KGS Newsletter June 2015

JUNE 2015

www.kgs.org.uk

NEWSLETTER

PRIZEGIVING AND GR ADUATION This year’s achievements and successes were recalled in a celebratory trio of prizegving ceremonies with inspiring speeches from Old Kingstonians Sarah Haycroft and Jon Alexander. (Go to page 10 for full story)

FROM THE HEAD

PA G E 2

F E A S T AT T H E F I E L D

PA G E 3

RC SHERRIFF ARCHIVE

PA G E 5

HEAD MASTER’S WELCOME As we move at a seemingly ferocious and unrelenting pace towards the end of term, we all might like to take time to reflect on this year’s successes and those areas where we all could learn from our experiences, or, in oldfashioned teacher-speak, ‘could do better’! That will have to wait, however, for whilst we all think that it would be nice for the summer vacation to have begun already the reality is that there are simply not enough weeks, days or even hours left in this academic year to achieve all that we want to. So, whilst time’s winged chariot hurries and harries, the opportunity for self and collective reflection will have to wait.

These last few weeks have seen lots of cricket down at Ditton Field and further afield with our very own KGS cricket festival ‘on the road’ against Tiffin, Emanuel and Latymer. Whilst on the subject of cricket we should congratulate Fourth Year Eva Gray on receiving her official cap from Surrey CCC. We are all very proud of her and this wonderful achievement. With a slightly different bat and ball, the U14 Rounders team are to be congratulated on becoming Borough champions, beating Tiffin in a very tight and tense final 7 - 6.5. The showpiece (of sorts) event that we

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could all participate in, in some way, shape or form, was the School 1st and 2nd XIs vs. the R J Sturgeon XIs, along with the Family Tennis, as part of KGS Friends’ Feast at the Field on Sunday 21st June. It was good to see so many of you there! Meanwhile the rowing season continues with the squads, especially at J15 and 1st VIII, despite disappointment at National Schools’, enjoying growing success leading up and into the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta, where we may just see a KGS crew (or two) giving it their all.

As the public examinations came to a close and we filed our final reports of the academic year, there was feverish planning for the School Prizegiving ceremonies, both junior and senior, as well as the Upper Sixth’s Graduation Ceremony, all splendid events that celebrated in style the wonderful achievements of the past year. And we still have the end-of-term final assemblies to come!

The last week will be no less busy, with all manner of enriching activities – and even some lessons squeezed in! Sports Day is the traditional climax to the always-keenly-contested House Competition, but this year it is being ever so slightly usurped by the fact that House Music is taking

place the following evening and will therefore be the final and potentially decisive act of this year’s fierce contest.

If you, like me, occasionally have trouble keeping up to date with the enormous number of activities, trips and visits that we pack into the end of term then I hope the calendar function on the new KGS website is assisting in allowing you to filter and focus on what you need to know, and that the development of the new KGS portal (Firefly), as promoted by Mr Wallace, assists in making news, letters and information just a few clicks away. Your feedback on these and other developments is as welcome as ever.

When the time arrives, all too soon, I hope that all staff, pupils and parents enjoy a wonderful summer vacation, but until that time comes let’s pack in as much as we can, for ‘tempus fugit’ and waits for no man!

Follow Mr Lehec @kgsheadmaster

Feast at the Field The weather held fair for the KGS Friends Feast at the Field and the annual fixtures between the RJ Sturgeon XIs, representing the past, and the School that is the heart of the event, along with the Family Tennis Tournament. Indeed it was a lovely day, with a record number of people, some two hundred, enjoying Mr Brailsford’s legendary barbecue and a well-stocked Pimms tent and bar. The burgers went down a storm, several gallons of Pimms disappeared in the blink of an eye, along with hogsheads of beer and an effervescence of soft drinks, the sausages slipped down a treat barely touching the sides and the ice cream went like hot cakes. (Note to self: more of everything next year!)

Meanwhile, in the cricket there were some titanic duels between bat and ball in two keenly contested matches. For the first time since the current format was adopted, the School won both games, the Second XI more narrowly, it must be said, than the Firsts.

Matt Maginnis, the captain of the School First XI, was presented not only with the match trophy but also the Rodney Sturgeon Cup and OK James Gordon’s very generous personal contribution for the cricketer who has made the most of his (or her) talent, a decision sealed by his century the previous day against Emanuel School. Ralph Harvey-Kelly, who had been unable to collect the prize last year, was also presented with his award.

The Family Tennis Competition saw twenty-four KGS parents and pupils play in a round robin format, and after seven rounds of hard-fought matches Thor and Lucas Askeland emerged victorious in a close run battle, just ahead of Alistair and Thomas Cutts, Alexis and Jack Housego-Woolgar and Thomas and Tom Romberg. All the matches were played in a fantastic spirit, reports Mr Morris, and he thanks everyone involved.

Our thanks to everyone who helped on the day, to all the players and officials, to James Gordon for organising the Sturgeon sides and the sports staff from the School, to Mr Brailsford for slaving over the hot grill and his wife for her help, and everyone who came along and enjoyed the day. It was a great success and we look forward to even bigger and better things next year. Netball, anyone?

K G S N e w sl e t t e r

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1LC Charity Auction Last half term 1LC held a class auction to raise money for charity. Firstly, we had to choose a charity from WWF, an Alzheimer’s charity and many others. We all voted (including Miss Collison) and the winner was WWF. We looked at their website and pupils prepared speeches to argue for which animals we should adopt.

After another vote we came to the conclusion that we would adopt a tiger and if we raised enough money we would adopt a rhino as well.

In the week commencing the 11th of May we all bought in items for the auction, including: pitch perfect sing along edition, mini hockey stick, books, games and many sweets. At the end of the auction, when the money was counted, we had enough money to adopt both the tiger and the rhino!

Miss Collison registered us for the adoptions and we received two small new form members! We now have small tiger and rhino cuddly toys as our class mascots (which sit on top of Miss Collison’s computer.) Finally, we had to come up with names and chose Howard and Vince. Continuing the tradition of the 1LC class auction we all felt very charitable and as though we should all do more to raise money and support charities as a form.

Gabriella Linney, 1LC

Rosclare Tea Party We were delighted to welcome back our friends from Rosclare Care Home for the final tea party of the year, held after school in Hawkes on Friday 12th June and hosted by members of Miss Brackley’s form, 2KB. We enjoyed some delicious home-baked cakes, prepared by some pupils who were unable to attend, before a fiercely-contested game of bingo!

This year sixty-nine second form pupils have contributed in some way to the tea parties held for guests from Rosclare Care Home, by hosting, baking, playing music or simply chatting - they should all be very proud of themselves! We would like to thank our guests for visiting, as well as Debby, Merci and Chandrika, who work at Rosclare and whose efforts in bringing our guests to KGS make our tea parties possible.

KP

Telethon Our pupils have been hard at work calling our alumni to update details, inform them of upcoming reunions and events and to promote this year’s appeals to support bursaries. Currently 5% of our pupils receive a bursary but it is our aim, through donations, to increase this to 10%. We are committed to opening up access to KGS with bursaries of up to 100%.

A large part of the call was to thank our previous supporters and those who give their time to the School. Here are just some of our 13 pupil callers saying a big “Thank You” to everyone they’ve spoken to.

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Sherriff project update: New archive catalogues launched

‘A class at Kingston Grammar School. Sherriff is in the middle column, third from the back, c. 1908 (SHC Ref. 2332/6/6/1)’

We are delighted to announce the completion of new detailed catalogues for the R C Sherriff archive which is looked after by the Surrey History Centre on behalf of the School. Sherriff, an Old Kingstonian (1905-13), was the author of the highly successful WWI play “Journey’s End” and was a major benefactor of the KGS Boat Club; in his lifetime he purchased boats, coached crews, and gave the land and money to enable the building of our own boathouse. Since his death we have shared in the royalties from his works. He left a wealth of unpublished diaries, letters and manuscripts, including an unfinished sequel to “Journey’s End”.

In 2013 a Heritage Lottery Fund grant was awarded for a First World War commemoration project entitled ‘To Journey’s End and Beyond: the Life and Legacy of R C Sherriff’ which will celebrate Sherriff’s life and cultural legacy, focusing in particular on his iconic and deeply moving drama, the action of which is set in a British dug-out on the eve of the great German offensive of March 1918. One of the main aims of the project was to create comprehensive catalogues of the papers which had previously been kept in un-indexed boxes and were in need of proper restoration and analysis. Project Archivist Zoe Karens was appointed to undertake this work. Zoe has spent the past year painstakingly sorting and cataloguing over 100 boxes of documents and has produced three fantastically detailed catalogues which really bring the collection to life.

These catalogues (refs: 2332, 3813 and 9314) are now available for researchers to browse via SURCAT, Surrey History Centre’s online catalogue of archive holdings http://www.surreyarchives.org.uk/CalmView/ (click on ‘Advanced search’ and select ‘catalogue’, type the relevant reference number in the ‘SHC reference number’ box and click on ‘search’).

The project continues with the History Centre team busy putting together a travelling display and collection leaflet, along with an online educational resource and Sherriff image gallery. We will keep you informed of progress and would like to thank Zoe Karens, Di Stiff and the other staff at the Surrey History Centre for the amazing work they are doing for the School.

The project also involved the commissioning and staging of a new play by Roland Wales to explore the origins of Journey’s End in Sherriff’s own wartime service with the 9th Battalion, the East Surrey Regiment. The play, ‘How Like it All is’, enjoyed a tremendous reception when a rehearsed reading with a cast of our own talented actors was given at the Rose Theatre in June 2014. We are looking forward to a full production of the play in the School’s Studio on September 23rd and 25th.

‘Kingston Grammar School rowing team, 1912.

Sherriff is sat on the far left (SHC Ref. 2332/6/6/1)’

K G S N e w sl e t t e r

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Water Rocket Challenge The annual Water Rocket Challenge at the National Physical Laboratory is a regular event in the Technology Challenge calendar. The event is very well attended by school, scout, youth and adult teams, with fun and enjoyment as the main focus. This is the 16th year since the competition started way back in 1999 and Kingston Grammar School has attended every one. This in itself is worthy of an award, but as is customary the main challenge is to fly pressurised air and water rockets made from old 2 litre plastic drinks bottles. Teams must fire them into zones to achieve extra points.

Flight accuracy was wayward to start with, but with some tinkering and weight addition to the nose cone we managed some very respectable rocket flights into the landing zones. Congratulations and thanks to our rocket team: Kevin Liu, Nathan Farr, John Gallop, Aaron Farr, Matthew Wilson, Callum Farr and Thomas Gibson. Long may our fruitful association with the NPL Science Team continue.

DF

Round The Pole Flying A new addition to the wide range of Technology Club projects is RTP flying. Students build model spitfires using balsa wood and decorate them with various insignia. The model planes are fixed to wires and fly around a fixed pole with tissue paper attached to the rear. An opponent then flies in true Battle of Britain combat style to try and cut the tissue paper. The levels of excitement are reflected in the noise of competitive dog-fighting carnage.

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Libr ary News Car negie Hook-up

The Carnegie Club was lucky enough to meet one of the short-listed authors via Skype as part of the shadowing programme, which involves reading, reviewing and debating the titles shortlisted for this year’s Carnegie Prize. Frances Hardinge, shortlisted for her sixth book, the dark fairy-tale fantasy Cuckoo Song, joined us virtually from her Isleworth home, complete in her infamous black hat.

Frances discussed the inspiration for the book – recurring nightmares she had as a child about family members being replaced by doubles - and shared some authorial secrets before treating us to a reading. A wideranging Q&A session followed covering topics from book covers to writing tips.

Congratulations to Eva Molchanova who asked the winning question about which actors Frances would cast in a film adaptation of the book and received a signed copy from Frances.

Cuckoo Song and Sarah Crossan’s Apple and Rain are KGS pupils’ clear favourites from this year’s short-list, but why not read all eight and decide for yourself?

Libr arian of the Month

Congratulations to Sofie Procter, this month’s Pupil Librarian of the Month. Sofie approaches every task from shelving to covering books to counting book tokens with a smile and has proven herself to be an invaluable member of the team always managing to juggle her many commitments, who can be relied upon to arrive on time ready to tackle whatever needs to be done. Well done!

Goodbye and Hello!

It’s goodbye to Mrs Rothwell and hello to Mrs Fursdon who joins as our new library assistant from Collis Primary School in Teddington, where she was the librarian for fifteen years. As well as taking on the rather daunting Duplicates collection, Mrs Fursdon, whose knowledge of children’s literature is second to none, is overseeing the pupil librarians and has enjoyed catching up with former Collis pupils, not least amongst our pupil librarian cohort.

HXC

Zoo Photo Competition Winners Congratulations to Issy James 2KC and Daniel Selimi 2KC on winning the Biology Department’s Zoo Trip Photograph Competition. Both received £10 gift vouchers as their prizes.

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Combined Cadet Force This term has been another very busy period for KGS CCF, with the cadets attending several high profile events, courses and public service opportunities, and further training activities coming up as we rapidly approach the summer camp season.

One of these high profile events was the Beating Retreat concert in Horse Guards Parade. Cadet Freya King gives her account of a very enjoyable experience: ‘After school on 9th June some of us got to travel up to London to see the Beating Retreat practice. This was an amazing experience, especially for those who hadn’t seen the Massed Bands of the Household Division before. We got to see the re-enactment of the Battle of Waterloo, hear the wonderful music and pick up a few tips from the drill. We all had a fantastic evening.’

Cadet King

Beating the Retreat was swiftly followed by a service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Richmond to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. Cpl Rohan Winder gives us his account: ‘On the evening of Tuesday 16th of June, L/Cpl Florence Haley, Cpl Megan Nicholls, Cdt Frances Hedley and myself attended a concert held to mark the bi-centenary of the Battle of Waterloo and acknowledge the work of the Poppy Factory. We cadets were in charge of collecting donations and selling raffle tickets in aid of the Poppy Factory and the veterans who help run it.

During the course of the night a variety of music was played by the Rifles Infantry Regiment Music Corps, along with six bugles. The music was very good and it helped us to remember the sacrifice of those soldiers who died in the battle. In between the music pieces, a detailed history of the battle was delivered, giving an insight into how events unfolded. A total of £2,500 was raised in support of the Poppy Factory.’

Cpl Winder

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The RAF section have also been in action, recently attending RAF Benson, where the cadets got the chance to experience flying and develop their aviation knowledge. Cadet Freya King, who was one of those fortunate enough to go on the trip, reports: ‘On17th of June, a group of cadets went to RAF Benson to go flying. When we arrived we watched the safety video and participated in a drill in case we needed to abandon the aircraft. We put on flying suits and got kitted out with gloves and helmets and were ready to go up! Our pilots took us out for 25-30 minutes and we managed to try steering and turning the plane, and did some touch and goes, learning that if the four lights on either side of the runway don’t turn red you’re flying too high to land safely. Sadly, as the cloud cover was very low, we couldn’t do aerobatics, which some of us have been lucky enough to experience in the past. Everyone had an excellent time and enjoyed themselves. Thank you to RAF Benson, all our pilots, 2Lt Robinson and Flt Lt Behnoudnia.’

Cadet King

Back on the ground, our congratulations go to Lt Snook (promoted to take up her new role as head of the Army Section from September) and 2Lt Robinson, who both successfully completed their Initial Officer Training Course, while Cpl Winder, Cpl Wilcox and Cpl Cutts, have all secured places on this summer’s National Cadet Leadership Course, a wonderful opportunity for the three JNCO’s to test their skills and leadership capabilities against cadets from across the UK. Finally, as we move towards the end of the school year, we look forward to more exciting activities for the cadets to get involved in, including a range day on the Defence Close Combat trainer (an electronic training range used to develop shooting skills), helping at Sports Day, and a CCF introduction day for the current Second Year pupils, giving them an opportunity to try out what we do in CCF and decide if they would like to join the Contingent next year. The pinnacles of the year have to be the eagerly anticipated Army summer camp to Barry Buddon in Scotland and the RAF summer camp to RAF High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. Good luck to everyone involved in these.

AEB

KGS at Edinburgh

THE ARTS

Final preparations are underway for the Sixth Form Drama students (as KGS Theatre Company) to perform Female Transport at CVenues (venue 34), at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer. The students have received their scripts and are preparing their roles ahead of a week’s intensive rehearsal in August. The venue have started to advertise and the fringe programme has been released to the public. (We are on p322!) Our poster is finished and we are working on the artwork for our flyers - a vital part of getting an audience at the festival.

Please come and join us at the Fringe, it really will be an excellent week. We perform daily at 11.30am from Sunday 16th August until Saturday 22nd, and tickets can be booked at https://tickets.edfringe.com/whatson#q=%22Female%20Transport%22

SRC

female transport

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Prizegiving This year’s Prizegiving was a cheerful celebration of the year’s achievements, an occasion for formality but also a good humoured sense of involvement. This mood was created, at least in part, by the contributions of the pupils themselves, delivering addresses and recalling their highlights of the year.

The Chair of Governors, Mr Dermot Rice, enjoying his first Prizegiving in the role, began proceedings relating the story of his and his family’s happy association with the School.

KGS’s watchwords, he said, were distinctiveness and independence, qualities which, along with secure and lasting friendships, gave our pupils a vital advantage in life.

To the prizewinners, Mr Rice pointed out that our achievements were only as valuable as what we did with them. We must learn not to be afraid to question facts, to have faith in our intuition and not to give up in the face of failure. We chose our futures, he said, and it was better, as Isaac Asimov put it, to make a good future than predict a bad one. Those winning prizes should be congratulated on what they had done, but must not shy away from the challenges to come.

In his address, the Head Master, also at his first KGS Prizegiving, said his problem was not what to include but what to leave out. As well as all the work of the classroom, there was a huge diversity of things going on outside it, and on top of that all the things the pupils were involved in outside school. Particular attention was drawn to the amount of volunteering KGS pupils did. They were excellent ambassadors and we were very proud of them.

For the first time this year, much of the reporting was by the pupils themselves. For the Juniors, Penny Cairney-Leeming (IAP) recalled the Penny Snakes 10

competition and how the staff had been even more competitive than the pupils! Thomas Sayer (2MW) reprised the speech on Sexism in Football that had won him the Gopal Srinivasan Prize for Presentational Skills. Tim Baker (2HN), in his first ever public speech, commented on how the academic stretch and challenge of the Second Year had been balanced with the fun of trips to London Zoo and Germany, and Charlotte Smith (3NR) chose to focus on the vital lessons that had been learned on Failure Days.

In the Senior ceremony, Lower Sixth formers Will Burden and Holly Munro recalled the many co-curricular successes of the year, from international sporting recognition, such as theirs, to the Cambridge Union Debating Competition, from Community Service and charity fund-raising to the triumph of the Communist Party in the School’s Mock Election, from the resurgence of Boys’ Football to the growth of Girls’ Cricket, as well as the successes of Music, Drama, Young Enterprise, CCF and the huge numbers taking on the DofE Awards.

Distributing the prizes were two Old Kingstonians, for the juniors Sarah Haycroft, GB hockey player and Captain of Surbiton HC, who had just won the cup and league double for the second year running, and for the seniors Jon Alexander, who had been a GB Junior oarsman in his youth and was now a leading figure in the world of ideas, promoting his New Citizenship Project and challenging the morality of our consumer society.

In her speech, Sarah spoke of her life in hockey, the progress of her international career, and the amount of hard work and sacrifice such a commitment meant.

Since joining KGS the focus of her life had been firmly fixed on hockey, thanks to the great coaching she had received – the perfect stepping stone, she said, to international honours. Her KGS hockey tour of South Africa had been an eye-opening experience. The difference in culture, the huge gulf of inequality she had encountered and, especially, her visit to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela had been imprisoned, had had a lasting impact on her. She urged the pupils present to use their time here to find what it was that they were most passionate about and to make the most of what KGS had to offer.

Jon Alexander talked fondly of his time at the school too, commenting on how much remained essentially unchanged.

The world, however, had never changed so fast and there had never been a more exciting time to be alive and to be young. KGS was a school where pupils were fortunate enough to be in touch with the world around them, and because of this those leaving KGS would have the opportunity to act on the Chair’s words and shape the future. He urged pupils to be hungry for experience and open to different perspectives, to build on love, friendship and support, and finally to be, and to believe in, themselves.

The speeches were punctuated by some superb music, performed by Penny Cairney-Leeming on flute, Lois Freedman on piano, Aoife Parr singing, the school jazz band and an ensemble of Robert Bern on guitar, Lucy Roberts on bass and Min-Woong Seo on drums.

They were all brilliant, and School Captain elect, Stephanie Semple, proposed poised and charming votes of thanks to the speakers.

By the end of the evening several key themes had emerged. The need to seize opportunities and experiences, to build lasting friendships, to have confidence in oneself and, paradoxically perhaps on such an evening, to embrace failure all featured strongly, and the message of the evening could be summed up in five familiar words – work well and be happy.

Gr aduation The glittering prizes continued to be bestowed at the Upper Sixth Graduation ceremony on 24th June. The about-to-become Old Kingstonians lined up in their black-tied, ball-gowned and perilously high-heeled finery to be presented with their school prizes by the Head Master and their leavers’ certificates by Miss McDonald in front of their parents, teachers and tutors, all dewy-eyed with pride.

The Head spoke movingly of this key moment in the pupils’ lives. Quoting from ‘Lord of the Rings’ he regretted that, being new, he didn’t know half of them half as well as he should, before giving the lie to this assertion by listing all that they had achieved and managing to work in just about everyone by name.

It was, he said, the depth of feeling and the warmth that existed between pupils and between pupils and their teachers and parents that was at the heart of KGS – more so here than at any other school he knew.

He hoped the leavers would stay in touch and promised that we would be there to applaud when things went well, and to help when things went wrong.

There was a very happy reception and a veritable orgy of selfies in the QEII courtyard after the ceremony, before the OKs left for their ball and the parents stayed for their own party, courtesy of KGS Friends, to which they and the children now suddenly belonged. The next KGS Friends event will be the Champagne Breakfast on results day, then the Quiz Evening on 14th November and the One Term On Reunions (one for students, one for parents) in December. We hope to see everyone at one or all of these!

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KINGSTON GR AMMAR SCHOOL

save the date…

A Charity Night of Comedy IN SUPPORT OF CHILDREN’S CHARITY, THE SHINE CENTRE

HOSTED BY

Dominic Holland AND SUPPORTED BY

Bob Mills & Ian Stone

16 October 2015 THE EVENING WILL BE HELD IN THE SCHOOL HALL (WITH BAR) TICKETS AVAILABLE DURING THE AUTUMN TERM

DOMINIC HOLLAND

THE EVENING IS IN SUPPORT OF

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BOB MILLS

CHILDREN’S CHARITY PARTNER OF

IAN STONE

KINGSTON GR AMMAR SCHOOL PARENTS AND FRIENDS WELCOME

PEOPLE Eliot Scales the Heights for Charity Over the first weekend of half term, I went to the Lake District to climb a few of the Wainwright peaks for charity. I went with lots of friends from my old school and this is now the fourth time that I have raised money this way, having previously climbed Snowdon, Ben Nevis, and Scafell Pike, which is also one of the Wainwright peaks. This year we decided to fund raise for Nepal.

On Saturday we woke up quite early, had breakfast and drove to the destination to start our walk. I was walking with my Mum, Dad and also a few of my great friends, but the person that I was most enjoying walking with was not even a person, it was my seven year old dog Chester.

We climbed five Wainwright peaks and enjoyed amazing views from the tops. The sun was shining all day and when we made it back after six hours we all soaked our sore feet in a freezing cold stream.

When everyone got back to the youth hostel from their walks we all played a massive kids vs adults game of rounders and it was incredible fun! In the end, the kids won - obviously!

I am looking forward to knowing what our challenge will be next year and where it will take us!

Eliot Crutchfield, 1LC

Eddie Medals Again First Year swimming prodigy Eddie Hunt has rounded off a spectacular season in fine style. Competing in last month’s London Regional Championships, which drew competitors from Essex, Middlesex and Kent as well as across London, Eddie had nine top ten positions, with three of them in the top five. Most excitingly he won a bronze medal in the 1500m freestyle.

This caps a very successful year for Eddie, which includes five county medals as well as the regional bronze. His name is beginning to appear in the English and British rankings too, with three events placing him in the top twenty-five nationally.

And as a final accolade, he has also been asked to captain the junior league team at Teddington Swimming Club.

Our congratulations to Eddie on a fantastic year, and our best wishes for even greater success in the future. We will follow his progress with the keenest interest.

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Omid and the Head of NASA So the day came to interview the head of NASA on Sky TV. I was extremely excited as this was oncein-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Charles Bolden, an actual astronaut and now the head of the entire space programme. As the train was bumping along the tracks on the way to the Science Museum, where the interview was going to take place, I was thinking of how I would present my two questions.

Before I knew it, I was in front of the Sky News cameras and directors, waiting for Mr Bolden to take his seat. My heart was pumping ferociously as I had never been so close to someone with such a high status - or somebody who had visited the secretive Area 51.

As the presenter started the show, I started to relax and now I was eager to ask my questions and see what adventures he had been on. I asked my first question (about his responsibilities) without hesitation. I was very interested to find out the pressures a commander would be under to ensure the safety of all crew members. My second question was about NASA and aviation pollution in the environment, and his answer really gave an insight to the new projects they are completing. For example, they are looking at levels of pollution coming out of the engines as they change to different fuels.

Another fascinating example was how they are working on supersonic flight over the ground so that in case of a sonic boom, instead of going down and breaking windows it shoots up harmlessly into the atmosphere.

The overall day was a great experience, I learned so much and felt extremely privileged.

Omid Alavi, 2KC Footage of Omid’s interview with Charles Bolden can be seen on the following links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD_UpEXEM7M http://news.sky.com/video/1504808/nasa-chief-in-thehotseat http://news.sky.com/story/1504799/hotseat-panelbrings-nasa-chief-down-to-earth

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Mr Gr ay Meets his Waterloo

The weekend of 19th – 21st June marked the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo and I had the privilege of being involved in a re-enactment of the battle in Belgium. 6,000 re-enactors, 300 cavalry and 100 cannons came together to re-enact the battle in front of 64,000 spectators on the field where two hundred years ago more the 48,000 solders lost their lives in less than twenty-four hours.

I am part of a living history group that re-enacts a British regiment in the peninsular war (1807 -1815). All our clothes are hand made from authentic materials of the time and we re-create a realistic camp of 1815.

This weekend we were camped in Hougoumont Farm, where the most brutal fighting took place and which is now the official British memorial to the battle. It was an amazing experience to be part of such a large and historic event.

SG

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TRIPS Buddhapadipa Temple On Tuesday 16th June, a group of around forty Second Year pupils embarked on a trip to the Buddhapadipa temple in Wimbledon. It acted as a supplement to the work the Second Year were doing in RP on the subject of Buddhism. In fact, it was the first Thai Buddhist temple to be built in the UK, so we were extremely lucky to be able to visit it.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a visiting monk, who led us up to the temple. I was surprised at how elaborate it was, its peaked red roof contrasting with the white exterior walls and the golden windows. He then showed us inside, where we were met with a great array of bright colours that had been painted on the walls.

Along with showing the life of Buddha, the walls held some surprising references to modern culture, including paintings of Superman in a fighting scene, with Charlie Chaplin making a brief appearance also. At the front were candles and statues of Buddha, the biggest of which was over a millennium old. The monk showing us around also taught us a couple of Thai words: ‘sà wàt dii kráp’ - Hello, and ‘khob khun kráp’ - Thank you. However, these are only transliterations as different characters are used in written Thai - these are only to help people learn.

After trying some meditation we were able to walk around the surrounding garden, which I found was truly relaxing and I really felt as if I was in a rural part of Thailand. It was surprising how separated I felt from the urban environment which was no more than 100 feet away. I very much enjoyed this trip as I became well informed upon the life of a Buddhist monk, and it was also very relaxing.

Toby Cole, 2KB

British Libr ary Twelve students enjoyed a trip to the British Library to take part in a creative writing workshop as a thank you for their contribution as pupil librarians and celebration of library competition prize winners.

Students were wowed with facts such as if all the British Library’s books were laid out flat on the ground they would cover England, Scotland, Wales and most of Northern Ireland and how the books are housed in an eight-storey building beneath the piazza and transported via hidden conveyor belts running throughout the building. Some, however, were understandably more impressed to hear of collector Sir Hans Sloane, who, in addition to founding the British Library, is the person we have to thank for bringing chocolate to Britain!

Patrick Hughes’ mind-bending Paradoxymoron and a variety of treasures such as the petri dish complete with the bacteria which led to Fleming’s ground-breaking discovery of penicillin provided the inspiration for group poems which students performed at the end of the session.

HXC

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Rounders

U14 Girls Win Borough Title Rounders got off to a flying start this term with the U13A and U14A teams warming up for the Borough Tournament by beating St George’s. There was some great batting and fielding from the girls, with the U13s winning 13 - 10 and the U14’s winning 13.5 - 11.5.

On Thursday 11th June, the U12, U13 and U14 A squads took part in the Kingston Borough Rounders Tournament. With glorious sunshine, the girls were up for the challenge!

The U12’s played 3 games in their pool, which proved challenging both tactically and in terms of skill levels. They lost to Surbiton High and Coombe A, beat Coombe B but didn’t manage to qualify for any play-offs. This placed them sixth overall out of eight Borough teams. The girls enjoyed the experience and there was some excellent play from Charlotte Hingham, Lily Mercier, Shayma Al Saraf and Jess Larkin.

The U13s played four games, beating Tolworth and Chessington CC, but narrowly losing to Surbiton High 7 - 5 and Holy Cross 7 – 4. There was some great batting from Sara Gotham Pardo and Katy Daubery and some excellent fielding from Kitty Griffin and Lexi North, and the girls were placed fifth overall!

The U14s played three games in their pool, beating Surbiton High, Tiffin B and Coombe A and qualifying for a straight final against Tiffin A . Thanks to some awesome batting from the girls, especially Molly Chesney, and solid fielding, the U14s are now the proud owners of gold medals and a winners’ trophy! The final score was a tensely close 7 - 6.5.

Well done, girls, and thanks for a great day out!

London Youth Games Hockey Tournament Three Second Year boys, Callum Farr, Tom Nicholls and Jude Boden, represented Kingston Borough at the London Youth Games Hockey Tournament on Sunday 14th June and won their pool group. They now go through to the Finals at Crystal Palace on 5 July, and we wish them and the team all the very best.

JS

Borough Athletics This year’s Borough Athletics saw some outstanding individual results from KGS pupils in the First and Second Years. Showing remarkable consistency, all four teams, First and Second Year boys and girls, came a very creditable fourth. Individual highlights from the First Years were Jamie Hughes and Emma Sloan coming first in the high jump and Clara John coming second in the 200m. For the Second Years, Katie Daubeney won

the 100m and Issy Garside completed a very good day for our jumpers coming second in the high jump. There were also 11 third place finishes. A special mention should be made of Thomas Bowser of the First Year.

He not only ran a fantastic 200m, coming third, but stepped in at the last minute to run the hurdles race and came third – never having jumped a hurdle in his life before!

K G S N e w sl e t t e r

SUMMER 2015

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SPORT ROWING National Schools’ R egatta

During the first weekend of the May half term 64 athletes from KGS made the annual trip to Nottingham for the National Schools’ Regatta. Competition is fierce at this extravaganza of junior rowing in the UK, with the very best junior athletes from all over the country coming together to race in one of the biggest rowing events in the British calendar.

This year, again, there was a record entry of over 5,500 competitors. Racing was going to be tough and for the first time since 2008 KGS left without any medals. Whilst the disappointment amongst athletes, supporters and coaches was tangible, there were still some superb performances from KGS crews.

KGS did end the regatta with two crews in finals, with the boys J15 4+ narrowly missing out on a medal and the girls J16 2- coming home sixth. As well as the two finalists KGS had eight other crews contesting semi-finals and two crews narrowly missing the semi-final cut off, the boys’ J14 Octuple by 1.67 seconds and the boys’ Championship Coxed Four by 1.55 seconds. Both crews were very disappointed but must acknowledge that the standard in these events has rocketed in recent years.

The boys’ 1st VIII, made up of Lower Sixth and Fifth Form athletes, took part in one of the best races of the weekend and missed qualifying for the final by three seconds. The boys raced superbly and with the whole crew returning for 2016, alongside some highly motivated athletes from the 2nd VIII and some highly capable J15 athletes, we can look ahead to some tough competition through the next winter for places in the 1st VIII. It cannot be denied that the 2015 National Schools’ Regatta was a very tough weekend for KGSBC, but rest assured we will bounce back with the incredible support of the Sherriff Club, the School and the KGS Sports Department.

PS

R eading R egatta

On the weekend of 13/14 July 65 students raced at the two-day Reading Amateur Regatta. On Day One, the Girls’ quad raced well to reach the final of IM 2 quads, where they lost to adult opposition from Mortlake Rowing Club, and then the final of junior quads, where they were beaten by an exceptional crew from local rivals Surbiton High School.

On Day Two, KGS crews were out in force, among the highlights was another win for the boys’ J15 coxed four, this time with Oliver Burden in for Hakeem Shittu. The rest of the crew, Cameron Spurling, Nathan Barnett, Will Holman and cox Sam Shapley, won their third event of 2015 after reaching their fifth consecutive final!

The boys’ 1st VIII had back-to-back finals in IM3 and IM 2 eights. In the IM 3 final they beat the University of London but in the IM2 final, just forty minutes later, they lost to an adult crew from Bristol City Rowing Club.

The IM 3 final was revenge for KGS after the University of London had beaten our 2nd VIII, who had beaten Southampton University in the quarter-final, in the semi-final.

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The J14 girls’ quad raced superbly to reach the final of their event, where they came up against one of the strongest crews in the UK at this level in Latymer. KGS raced hard and pushed Latymer all the way to the line but could not get their bow ahead.

The J15 girls suffered misfortune in the semi-final of their quads event when one of the girls caught a crab, which led to a broken oar. With KGS in the lead the other three girls very nearly held onto for the win, but could not quite manage it against the full crew from Thames Tradesmen.

The day was summarised as four finals, two wins and a broken oar!

M arlow R egatta, Henley Women’s R egatta and Tha mes Valley Park R egatta

This was a busy weekend for KGSBC with crews at three regattas. At Henley Women’s the girls quad was withdrawn through illness and the J15 girls were racing a year up in the J16 coxed fours. The KGS girls raced well and produced their best row of their short time together but could not compete with girls a year older than them. Down the road at Marlow Regatta, the boys’ 1st VIII raced superbly in the IM 2 VIIIs event, beating crews from Sir William Borlase and Bedford Modern School, who had had the better of KGS at the National Schools’ Regatta in May. A good step on for the 1st VIII. The 2nd VIII raced with two J15 boys on board. They had a solid race in the heat but could not repeat this in the final and finished in 6th place.

At Thames Valley Park KGS had over 70 students from the J14 and J15 squads racing.

KGS reached four finals. The J15 boys’ IV made it six finals and four wins from six events with a dominating performance in a superb final against Dulwich College. The J14 boys’ quad of Jimmy Gibson, Oliver Jackson, Aryan Bhasin, Freddie Harwood and Aadam Qureshi won a thrilling final and gained their first ‘pot’ for their collections! The girls’ J15 VIII reached their final after a convincing win over Sir William Borlase and finished third behind LEH and Sir William Perkins School. The J15 girls have been getting closer to the LEH crew all season but still not quite close enough to get in front. However, with SWP and LEH both rowing for at least one year longer than the KGS girls this progress is promising. The most unfortunate crew of the day was the J14 boys’ octuple. After a storming semifinal set them up for a final against Dulwich College, the boys were confident their squad could pick up another win. After 200m and whilst in the lead, one of the KGS crew caught a crab, sending his oar underneath the boat and making it impossible for cox Jonathan Christov to keep the boat straight. KGS swerved into Dulwich and, despite protests from the coaches of both schools, the umpire decided to disqualify KGS. Our thanks to the Dulwich Head of Rowing for his determined efforts to persuade the umpires to re-row the final so we could see who was in fact quicker. This sportsmanship is a reflection of our great sport.

PS K G S N e w sl e t t e r

SUMMER 2015

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