Co-Curricular

Our pupils have again, this academic year, risen to the challenges presented to them by the global pandemic. We had to adapt almost all our practices to make the activities our pupils were engaging in Covid secure, meaning that year group bubbles, social distancing and adapted sports rules were the order of the day.

Once again, staff and pupils demonstrated great flexibility, resilience, and resourcefulness to ensure that there was challenge within the co-curriculum. The pupils engaged in all that was offered to them from single year group choirs, five different drama groups, new Ready 4 Rugby laws to understand, and all with uncertainty as to what would happen next.

Once again, the majority of the Spring Term was spent in lockdown and staff did all they could to motivate, encourage and inspire from afar, offering virtual after school clubs, podcasts, and guest speakers. The Summer Term returned to some form of normality, and, despite the sometimes inclement weather, our pupils were back out representing College at sport, performing at plays and concerts, attending CCF parades and going on DofE expeditions. Our aim is always to challenge and, whilst realising that there may be bumps in the road, we hope our pupils leave with a sense of purpose, resilience, and determination from all they have engaged with outside the classroom.

Mr Stephen McQuitty, Deputy Head (Co-curricular)

The Combined Cadet Force has seen much change as we move instruction to be cadet-led and for our adult instructors to be mentors for our Senior cadets. The change has meant we can offer much more focused leadership coaching for our Senior cadets and much more engaged training for our Junior cadets. Cadet Warrant Officer Class One Simon Oates has handed over to Lara Capps as the Head of Corps and we warmly thank our departing Upper Sixth cadets.

Lieutenant Colonel Tony Ayres has handed over as Contingent Commander and we are grateful for his guidance and resourcefulness through challenging times. Lieutenant Beatrice Langford Powell also moves on from her role as Head of the Royal Navy and she will be much missed by the wonderful cadets who she has brought together as a team. We owe a great deal of thanks to Lieutenant Libby O’Brien for an incredible amount of planning of activities, her engaging and dynamic lesson delivery and the wonderful role model she has been to our Fifth Form; we wish her all the best in starting regular officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Mr Dan Lovell also moves on after three years of working with recruit training and his professionalism and flexibility will be much missed.

The Contingent continues to be over 200 strong and is growing. Offering a full range of adventurous training, military and civilian skills and interlinking with the Duke of Edinburgh programme. This year’s camps have included RYA sailing training, canoeing, survival skills, section attacks and focused leadership training. We are delighted to be re-starting our RAF Section this coming year, focusing on cadet fixed-wing and gliding opportunities. Three of this year’s Senior cadets have confirmed places to start military officer training and a large number of Fifth Form and Lower Sixth have submitted applications for scholarships.

Particular thanks must go to Senior Schools Instructor Warrant Officer Class Two Jason Gwynne for his relentless enthusiasm, constant creativity and resourcefulness. It is a real pleasure to see the Contingent continuing to flourish.

Captain Will Kemp, Contingent Commander (CCF)

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

Like everything else, 2020/21 proved different and awkward for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme at College. We managed the navigation skills programme in the Autumn Term for the Silver Award group before ‘School Closure II’ hit us in January. The scheme allowed sufficient flexibilities for young people to progress their activities from home and physical recreation continued unabated through the virtual offering of the Sport Department.

Fresh hope dawned in the Summer Term as we began planning expeditions once again. Our Lakes odyssey was not going to be possible, but four expedition events were planned for the end of the Summer Term to coincide with the gradual lifting of Covid restrictions.

Fifteen of our departing Upper Sixth, having missed out the previous year, set about an eightday programme to refresh skills, practise, and plan and undertake their qualifying expedition in the Brecon Beacons. Such a success was this that it may provide the basis for a training model in the future. An unpredictable mixture of sun and rain ensued (what’s new?) provided for a challenging environment but sprained ankles, broken tents and ruined rucksacks were all overcome in a final College adventure that will be reminisced upon in years ahead..

Likewise, the Silver Award team benefitted from a consolidated programme and a qualifying expedition ensued in glorious sunshine, which showed Chepstow Castle, the Wye Valley and the Forest of Dean in their best light. Against the backdrop of the abbey at Tintern, and in dappled sunshine, the boys and girls camped at Botany Bay. And we hope this may be just the first adventure of many; will Cheltonians make it as far as the Antipodean namesake? With tired legs but winning smiles they saw out Day Three and finished College’s first Silver qualifying expedition as term ended. At the same time, over 30 intrepid CCF cadets completed their Bronze routes in the Cotswolds.

The Lower Sixth practice event in the Brecon Beacons quickly followed. A large cohort left College on Sunday 4 July for overcast and wet Welsh Hills but resolved to rise to the challenge set for them. The now familiar utterance … ‘that’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done’… was indeed heard during this week, and underlies the challenge set before our students, but there was also the sense of achievement and progress acquired as all ended their journey and headed off back to College for the start of their Summer holiday. A self-sufficient qualifying expedition will follow next academic year, building on lessons learned.

So, it was an intense but satisfying end to the year, and thanks go to all pupils, parents and staff for their support and ‘going with’ an unconventional approach.

Mr John Jones

It has been another exciting year for co–curricular drama at College; Covid brought many challenges, but also new opportunities as we had to find innovative ways to continue giving pupils the opportunity to perform.

Unable to stage a large-scale House play this year, we introduced the House Drama competition, which saw more than 60 Lower College pupils performing in six different categories from monologues to larger scale group performance. We saw an impressive range of both recorded and live performances entered, with every entrant winning points for their House. It was a hardfought competition but in the end Hazelwell won the boys’ competition and Westal the girls’. We then turned Jack Ralphs Theatre into a recording studio and our talented Fifth Form rehearsed and recorded a series of three murder mystery plays. This gave the performers an opportunity to really develop their vocal skills and think about how tension and atmosphere can be created. We ended the Autumn Term with an Upper Sixth only Variety Show filled with song, dance and comedy. Much fun was had by all and it was a much needed injection of Christmas mirth after a challenging and uncertain term.

The second period of school closure brought about the cancellation of our performance of the Scholars’ Play Foxfinder, which was due to be performed in the Playhouse in mid-January. Determined that all the students’ hard work would not go to waste, we recorded an abridged version of the play on our return in March. Our cast found it really difficult to make the transition from stage to screen acting but rose admirably to the challenge and created a highly engaging and tense film experience.

Eager to offer opportunities to perform over lockdown, we embarked on our most ambitious project to date; an online version of High School Musical. We originally intended for pupils to record themselves at home on their phones, but an earlier return than expected in March brought about another change of plan. This led to our decision to film entirely on location in College after the May half term holiday. We had a professional camera crew with us for two weeks and the footage is now in postproduction. We look forward to sharing the final performance with you this coming year when we have a Hollywood-style premiere planned.

We ended the year with our first live performance; an innovative 45-minute production of Hamlet, held outdoors with a select and socially distanced audience. It was wonderful to finally be able to return to watching live theatre and our talented Third Form ensemble cast did us proud, with highly mature performances of complex characters.

We very much look forward to being able to return to welcoming large audiences and staging full scale productions, but we feel that our pupils have had some very meaningful experiences in this highly unusual year, that have challenged and developed them as performers.

Mrs Sian McBride

In what has been a strange year for everyone, essential innovation has brought about many positives. Year group choirs and ensembles, while not allowing for the same breadth of repertoire, have nonetheless facilitated great leadership and solo opportunities that would perhaps not have arisen in a normal year. Certainly the Third Form Choir members are in a very strong position to join the larger groups this coming year, having had a year independently singing in their own services and concerts.

Music has continued regardless, sometimes online, sometimes in person within bubbles and sometimes socially distanced. Sometimes it has been a hybrid of several of these permutations. This in turn has also allowed us to develop a wider audience base as the technology for live streaming and recording has been available, and expertly pioneered and further evolved by Mr Shaun Pirttijarvi.

In some ways this has been our busiest year ever, as the year group choirs, jazz bands, rock bands and orchestras have all played and sung frequently, and this has led to increased performance opportunities. It has of course been a great shame not to have had the same live audiences as we are used to, but we are optimistic that that will return in the not too distant future.

Weekly lunchtime concerts have both been live streamed from the Music Department and Big Classical, as well as lockdown performances recorded at home by pupils all over the world. Weekly Choral Evensongs have continued, rotating around the year groups, and these same year group choirs have sung the hymns on behalf of the year group congregations in daily Chapel services.

We planned with excitement for the much hoped for reopening in the Summer Term, only to discover that these plans needed to change when distancing requirements needed to continue. In the penultimate week of the Summer Term, we did however give some wonderful performances, and for the first time with mixed year groups featuring the large College ensembles, which hadn’t been able to rehearse or perform together since March 2020.

There was a wonderful evening of jazz on College Lawn, which as it was held outside, meant that we were able to welcome our first audience of parents to College for over a year.

The orchestra concert the following evening had to take place indoors, meaning that an audience wasn’t possible and that the ensembles themselves had to be socially distanced. This concert also featured concerto performances from Grace White on flute, Stephanie Lau on harp, Bill Ko on viola and Kimmy Kwok on violin. A week later, this live streamed event had more views than the number of people we could ever have fitted into Big Classical. Live streaming is here to stay, even when we can once more play and sing to a live audience. The Schola Cantorum also met for the first time since the first lockdown, and sang a Choral Evensong of their favourite music from recent years.

Exam success has continued and the number of College pupils achieving Grade 8 has risen exponentially. Even more pleasing is the fact that more pupils than ever before have achieved their diplomas, reaching a performance standard approaching professional level. These pupils include: Sophie Essenhigh and Lala Krairit on piano; Stephanie Lau and Victoria Brain with voice; and Jasper Chiang on saxophone.

While there have inevitably been disappointments and frustrations, it has been truly humbling to witness the determination, hard work and resilience of College’s musicians throughout this academic year. They have adapted and innovated where necessary, but have continued to deliver top level music throughout, and heightened in all our minds the vital and varied roles that music plays in all our lives, whether for wellbeing, spirituality or challenge. They have been an inspiration.

Mr David McKee