Low resolution konnections autumn 2013

KONNECTIONS AUTUMN 13 | 1

From The Head We were again delighted with our GCSE, AS and A level results, particularly given the demanding nature of IGCSE for all core curriculum subjects and pleased to see 29% of all A level grades awarded at the very demanding A* grade. We welcomed the distinguished scientist Professor Ziebart of UCL as our Chief Guest at Speech Day in September to award our academic prizes.

A number of new facilities have been completed over the past 6 months including refurbished History classrooms, a new cricket square, car-parking and pitches for our Wellington site and a new roof for our Biology Department. Work has also proceeded apace with the integration of Stroud Preparatory School into the KES community.

This is always a very busy term and our students have been involved in an array of activity in sport, clubs and societies, charity work and culture. We have had a number of cultural moments this term building up to the School production of “Grease” and the Carol Service in the traditional venue at St. Mary’s Church.

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 Goedgedacht Trust in South Africa, the Summer Camp at Swanage working with young carers and the residential trip to Lovaton, our Dartmoor base, with pupils from St. Mark’s Primary School. Many have been involved in new experiences such as our exchange with our partner school, Charlotte Country Day in North Carolina, an expedition to the jungles of Cambodia and Thailand and a music tour in Italy. 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 and the news section which is up-dated frequently.

AJ 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 Summer Exam Results In August, another exceptional set of A level results saw 85% of students pass their A levels with grades at A*, A or B with over 29% at A*. 46% of students gained 3 A grades or more. 10% of all KES university applicants this year received offers for places at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and 83% proceed to one of the top twenty-five universities or medical schools. At IGCSE another set of record results meant 98.3% of IGCSEs awarded this year were at grade C or above with 66% of all grades at A* and A. 90% of all grades were awarded at A*, A or B. 98% of students obtained the minimum 5 GCSE passes including IGCSE mathematics and English.

When in Bath, do as the Romans do!

On 2nd October, sixty-six Third Year classicists spent the day at the Roman Baths in Bath. After spending an hour in the beautifully laid out museum and wandering around the original bath complex, students were engaged in a hands-on workshop.

A Classical Trade!

On 17th September Mr Giles and Mr Halls took Fifth Form Classicists to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford to see a variety of classical items, from statues to pots, to improve their knowledge of classical archaeology. Pupils enjoyed taking part in the trade game, in which they tried to convince their peers to buy selected items from the collection, varying from necklaces to suits of armour.

Speech Day The School was delighted to welcome UCL’s Professor Ziebart as Chief Guest and speaker to the 2013 Speech Day and Prize giving ceremony held at the Mayflower Theatre. The whole school community and guests listened with interest to his fascinating talk on the role of technology and science in the modern world.

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Galleries Galore!

The first week of term saw a group of Lower and Upper Sixth students visit a handful of London Galleries. The Royal Academy was the first stop for their Mexico ‘Art of Revolution’ show. For the photographers, there was work by some of the subject’s greats including CartierBresson, Paul Strand, Edward Weston and Robert Capa alongside the local Manuel Bravo.

After lunch in Convent Garden, the group headed to the National Portrait Gallery for the annual BP portrait award.

Like previous years, this exhibition gives a snapshot of the best in contemporary portrait painting. Styles ranged from small delicate oils to large brash works in pastiches of photo realism and Chuck Close. The students also looked at the work of Laura Knight whose paintings of dancers and gypsies in the 1930s led to her work as a war artist. The day concluded with the chance to see the best in contemporary portrait commissions and an exciting collection by Jonathan Yeo.

Booker Prize Winners

A Blasphemous Lecture!

Liberty Roberts and Issy Bartholomew recently travelled up to the South Bank Centre with Dr Schofield to hear all six short-listed Booker Prize authors read from their novels and answer questions.

The evening was chaired by Radio 4’s Mark Lawson and afterwards the girls spoke with all the novelists and had their books signed.

In October, a group of Sixth Form literature students travelled to Southampton University to hear the inaugural F.T. Prince Memorial Lecture. Sir Christopher Ricks, described by W.H. Auden as ‘exactly the kind of critic every poet dreams of finding’, gave an interesting insight into the topic of blasphemy in literature from Milton onwards.

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The Physics of Fun On 10th October the Fifth Year had an exciting day out at Thorpe Park. In the morning they attended an interesting and lively workshop on the Physics of Rollercoasters which covered various aspects of the IGCSE syllabus, leaving time in the afternoon to sample some of the rides for themselves. It was a brilliant day out putting physics in action.

A Classical Drowning!

Earlier in the term, the School was privileged to host a lecture by academic and broadcaster, Professor Michael Scott of Warwick University. The event drew an impressive audience of about eighty people.

Professor Scott spoke on ‘Drowning in the Ancient World’ in which he looked at the communities on Ancient Delos and, in particular, three very unusual funerary steles depicting scenes of drowning and shipwreck.

Geography Trip to Malham The Lower Sixth Geography students spent five days this term in Malham in Yorkshire as part of their AS Geography course. Their trip included carrying out flood risk assessments in the town of Skipton, a tour around the Yorkshire Dales National Parks to study the impacts of glaciation on the landscape, as well as a day spent at Tenant Gill Farm where they were able to get to grips with the tough demands of farming in an upland region. On the final day the group also visited Ingleborough Caves to study the underlying geology of the area and the impacts of fluvial and glacial processes on the limestone caves.

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Co-Curricular

Fantastic in Plastic!

KES has already achieved ‘Eco-school’ status and is a holder of the prestigious green flag award in recognition of its commitment to supporting sustainability and green issues. However this term, the School has gone one step further by introducing the Eco blazer into its school uniform. From this academic year, all new school blazers will now be manufactured from 100% recycled non-biodegradable plastic drinking bottles. Whereas the bottles would normally go to landfill sites where they can take up to 500 years to break down, the outer fabric of each new KES blazer is now made up of sixteen of these plastic bottles. The revolutionary manufacturing process, which involves shredding the bottles, breaking the shredding down into plastic and turning this into thread, helps prevent millions of tonnes of plastic waste from being buried in the Earth, saving energy and reducing CO2 emissions too. Compared to a traditional blazer, the Eco blazer requires up to 84% less energy to produce it.

In response to news about the introduction of our new Eco blazer, the BBC South’s reporter Sean Killick visited KES to shoot footage for the BBC South Today programme.

Honey creates a Buzz In October members of the Beekeeping Club extracted the honey from this year’s harvest from the KES beehive. The honey was filtered and put into jars and subsequently sold to raise money for the Charities Commission.

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Music & Maths Combined

Team Building at Lovaton

In October, Dr John Silvester from King’s College London visited the School to give a lecture to the Mathematical Society. Dr Silvester gave an informative talk on how to set about constructing an acceptable musical scale and what choices and compromises have to be made. The Pythagorean system of musical tuning (in which the frequency ratios of all intervals are based on the ratio 3:2) was discussed which eventually led onto the equal temperament. This is a system of tuning, in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratio.

A team of eight Third Year pupils spent an autumnal weekend in Dartmoor with Miss Costello and Reverend Poppleton in order to prepare for their forthcoming exchange with Charlotte Country Day School. The group visited Dartmoor Prison Museum and a Bronze Age site at Grimspound, took part in team building activities and also had time to work on their exchange projects.

Teaching Primary P.E. Twenty-nine boys and girls from Woodhill Preparatory School, Botley recently enjoyed a well-organised PE lesson conducted by members of the Lower Sixth Sports Science Group. The visiting children behaved very well during the lesson, demonstrated some good skills and many current KES pupils, who formerly attended Woodhill, enjoyed catching up with their old teachers at break-time.

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A New Green Car There has been an exciting development for the Greenpower team this term with the kind donation of a new car from the staff at Southampton University wind tunnel. Clive Evans and David Marshall visited KES to share their expertise in aerodynamics but gave the students far more than they were hoping for. This soap box car was designed and built by a composite company in Poole to compete in the Goodwood Festival of Speed Soapbox Race in 2004.

The lightweight aluminium chassis will be a perfect base for the team to adapt and fit the standard electric motor and batteries allowed under the Greenpower regulations.

Shoeboxes for Romania At the start of half term, Mr Ayers delivered 130 shoeboxes for the Romanian Christmas Shoebox appeal to Above Bar Church in Southampton who will co-ordinate their onward journey. The boxes will provide Christmas treats for many poor children in Romania who would otherwise not receive gifts at Christmas time. The members of the Charities Commission who organised the filling and collection of all the boxes at School did an excellent job in coordinating this task.

French Exchange to Angers This year’s French exchange to Angers began with a visit to Futuroscope, a theme park with a difference!

It has several 3D and 4D cinemas along with a wide range of attractions and shows. The students then spent three days with their families enjoying numerous trips and visits, ranging from taking in the sights of Paris to visiting some of the Châteaux in the Loire Valley. Monday and Tuesday were spent partly in lessons at the Lycée St Martin and also visiting the Château d’Angers with its famous ‘Tapestry of the Apocalypse’ and the Slate Museum at Trélazé.

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Training for the Himalayas The 2015 Himalaya Expedition team enjoyed mixed weather over half term during their Dartmoor training session. The team cooked for all twenty-seven members, walked the open moor on Halloween in the dark, completed some rock climbing and cooked pizzas from scratch on open fires. Their shelter and survival skills were tested and they also completed a thirty metre abseil. The last morning everyone got wet feet and trousers taking part in two river crossings.

First Year Toy Appeal In October, it really felt as though toys had truly come alive as the First Years ran around the School (dressed as a favourite toy) in order to help raise money for Southampton Voluntary Services’ annual Toy Appeal. Each year new pupils encourage their friends and family to sponsor them to run (or walk) a lap of the School and the money raised goes towards buying Christmas presents for local children who may not otherwise get a present this festive season.

This year over £2,100 was raised enabling 100 presents to be purchased.

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The Final Challenge!

Congratulations to Dr Sinnett-Jones who completed the Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon over the half term as the 13th and final challenge of her Challenge 13 fundraising project. The KAEM is a self-sufficiency run held over six legs in seven days with set distances for each day, ranging from 28km to 75km. Participants must carry all their supplies, clothes and compulsory safety/survival equipment for the duration of the event that is completed under the blazing African sun. Dr Sinnett-Jones has been an inspiration to us all at KES over the past year and has raised over £10,000 for the Southampton Young Carers’ project with her series of personal physical challenges that have included ultra-marathons, triathlons and canoe races.

KES Masterchef

A Question for Debate!

In November, Sodexo Development Chef, Tom Allen and Steve Wylie, Executive Chef at the Licensed Victuallers’ School, joined members of the First Year Cookery Club in making minestrone soup. They shared techniques with the group and then judged the final creations. The winner was Gus Berry with a very tasty and traditional minestrone but all of the group were commended for their super efforts.

The first round of the English Speaking Union Public Speaking Competition took place on 11th November and despite the fact that the KES team (consisting of Emma Blackman, Nick Neves and Toby Saer) had never taken part in a public speaking competition before, they secured a win. Emma also won an individual award for ‘Best Chairperson’. The team will now progress to the Salisbury/SW branch final of this national competition that takes part in January.

The School also entered two teams into the local round of the Cambridge Union Debating Competition. Both teams performed well but particular congratulations go to Joe Smith and Emma Blackman who won both of their debates. They debated a prepared motion as well as a ‘surprise’ one and will now proceed to the regional final of this national competition.

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Creative Arts Edwardian Gives Music Lecture Former pupil Lucy Smith, currently studying French horn at the Graz Conservatoire in Austria, returned to KES to give an informative lecture to AS Music students on the development of the French horn.

The students, who are studying works by Handel, Mozart and Beethoven, were able to see and hear the classical hand held horn in action. Lucy gave the students a fascinating insight into the use of the early horn, complete with crooks.

Fear & Misery

Drama and Theatre Studies A Level and GCSE pupils watched an excellent performance of Brecht’s Fear and Misery of the Third Reich by Scene Productions Theatre Company on 25th September in the Dobson Theatre and afterwards took part in a physical workshop exploring Brecht’s unique theatrical style.

Under the direction of Kelly Smith, one of the Scene Production performers, pupils worked in groups to create lively, highly visual pieces that captured both the energy and comedy of Brechtian theatre.

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Fauré Choir Concert On the evening of 21st October, a 70-strong choir of parents, staff and pupils put on a performance of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. This newly-formed choir, made up of both experienced singers and complete novices, sang with great vitality and energy and really brought this serene yet powerful music to life.

Special mention must go to the three Sixth Form soloists; Liberty Roberts, Josh Blunsden and Andrew Morgan, who all performed with great musicality and presence.

New Views on Extreme Happiness

Listen While You Lunch The inaugural ‘Listen While You Lunch’ concert took place in October and was an enjoyable occasion allowing those present to be able to relax over lunch while some of the senior KES musicians performed. This was the first of many such lunches, and future concerts will involve pupils from all year groups.

On 24th October, members of the KES New Views playwriting group and Lower Sixth Theatre Studies class headed to the National Theatre in London to watch the new play The World of Extreme Happiness

by Chinese writer Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig. New Views is the partnership project run in conjunction with the National Theatre this year and offers pupils the chance to write their own play. The scheme is run at lunchtimes by Mrs Piggott and offers workshops on playwriting using extracts from contemporary plays and clips of writers that covers the key aspects of writing for theatre.

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Individual Achievements Charles Carpenter, Oliver Chapman, Adam Crompton & Hamish Jackson (recent leaver) have all been awarded a sought-after Arkwright

Miriam Chapman-Rosenfeld & Juliet Fox

Engineering Scholarship that identifies them as some of

retained their Hampshire and IOW Schools doubles title

the country’s future leaders in engineering and related

at Winchester Racquets Club this summer.

areas of design.

Will Meacher & Hammy Kavanagh reached the semi-finals before losing out to the eventual winners

Jordan Campbell won first place in the England

who were a year older.

Athletics U17 National Championships in September.

Jenny Whitby was recognised for gaining the Jenny Whitby played in the National Youth

highest mark in the country in her Salter’s Nuffield

Orchestra in the Proms earlier this year and has been

Advanced Biology coursework this year and was

reselected for the National Youth Orchestra for 2014.

invited to the award ceremony at Salter’s Hall in London at the end of November.

Carl Wikeley performed at the London Schools’ Symphony Orchestra concert at the Barbican playing

Tim Riley competed in an international sailing regatta

principal timps in Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony.

in France over half term as part of the GB team and finished in fifth position out of ninety-two boats. As

Robbie Flower won the U13 Hampshire Golf

a result he has been invited to join team GB again,

Championships during the summer.

participating in a regatta in Italy in December.

Miss Yerbury competed in the World Triathlon

Tomek Bruml & Yvie Lock have both been

Championships in London in September. She came

selected for the respective England U16 boys’ and girls’

in 44th place in her age group in a very competitive

hockey assessment camps. For both players this is the

field; a remarkable achievement given the injuries she

final stage of national age group selection process and

suffered only two months previously after a serious bike

the invite is as a result of their performances in the

crash.

Futures Cup Tournament for regional teams.

Jacob Fay has been selected for Hampshire

Michael Gorry has recently represented the

Cricket’s Emerging Players Programme. The scheme

South in the origin series (Rugby League) and been

is designed for young cricketers between the ages

invited to train with the Irish Exiles U16 squad (Rugby

of twelve and sixteen and provides personal training

Union). Over the past few years he has been busy with

managed by the county’s Cricket Academy.

involvement with the London Broncos Rugby League franchise, Welsh Exiles Rugby Union and Hampshire

Jovan Dhariwal & James Harden have been

County teams. He is currently training with the London

selected for the U13 Hampshire County Cricket squad.

Irish silver group!

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Sports

Kings’ Rugby Tournament In September, Wellington Sports Ground was the venue for the South Coast Kings’ Rugby Tournament with both the KES U15s and the Senior Squad taking part. It was a tough day’s rugby for both teams, playing against some schools with strong rugby pedigrees and whilst both teams finished sixth out of seven in their respective competitions they showed good determined battling qualities.

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Edwardians v Senior Girls’ Team On the first Saturday of the new term, a team of Edwardian girls took on the KES Senior girls’ hockey team in a preseason match. It was a well-balanced match with both teams scoring and playing well and the final score ending in a 2-2 draw. It was lovely to see so many former pupils returning to take part in the match in what has become an annual event.

U14s reach Regional Rounds In October, nine Second and Third Year girls represented KES at the U14 County Netball Tournament. Nineteen schools from across Hampshire travelled to Southampton for the competition and the team finishing in second place after the morning rounds to progress through to the National Cup Competition in the afternoon. The afternoon matches saw the girls play some outstanding netball, winning games in what appeared to be effortless style. The end result was very close and came down to a one point difference between KES and Portsmouth High School but the consistency and the determination of the KES players paid off as they finished the Cup Competition as runners-up to PGS. The KES U14 side will therefore be joining PGS in the Regional Competition held in February.

Silver Medal Winners On 26th September, a squad of ten girls from the Fourth and Fifth Year took part in the U16 County Netball Tournament at the Southampton Sports Centre. There were twenty-two participating teams from all over the county but as a result of their performance in the morning rounds, the KES girls secured a place in the County Cup competition in the afternoon. After six keenly contested afternoon matches the team went into the final match of the day against Priestlands. KES played well but the Priestlands’ team pulled away to win 5-11 with KES coming runners-up and Silver medal winners.

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Hampshire Swimming Championships Boys win Invitational Tournament Just before half term, the U14 rugby team competed in the Perins Invitational 10s Tournament. Six matches were played over the course of the round robin tournament and KES played some fantastic rugby. They remained unbeaten with wins over Oaklands, HCS, Amery, PGS, Perins, and Kings’ and as a result were crowned winners of the tournament. Well done to all the boys on a great performance and particularly to Scott Olive who was the tournament’s highest try scorer with eight.

Hampshire beat Surrey

There are seven KES boys playing for the Hampshire U16s rugby squad this season. In November, six of them represented Hampshire against Surrey at HCS where the team comprehensively beat Surrey 22-6. Well done to Harry Johnston, Charles Bolton, Ben Brooks, Sam Webb, Ed Connolly and Theo Pritchard. Dom Saville is currently recovering from injury but hopes to be back on the pitch soon.

Sixteen KES pupils competed in this year’s Hampshire round of the National Swimming Relay Championships.

Whilst their times were not quick enough to enable them to reach the National Finals there was success in five of the eight events at the gala with Silver medals being achieved in the Junior Boys’ Freestyle, Junior Boys’ Medley, Junior Girls’ Medley, Intermediate Boys’ Freestyle relay and Intermediate Boys’ Medley relay.

Senior Girls compete in County Tournament

On 13th November nine Sixth Form girls entered the first stage of the National Schools Netball Tournament competing against seven other schools and colleges from across the county. The team was drawn against PGS for their first match but they secured a convincing 13-6 win. The girls continued to play some outstanding netball throughout the tournament achieving an impressive third place after beating Itchen College, Richard Taunton’s, Portsmouth High School and drawing with Peter Symonds. Unfortunately losses against Brockenhurst College and Farnborough Hill meant the KES side narrowly missed out on a place at the Regional Rounds.

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Summer Fun

Summer Camp During July, the Summer Camp team accompanied a group of young carers to Swanage on a camping trip. The children received a welcome break from their caring responsibilities and enjoyed the many activities, outings and games organised for them by the team.

Music Trip to Italy Twenty-eight musicians enjoyed an action-packed music tour to Italy at the start of the summer holiday. The group was based in San Zeno and performed the first concert of the tour in the local church to a capacity audience. The musicians enjoyed a day in nearby Verona where they soaked up the sounds and sights of this elegant city visiting places such as the 16th century church of St Anastasia and the open-air Roman arena. Following Verona, the group moved on to Venice, arriving by boat at Vivaldi’s Pieta church from where they walked to the stunning renaissance Miracoli church for the evening concert. The day in Venice was completed with a gondola ride through the canals and all musicians singing mass at St Mark’s Basilica. The final performance took place in the town of Garda where the big band wowed the audience on an open stage in a busy square.

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South Africa Trip Sixteen KES students threw themselves whole heartedly into their work with the Goedgedacht Trust (a charity aiming to reduce rural poverty in the Western Cape) during this year’s trip to South Africa. The party worked on the farm, with youngsters in the POP 3 (the Path out of Poverty centre supported by KES) and with the Youth in Construction (local youngsters with leadership potential). Many lessons were learned and many good friendships formed.

The stay at Goedgedacht was complemented by the time spent in Cape Town and on safari in the Waterberg region, north-east of Johannesburg.

Watersports Trip Towards the end of the summer holidays fifty-five pupils and eight staff went on a Watersports Trip to La Rive in France, organised

by Rockley Watersports. They did various activities during their stay including Pico and Dart sailing, windsurfing, kayaking and mountain biking. They also went to Aqualand on one of the days although for some, the highlight of the week for some was the trip to the ‘Dune du Pyla’ which is Europe’s largest sand dune.

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Thailand and Cambodia During August a group of Sixth Formers travelled to Cambodia and Thailand for a two week long trekking and kayaking expedition. Whilst in Bangkok they visited the Cambodian Temples of Angkor Wat and took their first journey by elephant. The next stop was Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, which was followed by trekking in the monsoon rain through the Cardamom Mountains, an area that has suffered from extensive deforestation. The final phase of the trip was a kayaking expedition that started at Koh Chang and involved travelling by kayak for four days setting up camp on isolated beaches along the way.

KES invades Northern Spain Summer 2013 saw several KES students (past and present) travel to the region of Cantabria, Spain to take part in private exchanges. They had a fantastic time going to the beach, learning to surf and partying the Spanish way, but most importantly being immersed in the Spanish language and culture. Former pupils have also spent time working as au pairs for Spanish families and even spending part of their Gap Year working in the office of Abaco Language School.

These visits and experiences are becoming more and more popular and if you are studying Spanish and are interested in arranging a private exchange for the summer speak to Mrs Ladislao who can help with arranging the contact between the students and the families.

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La Normandie Normandy 2013 turned out to be perfect in every way! The group of forty-eight KES Second Year pupils was attentive and co-operative and took part in all the activities with interest and enthusiasm. The weather was beautiful, the swimming pool was warm, the food was tasty, the château activities were entertaining and the cemeteries allowed us to contemplate how fortunate we all are and the sacrifice made by so many. The group was also able to spend time in the medieval market in Bayeux where pupils enjoyed trying out the medieval games. Merci à tous!

Prevail!

Following the success of the last Prevail Skatehouse trip, sixteen students kickstarted their summer holiday with a follow up two hour private session in one of the best indoor skate parks on the South Coast.

Revisiting the park allowed for progression with many new tricks being landed on boards, bikes and scooters.

Greased Lightning!

In December, bleacher seating and neon signs set the scene for a high energy, incredibly slick performance of the ever popular musical Grease that was enjoyed by over 1200 pupils, staff and family. The talented cast and band of over 50 pupils were supported by a dedicated team working behind the scenes on props, costumes, lighting, sound and publicity. The sell-out run had the school bopping down the corridors singing snippets of Summer Nights and Greased Lightning!

King Edward VI School Founded 1553

Wilton Road . Southampton . Hampshire SO15 5UQ Telephone: 023 8070 4561