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From The Head The weather has been chilly but this has been a good spring term with plenty achieved. It 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 Stroud School, our prep school, and on the main Hill Lane site. Work has been completed at Wellington Sports Ground on the new pavilion balcony and an additional hospitality room for pupils and parents should be finished by June. Plans are now well advanced for the new theatre, Art Department and expanded concourse to begin in April 2016. As this edition of KonnEctionS makes clear, the School remains extraordinarily 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 Weston when the ice can be removed from the boats! We have also enjoyed the annual KESPTA Quiz Night, a number of studio drama productions and two musical events including a spring concert at Turner Sims. Students travelled to Berlin, Florence, Vienna and Salamanca over half-term with an expedition planned for Morocco over the spring holiday, as well as the annual visit to Andalucía and the ski trip to the French Alps. Many other students will be involved in Duke of Edinburgh expeditions over Easter. We say goodbye to just one member of staff this term; Mr Cuthbertson leaves the Physics Department and we welcome his replacement, Mrs Mahdavi. This issue also highlights some of the remarkable achievements of individual students at King Edward’s. They remain cheerful and community-minded, whatever the weather, and charitable activity has raised over £5,000. This is a fantastic achievement and a large number of students were even prepared to stay up throughout the night taking part in the 24 hour cycle-a-thon raising money for Southampton’s young carers. We remain very proud of them all! 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 Colin Dobson 1933-2015 This term the School was sad to announce the death of former Head Master Colin Dobson. Mr Dobson served as Head for nearly twenty years joining King Edward’s in 1971 before retiring in 1990. The School went through a period of great change during his tenure, most notably moving to independence in 1979, an event that he oversaw with confidence and courage ensuring King Edward’s continuation. Mr Dobson has played an important role in the history of the School and will be sadly missed by many former pupils and staff. A memorial service is planned for him at St Mary’s Church on 24th April.
British Physics Olympiad Congratulations to Andrew Wu, Oliver Rose and Oliver Chapman who received Silver awards in round 1 of the British Physics Olympiad and to Thomas Davies, Alex Darch and Jonathan Young who achieved Bronze.
Maths challenges Amongst those students who took part in the recent UKMT Senior Maths Challenge, eleven received a Gold award, eight gained Silver and four Bronze; Andrew Wu received the Best in School award. Andrew, Curtis Crowley, David Veres and Jonathan Young progressed to round 1 of the British Mathematical Olympiad. Following the results of this round, David Veres progressed to round 2 and Andrew Wu received a creditable Distinction for his performance. Both finished in the top 25% of entrants of the 1500 students who took part. Curtis Crowley, Jonathan Young, Oliver Rose and David Veres represented KES in the national final of the UKMT Senior Team Challenge and came a very respectable 15th out of the seventy-nine teams taking part. Oliver Rose and Mike Huang also gained Certificates of Merit for their performances in the Senior Kangaroo competition in which they finished in the top 25% of the 2440 scripts submitted.
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Classics trip to Fishbourne On two consecutive Fridays, Second Year pupils visited Fishbourne Roman Villa near Chichester which was possibly the home of the tribal King Cogidubnus. The students are studying Cogidubnus in Latin and were able to wander the gardens and the extensive herb patch and view the amazing mosaics, including the famous one of a boy on a dolphin. They also participated in a hands-on workshop in which they became archaeologists for an hour.
British Science Association awards Oscar Bowdidge, Dominik Reynolds, Daniel Simonini, Rishi Ganesh, Liam Armstrong and Jonny Williams have all received British Science Association Bronze Crest awards.
Sixth Form Art Trip In December, all the Sixth Form Art students visited London. Their first stop was the Courtauld Gallery and the Egon Schiele (the radical nude exhibition) which provided a focal talking point. After lunch in Covent Garden, the group walked to the Royal Academy where Anselm Kiefer’s monumental exhibition stimulated more fuel for thought, again underlining the importance of context. To finish the day, the newly opened Burlington Garden Gallery of the Royal Academy provided the setting for a career retrospective of pop artist Allen Jones.
Maths in action Last term’s ‘Maths in Action’ trip was very enjoyable, despite the long coach trip returning from London. While a talk about weather prediction exploded into a mess of wildly complicated equations, the other lectures were intriguing and entertaining. The highlights included the talk on modelling antibiotic resistance through fairly simple maths and, ‘bad stats’, a charmingly satirical talk which taught the group to be cautious about data.
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A curious incident
Maths is inspirational
In January, over twenty students and staff attended a lecture by Professor Clive Osmond (former KES pupil) from the University of Southampton. The title of his talk was ‘Curious Mathematics’ and he used the book ‘The curious incident of the dog in the night-time’ in order to highlight some interesting problems, with surprising statistical results.
Recently a group of Upper School students attended the Maths Inspiration Show at St Swithun’s School, Winchester. The afternoon proved very successful with three enjoyable and interactive talks which gave the students an insight into the many uses of mathematics outside of the classroom. These included a talk on statistical significance, the mathematics of gaming and the maths behind the construction of the Emirates Stadium.
New Head appointed at Stroud School Stroud School, the preparatory school for King Edward’s is delighted to announce the appointment of Mr Joel Worrall as Head of Stroud School from September 2015, in succession to Mr Alastair Dodds. Joel was born and educated in Auckland, New Zealand and moved to England in 2002 after completing his university and postgraduate teacher training. He has previously worked as Director of Sport and Housemaster at Forres Sandle Manor Preparatory School and more recently as Deputy Head at Taverham Hall Preparatory School in rural Norfolk.
Salamanca 2015 Over the February half-term nineteen members of the Sixth Form travelled to Salamanca, in the heart of Spain, to immerse themselves in Spanish culture. The week was filled with fun activities as well as language lessons in a specialist language school. They had a guided tour of some of the most emblematic monuments in the city but the highlights were the cookery class (where they made three typical Spanish dishes) and the visit to the Bernabeu Stadium, home of Real Madrid FC.
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Latinists visit Winchester On 6th February, Fourth Year Latinists spent the morning immersed in the Roman and Latin heritage of the city of Winchester. Firstly students explored the small museum with its artefacts from Sparsholt Roman Villa before dressing themselves in a range of togas and tunics and making a film about the life of Caecilius. They were then taken on a guided tour (led by ex-Head of Classics, Phil Ferris) of some of the more fascinating Latin inscriptions in the cathedral.
Physicists visit Southampton University The Physics Department took all Lower Sixth Form physicists to Southampton University to visit the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research and the Centre for Nanotechnology; part of the ORC. Both these departments are involved in worldleading research which is relevant to the content of the AS Physics course. The students were able to view strands of human hair onto which the scientists etched the school crest.
Third Year History lecture On 11th February, Third Year pupils attended a talk on ‘The British Soldier in World War One’ from visiting guest, Jeremy Banning, who is both an expert on the Great War and an increasingly familiar face on the TV.
A Hardy tale Sixth Form English students visited some of the sites associated with Thomas Hardy’s ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ in February as part of their AS course. This year several new locations were added to the itinerary including Tess’s supposed bedroom and the dairy at Talbothays Farm. Other locations visited included the Hardy exhibition at the Dorset County Museum, Stinsford Church, Wellbridge, Dorchester, Wool, Moreton, Bere Regis and West Stafford.
Blue Fusion On 23rd February a group of Second Year students attended the Blue Fusion STEM event at IBM Hursley. The day, aimed at encouraging students to pursue a career in science, technology and mathematics, included competing in team challenges and the KES team completed a series of coding activities finishing top in several of them.
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Co Curricular Carol Service On 15th December, the School held its annual Carol Service at St Mary’s Church, Southampton. The Chamber Orchestra, and 180 singers in the combined choirs, led the singing and a number of former pupils returned from busy terms at university to join them. Music included a wide range of carols from the traditional ‘Away in a Manger’ and ‘Silent Night’ to ‘Bogoróditse Djévo’ by Arvo Pärt and Philip Stopford’s ‘Lully Lulla’. A packed congregation filled the church and the traditional Christmas service was followed by mulled wine and mince pies.
Aachen Christmas Market The annual trip to the Christmas Market in Aachen, Germany, at the end of last term, put all those participating in the mood for the festive break. Despite the grey skies, a good time was had by all and many souvenirs and gifts were brought back to England.
Battle of the Bands This term the annual Battle of the Bands competition raised over £600 for the Summer Camp project. It was a superb night with fifteen talented acts from across all year groups playing in front of the judges; Mr Cross, Miss Barnett and the guest judge ‘Grissly’, a local bass guitarist and session musician. The level of talent was extremely high, with solo acts, duos and bands entertaining the crowd all night. The overall winners were duo Holly Smart and Joe Winter.
Jane Austen lecture In December, forty pupils and parents enjoyed a talk, by Stephen Siddall, on Jane Austen’s use of the English country house in her novels and then watched his production ‘Jane Austen at Home’ with the actress Emerald O’Hanrahan.
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Uniformed Services Competition Two teams from the Fourth and Fifth Year were among ten teams who entered the Annual Schools’ Uniformed Services Competition that was held at Itchen Sixth Form College in November. The teams spent the day completing ten tasks which tested their leadership, teamwork, intelligence, observation and fitness and performed exceptionally well, finishing in an impressive 1st and 2nd place, split by only one point.
Public Speaking The Public Speaking and Debating teams have been extremely busy over the past few months. Tally Evans, Nick Neves and Ananth Sathyanath progressed through the first round of the ESU Public Speaking Competition, to the regional branch final of the competition in January. At the regional event, all of the KES participants improved on their previous performances and, although they did not win, Tally Evans was judged to be the best speaker overall. Strong performances were also put in during the first round from the other KES team of Alex Shadbolt, Max Ivens and Alex Ayres. In the ESU Schools’ Mace Debating Competition, Ina Cho and Emma Blackman did extremely well and won their debate but narrowly missed out on going through to the next round. Cameron Brown and Emma Blackman, along with Alex Chamberlain-Clay and Henry Marden, represented KES in the Oxford Union Schools’ Debating Competition in Godalming this term. They had an excellent evening of debating but, having been placed in one of the most competitive heats of this competition, did not qualify for the final round. On 31st January Third and Fourth Year teams went to the annual International Competition for Young Debaters at the Oxford Union, a junior competition for students up to 15. It was the first external competition for Alex Shadbolt, Tom Duff, Alex Hopkins-Manceri and Harmeena Sekhon. All of them performed very well and Alex and Tom were particularly praised by the judges, coming 17th overall out of the 44 teams competing from across the South of England.
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CyberCenturion Over the course of a weekend in October, teams of students from schools around the country competed against each other online in round 1 of the CyberCenturion 2014 competition. Each team downloaded a virtual computer to look for vulnerabilities that could help cyber criminals and the KES Scamp Club team finished in 3rd place. Three teams from KES then competed in round 2 of the challenge in January in which the Sixth Form team, led by John Lyons and including Mike Huang, Oliver Rose, Toby Saer, Iona Todd and Eleanor Turner, finished in 4th place qualifying them for the Grand Final at Bletchley Park in April. CyberCenturion is the UK arm of the phenomenally successful Cyber Patriot competition in the US and is designed to inspire young people towards careers in cyber security and STEM, helping to build a bigger UK cyber talent pool.
Scamp Club trip to Bletchley Members of the Scamp Club visited Bletchley Park in November. The students were treated to a fascinating tour by veteran Jeff Runcie and also met Iain Standen, Chief Executive of BP, and James May of BBC television fame. They experienced a demonstration of ‘the Turing Bombe’, the brilliantly designed cipher-breaker by Alan Turing, as well as visiting his office, the Imitation Game exhibition (celebrating his life and achievements) and the atmospheric reconstructions in Huts 3 and 6.
An aerodynamic challenge For the past year a group of Sixth Form students have been working towards the design and manufacture of a model aircraft in association with the British Model Flying Association. In order to assist with some of the more challenging technical details and aerodynamics, they were visited by Mr McGhee, a British Airways pilot who has an active interest in building and flying model aircraft. With further help from the KESPTA, the team completed a test flight in March and are hoping to compete against university students in the BMFA Electric Lift Challenge towards the end of the academic year.
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Florence in February During half-term the Art and MFL Departments ran a combined trip to Florence, Italy. The group spent a wonderful few days soaking up the culture and art of this beautiful city and tentatively speaking some Italian. Alongside consuming their fair share of ice creams and pizza a good number of masterpieces were also viewed and sketched, resulting in a very enjoyable trip for all those who took part.
BASE Accounting Last term, two teams of KES Business Studies students spent the day at Southampton Football Club where they entered the regional heat of the BASE (Business, Accounting and Skills Education) Competition, organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. As well as a challenging competition, culminating in a presentation to the team of judges, the pupils were given the opportunity to talk to potential employers and to investigate the various routes into accountancy. Despite their relative inexperience, the Lower Sixth team of Toby Gill, Laurence Holmes, Hamilton Kavanagh, Lawrence Mancey, Beth Spreadbury and Matthew Temple were placed in the top four, from an initial field of fourteen.
Mayday! Mayday! Sixth Form kayakers and sailors were lucky enough to receive a recent visit from two members of the Hamble lifeboat crew. The crew gave the students some excellent tips on how to say safe at sea as well as telling some stories about their exciting, important and often dangerous work.
Classics Lecture This term the Classics Department hosted a lecture by Dr Paul Everill of Winchester University. Dr Everill explained various aspects of archaeology including different techniques and the development of commercial archaeology. He also showed some old maps of the Hill Lane area which charted the gradual spread of the city into the area and also showed that Southampton Common once possessed a race track. He then went on to describe his current project in Georgia.
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A scientist’s guide to the orchestra On 10th December Dr Matthew Wright from the University of Southampton’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research visited KES to deliver a talk to Lower Sixth pupils entitled ‘A Scientist’s Guide to the Orchestra’. The talk was an entertaining and fascinating insight into the science and engineering behind musical instruments and the sounds that they produce.
What use are languages? Chris Ross (former pupil) visited KES in January to give a series of inspiring talks to the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Form linguists about his career as General Manager and Vice President Worldwide Sales of Arcserve and other leading IT/software companies. After the presentations there was a chance for students to ask individual questions. David Snuggs, a former Head of Languages at KES, who taught Chris and helped set him on his career path, also attended the talk and lunch.
DofE Annual Awards Ceremony In November, King Edward’s hosted the Southampton DofE Centres Annual Award Evening. This saw all successful recipients of their Bronze and Silver Awards receive their certificates from the Chief Executive of the DofE Charity; Mr Peter Westgarth. Well done to all recipients for their hard work and commitment in attaining this nationally recognised award.
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Education Sunday Students from across the School, including dancers and the Chamber Choir were delighted and privileged to lead the Diocese of Winchester in marking Education Sunday at the special service in Winchester Cathedral on Sunday 8th February. They gave moving accounts of how learning to serve others is a core part of the KES ethos, describing the wide range of charitable activities, partnerships, projects and ways we look to the needs of others. Along with beautiful singing and dancing, the Service reflected on the injustices in the world and the role everyone has in establishing peace, freedom and understanding in our society and beyond.
BETT 2015 BETT is an international trade fair focused on educational technology and innovation, with educators having to apply to present and give seminars. Staff from KES attended the three day fair, held in London, with Miss Jones presenting on social media and Mr Allen on the 1:1 roll out of iPads. Additionally, Miss Jones contributed to panels discussing innovation and the impact of the new computing curriculum. The School’s digital leaders also visited the event and were interviewed by BETT TV.
Shave2Raise Well done to Sixth Form students Harvey and Hamilton Kavanagh for raising ÂŁ419 for the Teenage Cancer Trust. The boys raised the money through sponsorship agreeing to shave their heads if a minimum amount was reached!
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24 hour cycle-a-thon On the Thursday before half-term, the Summer Camp team launched their annual 24 hour challenge to raise money for their summer camping trip to Swanage for Southampton’s young carers. This year’s event was a 24 hour cycle-a-thon that took place in the main Crush Hall. Over £700 was raised in sponsorship and the total distance cycled was a very commendable 841 miles.
Cultural trip to Vienna Over February half-term a group of Sixth Form A Level German and Music students visited Vienna for four inspirational, action-packed days walking among some of the most monumental landmarks of European cultural and intellectual history. Surrounded by stunning architecture, the group traced the footsteps of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven in St Stephen’s Cathedral, Schumann and Brahms at the Musikverein concert hall, as well as Mahler and Strauss at the state opera, where they saw a fantastic performance of ‘The Barber of Seville’ on the first evening. Other highlights included a visit to the famous Porgy and Bess Jazz Club, an early morning walk along the banks of the Danube to see the sun rise and ice-skating in front of the impressive town hall on the final evening.
Prevail trip A group of eighteen KES students spent the February INSET day in style with a session at Prevail Skatehouse, one of the best indoor skate parks on the south coast. This is the fourth private session that KES has organised at Prevail and students made the best of an empty park to practise and learn new skills as the rain fell heavily outside. Impressive tricks were demonstrated from all of the Lower School students.
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Creative Arts
Welcome to Thebes At the end of last term, the Dobson Theatre was transformed into Thebes, a country ravaged by civil war. Audiences of over 300 became immersed in the drama as the cast of over thirty pupils from the Upper School and Sixth form became child soldiers, senators, characters of Greek myths and new world leaders. The subject matter was handled with maturity and sensitivity by the excellent cast who were inspiring with their compelling performances and focus and passion way beyond their years.
Winchester Cathedral concert At the beginning of the year, the Chamber Choir performed in a joint concert with the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra. Around forty KES students took part in the excellent performance performing with musicality, sensitivity and confidence. The choir performed a wide variety of different pieces, with particular highlights including Grieg’s ‘Ave Maris Stella’, Stopford’s ‘Lully, Lulla, Lullay’ and Tavener’s ‘Hymn to the Mother of God’.
Art Gallery concert On 28th January, the KES AS and A Level Music students performed a lunchtime concert in the Southampton Art Gallery. Their programme showcased an impressively broad spread of styles and techniques ranging from piano solos by Liszt and Debussy to songs by Michael Head, Mozart, Rogers and Hammerstein, and Vaughan-Williams; as well as pieces for cello, clarinet, and viola. By the final number the ensemble had captured the attention of a large audience in what was a beautiful space with a vintage Steinway grand piano and remarkable acoustics.
Dobson Theatre hosts concert On 11th February the first of this term’s two spring concerts was held in the Dobson Theatre. The evening saw over 100 young musicians from the Lower School, supported by some of the school’s Fourth Year musicians, play a programme of lively items to a packed theatre. Many parents commented on the convivial atmosphere and high standard of the evening’s performances.
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Sport U16s are County Champions The Under 16 rugby squad won the Hampshire U16 rugby cup on 11th February, beating Churcher’s College by 34 points to 15. In a game that they dominated for long periods, Charlie Gale scored three tries with other scores coming from David Marsh, Alec Damley-Jones and Tom Smart, who also converted two of the tries. The squad are to be congratulated on their success at the end of a long season.
U15 County Cup semi-final win This season the U15 rugby team qualified for the county finals of the Hampshire Schools’ RFU County Cup. Their match was played in February and the KES team were a little rusty in the first half having not played since December 6th. By half-time the boys were losing by three tries to one but the second half saw the KES team take the initiative and much of this half was played in their 22 as the Amery Hill team were clearly beginning to tire. Unfortunately, KES were not able to close the gap fast enough and the match was lost 32-17. However, the players should be proud of reaching the cup final, in particular Will Thompson who scored two magnificent tries in the final.
County Championship hat-trick. The boys’ U13, U14 and U16 hockey teams have all won the county championship title this term ensuring that they progress to the regional finals later in the spring. The U14s were first to win as they went through the tournament unbeaten, only conceding 1 goal. The U16 boys beat Kings’ school and PGS to win and will be hoping to use home ground advantage in the next round as KES will be hosting the South Finals at Wellington Sports Ground. The U13 boys won the U13 Hampshire round with ease, beating PGS 3-0, Kings’ School 6-2 and Ryde 7-0. The teams all faced some tough matches but emerged victorious from the competition and are to be congratulated on their success.
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Southampton Schools’ Cross Country Championships At the Southampton Schools’ First and Second Year Cross Country Championships the KES Second Year girls’ team produced an outstanding performance taking the top five places. In addition, there were further excellent performances as the First Year girls won their team event and the First Year boys had three runners in the top ten and scored highly as a team. The Second Year boys also had three top ten finishers and there were two individual winners amongst the KES runners with Isabel Richardson winning the Second Year girls’ event and James Jerram winning the Second Year boys’ race.
KES football team win semi-finals Congratulations to the KES U19 football team who won the semi-final match of their League Cup competition against Barton Peveril College. With a 0-0 score at full-time, the game went to penalties with KES finally winning 7-6 on penalties after Matt Wear saved two goals. They will now play in the final against Andover.
Individual Achievements Georgia Appleby won Gold in a British Army Taekwondo competition prior to competing in the German International Park Cup Competition where she reached the final and took her second Gold medal.
Matthieu Livingstone entered the Winchester Film
Elizabeth Beardsall finished in 20th place out of 132
Festival this year with a new film called ‘Sugar’ and won
sailors when she took part in the International Optimist
‘Best Director under 18’. His film was voted overall ‘Best
Class Association, Winter Championships in Cardiff. She
Overall Short Film’.
has also been selected to represent GBR in Holland at the Braassememeer International Optimist Regatta at Easter.
Tomek Bruml has been reselected for the England
William Osborne was selected to represent the Southampton Diving Academy at the G Star Diving competition in Leeds in February.
Boys’ U16 hockey squad this year.
George Budden competed in the U16 category of the British Modern Biathlon Championships 2014 finishing in 4th place.
Charlie Callaghan performed with the winning England Tap Team at the IDO World Championships. He also played the star role in the short film ‘Top Hat’ which was nominated for ‘Best Short Film’ at the Century Club’s 2015 Short Film Festival.
Mhairi Carson took part in the National Bugle Playing Competition, progressed to the final and came 4th in the competition.
Harrison Elton-Dobbin has been accepted into the training squad for Team GB for American football and is currently training for the European Championships which will take place in Germany in June.
Michael Gorry was selected to lead the Welsh U16 Exiles Rugby League team in January as part of their campaign to retain their title of Provincial Champions.
Erik Hillman has won a place in the U12 age group National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain playing trombone. He also performed at the Portsmouth Music Festival and was awarded two Honours certificates, the Crawford Trophy and also the Woods Trophy for the overall most promising brass player aged 12 years and
Christian Price has qualified for the U16s Hampshire County Waterpolo team and is also training with the South East England region.
Dominik Reynolds won this year’s Daily Mail Young Animal Enthusiast of the Year award at a ceremony in London. He also finished in runner-up position in his age category in the Wild about Animals Children’s Poetry Competition 2014.
Luke Roberts has been selected to play oboe in the National Youth Wind Orchestra.
Alabama Shanker took part in the Free fly Scrambles Skydive Competition where she gained 127 points and finished in 10th place out of the twenty-four competitors in the event.
Ella Thomas competed in the South Regional Ballroom and Latin Dancing Championships, held in Milton Keynes in February, and won the Ballroom and Latin sections in her age group.
Joe Weatherley spent ten days training in Dubai with the England U19 Cricket Squad in December. Along with seventeen other players Joe spent six days of intense training at the ICC Global Academy in Dubai followed by a practice match against the UAE senior side at Sharjah stadium for which he was captain.
Hugo Wybourne competed in the ‘Poetry by Heart’
under.
competition in Winchester and achieved a place in the top four.
King Edward VI School Wilton Road . Southampton . Hampshire SO15 5UQ Telephone: 023 8070 4561 Founded 1553