Miss Hamilton reflects on this half term
30 March 2025 - Clarence
The Spring Term has been a Term that had a grey cloud overhanging the lives of the girls: mocks. While the first half of Term started as normal, as it got closer to Long Leave, the reality that Mock exams were indeed happening appeared. As House Staff, we were so pleased with how the girls handled the sheer amount of exams they sat in less than two weeks, and then how they went straight back into lessons. They were formidable and, as a little well done, we hosted Après Mocks, for a little fun and silliness to end the tough week. Our School Poet and Clarence pupil, Polly, wrote a poem about the Upper VI’s experience of Mocks, or the preparation of them and lessons subsequently learnt!
Mocks don’t rock! – an acrostic
Mocks have begun and they’re not going well
Our notes are a mess, and we’ve left it too late.
Clarence is drowning in essays and stress,
Knowing full well this will all be a mess.
Somehow we’ll sit there, pretending to write…
Daydreaming mostly, waiting for sleep.
Our brains are bamboozled, our spirits are low,
Nothing sinks in, but the hours still go past.
Tea breaks are frequent, the progress is not.
Revision timetables? Those don’t exist.
Only one thought goes around in our heads—
Counting the days until mocks are dead
Kicking ourselves for not using Long Leave.
At the end of Mocks, on Thursday 13 February, four Clarence soloists were featured in the Orchestral Concert at St Mary’s Church in Marylebone, with members of Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia. This is one of the major highlights in the year for musicians at Wycombe Abbey, and is particularly special for Clarence as it is our final school music concert. Francesca, Wycombe Abbey’s music prefect, writes:
“The first two soloists were myself and Astrid, accompanied by Chamber Orchestra. This first section was a true homage to Mozart: I had the privilege of opening the concert with my solo, ‘Alleluia’ from Exultate, jubilate, followed by Astrid who gave a beautiful and sophisticated
rendition of ‘O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn’ from one of Mozart’s most famous operas, Die Zauberflöte.
The next soloist was Sophia, who began Symphony Orchestra’s section with her solo ‘Wishing you were somehow here again’ from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Phantom of the Opera, which was a highly emotional performance and highlighted how closely linked Musical Theatre and Classical Music can be. Our final soloist Sophia stunned the audience with her poignant performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No 2 in C Minor: Movement II, arguably one of the most beautiful and romantic piano concertos ever written.
On behalf of this year’s Clarence soloists, I would like to say a huge thank you to the Music Department for providing us with such a unique and exciting opportunity, to perform a solo with not just an extremely talented orchestra, but one made up of some of our closest friends. It has truly been a highlight of our time at Wycombe Abbey, and we can’t wait to come and hear the concert next year.”
One of the Wycombe Abbey highlights came about on 10 March and Felicity, one of our Heads of Caledonian Society, writes:
“We were lucky enough to be able to host our final Caledonian Society social with Eton in Big School. It was a great opportunity to swap out the unofficial Clarence uniform of a hoodie for slightly more glamourous attire (for the Etonians black tie is apparently akin to a casual Friday). Although there was slight sense of awkwardness at the beginning this was quickly overcome by the boys determination to practice the diplomatic skills honed by their illustrious forefathers, and the girls desire not to be forced to pretend to be ‘men’ by wearing lacrosse bibs. Dinner began with ‘Ode to a Haggis’ by Robert Burns, a rousing, patriotic poem glorifying Scotland’s national dish; however, this ancient ritual seemed to inspire in most a sense of bewilderment rather than national pride. Once the dancing started there was only marginally less confusion but if anything that seemed to add to the general enjoyment. A sense of organised chaos was reached which the caller (slightly overwhelmed by the youthful energy of the room) was pleasantly surprised by. After making it through the programme with a surprising level of ease and confidence on the part of all concerned, there was even time for two extra dances. The evening ended with a rendition of Auld Lang Syne which was sung more as the prelude to a mosh pit than a lilting ballad, but was fitting end to the evening nonetheless. Now all that remains to be seen is which Cal Soc Etonian will later be spotted standing outside Number 10 (bets are currently on the Rees-Mogg offspring), but who knows, perhaps history will upend itself and we will see a Wycombe girl there instead.”
While the Spring Term has been a busy and, at times, stressful one for Clarence, we are luckily ending with some lovely events such as the Clarence Everyman Cinema Trip and the House Singing Competition. We wish the girls the best of luck with revision over the Easter break and look forward to seeing them in the Summer Term.
