Principal Blog 8th November 2024

THE GREAT RIDGEWAY BAKE-OFF 2024…

What do you get when you combine creativity, competitiveness and copious amount of sugar? Almost 100 cakes, all of which had to be tasted and judged within the space of two hours! Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood would not be able to manage this huge job, but a mixture of House Captains, R6 student volunteers, Site Team and LRC staff made it look easy.

On Monday 21^st October, the annual Great Ridgeway Bake Off happened, where all students were invited to bake a cake and enter it to represent their house. The theme was left open, and the contestants did not disappoint, providing a wide range of designs, flavours and types of cake, with many being Halloween or Autumn inspired.

The House Captains and R6 student volunteers scored the cakes out of 10 for creativity and flavour, in order to carry out the near impossible task of choosing the top two cakes for each house. I never thought I would see so many students go from very excited to extremely full in such a short space of time! These winning cakes from each house were then put forward to the final round, where our ‘expert judges’ (made up of our amazing Site Team and LRC staff) carefully tasted and judged the cakes to select the overall winner.

During breaktime and both lunchtimes, a large number of the cakes were then sold, raising £400. This fantastic amount of money will be combined with the sponsorship and contributions from the upcoming Macmillan Mile House Cross-Country event, to be donated in full to the Macmillan Cancer Support charity.

A HUGE thank you and well done to every single student who baked and brought in a cake, it was a fantastic house event where all entries received 5 merits, then the top two from each house and the overall winner earned even more to boost their own merit total, and add to their House points. With almost 20 more cakes and £125 more raised by the sale compared to last year, this event was a definite step up.

The number of cakes entered and merits earned for each house were as follows…

Silbury entered 27 cakes and earned 150 merits
Kennet entered 20 cakes and earned 135 merits
Avebury entered 21 cakes and earned 120 merits
Barbury entered 19 cakes and earned 110 merits

Congratulations to the following students for being in the top 2 for their house:

Avebury: 1^st = Reggie Connolly, 2^nd = Alyssa McCartney and Tamsin George-Burchell
Barbury: 1^st = Elliot West, 2^nd = Maddie Mackman
Kennet: 1^st = Lauren Penney, 2^nd = Imogen Keen and Rose McGrath
Silbury: 1^st = Florence Humphries, 2^nd = Amy Gurr and Imogen Flynn