Academic

ACADEMIC

The 2019-2020 academic year was dealt an unforeseen and unprecedented blow by the enforced closure of schools for the entire Summer Term. Pupils, staff and parents, alike, felt the impact keenly; shock and disbelief were compounded by the announcement that public exams would be cancelled.

Contemplating the ‘new normal’ of life in lockdown – separated from friends and cut off from the spiritual, cultural and academic

wellspring of College – many Cheltonians must have emerged from the Easter holidays feeling somewhat despondent. The Common Room met this emotional and educational emergency with determination, good humour and consummate skill, however, mobilising a remote school programme that was second to none. As you will see from the montage below and the departmental reports that follow, this professional tour de force achieved very high standards of teaching and learning and, crucially, maintained the strong bonds of the College community that are so intrinsic to its spirit and

character. The pupils responded in kind; their optimism, resilience and commitment to learning was spectacular. As a body, we emerged from the ordeal stronger, wiser and, paradoxically, closer. Looking back, therefore, in contemplating the entire extraordinary experience, the wonderful oxymoron with which Dickens opens A Tale of Two Cities seems remarkably apt, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....’

Mr Timothy Brewis

Societies

Lower College Society

There was an array of extraordinary speakers this year kicked off by Dr Lewis Dartnell with a talk from his latest book, Origins. The ethical hacker, known to all but close friends as FC, regaled us with adventures exposing security loopholes. Author and comedian, Dom Joly, took us on a stunning walk around historic and present-day Lebanon, nonchalantly shrugging off gunfire in the best tradition of Flashman. We closed with journalist Mr Mark Woods, who described the horror of Rwanda’s genocide and inspired us with stories of reconciliation that have followed.

Lower College Society (LCS) is not a spectator sport, however; the other half of the year was sourced from creativity and brilliance within LCS’s own ranks. So many deserve credit here

including those taking part in the New Year Quiz, presentations on pseudo-Science and our final online gathering unbowed by Covid-19; the pure joy and enthusiasm for ideas remains alive and well at the heart of LCS.

Mr Dominic Nelder

Upper College Society

Upper College Society (UCS) introduced videoing of student presentations this year as well as feedback from fellow students using technology.

Mr Richard Watts, College’s Marketing and Communications Manager, winner of the 2012 UK Business Speaker of the Year Award and a past JCI National Public Speaking champion, began by advising our students on public speaking. Having similarly advised members of the BBC, Mr Watts gave the students practical tasks on delivering presentations, addressing questions such as what to include (and what to leave out), the organisation of content and its effective communication.

Students went on to give some excellent presentations on a range of issues, powerfully and concisely communicating their points and responding intelligently and confidently to questions. At the end of each evening, feedback from that evening’s judge was given as well as virtual feedback from fellow students. Finally, intranet links were sent to presenters so that they could re-visit their performances.

Students also staged a court case with Mr Adam Kydd, a qualified barrister, acting as that evening’s judge. The student lawyers argued for and against the murder charge of a local shopkeeper, who killed a man stealing from his shop. Mira Kohen Morhayim, Krish Patel, Talia Somen and Sebastian Cornwell acted as impressive lawyers, even drawing upon the Criminal Law Act of 1967 to make their cases. Boudica Yi, Beth Jenkins, Emily Heardman, Gaurav Mediratta, Thomas Chu, Constantin Loesche, Sophie Morton and Edward were engaging and entertaining witnesses. The Society, run by its Presidents Gaurav and Boudica, is grateful to all those who took part.

Reverend Dr Adrian Samuel

Art

‘Art is the lie that enables us to realise the truth’

Pablo Picasso.

This year we welcomed Mrs Ginette Baker to the teaching team. Now at the end of her first year, it feels as though she’s has been with us for much longer; she’s part of the furniture. My team and pupils have been brilliant and the standard of work, and brave curiosity, continues to define the Department.

We were delighted with our results at A Level and GCSE, with 100% A*-B in Sculpture A Level (66% A-A*), 100% A*-B in Fine Art A Level (75% A-A*) and 63% 7-9 at GCSE.

We celebrate a number of A Level students who are continuing their arts studies this coming year. Of note, Tuesday Roberts and Molly Sanders are going to study Fine Art at the Edinburgh School of Art - one of the leading and most competitive art schools in the world. From a host of offers Yuriko Fukuda accepted a generous scholarship to study fashion design from Otis College of Art and Design, USA.

The focus to develop awareness of artists’ practises enabled pupils to be rich in intellectual inspiration as well as technical ability. Curriculum trips remain intrinsically important for all pupils, and we thank the Houses and other Departments who enable the pupils to experience the wealth of inspiration beyond College - even with the occasional early start! Pupils have had the pleasure of being taught by Ms Claire Curneen, a leading and prominent ceramicist who opened our 2019 Summer Show and Miss Sam Lucas, who worked with Lower Sixth sculpture students for a few weeks. Sam’s involvement with Vulgar Earth, an artists’ group working alongside PhD researchers into coral bleaching, gave a great example of the power of art. An exhibition of the resulting collaboration will be exhibited this coming year, and will consist of work by staff and pupils reflecting our Department philosophy of enabling pupils to develop artistic skills in a broad range of media, making for exciting progress in the secure yet electric environment of the studios.

To those pupils moving on from College, we say ‘good bye and good luck.’ A big thank you goes to all those parents who have had to deal with creative teenagers at home and to my team who always have the pupils’ interests at the forefront of their minds.

Ms Jo Millar

Business Studies and Economics

With new speakers on the coveted Mini MBA, a new overseas trip and the departure of our very own Dr Graham Mallard, the year was extraordinary and unlike any that have gone before.

The Department has seen much excitement surrounding the increasingly popular Mini MBA with talks from OCs, staff, parents, university lecturers as well as other business leaders. We welcomed pupils from All Saints’ Academy to join us for this elective again this year and whilst it was a successful course, it was a shame that the finale of the Dragons’ Den style pitch in London was cancelled due to Covid-19.

The Departmental trip to Frankfurt in October half term was the first (we hope) of many, biennial trips. Led by Mr Adam Kydd and Miss Beatrice Langford Powell, the group enjoyed lectures at the Bundesbank, a tour of the Opel car factory, and a visit to the European Central Bank. Flight delays led to unexpected pleasures: tasting Riesling wines on the Main River, looking at the Kirchners in the Städel Museum, and admiring the autumn leaves from the Heidelberg Palace.

We were very sad to see Dr Graham Mallard depart from College for new pastures at Easter and also sad to be saying farewell to Mr Todd Freedman. We wish them both well as they begin their new chapters. We welcomed Miss Stephanie Burns as the new Head of Economics and Mrs Holly Brooke as the new Head of Business. We are excited to be working with both of these experienced and enthusiastic new members of staff.

We wish the departing Upper Sixth all the very best with their onward plans and look forward to hearing from them as they settle into life beyond College.

Mr Todd Freedman and Mrs Zoe La Valette-Cooper

Classics

Classics has had an emotional year beginning with a farewell to Mr Charles Wright after a remarkable 44 years, and then ending with dramatically accelerated goodbyes to our Upper Sixth students. Besides the academic talents of the entire Upper Sixth, the Classics Society will especially miss the contributions of stalwart Giorgio Iamoni and President Iona Brockie who took up her place to read Classics at the University of St Andrews.

Meanwhile, staff and pupils have witnessed an extraordinary transformation in the Classics Corridor, with four classrooms and the office given a total refurb, and Apple TVs installed throughout. The Department looks shinier than it has in centuries! And not a moment too soon.

No doubt inspired by these developments, our pupils began working feverishly towards their exams, and their teachers were delighted when the dreaded algorithm confirmed that in both Latin and Classical Civilisation, our entire A Level cohort gained A or A* grades. Not to be outdone, our GCSE Latin and Greek pupils produced 100% 9-7 (that’s an A or A* grade, in old money) for a fifth consecutive year - with 59% of them gaining the top grade - whilst our Classical Civilisation students set a new high of 83% for 9-5 (A*-B grades).

As pupils will attest, in this new era of Covid-19, Classics has embraced online teaching, with Teams meetings, assignments, Forms quizzes and screen sharing just some of the regular new features of lessons. Who would have guessed Agrippina the Elder and the Accusative Absolute would be heading to Quizlet and Sporcle?

A busy programme of lectures and trips was curtailed but not before a team of 19 pupils won five medals in the Gloucestershire Classical Speaking Competition. Congratulations to Evie Poulain, Bella Parry, Petra Azazoglu, Karina

Rajan and Charles Hellens for Silver medals, and Donna French and Charlie Froud on their outstanding Gold.

Mr Thomas Lambert

Computer Science

Having had our first set of IGCSE results back in 2019 we have improved upon them again with a great cohort.

This year we have launched a Third Form computing course which enables pupils to use their computers much more effectively. Topics have included College computing, Microsoft Word, how to search properly and, of course, a bit of coding with Python. We have also moved into A Level Computer Science to allow the Fifth Form to continue their passion for all things computing. As part of their development we attended an ethical hacking competition where we came fourth. This coming year will see further development with the introduction of the IT Cambridge Technical course to allow those with a love of computers to continue but without the need for programming.

Mr Jonathan Morton

Design and Technology

This year has seen even more exciting developments within the Department. We have now completed our exhibition space, specifically designed to showcase all our pupils’ fantastic work across all year groups. We hope to officially open it in the coming year and welcome all parents, guardians and pupils to come along and see all the exceptional work our pupils have produced this academic year.

We have re-developed the Third Form curriculum to emulate our expectations in Fourth Form. Pupils had the opportunity to create a product in both our timbers and textiles specialisms, whilst

learning about polymers and utilising our laser cutter. Once pupils had decided on a specialist area to work within, they created design ideas and developed these in order to make their own version of the original product. This gave pupils a taste of independence and allowed them to understand how their own products could be conceived and developed.

In Fourth Form, textiles pupils created and documented samples including a wide range of seams, pleats, appliqué, couching, batik dying, silk painting and much more. The project this year was a mini non-examined assessment project, designed to give pupils even more insight into the expectations of GCSE coursework. With pupils fully engaging in design work, developmental strategies and presentation skills, the work produced was of superb quality. In timbers, pupils created a candle holder, learning about the vast range of tools and equipment available to them, along with a wide variety of wood joints and finishing techniques. Fourth Form timbers and

textiles pupils received their contextual challenges in May and they all made exceptional progress, despite the challenging circumstances. We are incredibly proud of them all.

In Fifth Form, we saw a dramatic increase in pupil performance and quality of outcome. The developmental work produced was absolutely superb, leading to some very original outcomes that fully fulfilled the design brief, without the need for products being any bigger than an A2 piece of paper. The laser cutter was fully utilised by both textiles and timbers specialists, all of which provides valuable marks for the use of CAD in the marks criteria. We will be showcasing all their work in the coming year in the new exhibition space. This should not be missed and a date for your diaries will be coming soon!

At A Level we have yet again seen the standard of coursework raised by our exceptionally talented fashion and textiles students. Their sketchbooks, particularly the design work, this

year are of degree standard. We had a wide range of garments manufactured, from a fulllength couture inspired, fully corseted gown, to a unisex jacket complete with free machining, beading, pattern cut belt loops and buckles. In product design we have seen some outstanding final products, including a fully mechanised electric tipping trailer and fully operational tennis umpire chair, complete with laser cut score cards. The 3D printer has been heavily utilised this year, along with the laser cutter, in our fully kitted out CAD classroom, which has 16 desktop computers that include all the software pupils need to produce their own developmental work and final outcomes.

During the Summer Term our wonderful team manufactured more than 300 visors and hand delivered them to local hospitals to support our incredible NHS staff.

Mrs Kirstie Naish

English

In the strangest of academic years, there was still much to celebrate in the English Department. From the Quad balcony to the hidden backwater that is Mr Karl Cook’s beloved H5 (furthest from fresh air, but closest to The Hadley), Cheltonians have continued to impress their pursuit of excellence in our subject.

We began the year by taking the whole Third Form to the Everyman Theatre for a performance of The Woman in Black. Reports of sleepless nights followed, partially due to Mr Nick Nelson’s impromptu stop for the architectural appreciation of a supposedly haunted house on College Lawn.

Later in the term, two members of a stellar Upper Sixth cohort, Beth Jenkins and Taya Suleyman delivered a brilliant paper on two ghosts in Shakespeare’s Hamlet at Wellington College’s inaugural Sixth Form English Literature Conference.

The first two terms were also punctuated by exciting offers from Dr Luke Davidson’s Literary Society, including sessions on Arabic Poetry with Mr Adam Kydd, the work of the Spanish poet and playwright Lorca with Ms Ana Lopez Reyes and a collaboration with the TPE department on Voltaire’s Candide.

In staffing news, we bid farewell to Miss Harriet Hook, who takes up a teaching position at Headington School, Oxford. We also reach the end of an era in waving goodbye to the irreplaceable Mr Cook, who leaves College for Peponi School, Nairobi after more than 30 years of service to our community. Generations of Cheltonians have been blessed to be part of one of Cookie’s ‘teams’; we will miss him a great deal. We welcomed back 40 of last year’s Fifth Form to study English Literature at A Level this coming year. They are a group with so much promise who were denied the opportunity to shine in their GCSE exams. They, as we do, have two years of Jay Gatsby, Caius Martius and Offred to enjoy.

Mr Andrew Straiton

Geography

Geography continues to engage pupils with the contemporary issues of the day. We have been delighted with the range and quality not only of external speakers, but also of the intellect displayed through the debates held as part of our Bingen Society meetings.

This year’s winners of our debate competition included Jessica Hale and Ellie Mitchell who argued that behavioural change is the best route to sustainability, Charlie Heardman and Fionnuala Dowling-Membrado who argued that we should not build HS2, and Olivia Jones and Fionnuala Dowling-Membrado who argued that childhood vaccinations should not be made compulsory. Congratulations to them all.

The Department enjoyed an excellent set of result this year with 99% of our IGCSE pupils achieving G9 – G6. Our A Level students also performed well where 94% achieved A* - C. Both the pupils and staff should be praised for their efforts in achieving such excellent results.

We were very lucky to be able to welcome Professor Lewis Dartnell who delivered a lecture on his most recent book titled Origins: How the Earth Shaped Human History, which was a perfect blend of science and geography. The lecture not only challenged our pupils’ preconceptions about the past, but it also made them think very carefully about humanity’s future. We were also delighted to welcome Dr Adele Wolujewicz who delivered her lecture on the future of global disease where she explored current patterns of global disease and future health issues.

As ever the Blackpool Brooke, Birmingham and Sand Bay fieldtrips provided opportunities for primary data collection. No fieldwork would be complete without some rainfall and I’m pleased to say that we were not disappointed!

Best of luck to all those geographers departing for Russell Group universities as we look ahead to the next Iceland expedition this coming year.

Mr Fraser Dobney

History

Just as the Department were putting the final touches to next year’s brand new Third Form scheme of work centred around historical significance, Covid-19 hit, and pretty much blasted out of the water any of the other events, changes or people we had set up for selection.

Nothing deterred our historians from capping a great year both in and out of formal lessons in New Block with a sterling Summer Term, where their humour and resilience reminded all of us what makes teaching so genuinely rewarding.

The Fifth and Upper Sixth managed an undaunted and nigh on 100% attendance in ‘remote’ lessons, with those in the Far East routinely having to be ordered out of lessons and back to bed! Courses were completed, consolidated and the joys of wrapping up with a final University Challenge round featuring embarrassingly out of date database photos, or else Kahoot quizzes run by an unbelievably competitive Nanyuki-Chedworth Upper Sixth collective, were very real.

The Sixth Form (and even a few Fourths) led The Morley Society this year with real chutzpah: the first two terms saw standing room only meetings, with offerings ranging from ‘The Fastest Fin with an M43’ and a history mystery (‘The Bisley Boy’) to James Kirk gloriously fighting for redemption via Tudor ruffs. James, Jemima

Rees, Emil Mekhtiev, Emily Heardman, Jessica Baker, Harry Jinks, Harry Lyle, Sebastian Cornwell and Mrs Nicola Huggett were all amongst the faithful contributors and attendees and worthy recipients of ties. Our last ties were awarded at the annual dinner, held online in April for a hilarious 45 minutes: the fancy dress was the best yet and watching efforts come in from bedrooms and gardens around the globe was something else. Morley’s never seen anything quite like it.

Miss Jo Doidge-Harrison

History of Art

We began the year in a hale state, feeling overtly positive given the quality of our first tranche of Pre-U results for our outgoing Upper Sixth. This, coupled with a transitioning Lower Sixth cohort of some 22 students, provided great buoyancy at the time. It was heartening to hear news of OCs changing to read History of Art on the back of the positive grades received, with the University of Edinburgh emerging as firm favourite in this vein.

We enjoyed an excellent visit to London in December going to the National Gallery, Tate Britain and the British Museum. Regrettably, more ambitious plans to sojourn to both Rome and separately to Paris had to be curtailed. Paradoxically, we were delighted to be able to welcome Dr Simon McKeown, Head of History

of Art at Marlborough College in early March, to talk on ‘Dutch and Flemish Still Life Painting of the 17th Century’. This provided us all with great food for thought and an opportunity to appreciate a different take on a familiar genre.

Mr Dan Evans and I enjoyed marshalling a sufficiently eclectic array of Personal Investigation projects this year, on George Stubbs, David Hockney and Lucian Freud, for example, focusing thus on the best of British art. Our broader subject interests were piqued by great stimulus provided by the annual Cheltenham Literature Festival, with compelling presentations on Impressionism and British portraiture accordingly.

Our departing Upper Sixth experienced an unprecedented period of non-classroom engagement with regards their learning, yet despite this, my colleague and I very much enjoyed crossing the finishing line with them at Summer Term half term. A rare opportunity to offer a comprehensive pre-university course post-half term was embraced by those concerned, proffering an alternative survey of urban graffitist art alongside the High Renaissance in Venice during the Cinquecento. It was extremely good news to learn that a record 10 students have gone on to further the subject at university.

Mr Nick Nelson

Mathematics

The Department continues to enjoy success in national mathematical competitions. Every year we enter the UK Mathematics Trust (UKMT) challenges. These papers are designed to test not only mathematical skills and knowledge but also ingenuity.

At the Senior level, 37 pupils received certificates for creditable performance. Top place in Lower Sixth was achieved by Saul Kim and William Gibson (U6), who was one slip from full marks, came top overall. Both Saul and William along with six others (a new College record) gained Gold certificates for being placed in the top 6% nationally. At the Intermediate level, a total of 73 pupils achieved recognition with the award of certificates. The number of Gold awards this year was very good at 12. Particular credit and congratulations must go to Kylan Ni, Lilly Wang and Pan Vongsurakrai who were placed first in their year groups with scores which put them in the top one quarter of a % nationally; 13 of these pupils were also invited to compete in the follow up rounds in which they did very well indeed.

The College Mathematics Society, now in its 13th year, is going extremely well, with talks from pupils, members of staff and external speakers. The highlight of the pupil presentations were the many talks given by this year’s president, William Gibson. In particular his talk on Maths and Chemistry was superb. I would like to thank William for his leadership of the Society over the last two years. Also, I would like to thank both Alex Chow and Nicolas Mediato Diaz, who as deputy presidents, gave many good talks on a wide variety of topics. It was encouraging to see younger members of the society play leading roles too.

Finally, congratulations to the two students who achieved places to read Mathematics at university; William Gibson at Pembroke College, University of Oxford, and Alex Chow, the University of Warwick.

Dr Brendan Enright

Modern Foreign Languages

It has been another lively and busy year in Modern Languages. The year was kicked off with the European Day of Languages, which saw an excellent Chapel address led by the Heads of MFL Society (Emily Fowler, Mira Kohen Morhayim and Beth Jenkins) and a number of other linguists in which they reflected on the importance of languages in an increasingly globalised society.

Under the leadership of Mme Helen Powell, the MFL Society has also seen a wide range of events: Kahoot nights, foreign-language film screenings, cheese and wine tasting, lectures from external speakers including those from the University of Warwick and the first ever MFL Society dinner, involving an incredible range of MFL-inspired fancy dress!

November brought our annual inter-schools debating contest; around 70 pupils took part from eight local schools, across the three languages. Particularly impressive were the Lower Sixth students stepping up to face students from the year above. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite win any of the competitions, but Thomas Kinsella and Beth Jenkins performed admirably in reaching the final of the French competition before losing a tight debate.

For the first time in a while, we had considerable success in the UK Linguistics Olympiad (UKLO), with some outstanding performances from Emily Choy (Gold), Kelly Ting (Silver), Alfie Watkins (Bronze) and Petra Azazoglu (Bronze). A huge thank you to Sra Ana Lopez Reyes for both coordinating this and leading the Spanish Department this year.

Sadly, our Easter and Summer trips to France and Spain were cancelled due to travel restrictions, but we are hoping to run trips as normal this coming year.

Mr Ben Page

Music

With the advent of remote learning, the joy of making music together has presented the biggest challenge for the Third Form. Thankfully, the year group have been fantastically creative at home and very willing to send in recordings of themselves singing and playing. We had a great response for our class recordings of Let It Be which included all manner of musical contributions, even homemade percussion sets assembled out of kitchen paraphernalia!

With the Fourth Form, the flexibility of Microsoft Teams helped us to continue to deliver GCSE course content, and it was been particularly helpful in allowing pupils to compose remotely and seek help quickly through screensharing. The option of submitting recordings for performance assessments took the pressure off pupils in some ways, allowing them to capture their best before receiving feedback.

With the uncertainty surrounding GCSE exams towards the end of the Spring Term, the Fifth Form, perhaps the largest cohort in College’s history at 23, threw themselves into ensuring their performance and composition coursework was completed to the best of their ability before the end of term. The extra time and energy really paid off in the end with over half of the pupils being awarded an 8 or 9, and almost three quarters achieving a 7 or higher.

The Sixth Form were dedicated to pushing themselves in all aspects of their musicianship. The Lower Sixth particularly enjoyed exploring in granular detail the motivic development present

in Hitchcock’s 1958 masterpiece Vertigo (music by Bernard Hermann, of Psycho fame). The Upper Sixth, being in the same situation as the Fifth Form, also dedicated their time and efforts towards coursework, and their final compositions are superb. Listen to them over on our YouTube channel. The A Level Music cohort achieved 100% A*-A, and they are continuing to study Music on prestigious university courses including Music and Music Psychology at the University of Leeds, and Music at Santa Clara University, California.

Mr Shaun Pirttijarvi

Politics

Despite the extraordinary conclusion to the year, the Politics Department is buoyant. We are sorry not to have said goodbye to the Upper Sixth however and wish them the very best for the future.

It was a relief that we managed to attend the annual Congress to Campus conference at Wellington College in March as it is a highlight of the year. The Department has embraced the opportunity (necessity!) to try something different with remote learning and we intend to use our new skills in the coming year; although I doubt Mr Chris Reid will attempt TikTok videos again.

Following on from the stunning A*s from OC Mr Taliesin Kauffmann (S, 2019) and OC Mr Ilija Kirilenko (L, 2019) in 2019, this year’s Politics students delivered another excellent set of results crowned by three A* grades. OC Mr Ernest Lau (L, 2019), now a PPE student at the University of Durham has maintained regular contact. In December at a Conservative Party reception in Sunderland he met the MP for Bishop Auckland and then heard the Prime Minister speaking, wearing his Morley Society tie of course!

Having met Alex Chalk, MP for Cheltenham, at the end of the previous year, students met him again sooner than expected. Autumn Term saw the calling of (another) General Election to try to break the Brexit deadlock. The Upper Sixth were invited to attend the hustings at All Saints’ Academy, one of our partnership schools. At the end of the hustings, College students James Barltrop and Will Buttress offered to help

campaign in Cheltenham for the candidates and indeed did so on the weekends that followed. Throughout College, the Department ran a mock election for both pupils and staff. Sixth Form launched the mock election by presenting in Chapel and all Politics students ran the ballots in their Houses.

Jointly with the History Department, the Morley Society’s meetings have been lively affairs with excellent attendance and lots of snacks. Our new Lower Sixth have been very active. Emil Mekhtiev presented on both ‘Libertarianism’ and the ‘Exploitation of EU funds in Hungary’, and Sam Akrofi made us all think by asking what the world would be like if people never revolted. We hosted a joint talk with MFL towards the end of the Autumn Term. Mrs Ursula Groden-Kranich, member of the German Bundestag and current parent, came to speak about Britain, Germany, Brexit and the EU. It was an excellent evening and expanded our understanding of European perspectives on Brexit considerably.

Sadly, our annual dinner could not take place in person this year, but it did happen virtually. We dressed up in historical and political fancy dress and met on Microsoft Teams. Mr Reid made an excellent Viscount Morley and I look worryingly like Donald Trump with very little effort.

Mrs Alexandra Eldred

Psychology

This was a year of interesting changes and challenges for the Psychology Department. We bade farewell to Mrs Jane McQuitty in December and welcomed Miss Lara Beere back from maternity leave at Easter. Our Upper Sixth students continued to be one of the hardest working and engaged cohorts of students I have had the pleasure to teach. They did not let the distance between them impact on the solidarity, cohesion and community spirit. To the end of lessons, I was impressed by the commitment, resilience and team spirit of such a wonderful group of students.

The Lower Sixth studied a range of introductory topics, including how important their early attachment bonds are and how these affect later friendships and relationships; memory and forgetting; explanations of conformity, obedience and resistance; explanations and treatments of phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Teaching took a varied and practical approach and students found themselves as participants in replications of famous research. They also had a variety of opportunities to collect and analyse their own data. Students are also expected to contribute to small group class presentations as well as using the resources available on the digital zone. These, and the remote learning since Easter allowed many in this cohort to develop lifelong independent learning skills.

The Psychology Society met half-termly and we had some fantastic in-house talks from Mira Kohen Morhayim, Stephanie Wong, James Taylor- Kimmins, Emma Alves, Tuesday Roberts, Ryan Lam, Emily Fowler and Meera. These talks afford students the opportunity to share their passion for Psychology topics beyond the course and I am always impressed at the quality of the talks they produce. As part of their courses this year students also watched Three Identical Strangers, the true story of triplets separated at birth. We say goodbye to our Upper Sixth students, a number of whom are going on to university to study Psychology and we are delighted to have shared our passion for the subject and enthused so many of them to continue their studies beyond A Level. We wish all our Psychology cohort best wishes for the future.

Dr Tricia Norman

Science

In my first year as Head of Science I would not have predicted in one million years what lay ahead of us. The effects of Covid-19 and the global lockdown will live long in the memory and serves as a reminder that the human race is not impervious to infection and the evolving nature of a virus.

Although constructed as three separate departments (Chemistry, Biology and Physics)

we are united in our aim: to provide the best scientific education to our pupils and give them the skills and tools to understand and interpret the world around them. It is the pupils that meet our three subjects in the middle and foster the interdisciplinary nature of science. This year their resolve has been greater than ever.

This year the Science Department opened its doors to Year 5 from St John’s Church of England Primary School. As part of the Department’s outreach provision 60 pupils from St John’s were taught KS2 Science over the course of eight weeks. They had the opportunity to get hands on experience with practical science; an opportunity that they would not have had normally. Sessions were led by Upper College students from the Chemistry elective and were an absolute credit to College.

Other outreach events included our annual prep schools afternoon as well as our yearly visit from The Catholic School of St Gregory the Great in Cheltenham. Finally, our collaboration with All Saints’ Academy continued with the 7Up Physics partnership. The breadth of collaboration undertaken has benefitted our pupils massively, improving confidence, knowledge and understanding of our subjects.

The student-led Science Society has gone from strength to strength. The 2019 committee was superbly led by Gaurav Mediratta with Thomas Chu, Jago MacInnes and Boudica Yi. Attendance at committee meetings increased massively with numbers regularly hovering around 50!

The Science Lecture series again saw some big names speak at College, with Mr Mark Miodownik, Dr David Nott (via the

Cheltenham Literature Festival), Professor Rachel O’Reilly, Dr Helen Heath and Professor Adam Hart coming to College. Unfortunately, we had to postpone Sir Martyn Poliakoff and Professor Lee Cronin. We hope to welcome them in the coming year. Bekzat Amirbay was elected as the Science Society President for this year and we are all excited to see how the Society evolves over the coming year with a raft of new and exciting events planned. Watch this space!

Dr James Copeland-Jordan

Biology

This was a varied and exciting year in Biology. Congratulations to all those who took part in global competitions, run by the Royal Society of Biology. In the UK Biology Olympiad, 33 A Level biologists competed against pupils from 668 schools worldwide and 21 were awarded certificates. A special mention goes to Milo Watkins, for achieving Best in School. In the Biology Challenge, 80 of the Fourth Form took part against 23,695 pupils from 367 schools worldwide. A special congratulations goes to those who achieved Gold certificates (Geena Capps, Aidan Portch, Harry Dawson, Ho Ying Lam and Luke Richardson), placing them among the best young biologists in the country.

In the Autumn Term, before I joined College as the new Head of Biology, the Upper Sixth undertook their A Level Biology field trip to Leeson House, Dorset, where they gained firsthand

experience of sampling techniques and statistical analysis of data taken from a variety of ecosystems. Lower Sixth attended the University of Warwick for an inspiring Biology conference in November with distinguished speakers, including Dr Nessa Carey and Dr Rohin Francis.

During the Summer Term’s programme of remote teaching, many Third Form biologists challenged themselves to apply what they have been learning about photosynthesis to out-do one another in a four-week plant growth competition. Who knows how many budding botanists will go on to contribute towards global food production in the future?

The Department bids farewell to Miss Ruth Kramer and Mrs Isabella Mech. We wish them every success in their next steps, and thank them for their support, guidance and superb teaching over many years. In the coming year we welcome Miss Tegen Lochhead, who joins us from Cheltenham Ladies’ College, and Miss Lucy Scarrott, who joins us from The Downs School, Compton.

Mr Jonathan Thomas

Chemistry

The Department has been busier than ever, putting on a full programme of events throughout the year to inspire, stretch and engage our pupils.

At the very end of the last year we travelled to the Three Choirs Vineyard and Dunkertons Cider Company as part of Department Day for the Lower Sixth. Miss Lara Beere led the trip (no pun intended) where students learned about

the brewing and distilling process as well as sampling different types of liquor. In November, we staged the return of Chemistry Spectacular, the Department’s annual demonstration lecture.

One highlight of the year was the arrival of ‘The Box’, a 1m 3 reinforced Perspex box used to contain some larger explosions. On the back of this we took the lecture ‘on the road’ to Moor Park Prep School where it was well received. We hope to do more outreach like this in the future.

Our pupils have demonstrated some excellent success in our external competitions this year. College participated in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s (RSC) Top of the Bench and Young Analyst competitions, narrowly missing out on a place in both. The Chemistry Olympiad saw some of the best results ever with Alex Chow, Nicolas Mediato Diaz and Michelle Siu receiving prestigious Gold awards and Saul Kim receiving a Silver. Similar successes were seen in the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge where Jason Chan, Alex Chow, Thomas Chu and William Gibson all received Gold awards. Some events had to be cancelled including our annual trip to the University of Bristol’s Chemical Laboratories and the RSC Spectroscopy workshop.

Dr James Copeland-Jordan

Physics

It has been another busy year in the Physics Department. We welcomed Mr William Kemp to the teaching team who quickly introduced both pupils and staff to the joys of Teams (which would become particularly useful after Easter!).

In the Autumn Term, two teams of Sixth Form physicists entered the Online Physics Brawl and were both placed in the top 10 of UK school teams in their year groups. A handful of Upper Sixth students then went on to enter the British Physics Olympiad (BPhO), with a specific mention going to Nicolas Mediato Diaz who managed to qualify for the British Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad training camp.

A number of pupils entered the Experimental Project competition and were tasked with building a bifilar pendulum. Various awards were won, with Denis Solovyev and George Hardy earning a Bronze award in the Senior competition, and Bryan Luo and Luke Richardson earning Silver awards in the GCSE competition.

In the Spring Term, we entered the top sets of Fifth Form pupils into the BPhO Intermediate Challenge, and are pleased to report a number of awards, with Oleander Hall, Bobby Hui,

The Department was proud to continue our role in the 7Up scheme with All Saints’ Academy, working with several of their GCSE pupils to try to achieve the top grades in Physics. Additionally, we organised a training day with a number of teachers working together to develop how we deliver practicals.

Finlay Hurst, Tobias Millar, Georgia Morling and Leonid Zhuravlev all winning a Silver certificate.

The year obviously ended in a rather unusual way, but the Department is looking forward to bringing newly learned skills and technology into our everyday teaching. We have a number of students pursuing Physics and Engineering degrees in the coming year and we wish them the best for their future.

Mr Jeremy Dodd

Sports Science

This summer we celebrated some excellent results for a very resilient and stoic cohort. All students secured their first choice University and we wish them all the best as they embark on their exciting journeys. A special mention must go to Jack Cunningham who takes up reading Sports Performance at the University of Bath. Jack worked remotely for the majority of his A Levels whilst continuing his skiing training and competing for the GB team and the Junior Winter Olympics. We wish him every success for the future and I hope to see him competing in the Winter Olympics very soon.

This year we have continued to develop the GCSE activities we offer. Weight training and life-saving have not only been enjoyable for the pupils but have also offered them life skills and experiences that extend beyond the curriculum. This year, all the GCSE pupils received basic lessons in water survival and first aid including CPR and treatment for minor injuries and shock. Despite their excellent achievements in these areas we do hope they never have to put their skills to use in real life!

This year’s cohort have proved unique in terms of their non-exam assessment (NEA) submissions with two pupils performing in rock climbing and windsurfing.

The Fourth Form cohort have proved to be a really positive and engaged year group throughout the year but we were even more impressed with their efforts and dedication during the Summer Term. They completed lots of physically demanding but enjoyable challenges including The Phone Tap Challenge and the Fun for Five. They deserve particular praise and thanks for their Fundraising Challenge for the Sue Ryder Leckhampton Hospice. They raised more than £200 in just one double lesson.

Outside the classroom, pupils have enjoyed talks and lectures from a range of athletes and sports ambassadors. One of the Lower College’s favourite events was a speed and agility workshop and practical session with former British Heptathlete and Olympic medallist Ms Kelly Sotherton.

This year we sadly say farewell to Mr Henry Davies and wish him every success for the future as he continues his work at the English Institute of Sport. Hopefully one day we will see him at the Olympics!

Mrs Rebecca Faulkner

Theatre Studies

Teachers and pupils continue to enjoy the academic rigour of the linear qualifications. Our Upper Sixth relished the challenging of exploring and performing three different texts; Medea and A View from the Bridge and a contemporary play of their choice. During their practical exploration they were asked to make connections between the two texts looking particularly at how women through the ages have been depicted in drama.

Our Lower Sixth were faced with the challenge of devising original work using the ideas and theories of a theatre practitioner. This year they researched the work of practitioner Mr Max Stafford-Clark

founder of the Out of Joint touring theatre company. Mr Stafford-Clark prides himself on producing contemporary and politically important work, that often utilises verbatim or documentary techniques, which involves incorporating the words of people from real life into your work. Students used their work to shine a light on the issues of the treatment of asylum seekers and sexual assault victims as they strive for justice.

The devising work produced by our Fourth Form also served to prove how our young people are actively using theatre to educate and raise awareness of important issues. Some of the topics explored were peer pressure, the dangerous influences of the internet, child trafficking and school shootings.

As always, excellent learning in the classroom has been enriched and developed by an extensive programme of trips. This year we saw numerous high quality live performances and productions broadcast live in the cinema, which served as an invaluable inspiration for our pupils and allowed them to develop their understanding of how drama functions in performance. Trips this year have included Woman in Black, Cabaret and Asking For It.

Mrs Sian McBride

Theology, Philosophy and Ethics

It has been another busy and exciting year in the TPE Department. Dr Peter Vardy of Candle Conferences visited College to talk to all TPE IGCSE pupils, as well as many pupils from All Saints’ Academy. Dr Vardy, formerly Vice- Principal of Heythrop College, is a wellknown theologian, author and speaker. His lectures during this conference on peace and conflict, sexual ethics and life and death got pupils thinking deeply about these key issues.

We were also fortunate that Mr Rizwan Ahmed of the Bristol Muslim Cultural Society came to talk to the Third Form about Islam in the UK. Our Upper College students went to hear Professor Richard Dawkins speak about his new book at the Cheltenham Literature Festival; Dr Adam Dunning came along, too, and he did very well not to heckle Professor Dawkins!

In addition to these events, the Department has continued to put on more regular events, such as TPE Society and Dr Adrian Samuel’s Philosophy lunches. This academic year we have had TPE Society talks by Dr Samuel on ‘Kant’s Critical Philosophy,’ myself on ‘Voltaire’s Candide’ (in conjunction with Lit Soc), and Freddie Greenfield

and Bryan Luo talking about the meaning of life (it turned out not to be 42 after all!). Pupils from all year groups have completed fantastic extra work including a number of extra essays and book reviews, with some of them earning the much-coveted TPE Tie. Finally, ‘well done’ and ‘good luck’ to all our students in their future endeavours.

Dr Matthew Harris

Floreat

It is no coincidence that our wellbeing programme shares its name with Floreat, the name of the Cheltonian Society magazine as both celebrate flourishing in its broadest sense.

FLOREATFailing is feedback for learningLook after health and wellbeingOpen to opportunities and to othersResilient: reflect and improveEffort brings rewardAmbition to grow in all areasTrusted and learn for themselves

College places high priority on Floreat and the space it provides for reflection, sharing and character development. Pupils’ own words explain much better than I can attempt to the effect of Floreat on their lives.

‘During the time of remote learning when we have all been working at home, all being together in Floreat has meant we can see all of our friends in our tutor group and spend time together.’

‘A strong feature of the Upper College programme is the range of speakers invited into College. Speakers come from all walks of life, address a variety of topics and share their points of view. Even if contentious views are shared that one doesn’t agree with, the exposure to these ideas is helpful in broadening our thinking or re-examining our own views.’

‘Floreat is like a bonding session for our tutor group. It is more informal than lessons. We trust each other and know each other really well. It is an open space where we can talk about topics, share views and know that no one will judge us or be offended.’

‘Floreat is about discussion and debate. You get to hear a range of views about a topic from people of different backgrounds, which develops understanding and respect.’

From an Upper Sixth student: ‘When you join Third Form, you might think ‘What is Floreat about and what’s it for? You think that you could be doing something more productive. But as you go through College you come to acknowledge the core values that it develops. These are positive values that definitely affect pupils’ thinking. Now I see that reflection is important.’

Dr Mary Plint

For Pleasure, For Life: Re-energising reading at College

This year College has launched a new programme designed to help sustain pupils’ reading. What with the busy nature of College life and the myriad easy distractions on offer to everybody, the pleasures of sustained silent reading can easily be eroded. Time needs to be found and opportunities created if pupils are to get the experience of reading that is so essential for their futures. This year, the Third Form have been given an hour’s reading time each week. HSMs have been at the vanguard, inviting their charges into their homes on the ‘private side’ for comfy seats and cocoa! Indeed, the winner of the Marketing Photo of the Year competition was of a set of Leconfield boys all reading in Mr Evans’ study! With the pandemic, colleagues and pupils are rediscovering the pleasures of immersing themselves in a good book.

Dr Luke Davidson