This weekend saw the girls occupied in a range of activities, from an athletics match against Trent to a leisurely lie in and brunch on Sunday, which made for a perfect boarding school weekend.
Athletics captain Hannah Barker U6M captained her side to victory with the girls taking the win against Trent in a home match held on Saturday afternoon. Hannah herself won her long and triple jump events and led the girls by example. This success was also mirrored by a number of other Mitre athletes. Georgie Whitehouse 4M took first place in the 800m, closely followed by Tessa Collins 3M in 2nd place. There was also success for Phoebe Walters 5M who dominated the 1500m race coming in well ahead of her Trent competitor. It was excellent to see the girls 4 by 100m relay team storming through. Mitre girls Amelia Etherington U6M and Hannah Barker U6M contributed well to this team of 4, who had broken the school record in their match against Rugby the previous weekend.
Following a busy day at the athletics the girls were able to enjoy a movie night watching the newly released Oscar winning film “The King’s Speech”. A range of girls from across the year groups poured in to the bottom common room to be greeted with plenty of popcorn and sweets to make it a real “cinema” evening. There was a rival group upstairs who watched the Eurovision song contest so both culture and popular entertainment were on the menu!
Sunday’s evening chapel lent a perfect opportunity for a long lie-in followed by an American-style brunch. The girls came down to a feast of food from full English breakfast to bagels, waffles, pancakes, croissants, fruit compote and yogurt (to name but a few!). The girls were well relaxed and by the evening were ready to attend “Songs of Praise” in chapel.
This service included a favourite of the Mitre and Emily Renshaw L6M explained to the school why the Mitre had chosen this particular hymn:
“The hymn Mitre have chosen is a well known favourite of the school community, and indeed will feature again in the end of term services, when we say goodbye to the U6th. It is based on the poem by William Blake. Blake uses his now infamous words to imply that a visit of Jesus would briefly create heaven in England, in contrast to the "dark Satanic Mills" of the Industrial Revolution. The reference to which is an implication that the industrial revolution had ruined human relationships and nature. The hymn also has a link to Repton – the line – “bring me my chariot of fire” was used to inspire the title of the 1981 film “Chariots of Fire” in which OR Harold Abrahams famously featured. Abrahams was an English Jew competing at the 1924 Olympics and running to overcome prejudice. His dedication to running and his desire to succeed led him to take the gold medal in the 100m, a feat we can remember as we sing Blakes’ famous lyrics set to Parry’s tune”.
Mitre A Blockers Lili Kettlewell and Jasmine Douglas had also chosen “He who would valiant be” and the Chaplain read out a few lines they had written on their choice.
A flavour of the weekend shows just how much was packed in, and the girls were certainly well rested ahead of the start of two very important exam weeks for A Block upwards.
Posted on
Tue, May 17, 2011
by Mitre