Kes konnections winter 2016

From The Head We were again delighted with our GCSE, AS and A Level results, particularly given the changing nature of the A Level specifications as we move to linear qualifications. Strong results led to success with university applications and four-fifths of our students have proceeded to Russell Group institutions with nine Oxbridge offers.

In September, we were very pleased to welcome the distinguished academic, broadcaster and adventurer, Dr Nick Middleton, of the University of Oxford as our Chief Guest at Speech Day to award our academic prizes.

A number of projects have been completed over the past six months including refurbished reception and nursing facilities, a new entrance at Wellington Sports Ground and the re-roofing of the School Hall. Work has also proceeded apace at Stroud Preparatory School.

However, the construction of the new Dobson Theatre, Art Department and Sixth Form Concourse has dominated most of our time and, blessed with very favourable weather, we are on schedule to complete all aspects of the building by the end of this academic year.

This is always a very busy term and our students have been involved in an array of sporting, co-curricular, charitable and cultural activities. This has included various musical events such as a partnership day with the London

Mozart Players, a concert at St Nicholas’s Church at Stoneham and the Carol Service in the traditional venue at Romsey Abbey.

This issue also reports on the many events that have taken place since July with regular features such as the watersports holiday in France, the visit to the Goedgedacht Trust in South Africa, the Summer Camp in the New Forest working with young carers and our annual exchange with our partner school in Prague. Pupils participating in the exchange with the Charlotte Country Day School in North Carolina had the unique experience of observing the American election at first hand. We have also had expeditions to the jungles of Indonesia and Ecuador and diving off the Galapagos Islands and a cricket tour of Sri Lanka. Closer to home our linguists have been improving their fluency with trips to Spain, Germany and France.

KonnEctionS can only give a quick overview of life at KES with nearly a thousand energetic and fully involved youngsters. For further information please refer to our website where the news section is up-dated regularly or you can follow us on Twitter.

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 Exam Success In August, students produced another set of outstanding examination results. There was a 100% pass rate at A Level with 85% of grades at A*, A or B grade. Over 55% of grades were at A* and A. Nine students, 10 per cent of all university applicants, received offers for places at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and over four-fifths proceeded to Russell Group universities.

At GCSE, 98% of all GCSEs and IGCSEs awarded were at grade C or above with 78% of all grades at A* and A and 49% A*. 99.9% of students obtained five GCSE passes.

Speech Day The School was delighted to welcome OE and award-winning geographer, writer, TV presenter, environmental scientist and university lecturer, Dr Nick Middleton as the Chief Guest for Speech Day this year. The whole school community convened at The Mayflower Theatre to listen to him speak and to celebrate the achievements of this year’s prize winners.

In the morning, Dr Middleton also gave a talk entitled ‘An Atlas of countries that don’t exist’ to Sixth Formers and it was fascinating to hear about countries which are unrecognised by many other countries. This talk linked well to the new A Level specification and was extremely relevant for students.

Fifth Year Physics trip

CCR Launch

Fifth Year physicists enjoyed a day of fun, thrills and Physics at Thorpe Park this term. Following a lecture on the Physics of the rides, which included topics at the core of the IGCSE course, such as forces and Newton’s laws and conservation of energy, the students had some time to sample the rides themselves and put the theory into action.

In November, a launch event for the Creative and Critical Review, was attended by contributing pupils and their parents.

The Creative and Critical Review showcases the best of pupil work (from the previous academic year) from across all subjects.

During the evening those present were able to view a display of work and some of the pupils also spoke about their contributions.

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KES hosts ‘Gifted and Talented’ conference

The Living Rainforest

On 28th September, twenty-two pupils from the Second Year, along with fifty-eight pupils from other local schools, attended the first ‘Cogit-8’ Gifted and Talented conference hosted by KES. The pupils spent the day learning about philosophy and debate, working as a team to solve ‘locked room’ puzzles and were also entertained by guitar physicist Dr Mark Lewney.

Dr Lewney, or the ‘Rock Doctor’ as he is also known, gave a highly entertaining and thought-provoking performance to pupils from the Upper School and Sixth Form. The talk covered some of the physics behind acoustics, quantum mechanics and superstring theory as well as a lot of rock guitar!

Second Year pupils visited ‘The Living Rainforest’ in Newbury this term for their Geography field trip.

They received guided tours and talks about ‘Adaptations in the Rainforest’ and ‘Sustainability of the Rainforest’ and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the plants and animals of the rainforest ecosystem. They also learnt how they can act more responsibly to ensure the future of the world’s rainforests.

Trinity Essay Prize awarded Congratulations to Ollie Tait who has won second prize in the very competitive national Trinity Geography Essay Competition for his work on the north-south divide.

50 countries and counting...

Former KES pupil Virginia StuartTaylor visited the Modern Languages Department in November to give a series of inspirational talks with the title ‘50 Countries and Counting: How Languages Help me Discover the World’ to all the Fourth and Fifth Year linguists.

Virginia also addressed the Sixth Form linguists in a lunchtime ‘Polyglots’ talk, providing many helpful and practical tips about studying languages at university and their use for employment purposes.

Chemistry in Action On 9th November a group of Sixth Form Chemistry students travelled to Warwick University for a ‘Chemistry in Action’ day. The programme of events included presentations from five renowned speakers from universities, industry and the media, and provided students with a chance to see, hear and learn from famous chemists who they would not normally have access to in the classroom. An informative and fun day was had by all!

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Spotlight on Languages On 11th November, twelve gifted and talented Fifth Year linguists travelled to the University of Bath where they joined over 150 Sixth Formers from south-west England to take part in the ‘Spotlight on Languages Day’. The day aimed to inform the students about language degrees at university and their employability prospects afterwards, as well as giving them a choice of student workshops to attend. These included beginners’ Russian and Italian, advanced Spanish and French and cultural and political topics such as, ‘The bus to nowhere? Young people politics in the 21st century’, ‘Spanish women: breaking stereotypes’ and ‘Latin America’s place in the world’.

Co-curricular Expedition training at Lovaton

First Year disco

During the half-term break twelve KES students underwent expedition training at Lovaton, on Dartmoor, in preparation for the trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua planned for 2017. The group used the short break to hone their timekeeping and leadership skills, recognise each individual team member’s strengths and weaknesses and generally practise the skills need for completing an expedition.

The First Year disco, held on 14th October, was attended by two-thirds of First Year pupils and raised over £400 for Summer Camp. The jungle theme meant that a whole host of animal-inspired outfits made an appearance for what was a fun-filled evening.

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Christmas shoe box appeal The Charities Commission team, led my Miss Enfield, successfully organised the ‘Link to Hope’ Christmas shoe box appeal this year. Just before half-term 176 boxes were delivered to Above bar Church and will now be distributed amongst the poorest families in Eastern Europe in Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine.

Digital Leaders’ conference The annual Digital Leaders’ conference was held at Stroud School in November and proved, yet again, to be a huge success. 120 children from nine different schools attended the event and took part in an inspiring range of ICT and computing activities. This included everything from Google Expeditions, drone flying, Now Press Play, Lego drag racing, dynamite rocks, and binary jewellery!

A career in cyber security?

Former KES pupil Simon Wickes, and his colleague, from cyber security firm SCS visited KES to give a talk to pupils on the vast range of roles and careers within the field of cyber security. It was a highly informative and current presentation that made clear the need for skilled people in this industry.

Update on the DAC project The DAC development project continues to make good progress.

The groundworks have been completed and the steel frame construction is well underway.

Work to create a weather proof shell will continue until January when we hope to commence the internal fit out.

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KES compete at Greenpower finals This autumn, the Greenpower team competed in (finishing in 24th place) the International Kit Car finals held at Rockingham. This is a real achievement and particular recognition should go to Fifth Year pupil, Alex Everest, who not only designed and built an electronic speed controller for the car (that worked perfectly) but who also managed the team.

Fly fishing trip This term the first ever KES fly fishing trip took place to Woodington Trout fishery in Romsey.

Four students and Mr Blow tacked up for four hours of fishing hoping to bring home a brace of trout for dinner. Despite everyone’s best efforts, the group discovered why they call it ‘fishing’ rather than ‘catching’ although a complete blank was saved when a tiny perch took the fly.

Nevertheless, everyone still had a great morning out practising their skills.

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New Third Years visit Woodmill The new Third Years and their Sixth Form Prepositors, Mrs Rugge-Price and Mrs Burrows spent the morning at Woodmill Activity Centre in early September involved in a number of team building exercises, with the aim of getting to know each other and build some friendships. The weather was beautiful so when their hand-built rafts fell apart, most people were not too sorry to have a swim in the lake! There were a lot of giggles during the problem-solving activities, and fears were conquered on the climbing wall.

An evening with Sir Ranulph Fiennes A group of Fourth and Fifth Year geographers enjoyed an evening with Sir Ranulph Fiennes in Winchester in October. Students asked a number of interesting and thought-provoking questions, which allowed them to gain a wonderful insight into his life as the ‘world’s greatest living explorer’. Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE is the only man alive ever to have travelled around the Earth’s circumpolar surface and the oldest Briton to reach the summit of Everest and complete the six-day 251km Marathon des Sables in the Sahara desert.

Prague Exchange In September the School hosted pupils and teachers from a link school in Pribram, Czech Republic as part of the Fourth Year Prague Exchange. The group enjoyed spending time in school and experiencing the opportunities and facilities on offer here. They also visited Southampton Walls, the SeaCity museum and Winchester Cathedral as well as exploring further afield with their host families.

The return leg will take place in April.

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Shooting clays

Bikeability

On 17th September sixteen KES students travelled to the Acorn shooting range to either improve their skills, or have a first ever go at clay pigeon shooting. Shortly after arrival in the beautiful Hampshire estate, the students were split into three groups and set off with an instructor to see how many clays they could shoot from various different traps designed to test the shooters’ reactions from the left, right and even rolling along the floor to simulate running rabbits. With expert tuition on hand, many clays met their end in the two hour session and all students made progress, regardless of their starting skill level.

Twelve First Year pupils completed their bikeability course over two Sundays in November. The invaluable course taught pupils how to ride their bikes safely, be safe and be seen when cycling.

Fun at Tile Barn In September, new First Year pupils spent a day at Tile Barn in Brockenhurst with other members of their tutor group and their Sixth Form prefects. A challenging but fun-filled day of team building and problem-solving activities ensured that everyone was able to get to know each other better.

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Charlotte Exchange The Third Year Charlotte Exchange visited North Carolina just before the Presidential election; a very exciting time to be there! The group spent just under two weeks exploring the area with their partners from Charlotte Country Day. A beautiful time of year to visit, with the colour change of the leaves as well as 25 degrees sunshine, allowed the students to spend a weekend in the mountains in Virginia alongside the usual day trips. These included a trip to NASCAR museum, the art displays of the Bechtler and Mint Museum, the New South exhibit and a scavenger hunt in uptown Charlotte.

The students also dressed up for Halloween in school, watched a spelling bee and attended the first win of the Carolina Panthers’ football season!

Toy Appeal Fun Run First Year pupils, as well as their Sixth Form supporters, took part in the annual Toy Appeal Fun Run one lunchtime in October. Sponsorship raised from this event will provide Christmas presents for children in Southampton who would not otherwise receive any gifts.

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Creative Arts Frantic Assembly workshop On 22nd September, a member of the theatre company ‘Frantic Assembly’ visited KES to lead a workshop for all GCSE and A Level Theatre Studies students. The workshop was great fun and students had the chance to experiment with some of Frantic Assembly’s signature moves, including creating some very impressive group lifts.

Inspirational Art trips concert visit Sixth Form musicians enjoyed a first-class chamber music concert at London’s Kings Place on 10th November. The concert, given by the ‘Schubert Ensemble’, began with one of the Ensemble’s highly-acclaimed ‘Behind the Notes’ sessions, in which they explored the Piano Quintets of Franck and Fauré, using live performance to strip down the music and reveal its inner workings. This was followed by a full performance of the works which left the Sixth Formers inspired.

At the beginning of term, the Sixth Form artists and photographers travelled to London for a day of artistic inspiration. They began with a trip to the big exhibition by Georgia O’Keeffe at Tate Modern which was followed by a walk along the South Bank to the National Portrait Gallery. Here they saw William Eggleston’s exhibitions of photographs which proved a real hit, as the evocative and stylish photographs are the forerunner and inspiration for many an Instagram filter. The group then moved next door to the National Gallery where they were treated to the exhibition of former Turner Prize nominee, George Shaw, known for his suburban, idiosyncratic style of painting using enamel paints.

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London Mozart Players and KES String Day On 12th October the School hosted an exciting string-playing day with the London Mozart Players, KES string players and 110 young string players from eight partnership and prep schools.

The day focused on technique and musicianship and the important skills required to play in a large string orchestra. Following several workshops during the morning, the combined players presented a lively afternoon concert to parents.

Repertoire included pieces from Grieg’s ‘Holberg Suite’, Bartók’s Rumanian Dances and Warlock’s ‘Capriol Suite’. The junior pupils joined the core orchestra to play a number of Jigs and Reels which took the total of string players to 167! It was a wonderful day of music-making.

Theatre Trips

London Latin Jazz Festival

In early autumn, GCSE and A Level Theatre Studies students visited London twice to see two highly-rated productions: ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime’ and ‘The Threepenny Opera’. These productions were performed in completely different styles but both were really engaging and it was a valuable experience for all. A Level students also saw ‘Institute’ at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton which was a physical theatre exploration of mental health.

This term a group of A Level musicians enjoyed an excellent evening at Soho’s Pizza Express Jazz club listening to the infectious Latin rhythms of nine piece Cuban band ‘Son Con’. The band fuses the elements of traditional Son with an exciting modern vibe. During the evening, and after pizza, the Sixth Formers took to the dance floor for a spot of Latin dancing.

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Sport Three county wins for KES In October, the School claimed three county wins in just one week.

The boys’ U14 rugby side competed in the County 10s Tournament and with good group wins over St John’s, Westgate and Salesian they beat Perins in the semi-final to earn a final against Portsmouth Grammar School. Their good form continued as they won the match 14-7 to take the title.

In girls’ hockey the KES U16 side drew 1-1 with PGS and beat HCS, Lord Wandsworth, the Kings’ School and Farnborough Hills to finish as county champions. Later the same week the 1st XI drew with Churcher’s and beat Ryde School, HCS, Peter Symonds and PGS to also take the crown. The U14 squad finished in second place in the county round to also qualify for the south regional round. The girls’ 1st XI were successful in their heat and progressed to the regional semi-finals.

Hampshire Schools’ Relay Gala This term KES athletes entered the Hampshire Schools’ Relay Gala with boys’ and girls’ teams including swimmers from First to Fourth years.

The junior boys secured Silver medals in both the freestyle and medley relays and the junior girls made both finals and secured a Bronze medal in the medley relay.

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Rio Olympic gold medallist at KES On 14th September the School was delighted to host a Prep Schools’ Hockey Day at Wellington. The MT13 coaching company, run by ex-England hockey player Matt Taylor, provided a morning of instruction and coaching that was followed by an afternoon of matches.

However, the highlight of the day was the presence of Hollie Webb, GB Olympian back from Rio with her Gold medal! She signed photos, sticks, balls, and had some great advice for those pupils present.

South Coast Kings’ Rugby Tournament 2016 saw another busy and competitive KES South Coast Kings’ Rugby Tournament take place at Wellington with teams from over twenty schools and four hundred players from all over the south of England and Wales playing in the U18 and U15 competitions. All games were very competitive with the KES U15 team unbeaten in the pool stages and the KES U18 team beating PGS on their way to the bowl semi-final. The U15s met an incredibly strong Hampton School in the final but learned a great deal from the encounter.

U13 boys’ cup win At the end of the summer term, the U13 boys’ cricket team took on Yateley Manor, last year’s finalists, in the U13 county cup.

KES batted first and a solid foundation of innings was again built on by Nick Damley-Jones and Charlie Harden with an opening stand of 60 runs. They finished on 112 from their 25 overs. The team went on to win the U13 Hampshire Cup by 37 runs; a great finish to a good season for them.

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Summer trips Summer Camp 2016 Summer Camp gives members of the Sixth Form the opportunity to provide respite care for young carers in Southampton aged between eight and twelve. This year the group based themselves at Ferny Crofts in the New Forest for their action-packed week.

Activities included a trip to Go Ape at Moors Valley, a day’s visit to Monkey World and swimming in the fresh water baths at Lymington.

The week was rounded off by the traditional talent show and ‘circle time’ giving all those who had participated in the week the chance to reflect on their favourite memories.

Ecuador and The Galapagos At the end of July, seventeen students and three staff spent a week in the rainforest of Ecuador followed by a week on the island of Floreana in the Galapagos with Operation Wallacea. During the first week, the group were camping in Sani reserve; 40 thousand hectares of pristine rainforest on the Napo River feeding the majestic Amazon. Students accompanied scientists from the camp on their data collection twice a day. This included using mist nets to catch birds, identifying the species and their condition before release, recording mammal tracks of tapir and jaguar before looking at the camera trap images and carrying out surveys. This was the first year that OpWall has worked at this site, so the species identification data will be used to support the conservation status of the reserve and allow more specific projects to run in future years.

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Indonesia Over the summer, twenty-six students and six teachers travelled to Indonesia as part of Operation Wallacea. Their first destination was a jungle camp on the island of Buton where the group assisted scientists with their monitoring of the surrounding wildlife. Tasks included completing butterfly surveys, wading through rivers to catch frogs, snakes and lizards and checking the bat nets. The second stage of the trip focused on marine ecosystems as the group moved to the coral island of Hoga. They were fortunate enough to hear lectures, from the scientists working here, on their respective fields of expertise and complete the PADI Open Water Diver course. The beautiful coral reef gave them the amazing opportunity of viewing clown fish, sea snakes, puffer fish, moray eels and many other species up close.

Summer watersports This year’s watersports trip to the south of France was enjoyed by all those who participated. Over the course of the week students were able to try their hand at dinghy and catamaran sailing, wind-surfing, paddle boarding, kayaking, raft building and trail cycling under the watchful eye of some excellent Rockley instructors. A midweek day out at the Aqualand water-park and the magnificent dune D’Pyla were also popular.

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Cricket tour to Sri Lanka On the first Sunday of the summer break the senior cricket squad set off on their tour to Sri Lanka. Over the next thirteen days the group experienced the highs and lows of playing cricket on the Indian sub-continent, as well as having the opportunity to appreciate all that Sri Lanka has to offer. They visited three different areas, travelling first to Kandy in the hills of central Sri Lanka, then to Hikkaduwa on the southern shores and finishing in the hustle and bustle of the capital, Colombo.

The team experienced playing in the Welagedera Stadium sitting at the foot of Elephant rock, as well as Dambulla International ground, before continuing along the south-west coast where they stopped off at the Pinawala Elephant Orphanage. At Hikkaduwa, a visit to the ‘Foundation of Goodness’ was a highlight.

This is a charity that has been set up to support the local community and provides education, welfare, and medical expertise, as well as running a sports academy. In Colombo the squad played their two final games and finished having won three games and lost three games during their Sri Lanka experience.

King Edward VI School Wilton Road . Southampton . Hampshire SO15 5UQ Telephone: 023 8070 4561 . www.kes.hants.sch.uk

South Africa 2016 The 2016 South Africa team arrived in Cape Town full of excitement and anticipation before embarking on the first of numerous eye-opening visits, exploring the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve and seeing the African penguins.

This part of their stay also included trips to the District Six Museum and Robben Island.

The second part of the expedition was spent working on the Goedgedacht Farm where the team was warmly welcomed into ‘Path out of Poverty’s’ vibrant community. Each morning they rose at 6.30am and began work on the farm or played with children at the pre-school. After lunch the group visited children at the local POP centres where each visit typically lasted for an hour and entailed face paints, dance, song, rugby and homework whilst in the evenings, the students met with the ‘youth in construction’ to talk, play games and dance.