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OLD MONMOTHIAN CLUB>MAKING
A GIFT>TRUST AWARDS
Thanks to your support from
OM Standing Orders and Donations, the Monmothian Charitable
Trust (MCT) has been able to award financial support to
various School activities.
PLEASE continue your support
with Standing Orders and Donations. Most UK based OMs will
be able to take advantage of Gift Aid too - THANK YOU on
behalf of the current pupils!
In addition to the annual Travel Scholarships
that are awarded each Prize Giving some examples of other
awards include:
| Madagascar Trip
2011 |
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In July and
August, a team of 13 boys and 2 members of
staff from the School travelled to
Madagascar. The aim of the trip was for the
boys to experience living and working in the
local community and also to participate in
some adventure training.
Prior to the
trip, the group raised money through a
series of raffles to help support the local
community in Madagascar. They spent time
living and working at the Akany Avoko
children's home, which is situated on the
outskirts of the capital city Antananarivo.
This proved to be a very moving experience.
The children were of all ages and the group
spent time playing with the children, trying
out their language skills and helping out
around the home. Before leaving, the boys
were delighted to make a donation of £485.84
to the charity "Money for Madagascar".
The group also
spent 3 days living and working in a very
poor rural village called Sendrisoa where
they helped build a library for the village
school. This was really enjoyable but quite
hard work. Whilst there the group were
looked after (fed and entertained by a local
family). On one occasion whilst moving some
stone which was to be used as hardcore the
group were shocked to discover a snake in
amongst the stone , however the locals soon
returned it to the wild and no harm was
done. The group presented the village elders
with a new flag for the village and a soccer
strip for the local school. The group also
made a financial donation of £350 to the
charity ‘Feedback Madagascar’, which
supports work in the local area.
The boys also
climbed the highest accessible mountain on
the island; it took 3 days to reach the
summit. They spent several days living in
and exploring the rainforests and the
wildlife it offered. They studies several of
the Lemur species that exist on the island.
And finally, they spent some time at a
rescue centre for the Lemurs where they were
able to handle the animals.
This was a truly
once in a life time experience for the boys,
supported by the Monmothian Charitable Trust
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Folding@Home – Charitable Research Project |
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This
year two A Level
Computing students, James Salsbury and
Philip Modro, are building a computer to
enable Monmouth School to join the
Folding@Home project, thanks largely to
funding from the Old Monmothians and Friends
of Monmouth School.
James and
Philip will design and make the case, source
the internal components and construct the
computer, then install and configure the
software.
 Folding@home
is an award winning, international
charitable research project run by the
University of Stanford.
The
Folding@home project was set up many years
ago to explore cures for degenerative
diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s,
Huntingdon’s, and many others. However, the
amount of calculations to model a cure that
they need to do would take decades if they
tried to do them all themselves.
To resolve this, the Folding@home
project was started. This project allows
people from around the world to run software
to assist in the calculations, so banding
together to make one of the largest
supercomputers in the world.
The project has already seen some
successes, as shown in their peer reviewed
results.
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The University sends a work unit to the
charitable computer which then performs the
processing involved in executing the work,
and sends the results back to the
University. Each unit is sent to 3 different
machines to reduce the chance of error.
The on-going processing of this computer
running 24 hours a day uses somewhat less
energy than a 60w light bulb. Stanford go to
significant lengths too to secure the
transfer of data and do not install any
executable program files on the charitable
computers, to minimize security issues.
There will be scope for the involvement of
Middle School students in the build. The
student project leader, James Salsbury, will
also teach younger students about the
maintenance of the project, so when he
leaves school there will be other boys able
to continue to look after it.
James, Philip and Mrs Hope are very grateful
to the Old Monmothians and FOMS for their
donations, which has enabled the project to
take place.
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Marrakech is an intriguing city to explore with its
maze of alleyways, mosques, markets, museums and
palaces. Much haggling was done as the students got
totally involved in the experience!
The trek started
from just outside Tagdilt to Tizi n Ouarg climbing
the beautiful mountain of Isk n’Alla at approx
8000ft.
During the next few
days the group conquered the highest mountain in the
region Mount Kouaouch at 8600ft, encountered the
famous rock formations of Bab n’Ali and the forest
of rock pinnacles of Tadout n Tablah and lunched on
palm dates and pomegranates at the wonderful Oasis
of Tiguiza!
Overall the boys travelled
some 55 miles walking from one side of the Jebel
mountain range to the other through some spectacular
scenery meeting some wonderful people on route.
This was a superb
exercise thoroughly enjoyed by all the participants.
Everyone experienced
a highly diverse adventure package.
The quality of the
experience has given the participants a taste for
more adventure!
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Joint Schools Art Exhibition
Supported by MCT September 2011
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With the revival of
an 80 year tradition an art exhibition
showcased the artistic talents of pupils
from Monmouth School, Haberdashers’ Monmouth
School for Girls and Monmouth Comprehensive
School in the Shire Hall for a week from 26th
September to 2nd October 2011.
The
Monmothian Charitable Trust helped with
funding for the costs of framework for
Monmouth School. |
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Football Tour 2011 - Valencia
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Supported by the OMs a lucky group of
sixteen school children from Monmouth School
visited Valencia CF Football Club in Spain
following an exciting six day sports
development tour that allowed the boys to
live the life of a professional football
player!
The pupils enjoyed the full
use of Valencia's magnificent training
ground and facilities and were coached
throughout the duration of their visit by
official Valencia CF coaches, who are
responsible for coaching the superstar
Spaniards and which unsurprisingly resulted
in a significant improvement in individual
and team skills - the
pupils loved it! |
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Junior Symphonic
Winds -
PLATINUM
National Concert Band Award April 2011 |
The National
Concert Band Festival is the UK's largest
wind band and big band festival and this is
the first occasion in the twenty-four year
history of concert band work at Monmouth
School that a junior band has
won the top
award at national level!
Monmouth School
Junior Symphonic Winds gained a GOLD award
at the Regional Finals in November 2010
which was hosted by Monmouth School in the
Blake Theatre.
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The band was
subsequently invited to participate in the
National Finals which were held at the Royal
Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in
Glasgow early April 2011.
Their PLATINUM
award was well deserved - the band was
complimented on the maturity of sound, the
range of dynamics and the precision of
articulation within the ensemble as well as
the musicianship displayed in their
performance.
The JSW received
financial support from the OMs for this
event are most grateful for this and their
continuing support and interest. |
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