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From The Head The weather has been cool with regular frost, but this has been a good spring term with plenty achieved. The term began with good results for Oxbridge entry with nine places offered to KES students in this round of applications. Many students have also received offers from other prestigious universities with economics, medicine and engineering the most popular choices. Much time has also been focused on planning new construction projects at both our prep school, Stroud, and on the main site. Work has been completed for the refurbishment of the Design Technology building following the fire in November. We will be upgrading our reception and nursing accommodation over the next six months and plans are now well advanced for the construction of the new theatre, Art Department and expanded concourse to begin in July 2016 with a view to completion in April 2017. Architects’ plans and sketches may be found on the website. As this edition of KonnEctionS makes clear, the School remains exceptionally busy with a variety of activities offering our students many opportunities. The spring term has a compressed calendar of hockey, netball, football and even sailing at SWAC; when the ice allows! We have also enjoyed the annual KESPTA Quiz Night, a number of studio drama productions and several musical events including the Spring Concert at Turner Sims and some wonderful singing at Winchester Cathedral for our Thanksgiving Service. Students have travelled to Berlin and Salamanca over half-term and the annual ski trip to the Italian Alps and a hockey tour to Holland are planned, as well as visits to Andalucía in Spain, Mutterstadt in Germany and Montpellier in France to improve language skills. Many other students will be involved in Duke of Edinburgh expeditions. This issue of KonnEctionS also highlights some of the remarkable achievements of individual students at King Edward’s. They remain positive and community minded whatever the weather. Charitable activity has raised over £5,000, with a large number of staff and students taking part in the singathon raising money for young carers.
A J Thould Head
King Edward VI School Wilton Road . Southampton . Hampshire SO15 5UQ Telephone: 023 8070 4561
www.kes.hants.sch.uk
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Academic KES students attend ‘Able Linguists Day’ Members of the Lower Sixth German set took part in the ‘Able Linguists Day’ at Southampton University on 19th January. Along with other Sixth Form students, from schools and colleges as far afield as Bath, they attended some useful workshops on aspects of AS language and grammar, and wound up the day with taster sessions in Portuguese and Mandarin.
Geography study day in London Last term, a group of Upper Sixth geographers went to London to visit the Royal Geographical Society for an A2 study day. The students attended four workshops, run by a variety of speakers, ranging from teachers to academics and professionals in the work place. The sessions related to the A2 course and covered topics such as globalisation, urbanisation and world cities, tectonic hazards and water conflict. To finish the day the group attended a workshop on study skills, led by examiner and teacher Simon Oakes, and had the chance to look around the Shackleton exhibition.
All you need is love? On 5th February, a group of Sixth Formers travelled to Oxford to attend an Ethics Conference. Entitled ‘All you need is Love?’, the conference aimed to look at the deeper definition of love provided by major philosophers and religious traditions, and to appreciate the relevance of love in moral decision-making of all sorts. Speaker Dr Peter Vardy, who was vice-principal of Heythrop College, the specialist Philosophy and Theology college of the University of London, along with guest speaker, Dr David Webster, explored Kantian Ethics and Situation Ethics in depth, as well as Christian Ethics and issues arising from Sexual Ethics such as the ethics of IVF, embryo-research, genetic engineering, abortion and the right to a child.
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A sure BETT! In January, two Third Year KES Digital Leaders spoke on the BETT main arena stage on the topic of ‘Using technology to allow collaborative learning between peers’. BETT is the world’s leading learning technology event and has been bringing innovation and inspiration to the education sector for over thirty years. The pupils were asked to speak as an example of best practice in schools, alongside four other schools from across the country, and received complimentary comments from as far away as America.
Imperial Colonialism made easy! On 24th February, Dr Christopher Prior from Southampton University spoke to Upper School and Sixth Form students about imperial colonialism and the ‘Scramble for Africa’. The talk was very well received and KES students got to delve deeper into the varied factors that influenced the decisions behind empire building in the early twentieth century.
Geography field trip to Calshot This term’s Upper Sixth field trip to Calshot had to be delayed by a day due to the stormy conditions caused by the tail end of Hurricane Isobel. Fortunately, the weather improved and the students were able to undertake the planned data collection exercise the following day.
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Onatti Theatre Company visit KES On 22nd February the Onatti Theatre Company visited King Edward’s for the third time to put on a fifty minute play in Spanish called “Primera Cita” (first date). The audience were all the Third Year students studying Spanish and it was an interactive affair with several students taking part on stage. The students were thrilled to be able to put into practice some of their knowledge and really enjoyed it.
Physics Olympiad results
Biology Olympiad results
Over the course of the autumn term, several Upper Sixth Physicists trained to take part in the British Physics Olympiad. This is a competition which challenges the best physicists in the country to solve problems well beyond the scope of the A Level course. Five students took part in round 1 and three achieved medal certificates. Congratulations to Henry Marden who won Bronze, Georgia Everest who won Silver and Oliver Rose who won Gold placing him in the top 150 competitors.
The British Biology Olympiad is open to students around the world and challenges and stimulates those with an interest in Biology to expand and extend their talents, enabling them to demonstrate their knowledge and to be suitably rewarded and publicly recognised by the award of medals, certificates and other prizes. In this year’s competition Silver medals were won by James Leask (who also received the highest mark in the School), Sam Tan, Rhianna Jones and Phoebe Hine whilst Bronze medals went to Emma Rush and Katy Billington. George Skinner, Luke Roberts, Tatum Rouf and Mary Kate Searles were Highly Commended and Ben Routledge and India Clark received certificates of Commendation.
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Design Inspiration Day In December, the AS Design students had a very successful and inspiring day in London looking at the ‘Liberty in Fashion’ exhibition and the cycling revolutions at The Design Museum. Both exhibitions gave the students new ideas for their coursework projects and highlights included seeing a 3D printed bike and a lamp post that recorded your shadow and replayed it after you had walked past.
Inspirational Maths Maths in Action Fifteen Fourth and Fifth Year students attended the ‘Maths Inspiration Show’ held at St Swithun’s School last term. This is an enrichment event providing able pupils with the chance to experience some of the UK’s most engaging maths speakers presenting mathematics in the context of real-world situations. This year’s speakers were Alex Bellos: The World’s Favourite Number, David Acheson: Pi, Pizza and the Electric Guitar and Jon Macey: How Vectors won Oscars.
Ten Lower Sixth students attended a series of ‘Maths in Action’ lectures at the University of Warwick in December. The lectures aim to provide students with a broader understanding of the impact of mathematics on society. There were five sessions led by some outstanding speakers from a variety of backgrounds including Simon Singh (writer and broadcaster), Steve Mould (science communicator) and Sara Jabbari (University of Birmingham). Topics covered included Bitcoin: The Rise of the Cryptocurrency, Fighting Disease with Mathematics and the Birthday of Fermat’s Last Theorem.
Senior Mathematics Challenge A number of Fifth Year and Sixth Form students have achieved success in the 2015 UKMT Senior Mathematical Challenge. In total six KES students achieved Gold certificates, three Silver and two Bronze. Congratulations to Cameron Brown, Toby Saer and David Veres for gaining high enough scores to reach round 1 of the British Mathematical Olympiad competition and to Oliver Rose for obtaining a place in the Senior Kangaroo Competition.
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Co-curricular KES students build drone In January, work began on the construction of the KES drone. A keen team of pupils from across the School, assisted by Mr Baker, Facilities Manager, assembled the drone carefully adding the electronics to prepare it for its maiden flight. It is hoped to use the drone to photograph school events, as well as give pupils opportunities to see their STEM subjects in action.
PADI training Members of the Sixth Form have been continuing with their PADI training at Oaklands Pool in preparation for their forthcoming summer trip during which they will dive in the Galapagos Islands and Indonesia.
Scamp Club trip to Lovaton The shout of ‘Holmes’ echoed from the tors as twelve members of Scamp Club took to the Moor in search of the greatest adventures of Sherlock Holmes. In the course of the weekend a murder at Bletchley Park was solved, a wounded horse was saved and the white water rafting competition was won. There was even time to take part in the Adventure of the Man with the Hollow Leg!
Hamble lifeboat crew visit KES During the last week of the autumn term KES sailors and kayakers were visited by two members of the Hamble lifeboat crew; James Godwin (former pupil and Head of School 1998-99) and Grenville Houser. The two speakers gave KES sailors and kayakers some extremely useful safety advice on how to avoid getting into trouble when out in the Solent and also on how to help the lifeboat crew if they are ever unlucky enough to be in a situation that requires a rescue. Students took apart life jackets to see how they worked and tried on the all-weather gear worn by the crew in the worst conditions they face when on the water.
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Pop-up book KES welcomes illustrator visits KES Philosophy Professor On the last day of the autumn term the Design and Technology GCSE Graphics students were fortunate enough to be visited by Jennie Maizels, a successful illustrator and pop-up book author, who talked to the students about her experiences in the industry and showed examples of her published work. Students had the opportunity to ask questions and learn about paper engineering and the industrial processes involved in the design and manufacture of pop-up books.
On 27th January, the School was delighted to welcome Professor Christopher Janaway, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton, to speak to students and staff. Before moving to Southampton in 2005, Chris taught at Birkbeck, University of London and at the University of Sydney. He was principal investigator on the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded research project on Nietzsche and Modern Moral Philosophy (2007-2010) and is general editor of a new translation of Schopenhauer’s works with Cambridge University Press.
Visit to Toothill The Astronomy Society enjoyed clear skies above Toothill Observatory on a cold night in January and a small group of KES astronomers managed to observe several night sky objects such as the Pleiades Cluster and the Orion Nebula.
Carol Service held at Romsey Abbey This year the School’s annual Carol Service was held in the beautiful setting of Romsey Abbey. A record congregation shared in the music and readings that led through the Christmas story whilst a feast of musical delights were presented by the Senior, Chamber and Junior Choirs, along with the Chamber Strings and Orchestra.
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KES win Uniformed Little Big Award Services winners Competition On 10th December, King Edward’s entered an eight person team into this year’s Uniformed Services Competition hosted by Itchen Sixth Form College and supported by the Armed and Emergency Services. The event saw teams from nine local schools competing in different team and individual tasks to test their fitness, leadership, teamwork, observation, memory and communication skills. After a slow start on the Bridge of Doom, the team performed better taking many first places throughout the day and finishing as champions.
Congratulations to the team of four King Edward’s Third Year boys who scooped the prize for best submission in the ‘Technology, Research and Implementation’ category at the regional final of the recent CISCO Little Big Awards held at the Winchester Science Centre.
Charlotte Exchange During the autumn half-term, eight Third Year students, accompanied by Reverend Poppleton and Mrs Rugge-Price, went on the annual exchange visit to Charlotte Country Day School in North Carolina. The students stayed with their host families and got to experience the American school system and culture. The group also worked on creative projects whilst they were there, ranging from architectural plans to dress design and production. In February, their exchange partners returned to the UK on the home leg. Whilst here they took part in different excursions to London, Oxford, Stonehenge and other places of interest as well as spending time in school.
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Salamanca 2016
Berlin Trip
Sixteen Sixth Form students and one Fifth Year pupil, accompanied by Mrs Ladislao and Mr Lawson, travelled to the university town of Salamanca in February to take part in the annual Spanish language trip. The itinerary was very similar to the one tried and tested in previous years and included four hours of lessons every morning in a Spanish language school, as well as afternoon activities such as city and museum tours, sampling ‘chocolate con churros’, a tapas evening, a cinema trip, and a day excursion to Madrid. The students took every opportunity available to speak Spanish with the local Spanish population and improve their language fluency.
In the February half-term the annual History Department IGCSE trip to Berlin took place and, for the first time, operated in conjunction with the German Department. Forty-six pupils travelled to the German capital and spent four enjoyable days improving their understanding of the country’s history and language. The History students visited several sites of historical interest whilst the linguists spent a morning and an afternoon on two separate days doing a mixture of activities and language games designed to increase their fluency and confidence in the language.
Safer Internet Day The new Digital Leaders were hard at work in February organising this year’s ‘Safer Internet Day’. They delivered a ‘Thought for the Day’ in assembly and also visited all the First Year Group bases so that pupils could sign a ‘Safer Internet Day’ pledge. These pledges were displayed in the Crush Hall at lunchtime.
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Creative Arts Battle of the Bands Twelve angry men The annual KES ‘Battle of the Bands’ proved once again to be a popular event on 19th January. With over ten acts performing, the evening was well attended with over two hundred tickets sold. The talent on the night was of such a high calibre, that the guest judges (Miss Barnett, Jordan Sheath (former pupil and guitarist) and pianist Mark Hall) found it difficult to choose the winners. There were some stand out solo, duo and band performances including a tribute to the late music icon David Bowie with Sam Thompson performing ‘Ziggy Stardust’. Over £600 was raised in total for the Summer Camp project, with homemade cakes and refreshments being sold by members of the Summer Camp team.
Curtain Call In January, Sixth Former, Niamh Phelan, organised the very professional and entertaining concert ‘Curtain Call’ in aid of the Goedgedacht Project. Staff and students were among the performers and sang and danced to some of the most loved pieces from musical theatre.
In December, members of the Sixth Form performed ‘Twelve Angry Men’ in the Robert Twigg studio. Originally a 1954 television play, the work is most famous for the 1957 film version starring Henry Fonda as the lone juryman who refuses to buckle to pressure from the others to convict a teenager of stabbing his father to death. The play was performed with much enthusiasm and dramatic empathy from the cast.
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Percussion success
Birmingham Royal Ballet Workshop
Michael Armitage has been selected as a percussionist for the National Youth Wind Ensemble, as well as for the Woodfalls Band who are currently placed 19th in the world brass band rankings.
Sixth Formers perform ‘Heritage’ At the end of January a cast of Sixth Form students performed the play ‘Heritage’ in the Dobson Theatre. The play, written by Daffyd James, is a blistering black comedy with music exploring the darker side of nationalism and congratulations should go to Ollie Uglow for directing the production.
On Thursday 28th January, KES played host to members of the Birmingham Royal Ballet who provided a fabulous workshop based on their production of Swan Lake. The day began with a workshop for several of the KES feeder primary schools and the younger pupils enjoyed a fun warm up at the barre, an opportunity to choreograph their own version of the famous Cygnet Dance and a short introduction to mime in ballet. Afterwards it was the turn of KES Lower School dancers and they enjoyed learning the choreography for the Spanish Dance from the first act of Swan Lake. The girls picked it up impressively quickly and really showed off a Spanish flourish and flair in their final performance.
Orchestral selection Well done to Fourth Year pupil Aelfred Hillman who has been selected to play clarinet in the National Children’s Wind Orchestra for 2016.
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Turner Sims Spring Concert Over one hundred of the School’s senior musicians were on top form at the Turner Sims Concert that took place on 9th March. The concert featured the Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Choir, Big Band and a number of excellent chamber and solo items. Once again members of the audience remarked on the excellent quality of the items performed and also the breadth and depth of Music at KES.
Dobson Theatre Concert Over eighty Lower School pupils filled the Dobson Theatre with a wonderful array of musical items in an excellent concert on 10th February. The Sinfonia opened the evening with highly polished and musical renditions of ‘Wallace and Gromit’ and ‘Take Five’ and the Symphonic Winds closed the evening with a high energy, foot-tapping jazz performance of ‘Blue Dinosaurs’. The First Year choir was on top form and there were a number of outstanding soloists and chamber groups.
Art Gallery Concert Sixth Form musicians presented a top quality performance for visitors to Southampton’s Art Gallery in a lunchtime concert earlier this term. They made the most of the opportunity to run through their recital programmes and the concert gave an excellent impression of the variety and calibre of the musical talent in the Sixth Form. The performances sounded wonderful in the gallery’s unique acoustic and included works by Mozart, Brahms and Vaughan Williams.
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The Golden Masque of Agamemnon This term, members of the Lower School performed ‘The Golden Masque of Agamemnon’ by John Wiles in the Dobson Theatre. This was a version for young people of ‘The Oresteia’ by Aeschylus and told the story of Agamemnon’s return from Troy. There were some splendid performances from all cast members; a king, queen, prophetess, various gods and furies, to name but a few! The Lower School students thoroughly enjoyed taking part and provided a memorable evening for a most appreciative audience.
KES student to sing in New York Congratulations to Phil Normand of the Upper Sixth who has been given a three month GAP year placement at St Thomas Choir School in New York. This prestigious placement will see Phil work in the School and also sing with the world-renowned St Thomas Choir, on Fifth Avenue.
Evensong in Oxford
and excelled, being commended by the Director of Music at Worcester College for their knowledge, work ethic and choral sound.
On 4th February, the KES Chamber Choir travelled to
KES students also had the opportunity to have a tour of the college, as well as have tea with the choral and organ scholars who were very willing to answer questions and share their experiences.
Oxford to sing evensong at Worcester College alongside the College Choir. The Chamber Choir rose to the challenge of singing some advanced choral repertoire
Evensong at Winchester Cathedral On 24th February, the Chamber Choir sang evensong at Winchester Cathedral. This was an exciting opportunity to sing in an amazing venue accompanied by one of the cathedral’s organists. Students learned about the traditional elements of an evensong service and were able to develop their skills singing Psalms and Responses and put into practice all that they had learnt singing alongside the choir at Worcester College, Oxford. Their performance of Stanford’s ‘For Lo I Raise Up’ was particularly rousing, and special commendation should go to Phil Normand, Rhianna Jones, Holly Smart and Angus Armstrong for their solo contributions.
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Sport Diving success William Osborne has been selected as one of Hampshire’s talented athletes for the forthcoming year. He recently took part in the Scottish Nationals held in Edinburgh in which he entered the 1m Open event which had thirty-eight divers, twenty-eight of whom were junior divers. William finished in 5th place in the junior event and 10th overall with a personal best score of 253.
Water polo selection Christian Price has been selected for the South East of England U15 Water Polo side this year.
Hockey victory The 1st XI girls’ hockey team travelled to Eastbourne College for their play-off match for a place in the South Finals. The squad did well to score early on and KES held on to their 1-0 lead until half-time but Eastbourne scored soon after and then took the lead. The KES girls continued to work hard and, with two minutes remaining, were awarded a penalty corner. Yvie Lock passed the ball from the penalty corner to Primrose Merritt who neatly passed the Eastbourne Keeper to level the scores. With the scores tied at the end of the game, a penalty shoot-out followed. Eleanor Medlock, 1st XI goalkeeper, was outstanding saving three of the penalties. Sophia Ridley stepped up to take the final penalty flick for KES and succeeded in sending the Eastbourne goalkeeper the wrong way to seal the win for KES and assuring the girls a place in the top four teams in the south for the second year running.
National Schools’ Championships Isabel Richardson and Phoebe Moriarty-Palios were both selected to represent Hampshire in the National Schools’ Cross Country Championships in Nottingham in March.
Olympic trials qualifier Congratulations to Kieran Allsop who achieved a personal best at his most recent swimming meet and qualified for the Olympic trials which will take place in Glasgow in April.
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Grinsted captains winning side Upper Sixth student Ed Grinsted, recently represented the London and South East U18 rugby squad against the South West squad. This is an excellent sporting achievement as the England U18 national squad will be selected from the players in these regional games. The L&SE team beat the South West 47-17 with Ed playing a full game and captaining the side. Charles Bolton, Michael Gorry and Ed have all been selected for the South West England U18 lambs.
Boys’ hockey gets off to a flying start The boys’ hockey teams have enjoyed a fantastic start to the season. After winning half of all the matches against Canford our teams have also won all of their matches against Bryanston, ten out of thirteen against PGS and eleven out of twelve against Lord Wandsworth College. On top of this, the U14 and U16
teams have both recently won the County Championships in their respective age groups winning a total of nine out of nine games across both competitions, scoring thirty-four goals and conceding just one. Both teams progressed to the regional heats after half-term.
Twenty-five students (boys and girls) have also been selected for the Hampshire hockey teams at their respective age groups. This is a fantastic reflection on the strength of hockey at King Edward’s and the hard work put in by the students both in school and at their clubs.
New Sports kit We are very excited to announce that after much consultation with pupils, parents and staff, THE NEW SPORTS KIT IS HERE! With a mix of new up-to-date designs and performance fabric making playing sport more comfortable, we are confident that the pupils will love wearing the new kit. We do not expect the whole school to have to re-kit immediately and the changeover will be phased as follows: • In September 2016 this kit will be compulsory for new pupils • In September 2017, it will be compulsory for all students in First to Fifth Year. Therefore pupils can still get eighteen months of wear out of their current kit. We expect the new kit to be available from Summer 2016 for replacement items and pupils can wear these immediately in games and PE lessons.
Thanksgiving at Winchester Cathedral On 16th March, the School community made its three-yearly migration to Winchester to hold the annual Service of Thanksgiving in the magnificent Cathedral. In a multi-faceted service, students from all years led the worship, commemorating those who had founded and endowed the School, giving thanks to God for the blessings presently enjoyed, and making a dedication to lives of service. The Chamber Choir and
School Choir offered wonderful dramatic and moving music, along with a dance display accompanying the presentation of The Book of Remembrance, the School’s ancient Vulgate Bible and a facsimile of the Charter. It was a privilege to welcome the Rt. Reverend David Stancliffe, former Bishop of Salisbury and now Fellow of St Chad’s College, Durham, as our preacher. Bishop David studied Classics and Philosophy and was Organ Scholar at Trinity College,
King Edward VI School Wilton Road . Southampton . Hampshire SO15 5UQ Telephone: 023 8070 4561 . www.kes.hants.sch.uk
Oxford, before training for ordination at Cuddesdon College. During his ministry, he has been School Chaplain at Clifton College, Provost (Dean) at Portsmouth Cathedral (overseeing its completion) and, as Bishop, was instrumental in the development of present services used by the Church of England. Along the way, he also ordained our KES School Chaplain! He brought a characteristically erudite message of hope and challenge for the School in the lead up to Easter.