St Paul's News - Issue 22 - January 2024

PARTNERSHIPS & CHARITIES

ACADEMIC

St Paul's confirmed as UK's 2023 top academic boys' school

In The Sunday Times Parent Power Guide 2023, St Paul's was rated the top independent boys' school in the UK, the second-best independent school in London (behind St Paul's Girls' School), and the third-best independent school in the country.

Teaching at St Paul's is not confined to an examination syllabus: a Pauline education goes far beyond

examination success, which we believe is a by-product of stimulating teaching and the pursuit of genuine scholarship.

Outside the classroom, as you will read in the following pages, pupils are exploring their interests, developing their own co-curricular, entrepreneurial and charitable initiatives, and excelling in the arts, sports and engineering.

City Harvest food drive breaks record, donating almost 600kg of food

The Winter Term food drive for City Harvest was a tremendous success, thanks to the generosity of parents and the wider school community. City Harvest told us that it was the largest amount of food ever collected from a school: in fact, the collection was so substantial that they had to send two extra vans to pick it up. The school community donated almost 600 kilograms of food, totalling 1,475 meals for Londoners in need.

Special thanks go to the Pauls4All representatives, who dedicated time to promoting the drive through guerrilla marketing and House assemblies. Thanks also go to Mustapha (Upper Eighth) for suggesting that we celebrate Challenge Poverty Week.

ACADEMIC Winner of Independent Boys' School of the Year 2023

"We were delighted to win 'Independent Boys' School of the Year 2023' at the Independent Schools of the Year Awards in October. Dr Helen Wright, who chaired the panel of judges, commended our commitment to boys' education, particularly highlighting our efforts to instil positive character traits and values in our pupils.

Our school was also shortlisted in the Outstanding Educational Partnerships category of the awards, thanks to the success of our STEM Summer Schools programme, which has already received national recognition.

"We are delighted to receive this award, which is a testament to the hard work and dedication of all the staff at St Paul's School," High Master, Sally-Anne Huang, said.

ACADEMIC University offers aplenty

In 2023, Upper Eighth Paulines once again received an extraordinary set of university offers, including 29 from the University of Oxford, 23 from Imperial College London, and 21 from the University of Cambridge. Pupils also welcomed offers from other top universities, including Edinburgh, LSE, UCL, Bristol and St Andrews. In addition, 42 Paulines accepted places at universities abroad, with 35 of those in the US, including Stanford, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Princeton and Cornell.

PARTNERSHIPS & CHARITIES

Generous support from Pauline community

CO-CURRICULAR Another accolade for Firefly Racing

After qualifying for the Greenpower International final at Goodwood, Firefly Racing won the Ford International Engineering Award in the Winter Term.

The Fifth Form team, FF03, qualified earlier in the year by podiuming at Ford Dunton, but it was a suspenseful wait to see if FF02 had also qualified, based on the distance travelled.

After qualifying at Castle Combe, the Sixth, Lower Eighth and Upper Eighth forms could also race FF02 in the final.

The team wowed the judges with the projects they worked on this year, from rack-and-pinion steering systems to a fully working CAN Bus and live telemetry beamed to the data centre. This is the team's third win in the engineering championship and the second win in a row.

Since the international final, the team has welcomed new members and been busy preparing their new cars, FF05 and FF06, for the 2024 season.

for second-ever Giving Day

In April 2023, St Paul's hosted its second-ever Giving Day. We are delighted to report that over 36 hours, our community raised £460,000 from 775 donors. These funds went directly towards supporting our current and future bursary pupils and expanding our partnership work within our local community and further afield.

The enthusiastic response of the Pauline community to the virtual and on-site challenges exceeded our expectations. Gifts were received from community members across 12 different countries, including 31 donors from the USA. Overall, more than 400 parents and 150 Old Paulines donated to the Giving Day, with additional support from current pupils, staff and family members.

Congratulations to the Thomas Gresham Committee, who organised the on-site challenges for pupils, including a 'Beat the Teacher Penalty Shoot-out', a giant buzz-wire game across the Atrium, and a virtual chess tournament. The excitement continued at St Paul's Juniors with a photo challenge and a whole school 'burpee' challenge sponsored by a generous SPJ parent.

We are grateful to all the community members who supported St Paul's Development team in delivering this project. Special thanks go to our challenge donors, whose sponsorship enabled us to run 30 challenges.

CO-CURRICULAR SPJ and SPS leadership teams join to exchange knowledge

During the Spring Term, the prefect teams of St Paul's and St Paul’s Juniors attended their first joint leadership conference. The conference started with speeches from Mrs Huang, Mr Snowball, SPS's Captain of School and SPJ's Head Boy. After that, the 30 participants discussed moral dilemmas, the significance of the

school's core character traits, and how they could lead by example in different situations. They also worked in groups to create scenarios that their peers could discuss in future lessons. Finally, they created action plans for the two prefect teams to further develop the core values within the school community.

"We came up with slogans, like 'I'm kind therefore I am' and ideas like setting personal targets each term to encourage resilience. As well as having gained a deeper understanding of our values and how we can show them, we all left the room motivated to make a difference to the school community for the better," an SPJ pupil said.

"I thought that the leadership conference was an important opportunity to make a positive change to the student community. It's necessary that the Pauline experience is shaped with and for the pupils," an SPS pupil added.

Success for Paulines in major essay competitions

Several pupils received news of their success in national and international essay competitions last year.

Esa Dhanani (Upper Eighth) was shortlisted for the John Locke Institute 2023 Global Essay Prize and received a commendation for his essay examining whether Britain was economically enriched or impoverished by its empire.

Aditya Swamy (Sixth Form) and Philip Barahona (Upper Eighth) were also both shortlisted in the Economics category, Mustapha Sadiq (Upper Eighth) in the Psychology category, and Eshan Hall (Upper Eighth) in the Law category.

Samuel Grosz (Upper Eighth) was shortlisted from over 750 entries in the Marshall Society Essay Competition at the University of Cambridge. The contest is an annual event, and this year's edition, marked by panellists at the university, featured some of the most demanding questions in the competition's history.

Dermot Christmas (Lower Eighth) submitted two entries to the Historical

Association’s Young Historian Awards. His essay, 'Assess the Significance of Gustav Stresemann on Germany', won a main prize in the GCSE Modern World Essay category. He was also recognised for his second essay, 'The History of All Hallows up to the End of the Tudor Age', which was entered into the GCSE Local History Essay category.

Rayn Lakha (Upper Eighth) won 'Best Essay for the Question' in the Homerton College Essay Competition. The theme was 'Building a Sustainable and Healthy World'. Rayn is working with teachers to implement a form of the initiative in the Fourth Form curriculum.

Fergus Walsh (Upper Eighth) was awarded second prize for his essay, 'Changes to Hungarian Language and Literature as a result of the 1848 Revolution' in the Julia Wood History Essay Competition from St Hugh's College, Oxford. Charlie White, Luke Leventis, and Alexander Tonkin (all Upper Eighth) received Highly Commended for their entries in the same competition.

CO-CURRICULAR

Incredible display of chess talent

St Paul's secured a spot in the top 15 out of 56 secondary schools at the Rapidplay Chess Tournament held at Eton College in the Winter Term.

We promptly defeated Sir William Borlase in our opening round, sweeping them 6 to 0. The following two rounds against Reading School and Westminster Under School were tough and gruelling, but thanks to Liam (Fifth Form) and Zach (Lower Eighth), we managed to score 3-3 in both rounds.

The toughest round we faced was against Highgate School when we suffered a devastating loss after three rounds, 4-2. Ryan (Lower Eighth), who was playing for SPS for the first time and in his first team event, won his match, while Liam and Richard (Fifth Form) were able to draw theirs. We knew it wouldn't be an easy

TRIPS

match in the last round because our opponent was Brentwood School, whose coach was International Master Richard Pert. Liam drew his game against Max Pert, one of the strongest players in the tournament, and we ultimately won with a score of 4.5 to 1.5.

The day's highlight was Zach's victory over Westminster Under, who used a clever tactic to achieve checkmate by sacrificing his knight and rook. The captain Vedaant (Lower Eighth) showed outstanding leadership throughout the tournament.

Congratulations also go to Liam Clery-Luta (Fifth Form) for winning the Under 18 South of England Chess Championship. This is an amazing accomplishment, especially considering he is three years younger than many of his competitors.

Paulines around the world: who went where on Autumn Term trips

During Autumn Term there were several incredible trips. The Sixth Form Spanish students headed to Tarifa, where they basked in glorious sunshine and enjoyed fun water-based activities, from kayaking to whale watching off the coast of Morocco. There was also plenty of delicious food, competitive games of volleyball and football, and a trek through the pine groves above the Bolonia beaches to see Roman ruins.

Sixth Form Italianists flew to Sardinia for a week of Italian cultural and linguistic immersion in (mostly) sunny Alghero. Pupils stayed with Italian

hosts, fully immersing themselves in Italian family life. They attended language lessons each morning and participated in activities such as local cheese tasting, a football match and a lesson about Italian gestures.

Sixth Form Germanists enjoyed a week in Berlin alongside St Paul's Girls' School, honing their language skills in joint classes and exploring the city with trips to the Olympic Stadium, Brandenburg Gate, Potsdam and Hohenschönhausen, the former Stasi prison.

A group of Upper Eighth French pupils travelled to Paris for the day to research their A Level topic of 'France during WWII'. They toured the Musée de la Libération de Paris, the Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation, and the Mémorial de la Shoah, where they learned about life during the Occupation.

Four pupils from St Paul's joined pupils from St Paul's Girls' School for a week in Japan on an exchange visit with Jishukan High School in Toyohashi. They explored Kyoto and Tokyo, stayed with host families and went to school

during the week, practising Japanese, learning how to write correctly and how to make traditional matcha tea. "Leaving was certainly the most bittersweet part of the trip – in just nine days, I had become accustomed to a Japanese way of life thanks to the cultural immersion and the amazing generosity and hospitality our host families showed us. I really felt as if I was leaving a second home," Charlie (Lower Eighth) said.

SPORT

St Paul's crowned winners at Head of the Charles

Congratulations to St Paul's Rowing 1st VIII, who won the Men's Youth Eights event at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Massachusetts in October. St Paul's had two crews racing at the world's biggest rowing regatta, with both crews training out of Boston for the week before the race.

The 1st VIII, coached by Bobby Thatcher, included Sam (Bow), Christian (2), Kynan (3), Alec (4), Alp (5), Pat (6), Felix (7), Philip (Stroke) and Victor (Cox). They started 74th in the Youth Eights division, overtaking spectacularly and managing themselves extremely well to claim first place. They won by more than 20 seconds – an impressive time and one that would have also won them the Men's Collegiate Eights division. SPS has won the event only once before and by a smaller margin of 11 seconds. The previous win was in 2017 at the opening of the school's best-ever season.

The coxed four, comprising rowers from the 2nd VIII including Maurits (Cox), Fintan (Bow), Rohan (2), Arthur (3) and Milon (Stroke), and coached by Charles Bourne, also had a low starting point at 65th in the Youth Fours event, but had a strong race to finish 22nd out of 90 boats.

In other rowing news, the J16 and senior squads raced at Wallingford Long Distance Sculls in September –the first race of the season for these athletes. The crew won the open quads category, and Jonathan (Sixth Form) won the J16 singles event.

In October, 13 Paulines raced in the Scullers Head, with 10 finishing in the top 100 of the 544 entrants. Alp from Lower Eighth claimed three of the top five spots in the J17 category, whilst Philip from Upper Eighth won three of the top four spots in the J18 category.

Also in October, five quads from the J15 group completed their first race of the season at Reading Small Boats Head. The crew won the J15 quads event overall, and St Paul's also won the band two and band three subcategories of the event.

Rounding out October, 15 pairs and doubles from the senior and J16 squads raced at the Pairs Head. There was more Tideway success for the group that did well at the Scullers Head: Felix and Alec won the J18 pairs category by two seconds from Alp and Pat in a category in which SPS took positions 1st to 7th, 9th and 10th, among many other accolades for the day.

The annual Plum Puddings races took place at the Boathouse in December. Over 70 pupils competed in a knockout competition, dressed up in crew costumes including Vikings, Oompa Loompas (steered by Willie Wonka) and Top Gun pilots (in matching aviators). The racing, assisted by brisk winds and tide, was won by the Skeletons, but the coveted best-dressed award went to the eight Barbies and Ken. The Upper Eighth were delighted to win an additional challenge match against the Lower Eighth.

EVENTS

Black History Month

In October, St Paul's School celebrated Black History Month. We reflected on the history, contributions and experiences of Black communities in the UK, and spent time thinking critically about how we progress conversations around race and anti-racism. Black History Month is primarily a celebration, however, it is also an opportunity to critically reflect on our personal and institutional efforts towards advancing race equality.

Throughout the week, we hosted various events, talks, and workshops to celebrate the diversity of Black cultures in unique and exciting ways. These included gospel performances and African djembe drumming, a presentation from former rugby union player Maggie Alphonsi MBE, and pupil-led talks on significant moments of Black history and culture.

ARTS

A showcase of musical skill

In November, St Paul’s School held the annual Ensembles Concert, featuring performances by 146 pupils from Wind Orchestra, String Orchestra, Baroque Ensemble, Big Band, St Paul's Voices, Motley Croon and more. It was the first big concert for many pupils and an incredible display of talent. In St Paul’s Juniors, the Wathen Hall was packed out yet again for the annual Autumn Concert – one of the flagship events of the musical year.

SPORT

A celebration of the rugby bicentenary

St Paul's hosted a week of celebrations in October to mark 200 years of rugby, welcoming guest speakers to talk about their experience in the game, as well as the history of SPS Rugby and our involvement in the sport's founding.

The highlight of the week was a trial of the '3rd Game' for SPS U15s and invited schools, including RGS Guildford, Tonbridge School, KCS Wimbledon and Hampton School. The game was developed by Glenn Harrison, the former Director of Sport/Rugby, during his sabbatical research in collaboration with the RFU. The '3rd Game' is intended to enhance skills, improve awareness of space, and promote enjoyment in a fast-paced game with fewer collisions. The RFU organised, refereed, filmed, and analysed the festival with the view to trial a larger-scale event in the hope of making the game safer.

SPORT

Victory at the West of England Fives Championships

There were plenty of wins for SPS at the recent West of England Fives Championships. Freddie (Sixth Form) won the U18 singles (whilst still a U16) without losing a game, with an immaculate display of relentless retrieving and controlled power. He and Josh (Sixth Form) then won the U18 doubles, defeating the top pairs from Christ's Hospital, Alleyn's, and Winchester along the way. For an U16

pair to win the U18 doubles is a fantastic achievement!

In the U16 tournament, Tom (Sixth Form) made it to the singles semifinals, but he and Elyas (Sixth Form) lost in the doubles final. The U15 pair of Nadim (Fifth Form) and Nicholas (Fifth Form) won the U16 doubles plate, defeating players a year older.

ACADEMIC

Mathematicians invited to Hungary training camp

Following on from the first round of the British Mathematical Olympiad (BMO1), four pupils from St Paul’s were invited to join an international one-week training camp. The camp, organised by the UK Mathematics Trust (UKMT), was held in Hungary over the new year. The Paulines were Michael Sydorenko (Fifth Form), Adavya Goyal (Sixth Form), Eason Shao (Lower Eighth) and Haolin Zhao (Upper Eighth). Offers to attend are reserved for those finishing in the top 20 nationally in BMO1, so having four pupils invited is a noteworthy achievement.

ARTS

Based on several very challenging selection tests during the camp, Haolin was selected to represent the UK at the Romanian Masters of Mathematics competition (RMM 2024), as part of a team of six pupils. The event will be held in Bucharest at the end of the Spring Term. RMM is one of the toughest international competitions in secondary school mathematics – some claim it is harder than the International Mathematical Olympiad, which takes place in Bath in July.

The Winter’s Tale takes to the stage

In 2023, St Paul's staged Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale as its Autumn Term senior production, with a cast of Year 12 and 13 pupils from St Paul's and St Paul's Girls' School. Set in a David Hockney-inspired California

and with a soundtrack of 1970 and 1980s soul music, this new interpretation of Shakespeare's late romance explored the limits of love, the abuse of power, and the balm of longed-for second chances.

ACADEMIC

STEM Saturdays returns

Spring Term saw the return of our regular offering of Saturday Science courses for partner schools where students from across London engage in practical work that stretches beyond the classroom syllabus.

Year 12 biologists made bacteria glow eerily green by transforming it to use

ACADEMIC

Boys’ education workshop with Verulam School

Five pupils from Verulam School (a boys’ secondary school in St Albans), visited St Paul’s in Spring Term. They met with a small group of SPS's Eighth Form over lunch and discussed the perceptions people have about boys' education and whether they match up to reality. Both schools have ‘character’ as one of their core values, so they also talked about what

ACADEMIC

genes from a jellyfish. Year 12 physicists modelled the superposition of waves and observed musical standing waves in the fire of a Ruben’s Tube. Year 10 physicists used LEGO bricks to chart the 14 billion (plus)year lifetime of our universe, through to the creation of the chemical elements of life as we know it.

character means to them and how important it is in their schools.

The pupils found the discussion very interesting, and we are excited to hold similar events in the future as the school continues to strengthen its connection with other boys' schools in the area and around the world.

Royal Society of Chemistry’s Top of the Bench Competition

In November, St Paul's hosted 12 schools for a heat of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Top of the Bench competition. The SPS team of Kieran Mang (Fourth Form), Matthew Figueroa Duque (Fourth Form), Jake Hope (Fifth Form) and Dev Patel

(Sixth Form) won the event, beating a strong field that included SPGS and Ashcroft Technology Academy –perennially tough competitors in this competition. Kieran was the only pupil from the entire field of 52 who scored full marks on a component.

ACADEMIC

Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge

The Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge is a national competition designed to stimulate interest in computer science and problemsolving. The challenges presented in the competition cover a spectrum of topics, from logical reasoning to algorithmic thinking, challenging participants to think critically.

ACADEMIC

Challenging stereotypes with St Paul's Girls' School

The majority of Lower First and Third Year pupils took part this year. They all did exceptionally well, achieving scores well above the national and London averages. Particular congratulations go to Tomohiro (Upper Third), Nolan, Dylan and Philip (Lower Third) for getting full marks and being awarded ‘Best in School’.

CO-CURRICULAR Celebrating Diwali

In November, there were various Diwali celebrations across St Paul’s Juniors. The Second Years were treated to a special assembly from SPJ parent, Vinita Agarwal. She gave a fascinating presentation on the origins of Hinduism, the story of Rama and Sita, and the importance of Diwali for Hindus. She also brought delicious jalebis for the boys and staff to sample, which went down very well indeed.

In Diversity Club, members enjoyed a Diwali-themed session where they learned about the significance of the festival and the meaning behind the colourful rangoli designs. They also created their own rangolis. The session leaders, Rian (L3B), Rayaan (L3S), and Alex (L3K), shared some of their favourite festival food with the other boys.

In total, 150 Third Year pupils finished in the top 10% nationally and have qualified for the next round of the competition: ‘Oxford University Computing Challenge (OUCC)’ which will take place between 15 – 19 January 2024.

Congratulations to the winners and participants who have embraced the spirit of the Bebras Challenge.

Recently, members of the St Paul’s School Values Committee and Feminism Society, alongside the St Paul’s Girls’ School Consent and Respect Committee, engaged with the Juniors’ Lower Third T&P classes.

The purpose of this interaction was to explore topics such as feminism and stereotypes. A panel of two Eighth Formers from SPS and two from SPGS answered questions about feminism, its positive effects on the relationship between the three schools, and how negative stereotypes can be overcome.

PARTNERSHIPS & CHARITIES

Winter coat drive brings out generous spirit

Last year, as the temperature started to drop, pupils across St Paul’s held a winter coat drive for Wrap Up London. This event is one of the city's largest winter volunteering initiatives, and it helps charities that serve women, young children in shelters, young adults,

the homeless, the elderly, and refugees.

The coats collected at St Paul's contributed to the more than 16,500 coats donated by Wrap Up London to over 75 London-based and international charities.

After that, the older pupils joined smaller groups of younger pupils for discussions, helping them think about how they can be good hosts and visitors when interacting with SPGS pupils. The feedback from the Lower Third has been very positive. They said, "It was interesting to think about how we can challenge stereotyping." Another boy said, "It was good to hear different views and experiences." One pupil shared, "I was surprised to hear about negative experiences some people have had, and it was good to be able to think about how to change this."

CO-CURRICULAR Into the woods with the Lower Seconds

At the start of the school year, the whole of the Lower Second year went to Hindleap Warren in Ashdown Forest.

"I went to Hindleap Warren on Monday and Tuesday," said Max. "It was really fun. My favourite activity was the crate stack. You and your partner were supposed to go up 'stairs' – the crates – and get as high as possible. There were also people helping you: the crate stackers. I also enjoyed sleeping in a dorm with others. This memory will always be embedded in my brain and if I could, I would go there again."

"Hindleap Warren was very enjoyable and was a good opportunity to get to know my classmates,” Arnav added. “During the trip, I felt very independent and responsible, especially when making my bed, which was easier said than done!”

ACADEMIC

Runners-up in the Western Front Association’s ‘Heroes Remembered’ competition

Members of St Paul’s Juniors History Society were awarded second place for their entry to the Western Front Association’s ‘Heroes Remembered’ competition.

Their biographical essay

commemorated the life of Indra Lal Roy, an Old Coletine and Old Pauline who served in the First World War. The first ever Indian flying ace in the British Air Force, posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Lal Roy was shot down on active service in July 1918.

The historians presented their project in a special ceremony at St Mary’s Church in Barnes before Remedy. They also recorded a

ACADEMIC Science Fair for Lower Thirds

The second-ever St Paul's Juniors Science Fair was brilliant, with outstanding work on display from the Lower Third pupils who participated. The boys came up with some excellent projects, covering a range of areas including Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Psychology, and put together some incredible presentations and demonstrations, making it hard to select a winner. Congratulations to the following students who were awarded prizes:

• Jiahao, Kindred and Renard for Best Presenter

• Soham and Marko for overcoming technical difficulties with the amazing project, Bob the Seeker

• Rayaan, Leonardo, Ozan and Daniel for winning Fan Favourite and Best Display

• Chedly for winning the Han Solo prize

• Ewan and Alexander for winning the Science Fair with an outstanding project, The Potatoes of the Future

podcast episode and shared their presentation again at a whole school assembly to encourage other members of the school community to reflect on the themes of resilience, sacrifice and service.

Mr Motz and the History Society would like to thank Mr Isaac for leading the boys in putting this project together, Ms Strickland and Mme Nolk for helping the boys carry out their research using sources from the St Paul’s archives, and Ms Ferris for supporting them on the trip.

PARTNERSHIPS & CHARITIES

New SPJ charity partner announced

Boys at St Paul’s Juniors voted during form time for their new charity partner for 2023-25.

Shortlisted charities were announced in Autumn Term.

The charity selected by the boys was Castelnau Community Centre, a local charity that supports members of the community, including new mothers, children, youths, and elderly residents through activities, events and services. They also offer vital support in the form of a food bank.

We look forward to seeing both the boys and parent community actively engaging with Castelnau Community Centre over the coming years.