Kennet Games

An enthusiastic and competent team of students entered the 32nd annual Kennet Games in May.  There was a fantastic team spirit with many Year 7 students competing in Boccia, Uni-hoc, javelin, shot put and many other sports for the first time.

All students came away with a medal for their efforts with the following students enjoying individual success:

Rhianna Jordan Year 7 student commented, ' The Kennet Games was great!  I liked the javelin and I got a medal for taking part.'  While Joe Berridge Year 8 said, 'I thought it was good at the Kennet Games and not too busy. There was plenty of things to do. I enjoyed the barbecue. Overall I had a great day out.'

Please click on the images below to enlarge

Paralympic Wheelchair Test Event

Charters Resource students were proud to be invited to help test the Paralympic facilities as part of  'London Prepares'.  Excited students supported team GB in the Wheelchair Rugby tournament.   A relatively new sport, Wheelchair Rugby has quickly become one of the most popular sports on the Paralympic programme. Also known by fans as ‘Murderball’, it is a fast-paced, dynamic, high-impact sport, which features both men and women in the same team.

Christian Charalambous Year 7 said, 'I really enjoyed supporting team GB at the wheelchair rugby. Mrs Hartwell brought along the GB flag for us to hold up – it was very exciting! I also enjoyed the trip on the golf buggy which took us back to the entrance. Along the route we saw the velodrome, the aquatic centre and the Olympic stadium.'

Abby Clark, also Year 7, really enjoyed the day. She said, 'I loved it all. The two best bits of the day was when we went in the golf buggy and when England won. That was my best, best bit in the day. I REALLY loved the day.'

The students involved were Yasmin Somers, Lucie Bouron, Callan Lord, Christian Charalambous, Matthew Bradshaw, Ben Stone, Kynee Ibarrientos, Jordan Francis, Abigail Clark and Joe Berridge.

Please click on the images below to enlarge.

Y18 Football County Cup Winners

Charters School went into the final of the Football County Cup against St Bernard’s Grammar School with an array of excellent performances that saw them knock out the former holders, the John Madejski Academy. Despite an excellent run, we still went into the final as underdogs after previously losing to St Bernard’s in the highly controversial Gibbs’ Cup semi-final.

The final was held at a cold and wet Newbury Town FC which was ideal for Charters as we were able to pass the ball about on the wet surface and this was shown in the first few minutes of the first half as we dominated possession and made it tough for our opponents to get the ball. Charters were almost in at goal when Dom Ash made what looked to be a fair challenge, however the referee called it back and showed a highly debatable yellow card. After this both sides enjoyed a fair share of possession and it looked to be a stalemate until Dominic Magnante’s 30 yard shot had the crowd on their feet and the keeper all but beaten. Unfortunately the bar came to the rescue. Soon after, Charters had another opportunity to take the lead however Rossi Sheldon was unable to take full advantage of his header narrowly missing what would have been an excellent team goal. (Half time 0-0).

The second half saw St Bernard’s come out a different team and they started to pile on the pressure. They came close to scoring on numerous occasions but the resilience of the defence and some excellent keeping from Ben Simmonds prevented them from doing so. Charters soon regained possession and counter-attacked the St Bernard’s defence who were all over the place. Rossi Sheldon provided Isaac Osei-Tutu with a through ball which the winger used his pace and strength to barge off an opponent and run on towards the goal. Sadly the finish lacked quality and was head out wide for a goal kick but Mike Shields run left him in a great position to tap the ball into an empty net with his first touch of the match, much to delight of the manager Geoff Warner and our supporters who had made the long journey. After this the match was split open again and both teams enjoyed large amounts of possession however St Bernard’s took advantage of what would be described as lazy defending and they punished us by scoring.

Charters recovered well and kept large amounts of passion for the remainder of the half and we were rewarded when again St Bernard’s were caught pushing forward. A through ball was played to Isaac Osei-Tutu who had already used his daunting speed and strength to haunt the opponents however this time his hard work was rewarded with a goal which he calmly placed into the bottom right corner and Charters looked all but winners of the county cup for the first time in the history. St Bernard’s weren’t a side to give up that easily and they fought back into injury time when again a defensive error led their winger to run past three Charters’ defenders and calmly shoot the ball into the net. This meant that the game had to go into extra time. (After 90 mins 2-2)

The first half of extra time started with St Bernard’s continuing to push hard against us and this again meant that the defence had to be on alert with many of our midfielders having to push back to help out. Charters had a fair amount of chances to end the game but were unable to. (HT extra time 2-2).

The second half saw Charters push forward and Frank Sheraton almost scored an excellent goal only for the shot to lack speed and walk its way into the keeper’s hand. However Frank was able to quiet the critics soon after when an excellent through ball by Isaac Osei-Tutu enabled him to run on to goal. The keeper completely mistimed his challenge and took down Frank Sheraton which led to shouts from both the stands and Charters’ bench for the keeper to be sent off because he denied what looked to be a clear goal scoring opportunity. The referee was having none of it and took no further action so Frank stood up to take the penalty and calmly placed it into the bottom right with the keeper heading the other way. Charters were able to hold on until the final whistle which saw emotional scenes as all players and supporters ran onto the field to celebrate a historic win and a first County Cup for Charters.

Charters School Squad (4-3-3): Simmonds, Morris, Leonetti (Jawandha), Trainor, Chandler, Magnante, Ash, Sheppard (Shields), Fredericks (Findlay), Tutu, Sheldon

Subs: Rana, Findlay, Jawandha, Munalula, Shields, Sheraton

Charters girls meet England player at Regional Cricket Finals

The Charters U15 Indoor Cricket team had the opportunity to meet Caroline Atkins, who has just returned from captaining the England Women's Academy on a tour of South Africa, at the regional finals at Exeter University.  The girls had qualified for the event by winning the Berkshire Indoor Tournament before Easter. During the Regional Finals they played 5 - 6 over matches throughout the day and were placed 8th in the South West of England.

Highlights of the day were:
Batting:  Meg Anderson-Watters - 49 runs; Mollie Riches - 29 runs with 6s from Sian Wigington and Mollie Riches
Bowling: Meg Anderson-Watters - 4 wickets; Sian Wigington - 3 wickets; Abbie Connor - 2 wickets.
Fielding: 9 team run outs.

The girls had an enjoyable day representing Charters and Berkshire and were all pleased with their performances.

Young Games Makers

On Sunday 22 April, Mrs Hartwell, Curriculum Leader PE and MissHilderley- PE Teacher, along with the ten Year 12 students who have been selected to be ‘Young Games Makers at the Paralympic Games in 2012’ attended the Olympic Stadium for their first round of training. These students are the volunteers for the athletics events.

The day started with a talk about what it means to be a ‘Young Games Maker’ at this momentous event followed by a tour of the Olympic Stadium and then instruction of what their responsibilities will be at the games. One of the duties assigned to them is the responsibility for the athletes ‘kit boxes’. The students were instructed on how to enter the stadium and track in a synchronised manner, collect the athletes’ kit and then remove it from the track, keep it safe and then return to the athletes on the track after the race. This is a huge honour for our students as they have the privilege of getting up close and personal with some of the world’s top athletes.

Mrs Hartwell said “The students got a glimpse of how it will feel to walk into this Olympic stadium that will host the Olympic and Paralympic games with all the eyes of the world on them. Hopefully the experience will inspire them to achieve their goals and ambitions.”

Y18 Boys Basketball County League Winners

After losing to Forest early on in the season for the first time since Key Stage 3, the County League final gave us a chance at redemption.

A neutral setting, a previous loss and the first of the two trophies up for grabs provided the motivation to go on and eventually win.

The first quarter was tight, with the lead changing hands many times. We kept playing hard defence and eventually we were able to tie the ball game going into the second half.

We came out of the break well, using the transition offence and fast break to effective use, putting a run of momentum together to give us a 10 point advantage at the half. However, with 1.2 seconds left on the clock Forest launched the ball down court and the Guard launched the shot straight in from three point ranges, cutting our lead to just 7 moving into the second half.

We built our lead further by limiting Forest’s open looks at our basket and on many occasions they were forced to shoot the 3 ball with no success. Our rebounding was said to be the best for a long while and it showed with our defence claiming just over 80% of the rebounds.

The team solidarity we showed was remarkable, playing for each other. Many of the team are in their last year at Charters and wanted to get the ‘W’. Coach called a time out late on in the 4th to stop our positivity turning to complacency, which put us in the positive mind-set to increase our lead eventually winning the tie by 33

An emphatic team effort gave our first cup final win of the season. Charters now face Windsor and Eton in the county cup final after the Easter break

East Berkshire U13 Boys Football League winners

by Cavan Mallon Y8

The League final kicked off at 4pm on a lovely sunny afternoon here at Charters School. The two team talks took place. The ref called the two captains over for a toss of the coin and Waingels kicked off. Charters dominated the first half with Charlie White getting an opener for us. There was some nice play in the first half by both teams. The half time whistle blew.

Both teams got ready for the second half to begin. The whistle blew for the start of the second half. Waingels started the stronger side. They got at well-deserved goal bringing the score level. With the game coming to a close it looked like extra time was to follow. But a nice piece of skill by Archie Atkinson saw the ball fly across the box to meet Mathew Bradley’s head that scored the winner for Charters. The game came to a close as the final whistle blew. We were all so happy!

The final score was 2-1 to Charters.

Netball season ends in style!

We finished the netball season for 2011-2012 off in style this year with an Easter tournament, the girls were invited to enter in teams and represent an Easter theme. All teams were dressed up and keen to impress with their skills.  The tournament ran smoothly with staff and students helping with the umpiring.

The best dressed and most aptly named team were "Hop to it".

We look forward to many girls enjoying another season of netball next year, when training starts in September.

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All England Badminton Championships trip

 Badminton within Charters School has increased dramatically in recent years with the introduction of outside coaching opportunities and extra-curricular activities. Over the course of the school week, the various clubs are attended by over 90 students. As part of their hard work, some students were given the opportunity to attend an International Badminton Tounrnament. Below is a report from Tommy Murray (9M) of his experience from the day!

“Before Febuary Half Term, Badminton players from Years 7, 8, and 9, including myself, were off to the NIA (National Indoor Arena), Birmingham, to see the All England Badminton Championships!

I thought this was an excellent opportunity and experience, since it would actually teach us new tactics and skills, seeing those players were so fast, it was like a sonic boom and a blur combined! It was fantastic! All I can say is, it was PANDEMONIUM on the last England match we saw. Whenever the Brits got a point, we’d all be cheering (while some were more like screaming their heads off)! But apart from that, ALL the teams were outstanding, including the ridiculously quick Chinese players! So on the whole, it was TOTALLY worth the trip.”