9 minute read
Sherborne at Home
We received some wonderful feedback from parents regarding remote learning during the lockdown, here are just some of the comments we received...
Sherborne School, as last lock down, has provided outstanding support and remote provision. Housemaster and tutor have been an amazing support and always there if needed. Thank you again. ’ ‘Under the difficult circumstances, Sherborne is providing a stellar service!’ ‘It is fantastic to have proper online teaching, unlike so many schools. Whilst face to face teaching is, quite clearly, preferable, this is very much “ second best” . Thank you to all the teachers and the School for making this possible. ’ ‘I think that the School has done an amazing job in unprecedented circumstances. ’ ‘Online lessons are excellent, and our son is very motivated, and says the standard of “ lessons / learning is rooms ‘because you him outside. the s can ame talk as to if pe he opl was at e ’ . The school sports . He chal really lenges enjoys th are good e f break or gett out ing
Academic Enrichment
CHEMISTRY
National emergencies tend to generate technological advances in very short order. The First and Second World Wars saw the development of (in no particular order) tanks, flame throwers, air traffic control, jet engines, guided bombs, radar and computers and while arguably at least three of these have only limited value in civilian life, the others play a daily, albeit invisible to most, role in the modern world. Who ’d have thought that a virus could have caused the disruption it has to date, with the capacity to keep its malevolent grip on health services and economies worldwide for years to come. Still, cometh the virus cometh the software, which in the case of the Chemistry Department has included Teams, OneNote, Zoom, Kahoot, EZY Education and Seneca to name but a few; suddenly that box, with the monitor atop, in the corner has been made to sweat.
Chemistry practical sessions have continued, although in the Lower School they have occurred over two lessons to maintain social distancing, with absentees being paired with their classroom avatar, their results then being shared in a breakout room on Teams. Academic Supports and Chemistry Symposiums have been similarly organised and, while we would all prefer everyone to be physically present, it has acted as a pretty good alternative. It does feel as though a decade of IT expertise has been condensed into a tenth of that time, but now that we ’ ve all had the download it is becoming apparent that every cloud really does have a silver lining.
William Buckley Head of Chemistry
ENGLISH
Creative Writing Club
With the renewal of online learning this term, Sherborne ’ s Creative Writing Club also made the journey home with our boys. The focus this term was on reviving old favourites: books, movies and music that the boys wanted to update for their modern reader. The boys explored Murder Mystery, inspired by Hitchcock and du Maurier; traversed through Fantasy fiction, undertaking world making alongside Next term, the boys will be greats like Tolkien, and even heading towards The modernised Mythology: reincarnating Foyle’s Young Poets of the Joseph Campbell’ s A Hero With a Year Award, the biggest Thousand Faces. poetry competition for Piers Mino Langley ’ s ( taur ” , was 3e) poem, “The one such example, young This is people in not only a th n e UK. exposing the hidden identities of the opportunity to publish Minotaur and Ariadne, characters their work, but for the whose thoughts and feelings are so boys to earn prizes that often ignored by retellings of the can set them up for a terrifying Greek myth: career in writing. We can’t wait to see where their The Minotaur Creative Writing Odyssey Every nine years I am fed will take them next! What I am fed is not what I want What I want doesn ’t matter— Does it? My father failed to offer his gratitude His son was the punishment: One by one I eat, The children that were born Into defeat. Their tiny hopes And half-formed dreams Are demolished, like a timer stopped before it runs out. My sister, the one who helped my demise, The betrayal of red sky in the morning, and the freedom of an orange sunset— One would think she had no heart, did not possess a sibling ’ s conscience. I was a beast, but a human inside. My brother, a minotaur one would say. For me what matters is a person ’ s heart. Seeing into someone ’ s soul. My father grew a black cloud over Minos, My brothers heart. My brother is not reckless But simply has no choice. Every nine years, I watch on. I watch the poor, defenceless children The same defenceless children that my brother. My brother survives off.
Piers Langley (3e)
MATHS
We soldiered on despite the national lockdown for much of this term. Boys continued to work remotely whilst my colleagues in the department did their best to engage them with all the means they have at their disposal. It was fantastic to see that new techniques such as the use of Kahoot, Pluckers and Desmos Classrooms were explored on top of the usual live lessons on Teams and OneNote.
Our fortnightly Maths Challenge Club for the Third and the Fourth Form boys evolved and was replaced by the ‘Lockdown 3.0 Maths Challenge ’ organised by Miss Evans. The challenge questions were released on Teams weekly and the boys participated by submitting their solutions via email. This was then marked, tracked and graded based on the accuracy of the solutions and the way in which they were communicated.
The following boys did well to have won themselves a muchdeserved WHSmith voucher: Third Form Winner: Ted Silcox (3f) Runners-up: Oliver Chappell (3d) William Tatham (3d)
Fourth Form Winner: Oscar Revell (4c) Runners-up: Ted Hunt (4m)
Our Junior boys took the Intermediate Mathematical Challenge in February, albeit virtually. A total of 54 certificates were awarded (12 Gold, 12 Silver and 30 Bronze) this time and many congratulations to Jordan Zhuo (5e), David Chen (5e), Tom Ke (5e), Michael Long (5m), Robbie Foster (5a), Edward Pinnock (5a), William Miao (5f), Michael Tong (5b), Mike Song (4e), Macros Yiu (4m), Douglas Groves (4c) and Leo Li (4a) whom have all won themselves a Gold certificate. On the same day that the Bank of England revealed the £50 Alan Turing banknote design, our senior Mathematicians were treated to a talk by Professor Chris Budd from the University of Bath. His lecture on “How Maths fight COVID-19” conducted via Zoom was enthusiastically attended. It was really interesting to hear how Mathematics is applied first hand in real life. And with nearly one hundred participants that evening, there were certainly some thoughtprovoking questions and answers at the end.
Siew Chiang-Lim Head of Mathematics - 7 -
HISTORY
This has been a busy and exciting time for the History department, starting in January when we learned that Old Shirburnian Sam Reynolds (c 2020) had been awarded a place to read History at Oxford. We are all delighted for Sam and wish him every success as he continues his study of history.
The new Third Form programme of study continues to be a success with a term-long examination of exploration, the slave trade and slavery, introducing the boys to the key issues and debates in this important and very relevant aspect of history. The department continues to press ahead with the ambition to be ‘ paperless ’ , something that has been accelerated by necessity due to remote learning. We were thrilled to have the boys back in class after half term and they have also used March (Women ’ s History Month) to research and examine the significant role of women in the time period they are studying. Beyond the classroom, History continues to run a vibrant and interesting programme for all boys. Tatham ’ s (3d) excellent presentation on War, Sport and National Pride was a highlight, as was Max Windham (4c) and Mr Mackenzie-Green discussing the impact of famous assassinations. We have looked at sieges with two case studies (Acre and Przemysl), the History of the Conspiracy Theory and even considered cheese and the part it has played in History - not a low protein diet by any means, but good for the brain.
The History Extension group has also met regularly each Monday with the pleasure of a large Lower Sixth and Fifth Form cohort of enthusiastic historians doing everything from designing a National History Curriculum, to examining a range of primary sources, to discussing photography and its use in History with the aid of a thoughtprovoking presentation from Mr Crouch. One session considered events that fundamentally shaped particular centuries while recently we have been considering the ideas contained within Margaret MacMillan ’ s book The Uses and Abuses of History, unsurprisingly finding that there have been more of the latter....
For the first time, Sherborne entered boys for the Phoenix Essay Prize competition 2021 which is open to Fourth Form History students. The boys were provided with a series of challenging titles to choose from and were asked to produce an essay under 2000 words. The chief examiner picked out Charlie Temmink’ s (4a) essay on Brexit as a particularly impressive piece of work, stating:
Macros Yiu (4m), Henry Morpeth (4g) and Max Windham (4c) also wrote excellent essays and should be commended for their considerable achievement.
Charlotte Allen - Head of History Giles Reynolds - History Teacher William Mackenzie-Green History Teacher
TURING VIRTUAL REALITY PROJECT
Boys meet every Monday to participate in the Virtual Reality Project which aims to create a fully-immersive 3D virtual world to celebrate the life of Old Shirburnian Alan Turing. Boys are making good progress already and have managed to create some 3D objects in Blender and create virtual worlds where the objects are placed.
Some examples of the objects that boys have created are shown here (in their 2-D versions of course).
Dave Wild Head of Computer Science Sarah Broughton Teacher of Computer Science
COMPUTER SCIENCE
The Computer Science Department has been very impressed with the participation of boys in the co-curricular programme this term. We are continually encouraged, despite on-line learning and the challenges that brings, that boys continue to enjoy tough, intellectual challenges set by their teachers.
A particular highlight this term was The Perse Coding Challenge. Sherborne boys did well this year, with six of our best coders qualifying for the next round and the chance to win £300 prize money.
OXFORD COMPUTING CHALLENGE
The Oxford Computing Challenge is recognised as being one of the toughest Computing challenges around. Only the best from the Bebras Computing Challenge were invited to participate. Three of our Lower School boys sat the challenge during the half term holidays. This is not only testament to their ability but their willingness to get stuck in. Tom Ke (5e), Hector Kennerley (4g) and Kohki Hatori (5e) all did well in the challenge, with Tom gaining a merit with 32 points.
