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Cricket on the sports fields
Extra-Curricular

Relaxation is a very important part of school life. There are common rooms for the different age groups. Snooker, table tennis and table football produce some great contests. Photography and cookery are two of the most popular clubs on a Thursday afternoon; golf and croquet are summer pastimes and the adventure playground gets constant use. Reading is vitally important and there is ample time in the school day for boys to relax with a book.

recreation 

If relaxation is important, so is the chance to be still and reflect. Time spent in Chapel is important. Boys of all faiths are welcome and boys are taught to be tolerant of each other; Caldicott is a Church of England school and all boys have to attend the services. On four weekday mornings the day begins with a brief act of worship. The Sunday evening Chapel service is well supported by the boarders’ parents.

Opening the minds of the boys is a challenging part of education. We aim to develop their spiritual faculties and ensure that the boys understand that serving and caring for others brings the highest reward and the greatest happiness in life.

  • Activities   ( 1 Article )

    First and foremost, activities at Caldicott are fun. There does not have to be a relationship to the curriculum, though there can be; but the boys learn new hobbies and new skills, which are passed on through the teachers' enthusiasms, and can often progress through Senior School life and afterwards into adulthood. There are two forty-minute sessions weekly, on Monday and Thursday.

    The list below shows the activities which took place in Autumn 2009:

    • Board Games
    • Bridge for Beginners
    • Calligraphy
    • Card Games
    • Chapel Choir
    • Chess
    • Cookery and Household Management
    • Cricket Scoring Masterclass
    • Drama Club
    • Electronic Projects
    • Farnham Common House
    • Fun Spanish for Beginners
    • Guinness Premiership Watch
    • Internal Combustion
    • Model Making
    • Mouse Mat Design
    • Movie Club
    • Music Groups
    • News Reporting
    • Painting on Silk
    • Paper Plane Making
    • Papier-mâché
    • Photography
    • Play
    • Progressive Rock Music
    • Running Club
    • Scrabble
    • Sudoku and Crosswords
    • Texas Holdem Poker Club
    • Turf Club
    • Verbosity
    • Warhammer

    Two different activities:

    Difficult!
    Household Management with Mrs Doggart.Threading a needle - harder than Latin!

    Precise work
    Concentrating hard - Model Making with Mr Baker. Taken by E Pycroft (Photography Activity)

  • The Outdoors   ( 1 Article )
  • Photography   ( 7 Articles )

    Photography is a year-round activity at Caldicott. Besides popping out with a camera, varied groups of photographers record each of our special events. The picture below is from the Caldicott Sevens (click the picture for a larger version). Don't worry - the boy in the foreground was fine a few seconds later).

    A dramatic moment

    Since 2001 we have entered the Prep School Photographer of the Year competition, and won it twice.

    Life in a prep school

    However, in 2008 we only came second, from a large entry:

    b_jang_winner_12y07

    We have several digital cameras - see the 'buyng advice' section for details of what we have, and for hopefully helpful informatiion. The first of our winning pictures ('2002', above) was taken with a compact digital camera, about 4Mp - top of the range then. It used SmartMedia cards, quite flimsy things, if I remember correctly, and no longer available. Maximum size was 128Mb; these days a more modern 4Gb card can be bought for less than £30. See the bottom for some more of our entries for this competition.

    The main advice given is to:

    • Decide the subject of the picture - what are you photographing?
    • Make sure it is a reasonable size - get in close.
    • Change the viewpoint - getting low often increases the drama in sports photographs, for example.
  • Social   ( 2 Articles )
  • Foreign Travel   ( 3 Articles )

    There are several expeditions abroad each year, some of them just for a day or two, as we are so near to motorways leading to the Channel Ports and Tunnel. All 4th, 5th and 6th Forms visit France at least once, and our ski trips (called 'Calski') are immensely popular.  Others in the last few years have included a Classics tour to Greece, Rugby Tours to South Africa and Rome, and a Cricket Tour to South Africa.

    See below for information about individual trips.

    Fun during the journey
    Waiting for the Ferry, 2008