The Albanian 2012 by St Albans School

December 2012

Volume 28 Number 16

Contents 3 Editorial Annus mirabilis

5 Ins & Outs Welcomes and farewells

12 Prizegiving Notable successes

18 Creative Writing Poetry and stories

26 Creative Photo Photographs from a wintry Optic project

Contents

29 Drama Productions aplenty

37 Creative Art

This year’s cover was designed by Wilkie Hollens. Wilkie was a key member of last year’s Publications team, with a keen interest in photography and graphic design. He is now reading English at Oxford University.

Work from student artists

43 Music 2

A feast for the ears

54 Community The Albanian 2012

The School’s contribution to wider St Albans society

58 Creative Design Work from the design and technology exhibition

60 Features Pen Arthur updated

62 Academic Enrichment Lectures and extension activities

68 CCF Activities, camps and shooting

73 Trips

Albanian Editorial Team Editor Deputy Editor

Noel Cassidy Julia Grieveson

Student Editors

Harry Hamer William Floyd Charlotte Fraser Hannah Moran George Prew James Sinclair

Around and about

81 Sports Centre An account of the School’s major new development

86 Houses Final scores

88 Sport All the teams, all the games

St Albans School Abbey Gateway St Albans AL3 4HB Tel: 01727 855521 Fax: 01727 843447 Publications email: publics@st-albans.herts.sch.uk School Website: www.st-albans.herts.sch.uk

Editorial Annus Mirabilis As the Headmaster mentioned in his Prizegiving speech (p.12), it has been a remarkable year for the nation and, on a smaller scale, a remarkable one for the School.

Just as that huge building project was coming to an end, the opportunity to acquire the adjacent offices at Aquis Court came up. Difficult though the timing and the budgetary constraints were, this was a chance which could not be turned down, as it created perhaps the only chance to increase the physical size of the School in its city centre site.

While these developments were happening, A level and GCSE students recorded tremendous examination results, showing that the prime function of the School is in robust health. The academic focus is clearly maintained, while pupils have ever-increasing opportunties for further activities, whether in sport, CCF, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, or the Sixth formers enjoy life in the new Sixth Community and Partnership Schemes. Form Centre in Aquis Court (below)

Reports on all these aspects of the thriving life of the School can be

Aquis Court’s entrance (next page) found in the following pages.

3 Editorial

And now the old gym has disappeared and is taking shape as a new refectory, which will allow the hall to be properly developed as a performance space… With the sports centre and Aquis Court, the long term plans become possible, if not immediately affordable.

The Albanian 2012

The main feature has, of course, been the building of the sports centre. It was remarkable that the project was completed on time and on budget, but it was equally remarkable that the School continued to function perfectly well when a substantial part of the grounds was a building site, with movement of lorries and heavy equipment every day. Access to the orchard playing space was lost, the CCF was displaced and the languages department bore the brunt of noise disturbance. But we made full use of the public spaces around the Abbey at lunchtimes, with little disruption to the public, instead attracting many approbatory comments. The CCF found other places to exercise and the languages staff and students learned to enunciate their French, German and Spanish a little more clearly and a little more loudly.

The Albanian 2012

Editorial

New Arrivals September 2012 First Form

RAM, Justin RAZALI, Fadhl A ROSE, Atabay SAMARASINGHE, James M SEDDON, Michael SHERMAN, Zackery S SUTCLIFFE, Felix H THOMAS, Xavier R TYLEY, Owen R VICKERY, Edward T WALTON, Joseph A

Second Form

APPLEYARD, Rhys C LEIGH, George H XUEREB, Ben M

Third Form

Fourth Form

MCGORRIAN, Thomas C HARDING, Hugo A

Sixth Form

AKINYEMI, Oluwatomi APPLEYARD, Benjamin BABAYODE, Philippa L BONNER, Lucy M BRACEBRIDGE, Aidan C BROMFIELD, Anna C BROWN, Hannah C BROWNE, Fergus G BURLEY, Elizabeth E BURR, Megan G BUTTERWORTH, Sophie E CALLENDER, Georgina L CHIU, Heidi CLIFFORD, Katie COUSINS, Rebecca J CUTLER, Emily A DE VAUX-BALBIRNIE, Lucy C DIAMONDI, Michaela DUNCAN, Eleanor G EASTON, Judith EDMOND, Eric C FAISAL, Jamal FERREIRA, Emma J GARNETT, Milly E GREEN, William GROVESTOCK, Conor S HAESAERTS, Natasha HARRIS, Grace E HINDMARSH, Isobel G HUNT, Eleanor C JARMAN, Elena M KENNEDY, Oliver G MARTIN, Isla J MCCORMICK, Callum J MCGAW, Sarah-Jane MILLS, Hamish S MORAN, Lilian E MOSS, Katie A NOLAN, Imogen OMALE, Ufedo-Ojo ORTHODOXOU, Maria RIANT, Emilia L RYAN-DALTON, Isobel C SALEHI, Sophia SANDLER, Rebecca E THORPE, Michael T TURNER, Sophie L VICKERS, Molly WHITE, Katie L

5 Ins & Outs

BAVETTA, Danya BRICE, Tom J COOPER, Koray CRAIG, Matthew E CROSSLEY, Matthew A DAVIES, Ben J DEANS, William D FAWOLE, Adedamola FEAST, James R FREEMAN, James L FREEMAN, Sam L GALLIFORD, Joseph A GILBERT, Alex GRIFFITH, Joe A GUPTA, Aditya HAMMOND, James E HENEIN, Andrew M HENEIN, Anthony M HIGHAM, Michael A HOPPER, Luke N HOPPER, Thomas P HUDSON, George JOHNSON, Christopher W KALTSOYANNIS, Alexander J LAI, Maurice LAMBERT, James P LARSSON, Jack R LEAR, James J MACKIE, James D MANTE, Emmanuel S M’CAW, Thomas M MEIR, George MILLS, Zachary D MISTRY, Kaylan S MORRIS, Freddie G NUTT, James D OLIVER, Joshua W PHILLIPS, Christopher J RAJA, Jai B RANCE, Spencer H RIPPER, Adam P ROBERTSON, Charlie J SANKEY, Alec T SHAH,Veer SHORTT, Matthew J STEPHENS, Hugo W STEWART, William J

SUI, Leon TUINEMA, Lars VARGHESE, Joshua C VIALOU-CLARK, Jacob H WEBB, Niles A WILKINSON, Joseph J YAQUB, Hamza B YASOTHARAN, Spencer YURKWICH, James A

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ADIGWE, Ken ADLER, Daniel M ADOLPH, Sebastian H ADSHEAD, George C ALI, Sami ARTHUR-TINWORTH, Noah F AVRAAM, Alexander L BASKARAN, Branavan BENTLEY, Samuel J BREEN, Fabian J BRICE, Edward B BURNS, Samuel J CAFFERY, Tommy A CARPENTER, Hugo I CARR, Matthew A CHILDS, Louis J COOPER, James H COUDERT, Christopher H DANIEL, James R DE JARNE, Lucas H ERINLE, Timi ESIN, John FURLEY, Cameron J GANNON, Patrick GATES, Oliver J GILL, Theodore S GRAFT, Aaron GROVES, David HARWOOD, Charles HILL, Matthew J HUANG, Oliver HUBBARD, Oliver W JAGSI, Dillon S JOBSON, Sam O KALTSOYANNIS, Matthew C KHAN, Hassan K KHAN, Saleem KILCOYNE, Joseph J LAWRENCE, Darian D MARIES, Jake A MCCLAFFERTY, Murray J MCGUIGAN, Connor J MCKAY, George R MCKELLAR, Marley C MELLMAN, Oscar L MILLER-ROSENTHAL, Adam S NEJAD, Alexander D NEWTON, Thomas J NEYT, Mathias C NORCLIFFE, Daniel M OBADIARU, Ralphael O OFORI, Kwame O OLUKOTUN, Ayo-Oluwa J OLUWATUNMISE, Stephen O OYEBOLA, Kamal-Adeen PANAYIS, James T PARK, Nicholas M PARMAR, Nihal S PATEL, Krishan S PATWALIA, Karan S PAYNE, William L PAZZI-AXWORTHY, Thomas A POPAT, Roan

New Arrivals in the Common Room Ben Scott

Ben Scott joined the Chemistry department in September 2011 after studying biochemistry at York University. He is a real enthusiast for Chemistry and loves in particular talking about and teaching Organic Chemistry, his favourite area of science. His eagerness to see youngsters progress in science has led him to take a key part in the Salters Chemistry Club. A sportsman too, he has a particular interest in hockey and basketball, as well as, unfortunately, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

Lucy Benson

Linda Bonner

Linda Bonner joins the Economics department. With a BSc in Economics from Bath, this is her first paid teaching post, but all her career has revolved around jobs that contain aspects of teaching. Having previously worked as an assistant director for a local authority, she wanted to use skills she had learnt there in a new environment. Her hobbies include going to the cinema, music and reading. Her favourite meal would be something plain and simple, an authentic seafood risotto (but it would have to be cooked by somebody else!) She hopes to use her experience to contribute towards helping students choose between the myriad options available to them for higher education and eventual careers.

Ins & Outs The Albanian 2012

Mary Brereton

Dan Jewison

Dr Mary Brereton is one of two new English teachers, joining the School for her third year of teaching after two years at Hampton. She has a degree in English and a post-doctorate in 18th century history writing from Wadham College, Oxford. She took the step from academia to secondary school teaching because of the great variety of topics she can teach here, a relief from the intensity of specialism. Dr Brereton will be helping to run the Debating Society, as well as drawing on her experience to help the U6 Oxbridge applicants with extension projects. Outside of school life, she has been exploring the history of St Albans, having only just moved into the area. Dan Jewison also joins the English department as a newly qualified teacher. His previous career was in the field of sports fitness and nutrition, and he holds a BA in Theatre Studies and English Literature from the University of Leeds. He also holds an M Phil from Trinity College Dublin. He likes English because ‘literature expresses what we can’t express ourselves’ – and, of course, because it is the most important subject. His favourite contemporary novel is Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale and he also likes W B Yeats. In his spare time, he enjoys a variety of sports and snooker.

Chris Johnston

Tom Robinson

Joining the Classics department this year is Lucy Benson. She has a degree in Classics from Birmingham University and last summer did a Masters in Education at Cambridge. Prior to teaching at St Albans School, she has taught at King Edward VI Grammar School in Chelmsford and Aldenham School. She likes two things about her subject: firstly, the way an author can convey many different meanings with just a few sentences, and secondly, its ability to transport people to another world of monsters, gods and omens! She finds the pupils of St Albans motivated and enthusiastic, and you may see her helping out with the school plays, as she likes drama and stage make-up.

Joining the Geography department is Chris Johnston. He joins us from Redborne Upper School, having graduated from Durham. Teaching combines the two things he looked for in a career: something fundamentally enjoyable that involves helping people. He aims to build a good rapport with both teachers and students. He has been impressed with the enthusiasm of everyone at the School, especially outside the classroom, with regard to the contribution made to extra-curricular activities. He is a keen squash and tennis player and hopes to help with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. He is keen to coach a school rugby team in the future.

Joining the Biology department is Tom Robinson. With a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Warwick, he specialises in ecology, especially mosquito luring and trapping. His degree involved the research and presenting of information on various topics and this originally sparked his interest in teaching. Drawn to the School by its excellent reputation and large range of sporting and musical activities, he plans to get involved in many extracurricular activities as well as teaching. As a singer and oboist, he already sings in the school choir. He will also be helping out with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and hopes to participate in after school sports such as badminton.

Higher Education Destinations of Old Albanians 2012 Subject

James Anthoney Tomi Ashaye Jonathan Baker Joseph Baker Andrew Ball Sam Baloun Jonathan Bennett** Arran Bhatiani Manhar Bhojwani Dan Bigsby** Michael Bird Jordan Black Harriet Blackie Chloe Boothby Thomas Brooks Ed Callender Charlotte Campbell Joe Chalkley Simon Chelley Kate Christley Tim Constantine William Crede James Crookston Richard D’Rosario Henry Dace Sam Duke-Wallace Joseph Easter** Sam Eley Sebastian Evans Stephen Farquhar Drew Flahive** Sam Flahive** Nicholas Fleet Matthew Fletcher** Jasmine Fox Olivia Goldsmith Alex Goldstone Max Greenfield William Grimwade Alex Hadleigh Chloe Hall Dominique Hall James Harrison Kareem Hassanin Charles Hickson Wilkie Hollens Michael Hollins Daniel Holmes Nick Holmes** Harry Hopla Alex Hopps James Horne** Rachel Howell** Charlotte Hulse Jonathan Inglis William Jacobs Isaac Johnson Ella Kaposi Megan Kilby William King Christopher Knights Albert Koomson Elliot Krieger

University of Birmingham Medicine (5 years) # Queen Mary, University of London Medicine Imperial College, London Medicine University of Warwick Philosophy University of Durham Natural Sciences University of Bath Modern Languages and European Studies King’s College London History University College, London Law University College, London Mathematics University College, London Economics and Geography University of East Anglia Drama Nottingham Trent University Marketing, Design and Communication University of East Anglia Environmental Geography and Climate Change # University of Birmingham Modern Languages (4 years) University of Birmingham Geography # University of Bristol Geography # University of Nottingham Archaeology and History Brighton and Sussex Medical School Medicine St Edmund Hall, Oxford History and Economics University of Leeds Management with Marketing # University of Leeds International Development University of Birmingham Physics (International Study) (4 years) University of Liverpool Architecture University of Birmingham Economics and Political Science Oxford Brookes University Real Estate Management University of Birmingham Ancient History University of York History Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Mathematics (3 or 4 years) University of Warwick Accounting and Finance University College, London Mechanical Engineering University of Bristol Management Jesus College, Oxford Law University of Durham General Engineering London School of Economics Economics University of Newcastle Biomedical Sciences Oxford Brookes University Midwifery University of Durham History University College, London Medicine (6 years) Lancaster University History University of Birmingham Biological Sciences (Zoology) University College, London Natural Sciences University of Leeds Mathematics with Finance University of Nottingham History University of Liverpool Medicine University of Wales, Aberystwyth Sport and Exercise Science St Catherine’s College, Oxford English Language and Literature University of York Philosophy, Politics and Economics University of Durham Natural Sciences University of Durham Modern Languages University College, London Classics Lancaster University Business Studies University of St Andrews History University of York Politics with International Relations University of Nottingham Art History St Anne’s College, Oxford English Language and Literature # University College, London Spanish and Latin American Studies University of Exeter International Relations University of York Applied Social Science - Crime and Criminal Justice University of Durham Natural Sciences University of Nottingham Geography University of Bristol Ancient History University of Leicester Medical Biochemistry Leeds Metropolitan University Business and Management

7 Ins & Outs

Destination

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Names

Ins & Outs The Albanian 2012

Names

Destination

Subject

Abhishek Kulkarni Vikas Kumar Kathryn Land Harry Lavelle William Leppard Tom Lewis Jack Liggins Priyenden Logeswaran Angus Mackay Philip Madgwick Samantha Magnus Molly Maguire Victoria Margereson Katie Martin Jack Maycock Tom McConnell Kristian Mendola Freddie Mercer Duncan Merelie Christopher Milsted Sanesh Mistry Fergus Mitchell James Mohajer Jamie Morton Luke Morton Michael Mubiru** Oliver Ng Geraint Northwood-Smith** Hannah Oliver Roshan Palanee Rhys Parry Elizabeth Pearson Nick Perry Jonathan Peters Robert Phillips Peter Place Alex Pluthero** Nick Pomfret Helena Pryce Asif Rajah** Lillie Richardson Luke Roberts Jonathan Roche Eleanor Rosser-Smyth Philip Ruis Christopher Schon James Scott Kevalraj Shah Ben Sharp Alex Shavick Robert Slater Jessica Smith Jonathan Spencer Christopher Springthorpe William Stanley Philippa Stephens Christopher Stobart Alex Stride** George Tasker Madeleine Taylor Max Thomas Annabel Thomson Lucie Toole

Queen Mary, University of London University College, London University of Newcastle University of Durham University of Southampton University of Warwick University of Birmingham University of Bath University of Newcastle Merton College, Oxford University of Leeds University of Bath University of Exeter University of Nottingham University of Leeds University of Exeter University of Birmingham University of Southampton University of Newcastle University of Durham St Benet’s Hall, Oxford University of Bath Canterbury Christ Church Univ. Corpus Christi College, Oxford Imperial College, London King’s College, London University of Nottingham Oriel College, Oxford University of Birmingham University of Warwick University of Newcastle University of Bath University of Warwick University of Durham University of Manchester University of Bath New College of the Humanities University of Nottingham University of Birmingham King’s College, London University of Sussex University of Bristol University of Nottingham University of Durham Trinity Hall, Cambridge Imperial College, London University of Bristol University of York University of Southampton Trinity College, Oxford University of Nottingham University of Birmingham University of Bath University of Hartford, Connecticut University of Leeds University of Bath Worcester College, Oxford Pembroke College, Cambridge University of Durham University of Manchester University of Manchester University of Manchester St Peter’s Hall, Oxford

Biomedical Sciences Natural Sciences Modern Languages Geography # Geography History History Civil Engineering Agronomy Biological Sciences Politics and Parliamentary Studies Sociology Ancient History Ancient History International Development # Classics Geography Marine Biology (4 years) Mechanical Engineering Combined Honours in Social Sciences Classics I Mathematics and Physics Primary Education, Upper Primary (5-11), QTS # Law Electrical & Electronic Engineering Biomedical Science Economics with French Natural Sciences Russian Studies and International Relations (4 years) History Biomedical Sciences Accounting and Finance Politics English Literature Politics, Philosophy and Economics Mathematics Economics and Law Civil Engineering # Geography Medicine (5 years) History Politics History History Natural Sciences Mathematics with a Year in Europe History Computer Science/Mathematics (Equal) (Yr in Ind) Physics with Astronomy Medicine Mechanical Engineering Accounting and Finance Sport and Social Sciences Acoustical Engineering and Music Economics Chemistry (with Study Abroad) Physics (4 years) Classics: Greek and Latin Economics American Studies Music # History and American Studies French

Names

Destination

Subject

Louis Walpole Oxford Brookes University Dan Watt** Loughborough University Adam Winston University of Leeds Rory Wood University of Durham Kitty Wright University of Exeter Philippa Wright University of Bristol John Ye University College, London Brian Yuen University College, London Ben Zacaroli University of Durham Vasudev Zaver University of Manchester ** Post A Level Applicants # Deferred 2013

Real Estate Management # Industrial Design and Technology Economics Ancient History Flexible Combined Honours Politics Medicine (6 years) Computer Science General Engineering Medicine

The Albanian 2012

Staff Farewells Dr Guy Higby joined the School in 1978 when he was just 26 years old. Previously, he had taught in Lancashire and before that studied for his PhD at Imperial College, London. He joined a Science Department that was thriving and soon took on the role of Head of Biology. In this position he helped develop and steer the nascent Biology Department into the successful and well-subscribed A Level subject that it is today. During his time with the school Guy was particularly popular with Sixth Form classes where his unrivalled understanding and passion for Biology allowed students to access a whole wealth of knowledge and information to aid their study. He felt privileged to work with the intelligent and enthusiastic students that the School produces and took pride in seeing his pupils go on to take their place at university. Guy also ran the Upper Sixth field trip to Dorset, which provided many a Sixth Former with the opportunity to study succession and zonation. On one memorable occasion, after taking a wrong turn through the sand dunes, students were also treated to an anatomy lesson when they stumbled upon the naturist part of the beach! Earlier in his career Guy was an active participant in the Games Department, taking all levels and age groups. In the past he has taken football, rugby and cricket teams, the latter right up to his final year working at the School. He would later admit that although he thoroughly enjoyed this responsibility, he certainly will not miss having to wake up early on a Saturday morning during his retirement. Guy is an exceptional biologist to whom, after his long and illustrious years at St Albans School, the epithet ‘teacher’ does not do justice; he is an educator in the true sense of the word. He was also an absolute pleasure to work with and the type of person who would go out his way to help his colleagues. For this reason he can genuinely be termed a ‘nice Guy’ and will be missed by all who worked with him over his 34 years at the School. MJS

9 Ins & Outs

Guy Higby

Ins & Outs

Ben Clark

The Albanian 2012

When I arrived at St Albans School in September 2006 as a new Head of Department, I was extremely fortunate that Ben, having joined the School in 2004, had his feet firmly on the ground; he had established himself as not only a very successful Classics teacher, but also a valuable member of the wider School community, running cricket and football teams and being involved in various trips. His support, willingness to help and ability to gently warn me off unwise and rash courses of action were critical in enabling me to settle into my new role. Ben was professional in all that he did, motivated by a desire to ensure that all his pupils did as well as they could and that they enjoyed the experience. He was meticulous in preparation for lessons and of resources. He brought the classical world to life and made it relevant, without ever compromising academic rigour. Another string to his bow was his willingness to take on new challenges such as running a trip to Italy for over 70 pupils, teaching GCSE Greek and ultimately becoming Deputy Head of Lower School. Ben cared about every pupil and would always give them the benefit of the doubt. He had a thorough knowledge of all the pupils in the Lower School and seemed to know their names by the end of the first week. He made the role very much his own and was unflappable in the heat of battle, his calm approach helping to keep major events like a lost bag in proportion.Yet he had a knack for getting to the bottom of a more serious situation with some understated detective work. He was great company when running various U14 football teams, although a few of his refereeing decisions baffled even him. In Ben we bid farewell not only to an outstanding teacher of Classics, but also a wonderful colleague and a friend, and we thank him for 8 years of unstinting service to St Albans School. We wish him, Dina and Maya all the very best in their new life in Cambridge at the Perse School for Girls. DMR & DS

Dina Porovic brought a lively enthusiasm to everything she did. She was an excellent teacher who made good use of modern technology and the latest ideas to keep her lessons interesting. Pupils of all ages found her lessons enjoyable and effective. As a form tutor she was sympathetic and supportive, but prepared to be firm when necessary. Within the department she was always willing to help, readily undertaking many tasks, from updating schemes of work to organising trips. She was encouraging in sharing ideas with her colleagues and reorganised the computer-based departmental resources to make them more accessible. Her contributions to discussions about departmental strategy were valuable and thoughtful. She took on a wide variety of responsibilities within the school, ranging from the organisation of staff parties and BLR assemblies to helping with Duke of Edinburgh expeditions. Eventually she became Head of PSHE. She tackled this job with energy, rejuvenating the resources and workschemes and providing tutors with considerable support for the delivery of the material. The success of events such as the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Facing Adolescenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; conference for parents is a reflection of her organisational skills and enthusiasm. After being on maternity leave for much of last year, Dina left us to take up the post of Head of Maths at the Perse School in Cambridge. We shall miss her lively, bubbly, friendly presence. MOS

Dina Porovic

Sarah Hopkin

Sarah Hopkin joined the Economics Department in September 2010 from Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys School. Energetic, intelligent and forthright, she brought an enormous amount of enthusiasm and new ideas to the Economics Department. As well as being an outstanding teacher of A Level Economics, GCSE Business Studies and Economics Extension lessons, she also forged new links between the Economics and Politics Departments, being heavily involved with the mock UN competition and the recent trip to Brussels. Perhaps her most enduring legacy, however, will be her knowledge and experience of Higher Education, having worked as an admissions tutor at the University of Southampton. A huge number of our Sixth Form owe her gratitude for the countless hours she spent providing university advice. She leaves us to go to Beaumont School, having secured a promotion to Head of Business Studies and Economics in record time! We wish her well in her new post. IJB

The Albanian 2012

Ben Wall

11 Ins & Outs

Ben Wall joined the English Department as Second in Department in September 2010 from St Peter’s School,York. In the two years he has been with us, students at all levels have benefited from his meticulous approach to classes and his highly effective teaching. Colleagues have appreciated his highly organised and purposive approach to teaching and learning. He has contributed materially to the continuing success of the Department during this period. Mr Wall has also been a caring and patient tutor in the Middle School and his love of the outdoor life found expression at Pen Arthur and on a number of Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme expeditions. He and Pamela are both keen travellers and they are leaving their current positions to begin a new life together in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, where Ben will join the English department at the prestigious and expanding British International School. We wish them well in their exciting international venture. MAP

Melanie Hahn

In her two years at St Albans School, Melanie Hahn contributed greatly to the German department as well as the wider life of the School. She embraced the life of the School fully, participating in a First form Pen Arthur trip and enthusiastically helping to supervise a Gold Duke of Edinburgh training expedition in Snowdonia. Within the German Department, Melanie accompanied a Lower School trip to the Christmas markets in Cologne, helped with the Lower School German Lantern festival as well as Sixth Form debates in German against Highgate School. Melanie was full of enthusiasm and always looked to bring German culture into the classroom. She would often wear traditional Bavarian dress to German events and she even dressed up as St Nikolaus for an assembly on Advent. We wish Melanie well as she returns home to continue her teaching career. JRR

Prizegiving

Prizegiving The Albanian 2012

Prizegiving 2012 The Headmaster’s Address Chairman, Bishop Alan, Ladies and Gentlemen,

“love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; we have seen the best of our time: machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves,” just not quite as eloquently. What a difference a year makes! Far from treason in palaces, most of the population of London, it seemed, were delighted to stand in a June rainstorm worthy of Act 111 to celebrate the jubilee of a monarch slightly older but much wiser than Lear; her younger grandson spent most of the summer playing Prince Hal with no need of a Falstaff to mislead him, whilst Bradley Wiggins gave us a demotic Henry V in sideburns, and was cheered by the French for turning the Tour de France into another Agincourt. To be part of London 2012 this glorious summer was to experience an extraordinary tide of benevolence towards strangers, of uncharacteristic good humour and tolerance, of a natural courtesy for which the East End of London has not necessarily always been celebrated and it was to see supreme determination, ambition, idealism and commitment from young people at the opposite extreme of the spectrum from the nihilism of summer 2011. Follow that with a Paralympics that was a complete sell-out and received with a passion and fervour to equal the Games

NOBIS

N AT I

that preceded it and perhaps we really can start to think a little more benignly of human nature in general and of our nation and our society in particular.

If the past twelve months have not been an annus mirabilis, I’m not sure what a year would have to do to qualify. Last summer, the isle was full of very different noises: Croydon was ablaze, gangs of feral and larcenous youths were roaming the streets of our great cities and the Guest of Honour and I were lamenting, like Gloucester, in King Lear:

NON

The most feral creature we’ve seen has been the Essex lion. The Headmaster’s speech given on the occasion of the Prizegiving Ceremony in St Albans Abbey on September 18th

And then, even as the crowds were cheering the victory parades, another Shakespearian hero stepped forth: this time, Coriolanus, a boy raised by a terrifying and ambitious mother to be a single-minded, sociopathic warrior, capable of storming and capturing a foreign citadel entirely single-handed and defeating the enemy’s champion in face-to-face combat, but struggling in vain to win the hearts of his people – or do you think that’s a bit unfair to Andy Murray and his mum? For us, too, as a school, it has been a year of wonders. Can there ever have been a better year to open a new Sports Centre and what a superb building it is. Designed by OA architect David Morgan, who was also responsible for the Woollams pavilion as well as many smaller projects around the school site over the last fifty years, it is his masterpiece and will be his memorial. Sadly, he did not live to see it completed. But tribute is due, too, to our contractors, SDC, who faced a difficult site and a tight schedule but brought it in on schedule and on budget, and especially to our own Bursar, Derek Todd, whose work to manage the project over the past year has been little short of superhuman. He and his team, now much strengthened by Iain Thompson and Gary Douglas, did not pause for breath before moving on from one massive project to the next, at Aquis Court, which was also brought in on an eye-wateringly tight schedule by the same contractors. Taking these challenges in their stride, they have now set out

So we begin this new academic year with an immense, cruciform, brick building at each end of our campus – this Cathedral and Abbey Church at one end and Aquis Court, the former headquarters of accountants KPMG at the other. Sandwiched as we were between temples to God and Mammon, we have overthrown the tables of the money changers in the latter and made of it a place sacred to learning and the Liberal Arts.

I suppose if anyone is entitled to criticise the association between sporting success and an expensive education, the 4th Baron Moynihan, Monmouth School and University and Brasenose Colleges, Oxford, Oxford Blue and Olympic rowing cox, is in a pretty good position to do so. But in fact, that’s not what he was doing. What he was lamenting was how little investment is made in

Here in St Albans, we have seen something of the same phenomenon: our Woollam Playing fields, bitterly opposed though they were in the planning, have become an intrinsic part of the sporting provision of this city and the venue of choice for county, district and regional youth fixtures.

sport these days in mainstream state education. Olympic Chief Lord Moynihan Blasts Private School Dominance In Games traduced what he intended - which he deserved for expressing himself so clumsily - but it made a much better headline and pandered to the prejudices of the Around this, in upper rooms, newliberal-left chatterati and twitterati. ly-constructed facilities for Modern They, clearly, would prefer team GB Languages will help to ensure that to win no medals than have them our students go out into the world won by pupils from schools like possessed of the gift of tongues. this one. So Bishop, I trust you will agree that in our twenty-first century Between them, we have constructed an enormous six-lane immersion font and in three months, from the ruins of the old gymnasium, will rise a place for the breaking and sharing of bread, and sometimes, no doubt, wine.

The newly acquired Aquis Court, which now houses the Sixth Form and the Art Department

In the same way, our new pool is already in use by local clubs and children from local primary schools from dawn until well after dusk and others are beating a path to the Bursar’s door to use the Sports Hall, the dance studio and the climbing wall. To me, it remains a source of great satisfaction that whatever the changes forced upon us for ideological and political reasons, we remain what we have historically been, a school that is part of, and serves, the local community and our partnership work with nine local primary schools and the Cathedral Education Centre, who benefit from the expertise of our staff and students in a variety of subjects, and from access to our

13 Prizegiving

It makes a good one-liner to hope that the Olympic dressage will inspire kids from every council estate in Kilburn to saddle up their ponies in pursuit of Olympic gold, (I choose Kilburn because that’s where Bradley Wiggins grew up), but Locog would have been in rather a fix if Eton College, for example, hadn’t, some time ago, created a rowing lake from its own resources at no cost at all to the public purse. Eton gets no public thanks for it, of course; only envy and resentment.

The Albanian 2012

Thank goodness some of us are still taking sport seriously, say I, and so, I think, say a majority of our countrymen and women. While governments, including this one, continue to allow the selling off of school playing fields, all the highminded aspirations for the legacy of London 2012 are going to ring pretty hollow and team GB will still be needing in Rio what HMC schools seem to able to provide, whether from their own alumni, or from young people who have benefited from the excellent facilities our schools make available at little or no cost to the community.

to accomplish the impossible by way, we are keeping faith with our Christmas on the entirely enclosed first Founder, Abbot Wulsin. site of the old gym. There have been a few false notes For me, what has been happenthis summer: among the backing here on the School site over ground static behind the sounds the past twelve months has been, and sweet airs that give delight and corny though it may sound, a vision hurt not, with which the isle has coming to reality, and some parts been full, we heard the Chairman of that vision date back twenty of the British Olympic Association years. Together, the parts are about apparently lamenting the premaking St Albans the nonpareil of dominance of independent school day schools. alumni among our medal winners.

Prizegiving

specialist facilities, academic and sporting, is something of which we can be proud.

The Albanian 2012

Mindful of this School’s roots and heritage, that is a much more authentic relationship with our community than sponsoring some distant academy as we are repeatedly urged to do by politicians for whom this is the current ideological orthodoxy and therefore, for the time being, the only conceivable mantra.

up. The purchase and the conversion of that and the gym have been funded largely by prudent borrowing, beyond which it would certainly not be prudent to stretch the School’s credit, so to keep the whole show on the road, to avoid deferring essential routine expenditure and to complete these and the remaining projects including the conversion of the Hall to a proper Centre for the Performing Arts, to a reasonable timescale, we are reliant on the generosity of those, mostly OAs, who have already responded generously to the call from the Development Office. At the same time, our ability to offer a St Albans education to boys Headmaster Andrew and girls who have the potential to Grant recounts benefit from it, but whose parents the School’s could not otherwise afford the fees, achievements over has been significantly enhanced the past year by donations to the Bursary fund, though, of course, we remain far from the ideal of being able to offer places on a needs-blind basis.

We have been able to fund the Sports Centre in its entirety thanks to a windfall from the disposal of a unique asset – the remainder of our lease in the King Harry Lane site – an opportunity that will not come again in your lifetime or mine. Likewise, the unexpected appearance on the market of Aquis Court was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and though the timing wasn’t ideal, we could not afford to pass it

Of success and quality, which is, of course, what a Prizegiving evening is principally about, we have had an abundance this year. We do, of course, make a very good return on our investment in sport. I’m not going to list all the successes; I’ll just mention one, which I think deserves the palm for 2012. For the second year in succession, our intermediate cross country team won the English Schools Cup and, as national champions, represented their country in the world schools championship in Malta, taking fourth place.

There is a belief in some quarters that success and quality are a finite and constant commodity and that Academically, our Upper Sixth set you can’t have either except by a record with 95% of all grades at depriving someone else of it; that is A*-B. why success and quality breed envy As many of you know, of course I look down with Olympian disdain on league tables, but I do recognise that looking down on anything, with or without disdain, is much more convenient when you occupy an Olympian height.

To those who chant this mantra, it is an article of faith that all independent schools are so awash with money and under-employed staff that they can take the management of another school in their stride without sullying their starched wing collars or removing their tail coats. It does occur to me that, given just how much we’ve taken on in such a short time, there may be one or two of you sitting out there who have a sneaking suspicion that there may be something in that awashwith-money bit and are wondering why we need a Foundation and a Development Office to raise funds. If you are harbouring such uncharitable thoughts, let me just disabuse you.

Here at St Albans School, we are happy to help others begin to learn the habit, through the Primary School Partnership Scheme, through master classes and through sharing our superb academic, cultural and sporting facilities and I regard us as extremely fortunate that our location and history, which have deep roots at the heart of this historic community of St Albans, makes it relatively easy for us to do so.

Guest of Honour at Prizegiving was the Bishop of St Albans, The Rt Revd Alan Smith

Some of you also know that the only league table that I think can be taken seriously is the one barely anybody reads, in the Financial Times. This one avoids the usual pitfall of applying crude percentages which leads to three A grades being worth more than three A and resentment and we, as a school grades and a B, so it was instrucand as a sector, are phenomenally tive to see Harrow sixteen places successful. But the Olympic Games below us, Merchant Taylors’ twenty are the exception that proves the places down, Manchester Grammar rule that success and quality are thirty, Charterhouse forty and King not finite. It is true that to win a Edward’s, Birmingham, Highgate, gold medal is to prevent someone Dulwich and other great names else winning that one, but, as British trailing fifty or more places behind. Cycling, in particular, has demonstrated, there’s no rule that says At GCSE, we emerged largely you can’t learn the habit of success unscathed from the grading fiasco and win your own in the future. chiefly due to the fact that in a large number of subjects, notably, now, English, our pupils study for

the IGCSE, the international GCSE, which, though it is set by the same awarding bodies as GCSE, is immune from political or regulatory interference.

To illustrate this, I’m going to subcontract my conclusion to an OA, a former pupil of this School who knows a bit about these things. This is part of what he said at the opening ceremony of the London Paralympic Games. “What is it that breathes fire into the equations, and makes a Universe for them to describe? We live in a Universe governed by

We are all different, there is no such thing as a standard or runof-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit. What is important is that we have the ability to create. This creativity can take many forms, from physical achievement to theoretical physics. However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at.” That seems to me a pretty good summary of what true education is about and I’m not going to quarrel with Stephen Hawking, so let’s move on to a celebration of the achievements of those who are learning that lesson very well: our prizewinners.

This year’s chaos is an exact re-run of what happened in 2002, when the contributing modules sat over the preceding two years for the new modular A levels were added up for the first time and no-one could predict what the effect on the overall pattern of grades would be.

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That mess cost an Education Secretary her job and it is deeply depressing to see how little governments and regulators learn from the mistakes of their predecessors. IGCSE is to GCSE as independent schools are to the state maintained sector: a benchmark that can’t be fiddled with for political expediency. That is why strong independent schools are actually vital to our democracy; we don’t have to teach what the politicians decree. We are a constant benchmark, a standing point of reference as to what can be achieved, and therefore, all too often, a reproach to Departments for Education, which is why politicians of both sides find us inconvenient and with varying degrees of bluntness, rather wish, ideally, we’d disappear, or failing that, become part of the state sector so that they can fiddle with us, or, failing that, run state schools, called academies, for them, at our expense, but only on their terms, so that they can blame us if it doesn’t work out.

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It is also a linear exam, like the O level that will still be familiar to many parents. It’s therefore immune also to the intractable difficulty, peculiar to modular exams, of applying consistent standards across examinations taken by different groups of candidates, not only in different months, but different years, that have eventually to be combined on the principle that a given number of marks achieved in January 2010 reflects exactly the same level of achievement as the same number of marks achieved in June 2012 and added up to give a final overall grade.

Personally, I think we should stick to our mission, which is to excite the curiosity of our pupils, inspire in them a love of learning, encourage them to aspire beyond what they can achieve without effort and let the exam grades take care of themselves.

rational laws that we can discover Lucie Toole receives her prizes from the and understand. Look up at the bishop stars, and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the Universe exist. Be curious. There ought to be something very special about the boundary conditions of the Universe, and what can be more special than that there is no boundary?” “And there should be no boundary to human endeavour. When Isaac Newton saw an apple fall to the ground, he suddenly realised that it must be the same force that holds together the beautiful system of the Sun, the planets and the comets.

Prizewinners 2012 First Form Prizes

Fourth Form Subject Prizes

Achievement Awards

Progress Prizes

Gustav Brincat James Scragg Jamie Sanderson William Drake Oliver Barratt-Johnson William Foxton

Benjamin Plumer Dean Osuagwu Oliver Branley Timothy Bagnall

Prizegiving

Second Form Prizes

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Achievement Awards

Progress Prizes

Jonathan Ascott Thomas Goldstone Andrew Jennings Oliver Neusten Luke Vaghela Darsh Shah

Michael Davies Sean Kelleher Alec Rowe

Third Form Prizes Progress Prizes

Edward Hunt James Kirsch Owen Pearce Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero Thomas Alexander Thomas Sanderson

Matthew Halliday Cem Balci Stanislav Kudryashov Oliver Conway Sam Whittington Ian Davidson

Progress Prizes Thomas Matthews Ganesh Chauhan Thomas Galliford Timothy Le Couilliard Henry Jeffery Robbie Tominey-Nevado

Fifth Form Prizes Progress Prizes Jason Philip Thomas Willis Gregory Reynolds Timothy Lynch* Charles Minashi

Declan Houten Pius Jude, Patrick Semark Ben Harley Sebastian Barton Adam Thorpe Joshua Southworth Benedict Anthoney Christopher Russell Ganesh Chauhan Benjamin Chrisp Daniel Angel Matthew Lavelle Oluwaseun Adekoya Noah Lipschitz Robert Tominey-Nevado Milo Knights Henry Jeffery George MacGregor Harry Sampson Harry Sampson

Fifth Form Subject Prizes

Achievement Awards

Fourth Form Prizes

English Mathematics Art Biology Economics and Business Studies Chemistry Drama DT - Electronic Products DT - Graphic Products DT - Resistant Materials French Geography German Greek History Latin Music Physics Religious Studies Spanish

English Language English Literature Mathematics Art Biology Business Studies Chemistry Drama DT - Electronic Products DT - Graphic Products DT - Resistant Materials French Geography German Greek History Latin Music Physical Education Physics Religious Studies Spanish SG F Scase Prize for Languages Higher Project Prize *Governorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Award

David Cartwright* David Cartwright* Nicholas Stride* Alexander Macrae Edmund Wrigley* David Cartwright* Christopher Williams* Jem Bosatta* Thomas Kelly* Edward Razzell Thomas Chapman Hugh Myers* Alexander Kirsch* Joseph Zacaroli* Oliver Tasker* Robert Goldstone* Christopher Williams* Joseph Zacaroli* Michael Slater Thomas Kelly* David Cartwright* Nicholas Stride* Jem Bosatta* David Cartwright*

Upper Sixth Subject Prizes

Matthew Adrian Mark Pearce Nicholas Hill Shahir Ali Christopher Wharton Thomas Lee Kiesar Nahami Michael Pearson Thomas Hughes (2011)

English Literature Jonathan Peters* Mathematics Luke Morton* Mathematics (John Godfrey Prize) Sam Eley* Ancient History James Harrison* Ollington Art Exhibiton Prize Harry Lavelle Biology Philip Ruis* Chemistry (George Wishart Prize) Philip Ruis* DT - Graphic Products Brian Yuen DT - Resistant Materials Jack Liggins Drama Michael Bird Drama - Performance (OA Masonic Lodge Prize) Annabel Thomson Economics George Tasker* French Lucinda Toole* Geography Alexander Goldstone* German (EP Debenham Prize) Alex Shavick* Greek Harry Hopla History (Archibald John Eastcott Prize) Lucinda Toole* Latin Thomas McConnell* Music Christopher Springthorpe Physical Education Jonathan Spencer Physics Andrew Ball Politics Samantha Magnus* Religious Studies Michael Hollins* Spanish William Jacobs*

Benjamin Crampton Ayodeji Akintunde Joseph Redwood Alexander Johnson Dominic Armstrong James Barber William Barnes Vincent Chan (2011)

Lower Sixth Subject Prizes Kieran Vaghela Jonathan Phillips Katherine Butler, Patrick Shammas Robin Sykes Helen King Jonathan Phillips Jonathan Phillips Christopher Putman Paramesh Natarajan Emily Anderson James Pavey Alexandra English Robin Sykes Hannah Moran James Sinclair Harry Hamer James Sinclair Christopher Oates Isobel Thompson Daniel Heydecker Ben Reed Alessandro Lombardelli Kieran Vaghela

Upper Sixth Governors’ Awards Robert Brown John Ye Jamie Morton Christopher Schon Christopher Stobart

*Governors’ Awards

Special Awards Contribution to Parnership Prize Alexander Terry Community Link Prize Stephen Baldwin Josh Handel (Charities) Cup James Mohajer Extended Project Prize Wilkie Hollens Highstead Cup Michael Hollins Powell-Davies Service Prize Alexander Goldstone Prefects’ Leaving Prize James Anthoney, Annabel Thomson, Wilkie Hollens Head Prefect’s Prize James Scott

Christopher Milsted Simon Chelley Chloe Hall Philip Madgwick Alexander Wright (2011)

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English Literature Mathematics Further Mathematics Ancient History Art Biology Chemistry DT - Graphic Products DT - Resistant Materials Drama Economics French Geography German Greek History Latin Music Physical Education Physics Politics Religious Studies Spanish

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Fifth Form Governors’ Awards

Creative The Albanian 2012

Moments About a Leaver Pat Taylor

A new door opens as the old one closes; your final essay, sent off to The Board: ‘“The future answers no more questions than it poses” Compare/contrast: two hundred words‘. Freed from the order school imposes – the rules and expectations, once deplored – a new door opens as the old one closes. So forget the blithe conclusions, stating: ‘What this shows, is…’ and accept that learning brings its own reward: the future answers no more questions than it poses. For each poet or musician, who composes something good yet flawed, for each sportsman who, outscoring, gets outscored, a new door opens as the old one closes; as each force has its equal, that opposes, so each moment has a balance that’s explored. The future answers no more questions than it poses and though no life can be a bed of roses it’s better to be busy than admit you’re bored: a new door opens as the old one closes. Answer the future, all it proposes: that door’s ahead, and all beyond it, yours. A poem written for the Leavers’ Graduation Ceremony

Bianca’s Dilemma James Kirsch

Young and friendly, unlike her shrewish sister, But is she ready for courting a mister? To marry or no, Bianca does not mind; She’ll only wed if the perfect man she finds. Gremio wins the father with offers of gold; Can this make up for the fact that he’s so old? He wants to marry in old age for a last bit of fun, To go out with a bang, like a shot from a gun.

Lucentio, dressed as a scholar to woo her heart, Has to teach her Latin; doesn’t know where to start, So gives a message through the foreign lines; She toys with him in response to his clever signs. Tranio, Lucentio’s servant who’s after the prize, Little does Bianca know he too is in disguise. Helping out his master, all part of the plan, One to win her heart; the other her old man.

Silence, The drumming of the black keys, My fingers pumping – up down, up down, The bold black words emerging from The blank screen. The repetitive thud, heavily hammering, Gradually emulating my eloquent thoughts. The greasy keys cause my fingers to slip and slide. Sweat inevitably passes from my fingers to cover The black keys. Black, My father’s black, prestigious gown, That intimidates onlookers, but not me. The bleakness and dullness remind him of His daily routine. On entering the courtroom, heads turn To see the sweeping lawyer, Fastidiously and meticulously arranging his notes. The gown blows involuntarily in the wind, Its complexion matching that of his shiny shoes. My grandfather’s shiny stethoscope, Connected to the red rubber buds that penetrate his ears, Whilst he leans in to hear the beating of life. On and on it would echo. Its cold steely rim against the soft yielding skin. His soft, gentle, bedside manner, Reflecting his mood. He would gently hold it in his soft wrinkled hands, probing his patient till all was done. Then back it would be placed, Loyally guarding the chair until it was next required. He no longer practises, Yet still, my fingers pump – Up down, up down.

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Which one will Bianca choose, if she can at all? Will her father do it for her, making the final call? Will she go for Tranio who offers most gold, Or for Gremio, even though he’s so old? Read on in the book to see the story unfold.

Harry Sampson

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Hortensio’s dressed as a teacher to get the girl; Midway through his lesson, his plan starts to unfurl. He tries to win her by playing the lute, But she’d rather he didn’t and gives him the boot.

Tricks of the Trade

The Venturer

Creative

Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero

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he vessels collided before toppling to the ground violently in a cacophony of explosions. Just an average day stacking tins at Worthington’s for Jack, nothing special, nothing new. The manager’s sharp, hard-working figure strolled past him. “Better luck next time, Thompson!” He pointed at Jack’s collar, “Tie, do it up properly, now!” Jack sighed as Mr McGregor snuck past him, smiling wickedly to himself. “Yes sir, I’ll do it up now.” He bent down to pick up the tins of tomato soup, two at a time. Jack kept an ear on the radio booming across the store. It was virtually the only thing he could look forward to in this hell-hole. An articulate presenter calmly read the news, in which there was nothing new, bar one article which made Jack sit up, “And in other news, the Government has launched another effort in a desperate bid to find out if there is life elsewhere. Previous space missions have failed dramatically, due to an underwhelming response, however, the British Space Agency only requests five inexperienced astronauts for this process, and are hoping that this push will be enough to send the Venturer to Mars...” At this, Jack dropped the soup tins he was holding and snapped back into the real world. Inexperienced astronauts. Inexperienced astronauts. He knew that this was not what the BSA really meant, they obviously were desperate, and needed anybody, meaning anybody, that they could get. Another employee, Eugene, walked past him, staring at the soup cans on the floor. “Getting a bit excited by that job, are you Jack?” He smiled mockingly at Jack, whilst putting back a tub of peanut butter. “Anyway, who could blame you? Of course being an astronaut is much better than being a shelfstacker, Jack” he giggled and muttered to himself, marching off. “Honestly, this stuff just writes itself.” Jack looked on enviously. He hated the job at Worthington’s with passion. He would do anything to get out of there. Jack had always told himself that, but how prepared would he be just to walk out of here? After all, he needed to consult his parents, and the job at Worthington’s paid well. Without a doubt, he knew what he had to do; picking his coat up off of the rail, he marched out of the store. He was aware that customers at the various tills were looking at him, as well as the various employees, but he didn’t care. He was going to be out of this dump as soon as possible. Suddenly, Mr McGregor appeared from the sliding doors. “Mr Thompson, you come back here right now!” Jack shook his head, “I’m sorry Mr McGregor; I can’t do that.” He stood defiantly outside the store. “You come back here right now Thompson, or your contract is terminated!” Mr McGregor looked livid, and his face was red with anger, “You’re fired if you don’t come back here right this instant!” He knew that what he was about to do could change his life forever, but he didn’t care. “Goodbye Mr McGregor.” Jack could barely hear his thoughts above the noise. The music was beyond painful for his ears, but it was fun to wind up his father and relax for once. He knew his father would never come in with music like this on. Eventually the blaring became too much, and he turned the music down. He had been like this for three hours trying to work out what his CV should say. At the moment he only had two qualifications on it; the shelfstacking jobs at Worthington’s, for which he was almost certain he wouldn’t be able to get a reference and the low B he had achieved at GCSE level in Physics. He remembered being hugely fond of the B, the only good thing he had ever really achieved at school.

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21 Creative

He was still pondering the application form when suddenly the door burst open, making Jack jump. It was his father, wearing a v-neck jumper and looking like he usually did: stressed. His few strands of hair were smoothed back with sweat, and his eyes looked weak, and scared. “Is it true then, Jack?” He asked anxiously, sweat forming on his forehead. “Is what true, dad?” “You want to become an astronaut?” Jack nodded. “I see,” his father nodded solemnly, “You’re just going to leave all your life behind to go up into space? I tell you, that job pays less than being a bus driver. It’s 2050 Jack, not 1966. Being an astronaut sucks.” “I know, but I’m prepared to take the risk of leaving my life behind, if I even have one, just so I can get out of this place.” At that his father seemed appalled, and he reeled back in shock. He sighed and stared, confused, at his own son. “What are you son? A realist or an optimist?” “I’d say I’m a realist.” “Then start acting like one.” With that his father stormed out, angry, but more so disappointed with his own blood. He couldn’t understand why his father was so angry about him becoming an astronaut. After all, it wasn’t that bad a job. Sure, the prestige of the job had decreased rapidly since the ‘twenties, but it was still a perfectly acceptable job, surely? He shrugged, and put the music back on. Jack arrived late to the job interview. His father had refused to take him in the car all the way up to Londonport, which, in fairness, was a long way away. They had had a lengthy argument about what the actual reason for his father not taking him was, before his mother had surrendered, and had bundled him in the car. Jack felt sick, so he kept having to remind himself why he was going to try to get the job. I’m gonna get out of that place, I’m gonna get out of that place, I’m gonna get out of that place. He kept repeating this, almost as a religious mantra, until the car finally pulled up at the massive warehouse. His mum dusted off his suit, before wishing him luck. “Whatever your dad says, Jack, I’m very proud of you,” They both smiled at each other, before Jack gave his mum a kiss. “I’ll promise I’ll do you proud. And anyway, I don’t know why dad’s getting so tetchy about it, it’s not like it’s a major thing...” His mother cut him short, “He’s got his reasons.” Jack nodded, wondering what his mother meant by that. “I’ll pick you up later,” she said, changing the subject, “Bye for now,” “Bye.” The car manoeuvred before his mum disappeared into the distance. “Tell me Jack, where do you see yourself in three years time?” He didn’t know how to answer that one. Was it him, or had the temperature been raised by 30 degrees in here? Anyway, it wasn’t like this was one of the hardest job interviews he had faced, but he just wasn’t in the right mood for this. “Jack..?” The interviewer was getting impatient. However, it seemed that for the whole interview, he had had Jack’s best interests at heart. The BSA was obviously very desperate for somebody, because the interviewer was being kind to him. Where did he see himself in three years time? Stacking shelves at Smith’s or on a spacecraft? He knew which one he preferred, just not which one was more realistic. “Not stacking shelves at a supermarket, that’s for sure!”

Creative The Albanian 2012

His spontaneous and unexpected wit made the interviewer chuckle, and he proceeded to pose the question to Jack differently. “What do you want to achieve in life?” Jack’s smile turned to a deeply serious expression. “I want to have been successful, having proven my dad wrong. I want to go up there,” he signalled at the ceiling, “and make a difference.” He was deadly serious, and the interviewer knew it. He nodded. The interviewer had asked his final question. They both got up. “Oh... and Jack?” “Yes?” “What did you get that GCSE in?” “Physics.” At that his eyes lit up. He shook Jack’s hand, said goodbye, and exited the room. Jack had got the job. He couldn’t believe it when he opened the envelope. The BSA had chosen him, the shelf-stacker, the one-time B grade Physicist, to go up into space! His mum had been gloriously ecstatic. His father, on the other hand... He had meant what he had said in the first interview, and he was dead certain that he would achieve it. Despite what his dad had said, he was probably one of a select few people in the world who valued that job highly. It was far more exciting than stacking shelves; that was for sure. A couple of days later, Jack went up the stairs to see his dad crying through the crack in his parents’ door. “Dad?” He sobbed, “What? Go away.” Jack opened the door. His father held a pristine picture of a middle-aged man in his hand. He instantly recognised it, it was his grandfather. Why would he be crying over him though? “What’s wrong dad?” “Your grandpa, he was a great man.” “I know dad.” His grandfather had fought in the war, or something like that, but nothing amazingly heroic. He wondered why his father was bringing this up. “Your grandpa, he was an astronaut,” At this Jack’s eyebrows shot up. Where was his father going with this? “He died in the 2012 Apollo crash.” his father burst back into tears, “You’ve got to understand Jack, I didn’t want you to fail, I just didn’t want you to suffer the same fate.” “I understand dad.” A tear came to Jack’s eye but he swallowed it down, “But I’m still going out there. I’m going to do him proud, I’m going to do you proud, I’m going to go into space.” He could have whispered it, it was so defiant. He and his dad talked, and occasionally broke into tears. They hugged, they wept, and by the end of it, he and his father had agreed that he would go up to space. Just as Jack was leaving the room, his father took him by the shoulder. “Jack, I’m proud of you.” Youngest spaceman ever makes a big impact It took almost no time for Jack Thompson to make a name for himself, after stepping on the Venturer into space. At 21 years old when he first stepped on the craft, he has become the youngest astronaut ever, and is one of the 5 people who will be searching for new life in space, in the coming 12 years. The Herald wishes Jack and his crew the best of luck. Jack had these words to say, “All my life, I’ve just been determined to do this, to go out there, and prove everybody wrong, the people who said I couldn’t do it. I hope to bring prestige to the astronaut vocation.”

I Come From Rahul Patel

I am from the red moon that shines in the cold night. I am from the twin suns from my bus when the sky is still black. I am from the landscape covered with frosty white icing. I am from the buzzing vein of England. I am from the school that was once a prison and in some ways has not changed. I am from the cold wind that burns the skin when it is touched. I am from the place where seconds become minutes and minutes become hours. I am from the moonlit street in which trees always fall.

Tom Dilley

I woke up slowly, listening to the silence. The birds weren’t singing as they usually do. I tugged at the curtains, letting the sunshine pour in and wash over me. Something wasn’t right.

I scrambled downstairs and leapt out of the house. Clump. Click. Clump. The noise of my footsteps suddenly became terrifyingly loud, almost deafening. Everyone had gone, nowhere to be seen. I tried calling people, but their answer phone message drummed into my head. What has happened to the world? The phone wasn’t ringing, The radio wasn’t singing, My alarm wasn’t buzzing, The world was on standby.

Time

Matthew O’Connor It is an elegant blue like the South-Pacific Ocean on a hot summer’s day. It sounds like the Ukrainian Bell Choir playing beautifully on Christmas Eve. It smells like a summer night when the stars are out to play. It feels like an out of control crane, swinging from side to side. It tastes like a freshly iced doughnut that you can’t wait to get your teeth into. Its wish would be to be a clock tower, to show where it takes part. Its dream would be a holiday, because it is an old man that never stops working.

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Everything was eerily still. The trees weren’t swaying, The birds weren’t tweeting, The cars weren’t revving, The world wasn’t turning.

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Empty World

Sad Symphony of Angels April 19th 1937 Maddy Taylor

Creative

he fire spat at me like the devil his-self. Only the corners of the last picture remained, curled and charred. Mama was wailing as she returned with another picture, smaller this time; must have been the one from Daddy’s pocket because it was all ragged and dirty around the edges. She waggled her fist at the old man, swallowed in fire, shaking tears from her eyes. They hung on her chest like the sweat on a cold glass of lemonade. I looked back at her in time only to see the billow of her dress as she continued the hunt. Stuffed with excess fuel, the fire consumed this picture faster than the others. His sallow skin was ablaze; short hair already having been chewed away. Mama had always said that Roosevelt was a great man; said she could tell on account of his strong nose and his powerful voice. But as I watched that nose shrivel into ash, I didn’t think he was a great man at all. And neither did Mama, not anymore. Not since Noah. As the fire jumped and the floorboards cracked under Mama’s feet, all I could think of was that night.

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The mosquitos whined around me as I finally broke into the field. Nelson had come to find me. Noah was in trouble. None of us knew what for, just that he’d been hustled into a truck an hour earlier. From one end of the small field to the other was a sea of white necks and hair ruffled by the wind. They made such a ruckus that the mosquito’s singing cut out. They were all hollering, but I couldn’t understand for what. The last thing I wanted to do was step on any of these white man’s toes. I didn’t want to give them any reason to look on me. So I skirted around the crowd, where more peckerwoods was stumbling from their trucks and into the field. Daddy always told me to stay away from that sour smell on their breath, so I slowed myself until they’d merged with the others. Even at the edges it was hard to see and I started to get more and more afraid of what they was doing to Noah at the front of the crowd. He didn’t get along with the white folk. Mama always said he had too much talk for his own good. But Noah wouldn’t have anyone’s hand clamped over his mouth. Not even God’s. The men were shouting louder as I shoved myself through a gap in their sweaty bodies. Though at first it was hard to tell, it was definitely Noah down there in the dirt. His eye was a deep purple, swollen shut and weeping, a big smear of clotted blood across his chin. If it was possible, my heart pumped faster. It was the most terrible thing I’d ever seen. ‘Grab the nigger girl!’ someone shouted, and before I could react I felt a pair of hot hands grab at my arms. I shook at them, shrieking and kicking as he tried to pull me towards him. No one was going to stop me getting to Noah. I just wanted to get to Noah. ‘Ali, get out of here!’ Noah’s voice was raspy and shaking. His hands were bound behind his back with a thick brown belt. Bone white rope swung from the tree above him. This had happened three months ago to a young boy at church. They were going to lynch my brother. I really screamed then, a scared and uncontrolled scream that caused the pecks to jibe and holler. Tears ran down my cheeks. My chapped elbow opened up and bled as I struggled. ‘Noah! Get up Noah! You have to get up and run!’ He shook his head at me and I could already see death in his eyes. A big man with a grisly beard hauled him up and set him on top of a truck, just below the large oak. I knew that man; he ran the town store. Mr Wesley. Pleas ran out of my mouth, asking him to stop. My brother didn’t know better. I’d make sure my Mama gave him a good seeing to. He’s real polite. Would never touch no white lady. Anything. ‘Your hollerin’ aint gonna do nothing, nigger. He’s gettin’ exactly what he deserves.’ He laughed as he wound the length of rope around Noah’s throat. ‘You tell Mama there ain’t nothing that’s gonna change around here, Ali. Tell her to move y’all up north, up to where Daddy said they was makin’ a change.’ ‘No Noah! Don’t you talk to me like you ain’t comin’ with us! Please Mr Wesley!’ I sobbed. The truck revved. Then shot forward. Noah dropped like a stone and bounced with a terrifying crack. His legs

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jumped around and his one open eye rolled back into his head. He was making an awful sucking sound, his tongue bouncing in and out of his mouth. I kicked out at the man behind me and felt him buckle. His grip let loose as he wheezed out a clattering breath. Falling forward, my hands and heavy pants scattering the dust, I lost sight of Noah. I scrambled up, blinking my clouded eyes, and caught hold of his swinging legs, tried to heave him up, to give him air. His gasp was loud and hungry. For a second, I thought we were all saved. And then I was yanked away, my hair ripping from its roots, and thrown into the dust. The smell of rubber filled my nose as the man’s sole pressed to my face. Pebbles bit into my cheek and the sucking sound grew louder, my wail joining it in a screeching harmony. The foot lifted from my face as the man stumbled in his drunkenness. My legs felt hollow, weak. I turned my face to see Mr Wesley heaving a big green barrel out of his truck and sloshing the liquid over Noah. His legs still flailed. I felt blood rushing through me, roaring in my ears. A scream scraped its way up my throat. A match flared against Noah’s skin and consumed him. Only the thin whisper of a gasp escaped his lips and then the entire field was silent, just for a second. My yell sent waves through the quiet. ‘No! Noah!’ And then a hail of hoots and hollers struck down my lone cry of sorrow. I rocked myself against a dusty root and whimpered as Noah’s still body burned. The smell of charred meat filled the dense night air; it had a sick metallic tinge. A few of the peckerwoods took a kick at me as they stumbled past. And I sat there. And I took it. For Noah. It wasn’t long before I heard Mama’s screams join my own and Daddy’s cry of grief. We bathed Noah in the sad symphony of angels and though fire battled against his heavenly path, I felt in my heart he’d make it there. I pulled Mattie onto my lap and smoothed down her wild hair. We sobbed as it grew ever darker, screams breaking out of our hearts and cracking them apart. Ty took Mattie up into his arms and I stood up, lifting my face to the sky. I put two fingers to my eyebrow and the field went silent but for the pop and crackle of the flames.

Stroke

t was in the early autumn, the day before the feast of St Ignatius, that my mother was taken ill. I had got a call from my father at work, and I remember his voice on the other end of the line, husky, small, scared. I had rushed straight home. So there I was, on the brown, wooden doorstep of the home that had raised me with all its secrets and ghosts. I walked through the door to greet my father and my first thought was how old he looked – surely he hadn’t aged this much in a few months? Or had it been the shock of this, of his wife suddenly taken ill? I asked how she was. Not good. Where was she? In the bedroom. Would she... I couldn’t bring myself to say it. She couldn’t die, not with everything unsaid. Not my mother. I asked to see her, so he brought me up the familiar seventeen steps to the landing, walking on the old faded rug past the cathedral in the window through which the faint chants and jeers outside were still audible, as our boys took on some English side. Some things never changed. My mother was asleep when I entered her makeshift ward. It was dark and ripe with the acrid, clinical smell of medicine. My father knelt by her side to pray, while I simply looked at her. At that poor old, sick woman who my father loved so dearly and who had hurt him so deeply. He would never know. If my mother died, then he would never learn of Eddie’s innocence. I had to tell him. “Father – ” “Son. Please, for once, can we just savour the silence?” That was it. I knelt next to him, so close that I could smell the linen of her bedclothes and the sweat on his clothes. I recited the old prayers I had learned all those years ago, exhausting them until there was nothing left to say. I got up to leave, but my father stopped me with his strong hands, and there we sat, my father and I, savouring the silence.

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October 1968 George Prew

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Work on a winter theme from Optic, the Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photographic society Joe Thomas and Alex Kirsch (left page) Harry Pottinger and Michael Slater (this page)

27 Creative

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28 Lighting: Joe Thomas NJC

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Drama

Ill Met By Moonlight… Much to praise in a meeting of solstices

Drama

At first thought, there is a certain irony in producing a play set in the height of summer during the depths of winter but, in fact, it turned out to be the ideal time and date for such a play.

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Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1595, most likely for performance at an aristocratic wedding. It is thought that this may have been for the marriage of the Lord Chamberlain’s daughter, whose mother had an avid interest in cosmology and wanted to choose an auspicious date for the wedding. The ideal day would be one of a new moon, representing the beginning of a new cycle of fertility and happiness for the couple. For a Renaissance audience the moon was important both symbolically and practically; it represented the ideal Renaissance woman who was both chaste and fertile, as well as providing an important source of evening light. Whilst a full moon was viewed as a ‘Lover’s Moon’ (a long night of light would bring greater passions), the absence of the moon was deemed to

bring confusion and chaos in many different forms. A gloomy mid-December evening, with the moon, although almost full, largely hidden beneath a heavy layer of cloud, was, therefore, the perfect time to see a play about the fickle nature of love and the disorder that darkness can bring. From the opening lines of the play, when Theseus, King of Athens, declares that “four happy days bring in another moon”, (at which time he will be married to his Amazonian bride, Hippolyta) the audience are thrown into a world where the moon, not the sun, governs the action. It soon follows that two young lovers, Hermia and Lysander, who have been forbidden from marrying, decide to elope into the forest during the night. With the changeable moon guiding their way and two other young Athenians, Helena and Demetrius, hot on their tail, it hardly needs the interference of Oberon, King of the Faeries, and his sidekick Puck, for mayhem to begin. Add a jilted Faerie Queen, Titania, and a group of labourers rehearsing for a play of their own into the mix, and pandemonium reigns.

In Chris Bhantoa’s dynamic production, the atmosphere of anarchy and a sense of entering an alternate night-time reality were paramount. Neon costumes and electro music gave the play a 1980s revamp; the Lovers were rebellious schooluniformed teenagers, Puck and Oberon ruled the forest in matching leather jackets, and Titania’s fairy train, decorated with fluorescent wings, protected her bower in a trance-like state. The performance opened with a medley of lines from the play, sung to a slightly discordant melody by the ‘Dreamettes’ (Madeleine Taylor, Samantha Magnus, Robyn Parker), whilst the characters from the play swept across the stage, lurching to grasp each others’ hands but being forced apart and controlled by the meddling Puck. Immediately, the audience was made aware that this was not going to be a traditionally romantic version of the play, but one which would explore the heat of love and the dangerous passions which it can breed. Robert Phillips as Theseus and Philippa Wright as Hippolyta confirmed the feisty tone of this production. Their love was one of witty verbal combat and amorous embraces, suggesting a maturity to their relationship, which added sincerity to the

opening scenes and developed an interesting contrast with the more innocent, yet equally heartfelt, infatuation between the young lovers.

Not so lucky in love are Helena and Demetrius. Helena loves Demetrius, but Demetrius loves Hermia. So an amusing chase ensues, with Demetrius pursuing Hermia and Lysander into the woods, whilst Helena follows him, very much against his will. Kitty Wright was both comical and pitiful as the rejected Helena, desperate to reason with Demetrius and convince him of her love, but driven to irrational measures by the power of her passion; at one point she even drops onto all fours, declares herself his “spaniel” to be “spurn[ed]” or “strike[d]”, and barks. Ben Harrison’s Demetrius was full of disdain for her and his hatred was almost palpable, yet when his feelings were reversed by Puck, the switch to ardent lust was immediate and equally convincing. Moreover, despite the flaws in Demetrius’ character, he managed to make him sympathetic; rather than arrogant, he was cheekily charming, and amusingly put out by

Drama

No sooner had the ‘adults’ left the stage when the teenage lovers started plotting. Will Jacobs gave an assured performance as the romantic Lysander, speaking the verse with a real appreciation of the poetry in the lines and showing a touching earnestness in his affection for his first love. As Hermia, Eleanor Rosser-Smyth was equally sympathetic; she was sweetly naive and admirably determined to maintain her chastity, even when alone in the woods with her Lysander.

Titania’s fairies gave the impression of being an extension of Titania herself

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Max Thomas was an angry, embittered Egeus, blindly resolute in refusing his daughter Hermia’s choice of husband and constantly frustrated by the tendency for Theseus to be distracted by the Amazonian beauty by his side. Philostrate, Theseus’ assistant, (Michael Bird) was dressed in full Goth attire – long leather jacket, studded collar, heavy boots – and stomped across the stage, reluctantly obeying commands and strengthening the mounting sense of a brewing rebellion.

But in the world of the forest, further mischief is afoot. The ongoing dispute between the King and Queen of the Faeries has resulted in the disturbance of nature and the seasons. Annabel All four lovers really came into Thomson as Titania spoke some their own during the fight scenes of the most anthologised speeches in the forest. Puck’s confusion over of the play with an appreciation which was the right man in Atheof their poetic beauty as well as nian clothes, led to him dropping their modern resonance; in a world the love juice into the wrong man’s where climate change is ever more eyes, and now both men are in love prominent, her descriptions of with Helena. Whilst the girls were “hoary-headed frosts fall[ing] in the tearing each others’ hair out, the fresh lap of the crimson rose” seem boys were limbering up in the backsurprisingly apt. She gave a powerful ground, sustaining an impressive performance throughout, capturing level of energy and engendering perfectly the flashes of anger that a comedy from the scenes which provoke her jilted lover, Oberon, brought the first act to a hilarious into duping her, and the ardour close and left the audience willing with which she then falls in love the confusion to be resolved in with Bottom, the weaver-comeorder that they could have a rest. actor-come-ass. Hermia’s choice of Lysander over him, suggesting an underlying boyish self-awareness which made him more endearing to both the audience and to Helena.

Drama

Titania’s fairy train was equally mesmerising. Juliette Mann, Sarah Tilley, Will Barnes and Emily Anderson created an ethereal yet edgy group of fairies through their clever use of movement and voice. Often moving and speaking as one, they gave the impression of being an extension of Titania herself. Their fluorescent make-up and costumes aided the impression of them belonging to a magical other world, as did the lighting and electro sound effects operated by Tim Furlong and Daniel Rajan, under the guidance of Guy Lewis.

scene were genuine and somewhat moving. Robert Brooks’ Starveling the tailor was smartly attired and keen to impress, showing a conceivable embarrassment during the performance to the Athenians. Joe Eastham was an eccentric Snout the tinker and his performance as the Wall had an amusing Monty Python-like quality. Tom Ling gave a wonderfully subtle performance as Flute the bellows-mender, showing an early reluctance to play the part of the female lover, Thisbe, in their tragedy, but finally finding his falsetto voice with a helping hand from Bottom. Peter Quince the carpenter was characterised as an earnest yet rather nervous director of the play by Isaac Johnson, and his comic relationship with Bottom was superb; despite his best attempts to maintain control, Bottom was simply too much of an ass.

One of the most dramatic physical changes in the play is undoubtedly that of Bottom the Weaver into a donkey. Bottom is one of the Mechanicals, a group of tradesmen turned actors for the purposes of producing a play to celebrate the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta (a clever device by Shakespeare to mimic his own endeavour). The name of each Mechanical is linked to his professions and drawn from Shakespeare’s experience of rural life in Warwickshire. Snug the Joiner was given a sensitive performance by Matt Armitage. Dressed in an oversized T-shirt and bare feet, his Snug was lacking sense but not sensibility; his tears over Bottom’s theatrical death in the final Puck and Oberon, dressed in matching leather jackets

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Ganesh Rajaratnam had real presence as the stately Oberon and was aided brilliantly by the cheeky Puck (Adam Annis), a true young talent. Dressed in matching leather jackets, Oberon seemed to enjoy the power that having an apprentice gave him, and Puck was, at first, an eager assistant. Several mistakes later, however, Oberon was losing

patience, and Puck grew increasingly impudent. Once again, the woodland, in the dim light of the moon, became a place of change, rebellion and danger.

Next page: Elliot Krieger’s Bottom in all its glory

And what an ass Elliot Krieger’s Bottom was. From the moment he entered, he dominated the stage (especially when limbering up in a leotard), steering the rest of the Mechanicals with well-intentioned yet amusingly misguided direction. When it seemed as if the bedlam in the woods was at its peak, he was then turned into a real donkey and thrust into a love affair with the beautiful Titania. Ignorant of his ridiculous appearance, she swore her love with incredible passion, both amusing and angering the watching Oberon, who was clearly longing to restore order and claim his Queen once again for himself. Thankfully, morning came and order was restored. When, at the end of the play, Puck declared “the presence of the sun follow[s] darkness like a dream” and the characters and audience are blessed with promises of happiness, there was in many ways a sense of relief at this return to normality.Yet, at the same time, there was a definite reluctance for such an engaging, amusing and moving production to come to an end. Walking out of the production into the chilly darkness once again, it was evident that the memory this Dream, which, in the words of Bottom was “past the wit of man to say what dream it was”, would last long after the night was over. RJB

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Drama

Transforming Shakespeare

Drama

Jem Bosatta bends the Bard for GCSE

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I’m not sure that the great plays of William Shakespeare were designed with a view to fitting three of them into a two-hour evening. Nor, I think, were they written with a particular love for twenty-first century schoolboy audiences. I like to see we Fifth Form GCSE Drama students as the ambassadors of the Bard’s work, evangelising through the modern vernacular for the historic storyteller whose tales everybody should know. However, the unromanticised and more honest version of the event is as follows: we were told in September that as part of our GCSE Drama coursework we would be given a Shakespeare play to transpose, rejuvenate and make relevant and accessible to an audience of our peers, for performance and assessment in January 2012.

need such a thorough knowledge in the end, bearing in mind the short thirty-five minutes into which we had to fit the story.We began to think about and then decide upon a setting for the story, adapting the characters for each idea.The well-known houses of Montague and Capulet (of Romeo & Juliet) were transformed into rival banking societies, whilst the comic knight Sir John Falstaff was suddenly a retired officer in the Middle East, drinking away his time, whilst the turmoil of an Arab Spring revolution against the Colonel and his son sprang up around him.This was our take on Henry IV Part 1 - the play which my group “reinterpreted” for the following five months. As you can imagine, Henry IV Part 1 needed some cropping. Having cut out the scenes we didn’t need, we began to experiment with the snappy, the contemporary and the comic, taking full advantage of the lack of original stage directions to form and fashion a new and exciting experience for our prospective audience. Our spectators would see and feel the story’s fury in one scene, transformed to levity and laughter in the space of a scene change, and back and forth between the two subplots. We translated the Shakespearian pentameter into colloquial English and gave the plot a shot of modern theatre, with injections of synchronised slow-mo combat, physical theatre (including a human toilet, a particular hit with the audience) and music from Eurythmics, Batman and the Pink Panther.

Our first task (and a daunting one) was to translate it for ourselves, since we were then barely, if at all, better acquainted with the language of Shakespeare than those for whom we would be producing the play, our target audience. Once our familiarity with the play was sufficient – we did not actually

Andrew Lay performed a strikingly modern Malvolio in the adaptation of Twelfth Night

Having attained a reasonable standard, we were subjected to the critical eye of the Fourth form one afternoon in December. Our first performances then were not a rip-roaring success, but they gave us invaluable practice in preparation for the subsequent public showings which came after the Christmas break. For those, we were more experienced and better rehearsed, and when the time came for the examination performance each group had a polished, professional play. What’s more, each actor had a deepened and enhanced understanding of Shakespeare to accompany their considerable achievement over those last months.

Descent into Psychosis LVI Production of 4.48 Psychosis. The haunting power of Sarah Kane’s impending suicide was expressed vividly in the Lower Sixth’s impressive production of 4.48 Psychosis. This was the playwright’s final work, consisting largely of her musings on death. Interpreting the play’s streams of consciousness in the ensemble style of Steven Berkoff, the students gave a convincing performance of Kane’s descent into psychosis.

commended for their performances.

There seemed a clear parallel between the striped, pyjama-like uniform of the cast and the clothes of those in the concentration camps, which enhanced the sombre undertones of the production. Any sense of individual identity was sinisterly removed by the actors’ starkly white faces, and the often unison movements of the cast. While all the acting was at a high The audience left the performlevel, Ben Harrison was particularly ance disturbed and enlivened in visceral in his portrayal of suicidal equal measure, with memories of moaning. Charlie Rounds was also madness lingering in the mind. effective in his role as army leader James Sinclair and doctor, issuing commands to his fellow actors. Emily Anderson, Matt Armitage, Rob Brooks, Izzy Bachelor and Tom Ling are to be

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Lasting a mere twenty-two minutes, the actors shifted effectively between a wide range of moods, from feelings of profound depression, to bouts of unremitting aggression, to elusive moments of light humour. The audience was frequently confronted by extreme swearing and violent declarations

of agony; yet this was balanced by scattered outpourings of song and comic imitations of the banalities of human existence: a man reading a newspaper, getting dressed and going to some mundane work. The actors were also able to incorporate semblances of cohesion to the play’s structure, such as the formation of military regiments and the dramatic voice’s interrogation by a psychiatric doctor.

Drama

Third Form Playwriting

Anticipation mounted as news of the Playwriting Challenge faced by the Third Form filtered through. The only introduction was a quick briefing and separation into small groups of six. A brainstorming session followed, which formed the basis of a plot – giving a platform upon which scripts could be written and characters created. It presented us with a fresh challenge, which provided an insight into the creative potential of the Third Form.

Stories gradually made the transition into rough drafts that would form the basis of our final pieces. After five weeks of writing and producing in class and an extra session after school, performance night arrived. Gathering nervously in the Gallery awaiting the judges sent a buzz of anticipation though the performers. Imogen Doel and Matti Houghton, each seasoned actresses from the Royal Shakespeare

Company, were impressed by the high standards of the performances. One boy said: “When it was our turn to go on, silence consumed the studio as we climbed up onto the stage. After three comical deaths, two were left standing and we received our applause as the curtains closed. Our hard work had paid off: the applause was music to our ears.” Tim Nejad

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Tales of the Unexpected Lower School Drama Club Production to the Slaughter Mary Maloney cheerfully dispatched her husband by bashing him on the head with a leg of lamb, an act performed with considerable gusto. The canny Mrs Maloney was able then to cheerfully outwit the police in their subsequent investigation. In Parson’s Pleasure four Hertfordshire farmers were able to outwit a villainous Those members of the audience antique dealer masquerading as a who could distantly recall the origivicar, the latter role played with nal television adaptations unwisely roguish delight by Charles Obadisensed that they were on familiar aru. In The Landlady, the eponymous territory as the original music from role was played with great enthuthe series seeped across the audisiasm by Adam Annis. Suspicions torium, matched by the familiar title are aroused in an apprentice as script on the programme. to the true nature of the business The key theme of course was still being run by the seemingly sweet, if retribution, but presented with rather eccentric, lady. humorous and occasional slapstick Galloping Foxley followed the interpanache, rather than menace. A val, where an innocent commuter, circus scenario cleverly provided Perkins, finds his regular seat on the link between the six stories, the train occupied by another pasas the circus entertainers made senger. This turns out to be Foxley, an intermittent dry comment on the boy who long ago used to bully proceedings. In the first tale, Lamb him at school. A neat retribution In their now traditional summer production, the Lower School Drama Club provided some energetic and amusing entertainment together with the occasional frisson. At New Place the pupils staged adaptations of six of Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected, each with their own macabre twist.

ensues. Dip in the Pool took place on a cruise ship, providing a sharp contrast with the more mundane setting of the previous vignette. A betting scam goes horribly wrong for William Botibol, when he tries to fix the outcome of a betting pool. Skin provided a particularly gruesome end to the evening, when Drioli, who bears a tattoo on his back executed by a now famous artist, attempts to exploit this ‘work of art’. This was a delightful evening’s entertainment, providing both tension and humour in equal measure. This success can be attributed to the varied, exuberant and talented performances of the many Lower School Drama Club pupils who took part. We shall certainly be seeing more of them as they progress through the School. JMG

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Creative

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38 Portraits by, clockwise from top left: Alex Macrae GCSE Helen King AS Harry Lavelle A2 Joe Redwood GCSE Previous page: Pencil helix made for House Art by Adam Downey Next page: Painting by Harry Lavelle A2

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Alex Soames AS Charlotte Hulse A2

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41 Creative

Tanveer Ranshi AS Palakorn Constable GCSE

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42 First Form Olympic medals project Alessandro Rossi (GCSE)

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Music

Steinway to Heaven Steinways provide exceptional opportunties

Music

When I first heard the news that the school was to become an AllSteinway School, I was very excited. As a pianist, the news created in me a kind of excitement normally associated with the arrival of a new sports car or very expensive piece of jewellery. And so it was that when the pianos were delivered early in the new school year, I rushed straight to where they had been delivered to try them all out. It was immediately apparent to me and the other pianists in the room how beneficial they would be to us.

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Steinways have a reputation for being amongst the best pianos money can buy and the quality of the newly delivered pianos certainly did not disappoint, the centre piece of course being the Model B Grand Piano. Steinway & Sons as a manufacturer are renowned for producing pianos which reward the ability and technique of the pianist. As such, they are both wonderful to play and encourage the player to improve, which is ideal for somewhere with so many budding young pianists.

It is rare to have access to pianos of this standard in a school environment and we are truly very fortunate to have them â&#x20AC;&#x201C; something the Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pianists know only too well. Aside from the benefits provided as far as learning is concerned, the new Model B Grand Piano offers the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pianists a chance to perform on a very high quality piano on a regular basis. Most young pianists never get the chance to perform on a piano of this standard, and so the acquisition of this piano provides both a great performing experience for performers but also a wonderful opportunity for them to demonstrate their abilities to a much fuller extent than before. I can certainly say from my own personal experience that these new pianos have been of great benefit and are a great addition to the Music Department, as well as making piano recitals at the school all the more spectacular. David McConnell

A difficult delivery (above) and the Model B Grand in the library (below)

Spellbinding Steinway Concert New piano receives inaugural performance Young pianists were joined by their music teachers and two professional pianists to perform in a sellout concert held in the Library to celebrate the arrival of the School’s Model B Steinway on the 17th November. The event showcased the huge expressive potential of this instrument, which can range from fiery staccato through majestic fortissimo to a meltingly expressive cantabile.

of the Adagio Cantabile from Beethoven’s Pathétique, complemented by his near contemporary in death Schubert’s F minor Moment Musical: a brief moment that casts a long shadow when played as well as Ariya Rabbani did.

A stormy performance by Oliver Ng

Another giant of the piano’s vast literature was recalled in Max Houghton’s moving performance

Alissa Firsova conveyed the melodramatic contrast between the two Op. 32 Poèmes by Scriabin, a composer who tested the conventions of romantic pianism up to – and some would say beyond – destruction. Whatever a listener’s response to the musical ideas in these pieces, the technical accomplishment necessary to bring them off is something to marvel at. In her engaging performance of the Op. 59 Dumka by Tchaikovsky, we heard a piece with fewer notes and rather more musical thought. What was most noticeable in the experience of this concert was the carefully planned range of different music given by players of different ages, abilities and status and the powerful impression sustained throughout that the players of school age were not at all eclipsed by their elders and – if only in their freshness of approach – could be said to have equalled, if not surpassed them. AKJ

Music

Debussy was well represented too – there have been attempts to orchestrate his piano music, and the fact that it is so hard to do is testament to its wholly idiomatic nature. Nick Fleet played the Valse Romantique with great style and Max Thomas traced the elegant

melodrama of Scriabin

lines of the first Arabesque with elegance and feeling. Director of Music Mick Stout’s spellbinding recreation of the haunted undersea bells in Debussy’s La Cathédrale Engloutie was one of the evening’s highlights.

Unsurprisingly, the best playing of the evening came from the professional and semi-professional players. Matthew Woodward ably commemorated the bicentenary of Liszt’s birth by playing the composer’s own reimagining of his earlier song to the text of Petrarch’s Sonnet 123, while Anna Le Hair reimagined the beautifully subtle balance of sound colours in the sixth of Fauré’s Op. 63 Nocturnes.

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A type of instrument designed to make possible exciting performances of music from the Romantic era, it was appropriate that a quarter of the programme was by Chopin. Harry Lampert gave a distinctly individual reading of the C# minor Waltz; and Hugh Myers flawlessly negotiated the repeated wide left hand leaps and singing right hand melody of the well-known Eb Nocturne. Alex Shavick and David Cartwright nicely negotiated the emotions of the opening and closing sections of the Op. 10 No. 3 Study with its much more technically demanding middle section and the wind-swept fast sections of the Alissa Firsova delivers the Fantasy Impromptu respectively.

Before the interval Oliver Ng gave a stormy performance of the Prelude to Grieg’s Holberg Suite and David McConnell a passionate, yet thoughtfully fresh approach to the evergreen Rachmaninov C# minor Prelude. The first half ended with a spirited piano duet jazz waltz composed and played by Phil Craig and Jamie Salisbury.

Lyricism and Power Cello and Piano Concert

Music

Joe Davies OA and Jennifer Hughes opened the St Albans School evening recital series on 22nd September, performing three heavyweight works for cello and piano, along with a fascinating piece for solo cello. These most exciting and gifted young British artists gave a wonderful display of supreme musicianship.

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Following the Beethoven was Suite for Solo Cello Op. 72, by the British composer Benjamin Britten. The suite is typical of Britten: he’s not a cellist, yet is able to write so idiomatically for the instrument it’s as though he’d played it all his life. For me, this was the highlight of the recital – the piece moves across an incredible range of sounds, moods, and even techniques. Every imaginaThe concert opened with Seven ble variety of pizzicato is employed, Variations on Mozart’s Bei Männern while other parts demand that Joe welche Liebe fühlen, composed in strikes the cello percussively with 1802 by Beethoven. The variations the bow. The audience was drawn are based on ‘Bei Männern,’ the Act into this spellbinding and very I duet from Mozart’s Die Zaubertechnically demanding piece that flöte, and were played with engaging Joe performed with such ease. warmth as the softer sounds of the piano intersected perfectly with the We returned to Beethoven to cello’s imitation of the human voice. close the first half, this time with The variations range from light and his Sonata in C major, Op. 102. playful to slow and serious and, as The gentle, almost introspective opening was played with expresJoe commented, ‘full of elegance and wit’. sive warmth by pianist and cellist, before the startling juxtaposition of a muscular and at times gruff Allegro vivace movement. A second slow introduction acts as a reminiscence of the opening, and provides a transition to the next quick movement. Jennifer and Joe handled the mercurial nature of this music with neatness and clarity, catching Beethoven’s shifting moods, from songful lyricism to humour, particularly in the final movement. This was a spirited and enjoyable interpretation of Joe’s. The second half was devoted to a somewhat neglected work - the ‘triumphant’ Cello Sonata by Prokofiev, which makes huge technical demands upon both pianist and cellist. These were met effortlessly by Jennifer and Joe. It opens with solemnity and dark hues, although yields to Prokofiev’s distinctive melody and harmony, conveyed here mellifluously and with telling inflections and, in the finale, with a blend of delicacy and robust rhythmicality. This was a strong performance from the two artists, and was a fantastic closing to a truly enjoyable evening. Chris Springthorpe

Top Notes Music from the Award Holders Continuing a series of stunning professional concerts this academic year in the library, the standard of performance at the Music Award Holders’ Concert was maintained at a very high level on 26th January. The concert comprised a diverse range of solos across genres and instruments, with performers from the First Form to the Sixth Form.

The clear highlights of the concert, however, came with David McConnell’s light touch and expression in Rachmaninov’s Prelude in D major, Eleanor Rosser-Smyth’s impressive rendition of Evensong by Liza Lehmann, Max Houghton’s expressive playing of Beethoven’s

Thomas Dilley’s accomplished playing of Guy Woolfenden’s Lotus Waltz brought out its dulcet melody, followed by William Maynard’s passionate performance of Fly Me to the Moon by Bart Howard. George Scott gave an accomplished performance of the fiendishly difficult Third Movement from Sonatina by Dmitry Kabalevsky, and Henry Avery’s playing of Edward Gregson’s arrangement of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre was eerily effective.

featured many of the performers who had played at the Music Award Holders’ Concert and also encompassed a wide range of genres, from JS Bach to Cole Porter. On this occasion Hanja Bantock accompanied the performers in addition to Mr Stout. The concert ended with tumultuous applause. James Sinclair

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Second Movement from “Sonata in C minor (Pathétique)” and Chris Springthorpe’s masterful performance of Madrigal in A minor by Enrique Granados. Mr Stout generThe relative serenity of the concert ously accompanied all the evening’s so far was swiftly undercut by Peter instrumentalists. Gosling’s aggressive rendition of In the final concert of a very busy Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights half term for the Music Departfrom Romeo and Juliet (probably ment a couple of weeks later (8th most familiar to a contemporary February), the School’s Music audience as the theme tune from Scholars showcased their musical The Apprentice.) This was balanced abilities to the general public at by an enchanting piece of music, a lunchtime concert at St Peter’s with lulling repetitions: Allen Church. The programme of music Vizzutti’s The Enchanting Trumpet, performed by Harry Sampson. Thomas Yates sang with great melodiousness The Birds’ Lament from The Aviary by Richard Rodney Bennett; Matthew O’Connor gave a highly confident performance of the beautifully melancholy Elegy (In Autumn) by Arvids Zilinskis, and, like Peter Gosling before him, impressively played without sheet music.

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Henry Jeffrey opened the evening with a very accomplished cello performance of Vivaldi’s First and Second Movements from “Sonata in E minor”, progressing from the soulful, expressive first movement to the faster, more technically demanding passages of the second. William Drake delivered an equally expressive performance of Gaetona Donizetti’s Andante Sostenuto on the clarinet, a highly lyrical and pleasant piece of music, which was matched by the lyricism of Daniel Angel’s singing of Schubert’s Ave Maria.

Living Room in London

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An unconventional ensemble

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A packed library was treated to a musical spectacle in the form of Living Room in London, in the first of two professional concerts to take place in the Autumn term. There were very few seats left unfilled by the start of the concert, and with good reason; Living Room in London has a truly unique sound, in many ways due to the instruments present. Members of a London strings trio, Ellie Fagg and Tom Norris on violin, with Gregor Riddell providing the deep undertones of the cello, were joined by Austrians Manu Delago and Christophe Pepe Auer playing hang and bass clarinet respectively. The hang, a percussion instrument bearing a strange physical similarity to a wok, was perhaps the most intriguing of the instruments on display, seeming at first like a more subdued steelpan, but rapidly proving to have a vast array of tones, capable of producing a range of sounds imitating everything from harps to bells and drum kits.

Three hanghang in seen over the course of the evening Without Words, sought to tell a story without words, and an evocative tale their natural habitat in one last, and undeniably fun, piece. The audience left impressed and it was. Their third piece was a series invigorated, with the tantalising offer of movements based on a set of of Living Room in London’s debut poems by a Syrian poet, in which an album embraced by more than a ethereal, almost surreal atmosphere few. Suffice to say that if this concert was created, in heavy contrast to However, that is not to say that was anything to go by, great things the first two pieces, perfectly comthe hang was the only instrument can be expected of Living Room in plementing the thought-provoking of the group to be used in creative London in the future. topics of the poetry. The second new ways. The eight pieces that half of the concert would see Lila the group played saw violins used Chris Oates Contrast, an adventurous yet subtle for soaring melodies, violently piece that wouldn’t be out of place cacophonous atonal ambience and in a film score, and an arrangement delicate pizzicato accompaniment, of Miles Davis’ So What? complete while several times Riddell could What is a Hang? with saxophone solo courtesy of be seeing playing the cello in a Pepe. The penultimate piece in the The Hang was created in 2000 by Felix Rohner and manner evocative of a bass guitar. programme was written by Pepe, inSabina Schärer, who are still the only people in the The seductive tones of the bass spired by his travels with his clarinet world who create them. clarinet provided a suitable backing through the Himalayas, and Indian to the sounds of the string instruSandpaper certainly brought his adments, but also came into its own ventures to life, depicting the rush of for several sultry solos, and once the cities with rapid violin sections, or twice performed a remarkable yet also the spectacular majesty of impression of a didgeridoo! the great mountains themselves. The With the techniques and instrufinal piece provided yet another ments of these musicians many and change of pace for the audience, varied, it was to be expected that with a piece by Tom Norris, the music they produced would be who traded in his violin for equally intriguing. The group dema guitar for the purpose of The onstrated a remarkable creativity this work, written first as a plural is and variety in the eight pieces which ballad to be sung with guitar, and hanghang. they performed. The concert began then re-written to be played with The name comes from the Bernese German word with Construction, which presented the rest of the group. At this, the the story of the group, beginning group received a well-deserved final for ‘hand’. with the London strings trio and round of applause, or so the audiDepending on how it is played, it can sound like a Living Room playing different music ence thought. However, the group harp, bells or steel drums. from opposite ends of the library at returned to the stage for an encore, first, before moving into a magwith a cheeky rendition of Rondo ala It is generally played with the hands or fingers. nificent introduction to the style Turk, showcasing all of the unique It is pronounced (roughly) huong. of the ensemble. Their next work, and inventive ideas that had been

Violins, Voices and… Tin Cans A range of musical styles at the Autumn Concert The Autumn Concert impressed the evening’s audience with an array of group performances from across the musical spectrum.

Marche funèbre d’une Marionette: the funeral march of a marionette, with the school’s clarinet ensemble. There were some odd squeaks I’m sure the composer didn’t plan, but the performers did give a very atmospheric and tragic performance. Their second piece, Clarinetwise, was somewhat cheerier and nicely offset the black humour of their first piece.

Continuing the Latin theme of the percussion was the Senior String Quartet. Brother and sister Jonathan and Frances Roche were playing violin, Angus Cross played the viola and the quartet was completed by Harry Lampert on the cello. They were playing La Cumparista – The Little Parade, a Uruguayan carnival march by Rodriguez, and one of the most famous tango pieces in musical history.

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The Brass Group bought us back to even more recognisable music with their canonization of Frère Jaques / The first half of the concert finished with the Choir and Symphony Brüder Martin. Starting out in the cheery major key, it reached a Orchestra playing Ralph Vaughan The concert commenced in great Jonathan and satisfying conclusion before delving William’s Fantasia on Christmas spirit with the String Orchestra’s Frances Roche Carols. The piece opens with a mel- into a minor mode after the style performance of Copland’s Hoe perform at the of Mahler’s First Symphony, before ancholy baritone solo, performed Down from Rodeo, directed by Mr concert resolving once more into a major by Dr Saunders, telling of man’s Byrom. The Rodeo Suite is a ballet creation and fall, before moving on finish. suite with orchestral accompanito the more cheery description of ment, telling the story of a wild Jesus’ birth, before the joyous and More melancholy was the studentwestern romance – Hoe Down seasonal conclusion wishing us all a led singing group MSG, who were forms the happy conclusion of the singing, among others, the Ed Happy New Year. romance. The variation in dynamics Sheeran hit, the A-Team, about the and intonation effectively brought slow decline of a girl stuck in her out the shifting moods of the piece, a suitable evil cackle daydream. The group did not make with a strong tempo maintained the cheeriest of performances, but and addition of falling tin throughout. The occasional note the quality of the singing of all five failed to sound, but overall the percans added greatly to the students was beyond reproach. formance was finely controlled. Congratulations to all the singers performance involved. Musical delights continued with the Saxophone Ensemble, a swingin’ The concert concluded with the sextet of Sixth formers playing Senior Concert Band – a comAfter the interval the Mainstream So We Too by Wood and directed Jazz Band began playing Night Train, bination of brass, woodwind and by Miss Simmons. The performarranged by Norred, and Broadway, percussion directed by Mr Craig ance was good, and the enjoyment – playing Barnard Castle, a march by by Wood, Bird and McRae. Their these talented players brought Goff Richards, and Where No Man first piece was a medley of solo to the concert shone through in pieces between the ensemble sec- Has Gone Before. As the name sugtheir music, in sharp contrast to gests, it was a medley of film music tions. The members of the group the more classical styles of other from classic sci-fis including Star took the opportunity to demongroups. Trek and Star Wars. Whatever else, strate their fine skills in both the their performance certainly could solo and ensemble sections. Their lively outburst was set off not be criticised for lack of gusto. nicely by an outstanding performance of Gounod’s classic piece, Daniel Heydecker

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Modulating back into the blues, we had the Barbershop group, starting with a seasonally spiritual, Little Lamb, focusing on the resolution that ‘I’m going to serve God ’till I die’. They continued with a classic Beatles number, Yesterday, by Lennon and McCartney, and finished with the anonymously written George Jones, a comic debate by two new parents on what to name their child. The comedy of the final piece was a great combination with the intense melancholy of the second and the innocence of the first piece.

Following this came the lively performance from the percussion of the Curupira from Mitos Brasileiros, telling the tail of a mischievous jungle devil leading travellers and hunters astray. The performance was an excellent representation of the lively, playful character, and they were directed by Mr Craig, whose suitable evil cackle and addition of falling tin cans added greatly to the performance.

All That Jazz Syncopated rhythms in the library

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The library was filled with the syncopated rhythms of jazz music for a concert on 17th March, as Mainstream – the School Jazz Band – the Barbershop Group, Chamber Choir and JPF Trio all contributed towards a lively evening of highclass performances, solely devoted to the genre.

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Jazz Trio to show off his improvisational skills in Improvisation in C.

A highlight of the evening was the Chamber Choir’s beautiful rendering of Bob Chilcott’s A Little Jazz Mass, accompanied by the JPF Jazz Trio. Chilcott’s original setting of these ancient prayers was truly mesmerising and invigorating, The Mainstream Jazz Band, directed particularly the Kyrie and Agnus by John Mole, opened proceedings Dei. This was followed by a moving performance of Swing Low, Sweet with several impressive numbers, including such classics as Broadway Chariot featuring Nick Fleet. Max and Come Rain or Come Shine. The Thomas shone in the spotlight for group’s ensemble work particularly a second time when he sang John Rhythm time shone in their performance of Legend’s Ordinary People while playing the piano. Caravan, blending a rich mixture of harmonies, and in C Jam Blues: Mainstream closed the evening with the first opportunity for the band a terrific trio of numbers: a lively to showcase their improvisational American Patrol, cool Night Train abilities. and spirited Sing Sing Sing. Night These musical delights were swiftly Train was a second opportunity for soloists to excel themselves, augmented by those of Upper Sixth student Max Thomas, as but on this occasion the pairing of ‘rival’ performers built for a conhe displayed his virtuosity with a technically accomplished rendition frontation of musicianship. While of Gershwin’s Prelude No. 1 on the Nick Perry and David McConnell Steinway grand piano. As ever, the excelled themselves, all the players five Barbershop singers entertained were winners. with their witty trio of songs – Yet the greatest victory of all Bermuda Buggy Ride, Satin Doll and was for the School and the Music George Jones. Chris Springthorpe Department, which can now claim stood out with his lyrical verve, yet equal success in the jazz genre as the group were especially impresother more traditional modes. The sive in their dulcet harmonies. Joe audience were left with a plethora Zacaroli joined Mr Stout on the of catchy tunes to play in their piano and two members of the JPF minds – or at least I was. James Sinclair

Night at the Music The Biss Trio gave a performance of the highest calibre in hte library on 12th March. The Biss Trio consists of Rosie Biss (Cello), David Stout (baritone) and James Southall (piano) all of whom are, as Mr Stout Jnr. said, ‘superb performers in their own right’. He was certainly correct. The audience was treated to a mixture of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and others before culminating with a trio of pieces by Borodin which, as the audience were informed by the amusing recollections of David Stout, were the only three pieces in the set originally written for Cello, Piano and Baritone trio. In fact, the set was designed to reflect the features of these final three pieces and build into them – something that was extremely evident to all who attended. In the words of David Stout, the trio aim to ‘find a balance between two similar voices: the cello and the baritone’, and they managed to do this in truly spectacular fashion, with a great variety of playfulness and wrenching melancholy communicated superbly by all the performers (particularly during a heart-wrenching rendition of Head’s I arise from dreams of thee). The concert was a great success, displaying a formidable array of musical talent. David McConnell

Massive Sounds Fill Abbey Lady Runcie remembered in Joint Schools’ Concert Every available space was used to house the prodigious performers of the St Albans School and St Albans High School for Girls Joint Choral Society and Orchestra concert of 2012. Numerous pupils, teachers and community members, including many parents, from both schools gave an outstanding concert to a sell-out audience at the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban on Wednesday 21 March.

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The annual concert by musicians of the two schools fills the Abbey with music

The eerie opening to the Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis showcased a very accomplished string section. Many consider the work his first indisputable masterpiece using the various levels of string orchestra

Their attack, comprising both tonal and dynamic precision, was thrilling vividly, juxtaposing the chamber sounds of a smaller orchestra with the massive sounds of the full string orchestra. Strong leadership from Nigel Springthorpe, conductor, and the expert solos of Pia Jeppesen (violin) and Karen Bradley (viola)

challenging music, beautiful melodies and a fantastic ensemble, the Mozart Requiem was the climax of this concert and was dedicated to the memory of Lady Runcie, who was a piano teacher at both St Albans School (1980-2012) and St Albans High School (1991-2011). Each section of the choir shone throughout from the solid entries by the stout bass section, the declamatory phrases from the tenors, richness from the altos (particularly in Rex tremendae) and the delicate line of the sopranos. To highlight some of the best moments: the busy Kyrie section was skilfully performed especially by the tenors and the cellos led by Christopher Springthorpe; Confutatis maledictis featured fiery entries from the men in the choir in contrast to the pure, serene sounding sopranos and altos; Lacrimosa, with its beautiful melody from the violins, was steadily performed and the echoes of

Horsley, both successfully negotiated their tricky opening solos in Tuba mirum and particular mention should go here to Matt Harrison OA on trombone for his outstanding solo. Gavin Horsley demonstrated an attractive and flexible bass voice and Ann de Renais was astonishing and delivered some of the most sensitive singing of the evening in the Lux aeterna. Music of this quality is rarely heard outside of a professional setting. The pupils involved will no doubt remember this for years to come and having the opportunity to perform these works to such a high standard should be treasured. We are already eagerly awaiting next year’s concert where Mick Stout will lead the choral society and orchestra in Fauré’s Requiem, amongst other works. Catherine Strange

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An assured beginning to the evening was had with the orchestra’s opening bars of George Frideric Handel’s Coronation Anthem Zadok the Priest. The depth of sound from the orchestra, led by Pia Jeppesen, provided a firm foundation for the choir’s glorious entry. The one hundred and fifty extra singers that joined for Zadok, made a choir of well over two hundred and fifty on stage. Their attack, comprising both tonal and dynamic precision, was thrilling and set the tone for the rest of the concert. After such a powerful beginning it was remarkable to see such contrasting delicacy in the second movement And all the people rejoic’d followed by the crispness of the semiquavers in God save the King which is notoriously difficult especially with such large forces. Throughout all three movements the excellent trumpet playing of Georgina Marsay, Nick Perry and Joe Zacaroli was worthy of note.

enhanced a passionate performance the marvellous body of sound rung on throughout the Abbey. of this challenging music demonstrating the very high standard of The Recordare where the four solomusicianship from all participating. ists sing some of the most beautiful After a short interval the choir and music of the Requiem was exquisitely performed by De Renais, orchestra were joined on stage Huntley, Sheffield and Horsley at by soloists Ann De Renais, Anna Huntley, Philip Sheffield and Gavin moments evoking the operatic feel Horsley for the Mozart Requiem. A and intensity of the trio Soave sia il vento from Mozart’s Così fan tutte. favoured piece for choral society Tenor and bass soli, Sheffield and performances for its balance of

Diverse Harmomies

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The Spring Concert

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The Spring Concert defied the rainy weather with an enjoyable and varied programme in early May. The String Ensemble opened with an accomplished and contrasting performance of Andante Cantabile, closely followed by the Clarinet Ensemble’s lively rendition of Helen’s Dance and the Two Norwegian Dances. The audience were then encouraged to ‘guess the theme tune’ with The Sinfonietta’s vibrant performance of the Match of the Day theme. After a quickly resolved minor music sheet mishap, the Senior Brass Ensemble entertained with Goldfinger and the humorous Come Landlord and Fill the Flowing Bowl. The Sax Ensemble showcased The Man I Love and the aptly named Sax Classics, which featured some impressive improvisation from various instrumentalists. The Concert Band played the audience into the interval with enthusiasm, with the high energy Take Five and Slipstream under the direction of Mr Phil Craig.

highlight of the evening with their confident performances of Steal Away, Aura Lee and Bushes and Briars. They impressed the audience with their diverse harmonies and tight rhythms, all achieved without the help of a conductor. The Percussion Ensemble ended the evening on a high with the World Premiere of their own piece Heaventh 7even, which was both energetic and varied and within which each performer had the opportunity to come to the forefront of their ensemble and showcase their individual talent. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable music event, skilfully demonstrating the significant and diverse musical talents of St Albans School’s students. Eleanor Rosser-Smyth

‘Mainstream’ Jazz Band was as entertaining as always in their dynamic performances of Now is the Time, Come Rain or Shine and the well-known Caravan – offering opportunities for many musicians to show off their improvisational skills. The Young Wind Band played the inventive Five Chord Trick, whilst the string quartet delivered Mozart’s Presto and Rondo with great accomplishment, despite their unconventional arrangement of two violins and two cellos. The evening incorporated a number of solo performances from members of the Upper Sixth leaving this year, Nick Fleet giving a beautifully lyrical performance of Brahms’ Romance from op. 118, Max Thomas also playing the piano in a rich and assured rendition of Liebesträume by Franz Liszt. Ellie Rosser-Smyth entertained with the lively Donne Vaghe from Paisiello’s opera La Serva Padrona, contrasting with James Mohajer’s haunting performance of Is My Team Ploughing, an arrangement of AE Housman’s poem. The Barbershop – also composed of outgoing Upper Sixth – was enjoyable as ever and a decided

Ellie Rosser-Smyth, one of the Sixth form’s most assured vocalists (above) and scenes from the Hits of the Seventies evening (right)

So, Farewell, then… The Leavers’ Concert of Edvard Grieg’s first violin sonata with some style and Max Thomas gave a controlled, yet powerful account of Debussy’s Claire de Lune. Also as pianist, Alex Shavick played the Opus 23 No 6 Rachmaninoff Prelude, controlling well the shifting chromatic inner parts and handling the rising semiquavers at the end with real aplomb. In the second half of the concert Chris Springthorpe’s ‘cello soared and sang in the Jewish Prayer by Ernest Bloch.

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In the second half the jazz trio of Nick Fleet, Louis Grant and Ben Zacaroli excited the audience with a performance of Under the Bridge by Stanley Clarke. In this, Louis Grant let rip on the drums, undeterred by the frosty gaze of Nicholas Bacon’s bust just over his right shoulder. Arran Bhatiani, Michael Bird, Simon Chelley and Nimah Salehi gave us Pick Up the On Thursday 24 May, family, friends, Pieces from The Average White students and staff met together in Band and James Mohajer, Nimah the Library for the bitter sweet, Salehi and Ben Zacaroli performed traditional, yet always novel James’ powerful song Run Away. experience of the annual Leavers’ Indeed, James was in many ways the Concert. Though extra musical student kingpin of the concert as emotions are properly stirred motivator, organiser and performer. on such an occasion, there was The adult kingpins were Messrs much to be excited and moved by Stout and McCord, who along with in what the audience heard and the School’s instrumental tutors witnessed from the performers as were given heartfelt thanks from performers, not just as soon-to-be the student performers’ repreOld Albanians. sentatives, after a warmly rousing In the classical music genre, rendering of a Beach Boys medley, Jonathan Roche performed the which concluded this delightful and delightfully lilting second movement moving evening.

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Also in the first half, we heard Nick Fleet, Will Leppard, Phil Madgwick, James Mohajer, Chris Springthorpe, George Tasker and Max Thomas sing Vaughan Williams’ lovely arrangement of the folksong Through Bushes and Through Briars and a smooth close harmony version of What I Did for Love. Phil Ruis sang Father and Son by Cat Stevens with great commitment and Ellie RosserSmyth, an able musician and Head of Choir of outstanding loyalty and commitment, sang Someone is Sending Me Flowers by David Baker. The beguiling combination of Annabel Thomson and Kitty Wright inter alia, charmed in a rendering of Newton Faulkner’s Dream Catch Me.

Therapeutic Art

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Art classes at Verulam House Care Home

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What is the scheme? St Albans School believes it is of utmost importance for students and teachers to contribute to the local community. This is facilitated through its Community Link programme, which provides students with a range of opportunities in which they can become involved, such as care homes for the elderly, charity shops and special-needs schools. Teachers too are provided with opportunities to contribute by utilising their specific skills for alternative audiences. For both teacher and student, the experience is hugely rewarding, positive and educational. It was about six years ago that I first became involved with Community Link by providing art classes in local primary schools through the Partnership Scheme. Over time, however, I felt that there must be more opportunities to provide specialist art classes to the older, usually forgotten generation. I had previously been a volunteer with The Winged Fellowship (founded in 1963, later becoming Vitalise) and that experience had taught me the importance of stimulation for the older generation. I was aware the School already had established links with some care homes in the local area; armed with this information

Miss Lillian with one of her pupils at Verulam House, presenting a framed painting done during the classes

I resolved that I must make this a reality and went to put my case to the Director of Studies and the Community Link Co-ordinator. I was very pleased to say that the art club was approved with relative ease. I was informed that the care home to be involved would be Verulam House. Art promotes wellbeing at every age. When I am teaching in school, art seems to empower students. I know when a lesson has gone well: when I see students relaxed, exploring the materials, sharing their discoveries and enjoying themselves. Likewise I knew that I wanted to provide a similar experience for the elderly residents: an experience of relaxation, exploration, sharing, and an enjoyment of art’s creative and social aspects… I wanted my time with them to be rewarding, appealing and fun! I recall being quite apprehensive the day before the first occasion and racking my brain thinking of what would be suitable for such an age group in such circumstances. I was worried that the residents may not engage with me and reject taking guidance. I read round the subject and came to learn that art used in therapeutic ways seems to help older adults cope with complex age related issues including mental and physical illness or limitation,

become very insular in a care home and age, they have produced some and forget that we are as much a wonderful pieces.’ part of the local community as a iii) Personally: school.’(Care home manager) I recall arriving at Verulam House The time I spent at the residential Creating better links with the local and being struck by the warm and home with older adults was excommunity generally allows resicalming atmosphere. It immediately tremely rewarding. Art can be used dents a greater variety of and choice put me at ease. Tanya Manteer, Acas an alternative form of commuof activities, including more social tivities Organiser, was very friendly nication for those with any degree stimulation, as as well as helping and showed me around Verulam of impairment and I hope that the residents maintain existing interests House. residents were able to express and introduces them to new people, The residents who had opted to be themselves fully in a manner that faces, ideas and experiences. perhaps they had not been able to at the art club were aged between The residents that I have been in70 and 100 years, and of both sexes. do so before this. volved with have considered the art I could see the anticipation in their Some residents told me that art classes as social gatherings which eyes and I only hoped that I would was new to them and they had have provided them with an opporbe able to fulfil their expectations. enjoyed learning something new tunity to make choices and take reAs it was, all my anxiety evaporated whilst others had showed emotion sponsibility, such as which colours as soon as we started chatting, in reigniting their passion for skills to use and tone. The classes have sketching and getting to know each that had lain dormant. stimulated both physical and mental other. Over time we progressed to well-being of the residents as they Exhibiting the artwork was also pastels, watercolours and personal have become engaged with the art, important because it served as a cards with subject matter of landconsidered the best way forward, visual reminder for participants scapes and still life. sought guidance and have produced of what they can still accomplish excellent pieces, despite some despite limited mobility or cogniThe excitement when we exhibhaving suppressed motor skills. tion. Importantly, exhibiting the ited the residents’ work during the Linkages Christmas party was artwork makes it possible for the ‘What you have taught us is just tangible. It was indeed the icing on staff at the care home and the amazing; you have made the lesson the cake. family to see the older adult and practical and enjoyable, and not know their life story beyond their difficult for anybody.’ (Eileen – Importance limitations. Verulam House resident and art club member) At School, students have to follow The importance of the school the art curriculum and art is Overall, the art club has been very maintaining and promoting the often seen as just another subject. positive for residents, as Tanya Community Link programme, and Working with the elderly has Mateer explains: ‘The art club has specifically the art classes with the proved useful as it has to some elderly residents, is manifold, includbeen very successful. It has built extent helped me rethink and ing, but not limited to, the following:  At work in the calm on residents’ confidence and given reinvent my art teaching in School. I surroundings of them something to look forward i) For the students and the school: now give students greater opporVerulam House to. Regardless of their health, needs tunities to engage in the creative Students learn to become more process and provide them with responsible adults, learning skills extra time in lessons to commusuch as decision making, initiative, nicate their emotions. I have also negotiation and patience. learned, from working with the Learning becomes more relevant elderly, that slowing a lesson down as it becomes more apparent (to helps to reinforce students’ underthe students) how the skills and standing of the subject. knowledge acquired at School will assist career and life paths. What now? lifestyle transition, end-of-life decisions, grief and a growing inability to communicate effectively.

ii) For the residents: The Social Care Institute for Excellence reminds us that: ‘It is easy to

KKL

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The community becomes more aware of the School, its ethos, standards and practices.

I am pleased to say that there has been interest from other care homes in the vicinity who have enquired about the possibility of a similar arrangement – I sincerely hope that we are able to assist and, who knows, perhaps more schools will be encouraged to do the same in their local areas.

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It encourages an enhanced sense of belonging to the local community and pride in it, hopefully leading to active participation as they mature.

Big Sums for a Small Boy Partnership Scheme at St Peter’s Primary School

I had chosen to help at St Peter’s Primary School and before we were assigned a year group, the Headmaster asked if there were any mathematicians studying Maths and Further Maths at A level. Being the only one, I was asked if I would like to mentor a very talented ten year old in Year Five.

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The Sixth form Partnership Scheme that St Albans School has set up provides a fantastic opportunity for its pupils to really give something back to the community, by offering their services in all kinds of ways. All of these opportunities are unique and the spectrum covers coaching football to the more academic, which I found myself taking part in.

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theorem, I showed him how to prove it.

For the rest of the year I guided this incredibly gifted boy through some of the more fun A level mathematics. Not only would I like to think I helped nurture his passion for the subject, but we both had a great time, and I couldn’t think of a more rewarding way to spend my Friday afternoons. This was not an easy task, however, and there were many problems that I faced. Complex ideas had to be broken down into very basic terms, and with zero teaching experience, this was a serious challenge. It was all about taking principles that my pupil already knew and developing them much further. For example, although he knew Pythagoras’

This proof worked brilliantly as it was building on something he already knew; it was also very visual and simple in principle. However, introducing new ideas entirely, as I tried to do with logarithms, proved much more difficult. Although challenging, I got the very basics across to him after a whole lesson. This was the balancing act that was very hard to get right. Every week I had to come up with one hour’s worth of mathematics that was fun and interesting, yet difficult enough to stretch him. I found just reteaching him a lesson that I had sat through was not the sort of thing that held a ten year old’s attention and in some parts was much too complicated. So, over the weeks I developed my own style and gave him fun little bits and bobs of maths, which were short enough not to become boring. Mathematical nonsense was his personal favourite: If: a=b Then multiply both sides by a: a2 = ab Then take away b2 from both sides: a2 – b2 = ab – b2 Factorise both sides: (a + b) (a – b) = b (a – b) Remove from both sides the factor of (a – b): a + b = b Subtract b from both sides and you’re left with a = 0 I went through problems like these with him and then explained to him why they don’t work. I could then develop these ideas into more complex fields, such as messing around with infinite series. However, then proving why those sequences produced nonsense broke into university level analysis. I often found that my pupil’s limited understanding was down to my own limitations, which was quite remarkable. In fact, remarkable is a very appropriate word to sum up my partnership. It was an honour to be given the responsibility to teach this young lad, and it even made me look at maths differently. Not only

has he taught me a thing or two, but I have learnt so much about how to engage children, how to have fun and yet still get learning points across. It has been a truly enlightening experience and I wouldn’t have changed it one bit. Alex Terry

The Partne

rship Schem

e St Albans Sc hool works in Partnershi local primar p with ten y schools an d the Cathe Service. Ove dral Educatio r 50 Sixth fo n rm pupils an are involved d several staf with teaching f primary scho subject area ol pupils in s such as mat hs , science, mus languages, IC ic, art, drama, T and creati ve literacy. A Sixth former s well as our s visiting the partner scho pupils themse ols, the youn lves come to ger our school to facilities as th e computer use such rooms, design ogy worksho and technolps, language lab and swim ming pool. See the ITN film about th e School’s Pa Scheme on th rtnership e School’s w ebsite or at: educationnew http://www. s.itn.co.uk/A ll/94/a-multi-m investment-in ill -facilities-atst-albans-scho ion-poundcommunityol-boostpartnerships

Rising to the Challenge Community Link at St Luke’s

I believe that I have gained invaluable teaching and presentation experience, both of which are life skills which will be very helpful in the future. I have also gained the ability to help those in need and those with disabilities, which gives me a great sense of personal achievement.

With pupils requiring constant help, the teachers are often busy. Therefore, when a challenge arose, I had to make decisions and think them through, meaning my judgement and initiative have increased significantly over my time at St Luke’s. This experience has also prompted me to question my priorities and beliefs. Each week the pupils’ disabilities reminded me how lucky I truly am and have allowed me to realise how insignificant some of my problems in life are. I have really enjoyed being able to give something back to the community, and especially to those that are less privileged than I am. Community Link offers pupils of St Albans School another dimension to school life. Many schools offer the opportunity to get involved in sport, music and to excel in academic areas. However, I believe that my time at St Luke’s is unique, and it has given me a life experience that I will always remember and be grateful for.

Community Link The School’s Community Link programme aims to broaden pupils’ horizons and nurture the School’s relationships with the local community. It can also help to clarify pupils’ degree or career choices and support their UCAS applications and DofE Awards. Approximately 25-30 students are involved each year and meet varying challenges in the following placements: St Luke’s School, Redbourn

school for students with complex moderate learning difficulties

Watling View Special School

school for children and young people with severe learning difficulties

Vesta Lodge Care Home

care home for elderly residents, including those suffering from dementia

Fosse House Care Home

care home for elderly residents, including those suffering from dementia

Verulam House Nursing Home

nursing and residential care home for elderly residents

Stephen Baldwin

57 Features

Many of these pupils have no communication skills, which is obviously a massive obstacle. To overcome this, I had to try and find common interests with each individual to try and get them to open up to me. I really enjoyed building relationships with these pupils and eventually getting them to trust me and be confident when around me. This was a huge achievement because these pupils are very selective about who they communicate with.

Another challenge that I struggled to overcome was the level of violence that I saw. Many pupils got quickly aggressive when they couldn’t communicate their feelings to a member of staff. I was later informed by the teachers that the children didn’t understand that they were hurting themselves or others, yet it did take me a long time to get over it whilst volunteering there.

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For the past year, I have been given the opportunity to volunteer at St Luke’s Special School in Redbourn, which is a school for 11-18 year olds who have learning difficulties of many varieties. For the entire period of Community Link at this school, I was placed in ‘Ver’ group, which was a classroom with pupils who were all autistic, with a range of severity. Throughout this experience, I had to help teach sign language to them, which was a challenge, as I didn’t know any, prior to this. Furthermore, I was teaching them simple lessons that would significantly improve their lives, such as the value of money, and how to cross the road, the importance of both of which I had underestimated.

Creative The Albanian 2012

Jem Bosatta GCSE Point of sale display

Beth Kirby AS Scale model of a pillar drill

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Clockwise: Scale model of corkscrew : Daniel Fellowes AS Point of sale display: Palakorn Constable GCSE Restaurant design: Brian Yuen A2 DVD cabinet: Daniel Gott CGSE Drawer detail: George Rossow GCSE

59 Creative

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Features

Pen Arthur in the 21st Century Updating the Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tradition Pen Arthur is, and always has been, a very special place, widely talked about, and provider of many fond memories for Old Albanians and current pupils and staff alike. Much has always been made of its basic lifestyle and quirkiness, with mouldy walls and plants growing in the toilet cubicles, not to mention the power cuts and running out of water, quite a problem when you are two miles up a mountain track.

Therefore, in 2011 we decided to carry out works to update Pen Arthur and to provide our pupils with more sleeping space. The work was carried out over the winter of 2011/2012 and Pen Arthur re-opened in March 2012, now with three dormitories and much improved single accommodation.

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We even found time to raise the roof of the entrance from the These fond memories are priceless lounge to the dining room, preventand I fully understand the raising of ing many further sore heads. some eyebrows when we decided to update Pen Arthur. The new look Pen Arthur is not a lot different from the old place, To be able to accommodate the but running more efficiently, whilst needs of our modern day society, keeping the lounge and dining however, we were duty bound rooms largely untouched, still with to update and improve the place its large open fireplace. The sleepwithout losing any of its character. ing accommodation is also much improved. Current health and safety legislation demanded that we make some KJE changes, but we also wanted to offer our boys a better experience.

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Pen Arthur (above) still looks reassuringly familiar, though the new dormitories (right) would amaze old timers, and health and safety legislation insists on new fire escapes (below).Whatever the changes, Pen Arthur is still a great place to learn new skills (far right).

Spot the Quark

Enrichment

Scientists inspect the facilities at CERN

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In October, following the half term break, eleven enthusiastic Upper Sixth physicists travelled to Geneva to visit CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider. The first morning was spent having a guided tour around the main site, given by a particle physicist. The main accelerator is a huge 27km in circumference, mostly buried underground. However, even the small sections accessible to us seemed enormous. The large machinery was impressive from the outside and the nature of the contents and the implications of potential discoveries within, provided sober thought. One of the first things we saw upon our arrival was the linear accelerator, used to give the protons the energy needed to get around the LHC. All these protons came from a tiny canister of hydrogen, but as only a few protons are used at a time, it could theoretically last CERN for hundreds of years. We were also introduced to the amazing LHCb experimental facilities. The ‘b’ stands for ‘beauty’ as its main use is to investigate beauty quarks. This and other experiments should hopefully help science understand why there is so much matter in the universe but so little antimatter.

Finally, we had some free time to go round the microcosm museum which contained interactive exhibits and interesting displays, which helped improve our knowledge and understanding of particle physics and the origins of the universe. In addition, the giant Globe of Science and Innovation exhibition provided us with a multimedia experience including an extraordinary film about the Big Bang. After this, we were fortunate enough to have an inspirational guided tour of the magnificent UN building in Geneva. The next day, as the trip drew to a close, we saw the more conventional sights of Geneva on a fascinating walking tour, before our flight home. Sam Eley & George Tasker

This House Believes… James Sinclair orates on the Debating Society’s success There is no argument against the proposition I am putting forward: that the successes of this year’s Debating Society are unrivalled. I shall give you a series of instances in which the teams have outdone themselves in their rhetorical, oratorical and dialectical faculties, and I shall also provide examples where other students have given us a paradigm on which to build in future years. There will be no opposition or points of information.

We found that debating in the Finals, held at the Cambridge Union itself, was a significantly greater challenge than in our previous rounds of debating. Out of the original field of 550 entries to the overall competition from across the United Kingdom, only the top 40 made it to this round; moreover, throughout the day we spoke in four different debates. Despite

The example of the speakers before us was truly inspirational. The semi-final debate - ‘This House would abolish the institute of marriage’- generated some passionate oratory on the meaning of love, and of relationships, but the final debate, on whether countries have a moral obligation to intervene in despotic regimes to impose democracy, was true perfection in argument and rhetoric. So spellbinding, indeed, were the top four teams’ speeches that I found myself constantly shifting in my allegiance between each speaker. The judges had a very difficult decision in determining the overall winner of the competition: in the last, Dulwich College came away as ultimate champions. Our team was greatly inspired by the experience, and we hope to build on what they have learnt for future school debating. Upper Sixth debaters Phil Ruis and Michael Hollins have also been highly successful this year in their quest for debating glory, making it to the Regional Finals of the English Speaking Union Mace Debating Competition. After their first victory debating at St Albans School, the team also won their second round at Merchant Taylors’ School, but sadly did not qualify beyond the regional round. And so, I hope you will agree that the Debating Society have been extremely successful this academic year. The experiences have given me a great determination to advance the endeavours of the society in the future. I implore you to vote for the proposition.

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Serious thought was required in the first round of debates held at Queen Elizabeth School, in which debaters had to argue for or against the view that nuclear weapons should be made available to all countries, and whether dictators should be granted amnesty in return for their deposition. By the narrowest of margins, the Lower Sixth team of Tom Foxton and I scraped past rival schools to qualify for the second round of the

The mood of the debates shifted in the second round of the competition, which took place at John Lyon School. The motions were ‘This House would not allow parents to remove children from sex and relationship education’, and ‘This House would allow people to marry more than one person at a time’, with the St Albans team proposing both. The challenge of proposing polygamy might have daunted a less committed team than our own - such was the fate of our rivals on the Proposition, who whole-heartedly embraced the doctrine of Percy Sledge: “When a man loves a woman, he can’t keep his mind on nothing else”. In our case, the necessary separation of Church and State was crucial to our qualification for the Finals, not mentioning our avoidance of any self-contradictory double negatives.

the intensity of this schedule, we managed to win the third of our debates, largely due to my colleague’s sophisticated economic analysis of why ‘giving bonuses to banks which had been bailed out by the tax-payer’ was actually beneficial to growth. Nevertheless, the extremely high standard of the competition meant that we did not get through to the ‘Break’- the top eight teams at the Finals.

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The School’s participation in the Cambridge Union Debating Competition is a case in point. Conducted in the British Parliamentary style of debating, teams were given a mere fifteen minutes to prepare cogent, analytical and persuasive speeches. Allocated a position on either side of the debates, speakers had to give the impression that they had utter conviction in their arguments.

competition. Of the sixteen teams present, only the top four made it to the next level.

Scientific Curiosity The Stephen Hawking Society’s Year

Enrichment

Reflecting on another year of varied and thought-provoking lectures, the Stephen Hawking Society has proved to be a continuing success. The autumn term saw the prominent scientific figure Prof Sir Alec Jeffreys discuss his pioneering work on the development of DNA fingerprinting techniques. He explained how repeating DNA sections, or microsatellites, are used to build an individual DNA profile - thus contributing to huge leaps in forensic science, paternal disputes and high profile immigration cases.

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ments in training, technology and understanding that led to the successes at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and, without disclosing any secrets, hinted at some of the areas where Team GB might have the edge in London 2012. The audience also learned of the cost of an Olympic gold medal and some of the politics and industrial espionage that go on during such a high-profile competition.

The Naked Scientists, a very popular science radio group, were next on the bill. Students filled the hall The society then welcomed Peter in the afternoon for an interacBrimblecombe, Professor of Attive lesson on the nervous system, mospheric Chemistry, in the new answering questions about why we calendar year. He described how feel, think and behave in certain dust, including that from deserts ways. In a fascinating demonstraand Icelandic volcanoes, controls tion, one (un)willing pupil even the Earth’s climate. Professor Brim- had his brain wired up to monitor blecombe detailed the complex the difference in electrical activchemical interactions involved, ity with our eyes open or closed. stretching the A level chemists Later that afternoon Dr Chris well beyond the demands of the Smith, the founder of The Naked syllabus and extending their wider Scientists and Cambridge University knowledge. pathology lecturer, gave an inspiring talk on science communication. The second of the year’s lectures, Quirky questions such as ‘How fast ‘The Gizmo Games’ was delivered does a sneeze travel?’ were deftly by Glenn Hunter from UK Sport. answered. He described some of the improve-

Finally, Richard Harrison, operating system developer and avid pyrotechnic, delivered a talk on fireworks. Much to the surprise of the audience, Mr Harrison ignited a rocket in the BLR to demonstrate how the burning speed of a composition can be enhanced through finer particle size and paper tubes of insulation. He also discussed how the variable composition of the firework can produce desired colours and effects, accompanied by much smoke, light and sound. This was followed by the now traditional black tie annual dinner, rounded off with an inspirational recorded message from Professor Stephen Hawking himself. Just as the Paralympic opening ceremony in London was made remarkable by its association with Professor Hawking, St Albans School is proud of this thriving society that nurtures inquisitive minds. This year’s standard was no exception and we thank the speakers, the committee and Dr Tanner, who is stepping back after seven years at the helm. Alex Shavick/RET

Les Femmes Savantes

The Empire Strikes Back

A French Lecture

LVI History Trip to Cadogan Hall

Students were treated to an enlightening lecture, delivered by Professor Richard Parish of Oxford University on Molière’s Les Femmes Savantes, which is being studied by U6 pupils. Professor Parish examined the comedic side of the play, looking at it within the context of other works of the time, as well as shedding light upon the elusive and unstable “honnêteté”. He concluded that there are two different meanings of the word – a masculine and a feminine, and that when Molière played one of his characters in drag, it wasn’t simply for comedic effect, but also served to highlight this difference in meaning. The lecture was well attended, and students certainly benefited from hearing the views of this world expert.

Cadogan Hall became the meeting point of a dozen Lower Sixth Form students studying History, as a panel of six speakers provided them with a fresh angle on this year’s course. The diverse group of speakers ranged from Labour and Conservative MPs right through to writers and an expert on North Africa. The debate was held on 17th November, and the motion in speculation was: “Britain’s former colonies should stop blaming the empire for their ills.” Prior to embarking on the motion, the audience of nearly 400 were torn between being undecided and supporting the motion. Throughout the talk, topics featuring the pottery of Stoke to the slightly more relevant lack of Kashmiri reparations, gradually progressed to whether India had England to thank for cricket. The eventual outcome was unchanged, with only the uncertain voters going down proportionally. Overall, it was both an enjoyable and worthwhile evening.

Tragically Interesting The Hylocomian Society continues to fascinate The classical world was on full display this year as the school was treated to a cornucopia of activities.

Crossways It has been a joy and a privilege to have been part of the School’s Christian Fellowship. Our purpose is to strengthen one another through a variety of different ways, be it meeting together, praying or talking through some ethical minefields. This year we have looked at a smorgasbord of issues ranging from why Jesus had to die to whether the Devil exists. There is no denominational requirement or indeed a need to believe at all; anyone and everyone, who wants to wrestle with difficult areas and talk through the Christian take on many philosophical and ethical problems, is welcome. The School’s Christian Fellowship meets once a week in the West Gate Room on Thursdays at 1:30. Michael Hollins

James Sinclair and George Prew

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The Christian Fellowship

The Hylocomian Society gratefully received Dr J Prag from Merton College, Oxford on 15th March for a talk on the life of the great Roman orator Cicero and the unprecedented changes in Rome that occurred during his lifetime. This focused on the fall of the Roman Senate and the rise of hugely powerful individuals, and ranged from the Social War at the beginning of the first century BC right up to the Civil War between Octavian and Mark Antony. Students were treated to a combination of selected writings from the great orator and archaeological evidence, providing oft-overlooked facts to help with their studies, such as what a “Triumvirate” actually was. The talk ended with a Rome on the cusp of leaving the Republic behind to become a true Empire - the audience was left in no doubt that the price you pay for total security and stability is freedom.

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The collection of seminar meetings of the Hylocomian Society in the academic year was, on several levels, an explosive start. Following the ten year anniversary since the terrible terrorist attacks of 9/11, pupils and teachers alike were invited to consider whether Antigone, the eponymous character in Sophocles’ tragedy, written over two thousand years ago, was the world’s first suicide bomber. After reading sections of the first part of the play aloud, a lively discussion ensued. Do we sympathise with the quest of the hapless heroine, or do we submit to a greater authority? These ambiguities, together with Sophocles’ mesmerising mastery of language, combined beautifully to portray the sempiternal sorrows of the human condition with effortless realism. A stimulating experience was had by all, and we could not wait for the conclusion of the tragedy in the second seminar.

What is reality? Professor D Sedley, from the University of Cambridge, attempted to answer this question with his enlightening lecture on the ideas of Plato, on 7th December. Challenging common preconceptions about the utility of philosophy, and its ability to answer such difficult questions, Professor Sedley highlighted that some problems are soluble. He also explained how differently ancient philosophers viewed our world, considering the ‘goodness’ of something simply in terms of its ability to fulfil its necessary function, and informed us of the bedrock of Platonic philosophy: the idea of the ‘Cave’. Combining Plato’s unattractive ideas to a modern audience - his hatred of democracy, loathing of poetry and insistence that the ruler must lie to the hoi polloi – with his more attractive principles, such as his belief in gender equality among his philosopher-kings, we were all given a brilliant insight into the philosophy of an incredible mind whose ideas, more than any other philosopher, have had a lasting impact on the Western tradition.

Maths in Action

Enrichment

Harry Hamer sums up a fascinating day

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On one of those rare occurrences, the Lower Sixth Further Mathematicians stopped work and went on a school trip. We travelled into the heart of London for the ‘Maths in Action’ lectures at the University of London. The lectures comprised mathematicians presenting the real-life uses of maths as well as some of its interesting kinks. Many schools from around the country convened at the Institute of Education to enjoy some mathematical fun – and no, these two words aren’t mutually exclusive.

As shown, despite Treatment 1 having higher success percentage in both large and small stones (93% and 73%), when you combine the two figures together, Treatment 2 has a higher percentage (83%). Another useful and again, potentially confusing strand of mathematics is Bayes’ Theorem which stipulates that the probability of event A given that event B has occurred can be

To start off, we had David Singleton from Google explaining the mathematics behind its search engine that so many take for granted. He warmed up the audience by introducing Auction Theory; then going on to illustrate how Google works: the usage of Eigenvectors and a copy of the internet to find the most relevant website for the keywords used. Finally, he went through the technology of speech recognition in which the sounds are read in bi-grams (2 words), then using probability to work out the most probable sentence constructed. Of course, he subsequently used this to search for “Pygmy Marmosets”. Obviously.

For example, a drugs test that has a probability of testing 99% true for drug users and non-drug users, given that 0.5% of the population are drug users gives a probability of approximately 33.2% accuracy when someone is tested positive, that they have taken drugs.

The following speaker was Matt Keeling of Warwick University, whose speciality is epidemiology: the study of diseases to you and I, and the mapping of diseases using mathematical algorithms. Using this, he was able to show how diseases have been controlled and contained utilising data collection and analysis. He mapped how a disease would spread if someone had caught the disease in the lecture hall. David Percy of Salford University followed on, introducing some of the real world applications of maths such as Simpson’s Paradox, when a correlation present in different groups is reversed when the groups are combined together. A common example can be shown below, pertaining to kidney stones: Treatment 1

Treatment 2

Large Stones

93% (81/87)

87% (234/270)

Small Stones

73% (192/263)

69% (55/80)

Both

78% (273/350)

83% (289/350)

calculated by

After that rather harrowing elucidation, it was nice to get back to basics with Alex Bellos (author of Sunday Times bestseller Alex’s Adventures in Numberland), who ran through the history of numbers from their early origins demonstrating the different systems depending on their country of origin as well as the first incarnation of the modern number system; created in India. After this enjoyable promenade down memory lane, it was back to business boggling our minds as he went on to show us how (most of us at least) were inferior to a chimpanzee at a memory game. If you would like to challenge said ape, postulating that you could not be beaten by such a primitive creature, all you have to do is search ‘Ayumu’ into Youtube and see how you fare. When it was thought that our brains could suffer no more hardship, up stepped the final speaker for the day: Matt Parker (Queen Mary College, University of London). In an attempt to distract us from the rather ominous title of ‘the Fourth Dimension’, he produced some stand-up comedy about maths. Speaking for the audience, if at first we had our doubts they were wiped from our memories as he reduced the crowd to hysterics. Back to the serious matter in hand though, he was able

to guide us through the wondrous world of dimensions going through the known examples such as the Möbius Strip and the not so well known, such as the Klein Bottle. Explaining how an ant with a piece of string could tell the difference between a sphere and a torus (aka a doughnut), we delved deeper into the mathematics and image creation of multi-dimensional shapes. The day came to an end abruptly and we returned home much wiser and more knowledgeable people than those who had set off that same morning. Many thanks to the Maths Department for organising the whole trip as well as Dr Saunders, Mr Balden and Mrs Gott for accompanying the expedition.

Democracy – North Korean Style The Model United Nations Conference

The minibus (aka diplomatic saloon) roared into to life with Mr Asch at the wheel. “Right, has everyone got their red ties on?” “Yes sir!”

“Yes sir!” Several ‘wastrels’ later we had reached Habs for what was to be the first evening of our three day conference. After a typically generic welcoming speech we entered into our various committees and lobbied hard against the Capitalist Dogs. This may come as a surprise to you but North Korea doesn’t actually have many friends in the diplomatic sphere… Right: time to cosy up to our fellow freedom fighters – Cuba, Syria, Iran, China and Russia. After an evening of propositions, signatures and inside deals we left, confident in ourselves and our allies. Day Two – so began the opening speeches. They started in typical bureaucratic lugubriousness as most nations were constrained by a Western-styled formality: not us, however. After an EU style parliamentary set of bland nothingness (“death is bad” etc), the red tie took the podium for disarmament. “Comrades

After lunch we resumed to discuss various bills that were being proposed by some nation states (for SOME reason, my bill forcing America to fully demilitarise in South Korea was not debated…) One particularly vexing bill proposed by the Iraqi delegate forced me to take the floor in disgust. However, as Iraq was recently invaded and made a proxy by the USA, I thought I’d start with the positives of the bill: “Well, this bill does makes good toilet paper…” The tirade went on from there with comparable vivacity (and coherence…) to the Communist Manifesto (though unfortunately for my fellow delegates, it did not carry forward the merit of brevity). The Secretariat did not appreciate the lack of decorum – “I thought this was a model UN?” I said. Day Three – here, the entire assembly gathered for a whole day of ‘discussion’ (I use the term loosely here as it followed the American and European Parliamentary Protocols whereby one person gets an allotted time and speaks for about 2 minutes with no interruptions or rebuttals permitted at the time – simply incomparable with the House of Commons). There were six delegates from each nation from over seventy nations – a vast assembly. After three hours, Comrade Zak Armstrong yelled: “Point of Parliamentary Procedure!” – this is the only time the floor has to be yielded beyond the control of the Secretariat (who, by now, were looking nervously at one another). “The Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea feels that the Capitalist, Zionist Pigs of the Secretariat are decidedly biased in refusing to yield any floor time to us and, as such,

we will no longer take part in any further proceedings.” Despite the pleas of the Secretary a round of applause ensued and we marched with pride out of the conference hall. We were, after all, just trying to be democratic… In the end Tom Foxton received a merited delegate award and Zak Armstrong a distinguished delegate. Overall, the North Korean delegation won a ‘distinguished delegation’ award and we effectively came joint 2nd out of over 70 different delegations (we were beaten by Guatemala … wellknown for their foreign policy…) We took home the first ever Politics Departmental Trophy to the delight of a slowly bearding Mr Asch (who, clearly inspired by our Communist fervour now intends to look like Karl Marx, non?) The delegates were as follows: Michael Hollins, Ed Baker, Harry DiLieto, Toby Taylor, Tom Foxton and Zak Armstrong.

Michael Hollins

Enrichment

“And remember, you are to refer to one another as comrades.”

and Capitalists! Let’s discuss disarmament…” Following the looks of amusement, wonder, disgust and just sheer confusion, there was not only rapturous applause from my allies but also from other Third World countries and even some members of NATO (they clearly were facing an identity crisis).

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“Mr Hollins, you’ll take our disarmament policy then.” A disarmament minister for The Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea (or North Korea to you and me) … interesting. Still, the Model United Nations held at Haberdashers Aske’s School looked to be an intriguing opportunity. ‘Model’ of course can have two meanings: an ideal or perfect way of things or a scale replica which is supposed to be realistic. We put emphasis on the latter definition – why try to build a better tomorrow when the Capitalist pigs had destroyed our yesterday?! Oh yes, we were ready to undertake democracy in a true North Korean fashion.

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CCF

Displaced but Thriving OC’s Report The year started with the construction of the Sports Centre well under way. The CCF was looking round for areas to train in and still working out of our container office, but we were not demoralised.

I have to finish by thanking all the people that have supported me: Mr Wilson, our Officers and cadets, but especially the cadet training teams, the Coldstream Guards, and the Bursar for putting up with all our demands.

We were soon organising ourselves, providing our cadets with yet another challenging and enjoyable year. As the autumn term progressed we settled into a routine shared between Cheapside and the School site. As well as our own training we were also lucky to have visits from the Coldstream Guards training team who support us so kindly.

KJE

Wet and Windy

In the course of this year, the shooting team travelled to Jersey, the RAF section took part in the RAF ground competition and 100 cadets attended winter camp.

Winter Camp

We began the year by preparing for a biannual inspection, which was to take place in May, and intensive training for our Fifth form section, ahead of the Duke of Edinburgh practice in the Peak District.

In Easter we embarked on Duke of Edinburgh’s training with 44 Silver and 20 Gold participants. The weather made it a very challenging expedition, as it rained non stop for the whole four days,. However, the cadets rose to the challenge and all of them went forward to take part in their qualifying expeditions. As the year draws to a close, we are now able to move back into our own offices and admire the new training grounds available to us, including the area behind the newly acquired Aquis Court.

Cooking skills on view at the Inspection

The next challenge after the weather were the enemy; during the night they had moved into commanding positions across the training area and had to be identified and removed from the area. The cadets worked well in their platoons and attacked the positions with aggression and speed, which led to the eventual destruction of the enemy. Having been on the receiving end of over 6000 blank rounds and many smoke grenades, I can testify to all of the effort that they put in, which could be seen by the amount of sleeping cadets on the bus home. The Upper Sixth and members of staff worked behind the scenes to make sure the camp ran smoothly. Senior cadets including myself arrived early to the training area to prepare for the arrival of the cadets, unloading vehicles and filling magazines. As well as playing the role of the enemy, the Upper Sixth worked as instructors on stands and also helped with the organisation of younger cadets as this became especially difficult when kit became wet and the cadets themselves got cold and tired. The cadets learnt a great deal about operating in the field and those in command positions developed leadership and motivation skills. The camp, despite the weather, was enjoyed by all. Henry Dace

CCF

On arrival, the cadets moved into harbour areas, quickly setting up bashas and posting sentries. After eating, the cadets prepared to go out on a night reconnaissance patrol to find the enemy. They worked at section strength to get close to several known enemy positions without being detected. They gathered intelligence on the enemy’s plans in spite of constant rain and successfully remained undetected. The biggest challenge of the camp came at night when cadets struggled to stay warm due to rain and low temperatures. After a difficult night’s sleep, especially for those in leadership positions, morale was restored by hot food and drink.

The biannual inspection was to be an RAF reviewing year, and we were honoured to have Group Captain IF Bruton as our Inspecting Officer, who in his report graded the contingent as excellent. The Captain commented about the parade that, ‘given the pressures of a normal school day, the effort and dedication required to construct and execute displays of this standard speaks volumes about the commitment of the cadets.’

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On the 16th of December 2011, 100 cadets from St Albans School CCF deployed to Longmoor training area. We aimed to practise the military skills we had learnt during the previous term on Friday afternoons and to tackle a gang of escaped Upper Sixth criminals!

Adventure Training Wales

Enemies at Wathgill Summer Camp 2012 For summer camp this year we returned to Wathgill Camp in North Yorkshire to train in the Catterick area, one of the largest in the country.

CCF

After a very challenging summer camp, 22 cadets and four staff left School for an adventure training trip that was to take us from one end of Wales to the other.

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During the first two days, we did adventure training and prepared to defend the victories in the drill competition that we had previously won. The adventure training included a high ropes course and zip wires on the first day followed by canoeing, raft building and archery on the following day.

Arriving at Pen Arthur for a four day visit, we were treated to a first night meal in a local hotel. Over the following four days we travelled from Hay-on-Wye to Brecon and Oxwich Beach, where we took part in adventure training activities, including canoeing, climbing, sea canoeing and sailing. On day five we drove the length of Wales to LLangollen in North Wales and stayed the night at a field centre owned by the University of Lancashire. Whilst there, the group took part in archery, BMX biking, gorge walking and some very challenging command tasks.

ance, later that week we were to learn we had won the competition, competed for by contingents over the whole 3 weeks of camp. The week continued with orienteering, leadership tasks, ranges, obstacle course training and a very valuable tactics day where we once again were declared best on camp. It was soon time to venture out on our own exercise, the highlight of the week for most of our cadets.

The exercise was a 24 hour operation to capture and destroy The drill competition was soon the enemy. The exercise gives upon us, and our reputation as a the cadets an opportunity to put Guards Contingent was on the into practice all the skills learned line. The squad of 15 led by under throughout the year, including camp Officer Joe Chalkley, took to the craft, basha building and section square, wearing immaculate uniattacks.This was a very successful forms, which were prepared by the week at summer camp. great teamwork of all the cadets Joe Chalkley on camp. All the hard work paid off, and after a flawless perform-

We ended by travelling to Caernavon for the night. The next day, we climbed Mount Snowdon; all the party successfully completed the challenge and we returned to our hotel to enjoy a final dinner. Harry Di-Lieto

On a Wing and a Prayer RAF Section The RAF section is a well-established and highly valued branch of the CCF. We train cadets in first aid, shooting, drill and leadership but also give lessons in areas such as aircraft recognition and, excitingly, how to fly aeroplanes.

dealing with traumatised shock victims, broken arms with squirting blood and an enemy squad which killed many of them. The RAF training exams have also gone remarkably well leading to a large number of cadets passing the necessary tests for promotion. Being of a modest size (about 20 or so), everyone in the section knows everyone else leading to a spirit of camaraderie and cohesion, which has been noted on several command tasks. Highlights of the year include the outstanding drill sequence for BGI, a number of gliding scholarships and Corporal Lampert throwing up after a spell of aerobatics.

This year, the RAF section has been extremely busy. There have been an extraordinary number of sorties for both flying and gliding and, despite the best efforts of the English weather, many cadets were able to fly this year at RAF Halton and RAF Wyton. In addition, we have been involved in the regional ground training competition and, of course, the Biannual General Inspection. Our drill standards have been impeccable and the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;pilot It has been an honour to lead them downâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; exercise run for the BGI saw this year and I would like to add many cadets pushed to their limits

my personal thanks to Squadron Leader Stubbs for all his untold service to the section, to Sergeants Goldsmith and Blackie for helping me run training sessions and to Corporals Beatie, Chapman and Rossi for their dedication and commitment to the RAF. Under the direction of Mr Forbes-Whitehead for the coming year, I have every confidence that the RAF Section will continue to prosper and remain a valuable part of the Combined Cadet Force. Michael Hollins

Top Shots On target throughout the year Autumn Term House Shooting and The Captain’s Cup

Jersey Tour Our base in Jersey was Victoria College, from where we headed to the outdoor ranges. The students shot two five round groupings and a ten round rapid with the L98 rifles, impressing the SSI from Victoria College with their weapon handling skills.

BSSRA Autumn Leagues

Emsall Trophy The high point of the autumn term came in the Hertfordshire School’s competition, better known as the Emsall Trophy. Last year we had a shock victory, winning through some consistent shooting. This year we were keen to repeat this success. The big difference this year was that we were able to enter three teams and each team was eager to outdo the next. As a result the St Albans Squad took the first three places, pushing the Hab’s A Team down to 4th place. Chris Oates was superior in form once again, attaining another 100 score. The bar has been set very high for next year’s competition.

Spring Term

The Senior team showed rapid progress through the autumn term BSSRA Lent Leagues as they finished 5th in their division. The top shot in the team was Chris The Senior team put in a strong Oates, finishing 7th in the division as combined effort and were disapa whole. pointed to finish one point short of the top spot, beaten by an equally Right from the start of the year, the strong Habs A team. The Junior Extra training from Junior team started hitting the high team once more showed their the Jersey Rifle marks with scores in the high ninestrong depth of talent and secured Association ties, well above their competitors. the overall win in their league. Aidan Collins was the top shot in the league with Tom Chapman, Harry Lampert and Alessandro Rossi finishing in 4th, 5th and 15th positions respectively.

Full-bore preparation The first practice with the new rifles suggested that we were not going to have a smooth run into the summer. We had rain, we had wind and by the end we had snow. There was every reason for the students to give up and go home at that point, with the weather turning so bad that it was not possible to record any scores (the marking cards had turned to papier mâché). However, it was fantastic to see all the students raise their frost-bitten thumbs to say they were looking forward to the next practice.

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In the Captain’s Cup, two shots are selected from each house. They are then randomly drawn against shots from other houses to shoot 5-bull cards in a knock-out system. Only the winning card has their score added to the House total and so any house has the potential to score up to 700 points if their two shots make it to the final. This year’s standard was very high, as only one student competing was not a member of the Shooting Team. Tom Foxton eased through his side of the draw for Hampson, but it was the other side of the draw that provided the most thrilling action. Trudy Cammack battled Chris Oates until Chris prevailed and had to face last year’s top shot, Olivia Goldsmith. Both scored a maximum 100 but Chris held his nerve to win a nail-biting 10-bull shoot-out. With both competitors shooting so well, it was unsurprising that the result came down to the width of a line. He went on to win the final with another 100 to Tom Foxton’s 97.

Another trip to the full-bore range followed, this time to join in 7.62 shooting with the Jersey Rifle Association. Only two of the students had any experience of this kind of shooting but their good practice in the School range quickly came to their aid. All students impressed the Jersey coaches with their rapid improvement through the two shoots and all seemed to thoroughly enjoy the day.

Because of a handicap system, the team finished joint 3rd in their division. However, Tom Chapman shot the top score for both the School and the division.

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The shooting year started as always with House Shooting. Access to the range was handicapped by the Sports Hall development work. However, the boys showed great resilience in turning up each week. Most keen were the boys of Hawking and Hampson, with Nabeel Sayed (1.2) attending virtually every session! It was therefore unsurprising that at the close of play Hampson and Hawking were battling for first place: Hampson on 941 and Hawking on 912. Marsh looked like they had an outsiders chance on 731 and Renfrew were all but out of the running with 384.

Victoria College has a particularly long history of top level shooting, producing many world champions over the last hundred years. It was therefore unsurprising that they won both the senior and junior competitions. However, the latter was only secured by one point. Top scorer for the senior team was Chris Oates, and Tom Chapman took the honours for the junior team.

This practice was delayed by the MOD taking the rifles for servicing and numerous other problems interfered with progress. Things were looking precarious for the Ashburton meeting as on average each member of the team had only achieved two practices.

Summer Term

CCF

BSSRA Summer Leagues

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Unsurprisingly, Greshams dominated the senior division, winning the first three rounds. However, St Albans came through to win the final round much against expectations and pushing the team up to third place. Individually the students shot very well, with almost all improving upon their year’s averages. Chris Oates capped off an excellent year by finishing 3rd and Trudy Cammack finished 5th. Abhishek Kulkarni, who had not shot all term owing to cricketing commitments, stepped in as a last minute substitute, produced a first-rate 7th place finish and a personal best average. Olivia Goldsmith saw in the team with a 14th place finish. Greshams were also dominant in the junior division; their first team won all four rounds. It was a steep learning curve for the St Albans juniors and they finished in 5th place. However, the league did show a return of form for Aidan Collins who finished in 8th place in a very strong field. Harry Lampert and Tom Chapman finished in joint 14th place and Alessandro Rossi finished 18th.

Ashburton With a possible top score of 35.5v at each range, it was hoped that the cadets would be able to attain scores in the high twenties for their first meeting. Trudy Cammack set the standard on the first day on the first target, attaining a score of 30.2v, quickly followed by Chris Oates hitting a 31.1v. Alessandro Rossi out shot the whole team and was the first squad member to make it onto the results boards, attaining a place on the Monday Cadet 100 list. The greatest competition came on the Wednesday between Chris Oates and Tom Foxton. It began with Tom producing a 33.3v at 300, only to be bested by Chris with a 33.4v; this score being attained after a hitting a Magpie 3 as his second shot. However, Tom hit back at 500 with a 32.2v to Chris’ 31.1v. This piled on the pressure at 600 to who would take the glory for the day and after a thunderstorm that closed the range for an hour it was Tom who prospered with a final 30.1v. Students were also able to take part in competitions involving clays, gallery rifles and F-class long range rifles. Once again the competitiveness between team members helped to propel them up the standings in each competition with the highlight coming in the F-class where they finished second.

Ashburton day arrived to bright blue skies and was started in the typical manner by Dollar School marching down the point to a piper. Cole’s Trophy Aidan Collins was the first to shoot with the honour of the reserve This year’s competition between and he put in a very respectable the current squad and the OA score to attain 8th place. It was th team took place on the 4 July in then the turn of the main squad. the School range. The students Trudy Cammack had proved herself rose to the challenge, shooting well to be a very reliable lead-off shot above their averages. Chris Oates and so was given the responsibility once again improved on his impresto start the team competition. A sive form but was pipped to the solid start at 300 was followed by top post by Aidan Collins. It must a slightly below par 600 shoot. It be noted that this was only the would therefore take some good third 10 bull target that Aidan had shooting at the final distance if we shot but one that any member of were to make it onto the results the senior team would have been board. Trudy started with a 30.1v, proud to achieve. Phil Ruis also which was then followed by Chris performed well to attain the third Oates’ 32.3v, Tom Foxton’s 28.1v place. and finally Tom Chapman’s 31.0v.

Our first position on the board was at 2nd but there was a lot of the afternoon left for other teams to hand in their results. It was a nervous wait, cleaning rifles and packing away equipment but by 16.00 it seemed certain that we were to finish 3rd, a momentous achievement in our first year.

Awards: There was little difficulty in selecting the junior and senior shots of the season with both students performing at the top level in all competitions this year. Top Junior Shot of the Season: Aidan Collins Top Shot of the Season 2011-2012: Chris Oates

Thanks The first thanks must go to Major Everitt and Mr Wilson who have had to put up with my constant requests for extra equipment and transport over the year but who have supported the squad unconditionally. Secondly, I would like to thank Miss Bruton who bravely took on the responsibility of coming to Bisley to act as female supervision, not really realising what she was getting herself into. She proved to be an indispensable part of the team, throwing herself into all aspects of the week and even suggesting that she may be willing to come back next year. The Old Albanians have once again been of immense support to the team. There was a change of coach this year with Andrew Wilkie retiring to the south coast. Owen Simmons generously stepped in to take his place and has helped develop the squad both at .22 and our new pursuit with full-bore. I have been extremely grateful to him all year and especially touched when he chose to give up a week of his time to join us at Bisley for the Ashburton week. The final thanks goes to the squad whose hard work and dedication are the real reason for our continuing success and development. DSR

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Trips

Whales and Basalt Geographers travel to Iceland The fourth day involved travelling north on Route 1, a huge ring-road around the whole of Iceland. We followed it to Eglisstadir, stopping to photograph mist-shrouded fjords and the rocky deserts where in the 1960s NASA trained astronauts and even trialled the The beach at Reynishverfi was next moon buggy. Another stop at a on the itinerary. It has incredible remote farmstead called Möðrudahexagonal basalt columns, formed lur became suddenly very exciting as lava flows cool and contract; when we spotted a pair of Arctic and it was also here that we first Fox cubs. Our final destination and encountered the national bird of accommodation was at Grimstunga, Iceland, the puffin. We watched an isolated spot in vast and majestic as they flew out from their high heathland. Our first night’s lodging was to be perches over our heads and out To start what was probably the at the Hotel Cabin in the centre to sea, returning to their young of Reykjavik. Once we had arrived with fish. We headed on eastwards; best day of the trip, we travelled north to Detifoss, the largest and found our rooms, our guides paused for lunch at the southwaterfall in Europe. There was Richard and Tom introduced us ernmost point in Iceland; crossed little to alert or protect tourists to the week ahead. We were deserted lava fields from an 18th of and from danger; we could walk century eruption; through the then allowed in the fading light to to the very edge of the freezing, barren Skeidararsandur outwash explore the area’s streets, shops plains, site of the 1996 glacial burst; thundering falls. We moved on to and waterfront. stopping only at Skaftafell National the Asbyrgi gorge, a geographer’s The next morning we drove east Park to see the Black Falls, named dream landscape, formed under a through the ‘hot zone’ – where glacier during a huge glacial burst. for its impressive dark basalt magma from the underlying ridge After lunch we reached the northcolumns. We continued east past reaches nearer to the surface the Vatnajökull ice cap, heading for ern town of Hùsavik to go whale – spotting on our way several the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon. This watching. Following a rainy souvenir geothermal power stations belching hunt we boarded an old whaling stunning lake (which was used in sulphurous steam, and even some vessel to enter the Greenland Sea, two Bond films) is spotted with geothermally-heated greenhouses, millennia-old icebergs calved from where after half an hour of distant which contribute to the island’s dolphins and cold fingers we finally the Breiðmerkujökull glacier that self-sufficiency in salad crops. We feeds the lake with meltwater. After met a giant humpback whale. In an embarked on a small ferry headed an amphibious tour round the lake, awe-inspiring display he breached for the Westmann Islands where, in and glided and spouted right up we ended the day after 350km of 1973, the volcano Eldfell erupted. close to the side of the ship. It was travelling at the harbour town of Half the town was lost to the lava one of the most amazing things I The raging Goðafoss Höfn for pizzas and a night in a but the residual heat now warms have seen in my life. We returned, in northern Iceland youth hostel. the islanders’ new houses and keeps the pavements free of ice. Climbing up Eldfell was like walking through a huge gritty sand dune in places, but arriving at the top validated the effort as we were greeted with spectacular views of the ocean.

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As soon as we arrived in Iceland on Sunday July 22nd, we were taken to the Blue Lagoon. The water appears an opaque blue colour because of a rich supply of various silicate minerals and bacteria. These minerals are apparently curative for certain skin disease, and they certainly enhance the experience with the distinctive smell of sulphur. Nonetheless, everyone was excited to get in and the water was deliciously warm, somewhere around 37°C, thanks to geothermal activity below and around the lagoon.

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As we left the next morning we were given stunning views of Eyjafjallajökull, the glacier above the volcano that brought airports to a standstill in 2010. Hugging the southern coast we soon came to our first stop of the day, Skógarfoss, an amazing waterfall surrounded by moss-covered cliffs. The 60m fall showered us with spray as we climbed to the top where we could see rainbows formed from light passing through the spray, not to mention extraordinary views. Our

next stop of the day was Sólheimajökull, an ash-covered glacier sitting at the end of a valley. We had the rare opportunity to walk upon the glacier and along immensely deep crevasses, in order to see the dirtying effect of the 2010 eruption.

fortified by cocoa and biscuits, to Grimstunga for the night.

The next day saw us leave Akureyri and pass through the battle-scarred area of Oxnadular, after which we joined the Kjolur pass. This is a gravelled highland road, only open in season, which passes between two ice-caps and is one of the most important routes through Iceland. We had the chance to admire the sheer size of the ice-caps, and what’s more, the chance for a quick but glorious dip in a geothermally heated outdoor bath in Hveravellir. We spent a slightly cramped night in a quaint mountain cabin with no electricity – instead, a wonderfully barbequed lamb.

Alex Kirsch dressed a huge water tower structure with for the weather a revolving restaurant called Perlan.

On our last morning, heaviness of heart was mirrored by leaden skies. Nevertheless, after vacating rooms and storing luggage, we ventured out on a city sightseeing tour. We began at the highest point of the city at the church of Hallgrímskirkja, before heading to the centre via the modern Icelandic parliament building, the council offices and a giant 3D model of the whole country. Here there was just about time for a spot of last-minute souvenir hunting before we had to begin the journey to the airport and back home. Alex Kirsch, Dilan Dhulashia, Harry Pottinger, Edmund Wrigley, Greg Reynolds, CPAG

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On the last full day we hit the Golden Circle, one of Iceland’s most popular tourist attractions. Our first stop was the beautiful and unique Gullfoss waterfall, followed After lunch we visited the nearby by a visit to Geysir, a world-famous lava formations, Dimmuborgir, geothermal area, which displayed where giant spires of lava jut out a fantastic array of – you’d never of the ground to form a giant maze guess – geysers, going off all around leading towards a fascinating cave at regular intervals. We moved on called “The Church”. Further west to Pingvallavatn, the site of the we found the incredible Waterfall first Icelandic Parliament. Its culof the Gods or Godafoss, sitting tural significance came with great against a flattering backdrop of geographical interest too; it lies on mountains. It gained its curious the mid-Atlantic ridge, which had name because when Iceland recently pulled apart to form a new became Christian, idols of the crack at the end of our footpath. The rugged Norse Gods were flung into its landscape of the It was then time to return to depths. Our final stop was in the Reykjavik and the Hotel Cabin, via Hverfell crater coastal town of Akureyri. We were

The evening took us to a steak restaurant for supper followed by an engaging hour of ten-pin bowling.

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Heading west the next morning, we travelled through the vast desert, with stunning views of the mountains that surround the bleak landscape. After a short time we came to the Njamafjall geothermal area, where the lava of the mantle is very close to the surface at the plate boundary. A volcano with many colours of rock towered over boiling mud pools, accompanied by the sharp smell of sulphur, to which we were now (thankfully) habituated. We went on, and, passing over the crest of a hill, we were presented our first view of the islands, peninsulas and mountains that form the stunning scene of Lake Myvatn. We followed the shoreline, stopping before lunch to ascend to the 4km crater of a lakeside volcano. Our effort was rewarded upon descent with a lunch of delicious traditional Icelandic lamb soup.

met with great views of the Arctic Ocean and a buffet, followed by a swim, a shopping jaunt and the Olympic Opening Ceremony.

Personal Stories Among Thousands World War One Battlefields trip On Thursday 9th February, in bitter temperatures, 32 students and four staff from St Albans School set off for a tour of the First World War battlefields and cemeteries in order to reinforce our understanding of this terrible event. We had been told that this visit would be poignant, moving even, and despite being surrounded by my peers, I found this to be true.

Day 1 Sanctuary Wood, Belgium

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After the failure of the Schlieffen plan, both sides were keen to gain control of the coast. The British Expeditionary Force quickly built up a network of trenches in the cover of the woods to defend themselves from the German assault. Sanctuary Wood has maintained these trenches so people can see for themselves, the terrible conditions soldiers had to contend with.

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We were able to walk freely amongst the maze of trenches, shocked by the simplicity of the structures that were little more than ditches in the ground. It seemed remarkable that they saved any lives at all. Great craters from shells and mines were scattered about the battlefield and the rank, dark tunnels had an effect on all who walked through them. From here, we were able to look round the ramshackle museum, holding whole sheds worth of weaponry and equipment found buried in the trenches. The walls were covered in dusty photos of horrific injuries suffered by the young men who fought in the war.

Day 2 The Somme, France Vimy Ridge was a great vantage point, overlooking the plains of Artois. It was seized by the Germans in 1914. The town of Arras was flattened by the German military and the task of recapturing the Ridge was handed to the Canadian Corps who eventually succeeded, gaining control of it on the 12th April 1917. Today a monument has been erected, inscribed with the names of over 11,000 brave men who were missing in action or dead. We were in awe of the scale of this memorial and the impact it had, with its vast columns pointing heavenward into the clear skies, was profound. We then went on to visit the Notre Dame de Lorette, the largest WW1 French cemetery. A hush descended upon the group, as we looked over the 45,000 graves and the real enormity of the conflict dawned on us. It was nice to see, however, that respect for the fallen was still being shown, for all the lawns were well manicured and the graves were kept in immaculate condition, each holding an individual inscription. We were also able to see Thiepval, a monument standing 150 foot high and holding 73,357 names. Too often the scale of these losses is simply too large to fully comprehend.

Day 3 Ypres, Belgium Ypres was reduced to little more than a pile of rubble during the war, but today it has been rebuilt to look like it did in its prime. We were taken to see the Menin Gate, a tribute to the missing British and Commonwealth soldiers. At 8 oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;clock every night since 1927, the Last Post is played to commemorate the lives of many of those who died in the Great War. The bodies of over 11,000 men lie at Tyne Cot cemetery, the largest British cemetery in the world. Row upon row of ivory coloured head stones blanketed the ground and the Cross of Sacrifice stands beneath the sun. Amidst the hundreds of noble Commonwealth soldiers, three Germans are buried side-byside with their enemy where they were killed in hand to hand fighting. Of particular significance to me is the fact that my great-uncle, William Henry Lavelle was killed in October 1918. He was 21. His grave lies in the tiny Duhallow cemetery just outside of Ypres. Matthew Lavelle

Romam MMXI AD The biannual Classics trip to Rome and Naples On the way to the Roman forum, we walked past the site of the Circus Maximus, where chariot races took place on the long strip of land, as well as gladiatorial battles and occasionally processions. We then walked on to the Forum Romanum, once the beating heart of Rome. The large site consists of only ruins, but these are fairly intact and bring to life Roman culture. It only helps that the attraction is so crowded, the huge array of tourists can compare to the Romans that would have come daily to the forum.

Treading the ancient streets of Pompeii

After a trip to the Archaeological museum in Naples, we arrived at the centrepiece of our journey: Pompeii. Herculaneum and the picturesque Ostia Antica were great, of course, but it seemed to me that Pompeii, even without its legendary name, was far more captivating. Everything has been left virtually untouched (except, of course, by lava) and from the tombs outside the town to inside Pompeii itself, it was a fascinating place to go. The trip transformed the Classics classroom to ancient reality. Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero

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The Colosseum was the next ancient attraction on the agenda, once another centre of Roman tradition. The place already looks impressive from the outside, but inside is even more interesting. The floor has been stripped of After a good sleep in the Porto its cover to reveal the ruins of Maggiore, many of us needed what would have been underneath a wake-up call. Eventually with every gladiatorial battle or animal everybody down, we set off in our hunt. This part is out of bounds, groups to the baths of Caracalla. but you can look over the rails. Sadly, the baths are not suitable From here, if you look outwards to dip into nowadays, and remain and upwards, the Italians’ sense of as ruins. This is not to say that the cultural pride is clear. It towers up baths were just for relaxing, in fact, 48 metres and 4 storeys, dwarfing the whole complex was more like even the most spectacular football a leisure centre, housing the bath grounds. It is like a football stadium rooms, a swimming pool, gyms and in many ways, in the sense that even a public library. Even though fanatics would have shouted from they are only ruins, the baths still these stands, albeit for one of the look just as impressive as they gladiator’s blood. “What further enmight have done all those years couragement does a teenager need The boys outside the grand ago. to devote their life to Classics?” Colosseum thought Mr Rowland to himself.

Later in the week we came to an even more intriguing place, the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum, which was lost in the eruption of Vesuvius. It has been kept eerily intact, to a certain extent, by archaeologists, and work still goes on today, as demonstrated by the lady cleaning a column with a toothbrush. This town can really give you an idea of ancient Roman culture at the time. Indeed, the many frescos painted at the time can still be seen on the walls from which modern artists could perhaps learn a thing or two. The day wasn’t over there though, and we were soon off to the “terrible mountain” after lunch. We were dropped off halfway up Vesuvius to walk the remaining distance. It was challenging to a certain extent, but we still got time to appreciate how huge and deadly the volcano could be. I must say, the volcano was enormous and magnificent, and it was probably my favourite part of the trip.

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Even the earliest of awakenings at around 5 o’clock in the morning couldn’t dampen our mood. On arriving at the Porto Maggiore Hotel in Rome, we had a short but welcome rest. We headed out soon after to the Vatican City, which was a short distance away. St Peter’s Basilica is huge, and although it doesn’t have many ties with the ancient world, it was nice to have a look round, and get a first feel for Italy’s culture. A short walk across the nearby bridge then showed us the impressive Pantheon. Dr Tanner told us how it had been rebuilt at the time of Emperor Hadrian, but still bore the inscription of its original maker, “M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIUM· FECIT” meaning; “Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, consul for the third time, built this.”

On Top of Italy Dukes Gold Dolomites trip

Trips

From the 15th – 21st July, one solitary DofE group travelled to the Dolomites in Italy. Setting off in the early hours of the morning, the group emerged bleary-eyed into the rising sun at Gatwick Airport. Travelling over to Venice airport, we were welcomed by a sudden downpour of rain which soaked our bags before we even started walking. Luckily for us, this wasn’t a portent for the trip ahead.

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We were dropped off at our campsite ‘Dolomiti’, which would be our base campsite for the trip ahead. After getting our tents set up, we were taken out for a meal at a local pizzeria in Cortina: this is Italy of course! This would be our last meal that we wouldn’t have to carry in our bags. Therefore, we ate as much as our stomachs could take before the long expedition. After a night in the tents, we went out for an acclimatising trip. With lightened bags, we walked around a hill where we would be finishing on the last day. Walking behind waterfalls and climbing up sheer faces using via ferratas, we were shown places where we could fill up our water and general tips on protecting yourself from the sun. From this walk, we were able to gain experience of the terrain – it was not the distance that would be the main factor contributing to fatigue but the gradients of the hills. Looking down at the route card for the next four days we would be climbing three to four km in height alone. During the evening, we visited the shops to get the food for the long days ahead. Cereal bars were the order of the day as we stocked up on vast quantities of pasta. For the first day of the expedition we were up and ready for the day

ahead. Driving to our starting point, we slowly made our way towards the first hill, applying sun cream as we went. The first hill is always the hardest, and in this case, it definitely felt that way. In terms of height climbed it was by no means the largest that we would face, but we as Intrepid a group, were unfit and our expeditioners take a bags extremely heavy. It was break en route a baptism of perspiration. We

we would be sleeping in the wilderness. The campsite would be off a road (so not completely isolated), but it was hidden from view and was beside a running river. First we had to ascend yet another hill with the added incentive of stopping off for lunch at the side of a lake. After a morning of continuous climbing, we finally reached the lake. There we met our assessor Mrs Walker with whom we had

trudged onwards and made our way through a forest, along a mountain and back to our original campsite. Although this was good by virtue of the fact that we knew that it had excellent facilities, it was rather demoralising that we had walked all of that day just to get back to the campsite where we were that previous night.

a friendly chat. She reported that we were doing extremely well and that we were on schedule. Carrying on, we walked on a path along the side of a mountain. It seemed that this path was popular for cyclists, particularly German cyclists. No fewer than eight rode past us. One of them seemed so tired that he nearly fell down the hill after his bicycle slipped on the rocky path. Finally, we could see the campsite! Unfortunately, it was down a steep hill that was painful to say the least

The second day of the expedition brought with it the added bonus of being the night in which

on our knees. When we made it, the teachers were there to greet us with containers of waters.

Hut Dibona, which was a sight for sore legs, arms and backs. Immediately we made for the showers, a relief for both the group and the teachers.

all plain sailing from there, driving to the airport, travelling over to Gatwick and travelling on the minibus back to School.

Many thanks to Mr Ford for organising the trip, Mr Byrom and Mr On the final day of walking, there Smithson for accompanying us and was a sense of jubilation that we Mrs Walker for assessing the group. were nearly finished. We still had The trip was brilliant in every sense another day of walking, but the (excluding the hills) and so I would mood was upbeat. The last day was, in comparison to the previous recommend anybody doing DofE Gold to travel abroad. three days, the easiest and so we powered through to the finishing Harry Hamer line with Mr Byrom, Mrs Walker and Mr Smithson all there to congratulate us on our achievement of completing our Gold Assessed Expedition. After driving to the base campsite to set up our tents for the final night, we went into Cortina (the local town) for a celebratory meal. It seemed Italy also wanted to celebrate our success, giving us a dazzling lightshow with much thunder and lightening. It was

Trips

The ordeal of the wild campsite was over, and even more heartening to us was the knowledge that we would have a solid roof over our heads, beds and the ability to sit up during the night. Before us lay many hours walking past amazing peaks, through boulder fields and up a seemingly never-ending hill with a killer gradient. Of course, those prizes earned through sweat and toil are always more gratifying than those received wihtout effort. In this case, we felt that we really earned a prize after many hours of walking and much perspiration. We did eventually make it to the Refuge

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We settled down for the night not prepared for the events that were about to unfold. The teachers had warned our group not to leave food or our bags out and so we brought those in, still sceptical over whether wild animals would come to feast. On our food. It just so happened that a wild animal did come. Tearing at one of the tents, the fox smelled the scent of bread left on a bag (and of course, the smell of human blood). The three people in the tent - Vince, Tom and Ed â&#x20AC;&#x201C; could hear the fox tear the outside covering, then feel its claw slashing at the inner casing. Having to take the bread and to drag trangias, shoes and bags out of some of the tents, the night time was not necessarily the restful period that we had hoped Stunning mountain for. With the fox still sniffing around vistas in the our tents, I saw its nose poke in. Dolomites The group resolved to scare it off, bursting out with torches from the tents. It seemed to work with the last glimpse of the savage fox being its eyes glinting in the moonlight.

Deutsch sprechen am Main Harry Lampert on the 5th Form German exchange

Trips

Members of the Fifth Form travelled in October to the Christian-Wirth School to spend an enjoyable and educational week with their German exchange families.

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I was expecting the trip to be enjoyable, but more of an academic trip than a fun-filled one as it turned out to be. Expecting the worst in weather over the week, we found that cold was vastly made up for by beautiful sunrises and sunsets with the occasional glimpse of beautiful blue sky in Unsingen. The town is surrounded by low mountains covered in beautiful Making grüne Soße stamp the pieces that are needed. forests that lie on the edge of the These giant metal presses have a Main valley. force of around 600 tonnes and cost tens of millions of Euros each. rd On 23 October, the free day with The next day, the whole group our partner’s families, I was lucky went on another day trip, this enough to be taken out to Franktime to Frankfurt itself. Firstly we furt am Main for the day. We went stopped off in central Frankfurt to the Seckenberg Natural History and took the 200m elevator up Museum and its special exhibition the Main tower, which only took on animal structure. Afterwards we an amazing 45 seconds. Afterwards strolled past Messe Frankfurt and we had a walk around Frankfurt hitched a ride on the Ebbelweito see some of the historical Expreß, which is a tour tram ride features, such as the first bridge around the city. to be built across the river Main The next day was our first day in in Frankfurt, and Goethe’s house. CWS (Christian-Wirth-Schule). This was followed by an hour break After having such an exciting day in the shopping district of Frankbefore, I was given the lovely pleasfurt, where we had a brief mosey ure of a wake-up call at 6:30am. around with our exchange partners. School promptly started at 8am, As the week drew to an end, we which is the price one pays for the day to end at 1:00pm. After On top of the Main spent our last two full days in CWS school had ended we had a cooking Tower on normal challenge in groups, in which we had to make our own grüne Soße ‘green sauce’, a delicacy from Hessen which was one of Goethe’s favourite dishes. After we had made our sauce, which would turn out to be our dinner for the evening, we had a lesson in apple juice pressing taught by my exchange partner’s parents. On Tuesday, the whole group met up for a day trip to Russelsheim’s Opel factory, which is the main provider of Opel (Vauxhall’s European brand) Insignias and Astras in Germany and Europe. On the tour of the plant, we were given the pleasure of seeing most of the main production line. The plant is given sheet metal for the production of cars, because in the factory there are several metal presses which

school schedule and had a final go on the school’s climbing wall on Friday 28th. Finally on the 29th we bade farewell to our exchange partners. Reflecting on the week, I think that visiting Frankfurt with my exchange family and being in school with my exchange partner were the two best experiences. I especially enjoyed being in school in Germany because I met so many new people and made lots of new friends who I hope to visit again in the near future. I was surprised at how different the way of living there is from our way in England, and I was also surprised by how good the food is there!

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Sports Centre

Further Boost for School Sport Magnificent Sports Centre and pool opens on time

Sports Centre

St Albans School has been building a reputation for audacious ventures of late, and the development of the School Sports Hall proved no exception. The latest landmark in the School’s evolution stands to epitomise just how far sport has come since our Headmaster, Andrew Grant, was appointed in 1993. Born out of a desire to provide students with a multitude of genuine sporting opportunities, the vision of the Headmaster – adopted by many others along the way – recently came to fruition, on time and on budget.

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82 A Tough Beginning As we become more accustomed to the view from the top of the School Orchard, it is easy to forget just how much planning, hard work and innovation went in to produce what will become the identity of sport at St Albans School. The seeds were sown through what appeared to be a facilities gap in the early 1990s, the headmaster claiming that a swimming pool was all that the School was missing, as it was already committed to the development of the Woollams Playing Fields. If the nine years of development and two public enquiries that this took were anything to go by, then we may have expected an arduous journey to where we are today. Initial planning proved to be a closely guarded secret, shared only with the chief architect David Morgan. Early stages in the planning indicated the challenge it would be to cater for the interests of the landscape, as well as those of the School. This challenge sparked the design of a building that would

blend perfectly into the landscape – the idea was that the building wouldn’t intrude on any of the scenery in Verulamium Park. Lights were set up within the proposed dimensions to ensure that the development wouldn’t compromise a view of the Abbey. Following the green light from the conservationists, the process of having planning permissions granted was relatively smooth – certainly a change from previous experiences.

Difficulty eventually arose in an unfamiliar form; whilst the nonchalance of the owners of Aquis Court aided the planning phase, it proved a hindrance in forcing the relatively trivial processes through. In order to connect the sewers to the sewer network, our consultants needed the permission of those that owned Aquis Court to link us into the sewage system. With the public enquiries required for Work in progress the development to advance, the in the orchard – a project suffered its first hitch. As huge hole to be As with any project of this magniever, just as doubts began to arise transformed into the tude, frustration is a state of mind around whether permission would Sports Centre that we have to take as inevitable ever be granted, a response came at some stage along the way. With from the owners in South Africa planning permissions granted rela– papers were signed, and delays tively quickly, the project turned its were concluded as the project attention to putting the ideas into resumed progress. reality. Lengthy negotiations around the sale of the lease of the King Upheaval and Harry Lane site put the project into limbo temporarily, though the Development eventual deal provided funds that drove our architects and planThe go-ahead finally went through ners toward slight improvements in July 2010 following the sale of in the building’s design. With the the lease of the King Harry Lane permissions granted, consultants sports fields. Work began on the briefed, and Mr Hudson hardly able Sports Hall Project in February to contain his excitement, ‘Project 2011 as SDC, the construction Apple’ got underway in June 2010. company charged with this project, moved in. As the Sports Centre was designed to sit neatly into the natural incline of the land, it was necessary to dig out a huge amount of earth. The existing area known as the Orchard was dug up (much to the disappointment of many of the school’s pupils – as this was where football was played at lunchtime). The process of removing all the earth, flattening the base out and fitting foundations was arduous and time-consuming (see left); as hundreds of tonnes of dirt were unearthed and deposited on the old tennis courts as well as being used to level out the land adjacent to the River Ver. Then the building started to rise, slowly creeping up behind the fences and the covering that surrounded the development. Equipment, materials and men were soon being ferried at a furious pace to and from the Orchard. The framework for the centre was erected and soon the building was brought to life; we had a good idea of what the building would eventually look like by the end of 2011.

Over the winter and into the New Year, the Sports Centre gained the infrastructure needed to implement the project (pipes, measuring dials and containers for sewage and water) and of course, the climbing wall was installed – an essential part of any sports facility. By March 2012, the swimming pool had been tiled, sealed and filled up with water; the sports hall floor was being polished with lines being painted and the general amenities

Ever since the Headmaster first put forward the idea of the Sports Centre with an integrated swimming pool, the School has been tirelessly working towards providing these facilities, not just for ourselves, but for the community as a whole. The enhancement of the School through this project also means that the School will be even more attractive to prospective students. The swimming pool means that swimming can be brought into PE and Games lessons, with times also allocated for public usage. The School gym and sports hall have moved from the former languages block (that space is now going to be used to build a new school cafeteria), to the centre. The gym has been expanded and updated with new equipment; whilst the sports

The Pool and Hall

Huge pipes need huge spanners – plumbing on a grand scale for the swimming pool

Mr Tom Ross, Head of Swimming, described the impact that the pool would have. He believes the new pool will attract people to the School, alongside new sporting and swimming talent. A 25m pool with 6 lanes, touchpad timing, a colour TV to announce results and features such as a ‘grippier’ floor in the shallow end and an ‘endless pool’ – one which accelerates the water past the swimmer to keep them in place – it is clear that it will be a magnificent place to swim. The swimming pool has already opened to the public and local schools, and is set to host swimming galas for the first time at the School. Furthermore, historically the swimmers who represent the School are those who swim for a club. Now the School can nurture

83 our own swimming talent. This can be applied to the other sports that are housed by the centre. The closer and better equipped facilities should ‘change the culture’ according to the Director of Physical Education, Chris Hudson, encouraging students to try out new sports like martial arts, table tennis and badminton.

General Facilities There is a sense that no space is left unused in the Centre, with everywhere being a place of frenetic activity. The lack of seating in the swimming pool has meant that this otherwise unused space can be utilised to house the climbing wall and the dance studio. To quote Mr Grant – ‘it is better to have more activities than more people to watch such activities’. The Games staff has been fully catered for, with a teaching room added for Physical Education at GCSE and A-level. On the bottom floor, there are seven changing rooms and an office for the site manager, who administers the affairs of the centre. The Sports Centre as an entity (along with the new Aquis Court development)

Sports Centre

What Does it Bring?

hall is bigger than the former gym, with features such as cameras designed to capture the action in the hall. This can help the teaching staff outline areas of improvement to pupils. Housing the entire PE department, many changing rooms and a dance studio to boot, the Sports Centre will greatly enrich the School experience.

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had been put in. Finally in April, the project was complete.You can see how the whole project developed accompanied by pictures on the Sports Hall Blog http://www.stalbans.herts.sch.uk/sascms/sportshall-blog.

A climbing wall (right) creates new sporting opportunities

declared the £6.6 million project complete and ready to redefine sport at St Albans School. Its impact will extend beyond that of sport at the School, as was reflected in the delight on the faces of members of local swimming clubs. In particular, the CoStA swimming club expressed the benefits the centre afforded them, describing how the ‘excellent facilities’ would enable increased membership, and create the opportunity to provide children – whether pupils of the school or not – with the benefit of one of the area’s leading amenities.

Sports Centre

Indoor cricket nets in the Sports Hall (left) and Duncan Goodhew demonstrating his strokes at the official opening of the After nineteen years of planning, Centre (below) hard work and innovation, the

should reduce the wear and tear on form rooms as well as enlarge the capacity for sports at the School.

A Grand Opening

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An official inauguration had to wait until September 2012, when the school proudly unveiled the new facility. The honour of cutting the ribbon fell to Duncan Goodhew, a former captain of the England swimming team and gold medal winner in Moscow in 1980, as he

most daring venture in the School’s 1,064 year history was complete. It stands tribute to the talents of the late David Morgan; a former pupil of the school, without whom the success of this incredible project simply would not have been possible. Harry Hamer and Will Floyd

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85 Sports Centre

The new Sports Centre caters for a wide range of activities: Illustrated are zumba, fitness training, netball, swimming, climbing, badminton and weights

House Competition 2012 Results

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Marsh

Renfrew

Art

Golf

Netball

Football

Rugby

Maths

Shooting

Cross Country

Badminton

Basketball

Chess

Hockey

Music

General Knowledge

Debating

Cricket

Tennis

Junior Drama

Drama

Athletics

Swimming

Commendations

233

163

180

Houses

Hampson Hawking

Total

House Music Images of the day

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Houses

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Sport

Trying Season 1st XV Rugby

At home to Hampton School on 1st October was another tough game. Watt kicked us ahead, but repetitive drives by strong forwards pushed us back again and again in our 22m until they scored and converted. This was quickly followed by a penalty for off-side in the backs and then poor blindside defence from a scrum made the score 3-17 at half-time. A good restart and pressure on their defence from determined rucking followed. Unfortunately, their response was equally determined.Eventually we cracked, leaving no guard on the blindside for another goal against us. In the dying moments Hampton scored out wide on the counterattack to put an end to our spirited efforts, and we lost 9-29.

At the Verulam match the Wednesday commitment just wasn’t there, but a 32-13 result was a very welcome victory. This story was highlighted on the Saturday away to St George’s School. The game plan was good, but we couldn’t make any ground in contact. Support was determined and players tried so hard, fired up by strong feelings. At 13-17 there were nearly ten minutes to play, but determined defence kept us on the 22m for a very disappointing loss. Away to Watford GS, the policy to play Scott and Watt interchangeably at 10 and 12 worked very well. Watford, being unbeaten, were confident of breaking us down, particularly in the first half. However, we were up 6-3 at half-time and their confidence was diminishing. An exciting game finished when their kick of possession away from the 22m for ‘no-side’ was met with calls of ‘party-poopers’ and a 6-6 finish. Away at QE Barnet, Mercer moved The 1st XV in action to fly-half and had an excellent game: confident, agile and passing with speed and accuracy. We were 9-6 up at half time with three very good penalties from Crookston. We had territorial advantage and the pressure told with Palanee diving over from the ruck. In wet conditions and trying to finish the game, there was a QE break away and, although there was good cover, they scored after four phases, but were still too far behind to make the last few minutes difficult. We won 24-16. At home to Bedford Modern School there was some uncharacteristically poor tackling from the opposition, allowing Koomson to twist through and score from half-way and this seemed to open the floodgates. By the end we had scored three more tries and

recorded a 51-13 victory. The annual mid-week match against St Columba’s College was next and a brilliant start left the visitors spinning. By half-time the visitors had settled; scoring a well-taken try and 20-7 seemed enough. However, two tries then followed with just a Crookston penalty left and we won 23-17. Next was a long journey to Stamford School and an opponent enjoying an excellent season. The strain against a powerful unit began to tell and we conceded a try from a catch and drive. A try from Koomson was followed by a mad

Sport

We played Habs away on a beautiful day. The first half traded points exactly for 10-10 at half-time, but Farquhar went over for Watt to convert and kick a further penalty. Watt then converted his own individual try, to which Habs responded with a well-taken penalty. Some lack of concentration and poor decision-making saw us back to defend a line-out from 10m. A catch-and-drive seemed obvious to all except our pack and 17-18 made the last ten minutes exciting.

A very strong Haileybury College side, with several scholars, were 0-5 up in the first five, which was then followed by a penalty for offside. Watt responded with two penalties before half-time, but Haileybury crossed out wide after a quick tap penalty. With enormous effort we were rewarded with two penalties within range and a final try from Zacaroli, we lost 19-32.

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Berkhamsted School is now the opening domestic season fixture and it is always tough. Seven penalties from the boot of Dan Watt, four in the first half (12-7) and three in the second, produced the welcome victory, although conceding a try in each half gave some concern (21-12). At home to Merchant Taylors’ was a game spent playing ‘catch-up’. Watt kicked a penalty, but two visitor’s tries before half-time due to ineffectual tackling meant we were 10-24 down at the turn around. A goal and a penalty from Watt were met by two visitor’s penalties and the momentum dipped. Watt struck again and then a great team try from our 22m line, finished by Koomson in the corner and converted from the touchline by Watt, brought the scores level at 30-30. With the visitors down to 14 with five minutes to go because of a sin-bin, the game should have been ours but, ended at 30-36.

ten minutes when poor defensive decisions and dispirited play led to 12 points conceded. Two penalties for us were converted, but still their pace of attack and strong forward runners in the backs allowed two more tries and a halftime score of 18-29. Desperately we attacked, leaving ourselves vulnerable, leading to a loss of 41-18. The last game against an unbeaten Aylesbury GS was cancelled two hours before, due to frozen pitches. CCH

Ups and Downs 2nd XV Rugby by Ben Harrison, Caleb Patel and Robert Slater, backed up by a masterful kicking display from Alex Goldstone, as we won with a comfortable 40-0. The team started to pick up its performances, winning strongly against St. George’s with spectacular tries from Ben Reed and Elliot Krieger. Watford Despite the improvement, we had Grammar proved to be much a lot to work on for our next game more of a challenge as we battled against the old rival, Haberdashers. to a 20-5 win. This was due to our nd A fired-up St Albans 2 XV walked domination in the lineouts and a out determined to make up for a strong throwing game from Ed Calpoor start to the season; early tries lender, with the centre pairing of from Toby Sweeney and Nial Parkash Hugo Henson and Sebastian Evans settled the nerves.Tries came from the key to a vital win. Hugo Henson and an outstanding solo effort from Sebastian Evans to The result against Haberdashers lead the way to a 53-10 win. was followed up by a landslide Match action at victory over Queen Elizabeth Woollams The season got off to a poor start against Berkhamsted, as the team took some time to merge together and develop a winning mentality; a lack of focus cost us the game as we went down 23-6. The team picked itself up against Merchant Taylors’, running out 15-10 winners.

Boys, with an overwhelming score of 60-17; a hat-trick from James Quigley capped off a strong team performance. We cruised past Bedford Modern with a 35-12 win. This was followed up by a tough local derby against St Columba’s, of which we made hard work, but gave a strong defensive performance to win 11-5. Sadly, what was supposed to be the penultimate game of the season against Stamford brought an abrupt end to the season, as we were overpowered and succumbed to a heavy defeat. However, we wouldn’t let this dampen our spirits as we looked back on successful season together, in which I was proud to play with all of my team mates.

Sport

Elliot Krieger

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Our next opponents were the extremely strong Hampton. We entered the match with injuries to key players and without the captain, yet despite this, the team started well, taking an early lead through the distinctive finishing of Jonathan Andrew. This success proved to be short lived and the match ended up with us losing 57-10. The next match was against Haileybury. After a tough start, half time appeared to be a turning point in the game. As the team fought in all areas, we ground out tries through Elliot Krieger and Jonny Andrews. The strong team spirit and bond was evidently on show and was capped off nicely by a 60-yard try by winger Kypros Petrou. Verulam followed in a game under the floodlights, and as soon as we kicked off we showed our attacking prowess. There were some very strong forward performances

Valiant Thirds 3rd XV Rugby The Third team this year had to cope with a variety of illnesses and injuries that led to depleted squads for all three senior teams. Thus the 50% win ratio is a good achievement, with some inexperienced players stepping into pivotal roles. The lack of team cohesion at the start led to our disappointing 12-0 loss to Berkhamsted, but we bounced straight back from this defeat to win three games on the trot with some amazing results. A 25-17 win against Merchant Taylors’ was made all the sweeter bearing in mind that we were 17-3 down at half time. Two tries from the big second row Myles Ekanem helped to seal this victory. Perhaps the most satisfying result of the season came against the old enemy, Habs. A 59-0 victory was facilitated by the excellent distribution and goal kicking of the fly half and captain for the season, Harry Di-Lieto, a brace each for Will King and Toby Sweeney and tries from Chris Nott and Rhys ‘the hands’ Parry helped to compound the result. Two further victories against the same Hampton side, the only senior team to beat Hampton, completed our victories for the season. The last three games for the season were one loss and two cancelled due to the opposition not being able to raise a team, an anti-climactic end to the season but a good one for the Third team. Harry Di-Lieto

Undefeated U16 XV Rugby ‘Mr Payne, don’t you think you might be expecting too much of them?’ Early in the season, this was the question asked of me by a parent as, once again, I had kept the boys on the pitch after the game to identify areas where they could improve. ‘I don’t think so,’ I replied, ‘for they have the opportunity to do something special.’

The biggest game of the season saw Stamford travel down to Woollams. They too were defending an unbeaten record and arrived with a pack of enormous forwards. The game was one of contrasting styles as we tried to play with pace and width, whilst the opposition played to their strengths, using their forward runners off the scrum half. Beach rugby – Hampton were the next visitors to Defeat would have been tough on enjoyable training St Albans and with a powerful pack either side but eventually we won on tour

through, by 20 points to 15. The coach was moved to praise his team afterwards. The final fixture saw Aylesbury Grammar School travel down to Woollams. Preparation for this fixture had been focused on guarding against complacency, and all the boys arrived early, palpably nervous. However, a strong start saw us score three tries in the first ten minutes, and we eventually ran out winners by 45 points to 10. Thus, the Under 16s completed an exceptional season, winning all ten games and scoring more than 350 points in the process. They deserve huge credit for this achievement. Given that this success was based upon the performance of the collective, it would be inappropriate to pick out individuals. However, captain Nick Stride led by outstanding example throughout the season, dealing with his peers and a testy coach with great maturity. My thanks to the boys for all their efforts and Messrs Stone, Ross and Nichols for their coaching input. Finally, my sincere thanks must go to the parents whose continued attendance on the touchline made this the best-supported team that I have had the pleasure to coach. Expecting too much? I don’t think so. DMP

Sport

Haberdashers Aske’s were next up, and the boys had the privilege of playing on the first team pitch at Woollams. Despite a history of tight fixtures and negative results against our local rivals, the boys started well and put the opposition under pressure, followed by a period of resolute defence towards the end. Ultimately, the 36 to 7 score line flattered us, but the boys had overcome their bogey team and confidence was high. The coach remained frustrated by wasted scoring opportunities.

So we travelled to Bedford Modern to a team physical upfront and with some useful inside backs; and so they provided a stern test. However, we were steadfast in defence, aside from conceding a couple of weak scores early on, and had the beating of them on the outside. Felix Turk had an immense game and, in the absence of Dan Gott, Euan McGonagle had an outstanding game at inside centre. However, all of the boys put in a fantastic shift and we recorded A swift pass a hugely impressive 25-19 win. Despite his continued defensive concerns ahead of next week’s fixture, the coach was quietly proud.

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Our march to an unbeaten season was nearly over before it had begun. An away trip to Berkhamsted very nearly saw us come unstuck, with a tendency to force the game producing a number of unforced errors, whilst putting ourselves under pressure through conceding needless penalties, which saw the home side leading for most of the game. However, a try by fly half Scott saw us sneak away with an 8-6 win. The coach had much to ponder.

allied to some pacey backs threatened to run away with the game in the first 20 minutes. However, a strong finish to the first half saw us get back into the game. We were fortunate not to concede in the final stages of the match, but finally the whistle blew and we scraped home, 24-22. There was much to praise, but the coach focused on his significant defensive concerns.

Overcoming Injuries

Sport

U15 XV Rugby

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The pressure, building up as the season approached, was eased as we received a bye into the second round of a highly competitive cup tournament. We opened on a positive note with consecutive wins against Merchant Taylors’ (62-3) and local rivals Haberdashers (34-0), but at the expense of losing star player Travis Hudson to a groin injury. We headed into our opening Daily Mail Cup match against Hitchin with optimism – though the match was cut short after a bad injury to our replacement centre Harry Turner, keeping him out for the rest of the season. Unfazed by early-season injuries, our unbeaten start was added to by 53-17 and 29-7 against Hampton and Haileybury respectively. We were paired against familiar opposition in Berkhamsted as the second round of the Daily Mail Cup lay ahead. After a superb performance including a last-gasp try, we edged into the next round of the tournament. Performances outside the tournament continued to flourish, coming

out on top of a tough game 25-21 against St George’s. Resuming the Daily Mail Cup, we again came up against Haberdashers – proving less of a challenge as we took a 41-7 victory. The ongoing winning streak was furthered by victory against QE Barnet, where our confidence was boosted with a 57-7 score line. An intense affair against Bedford, with their unbeaten record, was looming. It lived up to the pressure, as we scraped a well-earned 15-12 victory, with the Daily Mail reporters watching on. Because of the intensity of the previous game, we came on the receiving end of 17-37 defeat to Bedford Modern, which was a score we vowed to reverse next season. Our next Daily Mail Cup game was against Wymondham College, where we won 27-13 with a dominant performance and thereby moved our way into the top 16 teams in the country. This was the furthest the school had ever been. An easier game against Aylesbury finished our normal

season off with a 39-15 victory. With a quarter final of the Daily Mail Cup on the cards, fitness sessions were pencilled into the diary, to maintain stamina for the biggest match of the season against Stowe School. The match was played under floodlights on the Old Albanians 1st XV pitch with hundreds of spectators coming along to watch. Unfortunately the game didn’t quite go to plan with mistakes in the first 15 minutes that proved too much to come back from. The true St Albans School spirit was displayed in each player and come the final whistle it was a huge disappointment for everyone involved. A huge well done to all of the team for a host of great performances. A special thank you is needed for Mr Ross for supporting the team and giving up so much of his time to help us grow and develop as players as we head towards the top end of Determination: the School. Patrick Scott wards off an attack

Will Norris

Good Rugby and Mixed Emotions U14 XV Rugby The season began with a wellbalanced encounter with a strong Berkhamsted side. Fortunately we were able to score a try in the last ten minutes of the intense game and end with a satisfying first victory. A victory against a poor Merchant Taylors’ side soon followed, which gave us confidence for our match against rivals Haberdashers Aske’s School, leaving us with a win after a pocket of brilliant key players picked up the game in the second half, including the notable Tom Savage. A gruelling week later, we faced Hampton School’s very welldrilled side. With neither side scoring early on, Hampton managed to score a try in the dying minutes of the first half. We battled well through the second half, but in the last

Barnet. However we earned an easy 50-0 win, with a fantastic performance from three players, Ollie Brown, Omeiza Haruna and James Gallagher. Spurred on by our success, we came up against a strongly built Bedford Modern School team. After a late slip-up, we gave away a 24-19 lead, to draw the match 24-24. We drove two hours A convincing start to the second away for a tough game against the half of term followed, with a strong rugby-orientated school, Oakham. win against St. George’s. We knew Although ready for hard competithat a good Watford Grammar side tion, we could not have anticipated was on its way, but with a good how strong a team they would be, performance from our forwards, and ended with a comparatively and some good hands from the respectable loss of 12-52. The last backs, we managed a 41-0 victory. match of the season was sadly canWe won a hard-fought victory over celled due to the freezing weather. Dr Challoner’s School, although All in all, the season was a good missing captain Ollie Barlow and one, and there is great hope for the coach Mr Burger. This was capped future. by a broken collarbone ahead of an Ollie Barlow and James Gallagher encounter with Queen Elizabeth’s minutes Hampton used quick hands to score a try in the corner. We bounced back well against Haileybury, coming out with a convincing 40-17 win. Mention must be made of Omeiza Haruna, scoring five tries, and Ollie Edmond, for an exceptional performance in his debut appearance.

Passion Play

Strong Progress from Juniors

U13 XV Rugby

U12 XV Rugby

The U13s finished a highly successful season with a 94% win rate. Just one game denied an unbeaten season, playing a highly drilled and physical Bedford Modern team. The team has seen much improvement in the two years I have had the pleasure of coaching them. The forward pack has been the greatest asset with some superb individual performances from Callum Innes, Patrick Rondel, Gregor FarrellBinns and Sean Kelleher. The physicality of these players has certainly impressed with fantastic breakthrough tries and try saving tackles from Kelleher in particular. The backline has improved greatly in terms of structure and given the team greater shape when attacking. Tolaji Bola has impressed on several occasions with his pace and ability to score multiple tries but now makes some important cover tackles, closely aided by Joe Riant who has also had an excellent season. Ollie Neusten also deserves a special mention for his strong carries into the opposition’s defence. Finally, I would like to say a big thank you to all the parents who have supported the team from the sidelines.

At the beginning of the rugby season the first year coach was Mr Forbes-Whitehead. He started the first game with some experienced and fast players who were new to rugby. Max Swan immediately stood out with his extreme pace down the wing. Another player that stood out was our big number 8, Kyle Douglas, who showed he can tackle, run and almost score at will. Our first game was against Hampton School, where we got off to a slightly shaky start but then found ourselves winning 24-5 when the final whistle blew. This was a good result for us, yet we knew there were things we could still improve on. Our captain was Freddie Deacon-Gregory who gave excellent support to the team. Stephen Heaney (outsidecentre) picked up 8 tries from the first 2 games. Although we looked good, we couldn’t hold on against local rivals St Columba’s who just managed to edge the win; the final score was 25-19 to Columba’s.

Max Sahota

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It is fair to say that overall we were pleased with the progress we had made all season. The last bit of rugby we got to play was a Tens tournament held by Berkhamsted where we qualified through to the knockout stages with ease. Managing to reach the semi-final, we found ourselves playing against Verulam, the team who had beaten us earlier in the season, so we were hungry for revenge. Even though it was a much closer game than last time,Verulam just edged it from one conversion and the game was up. While we were devastated, we realised we would have to play Columba’s in the 3rd and 4th play-offs. Starting extremely well, we managed to pick up 3 tries when the half time whistle went. We were feeling quite confident so we sat back a bit and after a few The remainder of the first half of missed tackles it was all square. the season went by after some In the closing minutes Columba’s convincing wins over QE Barnet burst through the middle of our (53-0), Dr Challoner’s (49-0) and defence and the game was over. The Bedford Modern (61-0). whole team was very disappointed After Christmas, Mr Burger took in themselves and once again learnt over as coach and added Tim a lot about the need to defend and Bagnall and Max Swain to the team be physical. because of their strong performances in the B team and in training. The team would like to give many thanks to our coaches Mr ForbesWe were off to a good start with Whitehead and Mr Burger who some brilliant performances from helped develop and mould us into Kyle Douglas, Stephen Heaney and Max Swan until we hit a slight what we are all hoping will be another successful St Albans School dip in form. Despite this, we still rugby team.

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RDD

won most of our games. Our game against Verulam was very eye opening, as their physicality taught us a harsh lesson and we were comfortably outplayed and lost 29-10.

Perseverance on the Pitch 1st XI Hockey

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The 1st XI Hockey team started the season off with a mini-tour down to Taunton. First up were West Buckland and after a convincing performance we came out 5-2 winners. After a snack lunch the team were back out to face Wellington. The team put in a solid performance wiping the floor with Wellington and putting eleven past them with no reply. This was an excellent start to the season and put us in high spirits for the matches ahead.

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formance left us run away winners with a 7-0 score.

als in their team, we managed to prevent the Leys from creating many chances and another excelAfter half term we lined up against lent team performance, including Dr Challoner’s who are usually an impressive performance from tough opposition. Despite a Spencer, saw us get another goal positive start after the first half the before finishing the game 3-0 score was 2-2. Determination and winners, giving us revenge for last character saw us through in the year. second half to secure our winning streak with a 3-2 victory. For the Finally, our last game of the season first time in fixture list we faced was against Mill Hill. We didn’t play Felsted; we knew they would prove well in the first half but after conto be a threat as their team was full ceding early on we managed to pull of regional and club players. Region- one back. However, just before half al credentials were put aside after time our keeper, Grant, dislocated a strong performance left us in the his shoulder so we were forced to lead with two minutes to go until call Watt out of defence and into they managed to score an excellent goal. Not surprisingly they scored drag flick. Nevertheless, we came from the resulting short corner and away with a well-deserved victory. we went into half time 2-1 down. Things weren’t looking good but Unfortunately the next match did an early second half goal to level not go to plan, as we experienced the scores looked to have turned our first loss of the season to things around. It was an exciting Haileybury. However, we did not finish as with five minutes to go we have time to dwell on this as we were still equal. A last minute short soon faced our next fixture against corner allowed us to grab the The Leys. win and round off what had been The first half produced a very good a fantastic season. With twelve game of hockey with both sides wins and only one defeat this was evenly matched. Five minutes after one of the best seasons the Firsts the restart, we nicked a goal before have ever had. We would all like to winning a penalty flick that was thank Mr Langston for his fantastic coolly converted to put us two up. coaching; we could not have done it Even with two junior internationwithout him.

We had our first main fixture of the season against Merchant Taylors’. After going down to an early drag flick the team managed to pull together and put in a strong second half performance with Hadleigh grabbing two goals for the team to come out on top. Up next at Woollams was Haberdashers. Again we went down to an early drag flick but this time we came back stronger and dominated the game going into half time 4-1 up. After a slightly slow start back in, the team managed to switch back on and we held out for a deserved win. With another victory to our name we focused our attention on our next opponents, Windsor Boys. An outstanding all round team per-

Nick Pomfret

Beautiful Midfield 2nd XI Hockey In a highly successful season, the mighty 2nd XI finished with a superb 83% win ratio, seconded only by the 1st XI’s fantastic season. The team recorded several big wins against historically strong opposition (5-1 vs Merchant Taylors’, 4-0 vs Haileybury and 5-0 vs The Leys School Cambridge) and only lost two games from a one-goal difference. The best team performance was against a very strong Dulwich team, which held both teams at a 1-1 stalemate at half time; Vincent Chan secured victory only with a last minute goal. The whole team deserve a special mention for their individual performances but must include Alex Terry and Edward Lewis, who rarely let the opposition’s attack break through to shoot on goal and the excellent saves from Harry Di-Lieto when they did! James Oliver, Tan Ranshi and Harry Hamer worked the mid field beautifully and distributed the ball to the fully recovered Christian Bevan to score some spectacular goals. Thanks must go to Sam Baloun (Captain) for organising socials and Mr Langston for his invaluable knowledge at team training. RDD

Ending on a High 3rd XI Hockey If St Albans School’s mighty 3rd XI had the talent to match their extraordinary enthusiasm, they would probably be the best side in the world. Overall, the season was a successful one. We began with an early victory as we narrowly beat Haberdashers 3-2 in an extremely tight match due to our hard work and perseverance. Although some matches did not go our way, we ended the season on a high, playing against UCS 1st XI with a well-deserved 4-3 victory. Tom Latham should be mentioned for contributing two of these fine goals, as well as many more throughout the season. I would also like to thank Mr Stout for being a brilliant coach. Thanks for all the hard work and time that he has dedicated to the 3rd XI. Freddie Mercer

Strong All Season U16 XI Hockey

Away to Habs, we were looking for revenge. Scott had been moved to a more commanding position and also coached to drag and strike our short-corners. In the first two attempts he struck the ball like a tracer bullet and both went in. With

an open play score for B. Rose, the Players in training at Habs heads started to drop. A third Woollams for Scott was matched by a home team break away. At 4-1 there may have been a fight but a fifth for SAS sealed a very good performance, though Habs scored a consolation goal in the dying moments. The following Saturday our U16 guests were Felsted School. The team was up 3-0 at half time and won 4-2. The match against Hitchin GS took place on a difficult sand-strewn pitch. The players had difficulty keeping their feet and their first touch was not assured. Nevertheless, despite a half time score of 0-2 we picked ourselves up and scored three in the space of fifteen minutes through Burnley, B Rose and Bevis. A final goal from Hitchin meant it ended a 3-3 draw. At the Leys School, the new style pitch, with its extra bounce, was difficult for our players to settle on. The first touch was frequently poor and many opportunities were squandered. Down 0-2 in the first half, we fought back with a

fortunate goal, but conceded again to be 1-3 at half time. We drew the second half with a goal apiece, which showed much about our ability to learn quickly. The final match of the season was away to Mill Hill, perhaps an opponent less practised than many. They had some individuals of good potential, but their structure had obvious holes and we poured through to be 5-0 up at half time. Mill Hill responded well, as the second half saw just a goal each, leaving us 6-1 winners. CCH

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In the match against Haberdashers at Woollams, the opposition attacked hard through the middle with good pace and scored two early goals. Stung by this, we started to dominate with our right-sided play, but took long trying to set up the ‘perfect position’. Some great play by Bevis on the right-wing was not rewarded fully. We did manage to convert a short-corner, only for Habs to break away a few minutes later and go 3-1 up. A more firedup SAS side begun to long-haul back after the break. Although falling further back at 1-4, the team deservedly drew level with right-sided drives. At 4-4 a draw seemed just, but Habs scored with ten minutes to go and we couldn’t work another opening. After half term we played a frustrating match against Watford. Watford, often very strong, were below par, but, despite valiant efforts, we suffered an undeserved 1-2 loss. We had dominated the first half, then sustained two injuries and ran out of players and energy.

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The new season began with a visit from Dr Challoner’s, who are invariably strong. We took a first half lead in an enthralling match, only to lose shape and go behind to a welltaken drag-flick at the short corner. The remainder of the first half was played to strategy and the game was very much in their left-hand corner. Unfortunately we couldn’t move the ball on and many attacks petered out. The second half witnessed their shift to play down our left. A goal from them was matched and with fifteen minutes to go we took the lead, only to concede an equaliser and complete the game with honours even: 3-3. We began on a white frosty surface at Merchant Taylors’ with the game reduced to twenty minutes each way. A lucky goal for MTS with their only first half foray to our D was seemingly unjust. After half time we equalised with a goal from Bevis, but ultimately lost 1-2.

Embracing Challenges

Slow Start U15 Hockey The U15 hockey team started the term with an unfortunate loss to a persistent Dr Challoner’s side. Although taking the lead on a number of occasions through some excellent creative play, we were unable to sustain this and suffered a defeat of 3-4. Lessons were learnt and the boys worked hard in training; this was evident in the next few matches when they won against Haberdashers, Watford Grammar School and Haileybury, as well as two end-to-end matches resulting in draws against Felsted and Merchant Taylors’.

U13 Hockey

Although they were off to a slow start, the team improved each week, under the Captaincy of Harry Turner, and showed great commitment to training. They learned lessons individually and as a team that they will hopefully carry with them towards another successful season next year.

A week of hard work in training allowed us to learn the lessons from our defeat, as we went into a game against Haberdashers Aske’s much improved but a late goal brought frustration, as we were denied victory in the closing moments of the game.

EMC

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Despite the results, our performances certainly brought confidence going into the tour of Somerset. The prospect of four games in four days was daunting – but a challenge we embraced. Some of the best local facilities available played host to hard-fought games, which gave us useful and constructive experience that we could take into the remainder of the season.

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Against Dr. Challoner’s side as the first game of the season, we had a disappointing result, but there were plenty of encouraging signs in the performance, with the team showing much promise and hunger.

Hitchin Grammar School were the next opponents, and we drew because of a nasty injury to the face, having played very well. The end of the season saw another match against Haberdashers and we showed how far we had come over the season with a comprehensive 4-0 win. The U13s ended the season on a high note with some fantastic hockey being played resulting in a 0-0 draw at Haileybury College, with Jeevun Singh making several spectacular saves.

Only Downed Twice U14 Hockey The U14s started their season looking strong in training and opened their first match against a robust Dr Challoner’s side. Unfortunately, they lost 4-1. The next match was against strong rivals, Merchant Taylors’, but the U14s overcame them with vigour. The season progressed with a draw against Haberdashers and a win against Dulwich and Watford. Our next fixture was against Aldenham where we sadly lost after a spirited performance. The next match was the lowest point of the U14s’ season with a 4-0 loss against Felsted. The team did not hang their heads in shame for too long, and bounced back against Hitchin with an amazing 7-1 win. The game left the team in high spirits, who won the rest of the matches against Haileybury and Harrow. The Leys was the final match of the season. Paired up against their U15s side, the U14s were disadvantaged with their size and strength. The team won despite the challenge that faced them. This was an excellent season for the U14s, with only two losses. Dan Metcalf

Tom Goldstone

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Twenty/20 Champions Again 1st XI Cricket

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It was a very exciting and successful season for these talented players. In the National Twenty/20 they tied the London Regional Final with Whitgift, retaining their enlarged domestic Two-Day Twenty/20 Competition, beating Abingdon in the Final and in all achieving a 71% win ratio.

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The first four matches of the season were cancelled due to rain, so the first actual match took place on 12th May at home to QE Barnet. Winning the toss we elected to bowl, reducing our visitors to 82-9 after 40 overs. Good bowling by all with J Scott finishing with 2-17 from 8 overs and his brother P Scott 3-6 from just three overs. In difficult conditions we made 86-5 hitting four to win the match in just 21 overs. P Scott top scored with 27. After much re-organisation we were drawn against Chigwell School in the National Twenty/20. This was played on the Sunday just to try and complete the Draw. In the event SAS were put in and scored 155 for 7 with J Scott 58 and A Kulkarni 39. In reply Chigwell were all out for 50 with J Scott 3-8 and P Scott 2-0. The next match was home against Aldenham School. Winning the toss we elected to bat and the day was decided by a great innings from G Scott, making 107 not out. A huge total of 218 in

just twenty overs was going to be very hard to eclipse. In the event Aldenham were all out for 87 with Parkash taking 5-9 and Kulkarni 4-9. That was Wednesday and the next match was Friday against Westminster School. Winning the toss we elected to bat once more with the best of the daylight. Once more we set an impressive total of 161-6. In reply Westminster had just one batsman who made any in-road to the total with 56 not out after opening and they finished on 103 all out in the last over.

in a tie! Having lost 5 wickets to our 6, Whitgift went through.

Aylesbury GS at Woollams on the Saturday elected to bat and reached just 96 all out in 32 overs and SAS won by eight wickets. Centurion from South Africa were our visitors on the Friday and we just did not score enough to win. The following day was an away to a new fixture at Bedford School, and our total of 167 in an all day match was unlikely to be enough. G Scott bowled fast and accurately to take three wickets and give them The following day we had HABS as cause for concern. However, with our guest at Woollams. Winning the a couple of chances being missed toss we elected to field and hoped Bedford made the total for five for quick wickets. G Scott bowled wickets and ten overs to go. very well for two wickets and the The first day of our Twenty/20 same for N Parkash. Kulkarni was Tournament and a new opponent unlucky several times as HABS for SAS in St Joseph’s College, amassed 172-5 from their 40 overs. Ipswich. We lost two early wickets, No player really established thembut with G Scott scoring 66 not selves and top score was 30 from out and 58 from Watt, SAS totalled N Perry, but we finished on 157 an impressive 167-7 from 20 overs. all out in the 39th over with a very The reply fell far short at 96-8 with disappointing loss by 15 runs. Parkash and J Scott both taking 3 Next was an away to Berkhamsted wickets. The afternoon match was School. Tight bowling by G Scott St Benedict’s. Top scorer was J Scott (1-25), Kulkarni (2-28), Parkash (39) and P Scott next with (30). A (2-30) and the Captain restricting relatively low total of 136 had to be the batsmen to just 19 runs from defended. With 5-2 from Kulkarni his 8 overs of off-spin. Berkhamsted and 3-10 from P Scott St Benedict’s finished on 151-7 from their 40 collapsed to 44 all out. On Day Skipper James Scott overs. James Scott, struggling with 2 Shenfield School came to Top a leg injury, batted with great skill opens his scoring Field and SAS won by 7 wickets. and composure, playing down that The Final was against an impressive account which was difficult and striking Abingdon School side. Electing to hard anything a fraction off-line or bat, wickets fell rapidly and it was length. He finished the day with a only G Scott (23), Watt (16) and six to win the match and to amass A Goldstone (19) who helped us his own unbeaten century (103). L to just 106-9. Four late wickets Walpole, promoted in the order, for P Scott as well as two each enjoyed an unbeaten 21 to assist in for Parkash and Kulkarni bowled a comfortable win in the 35th over. Abingdon out for just 77 and an SAS win by 29 runs. We have now We welcomed Whitgift School for won the Twenty/20 for both years our first ever encounter in the having previously won its predecesNational Twenty /20 London Final. sor, Bedford Modern’s Tournament, A good early scoring rate by the for both years we entered. The Scott brothers for the powerplay Batsman of the Tournament went was pleasing on a slow outfield. to George Scott. When their powerful opener was caught brilliantly by G Scott on the CCH boundary they needed just 24 to win with four overs to go. A Goldstone bowled superbly, restricting Whitgift to 5 runs and taking three wickets in two overs. In the last over, the visitors needed 7 runs to win. They managed just 6, resulting

Overcoming Frustrations 2nd XI Cricket

After suffering such a bitter loss to Habs, the team bounced back to win their next two games. Highlights of these matches were Dom Armstrong’s 50 off just 31 balls against Berkhamsted and Jack Killen’s five wicket haul against a weak Aylesbury. A tough match was expected against Bedford for the final game of the season and the match that unfolded did not disappoint. Bedford batted first and posted a respectable, but gettable total of 162 for 5. Due to the absence of the side’s main bowling spearhead of the past three years, Chris Schon,Vikas Kumar made a welcome return, bowling a vital spell, taking 3 wickets for 34 runs in his seven overs. The ever-reliable Anish Khiroya was miserly, conceding just 17 runs off his 7 overs and taking an important wicket. In St Albans’ reply, and with two of the regular top order batsmen also absent, it was important to get off to a good start. What followed was dramatic and tense! The start was poor; Kumar holing out to the only fielder on the leg side in the first over and the rest of the SAS top order managing to get starts but unable to kick on, while soaking up valuable deliveries. By drinks, with only 58 runs on the board

and 4 wickets down, the run-rate needed to double for the remaining overs. Any betting man would have backed the Bedford bowlers. But not if he knew Jack Killen would be coming in at number eight. Just when they thought they had the game by the throat with twelve overs remaining and ninety one runs still required, the tall, curlyhaired fifth former strode to the crease. His innings of 40 runs off 28 balls saw the game swing back within reach, but when he fell in the 29th over, there was still much work for the tail to do. Needing 48 runs from the last 5 overs, the SAS lower order started running quick singles for everything, forcing uncharacteristic errors in the field. Some well-timed boundaries in the dying overs struck by Ben Reed helped us reach the final over requiring 9 runs with only 1 wicket in hand. Everyone watching from the pavilion held their collective breath as the first two balls went for singles. But when Reed pelted the third ball to the boundary, the equation was reduced to 3 off 3 balls. Two more singles meant the game was tied and a solitary run was needed off the last ball. Helped by some poor Bedford fielding, Rajan Bains scrambled home for the single, sealing a well-fought victory. In what was a rain-shortened season that saw the 2nd XI squad changing on a weekly basis, it was pleasing to end with an 80% win rate. The most valuable player of the season was Jack Killen, and the most improved player was Tan Ranshi, also top wicket-taker with 8 wickets at an average of 14.8. CJE

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The team travelled to Habs the following week and were involved in yet another traditional grudge match between the two rival schools. In a reverse of form from the previous week, the batting was much more solid on a wicket which provided less assistance for the bowlers. Batting first, SAS batted conservatively, Dan Burnley anchoring the middle order with a well-compiled thirty-eight and Gareth Taylor and Jack Killen chipping in with hard-hitting cameos at the end. A total of 183 from their 35 overs seemed like a defend-

able total after the low scoring first match. Although the opening bowlers dismissed the top order cheaply, the Habs middle order batted sensibly, and without talisman Vikas Kumar, who had been called up to the 1st XI, the bowlers struggled, giving away far too many extras. Habs reached the target in the penultimate over with five wickets remaining.

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The season started on a sodden note; the wettest April on record meant that rain forced many of the training sessions indoors and washed out the first two matches. The rain subsided enough to allow the first match to be played at home against QE Barnet, but the wicket had not had sufficient time to dry out, therefore playing low and slow. This caught out players of both sides due to the lack of practice on grass. The winning of the toss proved vital, with the St Albans bowlers running rampant through the QEB top order. Captain Vikas Kumar’s opening spell was unplayable, bowling five maidens in as many overs and taking one wicket. Tan Ranshi got much assistance from the wicket, his leg spin beguiling his opponents into giving away their wickets, ending with figures 3-14 from 6 overs. Chris Schon and Ben Reed chipped in with two wickets apiece to dismiss QEB for a dismal fifty two. The SAS batsmen made hard work of the run chase, losing wickets at regular intervals, but eventually hauled down the meagre total in the 19th over with only two wickets in hand.

Treble Champions

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U15 XI Cricket

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The U15A Cricket team achieved the treble of County Champions, District Cup Winners and Berkhamsted 6s’ Trophy Winners during this outstanding season. After a waterlogged start to the season with the first three matches being cancelled the team started with a convincing win over Queen Elizabeth’s School Barnet. Jack Perrin, the captain leading the way carrying his bat through the innings, ending with a score of 62 not out. Luke Wilde did the damage with his off spin taking 4 for 11 to see the team to a 100 run victory. In the following match, Perrin’s opening partner Noah Lipschitz did the damage to Haberdashers’ Aske’s bowling attack, hitting them to all corners in his aggressive innings of 91. This was backed up by a good team bowling and fielding display and Habs were beaten by 67 runs. Further convincing wins against Dr Challoner’s and Aylesbury Grammar School concluded the Saturday programme and the team had improved all aspects of their cricket skills during the course of the season. The only defeats of the season were against Bedford School, when a large total proved too much to chase down, and against Watford Grammar, where an individual’s performance took the game away from us.

A rash shot leads to an opposition wicket

In the County Cup the team progressed quickly and comfortably to the semi-finals, winning convincingly against Rickmansworth,Verulam & St Clement Danes before encountering Watford Grammar School in the last four. Watford had caused the only defeat of the season to this point in a midweek match There were some when their opener had smashed us impressive bowling to all parts of the ground scoring performances during 120 not out including 11 sixes. the season With this in mind and a heavy

The Berkhamsted 6s was a tournament held over one day and involving five overs per side matches. It proved a challenge, but highlighted the strength of this group. We dominated each of the matches we played and batted superbly with Patrick Scott and George MacGregor outstanding in playing good cricket shots to score quickly. We averaged 60 runs per innings which no other schools could match. Our bowling and fielding were excellent and the captaincy of Jack Perrin demonstrated his ability to keep calm and composed under severe pressure. It was an excellent day’s cricket and it was commented upon by the organisers and other In the District Cup the opporschools how the best team on the tunity for players who had less day had won, playing the best style opportunities to lead in the batting of cricket. and bowling was provided and the team responded positively winning This proved to be an outstandingly successful season in terms of matches against St Columba’s, St George’s and Verulam on their way trophies, but was also memorable for the depth of talent in the squad to this trophy. It was pleasing to and the contribution made by see the depth of talent that was all the players to the team’s high involved in this successful season. quality of performance. It has been a pleasure to work with them and I look forward to their continued progress in this sport. defeat behind them, the under 15s took on the challenge and played brilliantly to bowl out Watford in the semi for only 39 runs with Will Pickworth and Jamie Malkan inflicting the damage. The score was chased down without a wicket being lost and probably the best team performance of the season in the field resulted in a place in the county final. The team beat Richard Hale in the final on a very wet pitch batting first and struggling to score 85, with George MacGregor top scoring with 40 runs. Richard Hale were bowled out for 64 in response and the reward of County Cup winners was well earned.

MJL

Developing Team U14 XI Cricket

Alex Cook was outstanding with both the bat and ball, with the best batting average in the team of 24 and by far the largest run scorer with 192, also one of the best bowler with an economy of 2.9. Other stand out performers have to be Lathan Mahalingham and Oliver Laws-Mather (wicketkeeper) in the top order scoring consistently and always getting us off to a good start along with Alex Cook. Bowler Yasin Hassanin took 16 wickets throughout the season, as did Tom Carter and Lathan Mahalingham, while Harvey Presence and John Saunders kept the batsmen on edge. There were other great performances from many players also those coming up from the B-team to play in the District Cup. With a win ratio of 69% overall, this was a good season for the team as a whole. Adam Spooner

This was a frustrating season. The overall record was played 8 won 3 lost 5. The most significant number here is 8. I have, on occasion, written played 17. The wettest drought in April was quickly followed by the wettest summer in May and June. Despite this the A team began the season in good form. As U12s they had not won any Saturday game and had not really given anyone a hard match. We won a cup game against Roundwood Park. We bowled well to restrict them to 71 for 9 off 20 overs with Farrell-Binns taking 4 wickets for 10 runs from his 4 overs and Innes leading the run chase with 19 not out. Then we lost narrowly to QEB having been beaten by them heavily the previous year. Again the loss to Parmiters only occurred in the last over. The performance of the season was our triumph against Habs. Habs were 69 for no wicket after 10 overs and we were fearing a target in excess of 200. However

we bowled and fielded well for the next 20 overs and they were restricted to a total of 161 for 6. A partnership of 89 between Innes (55) and Goldstone (58 not out) with Alexander scoring 23 not out at the end saw us home with three balls to spare and a victory by seven wickets. The year before the result had been a heavy defeat. The following week saw another victory- by 5 wickets against Berkhamsted with McLoughlin taking 4 wickets for 26 runs and Vora taking 3 for 6. However then the hiatus of halfterm and poor weather did not see us play again for another 4 weeks! This early season promise of winning and giving both a good account of ourselves and everyone a hard game was dissipated. We lost and played poorly in our last three games. However, having proved to themselves that they can win, future seasons should be faced with optimism. Credit should go to three batsmen who scored over 100 runs from so few games: Goldstone with 179, Innes with 119 and Alexander with 108 (who also fielded electrically). Townsend was our best bowler with 10 wickets. The whole team was captained ably by Goldstone from behind the stumps. The B team also played well, with 5 wins in the 8 games that were played. Notable wins against Berkamsted and QE Barnet were recorded and the sheer number of boys turning up to regular training increased the depth of talent in the team. Jeevun Singh was awarded the most improved player for his excellent contributions to the batting and bowling line ups. Oliver Neusten and Harry Helliar were the team’s top fielders taking some great catches. Marco Radic, Alex Dines and James Norris had a fantastic season bowling. Euan Wallace and Jacob O’Donnell had the best batting performances of the season and recorded an excellent partnership (40 no and 44 no respectively) against Watford Grammar School. Sam Kasoulis enthusiastically captained the team from behind the stumps. BSB/RDD

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But in other fixtures we managed to beat Dr Challoner’s by 36 runs with Lathan Mahalingham scoring 40 and Tom Carter taking 4-26 with the ball. Also a win against QE Barnet and Haberdashers, with Lathan Mahalingham taking 5-16 against Habs. We also beat Watford Grammar by 36 runs with Alex Cook scoring 47 and Tom Carter taking 5-10 with the ball. Unfortunately we lost to Berkhamsted, Aylesbury Grammar School and Bedford School.

U13 XI Cricket

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The U14s had an up and down season, with the rain usually winning. Being able to retain the District Cup by a landslide of 111 runs against Sir John Lawes, with standout performances from Alex Thomson 64* and Harvey Presence 51* to take us to a great total of 168/2 (20), was by far the highlight of the season. We then went on to bowl Sir John Lawes out for 57 (15.2), with Tom Sanderson taking 5-9 off 3.2 overs. Unfortunately, we ended the County Cup disappointingly, crashing out to Habs in the 3rd round.

Only Eight Matches Played

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District Champions 1st XI Football

We arrived back from our tour, needing to kick on domestically. Teams like Dame Alice Owens and Corinthian Casuals, usually tough opponents, were swept aside.

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It was time to take our football to the European stage and Cyprus was the destination for the squad, who looked to take their creative brand of football and test it against Europe’s elite. Our first match was tight, however we forced a 1-0 victory with a late free kick. The second game was a greater contest, with the team ‘claiming’ to be U18, a claim that was widely disputed within the St Albans ranks. Nonetheless, we battled to 0-2 at half time, as the heavy fixture list caught up with some of the players. However, a goal midway through the second half looked to change the game, yet from the resulting celebrations a fracas ensued. It was apparent that there was a racial undertone to the abuse of one of our players and the referee made the decision to abandon the match. In our last match, with a few players rested we went to play the U21 side of the team from the first match. From the off we could tell they were a class act, playing the sort of possession football we pride ourselves on playing. Going in 2-0 down at the break, some inspirational words were needed from Mr Forbes-Whitehead. We reappeared for the second half and played wearing our hearts on our sleeves. Battling hard, we lost the game 2-1 and it emerged that they had fielded two Greek U21 internationals in their team.

with a big match may overcome our young side, however this was far from the case. Our youthful side stepped onto the turf at Clarence Park Stadium as if this was their home pitch. The first encounters of the match were cagey, with no team outplaying the other. There were some strong tackles flying around, with a certain member of the team lucky to stay on the pitch midway through the first half.Yet, out of the blue a Kit Akin drive from the edge of the box beat the goalkeeper and nestled into the bottom corner. Just before half time Alex Goldstone doubled the lead through a clinical counter attack, his nonchalant finish into the top corner gave the opposing goalkeeper no chance. The second half was a strong defensive display, with James Anthoney organising and leading

We were in the quarter final of the County Cup, and semi final of the LB Cup (Independent Schools National Cup). Playing away at Cavendish school, a finalist from the previous year, we were unlucky not to finish on top. An injury to a key defender in the second half spelt defeat and a lack of creation stemmed from the poor playing surface did not make matters any better. In the semi final of the LB Cup, played away at Radley College, another very prestigious footballing school we suffered only our third loss of the season. Playing great attacking football we were somewhat unlucky to only go in 1-1 at half time. In the second half a poor refereeing decision led to a last minute penalty being conceded: losing in that fashion really affected the team morale.

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Over the season there were many highs and many lows. We started off the season with a relatively inexperienced side, fielding four 5th years in the first match. However, over time the team gelled well and managed to string together a number of consecutive victories, unheard of in previous years. Through the management of Messrs Forbes-Whitehead, Wilson, and Martin the team played with eye-catching style; fluid, attacking, possession football. This built the foundations for a strong start and we quickly notched up 10 wins, scoring 4.4 goals per game.

However, we were still in one cup. The remaining fixture was away at Sir John Lawes in the District Cup. The boys knew the importance of this match more than any other, and really stepped up to the mark. The result ended 5-0 to St. Albans, but in truth, the score line could have been double figures. A dominant display led to the School’s first final for a Senior Football team. After a few weeks of postponement, it was time to play. The senior players and I were worried that the nerves associated

Kane Vincent-Young about to score the final goal in the District Cup final

the back four solidly; he was backed up by some magnificent saves from Ben Reed as Verulam sensed a comeback. But, from a Verulam corner St Albans broke up the field and a run by Kane Vincent-Young followed by a cool finish ended any chance of a comeback. The match was then controlled by St Albans and victory was ours! The final result and trophy were very much deserved and the opposition were gracious in defeat to a superior St Albans team. Richard d’Rosario

Sport The Albanian 2012

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A Ball in Cyprus

Football Developing

U15 Football Tour

U16 XI Football

The U15s had a very successful tour of Cyprus, winning all three of their matches. Their first opponents, Panayides Football Academy, proved no match for St Albans’ quick passing and clinical finish, which was evident as the U15s scored five impressive goals without conceding. Robbie Tominey-Nevado was man of the match for his performance in the centre of midfield.

The U16s got off to a strong start to their season with a 2-1 victory at home to Berkhamsted; St Albans had a one goal lead at half time through a delicate finish from Jonny Muir. However, Berkhamsted equalised in the second-half but the match was not level for very long as Ben Crampton scored from close-range, his celebration being thoroughly enjoyed by his team mates! In the second fixture of the season, St Albans played a strong St Edmund’s College side and emerged 1-0 winners in the game. St Albans played well but scoring proved difficult until Bayer-Goldman put the home side in front with an effort from just outside the area.

In the second match, playing against the Paphos Warriors, there was another flurry of well-worked goals with men of the match Patrick Scott and Robbie TomineyNevado both scoring two goals each. Unfortunately, with the St Albans defence pushing forward and playing a dangerously high line, they allowed opposition to strike back with two late goals in the second half. The final score was 6-2 to St Albans. The third and final game against Atromitos Geroskipou Academy proved to be their toughest match yet. Playing in the local stadium St Albans conceded an early break away goal to go 1-0 down, however it was only a matter of minutes until the team had responded in impressive fashion by scoring an equaliser. They then got into their stride and managed to score two more goals against a very strong opposition; the game finished with a 3-1 win for the U15s which rounded off a great set of results for the tour. Man of the match was Marcus Diamondi who was a solid presence in the centre of the St Albans’ defence. In the three games St Albans had scored fourteen goals while conceding just three. Patrick Scott was the MVP of the tour, taking home the golden boot with 6 goals, his pace, control and finishing proving too deadly against the Cypriot defenders. Ben Anthoney

Jake Yeboa, whose lively performance was justifiably rewarded by his goal. The final game of the season was away to Haileybury, a tough opponent in previous years. St Albans found themselves behind early on but fought back from two goals by Akin, one of which was a delightful lob over the Haileybury goalkeeper. A superb performance in midfield from Kane Vincent-Young was aided by resolute defending at the back by Luke Bevis and George Rose, St Albans created few chances and was punished when Haileybury’s striker ran through on goal in the final minutes, finishing well to end the game a 2-2 draw.

Michael Slater Next on the menu for St Albans nd was the Perse School’s 2 XI, containing boys aged up to eighteen. Nevertheless, St Albans found themselves ahead within the first five minutes of the game – an own goal was the first of many in the 6-2 victory. Chances were created at both ends and the final goal of the game came from a well-created Laying Foundations chance made by Akin but was finished clinically by Alex Kirsch. This year of lacrosse has been very successful with forty girls Two 1-0 victories followed, participating in the squad, this made one against Dr Challoner’s selection for the team fiercely and the latter against Harrow. competitive. Against Dr Challoner’s tenacious work from Adriano Morini in the The girls worked very hard to centre of midfield won a free-kick improve their basic skills and unwhich Slater curled into derstanding of the game which paid the box, only to be off in their matches. Although they met by a flick-on from did not win a match, the team’s the lofty Jonny Muir. A focus and determination was excelvisit to Harrow in the lent resulting in some close scores, only away fixture of the 4-5 loss to St Margaret’s Bushey season started with the and 6-7 loss against Princess team coming off the bus Helena College. in awe of Harrow’s first team pitch. Lucie Toole was named most imThe grass was razor sharp and proved player of the season along crisp white lines marked out the with Charlotte Fraser named as the pitch. However it turned out that best player of the season. However, St Albans would not be playing on the team as a whole improved drawhat appeared to be a Premier matically over the lacrosse season, League standard pitch, they would particularly Molly Maguire and Lillie be playing in the far corner of HarRichardson being impressive in row’s playing fields on a pitch that both attack and defensive positions. sloped towards the goal at one end. Kamalia Mohamad was excellent in St Albans struggled to find their goal having never played goalkeeper passing rhythm and were perplexed before. Overall, this was a great by the referee’s refusal to have second year of lacrosse for St linesmen. A long-throw from the Albans School. ever-consistent Dom Armstrong was headed into the top corner by EMC

Lacrosse

Making a Splash Milsted’s swimmers enjoy success

Netball 2011 was a very successful year for St Albans School netball teams; more girls than ever were keen to represent the school and did so with enthusiasm and commitment. The 1st VII had a number of victories in the District League with wins over Sandringham 14-5, Sir John Lawes 27-8 and a very close match against St Albans High School where St Albans School came out on top 23-20. A defeat against a strong Richard Hale side, 10-20, and a nail biting draw against St George’s 24-24 saw the team even more determined to finish the season in style with a convincing win over Roundwood Park School, 14-9. The 2nd VII had a season of very close matches, many being decided by just a couple of goals. A match against Richard Hale ended in a 10-13 defeat and another against St Albans Girls School 11-16. The season finished with a riveting match against St George’s, it was end-to-end netball and the winner was to be decided by the final whistle, St George’s scored the winning goal with seconds to spare. The match finished 11-12 in St George’s favour.

District Plate Final On Tuesday 4th October the 1st VII netball team travelled to Sandringham School to compete against Loreto School in the District Plate Final. St Albans School started with confidence and purpose, they dominated the first quarter 6-0 and didn’t allow Loreto to gather any momentum. The second quarter saw St Albans School take a 10-3 lead, a few passing errors had allowed Loreto to capitalise on our mistakes. The standard of netball from St Albans School proved too much for Loreto when the girls raised their game in the third quarter taking a 14-3 with excellent shooting from Gohar Khodadoost and Charlie Meredith. The game finished 16-4 with superb defensive work from Steph Parrot and Jess Smith. Molly Maguire and Izzy Batchelor dominated the centre and linked well in attack and defence. An overall team performance and thoroughly deserved victory. Player of the match was Gohar Khodadoost. EMC

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AJB

In future, both netball and swimming can take place in our own facilities

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The six galas this year have highlighted the strong foundation of talent that will help develop school swimming with the opening of the new School pool. Under the captaincy of Chris Milsted, the squad developed into a positive and focused group that supported each other during each race. Across six evening galas, each age group competed against ten local schools that all have their own pools. The Senior’s won an improvers award for gaining more points overall than last year. They scored 220 points, coming 4th behind Berkhamsted (269 points), Merchant Taylor’s (265 points) and Haberdashers (233 points). Several individuals showed their particular strengths, most notably Nick Shone in the butterfly and Bernie Zondagh in the breast stroke. Billy Dawson, Chris Williams, Luke Bevis and James Bates are all very talented swimmers, which is very encouraging for next year. The Intermediates also came fourth, with a total of 201 points, whilst the Juniors came sixth, with a total of 176 points. However, there were some excellent individual performances from Robbie Lightowler, Charles Oliver, Jash Pooni, Ross Ferreira, Jordan Sweeny and Jamie Scragg.

St Albans School Represent… Cross Country World Championships, Malta In March 2011, in the grounds of Alnwick Castle, the running team successfully brought the National Cup to St Albans School. It was last won by the School in 2002. As we received the trophy, I knew that we had a bigger goal to achieve, and a few months later, we were confirmed as the team to represent England at the World Schools

Adam Thorpe and Joe Brennan representing England in Malta

Our coach, George Harrison, devised a hard training regime for the months ahead as we prepared both physically and mentally. We had to achieve a balance, as working too hard every session would result in an injury, but not working enough would lead to a poor performance. Training takes commitment and dedication, in every sport, and motivating yourself and the team each session is difficult. Our dedicated management team included George, experienced in managing teams at international events, Mr Everitt, and the 2012 Captain Tom Brooks.

Sport

In the build up to Malta, the younger part of the squad again lifted the National Cup, which boosted our confidence. In the week prior to Malta we had the privilege to entertain and train with the New Zealand team. The school kitted us out with blazers, England vests and tracksuits and on March 25th at 7am we assembled at school ahead of the flight to Malta. As we arrived at the airport in Valetta, we met the Australian and Turkish teams.

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Championships in Malta in April 2012.

The day before the race we had examined the course, which comprised several football pitches and

a cricket field. We were relieved to find the course relatively flat. On race day, we had to control our nerves, particularly when we discovered that the Headmaster had flown to Malta the previous day to support us. However, Tom Brooks took the whole team away from the marshalling area and led the warm up. Thirty minutes later we were lining up with the 24 other teams, making it the largest race of the day’s events. A 90% bend within 100 metres of the start required a fast start, and within the first minutes, the entire squad was in the top half of the field. That advantage was maintained over the approximate fifteen minutes running time and we successfully had our fastest four in the top 30 places. Only Turkey and Algeria, both of whom had runners in the top age category, were able to emulate this. In the end result, by a mere 5 points, the Australian team managed to pip us to the 3rd spot, despite their 4th runner coming in behind our 5th runner. However, we matched the highest ever England team performance in the event and really enjoyed the experience of representing the School, and England, internationally. Robbie Lightowler

A Challenging Season for the Runners This was a challenging season, quite a statement about a team that has won the last two English Schools Cups, and represented England, in a World Championships. However it has been just that for our Senior team dogged by injury and running against fully fit and very talented opposition. It is well known that in Cross Country we run at the highest level, and every one of our 15 senior races is the equivalent of a championship race, attracting the best cross country schools in the Britain. The season started with an excellent individual win for Joe Redwood in the King’s Trophy, run over a gruelling 4.5 Miles on Wimbledon Common, the first

runner outside the Sixth form to win this event for 20 years. But as a team we had to settle for second place, beaten by the in form team the Judd School. This was to be a feature in many of our races this season. The big challenge was the Haskell Cup, a four runner relay hosted by RGS Guildford, where an excellent run by all our teams won us this event, relegating Judd School into second place. The rest of the Autumn term saw us dominate in the Abbots Langley Tough Ten and finish second in our own relay. The major success story of the term was the Intermediate team, who won both the Preliminary

and the Regional rounds in the English schools Cup, convincingly enough to be going to the final in December as favourites to win this competition for the second year in a row. The Team led by Robbie Lightowler, finishing in 3rd place, followed by Adam Thorpe 6th, Joe Brennan 11th, and Dan Myers 21st, went on to win the competition and confirm our selection to represent England in the World Championships to be held in Malta in March 2012. 2012 started with both County Clubs and Schools County Championships, where many of our runners were selected to represent Hertfordshire. Our first Major challenge as a school was

Beating

the Weather

Athletics The athletics squads produced another strong season with the fourth formers qualifying for the County League Final yet again! They squeezed Richard Hale into third place by just half a point and finished runners up in the County League. It was an achievement that was impressive due to the large number of injuries to key competitors that removed them

The Goater Cup came next, a race for six runners with one runner from each of our first four years, and two seniors, we were narrowly beaten into second place by Southend High at this event. February saw us at the King

Henry VIII Relay, widely seen as the top run in the country, this event attracts 55 teams from all over Britain. As always this 6 runner relay was a very exciting event and went right down to the wire, our team saw themselves narrowly beaten into third place by Shrewsbury School. In the Girls Race Lizzie Bird posted the 4th fastest time and the team finished 4th. In March we saw our junior boys run in Trent Park, The Keble School Run, finishing a very good second, narrowly beaten by St Columba’s College. The Season ended with a visit to Harrow School and the South East

Schools Championships, where we ran teams in all three age groups, with our junior boys finishing in third, and Harrison Pyrke third individual. The final day again belonged to our Intermediate team, with excellent runs from Adam Thorpe in second place and Joe Brennan and Mark Pearce in third and fourth places respectively to ensure we won the Brunivels trophy. A fitting end to the season for a team that was about take part in a World Championships. KJE

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the Knole Run in Sevenoaks, a very challenging 6 mile race over steep muddy parkland, real cross country terrain. With six from eight to score and excellent runs from both Robbie Lightowler in 7th and Adam Thorpe in 13th place, both two years young in hte group, we were not strong enough to beat the Judd School and ended up in second place. In the Girls Race Lizzie Bird finished in third place and the team were placed 9th.

George Rose, seen here in the relay, was a dominant middle distance runner over the season

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from the team at vital moments. The second years were similarly pushed out of the top four to miss out on the finals this year despite some good

talent. Amongst the first years Tom Fulton on the track and Piers Dorward and Kyle Douglas who have the potential to be good multi eventers and would later pick up We kicked off May in medals at the District Championfine style winning the ships. Amongst our regular athletes Senior Championships Robbie Lightowler continued to from Sir John Lawes who make progress and was dominant in were left ruing the absence the middle distance races going on of their GB superstar James to secure a Herts English Schools McMurray and we were team place along with Mark soon fully engaged in the County Pearce and Lizzie Bird. Pearce Leagues and District competitions. also retained his 3000m title in the The excellent Harrow meets were County championships. George also soon upon us and our teams Rose was also dominant in the go from strength to strength same competition over 400m. in their competitions, due Having led all the way to the last to the high standard. bend he found himself overhauled We had our best by a Haileybury boy in the home result for some straight, but he dug in to overtake years with our him within sight of the line to take intermediate the victory. team narrowly Despite the awful summer weather being pipped for and a slow start this season continsecond place by St Paul’s. Adam Thorpe running ued to build on the high standards and traditions which the boys have up for the senior team, ran away with the race in his first ever stee- established in recent years. plechase. Adam went on to secure DFW a place in the Herts County team for the English Schools Competition at Gateshead and then to win the County Championships later in the term. As the season progressed it was gratifying to see the emergence of some new individual performances over the course of the season and a lot of commitment.

Team Sports Results NON

NOBIS

N AT I

2011-2012

Rugby

Sport

Team

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Cricket Played

Won

Draw

Lost

Team

Played

Won

Drawn

Lost

1st XV

1st XI

2nd XV

2nd XI

3rd XV

3rd XI

4th XV

U15

U16

U15 B

U16 B

U15 C

U15

U14

U15 B

U14 B

U15 C

U14 C

U14

U14 D

U14 B

U13

U14 C

U13 B

U13

U12

U13 B

U12 B

U12

Totals:

105

U12B

Totals:

171

113

Hockey

Netball

Team

Played

Won

Draw

Lost

Team

Played

Won

Draw

Lost

1st XI

1st VII

2nd XI

2nd VII

3rd XI

Totals

U16

Football

U16 B

1st XI

U15

2nd XI

U15 B

U16

U14

U15

U14 B

U14

U13

U13 B

U12

Totals:

U12 B

Totals: