Editorial

From the Head

Welcome to the annual Sotoniensis magazine, in what has been an extraordinary year for everybody associated with King Edward’s. I am keenly aware that in the decades to come historians, both of our school and the wider world, will define this past year by the Covid pandemic. Future readers of this edition of Sotoniensis will search for references to the crisis – and naturally they will find them in abundance. Undoubtedly the crushing impact of this terrible virus has been felt at KES, not only by those whose families have suffered illness or loss as a result, but also by our whole community, as we have battled to maintain our educational ambitions and to retain our cherished values. It cannot be denied that much that would normally be reported upon in this publication has needed to be delayed, cancelled or reimagined. But nevertheless, so much has been achieved, either before the blight of the virus, or in defiance of it. I whole-heartedly believe that to allow Covid utterly to dominate a review of the year would be to do a great disservice to the hundreds of pupils, staff members and parents who have participated in, or supported, a stunning breadth and wealth of activity and endeavour at King Edward’s this year. We will not allow it to marginalise all the good that is the life-blood of our wonderful school. This year, we have been tested as we have never been tested before in modern times… but we have endured, and we have flourished, regardless. Of course, the students most impacted by the pandemic were those due to sit public examinations in the summer. Having studiously prepared for the exam season, this cohort of pupils had their opportunity to showcase their academic prowess taken from them by the lockdown. In place of examinations came ‘centre assessed grades’. As the government sought to find equitable ways to assess GCSE and A Level submissions, these grades were initially moderated by a computer algorithm; then (briefly) subject to moderation based on the internal mock results; and then finally, and only at the very last moment, allowed to stand as initially awarded. For our Fifth Year and Upper Sixth students, the disruption and uncertainty was appalling. However, what is beyond doubt is that our students’ results are every bit as valid and deserved as for any other previous cohort. Their final grades reflected an honest appraisal not only of their ability to thrive in an exam situation, but in their efforts across the entire two-year course. In many ways, therefore this was a more demanding exam process, and we are hugely proud of their achievements. At GCSE, almost exactly 80% of grades awarded were at A* or A (or the numerical equivalent). At A Level, 63% achieved this same very highest level. As a result, 87% of the year group earned places at one of the UK’s ‘Top 25’ universities (including Russell Group and medical schools). In an unprecedented year, these academic results were an extraordinary achievement, and testament to some very talented and dedicated young people.

As you will read in this publication, our cocurricular programme continued when and where possible. Reynolds won the coveted Allen Grant House trophy, for the first time in quite some years. The arts had a spectacular year, with key highlights being the stunning spring term concerts; the dance showcase; the sheer breadth of fantastic artwork on display in the Atrium throughout the year; and the magnificent production of ‘West Side Story’. Each showed the depth of talent and creativity our students possess. They were an honour to witness and to support. We also maintained a marvellous breadth of weekly clubs and societies, seeking to ensure that every child at KES can find a niche in which to thrive and find a natural home. At the same time, our Charity Commission co-ordinated a range of fund-raising events and community outreach programmes. In trips, before lockdown

intervened, pupils travelled to Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain and the USA alongside more local destinations in cultural, sporting and academic trips and tours.

In sport, whilst we were hugely disappointed to lose the entirety of the summer term programme, nevertheless the vast majority of the pupils at KES had the opportunity in the first two terms to represent their school. Highlights are too numerous to list, but I thoroughly recommend a read through of the team reports, so that you can see for yourself the dedication and success, of the pupils in a range of different sports and at all ages.

As is always the case, we bid fond farewells to a number of colleagues this academic year. My thanks go to every member of the teaching and non-teaching staff who moved on at this time, but particular thanks ought to be recorded for Mr Coundley, who departed in May after over 30 years teaching at the school. Also retiring after a long and distinguished career at KES was Mrs Wood, former PA to the Head and most recently to the Registrar, who left in August after 13 years at our school. Equally Mrs Hurst, our Data Manager, who similarly came to KES in 2007, and who moved on in November. Mr Jepson left his role as Head of Faculty for

languages to return to full time education, and Dr Green moved back to her previous career with Public Health England after ten years at the school. We were also sad to see a number of other teaching and non-teaching colleagues move on to retirement or new positions: Mrs Sheridan, Miss McGregor, Dr Filtness, Mr deZilva, Mrs Rayworth, Dr Karamitrou, Mrs Miah, Mrs Planner, Mrs Russell, Miss Rieuf and Mrs Chen. I want to wish them all every happiness and success as they take on new challenges and opportunities in their lives.

We were also sad to see the departure of our Upper Sixth - a wonderful group of young people, who had given much to the school over many years. Whilst we were able to offer a quickly arranged farewell party before lockdown, I am sad that we were not able to offer them a more formal farewell. I want to take this opportunity to thank them all for their contributions, but in particular to thank Sam Thompson, our Head of School, and his key deputies Eleanor Dunlop, Gus Berry, Steph Judd and Arev Melikyan for their support of the school, and their inspirational leadership as role models to their peers. They, as much as anybody, helped me to settle in to KES life in my first year as Head.

Then came Covid. Just weeks before the Easter break, and with little advance warning, the government announced that schools would close, and that all teaching would need to be reorganised so as to allow ‘remote’ access to learning. At the time we could not know that the doors were closing for the final time in the academic year. We were not to know that the entirety of the summer term would be conducted through the remote means afforded by technology. All we knew was that we wanted to continue to provide KES students with the best possible educational experience, to make it work immediately.

Within days the staff at the school entirely changed routines and methods which had been learned and honed over many years. Lesson plans and schemes of work were re-written, and teaching styles refined for a new and untested online reality. Non-teaching staff adapted their long-held working practices so that they could continue to run the operations and business of the school from their homes. Pupils too needed to be flexible and resilient. Instead of the happy social life of a normal school day, they faced months in relative isolation, and hours daily in front of a screen.

We were determined to provide a complete education, regardless of any restrictions. Our teachers provided face to face online teaching

and learning for every child, and in every academic subject; our pastoral staff kept in contact with the pupils in their care, mindful of their wellbeing and diligent in their duty to offer support; our co-curricular clubs and competitions were rapidly reimagined so as to enable friendly participation for the pupils even when they could not meet in person. But we were also determined to help our wider community. From the very start of the lockdown, King Edward’s offered shopping and delivery services to vulnerable neighbours. We set up a mini production line manufacturing PPE (personal protective equipment) for health workers, ultimately producing literally hundreds of visors, masks and surgical ‘scrubs’. We continued, both during term time and the school holidays, to look after the children of our ‘key workers’, so that their parents could continue the vital work of protecting our society and those most vulnerable to the virus. That we were able to achieve so much in that extraordinary, unprecedented summer term speaks volumes about the resilience of our school – the optimism of the children and the professionalism of my colleagues. I truly believe that we can be tremendously proud of all that was achieved in such a trying time. I can only thank every single member of our wider school community – teachers and non-teaching staff, pupils and parents – all of whom provided such support and exhibited such determination throughout those terrible months.

From a personal point of view, I would also wish to record my thanks to the governing body for their tireless support of our school during this crisis. Mr Morgan, our Chair, and the wider governance group had as little advanced warning of the impact of the pandemic as the rest of us, and magnificently stepped up to the plate to provide expertise and guidance. Their role ought not to be forgotten in this testing time, and I am hugely grateful to them all.

But the academic year was not entirely focused on the past, or even the present. We also took the opportunity to reassess our core values and ethos for the future. As a result, we ended the year with a new set of aims and objectives, based on the unifying idea of ‘flourishing’: flourishing academically; flourishing emotionally; flourishing with engagement and in relationships; flourishing in wider meaning – in our place within the world. These objectives stand together in support of our new ethos statement:

‘We nurture and support our pupils, so that they flourish and exceed their expectations in their learning, interests, relationships and emotional development. Our goal is that they become intellectually curious, resilient, confident and ready for their next steps’.

This statement embodies what we passionately believe, and what we try to do every single day. This edition of Sotoniensis, I believe, provides ample proof of this. I am delighted to report that over this past year, KES has truly flourished – and we are determined that our wonderful, unique school will continue to do so for the coming year and for the years to come thereafter. Neal Parker Head

Chaplaincy Chat

It is a great privilege to be given the responsibility of supporting the school community in the role of Chaplain and one that I find holds much excitement and anticipation. Following on from the excellent tenure of Reverend Julian Poppleton in this position, I am very aware that a great example precedes and guides me, and am grateful for that. Taking up the position in April did not work out as I had expected, and as many of us have experienced since this time, things are different and adaptation is required. However, while many things around change and become in some cases very different, we also draw on those unchanging constants in our lives. I myself look to God who is constant in love, grace and power and find that I am drawn to pray and spend time in his presence. Perhaps recent events have also highlighted something of both the frailty and resilience of all people and that we have a common humanity. This humanity has a spiritual element that we see evident in many different forms across the world and within individuals. As a Christian, who looks to the Bible for knowledge of God, and the demonstration of prayer and acts of faith to experience him, I see the significance and importance of spiritual matters in both individual and corporate life. I am sure there are many of us who look forward to a time when we can again meet in larger groups and participate in great celebrations, commemorations and remembrances together and I very much look forward to working with the wider school community in enjoying these events. Equally, each individual whether student, staff, parent or in the wider community matters greatly and I will very much look forward to developing ways of supporting and engaging with all at this level as well. Ultimately, in this role of Chaplain, a love for Jesus Christ and a love and concern for the wellbeing of people and all of creation will motivate me. The grace of God, demonstrated much through the lives of many others in our community, will sustain me. Mr Robinson

Staff Farewells

Kevin Coundley

Kevin was, undoubtedly, an institution within an institution, working at KES for 31 years following his arrival from Brighton College in 1989, inspiring admiration, affection and reverence (in equal measure) from generations of historians, and warm feelings and friendship from innumerable colleagues. Kevin is a man possessed of an endless fascination for the past, engaging with relish with both the broad sweep of great events and grand strategy, and the nuances and absurdities of everyday life in days gone past. It is this encyclopaedic knowledge of the past, this love of idiosyncrasy matched with a calm and deeply felt sense of responsibility for the pupils, that have made him such a remarkable history teacher. Hundreds of KES historians have good reason to be eternally grateful to Kevin for his stewardship of their learning, and every Head of History has known the comfort of having Kevin to rely on for sound and carefully thought through advice in times of difficulty and stress. Kevin has, of course, left his mark well beyond the classroom; he has been a meticulously well-organised academic and pastoral tutor, a hugely effective examinations administrator and organiser of Speech Day, a reliable and charming presence on innumerable school trips and an imaginative and highly successful steward of the Senior Historical Society. The Senior Historical Society, well-known for the academic quality of its talks from both internal and external speakers, is a vital part of the intellectual landscape at KES and it is thus appropriate that, from September 2020, it will be renamed “The Coundley Historical Society” as a mark of gratitude from the department that Kevin served so well. Kevin will be hugely missed by all those that he came across for his intelligence, his engaging humour, his love of his subject, his passionate belief in academic pursuits for their own sake, his calmness and focus and, above all, for his humanity. Kevin leaves with the best wishes of the whole History Department and Common Room for a long and happy retirement in sunny Downton, and in the hope that we may see him at a future meeting of what is now his Society. Mr Diver

Kevin Jepson

Kevin joined King Edward’s in 2017 as Head of German, previously working for ten years at Dulwich College. After one year, he became Head of the Languages Faculty, overseeing a growth in A Level numbers, the expansion of the school’s Linguistics Olympiad club, and leading the Faculty’s celebration of the European Day of Languages. Averaging two residential trips a year and numerous DofE expeditions, he is known by his colleagues to Sarah Hurst Sarah joined the school in 2007 as a Data Administrator. By 2008 she had already become Data Manager, and had expanded the Data Team from one to two, and subsequently three. She was responsible for the school’s migration to iSAMS as its Management Information System (MIS), and as we were one of their first schools, was fairly instrumental in helping them to develop the platform. Sarah also helped develop King Edward’s bus data management system (KETABUS), and built the backend database which we still use to manage our bus service. She spent many hours helping Stroud School with their data systems after their acquisition in 2012, and took over the responsibility for their be great company whilst working on trips and visits. A talented and respected teacher, Kevin will be much missed by his students. Not only a superb linguist and master of obscure grammar points, he also takes with him an encyclopaedic knowledge of 1990s pop music, and leaves behind one of the most impeccably tidy desks in the school. Kevin’s departure is a loss to us, and the wider profession, as he leaves to undertake an MA in systems in 2017. Sarah was well-loved by all her colleagues. She had a fierce wit and a great dedication to the school. She would regularly work well outside her contractual hours to make sure other staff had access to the systems they needed and also helped my predecessor organise the KES ICT conference held each year. Because of Sarah’s involvement with iSAMS, she helped organise and host several extremely successful iSAMS User days at KES, and User groups for the South East and South West. It is no surprise that eventually iSAMS managed to convince her to join their team, and she left us in November 2019 to take up a post with them as an Implementation Project Success Manager, working Interpreting and Translating at the University of Bath.

Dr Waymark to help new schools migrate to the system. Sarah leaves with our huge gratitude for all that she has done to ensure our data systems are as robust and secure as they are, and with our very best wishes for the next stage in her career. Her contributions to the nonteaching staff Secret Santa will be especially missed. Mr Rokison

Viv Green

Viv joined King Edward’s in September 2010 having previously worked for Public Health England at Porton Down, Salisbury. She immediately impressed many with her conscientious approach to all aspects of her teaching, showing a great understanding of her subject and a desire to engage and enthuse her students. In addition to becoming a highly-valued and respected teacher of Chemistry and Junior Science she became involved in many co-curricular activities. She very quickly qualified as a Silver trainer for Duke of Edinburgh expeditions and then offered her services every year, always accepting the more brutal challenge of a trip to Dartmoor, over

Trish Wood

Trish joined King Edward’s in August 2007 as a receptionist and very soon made her mark. She is incredibly organised and efficient and her friendly and welcoming manner make her the perfect first contact for anyone visiting the school. In 2010 she became SMT Secretary and then in 2014 PA to the then Head, Mr Julian Thould. She fulfilled this role for five years successfully juggling a multitude of tasks, organising Julian’s diary and was the first person to go to if any member of the school wanted to know anything, however unrelated to her own area and job! Trish is a whirlwind of activity and action. a sunny summer’s day in a New Forest car park. Viv’s phenomenal organisational skills were legend by the time she had organised and directed her first South Coast Kings Rugby Tournament and it wasn’t long before many members of staff came knocking on her door, including yours truly. The pinnacle of her administrative feats was undoubtedly the challenge of Physics musicals and Science and Technology festivals. Mr Herklots was quoted as saying, “they simply wouldn’t have been possible without her”. In February 2020, Viv left KES and went back to work for Public Health England; little did she, or the world, appreciate the maelstrom

She is bright, thoughtful, assertive and proactive and in September 2019 she took on the role of Registrar’s PA. She is a joy to work with, is good company at all times and retains her happy disposition even when the phone doesn’t stop ringing! Trish has always fully immersed herself in school life. She has been an active member of the Cactus Club, joining Mr Giles on many trips and forays to different destinations including Kew Gardens and the Eden Project. She has also enjoyed being a committed member of the Byron Society accompanying Mr Smart and pupils in dramatic adventures! In 2012 she took part in the South Africa trip to that was about to hit us and how vital her new role was about to become. Viv is already much missed in the Chemistry Department for her dedication, loyalty and, above all, love and support she offered to colleagues and students. We wish her, her husband Mike and her family our very best wishes for the future. Mr Cross

Goedgedacht. I have loved working with Trish this year and shall miss her enormously. We wish her every happiness in her retirement and hope that at least sometimes she will sit and put her feet up and admire her cactus collection! Mrs Sheppard

Helen Sheridan

Helen has obviously got qualities that King Edward’s admires; having been employed by the school not once, not twice, but three times. She first arrived at KES to cover a long-term sabbatical for a member of staff in the Design and Technology Department. Unfortunately, the end of the sabbatical saw the end of Helen’s contract and it wasn’t until a couple of years later, when a longterm cover was required, that Helen was again asked to step in. When the end of that contract coincided with a vacancy within the department, Helen was the obvious choice. During her time at King Edward’s Helen’s vast knowledge and understanding of the subject has meant that she Gemma McGregor Gemma joined KES in the summer of 2017 with a degree in Marine Biology from Newcastle University. Her passion for marine ecology has continued, with time each summer spent assisting in turtle conservation in Greece, this summer’s trip only curtailed by a global pandemic. She has become known for her well-planned lessons and the effort she makes with students who may be struggling with biology or Junior Science. Some of her resources are now used by other department members and will remain in has become a ‘go to’ source, not only for staff and students in the department, but for the much wider school community. Invariably cheerful, her cando attitude has seen her work miracles on a myriad of staff manufacturing problems. Whether it’s bits for boats or gowns for balls, Helen Sheridan has been the person to see. Helen’s forthright Yorkshire approach and (for Southampton!) broad Yorkshire accent has become a fixture in the department that will be hard to replace. In addition to her departmental skills Helen has been a stalwart of the school sailing club, has introduced ceramics, both as a club and at Sixth Form level and had involvement with training use at KES for some time. Outside of the classroom, she has been involved in coaching netball and in many trips, including leading First Year Camp in the summer of 2019. She has also made a significant contribution with charities, especially Summer Camp, which she has helped with every year she has been at KES. Her contribution will be hard to replicate. She laughs easily and, in contrast to her excellent academic credentials, is gullible to a fault. Both of these qualities will be much missed in the Biology office. and supervision for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. She is a much loved colleague and will be sorely missed by us all. We can only hope that her invites to go sailing in the Balearics will allow a number of us to keep in close contact.

Mr Barker In her three years, she has continually developed her classroom practice and moves on to a new job, in a school closer to home, with our thanks and best wishes. Mr Aellen

David Filtness

David arrived at KES in September 2012 fresh from postgraduate research at Cambridge, and brought with him all of the very positive attitudes to academic work and the value of his subject, that one might expect from someone with such an impressive academic background. Whilst moving from Cambridge to teaching Lower School historians on a wet Friday afternoon may have come as something of a shock initially, David threw himself into the job with admirable energy and a real determination to do all that was needed to become an excellent teacher, a task in which he has succeeded with aplomb. David has a very real belief in the importance of historical knowledge and academic effort in allowing individuals to live intelligently in a rapidly changing and

St. John de-Zilva

St. John de-Zilva has been the backbone of music technology expertise over the last two years within the KES Music Department. His passion for music tech, and its value in the creative industry, has engaged pupils and inspired passion across his A Level classes. Not only has he been invaluable in imparting his expertise, guiding students through the music studio running and recording possibilities, he has also run the Music Tech Club each Friday for our keen KES community. He has guided those pupils with a often confusing world, meticulous personal planning and organisation, a willingness to go the extra mile so as to allow his pupils to flourish, and a fabulously imaginative and inventive approach to the business of putting across historical material in an interesting and innovative manner. This has been the hallmark of his approach to teaching. His talents have also been appreciated by those from outside the History Department. He has been a caring, organised and hugely effective tutor, a cricket coach, a wellinformed and massively hard working Co-ordinator of the American university admissions programme and an immensely positive presence in his role as the KES Gifted and Talented Coordinator where his work with the Lower School scholars will, undoubtedly, bring forth rich fruit in the

flair for composition and studio sounds with great care, patience and support. Often to be found in the KES recording studio, he consistently demonstrated and communicated what an exciting world of work could be explored through music tech and his enthusiasm will be greatly missed by all. Miss Forsey

“Mr de-Zilva brought so many interesting pieces of Music Technology equipment to our lessons. It was great to be able to future. That said, David is first and foremost a historian of the highest order; his love of the subject has permeated all that he has done, and all who have been taught by him have good cause to be grateful for his academic talent and his dedication to their academic welfare. David moves to St Swithun’s School as Head of History in September 2020; it is very much their gain and our loss. Mr Diver

have hands on experience with the analogue gear we had studied. He organised an excellent field trip to the Metropolis Studios which inspired us for our coursework.” Daniel Matthews, Ethan Celinski and Joe Linehan.

Carolyn Rayworth

Carolyn joined King Edward’s in April 2016 and immediately integrated herself as part of the Main Office reception team. The school office is such a busy environment but Carolyn took to this really well remaining unfazed and calm - particularly in the midst of the early morning madness of reception! Part of Carolyn’s role, in addition to meeting and greeting, was the important task of ensuring that registration was correct and

Alex Karamitrou

Alex joined the Science Department as a Chemistry Technician in January 2018 at a time when the demands from teachers are at their highest and the weather is at its most miserable. Fortunately for us, the school had found, in Alex, an absolute gem. She hit the ground running and provided outstanding support right from her first day. She was blessed with superb organisational skills, a highly conscientious attitude and, above all, a wonderful sense of humour; I don’t think she ever stopped smiling throughout her whole time at KES, despite having to interact

Rojena Miah

Rojena joined King Edward’s two years ago and quickly established herself as an incredibly hardworking individual. She worked tirelessly to organise the Junior Science laboratories as well as the prep room. Although she was not at KES for very long, all her efforts will most certainly be complete every day, twice a day, and through this, she established many lovely connections with some of the pupils who we regularly see in the office. Carolyn has now decided that the calling of early retirement is too hard to resist so leaves KES with our best wishes. Whilst her plans to travel in 2020 have been put on hold for now, I have no doubt that her life post KES will remain busy and fulfilled. The staff and pupils at KES will miss her and thank her for her four years of commitment to the school and the team. Mrs Canty

with me on a daily basis. In the summer term of 2018 Alex made it her mission to get the Prep Room fit for purpose and dedicated many, many hours to achieve her goal; Mary Poppins would have been proud of her. She continued to offer excellent support during the 2018/19 academic year and, from a personal point of view, I would like to express my sincere thanks for all the help she gave me in the summer term with the editing and publication of the Sixth Form core practicals. leave KES at the end of the autumn term 2019 to take up a Fellowship post at Southampton University, studying old wrecks on the ocean floors. We are enormously grateful for the time she spent with us and wish her and her family all the very best in the future.

Sadly, Alex decided to Mr Cross

remembered. Her friendly persona and general positivity will certainly be missed by the Science teaching staff as well as her colleagues in the nonteaching staff. All our best wishes go with her as she starts her new career, training as a Pharmacy Assistant.

Lucie Planner

Lucie joined the nursing team at the end of April 2019. Bringing a wealth of experience from her orthopaedic nurse specialist role in the NHS, she was well adept at dealing with KES sports injuries, but found the rugby fixtures in the autumn term to be quite a challenge! She was well-liked by members of staff and Elaine Russell Elaine joined King Edward’s as the Head’s PA in September 2019 having moved to the south coast with her family from her home up north. Despite being new to the area and the school, Elaine coped extraordinarily well with the challenges of what Kayla Chen Kayla joined King Edward’s in September 2019 as a trainee teacher of IT. She left at the end of the academic year to continue her training at Southampton University. pupils alike and, although she was only with us a short time, will be sorely missed. Lucie moves into NHS bank work to allow more flexibility with her young family and will hopefully return to KES as a member of the bank staff when needed.

Mrs Cox is a notoriously busy term whilst learning a brand new role. Due to personal reasons, Elaine left at the end of the autumn term and goes with our best wishes and thanks for her hard work.

Mrs Canty We wish her all the best and thank her for her hard work and assistance with classes this year. Mr Mapstone

The Allen Grant Competition

In the year of the virus-who-shall-not-be-named, it was all change after some serious domination by Lake for the majority of the decade. Friday afternoons saw some superbly fought Junior House and a stream of events brought winners from throughout the six houses.

By February, Reynolds, Lawrence and Watts were out in front, with only a few points separating them. Then lockdown came. With no sports day, swimming gala, Green Power challenge, or First Year cricket, it was a very different summer term, and although we had fun activities going on, nothing contributed to the Allen Grant trophy other than merits. After furious collation of those Lower School merits, Reynolds reigned victorious for the first time in several years. Congratulations to all who took part and to the ever wonderful pupil and staff Heads of House. Now go and wash your hands.

Miss Smith

A year like no other: 2020 – The COVID-19 Year

With the school site closed from mid-March, students swapped ties and blazers for headphones and webcams as the school community moved with the rest of the country to a form of remote learning. Staff and students alike had to creatively adjust to the changes, finding methods of effectively turning home spaces into virtual classrooms. However, KES pupils remained undaunted, adapting to the new norm and continuing with classes, co-curricular clubs, House and sporting challenges but all in a different format. This certainly was a summer term like no other.

The school flew its own rainbow flag during the period of lockdown in order to show our solidarity for the NHS and many of our current pupils’ parents and former students worked tirelessly within this and other key worker sectors throughout the pandemic.

The KES DT Department’s laser cutter was put to good use throughout the lockdown, manufacturing hundreds of visors and pieces of PPE for NHS workers at several locations including: Southampton Children’s Hospital, Royal South Hants Hospital, and University Hospital Southampton. A team of eleven volunteers also took to their sewing machines, at school and home, to produce surgical gowns and scrubs for use by our doctors and nurses within the local care sector. Mr Baker, our Operations Director, did an outstanding job managing these projects, allowing KES to contribute to the community effort. In June, we welcomed back some members of the Fourth Year and Lower Sixth as we all adopted a new normality of one-way systems and social distancing in school. Who knows what will be our new norm in the 2020/2021 academic year!