Leeds United striker Luciano Becchio made a surprise visit to one of Y12 Spanish language classes recently. The footballer, who plays at number 10 and is originally from Argentina, talked to the A level students about exercise and sport and his career.
Luciano is pictured with Y12 students.
It’s really good to see young people so enthusiastic about helping people less fortunate for themselves. One of the latest initiatives of GSAL pupils is a concert in aid of the Sichuan Earthquake Appeal. Originally conceived by Sixth Form student Xue Yin Yang (Ann), the concert will take place as follows:
7.30pm
Wednesday 19 November 2008
The Tebb Room, Music Suite, The Grammar School at Leeds, Alwoodley Gates LS17.
There is no ticket charge - instead, students ask that you please leave an appropriate donation as you leave.
Ann / Xue Yin, a talented pianist, is Chinese and joined GSAL at Sixth Form level to study for her A Levels. She lives in Leeds during term time but returns to her family in China during the school holidays and is really keep to help rebuild the area devastated by the earthquake in her home country.
The evening will comprise an eclectic mix of music including classical, film and some traditional Chinese pieces and is an exciting opportunity to hear some of the school’s talented Upper Sixth musicians: Xue Yin Yang (Ann), Will Solyom and Sina Ghadiri on piano; Esther Longworth on oboe / soprano; and Dominic Oldfield on cello / bass baritone.
Oh dear - just realised in my rush to post our A Level results I made a mistake on our website.
In our A Level Results Round-up (Latest News) I said Helen Ashcroft has four As at A Level. In fact, like a number of other students, Helen has five stupendous As!
Sorry Helen - and well done. I’ll update our website when I get back to the office next Tuesday.
RK
Some great performances in this year’s A Level results. In particular it was good to see such a strong pass rate in the higher grades for mathematics - 83% for grades AB across both schools - and of course there were some excellent performances from individual students.
For the first time, girls and boys both came to Alwoodley Gates for their results. And, with plenty of on-the-spot support and advice from staff, by the end of the day each student’s next step, whether it be a place at university or a gap year, was clear.
Headline results and a round-up of photographs and individual student stories are published on our website at http://www.gsal.org.uk.
A normal breakfast was followed by the Herculean challenge of closing suitcases. ‘You sit on mine and I’ll sit on yours’ was a commonly heard phrase along with some earthier Shakespearean language as zips refused to move, clothing became trapped and lock combinations failed to work.
Today should be a walk in the park. 96 people plus luggage on two buses, 8 to go to Poland, one to meet a parent in Munich, 2 different flights, 2 for collection at Heathrow, distribution of unused pocket money, return of passports and health cards and 2 different coaches in UK - all in a day’s work or did I hear someone ask ‘Have you enjoyed the holiday!’.
More to follow once the smelling salts have taken effect.
Fully loaded we made the short trip across the border to the picturesque German town of Chiemsee. The final few euros were spent to kick start the German economy. It was here that we said farewell to Hans-Amadeus as he slaked his thirst in a local hostelry. No doubt he will reappear in future music tours.
Next stop Munich airport, Heathrow, Leicester Forest and finally Rose Court - 12 hours of snacking, dozing, reading, dozing, chatting, dozing……….oh! we are passing Wakefield almost an hour ahead of schedule. Panic! Wake up. Wake up. Man the mobiles, send an SOS. Fortunatekly by the time we had unloaded the coach most of the parents had zoomed into Leeds to collect their charges.
As your correspondent puts down his electronic quill may I compliment everyone involved in the tour. It takes good team work to create a good tour. May I thank all of those who have beavered away in the background (Staggs, Hindmarsh, Brighten et al), the tour staff and the very talented pupils. Their music has enriched the lives of all who have heard them over the past 10 days. Vielen dank!
‘The rain in Spain falls mainly on Salzburg’. To state that it is ‘persisting’ down is an understatement - I got wetter going to the coach than I did in the bathroom shower - not a good omen for a stroll aroung Salzburg. Dodging the showers was today’s favourite game. Fortunately most of the ‘walkabout’ was in dry (dryish) conditions. First stop was the cathedral and the famous statue in Mozartplatz. Time for a group photoshoot - unfortunately 20 other groups had the same idea so it was a case of overwhelming numbers wins the day - our 98 easily won.
Winding our way through the myriad of alleyways we arrived at the birthplace of Mozart, totally
surrouded with tourists.If you stayed still for more than a nanosecond you ended up in a Japanese photoshoot. The fact we had ‘music’ written on our hoodies elevated us to distant relatives of Mozart - you say music tour - click-, from England - click- Leeds -click- no kidding - click!
Next stop the Mirabell gardens - ‘The hills are alive with the sound of music and 89 girls re-enacting
the travails of the von Trapp family.’ Once the compulsory ‘Do, ray, mi’ renditions were over we set out for some retail therapy concentrating on the famous Austrian chocolates, Mozart memorabilia and pretzels the size of a dustbin lid.
And so to the final concert of the tour at the Hellbrunn Palace in front of the famous Pavillion. As we stepped from the coaches the heavens opened. No matter! These girls are immune to rain by now and perform beautifully, shrouded in hoodies, raincoats and umbrellas. Even the staff master a rendition of ‘Singing in the rain’ with yours truly attempting a Fred Astaire impersonation with twirling umbrella (don’t give up the day job!). Several coachloads of tourists provide a mobile audience. They came to see the world famous pavillion only to be confronted with the ‘Sound of Music’ Leeds version. As the last notes of Rythm of Life resonated off the pavillion walls we packed away the piano (raindrops and all) for the last time and bade a musical farewell to Austria.
Two functions remained, ‘packing’ and ‘disco’. As you can imagine the staff completed the first task in the same time as the girls took to try on every item in their wardrobe to identify the ‘exact’
combination for the evening. Never have so many worn so little to such great effect. Meanwhile
back in the boys’ room it was a quick comb of the eyebrows and we were off to strut our stuff John Travolta style in the dining room. Fortunately no one had yet arrived to witnes the gyrations and general perambulations so we contented ourselve with sitting in a corner sipping orange juice - brings back memories. Well here come the professionals - stand well back! Guten nacht!
The forecast was for rain but we were lucky as we boarded the buses for the short journey to the ice caves. Some of the girls were worried how far underground they were going to be. For them the word ‘caves’ conjured up descending into the bowels of the earth, Lord of the Rings style. They couldn’t have been further from the truth.
To start with we had to ascend the side of a mountain with such sharp hair pin bends I could see the back of my head of me. At the only turning point on the road we disembarked for the kilometre long trek up a 1 in 4 mountain path to reach the cable car station.
From here we ascended the steepest cable run in Europe climbing over 500m in a matter of seconds. The girls didn’t appreciate me singing ‘Come on, come on rock me! as a precursor to swaying from side to side. Still not finished with the climbing we had to ascend again 500m to the mouth of the cave. What a relief when we got there. The views were spectacular - sweeping mountains on either side of a deep cut valley with a picturesque village nestled along a fast flowing river - idyllic. So imagine our surprise when the guide announced we were about to climb the first 300 steps - that implied there was another 300 (how right was that assumption!). No luxurysuch as electric lighting. The way was lit by every tenth person carrying an old fashioned oil lamp interspersed with the occasional magnesium flare from the guide. 771 steps later we entered a massive ice cavern where with very little prompting the girls sang ‘The Rose’ ,greatly enjoyment for from the guides and other tourists. All that was needed was to go back down 771 steps - easier said than done.
After a sumptuous lunch of barbecued spare ribs (some of the girls’ plates looked like Fred Flinstone’s after finishing off a dinosaur) we headed for the beautiful spa town of Bad Ischl nestled at the foot of the Hallstatt valley. In the centre of this picturesque town is the Pfarrkirche the venue for the mass and the concert. While the girls rehearsed I tramped the streets of Bad Ischl searching for the internet cafe that I was assured existed in the town centre. Eureka! There it was nestled between a ladies lingerie shop and an ice cream parlour (only one of which was of any interest).
Unfortunately across the door was the sign ‘Geschlossen’ (Closed) - evidently no one in Bad Ischl e-mails or surfs on a Sunday.
In the mass and the concert the girls yet again performed excellently evidenced by the smiles and applause from the formidable Fraus on the back pew - testament indeed to the power of music.
While some of the girls hunted down food (others went to McDonalds) I fired up the computer to write the next account when surprise! surprise! there was an open wi-fi connection. What luck as days 7 and 8 were quickly uploaded and adorned with a few pictures. Let’s hope for similar luck tomorrow in Salzburg or at least a cafe that is not ‘Geschlossen!’ or a correspondent who is not ‘Geschlossed’ (no chance of the latter).
Like a line of Matabele soldier ants the girls process nose to tail out of the hotel dragging ever expanding suitcases - the British Airways flight will be the first to have a trailer and a roof rack! Look out terminal 5 - if you think you had baggage problems last month wait until Tuesday. The driver emerged from packing the cases under the bus as a favourite to make the Austrian Olympic weighlifting team.
Fortunately the first stop was only one hour away at Melk Abbey - a beautiful and impressive collection of buildings and gardens. A guided tour took us through some breathtaking rooms filled with the history of the Benedictine prescence at the abbey for over a thousand years. A library of 9000 ancient texts was only surpassed by the beautiful chapel which was about to be the venue for a local wedding. Hence, we could not sing in the chapel as originally planned but instead performed in the arched entrance of the inner courtyard. All visitors had to pass through the arch thus providing a constantly changing yet appreciative audience. The chamber choir and the clarinet choir performed from the balcony above which provided a resonant sound and a stiff neck from looking up for so long (Gretchen! bring the rubbing oil).
As the sun was still beating down and the temperature in the 30s we opted for lunch in the gardens of the abbey. This came as a surprise for the girls and an even bigger surprise for the restaurant when 98 unexpected customers swarmed through the doors. The waiters visibly wilted as a surprising range of food was ordered combined with an equally bizarre combination of deserts. To cap it all an automatic ice cream vending machine blasted out Duke Ellington singing a few lines of an old jazz number ‘Ice cream. Ice cream. Everybody loves ice cream!’ By the time you had heard the song for the 98th time you wanted to kick the machine to death.
All aboard again for the final leg of the day’s journey - west towards Salzburg. As we approached the mountainous valley region the clouds closed in and the rain started. Fortunately it stopped just long enough to unload the baggage and check into the hotel where we met another music tour - the Norfolk County orchestra. This pleased Miss Thorpe who hails from Norwich. She could swap tales of the broads and fens without there being a chance of a hill or mountain being mentioned.
The hotel provided a veritable banquet much to the delight of the girls who retired contentedly and tired to their well appointed rooms. Which reminds me …….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
6.30 a.m. and it is already hot. Today is meant to be 32 degrees - fortunately the programme consists of being inside at the Spanish Riding School, a quick lunch at the hotel, some retail therapy, followed by a concert at the magnificent Votivkirche. First stop was the Imperial Palace where the famous Lipazzaner horses are trained. With a 15 minute wait we quickly headed for the only shade in the square only to be entertained with a dispaly of carriage driving.
Once inside the Riding School we were shown the intricacies of driving two carriages in perfect unison and a coach and four. The highlight however was to see the mares galloping around the arena while their foals skitted skilfully between them, stopping, twisiting and turning at will. One American spectator remarked ‘beautiful nags aren’t they?’ - I assumed he was referring to the horses and not the choir - but there again!
As the main party headed back to the hotel the 6th form were allowed to remain in Vienna for an extended session of retail therapy. Like a swarm of hungtry locusts they descended on Mariahilfestrasse, the main shopping street over a kilometre in length - no problem to our Olympic shoppers. These finely tuned consumer athletes were soon hurdling the counters, sprinting up the escalators to sift through the enormous quantities of sale items. They were soon joined by
the rest of the party who had miraculously reduced luch time to a few nanoseconds in the hope of extending ’shopping time’.
Meanwhile yours truly found an internet cafe with a decent broadband connection and then a pavement restaurant from where I could oversee the fashionistas’ progress. ‘What do you think of this sir?’ asked one girl holding up what I thought was a belt but turned out to be a skirt. ‘And this, and this, and this….’ Soon my table looked like the changing room of Trinny and Suzanna. However, I had learned from bitter experience on previous tours not to comment when the proverbial question was asked ‘Do you think my bum would look big in this?
A quick journey around the ‘ring’ brought us to the Votivkirche, a magnificent twin towered church built to commemorate the failed assassination of Emperor Joseph. The well oiled disembarkation machine swung into action and quicker than you could say ‘Wienersnitzel’ we had unpacked the piano, connected the power supply, erected the music stands and assembled the choir for a full rehearsal - much to the delight of the constant stream of sightseers. An appreciative audience were treated to the best performance so far on tour. The highlight was the closing item ‘Eternity’ which had a number of the audience reaching for a tissue. Another brilliant effort - well done girls!
Most of the morning was spent rehearsing. Firstly at the hotel in the not very conducive dining room and then in the Kurhaus of the cathedral. The tension mounted and could almost be cut with a knife. Around the cathedral were posters advertising our participation at the midday mass and for a concert immediately afterwards. Yet again the Parent
Music Supporters Club was in evidence to give moral support.
The acoustics in the cathedral are amazing and the girls’crisp voices rang out confidentally and clearly. As a stalwart of five music tours I have seldom experienced such a neck tingling performance. The girls’ concentration was remarkable and well worth the many hours of practice and coaching. Well done girls and music staff!
After the concert it was time to relax around the beautiful St Stephen’s square or to climb the 342 steps of the cathedral spire for a breath stopping view of Vienna. Being polite it was a case of ‘no, after you, I insist’ until it was time to re-assemble for an afternoon of culture.
The first activity was a walk along the main shopping street (Prada, Dolce Gabbana, Tiffany’s etc) but
unfortunately no time to stop (near rebellion from the fashionistas of the 6th form). At the end of the boulevard we entered the courtyard of the Imperial palace and through to the national Library and eventually to the Kunsthistorischemuseum (Museum of fine art). The galleries hold a fabulous collection of the works of Breughal, Durer, Cranach, Rubens et al. When I asked some Year 7’s if they liked Canaletto one replied ‘I had a chocolate one at lunchtime!’ (no that was a cornetto). Trying hard to educate I said they should look for Tintoretto, Titian, and Caraveggio - they were amazed that Italian football players would visit a museum - enough said!
As we left the museum one of the curators complimented the girls on their behaviour especillay as they were such a large party. Not only can they sing they can behave!
As an antedote to culture we spent the evening at the Prater, an amusement park famous for its large Ferris wheel. A heady combination of being turned upside down at speed, frightened to death by heights, plunged through rapids and the consumption of vast quantities of sweet fairground fayre meant the journey back was unusually quiet - except for a few stomachs that is.
