B E D F O R D P R E PA R ATO RY S C H O O L
DESIGN: LEE OSBORNE O S B O R N E C R E AT I V E LT D T + 4 4 ( 0 ) 7 8 0 3 0 8 5 2 9 7 | O S B O R N E - C R E AT I V E . C O. U K
MAGAZINE AUTUMN 2019
T +44 (0)1234 362274 F +44 (0)1234 362285 E PREPINFO@BEDFORDSCHOOL.ORG.UK
W H I N C H AT
BEDFORD P R E PA R ATO RY SCHOOL D E PA R Y S AV E N U E B E D F O R D, M K 4 0 2 T U UNITED KINGDOM
BEDFORD P R E PA R ATO RY SCHOOL W H I N C H AT M A G A Z I N E A U T U M N 2 0 1 9
B E D F O R D P R E PA R ATO RY S C H O O L
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CONTENTS
1
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 2
Headmaster’s introduction
S TA F F 5
Salvete - new staff
ACADEMIC 6 9 12 14 15 16 18 21
English Library Maths Science Geography MFL History RE
T H E A RT S 22 24 25 28 30
Music DT Art Drama Speech & Drama
Delft-inspired prints, Y5 Art, page 25
ENRICHMENT
TRIPS/OUTINGS
S P O RT
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48 50 51 52 53 54
69 70 72 73 76 77 78 79 80 81 82
Enrichment
HOUSES 34 36 38 40 42
Eagle House Bunyan Harpur Howard Whitbread
CHARITIES 44 45 46 47
Charities Art (Continued) Prep guild BSA
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56 57 58 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67
Morzine Ski trip Easter Ski trip December Jersey Sports tour Germany trip Various trips Whipsnade Bunyan Museum, Archaeology trip Spain trip Ickwell Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7 Year 8 Speech day & Final Day Assembly Talks & Shows
Fencing and Football Rugby Hockey Cricket Athletics Cross country Badminton Rowing Golf Tennis and Swimming Y8 Leavers
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INTRODUCTION
Headmaster’s introduction WELCOME TO THE W H I N C H AT 2 0 1 8 - 2 0 1 9 Last year seems to have zoomed by, and it is hard to believe another year has gone. It has been a year of thrills, spills, challenges, and successes.
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elcome to this year’s Whinchat Magazine, and thank you for all those who have contributed towards it, especially Miss Hone and Mr Maitland for collating and editing, and to Mark Lewis and others for photography. As usual, not all of the vast array of activities and events that take place at the Prep School have been recorded, and much goes on without a camera at the ready. However, we hope you enjoy some of the many enjoyable moments that we have captured within these pages. Boys have made impressive progress in the classroom (as recognised at a wonderful Speech Day - see report later on), and also outside, with great sporting endeavour, including, yet again, triumph in the IAPS badminton National Finals for the skilled and dynamic pairing of Alex Lamb and Krishnan Nair. Very strong showings across the board in our major sports of rugby, hockey and cricket, have been finely seasoned with success in swimming at the IAPS Finals, and two gold medals and two
silvers at the English Prep Schools National Athletics Finals. Drama has been superb, with highly entertaining shows, including clever interpretations of the theme, Tales of the Unexpected, in the House Drama competition. Oliver Twist in the Autumn Term was a compelling performance of an old classic, involving boys from Y4-13, and girls from BGS (read Oliver Munn’s review in this magazine), and our first Shakespeare in the Garden event involved three casts, from the Prep School, from BGS and from Goldington Academy, performing abridged versions of Shakespeare Classics in the Quarry Gardens. Music has been, as ever, stunning. House Singing was the highlight, with other thoroughly enjoyable performances at the Autumn and Summer concerts, informal and starter concerts. The sheer fun of these evenings is enhanced and epitomised by the excellent and varied musical choices of the music department, including a Barry White song played on the recorders, and wonderful choral versions of Rocketman by Elton John (accompanied by the great man himself!) and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. We also enjoyed terrific Space Evening, in which the Bedford Prep School Choirs celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landings by singing space songs written by Mr Groom and reading their own poetry (the evening culminated with a visit to the Planetarium). We also had an ISI inspection in the penultimate week of term, which involved a great deal of extra work for many staff, and was a very good chance to look at our own practice in detail, and think about areas we can improve in order to ensure that we are doing the best we can for our boys. You will have seen the outcome of the inspection in a recent publication. On the Wednesday of the inspection, an Inspector arrived unannounced for part of a Mrs Stratton’s English lesson. The children were looking at some poetry, and the Inspector was delighted to read one of our boys’ exercise books, in which he had written: Today, today, today, Grief, grief, grief,
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Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, Relief, relief, relief. The Inspector beamed and left the room praising both Mrs Stratton and pupil. The boy’s neighbour leaned over and asked, “Who was that? What did he want?” “I’ve no idea,” he said, “but he certainly seemed impressed by my spelling corrections.” At Speech Day this year, our Guest of Honour was Ian Gilbert, who reminded us how important it is to think creatively, to be independent and resilient, and to learn skills at school which will help us throughout life. It is something we have worked hard on this year, and the past few years, including thorough research, consultation and discussion . We are in the process of developing a curriculum framework which will ensure that our boys are prepared for their immediate future, that they have the necessary skills for the next stage of their education, in the Upper School, but also for their long term future. Its working title is the Future Skills Curriculum, and we will reveal more about this in due course. Thank you, from me, to all in our community who make the school such a superb place to be: to our parents for raising such wonderful boys and being so supportive of what we are doing, to the Prep Guild, wonderfully led by Rosie Biffa, to all of our boys, and to our prefects in particular, especially Deputy Head boy Shaun Thomas and Head Boy Barnaby James, the latter who gave an excellent speech at Speech Day; they and the prefects (and indeed all of Year 8) have been superb all year. Thank you and Rest in Peace to Richard Garrett, for supporting the Prep School so wonderfully in his role, and for his generosity of spirit and kindness. Thank you to all of our teachers too. In the words of Cardinal Williams: “An inspirational teacher flies with every pilot, builds with every architect, diagnoses with every doctor, creates with every artist, fashions with
INTRODUCTION
3
Who was that? What did he want?” “I’ve no idea,” he said, “but he certainly seemed impressed by my spelling every craftsman, and teaches with every teacher.” Thank you to our superb Governors too, who give up their time for the benefit of the school, especially our new Chair of Governors, Sir Clive Loader who started in the role this year. WORDS BY
Ian Silk, Headmaster Barnaby James, Head Boy
4
Headmaster’s introduction
Mosaic which can be found in the Prep School reception, designed and made by Year 8 boys, detailing the Prep School values.
S TA F F
W H I N C H AT
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S TA F F
5
Salvete M R S K AT H RY N L E E Head of Mathematics
Kathryn joined us in March 2019. She has a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Sheffield, and a PGCE Middle Years (Maths) from Homerton College, Cambridge. Prior to joining us, she taught Maths at Robert Bloomfield Academy, where she was also Head of Learning for Year 6, Assistant Head of Maths, a Facilitator for their Teaching School and a mentor for SCITT. As Head of Learning, she monitored progress for around 240 pupils, coordinating pastoral and academic mentoring/interventions as necessary. As Assistant Head of Maths, she co-ordinated maths enrichment including UKMT events, maths activity days and clubs. Since joining us, she has already entered Year 7 and Year 8 boys into the Junior UKMT Individual Challenge, Year 3 and 4 boys into a new National Challenge called the First Maths Challenge and created a Year 6 House Maths Challenge. Prior to her teaching career, she was a Company and Stage Manager in all genres of theatre, working with such luminaries as Sir Anthony Sher, Mark Rylance and Rufus Norris (who is now Artistic Director of the National Theatre). Since arriving, Kathryn has already given great support to the Drama and Sports departments. She has particularly helped the Drama department with our first Shakespeare in the Garden event, using her excellent connections in the theatrical world to arrange superb Shakespeare workshops for our own boys, for girls from BGS and pupils from Goldington Academy. Kathryn also has a keen interest in music, having achieved a Grade 7 in Singing and Grade 5 in Piano and looks forward to helping the Music department in due course.
M R T H O M A S WA L K E R
A r t Te c h n i c i a n
Thomas replaced Mari Caro Morato in the Art Department as Art Technician, for her maternity leave. He started in September. Thomas did his A levels (in Mathematics, Fine Art, Physics and Economics) at Bedford Modern School and followed this with a Certificate of Higher Education in Architecture at Oxford Brookes University and a Fine Art Upper Second Class degree from Loughborough University. He is currently working at Milton Keynes Theatre and is an Associate Artist at MK Gallery. He has previously worked as an Artist in Residence at The Arboretum Park Orangery in Derby and has worked in the Quarry Theatre as a volunteer technician during Bedfringe and a scenic design regular at a number of theatres. He started his own artistic business, has directed an exhibition, has painted sets for National Youth Theatre and regularly exhibits his own art at different galleries.
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W H I N C H AT
English
E N G L I S H R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Dominic Affleck, Head of English
The poetry recitation winners, pictured alongside Mrs Bell
It has been another exciting year in the English department. The boys in all year groups have worked hard and produced some beautiful work, honing all the skills associated with this pivotal subject. Alongside classroom-based learning, the Gothic Evening for Year 8 was a spine tingling success, Year 6 got involved in a production of Hamlet, Years 3 and 4 enjoyed Harry Potter Day, and all year groups dressed up for World Book Day. Our visiting authors and poet proved to be as stimulating as ever, as well as our Patron of Reading supremo Steve Skidmore. More exciting author visits are planned for next year. Reading continues to be as popular as ever and the Accelerated Reading scheme produced our ďŹ rst ever septuple millionaire in Fraser Morgan, which is a remarkable achievement. HANDWRITING PRIZES Y8 Y7 Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3
WINNER Finn Montgomery AlďŹ e Gandesha Tristan Cooper Arnav Dhaliwal Isaac West Juvan Sivasenthan
P O E T RY P R I Z E S Y8 Y7 Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3
WINNER Matthew Goodman Christopher Bonnington Fraser Morgan Isaac Raddan Gabriel Borelli Harry Spencer
RUNNER UP Freddie Constantine Olly Wright Benjamin Roberts Sammy Rawlings Lucien Carron Leonardo Whatling
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P O E T RY C O M P E T I T I O N
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he Poetry Composition competition had an artistic theme to it this year, with entries judged by Mr Studd who commented that it was one of the hardest tasks he has had to do as the standard and creativity by the boys was so very good. Some amazing poems were created based on famous paintings, from the Scream by Edvard Munch to St George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello, and the following are the winners from each year group. Alongside the composition, boys were also assessed on their
handwriting and some lovely poems illustrated that Bedford boys can use a conďŹ dent cursive script. In addition, the Poetry Recitation competition was keenly contested in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6, with some very conďŹ dent contestants. Mrs Bell judged the event and gave detailed feedback to each boy about his performance. It was an extremely difficult event to judge and after careful consideration Chris Gentry was the winner in Year 3, Sammy Hughes in Year 4, Oliver Quince in Year 5 and Jonathan Hall in Year 6. Congratulations go to them all
Year 4 TIGER IN A TROPICAL STORM by Henri Rousseau Tigers of the Forest – an acrostic Tigers of the rainforest Ingenious and adventurous Galloping at their prey Eager to eat. Racing each other to the food Suddenly they stop. Opposing their nemesis )HURFLRXV EX̆DORV 7KH\ ¿JKW ¿HUFHO\ Hastily scratching, biting, clawing, (DUWK À\LQJ HYHU\ZKHUH
Year 3 THE MEDUSA E\ $PEHU +RH̆HU The Medusa – an acrostic The hair is as spikey as a hedgehog Her mouth is as bloody as a human’s stomach Explosive teeth as black as the night sky Marvellous eyes as lovely as a beautiful girl Every day she will eat as fast as a dog Drooling like a hairy dog after it has just eaten its sloppy dinner Unbearable legs as hairy as a wonderful cat Smouldering hair like a smoking man As angry as an old grumpy man By Harry Spencer
Rain pouring $QG ÀRRGLQJ WKH EDWWOH¿HOG In the midst of it all, Now the water is red with blood From this carnage. Over the sky Rain soaks the trees Even the shrubs are covered in blood Shredded fur everywhere Tigers of the Rainforest, win again! By Gabriel Borelli
Year 6 T H E N I N T H WAV E by Ivan Aivazovsky Farewell, Farewell, Old Friend, Goodbye Farewell, Farewell, Old Friend, Goodbye Sail your ship to the hazy sky The rippled waves pulled by the moon Lap over the sea to carry you Farewell, Farewell, Old Friend, Goodbye The sandy beach and the moon’s white eye Will sail you away with the breeze from the shore $QG ¿OO \RXU VDLOV WR VDLO RQFH PRUH Farewell, Old Friend, We speak shorter words The lilt of your voice shall no longer be heard As away you go from this troubled land 7R ¿QG \RXU IRUWXQH RQ GL̆HUHQW VDQG Farewell, Farewell Our boat shall rock To row away from these shingled stones And when the sun sets on these cerulean crests 7KH\ DUH FRUDO WKHQ VDSSKLUH WKHQ WL̆DQ\ %XW ¿QDOO\ WKH\ DUH \RXUV By Fraser Morgan
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W H I N C H AT
English
Year 7
Year 8
WA N D E R E R ABOVE A SEA OF FOG, BY CASPAR DAV I D F R I E D R I C H
THE SCREAM, BY E DVA R D M U N C H
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog
The envious explorer, Stood speechless, Staring at the endless void, Such a sight in such a world, Thought he the man of wonder. Even the fog was thick, The depth would never blunder, He could barely reach out, And feel his destination, Even though he wasn’t there. He wanted it so, so much, So he could prove his worth, To those he needed evermore such, To know what it felt like, One chance to have it all. The envious explorer, Looked through the thick fog, And wished for so long, To just get there, So he could take it all back. By Christopher Bonnington
Scream – Haikus Year 5
SAINT GEORGE AND THE DRAGON, BY PAOLO UCCELLO George And The Demon George was a bold, heroic and fearless knightrescuing anyone who was in sight. One of the best warriors in history, carrying around a mighty axe blackened with obsidian. And his mace dark as coal, aloft his head it would swing and roll. But one cruel day, a devastating battle took place, in which an enemy Kingdom George did face. The enemy attacked at the dead of night, whilst George and his family slept in their beds. George was not prepared for the surprise attack, from the enemy trying to gain power back. The soldiers crept in as quietly as a mouse without waking anyone in the slumbering house. About to attack, with spears and swords, the soldiers had not considered the hound guarding the front door. Sneering, growling and with a thunderous bark the dog awoke George like the lark. Armed with his axe George was ready to slay anyone or anything that got in his way. The battle was hard, ferocious and bloody spilling outside into the streets of the village, with no safe places to hide. Then out of the sky a demon came soaring demanding, frightening and roaring. The demon swooped down with fangs like daggers, razor-sharp claws, grabbing Princess Charlotte in gaping jaws. 2̆ ÀHZ WKH GHPRQ with George at his tail to the cave of skulls in the mystical woods. With all the strength and might he possessed George brought his axe down on the demon’s chest. The incensed demon swiped back in anger slicing and slashing the axe wielding arm spilling blood and causing George much harm. But courageous in battle, George was not yet defeated and grabbed his mace for one last strike. He swung at the demon, blinding the creature. The Princess – he could reach her! The battle was over The demon defeated George and the Princess were very well greeted. By Isaac Raddan
The scream absorbs me. 'HÂżQLWLYH GHVWUXFWLRQ Slowly and surely Absolute, dark fear Stabbing ears like deadly knives. ,QGHÂżQLWHO\ Deep reds and dark browns Colourful and beautiful Like a ripe Autumn The men are watching, Slowly closing in on me But why are they here? Slowly crumbling thoughts No more regular brains left Death to the sane mind Will it ever leave me? The haunting fear of the scream Please, leave me alone By Matthew Goodman
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9
Library WORDS BY
Amy Lumley-Wood, Prep School Librarian
W
ith their wands at the ready, our Year 3 and 4 young wizards were excited to celebrate all things Hogwarts for Harry Potter Book Night. There were magical activities across the entire day, and the boys enjoyed everything from cauldron maths with Professor Snape to creating Hogwarts house acrostic chants in lessons. Quidditch replaced the boys’ usual afternoon hockey practice, complete with quaffles, bludgers and even a speedy human snitch who appeared at random! Our catering staff created a feast for our young wizards as Honeydukes sweet shop popped up in the dining halls, with every sweet treat they could wish for, from popping chocolate frogs and golden snitches to butterbeer.
The day of magic and mischief continued after school when the young wizards created marauders maps, golden snitches and quill pencils, took to the ‘sky’ for some flying practice and were sorted into houses by the sorting hat. Then there was no better way to finish Harry Potter Book Night than to listen to some of the teachers read their favourite extracts. This year’s competition was to design a new sock for Dobby the house elf. The winning sock was designed by Harry Kenmore. Runners Up were Cayo Sinclair and George Kotsidis. These boys got a book for their prize. Four socks designed by Gabriel Borelli, Oliver Featherstone, Chris Gentry and Lewis Pettengell were Highly Commended and these boys got a bookmark. Oh, and if anyone does see this rather dodgy looking wizard, please let us know.
H A R RY P OT T E R BOOK NIGHT 2019 “I really enjoyed all the classroom activities like writing acrostic poems, solving potion maths and designing our own Hogwarts house shields.” Henry Warner “I absolutely loved the special lunch, especially the butter beer!” Hugo Morgan “The library activities in lunch break were fun. I made a bookmark and my own feathered pencil.” Joseph Lucas “I ate honeycomb golden snitches, drank butter beer and munched on chocolate frogs!” Sebastian Pointer “It was great to be able to dress up for the day! I loved everyone walking around with cloaks and wands, and it was cool that the teachers wore gowns like Hogwarts professors.” Alex Woodhouse
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W H I N C H AT
Library
K A R L N O VA
ALL WORDS BY
Amy Lumley-Wood, Prep School Librarian
K
arl Nova - Hip Hop artist, Rapper and Author came to visit school in June and really engaged boys with his wit, humour and positivity. Sharing some great stories of his childhood and his early poems, Karl introduced boys to a new way of thinking about poetry. He got them thinking about how they too can write fun poems on just about any subject, even falling in a puddle or being chased by a dog. Our older boys also heard some of Karl’s edgier raps and about more recent events from his life as an award-winning author. His energetic sessions had the boys laughing out loud and they were really buzzing afterwards. By the end of the hour, he had boys and sta on their feet rapping and dancing, and was even asked if he could stay and talk for a bit longer!
Did you know? Rap is an acronym for Rhythm and Poetry K A R L N OVA
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Library TO M PA L M E R
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uthor Tom Palmer came to visit us just before World Book Day. As his visit was during the Six Nations rugby tournament, Tom talked to the boys about how his love of sports inspires his writing. At school, Tom loved sport but was less keen on reading. He made it his mission to write stories that will appeal to boys just like him. His books cleverly mix all his interests and make fun reading for both avid and less avid readers.During the day, boys played Tom’s ‘Rugby and Football Reading Game’, which involved them answering questions about newspapers, magazines and books. Anyone with a correct answer took part in a penalty shootout to determine the winner of the trophy. During the quiz Tom talked to the boys about how he researches material for his books, using magazines (yes, he did admit that he reads OK! for an insight into footballers’ lives) or reading biographies for his historical fiction books. He even recounted how he once spent the night alone in a football stadium so he could describe it accurately. Tom enjoyed his time with us and was highly impressed by the thoughtful questions the boys asked, some of which he had never been asked before.
STEVE SKIDMORE
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e were delighted to be working with Steve Skidmore again this year as our Patron of Reading. In small groups, our Year 6 and Year 8 boys spent an engaging hour with the children’s author and former teacher. He shared a funny incident from a summer spent on a Girl Guide Camp with his mum (and, yes, that was funny in itself) before reading the boys an extract from one of his early books based on the incident. The boys learned how he enhanced the real event in the story by changing the setting, adding one extra character, using repetition of ideas, and adding tension.
WORLD B O O K DAY
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or this year’s World Book Day, each tutor group chose a favourite book and either dressed in costume or brought props as clues to the title. Great fun was then had during assembly as everyone tried to guess which book each tutor group had chosen. Mr Silk and Mrs Stratton judged everyone’s efforts and chose some winners, with each year group being won by the following forms. 3W – Fantastic Mr Fox 4M – Winnie the Pooh 5O – Alice in Wonderland and 5SR – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 6EM – The Bible 7C – The Dictionary and 7T – James Bond 8P – The Hunger Games and 8RB – The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, with a special mention for 8F – Horrid Henry The teachers, not wanting to be left out, joined in the fun by either dressing as some of their favourite literary characters – we particularly enjoyed Mr Silk’s Pooh Bear and Mr Egan’s Gruffalo – or emblazoned their t-shirts with quotes from their favourite books.
OLAF FALAFEL
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he Erskine May Hall was full of chortles, giggles and guffaws when we had a visit from the hilarious Olaf Falafel: author, illustrator and comedian. Olaf took boys from Year 3 to Year 6 on ajourney to the moon when he shared his latest story, ‘It’s One Giant Leek for Mankind’, inspired by the fiftieth anniversary of man’s first landing on the moon in 1969. His talk was full of historical details and film clips showing us things that actually happened, and many things involving moon baboons and giant leeks that did not! Olaf also gave the boys lots of great ideas and advice on writing, poetry and illustration, as well as a baboon drawing masterclass.
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W H I N C H AT
Mathematics
M AT H E M AT I C S R E P O RT W O R D S B Y By Mrs Kathryn Lee, Head of Maths
It has been an excellent year in the Maths department, with lots of challenges going on.
UK INDIVIDUAL J U N I O R M AT H S CHALLENGE GOLD AWA R D Y8 Will Reddy TXDOL¿HG IRU Kangaroo Paper, Best in Year)
Y8 Steven Wang TXDOL¿HG IRU Kangaroo Paper, Best in Year, Best in School)
Michael Moretto
Keshav Navalkissoor (TXDOL¿HG IRU
TXDOL¿HG IRU Kangaroo Paper)
Kangaroo Paper) TXDOL¿HG IRU Kangaroo Paper)
Naail Lowndes (qualified for Kangaroo Paper) Ethan Summers
Luke Langridge Finn Montgomery
TXDOL¿HG IRU Kangaroo Paper)
Ivan Iankov
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uring May, all Year 8 boys and a selection of Year 7 boys took part in the Junior UKMT. The UKMT Individual Maths Challenge is a lively, intriguing multiplechoice question paper designed to stimulate an interest in Maths. Over 270,000 pupils from across the UK sat the Junior Maths Challenge. Gold, Silver and Bronze certificates are awarded to 40% of participants nationally; the top 6% receive gold, the next 13% receive Silver and the next 21% receive Bronze.
S I LV E R AWA R D Y8 Alex Hall Siddharth Prabhu Thivamsan Karunakaran Toby Mitchell Marco Mao Thomas Jenkins William Ngan Isaac Maddison Hasan Manji Y7 Ruben Jacob Harry Clifton
Abdullah Khalid Oliver Simmonds James Dagg Fred Dickson Alex Lamb Christopher Bonnington Hamish Whiteman BRONZE AWA R D Y8 Shaun Thomas Tom Hickey Richard Yang Harry Tolmie Will Everitt
Oliver Munn Daniel Eidmans Harry Payne Thomas CameronFraser Zaki Shameem Pratap Gill Jason Fasanya Edward Briers Hari Mistry Joseph Maravala Y7 Robert Wells Tanay Rai Alex Harrison Brooklyn Fu
Eric Breslin Oliver Wright Tobi Akinola William Bulleyment Edward Walker Edward Dagg Sam Cutler Muhammad Alom Joshua Hills-Jones Edgar Maddocks William Beattie Arthur Polhill Trofim Molchanov Robert Dennis
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UKMT KANGAROO CHALLENGE Approximately 9200 of the top students from the UKMT Junior Challenge are invited to sit a follow-on competition called the Junior Mathematical Olympiad, or the Kangaroo Challenge. Seven of our boys were invited to sit the Kangaroo Challenge. The following boys were awarded a Qualification certificate: Keshav Navalkissoor Ethan Summers
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YEAR 6 HOUSE M AT H E M AT I C S CHAMPIONSHIP
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his competition was the first of its kind and it was a great success! All of Year 6 competed in their Houses in teams of 2 to 4 (dependent on the event), taking on a different challenge each week. Focus was on collaboration, reasoning and problem solving. The boys enjoyed various challenges including relay and shuttle events and solving conundrums. It was great to see all the boys so involved and enjoying their Maths. Congratulations go to Bunyan who won the Year 6 House Mathematics Trophy for 2019!
The following boys were awarded a Merit certificate, indicating they were in the top 25% of those who sat the Kangaroo Challenge: Ivan Iankov Naail Lowndes Michael Moretto Will Reddy Steven Wang Congratulations to all the boys for the hard work they have put in.
UK TEAM M AT H S CHALLENGE
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ur Prep and Upper School mathematicians joined forces on Monday 18th March to compete in the regional finals of the Team Maths Challenge. Their superb performance earned them fourth place (out of 32). This was the best performance for the school in recent years.Keshav Navalkissoor and Will Reddy from Year 8, together with Upper School Fourth Formers Sunny Ye and Shawn Shen, travelled to the University of Cambridge’s Centre of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics to take part in the challenging competition.During the day the boys’ Maths skills were really tested as they completed four rounds of competition. In the Group Round, the boys worked as a team to answer 10 questions of varying type and difficulty against the clock. In round two, called the ‘Crossnumber’ (because it is similar to a crossword but with numerical answers), the boys worked in pairs, one pair solving the Across clues and one pair working on the Down clues. Round three, the ‘Shuttle’, again called for pair work against the clock to correctly answer a series of questions, with the answer to each question being dependent on correctly answering the previous one, so there was no room for any mistakes! Finally, in pairs once again, the boys took turns to solve problems in the ‘Relay’ round. This round involved lots of movement as well as Mathematics.Our congratulations go to all four boys, who put a tremendous amount of effort into the competition and did themselves and the School very proud.
F M C F I R S T M AT H S CHALLENGE
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he First Mathematics Challenge (FMC) has been specifically created to give pupils in Years 3 and 4 the opportunity to take part in a National Challenge. The intention of the challenge is to portray Mathematics as being enjoyable, exciting and engaging for younger pupils. In June, all Year 3 and 4 boys at the Prep School took part in the challenge, with some excellent results.
The top performer in Year 4 was Donnell Creek. Joint top performers in Year 3 were Christopher Gentry, Hugo Morgan and Leo Whatling. All children achieved either a Bronze, Silver or Gold Certificate. Gold winners were: Donnell Creek Oliver Barbour Auryn HillsJones Aaryan Nair
Noe Simplicio Dylan Uppal Tom Whiting Aled Wright Isaac Vincent-Emery Dominic Fairhead Jamie Kingsbury Aston Thygesen Christopher Gentry Hugo Morgan Leo Whatling Alex Brooksbank William Chadwick Joshua McMurran Rocco Shelton
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Science
SCIENCE R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Michael Mallalieu Head of Science
AUTUMN TERM 2018-19
M
r Heaney has been a welcome addition to the Science Department. This term, the Science Department was used extensively for sessions with visiting children on taster days: We welcomed boys from Milton Keynes Prep School, Broughton Manor Prep School, Pilgrims School and Polam. Also, Science was included as one of the sessions in the Activities Morning for 11+ and 12+ Candidates on Saturday 8th December. Four visits to the Planetarium/ Observatory were arranged for Year 7 boys. These were, as ever, very popular and over 70 boys attended one of the evenings. Due to other events (including House Swimming) the final evening on Friday 7th December was particularly well attended, with 25 boys!
SPRING TERM 2018-19
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n mid-January Year 5 boys were treated to a Science Sleepover in London’s Science Museum. All Year 5 (59 boys) attended, plus five staff and four parents enjoyed another successful trip. And in March, all Year 6 boys
Mr and Mrs Guise and Mr Stone coped admirably well with a group several boys bigger than they would usually expect. A team consisting of Ralph Franklin, Ayaan Tarique, Fraser Morgan and Aryan Sohanpal was taken by Michael Roberts to take part in the National Science Quiz held at St John’s College Cambridge. Out of 12 teams, they came second. The animal menagerie now consists of: 1 corn snake (found in the Upper School DT department in the Wells Building over the summer holiday!) 1 leopard gecko Several marine fish, corals and shrimp Several tropical fish 3 separate tanks for gerbils 2 Guinea pigs
Over 70 boys signed up for Animal Care club. The boys were allocated a place on a two-weekly basis.
went to the Big Bang Science Fair in the NEC in Birmingham (see separate article) The Virtual Reality headsets and software were used extensively during Year 6 and Year 8 Science lessons.
SUMMER TERM 2018-19
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n the Summer Term, Mr Allen took Eric Breslin, Zach Hone, Harry Clifton, Christopher Bonnington to Hatfield University for the Salters’ Challenge. Twelve Year 8 scientists travelled to Milton Keynes College for a Bedfordshire and North Buckinghamshire Science & Technology Challenge Day. There were six schools present and, to make up the 18 teams, two pupils from one school were combined with two pupils from another school, meaning that students had to work with children they hadn’t met before. The teams were divided into three groups and then they did a circus of activities that involved programming a robot to move around a mat with different shapes/colours, an E-Fit facial composition problem and a medical diagnostic task. The overall winning team was comprised of two students from the Grange School in Buckinghamshire plus two of our own boys (Sam Maling and Finn Montgomery). They were presented with their trophies by the Lord-Lieutenant for Buckinghamshire. The Animal Club remained very popular. The last few weeks saw regular attendance of over 20 boys. Unfortunately, our beloved chameleon took sick and died in the Summer Term, but one of the female gerbils gave birth to three baby gerbils.
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Geography
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e recognise that studying Geography in the Prep School is an opportunity for pupils to make a deeper connection with the world around them. With that in mind, a range of activities that provoke curiosity, investigation and reflection supports work in the classroom. We want the boys to see that studying Geography helps to establish a relevant, contemporary context to the world in which they live. Each year group enjoys a number of opportunities through the year to physicalize their study of the subject. Year 5 went on a treasure hunt, using their map reading skills to seek-out a priceless diamond. They also took a walk back in time at Oakham Castle, where they learnt how ancient settlements were established and how the society of our ancestors operated. Year 6 took a closer look at the very ground beneath their feet and honed their petrology skills (that’s dusting down and polishing rocks to you and me!). If that all sounds a little dry, the boys were reminded that Geography and modern technology go hand-in-hand
when they entered the Seterra Geography competition. The Seterra online app is a multi-functional, interactive education tool that allows children to explore the richness of the world around them, all from the comfort of the classroom. We recognise that interaction is key when capturing the imagination of our pupils, so Year 7 got to re-enact a volcanic eruption scenario. When the ‘Monserrat Volcano’ suddenly erupted, our boys were thrust into a real-world situation that required calm heads and a focused appreciation of a volatile environment. They enjoyed using walkie-talkies to guide each other safely through the imagined perils of molten lava and a township in the throes of chaos and destruction. It was clear to see the boys’ excitement as they dealt with a situation that kept changing from moment to moment. In the Summer Term, Year 8 visited Cadbury’s World and learnt first-hand about production, sustainability and the operation systems of trade markets. Some chocolate may have been sampled on the trip too!
GEOGRAPHY R E P O RT WORDS BY
Miss Emma Goodman Head of Geography
It’s been a busy, productive and rewarding year for the Geography department and we wish all the boys a restful summer; keep exploring, it’s a big world out there! Geography this year has been amazing , and I am looking forward to future lessons. Some of my best Geography highlights this year have been finding the diamond from the demon creature and finding the differences between the Arctic and Antarctica session. I have loved Geography this year and I am looking forward to geography in Year 6. McKenzie Bello-Hazeltine Oakham castle would be a great place to live because there was a well to supply fresh water, flat land to grow crops and build on and the motte which made for good protection against enemies. Ollie Cochrane I have really enjoyed geography this year, especially a game called Settara. Sebastian Fairhead
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Modern Foreign Languages
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ne year on and nothing much has advanced with Brexit, but whatever the outcome, we know that the future of our boys is unlikely to be defined by where borders may lie. This is why we have kept the flame of language-learning burning in the Prep School, along with cultural interest in and acceptance of our international neighbours. According to the Times Educational Supplement, only a third of Britons report that they are able to hold a conversation in another language. We are pleased to say that this is certainly not the
case for our boys, who practise their French, Spanish and German on a daily basis, both in the classroom and on the residential trips we run every year. Learning a language is vital for the future job market, but learning how to learn a language is an invaluable life skill; it equips the boys for learning any language further down the line, should their job, family relocation or personal interest require it. We hope you enjoy a flavour of what we do in the MFL department and if you are not one of those third of Britons.... ask your son to teach you!
M F L R E P O RT
VOX POPS Yo! ¡Hola! Me llamo Mateo y tengo trece años. Mi cumpeaños es el veinticuatro de septiembre. Vivo en Milton Ernest y soy Inglés. Tengo una hermanastra que se llama Emily y ella es lista. También tengo un hermanastro que se llama Joseph y es muy divertido. Joseph tiene veinte años. Soy muy serio pero soy bastante divertido también no soy tímido. Tengo tres perros, son fenomenales. Mi pasión es el baloncesto y mi héroe es Kyrie Irving; él es genial.
WORDS BY
Madame Kelly Faulkner, Head of Modern Foreign Languages
Mateo Je me présente Je m’appelle Akshat Buddineni et j’ai onze ans. Mon anniversaire c’est le onze juillet. Je suis Anglais et j’habite à Bedford en Angleterre. Je n’ai pas d’animal. J’ai les cheveux noirs, courts et raides. J’ai les yeux PDUURQ -H VXLV Ř OV XQLTXH Je suis grand. J’adore jouer au cricket et foot parce que c’est excellent avec Guillaume, Abhinav, Finlay, Alex, Hilary, Trystan, Oscar Jewers et Sam. J’aime aussi faire de la natation parce que c’est super avec mes copains et ma famille.
Akshat
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FRENCH MORNING French morning was awesome! I especially loved the breakfast, trying pain au chocolat, crossaints, jus d’orange and chocolat chaud! Adam Purdie My favourite part was the French bingo where we had to remember words for food items, family members, colours, numbers, months and all the other things we had learnt in our lessons. Josh Edmundson I really enjoyed dressing up. I dressed as a mime artist and I tried to spend the morning acting out instead of talking, but it was too hard! Conor Hayes The treasure hunt was great! We covered the entire school, searching for the clues and making the letters to spell out the French president’s name. Henry Warner We sang all the French numbers to 20 in a rap style, Year 3 against Year 4. It got so loud but I definitely know all my numbers now! Hugo Vincent
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W H I N C H AT
History
H I S TO RY R E P O RT Year 5 OAKHAM CASTLE VISIT
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he trip to Oakham Castle was great! My personal favourite bit was when we re-enacted the Battle of Hastings, because firstly I acted as William the Conqueror and secondly it felt like we actually were in the battle itself. One new thing I learnt was that, in battle, there were lots of different ways you could die! H A R RY A DA M S
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n Tuesday 4th June we got on the bus and took a trip to Oakham Castle.
it to stand out; I wanted it to be different. I made the outline of everything first (basically a plan), then I made all the walls really high, then I made the keep, then the turrets, then the houses and finally the church. This sequence took about five hours in total. What I learned from this whole experience was that there were many different castles, each with their many different features, but the one thing they all have in common is that they take a very long time to build. I also learned some names of the different styles of castles, like Curtain Wall, Motte and Bailey, Stone Keep and Concentric. My Lego castle was based on a Curtain Wall castle. I liked this topic because it was interesting and fun, and I could do it how I wanted to. The one bad thing was that when I was taking my castle home I accidentally dropped it and it smashed into hundreds of pieces. I loved the castle project and I think everyone else did too. JOSHUA LINCOLN By Mrs Radha Badhan Head of History
Once we got off the bus there was a Viking awaiting us at the gates of the manor. He led us to the manor to show us the dead body of Edward the Confessor, who we had to show our respect to. We were then split into two groups. My group went outside first to re-enact the Battle of Hastings! When we got outside we were divided into three groups;
the Saxons, the Vikings and the Normans. I was in the Vikings! We Vikings had to put a tunic on and were given a shield and sword. We learnt six commands: Form a shield wall; Form a line; Weapons high; Fall back; Advance; Attack. We then started fighting against the Saxons but sadly lost! A RYA N S O H A N PA L
Year 5
CASTLES PROJECT
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n History, Mrs Badhan set us a prep to make a castle! I made my castle a bit differently to everyone else in my class because I made it out of all my spare Lego pieces. I made my castle like that because I wanted
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made my castle by firstly buying two pieces of polystyrene and sticking them together, cutting a little divot into the two pieces of polystyrene. Secondly, I bought more polystyrene to use as the motte and stuck that into place using a glue gun. I used balsa wood to make the castle then I painted it with paint. After that, I got some of
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History my Dad’s sawdust and dyed it green so it would look like grass. In the moat near the outsides I painted it yellow but in the middle I painted it dark blue, to make it look deeper. I got some sponge and dyed it green so that it would look like bushes. Next I got some wood and cut it into fence shapes, then I stuck them down to make it look like a fence. I had a look outside to find some little trees for outside the castle. I found a few but not enough so I took a branch from our Christmas tree. Coming over the moat, I stuck a bridge down. Finally I added the best thing: a flag that said ASHWIN. A S H W I N C U RT I S
Year 6 S U L G R AV E MANOR VISIT
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n Monday 24th June we visited Sulgrave Manor. When we arrived they split us into three groups and dressed us up as Tudor boys. In our groups we set off to different parts of the Manor to see how a rich Tudor lived. My group went straight to the entrance of the house where we discussed the engravings on the bricks and what the house was made of. The Manor was built in 1539 by Lawrence Washington who was a wool merchant. Later on, we found out that he was related to George Washington and that some people believed that the Washington coat of arms inspired the American flag. We then progressed into the great hall where the house’s inhabitants would eat. The board in the centre of the room was their table and if the host did not like you the table would be flipped onto its rough side. This is where the phrase ‘the tables have turned’ comes from. Moving upstairs, we went into Lawrence’s bedroom. He had a canopy bed that had curtains around it to give him privacy as there were no corridors back then. I then learnt that if you were a King or Queen then your bed would be made out of feathers but if you were just quite rich you would have a woolen bed. However, if you were poor you would either have nothing or straw if you were lucky. In the afternoon we went to the kitchen where we had a go at doing Tudor jobs like being a spit boy or shaping butter. We then walked past the herb garden and some of the herbs were so old that they did not know what they were. Then we looked at a replica of a house that 98% of Tudor people would live in. I really enjoyed the day as I learnt so many new interesting facts that I did not know before. BENJAMIN CUTTS
Year 7 ENGLISH C I V I L WA R TA L K
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n one of the first days back from Spring half term holidays (13th March), Year 7 boys were treated to a History workshop based on weapons with Kevin Hicks. The workshop consisted of Mr Hicks talking and demonstrating how different weapons worked and how they were used. The purpose of the workshop was to inform us about the English Civil War before we covered the topic in school lessons. So, Mr Hicks brought in an array of weapons used in that era. Weapons, such as the pike (a long piece of shaven wood with a sharpened, metal spike on the end of it), a musket (a long gun that shot a small, black metallic ball) and swords with different lengths were on display. Mr Hicks placed body armour on some of the boys, who were barely able to stand because of their weight. After Mr Hicks showed us what the different weapons looked like, he took us over to the Inky pitch where he demonstrated how to shoot a real-life musket. Mr Hicks said that it was really powerful and effective. The only problem was that it was really slow to reload and a good musketeer could only shoot about 3 rounds per minute. Mr Hicks shot the musket and there
was a massive “Bang!” This took us by surprise as we weren’t expecting the noise to be that loud. After this demonstration Mr Hicks took us back to the hall where he told us some interesting stories about the English Civil War. My personal favourite story was when the two armies (Royalists and Parliamentarians) faced off in the Battle of Naesby in 1645 (the battle that defined the Parliamentarians as the winners.) Charles I, before the battle, stared over to the other side of the battlefield into Oliver Cromwell’s eyes. Both reflected the amount of hatred they had shown towards each other, previously. Charles I then commands his troops to “Charge with no remorse.” I liked this because it contrasted so much from what should have actually happened. A King and his Parliament should get along really well as they need to collaborate to rule the country. I also enjoyed listening to the story when Charles I laughed when he saw the New Model Army who appeared in the Battle of Naesby. He laughed as the army had half the troops that Charles himself had. However, what Charles didn’t know was that General Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell had conspired to prepare a flank to fool Charles I. The Royalists were ambushed and the New Model Army demolished them. I really enjoyed the workshop and I’m sure the rest of the boys did too. Mr Hicks gave us a good foundation of knowledge prior to our topic and helped us to understand it even more. He made his talks humorous so that it would stick in our memories. SHAUN THOMAS
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W H I N C H AT
History Year 8
C A D B U RY WORLD TRIP For one day only we were taken both back and forward in time. Now, everybody knows Cadbury World for, yes, you guessed it, the chocolate. And there were literally tonnes of chocolate in all its many varieties, and we did indeed taste much of it and brought a lot of it home. But there is much more to Cadbury than just its dark purple chocolate bars that we all know and love; the history of Cadbury is fascinating. The original Cadbury was John Cadbury who opened a grocery shop in 1824 in Birmingham. He made and sold chocolate, which, as a Quaker, he thought was much better for people than alcohol. Over the next sixty years the business grew and moved premises to ever larger factories in Birmingham until eventually in 1878 they opened their factory at Bournville. The Cadbury family who still owned the business wanted to provide excellent working conditions so they not only built a factory but also houses and gardens and parks for their workers. The factory continued to make chocolate
which was becoming increasingly popular. This continued till World War 2 when chocolate was rationed. Chocolate stopped being rationed in the 1950s and its popularity grew yet further. Cadbury has been a major company for well over a hundred years and is now global, employing lots of people and getting resources from across the world. It qualifies as a Trans National Corporation (TNC). Interestingly, though it made profits of £185m in the UK in 2018, it paid no British tax. Perhaps to make up for little payment of British tax, the company does good works through the Cadbury Foundation that supports lots of charities across our country. So, when you next sit down and have a piece of Cadbury Dairy Milk, have a think about the history you are literally eating! H U W B U RTO N PYE
Year 8
S L AV E RY TA L K W I T H PAU L C RO O K S
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thought the talk with Mr Crooks was really good and interesting because he talked about his family and how they were involved in the slave trade in the past. I was really surprised how far back he went and I thought he was very brave to talk about how his family in the way he did. The thing that shocked me the most was that there were so many slaves who turned against each other. I cannot believe that it took so long for the slave trade to end! PHARELL PETERS
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n March, Paul Crooks visited Year 8 and spoke to us about slavery. His own ancestors were slaves who were originally captured in Ghana. It took him thirteen years to find out about his family and where they came from. He traced his family line back to 1777, when his ancestor, Ami Djaba Brown, was born. At some point, Ami was taken captive and transported to Jamaica where she became a cotton plantation worker. Paul explained to us that slavery has existed for a long time, extending back to the Ancient Egyptians. He described what it was like to be a slave and the horrors they faced. It was very interesting to hear his account, but also appalling to discover how some people treated others differently just because of their skin colour. W I L L R E D DY
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n the Spring Term, the Independent Schools Religious Studies Association announced their essay writing competition. Hundreds of students from independent schools around the country submitted essays exploring the statement: ‘There are more similarities than differences between the Abrahamic faiths. Discuss.’ The I.S.R.S.A.’s response is testament to the hard work that students put into their entries - they were ‘overwhelmed with the response’ and ‘absolutely delighted to receive so many essays of such a high standard’. Amongst the many schools that entered, Bedford School was delighted to have a winner in the Prep School category. Huge congratulations go to Eric Breslin, Year 7, who won first prize for his outstanding essay and was awarded £50 worth of book tokens. Well done, also, to Aryan Sohanpal, Year 5, for his impressive entry.
HEADMASTER’S C O M M E N D AT I O N F O R M O S T O U T S TA N D I N G PIECE OF RE PREP
Awarded To:
ERIC BRESLIN, Y7 THERE ARE MORE SIMILARITIES THAN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ABRAHAMIC FAITHS
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he three Abrahamic faiths are Judaism, Islam and Christianity. I will delve into these religions to discover if the similarities outweigh the differences. The Abrahamic faiths are all monotheistic, which means they believe in one God and so they all have this significant feature in common. There are quite a lot of similarities between the Abrahamic faiths. All three faiths record the story of Abraham in their own books (Islam: The Qur’an, Christianity: The Bible, Judaism:The Torah). The story of Abraham tells of how God told Abraham to sacrifice his son to Him to show that he was loyal to his one true God. God promised him that “in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” So, Abraham was to be the foundation of those faiths who believed in the one true God. All three faiths believe in one God, but in their own religions they call Him different names (Islam/Muslim: Allah, Christianity: God, Judaism: Yahweh). The Christians and the Jews have a great similarity between their books about the
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
W O R D S B Y Miss Louise Williams,
Head of Religious Education
time before Jesus. The Christians copied this part from the Torah and renamed it The Old Testament as part of their own Bible. The Muslims didn’t copy the Torah or The Old Testament, but they do believe in many of the things that both of those books teach like the Ten Commandments, and of course the story of Abraham which is part of the Qur’an and is called The Story of Ibrahim. In the New Testament, The Christians believe in Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah. The Jews believe Jesus was a false Messiah as they are still waiting for their Messiah. The Muslims do believe in Jesus but just as a prophet, not the Son of God; instead, the Muslims think that Mohammed is the greatest apostle of Allah. Each of the faiths forbids bearing false witness (telling lies) and each faith forbids killing fellow man, although they don’t all follow these rules as arguments often start because each of the religions think they are the one true faith. Even though they are meant to be peace loving religions, arguments between them have ended up in wars breaking out. This fighting still goes on today. Each of the Abrahamic
religions believes the others are “bearing false witness”, and extremists believe the followers of other faiths should be converted or destroyed. There can be disagreements even within one faith, like Catholics and Protestants from the Christian religion fighting, for example in Ireland where there has been a long history of fighting between the two denominations. It is similar in Islam with historical fighting between Sunni and Shia Muslims To conclude, I think that there are more similarities than differences between the Abrahamic faiths. They agree mostly on the events in the Old Testament, which is quite substantial. Although the Jews don’t believe in the time of Jesus, as recorded in the New Testament and the Muslims believe in Jesus only as a prophet, the essence of each faith remains the same. The main concept of the three religions that binds them together is that they all believe in one God that they can all pray to, to give them strength and guidance. Essentially, they all love and worship the same God. This means that the three Abrahamic faiths are deeply connected by the highest power of all.
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Music
M U S I C R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mrs Joanne Gedye, Head of Prep School Music
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hat an exciting and musically enjoyable year this has been! Yet again I have constantly been inspired and impressed with both the boys’ and Music Staff’s infinite enthusiasm and support throughout the year and I would like to thank them all for making this such a successful year. Throughout the year, we have had a multitude of musical treats. A few personal
favourites stand out. One would certainly be the Space Evening where the Bedford Prep Choirs celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landings in style in a special event. Out-of-this-world performances of six space songs written by Mr Groom were interspersed with dramatic readings, original poetry
from the boys and original footage of the Apollo mission. It was a captivating evening and spirits could not even be dampened by the heavy rain as 60 boys made their way to the school’s observatory afterwards to enjoy a tour of the planetarium. The Years 3 and 4 Starter Presentation concert was also on the theme of space. All the boys took part in the story of how a copy of Beethoven’s 5th symphony, located on a disc sent to space with the twin Voyager probes, was discovered by an excited Flutoplutonian, which led eventually to a grand performance of an alienified version alongside 50 astronaut string players! The concert also featured stunning performances from Brooklyn Fu (violin, Y7), George Balfour (horn, Y10) and Jonathan Blake (oboe, Y13) which did a lot to inspire the boys to persevere with their music learning! Then, of course, there
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was the Summer Concert. The boys really out-did themselves this year with many ensembles combining forces. The combined Prep Choirs performed a breathtaking rendition of ‘Rocket Man’, very colourfully accompanied by ‘Elton John’ and his enthusiastic band. My favourite performance was, however, The Prep Orchestra, featuring the Guitar Ensemble. What a finale it was. Involving over 50 boys, they performed a rousing Space Medley. It was a fitting finale to what has been an excitingly musical year. This year we welcomed Mr Childs, our new Head of Woodwind, Brass and Percussion, who has been an excellent addition to our team. In his words, ‘Music in Bedford Prep School is undoubtedly alive and kicking! The range of ensembles on offer is tremendous, with boys involved almost from the moment they start learning their instrument. The boys have embraced the music chosen, which is often something they know, perhaps from a latest movie release, or one of Mr Groom’s amazing compositions! The pupils are challenged and stretched in every rehearsal and the result is that everyone who has taken part
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The boys really out-did themselves this year with many ensembles combining forces
has improved their skills enormously throughout the year.’ Sadly, we say a fond farewell to two of our longest serving Music Staff: Mr Rouse whose organ playing and leadership of the Chapel Choir has been inspirational and Mr Thompson whose piano artistry and wicked sense of humour is second-to-none. We will miss you both and wish you all the very best in your new positions.
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Design Technology
D T R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mrs. Michelle Aldridge, Head of Design Technology
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esign and Technology is a fascinating, rewarding and increasingly important subject in the modern world. At Bedford Prep School we promote innovation, resourcefulness and independent learning, encouraging each pupil to reach his full potential through a wide variety of ‘design and make’ projects. We challenge all of our pupils to create their own designs based on a series of design briefs. Focusing on the needs and wants of a target market and choosing appropriate materials for their induvial products, the pupils learn to be innovative designers and problem solvers. Each project begins by following the design process to develop a range of initial ideas into one final design. Each year group has designed and manufactured two products this year, using a variety of materials and manufacturing processes throughout all projects. Key activities such as measuring and marking out, cutting by hand, and finishing techniques provide the boys with a wide range of practical skills and experience.
YEAR HIGHLIGHTS Q Y E A R 3 This year the boys in Year 3 designed and manufactured a Trojan Horse toy and decorated a terracotta pot in the style of the Ancient Greeks, to link in with their Topic studies. These projects focused on designing within a given theme, accurate measuring, marking out and cutting and using a pillar drill safely. The Year 3s also learnt about the value of money and have created their very own money-boxes in order to save. Q Y E A R 4 Year 4 have designed and manufactured a Viking shield to link in with their topic of Saxons and Vikings. These projects focused on designing within a given theme, accurate measuring, marking out and cutting, using a hand drill safely and wood stain. The boys also completed a robot clock project, which reinforced these key skills. Q Y E A R 5 The theme of the first project was Mexico. This was to be included within their designing. The boys also learnt how to make a pair Espadrilles, gaining the skills
and knowledge of hand sewing. The second project was a variety of jewellery pieces with the theme of fossils and an element of food technology; the boys got to make fossils cookies too! Q Y E A R 6 This first project was to design and manufacture a Whirligig based on an individually researched bird. The second project was a mobile phone amplifier. This project involved mathematical, scientific and practical skills. Both projects included elements of design, theory and manufacturing processes. Q Y E A R 7 The boys’ first project was based on the Art Deco Era with the end product being an Art Deco Clock. The second project was a gaming/devicse stand. This was very practical in nature. Q Y E A R 8 During Year 8, pupils complete three projects. The aims are to develop confidence and accuracy in the workshop and to introduce new design skills. Specifically, the boys are introduced to 3D CAD modelling using SolidWorks software.
Well done to all of the Prep School boys this year in DT. You produced some amazing pieces of creative work!
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A RT R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Phil Studd , Head of Art
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regularly challenge myself to consider ‘what is the best way of developing a child’s understanding and learning in art?’ Is it primarily to develop a child’s confidence recording the world around them - whether this lies in the people, landscapes or everyday objects around them? Is it to light their imagination, dreams and their capacity to create? Or rather, should we be concentrate on introducing children to a range of media, and the techniques associated with them, so that they gain confidence exploring the potential of line and mark-making? In my experience, it is impossible to prioritise one of the goals above another. At Bedford, boys explore all of these opportunities in equal measure over the course of a project. Our aim is for all boys to view art beyond their ability to draw with graphite on paper; that they see art as a way of communicating what they see but also what they imagine and what they feel. As such, art is a vital subject in any school’s curriculum or in any child’s learning. Main image Joseph Kennett Y6 01 Selim Sheikh Y6 02 Harry Adams Y5 03 Harry Gray Y6 04 Harry Burns Y5 05 Alfie Gittins Y7 06 Alex Hammond Y7 0 7 W i l l Tu r n e r Y 7 08 Sammy Inman Y6 0 9 J a m i e We l c h Y 8 10 Ben Agbenu Y8 1 1 J o h n ny We i m a n n Y 8 01
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Art
R E S U LT B U N YA N HARPUR HOWARD WHITBREAD
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WINNERS: HOWARD
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HOUSE ART COMPETITION 2018
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ongratulations to all boys who produced entries for this year’s House Art Competition. While there were fewer entries than last year, the standard of artwork on display was outstanding. Our judge, Katie Nicholson [who leads sculpture in the Upper School] praised the diversity of ideas, as well as the boys’ confidence and skills with a range of media and processes. In addition, she told boys and parents that it was more difficult to judge this exhibition than the A-Levels she was currently marking. With entry and position points combined, Howard emerged as the triumphant house to claim the House Art Cup for 2019 - so well to done to Howard!
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AWARD WINNERS Y3/Y4 COMMENDED Henri Helm, [Whitbread] 3RD Lewis Pettengell [Whitbread] 2 N D I s a a c We s t [ H o w a r d ] 1ST Alastair Tierney [Bunyan] Y5/Y6 COMMENDED Aryan Sohanpal [Harpur] Charles Whittle-Queral [Howard] 3RD Freddie Bowis [Howard] 2ND Benjamin Rioch [Whitbread] 1ST Matthew Cato [Howard] Y7/Y8 COMMENDED David Wiltshire [Howard] Clement Rahwangi Gough [Howard] 3RD Harry Clifton [Howard] 2 N D W i l l Tu r n e r [ W h i t b r e a d ] 1 S T O l i v e r Ya t e s [ H a r p u r ]
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he theme ‘Recycled’ gave boys the opportunity to express their concerns, interest and solutions to a global issue that will unquestionably affect their generation. For me, they tackled a delicate but MQTSVXERX MWWYI [MXL GSR½HIRGI ERH MRXIPPIGX From an artistic point of view, their handling and manipulation of media was exciting and bold. A walk through this exhibition effectively demonstrates that boys at BPS EVI [MPPMRK ERH GSR½HIRX XS GSQQYRMGEXI what it happening in the world around them. I am proud of them all.
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Alex Hammond, Y7 Lewis Pettengell, Y4 Will Rogers, Y7 Sammy Inman, Y6 W i l l Tu r n e r, Y 7 M r s Wo r t h i n g t o n Gabriel Borelli,Y4
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Art ARTHUR T I S D A L L’ S ARCH
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s part of Curriculum Collapse Day, celebrating the centenary for the End of the Great War, the art department invited pupils from Y5-Y8 to contribute towards mosaic panels that would form a memorial to Arthur Walderne St. Clair Tisdall, an OB who died at Gallipoli on 6th May 1915. Tisdall was awarded the Victoria Cross for acts of outstanding bravery and courage to rescue several men under heavy and accurate fire. It is the School’s intention to erect the panels on the brick archway that leads to the building that is named after this gallant individual. All boys in Y5 to Y8 cuts and laid the stones that decorate a panel that tells Tisdall’s story. Given their age, and the technical demands of mosaic-making, they have ensured the design was successfully realised.
ART SCHOLARSHIP 2019
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oys from the Prep School have the opportunity to exhibit their passion and enthusiasm for art, as well as their technical ability through a scholarship application. This requires genuine commitment, hours of work to explore ideas, media and techniques, as well as visiting galleries and exhibitions during the year that help define personal tastes and knowledge. For the last four years, 5 boys from the Prep School have been successful in demonstrating all of these qualities and, in 2019, Alex Hall can be added to the list of impressive candidates. We congratulate you, Alex for your considerable achievement but also special mention goes to all boys who worked solidly throughout the year. We look forward to seeing you all flourish in the Upper School studios.
All artwork: Alex Hall Y8
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Drama
D R A M A R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Jonathan Hooley, Head of Prep School Drama
House Drama
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he year kicked off in November with the annual House Drama Competition; this is always an exciting event that truly celebrates the diversity of talent across all years in the Prep School. As ever, the boys took the opportunity to work with one another in a collaborative, open way and quickly established a strong team ethic in creating an original piece of theatre based on a specific stimulus. The theme for this year’s competition was Tales of the Unexpected. Whitbread and Bunyan created entirely new pieces that explored the impact of an unexpected event on a group of unsuspecting people, and Howard and Harpur set their stories in the Victorian era and took inspiration from the world of Gothic Literature. Each performance was impressive in the way it successfully created and sustained an unsettling atmosphere and all the actors (expertly supported by their technical teams) are to be commended for the way they so imaginatively created the world of their story with maturity and focus. It was clear to see that the weeks of hard work in rehearsals had paid off; the audience were captivated from the outset. Dame Alice Old Girl, Alice Marner, now Production Coordinator for television shows such as Portrait Artist of the Year and The National Television Awards, judged the competition and awarded Benji Roberts (Year 6, Whitbread) the prize for Best Actor and Howard house the prize for Best Play.
THE DRAMA PRIZE
Aaron Berman and Sam Maling DRAMA COLOURS
Toby Mitchell Aleks Nikolov Charlie Faulkner Jacob Foster Sam Maling Aaron Berman Siddarth Prabhu Jack Harte
W H I N C H AT
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Drama
Shakespeare in the Garden
F Oliver Twist
a review by Oliver Munn (Y8, Whitbread) liver Twist is such a well-known story and most people are familiar with the characters and the plot, but this was certainly an unexpected version! As soon as we walked into the theatre, we were transported back in time to the grimy and unforgiving world of Victorian England. The story was happening as we came in; a woman lay on the cold floor of the workhouse, writhing in pain, orphans sat huddled in the shadows. A giant strip of paper hung over the stage, scene titles appearing on it, telling us what was happening, and where. For the entire performance, we were in the middle of a sinister and dangerous world where no one was safe. I liked the way the action froze in important moments. Fagin set-up the moment when Bill Sikes kills Nancy as if he was creating it himself. Narrators kept appearing out of the mist to comment on the action and the stage was washed in blues and reds. This version of the play constantly felt like a bad dream and we were all gripped. Year 12 pupil, George Wegener, played Fagin superbly, showing us just how dangerous he could be and Will Hayward (Year 7) was brilliant as the streetwise, quick-witted pickpocket, the Artful Dodger. The scene where Dodger took Oliver onto the streets of London and showed him how to pick a pocket was memorable; Dodger clearly enjoyed the power he had over the scene, Oliver and the audience! My favourite moment of the evening was another unexpected one. At the end of the play, Fagin is on death row, weeping for mercy. He pleads to God to save his soul and then Oliver is brought in for one final visit. The acting was intense; Fagin seemed totally mad and I even felt a bit sorry for him being as scared as he was. Oliver Barbour (Year 4), played Oliver Twist with such amazing focus throughout the play, but in this scene, he really impressed. As I left the theatre, I couldn’t stop thinking about the play. The story and the acting was brilliant and we were all so impressed with how the actors from the Prep School worked so well with the Upper School boys and the Sixth Formers from Bedford Girls’ School. Congratulations to all involved!
O
or a number of years, we have been looking for an opportunity to open the doors on the incredible facility that is the Quarry Theatre and allow pupils from the local area to experience performing in a space our pupils enjoy on a weekly basis. Creating the Shakespeare in the Garden event in the Summer Term gave us just such an opportunity. Years 7 and 8 pupils from Bedford Girls’ School and Goldington Academy joined pupils from the Prep School in performing an abridged version of a Shakespeare classic in St. Luke’s Gardens. During the day of the performances, each school worked with a Royal Shakespeare Company practitioner and explored the richness and poetry of Shakespeare’s language, under expert guidance. The skills gained in the workshops emboldened the young performers and the plays presented – Henry V (BPS), As You Like It (BGS), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Goldington Academy) – were dynamic, engaging and highly entertaining. The rain held off long enough and the packed audience sat enthralled by each performance. The success of the event means that the performances this year will be the first of many in the gardens and, over the coming years, many more young performers from around Bedfordshire will have the opportunity to act in a Shakespeare play at the Quarry Theatre.
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AC ADEMIC
W H I N C H AT
Speech & Drama
S P E E C H & D R A M A R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mrs Eleanor Bell
I
t has been another exciting and successful year in the Speech and Drama department. We began lessons as usual, learning and refining the skills needed in Speech and Drama. Working on articulation and projection, the boys were practising tongue twisters (Six Thick Thistle Sticks - say that five times fast!) and reciting poetry across the Astro. We also started to examine a variety of poems and dramatic pieces, to give boys a flavour of what was to come. Our newer members in Year 3 explored the Three Billy Goats Gruff, as both a story and a dramatic piece, while the older boys worked on their improvisation and characterisation skills in paired and group work. The Bedfordshire Festival took place in
the first week of March 2019 and as ever, the Spring Term was a flurry of activity and rehearsals getting ready for the event. All the Prep School boys who entered worked so hard to polish and perfect their performances, and all the staff were so proud as we watched the poetry, drama and prepared readings being performed so beautifully. With at least 60 placings for Bedford Prep School boys in the Speech and Drama categories, I think it is safe to say that we had a jolly good week! Particular congratulations must go to Charlie Eggleton in Year 7 who’s Verse Solo performance was selected for the Gala Evening held on the final day of the Festival; this is a huge honour and Charlie represented himself and the School magnificently. Following the Festival, no time was wasted and the boys moved straight into preparations for their LAMDA exams which
took place in the penultimate week of the Summer term. It is a very different experience performing in front of a single examiner rather than an entire audience and an adjudicator, but these contrasting experiences both go towards building the boys’ skills so that they can become confident speakers in a variety of situations. Although there were a few incidents of boys leaving it a touch late to learn their pieces (and a couple of extra grey hairs for the S&D staff !) the Prep School boys represented themselves well and had a fulfilling experience performing for the LAMDA examiners. Thank you to all the parents for their support for the boys over the past year. We are looking forward to seeing what the new term brings, and delighted to encourage and nurture the talent that will emerge.
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Speech & Drama B E F O R D S H I R E F E S T I VA L , 2 0 1 8
Festival placings
Chorister Y9 or Under
FIRST PLACE Harry Townsend Chorister Y9 or Under
SECOND PLACE Fraser Morgan Creative Drama Y4-Y7
2 ND David Wiltshire, Michael Moretto, Brooklyn Fu Creative Drama Y4-Y7
3 RD Orion Verle, Alastair Tierney, Isaac VincentEmery & Tom Gray Creative Drama Y4-Y7
3 RD
3 RD Jacob Foster, Jack Aldridge & Aiden Ainsworth-Cave Dramatic Solo Y7-Y8
1 ST Arthur Proctor Dramatic Solo Y7-Y8
2
ND
Arthur Polhill Dramatic Solo Y7-Y8
3 RD Olly Wright Dramatic Solo Y7-Y8
3 RD James Keylock Duologue Y5-Y6
2 ND Elio Lepore & Ruairi Cassell Duologue Y7-Y8
Clement RahwangiGough, Finlay Adams, William Gallagher, Ethan Summers Dramatic Scene Y8-Y10
3 RD Harry Payne, Will Trobe & Jamie Welch Dramatic Scene Y8-Y10
3 RD Ethan Daubney Prepared Reading Y4
3 RD Sammy Hughes Prepared Reading Y6
3
RD
Jonathan Hall Prepared Reading Y7
1
ST
Clement Rahwangi-Gough Prepared Reading Y8
1 ST
Sammy Hughes Verse Solo Y4
3
RD
Aryan Nair Verse Solo Y4
3 RD
Verse Solo Y7
2 ND Robert Wells Verse Solo Y7
2 ND Arthur Proctor Verse Solo Y7
3 RD
3 RD
3 RD
Freddie Barnes Verse Solo Y5
Will Hayward Verse Solo Y7
1 ST
3 RD
Hugo Morgan Write & Read a Story Y3-Y4
Prejeev Suhitharan Verse Solo Y5
Shayen Patel Verse Solo Y7
1 ST
3 RD
Ayran Sohanpal Verse Solo Y5
Tobi Akinola Verse Solo Y7
2 ND
3 RD
Leo Mathew Verse Solo Y5 Jonathan Hall Verse Solo Y5
Edward Dagg Verse Solo Y7 1st Charlie Eggleton Verse Solo Y8
3 RD
2 ND
2 ND
Alfred Williams Verse Solo Y5
Jack Harte Verse Solo Y8
Fraser Morgan Write & Read a Story Y5-Y6
1 ST
3 RD
3 RD
1
Dylan Swain Solo or Duet Singing - Trebles (boys’ voices, unbroken) Y7 and over
Freddie Bowis Verse Solo Y5
Alex Hall Verse Solo Y8
3 RD
3 RD
Stanley Breed Verse Solo Y6
Aaron Berman Woodwind Solo Grade 2 2nd Tom CameronFraser Woodwind Solo Grade 2
3
Elio Lepore Monologues Y5-Y6 HC Ruairi Cassell Musical Theatre Y6-Y7
1 ST Michael Robertson Prepared Reading Y3
2 ND
3 RD Pui Lam Ng Verse Duet Y5
1 ST Prejeev Suhitharan & Leo Mathew Verse Solo Y3
1 ST Lucas Hill Verse Solo
2 ND Cayo Sinclair Write & Read a Story Y3-Y4
Aryan Sohanpal Solo or Duet Singing - Girls & Boys (voices broken) Y10
RD
Oliver Barbour Write & Read a Story Y3-Y4
Harry Clifton Verse Solo Y7
Aaron Berman, Kurtish Mistry, Jack Harte & Alexander Hall Monologues Y5-Y6 Sam Deardon Monologues Y5-Y6
1 ST
2
1 ST
ST
Hugo Hodgson Write & Read a Story Y3-Y4
Isaac VincentEmery Verse Solo Y4
ND
3 RD
3
2 ND
Sebastian Pointer Prepared Reading Y4
1 ST
$O¼ H *LWWHQV Esam Janahi Group Poem Y7-Y8
3 RD
Leo Butler, Tom Ferrari, Tim Karunakaran, William Ngan, Hasan Manji Dramatic Scene Y5-Y7
3
RD
Y4
William Trobe Presentation Y7-Y8 2nd William Ngan Solo or Duet Singing Y5
Monty Lomax, Sam Yeomans, Thomas Dewe & Harry Burns Creative Drama Y8-Y10 RD
Lucas Hill Prepared Reading Y3
2
ND
2 ND James Pinkney Verse Solo Y7
2 ND Tanay Rai Verse Solo Y7
3 RD
2 ND
Leo Mathew Woodwind Solo Grade 5
Michael Robertson
1 ST
3 RD Adam Purdie Write & Read a Story Y5 -Y6
3 RD Ben Rioch Write & Read a Story Y5 -Y6
3 RD Sam Gray Write & Read a Story Y5-Y6
3 RD Aryan Sohanpal Write & Read Own Poem Y4-Y6
3 RD Nirmay Patel Write & Read Own Poem Y7-Y8
2 ND Akshat Buddineni Write & Read Own Poem
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AC ADEMIC
W H I N C H AT
Enrichment
ENRICHMENT R E P O RT WORDS BY
Miss Jessica Hone
OUTDOOR CLASSROOM D A Y May 2019
O
utdoor Classroom Day is a wonderful chance to celebrate and inspire outdoor learning and play. In May 2019, the boys in Years 3 and 4 joined thousands of other children from across the globe and took all of their lessons outside for the day. Outdoor learning not only improves health, connects us with nature and helps teach us life skills, but it also reinvents the dynamic of play, resilience, teamwork and creativity. The boys and staff alike experienced exciting activities such as pond dipping, mini beast hunts, scavenger trails, shape building with stick-lets, team games and an amazing garden drama performance of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream!
I loved exploring the pond, looking at all the different invertebrates that we have living in this area of our school! I used the nets, magnifying glasses and the identification cards to find out the names of the insects. I did not realise there were so many! Leonardo Whatling
I thought it was nice to just be able to sit and read quietly with my friends. I got lost in my story and did not even hear the bell ring! Cayo Sinclair The theatre company was amazing! I loved the show! It was so nice to watch it outside in the gardens and be
involved ribbons and flags too. Henry Warner The new Engineering Zone was great fun! We built a catapult and imagined we were part of an army defending our castle! Adam Purdie
My favourite activity was the colour scavenger hunt. I do not normally look so closely at things so it really made me think about what our environment has to offer. Sebastian Pointer I used stick-lets to build 3D shapes.
We had to count the different types of horizontal, vertical, perpendicular and parallel lines as well as identify the properties of the shapes we made, like number of edges and vertices. It was tricky but I learnt so much. George Kotsidis
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Enrichment I really enjoyed learning about evacuation. We imagined we were being sent away and wrote letters back to our families. I would have been terrified! It was exciting but scary to think about. Alexander Woodhouse Y3
W O R L D WA R O N E DAY
November 2019
We tasted rations like corned beef and thought about how difficult life would have been during this time. I would have missed chocolate and things like that so much! We are lucky to have these things as general everyday foods now. We take them for granted. Will Chadwick Y4 I never really considered the war before and the effect it had on so many people worldwide. It was a great day to commemorate and consider. The school all wore something red to symbolise the poppy and it was a real statement to see during assembly. Jack Down Y5 The theatre company was brilliant. Adding music to dramatics to really bring the history of WW1 to life helped me to understand it a lot better. Ben Coomber Y6
O
n 9th November 2018 the whole Prep School was a sea of red as we came together and took part in a curriculum collapse day to celebrate and commemorate the WW1 centenary. The school looked striking with everyone wearing something red to symbolise the poignant poppy and heroes’ bloodshed. From a fantastic musical drama production, to corn beef and food ration tasting, to poppy wreath art creations, evacuation stories, sergeant drills, building bunkers and more the boys really were fully immersed into all things wartime.
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HOUSES
W H I N C H AT
Houses
E A G L E H O U S E R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Simon Lincoln, Eagle Housemaster As another fantastic year in Eagle House is completed, we can make time to reflect upon a year of adventure, achievement and personal growth for our boys. Numerous exciting trips and experiences have seen the boys build fantastic friendships and discover more about themselves and just what they are able to achieve. Many thanks must go to our Y8s this year
who have set high standards and have really enabled the year to be such an enjoyable one for the boys and staff. Special thanks to our Head of House, Carson Cheung, for doing such a superb job leading the House. Thank you also to our prefects William Ngan, Vova Sumbaev, Aleks Nikolov, Richard Yang, Luke Dover and Andy Choi for supporting Carson so well. Congratulations to Carson Cheung, Vova Sumbaev, Marco Mao and Yaw Amankona for receiving their House Colours. The Boarder of the Year Cup was awarded to Ben Rioch for having such a good year in the house displaying sincere
kindness and teamwork. The House will again see a big change as nine Y8s move into the Upper School and we wish them all the best as they start their new adventure. We also sadly say goodbye to Yaw Amankona and Michael Brown. Yaw joined Eagle House the day after his 7th birthday and has been a huge part of Eagle House for 5 years. He will be missed by all the boys and staff, and indeed Molly and Josh, and we wish him all the best as he starts a new adventure in America with his family. It does mean the House will have seven new boys in September which is very exciting and we very much look forward to welcoming them into the House. As well as welcoming the new boys we will also be adding to our numbers with a puppy called Wikket after one of the Star
O C TO B E R 2 0 1 9
Wars Ewokswhich will be very exciting for all in the house as the boys will get the opportunity to walk and play with our latest addition. Academic success has been enjoyed with many boys reaching their Gold and Platinum Awards and also receiving six individual prizes at Speech Day. Well done to Steven Wang (Maths), Marco Mao (ESOL), Richard Yang (Art), Carson Cheung (Head of Eagle Award), Christopher Bonnington and Vova Sumbaev (academic progress) on these achievements. On the sports field boys have represented various teams at all levels in a range of sports including rugby, football, hockey, cricket, tennis, athletics, swimming, badminton, golf and basketball. We have enjoyed watching some of the boys perform wonderfully in concerts and on the stage. All these activities and achievements
HOUSES
just demonstrate how much the boys have thrown themselves into boarding life and have made the most of all the opportunities given to them. As always the House trip to the Peak District was an outstanding experience for all. The boys were a credit to the School and enjoyed some fantastic sights and superb activities as we followed an old rail line on our bikes, explored caves and chased each other through the woods with laser guns. We also had time to walk the countryside at Ilam, swimming in rivers and playing a huge evasion game in the beautiful gardens of Ilam Hall Youth Hostel. The boys also enjoyed time at Alton Towers Water Park on the Saturday and the trip was finished off with a great day at Alton Towers Theme Park. Visits to the theatre have been enjoyable throughout the year watching all
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the Prep productions and house drama. We all enjoyed a trip to Milton Keynes Theatre to watch the fantastic West End Show Annie. As always we enjoy many weekend trips which have this year included cinema, zorb football, rock climbing, go karting, inflatable water parks at Box End and Milton Keynes, tenpin bowling, high rope climbing, crazy golf and an escape room, to name but some of the activities that have challenged the boys and given them new and exciting adventures. Many thanks to the wonderful team of Matrons and Staff especially Mr and Mrs Travis, Mr Brett and Mr Guest who have helped give the boys at Eagle House a wonderful year. Finally we look forward to supporting our new Head of House Dale Sirivisal who will certainly be an excellent role model.
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W H I N C H AT
Houses
A
nother BUNYAN year has flown by without, it appears, a moment to blink! We arrived back at school in September to be met by the yellow flag, proudly waving outside Mr Silk’s office - a timely reminder of the fantastic 2017/18 year we’d just enjoyed. It was straight back to work, devising a plot to keep our flag flying. But first, we needed to get to know our new BUNYAN recruits and name a new set of House Officers. We had new boys in every year - even in Year 8. It took me most of the year to learn everybody’s names unfortunately, when September comes around again, and I’m needing to learn the names of a new set of recruits, my addled brain will undoubtedly have forgotten half of the 2018/19 recruits’ names!
Following a slow 2017 Autumn Term where we couldn’t buy a win (not that I’m condoning bribery in any way, shape or form!), we were up and running quickly this year. Some really strong rugby performances, immediately put us at the top of the leaderboard with Whitbread. Second
place in Year 3 and victories in Years 4 and 5 suggest that BUNYAN’s rugby future looks strong (not that I’m biased towards rugby at all!). This appeared to be the start of a monumental tussle between us and Whitbread with no quarter given throughout the year. Our table tennis
B U N YA N H O U S E R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Matt Allen, Bunyan Housemaster
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All of the hours of H̆RUW ZHUH UHZDUGHG ZLWK D IDQWDVWLF ¿UVW SODFH DQG RXU ¿UVW piece of silverware players also led the way, with particularly impressive performances by Years 5, 6 and 7, and our swimmers also backed last year’s strong results up with an excellent performance in the swimming relays competition. Whilst the final result wasn’t quite the one we hoped for, our actors put a huge amount of effort into House Drama. The boys, eagerly encouraged, directed and sometimes cajoled by Mrs Bell, put in hours of work to produce a dark and mysterious performance. Huge thanks to the boys, and particularly Mrs Bell for the hours of work put into the performance. Whilst competition results were coming in thick and fast, it was very evident that our yellow flag appeared to be flying more often than not, in recognition of the huge number of Conduct Merits the boys were gaining. Mrs Stratton’s eagerly anticipated weekly announcement of the Conduct Merit winners seemed to be regularly met with cheers from BUNYANites around the assembly hall. Before we knew it, our minds had turned to House Singing. This year, we went for a slightly tenuously linked ‘Days’ medley. Prompted by BUNYAN staff notalgia (and my desire to be ‘The Fonz’), we went for the Happy Days theme tune, along with Daniel Powter’s ‘Bad Day’ and Queen’s ‘These are the Days of our Lives’. Mr Groom produced a really enjoyable medley for the boys to learn, rehearse and perform but we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without Mr Rooke’s boundless energy and enthusiasm, squeezing every last ounce of effort out of the boys. Thanks, once again, Mr Rooke - we love having you as our Director! Congratulations, also, to Louis for his conducting performance. Having started off really nervously, his confidence grew through every rehearsal and, with support from Mr Rooke, he produced an accomplished performance in a hugely difficult role - well done Louis! It would be
remiss of me to talk about House Music without mentioning Mrs Gedye and the Part Song boys. They gave up a huge amount of their break times to produce a fantastic performance. All of the hours of effort were rewarded with a fantastic first place and our first piece of silverware - the Part Song Cup. Well done boys! This performance seemed to galvanise the whole House and numerous victories came rolling in as the Spring Term progressed - not least in the new, and hugely enjoyable, House Pancake Race! Unfortunately, I wasn’t in school for the Spring Term final assembly but I wasn’t at all surprised to hear that our successful term culminated in BUNYAN winning the Term Cup. Surely that meant that, if things went well through the Summer Term, we were in contention for back to back Nestor Cup victories! Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out as hoped. Our customary firsts and seconds seemed to be superseded by a
few more thirds and fourths and, whilst the boys kept working hard and we did produce some excellent performances, not least in the new Y6 Maths Challenge, fourth place in the Summer Term placings left us agonisingly short - congratulations to Whitbread for their sustained performance throughout the year and deserved victory! Whilst the Summer Term didn’t see many competition victories, we certainly reached new heights with our House Charity event. Walking around the school estate, numerous ascents of the Inky and Wells Building stairs and all members of the House (including me!) completing various activities on the climbing wall got us to the top of Ben Nevis, the tallest peak in the UK - great work boys! As is customary, I need to end with an apology to any boy, or activity, I’ve failed to mention and a massive vote of thanks to my band of House staff. The effort that Mrs Badhan, Mr Maitland, Madame Faulkner, Mrs Bell, Miss Bowis, Mrs Leeson and Mr Guest (in no particular order!) put in - giving assemblies, supporting the boys, supporting events and generally ensuring that I (just) managed to keep on top of House matters was greatly appreciated thank you so much all of you. Thanks also to my band of House Officers, led by Alex, for everything you did throughout the year. Well done all - good luck to the boys that are moving on to other schools, or to the Upper School, (you’ll always be BUNYANites in my mind!) and here’s to another great year in 2019/20! Let’s go BUNYAN, let’s go!
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W H I N C H AT
Houses
A
nd so, another Harpur year draws to a close. In our final assembly in July, we used the ‘HARPUR’ banner which adorned our section of the stand at the Prep School Sports Day to help us reflect on our abiding memories of the year. ‘H’ - we can most certainly be called the ‘Happy House’! I am constantly struck by our enthusiasm in all competitions and activities and our light-hearted approach to what we do. I should also mention our ‘Heroism’ in countless areas. All year long, boys have tackled new challenges and ventured far from their comfort zone to help out the House. I saw this most recently in the swimming galas and the Sports Day when boys stepped up when asked and went out of their way to support the House. Huckleberry the Harpur Hound (our mascot) has been honoured to be presented to some of these heroes throughout the year! ‘A’ - this could be for ‘Accomplishments’, both individual and collective, across all competitions and year groups. The Year 6&7 rugby teams, the Year 5&6 hockey teams, the Merits totals for Years 3 to 6 in the Autumn term, the Year 5&6 General Knowledge quiz teams, the Year 5 and Year 8 School runners and the Year 5&6 swimmers were just some of the winners or second placed groups this year. Also, ‘Art’, with another wonderful selection of pieces entered by Harpur boys in the House Art competition. I must also mention ‘Assistance’ - the fantastic help and support I have received from my amazing
HARPUR HOUSE R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Andrew Whitbread, Harpur Housemaster team of House Officers and House Tutors has been much appreciated and I know my job would be nigh on impossible without it. ‘R’ - the first thing that springs to mind is ‘Rehearsals’. This is a vital part of any creative process and, as always, it struck me how well all Harpur boys applied themselves during rehearsal periods and carefully followed the guidance offered to them. With this approach, our macabre House Drama performance in the Autumn term
was a superb ensemble piece and much credit should go to Mrs Loader for being an inspirational director and Mr Affleck for acting against-type as the demon teacher! We also used our rehearsal sessions well to produce stunning performances in House Singing, which leads us nicely to……. ‘P’ - ‘Part-Singers’. These committed and talented boys gave up many hours of their free time over a number of weeks to ensure they laid on a polished performance
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What impresses me most, year after year, is the way the House comes together as one.
of ‘Never Enough’ in the Great Hall in February; their joint-second place was the very least they deserved. ‘Pulling Power’ should also be included because, for the second year running, Harpur won the House Tug-of-War at the end of the spring term. It was fitting that the team was anchored by our House Captain, Tom Cameron-Fraser, who has led Harpur brilliantly this year and I thank him for being such a great role model for the rest of the House to look up to.
Can Harpur make it a hat-trick of victories next spring? ‘U’ - the focal point for the House midyear was certainly the ‘Unison’ singing competition. What impresses me most, year after year, is the way the House comes together as one. They raise their game and deliver a stunning performance when it matters. Harpur’s medley of songs from ‘The Greatest Showman’ was breath-taking and the reception the boys received at the
end suggests their final placing was, dare I say it, a little under-scored? Mrs Gedye, once again, produced her musical magic to help us prepare for the big event. A special mention must go to our conductor, Harry Payne, who took on this new challenge with outstanding fortitude and was rightly singled out by the adjudicator for his leadership of the boys. ‘R’ - the ‘Responsibility’ the boys showed in supporting our chosen charity, Willen Hospice, was fantastic. The highlight of the Summer term was our Sporting Charity Challenge and the boys across the House ran the sporting challenges and participated with wonderful enthusiasm to raise funds for this worthy cause. ‘Racquets’ has to be included, as we were victorious in all the Badminton competitions as well as Year 5, 6 and 7 Squash! ‘Relays’ should also be noted as we won the swimming relays gala in the Autumn term. ‘Recitation’ takes special mention as Harpur had winners in the Poetry Recitation competition in three out of the four year groups from Year 3 to 6 and Harpur provided all the finalists in the Year 3 category! On a final note, our ‘Resilience’ must be highlighted. Although we have not picked up the Nestor Cup this year, we have entered into all competitions with the same unbridled passion and enthusiasm and camaraderie. If we could win house points for vocal support at track, pitch or poolside, then Harpur’s decibel-reader would see us top the charts every time!
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W H I N C H AT
Houses
H OWA R D HOUSE R E P O RT WORDS BY
Miss Penny Oakley, Howard Housemaster
Work hard, be kind and amazing things will happen! C O N A N O ’ B R I A N AUTUMN
T
he year kicked off with the House Drama; this is an exciting competition that truly celebrates the fantastic theatrical talent in the Prep School. It is a great opportunity for the boys to work with others across the vertical year groups in the House and establishes a wonderful team ethic so early in the year. The overall theme for this year’s competition was ‘Tales of the Unexpected’ and Howard’s story was an unsettling piece set in an abandoned school where the ghosts of pupils-past haunted the desolate corridors. All the actors from Years
Three to Eight, expertly supported by the technical team, are to be commended for the way they so imaginatively captured the ghostly atmosphere of Victorian London. It was clear to see that the weeks of hard work in rehearsals had paid off. The ensemble performance was outstanding and, in particular, Harry Clifton (Year 7) in the lead role, supported by Leo Butler (Year 8) and Will Hayward (Year 7), are to be commended for their mature and evocative depictions of downtrodden factory workers. Drama Captain Will Everitt (Year 8) and Toby Mitchell (Year 8) also gave excellent
support as a strict schoolmaster and wizened caretaker respectively. Thank you so much to all boys and staff involved. The ENDEAVOUR, energy and focus on stage ensured that Howard won the competition overall, which was a fitting and well-deserved end to a superb evening of drama. The Autumn Term continued with sporting events aplenty: Badminton, Swimming relays, table tennis and Rugby. These competitions allowed a huge number of boys the opportunity to contribute to the House competition. It was a thoroughly successful term, concluding proudly with Howard
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fundraising. The final tally was a staggering £748! It goes to show that every penny most certainly does count! With only a few points separating the Houses as we went into the last week of term, it made for an incredibly exciting final week of competitions! I would like to mention a few standout performances which spring to mind from this year’s fun. Harry Clifton in the House Drama: fabulous, mature-beyond-your-years, young man! Matthew Goodman: conductor, positive role model, proactive House Officer, you have gone above and beyond duties this year in so many respects, so thank you! Eamon Bradley in the pool: a pleasure to watch. Rory Stewart-Jones with his violin in the House Music. Sam Barnes on the track: a convincing win in the 600 metres. Rhys Harries: successes with the Javelin. Charles Whittle-Queral and Luca Henchoz: thank you for stepping in to last minute events without a fuss! Superb team efforts from the Year 7 relay squad of O. Simmonds, W. Hayward, E.Dagg and J.Dagg and the Y7/8 Cricket squad. It has been a full-throttle adventure this year and a pleasure to see the breadth of talent and positive attitude amongst the boys. It has not just been those mentioned above, he Summer Term was bursting with but all of you, so thank you all. As the year fun! There was Sports-day, Swimming draws to a close, I take a moment to reflect Galas, Cricket, Music, Reading and on a very busy and productive year. The boys Poetry to name but a few! Howard’s Charity have been full of enthusiasm and showing Event was launched. The hotly contested CURIOSITY about their learning both in ‘Penny Wars’ ran over a two week period in and out of the classroom. I have enjoyed aid of The Tibbs Dementia Foundation. The watching the boys really enjoy themselves clever competition encouraged boys in their in House Competitions and I have watched tutor groups to track down loose coppers (1p our school values thread effortlessly through and 2p coins) and donate £5 and £10 notes to their journeys, truly underpinning their raise money for the charity. The boys enjoyed experiences and opportunities. the fierce competition which allowed them, I would like to say a HUGE thanks, as in a fiendish twist, to scupper other tutor always, to my amazing House Staff and my groups scores by sneakily adding 5, 10, 20 and fabulous Officers, who this year were Shaun 50p coins to their collecting jars when they Thomas, Leo Butler, Jamie Welch, Matthew were not looking, which resulted in negative Goodman, Will Everitt, Will Trobe, Eamon points. The boys LOVED it! 6PM and 40 were Bradley, Oliver Needham and Will Reddy. the victorious tutor groups in the end. Thank These people ensured that Howard, above you so much for all your KINDNESS and your all else, has been a very happy House this most generous donations. It was so fabulous year. Congratulations to Whitbread on their win this year. to see the boys thoroughly enjoying the an amazing sense of occasion as always and was almost impossible to judge, with Howard nailing the final performance with their gestures and perfect timing! ‘Thank you for the music,’ Mr Groom. Even Napoleon would have been as proud as I was that we won that particular singing war this year! The Spring Term also saw more sporting competitions. From hockey to the Tug-ofwar, there was something for everyone! The boys were so determined and displayed such INTEGRITY and a strong sense of fair play during all of the competitions. Howard did very well in House Art this year too! The theme ‘Recycling,’ inspired some excellent and thought provoking work. The boys really thought about their wider RESPONSIBILITY as the generation to be mindful and make life style changes for the preservation of our planet. Thank you and very well done to all boys who entered. A particular mention must to Matthew Cato for his stunning ‘Plastic in the Ocean’ sculpture which sent a strong message to the audience. It was a successful term, with Howard finishing in second place in the termly House Competition!
SUMMER
T
winning the inaugural House Reading Trophy, with 946 quizzes passed in our brilliant Accelerated Reader Programme. What a fantastic end to a busy term!
SPRING
H
ouse Singing dominated the Spring Term competitions. Howard prepared a complex ABBA compilation arranged beautifully by Mr Groom. The boys were challenged from the first rehearsal, led admirably by Mr Sanders and our conductor, Matthew Goodman. The boys’ skills grew as the term progressed. The actual event had
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HOUSES
W H I N C H AT
Houses
WHITBREAD H O U S E R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mrs Michelle Aldridge, Whitbread Housemaster
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t is an absolute privilege to be the Housemaster of Whitbread House; I am very lucky to have such a fabulous role. This really is a unique community where every single member of the House considers themselves to be part of a ‘big GREEN friendly family’. Being Housemaster is like having 97 sons and
the boys are like brothers to each other, looking out for each other both in and out of school. It is this very special bond that makes the boys excel in everything that they all do, from their academic studies to their own personal conduct. The enthusiasm and commitment from
the all of the Whitbread boys during the various house competitions and events is truly remarkable. We consistently punch above our weight and have achieved some outstanding things. Often participating in events like these for the first time, I can safely guarantee that every Whitbread boy has risen to the house challenges in ways that never fail to amaze and inspire those around them. Some highlights this year were our extraordinary assemblies, such as “Mind over Matter” This is where boys volunteer to take up a challenge. Barnaby James and Isaac Talbot had the task of an After Eight mint being
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I was struck by what an amazing bunch of boys we have in the house. They stuck together, supporting each other, united as one! thrived to the challenges. We had a St Patricks day assembly with the Year 8 House Officers dressing up in traditional Irish clothes to celebrate. But Miss Brown stole the show with her Irish dancing!
In the many house events throughout the year, Whitbread showed true sportsmanship, team work, courage, determination and resilience and, like always, behaved like true Whitbread gentleman!
H I G H L I G H T S F RO M T H I S Y E A R : Q H O U S E S I N G I N G we did not win it this time, but I can put my hand on my heart and declare, “Boys, you sing your hearts out and you did me proud. You worked extremely hard, you were in tune and, most of all, you really come together as a house. So, for me, you were the winners!” Q H O U S E P A N C A K E R A C E this was a great competition. It was fun packed, with great laughter! Although we did not win this competition and had no pancake left in the pan to race with, the boys all had a great time. Q H O U S E C R O S S C O U N T R Y it
was a very cold race and our boys made every point count. From natural keen runners to boys that absolutely hate running, they all kept going and ran home for victory! It was a great effort all round. Q H O U S E S W I M M I N G this
placed on their foreheads and aiming to be the first to use their facial muscles to get the mint into their mouths! As you can imagine, it was very warm in the room and the chocolate ended up all over their faces. We really enjoyed watching this! Another challenge was for two boys (Jonny Weimann and Archie Robson) to work as a team to eat a Twix with a knife and folk! This was hard as Archie could not see the plate and had to place his arms through Jonny’s in order to feed him. Jonny had his hands in his pockets and his eyes were closed. Again, this was very funny to watch. The point of the assembly was to encourage the boys to achieve using our School values. There were many more tasks throughout this assembly to display these key values, and the boys
competition was amazing this year. In recent years, we perhaps have not had the strongest of swimmers, but the determination on show was phenomenal. We had boys putting themselves forward for events that they were a bit anxious about, but the force was with them, they overcame fears, and we gained the points in order to win overall! Q H O U S E C H A R I T Y - I was a bit
worried about this one because I was concerned that dancing was maybe not quite the boys’ thing. However, as the music blasted across the Prep School and the first few boys turned up, with a few steps to the side and some encouraging whoops, we got the party started. We marched forward to the dance floor, with some boys in tight
green morph suits and the whole house covered in green face paint, to dance away in our 25 minute Zumbathon with professional Zumba instructor Lisa Hiller. Even Mr Silk had a boogie with Whitbread House! When it all came together and I saw the boys really enjoying themselves, I felt a little tear of joy. Well done boys! We raised nearly £600 for this event, so thank to you all the donations money for the J.D.R.F. Q S P O R T S D A Y I was struck by what an amazing bunch of boys we have in the house. They stuck together, supporting each other, and united as one! Every boy took part in a least one event. The Year 8s showed true leadership skills, helping the younger boys to get to the right places at the right times for their events. Unfortunately, I was taken ill half way through the morning and therefore missed the afternoon’s festivities. But we went on to win, which was superb!
To conclude, the boys are really and truly a credit to Whitbread house and I could not ask for anything more as a Housemaster. You are all brilliant young man who demonstrate our School values with great passion and pride. Well done boys; this is why you won not only the Summer term cup, but the overall Year cup too! Absolutely brilliant (and same again next year, please)!
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W H I N C H AT
Charity
CHARITIES 2017-18
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he following monies were raised in 2016-17 and distributed in the Autumn Term 2017-18: 2016-17 Charity money:
HARPUR Above is a photo following the presentation of a cheque for £2,749.51 to Lynne from the East Anglian Air Ambulance with Ian Silk, Andrew Whitbread and the Harpur House Captain (Tom Cameron-Fraser) presenting the cheque. H OWA R D Shaun Thomas and William Reddy of Howard House are receiving a cheque (£2,409.09) from Ian Silk on behalf of Tiggywinkles (Wildlife Hospital). B U N YA N The Bunyan charity for 2017-18 was Headway and here is a photo of Lisa Mann from Headway receiving a cheque of £2,457.74 from Ian Silk.
Also, a collection of toys was donated to Brass. At the end of the Autumn Term each Tutor Group produced a hamper that were taken to Bedford Food Bank, All Nations Church for delivery to local families.
WHITBREAD Rahul Thakrar and Oliver Munn of Whitbread House presented George Burroughs of the Stroke Association with xa cheque for £2,309.59. £2126.20
Also, the following monies were donated to the following charities: Q The Kings Arms Project = £250 Q Noah Enterprise = £250 Q Prebend Centre = £250 Q Faces = £250 Q Families First Bedfordshire = £250 Q School Readers Bedford = £250 Q Youth Scape = £250 Q Bedfordshire opportunities for learning disabilities = £250 Q Alzheimers = £100 Q Boxes to Africa = £70
Total raised
£12,360.05 HOUSE CHARITIES FOR 2018-19
Bunyan - The Mind Map Harpur - Willen Hospice Howard - Tibbs Dementia Foundation Whitbread - JDRF (Type 1 diabetes charity)
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Charity Art CONTINUED F R O M PAG E 2 7
HOUSE ART COMP?
Still life in the style of Cézanne by Charlie Spencer Y6
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G U I L D S & A S S O C I AT I O N S
W H I N C H AT
Prep Guild
T
he Prep Guild have had another very busy but incredibly fun year. We have held many successful events this academic year, and it’s been one of our busiest years to date. We thank those that support us from within our fantastic school community and helped to raise lots of funds for the boys. Our first event of every academic year held in September is the Macmillan Coffee Morning. Lots of generous parents turned out to support us at the coffee morning. Refreshments were kindly supplied by Sodexo, our school caterers, and there were many delicious cakes kindly donated from many generous parents. In addition to cake and refreshments, there were some great stalls selling a huge variety of items, all of which raised generous amounts for a very worthwhile charity. In October, we held the everpopular, highly competitive Quiz Night. The ’Teachers’ team won, yet again (!), after many fantastic rounds of challenging questions. It was a fun evening of quizzing accompanied by a lovely hog roast supper and plenty of wine flowed throughout the evening. Thanks to all those that attended making it an enjoyable night. Following quickly on from this, we started purchasing presents ready for the incredibly busy Christmas Sales. Over two thousand gifts were bought and then individually wrapped over three days by the committee and lovely volunteers from our ‘helpers list’. It’s always such a busy but community spirited event with all helpers chipping in, making this extra special for the boys. The sales were amazing. They were buzzing with excited boys and helpers and, once again, we completely sold out of all gifts by the end of the sale. The boys were full of Christmas spirit and showed great generosity, buying gifts for their families, friends and of course pets!
PREP GUILD R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mrs Beverley Hammond, Vice Chair
To end the calendar year, we supported the Prep School’s wonderful Christmas Carol Services, serving mulled wine (to the adults!), which was kindly donated by Mr Silk, and mince pies, biscuits and juice, which is all donated and served by the Prep Guild. It was such a lovely atmosphere and ended the term perfectly. In the Spring Term our first event was to host the bi-annual Burns Night Supper. This year it was our turn to host the event, which we run jointly with Bedford Girls’ School every two years, alternating the school which hosts. We welcomed 200 guests from within the joint community into the Great Hall and had a pleasurable evening of Haggis, neeps and tatties followed by Scottish dancing. Special thanks must go to our school Chaplain, Neil McCleery
who provided an excellent address to the haggis, The Selkirk Grace and The Immortal Memory. He certainly made the evening memorable and we thank him greatly. Moving on from the Spring Term, we hosted our Summer Ball. With the theme of The Greatest Showman, it certainly was the Greatest Show!! The tickets for the ball were our quickest sell-out event ever, selling out in full by late afternoon the day the tickets went on sale. A superb evening was had by all in the Great Hall which was transformed into ‘The Big Top’. In addition to raising funds for the boys, we also raised and donated £1800 from our charity auction. The proceeds for this have been split jointly and are going to The Primrose Unit at Bedford Hospital and to Sue Ryder
Hospice at Moggerhanger. Thank you for your generous donations. There was no stopping for the committee after the ball, as the following weekend the Year 8s and the Prep Guild held their third annual Fun Day. What a wonderful morning it was with the sun shining brightly for the third year running. The Year 8s had some amazing stalls, varying from a human fruit machine, lucky dip, soak the boys, football games and many, many more. Plenty of fun was had on the inflatable assault course and the bungee run and over £2100 was raised for the four house charities. Sports day followed in July, where we provided free refreshments to parents and our famous ice lollies to the boys. It was another fantastic day and a fabulous opportunity for us to provide complimentary refreshments, as a thank you to parents for their continuous support. On top of this we have assisted at Open Days and New Parents’ Evenings. All were great events and it is lovely to see so many parents willing and wanting to get involved. Overall, it’s been another brilliant year, bringing us all together at fantastic events and raising money for the school. This year, a few examples of what we have purchased are the new flooring for the Year 3 and 4 play area, an amazing archery tag set for Ickwell, items for the boys’ lunch time gardening club and most recently getting the climbing wall back up and running, along with the relevant training for the staff and new climbing equipment. Thank you so much to all parents, boys and staff for your ongoing support. The Prep Guild have had an amazing time organising, planning and running all these events and we are already busy planning the coming year’s events. We look forward to seeing you all again in September!
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BSA (Bedford School Association)
B S A R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Hugh Maltby
T
he Bedford School Association (BSA) is made up of several groups from across the wider School community; the Prep School Parents’ Guild, Upper School Parents’ Guild, the Past Parents Association, the Old Bedfordians Club and Bedford School Foundation. All parts of the Association have had a busy year. One of the highlights was a booklet ‘Bedford School Remembers’, which featured the stories of four fallen Old Bedfordians from the first World War, who are related to pupils in the School today, a lovely way of connecting the past and the present. Elsewhere, the BSA organised in excess of eighty events, ranging from a battlefield tour to Agincourt and Waterloo to OB business networking events in London and numerous social events. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those connected to the BSA for their-on-going support and the way everyone is made to feel part of our School community.
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TRIPS/OUTINGS
School trips
MORZINE R E P O RT 2018 WORDS BY
Mrs Rachel Stratton, Assistant Head Pastoral
W H I N C H AT
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School trips Year 5 and 6
ACTIVITY RESIDENTIAL R E P O R T 8 - 1 2 J U LY 2 0 1 9
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n Monday 8th July, 42 boys from Years 5 and 6 and 5 staff (Mrs Stratton, Mr Egan, Mrs Osborne, Mr Guest and Mr Roberts) flew from Luton to Geneva to begin our epic week of adventure in the beautiful alpine resort of Morzine, France. Little did we know as we left home that we were also to be joined in Morzine by 3,000 Harley Davidson bikes and their riders for the biennial Harley Days Festival - this only added to the excitement! At Geneva we were met by Graham Milton, friend of the school and director of our partner agency, BeVenturesome. Graham and his team of instructors, along with the local French guides who assisted with some of the activities, supported us wonderfully throughout the whole trip. They loved working alongside the boys and expertly led all the activities from start to finish. From the airport we travelled straight to The Dranse river for white water rafting. The boys loved hurtling down the rapids, losing one or two team-mates over the side of the rafts* as they crashed over and into rocks on their way down the exhilarating ride! Other activities on the first afternoon included Zorb football, volleyball and getting-to-know you games. Following a warm welcome and dinner at our accommodation in Morzine, all were ready
to hit the sack in preparation for the busy week ahead. Day 2, 3 and 4 were full of a variety of activities: rock climbing, kayaking, swimming (both in the lake and in the local pool), exploring the local area and town, mountain biking, football, ultimate frisbee, hiking and high-ropes - it really was an action-packed, fun-filled week! The boys were so wonderfully encouraging of each other throughout the week - whether it was helping one another to climb a little higher on the rock face; assisting with the technical details of the high-ropes course; offering advice on how to tackle the mountain bike trail or encouraging others to keep going in order to reach the summit of the hike, words of kindness and support were heard ringing out during each activity. The hike from France into Switzerland in the middle of the week really was a highlight of the trip. The scenery was breathtaking and crossing over into Switzerland to eat lunch (without the need for a passport) was a special moment for many. A huge thank you to all the parents, boys, staff and instructors who supported this trip - it wouldn’t have been such a success without you all on board. *All boys were safely recovered and returned home!
Words of kindness and support were heard ringing out during each activity.
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TRIPS/OUTINGS
W H I N C H AT
School trips
Years 3,4 & 5
SKI TRIP EASTER 2019
A
fter a long and exciting journey, the boys, their siblings, their parents and a willing group of eager sta arrived in Austria. First stop: food! The boys and parents were then sifted through to sort out ski groups, and ski hire was sourced. Next morning, it was an early breakfast and ready to go! The speed at which the beginners learn under the expert instruction of our ski guides is amazing. The conditions up the mountain were stunning, and, after a full day’s skiing and an exhausting entertainment programme, the boys were always straight to bed. Highlights of the week were the Tyrollean night and the swimming, but every day the skiing got better and better. The boys listened well and were able to put into practice the skills that their guides encouraged them to learn. At the end of the week, a group of very exhausted boys boarded the coach for the journey home. The Mums and Dads were quite tired as well!
WORDS BY
Mr Stephen Guest
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TRIPS/OUTINGS
School trips
T
he 2018 year closed with the Years 6, 7, and 8 ski trip to Austria. We left after school had finished on the last day of term and set forth in our coach for the drive across the Channel and onwards to the Tyrol. Upon arrival in the most beautiful sundrenched valley, we filled up at McDonald’s, collected our ski hire, and settled into our hotel. The skiing days that followed were a mixture of derring-do and slip-sliding away! The beginners quickly mastered their skills and advanced from the easy white slopes to the more challenging white slopes. “What colour is this slope, Mr Guest?”. “White! They are all white!” Our evenings were filled with swimming and bowling, and meeting our friends from Wellingborough School, who were staying next door. The improvement in the skills and abilities of all the boys is always amazing, and this year, with the great conditions and well-maintained slopes, the boys were able to advance their understanding and confidence especially well. Mr McGregor’s favourite quote from a boy was, “I have found a sport that I am really good at and I love.” Finally, it was time for the journey home, all very tired, so much so that no one was woken by Mr Guest’s snoring at the front of the coach.
SKI TRIP DECEMBER 2018 WORDS BY
Mr Stephen Guest
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TRIPS/OUTINGS
W H I N C H AT
School trips F R I DAY 1 5 M A RC H 2 0 1 9 BY BEN BARRETT
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n Friday, we woke up really early and arrived at school at 6.30am in order to get to the airport on time. It was so exciting to be on a plane, especially with all of my friends. On arrival at Jersey airport, Mr Barnes had arranged for the boys to visit the cockpit of the plane and speak to the pilot as well! We got to the hotel and straightaway we had a hockey match. We played a tournament with Victoria College U12C team and the U11A team. The Bedford boys split up into three teams Bedford 1, Bedford 2 and Bedford 3. Bedford 2 won with Bedford 1 coming second. It was fun playing against Victoria College and each other. In the evening, we went swimming then had dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was a great way to end the day.
S AT U R D AY 1 6 M A R C H 2019
B Y M R S H AW N P H I L L I P S After a full English breakfast, the boys played rugby matches with Victoria College Prep at College Field (Victoria College rugby pitches). The B team had an exciting and close fought game with some brilliant defending towards the end enabling them to record a satisfying victory. Mr Phillips made his comeback to refereeing and thoroughly enjoyed the match, which was played in great spirit by both teams. The A team were very strong and had a comfortable win over their opponents but showed some great skills when set targets before scoring. Following a sandwich lunch, the party travelled to the Valley Adventure Activity Centre where they experienced several different rope based activities. These made a few have to show resilience as working at height, even when safely attached, was an interesting experience. Following a short drive around the Western side of the island and walking around in strong winds, the evening was spent eating and ten pin bowling at Jersey Bowl Some exhausted children after all this activity returned to the hotel for a welldeserved sleep!
S U N DAY 1 7 MARCH 2019
BY JAMES PINKNEY We woke up early and had to start packing our
J E R S E Y TO U R 2 0 1 8 WORDS BY
Mr Shawn Phillips, Director of Sport bags, before getting into our football kit. We had breakfast at 7.45pm. I had a fry up! It took us about 20 minutes to walk to the football pitches. We had a kick-about to warm up and the match against Victoria College started at 9.00am. The A team played really well and came from behind in a very close match to win 3-2. The B team also fought hard but lost with a score of 4-1. After the match, we all had yummy doughnuts and cookies to celebrate Noah’s birthday. We went back to the hotel to have a shower and check out. Then it was my favourite part of the day: we went to an amusement arcade to have some fun. Ander won 1,000 tickets, which he exchanged for some cool stuff. Just before lunch, we headed back to the airport. We had some lunch in the Jersey Larder café and spent the last of our pocket money in WHSmith, which was the only shop there! At 3.20pm, we got back onto the aeroplane for our short flight home. It was fun to look down on the Channel Islands and see the beaches we had visited. Everyone was really tired by the time we got back and I slept like a log that night. We all had a great and memorable tour!
CONCLUSION
B Y M R S H AW N P H I L L I P S Thanks go out to all the parents who followed the tour for their support at the matches and for Mr Barnes for arranging the visit to the cockpit. It was great too for Mr Pinkney to revisit Victoria College after a few years, having been part of the trip when he was a pupil in Year 6 himself!
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School trips
T
hirty seven Year 7 and Year 8 boys enjoyed a memorable trip to the beautiful Rhineland and Moselle region of Germany over Easter. Their action-packed week included a cruise on the River Rhine that stopped at a whole host of towns en-route to St Goarshausen, a visit to Rüdersheim to explore the shops of Drosselgasse followed by an exciting cablecar trip to the Niederwald monument and a trip to the magical Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Museum. The boys’ language skills were put to the test when they filled out quiz-sheets in German while touring the medieval Marksburg Castle. The boys also took in the splendour of Cologne Cathedral and enjoyed free chocolate samples at the city’s Chocolate Museum. A highlight for many was Germany’s number one theme park, Phantasialand, where they enjoyed a roller-coaster day of fun and thrills. Throughout the week the boys gained a real flavour of German life as they explored, tasted the local cuisine, experienced the culture, tested out their language skills and created memories to last a lifetime!
GERMANY 2019 WORDS BY
By Miss Eugénie Chaillou, Teacher of MFL
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TRIPS/OUTINGS
W H I N C H AT
School trips
BIG B ANG FAIR
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ur Year 6 boys enjoyed a fun-filled day at the Big Bang Fair at the NEC Birmingham on Thursday 14th March. With so much to see and do, the boys were spoilt for choice by the many stalls, displays and interactive activities on offer. Highlights included getting up close to the Bloodhound supersonic car, which is pursuing the land speed record; testing their sprinting speed in the ‘accelerator’; handling cockroaches and driving robots. The boys also took in a couple of shows including ‘Weirdology’ with TV ‘Gastronaut’ Stefan Gates, and another called ‘The best experiment of all time…ever!’ The fair gave the boys the opportunity to speak with other young scientists who were full of knowledge and passion for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). They also gained a great insight into how real scientists and engineers use the science that they learn at school, and the exciting careers that are available to them in STEM. M R M I K E M A L L A L I E U , Head of Science
“It is always wonderful to see the boys so engaged, excited and inspired by science, technology, engineering and maths. With virtual reality, medicine, marine biology, film and TV, space exploration, explosive chemistry, crime-solving, robots, computer coding, microscopic bugs, giant trucks and more, there was something for every boy at the fair. I am pleased to say that they all embraced the opportunity, and were, as always, superbly behaved and a credit to the school.” I A N S I L K , Headmaster
BUSHCRAFT
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his year’s bushcraft trip for Year 8 was one of the best school trips of my life. As soon as we got off the bus, we were straight into activities. Getting into groups and tents was great and once we had set up camp we were put to work making fires to cook lunch. This was one of my favourite parts about the camp: the fact that we had to make or build something before we could do anything. Throughout the three days we took part in some fantastic activities. We used camouflage and played games in the forest, we learnt knife skills and we built shelters, but my favourite was archery tag. It was awesome. Another of the best parts of the trip were the camp yurts. Yurts are like big circular marquees. The yurts were where we would gather when we were not doing any activities. There would be a big fire in the middle of the yurt and we would all sit around it in our groups and sing chants. I really enjoyed the bushcraft trip. I learnt loads of new skills and had a great time. S A M M A L I N G , Y8
Y4 GRAFHAM WAT E R T R I P
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n early May, Year 4 did not let some dodgy weather stop them from having a brilliant residential trip to Grafham Water. The aims of the trip were encapsulated in the words RARE and BEST. RARE stands for Resilience, Attainment, Relationships and Engagement; BEST stands for Bravery, Encouragement, Safety and Team Work. While doing the activities of kayaking, raft building, mountain biking, high ropes, crate stack, archery, climbing, problem solving and the Grafham Challenge (a blindfolded assault course!) and while sharing dorms and relaxing together in the lounge, the boys definitely improved at all of these skills. M R DA N I E L M A I T L A N D, Head of Y4
Y4 ST ALBANS TRIP
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n early November, the Year 4 boys ventured down to St. Alban’s (known as Verulamium in Roman times) to bring their Romans topic to life. Working with the Cathedral Education Centre, we learned about why, when and how the Romans settled in the area, how they lived, and what legacy they left behind. On the ‘Alban trail’, the boys discovered about the man who defied the Romans to become Britain’s first Christian martyr and after whom the modern city of St. Alban’s is named. The boys enjoyed dressing up and acting out the roles of various characters such as Roman soldiers and shopkeepers, priests and even executioners! Mosaic making was another activity. The boys learned about the traditions and uses of this Ancient Roman art form before having the opportunity to craft their own mini-mosaic to take home with them. All in all, it was a fun and inspiring trip. MR DANIEL MAITLAND
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School trips
WHIPSNADE ZOO TRIP 2019 WORDS BY
Mr Daniel Maitland, Head of Year 4
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n mid-May, all the boys in Year 4 went on a Science trip to Whipsnade Zoo. Back at school, they had been learning about classiďŹ cations and adaptations of organisms in the animal kingdom, so it was brilliant to see such a variety of real animals up close. It really helped the classroom learning make sense. Highlights included listening to presentations from expert zookeepers about penguins (did you know that they have spiky tongues to help them catch slippery ďŹ sh?!), brown bears and sea lions, and sitting on a pile of (fake!) elephant poo that represented how much an elephant produces in just one day (150kg!). It was also fun to play in the awesome outdoor play area during the lunch break.
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TRIPS/OUTINGS
W H I N C H AT
School trips
ARCHAEOLOGY MUSEUM
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learnt lots of facts on the Archaeology trip. I found it really interesting to learn about how the Greeks made colour out of grinding up natural things, for example, red berries and leaves. I didn’t know that all the gods had symbols either, and seeing the huge statues was so cool! SEBASTIAN POINTER I learnt that Persephone ate six pomegranate seeds and had to live for six months in the underworld with Hades! This is why we have Winter as her mother, Demeter (god of plants, harvest and flowers), was so sad about being separated from her. JOSHUA TSANG I loved looking at all the sculptures and statues. They were really impressive, especially Hercules and Athena. ALEX WOODHOUSE
James, our guide, told us lots of stories about the Greeks and the reason why they made the statues and had decorations on their temples. HUGO MORGAN It was fascinating to learn that each and every statue had a story behind it. We were shown statues of Ares, Zeus, Aphrodite, Hermes and Athena. All the statues were naked! H A R I S M C LY N N I was so excited about the trip! As well as seeing gods and goddesses and learning about colour, we also learnt about sports. We saw carvings of different sports in action like wrestling and javelin. I liked the statues of the athletes best, especially the discus thrower. JOSHUA EDMUNDSON
J O H N B U N YA N M U S E U M My favourite part was seeing all the different artefacts of John Bunyan’s life. I learnt that he made a flute out of a chair leg and played it so that the guard would run around the prison looking for the source of the sound, giving the prisoners a good laugh! HUGO MORGAN
Our last activity was in the John Bunyan church and we had to put the stained glass windows showing pictures of the Pilgrims Progress together in the right order. The windows were beautiful and I really enjoyed this. ALEX WOODHOUSE
It was really interesting to learn about John Bunyan’s life and the history of him in our town. I did not realise why we had all the statues and things around Bedford until now. CAELEN S TA N D E N
I found it really fascinating to learn that the places John Bunyan wrote about Christian journeying through in his Pilgrims Progress book actually linked to real life places around Bedford that he himself went to. B O R A O Z B AY
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TRIPS/OUTINGS
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School trips
S PA I N 2019 WORDS BY
Mrs Kelly Faulkner, Head of MFL
B
ack in February half term, 30 excited Year 8 boys had a fabulous trip to beautiful Barcelona. The fun started in the airport, with the obligatory Haribo and doughnuts for breakfast! After landing in the gorgeous Barcelona sunshine two hours later, we made our way to the four star Platja D’Aro hotel on the Costa Brava. Each day was packed with activities designed to give the boys the opportunity to practise their Spanish. On the first morning, the boys received a shopping list (in Spanish of course!) with items they needed for a traditional paella. Once the race around the shops was done, they were in charge of cooking the dish for their lunch, under the guidance of the hotel’s head chef. I was busily taking notes, as the boys decided it was best I should not play an active role in the cooking in case the hotel went up in flames! In the afternoon, we headed off for a football fixture against a local Spanish club. The stadium was impressive, but less so than the football skills on display from the Spanish teams. With each team scoring three goals one might be mistaken for concluding that we had pulled off a draw…. However two of our goals were scored in our own net, so not quite! The game was played in excellent spirit and it was agreed that had it been a rugby fixture, it would have been a different story. Another highlight was meeting up with a local Spanish school for a language activity in the local town, followed by a visit to their school. This enabled pupils from the
two schools to practise both Spanish and English and discover the differences and similarities in both education systems. Some friendships were formed and have been maintained ever since through the channels of social media! Our sightseeing day in Barcelona included a visit to Camp Nou, the impressive Sagrada Familia and shopping on Las Ramblas. During our four day stay, we also managed to fit in a round of crazy golf, a game of bowling, games on the beach and, for the bravest amongst us, a dip in the chilly hotel swimming pool. Whilst waiting to board our flight home, the boys all agreed that it had been “The best school trip ever!” Thanks to the fabulous Year 8s, and Mr and Mrs Loader for helping out too!
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TRIPS/OUTINGS
W H I N C H AT
School trips
M OT I VAT I N G O U T D O O R L E A R N I N G & E D U C AT I O N AT I C K W E L L
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TRIPS/OUTINGS
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School trips
I loved the den building and camp fire. The s’mores were my absolute favourite! Making tents with my friends was really exciting too.” Hugo Morgan Y3 It was so kind of Mrs Russell to have vegetarian marshmallows for me. My favourite activities were the team games because I really enjoyed how we helped each other
and made a flag.” Joseph Lucas Y3 The mini beast hunt was brilliant! I loved finding the frogs and bugs and using the magnifying glasses to inspect them!” Luke Mitchell Y3 I liked everything! It was such an exciting day out with loads of great activities and fun with my friends.” Abhay Raghunath Y3
We found 12 frogs altogether and Mr Roberts told us all about them. I got to eat my s’mores in my den which was great fun and the hot chocolate was such a treat! I also loved the whole experience of being out of school for the day, learning new things.” Jake Woodrow Y3 The best part about Ickwell this year was doing different things to last time.
As we have got older, we have been set new challenges and completed tasks that have stretched us and added to our previous outdoor learning experiences. It was so much fun when boys had to work together to help the others stranded on the island in the lake!” Monty Lomax Y5
As always, you cannot beat toasted marshmallows and chocolate digestive biscuits!” Josh Lincoln Y5 Our den was epic! We could easily have survived living in it for a while. Especially if Mrs Russell kept providing yummy hot chocolate! We had to climb a tree to secure it, which was great fun.” Oliver Quince Y5
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HEAD OF YEAR REPORTS
W H I N C H AT
Year 3
Y E A R 3 R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mrs Nicki Carrington, Head of Year 3
T
his Year 3 group has certainly shown itself to be a kind and thoughtful one. The boys have set super high standards in this area and left a lasting mark in our memories. Academically, they have thrown themselves in to everything. Their creative flair and fantastic imagination have been apparent in all they do. The Autumn Term gave us a real taste of the team spirit that our Year 3 have with the Ickwell Trip setting the flavour for the I loved our trip to Ickwell because we got to build dens, make s’mores and have play time on the field! Arthur Thornton-Firkin I loved our Science lessons, especially when we used the labs and did cool experiments! Ailbe Mantini
rest of the year. Their teamwork when building dens and tackling problem solving challenges showed that they could think outside the box and work well with old friends and new. This is definitely a skill needed for success in the future, no matter what paths the boys go down, and it was one that carried on throughout the year. The Spring Term was definitely a highlight for me. Our Topic work of Extreme Earth really sparked the boys’ imagination and resulted in amazing Mini Project Preps. From erupting volcanoes to cakes made to represent polar regions, from desert
I loved all our trips and fixtures for rugby and cricket. Our trip to the archaeology museum was brilliant to see the Greek statues! Aiden Wegrostek I especially enjoyed our Topic lessons, learning about Egyptians and Greeks. Tasting
food, learning about cultures and history: it’s all been great fun! Bora Ozbay Games has been my favourite thing this year because I’ve learnt so many new sports that I’d not tried before. Freddie Payne
scenes to leaflets on how to survive a natural disaster, they were spectacular. Year 3 definitely showed curiosity and endeavour. The boys who took part in Speech and Drama lessons pushed themselves out of their comfort zones, including competing in the Bedfordshire Festival. Their commitment paid off with many high placings. The boys should all be very proud of themselves and their theatrical talents. Mr Hooley should watch this space! The Summer Term continued positively. The boys’ endeavour has echoed in their class work too. Accelerated Reader was a perfect example as they came together to achieve not only individual targets, but class targets and challenging year group targets too. We even earned ourselves a handful of word count Millionaires, which had never been done before in Year 3! What a wonderful year it has been! We are very sad to let this year group go, but excited to see what they can achieve as we let them fly! Just remember, boys, it has been your thoughtfulness, creativity and kindness that left the biggest impact with us. Keep these special gifts at the forefront of your mind as you go and tackle the world ahead of you; you will be able to do anything you set your hearts on!
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HEAD OF YEAR REPORTS
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Year 4
Y E A R 4 R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Daniel Maitland, Head of Year 4
T
he 2018-19 academic year was a successful one for Year 4. A particularly large intake of new boys (17 in all) joined the boys moving up from our own Year 3 to make a vibrant bunch. Ms Valentino, Miss Oakley, Mrs Medd and I as tutors very much enjoyed the company of this engaging group of boys. In the classrooms, the boys all moved forward on their journeys as learners, improving their independence and resilience. In Maths, they became more adept at flexible problem-solving; in English, they threw themselves once again into the Accelerated Reader programme (reading is a particular strength and passion of this group) and as a result built up their confidence at writing creatively at length themselves;
in Topic, they enjoyed discovering about Romans, Mountains, Rivers and Coasts, Rainforests, Anglo Saxons and Vikings; in Science, they furthered their knowledge of humans, the wider animal kingdom, electricity, light, sound and flowering plants. This learning was all brought to life with the help of several trips and events, including expeditions to St Alban’s and Whipsnade Zoo and a visit to the Prep School from mountaineer Mary-Ann Ochota. We also enjoyed a Science and team building trip to the school’s nature reserve at Ickwell Bury in the Autumn term and the Outdoor Classroom Day in the Summer term. In May, this Year 4 were trailblazers, being
the first group of Bedford Prep School boys to undertake a residential trip at Grafham Water. This was a wonderful trip in a stunning setting on the edge of the reservoir, with the boys getting the chance to try out exciting activities such as kayaking, raft building, mountain biking, climbing, archery and high ropes. The infamous blindfolded Grafham Challenge was a highlight. The boys returned from the trip with improved skills in teamwork, encouragement of others, courage, resilience and independence, to pick just a few, and also it was just a whole lot of fun! Many Year 4 boys featured prominently in the musical and dramatic life of the School this year, including in the school’s main stage production of Oliver Twist, with Oliver Barbour doing superbly in the title role. It was wonderful as well to see such commitment to music from Year 4 boys in the various musical concerts across the year, including the Starter Class Concert towards the end of the Summer term in which every single boy performed. We wish the 2018-19 cohort of Year 4 boys all the very best of luck as they move onto the new and different challenges of Year 5. And we hope that they enjoy being allowed to wear trousers!
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HEAD OF YEAR REPORTS
W H I N C H AT
Year 5
Year 5 R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Dominic Affleck, Head of Year 5
Y
ear 5 have had a very successful year. The transition from Year 4 and the addition of many new boys meant that an action packed year was promised. The new boys settled in quickly thanks to the friendliness of the year group and the four new classes soon got used to their new(ish) environments and all that Year 5 and a new sense of independence entails. Early in the Autumn Term, a superb day out at Ickwell did mean that the tutors (Mr Roberts, Mrs Rossington, Mrs Osborne, Miss Brown) and I got a real opportunity to bond with our tutees, and of course for the boys themselves to form new friendships and perhaps rekindle older ones. Under the guidance of Mrs Russell, the boys enjoyed a range of activities from fire-lighting to team building games. The School is lucky to have such a resource at its disposal. The boys soon settled into life in Year 5 and we were struck by how quickly they acclimatised. Independence is our buzzword and we really encouraged the boys to pack their own bags, use their lockers and remember where they were meant to be at any given time. With the added bonus of long trousers and blazers, we were delighted to see how quickly they got to grips with life
in the senior part of the Prep School. The Autumn Term flashed by, with rugby fixtures across the breadth of the country, music concerts and the usual wide range of extra-curricular activities. The boys were understandably tired by Christmas, but a wonderful trip to see Puss in Boots at the Milton Keynes Theatre was a fitting way to end the term, with much laughter and good spirit! The Spring Term was fairly miserable weather-wise, but the boys persevered, playing hockey and football and gearing up for their first set of formal school assessments. For many, this was the first time having to do anything like this, so they were a little nervous. Thankfully,
doing these tests in their own form rooms does help to alleviate the stress just a little. The Summer Term, after an inclement and ominous beginning, soon brightened and sparkling warm weather completed the academic year. The sound of leather on willow, summer concerts, athletics, swimming and a fantastic day with the girls from BGS were particular highlights. That last one was a great event and we really enjoyed a range of fantastic activities with the girls at both our school and theirs. This is an annual event which the boys love. We have enjoyed this fine crop of Year 5 boys and are confident that they will go onto great things. We wish them every success as they move onto the dizzy heights of Year 6.
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Year 6
A
wonderful year, with a wonderful group of boys! Year 6 students have had a superb year, under the tutelage of Mme Chaillou, Mrs Leeson, Mr Milton and Mr McGregor. Our year started with an exciting trip to Ickwell, where the boys had the chance to show their wild side - den building and fire lighting to their heart’s content! Mr Roberts also lead a fantastic session where the boys had the chance to purify some of the lake water using materials found around the site. It’s been great to see the boys interacting with such kindness. Within the tutor groups, boys engaged in a range of activities to get to know each other - including a quiz on the Prep School where they had to run around the school site to find answers on their move up day. The tutor groups were all given the chance to impress Year 5 and 6 boys with a tutor group assembly on their chosen topic. 6PM chose future technology and great inventions, with some fascinating examples, ranging from the invention of the internet and various aeroplanes, to the iPad-potty... 6C wowed us with a presentation on comedy, including rather a lot of custard pies, a particular mention must go to Archie Robson, who’s commitment to hitting himself in the face with whipped cream was truly something to behold! 6EM produced a number of plays, all looking at one of the school values. There were some fantastic performances, notably from Elio Lepore, playing a grumpy emotional teenager. I particularly enjoyed the boys willingness to ad-lib, leaving their fellow actors either having to play along, or look rather dumbstruck! Finally, 6L gave us a question to ponder (and their answers); if there was a fire, what would you save? There have been some wonderful sporting performances from the year group this year. This is most notable in Rugby, where the ‘A’ and ‘C’ teams put together unbeaten seasons. This positive attitude was reflective through all the teams, and I was enormously proud to see the same drive and determination with the ‘E’ and ‘F’ teams when I coached them. Hockey, too, brought great success, with the top players in the year reaching the IAPS regional finals - and performing well. Outside the sporting sphere, it is wonderful to see the year group curious about so many different pursuits - attending trips like the ‘Big Bang fair’ in Birmingham’s NEC, and also historical learning trips such as our journey to Sulgrave Manor, the ancestral home of George Washington. It has been a delight to see them develop into kind young men this year, and I wish them the very best as they move to Year 7.
Year 6 R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Ed Loader, Head of Year 6
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HEAD OF YEAR REPORTS
W H I N C H AT
Year 7
Year 7 R E P O R T WORDS BY
Mr Matt Allen, Head of Year 4
A
nother fantastic year has flown by! It only seems like yesterday that boys were nervously finding out their new Year 7 tutor groups, on Move Up Day in June 2018, and getting to meet some of the boys that were joining the school in the September. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend as I was nursing the after-effects of facing Mr Hooley’s demon pace bowling the previous evening (note to self - wear a helmet when batting!), but the feedback was that we had a great group of boys joining Year 7 and 2018-19 looked like it was going to be a really good year. Suffice to say, the initial evidence was accurate and we have had a great time together. As ever, the large number of new boys settled in really well. A combination of their desire to fit in and the welcoming nature of the boys moving up from Year 6 meant that the five tutor groups were up and running quickly. In a new venture for Year 7, bonding within tutor groups was helped by an early Year 7 trip to Ickwell, the School’s nature reserve. Each tutor group enjoyed a carousel of outdoor team-building activities, including starting and cooking on fires, building survival dens, bug hunts and teamwork challenges. The boys spent valuable time getting to know each other and starting to build some lasting new friendships. It would be remiss of me not to give particular thanks to Mrs Russell and Mr Roberts (the Science technician, not the
English teacher!) for their detailed planning of the day and their unswerving energy throughout the day. As the year unfolded, the usual trials and tribulations of the slightly confusing lives of twelve and thirteen year old boys raised their heads at times, but the resilience and positivity of all boys shone through and these challenges were confronted head on and, in the main, overcome. Our wonderful Year 7 tutor team of Mrs Travis, Miss Goodman, Mrs Gordon and Mr Heaney were instrumental in this and I give huge thanks to them, on behalf of the boys, their parents, and myself, for the amazing support they offered their charges throughout the year. Not only did they support their tutees’ academic and pastoral progress but they also put hours of unseen work into discussing any concerns (and highlights) with me, planning form and year group activities, and making sure that boys were usually in the right place at the right time! Yet again, there have been numerous achievements made by the boys throughout the year. All boys have made gains in various areas and should be applauded
for the progress they have made but it would be remiss of me not to mention some particularly notable achievements. Eric Breslin made a fantastic impression in his first year at BPS. His Gymnastics performances were regularly mentioned in assemblies and his recent entry to the Independent Schools Religious Studies Association’s national essay competition was rewarded with an amazing first prize. To have won a national competition by writing this essay in his (very limited) free time was a fantastic feat which deserves huge praise! Alex Lamb has continued to take the country by storm with his badminton, winning various Regional and National medals, all of which had been open to older age groups. Arthur Proctor also ended the year on a real high with a victory in the 800 metres race at the National Prep School Athletics Finals. The year group, as a whole, has had a fantastic year on the sports field. A very successful U12 rugby season was followed by numerous boys representing the U13 1st teams in both Hockey and Cricket, and numerous excellent District Athletics and Cross-Country victories. Particular congratulations go to Will Hayward who showed great leadership and responsibility in captaining the 1st XI cricket team a year young. With all of this success, the BPS Sport looks bright for next year! Things look really good for Music too, as Hugo Hodgson, Kieran Hamel-Henn, Anthony Worthington and Brooklyn Fu all won cups in the Bedford Prep Music Competition, beating boys from across both Year 7 and Year 8. On the stage, various boys performed really well. Numerous boys won awards at the Bedfordshire Festival and Mr Hooley was particularly impressed by the performances of Harry Clifton, Will Hayward, Millan Verwoert, Arthur Proctor and Oscar Barker in Oliver Twist, and Clement Rahwangi Gough, Ra’ed Rizwan and Arthur Polhill in Henry V. Well done boys! I could write for hours about every Year 7 boy’s achievements, so apologies if I have missed individual highlights that could have been mentioned. It’s been a great year and I look forward to watching all of the boys develop through Year 8 and grow into the fine young men I know they will become!
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Year 8
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hat a year it has been for this wonderful group of Year 8s! They are a lovely year group, known, above all else, for their kindness and respect, and have been ably led by Head Boy, Barnaby James, Deputy Head Boy, Shaun Thomas and a team of 30 prefects. There have been academic, sporting, artistic, musical and dramatic successes across the board for this talented group of boys who have certainly left their mark on the Prep School. Being at the top of the school has meant many more opportunities for roles of responsibility, especially within the four Day Houses. The Autumn term saw some great events such as House Drama (congratulations to Howard!) and House Rugby where our House Officers were put to work for the first time. The Spring term was a busy one for Year 8 with Mid-year Assessments, House Singing, House Hockey, Slavery workshops, two fantastic trips abroad to Barcelona and the Rhineland, as well as the day to day clubs and extracurricular activities. 8H were the first worthy winners of the ‘Form of the Term’ title as they showed most improvement in their Attitude to Learning over the course of the Spring term and consequently enjoyed a lunchtime in Eagle House Games Room with some pizza and fun, a restaurant lunch experience and bragging rights! Finally, the Summer term has been a very exciting one; once Summer Assessments were done and dusted, boys were able to begin their ‘Post-Exam Programme’. This year, boys have enjoyed Parliament workshops, Finance talks, Young Lifesavers Award, Author talks, an inspiring talk from a Holocaust survivor, talks from various industry professionals, Life Skills workshops, a brilliant charity ‘Fun Day’ which raised over £2000 for the house charities, Cadbury World, Paintballing and a three-day residential Bushcraft trip which brought out survival instincts and a love for the outdoors in our Year 8s, despite the torrential rain and mud baths! A particular highlight of the programme was the ‘Come Dine With’ events where the boys planned, delivered and cooked a threecourse meal for their families and teachers alongside preparing the decorations and entertainment. 8IB impressed with their exquisite summer menu and superb food, 8P celebrated their class’ cultural diversity with a fusion menu and outstanding design, 8F enjoyed all things beginning with ‘F’ including some fabulous fancy-dress, fiercely funny entertainment and front-
runners of organisation, 8RB’s James Bond event had meticulous 007 service and some memorably terrible jokes, and finally 8H put on the Ritz for their theme with some expert barmen and a lovely ambience. Overall, each class delivered an amazing event and should be very proud of their work! When not in a Post-Exam Programme activity, boys worked on their Independent Research Projects for which they had to create a presentation and answer a ‘big question’ on a topic of their choosing, which ultimately they presented informally to their peers and teachers. Some stand-out titles were: Does language influence the way you think? Can a religion/culture exist without an icon? Are video games a form of art? How do advertisements affect the mind? Where is the line in genetic editing? Does slavery still exist today? Will there be jobs for humans in
100 years’ time? There were some really insightful and highly thoughtprovoking ideas. The year was concluded with Speech Day and Prize Giving, where a huge amount of our boys were recognised for their talents and efforts both in and out the classroom. A special mention must go to Jack Harte who was awarded the Arthur Tisdall Award, which is given to the boy who best embodies the School’s values, especially kindness. Best of luck to Hasan Manji and Abhimanyu Tyagi who have left the school for new challenges elsewhere. Massive congratulations to each boy who has now completed his Prep School journey and is moving on to the Upper School or beyond. Thank you for being such a fabulous bunch - we will miss you!
Year 8 R E P O R T WORDS BY
By Mrs Sarah Loader, Head of Year 8
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S P E E C H D AY & M O R E
W H I N C H AT
Events
S P E E C H D AY 2 0 1 9
W
e enjoyed a very warm and balmy day at this year’s Speech Day, a lovely occasion, which allowed the community the opportunity of celebrating, not only the deserved winners of this year’s prizes, but also the achievements of all of our boys who have made so much effort, and so much progress over the course of the year. We enjoyed two excellent speeches which summed up the year and gave us plenty to think about. Barnaby James spoke intelligently, and thoughtfully about the highlights of the year, and what being at the Prep School meant for him. And, after awarding the prizes to this year’s prize winners, our Guest of Honour, Ian Gilbert, spoke about how important it is to think creatively, to be independent and resilient, and to learn skills at school which will help us throughout life. I was delighted that Ian Gilbert agreed to present the prizes and address us this year. Apart from having an impressive first name, as an educationalist he is genuinely inspirational. He was a teacher before founding his own education company, Independent Thinking. He has worked in schools and universities across the world, and is an educational thinker, innovator, award winning editor and writer. In his words, he likes
WORDS BY
Mr Ian Silk, Headmaster “taking people’s brains for a walk”; in other words, making people think, giving the brain some exercise and encouraging learning, motivation and creativity. He is listed by the IB magazine as one of their top 15 ‘educational visionaries’. We have his books in our staff room and have listened to him talk when he visited us last year; he manages the difficult skill of making serious, challenging points in a disarmingly funny way, as we found out at Speech Day. He challenges children, and teachers, to think. His interestingly titled book, Why Do I Need a Teacher When I’ve Got Google?, sums up the technological challenge facing teachers. You have probably heard of his “thunks”, (and he gave us a few in his speech). “Thunks” are beguilingly simplelooking questions about everyday things that help children to look at the world in a whole new light - one of my favourite examples is: can you ever not learn? The idea of these thunks is to stimulate and liberate thinking; and thinking for yourself “The overriding purpose of education,” he says “must be to throw children out of the cave ... No, you work it out,” is his challenge. This chimes perfectly with our aim here, to develop boys to
become independent thinkers, to do it for themselves. Prep School, I believe, is the perfect arena to develop this sense of independence, but guided and steered by expert teachers who help the boys make sense of, and construct, the complex world around them. It is certain that if we look back on the year gone, that our boys have moved along that continuum. In all classes I visit, which I do regularly (not least because I take hundreds of Prospective Parent tours each year) I see teachers and boys working together to make this happen. I was delighted to note that all of the boys who have been Head Boy in the Prep School in my time joined us on Speech Day, including last year’s Head of School. This increasing level of independence is epitomised by them. The boys, parents and teachers of the school community continually impress and inspire me. Academically, it has been wonderful to see the progress made by the boys, and we recognised that in our academic prizes which Ian awarded. However, Barnaby James and I also briefly paid testament to some of the impressive progress made outside the classroom. We also awarded prizes for progress outside the classroom in Final Assembly on the last day of term. Proceedings were concluded with the Prep School prayer, read by Deputy Head boy Shaun Thomas.
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TA L K S & S H O W S
Talks & shows
E
By Mr Daniel Maitland Head of Year 4
YEAR 4 PERFORMING ARTS MORNING WITH BGS
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ear 4 had a great time in the second half of the Spring term when they headed down to Bedford Girls’ School for a morning of excellent Performing Arts activities. Teaming up with the Year 4 girls, the fun carousel of activities included Haiku writing, dance and drama, all with a Harry Potter theme. Confidence levels built as the morning went on, with many boys discovering hitherto unknown interests and talents. It was great to see excellent teamwork and communication skills on show too.
I absolutely loved the animals! The hawk that flew over us was amazing and scary at the same time because it ripped up a tiny chick with his sharp beak! Harry Kenmore
TA L K S & S H O W S
gypt day for year 3 was a stunning start to our autumn term topic! The fun, absorbing and interactive workshop introduces the boys to the fascinating and enigmatic world of the ancient Egyptians.The boys dress up and participate in activities throughout the day as they learn about what happens following the death of a mighty Pharaoh, including tomb building, the mummification process, burial ceremonies and, finally, the crowning of the new Pharaoh. They also experiment with Egyptian maths measuring in cubits, play Egyptian board games, study Egyptian artefacts and experience the real Egyptian way of life.
I could not believe how close we got to the tarantula! We lay on the floor with it right next to our noses! Harry Spencer I got to hold the python snake! I thought it would be really slimy but it was actually silky smooth and dry. It took about six of us to hold it because it was so long and heavy! Freddie Payne The skunk was so cute and fluffy! The teachers were brave to hold it in case it let off a bomb! The man said the smell could stay on your skin for months because it’s so strong. Lucas Hill
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TA L K S & S H O W S
W H I N C H AT
Talks & shows
RO C K S & DINOS
Year 7
WOW! I spent the morning being a palaeontologist, searching for real dinosaur fossils! We learnt new facts about the dinosaurs, looking at the small species to MASSIVE ones! I never knew dinosaurs could fly. Ariyan Flora
BGS Y3
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ear 3 spent the day at the Girls school where we took part in fun STEM building challenges! The teachers said out innovation and creativity was phenomenal. It took practice, lots of teamwork, strategic thinking, patience, and a sense of humour, to grow together and became expert engineers. We built spaghetti marshmallow sky scapers, raced to make the tallest towers out of plastic cups and competed use only rope to carry a ball into a bucket. We had to to discuss strategy, figure out what worked and didn’t work, and then improve it to try again. It was great fun and really put our resilience skills to the test.
TA L K S & S H O W S
There were many fossils in boxes covered with sand. There was 3 sections; carnivorous, herbivores and omnivores. We were handed a brush and we became palaeontologist and had to search for fossils. I found a tooth from an iguanodon - it was big! Giuliano Mule
M A R Y- A N N O C H O T A M O U N TA I N E E R I N G TA L K FEBRUARY 2019
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o bring their Spring term ‘Mountain High, Valley Low’ topic to life, Year 4 had a talk from anthropologist, TV presenter and mountaineer Mary-Ann Ochota on Wednesday 20th February 2019. George Garosi – The talk was interesting and Mary-Ann explained things that we had not covered in class. She explained everything very clearly so we could all understand what she was talking about. It was fun that she let us hold actual mountaineering equipment instead of just showing us from the front. She inspired me to climb a mountain. Dylan Uppal – My favourite part was when Mary-Ann showed us an ice axe. It was very light but very sharp and strong. She talked about the various animals that live in mountainous environments, like snow leopards. She told us that when she climbed The Inaccessible Pinnacle in Scotland there was no water supply so they had to carry enough water for the whole expedition. George Harrison – Mary-Ann showed us what a climbing nut is. It is a metal hook type thing that fixes into cracks in the mountain so you can hold yourself and your things on it. She told us that the number one rule of climbing is not to fall. If your climbing partner falls and you are attached to them by a rope, you need to stay strong so you don’t fall off the mountain with them. She also said that because there are no toilets on mountains, you either dig a hole to poo into or you use Clingfilm so you can take it home with you.
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Fencing
Football
FENCING R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Michael Mallalieu
T F O OT B A L L R E P O RT
jcomp - www.freepik.com
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cross the board, we have played 43 games winning 23 of them and drawing 3 which all in all shows the fixture list is providing the boys with a good challenge so they experience all 3 outcomes. The boys learn to deal with defeat and how to act when they achieve a successful outcome, which will be good for them going forward. All the teams across this age range have shown huge improvements and have had some impressive returns. The Under 13A in particular led the way with a 100% win ratio which is a fantastic effort. The other teams always put up a spirited fight and came close on a couple of occasions to
securing wins in nail biting games.Overall, it has been enjoyable Football season even when it has been a touch on the cold side. The boys were fantastic throughout and just got on and worked on whatever they were told and credit for them for putting in some terrific performances and getting some solid results for the School.
he Bedford Prep School Fencing Club has had another busy and enjoyable year. Training sessions have taken place on Tuesdays after school in the Sports Hall gallery, the Old Theatre and sometimes in the squash courts! Many boys have come along to have taster sessions and a number of boys have persevered and attended regularly, working had to improve their swordsmanship! In the Autumn Term, a large amount of new Fencing equipment including suitable masks, electric jackets, foils, body wires etc. was delivered to the PS. Since then, boys have been able to practise in and with competition-required equipment which was purchased with a generous Bedford School Trust Grant. There have been two Junior Fencing Tournaments this year – one held at Bedford School on 18th November 2018 and the other at Foxdell Junior School on 23rd June 2019. Approximately 10 PS boys took part on both occasions. The boys enjoyed the opportunity to compete against children from other schools and Fencing clubs. In the competition we hosted, Aryan Sohanpal was the highest placed BPS boy and Rocco Sarro did really well to come 2nd at the tournament at Foxdell Junior School.
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Rugby
RUGBY R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr James Hinkins, Director of Rugby
T
hree months, 32 teams and 218 fixtures brought us to the end of another busy and productive Rugby term at Bedford Prep School. What is most pleasing is that most age groups had at least one fixture through to E or F team level. The Rugby term continues to be of high value to the positive culture of the school, so it is fantastic to see that so many boys were involved in fixtures. The 57% overall win ratio means that we continue to have a well-balanced fixture list. This is highly important for boys’ development as
the programme remains fundamentally process focussed. The aim is for the boys to play enjoyable and expansive rugby where they make decisions under pressure with accurate skill execution. It is important that boys take ownership of their development so they are encouraged to be reflective learners and act on feedback from themselves, their peers and their coaches. Our boys have clearly thrived in this environment and thoroughly enjoyed the challenges they faced and have made great strides as players and people as a result. The A and B teams had a considerable amount of success across the board. It is evident that they play exciting rugby and
every boy has a large number of positive involvements during each match. There really is a positive club atmosphere, where boys are playing for each other and try to do what is best for the team. At the U11 age group, the A team were able to boast an unbeaten season. Some of the rugby they played was simply breath taking at times. Slick ball movement, high tempo and hard running has meant the boys spent much of their games on the front foot and in control. However, this is not to say that they did not come up against competitive opponents, and when they did, their defence was fully committed, with opposition teams having to work exceptionally hard to score their tries.
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Rugby of purpose all season and it is not often we can say that the A-D teams have won more than half of their games, particularly when they play against relatively higher teams from opposition schools. Well done boys! The U12s had a few welcome additions to their squads this year and made incredible progress as a year group. In fact, they are another year group that can boast strength in depth with a 60%+ win ratio from A-D. This age group played the most games this season and approached every challenge with a professional attitude. In addition, they conducted themselves impeccably throughout the term and had an enviable team atmosphere at training and in matches. They are a group of boys with a very bright future. Another group with an exciting future is the U9s, who made vast improvements in one year. What was most impressive is how their skill set developed along with their game
understanding. All boys are comfortable with ball movement, which allows them to play expansive rugby as a team. The U8s enjoyed their first season of school rugby and it was a fantastic experience for all boys to have played in at least one fixture for the school. The boys relished this challenge and are clearly excited by the prospect of playing more competitive games next year.
BEDFORD PREP SCHOOL 2018 RUGBY SEASON AGE LEVEL P W D L PF PA PD
WIN R AT I O
Boys-U13A Boys-U13B Boys-U13C Boys-U13D Boys-U13E Boys-U12A Boys-U12B Boys-U12C Boys-U12D Boys-U12E Boys-U12F Boys-U11A Boys-U11B Boys-U11C Boys-U11D Boys-U11E Boys-U11F Boys-U10A Boys-U10B The U13A team showed a marked Boys-U10C improvement throughout their season and Boys-U10D gelled much more as a unit in the latter Boys-U10E part. They had a good balance of ball B oys-U10F movement and go-forward and their lack of real physical presence meant that they Boys-U9A had to work very hard for their tries and be Boys-U9B technically and tactically astute. The other Boys-U9C U13 teams played in a mixture of fixtures, Boys-U8A often having to play against relatively higher B o y s - U 8 B teams to have competitive matches. All teams B o y s - U 8 C rose to the challenge and they played in some Boys-U8D brilliant games that were highly entertaining Boys-U8E for the spectators. Boys-U8F The U10 teams enjoyed a strength in TOTA LS depth. These boys trained with a real sense
15 12 10 9 3 20 15 12 9 5 1 11 11 10 8 5 1 8 12 8 7 2 1 3 3 2 3 5 3 2 1 1
10 4 8 3 0 17 9 8 6 1 0 9 7 8 3 1 0 4 9 4 4 1 0 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 0
1 1 1 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 2 2 2 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
4 7 1 5 3 2 6 2 3 4 1 0 2 0 4 4 1 4 1 3 3 1 1 0 1 0 2 4 1 1 1 1
291 116 257 107 15 427 290 341 275 55 20 415 276 325 161 24 0 33 395 30 47 12 8 48 62 39 46 54 58 1 4 3
275 170 163 292 45 150 200 147 240 149 65 180 203 140 118 84 0 37 155 35 44 12 11 23 25 32 46 94 62 7 8 8
16 -54 94 -185 -30 277 90 194 35 -94 -45 235 73 185 43 -60 0 -4 240 -5 3 0 -3 25 37 7 0 -40 -4 -6 -4 -5
66.7% 33.3% 80.0% 33.3% 0.0% 85.0% 60.0% 66.7% 66.7% 20.0% 0.0% 81.8% 63.6% 80.0% 37.5% 20.0% 0.0% 50.0% 75.0% 50.0% 57.1% 50.0% 0.0% 10% 66.7% 50.0% 33.3% 20.0% 33.3% 50.0% 0.0% 0.0%
218
126
19
73
4235 3220 1015 57.8%
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Hockey the qualifiers, there was some doubt that we would do well. However, we played some awesome hockey in the group stages which meant we progressed to the semi-finals. In a closely contested match the result could have gone either way but we managed to hold on and win 1-0. The final was a nail-biting match, which after being 0-0 at the final whistle, went to penalty shuffles. Bedford won the shuffles 1-0. What a day it was, and what a great team effort. Could our success have had something to do with the stern talking to we were given by Mr McGregor!?! We were not so lucky at the National Finals but we had lots of fun and everyone learnt a lot. I wish next year’s U13s all the best and have no doubt that the team will have many successes. Lastly, a big thank you from all the players to the coaches who have coached and helped out with all the teams this season. JONNY WEIMANN (U13A H O C K E Y C A P TA I N )
H O C K E Y R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Sam Mee, Director of Hockey
T
he U13A team had a season of highs and lows, wins and losses. Of the 38 matches we played, we won 13 games, drew 5 and lost ‘a few.’ Taking into account the fact that our team was mainly Year 7 s, we played some skilful hockey and each and every member of the team improved over the course of the season and showed true Bedford sportsmanship. For me the highlight of the season was qualifying for the IAPS National Finals. Having lost a match heavily the day before
In other teams and age groups there was a great deal of success, with the U11Cs, U10 B&Cs and the U8As all recording unbeaten seasons. The U9s also enjoyed more fixtures than before, with some close encounters in all of their matches, from A to F level. The U11s narrowly missed out on qualifying for the National Finals, being knocked out by the teams that went on to win the Cup and the Plate. The 2nd XI played some great hockey over the term and were rewarded with six wins from 10 games. The great entertainers, however, were the 3rds and 4ths who both won eight of their 11 games, scoring nearly 75 goals between them in the process. Well done to every boy who represented the Hockey Club this year. We are looking forward to even more hard work and success in 2020.
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Cricket
PREP SCHOOL CRICKET 2018
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Cricket
CRICKET R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr Gary Steer, Director of Cricket
T
he cricket programme started back in October 2018 with the boys being given the opportunity to keep their cricket ticking-over until Christmas by way of net practices and 1:2 coaching sessions during PE lessons. After Christmas the programme became far more intense in the run-up to the cricket season proper. Boys from across all the squads attended net sessions and fielding sessions, with boys from the Year 7 and 8 A and B squads invited to attend the following excellence sessions.
QADAM ROSSINGTON (Northamptonshire CCC Wicket Keeper and Captain) : Wicket Keeping Masterclasses Q L L O Y D T E N N A N T (Leicestershire/ Essex CCC & ECB Fast Bowling Coach): Fast Bowling Masterclasses Q D A V I D C A P E L (Northamptonshire/ England): Fast bowling Masterclasses QJAMES KETTLEBOROUGH (Northants/Glamorgan/Derbyshire CCC): Batting Masterclasses Q T O M B R E T T (Northants CCC) and Graeme White (Northants CCC): Spin bowling Masterclasses In the Summer term, the Prep School played some excellent cricket across the board to achieve nearly an 80% win rate, which is very similar to last season. There were many very good wins by all the squads, including - Clean sweeps against King’s College Cambridge, Wellingborough, Bilton Grange and Bishop’s Stortford, winning all 10 games.
QU11 wins v London Schools and Bedfordshire Q U13 win v London Schools Q U12 win v Northamptonshire Q The Under 13A team (the School 1st Team) had a difficult season but showed some real character to beat London Schools. What was pleasing was seeing so many U12s break into the 1st team this season and demonstrating that they fully deserved their selection. This will have given these boys excellent experiences in preparation for next season. Slightly below the bright lights of playing 1st XI cricket, the other age group squads played more games than in the past and recorded many more wins than losses. This season also saw games being played at levels from 1st to 7th XI, U10, U11 and 12 A to D, and U9 and U8 A to E. This meant that lots of boys had the opportunity to represent the School in matches. In total, we had seven teams who played five or more games and finished the season
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Cricket P R E P S C H O O L STAT S FOR THE SEASON 2019: ALL AGE LEVELS
The Prep School played excellent cricket to achieve nearly an 80% win rate having won all of them. Congratulations go to the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, U10C and U8A teams for this superb achievement. Whilst our cricket teams have had plenty of group success, it is always nice to reflect on some individual performances of boys. Congratulations therefore go to the following boys:
B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS OYS
-
U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 9 9 9 8 8 8
3A 3B 3C 3D 3E 3F 3G 2A 2B 2C 1A 1B 1C 1D 0A 0B 0C A B C D A B C
TOTA L S :
P 13 9 7 6 8 5 5 6 1 1 11 9 6 2 6 3 6 4 4 4 1 4 3 1
W 3 8 7 6 8 5 5 5 1 1 8 6 5 2 4 2 6 3 2 3 0 4 1 1
D 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
L 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 3 1 0 2 1 0 1 2 1 1 0 2 0
W I N R AT I O 23.1% 88.9% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 83.3% 100.0% 100.0% 72.7% 66.7% 83.3% 100.0% 66.7% 66.7% 100.0% 75.0% 50.0% 75.0% 0.0% 100.0% 33.3% 100.0%
125
96
0
29
76.8%
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS 2018 B AT T I N G : J O S E P H M A R AVA L A BEN BARRETT SAM CUTLER DY L A N F R E N C H BEN BARRETT RO B E RT G ROV E S HARMUN BASRA
U13A U11A 3RDS U11A U11A U13E U13E
53* 60* 50* 52* 51* 51* 50*
BOWLING: NEO B ANTOCK RHYS HARRIES
U11A U13B
J U S T I N F A S A N YA A I D E N A I N S WO RT H - C AV E
U11B U13B
H AT T R I C K V S B I LTO N G R A N G E 5 F O R 1 A N D H AT T R I C K V S KING’S COLLEGE SCHOOL H AT T R I C K V S S TA M F O R D 5 FOR 4 VS FOREST SCHOOL
VS VS VS VS VS VS VS
BMS ST FAITHS WELLINGBOROUGH B I LTO N G R A N G E C ALDICOTT C ALDICOTT C ALDICOTT
PREP SCHOOL COLOURS
HALF COLOURS -
Joe Maravala, Luke Langridge, Jamie Welch
Will Hayward, Jonny Weimann, Oscar Jewers, Sam Mullaney, Aiden Ainsworth-Cave, Charlie Faulkner, Akshat Buddineni, Shaun Thomas
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Athletics in 600m), Henry Whitfield (First place in High Jump), Sammy Inman (Second place in Long Jump) and the victorious 4x100m team consisting of Owain Harries, Sammy Inman, Henry Whitfield and Justin Fasanya. It is also worth noting that the Y5/6 Athletics team were unbeaten in all three of their Athletics League fixtures. The Year 7 boys competed admirably at their District Championships to finish in second place overall behind a very strong Robert Bloomfield team. The particular highlights of the day were James Dagg (First place in 1500m), Arthur Proctor (First place in 800m) and Oliver Simmonds (First place in Javelin). The Year 8 boys, like the Year 7s, also finished in second place behind Robert Bloomfield. It was a very good team performance and a fine way, for some, to finish their Prep School athletics careers. The most notable performers of the day were Jason Fasanya (First place in Triple Jump) and Rhys Harries (First place in Javelin). The Year 6, 7 and 8s also had the opportunity to compete at the Regional Prep School Athletics Championships, where they pitted their wits against the best boys from across the eastern region from a selection of over 50 prep schools. This competition enables boys to qualify for the National Prep School Finals. In order to qualify, boys must finish in the top two places in their event as well as meet a minimum entry standard. On
AT H L E T I C S R E P O RT 2019 WORDS BY
By Mr Rob Heaney
2
019 has been a very successful year for the Bedford Prep School boys. The boys have worked extremely hard, with many competing in events for the very first time. As a result of their hard work, there were individual success stories, as well as tremendous team successes too. The Year 5 boys were crowned District Champions after a fantastic day at Bedford Athletics Stadium. Competing against all of the other schools in Bedford, they ran out as convincing winners. There were many good performances, but particular congratulations must go to Isaac Raddan (First place in 1200m), George Simmonds
(First place in Shot Putt), Alex Turner (Second place in 75m and First place in Long Jump), Freddie Bowis (Third place in Turbo Javelin) and the 4x100m relay quartet made up of Lewis Noble, Josh Lincoln, Henry Pask and Alex Turner (Second place). On the very same day, the Year 6 boys also achieved the same feat of becoming District Champions. This was another fine and dominant performance from a very determined team of boys. Once again, it is difficult not to name everyone, but particular congratulations must go to Justin Fasanya (First place in 75m and Third place in Shot Putt), Sam Barnes (First place
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Cross-country a horrible day, with torrential rain from start to finish, the boys were a credit to themselves and the School. With no fussing, they just got on with it. This was another day where we were treated to a number of excellent performances. The most notable performers in the Year 6 events were Justin Fasanya (Second place in 100m) and Owain Harries (Third place in High Jump). The particular highlights from the Year 7 events were Arthur Proctor (Second place in 800m) and James Dagg (Third place in 1500m). Finally, the Year 8s were not to be outdone with Rhys Harries (First place in Javelin), Jason Fasanya (Second place in Triple Jump) and the 4x100m quartet (Second place) excelling. Fast forward four weeks, and we set off from school at 7am with our six national finalists. We were looking forward to a great day of athletics, where our boys were able to compete against the best athletes that England’s Prep Schools have to offer, and we were not to be disappointed. Rhys Harries set the tone with a brilliant throw in the U14 Javelin of 37m 56cm to finish in Second place. Having led the whole competition until the final round of throws, he was understandably disappointed, but what an achievement it was. Jason Fasanya then followed this in the U14 Triple Jump with a huge new Personal Best of 11m 21cm to become National Prep Schools Champion. With a real buzz around the team, Arthur Proctor then set his sights on the U13 800m final. With 100 metres to go, after an extremely mature and sensible run, he kicked off the final bend, proving to be too strong for his opposition and he too became a National Prep Schools Champion! Justin Fasanya then ran in U12 100m and, after qualifying from his heat, he ran very well in the final to finish in a very creditable seventh place. To finish the day, it was the turn of the U14 4x100m team, consisting of Jack Aldridge (main image opposite), Jason Fasanya (inset, left), Arthur Proctor (inset far left) and Ben Agbenu. After qualifying for the final with consummate ease, they ran extremely well in the final, eking out every last millisecond with their changeovers, to finish in second place. We departed Birmingham feeling very proud of our boys and they should be extremely proud of their achievements. It was a fantastic day and a fantastic season. Well done to all involved!
C RO S S - C O U N T RY
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018-2019 has been a successful year for all of our cross-country runners. The boys have trained hard and have performed well in all of their races. The highlight of the season was when Bedford Prep School were crowned Overall Boys District Champions – beating all other schools in North Bedfordshire. This feat was achieved by the U11 boys finishing in 2nd place, the U12 boys finishing in 1st place and the U13 boys finishing in 3rd place. Within these championships, 24 Bedford School boys ran, with 6 boys finishing in the top 10 of their races and 15 in the top 25 places. A special mention must go to James Dagg (1st), Arthur Proctor (3rd) and Sam Deardon (3rd) for winning individual medals on the day. On top of the aforementioned successes, the U9s have had an enjoyable introduction to cross-country, with two races this year. We took two teams to the Biggleswade Relays at Chicksands Woods where each boy had to run a 1km relay leg. Both teams performed brilliantly, finishing in 1st and 3rd place, which was a fantastic effort for their first ever crosscountry race! Their second experience was at the Alameda run, where they ran against U10’s from around the local area. Again, all boys performed admirably. Our A team finished 1st and our B team
finished in 3rd place. The U11’s have had a slightly busier calendar. They have represented the school at the Bedfordia Championships, Maidwell Chase, Spratton Hall Relays, Biggleswade Relays and the Alameda Run. Not once did the team finish outside of the top 5 positions and they had 4 podium finishes. A really impressive season. The U13’s have also had a great season. They competed at the Maidwell Chase, Spratton Hall Relays and the Biggleswade Relays, and like the U11s, they also did not once finish outside of the top 5 positions. With the majority of this team being made up of U12s, it is an exciting time for this group of boys. Well done to all of the boys for their hard efforts this season; they are a credit to the school.
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Badminton
B A D M I N TO N R E P O RT
WORDS BY
Mr Simon Lincoln
F
irstly, well done to so many boys for regularly attending Badminton Club on Thursday lunchtimes throughout the year. As a result, over 25 boys from Years 5 to 8 represented the School in the District competition, playing in four teams. From that, two teams qualified for the District Finals with the B team losing to Lincroft in the semi-finals and the A Team winning against Lincroft in the Final. As a result, the A team qualified for the County Finals where they successfully defended their county title, winning all six matches and an impressive 29 out of 30 games. It was a great effort by the team of Alex Lamb, Krishnan Nair, Shaun Thomas, Luke Langridge. It was another hugely successful day for the Badminton Squad at the IAPS National Badminton Finals. BPS had won the competition for the previous two years so it was down to the new pairing of Alex Lamb and Krishnan Nair to defend the title. In a very competitive group of seven teams, the boys performed well, improving with every game as they finished second in their group, having won 5 games and lost just one to a very strong pairing from Bickley Park. As a result of finishing second, they faced the team placed fourth from the other group, which was Davenies School. They won this match comfortably, 21-5. This set up a rematch with Bickley Park for a place in the final. Both Alex and Krishnan were outstanding and worked out from the mistakes of the first game how they were
going to win. Pleasingly, they executed the plan to perfection. A fast start meant that Bickley could never catch up and the BPS pair won the match 21-13 to set up a three set final with York House. The final was won comfortably in two sets as the agility of Krishnan and the wonderful touch all around the court from Alex were too much for the York House team. The character and determination these two boys showed to win this competition was inspiring and they were a real advert of everything we are are trying to promote at BPS. Both Alex and Krishnan are still in the U12 age group so will get the opportunity next year to defend their title. Well done also to the U11 pairings of Sammy Inman and Dylan French who got all the way to the semi-finals and Leo Mathew and Ander Mokhtar-Esteban who reached the quarter-finals. Since we first entered the IAPS tournament we have had the following successes: 2 0 1 9 U13 Winners 2 0 1 8 U13 Winners & U13 Runners Up (all BPS Final) 2 0 1 7 U13 Winners 2 0 1 6 U13 Runners Up & U11 Winners 2 0 1 5 U13 Winners & U11 Runners Up 2 0 1 4 U13 Winners & U13 Runners Up (all BPS Final) 2 0 1 3 U11 Plate Winners
2 0 1 2 U13 Runners Up / U11 Plate Winners 2 0 1 1 U13 Runners Up 2 0 1 0 U13 Semi Finals On Sunday 5th May, the U14 Badminton team competed in the National Finals at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes. Three of the team, Josha Mital, Vedant Somal and Joshua Stewart, had competed last year and achieved seventh place. With this experience and the addition of the very strong Alex Lamb from the Prep School, the team were very hopeful of improving on last year’s position. After a comprehensive 5-0 win against Chulmleigh College, the boys had to win their next match against a very strong Silverdale School if they were to qualify for a top three finish. In a very tight match played to the highest standard the Silverdale side just won 3-2, meaning we were playing for fourth to sixth places. This game really could have gone either way and the disappointment of the morning loss was overcome as the boys won convincingly against King Edward’s Birmingham 5-0 and Newbridge High 4-1. This meant the boys finish ranked fourth in the country, which is an outstanding effort. Congratulations go to Alex Lamb on receiving his full Badminton colours and Krishnan Nair, Shaun Thomas and Luke Langridge on gaining their half colours.
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Rowing
R
owing is an important part of Bedford School and as a community we are extremely proud of the ‘Senior Squad’ who have had a very successful season and managed to qualify two boats to Henley Royal Regatta this year: a Quad in the Fawley Cup as well as the Eight in the Princess Elizabeth Cup. Unfortunately, the results were not what we hoped for, having been drawn against some top opposition, including an Eight which was unbeaten in Australia. However, it was the commentator’s words, ‘They have been fighting all the way and that’s what I like about Bedford,’ which remind us of the resilience we value most as a school. There are boys in the Prep School now who have demonstrated signs of the mental strength required to reach top level rowing and I look forward to following their progress. With both the Wednesday Rowing Option and the oversubscribed Thursday After School Club, we have had over 60 boys involved in rowing this year. That’s
RO W I N G R E P O RT WORDS BY
Ms Imogen Bowis
a third of the eligible boys (Years 7 and 8), which is brilliant! All the boys have made good progress with their skills and fitness. There have been the inevitable ‘swimmers’ but that just proves they are becoming ‘Real Rowers’. We have had a great team of coaches, including some of the First Eight Boys themselves, who have come back to inspire the younger boys. My thanks go to Director of rowing and ex Olympian Mr Mulkerrins, Mrs Maltby, Mr Satchwill, Mr Christian and Miss Taylor, the last of whom is sadly leaving us, having been a highly valued member of the team for the last two years. Our second ‘House Rowing’ event, run by Miss Taylor, took place in the Spring term. Excitement built in the EMH during the Years 7 and 8 assembly, as each house raced in four relay
events (Single, Double, Four and Eight). The crews competed on Ergos and it was Bunyan House which took the honours this year. We ended the year on the river with our annual race day. With so many boys involved, we split the competition into two events. Six brave single scullers raced a sculling matrix. This event was very exciting with a few unlucky steering incidents. It was won by Richard Yang, with Sahvan Jutla winning silver and Will Baker winning Bronze. The rest of the group took part in a ‘Scratched Quad’ event where all boats were made up of boys of mixed ability, size and strength to try to make them as even as possible. The event was a close run thing and nearly ended in a
They have been ¿JKWLQJ DOO WKH ZD\ and that’s what I like about Bedford C O M M E N TATO R AT H E N L E Y R OYA L R E G AT TA
three way tie but was narrowly won by the crew named after Sir Steve Redgrave (5x Olympic gold medalist), consisting of Pui Lam Ng, Trystan Wright, Chris Foley, Leo Butler and Hari Mistry (cox). Finally, while the Seniors raced at Henley, we ended the term with a fun triathlon-style team event. I think it was the hardest I’ve seen the boys as a group push themselves and I’m very proud of them all. The winning team was the ‘Greens’, led by Eamon Bradley and also starring Sahvan Jutla, Hari Mistry, Chris Foley, Charlie Eggleton and Gabriel Almeida. Well done to all the boys involved in Rowing this year.
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Golf
G O L F R E P O RT WORDS BY
Shaun Thomas
G
olf once again was a super addition to the sporting calendar, with nearly 20 boys taking part in the golf squad across the year. The highlight of the year, was the victory over the sta. Only Mr Affleck, helped by William’s dad, Mr Mowe, was victorious and Mr Roberts’s sta team crumbled. All four winning boys’ teams won comfortably as the likes of Mr Mee, Mr Loader, Mr Egan and Mr Silk had no answer for some incredible links play. The ďŹ xture against Stowe was rained o and so was the trip to the ISGA Junior Open at the Forest of Arden. However, boys did compete well in the Wellington Salver back in May. The BPS Open was played on the Saturday after term ďŹ nished with an almost full complement of boys from the squad taking part. Some brilliant golf was played with Caelan Standen winning in Year 3, Rocco Shelton in Year 4, Benjamin Maddaford in Year 5, Aryan Rensburg in Year 6, Hugo Willson in Year 7 and Shaun Thomas in Year 8. The overall winner though, was William Mowe in Year 6, who carded an incredible +1 over 29 on the academy course at the Bedfordshire Golf Club. A big thank you to everyone up at Bedfordshire Golf Club and especially Richard Banks for coaching us, and a big thank you to Mr Roberts for driving the minibus and organising everything. Thank you.
The highlight of the year, was the victory over the VWD̆ 2QO\ 0U $ĚˆHFN helped by William’s dad, Mr Mowe, was victorious DQG 0U 5REHUWVÂśV VWD̆ team crumbled
W H I N C H AT
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Tennis
O
n Wednesday afternoons in the Summer Term, thirty-six Y6-8 boys chose to do tennis as their games option. For some boys, this was an chance to hone their already well-developed skills and for others it was an opportunity to be introduced to the various different aspects of tennis including ground strokes, volleying and serving. This year, Robbie Woolf (from the Riverside Tennis Club) accompanied the sessions and the boys were able to benefit from his considerable coaching talent. For many of the boys there were some opportunities to
play some competitive tennis against children of other schools (St Faith’s, The Perse, Lincroft) in ‘friendly’ fixtures in which attempts were made to match abilities of the players to avoid mis-matches. The progress made by the boys over the course of the term was significant. Thanks also go to Mrs Travis and Mrs Basden who helped the boys develop their game.
B
oys from Y3 to Y8 have been part of the swimming squad this Autumn Term with many ‘having a go’ for the first time and surprising themselves! The opening match with Aldwickbury was a hard lesson with all ages struggling. Bedford Girls are always formidable opponents and so it proved when we met them against Beechwood Park and later against Kimbolton. However, in November, a super swim, against BGS alone, with the Y3s & 4s at the forefront, saw the team triumph, which has not been done for a while! The Year 4s won all of their matches so if they keep training, who knows what the future holds. Thank you to all those who have competed for the school and to those who regularly train. The Spring Term saw six pool based events, starting with some Y3 boys swimming against Pilgrims swimming squad in a friendly event which was followed by a lovely hot match tea. Perhaps the other swimmers were a bit jealous. The second match for the
SWIMMING WORDS BY
Mr. Shawn Phillips
Swiming
TENNIS R E P O RT WORDS BY
Mr. Mike Mallalieu
U10,11,12&13 teams was against St Faith’s, who had boys and girls in their team. This was, again, a hard fixture for our boys but improvements were made and, although finishing 2nd overall, the scores were close. Match three was for all age groups against BGS where there was the usual great atmosphere; the boys reacted well and put in one of their best performances of the year. The U8, U9 & U10 age groups won with the U11, U12 & U13s losing. Match four was against a very capable Heath Mount School who provided strong opposition. The U9 & U10 teams won their age groups but the rest came second. Tough, but worthwhile preparation for the upcoming IAPS heats. The next competition was the IAPS heats held at Bishop’s Stortford School where 10 boys trialled to see if they could progress to the finals in June. Some committed swimming saw the boys record some pleasing times. When the results from all over the country came through it showed that Eamon Bradley for the U12 Boys 25m butterfly, Daniel Blight in the U10 Boys 25m backstroke, Jamie Maling in the U10 Boys 25m Breaststroke and the U10 Boys Medley Relay had all qualified for the finals. At finals day at the Olympic Park the boys
enjoyed an amazing experience, testing their skills against some of the best swimmers in the country. The boys exceeded all expectations by all qualifying for the finals with the U10 relay team finishing 11th, Daniel gaining and incredible 3rd place, Jamie 9th and Eamon 8th (which surely would have been higher but for a glitch at the start). Superb effort on these achievements. The House swimming relays were very competitive and risks were taken by all teams to ensure their best finish in each race. Bunyan were the eventual winners of this competition. In the House Swimming competition congratulations to Bunyan for winning the Y3-4 and Y7-8 events and to Harpur for winning the Y5-6 competition.
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