The Cryptian 2023-24

SECTION ONE - THE CRYPT SCHOOL

HEADTEACHER’S WELCOME

I am delighted to be writing this introduction to the 2023-24 edition of the annual Cryptian magazine. My thanks to Chris Cobb and the staff working with him, for taking on the huge task of editing this magazine and to the Old Cryptian Club, for their continued support of this annual insight into both Crypt School, and Old Cryptian life.

Once again, this splendid edition captures well our rich school life and documents just what a busy year it had been for our students, for our staff and for others connected to the life and work of the School. For me, it has been wonderful to again be able to play a full part in our school life this year and I remain grateful for the work and generosity of my colleagues, of our Governors and of our students and their families in making our school such an outstanding place to both work and learn within.

Of course, one of the most significant events of the school year was our Ofsted inspection, held on the 12th and 13th of March this year. Our last inspection was held in May 2012, when the School received an outstanding judgement; this time around, we repeated that success, in what is acknowledged to be a harder inspection framework, which has seen many formerly outstanding schools downgraded. I remain hugely grateful for the support of my colleagues, for the outstanding contribution to our rich school life that they make, and for the extraordinary pride our students showed in their school on those two days - and of course always - that resulted in an outstanding set of inspection judgements in all areas. What an outstanding achievement for everyone connected to the work and life of our school and indeed, a just reflection of what we have together built here at The Crypt over many years.

One of the many things that Ofsted praised, was the fact that so much that happens in our rich school life is co-authored by the students, who together with our staff enable such a rich and varied educational experience to be on offer to everyone, in our inclusive school community here at Crypt. Looking through the pages of the Cryptian, I am immensely proud, as always, to be Headmaster of a school such as The Crypt, where so much takes place, both in the formal educational sense and in the arena of developing students into the people they wish to become. Our students always want to take part, to lead, to get involved and support each other throughout their Crypt School journeys, as shown throughout the pages of this magazine.

With that in mind, I must thank everyone connected to the life and work of the School for the incredible support they have all offered this past year. Thank you then to our students and to our staff; to our wonderfully supportive parental and Governing Body and OC community and to those who work tirelessly in the CSPTA, and who contribute so much through that to help support our work in school. We are indeed fortunate to have such a generous staff body at Crypt, who care deeply about their students, their school and its

purpose. Our students have shown themselves to be an equally remarkable group of individuals, who play a leading role in making sure our work in school reflects their voice too.

It would be remiss of me, if I didn’t pay a special vote of thanks for the huge contribution to the work and life of the School made by our outgoing Chair of Governors, Richard James, who has been involved with the School for nearly thirty years - as a parent, a Governor and, for much of that period, as Chair of the Board of Trustees. Richard has led the Trust Board with vision, integrity and great energy. He has overseen our rapid growth as a school, as well as guiding us through a period of significant change: most notably, that of becoming a fully co-educational school from 2018. Richard also played a critical role in helping steer the School to two outstanding Ofsted judgements (2012 and 2024). Richard has invested so much of his time in the school, that it was fitting that his last year as Chair should coincide with an Ofsted outstanding judgement, of which he should be offered much of the credit for. We shall all miss Richard’s leadership, guidance and friendship greatly, but offer him our sincerest thanks for his significant contribution and hope that he will wish to stay in contact with the school.

Thank you then to everyone connected with the School for their work and support over the last year. I feel immensely reassured reading through the magazine that so much has occurred across this last year, once again reminding us of everything that makes The Crypt School such a special place.

With very best wishes,

Nicholas Dyer.

Headmaster

YEAR GROUPS – HEADS OF YEARS’ REPORTS

Year 7 – Henry Bowen

Transition to Year 7

The transition to Year 7 is one of the most important points in the development of any young person. This year, it has been an immense privilege to welcome our latest cohort of Cryptians, and to see them flourish under our care.

Transition events have formed a large part of the process, and this work begins before students come through the doors in September. Each student was visited in their primary school; they and their parents were welcomed to our Meet the Tutor evening in June; students got a flavour of what a Crypt day looks like in their July transition day; and finally students benefited from having the school to themselves for the day in their first day of school in September.

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Residential

The early transition period culminates in our annual residential trip, held in November. We once more ventured to Abernant Lake and students were put through their paces on the climbing wall, in the fencing piste, and on the archery range. I was very proud to see how students stepped outside of their comfort zone, sometimes overcoming obstacles (literal and metaphorical), and shaking off fears to try something new. Firm friendships were formed and students returned tired, muddy and happy - as it should be!

Sports

As always, we have seen the next generation of talented sportspeople come through our doors. We have an international mixed martial artist, a GB trampolinist, a national tumbler and artistic gymnast, and a host of county and district sportspeople from across the sports! These Cryptians are prospering under the guidance of our PE department, and are all grateful for the myriad sporting opportunities they are offered at Crypt.

Music

Equally as impressive is the array of musicians who have come through our doors this year, not just by sheer quantity, but also in their immense individual and collective talent. Individually, our musical accomplishments are too numerous to mention, but I will take a moment to single out Seb in 7JC who is already working towards his grade 8 drums, and Sammy in 7WEH, whose saxophone playing is already a mainstay of our school events. Collectively we have seen our Year 7s students flourish in the Young Voices choir, as well as those most able singers and instrumentalists who have joined our main choir and orchestra.

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Lessons

In and amongst the endless extra-curricular activities, sportsfixtures, music concerts, and school trips, we mustn’t forget that our students spend five lessons a day receiving an outstanding (and Outstanding) education. It would be impossible to condense the sum of all our students’ learning into one paragraph, but some photos which represent a snapshot of our students’ hard work are included in this submission.

Anti-bullying initiatives

The school continues to strive to be a safe environment for all our students, and to visibly recognise our commitment to eliminating bullying in our school setting. I am proud of the way in which Year 7 have taken the lead in promoting our anti-bullying stance, through their entries to the poster competition, their anti-bullying videos from their PED lessons and finally through Max (7WEH) and Daniel (7DW) in being appointed two of our anti-bullying ambassadors.

House Events

Mr Hart has once again co-ordinated a fantastic series of house events over the course of this year, and Year 7 remain the lifeblood of the school’s house system. They have taken great pride in competing for their houses, whether in the traditional sports (football, netball, rugby etc…), or in some of Mr Hart's more unique competitions (house paper aeroplane throwing, house historical dinner party competition, house carolling…)

Commendation Day

Our year to this point has ended with the traditional Commendation Day, in St Mary de Crypt church. To me, this event marks the end of the transition period, where students complete their education as to what it means to be a Cryptian. Students learnt a great deal about the founding of the school, and the role the school has played in British history. Students have also, of course, learnt the school song under Mr Whittaker’s enthusiastic tutelage.

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Going forward

We look forward to our celebrations at the end of the year, including our commendation lunch for those most-highly achieving students, and to our Year 7’s first annual Founders’ Day service. Students in Year 7 will progress into Year 8 under Miss Searle’s expert care and I look forward to learning of the future successes of our latest crop of Cryptians.

Year 8 – Diane Duxbury

I must start by saying how wonderful Year 8 is as a year group. I must thank Mr Roberts for his role in settling the pupils into the way of life at Crypt, and each individual has gone from strength to strength. We have really promoted the need to be kind to each other, and I see that in abundance amongst our pupils. One of my highlights during a week is going outside at lunchtime, chatting to pupils and watching them play happily together. So many of them have fully embraced all the opportunities on offer at Crypt and have taken part in many activities, including school trips, sports clubs and teams, music practices and events, as well as an incredible number of other clubs.

The pupils have remained in their tutor group for many of their lessons and this has helped increase a "team culture". During Year 9, they will have the chance to mix with many others across the year group during their lessons.

At the time of writing Year 8 still has some exciting activities to enjoy before the end of term, but particular highlights so far have been the Year 8 PGL trip to Heartstoppers, and Commendation Day.

Year 8 Commendation Day

On Tuesday, nearly all of Year 8 visited St. Mary de Crypt Church in Gloucester and took part in several activities following the theme, before concluding with a Commendation Service, led by Canon Nikki Arthy. These included:

-Exploring the precincts, finding traces of the Friar's Orchard site and Greyfriars, led by old Cryptian Mr Bill Spear

- Learning the school song, written in 1539 - Discovering Art in the Church

- Schoolboy memories with Old Cryptian Mr Richard Briggs

- Discover De Crypt

The pupils and staff had a very enjoyable time and we're sure the day will inspire the students and provide them with lots of fond memories. Thank you very much to St Mary de Crypt for looking after us for the morning, and to all those who led activities.

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Heartstarters CPR Training

‘Is the patient breathing?’ Words no one ever wants to hear when making a phone call. As part of our Personal Education Development programme, students in Year 8 took part in the Great Western Hearts CPR programme run by the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity. This showed students how to perform CPR. These life- saving skills are part of the statutory curriculum and something at The Crypt we believe are essential skills for all students to develop. We are grateful to Carlota Appleby and her team of volunteers who came into school on Tuesday 30 January 2024 to train our students.

“It was a delight to work with the Year 8 pupils at The Crypt School. They were polite, engaged, listened carefully and participated fully in learning some very important life saving skills. We’re looking forward to coming back next year!” Carlota Appleby.

“I found the Heartstarters programme really useful, as it allowed me to learn a vast amount of useful life lessons, such as learning to use a defibrillator. It also allowed me to feel more confident in carrying out CPR on a person.” Sahara

As well as training students to perform CPR, should they be called upon, Carlota also talked about AED units and how to use them. Again, students had the opportunity to practise using training units, becoming familiar with the pads and their functionality. We are fortunate to have four AED units in school and 150 more students who know how to use them.

The final part of the training allowed our students to practise the recovery position; a neutral and safe position to reduce the risk of choking of a breathing casualty until help arrives.

Year 8 Residential

138 Y8 pupils, accompanied by 4 staff, travelled to Condover Hall in Shropshire for the Y8 residential. The pupils took part in a range of activities including orienteering, rocket launch, zip wire, fencing, archery tag, trapeze and silent disco. The silent disco was a lot of fun and enjoyed by the staff as much as the pupils! We certainly increased our step count that evening. Archery tag, a new activity for us, brought out the competitiveness and determination of the groups, firing arrows with what can only be described as large marshmallows on the tips. The activity that proved to be the most challenging was the Trapeze, some having to overcome their fear of heights just to

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climb to the top of the pillar and then digging deep to jump off to attempt to reach the trapeze! The encouragement and support given by the instructors and their friends was incredible. Prizes were given out on Friday prior to our departure to those who had shown resilience, responsibility, teamwork and perseverance.

Year 9 – Chris Germaine

As usual, the focus for Year 9 is very much on making positive GCSE choices Through events, school publications and information evenings, students have received a wealth of guidance to help them chart the next phase of their school journey into Key Stage 4.

I am very proud of the year group’s efforts, not least some excellent sporting results. Rugby and Netball teams improved their tactical awareness during the season. The cricket team blossomed and it was heartening to see some players playing up a year - Sam Watts and Josef Mlejnek. Great to see players growing in confidence as well as sporting ability.

Sports Leaders helped out with the Primary sports days organised by PE, leading and inspiring these younger students - a massive credit to the school!

It Is also worth celebrating that record numbers of Year 9 students took part in Bronze DofE, who will hopefully progress to complete their Silver Award in Y10.

This has been my first year as Head of Year and I look forward to supporting our students through their first year of GCSE

Special thanks to our tutor team for being so approachable and supportive

Year 10 – Harry Windsor

The first year of GCSEs can provide many barriers for students, but Year 10 have made great progress and risen to the challenge. New subjects, teaching groups, new ways of working and a greater focus on exams, whilst also balancing other commitments, have meant the students have had to constantly adjust and adapt throughout the year. The Year 10s have done a fantastic job and are certainly stepping up their efforts.

A focus in tutor times this year has been the EDGE programme (Engage, Develop, Grow, Excel). All of the students have had the opportunity to develop their public speaking on a topic of their choice. Feedback has been positive from both students and tutors, and I hope the year 10s found the experience useful in developing their skills.

Other opportunities available for the year 10s this year have been wide ranging. The students were encouraged to explore their futures at the careers convention. There was a buzz among the year group as they visited the different university and employer stalls, collecting prospectuses and freebies. Students also had the opportunity to complete work experience in the summer term, further informing them on potential career pathways. Year 10s have also been able to extend their learning and experiences beyond the classroom with a number of trips that have run this year, for example the Cornwall watersports trip and the visit to Bath University.

Many of the students have represented the school this year in sports. We have many successes in netball, handball, football, rugby, cricket and rounders. A special mention should be made for the U15 netballers who blazed a trail to the semi-finals of the Sisters in Sport national knockout competition. An outstanding achievement to get that far and to

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compete so well on the national stage. At the time of writing the U15 cricket team is currently undefeated and has qualified for the semi-finals of the county cup which will be played against Tommies. Congratulations to all who have represented the school this year in all sporting events!

Next year will be hugely important for all of the year 10 students, and I wish them well for everything that lies ahead of them.

Year 11 – Harry Windsor

The Year 11s have built on the foundations that were laid during Year 10 to make excellent progress throughout the year, both in and out of the classroom. The focus naturally has been on exam preparation and the year group enjoyed a masterclass in how to “Ace your exams” when Elevate Education came into school to deliver a revision seminar. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive from all involved and will have no doubt had a positive impact on the students’ exam preparations.

Beyond the classroom it has been another excellent year in the extra-curricular life of the Year 11 students. Numerous music concerts, drama performances and sports fixtures have taken place throughout the year and all involved should be proud of their efforts. A special mention to the U15 footballers who reached the City cup final held at Meadow Park (home of Gloucester City FC). A great achievement to reach the final and so unlucky to miss out on a win against local rivals Severn Vale.

It has been a pleasure to see the year group through from Year 8 until now and I wish them all the best for the exam period and the GCSE results.

Year 13 – Matthew Bevan

The final year of school in the sixth form is full of contrasts: the reassuring familiarity of places which students have learned in for two (or seven years), coupled with the uncertainty of what the future holds beyond school; the unchanging routines of school life with the freedom of driving and having a part-time job; finishing A levels and revising for exams, before long summers of travel, fun and relaxation. It is a liminal time which can be disorientating, unsettling, and exciting in equal measure for our young people, as they prepare to leave school well, ready to flourish in the rest of their lives beyond.

Preparations for life after Crypt began in earnest in September, marked by long hours polishing personal statements for university applications, visiting universities for Open Days, and adjusting to the demands of the second year of A level subjects. The Careers Fair took place in October, with over 60 exhibitors coming to the Sports Hall. This was another valuable opportunity for our Year 13 students to inform their decisions about their futures, hopes and aspirations beyond school.

Sam, Genevieve and the Student Executive Team have been wonderful in leading the school this year, contributing in all aspects of school life. They organised Christmas

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Jumper Day for the school on the 7th December, raising money for Save the Children.

In January, our year 13 chemists sat the Royal Society of Chemistry Olympiad competition. Mrs Gee (Head of Science) reports that our students performed very strongly indeed with 5 Gold awards (the top 8.3% of applicants nationally) awarded to year 13 students Freddie, Joshua, Theo, Joshua and Daniel. In addition, 20 Silver awards and 16 Bronze awards were also gained. That is really outstanding and testament to the strength of our chemistry department at school.

In March, our two sixth form F1 in Schools’ teams represented Crypt at the national finals under the guidance of Mr Antonious and Mr Baldwin. They performed extremely well on both days, gaining nominations in a number of areas, only to be pipped at the post for a podium position. They worked incredibly hard to reach the nationals, and the experiences they can now take forward into the future from their involvement in the F1 in Schools’ Competition, will be invaluable.

The final day in school for our year 13 students was Friday 10th May. We marked this occasion with a breakfast and final assembly together in the Common Room with Mr Dyer, Mr Biggs, Mr Bevan and form tutors. It was a lovely final morning together, full of good humour, and heartfelt speeches from students right across the year group.

HOUSE COMPETITION 2023

The House system at Crypt continues to thrive with more events and more students getting involved. This resulted in a highly competitive contest for 2023. As with previous years the winning house has an opportunity to celebrate their success with a trip to laser tag in Gloucester. Below is summary of which events each house managed to place first in:

Cooke Henley Moore Raikes Waboso

The

Y9 Volleyball Carols Y8, Y10 Staring Y11 Language

Y9 Rounders Dance Rock Off

Y8 Benchball Y7 Benchball Y8,10 Language

Y8 boys Rugby Y8, Y10 Netball

Y8 T Ball Y10 Decorations

Y9 Staring Dress up Rock Off Photography

The final results went down to the last event which was a mass participation: how many people can you fit on a tennis court? It was fitting that the overall winning team won the final event. Overall results were as follows:

5th Place Moore - 23,095

4th Place Waboso - 25, 290

3rd Place Raikes - 28, 145

2nd Place Cooke - 28,820

1st Place Henley - 29,510

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Congratulations to Henley who beat last year's winners Cooke to the top spot. We are well underway with the House Competition 2024. Can Henley go back to back?

Will someone emerge from the pack? Can Moore break their unenviable trend of winning the wooden spoon for the last 3 years?

Thank you to everyone who makes the house system so successful.

SUBJECT REPORTS

Art – Clare Medcroft

Clay club

The school year started with a positive and enthusiastic attitude, with the attendance of the ever-popular Clay Club at its highest. All students have really enjoyed the space and time producing beautiful outcomes throughout the year. It has been lovely to see our students designing and producing work of their own choice and helping each other - true Cryptians in their kindness and enthusiasm shown!

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Art club

Year 7

Y7’s drawing in Mary de Crypt as part of their commendation visit, understanding the deeper history of the school:

Art club has been a regular part of the weekly club offering, referencing artists Ian Murphy and Paula Swisher, with experiments exciting and works of art being produced on a weekly basis.

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A showcase of some of the Y7 artist studies. Picasso, Georges Braque and Van Gogh:

Year 8

Our year 8 students have enjoyed an insight in art textiles, learning skills including tie dying, printing and machine sewing, hand stitch and much more, all firmly rooted in discovering heritage techniques from Western Africa. All this hard work produced a stunning iPad cover to keep or gift to someone special:

In addition to this, we have been proud of them combining traditional fine art skills with a contemporary digital manipulation skill set to produce some first rate greetings cards before continuing their journey into a 3D experience - fabulous work!

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Year 9

Year 9 have been considering autobiographical work using images and text under the title “This is Me!” celebrating what makes them unique!

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Years 10 and 11

GCSE saw a wonderfully diverse body of work develop as a conclusion to their studies We are tremendously proud of the individuality of our amazing young artists.

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A-Level

We were beyond proud of the diverse journeys our A level students travelled, with a 75% A* and a 100 A- A* achievement. A great effort!

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Art competitions

We’ve been busy with house art events, which are growing in popularity and the recent house photography competition showed many stunning animal photos. The Gloucestershire Young Photography Competition, firmly in our diary, had a success with one of this year's entries featuring in the final showreel. A huge result and encouraging to our students who have entered the competition the last couple of years. We have had extremely positive feedback from the photos that have been included.

Trips

We enjoyed a wonderful trip to the Natural History Museum, Oxford and Pitt Rivers museum. This opportunity for our GCSE and A’ level students was a valuable experience, drawing within the museum and building their knowledge and understanding from a variety of different perspectives developing their portfolios and exam work.

Our art Instagram page has grown in numbers, and is a great way to see what we are up to and enjoy the talents of all year groups. Check us out on cryptschool art.

We are grateful fpr a wonderful year and look forward to the next!

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Biology – Tom Passmore

The biology department has undergone some significant changes this year with our previous Head of Department, Mrs Carey, moving to be closer to family and Miss Gates leaving to study for a masters degree. Long standing Crypt biologist, Mrs Sturge, signed off on a 27 year career here at the Crypt - she leaves behind a strong legacy following her dedicated commitment to the department and to the wider school community.

Mr Passmore has stepped into the role as Head of Biology driving forward an updated curriculum, resources and extracurricular activities thanks to the continued support of Ms Glock, Mrs Sharrock and our wonderful biology technician, Mrs Mountford. His calm approach and attention to detail focuses on ensuring all students have access to a safe, comfortable learning environment that allows each and every individual to flourish.

Mr Rausch joins the team having previously managed a Zimbabwean estate involving being responsible for the maintenance of some beautiful African animals in their natural habitat. Students have benefited from his worldly experience of different species and enthusiasm for investigation through dissections.

Mr Nicholl, Mrs Bowes and Mr Bowen have brought their skills to support the delivery of a challenging, progressive curriculum in biology this year and we thank them for bringing their expertise.

Lab 7 has undergone a refurb and is now fresh and light with plenty of clean space for practical work. Sadly, we have waved goodbye to the Eland that has been on the wall in lab 7 for a (very, VERY) long time!

The department has benefitted from some new microscopes to support the study of KS3 science. This now means we have a dedicated set of microscopes for each key stage, with the 6th form having access to more complex equipment to incorporate the use of detailed graticules to measure size accurately.

The year 13’s all enjoyed a rich and diverse set of practical investigations to apply their skills and transfer

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theoretical knowledge to experimental processes. Their final PAG of the course looked at immobilising enzymes in alginate matrices to produce lactose-free milk - a fun and engaging way to connect with a challenging and stimulating course.

Equally the KS3 and KS4 students have enjoyed a variety of practical lessons that deepen understanding of the more complex biological concepts, promoting a love of science, inquisitive mind and developing cognitive skills. Here we see year 8 learning about the adaptations of Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos islands - How beak shapes have evolved over time to enable birds to have a competitive advantage over their rivals, resulting in the eventual formation of new species. And year 11 learning about the structure of DNA (the most popular practical in the curriculum involves sweets!).

Alongside the delivery of a full and exciting curriculum, we have additional activities to support the learning and development of students here at the Crypt. Open days have been a huge success. Supported by our very able year 12 volunteers and Mrs Mountford, it is a real team effort that resulted in a great atmosphere and meeting some wonderful prospective students and parents.

Support and revision sessions have been available for our exam groups with many year 11 and 13 making the most of these opportunities to build confidence, push their progress and enable them to reach their full potential.

Our Natural World Club has continued this year in a reduced format due to Mr Passmore’s additional commitments, but has seen the incubation of chicken eggs once again - a favourite amongst students and staff alike. Not only offering insight into the development of life and a variety of biological links to the world we live in, but also a happy place that lifts spirits and confirms that Spring is indeed on the way!

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Chemistry – Claire Gee

RSC Olympiad - Y13 Chemists

The Chemistry Department is thrilled with the fabulous results achieved by the Y13 Chemistry students who sat the fiendishly challenging RSC Olympiad at the end of January. They achieved an amazing number of awards & we are delighted to share the news with you!

Achieving a Gold award, putting them in the top 8% of entrants were: Freddie J, Joshua S, Theo V, Joshua B, and Daniel E.

The cohort also achieved a further 20 Silver awards and 16 Bronze awards which is an outstanding overall achievement.

The Olympiad is a challenging 2 hour written paper and exposes the students to chemistry content which is outside of the A-level specification. This means the students have to apply their knowledge and understanding to a variety of topics and this year it included the composition of the FIFA 2023 Women's World Cup trophy, sulfur-containing molecules in the atmosphere, fuel producing bacteria, iodate salts and the MRI contrast agent gadopiclenol.

This year, over 1000 schools took part with a total number of entrants 14915. Therefore, to win over 40 awards is a fabulous achievement and we are very proud of all the students and are looking forward to successful summer exam results.

The Cambridge Chemistry Challenge - Y12 Chemists

Towards the end of June this year, all Y12 Chemistry students will be participating in the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge.

This is a National Competition organised by Cambridge University and involves the students undertaking a challenging written paper which contains questions on topical areas of chemistry. The questions are pitched at challenging A level content and beyond and provide the students an excellent way to stretch themselves and apply their knowledge.

Last year, over 10,000 students sat the exam in total across the country, and we were delighted to achieve 6 Gold awards, 9 Silver awards and 15 Copper awards. This was a fantastic result and we hope that our current Y12 students can do equally as well this year.

Thank you CSPTA!

We are very grateful to the CSPTA for purchasing 3 digital pH probes and data loggers for the department.

Y13 have already successfully used them in a practical for their A-level practical endorsement and Y12 will use them shortly.

We are looking forward to planning more opportunities in the next academic year for KS4 students to try them out!

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March 2024 - International Women’s Day - Kohler Mira

In March, five year 9 & 10 girls headed to Kohler Mira in Cheltenham to celebrate International Women's Day. They undertook a range of activities to highlight routes into STEM careers and had an inspirational talk from a panel of women in industry.

The girls thoroughly enjoyed the experience and were very fortunate to receive signed football shirts from the Manchester United Women’s Team. How fortunate they are!

A YEAR IN PHOTOS

Practical activities remain a fundamental part of chemistry lessons from Y7 through to Y13. All year groups participate in as many practical activities as possible, which help to explain scientific understanding as well as build, and develop, many transferable skills such as teamwork, communication, organisation and attention to detail.

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Computing – James Rice

EMPOWERCYBER

2023 – GLOUCESTERSHIRE

17th November 2023

CYBERFIRST GIRLS COMPETTION WINNERS 2023/24

It was great to take over 20 girls from year 8 to the recent Empower cyber event at Oxstalls Tennis centre in Gloucester. With 25 supporting industries and universities running interactive cyber workshop activities. The key aims of the event are to: educate and inspire the students about cyber security as a whole, demonstrate to them the type of companies working within the sector, introduce them to a range of different people working in the space, and hopefully inspire them to consider careers within the industry.

The Crypt school have been crowned cyber security champions of the Southwest!

The 2023/24 CyberFirst Girls Competition, run by GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre, saw the largest number of girls taking part since its inception. More than 12,500 girls across the UK took part; 3608 teams from over 750 schools Teams used a range of cyber skills to compete in code cracking, decrypting messages and solving puzzles in a contest which aims to encourage girls aged 12-13 to consider pursuing an interest in technology and introduce them the idea of a career in cyber.

Our team, the ‘3 Brain Cells’, were victorious with one of the highest scores I have ever seen! The team consisted of;

Emillie David 8WEH

Nivedha Palaniappan 8RR

Klara Ptak 8WEH

Alisha Sony 8WEH

A massive well done to the girls who have done a radio interview and will attend a celebratory event in the new year.

I hope the current year 7 girls are already thinking about entering next year to defend our title!

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Design and Technology – Oliver Antonious

In Design and Technology, students follow a rotation of two modules over the academic year: Design and Technology and Food Preparation and Nutrition

Year 7

In D&T, the students have designed, made, and evaluated a chocolate mould using CAD namely 2D Design, CAM e.g., laser cutter, and a vacuum former.

In Food, students learn about the four 4Cs: cleaning, cooking, chilling, and crosscontamination. Students also learn to prepare and cook a variety of savoury and sweet dishes using a range of cooking techniques.

Year 8

In D&T, the students have made a test tube holder, marking, measuring, and creating joints during the assembly process. They applied a ‘finish’ to produce a quality product that can be given as a gift. Students also used the laser cutter to cut and engrave their test tube holder.

In Food, students learn about temperature control, namely the danger zone, protein complementation and vegetarianism. Students also prepare, cook, and evaluate a variety of savoury and sweet dishes using different cooking techniques.

Year 9

In D&T, the students made an LED light using the laser cutter to engrave a shape based on a design movement. They also learned to solder several components and assemble the product precisely to ensure a good fit.

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In Food, students learn about safe working practice, the functional and chemical properties of several ingredients e.g. shortening, gelatinisation. They learn about the influences of different cultures on food and menu planning. They plan, prepare, cook, and evaluate a variety of savoury and sweet dishes.

Ready Steady Cook!

As part of the 6th Form enrichment offer, students can opt to participate in ready steady cook on a weekly basis for a full term. In pairs, students get given five or six ingredients and then they must create a culinary masterpiece from scratch within 20 minutes. This is then judged by members of the 6th Form team. The green peppers are currently beating the red tomatoes.

GCSE Design and Technology NEA support workshop

The faculty has offered several weekend NEA workshops which have been well attended. The students have used this time effectively and have produced some excellent work. They have really benefited from being able to dedicate a longer period to their making.

Due to exam board rules, the faculty is not able to publish images of live coursework. We have included some images of finished coursework from the academic year 2022-23. Work from this year’s cohort will be included in next year’s magazine.

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F1 in schools competition

The faculty has supported the F1 in Schools competition. Both teams were successful at the regional finals and went to nationals. Both teams didn’t make the podium at nationals but were highly commended by the judging team. Both teams should be proud of their achievements.

The F1 in Schools has been developed to introduce students to STEM subjects in the most engaging way possible – through the creation of a miniature F1 car. Designed for teachers, informed by engineers, and endorsed by F1, this programme sets students on the fast track to STEM success; and provides a lot of fun on the way.

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Josh O: “I applied to F1 in Schools to further my knowledge of engineering & enterprise, but little did I know what opportunities it would open up for me. Going through the project, I gained invaluable skills that I wouldn't have gained in the classroom such as CAD, presentation skills and communicating with local businesses. Going to the competitions was amazing and seeing all the work of different teams was incredible. Definitely doing it again!”

First

Lego League Championships – 18/03/2024

The faculty has been running an extracurricular lunchtime club on Thursday in conjunction with Ultra Precision Control Systems which is based in Cheltenham. The school put forward two teams at the regional finals in Wales and were commended by the judging panel for their robot design.

Charity

Bake Off – 20/03/2024

The faculty has supported a number of students to make and sell cakes for good causes…

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Drama – George Roberts

A Christmas Carol @ St Mary De Crypt

Back in December, a small cast of students were incredibly excited to showcase the opening Act from A Christmas Carol. St Mary De Crypt is where Cryptians were first educated and to have the opportunity to perform a Christmas Carol in such a beautiful setting and a setting with great historical significance was truly special.

The Unpolished Playground

This year a new club "The Unpolished Playground" has been developed. This lunchtime club provides students with a platform to unleash their imagination, craft original theatrical pieces, and showcase their talents.

The Unpolished Playground welcomes all students. Whether they're seasoned performers or hesitant newcomers; everyone is encouraged to participate. The club's inclusive ethos ensures that every member has a role to play, whether it's acting, directing, stage managing, or designing costumes and sets. Through teamwork and mutual support, they bring their collective vision to life.

The Unpolished Playground isn't just about putting on a show; it's about fostering a culture of creativity, empowerment, and self-discovery. The students are incredibly excited to showcase their new works to their friends and family in the Summer term.

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English – Martha Williams and Christopher Cobb

It has been an innovative and productive year in the English Department, implementing new strategies for assessment and feedback, organising trips and author visits, running clubs and revision sessions, and developing our schemes of work to link the texts and topics studied to potential career pathways. Our continual efforts to encourage reading for pleasure have been boosted this year by our wonderful new librarian, Debbie Jordan, who has reorganised the school library and introduced many initiatives to promote reading.

Our teaching team has been strengthened and enriched by Natalie McAvoy and Duncan Walthew both returning to The Crypt. Natalie recently completed her Masters degree, researching presentations of Victorian women in Bram Stoker's Dracula, which she has found fascinating. In Natalie’s own words, “It is wonderful to be back at the school and although many aspects have changed and progressed, it is still the friendly and welcoming place I remember it to be.”

We were also delighted to welcome Duncan back into the fold permanently in September, further complementing and strengthening the department with his huge experience in drama and theatre. He is a font of knowledge on literature, music, culture and current affairs, and puts his all into enthusing his students with the acquisition of knowledge.

THE DEBATE SOCIETY

This year our society split into separate junior and senior groups. Our Y12 English literature student, Imogen WyattMcQuire has led the junior society which has proved very popular. We have debated a wide range of issues from justification for war, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and UK abortion law. It has been wonderful to see new faces join our society this year and we hope this continues come September!

Cambridge Schools: National Debate Competition

Every year, thousands of talented debaters across the world compete for the opportunity to travel to Cambridge to participate in Finals Day at Cambridge University, and ultimately for the prestigious honour of being named Schools’ Champion. The Competition offers an excellent opportunity for students to develop their public speaking and critical thinking skills. This year we entered two teams, Jack McKerrow and Ammenah Vohra (Y10) and Joseph Ryland and Sa'ad Adewunmi (Y11), who took part in the South West regional competition in Bristol. They competed in four rounds across the day against mostly sixth form students. Our Y10 team won one of their rounds and our Y11s came second in their final one. It was fantastic to see our students forming friendships with students from other schools and grappling with the various motions. We look forward to next year!

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A-Level English Literature trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon

AUTHOR VISITS

This year our Y13 English literature students had the opportunity to visit the birthplace of The Bard in Stratford Upon Avon, as well as attend a bespoke lecture on their set text, 'Othello'. This was a fantastic revision and cultural experience and we are already planning a return visit for our new Y13s this September.

In October, Y7 and 8 enjoyed a visit from Chris Bradford, multimillion copy selling author of the Young Samurai, Bodyguard and Soul series. When he isn’t writing, Chris tours the country putting on dynamic and entertaining shows in schools as part of his aim to promote reading for pleasure. For us, Chris demonstrated martial arts and bodyguard skills and explained his motivation and methods as an author in a way that engaged, thrilled and inspired the students. He also gave them words of wisdom from his experience, including the importance of positive mental attitude and perseverance. At the end, Chris invited students to ask him questions. One student was surprised to hear how quickly Chris produces each book – just a matter of weeks.

After the show, Chris offered to sign students’ copies of his books. A long queue formed, but Chris generously stayed on stage well into lunch time, signing as many books as he could!

For World Book Day, Debbie Jordan, our librarian, and the English Department invited authors Roger Haines and Sarah Green to hold a half-day workshop with a group of keen and talented writers in Year 9. These selfpublishing authors opened up new horizons for us and inspired the students with their creativity, showing how they had written and produced many books entirely by themselves, including the illustration and cover designs.

JOURNALISM CLUB – Mr

Cobb

The Scrypt is the school’s student magazine, written and produced by students, for students. A dedicated team of young writers, editors, designers and artists work on it in Journalism Club every Tuesday lunchtime.

This year, the quality of student journalism has risen under the dedicated editorship of Max Yates (Y9). He has formed a very strong creative team and put impressive time, energy and leadership into producing editions of the magazine which reflect the diversity of interests and viewpoints among our student body.

The magazine is a vehicle for students to develop their writing, design and editing skills. However, it also provides an opportunity for business experience as students need to advertise the magazine and decide how much to charge per copy to cover costs, as well as creating a modest ‘profit’ which goes to a charity of the students’ choice.

COMPETITIONS

Young Writers creative writing competition

Young Writers run national creative writing competitions, inspiring students to enjoy expressing themselves in writing about a given theme and, if selected, offering them the opportunity to have their work published in a special collection of winning original writing pieces In March this year, Maja Rudnicka (Y9) entered the Through Their Eyes competition, which challenged students to imagine looking at things from different perspectives. She was successful in being selected for publication Indeed, a very promising writer to watch out for in the future!

Geography – Catherine Brooks

Over the past year the geography department has continued to offer many students a range of experiences in the classroom, the school grounds and further afield.

Early in term 1, Year 7 learned how to complete a geographical investigation by collecting temperature data from various points around the school grounds. They then used their ipads to produce GIS maps to present their data and to help them identify patterns.

Year 8 had the opportunity to build on their experiences in Year 7 by planning their own investigation to determine whether The Crypt School has a high-quality environment. Students were able to take greater ownership for planning how to collect their data as well as the presentation and analysis of the data in the classroom. It was wonderful to see lots of co-operation within each group resulting in some high-quality data being collected. Fortunately, most groups concluded that the school does offer an excellent environment! This year, Year 9’s investigations were classroom-based. They explored several of the major challenges facing the world today, including the threats of climate change and the impacts of accessing resources for an increasing population. These students have now started the GCSE course examining another key concern – the need to sustain global ecosystems in the long term in order to maintain life on earth.

Year 10 have made a strong start to the GCSE course and are now honing their fieldwork skills in environments beyond the school. The annual trip to Gloucester City Centre in March saw 100 students collect information about land uses, number of pedestrians, environmental quality and noise levels. All students are encouraged to complete at least one questionnaire with members of the public. Most rose to this challenge with one student even speaking to the Mayor of Gloucester! Preparations are now underway for another visit to the Forest of Dean where students will investigate how the properties of a river change over a short distance. As usual, we hope that the weather is kind to us in June.

An important element of the A Level course is to prepare students to complete their individual coursework in year 13. Four days of fieldwork have been completed throughout year 12 providing a range of opportunities to practise different methods of collecting data. Students visited Northleach in September, where they examined the influence of history

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on the town and collected data to assess the impact of visitors on the variety of services offered.

Our visit to Chesil Beach in March enabled students to plan their own investigation and to then work in small groups to collect the data using the methods that they had devised. Whilst admiring the significant sized waves from the top of the beach, students worked effectively to collect good quality data. However, the weather was then against us for the remainder of this residential trip with rain falling for the next 24 hours. Even so, students remained cheerful, ensuring that we still completed all the planned activities. This included walking along the cliff path from Durdle Door back to Lulworth Cove as well as assessing the impact of groynes in Swanage and on Sandbanks beach.

The final trip of the year for the Sixth Form was to Birmingham City centre where they were able to examine the most recent urban redevelopment projects. Students are also challenged to collect all their data digitally by using their mobile phones and to complete several questionnaires whilst in the centre. In this way, students are taught the most up-to-date methods for collecting geographical data.

The geography department were also pleased to welcome some outside speakers this year who shared their journeys from geography at school into careers such as geological engineering and researching climate change.

With nearly 70 students studying A Level geography in the Sixth Form and 175 GCSE students, geography continues to be a very popular choice for examination students. Their hard work and dedication to the subject means that results should, once again, be excellent and we are delighted that a number of Year 13 students are planning to study geography (or geography related courses) at university. Overall, it has been another busy but productive year for the geography department and all the geography staff must be thanked for their numerous contributions to these successes.

History – James Higgs

2023-24 has once again seen a huge amount of activity, with students having many opportunities to engage in history through a variety of means. We have seen many events celebrated at school. Black History Month, Neurodiversity Awareness Week & LGBTQ+ History Month have provided opportunities to talk about an inclusive past, and future; whilst our annual Remembrance Day celebrations help reflect on all those fallen soldiers, and what they were fighting for. We have also had a new addition to the department, with Tudor-specialist Mr Howell bringing a wealth of enthusiasm and expertise to the Crypt School community.

This year has seen many individual highlights amongst our very talented student body. Ruth Humble (Y13) took part in the Historical Association’s ‘Great Debate’, which saw representatives from a number of local schools argue why their choice of local person is seriously under-rated by historians. Ruth researched, and argued for Beatrice Webb’s credentials (She was born in Standish & was a historian of the trade union movement, and a founding member of the Labour Party). Her pitch was very well received, and she was a very close second to the eventual winner!

Another highlight was the Peter Hobbes Prize, which is awarded to Y13 students who have researched, and written about an exCryptian. There were 2 students who reached the threshold and both received £500. William Joslyn provided an account of Robert Raikes, a big influence on early ‘ragged schools’; Joe Campbell looked at James Wood, a Bishop of Philadelphia A very well done to these 3 particularly brilliant students!

Our weekly Monday lunchtime club ‘Hidden Histories’ has continued for the second year, with input from Mr Howell, Mr Higgs, Mrs Hayes and Mrs Hargraves, as well some excellent sessions led by various students. Two highlights were Archie Mason’s discussion on the fall of Rome (or not, depending on your definition!), and Luke Wallis presented his analysis of the failure of the Battle of Arnhem in WW2. Another well-attended session was on the Middle East, as we attempted to contextualise the long and complicated troubles in Israel & Palestine, and it was great to see so many students engaged in contemporary events.

In terms of trips, at the end of last year, the Year 12 history students went to the first school’s Heritage Conference led by the Gloucestershire Clio and Voices groups. They experienced lectures from a diverse panel trying to unpick the complex history of Gloucester and its lasting heritage as well as watching a fantastic lecture from the popular Tudor historian Tracy Borman. The students explored various workshops including archaeology, exploring the legacy of the Windrush generation, and fake news in history. Overall, it was a great opportunity to explore history beyond the classroom as well as get some inspiration for some summer projects. There are future trips planned for next year, watch this space!

Maths – Daniel Foster

Mathematical Olympiad for Girls

This year the Crypt entered students for the mathematical Olympiad for girls for the first time. The event is held in September, so in the past we had difficulty identifying year 12 students who were able to cope with this demanding challenge, and those who were offered the opportunity sometimes declined. This year, with our first fully coeducational cohort moving from year 11 to 12, we were able to offer it earlier and to a wider number of students.

The test is two and a half hours long, aimed at the very top VI form students and composed of five long form questions designed to stretch the most able. Here is an example question:

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Solution on page 76

All the girls did creditably, coming within six marks of a Merit, especially as one of these showed resilience in overcoming severe exam anxiety. Particular credit goes to Lucy and Hannah for achieving merits in Year 11 and to joint best in Year 12 Olivia P and Michalina. Best in school, and the only distinction went to Genevieve Chukwuonye.

The students found the paper enjoyable, but very long. It will provide good experience, in a no-pressure setting, should any go on to University entrance tests.

Enrichment

Also for the first time in September, Year 12 had the opportunity to take extra-curricular mathematics as an enrichment activity on Thursday afternoons. Twenty-eight of them opted to spend their time focussing on harder questions like those from the challenges, Olympiads and University entrance exams.

Senior Maths Challenge

In November 148 students from Years 9 to 13 sat the senior maths challenge. Overall results are very pleasing with 70% of students gaining awards compared with 66% nationally. The test is aimed at the brightest VI formers, however we entered slightly more students from the GCSE years than VI Form, so this shows a strong set of results. This is the third successive year where more than a hundred students achieved awards, our longest such streak.

Best in school with a gold certificate was Freddie J in Year 13, who qualified for the first round of the British Mathematics Olympiad, available only to the top 1%. Lewis H and Tobey R in year 13 and Iason in year 12 also achieved gold and qualified for the senior kangaroo successor competition. Best in Year 11 was Valentino, best in Year 9 Ryan S. Year 10 again did well, more than doubling their Year 9 awards, with seven silver awards and a remarkable gold by Isaac J-O, who came joint fourth in the whole school and through to the senior kangaroo. This is particularly good as there were more questions on topics such as the equation of a circle and factorials, which Year 10 have not seen yet.

Mathematics Society

November also saw the launch of the Crypt School mathematical society for those in years 7 to 11 who enjoy solving tough maths problems in their lunchtime. It is run by some keen year 12 further mathematicians, and I am grateful to Sen, Woody, Hayden, Ben, Iason, Shaun and Daniel for all the effort they put into this through the year.

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IasonexplainsseriestoEloise.

Woody helps Coby prepare for the internationalkangaroo.

l photographs courtesy of Daniel W in Year 9.

Intermediate Maths Challenge

February brings the biggest challenge, when 235 students from Years 7 to 11 sit the intermediate maths challenge, aimed at the best in Years 9 to 11.With 150 (64%) achieving awards, well above the national average of 50%. The number of gold awards (top 8.3%) was just below the school record of 21, and the fact that five of these were won by Year 9 students shows the strength of that cohort. Roman was best in school, with Elijah a close second (both Year 11). They qualify along with Elijah in Year 11 and Cole in year 10 for the international kangaroo for Key Stage 4.

There were strong performances from Coby and Eeshaan in Year 7 and who are through to the next round, competing with nine of the year 9 students (Ryan S, Advaith, Anabelle, Sajaanan, Tifaine, Max Y, Finlay L, Nadia S, and Kris) in the international kangaroo for Key Stage 3.

Junior Maths Challenge

April brought the Junior maths challenge for Years 7 and 8. 145 students sat the test and 115 won awards, our best total ever and well above the national average of 50%.

Reuben in 8JC was best in school with a score of 101, closely followed by Annie, also from 8JC with 100. Best in Year 7 was Rowan in 7DW. They qualify for the successor round, the Junior kangaroo, alongside Hugo (7JC) Elijah (7WEH), Samuel I (8WEH) Louis (8RR) William L, Atharv and Milo (all 8DW). Narrowly missing out, but still achieving the coveted gold award, were Jayden and Caleb in 7WEH, Rick Adrian (8JM), Enrico (8RR) and Will M (8DW).

Team Maths Challenge – Dr Rachel Lintott

On 6 th June a team of four mathematicians represented the school at the UK Maths Trust Team Challenge at Monmouth School for Girls. After several weeks of Friday lunchtimes spent with Mr Foster, working in groups, becoming familiar with the rounds and practicing their skills Ryan Starling, Zacharias Jakimavicius (both year 9), Reuben Lomax-Aspden (year 8) and Rowan Madge (Year 7) were the chosen four.

We arrived at the venue and were greeted with a round of starter questions to warm up the boys’ mathematical brains before being briefed on the four rounds. Round 1 was a group round of 10 questions, each worth 6 marks.

The team worked well together and only lost a handful of marks due to misreading questions.

The next round was the crossnumber, a crossword-type puzzle where the team was split into pairs, one pair being given the across clues and the other the down clues. This, by all accounts, was the team’s favourite round having both an interesting and entertaining structure as well as affording them the time to consider problems fully without rushing. Their excellent teamwork was rewarded in this round with a score of 57 out of 60. We then broke for lunch, with the staff members treated to an excellent selection from the school canteen!

After the break, the final two rounds were the most intense. The shuttle round again involved the team working in pairs to answer sets of 4 questions, the answer to each question providing an essential number which fed into the next question. This round was highly pressured as the teams only had 8 minutes to answer all 4 challenging questions. The time constraint and reliance on previous questions meant that our team lost several points at the start of this round before finishing strong. Round four was the relay, involving team members ‘walking sensibly’ towards a row of staff members to check answers before being given the next question. For the most part this was relatively calm, although the competitive spirit is always apparent in this round especially as time begins to run out.

Our team worked incredibly well together and finished strong. There was, however, a great deal of competition with the majority of the top 5 schools being independent. We finished in 8th place out of 24 and were very proud of our achievement. This is the first year that the team maths challenge has been held since a hiatus due to Covid and we were very happy to send such a hardworking and talented group of mathematicians. We are hopeful that this is the start of an annual competition that the mathematicians of Crypt will be excited to enter in the future.

Modern Foreign Languages – Hannah Quinn & department

The Modern Foreign Languages Department has once again been very busy organising a variety of activities to motivate and inspire Crypt students’ language learning.

SEPTEMBER -

European Day of Languages

In September, as part of our celebrations of European Language week, the whole school participated in a language quiz during tutor time and the canteen once again offered a special European Menu with traditional foods from France, Germany, and Spain. MFL teachers served food along with the canteen staff and students were encouraged to order in either German, French or Spanish.

OCTOBER - French trip to Normandy

Notre voyage scolaire en Normandie: over 50 pupils from Ys 10-13 travelled from Gloucester to Bernières- Sur-Mer on a big double decker coach.

We arrived at Dover by 7am and had a smooth crossing to Calais. As the coach took us along the north of France, we stopped to see World War 1 fields.

The Youth Hostel was great as students slept on bunks in groups of 4. We were served delicious food, starting with a soup and always ending with appetising desserts.

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Ryan Starling, Zacharias Jakimavicius and Reuben Lomax-Aspden at the Team Maths Challenge

Our 2 days in France were packed, visiting towns such as Caen, Bayeux, Mont St Michel and Arromanches. More precisely, we explored the Bayeux tapestry, toured a cheese factory, experienced 360 cinema depicting life in Normandy during World War 2 and were lucky to have had the chance to listen to monks and nuns singing in Mont St Michel Abbey.

As we walked around many places, such as Sword and Gold Beaches, looking at the Mulberry Harbour, we discovered facts about the D-Day landings

During this trip, there was laughter, dancing and lots of opportunities to show off our French speaking skills. We are looking forward to organising the next one!

Y8 German Schultüte

In October, Y8 learned about the tradition and culture of the first day at a German Grundschule (infant school). The children in Germany have a special ceremony for their first day at school called Einschulung and their parents make them a ‘Schultüte’ filled with sweets and presents to make the first day at school sweeter and easier.

Our year 8 students enjoyed making their own Schultüte and learning about this tradition in our culture lesson for the term.

NOVEMBER - Japanese school visit

In November we were delighted to welcome students from Sugamo High School in Tokyo, Japan, to the school. Our students enjoyed listening to cultural presentations and participated in workshops on traditional Japanese games and activities.

Cologne Christmas Markets Years 9 and 10

Towards the end of November, we were pleased to be able to offer the Year 9 and 10 pupils a chance to practise their German skills at the Christmas Markets in Cologne. After a long coach journey, students enjoyed visiting the cathedral, shopping at the markets, eating Spaghetti Eis, a boat trip with St Nikolaus, lunch in a traditional Brauhaus and the water slides at Aqualand!

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“I really liked the Christmas markets as I found it a really good opportunity to try out my German. I also enjoyed the food as it was definitely different to English food. I also liked the water park and the boat trip, which were good experiences.” Daniel Wright, Year 9.

We are delighted to see that some pupils enjoyed the experience so much that they have signed up again to do it all again next year!

DECEMBER - Y7 German St Nikolaus

Year 7 pupils learnt all about how Germany celebrates St Nikolaus on 6 December and after leaving a shoe outside the classroom, each received their own little gift from St Nikolaus.

Y9 French carol writing

Year 9 pupils learnt how to write like a French student would write and practised by writing out a traditional French Christmas carol. Their work was beautiful, and lots took them home as presents for their families.

Y8 Spanish New Year Celebrations

Year 8 Spanish students celebrated the new year Spanish style by eating a grape with each bell chime, just as the Spanish do!

JANUARY

Top of the county for Languages!

The MFL department would like to congratulate all our amazing students who took a language GCSE last year as our results have recently been found to be the best for any grammar school in Gloucestershire in terms of value added. Value added is a measure of how much additional learning, experience, or development a school offers its students beyond the "average" and the Crypt scored nearly 0.5 higher than the closest second. This bodes very well for the continued

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development of languages at the Crypt and the department is looking forward to more excellent results this summer with the next cohort of Year 11s and 13s. Well done everyone!

FEBRUARY - Languages Society Update

Our amazing Y12 leaders (Lance, Christopher, Mica and Paula) have been inspiring and motivating our younger students with their presentations from around the world every week in Languages Society. So far, students have led sessions on how Halloween is celebrated in different countries, Independence Day in Romania, famous French celebrities, Brazilian food, Spanish culture clashes and idioms, a French Murder Mystery and Welsh folklore! More recently, we have also learnt about: Japanese and Nigerian culture, the language of science-fiction, the peculiarities of the English language and even taken part in a cooking session. Some of our younger students have even got involved in presenting to the group as well. A huge congratulation to all our regular members for their efforts throughout this year and we look forward to seeing who our new leaders will be next year!

MARCH - Y10 French restaurant

Joyeuse Fête des Rois (Happy Festival of the Kings)

Our Year 8 French students had a wonderful time learning all about the Fête des Rois last week in their cultural lesson. In addition to reading a French Mr Men story all about baking a Galette, the traditional cake made for this celebration, they also made and decorated une couronne, or crown, for themselves to take home. Maybe next year they'll try baking a galette as well!

In March our Y10 French students turned the classroom into a French bistro using a mixture of food they had bought and prepared at home in order to role-play ordering food at a French restaurant. They wrote up their menus based on what had been brought in and the took it in turns to wait on each other, making sure their orders were taken correctly! The reviews on their waiting abilities were mixed, but they all had a great meal! Bon appetit!

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THEATRE VISIT

All language students Y7-10 were treated by visits from a theatre company offering plays in both French and German

French play

Student review – Layla Jariwalla: The play was about 5 French students in art class, and they were painting portraits of their classmates. They get locked in the room, and they are trying to find a way out, and find help, but turns out one of the French students had the key all along, and it was just a prank. I thought the play was very creative and clever because there were only 2 actors in the play, but they used costumes and personality to give the illusion that there was 5 characters with great acting. I learnt great listening skills during the play, being able to pick out key words to figure out the plot of a story. I learnt new words such as ‘porte’ means door, and ‘clé’ means key and using these basic words I managed to figure out what the play was about.’

APRIL

As part of exploring cultural events, year 7 students created their own 'poisson d'avril' and jokes.

CAREERS

Each term students have been introduced to a variety of careers in which languages are useful, including football managers, ski instructors, journalists, actors, musicians, doctors, social brand managers, translators, and language assistants.

Y12 Patrimoine Lunch

Every year our Y12 students take part in a patrimoine lunch to practise their French cookery skills and learn more about French gastronomy, which is one of the A-Level topics. They cooked croque-monsieur, gougers, quiche Lorraine and bien sur, plenty of croissant and pain-au-chocolat to finish! They washed this all down with some fine French wine (non-alcoholic of course!) Well done Y12.

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Farewell to Y11/13

In May, Y11 & 13 had their final lessons with their MFL teachers, and we took the opportunity to test our students’ cooking skills by inviting them all to prepare a traditional dish from their target language country. They made some amazing food, including French macarons, crepes, Spanish

paella, tortilla and even a tres leches cake (which completely disappeared it was so tasty!) It was a fantastic way for the students to celebrate all that they have learnt, and we wish them all the best in their exams this summer.

LINGUISTS OF THE MONTH

Throughout the year pupils have been awarded “Linguist of the month” status for their excellent effort in language lessons. These pupils included:

Year 7

Eva Benson, Sebastian Orton, Glory Victor Prakash, Hugo Cleckner, Mia Majnik, Poppy Hancock, Adam Almohammad, Joseph Graham, Guhan Vijayan, Lianna Kumarathas, Cressie Bird, Joseph Wallington, Elijah Base, Frankie Jones, Rowan Madge, Alex Brown, Izabela Varguleva, Thanmaya Bupendra, Dyuthi Kirani, Jennifer Massey, Arunpat Kindhen, Harry Brotherton, Daniel Paul, Anish Manamohan, Ethan Bonner, Harshita Mahesh Dharini, Ben Sargant, Max Bastock

Year 8

Georgia Atkin, Maddie Ford, Areeba Ahmed, Luke Goscombe, Michal Boniecki, Zahid Nayeemuddin, Libby Byrne, Amelia Campbell-Davies, Finley Lavis, Ellie Cullen-Jones, Emmanuel Jacob, Oliver Charlesworth, Joshua Owens, Tejas Bhavanam, Jack Thompson, Amber Dyer, Julian Mlejnek,Harry Brittain, Alexia Rodriguez-Canal, Calvin Klee, Ossian James, Jamie Troy, Nathen Lawrence, Klara Ptak, Nano Yeates, Isabel Collick, Charlie Aldred, Ruby Woodhouse, Holly Wilmshurst-Smith, Loki Thomas

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Year 9

Rayna Iheme-Madukairo, Timothy Beridze, Sam Hastings, Daniel Wright, Anna Clayton, Gabriella Matthews, Barthelemy Lewis-Pige, William Scantlebury, Ethan Tingay, Harikesh Rajanikanth, Luca Capell, Kai Rudnicki, Harry Minett-Smith, Ryan Starling, Calisto James, Daniel Wales, Layla Jariwalla, Eesa Goga, Jai Skerritt

Year 10

Harvey Haines, Marianne Underwood, Bethany Haigh, Sebastian Mikhalevskiy, Mantra Chizari, Lewis May, Lucia Santaelaluia, Max Orton, Percy Williams, Hannah Milner, Vineeth Dev, Jake Herron, Taius Rooney, Megan Majaladi, Jareer Patel Celeste Feld, Calum Woodhouse, Anika Kulkarni, Leah Hancock, Eva Kehn-Alafun, Harry Davenport, Harry Perkins, Oliver Beaumont, Callum Ajayi

Year 11

Emily McLellan, Alex Ashley, Tristan Munarriz, Lucy Hutchinson, Elijah Kowalewicz, James Arminio, Subhaan Galiyara, Tobias Riegler, Benjamin Jackson, Maximus Smith, Jackie Cheung, Matilda Snell, Horia Mihoc, Dasha Rodrigues, Adam Khemiri, Callum Davies, Abdur-Rahman Bham. Roman Mills, Manasik Haggar

Sixth Form

Ella McLean, LanceTecson, Guy Macleod, Sam Beaumont, Jakub Rourke,Kimberley LauStanley, Noah Cardew, Albie Hastings, Joshua Smart, Thomas Boobyer, Freddie Stevens, Paula Osagie-Ozigbo

Music – Sophie Banda

As the academic year draws to a close, we take this opportunity to reflect on the vibrant and diverse musical events that have taken place. From concerts to workshops, each event has significantly contributed to the growth and development of our students’ musical abilities and experiences.

The year began with the Autumn Concert on 24th October, showcasing a variety of performances from our talented students. The evening was a splendid display of musical talent, featuring solo and ensemble performances across different genres and instruments. The concert not only highlighted the hard work and dedication of our students but also set the tone for a musically enriching year ahead.

In November our Young Voices, along with two other local schools, were proud to be involved in the Teenage Voices initiative held at Gloucester Cathedral. This project provided our students with a unique opportunity to perform in a majestic setting, collaborating with peers from other schools to create a powerful and moving musical experience.

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As the festive season approached, our annual Carol Service at St Barnabas Church brought together students, staff, and the wider community in a celebration of traditional Christmas music. The service featured a beautiful selection of carols performed by our choir and orchestra, creating a warm and joyous atmosphere.

In January our Year 10 students had the exciting opportunity to attend a workshop on composition conducted by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at Gloucester Guildhall. This workshop was an invaluable experience, providing insights into the creative process of composing music and offering students handson experience with professional musicians. Two of our Year 10 students, Aleksia Atanasova and Erika Millard composed melodies which were chosen and brought together to create a beautiful orchestral piece called ‘Fantaisie pour Deux Amants’. It was amazing for our own orchestra to perform this piece at our Spring Concert for the very first time.

Weheld a Year 9 showcase aimed at potential GCSE music studentsfor the next academic year. This showcase featured performances that demonstrated the skills and knowledge that could be developed through the GCSE music course. It was an inspiring event that motivated many students to consider pursuing music at a higher level.

On Wednesday 21 st February, the Crypt School choir, Cantores Cryptiensis, had the privilege of joining with the Gloucester Cathedral choir and choristers for a special Evensong performance.

We had the pleasure of being led by the renowned Director of Music, Adrian Partington. Under the majestic arches and awe-inspiring ambiance of Gloucester Cathedral, we performed a repertoire including Stanford’s Psalm 150 and Noble’s Magnificat. The evening finished with a breathtaking performance of Vaughan Williams Antiphon ‘Let all the World in Every Corner Sing’.

In March, our current year 11 GCSE students held a recital to prepare for their practical exams. This recital allowed them to perform their exam pieces in front of an audience. The event was a testament to their hard work and the high standards they have achieved over the year.

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The Spring Concert marked another highlight of our musical calendar. This event featured a wide array of performances, from classical to contemporary, showcasing the versatility and talent of our students. The concert was a celebration of the progress made throughout the year and the culmination of countless hours of practice and dedication.

Later in the year, our students embarked on a trip to Oxford, where they had the honour of singing Evensong at Merton College. The trip featured a number of music workshops and lectures from Oxford University professors, including a brilliant interactive Gamelan workshop. We had the opportunity to visit the Bates Collection of Musical Instruments, where students could play old instruments, including an old harpsichord that belonged to Handel!

This trip was a remarkable experience, exposing students to the rich musical heritage of one of the world’s most prestigious universities and allowing them to perform in a historic and beautiful setting.

In the summer term, we returned to Gloucester Cathedral for the school’s annual Founders’ Day service. The orchestra performed some great works, including ‘Radetsky March’ and ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.’ Cantores Cryptiensis and our acapella group also performed, with the latter giving a beautiful rendition of Farrant’s ‘Lord, for thy tender mercy’s sake’.

Our Year 10s organised a chamber concert on 2nd July at St Mary de Crypt. This was a great opportunity for our Year 10 students to showcase their talent in performing. We also had our annual Key Stage Three concert in July, where Year 7 performed ‘Swinging Samson’, composed by old Cryptian, Michael Hurd. There were a variety of solos and bands from Year 7 and Year 8. This was a remarkable success and a truly enjoyable evening.

As we conclude this busy academic year, we look back with pride on the musical achievements and experiences that have enriched our school community. We eagerly anticipate the continued musical growth and success of our students in the coming years.

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Physical Education – Ashley Bawden

NETBALL REVIEW

It has been a really strong season overall for our netball teams. The U13, U14 and U15’s all competed in the respective Sisters in Sports competitions. Students had excellent commitment to our netball club and showed great determination in wanting to improve. In total we played 95 games winning 51, drawing 1 and losing 43 across all year groups. Our highlights of the season included the U15 team taking part in the Sisters in Sport competition and winning 6 out of 7 matches against a variety of schools across the country. The success took the U15 team to the semi-finals against Walthamstow. Unfortunately, they just missed out on the final with the score at 55-34. They officially stand as the 8th best team in the country for netball. What an unbelievable achievement, not only for them, but for Crypt netball as a whole. After this competition, the U15 team took part in the Maydent tournament beating five different schools (including well-respected netballing private schools) in the area with some conviction and took the win as the best school in the county.

NETBALL PGL

All students competed across the weekend against other schools for a chance to win bronze, silver and gold medals. Whilst students didn’t have a game they were able to ‘queue and do’. There were lots of activities on offer such as zip wire, the big swing, archery and the most popular activity given the beautiful weather was swimming!

On Friday 10th May we took 85 students to Barton Hall, Torquay to participate in the annual PGL Netball tournament. We entered 10 teams across 4 year groups and were the biggest school attending!

This was our most successful year to date where we took home 7 awards! The results were as follows:

Y9A & 10A Absolutely dominated their games in the heats, they progressed into the semi’s and then the final where both teams played exceptionally well and won with conviction. The Y8A team faced their fellow Crypt B team in the semi-finals in which both teams played with true sportsmanship and respect for each other. The A team were through to the final and were due to play Corpus school who beat them in the earlier heats. However, with resilience and teamwork the girls managed to end up on top and take the gold. The Y7A team made it into the final. They had a strong lead going into the second half, but unfortunately couldn't hold on as their opponents fought hard to get back

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into the game. An incredible achievement to take away the silver and plenty to learn for next year's PGL too. Both our Y7B and Y8B teams made it into the semi-finals which meant they came away with bronze medals. This is a huge achievement as they progressed into the semi-finals beating other schools’ A teams to get there, just showing the talent and hard work of our girls.

Our Y7C team were spotted by the umpires as ‘team of the tournament’ for their togetherness, sportsmanship and development over the course of the weekend.

District Netball

The Crypt have had the privilege of hosting the U12, U13, U14 and U16 District Netball Tournaments this term. The four tournaments were a huge success. This will be an event that will develop over the next few years with the ever-improving Crypt sport. Well done to all of the teams that have taken part. Every age group has finished in the top four spots and that is something to be very proud of.

RUGBY REVIEW

It was a mixed rugby season for the school this year In total we played 97 matches, winning 48 and drawing 3 across the different year groups. Year 7-9 played A&B teams with the Year 10 rugby squad narrowly missing out on the national vase quarter finals after coming up against a very strong Chosen Hill team losing 34-7. The other highlight for the juniors was for the Year 9s who narrowly missed out

Senior Rugby

on a final at Kingsholm after narrowly losing to St Peters in the semi-final of the plate. As always it has not been about winning or losing and has been brilliant to see so many students once again giving up their Saturday mornings to represent the school against KES Stratford, Kings, Tommies, QEH and Pates. Mixed results across the different years groups but we have seen huge progress by each team and so much commitment by students to give up their Saturday mornings to represent the school.

Off the back of the South Africa rugby tour in the summer, the senior rugby squad hit the ground running in September. Standout performances against St Peters, Pates, KES Stratford and Marling were overshadowed by tough losses against Kings and Sir Thomas Rich’s. However, the squad had the most success in the national bowl and progressed to the last 16 following a dominant display against St Brendan’s in Bristol and came up against a strong Richard Huish College in Taunton in a bid to reach the national quarter finals. After

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taking a 21-5 lead with a dominant display upfront in the first half, the team were in a great position. However, Richard Huish came back into the match with a great offloading game which the team could not stop. ‘Huish’ then scored twice in the final three minutes to take the game 30-21. Absolutely heartbreaking for the squad who progressed so well and with a number of missed opportunities in the second half, missed out on the Quarter Finals by the smallest of margins.

Girls’ Rugby

This year we really pushed our girls’ rugby programme: the curriculum enabled all girls to have an opportunity to play rugby at a level that suited them as well as a rugby club for students to compete in. We were also really lucky to have Gloucester rugby come in and coach some of our Year 7 students which inspired many of them to take on the sport. The girls used their games lessons to build up to a big rugby tournament called ‘champions of tomorrow’ hosted by Gloucester Rugby to aim to inspire girls to join clubs and compete in rugby. We took 45 girls to compete in the rugby tournament. It was amazing to so many girls playing the sport and showing excellent technique, resilience and teamwork throughout! Our girls were definitely inspired and signed up to some rugby clubs since the competition.

Our U12 were unbeaten the whole tournament and came away with a 1st place medal. Both our u14 and u16 teams reached the semi-finals!! A great day out and fantastic to see so many girls enjoying rugby!

FOOTBALL REVIEW

Senior Boys Football

Year 10 boys played their first game of the season against a very experienced St Peters side on Gloucester City's pitch. It was a really competitive game played in tough windy conditions, but the boys produced a fantastic performance to come away with a deserved 1 - 1 draw.

Junior Boys Football

It was a mixed football season for the junior football teams. As always, the primary competition was the district cup alongside the traditional friendlies with schools like Pates and KLB. The district cupcompetition is always fiercely competitive, especially as St Peters were in our group for Year 8, 9 and 10. Unfortunately for Year 10, after losing to St Peters and then drawing against Severn Vale they were unable to progress to the district semi finals. For Year 9 they came up against a strong Churchdown team in the semi-finals to narrowly miss out on the final which they played in last year.

However, the main highlight for the junior boys was the Year 8 football team. The team only lost to St Peters in their first match and after a dominant display in the semi-final against Churchdown they progressed to the district cup final to play the only team to have

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previously beaten them, St Peters. Match report below from captain Harrison Middlecote & Aadam Khan who spoke in a Year 8 assembly to share their success:

Upon hearing that we had St Peter’s in the final, after our 4-1 semi-final win against Churchdown, we did not have high hopes we would have any chance against the dominant team. They had only conceded one goal previously, that being the goal scored by us in the first game.

We had already come up against St Peter’s in the first game of the season and our first game as a team. For the first match as a team we played reasonably well but suffered a 6-1 loss. We played out the rest of the season winning all our games, with only 1 loss. This was a 6-3 result against Katherine Lady Berkeley.

We had the thought and mindset that we were going to lose quite severely up until the team meeting in the changing rooms before setting off. Only then did we have a change in mindset; we have one game left and we may as well put our all in and we might have a small chance, and so we did.

We turned up and St Peter’s were already training and we didn’t have long before the match to warm up, so we started as soon as we could. The game started and we were looking strong and were dominating the game. We went up one-nil reasonably early with a well taken goal by Enrico Savioli. We continued to maintain good possession of the ball, the first half then passed reasonably simply with us winning our battles and moving the ball fast. In the second half we struggled early and they managed to find an equaliser from a penalty that was very soft but we continued battling and found a grip on the game and started dominating again. Then, late on we found a seemingly game winning goal with only 90 seconds to go with Enrico again calmly slotting a long through ball home.

However, St Peter’s came back and with quite literally the last kick of the game found another equaliser to make it 2-2. Then came the penalty kicks The pressure is immense, knowing that one missed kick can cost dearly. But nevertheless 5 people bravely stepped up to the spot for their kick of the ball. It went; they scored, we scored, they scored, we scored, they scored, we scored, they scored, then our next kick hit the crossbar and narrowly missed going over the line; they then scored their final penalty taking a 3-5 win on penalties. This shows how if you have the right mindset in life you can achieve things that you might not think you can. We may not have won the game, however we came closer than we ever thought we could.

Year 7 Mass Participation Football

Building on the same format as the last couple of years, with no teams formally selected, the concept of a mass participation game was that if students simply wanted to represent the school, then they just turned up

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and were split into equal teams. Some games were played against themselves and rotated around the different teams that another school would play depending on their numbers. Fixtures were played against Severn Vale, Holmleigh Park and Churchdown. No scores were kept and the only focus was to get as many students as possible involved and enjoying playing football. For one fixture against Holmleigh Park we had over 50 students attend and represent the school with students simply enjoying the beautiful game of football.

1st XI Cup Final Success

Following a brilliant season, the 1st XI reached the county cup final for the first time in over 6 years. After losing in the semi finals for the last three years, the scene was set at Hartpury on their full size, immaculate pitch against Rednock School. The game was fiercely contested from kick off with both teams going at each other in a physical battle. Crypt were denied a clear penalty and then a good save from Harvey Moroney in goal and a goal line block from Casey Brooks denied Rednock the lead as the game seemed to be heading for halftime goalless. However, a death touch from Max Thompson took the ball away from the Rednock defender and he took his chance placing the ball into the far corner on the stroke of half time to give Crypt a deserved 1-0 lead at the break.

The second half began at the same frantic pace but Crypt took control and Kaihaan Zakhill jumped on a mistake between the Rednock keeper and defender to make it 2-0. Crypt then took full control of the game, playing at a higher tempo and seemingly with more energy the team dominated possession and continued to make clear opportunities to stretch their lead. Both teams started to tire in the spring sunshine and it was co-captain Noah Freckleton who finished a sweeping move to make it 3-0. Mroan Haggar then came off the bench to tap in the fourth and put the game beyond doubt in the closing minutes.

The victory was a fitting finale for so many Year 13 students who were playing their last game for the school. It was by far the best performance of the season from the group and there were standout performances across the pitch. However, centre back Joseph Li was quite rightly given man of the match from his peers. He caused Rednock problems all game who could not get past him at the back and was a calming influence on the ball throughout. A great way to wrap up the football season!

Girls Football

Like previous years, our U13 girls participated in the Road to Wembley competition. The competition had 10 schools from around Gloucestershire compete for an opportunity to play in the next round with the end goal to play at Wembley!

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Our U13’s were outstanding all tournament, they showed exceptional teamwork, resilience and spirit and we are beyond proud. They finished the tournament as group winners and won the final convincingly 2-0 which then took them to the next round held at……

YEAR 9 SPORTS LEADERS

Sports leaders continue to thrive, offering those students who enjoy leading others to benefit from experiencing real events helping local primary schools. Our leaders have helped with a multisports event for Year 3 at Elmbridge School as well as an indoor athletics event and a Quad Kids event which was hosted at Crypt as part of the primary school partnerships, with multiple schools in attendance. The students have learnt how to organise and communicate effectively and were a real credit to the school.

SWIMMING GALA

This year saw the return of the district swimming gala. The event itself has not taken place since lockdown and after the closure of GL1, and it was great to give students the opportunity to take part in competitive swimming and a very different opportunity to represent the school. It was a very informal event with the focus on participation but the standout performances were Evie Warick in Year 12 who won her three events.

SENIOR BASKETBALL

The senior basketball team had a busy term from January through to Easter and it was great to see basketball continue to grow at the school. The team came up against a number of very established schools and although they were only able to win against Holmleigh Park, the amount of progress and levels of engagement were off the scale.

JUNIOR NBA

The Junior NBA has been running for a number of years as a national competition, however this year schools across the city came together in a mass tournament format rather than arranging and hosting individual games. Teams in Year 7 and 8 represented the LA Lakers in three separate tournaments throughout the autumn term at Oxstalls, Sports Arena. The Year 7s developed nicely as team but lost too many games across the three tournaments to progress. However the Year 8s took control of their group after winning two of the three tournaments, which then allowed them to reach the play offs.

After beating Tommies, St Peters, Holmleigh Park and Churchdown in the tournament format, the team progressed to the playoff match against Thomas Adams School in Shrewsbury, the four hour round trip took the team and school into unknown territory as we had never reached the play offs before. After the long journey the team got off to a

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sluggish start and were unable to convert their possession and territory intopoints. Thomas Adams took an early lead and their accuracy of shot was the clear difference between the teams. Crypt certainly didn't roll over and came back into the game in the second and third quarter with Leo Wicks able to convert to be the highest Crypt scorer on the day. However Thomas Adams’ dominance with the rebounds and breakaways allowed them to secure the win 43-30 in the final quarter. It was an unbelievable effort for the Year 8 team to reach the playoffs but the group were extremely disappointed not to hit the form and play as well as they did in the qualifying tournaments. We are excited to see where we can take basketball next year as it is certainly popular amongst students.

HOCKEY

After over three decades, The Crypt School proudly fielded a hockey team once more, having last played in the early 1990s. On Thursday, April 18th, 2024, sixteen of our enthusiastic students travelled to Cheltenham Ladies College to participate in the U14s State School competition. Facing strong opposition, our team displayed remarkable skill and determination, winning four games and drawing two, which crowned us the overall winners.

ATHLETICS

Beyond our technical and skilful expertise, it was our team spirit and mutual support that truly set us apart on the field. This marks an exciting new chapter for Crypt Hockey. Our U12 boys continue to train diligently every Monday since, gearing up for more competitive play in the future. The journey ahead looks promising for our hockey program.

The year has started really positively with 2 major events already completed. We took 4 teams to the English Schools Track and Field Cup. This involved over 60 students competing against 11 other schools in the district. They all competed with enthusiasm and the team scores were really impressive. The Inter girls team came 4th, the inter boys and junior boys team came 2nd and the junior girls team were an incredible first. As it stands, it looks like 3 out of our 4 teams will progress to the next round which is an incredible effort. During this event there were also 12 school records broken, showing how much athletics is growing in the school.

We have also hosted the English Schools first round where students compete as an individual in any event they are strong in. At this stage we have over 10 students qualified with several winning their races. It is hoped we will get some of those athletes through to compete for Gloucestershire in the next round. At the time of writing, students are now busy working towards the local school athletics competition plus our own school sports day

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On a beautiful June afternoon, the whole school came out en masse to the track to watch this year’s athletes compete in the finals for personal and house glory.

The Y12 Gold DofE team ran a refreshments stall, helping students to keep cool in the sun and top up their stamina Drinks, crisps and sweets were available all priced at £1 to raise money for DofE equipment for their expedition to Scotland.

As always, the PE department ran the event with impressive efficiency and Mr Hart’s commentary provided inspiration for the students to excel and push themselves harder for the finish line

Henley out in front – overall leaders in the points

Crossing the line in first place for Cooke – what a feeling!

Y7 boys ready for the 100m sprint final

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…then away on the starter’s clacker!

Y7 girls accelerating away in their 100m final

A proud headmaster!

Physics – Annie Hall

This year, we have made the most of the new lab in the AI Block as the physics department continues to expand. We have seen a large uptake of our dedicated Physics library, with several copies of all of the books on our recommended reading list available for students to borrow from E1 and E3. We have grown our provision for students to develop their passion for STEM subjects outside of the classroom with our extra-curricular activities and tailoring them to the interests of our students. We have continued to embed careers throughout the curriculum and enjoy seeing students progress to utilise physics in their futures.

FAMELAB ACADEMY

FameLab Academy School Final:

Year 9 students complete a project called FameLab Academy. It is a Gloucestershire-wide science communication competition by Cheltenham Science Festival. Every student presented for 1 minute on a STEM (science, technology, engineering or maths) topic of their choosing. The standard was incredibly high!

From the class heats, 9 class winners presented on the stage in the Hall in front of the year group and a panel of judges. Their three-minute-long presentations were judged in three categories: content, clarity and charisma. Our judges included Megan, a Doctor, and Victoria, a geological engineer. Both shared their fantastic career journeys and definitely had the hardest job of all by selecting a winner. My thanks to both judges for giving up their valuable time and sharing their wisdom.

All of the presentations were outstanding and the finalists should be so proud of themselves! The topics ranged from 500-year-old Greenland sharks to supernovae to the battle between Sir Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke.

The winner selected was Bertie T whose presentation proposed what could happen if the minions did in fact steal the Moon! It was a captivating performance - huge congratulations

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to Bertie! Our two runners-up were Advaith V with time dilation, and Anabelle D with the Fibonacci sequence. Both performances were wonderful and the scores were all so close.

The next step involved Bertie T competing in the Gloucestershire Final of FameLab Academy. He competed against 23 other schools in the county. Bertie stood on the stage of the Roses Theatre to deliver his talk "What would happen if tonight the Minions stole the Moon?" to a large audience. The courage and commitment Bertie showed was exceptional. His speech was brilliantly executed, educational and entertaining. He really brought science to life!

Our School finalists also attended to cheer Bertie on and we were treated to talks on a range of STEM topics from "Poisonous Woodlands", "Why does time fly when you're having fun?" and the winning topic of "The problem with malnutrition". The winning speech was powerful and emotive. My favourite quote of the day was from SQ: "It was a great speech, but in my heart, Bertie won!". Well done, Bertie, we are all so proud of you!

You can watch Bertie's fabulous performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9PyyxtrFTw&list=PLg6DPnDG64xNA5n2oQjJzr9jsX FBUvP_n&index=16

STEM SOC

STEM Society has developed over the years and this year Y12 students have been heavily involved in the running. We have been involved with many projects and themes this year that cover the whole STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) umbrella. Most weeks saw a Y12 student take charge of delivering a lunchtime session to fellow students. They chose the topic, created resources and along with teacher supervision (and risk assessments) undertook experiments and projects. There are many Y12 students who have been involved and it’s been lovely to see the diversity within STEM. There has been a handful of students who have gone over and above and are worth mentioning: Joshua O has planned and delivered many sessions involving the egg-drop challenge, F1 car design project and a session all about tessellations; Guy M has supported most sessions and has delivered projects into waveforms and used garage band to link physics with music. Coming up is his investigation into scent. Nicolas G has been looking into fibre optics and communications and rocket science. While Y12 were focussing on their important end of year exams, we re-launched Crypt-C.S.I. and completed a range of forensic science experiments. We are very thankful to the Y12 students for giving up so much time to deliver fantastic lunchtime sessions. They should be very proud of themselves and show great promise as future science communicators and presenters.

WOMEN IN STEM MENTORING

This year we have continued to work alongside Kohler Mira to offer Women in STEM mentoring to a young woman in Y12. Paula was selected for the programme from a strong field of applicants, after producing an excellent written application. She has met monthly with her mentor, John, who is an engineer at the company. He has shared some projects he is working on, and involved Paula with some project work. He has also supported her to learn more about the range of roles available within engineering, and possible career routes to take. Paula has attended a day in industry at Kohler Mira, where she saw first

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hand the work that is done there, as well as meeting women working in the industry. We are very grateful to Kohler Mira for their continued support of our students.

Paula’s review: When I signed up for the women in engineering I was looking for guidance in the engineering field. It doesn’t only give me more understanding and knowledge but also opportunities like the insight day I had at Kohler Mira and my future work experience placement (which I can’t wait for!) I’m very grateful for everything I am learning about such a large and competitive industry, and what skills I have learned. For example, I’ve learned how to use CAD which is an app that engineers use to design pieces that they require for their projects.

BLOODHOUND LSR VISIT

Thanks to our Development F1 in Schools team and their sponsor, Arthur Spriggs and Sons, we were extremely privileged to have Bloodhound Education bring in a 1-1 scale replica of their Bloodhound vehicle that has been engineered to be the fastest car in the world, being designed to be able to handle speeds of in excess on 1000mph!

What a privilege it was for students to see the Bloodhound and hear such fantastic talks. Rob from Bloodhound Education talked us through the history of engineering, inspiring us all to challenge ourselves to solve problems to effect and adapt to change.

Passion projects like this are so important to push the limits of engineering and allow for inventions and discoveries that have uses in so many other aspects of our lives. For a few examples, the Bloodhound is designed to have zero emissions with exhaust materials of simple oxygen and water. This has fantastic implications for the future of transportation with the fight against climate change. The Bloodhound body is made of aluminium and uses computational fluid dynamics to ensure the most efficient design of the vehicle, ensuring as much energy is used usefully. This is another direct application to car design to save as much fuel from being wasted as possible.

The students found the speeches inspirational and loved the links to careers and degree apprenticeships as well as connections to local businesses and employers.

Student testimonials:

Y11: "Very very inspirational" … "I found the bit about the 1700's very interesting" … "Super interesting how they use data from this project to make all cars more efficient" … "The implications to climate change are fascinating".

Y10: "Tremendous" "Great how much was technology related " Thanks again to Bloodhound Education, the F1 Development team and Mr Dean Baldwin - what a great day!

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FLYING START CHALLENGE – Ashley Croft

This year, a group of twelve Year 9 students have taken part in the Flying Start Challenge. This was launched with a day in school that was delivered by visitors from Dowty Propellers, where the students learned about some basics of aircraft design and flight. The challenge was also set to design and build a glider to take to the Gloucestershire regional final.

Despite a few hiccups during testing, the students worked diligently to construct their gliders and the three teams from Crypt should be extremely pleased with their performance. They took part in engineering challenges on the day and delivered a presentation to a judging panel about their constructions before taking part in a fly-off. Crypt achieved 1st , 3rd and 8th place from the field of 18 teams.

All three teams progressed to the grand final, which was held a Aerospace Bristol in May.

At the final, students had a chance to tour the aerospace museum and look around a complete concord aircraft. There were more engineering challenges to take part in, where Crypt students gave a very good account of themselves.

One of the challenges was won by a Crypt team. The challenge was to design and build a wind powered vehicle that would travel the furthest distance.

PHYSICS OLYMPIAD – Ashley Croft

This year, several students have again entered the series of BPhO Physics Olympiad competitions that are coordinated by Oxford University physics department. For each of the year groups, students have had to show a high level of selfmotivation and resilience in preparing for the exam. It is designed to stretch students far beyond the limit of the curriculum and so students will have had to study independently in order to do well. The examinations increase in difficulty and length with each older year group and develop skills of solving problems of very high challenge. They really do deserve to be called Olympiads.

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Oluwatise

Ajayi

Akshyat

Sahoo

12 Abhi Pillai

Nicholas Gazi

Tristan Munarriz

James Armino

Maximus Smith

Beatrice Norwood

Adam Khemiri

13

Finlay Crellin

Theo Parker

Freddie Jones

CHESS CLUB – Ashley Croft

Poppy Brenton

Daniel SanchezMosqueda

Iason VazourasDilkes

Ben Hook

Robin Grant

Hayden Hodgson

Shaun Herbst

This year, we have run a two-stage school championship, with a group stage feeding into a knockout stage. The group stage was played over five weeks, starting after Christmas and then the top six players went on to the knockout stage after the February half term. A special mention must go to Guhan Vijayan (Y7), who achieved third place in his first year in the school. The final was played as a best of 3, with Joseph Rahmanou (Y10) losing out to Iason Vazouras-Dilkes (Y12). This is a massive achievement for Iason as it completes a hat-trick of school championships over the last three years. Not only this but Iason has not lost a single game in these three years of success!

Politics – James Higgs

2023-4 has seen another year of political turmoil, with students seeing preparations being laid for upcoming elections in both the UK & the USA. All the scandals & political drama have yet again led to a huge amount of rich examples for students to learn all about how our political systems work (or don’t, in some cases!).

The highlight of our year in Politics was undoubtedly our trip to Westminster. Our Year 12 & Year 13 Government & Politics students experienced a brilliant (albeit long) day trip to London as part of their studies.

Students were fortunate enough to have a tour of Westminster Palace (including both the House of Commons & House of Lords), they were able to participate in a mock law-making debate (on the legalisation of marijuana), and were able to visit the

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Supreme Court. Members of staff were really impressed with the enthusiasm and maturity of students, and it was a great opportunity to see the very places they have been studying in the classroom. Unfortunately, Richard Graham MP was unavailable at the last minute. However, he will be in school in term 6, which will provide another opportunity for students to engage with him on political questions, both locally and nationally.

RS, Philosophy & Ethics – Dr Mark Young

It has been a year of change in RS & Philosophy. Mr Pinless joined us for the final term last summer (replacing Miss Lee) and is now completing his first full year. He is very much enjoying the Crypt, especially the polite, able and motivated students, and he has already contributed much to advancing teaching and learning practice at the school.

Y13 have been our first cohort to sit the AQA Philosophy A level exams, and (touch wood) seemed very happy with the questions they faced on knowledge, morality, God and the mind. Jake Rudden in Y12 has done a brilliant job leading our philosophy society, giving lunchtime talks on issues regarding abstract objects, axiology, moral dilemmas and the philosophy of Plato.

Year 9 sat their short course GCSE alongside Year 10 this year, and we are very excited to see all their results in August. We’re really grateful to the exam department for all their efforts making this work, and we promise not to do it again! Keeping the exam in Year 9 from now on will mean that in Year 10 we can explore some of the big philosophical, theological and ethical ideas missing from the GCSE, when students have the intellectual and social awareness to engage with them more fully. We’ll look at arguments for and against the existence of God, moral theories, questions about the existence or nature of the soul, political ideologies… We hope the students find this course as interesting as we do! And we will continue to offer the full course GCSE in Years 10 and 11 for those who would like to study for a formal qualification on these issues.

This change has meant that we now begin the short course GCSE in Year 8, where students focus on the beliefs of Christianity and Islam. Year 7 have therefore been on a world tour of other

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religious and non-religious views, studying Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Humanism. This gives them a grounding in a diverse set of belief systems to draw from in future. They are now working on their entries to the ‘Spirited Arts’ competition, where they produce an artwork engaging with a spiritual theme of their choice. Below are some pieces produced by our students in previous years:

On Thursday 12th October we celebrated Harry Potter Book Day by holding a quiz in the library. The students were greeted by atmospheric Harry Potter music and a chocolate frog – Freddo of course!!!

Once settled, the students became competitive just like Hogwarts witches and wizards After a variety of questions, the answers revealed a very close competition between the

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The

School Library and Literacy – Debbie Jordan Harry Potter Quiz

Potter-enthused students. This made for a very enjoyable and competitive quiz. Congratulations to the winner Georgia Atkin 8R who received the book Fantastic Beasts for her magical knowledge.

Hallowe’en Quiz

Students were challenged to discover the wonderful world of chilling reads and strange happenings, collecting a Halloween question sheet from the library. All correct answers were put into a draw on 25th October for a thrilling Halloween prize.

Congratulations to Eva Benson 7WEH

for winning the quiz. Eva received a Halloween glass filled with chocolates and a book with a ghostly theme. All students who entered received merits for their efforts.

The Crypt also benefits from a digital reading platform: ePlatform (Wheelers), so pupils can access books from their ipads or can search for the research online.

The library also offers many students a “safe space” when they’re outside lessons, with some choosing to come and read quietly at lunchtime or in our afterschool homework club. The library provides leadership opportunities for students so they can learn library skills and work with our librarian to ensure the smooth running of the facility. For some this can contribute towards their Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

Every month the English class who have passed the most quizzes for Accelerated reader have ribbons of their house on the trophies displayed in the library.

The students who have achieved reading 1 million words receive a certificate and a free book for reaching such a marvellous milestone. This continues for them if they achieve reaching 2 million words and above.

Word of the Week – All Year

Every week we put a new word and its definition into the Daily News and display in the top corridor with the English Department notices.

If students use this word in any schoolwork that week or find in any book they read from the library or ePlatform, they are rewarded with a merit from Mrs Jordan in the Library or Room 42.

At the time of writing, our word of the week is Exquisite - extremely beautiful or pleasant, especially in a delicate way. Previous words include – Nondescript, Decorous and Perplexed!

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Library

We have been having a major move around with our libraries. The balcony is now the Upper School and Sixth Form library for year 10 to 13. Our second library is at the end of the English corridor for year 7 to 9, which has a wide choice of genres and non-fiction for our students. Included in this is our accelerated reader selection for years 7 and 8.

Over the Easter break I rearranged the Junior library. This has proven to be very popular with the students enjoying the extra space the move around has given them.

Before – we had rows of bookshelves all in straight rows.

Now we have a more welcoming atmosphere in the library with spaces for students to study along with the opportunity to sit and relax reading. There are now stackable stools available for students to use and move around the library amongst the bookshelves.

Both student and teacher reactions have been very positive. This week we have been full every lunch break, which is very encouraging knowing that the students are enjoying the rearranged area.

“The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the

location of the library” Albert Einstein (1879-1955 Theoretical Physicist)

Student Librarians

We have librarians from all year groups who volunteer to ing both break and lunchtimes. It gives the students a wonderful opportunity to get to know the library, how it works with shelving books, jacketing and spine along with recommending any books to other students

We have meetings every term to discuss any new ideas and I encourage them to get involved with any event I have planned in the library. We also enjoy a nice biscuit and relax so the librarians can get to know each other.

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We have a recommended book of the week, which is displayed on the desk to encorage students to try a new genre.

World Book Day

The week running up to World Book Day we ran Find the Bookmark Challenge, just like the Golden Ticket which ran at Christmas. There were bookmarks hidden around the school for students to find. The buzz around the school was very exciting, with students constantly coming to check how many had been found. Everyone who found one received a free book and an Easter egg.

We held a creative writing workshop with some year 9 students on World Book Day. This was run by authors Sarah Green and Roger Haines, both of whom have teaching backgrounds; they create an enjoyable and informative session over 2 hours to inspire the students with their wealth of knowledge and experience about story writing and illustrating. The year 9’s taking part found it enjoyable and informative.

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FURTHER EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITY

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme – Alison Peake

The 2023-24 Crypt DofE programme year is well underway as I write with an amazing 106 Y9s doing Bronze award, 41 Y10s doing Silver award and 18 Y12s doing Gold award. This is yet another large increase on numbers since last year and needed even more staff support to run the full programme. My thanks go to SLT for creating a new role and appointing Oliver Antonious to be my Assistant DofE Manager this year with the plan to take over from me at the end of this academic year.

Lunchtime clubs have been running once a fortnight for each cohort and the staff involved with that have been helping the participants choose their volunteering, physical and skills activities and then monitoring their progress. Each of these should be done for about an hour a week over a period of three/six or twelve months depending on the award they are doing. The range of activities our students chose to do for these is amazing and very varied. Many are already well on their way to completing these sections.

Our Gold teams started their DofE journey by doing some fundraising for their summer expedition. They ran the Chocolate Tombola and Santa’s Grotto at the Christmas Fayre in December and a very lucrative Easter Egg hunt in March

The focus since February has been on the expedition section. All three cohorts had inschool training days in March with Live Life Adventure (LLA) our trusted activity provider, where they covered team building, first aid, emergencies, campcraft and menu planning.

These have been followed up in April with canoe and navigation skills training for the Silver participants and more detailed expedition planning for the Gold participants.

All the Silver canoers completed the Paddlesport Start award at the Southwest Maritime Academy at Cromhall Quarry on a rather chilly but dry day and the Silver walkers completed a navigation challenge around the same area.

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Having all chosen to canoe again this year, the Gold teams completed their planning day in April in school, researching the route and learning more about the equipment they needed to take. Expedition training commenced at the end of April with the Y10 canoeists heading off to the River Wye to complete their Silver DofE training and travel from Hay-on-Wye to Hereford for their practice expedition. The sun shone, then it rained, they paddled and capsized, they cooked on gas Trangias for the first time and generally had fun. By the end of the three days they had realised that canoeing is not as easy as it seemed but they all learned a lot! They completed the planning for their qualifying expedition later in July and are now reflecting on what they did or did not pack and how they can make their next trip even more enjoyable.

Two teams of Y10 walkers set off at the same time from nearby Hay Bluff and despite the rain and the thunderstorms they coped admirably with three days in the Brecon Beacons. Luckily the sun was out on their last day and all arrived safely back with smiles of achievement on their faces. Our intrepid walkers have decided to return to the Brecons for their qualifying expedition in July.

Next to head off were our big cohort of 106 Y9s doing Bronze award. They set off from the car park at Sudeley Castle for their final weekend of training in and around the Winchcombe area. Mr Antonious and Mr Howell accompanied them and here is their report.

“On Saturday 18th May 2024 106 Year 9 students embarked on their practice expedition from Sudeley Castle, Wincombe to Cricket Field Camping, which is located to the south of Temple Guiting. The weather was glorious, and the students were eager to embark on their expedition.

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On day 1 the students were accompanied by an instructor from LLA (Live Life Adventure) who spoke with them prior to leaving to find out what they hoped to gain from their expedition. For the assessed expedition that takes place in late June students are required to have a goal such as checking out local wildlife, sites of historical interest or plant life. Map reading skills and the use of a compass were also skills that were developed throughout the day with all students taking turns to navigate sections of the route to the campsite.

Mr Howell and I met the various groups at different stages throughout the day and spirits were high and students keen to make good timing to the campsite. Students are required to undertake 6 hours of planned activity towards meeting their goal and the route chosen must challenge the students.

I then met groups at the campsite. The students pitched their tents and started to cook their evening meal. A variety of different meals were cooked with even a MasterChef style cooking lesson from one of the groups to another. I was amazed by the variety of herbs and spices used by the group. I must admit to being jealous when comparing their meal to my meal deal from the local supermarket.

On Day 2 students were up early and started to cook their breakfast. The students were keen to get underway and started the process of taking their tents down and packing their rucksacks. It was impressive watching 106 students work in teams to pack up and leave the campsite in under 1.5 hours.”

The Y12s are doing their Gold practice expedition in June in canoes on the River Wye from Hereford to Monmouth so that they can tackle the Symonds Yat rapids ahead of their summer expedition. Let’s hope the forecast is favourable for a warm paddle so that they can work out how far they can go in a day and what roles they all play in their teams. Will they be as tidy as last year’s teams?

All cohorts have their qualifying expeditions scheduled in or after Term 6.

 The Y9 Bronze walkers will be walking in the Cotswolds, half camping overnight at Denfurlong and the other half camping at Bibury. The plan is they all pass through one or two common checkpoints so the Crypt teachers helping out get to see them all!

 The Y10 Silver canoers are paddling from Hereford to Monmouth on the River Wye bypassing the rapids at Symonds Yat.

 The Y10 Silver walkers are heading back to the Brecon Beacons to walk from Talybont to Penderyn over the hills and far away.

 After two successful Gold trips up to Scotland, there was only one place this year’s Y12 Golds wanted to go - back up to Scotland! Three teams are planning to paddle the Great Glen Canoe Trail from Fort William to Inverness using the Caledonian Canal for the majority of the journey in between the Lochs.

Working closely again with LLA, using my scouting experience as a camp cook and thanks to my husband, Mr Antonious and his Mum, we will be driving the school minibuses off on a 9 day trip - with travel days, acclimatisation open water training and a rest day before the actual coast to coast expedition - which we are all very much looking forward to. As this will be my last trip before I retire I am looking forward to teaching someone else the ropes! Watch out for the photos and updates on our social media #CryptDofE.

Here are a few of the wonderful pictures taken on last year’s expedition.

The view from our campsite was amazing and Loch Shiel was totally wild…

Open water training completed, it’s time to do the real thing. Day 1 they set off from Corpach…

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Day 2 I met them all in Fort Augustus…

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Day 3 was very, very, very windy. Loch Ness was very, very long. All teams were very, very tired!

Day 4 the orange team ended their journey at Urquhart Castle, Drumnadochit then got taken by minibus to the end of the canoe trail.

The yellow team having made it to Foyers

waterfall on day 3 then battled the wind for a while before having to chose to return to Fort Augustus.

The green team got up at 4am and paddled silently past the yellow team before the wind picked up and made it all the way to Inverness!

The next day, tired and weary but very happy we headed home!

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Well done to all of those teams, they successfully completed their Gold DofE expedition even if the weather on the Great Glen Canoe Trail defeated them. Another amazing trip to Scotland!

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the Gold Award Presentation at Buckingham Palace this year due to a family wedding but Mr Antonious attended for the first time. Here is his report:

“I was delighted to be invited to represent The Crypt School at the Buckingham Palace Garden on Friday 10th May 2024 for the DofE Gold Award Celebration. There were over 2,000 young people from across the UK in attendance, who have all spent 12-18 months challenging themselves to complete their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. I was humbled to chat with many of the young people about their achievements - they are truly inspiring.

I was incredibly proud to meet up with some Old Cryptians and their guests at the event. This is the largest contingent to date of Cryptians - ten attended on 10.05.24 and two more on 13.05.24. I was honoured to meet them and hear their news and how their Crypt education has allowed them to flourish in all that they do. The passion, determination, and resilience that they have shown in completing all five sections of the

Gold Award will stand them in good stead for the future.

I hope that the recipients enjoyed the celebration. We were able to relax on the lawns, have fun with garden games, take photos in front of beautiful scenery, and be inspired by the line-up of guest speakers. Alun Wyn Jones OBE a former professional rugby player and Clive Myrie a multi-award-winning journalist were among my favourite guest speakers. His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh was also in attendance and congratulated the recipients.

Hopefully our current students will be inspired to attain such a prestigious Award.”

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Congratulations to the following Gold Award recipients: -

 Bram Allan-Bowdrey

 Hayden Bradley

 Hayden Burn

 Youssef Hesso

 Noah Hollywood

 Joseph Layzell

 Kaleigh Parks

 Amy Ross

 Jamie West

 Chantelle Wynn

 Finlay Gibbons

 Lewis Hutchinson

For me, as DofE Manager, it has been a very different year. The number enrolling grows year on year which is fantastic but so does the amount of admin. Writing the job description for an Assistant Manager highlighted just how much DofE work has to be done so we have made some changes. We sold all the camping equipment to LLA so they now have the headache of collecting, sorting, washing and repacking it all. We are using the proceeds to invest in more personal equipment such as rucksacks, waterproofs and sleeping bags to increase our support to disadvantaged students who can’t source these themselves. I have had to learn to delegate and relinquish control which has actually freed me up to develop other areas of focus, such as fundraising and completion rates. I hope Mr Antonious gets as much out of this job as I have when he takes over in September. He will have a new Assistant manager by the time you read this. I will be retiring next year but will no doubt stay involved in DofE as a club leader until I do. I have loved every minute of this role and hope that DofE at The Crypt School continues to grow and grow. I look forward to seeing our DofE Honours Board installed in our newly decorated hall next year and to hearing that it has been filled with names over the next few years!

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To date we now have twenty-nine Gold award recipients with a good few more due to complete their awards once their A level exams are over. They deserve huge congratulations for persevering through twelve to eighteen months of volunteering; regular physical activity; learning new skills; taking part in a residential experience with complete strangers and completing the most challenging expeditions of their lives (so far!). They have all been amazing, resilient, resourceful young people who have shown they really are Youth Without Limits! Many thanks as ever to all the parents who support their children doing the award and the staff that support DofE within school - from the Headmaster as DofE Licence holder; the Deputy Headmaster as External Visits Co-ordinator; to the teachers and support staff who work as DofE Leaders and assessors; to those that help with the admin, act as emergency contacts or even just promote the award to the students - their help is hugely appreciated and advertised on their doors with DofE signs. DofE at The Crypt School could not operate so successfully without this amazing team!

Alison Peake DofE Manager

Mathematical Olympiad for girls Q3 solution.

STAFF FOCUS 2023-24

New staff not mentioned within subject reports

In September we welcomed many new colleagues into our school community, enriching it with their various backgrounds, skills, talents and experiences All staff joining us in ancillary, temporary or support roles are vital to the operation of the school

Alexandra Crozier

Nick Dyer writes: Alex joined us in June as our new teacher of drama. Alex works as a Copywriter, but prior to that she worked as a Programme Manager for a Cheerleading, Dance & Gymnastics club; she now wishes to return to teaching, bringing with her industry experience in film, television and theatre. Great news for the school and for the work of our drama department

Marlene Gordon

Marlene took up the key role of data and cover administrator following Julie James’ retirement in February. Before coming to the Crypt, she worked as a student data administrator at a college.

Marlene enjoys salsa dancing (which has taken her around the UK and abroad) and Krava Maga - a martial art She also volunteers for Age UK

When considering this appointment, she was impressed by the friendly atmosphere at the school, despite the very disciplined learning environment.

Marlene has enjoyed the new challenge of her role, as well as the opportunity to meet new people.

Gemma Hargraves

Gemma Hargraves was appointed to the post of Deputy Headteacher: Safeguarding, Inclusion and Wellbeing, taking over from Richard Salt in September

Gemma attended Cardiff University and University College London; she undertook her teacher training at Gloucestershire. She has been an Assistant Headteacher (Pastoral) and was an officer in the British Army before deciding to progress into teaching.

Gemma brings to Crypt a wealth of different experiences, which will help develop further both the pastoral and wider life of the School over the next phase of our development.

Deborah Jordan

I joined The Crypt School in September 2023. Originally from Tamworth Staffordshire where I was library assistant at Polesworth High School/librarian for 15 years. Previously I worked at Atherstone Library for 18 years as a library assistant and ran my own branch.

I moved to Gloucester 5 years ago and worked as Pates Grammar School before moving to The Crypt last year. Previously I worked at Atherstone Library for 18 years as a library assistant and ran my own branch.

I moved to Gloucester 5 years ago and worked as Pates Grammar School before moving to The Crypt last year. Most of my working career has been in libraries and education, which is very rewarding.

I enjoy reading and find working with teenagers a wonderful opportunity to encourage reading for pleasure and help students to find genres and titles they will enjoy; even reluctant readers do find the challenge of reading a book very rewarding.

My interests out of school include visiting my family, walking, swimming, rugby and athletics (as a spectator), travelling, jigsaws and knitting, along with being a massive Harry Potter fan!

Matthew Nicholl

I grew up locally in Gloucester and attended Crypt as a student, following 7 happy years at the school I went on to study at the University of Leicester and completed my degree in Physics. I then returned to Gloucester to complete my PGCE in Science and with immense pride I was able to return home to Crypt.

I was inspired to become a teacher during my time in sixth form, my teachers were supportive, passionate and they played a massive role in the person I have become today. When the job opening became available it was an easy decision to apply and it has been exciting to see how the school has improved and developed in my time away.

Outside of teaching I am a passionate rugby player and coach, and I thoroughly enjoyed coaching at both the school and Old Cryptians RFC this year. A particular highlight of my first year back at the school was taking our Year 9 Boys rugby team to the semi-final of the cup, however, we will aim to do even better next season!

Sarah Parkin

I joined the Crypt School in September 2023 as a teacher of French and Spanish and as Oxbridge Coordinator. I feel very privileged to work here with such supportive colleagues and motivated young people.

I studied French and English at Magdalen College, Oxford, and specialised in medieval and early modern literature in both languages. During this time, I volunteered as an English tutor for a young French student; this ignited my passion for teaching, which continued to grow during my year abroad as language assistant in Poitiers. There, I was lucky enough to work at a lycée professionnel offering courses for trainee chefs and hoteliers, teaching English in the kitchens and training restaurant – and sampling their culinary creations, bien sûr! After completing my degree, I trained to teach in Nottingham and then taught for two years in rural Derbyshire before moving to Gloucester.

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In my spare time, I enjoy reading, playing the violin, and singing. It's been wonderful to join our talented students in the Cantores Cryptiensis this year. Recently, I have also taken up running, and I'm enjoying the opportunity to challenge myself to learn a new skill.

The atmosphere at the Crypt is truly something special, and I'm grateful to be part of the community here. I'm excited to take on the role of Head of Year 12 (maternity cover) next year, and to guide our students as they start their journey in the Sixth Form

Alexander Rausch

Whilst I was born in Gloucester, the majority of my family is from Zimbabwe. I studied Zoology at Bangor University in North Wales, after which I completed a master’s degree in Wetland Science and Conservation.

After graduating, I spent the next three years as a safari guide between Zimbabwe and South Africa, where I spent a large part of my last year teaching new safari guides the tricks of the trade!

After gaining many fond memories, I returned to the UK and gained employment as a tutor within a secondary school, confirming my love for teaching. I completed part of my teacher training at The Crypt School and was lucky enough to thereafter be offered a job, a decision I have never once regretted!

Hannah Searle

I was thrilled to join The Crypt School in September 2023 as a Teacher of geography having previously taught in other secondary schools in Gloucestershire. I would like to thank my colleagues within the geography department and wider school for sharing their expertise and offering a warm welcome.

I completed my PGCE with the University of Bristol in 2021 after spending the previous four years at Lancaster University studying Spanish and geography. I love to travel and enjoy discussing the wonders of the world with our students! The Crypt School continues to exceed my expectations both academically and pastorally. I enjoyed my role as a Year 7 Tutor and had lots of fun on the residential trip! I look forward to working closely with this year group as Head of Year over the next few academic years.

Leavers not mentioned in subject reports

Sam Armitsead

Nick Dyer writes: Sam joined the School in September 2021 as head of economics and business studies, moving from a school in Paris, where he had been deputy head. Since then, Sam has proved to be a really strong teacher of both economics and business, and his leadership of the department was very effective in strengthening those two curriculum areas. At the end of last year, Sam stepped down from his head of

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department role, but I was delighted that he decided to stay on as a teacher of economics across this year.

Not only has Sam worked hard within the economics and business departments, but he has also contributed much to the wider life of the school: as a form tutor, mentor to many students and outstanding rugby coach; he is also a wonderful colleague. We wish Sam every success in Bristol, where he is taking up a new role as teacher of Economics and Business at Bristol Grammar School.

Dean Baldwin

Gordon Taylor writes: Dean was a valued member of the IT team, always willing to go beyond helping not only in IT but also with the F1 team and helping with Tech at events like Founders’ Day. His knowledge grew whilst here knowing if I was ever away the IT infrastructure would be safe in his hands. It is a natural career progression for him in his new role as Network Manager and we wish him all the best in his new role at his new schools.

Ashley Bawden

Nick Dyer writes: Ash has been an outstanding Director of Sport, and head of PE here at Crypt, working tirelessly with his colleagues in developing our sporting, games and physical education provision to the point where we can offer every student opportunities to participate, enjoy and excel in their sporting lives. Ash has been instrumental in the development of our sporting facilities and strength and conditioning programme, as he was in enabling our transition to coeducation after 2018: that change to coeducation impacted greatly on the existing games and PE provision in school; however, today, thanks to the leadership of Ash and the work of his colleagues, we can be immensely proud to boast of an outstanding sporting offer for both boys and girls. Indeed today, our sporting, games and PE offer in school is one which can both rival and I think exceed that of any school in the area.

Further to his work in games and PE, Ash has always been committed to trips and visits: he has organised and led numerous ski trips, rugby tours and other outward-bound trips, which hundreds of our students have enjoyed participating in, creating memories that will last them a lifetime. Many may not recall that before he became our Director of Sport, Ash undertook a number of other roles in school: gifted and talented coordinator, head of upper school and school inclusion lead. Ash's work in these roles was very important in driving our agendas forward in those and other related areas.

I know on a personal note, that we will all miss Ash's friendship and care, and his commitment to ensuring staff socials take place and that everyone is included in that side of our school life.

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James

Bridges

Nick Dyer writes: James has worked at the School since April 2010 as a senior teacher of English, specialising in the teaching of English Language, but equally as adept at teaching literature as well. James has always been a loyal and supportive colleague, contributing significantly to the life of the English department and wider school across his time with us. James also taught History and acted as a form tutor, supporting the pastoral needs of our students. James’ work supporting UCAS personal references was greatly valued by the sixth form team, and by many Year13 students.

I know that everyone will send their best wishes and thanks to James as he now embarks on a new venture.

Sophie Churchill

Oliver Antonious writes: Sophie joined the DART department in November 2022 as the DART Technician. She soon became an integral part of the team supporting staff and students right across the faculty. She was always willing to go above and beyond for our students to ensure that they flourish in all that they do. She has a calm demeanour and excellent rapport with our students supporting them with their studies.

The faculty is going to miss her greatly and would like to thank her for the contribution that she has made. We wish her well in her new role outside of education.

Julie James

Nick Dyer and Susan Glock write: after a career with us spanning over twenty years, in February 2024 Julie James retired from The Crypt.

When Julie first started at The Crypt, she worked in the main office and was an integral member of the small admin support team. With her calm and organised manner she was a wonderful support to parents, students and staff. Her most recent role as data and cover administrator was varied and incredibly busy. She was pivotal to the smooth running of the school, ensuring teachers’ absences were covered so all our students are supervised and safe. We often took what Julie was responsible for for granted - having access to our timetables, data sets, reporting templates, cover and so much more besides - but without which, our school lives would be chaotic and indeed impossible. Julie also completed the increasingly time consuming and complex annual school census, the accuracy of which is critical and which determines our annual funding from the government. Her attention to detail was second to none, and her relentless hard work contributed to the continuing success of The Crypt.

Above all, Julie has been a wonderful colleague to us all and friend to many; I know that she will take into her retirement both many cherished memories and the friendships that she has made over those years with us at Crypt.

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Alison Peake

Nick Dyer writes: Alison joined the school in 2014 as a newly qualified teacher, bringing to the school huge experience outside of education and an enthusiasm for teaching, for learning and for her subject - mathematics. Since then, Alison has developed into an outstanding teacher, whose exam groups have always achieved outstanding academic results, with many progressing from GCSE to A Level and then onto university to study maths, or related courses. Alison has also worked to support trainees in the department, sharing her experiences and expertise to help support the next generation of maths teachers. She has also excelled as a tutor.

Away from her work in maths, Alison has led the DoE scheme over recent years, and her leadership and commitment to the scheme has been exceptional. Under her leadership, numbers opting into the scheme at all levels - bronze, silver and gold - have vastly increased; the numbers achieving their awards has also been outstanding, with our first Gold awards being achieved under Alison's leadership of the scheme. She has long been an advocate of ensuring everyone who wishes to participate in the DofE scheme can, enabling our PP students for example to enjoy and benefit from what the scheme offers, especially in terms of their personal development.

Whilst we will all miss Alison greatly, we wish her a happy and long retirement and hope that she will keep in touch with us all at Crypt.

Poppy Sharrock

Nick Dyer writes: Poppy joined the School in September 2022 to teach KS3 science and biology and has been a valued member of the science department ever since, as well as a supportive and caring form tutor.

Tom Passmore writes: Poppy is moving on after 2 years teaching science and taking up a position at a school near Cirencester. We thank her greatly for her time and efforts here at The Crypt, first teaching Chemistry before moving into her specialist area of Biology. Mrs Sharrock has kept a tidy, educational lab space that allows students to learn at their own pace and fostered a calm and quiet learning environment.

Mrs Sharrock is also a very accomplished seamstress, providing students with access to her knowledge and experience through the 'sewing bee' club run with Ms Door. A friendly face and relaxed atmosphere have allowed students to develop their understanding of fabrics, patterns and even created their own tops, under her watchful eye.

We wish her all the very best in her new ventures.

Sarah Troy

Nick Dyer writes: Sarah has been an outstanding sixth form pastoral support worker, helping many of our senior students through difficult times, as well as supporting our wider wellbeing offer in the VI form, to the benefit of all students in years 12 and 13. We all offer Sarah every best wish for the future.

The School and the Club share in the joint publication of the magazine that was born in 1907.

Our primary purpose remains the collection of news and information about the School and Old Cryptians. We aim to collect articles and reminiscences, whether serious, satirical or humorous across the widest age range possible. Photographs are ever welcome.

The Editorial Board will be responsible for the style and content of the annual publication, the management of its production and the budget. We produce a very limited print run for this, with the majority of readers access via [issuu details here]

We shall consider all articles that are submitted. In turn the editors will retain the authority to make a selection of the articles to be published and of their precise length and use of language.

A reminder that we are using Direct Debit for membership fees collected through the GoCardless service - details on the website https://oldcryptians.org/membership/direct-debit/

Please also sign up to the LinkedIn group –https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7410920/

As always, please encourage friends/colleagues who were at the school to join, or at least sign up to the LinkedIn group - the more members and interested parties we have the better we will be able to support the school and former pupils.

The Cryptian 2025

Please send any contributions for the next edition (by email attachment) by the middle of May 2025 to:

Email: webmaster@oldcryptians.org

From the editor:

I apologise unreservedly to the school and membership for the late completion of this year’s Cryptian. A combination of day job overload and technical issues stymied my attempts to complete the task as planned before July 2024. Adam.

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FROM THE PRESIDENTS

Matt Cass

I’m Matt Cass and I was at The Crypt School from 1984 – 1991.

I’m Gloucester born and bred and still live and work in the city and consider it an honour to have gone to The Crypt School. I’m still close friends with many school friends and keep in touch with many of my classmates from that era. In fact over the last few years we have organised a class reunion where a good number of us have met up and had a great time catching up with each other – some of whom I had not seen since school days. It’s great to see how people have grown and succeeded, what jobs they have and who has moved to different countries.

This year I’m hoping that we can arrange a class reunion at the annual Old Cryptians’ meal in March which is normally at the school and hope you’ll be able to join me and maybe organise your own reunion for your class and year. The annual meal seems to me to be the perfect time to organise this sort of thing and reminisce about the old school days (good and bad) and the many things and people who have come and gone from those days. It’s also great to see the old school and how its grown over the years into the powerhouse it is today.

When I was at school we had at one point about 300-400 pupils in the school as a whole and nowadays there are over 1,000! Apparently the school is so popular that people are coming from afar as Swindon and Wales!

I mentioned in my acceptance speech at Founders’ Day that as President of the Old Cryptians I will do my best to represent the school and its former pupils, young and old. We have had some notable people attend our school over the years but this year I want to celebrate one person in particular. I plan to celebrate one of the school’s most famous alumni during my term of office and hopefully bring some local and national publicity to the club and school.

William E Henley

2024 is the 175th anniversary of William E Henley’s birth (he went to The Crypt School from 1861–1867) and 2025 is the 150-year anniversary of his most famous poem, ‘Invictus’.

SOME MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HENLEY:

 He lived in Eastgate Street in Gloucester and even has a House at the school named after him.

 He suffered from Tuberculosis at age 20 and had a leg amputated.

 He was friends with Robert Lois Stevenson who wrote “Treasure Island”. Henley is believed to be the inspiration for Long John Silver in his book; probably because of him losing one leg.

 He also wrote ‘Invictus’ which is arguably his most famous poem, which Nelson Mandela quoted as inspiring him during his 27 years of captivity.

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

 It is also the inspiration for the 2009 ‘Invictus’ film starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon about South Africa winning the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

 The Invictus Games founded by Prince Harry also takes it name from the poem. And it all started at The Old School Room at St Mary de Crypt on Southgate Street, where The Crypt School was founded.

It is an honour to be linked to a school with such a rich heritage and such a positive present and future. I will do my best during my term of office to do the club and the school proud.

Kind Regards,

Matthew Cass

OCC President 2024-2025

Simon Smith – outgoing

And before you know it, that’s it. Two years as President of the Old Cryptians’ Club is coming to an end of me. In some ways, it’s no time at all. But when I was in the school hall in March setting up for the annual dinner, it’s quite humbling to see the many names on the board of those who have been President before me, stretching back to 1901. The club has a long and enduring history of which we should all be proud and which we should continue to preserve and strengthen for future generations of Old Cryptians.

I reflected at the March 2023 dinner how we’d finally managed to ‘get back to normal’ following the events of recent years and a failed dinner attempt in 2022, thanks to a failed catering company. We had nearly 80 people in the school hall and the combination of a speech and musical performance from Ian Dench. My best memories of the past two years are the plethora of people I’ve met and the conversations I’ve had as a result of club events and interactions with the school.

Whilst getting back to normal was a necessary condition for the on-going future of the club, it certainly isn’t a sufficient condition. The school is a great example of the change that’s necessary to secure a strong future, it’s continued to evolve, and expand. It was great to see that effort pay-off with a superb Ofsted Report earlier this year.

We’ve not managed to emulate such a change within the Old Cryptians’ Club. Over the past ten years, whilst the size of the school student population has increased by thirty percent, the club’s membership has declined by a quarter. The more frightening is that, at 52, I’m below the average age of members, which is around 54. If you remove the 25 and unders from that calculation, that it jumps to just over 70.

What have we done to try to address that? We’ve changed our membership structure at the lower end, increasing the age below which free membership is offered, as well as extending and reducing the starting membership rate for those below 30 to just £10.

That’s all well and good, but in reality, no-one’s going to join a club unless it has something to offer. Perhaps the club is like Radio 4 - average age of listeners is 56 – where people will listen to it later in life. Some of our most active and esteemed members only became members around my age and their reasons for joining I know are going to be varied.

But the reality is that we’re not seeing that today. We can’t rely on being a Radio 4 on our current membership demographics and profile of new members. Indeed, it’s probably naïve to think Radio 4 will be about in its current form inthirty yearsgiven the ever-changing media landscape.

I’ve made stringent efforts – with admittedly limited success – to broaden the diversity of our committee. We must continue those efforts because unless we have some committee members who are more representative of the membership we want to attract, we will fail.

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

By we, I mean people my age and above. But I stress it’s about diversity, because we must have that mix with of younger and older members to drive that.

And as I hand over to Matt Cass later this year, we must dust off some of the work done few years ago when we thought – mistakenly as it turned out – that the Foundation was going to threaten the Club’s survival. It’s the difficulty of change that threatens our survival. We need a multi-year plan, with specific aims and targets, because without it we won’t survive. You know the saying – if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. No President can make that change in a year, or even two. Every member can play their part in that change, whether big or small, so I will encourage you to reach out to the committee so that you may support the club upon this journey.

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The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

A HISTORY OF THE OLD CRYPTIANS’ CLUB

(Founded in 1901)

Introduction

100 years ago, there were boys and masters at the Crypt School in Gloucester. How do we know this to be fact?

How can we even be sure that there was indeed a Crypt School at all at that time? There is no one living today who can vouch for this information.

It is by grace of the diligence of those who came before us that we know that the school and its masters and pupils did indeed exist. Records of what went on in school were undoubtedly kept. In any event they tended to be a litany of lifeless records of events and of examinations achieved.

However, other written accounts exist. These were records of contemporary meetings and assemblies of countless numbers of old boys and masters of the Crypt School. They were compiled by a succession of people who were determined that the Crypt School should not be just as any other school. They believed that the story of the Crypt School was worth the telling and worth recording. The way to keep the Crypt School alive was to meet and talk about it and to reminisce about the school and of the times when you attended the school.

The First Edition of the Cryptian magazine was published in 1907 and continues to be published. The Old Cryptians' Club has always participated in its production, supplying information about Old Boys from all over the World. If you have any news at all about anything to do with the Crypt School from any period or of its Old Boys please write to Gordon Hill, our current Secretary. The continued production of the magazine was recently under threat of ceasing but due to the efforts of a small committee of old boys headed and encouraged by Gordon Hill the magazine was saved. Please give him your continuing support and keep your news rolling in.

Present day Old Cryptians are extraordinarily lucky in their inheritance and in the quality of those who have preceded them.

Early Days and Old Cryptonians

Early days

In 2001 the club was about to celebrate its centenary year. Or was it?

It is worth retelling the historical research carried out by Brian Frith (1923-34) into the history of some early Old Cryptian Clubs. In 1951, the Golden Jubilee year of the club, he writes: -

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

"The great antiquity of the Crypt School makes it greatly to be regretted that so few records of early Old Boys' clubs and meetings exist. Indeed, what we do have gives us but little information, but they are not without interest and do not seem to have been published before. Let us therefore see what we can find out about the clubs in those early days.

We start in 1760, for there is little doubt that the first meeting of such a club took place in that year. We are informed in an advertisement in the Gloucester Journal of the following: "Gloucester, July 31. The Gentlemen educated at the Crypt School are desired to dine with their Schoolfellows at the Golden-Heart in this city, on Thursday the 21st August next. We beg that the Gentlemen of the Town and Country, who are pleased to favour this Meeting, will be so obliging as to send their names as soon as possible to their Schoolfellow, John Heath, Landlord of the Golden-Heart. "

This meeting, we are told in a previous advertisement, was because "this Scheme has proved beneficial to other Schools". One may well wonder where the "Golden-Heart" was, for it is no longer with us and little is known about it. The Golden Heart was, in fact, conveniently situated adjacent to the Crypt School in Southgate Street, and was let at that time at a yearly rental of £48. I do not doubt that the first Old Cryptians' Club (if it could be called a club) was therefore held 191 years ago.

Unfortunately, there is no evidence to suggest that this dinner became an annual affair, for the next meeting of which we have notice was two years later, on 2nd August 1762. On this occasion, "an Ordinary" was provided at 1/6 per head and the meeting place was again the "Golden-Hart" An ordinary was a set meal in an inn, and the price at that time was usually about 1/6 for such a meal. (Breakfasts cost about 8d. though some inns in Gloucester only charged 3d. for breakfast.) Regarding this 1762 dinner, we are told "As the chief End of this Meeting is to promote the Interest of the School, the Steward flatters himself he shall be favoured with a numerous Appearance”.

The Steward was one Mr. Lawrence Crump, by occupation an upholder, who had served as Mayor of Gloucester in 1743 and 1750, and we must assume that the title of "steward" was synonymous with that of President. Our next reference comes three years later (1765) when the new Steward was Alderman Edward Baylis, Mayor of this city in 1762 and again in 1768. On this occasion the "Gentlemen educated at Crypt School" met with the "Gentlemen of the Corporation" and they partook of dinner, again at a cost of 1/6., but this time at the Booth Hall Hotel, Westgate Street.

But a sombre note creeps in here, for we read "The present fatal state of the School will induce many, 'tis presumed, to favour the Steward with their Company, in order to consider of proper Measures to revive its Interest and to raise it to its late flourishing Condition."

Fortunately, the "fatal state" reminds us of Mark Twain's famous cable; "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." The School continued its existence, but was undoubtedly going through hard times. Let us hope that the meeting of the Old Boys in some measure helped to keep the School going.

While the foregoing almost exhausts our knowledge of these Old Cryptian meetings, it may be fitting to refer to some later aspects of the Crypt School, which may not be known. For instance, when the Rev. Thomas Rudge became the new Headmaster in 1788, the School was called "The Free Grammar School of St. Mary de Crypt," although there was an entrance fee of one guinea, with a charge of sixteen guineas for board and education, per annum, or for education only the charge was two guineas. Music and dancing were extra, as were also writing and arithmetic, the latter costing 7/6 a quarter. The following year we read that "Mr. Rudge will have no objection to instruct Young Gentlemen as early as seven years of age, in the principles of English grammar, and the art of reading their native language with correctness and propriety".

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

By 1791 there were only two vacancies for boarders, whilst applications had to be made to Mr. Rudge "at his Academy, in the Westgate-street." It would therefore appear that the School had made a move from the original building in Southgate Street. If this was so, it is certainly not very clear why this was done. This Westgate Street address is again given, this time as "No. 7" in another advertisement of 1794, when all those who had been educated at the Crypt School were asked to meet to revive the old custom of "delivering Orations. " The advertisement then goes on "As it is difficult, after a lapse of so many years, to recollect all, it is hoped that no Gentleman will be offended if he should happen not to receive a particular invitation." Again, a dinner was provided, and we are told that the public orations were revived after a lapse of thirty years. The occasion was a big one, and the Mayor and Corporation were present, together with "many Gentlemen of the Town, who signified, by their applause, the warmest satisfaction in the animated style of the Compositions, and the propriety with which they were delivered." It would certainly seem that this was the first time that the Old Cryptians had met since their dinner in 1765. Their meetings were without doubt sporadic. Further search has failed to trace other references to any eighteenth-century meetings, and no attempt has, yet, been made to trace their subsequent history. That story must wait for another occasion.

One last reference to our School in the eighteenth century throws an interesting sidelight on life in those days, for in March 1794, we read of a "Request Night" held in the old Theatre, Westgate Street, "by Desire of the Young Gentlemen of Crypt School. " The Theatre, then three years old, frequently gave such performances, and so, for the benefit of the Crypt boys' four plays were given. They were The Farm-House, The Village Lawyer, The Little Farthing Rush-Light, and Harlequin’s Rambles. One of the principal actors on this occasion was Samuel Thomas Russell, an actor of some distinction in his day.

In October 1840, an advertisement appeared in the Gloucester Journal stating that “Gentlemen who were formerly at the Crypt Grammar School would dine together at the Kings Head Hotel on November 6th 1840. This Hotel was situated in Westgate Street between St Nicholas Church and Three Cocks Lane.

There is but little doubt that the Crypt School had, in the eighteenth century, at least, many ups and downs. But what a story could be told if some of the early records of the school had not been lost! Let us hope that the present OCC will long flourish and preserve its records for future historians.

The Old Cryptonians

Our records show that on Monday 1st April 1901 a meeting was held at Crypt School for the purpose of forming an Old Boys' Club.

Mr D. E. Griffiths, who had been appointed as Second Master at the Crypt School in 1900, put forward the proposition to form the club. He had a seconder in Falconer Moffatt Birks who had left the school in 1900. Mr Griffiths retired from the school in 1936 and lived until 1953, the year in which his seconder was elected as President of the Old Cryptians' Club. The club was to be composed of former pupils of the Crypt School, Gloucester and past and present teaching staff of the school.

It was originally known as "the Old Cryptonians' Club" but in 1907 the name was changed to "the Old Cryptians' Club."

The change of name was synchronous with the publication of the first school magazine at Michaelmas 1907. The magazine was titled "The Cryptian" and the editorial board offered some reasons for the choice of name. It was noted that from time-to-time old boys had been described as Old "Cryptonians" They found, however, that there was no strict authority for the inserted letters. It was noted that the word "Cryptian" came directly from the Latin form of "Cryptiensis" just as "Atheniensis" gives us "Athenian" They hoped that

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

they would not be charged with pedantry or, still worse, sacrilege, in thus venturing to shorten a familiar usage.

I find it interesting that modern day Cryptians bridle with indignation when outsiders inadvertently refer to us as "Cryptonians" and we are quick to correct them. In that first editorial the opportunity was taken, to thank the old boys for the cordial support that they had given to both the school and magazine. It was hoped that the magazine would serve as a bond to unite old boys even more closely to their old School.

The

objects

Our predecessors clearly were farsighted and correct in the decision that they took so many years ago. Time has demonstrated the mutual benefits to school and club. Long may this co-operation continue and flourish. The objects of the club were:

 To encourage social intercourse between former pupils and keep them in touch with the school.

 To publish and circulate all news of interest about present and former members through "the Cryptian."

 To forward the interest of the School, its institutions and any of its members.

FOUNDERS

The founder members were Messrs W.H. Harris, J.M. Harcourt, F.H. Miller, D.E. Griffiths, G.F. Buck, J.G. Howarth, T. Cowcher, J.G. Washbourne, E. Voller, J. Dainton, J.W. Smith, B. Moffatt, S.C. Staley, F.M. Birks, T. Catesbey, Baldwin, A. Keeping, Vinson, J. Clarke, Gordon Vears, and Lindsay Vears.

Letters of support were received from Messrs F.M. Stout, H.H. Scott, S.H. Cullis, A. Shera, D.S. Darkin and H.W. Arkell.

THE COMMITTEE

To regulate the business of the club a committee was formed consisting of a president, various officials and ordinary members. The Reverend Christopher Naylor, Headmaster of Crypt School, was elected as the first president of the club. The annual subscription was fixed at One Shilling (5 new pence).

MEETINGS AND DINNERS

The first general meeting of the club was held at Crypt School on Friday April 9th 1901.

One of the first decisions of the club was to hold a dinner. This was duly held on Thursday May 9th 1901 at the New Inn, Gloucester. The Reverend C. Naylor presided and "a goodly number of old students sat down to an excellent dinner" At least 50 names are recorded as being in attendance, with over 40 apologies.

Mr W. Edwards spoke, saying that he was Number One on the register when the school was resuscitated in 1861. He was also the first to be admonished! He had watched it grow from a small number to its present state of over 100 scholars.

The headmaster, in response, said that he had been honoured with the distinction of presiding at their first festive gathering. He related that Mr T. E. Brown had been appointed Headmaster of the Crypt in 1861.

He had worked under Mr Brown at King William College, Isle of Man for 4 years and when Mr Brown was appointed as Headmaster at the Crypt, he had asked him to come with him as Second Master. Mr Brown left the Crypt in 1863 to become Vice Principal at Clifton College, Bristol. Succeeding him as Headmaster of the Crypt School was a Mr John Major, under whose stewardship the school suffered a massive decline in numbers, and he

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

resigned. Mr Naylor succeeded him as Master in 1867 and was to hold that position until his retirement in 1906. On his appointment there were on 49 pupils at the school, which was then situated in Barton Street.

At a meeting in November 1901, the headmaster asked if any old boys could offer their services at a school concert in December. The club responded positively and provided 5 Basses and 4 Tenors.

In like vein when in November 1901 it was decided to form an Old Boys' Football Club the school offered the use of its playing pitches until such time as the Football Club was well established.

Thus commenced a fine tradition of co-operation between club and school.

A second Annual Dinner was held at the New Inn on Wednesday April 9TH 1902. Invitations were sent to every Old Boy that they could trace. It was reported that Mr W. E. Henley, who had been at the school many years before and "a gentleman distinguished in literary circles" had written to say what pleasure it had given him to join the club.

The letter had been written to the Club Secretary Walter Madge, the original being housed in the Gloucester Reference Library. It reads "I have great pleasure in asking you to enroll me as an Old Cryptonian".

1901 - 1914

There is no record of any club activity after this dinner for the next 4 years. On Friday April 20th 1906, a dinner was held at the New Inn to meet the retiring headmaster, the Reverend Christopher Naylor. Mr Naylor had served the school for 45 years. He had spent his first 6 years as deputy head to both Mr T. E. Brown, "the Manx Poet", and Mr Major and the following 39 years as the Headmaster. More that 70 Old Boys attended the dinner and apologies were received from over 100 Old Boys who were unable to attend. Many tributes were paid to Mr Naylor. However, it is noteworthy that the Chairman of Governors, Alderman Hartland, spoke of the difficulties that they were experiencing in replacing, as headmaster, such a man as Mr Naylor. He spoke of the respect in which the governors held Mr Naylor. He also said that the governors "were grateful for Mr Naylor's act of selfdenunciation in waiving his claim to the full pension to which he was undoubtedly entitled but which the Governors were unable to grant, on looking into the endowments of the school." This was after 45 years of loyal service to the Crypt School.

An Old Cryptian was appointed to succeed Mr Naylor as headmaster in 1906. He was J. E. Barton who had been at the school from 1887 until 1894 when he proceeded to Oxford on a Pembroke Scholarship. It then appears that the club and dinner lapsed for several years. Mr Barton resigned his position at the Crypt in 1910 to become Headmaster of Queen Elizabeth School, Wakefield and from whence in 1916 he became Headmaster of Bristol Grammar School until 1938.

It was Mr Barton who, on his retirement, gave the school the "Barton Shield", a magnificent silver trophy which is still presented annually to the best school house of the year. However, Mr Barton did not show any interest in the newly formed Old Cryptonians Club, which was allowed to wither away.

His replacement as headmaster was Dr Crees who was appointed at the age of 28 years. He was a prime mover in the revival of the Old Cryptians' Club. He was a brilliant headmaster who restored the academic excellence of the school. He was admitted to the Headmasters’ Conference, thus conferring public school status on the Crypt School. When he arrived at the school, there were only 2 boys up at university. When he left in 1919, he was proud to observe that there were then 17 Crypt boys at the University (i.e. Oxbridge).

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

The annual dinner was revived and was held at the New Inn on December 15th 1911 and 48 Old Boys attended.

At the dinner, Dr Crees expressed his hope that a small committee would be formed, to settle exactly what an Old Cryptians' Association (sic) should be and what it ought to do.

The accounts for this dinner show that the total cost was £9-17s-5d.

The receipts were E7-10s-6d, thus showing a shortfall of £2-6s-11d.

This deficit was made good by a donation from Dr Crees to cover the total amount required.

In response to the wish expressed at the dinner a meeting of Old Cryptians was held on 15th February 1911 at the Crypt School for the purpose of discussing the suggested rules for thefuture conduct of the club. Dr Crees presided over the meeting. It was atthis meeting that it was proposed to call the club "The Old Cryptians' Club" and the annual subscription to be three shillings and six pence, to include the school magazine. A meeting was later held at the school at which James Bruton was elected club president and various officers of the club were elected. A meeting in May 1912 recorded the names of 52 fully paid up members of the club. One month later a further 27 names were added and 25 more members in October 1912. A resolution was passed at the meeting in October 1912 to provide a sum of one guinea (£l.05p) for an Old Boys' Prize at the school to be awarded for "satisfactory progress, good conduct and general service to the school".

The Reverend Christopher Naylor had died in 1910 and the club instituted and paid for an annual school prize, in memory of Mr Naylor. Mr F.M. Dickenson had sent 5 guineas from Melbourne, Australia to start the fund for the memorial. The club also commissioned a portrait of the late Reverend C. Naylor from Longmans and Co for six guineas to be placed in the school hall.

The Club continued to prosper and increase in numbers and annual dinners were held at the New Inn up until the commencement of the Great War.

W. E. Henley died in 1903. In 1913, the club decided to launch an appeal for a Henley Memorial Prize. Henley had been a pupil of the Crypt from 1861-1865 during the time of T. E. Brown. Henley later attributed some of his love of literature to being inspired by Brown. The club had hoped to collect money in order to provide a Memorial Fund of £1000. R. A. Smart an Old Cryptian and printer supplied 1000 copies of a circular letter together with envelopes and further printing tasks, free of charge, asking Old Boys for contributions to the Fund. This act of generosity is typical of numerous Old Cryptians through all the years.

Henley's widow wrote to the club stating that it was her intention to present a complete edition of her husband’s work to the school. She also donated £50 to the Fund. Lord Northcliffe and Dr Crees gave €25 each.

However, by the beginning of the war only £180 had been subscribed, including a donation from Henley's friend, Field Marshall Lord Roberts, of £1.

At the annual dinner at the New Inn in October 1913, the club exhibited an autolithograph of Henley, which was executed by his friend Mr W. Rothenstein in 1907. This was presented to the school through the medium of the club, with Rothenstein's permission to hang it in the hall. At this dinner, the club presented the large photograph of the late Reverend Christopher Naylor to the school. On the menu for the dinner was South Australian Iamb that had been sent over from Australia by Mr F. M. Dickenson of Melbourne. Unfortunately, the oranges that he had sent did not survive the journey!

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

The Great War years

At a committee meeting held on October 9th 1914 it was recorded that Lieutenant C. A. S. Carleton had been severely injured at the battle of the Aisne. He was to survive the war and proposed the toast of the "Old Cryptians' Club" at the annual dinner in 1922.

A committee meeting and an annual meeting were held in 1915 and no further meetings are recorded again until July 1919 because of the war. At this meeting, the treasurer pointed out that no subscriptions had been collected during the War. R. G. Austin, Editor of the "Cryptian", attended the meeting and explained that due to increased costs the contributions received for the "Cryptian" would be insufficient to cover the expense of the next issue. He also stated that it was proposed to print in this issue a Roll of Honour containing the names of all old boys who had served during the war. The committee resolved that the additional cost of the magazine and Roll of Honour be defrayed out of club funds. Roland Austin was the School Head Monitor at this time and he was later to write the "1939 History of the School".

1919 - 1929

1919 saw the death of Arthur Francis Watts who was Second Master at the Crypt, where he had taught for 24 years. He had been Secretary of the Old Cryptians' Club since its reformation in 1912 and such was the affection with which he was held that club members subscribed the enormous sum of £190 for his testimonial fund. Some of the money was used to help pay for his gravestone in Barnwood Church graveyard. It is significant to note that Crypt schoolmasters held the post of Club Secretary for 55 years from 1912 until 1977. In 1919, the club raised its annual subscription to five shillings (25 new pence) That year saw the resignation of Dr Crees from the Crypt. The governors refused to increase his salary even to the point of losing their outstanding headmaster. He left to take up the Headmastership of Hereford Cathedral School at an increased salary. He gave a valedictory address in which he said, "Links of friendship had been forged which would last as long as life itself" This surely is the very essence of being an Old Cryptian.

At a committee meeting in 1919, it was noted that the amount of money in the Henley Fund was totally inadequate for its original purpose. At a committee meeting of the club held on January 28th 1920 the new headmaster, D. G. Williams, proposed that the Henley Memorial Fund be used for a prize for literature to be known as the Henley Prize. This was agreed so all subscribers were written to and all but one agreed to the new use for the fund. The dissenting voice was that of Dr Crees who had been so badly used by the school governors and others. The first prize was awarded in 1921.

The club also organised a fund to provide and pay for a war memorial to commemorate the 58 Old Cryptians who gave their lives for their country during the Great War. The memorial was dedicated at the Crypt School in November 1921.

In 1922, the club paid one guinea for the Naylor Prize and two guineas for the Henley Prize, both of which continue to be provided by the club each year. The dinner in 1922 was held at the Spread Eagle Hotel.

At the Crypt School Speech Day in 1922, the guest of honour was The Right Hon. Viscount Haldane of Cloan, OM. He had accepted the invitation of the headmaster, D.G.Williams. Lord Haldane was Chancellor of Bristol University and Lord High Chancellor in the Government. Sir James Bruton MP, as oldest of the Old Cryptians present and a past President of the Old Cryptians' Club proposed the vote of thanks to Lord Haldane for his address.

In 1924, the club made a grant of £5 towards the establishment of a Radio Club at the school, which it continued to support for the next few years.

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

The annual dinner was again held at the Spread Eagle and the Club had 283 members. The menu at this dinner should give us food for thought. It is a typical menu for Old Cryptian dinners at that time

Soup

Thick Oxtail

Fish

Fried Fillet of Sole Hollandaise Sauce

Entrée

Shoulder of Veal York Ham Hind Quarter of Lamb Seasoning Vegetables in Season Sweets

Fruit Tart and Cream Mincepies Biscuits Cheese Celery

In 1925, the club made a grant of three guineas in order to provide the school with a photograph of T. E. Brown, to be hung in the hall. In this year, the Headmaster was to cooperate with the President and Hon. Secretary with a view to nominating some younger members for the committee!

The Mother Church of the Crypt School is St Mary de Crypt in Southgate Street, Gloucester. In that church are buried the mortal remains of the Founders of the School, John and Joan Cooke.

They were entombed in the Sanctuary of the Church by the High Altar on the North side. In 1845, their memorial brasses were removed from the tomb when the floor of the Sanctuary was raised. In 1923, the Old Cryptians' Club arranged for the brasses to be restored and placed on the north wall of the transept. Restoration was completed at the expense of the club and the brasses were unveiled in 1925. They remain there to this day.

In 1926, the membership of the Old Cryptians' Club was recorded as 228. A sports fund was formed and the first use of it was to grant E5 in order to award a cricket bat to N. E. Browning for his feat of scoring a century in a school match. In subsequent years, the club provided the school with a cricket bat for the boy with the best batting average. Many years later, the minutesreveal that Reg Hunt scored thefirst centuryfor theOld Cryptians' Cricket Club.

D. G. Williams had introduced rugby football to the school in 1923. The Greyfriars Rugby Club was founded in 1925. It consisted exclusively of Old Cryptians; the school then being situated in Greyfriars. In 1926, the Old Cryptians' Club sanctioned a grant of £5 to support the formation of the Rugby Club. In October 1926, Percy Ball proposed that the annual Past v Present rugger match be held on the same day as the Old Cryptian Club Dinner, and this was unanimously agreed. The club decided to invite the school team to the dinner as their guests.

The President, Frederick Cullis, proposed that the school song, newly composed in 1926 by the Headmaster, D. G. Williams, be sung by all present at the dinner after the Toast of the School. Mr Williams offered to provide copies for all. The dinner was held at the Spread Eagle Hotel.

At the Annual General Meeting held that year the Club Rules were amended to make all Past Presidents Life Vice Presidents of the club with the right of attending all committee meetings.

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

In 1927, the club provided the School Wireless Club with a grant of £6 in order to build a wireless set for permanent use in the school.

The suggested conditions for the use of the set were:

Set to be the property of the school under the headmaster as trustee. Committee of a master and 2 senior boys to be responsible for its use.

Annual Licence to be paid by the school.

The Greyfriars Rugger Club was given a further £5 to help provide good changing accommodation.

In 1928, the club agreed to a suggestion from the Greyfriars R.F.C that they become a section of the main club and to be known as the Old Cryptians' Rugby Football Club. The club continued to help finance the School Radio Club. The dinner was held at the Mercers Hall and Mr J. E. Barton, Headmaster of Bristol Grammar School and from 1906-1910 Headmaster of the Crypt was one of the guests. He spoke of his pride in being an Old Cryptian.

The 1929 dinner was again held at the Mercers Hall, at which Dr Crees was a guest. His appearance at school functions amply demonstrated that he did not have any quarrel with the Crypt School. His disagreements had been with governors and politicians and not with Old Cryptians.

In 1929, the Club donated E2 to Mr Keeble for the boys' gym fund.

The new Old Cryptians' Club tie and blazer were introduced. Ties to be 3 shillings and six pence and blazers to be 2 guineas each. Mr E. W. Lifton donated 100 volumes to the school library.

The problem of non-paying members is a perennial one to this day. In 1929, it was agreed to ask every member to sign a Bankers Order, making a payment of 5 shillings (25 p) on January 1st of each year. It was also agreed that non-paying Old Cryptians would not receive a copy of the "Cryptian", which cost 2 shillings and sixpence (121/2p) to produce.

The balance of the subscription was used to cover the heavy expenses, including founders' day, dinners and sports fixtures, postage etc.

1930 - 1938

In 1930, the dinner was again held in the Mercers Hall. At this dinner, the President, Lieutenant-Colonel John Atkinson O.B.E., D.S.O., T.D. announced that he had been trying recently to form a branch of the club in London. He already had 14 members and hoped to have 20. He also said that he wanted to see boys enter the club as soon as they had left school and he hoped that it might be possible to admit them at reduced fees.

The committee also decided to present a memento to each President at the conclusion of his year of office. It would take the form of the School Arms, in colour, on an oak shield. This pleasant custom continues to the present day. In 1930, 6 Old Cryptians provided cups for presentation at school speech days. Alderman C. E. Gardner and F. C. Gardner offered a challenge cup for the winning house in rugby football. Dr H. Houston-Morgan offered a cup, to be allocated to the Cricket Champions and A and P Ridsdale provided a cup for the winning house in the Swimming Championship. John Owen Roberts donated a Cup for Athletics.

The 1931 Dinner was held in Urch's Café. The Mayor of Gloucester, Mr W.R. EggIeton, regretted to say that he was not an Old Cryptian but said that his two sons had enjoyed a good education at the Crypt. They were W.V and R.O. Eggleton. During the year the club

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

agreed to provide a card, at the request of the Rector of Saint Mary de Crypt Church, describing the memorial brass to the Founders of the Crypt School. This was agreed.

The club returned to Urch's Café again in 1932 and 1933. The guest of honour in 1933 was the Rev. Dr A.V. Billen, Headmaster of Ellesmere College. He was an Old Cryptian who had been at the school under both Mr Barton and Dr Crees. Grahame Parker spoke at the dinner and was congratulated on gaining his Rugger Blue at Cambridge.

The Connaught Rooms at the Cadena Cafe was the venue for the 1934 dinner, and it was decided to hold the Annual General Meeting on the same day, instead of on different days as hitherto. Mr A.F. Watts was prevented from attending, by illness, for the first time since he joined the school in 1906. He was Head of the Junior School until his retirement in 1937.

In 1935, the club returned to the Mercers Hall for the Annual Dinner. The President congratulatedGrahame Parker on being the first Old Cryptian toget a Double Blue, Rugger and Cricket. He had also been made captain of the Cambridge University cricket XI and had received his English Rugby Trial Cap.

Later in 1935, it was decided to hold future committee meetings in the Oak Room at the Bell Hotel. It was also decided to hold the 1936 dinner at the Bell Hotel. The club decided to open a subscription list for the pending retirement of Mr D.E. Griffiths after 36 years’ service at the Crypt as Second Master. Also, in 1936 the club agreed to renovate the escutcheons bearing the school coat of arms over the gateway at the Crypt Church in Southgate Street.

The 1937 Annual General Meeting of the Club was held in the Oak Room at the Bell Hotel. G. Trevor Wellington proposed that the club should start a fund that would be available to assist Crypt boys at the Universities. At the annual dinner that year it was decided to establish an "Old Cryptians' Bursary Fund" and club members donated money to that end. Loans from the fund were to be granted, free of interest, to former pupils of the school to enable them to reside as undergraduates at university. In 1939, the scheme was extended to include all forms of after school education such as articles, apprenticeships, pupillages etc. It is of interest to note that at the annual dinner in 1937 a record number, at that time, of old Cryptians attended. 116 members turned up to honour Mr. A.F. Watts who had retired after many years, man and boy, at the school. Considering the size of the school in the pre-war years this was a remarkable turn out. In 1911, the school consisted of only 147 boys and 8 masters. In 1921, there were around 250 Boys in the school. In 1937, the club recommended a new tie design. This was approved and the fees were paid to the Jacquard card manufacturer thus entitling the club virtual ownership of the design. We continue to wear the tie to this day.

The club committee was very active in 1938 making preparations for the quatercentenary of the school and for the laying of the foundation stone of the new Crypt School buildings at Podsmead. It was suggested that Earl Baldwin or Mr Winston Churchill be invited to lay the stone. In the event, the school was honoured by royalty. The Foundation Stone of the School was laid by H.R.H the Duchess of Gloucester at the new school at Podsmead on Tuesday 4th July 1939. The Old Cryptians' Club was responsible for the invitation.

Second World War years

1939 proved to be a busy year for both club and school. Roland Austin's History of the Crypt School was published on sale for 2 shillings and 6 pence. The annual dinner was held on 7th January at the Bell Hotel. The Old Cryptians' Club helped to organise the Quatercentenary Celebrations, which were held in May. Two previous Headmasters of the School, Mr. E Barton and Dr J.H.E. Crees spoke at the School Speech Day. A Past v Present cricket match was held at the Spa cricket ground. The Old Cryptians' Club held a

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

dinner at the Bell Hotel The guest of honour at the dinner was Lord Dickinson KBE., PC., of Painswick. Dr Crees also spoke at the dinner. He proposed the health of "the governors” saying that he thought that a school which had a governing body which took a personal interest in the individuality of the school was far better than one which had no governing body at all. But he urged the governors of the Crypt School to be real governors and if ever a fight for existence should arise, he hoped they would fight very hard for the school. Dr Finlay, Chairman of the Governors, responding, said he had learned a lot that evening which would be useful to the governors, and they would be more proud to be governors of such a school.

In 1939 the Dean of Gloucester, the Very Reverend Dr H. Costley-White (188688) was elected President of the Club. It was an office that he was to hold until 1953. Dr CostleyWhite was a former Headmaster at Westminster School, Liverpool College and Bradfield School. He had also been a Master at Rugby and Sherborne Schools. When he retired as Dean of Gloucester in 1953, he was made Dean Emeritus of Gloucester Cathedral. At the beginning of the war, it was decided to maintain all club officials in post for the duration of hostilities and this was extended during the post war years. It was also decided not to hold any annual dinners until economic conditions in the country justified holding such events.

In 1940, an application was received from a former pupil for a loan from the Bursary Fund. The applicant stated that he had been successful in obtaining an engineering cadetship in the Royal Navy and he wished to know if he might borrow £50. The committee agreed to lend the money with repayment in equal instalments of £16-13s-4d over 3 years, the first of these being payable a year after the date that the candidate became a midshipman. He was later to achieve high rank in the Royal Navy and he continues to be an active supporter of the Old Cryptians' Club. He has recently assured me that the loan was repaid in full. This sounds much better than present day student grants!

In 1942, the committee decided that cigarettes should be sent to Old Cryptian prisoners of war at frequent intervals. The expense was reimbursed as a result of a direct appeal to members. Mr A.L.C. Smith took on the responsibility of sending the cigarettes to Old Cryptian Prisoners of War and for writing letters to them. It was also agreed that, in future, wreaths should be sent on the death of a past President, Old Cryptians buried in England but killed on active service and in any other circumstances that the President and Hon. secretary might approve.

The Headmaster is always a member of the club committee and Mr D.G. Williams invariably attended the meetings. Early in 1944, Mr Williams reported to the Committee that he had been able to obtain some original Henley manuscripts including some of the poet's notebooks. The committee, on behalf of the club, decided to buy the manuscripts from the headmaster for £15 and then to grant them to the Crypt School on permanent loan. A vote of thanks was passed to Mr Williams for his kind offer.

In December 1944, Mr Percy Ball retired. He had been a pupil at the school from 19111919 and a master for 21 years from 1923-1944. At a special meeting of the club, he was presented with a photograph of the old school at Friar's Orchard, three volumes of Winston Churchill's "Life of Marlborough" and a cheque for 100 guineas. He was also elected as an Honorary Life Member of the Club.

In 1945 the Committee reported a gift from W. Bailey of a pen and ink sketch, by George Belcher (1887-92), of J.G. Howarth, a former Crypt master. Mr Belcher had recently been elected as a Royal Academician. It was agreed to frame the sketch and present it to the school.

After the Second World War, the club also decided to provide a war memorial Tablet in memory of 77 Old Cryptians who had given their lives during the war. 49 had served in the

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

RAF, 16 in the army, 9 in the Royal Navy and 3 were civilians. It was commissioned from Messrs R.E. and C. Marshall of Cheltenham who had supplied the 1914-19 tablet. It was agreed to appeal for a sum of £200 to cover expenses and within a few days, the old boys and parents magnificently subscribed double that amount. The school governors gave their formal approval to the placing of the new war memorial tablet in the main entrance vestibule of the school. The memorial was installed in May 1949, a further demonstration of the bond between Old Boys and the school.

1945 - 1949

In 1945, the club agreed that an attempt should be made to re-start the Old Cryptians' Rugby Club and that a grant not exceeding £7-10s-0d be made for that purpose.

The London branch was founded in 1947 and affiliated to the main club with Dr L.J. Murdoch elected as secretary. Their first dinner was held on the 13th December 1947 at the Red Lion, Old Street, London, EC1. 14 members attended. The President, the Very Reverend Dr H. Costley-White said that the London branch would be a source of strength to the club, and this has proved to be the case.

In the same year, 1947, a few cricket matches were arranged by members of the rugby club who then suggested that an Old Cryptians' cricket club be formed. The committee was in unanimous agreement and the club gave their approval.

The president, Dr. Costley-White, generously offered to pay the rent of four guineas for the ground in Estcourt Road for the inaugural season of 1948. The Old Cryptians Club made a grant of £20 to the Cricket Club.

The main club supported the establishment of rugby and cricket clubs and was responsible for encouraging the formation of the London Old Cryptians' Club. The committee generously supported these organisations, and they were accorded affiliated status within the main club. In the early days, the club granted money, from year to year, to help with their running costs.

In 1948, the club presented Mr J.K. (Dan) Fletcher with a radiogram on his retirement after 31 years as senior mathematical teacher at the school and second master under the Headmastership of Mr D.G. Williams for 12 years.

In 1949, the headmaster reported that it was necessary to print new Founders' Day service sheets and the club agreed to pay for two- fifths of the expense.

In 1949, a further grant of £16-14s-6d was made to the Cricket Club. In 1950, the club lent the cricket club £60 in order to purchase a motor mower. Grants of money were also made to the London branch up until 1952.

1950 - 1959

The next dinner following the quatercentenary dinner of 1939 was held at the Bell Hotel, Southgate Street, in 1950. The Earl of Bathurst was the guest of honour. However, Founders' Day continued to be celebrated annually. The headmaster, Mr D.G. Williams, had instituted Founders' Day as an event about 1925.

In 1950, the headmaster D.G. Williams and the sports master Mr W.H. Keeble retired and the club opened subscription lists for them both.

The Golden Jubilee Dinner was held on Saturday, 13th January 1951 at the Bell Hotel. 85 members sat down to tables decorated with daffodils and tulips in the school colours. The President, the Very Reverend Dr H. Costley-White (1886-88), Dean of Gloucester, was in

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

the chair and was supported by four founder members who had been at the inaugural dinner in 1901. The new Headmaster, Colin Ewan, was present and the President assured him that he would always have the loyal and active support of the club in all his undertakings.

The Annual General Meeting of the Club was held at the New Inn on 9th May 1951. This was Fifty years after the inaugural dinner of the Old Cryptians' Club, held at the New Inn, Gloucester on 9th May 1901.

In 1953, the school grounds had been enclosed and the school governors asked that the club should provide a pair of ornamental War Memorial entrance gates, as promised at the Annual General Meeting in 1950. The club agreed to do so and expressed the hope that the school governors would provide pillars and railings in keeping with the design of the gates. The gates were commissioned from Mr F.E. Banks, a craftsman in iron of Westonbirt, for £150. The gates were to be known as The War Memorial Gates as the money was taken from the War Memorial Fund. The Headmaster later confirmed that the governors would provide suitable brick pillars at a cost of about £50. The gates were hung in the summer of 1954 and the Headmaster of the Crypt School thanked the club. The following year the club was presented with a demand from the City Treasury for the cost of providing the brick pillars! This request was repudiated with "a felicitous reply" from the Club Treasurer and no more was heard of this demand.

Letters were exchanged between the club and the London branch in 1953 concerning the affiliated status of the London branch. A problem had arisen as Old Cryptians living in the London area wished to be part of the London Old Cryptians' Club but not necessarily to be members of the Old Cryptians' Club. The question was whether the London Old Boys could continue to be an affiliated society of the main club and to be legally entitled to call themselves "London Old Cryptians' Club" if they were not members of the main club.

If they were not to be so entitled, they offered to return the grant that they had received in 1952. The legal position was explained to the London branch. They were also informed that even if they did not remain affiliated there would not be any need for them to refund the grant that they had received. It was the sincere hope of the committee that affiliation would continue.

In 1954, a letter was received from the Hon Secretary of the London Old Cryptians' club. The committee of that body had unanimously agreed that the London OCC should remain an affiliated society of the parent club. It was agreed that only full members of the parent club should be allowed to vote at their annual general meeting or hold office in the London Club and they expressed their gratitude at not having to return the grant of money made in 1952. This has remained the position ever since those times to the mutual benefit of both clubs.

In 1953 the Club President, the Very Reverend Dr H. Costley-White informed the Club that he was retiring from the office of Dean of Gloucester. Ecclesiastical etiquette would then forbid him from visiting the City of Gloucester for at least twelve months. He therefore could not offer himself for re-election as President of the Old Cryptians' Club.

At the Annual General Meeting that year Dr. Costley-White was unanimously elected an Honorary Life Member of the Club. He had held office as President from 1939-1953. The club then agreed to revert to the old practice of electing an annual president, which had always been the custom except for the period of the two world wars.

In 1954, the Bursary Fund was wound up because it no longer served any useful purpose after the 1944 Education Act.

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

The Club Dinner in 1956 was held in January at the New Inn. A telegram was received from J.W. Hipwood who had been at the school from 1886-1890. He had just joined the club at the age of 78 years. It is never too late to join the old Cryptians' club!

1956 also saw the retirement of Mr E.R. Maude who came to the Crypt in 1921 and Mr T.B. Askew who came in 1940. It was unanimously agreedthat subscriptionlists be opened so that presentations might be made to these two masters.

Mr Horace Edwards, school games master, approached the committee in 1958 with a request for financial assistance towards the expenses of the school rugger team competing in the Public Schools' Seven-a-Side Tournament at Richmond. The Hon Treasurer advised that the finances of the club were not sufficiently strong for a grant to be made. However, Dougie Dawe and Stan Davis and other members of the Old Cryptians' Rugby Club present, felt sure that their committee would be pleased to help. It was later reported that the Old Cryptians' RUFC had made a generous grant to enable the school to compete in the Public Schools Seven-a-Side Tournament at Richmond. The rugby club continued to help fund the school team in the years to come.

The School team had entered this tournament in April 1950, which had been the first time since 1945.

1960 - 1969

It was mooted in 1960 that an Old Cryptians' lawn tennis club should be formed. The club decided to wait and see if there were enough enthusiasts to form such a club. One member pointed out that "ladies could not be members of an Old Cryptian Club". If a mixed club was envisaged, he "foresaw grave difficulties on both constitutional and social grounds"! 4 years later it was proposed that ladies should be invited to the Founders' Day luncheon. Discussion revealed some differences of opinion among members of the committee. One military member suggested that "so startling an innovation might well be referred to the Annual General Meeting." This course met with unanimous approval! However, at the AGM in 1964 approval to invite ladies to the Founders' Day luncheon was carried without dissent.

In 1962 Mr J.T. Whiteley (1921-62) retired after more than 40 years as Modern Languages master at the school. He had been Deputy Headmaster for the previous 15 years. The Old Cryptians organised a testimonial fund for him and the sum of £131-11s-6d was raised from club members.

In the same year, the Reverend T.J. Curtis (1943-50) presented the school with a copy of "The Faith of One God" by John Biddle, who had been Headmaster of the Crypt School (1641-1645). The book had been printed in 1691. The school librarian asked for help in binding the book at a cost of E3-5s-9p. The rugby and cricket clubs agreed to give one guinea each and it was unanimously agreed that the club should pay the balance of £l-3s9d

In 1963 the rector of St Mary de Crypt asked the club to consider the replacement of the framed card at the church describing the memorial brass to the Founders of the School by a more permanent bronze plaque with cream enamel lettering. The original card, now very much the worse for wear, had been given by the club in 1931. The Hon. Secretary consulted with E.A. Leah who had calculated the cost of such a plaque at £13-10s-0d. On his own responsibility the Hon Secretary of the Club had asked E.A. Leah to place an order and the Hon. Secretary said that he hoped for the backing of the committee. The Hon Treasurer said that the provision of such a sum out of club funds was out of the question at present! After discussion it was proposed that the cost be met by gifts from the committee. The President and seven other members present immediately made contributions to cover the cost.

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

1966 saw a further co-operation between club and school. It was thought that the school grounds were rather bare and an appeal was made to club members, which resulted in the donation, then and later, of many trees.

In 1966, the school governors agreed to provide the school with a sports pavilion, which would not be ready for use for about 2 years. The committee agreed that it would launch an appeal for funds to furnish the pavilion but even before a fund could be launched, the treasurer had received over £100 from two members of the club.

In October 1966 the London Old Cryptians' Club organised a dinner, which was held at the House of Lords hosted by Lord Collinson (1923-26). Harold Collinson was General Secretary of the TUC in 1953 and its Chairman in 1964.

In 1967 the retirement of Mr. A.L.C. Smith (1911-21), after nearly 38 years as master at the school, was announced. He had been appointed in January 1930 and remained at the Crypt until he retired in July 1967, at which time he was Deputy Headmaster. He had been Honorary Treasurer of the Club for 14 years and Honorary Secretary for 23 years. Mr Smith was unanimously elected President for 1967-68 and the proposition that Mr A.L.C. Smith be made an Honorary Life Member was unanimously accepted.

Other retirements concerned Mr H.E. Dawes, 36 years’ service, Mr L.G. Beddis, 22 years’ service and Mr Bernard Jones, 15 years’ service. It was decided unanimously to open testimonial funds for all of the retiring teachers.

In subsequent years, the club raised testimonials for retiring masters including such long serving masters as Messrs A.C. Paget and A. W. Walton.

The following year Mr A.C. Paget was also made an Honorary Life Member.

1970 - 2000

In his presidential year of 1970, Arthur Brinsford set in motion a chain of events that culminated in the provision of a pipe organ for the school. Such a project had first been suggested as a quatercentenary gift from the club in 1939 but never came to fruition until after Arthur's initiative.

In 1986, the club agreed to pay for the re-painting of the heraldic shields at St Mary de Crypt Church.

In 1974, the club held a dinner at St Catherine's College, Cambridge. At that time, there were many Old Cryptian undergraduates in residence at Cambridge. The following year it was held at Emmanuel College where Dr Derek Brewer (35-41) was Master and the dinner was held annually at Emmanuel until Dr Brewer's retirement as Master in 1990.

In 1986, Roger Phelps (42-47) made a large and magnificent painting of that year's dinner at Emmanuel. He donated it to the School where it now hangs in the crush hall. After Derek Brewer's retirement as Master of Emmanuel the club decided to change venue and a dinner was arranged at Pembroke College, Oxford in 1992. An Old Cryptian dinner has been held at Pembroke every year since that time.

In 1987, a club dinner was held at Birmingham University, hosted by Ronnie Gulliford (1931-38), Professor of Special Education at the University and 17 Old Cryptians attended. Dinners have also been held in Liverpool and between the wars, dinners were held, from time to time, by Old Cryptians up at Oxford and Cambridge.

In 1989, the club held a dinner at the school to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the foundation of the School. Over 300 members attended which record number helped to restore the Club's financial position.

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

As part of the 450th celebrations, the club made a large donation to the memorial of George Whitefield to be erected at St Mary de Crypt Church. The club also paid for the cleaning and re-hanging of the war memorial plaques in the school crush hall.

In 1989, it was decided to have a chain of office for the President, consisting of a ribbon holding brass bars engraved with the name and year of all Presidents. Past Presidents subscribed £400 towards the cost and the Club added £250. It has proved to be a great success, but the chain has now become too heavy for old men to wear and in future the presidential bars from the club's first century will be kept in a separate presentation box. A new chain of office has been made, commencing with the first President of the 21st Century, John Mitchell (1949-53).

At the Pembroke Dinner in 1993, assembled members contributed £200 towards the restoration of W.E. Henley's tomb monument at the Church of St John the Baptist, Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire. He is buried there, together with his only child Margaret, who was the inspiration for Wendy in J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. The foundation of the monument was strengthened, and the stone and bronze work cleaned. A list of contributors is in the Church. At the Oxford Dinner in 1999 members collected £325 for Imperial Cancer Research.

The London Old Cryptian's Club also holds an annual dinner, usually in October, at which all Old Cryptians are made very welcome. In 1999 and 2000 the dinner was held at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, organised by its Chief Clerk, IanWilliamson (1947-54). The dinner in 2001 was again held at this historic venue on Saturday, 20th October 2001. The guest speaker was the Lieutenant Governor of the hospital, Major-General Ronnie Hall, who will speak on the history of the Royal Hospital. This will be the final Old Cryptian dinner to be held at the hospital because Ian is due to resign from his position this year.

In 1997, at the request of the committee, Roger Phelps produced 2 delightful drawings of A.L.C. Smith and A.C. Paget, which he presented to the school. These now hang in the crush hall at the school.

1998 saw 18 Old Cryptians at the Cenotaph Parade in Whitehall on Remembrance Sunday. This was the first time that Old Cryptians had marched as a group at this parade. The only qualification for participation in the parade is for the Old Cryptian to have served in the Armed Forces of the Crown. The parade has been attended by Old Cryptians again in 1999 and 2000. At the parade in November 2000 the commentator David Dimbleby referred to the sacrifice made by Old Cryptians during both World Wars.

The Old Cryptians' Club presented an honours board to the school in the year 2000 which contained the names of all those Old Cryptians who had gained international honours at sport, whilst at school or later. The board cost the Old Cryptians' Club about £600.

A few years ago, an Old Cryptian noticed a need for furnishings in the Headmasters' study. He anonymously arranged for the study to be fully carpeted. In my day at school, the Headmaster did the "carpeting", as I found out to my cost in my first two days at the Crypt!

The year 2000 also saw the club have its own web site on the Internet. This will prove to be invaluable for the club in this new century. It offers the prospect of instant contact between Old Cryptians on a worldwide basis. Our thanks are due to Brian Jones (194553) who set it up in his presidential year.

The address is simply www.oldcryptians.org and the email address is webmaster@oldcryptians.org

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

Centenary year 2001

The first event of the Clubs' Centenary Year was a dinner held at Pembroke College, Oxford on Thursday 4th January 2001 when 43 Members attended, and 17 members sent their apologies. The Crypt School has a long association with Pembroke because of the now defunct Townsend Scholarship.

OCC Ladies

Tony Coates was the Club President in 1982-1983. He had been a constant and loyal supporter of the club and school. He also organised the London club for many years. Whenever he attended the annual dinner in Gloucester his wife, Ann, accompanied him. She would meet with her friends and they would come to the school to collect their husbands at the end of the evening. Ann suggested that a Ladies dinner be held in Gloucester at the time of the annual dinner. In this way, the wives would get to know each other. This idea was taken up and acted on. The first dinner was held in Tony's presidential year and was organised by Joan Russell and Jill Holmes, wife of the headmaster. Old Cryptian widows were also invited, and this has proved a valuable link to maintain. The dinner proved to be a great success and continues to this day. The responsibility for arranging the event now falls to the home president's wife for two years as it is difficult for it to be organised from outside Gloucester. The dinners have been held in local restaurants and on two occasions at the home of a President. When David Brazington was President, the dinner was held at the Old Crypt School Room at St Mary de Crypt, where he was Rector. All Old Cryptian wives and widows are made very welcome, and details are now sent out with the annual notices.

In 1990 Miss Jennifer Miles became the first lady member of the Old Cryptians' Club. Has this event changed her life? Perhaps she could write to the Secretary and bring us up to date.

Supporting the school

The club dinners are an echo of the first recorded Old Cryptian dinner in 1760 and help keep Old Cryptians from all over the world in touch with each other.

A very important function of the club has been to support the school in its fight for survival against the levellers. Even before the Second World War, the school harboured doubts about the intentions of the local authority and these doubts seem to have been fuelled by the fact that the Crypt School was to be moved out of town to make way for a "Technical School." Boys at school, including Derek Brewer - a future President of the Club, wrote indignant letters to the "Citizen". There were clearly murmurings against a grammar school type of education. Speaking in 1945 A.L.C. Smith wondered how the 1944 Education Act would affect the school. The club had written letters to the governors on this matter and the headmaster, D.G. Williams opined that he did not think the "passing vagaries" of politicians would change the school itself.

At the annual dinner in 1950 D.G. Williams again spoke out on the issue of the grammar schools. He criticised the "Un-English and unhealthy plan to combine modern schools with grammar schools". He also referred to an "attack on grammar schools due to pettiness and jealousy." The Earl of Bathurst, guest of honour at the dinner, in proposing the toast of "Floreat Schola Cryptiensis" fully supported the Headmaster. At the Club dinner in 1956, the guest of honour was Professor Rawlinson of Bristol University who also spoke out strongly against the pernicious nonsense of the ideas of levelling down education.

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

The battle continued over the next four decades. At every turn there are politicians doing their utmost to abolish the grammar schools. Pettiness and envy persist to this day. The Old Cryptians' Club has been tenacious in its support of the grammar schools and of the Crypt in particular. Their efforts were greatly aided by Michael Holmes, Headmaster from 1969-1990. In 1993, the club honoured him for his efforts when he was made an Honorary Life Member of the Club and was subsequently elected as Club President in 1998.

The question can now be put. Has the Old Cryptians' Club lived up to its ideals and expectations? It is for you to judge.

The Old Cryptians' Club holds records of all Committee meetings since 1901. These are of immense value to the historian, showing that over all the years generations of Old Cryptians have always been most generous to their school and to their school fellows. Perhaps we can now better appreciate the efforts put in by hundreds of outstanding Old Cryptians over the last century on our behalf. Your support is needed now as never before. The battle is never won. Join the club. Write for the magazine. Keep in touch. Write to Helena Cornish, our secretary and membership coordinator.

May the same spirit of belonging continue to appeal to Old Cryptians of all periods for evermore.

It has been a great privilege for me to have known Old Cryptians who were at school in the last quarter of the 19th century right through to present day Old Cryptians, some of whom I helped to deliver into this world. The club is safe and in good hands and all Old Cryptians are asked to support the School and Club into the next century.

Vivat Schola Cryptiensis

Dr Graham Russell (1944-1952)

Acknowledgements and sources.

 Old Cryptian Club minute books 1901-2000.

 Henley tomb photograph from Dr Damian Atkinson.

 The Crypt School, Gloucester, 1539-1989 (Charles Lepper)

 Gloucester Alehouses (Arthur Dodd & Philip Moss)

 Jill Harvey and my wife Joan, for reading and correcting proofs.

Officers of the Club

Old Cryptonians 1901-1907

PRESIDENT 1901-06

Hon Secretaries

1901 1902-06

Hon Treasurer

1901- 06

The Reverend Christopher Naylor

Lindsay Vears

MP MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR GLOUCESTER

Walter Hyett Madge HONORARY FREEMAN MAYOR OF GLOUCESTER

J.G.Wishbourne SHERIFF OF GLOUCESTER

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

Old Cryptians 1912 to Present Presidents

1912 Sir James Bruton MP (1918-23)

1913-19

1920

1921

1922

Harry Warner Grimes

John Owen Roberts

Charles Edward Gardner JP

Walter Hyett Madges

1923 John William Bayley

1924 Har Owen Roberts

1925

Thomas Bernard James

1926 Frederick E. CuIlis

1927 Clement E. Gardner

1928

1929

1930

Charles Donnington-Smith

Lieutenant-Colonel John Atkinson OBE, DSO, TD

George F. Baker

1931 H.A. Pearce

1932

1933

Rienzi A. Smart

Etheridge Minchin

1934 Frank Coppen Garnder

1935

1936

Gilbert Trevor Wellington C.B.E

Colonel Henry Collett CMG, TD, JP

1937 Dr Howard Houlston-Morgan

1938

1939-53

1953-54

1954-55

1955-56

1956-57

1957-58

1958-59

1959-60

1960-61

1961-62

William Fellows Marvin

The Very Reverend H. Costley-White

Falconer Moffatt Birks CBE

Group Captain Thomas Vaughan Lister

Professor Humphrey D F Kitto

Clarence John Cullis

Harold William Etkins OBE

Herbert Wilson Collier JP

Leslie Smith

Percy William Stanley Aas

Samuel Percy Ball

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

Presidents

1962-63

1963-64

1964-65

1965-66

1966-67

1967-68

1968-69

1969-70

1970-71

1971-72

1972-73

1973-74

1974-75

1975-76

1976-77

1977-78

1978-79

1979-80

1980-81

1981-82

1982-83

1983-84

1984-85

1985-86

1986-87

1987-88

1988-89

1989-90

1990-91

1991-92

1992-93

1993-94

1994-95

George John Whitfield

John Ralph Harding

Gordon Henry Williams

Peter Charles Bayley

The Reverend John Eric Gethyn-Jones MBE, TD

Alfred Lionel Charles Smith

S. Douglas Colwell OBE

Derek B Evans

Arthur Brinsford

Clifford G Whiting

Richard M Du dale

John C Hiram

Dr S Brewer

F Douglas Dawe

Michael Howe

William Evans

Eddie Norris DSM

Ron Tile

Charles Hill

William V. Eggleton

Ton J Coates

Colin Sibery

Ray Naish

Dennis V Mundy

John Hawkes

John Rigbb

Marcus Bayley

Sidney Humphries

John Harvey

Roger Phelps

Dr Graham Russell

Gordon Jones

The Reverend David Brazington

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

Presidents

1995-96

1996-97

1997-98

1998-99

1999-2000

2000-01

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

010-11

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

2016-17

2017-18

2018-19

Ton Little

Roger Davis

Alan Humphries

Michael Holmes JP

Brian Jones

John B. Mitchell

Ian Williamson

Mike Cass

Howard Allen

Peter Butler

Reg Hunt

Greg Barton

Peter Hobbs

Paul James

John Goodridge

Eric Stephens

Ivor Smith

Clive Thomas

John Hughes

Richard Browning

Richard Briggs

Bob Timms

Charlie Hannaford

Jason Smith

2019-21 Adam Ashby

2021-22

2022-24

Steve Knibbs

Simon Smith

2024-2025 Matt Cass

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

THE OLD CRYPTIANS’ CENTENARY BURSARY FUND 2001

All donations to the Bursary fund are appreciated as the main aim remains to be selfsufficient by matching the level of expenditure with the necessary income to maintain current student awards. Banking data are as follows: Account name OC Bursary Fund; Sort Code 40-52-40; Account no 00010216.

Bursary update Trustees

Richard Browning has now stood down from the role of Chair of Trustees after a very decent innings – our thanks go to him, not just for his chairmanship but also for hosting meetings at his house with tea and biscuits for sustenance. Richard remains a valued trustee of the Fund.

Adam Ashby now takes on the chairmanship and will be ably supported by Richard Briggs and Clive Thomas.

Clive Thomas remains as Treasurer with Richard Briggs and Mike Beard as trustees.

Financial Position

Clive has been analysing the existing holdings and the current market and has now distributed funds according to best rates, availability and disbursement needs.

Additional movement will happen to maximise the return on the Gold Instant account, leaving sufficient funds available to distribute the 2024 Bursaries and any additional emergent bursaries.

We expect to receive a little over £2000 from regular donors and with the improved interest rates we are in a very positive, and self-sustaining, position with some flexibility for additional disbursements.

Bursary awards 2024

SIXTH FORM

Beau Allen-Bowdery (Y12) - to support his high daily attendance costs.

Christopher Barnes (Y12) - a great start to Y12 with a combined fantastic effort and VA grades.

Ezra Starkey (Y12) - a great start to Y12 with a combined fantastic effort and VA grades.

ART / MUSIC / DRAMA

Drama Jai Skerrit (Y9) - Jai has been a true asset to the drama department for three years. Jai has taken part in every production and has developed his writing and director skills this year. The world premiere of Jai's first theatrical script Tally Up The Dead went very well indeed.

Music Aleksia Atanasova (Y10) - Aleksia is a very talented musician who plays the violin to a high standard. She is hoping to have a career in music, as a performer. This bursary award will help provide funds towards the cost of violin tuition. Aleksia is eager to work towards Grade 8 in the next two years. We wish Aleksia all the very best wishes for her future career in music.

Art Joshua Woolerton 10JC - Josh is studying GCSE art and has been outstanding at listening to feedback to develop and extend his skill set. Josh is very keen to grow as a young artist which means he is a regular in the art room at lunchtimes working on his studies. He has worked really hard to develop his analytical skill but is also exploring a more contemporary skill set using marker pens and his ipad to draw with for example. This comes with a significant financial cost and so the bursary would not only reward Josh for his sustained effort this academic year but facilitate further growth via funding more materials for Josh to explore.

TECHNOLOGY / ENGINEERING

Joshua Owusu (Y12) - Joshua has made an exceptional contribution to the F1 in Schools development team this year. He has driven innovation and improvements with his work ethic. Joshua has played a leading role in our STEM Society by delivering engaging sessions to fellow students to develop their engineering and enterprise skills. Joshua is always team-focussed and encourages others. Despite some logistical challenges this year Joshua has always been determined to prioritise his education and should be commended. I am so proud of how hard Joshua works and I have no doubt will continue to dedicate himself next year and in his future life.

Jack Bywater (Y12) - Jack has made a truly significant contribution to the F1 in Schools professional team this year. His work ethic is to be praised. He has ensured the development and use of technology is implemented in the design of the car. Jack played a leading role with his contributions to the Lego Robotics Society, supporting younger students. Jack is positive and determined while being an excellent and supportive team member. I am proud of his achievements and look forward to hearing of future successes.

SPORTS AWARDS

Thea Gooch (Y12) – Handball - Thea first started playing handball in Year 9 and 10 with the school team who reached the national finals. From finding the game in school she then joined Stroud Handball and more recently Bristol Handball to compete in the U16 and now U19 national league respectively. More recently Thea has been selected for the U19 National Team Academy programme and she is now pushing for national team selection competing with players 2 years older than her. Alongside playing at one of the highest levels for handball in the country she is also developing her coaching and refereeing and is now supporting the PE department with handball club and the school teams.

Charlie Aldred (Y8) Padel - Charlie started playing the increasingly popular sport of Padel in September 2023. Already being a county tennis player, the hand eye coordination and quick reactions needed for the sport were already in place. So with some excellent coaching each week at The East Gloucestershire Club, Charlie has learnt the more technical and tactical aspects of the sport to enable him to become a competitive player.

He has played tournaments all over the country and his success has seen him rise to number 10 in Great Britain for his age. He is hoping to be selected for the National squad following a trial in May, which may possibly take him to tournaments around the world.

OTHER

The bursary received a request for funding to enable a high performing pupil to travel on the combined rugby/netball tour to South Africa in summer 2025. We were very pleased to provide £1000 towards costs for Ella Crowley. Ella is on the England Pathway and represents the South West at U16 level despite only being 13 years old. The school will match our contribution and Ella will continue to raise money herself to make up the difference.

Ella writes

Dear Trustees,

Receiving the news that I am now able to join my team on the SA trip, is incredible.

I have been involved in many team sports outside of school, including netball, hockey, rugby and football, since I was very young. I was excelling in both football and netball and had to choose one direction as my netball was really taking off. Playing at such a high level has made me grow as a person and I've developed so much in confidence and resilience.

I am so grateful for your very generous support, enabling me to attend this trip. Truthfully, without this, I think I would have been unable to participate. To take my netball internationally is a dream and I know I will represent Crypt well.

I am now working hard with a few fundraising opportunities to raise the remaining money. We are washing a company's lorries, washing teachers' cars, hosting a year 7 disco and selling ice creams in the summer. In addition, three of us are looking into completing the 3 peak challenge (Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon) in 24 hours! We hope this will raise money, not just to support my trip, but also to fund the kit of the entire netball team.

Once again, thank you so much for your support and I look forward to telling you all about my experience on my return.

Yours sincerely,

Ella Crowley.

Strategy

The trustees continue to look at the future of the fund and how we best manage disbursements and income. We are fortunate to be in a period of relatively high interest rates which enables us to be more flexible with bursaries, however, this must be done in a sustainable way and ensure that our current affluence does not become a future expectation.

The 1539 Society

The 1539 Society honours alumni and friends of the Crypt school who since inauguration in 2001 have been benefactors of the Bursary Fund. Membership of donors is acknowledged with the presentation of a special lapel badge and signed certificate. Currently there are 90 active individual donors in the scheme. Present Trustees are Adam Ashby (Chairman) Richard Browning, Clive Thomas (Treasurer), Mike Beard and Richard Briggs.

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

Full details of the OC Bursary Fund is on the club website www.oldcryptians.org

Details of how to make regular donations or leave a bequest in your will can be obtained from the treasurer, Clive Thomas whose contact details are:-

Email: clive@clive-thomas.co.uk

Extended support

Apart from Standing orders and Donations made to the Bursary Fund, further valuable support can be provided by means of a gift through a Will by adding a Codicil. The Bursary as a Charity pays no tax on gifts and furthermore your estate will benefit by reducing the amount liable for Inheritance tax. This may be carried out with the help of a Solicitor or by drawing up your own codicil by stating the following:-

I give…….Pounds(£) to the Old Cryptians Club Centenary Fund Registered Charity No 1094627)

Further details can be provided by our treasurer, Clive Thomas.

OBITUARIES

R.C. ‘Richard’ Abraham [1953-1961]

Richard died on 29th February 2024, aged 83.

Richard was a proud Cryptian, a richly talented and accomplished scholar, actor, teacher, author and raconteur.

Richard’s family moved to Gloucester in the early 1940s when his father took employment in the aircraft industry where he was also an ardent Trade Unionist. Richard never lost his father’s commitment to the quest for the extension of social justice in British society.

Richard was educated in Coney Hill Primary School prior to his admission to the Crypt. At that time, he was one of a few boys, resident in Coney Hill, who were successful in the 11+ scholarship before proceeding to Podsmead. Richard often told his version of ‘running the gauntlet’ on his homeward journey when he adopted the precaution of hiding from view his cap and blazer. His action shielded him occasionally from the hostile comments of his peers.

Richard was a student high intelligence and motivation. He won academic prizes at school and in 1960 was awarded a State Scholarship and the Richmond Exhibition to read history at Downing College, Cambridge.

Beyond the classroom Richard was editor of The Cryptian, a School Prefect, and above all, an outstanding member of the galaxy of fine actors who with the unique direction of Charles Lepper, performed in many memorable Shakespearean performances. Richard excelled, for example, in the roles of Sir Toby Belch and Gloucester in King Lear.

In 1964 Richard graduated in history and then taught at Kansas State University in the U.S.A. and The University of East Anglia where he gained an M.A. in Russian History. For many years Richard was an outstanding Head of History and Social Sciences in the large non-selective Graveney School in the Home Counties.

Richard made his mark with some fine writing. Not least there was his acclaimed ‘Alexander Kerensky, First Love of the Revolution’, ‘The Making of Modern Russia’ and a biography of ‘Rosa Luxemburg.’

Ridhard also wrote a richly entertaining autobiography - ‘A Cat crept into the Crypt: Memories of a Gloucester Youth’. He embellished Charles Lepper’s history with a stream of witty and perceptive comments on personalities he encountered during his school days at the Crypt. These inputs are well worth reading.

I was fortunate to be in Richard’s company from time to time when his wonderful sense of humour and vibrant and informed conversation held sway. He was a person of exceptional all-round talents and warm personality, and the holder of a diverse range of moral and social values.

Richard during the latter part of his retirement years was nursed with great love and skill by his wife, Evadney, to whom on behalf of the Cub I extend our condolences in her loss.

HOWARD ALLEN [1947-1955] 20th March 2024.

A Past President and Past Editor of The Cryptian.

Gene

Burgham

It’s difficult to know how to describe Gene Burgham, who died on 8th July. A “tour de force” goes some way to cover it. Whilst I remember her as the head’s PA during the 80s, that title hardly does justice to the role she played at the school.

These days, the Crypt and all other schools have some form of Pastoral care within their governance structure. It’s probably fair to say that Gene played that role at the Crypt (as well as many others), before anyone realised schools actually needed it, in a way that would defy the demands and strictures of current times.

For that reason, she is remembered fondly by thousands for former pupils and was also an honorary member of the Old Cryptian’s Club

JOHN BRAMLEY (1950-1959)

John’s school friends to whom I have talked all use similar words to describe him – able, intelligent, generous, humorous, calm, modest.

Our fathers worked together quite closely but although both John and I were educated and shaped by the Crypt, over a year’s age difference meant that we got to know each other much better at St Catharine’s Youth Club in Denmark Road where a lot of Cryptians as well as girls from Denmark Road School then also came to chat, pass the time and amongst other things, learn to dance. There, John first met Judith whom he married after he graduated in Classics from Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge in 1962.

John’s all-round capability had already been recognised by Headmaster Colin Ewan who made him Head Prefect and he had developed his skills in hockey which he carried on at Cambridge and even later in Holland. John also maintained a keen interest in Old Cryptian events, generously supporting the restoration of the school room at St Mary de Crypt as well very recently donating substantial support for a project being developed to give digital access to the school history recorded in over a century of Cryptian magazines - somewhat ironically when he himself would not indulge in the whole apparatus of lap tops or Google but, typically, could see that nevertheless the technology would open past years of achievement and success to present generations , an action typical both of his generosity and his vision.

Whilst still at Sydney Sussex, with the late Lester Hunt (1949-57) who also was there but as a scientist, John and I drove to Istanbul in a somewhat dilapidated 1938 Ford V 8 estate through what in those post war years was still closed Iron Curtain territory and far from the tourist mecca it has become. It was a blow when we found that John’s ancient Greek was unknown in the modern Greece, but he had grown a luxuriant beard which persuaded the Orthodox that he was a trainee priest and opened many hospitable doors to us impecunious students. We visited amazing classical sites as well as absorbing an Istanbul which was then not yet of this age. This lit a shared interest that we continued ever afterwards.

From Cambridge, John joined the oil giant Shell-Mex and BP in London where he efficiently and assiduously swiftly qualified as an accountant. Alan (1951-58) and Mary Watts remember John with baby Damon balanced on one arm and his accountancy notes on the other composedly offering them every hospitality. That reassuring competence and diligence helped him to climb steadily through the hierarchy of BP becoming, via his role as Chief Accountant, finally the Finance Manager for BP Exploration with worldwide responsibilities.

We holidayed together – the Lake District, Ireland, Spain, Austria and Italy at least as I can remember before the children, Damon and Rachel, intervened. During this period, John

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

and Judith bought Shepherds Cottage in Northbourne in Kent and there we spent many traditional country weekends – damp, cold and miserable on the Friday night, almost warm and cosy on the Saturday and a reluctant return ready for the realities of work on the Sunday but always full of generous entertainment and hospitality. When John was posted to Holland, we looked after the cottage which directly led to us now having an important stake nearby.

John and all the family returned to London in 1978 where John developed his passion for gardening, later translated to the restoration of the 16thC house at Hayes at Viney Hill near Newnham where he complemented the ancient house and the amazing views of the Severn with an intricate and beautiful landscape of gardens and planting (although he still indulged himself in London). My wife Victoria’s love of gardening and plant curiosities meant they spent happy hours together at Plant Centres emerging with trophies which John then placed advantageously in his meticulously planned gardens of outstanding interest and attraction...

Lots of amazing holidays together – archaeological holidays – I remember long breaks spent in Syria and Sardinia where John’s questing intelligence kept guides on their toes and tested the complex of cultural challenges embodied in such trips. And of course, we smoked throughout - both of us pipe smokers and of a particular pungent tobacco. Indeed, it is difficult now to realise that then one smoked everywhere – in the office, in meetings, in the cinema, in the car, in the home: much good it did either of us.

John semi-retired in 1995 to Gloucestershire gardening whilst continuing to take satisfaction in still doing virtually all his own house restoration and maintenance as a pleasing contrast to his work. He nevertheless was still one of the founders of Xchanging which created joint ventures with multinational companies to outsource the processing of back office transactions until it was listed on the London Stock market in 2007( (FTSE 250)

John died peacefully after a short stay in the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in August and a very large company of family and friends joyfully took pleasure from his life at the Crematorium and then the Speech House in the Forest of Dean on 26th September 2024.

Our condolences to Judith, sadly very ill with dementia, to Damon and Rachel who lovingly organised the celebration of John’s life and to his wider family who were present on the 26th

PETER HOBBS - Past President

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

ARTICLES FROM MEMBERS

Hope Springs Eternal – Peter Hobs

This was written during the Covid restrictions and hence the solitary expedition. It refers to a site in Kent which is being – and has been on and off for over twenty years – excavated by the Dover Archaeological group.

Beauchamp’s Wood carries the name of the 14thC occupier during the Black Death, Sir John de Beauchamp who bore the Royal Standard at Crecy and had been or was Captain of Calais, Constable of the Tower of London and Admiral of all the Fleets.

Ruins Field is so called because of the ruins of a supposed Anglo-Saxon nunnery recorded there in the seventeenth century, and the Bruder is a member of the Bruderhof, an adjacent Christian community.

Richborough nearby was the AD43 Claudian invasion base and major maritime entry point to Britain for the Romans for some 400 years, and the walls still stand more than twenty feet high.

It was the first day of spring and I peered past the occasional snowflake floating out of a leaden sky to the expanse of the nearby Ruins Field, bare except for a muffled figure being walked by its dog. Amazing how, over time, dogs have acquired such a sense of responsibility for exercising humans. Beauchamps Wood loomed beyond, spare and bare despite the leaves supposedly thinking about coming into bud, with the trees bending only slightly to the icy gale piercing in from the North East. I saw then a figure, unidentifiable in the distance, apparently surveying the open excavations up there. Who would do that? The passing population of locals remained uninterested in the unrolling of their history, so perhaps a dog’s lost charge? Someone after the last of our metal fence posts now they are £10 a time? A lone Bruder trying to reconcile neolithic flint with a belief in Archbishop Ussher’s creation date of October 3rd 2004 BC? Our ghostly nun (at last seen by me rather than by terrified beer sozzled revellers)? A metal detectorist? Perhaps the shadowy spectre of an archaeologist starved of digging fare? But the figure faded and as the snow turned to sleet, I retired inside to reflect.

Later I read about the new finds that archaeologists had made at Richborough Castle where they were overwhelmed with the volume of pot, coin and other artefacts they unearthed that diggers early in the last century had missed. Trumpets sound! Flag on high! Reputations burnished etc etc, all magnificent and deserved.

Comparing this to our last dig here where one fragment of late medieval pottery was the highlight of the proceedings, I felt a need to go back up the hill and remind myself of what we had already unearthed. After all, although the Holy Grail was no longer expected and our metal detectorist had absolutely failed to deliver a coin of any description in the wood, surely we deserved one fragment of Anglo-Saxon pottery? The Archbishop of Canterbury’s scribes in the 820s wrote pages about this estate and it was in earlier charters as well. Surely we could do better with the tons of flint and stone brought to the site in medieval times than the odd piece of Roman amphora? And could not the knightly oligarchs who occupied the site from the 1100s onwards have left something a bit more personal than a silver pin (the bureaucracy to register probably cost X 400 its value but that’s not their fault.)? Indeed, was it not all still to play for? And the sleet had cleared.

So, finally, motivated, well booted and well clad, I struggled up the hill with spade and trowel, string and measure, kneeling pad, saw, plastic bags for the finds I was going to unearth, a set of site plans, and markers, all the impedimenta with which to confront the remains. Should I have also taken a chair and lunch as well if I were effectively to duplicate the efforts of those professional amateurs who had toiled on the site for so many years before me? I reluctantly decided against this last effort to imitate my distinguished predecessors because it was difficult enough getting myself up the hill across the sodden and slippery clay without having a wheelbarrow as well. But half a league, half a league, half a league onward…

At the top, the winter quagmire was certainly drier, and I contemplated the array of excavated flint and mud which lay before me at the entrance to the wood. Could I not see the shapes of the walls and buildings before me that flanked the ancient roadway onto the site? Actually… no; but I consoled myself with the thought that better than I had also gazed at the jumbled heap with much the same results.

So, over the fence and advance into the wood beyond with new sprung brambles grabbing my boots and trodden garlic leaves scenting the air whenever there was a lull in the wind. What a scene – trenches to the left; trenches to the right; trenches in front all challenged and questioned. Where then to dig for the elusive clue to unlock the site? Now was the time to consult the plans detailing our exploits for the past two decades: a bit tricky as the North Easterly gale plucked at the edges and fingers tended to freeze once gloveless in the air which felt direct from the Arctic. I reminded myself that these maps had been compiled when the real Kent summer sun beat down out of an azure sky, any breath of fresh air was Elysium and even the lead in the map pencils softened in the heat. Our ancestors had not only lived on this site with these extremes but even prospered so who was I to stop now? Spectacles on nose, I noted the trench to the left took us close to our previous excavations and so did the trench in front. The only virgin territory awaiting my spade lay to the right. But that trench ended at a pillar crowned with iron that our professional archaeologist leader had erected declaring to the excited masses - well OK, three of us if you want to be picky - that future generations would measure us by this marker. Dare I dig beyond it? Surely one metre would not invalidate the plans? And I could just feel the flint wall hidden there calling to be exposed again to the light of day. Or was it that ancient pot long cast aside or even the coin that the detectorist had ignored? Enough – there had to be action.

Without hesitation I unfurled the string but then struggled to insert the new trench markers which proved trickier than I had anticipated because the brambles and the nettles had already taken the arrival of spring seriously and beneath them was a vast tree root with a stump beyond. Undaunted I pressed on excited by the discoveries to come. Markers in place, I then drove the pristine blade of the spade (did I not say – newly purchased Lidl’s best with a long handle and foot rests with which to push down) into what became rapidly clear was unyielding soil and natural flint.

At this point, a squall of heavy rain driven by the North Easterly gale drowned the site and bare trees offered no protection. The clay surfaces turned to clogging mud although the underlying chalk meant that no puddles formed. My gloves were soaked, and wet seemed to penetrate my supposedly well-oiled Barbour. The squall rapidly turned into something more permanent and even a few steps brought to mind descriptions of the trenches of the Somme in 1915.

But at least I could retreat to dig another day.

PETER HOBBS - Past President

The Crypt School The Old Cryptians’ Club

Eighty years on from World War II

Some reflections on the Crypt School and Old Cryptians in 1944

Operation Overlord

In 1944, the 370 pupils and staff at the new Crypt School at Podsmead, returned for the Spring Term. They had followed the course of the war in the newspapers, on the wireless radio and in the cinema especially in Italy and Burma where many Cryptians were serving. However, the nation’s attention was focused on the cross-Channel invasion.

The planning of these landings in France, known as Operation Overlord, started in earnest after the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. Extensive aerial reconnaissance missions photographed the French coast. Flying Officer Graham Machin (1930-34) was killed in one of these sorties. Normandy was chosen rather than the shorter route between Calais and Le Havre.

General Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Allied Commander and General Montgomery, Commander of the ground forces. They met in January and agreed that five divisions were to initially land on five beaches. These were selected between Caen in the east and the Cherbourg peninsula in the west. The British and Canadian beaches were designated Sword, Juno and Gold. Further to the west the Americans were allocated Omaha and Utah. The aim was for the 150,000 troops to land in two days and link up the five beachheads, so that reinforcements, ammunition and supplies could land safely, thus consolidating the Allied position. Their flanks were to be protected in the critical first few days by elite American and British paratroops until the armoured units reached them from the beaches. American and Canadian troops and huge quantities of military equipment crossed the Atlantic. The U-boat threat had been eliminated since the summer of 1943. By the spring southern England had become a vast military encampment. The Allies had total control of the air and no reconnaissance planes penetrated these sensitive areas.

It was decided to land at dawn, to maximise the available daylight hours and at low tide, in order to observe the many obstacles. To aid the glider planes and bombers a full moon was needed. The best available date was June 5th.

During the early months of 1944 the American bombers carried out day light raids on aircraft and synthetic oil factories in Germany with growing success. They were now protected by the outstanding new Mustang P-51 long raid fighters which outperformed the Luftwaffe fighters, who suffered heavy losses. Flying Officer Teddy Maidstone (193439) was a navigator in a Lancaster with the Pathfinders. He was killed in a night raid on Berlin in January 1944.

In the build-up to D-Day, Eisenhower, against fierce opposition from Air Marshal Harris of Bomber Command and the Americans, decided to concentrate the bombing raids primarily on railway hubs, oil depots and radar stations in France. These raids were very effective and by D-Day the Allied fighters dominated the airspace over the Channel and France. Bridges over the rivers Seine and Loire, leading to both the Calais and Normandy regions were major targets which would slow down the movement of reserve troops to the front line. Pilot Officer Ronald Maude (1931-40) was killed in a bombing mission on June 8th. He was the son of the much respected, Head of Geography, Ernest Maude (1921-57).

OPERATION FORTITUDE

In fact, two-thirds of the raids were north of the Seine, to convince the Germans that this was to be the main landing area. This was part of an elaborate deception plan, known as Operation Fortitude. The Intelligence Service, MI5, had managed to detect over thirty spies before they could do much damage and a number became double agents. They were used

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to pass on a mixture of a deceptive information for the date and place of D-Day to their handlers. A phantom army with a huge amount of artificial radio communications, as well as dummy tanks was situated in Kent. This was under the command of General Patton, who the Germans thought was the best general and must be in the initial thrust. Many troops were kept in Norway due to the false information of an attack from Scapa Flow.

The Special Operations Executive, known as SOE, intensified their efforts and more agents and supplies were flown in to support the growing number of resistance groups in France. Operation Overlord was the largest ever combined land, air and naval operation and consisted of 1,200 warships, 4,000 landing crafts and 13,000 aeroplanes. Frederick Bayley was at the Battle of Jutland and later worked for the Cunard Line. He was involved in the organisation of the complex naval operations for D-Day. By early June, the troops and their equipment had moved to their designated harbours on the south coast. The Americans in the Robinswood Barracks in Gloucester disappeared overnight. Ultraintercepts from Bletchley Park indicated to Eisenhower based in Portsmouth that the German High Command was unaware of the date or place of the invasion.

On June 4th, the day that Rome was finally liberated, a gale in the English Channel led to a postponement. However, next morning the latest Atlantic meteorological report from western Ireland, unavailable to the Germans, indicated that there was a break in the weather. Eisenhower took the bold and momentous decision to go ahead.

Coastal Command, in which many Cryptians served, ensured that U-boats were kept at bay. Thirty-five ventured out of the Brittany ports but only five returned. John Lawrence was a member from 1940. He was awarded the AFC for Gallantry. Later he was awarded the ‘Croix de Guerre’ and the title of ‘Chevalier of the order of Leopold II’ in recognition of his service in the liberation of France and Belgium. Air Vice-Marshal was awarded the CBE in 1967. On retirement he had amassed 6,000 flying hours in fifty types of aircraft. Flying Officer Alan Wilcox (1934-39) flew Beau-fighters, which consisted of a navigator and a pilot. They were used to attack convoys around the French, Belgium and Dutch coasts with torpedoes and cannon at low heights. He was killed in one of these actions in September on his 21st birthday. Flt Lt Sims (1921-26) was awarded the DFM for Gallantry while flying as a navigator with Coastal Command. He became an instructor but was killed in a flying accident in 1945. Over 250 minesweepers, an unheralded part of the Royal Navy, went ahead of the fleet, completely unobserved, to clear the minefields. Lt E.A. Parsons (1927-32), Rex Thomas (1935-43) and his life-long friend Tony Pugh (1935-42) were in this vital operation.

NORMANDY LANDINGS

The first landings in Normandy were by six gliders carrying some 180 men from D Company of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, just after midnight on June 6th. Their instructions were to ‘capture and hold’ the bridges over the Caen Canal, later called Pegasus Bridge, and the river Orne, until they could be relieved. David Rice (193339) joined them later in the campaign after they had incurred a high number of casualties. They were followed by the British Sixth Airborne Division. Stuart Carter (1929-36) transported them in this operation. John Gwinnett (1926-35) was their Senior Chaplain. Their aim was to destroy bridges and to resist counter attacks from the east.

The resistance groups which had provided vital intelligence, caused a great deal of disruption by destroying power and railway lines from Calais to Brittany. The destruction of telephone poles meant that the Germans were forced to use their radios, which meant that the Ultra messages were rapidly decoded at Bletchley Park.

The elite 82nd and 101st American paratroopers, transported in a fleet of Dakota C-47's, met with low cloud and intense flak over their drop zones. Many ‘sticks’ of eighteen heavily

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loaded troops were scattered far from their objectives inland from Utah beach from 1.30 am. Despite the chaos the losses were much lighter than predicted

Prior to the landings, nearly 15,000 bombing sorties pounded the coastal defences. These were followed up by a naval bombardment, but these were not as effective as predicted. Naval personnel coxed the landing crafts from five miles offshore, to and back from the beaches.

The first landings started at Utah beach at 6.30 am, where they had great success. Only 200 were killed out of the 23,000 who landed. The infantry and tanks pushed forward to support the airborne troops who were fighting bitter battles at their key objectives.

However, it was a very different situation at Omaha beach. Almost everything went wrong. The bombing was erratic and made no real impact and no craters were created on the beach in which the infantry could find shelter. A major problem was that twentyfive of the thirty-five amphibious tanks sank in the choppy waves three miles off the beach. Another factor was they met experienced troops protected by concrete bunkers in the cliffs. The troops were pinned down for two hours under the seawall, and evacuation was considered. The film ‘Saving Private Ryan’ best illustrates the horrific situation. However, by 8.30, limited breakthroughs were made by the initiative of the infantry who then enfiladed the defenders. After six hours of desperate fighting the beach was secured. Casualties were very heavy and 2,000 were killed.

Captain Gregory Brookes, later Commodore and KBE, left the Crypt in 1903 and served in both wars. He commanded a Tank Landing Ship or LST off Gold beach as I suspect did Lt Commander Frederick Baker (1916-20). The development of the LST was vital for the success of the amphibious landings in the Pacific, North Africa, Italy and now D-Day. They were 400 feet long and transported tanks, trucks and artillery directly to the beach. Charles Hill (1923-29) and John Crowe (1934-40) were coxswains and ferried platoons of troops in landing crafts to the Gold and Juno beaches respectively, from 7.30 onwards. Edwin Rigby (1931-41) and John Collins (1928-33) of the Second Battalion the Gloucestershire Regiment as well as Eric Gethyn-Jones (1917-25), a Welsh international hockey player, who was Chaplain to the regiment and other Cryptians landed at Gold beach.

Many key generals were absent from their posts, including Field Marshal Rommel, due to unfavourable weather forecasts. Rommel did not return until nightfall of the 6th. Hitler was not to be disturbed until late morning. When he was, he was convinced that the landings were a diversion. The allies benefitted from a confused command structure and the decoding of radio messages in Normandy. Hitler did not release the 21st SS Panzer Division around Caen or the notorious 12th Panzer division, based forty miles to the east, to move to the coast until 3.00 pm. The landings at Gold, Juno and Sword made good progress. The marine commandos from Sword linked up with the paratroops around the river Orne. The Mulberry harbour at Arromanches was soon in action. The counter attacks on the 6th and the following days against the British and Canadians were contained. They

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were too late. Within twenty-four hours 150,000 reinforcements and supplies had poured in.

Within four days Bayeux was secured and the beachheads were finally linked up with the Americans at Omaha. The beachheads stretched fifty miles along the coast and up to ten miles inland. After heavy fighting inland from Utah and Omaha they were joined up a week later. In all 4,500 were killed on the beaches, much less than predicted. Operation Overlord had been a great success.

After a week it was clear that Hitler’s claim that the Allies would be thrown back into the sea had failed. But equally the major objective of Caen and its airfield was beyond the reach of the Allies. From June to July the Allied forces were held up by stiff resistance from Caen to St Lo in the west in the bocage countryside. This consisted of an endless succession of ancient field systems hemmed in by high earthen works with thick hedges and sunkenroads.Theywere impenetrable bytanks. Thesefields were mined and covered by machine and mortar posts. The infantry suffered a mounting number of casualties.

However, by June 14th, the Americans had crossed the Cherbourg peninsula and reached the sea. After a heavy naval and aerial bombardment, Cherbourg, a major objective, was captured on June 26th. However, the port was out of action until August. The troops were totally dependent on the prefabricated concrete Mulberry floating harbours for vital supplies. The British and Canadians undertook a series of attritional battles around Caen. By July they were up against six powerful Panzer divisions with experienced troops armed with the deadly 88mm anti-tank guns. Despite naval gun support and overwhelming fighter bomber support they failed to make a breakthrough. Eventually, the bombed city of Caen was captured on July 21st. In the west after bitter fighting St Lo was captured. Unfortunately, 30,000 civilians were killed in bombing raids in Normandy. On July 18th, Hitler eventually released much needed infantry from the Pas de Calais region. The Allied deception plan had worked brilliantly. However, it was far too late as one million troops had arrived.

Nazi Rockets

Hitler insisted that his secret ‘wonder weapons’ would turn the tide. The threat from the Vengeance weapon, the V-1, had been known since 1943. The RAF had bombed the research centre at Peenemunde on the Baltic coast and later the ski-slope locations in France and Belgium. On June 13th, the first V-1 or ‘Doodlebug’ was launched and hit London. It consisted of a jet engine with short wings, a speed of 350 mph and carried a 2,000 lb bomb.

At the peak, a hundred a day were launched at south-east England, mainly on London. Nearly 10,000 were launched killing over 6,000 civilians. Spitfires and anti-aircraft guns destroyed over 4,000. The Gloster Meteor jet, developed at Brockworth was used in this operation. Kenneth Benfield (1931-37), an engineering graduate, worked here with Sir Frank Whittle. R.S ‘Bomber’ George (1932-39) and staff (1950-56) joined the RAF and was a Spitfire pilot and was one of the first to fly a Meteor. The threat was stopped when the sites were overrun in October, but they moved to Holland. The RAF were aware of the danger from the V-2 rockets.

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Sergeant John Aldren (1935-41) was a founding member of the Crypt ATC and became an air-gunner. He was killed on a mission to bomb suspected V-2 storage sites.

On September 8th, the first rockets were fired at London. They were six metres long and carried a one-ton warhead. Over 1,300, up to eight a day, were launched until March 1945. They were launched from mobile adapted lorries concealed in woodlands. These rockets killed over 2,500 in London, destroyed 20,000 homes and damaged over 100,000, whilst 1,700 were killed in Antwerp. In 1903, Douglas James was awarded the Townsend Scholarship and had a distinguished missionary career in China. He was killed in January 1945 when a rocket hit a building in Tavistock Square. Despite the propaganda, these much-vaunted weapons made very little military impact.

The Russians

On June 22nd, Joseph Stalin carried out his promise made at the Tehran Conference in November. The Soviet armies consisting of over two million men from all corners of the USSR attacked along the eastern front on the day of Operation Barbarossa launched in 1941. The full impact of fighting a war on two fronts was now clear. Stalin had double the number of German forces and three times as many tanks, field guns and over five times as many aircraft. The Russians reached the river Vistula opposite Warsaw in six weeks. They rested here and ignored the two-month Warsaw uprising by the pro-western Polish Home Army which was eventually brutally crushed by SS forces. By October all German forces were forced out of the USSR, and much of Poland. As the Germans withdrew, they carried out a scorched earth policy. The Russians had come across the full horror of the industrial scale genocide of the Jews at the five extinction camps in eastern Poland. The Russians in the south forced Romania with its vital oil fields and Bulgaria were forced to switch sides and were now controlled by the USSR. The scale of losses on the eastern front far outweighed those on the western front. Thirty German divisions were destroyed with 450,000 casualties, of which 200,000 were killed and 400,000 became prisoners of war. The USSR suffered over half a million casualties, but they were more easily replaced.

There was growing concern in Germany after the defeat at Stalingrad and at Kursk in 1943. The defeats in North Africa followed by the invasion of Italy in 1943 and the fall of Rome in 1944 followed by the landings in Normandy meant they were now fighting on three fronts. These failures as well as the defeat in the Battle of the Atlantic and the fear of the inevitable renewed day and night bombing led to disaffection in some of the civilian and military elites, who realised defeat was inevitable. Senior army officers plotted to assassinate Hitler with a bomb. On July 20th, the plan was put into action at the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia. Unfortunately for both sides, Hitler survived, and the military coup failed. This only increased his drug-fuelled paranoia and 5,000 were executed including 200 senior army commanders, many in Paris and Berlin.

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Operation Cobra

The time was now right for Operation Cobra. On July 25th, American bombers blasted a half mile gap in the defences in the west on the Cherbourg peninsula. General Bradley’s 5th Army after heavy fighting and the use of adapted Sherman Tanks with forks on the front, broke through the bocage. From August, the armoured columns of General Patton’s 3rd Army followed up and burst into Brittany. He then moved eastwards at great speed against little resistance in the direction of Paris.

Instead of allowing his generals to withdraw behind the river Seine, Hitler ordered an illconceived counter attack aimed at splitting the two American armies. This failed due to constant air attacks, and they retreated towards Falaise. After the capture of Le Mans, Patton swung north to join up with the advancing British, Canadians and a Polish division from Caen. Trooper John Collins(1928-33) was a member of the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars in North Africa but due to heavy losses, including three Cryptians, the remainder joined other regiments. He was a member of the Royal Armoured Corps and was involved in heavy fighting around Caen. He was killed in the push southwards on August 9th.

From August 13th to 17th, the corridor of retreat, which contained 80,000 troops, was strafed by Allied fighter-bombers and became a killing ground until the Falaise Gap was sealed. In the event, 10,000 Germans were killed, 50,000 were taken as prisoners of war but 50,000 crack troops escaped across the river Seine. During the Battle of Normandy, the Allies lost 25,000 killed on the ground and 16,000 airmen. The German and Allies had each suffered over 120,000 casualties but the Germans only received 10,000 replacements. The cemeteries in Normandy show that it proved much easier to break into Normandy than to break out.

LIBERATING PARIS

Patton moved on towards the river Seine. Paris was suffering from extreme food shortages and brutal suppression. Resistance groups, many of which were communist led were active and many workers went on strike. The authoritarian, anti-semitic Vichy government had collaborated with the Nazis. The hated Milice paramilitary police had rounded up 75,000 Jews and sent them to the death camps in the east.

As Patton got closer the resistance groups were joined by the 20,000 city

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police on July 15th and the uprising spread. Despite Hitler’s demand that Paris should be destroyed, the commander of the garrison waited on events. Belatedly General Eisenhower was persuaded by General de Gaulle that a French armoured division, supported by an American infantry should enter Paris. On August 24th, the bells of Notre Dame rang out, the commander surrendered, and Paris was liberated. General Charles de Gaulle became the leader of the new French provisional government.

On August 15th, after the usual aerial and naval bombardment, 150,000 Americans from Italy, landed in the south of France. This operation took place against the wishes of the British. For some time, the Americans felt the Italian front was an expensive sideshow. There was little opposition and casualties were light. The German occupying forces in France were ordered to withdraw towards the formidable Siegfried Line, except those guarding key ports. This defensive West Wall for the German homeland was completed by 1939. The concrete bunkers and tank traps were constructed by political prisoners and Italian workers. It stretched 400 miles from Holland and the Ardennes Forest to the Vosges mountains in Alsace, on the border with Switzerland. Toulouse and Bordeaux were liberated by resistance groups and a week later after the invasion, Marseilles and Toulon, both vital ports, were seized. The Germans withdrew up the Rhone valley and were followed by the Americans, who linked up with Patton on September 13th at Dijon. His army’s extraordinary 400 mile-dash was finally checked by a critical shortage of fuel for his tanks. Further north, British and Canadian troops captured Rouen, crossed the river Seine, liberated Brussels on September3rd and the destroyed Antwerp port the next day. In six weeks, most of France and Belgium were liberated after four years of occupation.

Burma

In Burma, the ‘Forgotten Army’ under General Slim finally defeated the Japanese at the brutal battles at Imphal and Kohima on the Indian border in the summer of 1944. In October, after the monsoon season ended, the British and Imperial forces made good progress down the coast. They were supplied by airdrops and the navy. Regimental Major Sergeant Howard Merrett was born in 1918 and left school in the 1930’s. He joined the Royal Army Corps and was attached to the West African Expeditionary Force and was linked to the Chindits. He died in 1947 of an ear infection, which was probably related to his efforts in the Burmese campaign. Captain Perrin-Dixon was in the Service Corps and was involved with supplying these forces. Lt Donald Webb (1931-35) was killed in action in December 1944. Oscar Colburn (1931-34) served in RAF Transport Command and ferried planes between Egypt, Persia and India. His American counterparts flew planes and their cargoes over the ‘Hump’ to support the Chinese Nationalists. He became Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucestershire and was awarded the CBE in 1981.

Victory

By the early autumn of 1944, the early warning radar defence systems in France and Belgium had been overrun by ground forces. The RAF and USAAF bombing raids intensified. The Americans concentrated their efforts on precision bombing by day on synthetic oil plants and communication hubs with great success as they were now

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supported by the Mustang long-raid fighter. The Luftwaffe suffered heavy losses on both fronts and were critically short of fuel and experienced pilots. There were however growing concerns about the military effectiveness of the indiscriminate bombing of cities and their citizens by night by the RAF. Air Marshal Harris ignored this pressure to switch to different targets. Sgt Ronald Brunsdon (1934-39) gained his colours for the 1st XV and 1st XI, aged sixteen. He was a member of the ATC and became a navigator in a Lancaster with the Pathfinder force. He was killed when his plane was shot down in a raid on the industrial Ruhr in September 1944. Squadron Leader Ronald Smith (1927-33) was a pilot of a Lancaster when he was awarded the DFC and Bar for his two tours in 1942 and 1943. During the summer of 1944 he was an instructor but was killed in one of these flights. Flying Officer Alan Jones (1923-31) was awarded the DFM in 1943, aged twenty. By 1944 he was an experienced pilot and was part of Operation Window. This involved dropping thin aluminium strips over Germany in advance of the main raid. This jammed the radar screens. In February 1945 he was killed in one of these dangerous missions. My wife’s uncle was a pilot with the Pathfinders and was awarded the DFC and Bar for his two missions and survived the war. By the autumn of 1944 Germany’s economy was collapsing.

OPERATION MARKET GARDEN

On September 1st, General Eisenhower replaced General Mongomery as the Commander of Allied ground forces. He was in favour of exerting pressure on a broad front. However, there had been great expectations that the war would be over by Christmas. Montgomery, normally cautious, persuaded Eisenhower that a bold single thrust into Holland, across four rivers, would bypass the heavily defended Siegfried Line. The bold aim was to break into northern Germany and surround the industrial Ruhr and shorten the war. Thus, Operation Market Garden was conceived and is well covered in the film, ‘A Bridge too Far’.

The elite American paratroops, the 82nd and the 101st, were to seize the river bridges on the single road leading to Arnhem bridge over the Rhine, which they did at great cost. The British 1st Airborne division, consisting of 10,000 troops was desperate to see action and landed on September 17th. Stuart Carter (1929-36) was involved in the transport of these troops. Their role was to seize the bridge at Arnhem and hold it for forty-eight hours until the British armoured column crossed the bridges and relieved them. It was always going to be a risky, if not reckless venture, especially as intelligence revealed that at least one Panzer division was in the area. This late information was ignored. As a result, only 750 troops reachedArnhem, whilst therest were surrounded. The armoured column had to travel on a single road and was held up by determined resistance. After four days, the defenders at Arnhem surrendered and later 2,000 managed to cross the river to safety. The other survivors became prisoners, including Gordon Crowcher and Jim Hooper. Arnhem would not be liberated until April 1945. Meanwhile the Canadians were engaged in a month long battle in the flooded areas of the heavily defended Scheldt estuary leading to Antwerp harbour. On November 28th, much needed supplies eventually reached Antwerp.

Afterthefailure at Arnhem, bitterfighting and heavy losses continued all along the Siegfried Line, protected by heavily defended forests and hills. Progress was hindered by lack of

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supplies and wet winter conditions. These offensives were halted all together by a desperate last gamble by Hitler to seize the initiative. Since the capture of Antwerp in September, Hitler had set in motion a plan to repeat the Ardennes offensive of 1940. The aim was to break through the forest, seize the bridges over the river Meuse and recapture this vital port, thus splitting the British and Canadians from the Americans.

BATTLE OF THE BULGE

After the purge in July, the generals were too afraid to challenge Hitler on his delusional plan. On December 16th, after a huge bombardment, three armoured columns burst out of the forest under the cover of cloud and fog, which would keep the Allied planes grounded. The failure of the intelligence services meant that the General Bradley and three American, relatively inexperienced divisions, were taken by surprise. The German forces consisted of 200,000 men in twenty divisions. They were spearheaded by the elite SS Waffen Panzer divisions equipped with the latest Tiger tanks. For four days they made rapid progress and captured 8,000 prisoners. They developed a salient of thirty miles in depth, hence the term, ‘The Battle of the Bulge’. On December 22nd, the fog and clouds cleared, and Allied air attacks commenced, and the leading Panzer tanks ran out of fuel, whilst airdrops provided ammunition and supplies for the besieged defenders. By January 8th, the relieving troops from the north and south advanced in a pincer movement. The Germans were forced to retreat. They had suffered 120,000 casualties which were impossible to replace and dug in for the winter.

After this latest disaster which weakened the eastern front even further, Hitler literally went underground to his bunker at the Chancellery in Berlin. By now, Hitler’s mental and physical health had deteriorated greatly and was receiving a daily cocktail of drugs, including amphetamines and cocaine. Despite the inevitable defeat, Hitler and his acolytes refused to consider surrender which meant that the suffering would increase in the following final months of 1945 on all three fronts.

More information can be found in, ‘A History of the Crypt School 1539-2018’ by Charlie Hannaford and, ‘The Lost Generations’ by Simon and Sarah Birch and RayPocock. Photos of those who died are displayed in Howard Allen’s book, ‘The Crypt School: 475 Years’. Please contact me on charliehannaford8@hotmail.com about errors and omissions.

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THE CLUB SHOP

An image at the end of the magazine illustrates the current offerings from the Club shop available on the website.

We believe it is time for a rethink / refresh of the branded items available, so if you have any ideas or thoughts about suitable items for the Club to sell, please email webmaster@oldcryptians.org

Adam Ashby (1973-1978)

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