junior tennis had a funny ending,
Oliver Medforth had to play his brother l Tennis - Joe Robinson
Chess - Jason Birkett
Edward Medforth, but big bro won. (Ol- Badminton - Alan Lee
iver) Table Tennis - Brad White
In the chess final Alan played Jason Snooker - Brad White
Birkett and Jason Birkett prevailed.
Thomas had to face Philip again in the Junior tournaments
final of junior table – tennis and Philip
was again victorious.
In the senior table – tennis Rob Mew- l Tennis - Oliver Medforth
Snooker - Philip Johnston
burn faced snooker champion Brad and Table Tennis - Philip Johnston
Brad won. Junior Badminton - Philip Johnston
For the second year in a row Brad
faced Joe in the final of senior tennis and
as usual Joe Robinson was victorious.
 Great day for
U13 cricketers
By ROB MEWBURN YEAR SEVEN
THIS YEAR’S Worsley Cup was played in
glorious sunshine and Woodleigh started
brightly against Greshams. Brad White
(16no) and George Harrison (32no) bat-
ted well but we still didn’t score quickly
enough and sixty eight was a hard total
to defend especially when they had a fan-
tastic number three batsman who enabled
them to score the runs with an over to
spare.
Then we came up against Castle B.
Again we batted first and we scored
eighty one, there were some good knocks
from Joe Robinson (14) and Louis White
(16). There was some good bowling and
fielding all round with Jack Redfern tak-
ing 3-14 restricting Castle from getting
the runs.
We came up against a good St. Olaves
side next, and we batted first. Our total
again wasn’t easy to defend we ended up
with fifty three runs and it was a good
come back from Ted Foster (23) and Rob
Mewburn (17no). St. Olaves knocked the
runs off with two overs to spare.
We got through to the plate and we
came across Terrington Hall who we
lost against earlier on in the season. This
match was six six ball overs we ended up
with forty seven. There were some good
innings from Brad White (9) and Rob
Mewburn (25no).
There was some brilliant bowling and
fielding from the team - the two open-
ers bowled excellently; Will Megginson
bowling a brilliant length and Jack Red-
fern taking wickets (4-3) at the other end.
Clayton Hill’s awesome catching at silly
mid off helped. We got them for twenty
runs.
We were then in the plate final against
Howsham Hall who we lost to earlier on
in the season. It was a very close game but
that was in the past. We batted first again
and scored sixty one runs with some good
batting from Joe Robinson (23no) and
Rob Mewburn (16). But it still wasn’t
enough and they knocked the runs off
with an over to spare. The main thing
that let us down was our fielding.
Our Woodleigh team did brilliantly
at this tournament with some fantastic
bowling from the bowlers. Our high-
est wicket taker was Jack Redfern with
nine wickets. This was a fantastic day for
Woodleigh cricket, and one all the players
will no doubt remember for a long time.
Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 27
Great U11s
By CANDY FONG & JEMMA BRYSON YEAR EIGHT
THE GIRLS’ teams have had a roller
coaster season this year.
In the Autumn term 2005 the U11 net-
ball team started the year losing the first
few matches. The scores varied around
how much the team lost by, sometimes it
was close and other times it was hard to
accept.
When they got into the swing of the
game later in the year, they started win-
ning some matches. The team drew twice
and won twice. The teams highest win
for our team was 20-1 against St Martins
school, a real achievement.
During the season there was a huge
U11 netball tournament at Queen Mar-
garet’s school which featured schools
from all over the country. Our team was
on fire winning most of our matches,
28 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
which earned us a 3rd place out of 20
other schools around the area! of their matches. The worst loss they had
Mrs Johnston was overwhelmed with
the team’s efforts, and bought everyone
pencil sets. This year Ollie Dales was the
proud captain of the team.
In the same term the U9 team started
off winning the first of their matches,
which really impressed all the other
schools. They carried this on winning
throughout the season, without losing
any of their matches - all the other teams
were running scared.
The highest score was 9-0 against
Bramcote. Charlotte Horsley encouraged
their team to carry on winning. All the
teachers were extremely impressed with
the skill of the team.
The U9 and U10 rounders were joint
ages, and unfortunately didn’t win many
was 15 to 27 against Cundall.
They practised nearly all of games
time. In spite of a lot of encouragement
from the teachers they still didn’t win
many matches.
The U11 team won the majority of
their matches and were constantly prac-
tising. They didn’t always win by a lot
but they mainly kept beating all the other
teams and keeping a high standard as one
of the best teams around.
Their team captain was Charlotte
Firth. She encouraged the team to do well
and keep winning. Their best score was
13-6 against Lisvane, pretty impressive.
Let’s hope the good form continues
into next year.
Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 29
Injuries blight U13s
By MR MILLS RUGBY

THE POTENTIAL was there, sadly for most of the season the
personnel were not. Injuries and absences blighted our chances
and also led to a couple of shock defeats.
Even so, the season got off to an encouraging start with a
win over Read School, in which both wings managed a try. This
was followed by Red House Norton, who proved a much sterner
test beating us 19-10.
Things began to look up again with a good win over Ter-
rington. Two matches up at Aysgarth led to two defeats, but only
by the narrowest of margins. After a draw against Cundall, the
side were hoping for victory over Howsham. However, it was not
to be. So, yet another year goes by. 1983 was the last time we beat
Howsham. Surely it must be our turn again soon!
No time to dwell in the past and victory at last, beating Scar-
borough college in another exciting close match. The Christmas
term ended with a match against St. Martins Ampleforth, who,
on their arrival, greeted PBW with a birthday song in Latin.
Unfortunately their good will did not extend to the rugby pitch
and we were soundly beaten.
The second half of the season started with a solid win over
Fyling Hall. However, it soon went pear shaped. We ran out of
props for the match against Bramcote and they did have a strong
front row. Shock defeat!
Pocklington next, always a strong physical side. Hooray our
forwards put up a real fight (obviously stung by the previous
match or was it PTM’s tongue and boot?). O.K. so we lost, but
at least we competed and it ran really close - shame we were not
even at full strength.
Lochinvar House next, on tour from the south. Another real-
ly exciting, close match, with the school coming out top by three
points. Final match against Cundall away. Nothing exciting
about that, in fact a complete massacre in their favour.
As I wrote at the beginning, injuries to key players let us
down considerably, but there were many excellent individual
performances throughout the year and I hope all of this will be
put to good use next year as there are a few scores to settle.

Great start to football season

By JOE ROBINSON YEAR EIGHT

OUR competitive season started with a
loss to Bramcote. The score was 1-4. The
team was quietly disappointed and put
in heavy training sessions until the next
match v Minster.
Our practice paid off with three
straight wins Minster (5-3) Cundall (6-
4) and Minster (6-5). Our season took a
turn for the worse with five losses on the
bounce to Bramcote (0-4), Hurworth (1-
2), Queen Ethelburgas (0-4), Bramcote
(1-7), Asygarth (1-6).
Mid-season we pulled two great wins
out of the bag over Cundall (3-0) and
30 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
Ripon choir (1-0) we drew with Ter-
rington (1-1) and then beat Asygarth (5-
0) and Mowden Hall (3-0). Towards the
mid season we had a draw with Bramcote
(2-2), then we had a magnificent win at
the Spirit of Soccer tournament offset by
another draw - this time with Terrington
(2-2).
A downfall towards the end of the
season resulted with some key players in-
jured and general tiredness in the team.
We lost our last three tournament fixtures
to Fyling Hall (0-1), Read (0-6) and Cun-
dall (0-1).
Tough time
for U11
team
By WILL PROCTER YEAR FIVE

WOODLEIGH’S U11 footballers struggled this year against big-

ger and more powerful sides. First off, Woodleigh went to Bram-
cote’s tournament. Our first match was against Bramcote A
team. They had a very good team. We played nine games in the
tournament and we won three of them.
After the tournament the next match we played was against
Cundall A team. Cundall scored three goals in the first half and
we scored one still in the first half.
In the second half we came back into the game and the final
score was 5-4 to Cundall.
We then played Bramcote away again and Tom Hoggard
scored the opening goal. We lost our way and the final score was
6-2 to Bramcote.
Our next game was against Minster they scored three goals
and got an early lead. In the end the score was 7-1 to Minster.
The Under 11 B team were playing Asygarth. Asygarth got
two goals in the first half. Tom Hoggard, Will Procter and Oliver
Medforth came on and the final score was 3-3.
We played Terrington next and they had a pretty good team.
They scored two good goals in the first half. In the second half
they went to three nil up and then a miracle happened making
Tom Hoggard score two goals. In the end the final score was 3-2
to Terrington.
We played sixteen, lost twelve, won three and drew one, we
all played really well.
We are all really looking forward to next year when we should
have a really strong team made up of mainly year sixes.

Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 31

Close fought battle edged

TRACK RESULTS
Sports day winners:

l Years 3 & 4:
100m - John Soanes
200m - Charles Dales
400m - Edward Medforth
800m - Charlotte Horsely

l Years 5 & 6:
100m - George Mewburn
200m - Oliver Medforth
400m - Will Bennett-Baggs
800m - Will Bennett-Baggs
l Years 7 & 8:
100m - Miles Murkett
200m - Joe Robinson
400m - Joe Robinson
800m - Jason Birkett
32 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
By BEN KNOWLSON YEAR EIGHT
IN JUNE Woodleigh School hosted its annual sports day which
is another one of the many house events. There were four dif-
ferent house events and then each age group had various races,
which included the 100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres, 800 me-
tres, 4x100 metres and 4x400 metres.
There were also various field events such as the cricket ball
throw and the long jump.
Here are the results of the track events:- The years 3 and 4
100 metres was won by John Soanes, the years 5 and 6 was won
by East
by George Mewburn and the years 7 and 8 was won by Miles
Murkett.
The years 3 and 4 200 metres was won by Charles Dales, the
year 5 and 6 was won by Oliver Medforth and the year 7 and 8
was won by Joe Robinson.
The years 3 and 4 400 metres was won by Edward Medforth,
the years 5 and 6 was won by Will Bennet - Baggs and the years
7 and 8 was won by Joe Robinson.
The years 3 and 4 800 metres was won by Charlotte Horsley,
the years 5 and 6 was won by Will Bennet - Baggs and the
years 7 and 8 winner was Jason Birkett.
All of the races were ran brilliantly especially Miles Mur-
kett’s 100 metre race which he won in 13.16 seconds.
The winners of sports day were East, followed by West,
then South then North.
A big thanks to all the staff which organised the sports
day and made it run so smoothly and all of the athletes who
tried their best.
Summer term | No. 2 | the woodleighan | 33
Editors: Tom Barclay & Rob Mewburn

Sub Editors and writers: Ben Knowlson, Miles Murkett, Cassie Battye, Alex Miller, Will Megginson,
George Boyes, Mark Thomas, Laura Robertson-Tierney, Tom Saunders, Tom Stokoe, Thomas Turner, Lewis
Welch, Alan Lee, Lewis Ryan, Thomas Turner, Candy Fong, Jemma Bryson & Joe Robinson.

Design and layout by Mr Tom Tolkien

Photo credits: Mr Tolkien: pages 1, 3, 4, 5, 6-10, 12, 13, 16, 19, 20-34, 36
Miss Howitt: page 18. Thomas Saunders: page 15
Mrs Murkett: page 14. Mrs Matique page 11. Mrs Fitton: page 17

Many thanks to: All the staff and children at Woodleigh School
All text © Woodleigh School 2006. Woodleigh School - Langton - Malton - North Yorkshire. Y017 9QN
01653 658215 (tel), 01653 658423 (fax), www.woodleighschool.freeserve.co.uk
34 | the woodleighan | No. 2 | Summer term
LEWIS WELCH To create his work Lewis Welch used nails and knives to etch an outline of a flower. He then
PETALS (above) illustrated the flowers with pastels against a bold black background. White pastel outlines
coloured pastels on paper, 100 x 65 cm 2006 were later added to highlight the edges.
Freddie Trueman OBE 1931- 2006
SHORTLY before going to press, the news was an-
nounced of the sad death of Freddie Trueman OBE.
We had been privileged to host a dinner in the
gymnasium with Freddie as principal speaker on March
17th 2006. He spoke for over an hour, without notes,
entertaining and amusing a devoted audience in his
own inimitable style.
Head waiter on his table was Ed Bloom (in photo.) In
the course of the evening Freddie had asked Ed to fetch
a bottle of water for him from the bar. On returning, he
was offered a tip which he declined with the words, ‘I
couldn’t possibly accept your money, Mr Trueman.’
At the end of his speech Freddie said, ‘It has been a
pleasure to visit Woodleigh School and may I say what
wonderful, polite children I have met this evening. It’s
years since I was referred to as Mr Trueman!’