NSEA Cheshire Inter-Schools Dressage Challenge and Qualifiers 

By MT, Lower IV
‘As always in the horse world our day began at dawn. We got up with the lark to wash and plait my grey pony, Hatton's Topper. The green grass stains adorning his flanks were particularly stubborn and I wished I rode a bay.

Over 630 pupils, parents, Old Moretonians, staff and families celebrated the end of the school year at Moreton Hall's ‘Queen in the Amphitheatre' on a wonderful summer's evening.

"It was difficult to believe that we could top last year's success of ABBA in the Amphitheatre, but Queen this year was an absolute triumph!" commented Jonathan Forster, Principal. Click for slideshow

Moreton First Key Stage 2 children have been awarded English Speaking Board awards across all year groups. Awards included 12 Distinctions, 12 Merit Plus and 1 Merit. ‘Twenty five children entered and all achieved awards. This is a terrific result,' says Head of Spoken English, Merriel Halsall-Williams. 'It is so good to see the children getting involved in these classes from such a young age. It makes a big difference to their confidence and their ability to express themselves in all areas of life.'

There were 13 girls taking part in this competition, two from Moreton Hall who both won the group stages quite easily and also the quarter finals. In the semi final, Julia won, whilst Alice played against a good player from Bridgnorth. Alice lost this match and then it was Julia's turn to play the same girl in the final. Julia did well to hold her, but narrowly lost 3 - 2. Julia was presented with a medal as runner up in the tournament.

We held two election hustings (public meetings) where our political teams presented varied and lively expositions of the policies of their parties. The representative for the Lib Dems gave a clear explanation of her party's policy on PR as did the Plaid Cymru representative who produced an excellent speech on the Welsh perspective and the Greens gave out jolly gifts and rushed aroud looking very green. The UKIP and Conservative party produced amusing and informative film and powerpoint presentations respectively and the Labour party's speech included lots of hilarity!

The 99th Midlands Schools' Tennis Tournament held at the King Edwards' School, Birmingham last week saw Moreton Hall field two successful doubles teams.

Twins AD and JD played in the 2nd Couple's Competition against 14 other schools, winning all six of their qualifying matches taking them through to the semi- final.

Meanwhile PW-C and GS from the LVI played in the 3rd Couples Competition, winning all five of their matches and the Level 3 event. They commented that "After our first game we got into our play and continued to win throughout the day, we won our division and came home with a shield each which was very rewarding."

This article was recently published in

THE SHROPSHIRE MAGAZINE • APRIL 2010

The gruesome quotes and statistics land on my desk at school every day: "9.6 per cent of children in Reception classes in UK schools and 18.3 pecent in Year 6 are classified as obese; by 2050 25per cent of children will be affected by obesity." (NHS Evidence). "The current generation of children faces a far higher risk of cancer later in life due to their unhealthy habits," warns Professor Kathy Pritchard Jones.

Author of numerous bestsellers, Louise Harwood, visited Moreton this week to talk to a selection of the Sixth Form about her experiences in the world of writing.

It's a nerve-wracking game standing up in front of an audience and taking unknown, searching questions - as any leader of a political party will tell us right now. Moreton Hall student, Rebecca Lewis, did exactly that at the national finals of the Business and Professional Women's ‘Schools Public Speaking Competition', held at Moreton Hall over Easter.

Having written to Theo Paphitis to ask for advice about the expansion of their £35,000 per year turnover in-school retail businesses, Moreton Hall's Sixth Form students were delighted to receive a reply, which has resulted in the school having its own stationery store that sells Ryman product, with the stationery firm's blessing.

Moreton Hall will represent the region in the National Finals of the Business and Professional
Women's Public Speaking Competition to be held this Saturday, March 27th at Moreton Hall school near Oswestry.

Schools and individuals from throughout the North West region met on Saturday March 20th in Chester for the Chester Festival of Verse, part of the British and International Federation of Festivals. With over 500 entries ranging in age from 7-18, youngsters from Moreton First did outstandingly well to walk away with three 1st positions, two 2nd and one 3rd.

Following on from the successful Moreton First maths team challenge for year six pupils held last October for local primary and prep schools, Moreton proudly hosted on Tuesday March 2nd the United Kingdom Mathematical Trust's team challenge regional final. This was quite an honour as only 60 venues for the whole of Britain had been chosen as host schools and acknowledges Moreton Hall's strong mathematical tradition. Our girls battled through various rounds including head to head challenges and relay races to achieve commendable 3rd and 5th team places.

Moreton Hall competed in the Business and Professional Women's public speaking North West Final on February 27th and came out triumphant.
Talking on the subject: ‘Is Conservation still Black and White?' the team of three, consisting of Speaker, Chairman, Vote of Thanks beat the other five regional teams. ‘The standard is always very high at these competitions,' explains Merriel Halsall-Williams, head of Spoken English at the school. ‘It is a great opportunity for students to test their public speaking skills. We were delighted with the outcome and that ES was voted Best Vote of Thanks.'

Three Moreton girls all qualified for the prestigious Cranmer Award Finals held in Charterhouse in the City of London on February 25th, the awards saw 32 young finalists from across the UK reciting their chosen passages from The Book of Common Prayer. Merriel Halsall-Williams reports: "The girls all did exceedingly well and were outstanding representatives both for the school and the Lichfield diocese."