Portmuthian 2021 by The Portsmouth Grammar School

'Four Seasons' - Acrylic on Canvas Designed by Jiali Hicks. Calligraphy by Dawn Sands.

We dedicate this issue of the Portmuthian to the wife and family of David ‘Mac’ MacDonald, our Design & Technology Technician, who passed away earlier this year. A man of great passion and kindness, Mac joined the school in 2016 and will be remembered for his unwavering support to pupils across all year groups.

Welcome

Contents

Dr Cotton’s Review Record-Breaking Donation for Wilkie Scholars Destined for Success: Destiny Elected to Youth Parliament Diversity and Inclusion LGBTQ+ Symposium Chancellors of the Future Celebrating the First-Ever Giving Day Giving Day Radio Record-breaking Fundraising Success Chasing The Sun PortsFest: Sea Shanty Sensation Portsmouth Point: Thanks a Million! Success at UKMT Senior Maths Challenge Enrichment Week Citizenship Day

5 6 8 11 12 13 14 18 19 20 23 25 26 27 29

Geography Club Geo Club Collaboration Senior School Eco Council Small Changes, Big Difference Stock Market Club Creative Writing Club Reading Clubs Art Club

30 31 32 32 33 34 34 35

Staff Leavers and Joiners A Tribute to David MacDonald

36 41

Design & Technology Engineering Gold for Art & Biology Team Up for Competition The Annual PGS Library Writing Competition Text into Performance Arabian Nights Shakespeare Schools Festival Twelfth Night Solem Quartet Composers Workshop Leonardo Competition 2021

42 44 47 52 53 54 56 56 58 60

A Sporting Spirit Coming Back to Sport Tennis Croquet Year 9 Sports Day Cricket

67 68 69 69 70 71

Archaeology in Kent Duke of Edinburgh Award

81 82

Hawkey House Eastwood House Barton House Summers House Latter House Smith House Grant House Whitcombe House House Photography House Drama

84 84 85 85 86 87 88 89 90 92

Learning to Negotiate: Heart toHeart Special Collections Prefect Training Day New Prefects for 2022 Community Action Workplace Sparking Every Interest Year 10 Taster Day Ignite Highlights End of Year Show for Year 13 Ithaka Prize Exceptional IB Results A Level Geology Year 13: End of an Era Careers and Universities Destinations

94 95 96 98 99 100 101 102 106 110 112 114 116 118 120

PGS Connect

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Welcome Those who have been at PGS for some time will know that the Portmuthian magazine has always had a theme. In 2015, we marked the opening of the new Sixth Form with architectural drawings and a compass on the front cover. A year later, we put an iPad on the front cover and transformed the chapters into ‘apps’ to mark the introduction of iPads across the Senior School. More recently, we put a world map on the front cover to show PGS’ exploits away from the city: in Borneo, America, China and Russia. The process has always been simple: look at the most important thing that has happened that year, and that’s your theme. Unsurprisingly, however, this year has bucked the trend. There have been no landmark buildings to open, no step-change in technology, and certainly no trips abroad. Instead, this year has been marked by reflection and re-opening, to cautiously emerge from COVID restrictions, and return to the school site. Rather than big, external projects, this year’s adventures have been largely internal, within the minds of the school community. 4

We therefore spent much time deliberating what our theme should be in a year where, although much has changed in how we approach learning and support each other, the essence of the school remained the same. It was our fantastic graphic designer, Jiali Hicks, who suggested artwork that would combine all four seasons within a single frame. It would show how, despite the challenges that weathered us, we continued to stand tall with our roots firmly in the ground. Thus, our theme is resilience, demonstrating the strength of the PGS community to adapt and bounce back from difficult times. To stand stall, like our tree on the front cover, in times of uncertainty – through Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. This year’s Portmuthian is a celebration of the PGS identity. Sure, there’s less to fill the pages with adventure and excitement, but there is much to be cherished about who we are and how, despite being away from each other physically, we have all remained Portmuthians.

THE PORTMUTHIAN 2020-21

Thomas Locke Editor-in-Chief

SCHOOL NEWS

Dr Cotton’s Review of the Year A reflection of 2020-21 from the Head of PGS

in our work in areas from diversity and inclusion to sustainability. Sixth Formers and OPs are now able to connect as they venture forth into the world beyond school, via our new online portal PGS Connect, and in September we look forward to launching our new Entrepreneurship Studio. The co-curriculum continued to flourish during remote learning, and in the Summer Term it was wonderful to see trips, concerts, plays and clubs taking place in person once again.

Dr. Cotton with the 2021 Oxbridge offer holders

For all the challenges of this extraordinary year, there has been so much to celebrate in the activities of our pupils and staff. The tenacity and creativity of our community, as we have adapted to the changing Government guidance and to the arrangements for public examinations, have been clear in every corner of the school. The achievements of pupils and staff, though often different in format, have been more impressive than ever for the context of this difficult year, and as the year progressed, it was wonderful to be able to return to some of the activities that are at the heart of school life. We are enormously grateful for the tremendous support of pupils, parents, staff, OPs and friends of the school throughout, and we very much look forward to gathering together again in September.

Strengthening our commitment to our communities has been a strand running throughout the year. Our 2020 Sixth Form curriculum sees our Year 12 pupils spending time engaging in projects beyond PGS each week, developing skills to equip them for Life at 25. We were delighted that our annual arts festival, Ports Fest, was able to go ahead in July, with a wonderful weekend of cultural activities culminating in a series of concerts in the Quad, and with our musicians reunited with our associate orchestra, the London Mozart Players. In March, we held our first ever Giving Day in support of the William Smith Fund, and through the generosity of parents, OPs and friends of the school, we were overwhelmed to raise over £250,000 to support talented members of the community who would otherwise be unable to attend the school.

2020 brought the inaugural year of our new Sixth Form Curriculum, with its dual focus on academic extension and personal development programmes to supplement pupils’ core subjects. Our light and friendly new Learning Support Hub, created with the support of a generous donor, has welcomed pupils across the school. Pupils have taken a leading role

The Portmuthian tells the story of this unique period in the school’s history, and the editorial team have adapted brilliantly to the challenges of chronicling the school’s activities in changing circumstances. We hope you enjoy it.

Record-Breaking Donation for Wilkie Scholars Long term future of Wilkie Scholarships secured by record-breaking donation

Dubai-based businessman Brian Wilkie MBE made the largest donation the school has received in 30 years to secure the long-term future of the scholarships which bear his name. Brian, who attended Mayfield School from 1960-66 (when it was known as the Northern Grammar School), set up the Wilkie Scholarship scheme in 2012 to help young people from Mayfield School to succeed in life, no matter what their financial circumstances. Thanks to his generosity, 18 young people have 6

already been able to join PGS for their Sixth Form studies, before going on to attend some of the UK’s top universities. Mr Wilkie has now made a record-breaking donation to ensure the long-term future of the scheme, bringing his total contribution to the programme to more than one million pounds. “My aim is to help all young people to succeed and fulfil their potential, no matter how disadvantaged their backgrounds may be” says Mr Wilkie, “I hope that all those funded through my scholarships will enjoy and use the opportunities offered at

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SCHOOL NEWS

The Portsmouth Grammar School to help fulfil their own potential. I have hugely enjoyed following the success of the 18 young people who have already benefited from the scheme, and look forward to hearing many more exciting stories in the future.” Dr Anne Cotton added “We are immensely grateful to Brian for his enormous act of generosity. We are committed to opening our doors to more talented local young people, whatever their backgrounds and means, and are excited that Brian has joined us on this journey. Over the past 9 years, the Wilkie Scholars have made the very most of Sixth Form life to improve their own life chances, as well as taking the lead in Drama productions, excelling on the sports field, raising hundreds of pounds for our partner schools in

“My aim is to help all young people to succeed and fulfil their potential, no matter how disadvantaged their backgrounds may be”

Cambodia and Uganda, and now pioneering our diversity and inclusion work. We are excited to see the impact future Wilkie Scholars will have in our school community, the city and the wider world. Hopefully Brian’s wonderful gift will encourage and inspire other successful people to consider how best they can use their own resources to ‘pay it forward’ and help others in their turn.” Mayfield School Headmaster, Mr David Jeapes, believes that being able to offer the Wilkie Scholarship to Year 11 pupils has been inspiring for all the Mayfield pupils, not just the Scholars. “Over the last nine years, the Scholarship scheme has really motivated our pupils throughout the school, because Brian’s own story is one of success through hard work, determination and aspiring to be the best that you can be. This resonates with our school motto: ‘Your only limitation is your ambition’.” he said. “We feel very proud to be the only school in Portsmouth offering this type of scholarship and are grateful to Brian for his support and vision.” Melanie Bushell Development Director

‘Her passion and drive has galvanised others into action and I have no doubt that she has a very bright future ahead of her.’ Mrs Josephine Morgan, Head of Pupil Wellbeing

Destined for Success: Destiny Elected to Youth Parliament

We speak to Year 12 student Destiny Rose-Forde Kennedy about her being elected as Member of Youth Parliament for Portsmouth.

As schools reopened across the UK following the third national lockdown, voting opening for the Youth Parliament elections. Created in 1999, the body seeks to ensure that young people aged 11-18 are properly represented in national and local politics. Members are elected every two years and work with youth groups and local government in their constituency and meet collectively biannually in the House 8

of Commons, sharing the views of the young people in their area to inform policy. Not affiliated to any political party, Members of the Youth Parliament (MYPs) campaign on an issue-by-issue basis, which often involves issues around youth mental health, equality and the environment. Over fifty candidates applied to be on the ballot paper in Portsmouth, of which seven were formally nominated.

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SCHOOL NEWS One candidate on the ballot paper was Destiny Rose-Forde Kennedy, a Year 12 pupil at PGS. A student of Politics, Spanish and Business, she campaigned on increasing diversity and inclusion and improving equality of educational opportunity, sharing her five-point manifesto and promotional material on social media. Her campaign focused primarily on representation, with an aim to ‘share experiences with people from many different backgrounds’, and placed great emphasis on getting schools to adopt a diversity and inclusion programme similar to that of PGS. Following a week of voting, she was formally elected as the Member of the Youth Parliament (MYP) for Portsmouth on Friday 19th March 2021, with Ella Reilly of Havant and South Downs College and Willow Lindstrom-Fabik of Priory School as her Deputies. She takes over from Laura Spurgeon of Admiral Lord Nelson School.

that training has been made into a webinar and shared with local schools in the area. We’re aiming to have similar talks on gender equality and LGBT+ representation with the aim of increasing education around diversity and inclusion, making sure that everyone knows what is appropriate and not, and making people from minority backgrounds feel more comfortable in the spaces we all share. I think it’s really important to start with education because it is key to resolving these problems, which typically arise from when people are misinformed or uneducated on a certain topic. On bridging the education gap between state and private schools...that’s a systemic problem. How might you try to tackle that? Yes, and this is also an international problem. But on a local level, I’ve held discussions with governors from Mayfield School, which I attended before PGS, and with governors at PGS about opportunities for collaboration. I am also the ambassador for the CAW (Community and Workplace) programme in Year 12 and have been speaking with Miss Basra about the prospect of doing courses during the summer - when COVID restrictions are more relaxed when we can perhaps work with local schools to run tutoring programmes or anything that would increase relations between our school and local state schools. As someone who attended a state school all my life before attending PGS, I can definitely see the disparities between the two systems. I feel that some people in the state sector feel let down from a lack of government funding, so I’m keen to use my

Commenting on her success, Head of Year 12, Mrs Clay, remarked that she was ‘delighted that Destiny has been elected as Portsmouth’s MYP’, adding that her ‘passion and drive have made a huge impression on the school’ and that she ‘campaigned hard and effectively engaged pupils across the school community to support her’. Mrs Morgan, Head of Pupil Wellbeing, said that she was ‘so proud of Destiny and cannot think of a more deserving candidate for MYP...Her passion and drive has galvanised others into action and I have no doubt that she has a very bright future ahead of her.’ Destiny began her time at PGS in Year 12, having previously been a student at Mayfield School, Portsmouth. Chief Editor of the Portmuthian, Thomas Locke, spoke with Destiny on the day of her election victory to discuss her campaign and aspirations within the Youth Parliament. Your manifesto placed great emphasis on diversity and inclusion and bridging the education gap between state and private schools. How will you navigate those issues, perhaps starting first with diversity and inclusion? As you know, we have done anti-racism training across all year groups at PGS, and 9

position as MYP to create fairer opportunities. Presumably, this also ties into PGS’ Giving Day. What was your role in that? That’s right, I was one of the ambassadors for PGS Giving Day. We worked together to come up with ideas on how to raise as much money as possible to fund bursaries and scholarships for those who would not have otherwise been able to come to this school. I am on a full scholarship so this is something I feel is really important. I definitely see the benefits that it can bring; it’s actually life-changing. This last year has been incredible in politics, both in terms of COVID, but also with issues of race in the UK and America with Black Lives Matter. I wonder what inspires you during this time? My experience keeps me going. I didn’t particularly feel that I had a voice when I was younger and I know that if there was someone championing the issues that I campaign on when I was younger, I would have felt more encouraged to get involved. I know that representation is so important so I’m glad that I’ve been able to get this opportunity so that people who don’t feel they have a voice can see that I’m ready to bring it out of them. I want to represent people from all backgrounds and don’t want to make any people feel insignificant. When did all this start for you, when was your political awakening? Well, I’ve always been keen to hear the stories of those around me and to learn more about social issues, but definitely over the past few years with Black Lives Matter, I’ve wanted to get involved with that because of my own personal experiences and the experiences of others around me. I believe that there should be a level playing field, regardless of your background, so within the past few years, I’ve been trying to educate others and campaign as much as I can.

want to make during your time in office? Well, I feel that there’s a lot of apathy among young people as we’re generally blamed quite a lot and can’t vote and hold government members accountable in that way. I want to bring in everyone’s voices and opinions and make sure that I’m not leading this role, I want the people who have elected me to be leading this role and to be co-operating with them and the deputies to make sure we can make real change. Also, as this is such a privileged position, I will have some influence, that I’m able to speak to certain people that I possibly wouldn’t have been able to without being MYP. I wonder also, logistically, how big of a role of is it? How much time will it take up? I don’t feel like it will be anything damaging in terms of the amount of time it takes up. But, as with anything, it’s what you choose to give to it, and I want to give a lot. If I want anything to actually happen, it’ll take time and effort so I’m willing to give what is needed to bring about that change. Laura Spurgeon is in the role currently. What kind of work will you inherit from her? I know that she’s been thinking about youth mental health and protecting the environment and these are things I look forward to taking on and were also in my manifesto. Did you enjoy the process of writing the manifesto? It must have felt very real all of a sudden… I actually study Politics at A-Level, so it was very interesting to study the theory of political campaigning and then to put it into practice. It allowed me to write down what I do anyway and things I already think about a lot. You can get updates on Destiny’s political campaigning through her official Instagram account, @DestinyKennedyMYP

You become the MYP for Portsmouth with Ella Reilly and Willow Lindstrom-Fabik as your deputies, taking over from Laura Spurgeon. What kind of impression do you 10

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Diversity and Inclusion

Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Josephine Morgan, and D&I Ambassador, Lucy Albuery, reflect on the past year and discuss the school’s progress regarding equality and empowerment. Josephine Morgan begins... At PGS, we have long been committed to celebrating difference. Since PGS Pride was first set up in 2013, the school has been unambiguous in its approach to diversity and inclusion, and we are continuing to grow in this area. Over the years, our focus has naturally broadened beyond gender and sexuality to include a celebration of racial and cultural differences, body and neuro diversity and much more.

communicate with and educate the school community on the issues of race and racism.” “Our committee was also able to extend into the Junior School, with talks to Years 5 and on how they can promote inclusion and kindness amongst their peers. We hope to start a D&I club in the junior school and will work closely with them.”

In the Spring we launched In September we were Year 12 delivering a D&I talk to Year 5 our anti-racism roadmap delighted to launch PGS D&I (Diversity and and audited pupils, staff and parents through the Inclusion) with a programme of pupil and staff Race and Belonging Survey. Pupil consultations talks and a half termly newsletter. As founding and staff working groups have also been members of the Schools’ Inclusion Alliance, we feeding into the listening phase of the roadmap. have been working with colleagues across the As a result of this review, we are now in the country and with local schools to listen, learn development phase of the roadmap, focusing and develop initiatives to help every member on the three key areas of Learning, Culture and of our community to thrive. Lucy Albuery Community. continues... “Delivering anti-racism talks gave us The death of Sarah the incredible experience of being able to Everard sparked a 11

huge national conversation about rape culture and sexual violence. In response to this, we launched our ‘Movement, not a Moment’ campaign and have been engaging pupils and OPs on these issues. Chartered Clinical Psychologist Dr Parnell has been running open forums with pupils and staff and Mrs Morgan and Mr Fisher have run pupil seminars. We are committed to drawing our community together and to finding positive and empowering ways of moving forward. Mrs Morgan will take on the new role of Director of Diversity and Inclusion and we are excited to continue to strengthen our work in this essential

area. It has also been fantastic to nurture pupil leadership roles and our D&I ambassadors have been doing fantastic work to promote D&I both within the school and beyond.

LGBTQ+ Symposium

Daisy Watson-Rumbold reports on a multi-school symposium.

During Spring Term, a handful of students from the PGS Diversity and Inclusion team participated in an LGBTQ+ multi-school symposium. Schools from all over the UK, including Eton College, St Paul’s Girls’ and Edinburgh Academy, came together to discuss and enjoy various perspectives on diversity. They were particularly addressing the experiences of LGBTQ+ students and allies in schools. Teachers and students alike; everyone was incredibly open about the support they’d received and how they felt the role of ‘ally’ needed to be fulfilled. Further conversations surrounding LGBTQ+

history and how prejudices are formed in communities and individuals continued into the evening. Destiny Rose-Forde Kennedy, a Year 12 student, said, “It was amazing to be around so many expressive individuals; it strengthened my belief in a better and more accepting future.” Organised by our fantastic Head of Pupil Wellbeing, Mrs Morgan, and an extension to the newly established ‘School’s Inclusion Alliance’, of which PGS are founding members, we all hope to continue having open dialogue surrounding diverse matters. For reference: https://www.schoolsinclusionalliance.co.uk/

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Chancellors of the Future

PGS Economists Consider Post-Brexit Britain, by Jack Moyse In November 2020, a group of Year 13 economists were tasked with devising a fiscally neutral budget for the United Kingdom following its departure from the European Union. The budget had to include a range of initiatives to support the UK’s objectives of environmental stability and self-sufficiency and needed to identify means of raising revenue to finance such investments. Despite a no-show from the opposition team at King Edward’s School, we still presented our plans (virtually) and had the pleasure of having it scrutinised by a panel of experts.

to satisfy the UK’s green agenda, whilst also budgeting for state bursaries to help disadvantaged students access university, making the UK more equitable post-Brexit. To pay for all of this, we set out a corporation tax hike and replaced the inheritance tax with a lifetime receipts tax which we felt would have fewer loopholes that the super-wealthy could exploit to avoid paying the tax. After our presentation, we faced scrutiny from the panel of judges who challenged the practicalities of how our proposals would work, especially in the current economic climate. I found it a really useful experience and would like to thank Mrs Worley for her help in organising this challenge.

As part of our investment ideas, we proposed greater spending on carbon-neutral technology

Jack Moyse, Robin Cavusoglu, Callum Hellyer, William Hicks and Alex Bradshaw

Celebrating the First-Ever Giving Day

Melanie Bushell, Development Director & Georgia Radford, Teacher of Learning Support

ince the launch of The William Smith Fund in 2015, the support of many hundreds of donors has helped the school increase the proportion of Senior School pupils receiving some level of fee assistance from 1 in 9 to 1 in 7. The school has an ambitious long-term target of supporting 1 in 4 pupils. To achieve that amazing goal, it will be necessary to get the whole school behind the cause and that is how the idea of running PGS’s first Giving Day came about.Very new to UK schools, Giving Days are time-limited (2436 hours) digitally driven fundraising and engagement campaigns which rally a school’s whole community behind a particular cause. Campaigns like Children in Need and Comic Relief are very similar to Giving Days, with their focus on a particular cause on a particular date. Our first major success was to find a donor willing to match a proportion of the donations, so that the first gifts received on the Giving Day would be worth double. The Calleva Foundation, which is run by Stephen Butt OP and his wife Caroline, very generously stepped forward to pledge up to £100,000 of support – a spectacular sum. Up to £80,000 of this would match donations pound for pound and the other £20,000 was set aside to support specific pupil and fundraising challenges.

This enormously generous pledge spurred us on to make our first Giving Day the very best it could be. We selected a 36-hour period from 8 a.m. on Wednesday 10th March 2021 through to 8 p.m. on Thursday 11th, not knowing at the time that this would end up being the middle of the first week back on the school site for everyone after the second full national lockdown. This turned the whole event into a massive celebration of the school community coming back together. The overall theme of #BeTheDifference was chosen to reflect both the difference that a bursary can make to a young person, and the difference that PGS, its staff and pupils can make to the communities in and around Portsmouth. We also wanted to highlight 1732, the school’s foundation year. While the Development Office set about gathering the stories of current and former pupils whose lives had been changed through receiving a bursary to attend PGS, and planning the fundraising messaging, Mrs Radford was asked by Dr Cotton to design some fun and thought-provoking challenges for Senior School pupils. In the Junior School, Mrs Evans planned a series of activities for the pupils which would add up to 1732, while Mr Ashcroft and Mrs Millward quietly hatched their own astonishing plan …..

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Senior School

SCHOOL NEWS

Planning for the Senior School remained focused on heightening our pupils’ awareness of the ability they each have, to create positive change within their communities.

1732 Breakfast Bash

e launched the programme a week before the big day. Whether pupils were still working remotely or back in school, they began with a breakfast bash. Tutor groups across the Senior School came together in a celebration of their collective and individual roles within the PGS community and beyond the Arch. Pancake competitions onsite were rivalled by elaborate ‘PGS’ and ‘1732’ themed breakfast challenges at home. Over breakfast, tutor groups shared discussions around the psychological benefits of giving, how acts of giving have helped members of our community past and present, and how their actions over the next week could contribute to positively influencing the lives of others.

The three-hour #BeTheDifference Challenge

hroughout the rest of the morning, pupils embarked on their mission to #BeTheDifference, and what a difference they made! The positive contributions made by so many in just three hours was astounding, ranging from litter picking and donations to food banks, and from beach cleans to truly inspirational acts of kindness in the community. Baking was a popular activity and we were delighted to receive photographs and messages from people across the city and beyond, who were grateful to have received cakes, cookies, and kind messages from pupils in our school.

#BeTheDifference 15

Congratulations...

...to the #BeTheDifference Challenge winners who were each responsible for unlocking Giving Day funds from the Calleva Foundation. Year 7 – Reuben Cooper, who donated clothes to a charity shop and also penned a poem for his local old people’s home (awarded overall Middle School winner) Year 8 – Siha Hoque, who circulated back issues of a weekly newspaper to fellow residents in her block of flats before recycling them Year 9 – Oscar Mellers, who volunteered at a food bank, collecting donations from supermarkets, stocking shelves, and making up packages for delivery (awarded overall Upper School winner). Year 10 – Will Gadd, who undertook a mammoth litter pick in his local area. Year 11 – Owen McGovern, who cleaned the beach and even inspired his brother to join in Year 12 – Susannah Starkey who baked shortbread for a recently widowed neighbour and also composed a piece for flute that she played to local care homes residents once restrictions eased (awarded overall 6th form winner)

Will Woodrow litter picking

Year 13 – Isabel Richardson who baked muffins for the staff and volunteers at a neighbourhood care home.

We showcased OPs and staff to help fundraising on the day

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Junior School

There was plenty of action in the Junior School where Mrs Evans and her colleagues had cooked up a fiendish set of physical and creative challenges - which added up to 1732 - to keep pupils busy all day and send everyone home exhausted.

How the 1732 added up...

The PE teachers had put together a series of cardio exercises 1000 reps Dan the Skipping Man ran a fantastic skipping workshop 700 reps Pupils were challenged to write a 30-word poem 30 Pupils learned two dances 2

Pupils of all ages also brought in pocket money and loose change from home to create the figure 1732 in coins in the Quad and gathered a staggering £752.44 for Giving Day funds in the process.

=1732

Giving Day Radio

ncouraged by the enormous popularity of their Elf TV shows in the lead-up to Christmas, Mr Ashcroft and Mrs Millward heroically offered to broadcast a non-stop radio show for the full 36 hours of the Giving Day. Alongside conversations with pupils who had received bursaries, interviews with key personalities such as Dr Cotton, and regular fundraising updates from the Development Director, Mrs Bushell, musical highlights included Breakfast Hour (including the JS Flash Mob); Critical Worker Celebration Hour; and Old School Disco, featuring Mrs Millward’s Mad Movement

Mayhem. During the UK’s night-time hours, they also chatted with OPs around the world about their experiences and memories of their years at PGS.

1732 Active and Creative Challenges The attention turned to winning House points and also unlocking valuable Giving Day funds by participating in a range of 1732 Active and Creative House challenges.

fantastic entries from pupils across the school. We were delighted that every house achieved their goal of 1732 house points, contributing even more funds towards Giving Day.

Special congratulations to:

Latter and Eastwood for achieving the most points altogether and winning the 1732 House Challenge. Ms Tweddle’s Year 11 tutor group also in Latter for achieving the most points by one tutor group Active challenges included CrossFit, Dance and Stretch & Wellbeing workshops live streamed to pupils and staff at home. Those with more creative tendencies had the opportunity to take part in a Choose your Blues! live workshop and a 1732 song writing challenge, as well as a Photography ‘bubbles’ workshop which saw 18

Senior School pupils ended Giving Day by reflecting on their efforts and celebrating each other’s successes, before deciding on tutor group Giving Pledges for the future – considering how they can continue to make positive and purposeful differences beyond Giving Day.

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Record-breaking Fundraising Success

While we were busy celebrating all that is wonderful about PGS, an amazing 653 parents, grandparents, alumni, staff, pupils, and members of the local community who had heard what was going on had dug deep and donated a staggering £280,000 for life-changing bursaries, making it the most successful Giving Day yet held by any UK school. A huge thank you to everyone who made the event such an enormous success. It was a true team effort. GO PGS! Melanie Bushell, Development Director Georgia Radford, Teacher of Learning Support

£280,000 for life-changing bursaries made it the most successful Giving Day held by any UK school 19

Chasing The Sun

n the longest day of the year, Mr Leach cycled the width of England from dawn to dusk as part of the ‘Chasing the Sun’ challenge. He started at The Isle of Sheppey and ended at Burnham on Sea, a distance of 330 km. He said of the experience, ‘it was tough, but enjoyable at the same time. Coming down Cheddar Gorge at speed was interesting with goats in the road! I managed to finish before the heavy rain started so I was pleased about that.’ Mr Leach was cycling to raise funds via a crowdfunding page for our ‘Partners in Learning’ Kikaaya College School (KCS) in Uganda. To kick off his challenge he cycled for a full school day in the Quad, clocking

up 200km in just under seven hours. To give moral support to Mr Leach, Mr Mubiru and pupils from Kikaaya got on their bikes to cycle around their village for 1km, marvelling at the superhuman effort Mr Leach was about to undertake. Mr Mubiru sent a video message to Mr Leach saying ‘thank you so much for dedicating your time, energy and resources for the link, we appreciate your services.’ He also said how inspired he had been by Mr Leach in an assembly he gave about him to his school. Having cycled 530 km, Mr Leach then kicked off a challenge for the PGS Community, to cycle the remaining 5,920 km distance between PGS and KCS by the 1st September 2021!

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‘Portsmouth - Our Place’ at PortsFest by Fiona Nicholson

nspired and supported by the work of local artisan Jen Evison (www.jencreates.co.uk) 10 local schools, including PGS, created an interactive 3m x 2m 3D Jigsaw Model of Portsmouth for Ports Fest. Each school created a piece of the jigsaw, that is a representation of their local area, and also included an aspirational element for how they would like their area to develop. Using QR codes on the model it was possible to find out more about what our young people think and feel about ‘Portsmouth – Our Place’ through survey results and videos, and what they hope for the future. It was housed in Portsmouth Cathedral for three weeks and is dedicated in loving memory to David ‘Mac’ MacDonald who cut all the jigsaw pieces.

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Sea Shanty Sensation Bristol-based band, The Longest Johns, perform at PortsFest

s life after the pandemic began to return to normal, PortsFest staged a wonderous weekend of music and song with the stage set in the grounds of the school quad. Photography by Thomas Locke.

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Thanks a Million!

James Burkinshaw describes how the Portsmouth Point blog following has grown this year

ortsmouth Point blog began 2021 by receiving its ONE MILLIONTH page view – testament to our loyal readers and dedicated team of editors and contributors. Since the first Lockdown, in March 2020, the blog has been in a unique position to help pupils, staff and members of the wider school community share ideas, opinions and enthusiasms. Portsmouth Point published more articles in 2020 (545) than we had in any twelve-month period previously (breaking the record of 485 articles set in 2013). Between January and July 2021, we have already posted 342, so there is certainly no sign of the intellectual engagement and creative energy of our pupils abating any time soon.

scientific topics, from particle physics to the nature of time and the possibility of alien life, in a way accessible to non-specialist readers without compromising the intellectual rigour of the articles themselves. Sarnaz Hossain was equally at home discussing driverless cars and Cantor’s infinity as he was setting tough algorithmic puzzles for our readers. Esme Kelly was as entertaining and informative on the subject of cyborg-grasshoppers as she was on the joys of ‘Animal Crossing’. Thomas Locke was an adept interviewer and wrote perceptively on socio-cultural issues from Katie Hopkins to social networks. Sebastian Martin deservedly won the Sports Journalism prize for his engaging coverage of the South African rugby tour, the significance of Maradona and the impact of COVID on sport among other subjects. Jay Pasricha’s enthusiasm was always apparent, whether writing about the challenge of competitive climbing, unusual historical weapons, historical accuracy in computer games or the significance of water mills.

We have been so lucky, this year, with our dynamic editorial team of nearly 70 pupils from Years 7-13. I want to pay particular tribute to the Year 13s leaving us at the end of this year. Alex Barker wrote with enthusiasm and insight on topics from American football to the politics of heavy metal. Tara Bell’s passion for literature and her purposeful political engagement came through in every article she wrote, from the significance of ‘Jane Eyre’ to a critique of liberal feminism. Claudia Bishop was as knowledgeable and incisive about film and TV as she was about psychology; she was also an excellent interviewer. Honor Mitchell Brock wrote informedly about economics and raised awareness about alopecia. Edith Critchley wrote with infectious enthusiasm and intellectual acuity on a vertiginous variety of subjects from ecocriticism to women’s rugby, George Eliot to the Apocalypse. Emily Curwood’s intellectual interests ranged from AI to the biology of the gut, the politics of Turkmenistan to secondwave feminism. Anna Danso-Amoako wrote with conviction and cogency on medicine and politics, from the civil rights movement to the role of technology in health care. Max Harvey was brilliant at explaining complex

Sophie Reeve-Foster wrote with subtlety and sensitivity, whether defending ‘Nativity’ as a good Christmas movie or discussing the decriminalisation of sex work or the issue of mental health at Christmas. Habina Seo’s love of music, art and architecture permeated her writing, from sustainable architecture to the role of Viennese building design in the history of the symphony, the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge or the future of popular music. Seb Sharpe always wrote with assurance and wit on subjects from horse racing to F1, American football or the Black Death. Samantha Todd’s poetry was a highlight, ranging from relationships to identity, medicine to the passing of time. And I always looked forward to anything written by Nick Lemieux during his half-decade as a Portsmouth Point editor; whether he was contemplating 25

‘Portsmouth Point published more articles in 2020 (545) than we had in any twelve-month period previously (breaking the record of 485 articles set in 2013)’. the reputational collapse of Game of Thrones, the significance of Donald Trump as an actor, the challenge of watching old TV shows in an era of cultural change, the problems with Disney live-action remakes (and other franchising disasters) or the cultural legacy of The Dandy, Nick wrote with extraordinary wisdom and wit on the ways in which film and television shows mirror the complexities, and contradictions of the societies that create them. We published two wonderful issues of Portsmouth Point magazine this year, one focused on the theme of ‘Time’ (December 2020) and the other on ‘Progress’ (July 2021).

James Burkinshaw Editor of Portsmouth Point

Success at UKMT Senior Maths Challenge by Kang Shen

took part in the UKMT Senior Mathematical Challenge, which sought to test mathematical reasoning, precision of thought and fluency of using basic mathematical techniques in problem-solving. I did the challenge last year so I was quite excited about it during the half-term. To prepare, I tried some past paper questions for preparation but did not spend too long on them as I thought the challenge itself was testing the understanding of mathematical principles rather than asking solutions to particular kinds of questions. Due to the impact of COVID-19, this year’s challenge took place online. The questions in the challenge were based on what we had learnt within the A-Level syllabus, but more challenging than the questions we were used to

In total, they featured 60 scholarly and detailed articles on subjects from genome editing to the significance of pseudonyms, the politics of statues, the importance of bees, the redefinition of Tragedy in Bojack Horseman, diversity in the fashion industry and the impact of health care on the environment. As always, I am grateful for the invaluable support of our Head of Photography, Oliver Stone, and our magazine designer, Clara Feltham; I am also thankful for the enthusiasm and engagement of so many colleagues who write such interesting, varied and inspiring articles for blog and magazine. Editing Portsmouth Point remains a genuine privilege.

as we needed to think in different ways to try to find the solutions. I really enjoyed the 90-minutes completing the considerable challenge. Some of the questions were nice and interesting; I could get some beautiful expressions as I worked through them, and sometimes questions that looked complicated turned out to be quite simple. That is the fun of Maths. After the Senior Mathematical Challenge, there were the following rounds: the Kangaroo challenge (which I was involved in last year) and the Olympiad challenge. Candidates who got high scores will be invited to the Kangaroo challenge and people who gained the top scores are attending the Olympiad challenge. Few people got in the Olympiad challenge last year who achieved amazing grades and I am looking forward to seeing the results this year.

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SCHOOL NEWS

Enrichment Week

Pupils enjoyed a fabulous week of activities to end the academic year, here we showcase the Year 8 Photo Safari!

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SCHOOL NEWS

Citizenship Day

s part of Citizenship Day during Enrichment Week our Year 12 pupils went along to the Second Chance Children’s charity. The charity essentially offer a second chance to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and due to COVID they have not been able to have volunteers as regularly and so had a lot of things to do around the site. Our pupils all got stuck in and enjoyed a super productive day working as a team (despite the unpredictable weather) and they made a real difference!

his year the PGS Geography Department have launched the new “Geo Club” co-curricular activity for pupils in Year 7. In Geo Club, pupils are invited to take part in activities like geocaching, geography games, designing and building eco-friendly sustainable houses and creating exploding volcanoes whilst considering the processes behind these events.

were travelling to the frozen continent to carry out their research. Katie Livermore’s (Year 9) simple but sophisticated design was the PGS winner. Katie, explains that “I wanted to include three aspects of the Antarctic Project: climate, research and wildlife. I have used an outline of the iceberg, penguins and scientific equipment”. Her iceberg was photographed in front of some real icebergs.

Many other practical and enriching activities have taken place throughout the year, so thank you to the teachers in the Geography department who have continued delivering the Geo Club throughout the COVID-19 challenges; all in a bid to continue to inspire pupils about the world around them.

A flag created by KCS pupil Bukenya Lawrence featuring two of Antarctic’s most iconic species, also went off to Antarctica. Lawrence’s flag design was photographed at Bird Island by BAS scientist Alexandra Dodds amongst a colony of Gentoo penguins. Congratulations to both pupils! Some other fantastic flags that did not make it to Antarctica this time were created by Year 7 Geo Club members Attish Das, Joe Priestly and Katie Millard. You can find out more about this initiative and see Katie’s and Lawrence’s flags featured on the UK Polar Network website.

One of the many activities undertaken was the Antarctica Day Flags Initiative run by the UK Polar Network. Since scientific expeditions to the Antarctic have continued and Antarctica does not have its own flag, pupils were asked to design their own. The flags were then taken all the way to Antarctica by scientists who

Geography Club 30

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Sarah Stewart

CLUBS & SOCIETIES

Geo Club Collaboration

Fiona Nicholson explains the special initiative for Kikaaya College

eo Club had a very productive and enjoyable Geo Chat about endangered species with Kikaaya College School in Uganda via live video link. What came out of it was many shared issues about species between our countries and communities. These included the invasion of non-native species, the destruction of habitats and a lack of political will to tackle underlying causes of the problems due to vested interests.

We found a surprising link of common concern between our two groups of pupils which was the decline in bat species/numbers in both places. Kikaaya also reported the decline in monkeys (they used to be common but are rarely seen there now) and Mr Mubiru recalled with sadness the loss of the 'very friendly leopard' that used to accompany people home and was much loved by the community. The loss of monkeys and the leopard was due to deforestation - with the species migrating as a result. As a result of our discussion and the question 'what can we do about it' we came up with action points that we would like to take in both schools/communities to improve the environment and help conserve species. Since then Eco Council, Geo Club, PUG and Wildlife Club staff and pupils have met to take the next steps – so watch this space!

Katie Livermore

Senior School Eco Council

by Louisa Burton

he Senior School EcoCouncil have continued in their quest to make PGS and the wider community more sustainable, despite the turbulence of the past year. Returning to school in September post-lockdown, our focus was on having a “sustainable pandemic”. EcoCouncil members encouraged their peers through an assembly and poster campaign to ditch disposable facemasks and to invest in more comfortable and environmentally-friendly reusable masks.

The EcoCouncil also considered how new COVID procedures, such as the regular wiping of desks, could be made more sustainably such that damage to the environment was minimal whilst protecting the health of the community . The “Eco Heroes” termly certificate was also introduced whereupon each term the EcoCouncil celebrated through certificates a pupil and a staff member who were seen to be practicing sustainable habits, and therefore acting as role models to the school community.

Small Changes, Big Difference

In October, three Year 10 pupils (Olly Harris, groups and personal development sessions for Alice Hudson and Rafe Crane-Robinson) along staff have taken place to discourage the use with Mrs Sands attended the Hopeful Earth of unnecessary resources, such as paper and Conference hosted by Ditcham Park School. plastic. CH&Co have been heavily involved, As part of this event, we pledged as a school most significantly through making single use to do all that we can to make our community, Vegware cups less available by being on request and beyond where only in the Dining possible, more sustainable. Hall; this has led to Immediately, a group of 60% fewer being interested pupils (including used which equates the original Hopeful Earth to approximately “three”) began meeting on 100,000 per year. a weekly basis to set targets Staff and pupils have which morphed over time been encouraged to into the Senior School bring in their own EcoCouncil which now has reusable salad boxes 24 pupils involved. The which is saving up to Senior School EcoCouncil 200 Vegware boxes has representation from being used weekly, “like-minded” clubs, Rafe Crane-Robinson, Olly Harris and Alice Hudson and single use coffee including the Middle School EcoClub and the cups have been removed from the staff Senior Geography Society, and is represented within Common Room, therefore reducing usage by the Whole School Pupil Council. Two joint around 500 cups per week. The Junior School staff-pupil forums, including the Pre- and and Senior School EcoCouncils have set up a Junior- schools, have also taken place to pool variety of recycling stations around school; ideas in order to accelerate school-wide change. batteries were already being recycled but there Our focus this year has been on the “reduce” are now facilities for used stationery, plastic part of the commonly cited “reduce, reuse, bottle tops and used dental hygiene products recycle” initiative. Assemblies for all year also. 32

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SCHOOL NEWS

Stock Market Club

The intellectual capacity of the sixth formers to take on new concepts continually astounds me as does their appetite to push me for more skills and insight into the world of finance. As always, all the students play regular games of stock picking and their investment hypotheses each week grow in insight and technical understanding. A special shout out must go to two upper sixth pupils Fred Barry and Nic Ross who won the prize for the best performing portfolio. Their portfolio (see below) showed not only exceptional investment judgement but also some Exel skills worthy of an investment banking Associate.

e have had a remarkable year at The Stock Market and Investment Club. The "black swan event" that was COVID meant that membership was limited to just Sixth Formers, but it meant that the depth of analysis and discussion became both more focussed and more sophisticated.In the club we have covered everything from Price Earnings Ratios, Book building during IPOs, Efficient Market Hypothesis (and why it wrong) the Morrisons Hostile Takeover, Inflation Hedging, Leverage Buy outs, Venture Capital, Tech Bubbles and Short selling. Phew! As a part time member of staff at PGS with other interests, I worked in the winter and spring on a leveraged buy out in the FMCG sector. We were able to work through many of the issues in real time (where non disclosure agreements allowed!) and the students heard a few tales from the coal face.

As always, the pupils come for not only financial nouse but also for the games of spoof and the prizes each week. We have had an excellent range of pupils selecting the best stocks, winning spoof and collecting prizes this year.

Nic Ross Fred Barry

Bruno Smith 33

Octavia Hynes

Creative Writing Club

ear 7 have enjoyed exploring creative writing in a variety of ways this year. Occasionally fuelled by biscuits and cake, the group has written energetically in many genres, including writing a radio play around the theme of Christmas, writing haikus about Spring, and going down to the nearby beach at the Hotwalls to be inspired by the water and nature itself. The club allows the pupils to craft and refine their love of writing and develops their confidence in receiving feedback, drafting work, and most importantly, getting lots of encouragement in the process of writing. Emma Burns

Daisy Biddle

Daniel Lynes-Gomez

Reading Clubs

his year has been a brilliant year for our Reading Clubs, both in-person and during remote learning. They produced their ‘Recommended Lockdown Reads’ and showed heart-warming empathy and courage during ‘Read with Pride’; most importantly read an astounding number of books! Their reading prowess was put to the test this summer term when the Year 7 Library Duck & Friends and the Year 8 Reading Mafia both shadowed The CILIP Carnegie Award. Pupils raced to read and review all eight books on

the shortlist. Other challenges were set by the shortlisted authors themselves, including poetry writing, photography and free-writing. Below are some of the wonderful pieces of work they produced. Most importantly each pupil got to vote for their favourite shortlisted book for the Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Award; and we are happy to say that our pupils' votes helped first time novelist Manjeet Mann to win the award. A book which staff and pupils alike, recommend everybody should read!

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Jennifer Hill

Art Club

s part of the Year 9 Monday activities clubs, Mr Peebles has been running an art/pottery club. Throughout the first cycle, we have enjoyed printing and creating artwork on paper, and in the second, designing and creating works of clay.

CLUBS & SOCIETIES

We created an excellent selection of tiles, each different from the last, which will hopefully go into creating a unique design for that room, that we all enjoyed making. Oscar Mellors

In the first cycle, the art club created individual self-portrait monoprints. Experimenting with lighting aspects and coloured gels from the drama department, we began to take photographs of one another in dramatic ways, similar to what other pupils have been doing in their art lessons. Using different camera angles, we discovered how framing the photo in another way can make the viewer feel in positions of power or make them feel lesser than the photo’s subject. We then got to printing. First, we began to lay down one colour of ink onto our work spaces, and placed our paper over the top. Using different tools, on the other side of the paper we pressed down hard, removing the ink from the table, and placing it onto the paper. Every time we wanted to use a different colour, we had to remove the paper, clean the surface and place the new ink colour down. Overall, we were all proud of our works, and we seemed to discover which utensils create different textures and which were easier to use. In the second cycle, the pottery club began creating clay tiles to redesign the top room of the N-block staircase, separating N6 and O1. We used tile cutters to create perfectly square clay tiles, made from White St. Thomas Body. On each of the tiles, we tried creating different designs on each that sprang out from the main tile, mainly circular-shaped. To join pieces, we used the scratch and slip technique, which involved using slip, which is broken-up pieces of the clay with water added to it, which will harden in the kiln to join the pieces.

Staff Leavers Samantha Robinson

are to have the school and not to take things for granted. I’m in an unusual position in that I get to go to work with my family – my husband and children – so no wonder that it feels so much like home to me! I’ll miss that, and I’ll miss my PGS family, too – all of the pupils I’ve taught and the colleagues I’ve worked with over the years.

‘The school has always been a fantastic place to learn’ How long have you been working here? I first arrived at the school in 2009 as a PGCE student. I had been a journalist and retrained as a teacher, and Mr Burkinshaw kindly acted as my NQT mentor, which was a terrific introduction into the English department. I had a PGS ‘break’ when I took up the post of Deputy Head of Sixth Form at Churcher’s College, but returned six years ago. What are you going to miss most about PGS? I think the short answer is a little bit of everything. We’ve all felt the challenges of the past year, but coming back to school, teaching lessons, seeing pupils and colleagues has been great. I think it’s reminded us all how lucky we

What has been the biggest change you have seen since joining PGS? The school has always been a fantastic place to learn, but times are changing and the curriculum we offer has really evolved to meet these changes. In my role as Head of Enrichment, I’ve enjoyed being at the centre of the new Sixth Form curriculum over the last few years, and it’s offered a new perspective on how we approach post-16 education. We’ve had the chance to do something really different and it’s been exciting. The Ivy House Award, Ignite, Community & Workplace and Extend are all really creative opportunities that offer pupils independent choice and encourage a fresh perspective on things. That’s a mindset that benefits us all. What’s your next step? I’ve been appointed as the National Lead of Sixth Forms for Academies Enterprise Trust, a Multi Academy Trust with a large infrastructure of academies across the country. It’s a strategic position that will drive sixth form provision across a large number of schools, with the aim of opening another sixth form or two each year. It’s a really exciting role that will build on the work I’ve done at PGS, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.

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STAFF NEWS

Ainsley Rawlings What’s your next step? I am relocating my family to my home country - New Zealand. I will be the Head of Geography at Rongotai College, a boy’s school in Wellington. I’m really looking forward to going to live events and not having to wear a mask all the time (once I’ve done my 2 weeks, military enforced quarantine). What has been your most embarrassing moment at PGS? Turning up to a (remote) Geog Dept meeting with a face change app on - I was a Trump potato in the White House. Needless to say it set a trend and every meeting since has involved some form of dressing up.

‘It is a special place that can make you want to come to work each day’

What has been the biggest change you have seen since joining PGS? How adaptable everyone has become with remote learning and all the things COVID have made us change. Wearing masks in lesson! Talking to avatars all day have taken some getting used to (....turn your cameras on!).

How long have you been working here? Only twelve months, but they have been the most varied and enjoyable twelve months, with two terms in lockdown!. What are you going to miss most about PGS? The people! The staff, the pupils and the PGS family are amazing. How they have embraced new ideas and change. How they take a genuine interest in current events and looking out for each other. It is a special place that can make you want to come to work each day and this is exactly what I found at PGS. What has been your favourite moment at PGS? Finding my love of teaching and learning. My tutees, the pupils in my classes, the staff I have worked with and the CCF have all helped me find my enthusiasm for working in schools again.

Jo Tweddle How long have you been working here? Seven years. What are you going to miss most about PGS? Hilsea cakes - especially the brownies. What has been your favourite moment at PGS? Dancing a Salsa with Mr Lister in the PGS Come Dancing event. What has been your most embarrassing moment at PGS? Ending an email to a senior manager with a ‘x’ What has been the biggest change you have seen since joining PGS? The Hilsea netball courts, at long last. And my hair colour! What’s your next step? A move to Portugal.

Delia Curteis How long have you been working here? Just over six years. What are you going to miss most about PGS? My wonderful colleagues and pupils What has been your favourite moment at PGS? I think it has to be taking the pupils on John Muir outings and seeing them thriving in the woods What has been the biggest change you have seen since joining PGS? The transformation of the Learning Support Department in its lovely new premises. What’s your next step? I will be developing my private practice, providing tuition and assessment for those affected by dyslexia. THE PORTMUTHIAN 2020-21

STAFF NEWS

Laura Ashdown How long have you been working here? Seven years. What are you going to miss most about PGS? All the lovely people! One of the best things about PGS is just stopping having a chat and a catch up on the quad. What has been your favorite moment at PGS? It’s very hard to pick one, but I have always really enjoyed taking the Senior Maths Challenge Team to their competitions. In my first year here, PGS won the regional round and qualified for the national finals, and that was very exciting! What has been your most embarrassing moment at PGS? When I asked Mrs Morgan why she called Mr Kirby ‘Dad’ I thought it was a nickname… I didn’t realise he was ACTUALLY her Dad! What’s your next step? Me and my family are moving to Wales, I will be teaching at Christ College Brecon, which is right on the edge of the Brecon Beacons, so I am sure we will all be getting involved in lots of outdoorsy activities.

What has been the biggest change you have seen since joining PGS? The use of iPads in the classroom, it has been an amazing source of Maths resources.

Paul Bew How long have you been working here? Two years.

What has been your favourite moment at PGS? So many really but seeing players enjoy their cricket and learn new skills and develop as people.

What are you going to miss most about PGS? I will miss everyone in the sports department , their support , passion for their sports and good humour.

What’s your next step? Assistant Director of Cricket at Epsom College.

New Staff Yvonne Wiggins What made you go into teaching? I think we have a teacher gene running through our family. My mum is a teacher and so is my brother. I guess I really enjoy working with young people and I love the fact that no two days are ever the same. Schools and classrooms have an incredible energy about them and I love the creative and vibrant atmosphere here at PGS. Needless to say, I also married a teacher, so the gene will continue to run through the family! What was your most embarrassing moment during your teaching career? As a language teacher, you quickly learn not to be embarrassed by any of the crazy and funny things you do in the classroom on a daily basis, and not much phases me these days to be honest. Most things that some people perceive as ‘embarrassing’ just show that we are all human and that is a good thing, really. Has there ever been a moment that made you question being a teacher? I took a brief career break when we relocated to Portsmouth, and I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go back into teaching or use this opportunity to try out something completely different. I am glad I stuck with teaching though, and I quickly realised that I like being in the classroom too much to change my career path. If you could have a superpower, what would it be? I would like to be able to ‘beam’ myself to a different place in an instant, without having to go on a plane or train! I can be a bit of a travel disaster, so cutting out the travelling when going to places would be brilliant.that human and social contact is absolutely vital in a learning environment. I did not start anything new as such, but my four year old son and I have been baking a lot more than I usually would have!

What is the most daring thing you’ve ever done? Moving to the UK from Germany, leaving all my friends and family behind. When I first came here for my year abroad when I was at university, I lived in Glasgow and felt very lonely for the first few weeks. I remember sitting in my room not daring to go outside, and also not knowing where to go or what to do really. I felt pretty sorry for myself for a while (this was before smartphones and WhatsApp!). Then I dared going out, joined in with some organised activities, stayed in the communal spaces for longer rather than hiding away in my room, and I met some really lovely people along the way, to some of whom I am still very close. What are you looking forward to most at PGS? I’m looking forward to spending time in a co-ed school, having spent most of my career in single sex schools. I have been impressed with how genuinely interesting, caring and polite PGS pupils are.

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STAFF NEWS

A Tribute to David Macdonald Melissa Flack, Head of Design & Technology read this moving speech at the memorial service held for Mr Macdonald in the quad. Pupils and teachers were able to pay their respects to a much loved member of the PGS community who passed away suddenly during the Summer term. Mr MacDonald, known universally as Mac, joined the school in 2015 as a Design and Technology Technician. Mac was hugely popular with pupils and colleagues alike, offering guidance and support to pupils throughout the school studying this subject.

r Macdonald (or Mac to his friends and colleagues) was one of those marvellous people in life, who brought instant joy to everyone he met. Staff and pupils who have described him, have all used very similar words, words such as kind, selfless, energetic, positive, fun, and full of life. He was not only an incredible colleage who never ceased to amaze us with his technical knowledge, passion for learning new skills, and his practical ability, but he was also a wonderful, kind and funny friend. He was the life and soul of the department, lifting everyones spirits with his positivity, funny stories and jokes. Many of you will also remember his love of music and how he would sing and whistle his way around the department as he was going about his work. I know many of you in my classes have certanly had some giggles listening to him singing in his office over the years.

has probably fixed hundreds of pairs of glasses and patched up more holes in pupils school shoes than we can count. I know many staff are greatful for his help too, particularly after a disastrous DIY weekend, or when they arrived with anything from broken bikes, to kitchen cupboards for repair. He always wanted to help others, and no matter how busy he was with his own work and responsibility he was always ready to drop everything to help, no matter how big or small the job maybe. His love of life and his positivity was infectious. He was truly a joy to work with, always optemistic, encouraging and fun. Each morning I would walk into his office to ask ‘ Good morning Mac, how are you?’and his answer was always the same ‘ Im Lovely! How are you?’. And Mac, you really were Lovely. The very best example of a friend, colleage and teacher, and I know I can speak for my team and the whole school community when I say that you will be very much missed, and never forgotten.

Any of the pupils who have studied design and technology can tell you just how wonderful he was at helping with projects, prepping materials and never complaining. He was always ready to help with a smile, a joke and plenty of technical knowledge. He always had a cause or a project and was usually busy working through breaks, lunches and late after school to help out with the many extra projects he took on to aid the whole school community. Props for drama and anti bullying campaigns, repairing sports equipment and building play eqipment for the junior school to name a few. He

Mac with pupil Fabian Appelboam-Meadows in 2017 41

Design & Technology

his academic year has seen more incredible work emerge from all year groups and even a second national lock down didn’t stop them! From speakers to boats, lamps to pastries and a kevlar surveillance drone to name just a few, our pupils have relentlessly created, baked, designed and engineered amazing products both in the classroom and when working from home. Sadly the second lockdown meant that our amazing GCSE and A Level pupils were unable to complete the practical elements of their course, but they still managed to complete all other aspects of their NEA to an exceptionally high standard. The quality of their design work was incredible and we had a huge range of innovative designs. We are delighted to have so many of our Year 11 pupils staying on to study A Level Product Design with us next year, and we are excited to see how they continue to develop their skills. We would also like to wish our innovative Year 13 pupils the very best of luck for their onward studies. This year sees an exceptionally talented cohort leave us for university, many of whom are going on to study product design or engineering. They NEA work was exceptional and we are incredibly

proud of their achievements, in what has been such a challenging year. Alongside our creative Year 12 A Level pupils, who have begun the initial investigations for their NEA this year, we had an amazing team of Year 12 pupils enter the Industrial Cadet Awards. This is a prestigious award run by the Engineering Development Trust. As a team, they developed, designed, and created a drone for military surveillance. By utilising Kevlar to ensure it was light weight the drone was designed to glide over a specified area with no engines running, using a camera with tracking technology to covertly photograph behind enemy lines. It was a complex design and manufacture project which they completed successfully, gaining high praise and a gold award from the trust. Well done to Ralph Wilson, Ralph Berry, Ben Bradley and Ben Millard. We also had several applicants for the prestigious Arkwright Scholarships too, and with them luck for the announcements later on this year.

Sienna Caven

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SCHOOL NEWS

Imogen Stewart

Our Year 10 pupils completed their mock NEA projects, developing and creating lighting products. We were delighted with the amazing variety of processes, materials and designs that were created and can’t wait to see what this group of talented pupils will make for their real GCSE NEA. Year 9 have had a fun year creating anglepoise lamps, bug and animal houses and even designed and made vehicles which convert potential energy to kinetic energy for power. This last project was completed over the period of remote learning and we all enjoyed watching the videos of their test runs, with some very amusing results!

Lianne Kan

models of buildings in our area for the 2021 Ports Fest.

Our pupils in Year 7 and 8 have also been busy creating exciting products, crafting these though both CAD/CAM and traditional methods. We have been blown away by the amazing creativity and confidence of these pupils and look forward to seeing what wonderful creations they design next year. Our Year 7 and 8 Tech Club pupils have been busy making a wide variety of products including sustainable jewellery, boats, automata to name a few. Recently they also helped with the Our Place exhibition, making tiny architectural

This academic year has, for all of us, been one of the most logistically challenging years our pupils have had, dealing with COVID-19 restrictions, school closures and cancelled exams. However, we are so proud of all they have achieved despite this, and we can’t wait to see what they do next! Melissa Flack

Melissa Flack, Ben Bradley, Ralph Wilson, Ben Millard, Raulf Berry and Dr Anne Cotton

Engineering Gold for Year 12

by Head of Design and Technology, Melissa Flack

ongratulations to Ben, Raulf, Ben and Ralph, Year 12 Industrial cadets who have all graduated with an Industrial Cadet Gold Award from the Engineering Development Trust. For their project the team designed and manufactured a covert military surveillance drone, complete with a parachute. The drone was made using a Kevlar composite and by utilising 3D print technology, with the majority of the project undertaken during lockdown. The team worked extremely hard, including weekly meetings with a mentor from BAE, and

their achievement is a significant one. Their Lead Assessor from Babcock International Group commented, "The work produced by the team is of a high engineering standard and they should be very proud of themselves. They have identified the problem well, conducted thorough research, designed and developed strong solutions and above all, have critically evaluated their work exceptionally. Following the design process in such a way will serve them well in any design based career. They worked well as a team, presented their work excellently in the report and show impressive levels of professionalism."

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SCHOOL NEWS

Product Design in Action

n November, Year 12 Product Design pupils were able to take part in a series of online lectures delivered by Product Design in Action. A range of professionals spoke about their specialist field within product design and design engineering. The lectures were broad in their focus, beginning with Anna Ploszajski sharing her journey as a materials engineer, Bethan Wood discussing colour theory and materials investigation and Ben Wilson revealing his individual approach to design. The lectures were interactive with our pupils being able to ask the presenters questions whilst making notes and sketches.

The primary research the pupils conducted during the day was used to develop and inspire their A Level coursework projects and give them an insight into a range of different processes and approaches to the design process as well as an insight into just some of the varied career paths available with an A Level in Product Design. Melissa Flack

After a short lunch, these speakers were followed by the event’s organiser, Pascal Anson, who delivered a collective creative exercise for the pupils to take part in. The creative exercise was focused around constructing towers with everyday objects which were then posted on twitter. Poppy Codling, Imogen Diffy, Gabriel Appleby-Mell and Benedict Blythe became twitter famous for a few minutes after their constructions were selected from all the events entries by Pascal, to receive analysis in front of all the participants. Finally, Sam Rogers from Gravity Industries shed some light on the approach Gravity Industries has taken to develop a pioneering human flight suit.

Food & Nutrition

by Anne McNiece, Teacher of Food & Nutrition

n Food Preparation and Nutrition Year 7 and 8 pupils have been busy this year learning about healthy eating and making the right food choices as well as creating healthy colourful dishes to enjoy. These dishes have included Layered Pasta Salads, Vegetable Cous Cous, Chicken and Halloumi dippers, Fish and Halloumi Kebabs. The pupils in Year 7 and 8 have also explored the scientific side of food by exploring the science of soda and chemical functions of ingredients which resulted in some edible science experiments also known as Swiss Rolls and Cupcakes.

The Year 9 pupils have had a whistle stop tour of World Cuisine exploring cultural influences through bread making, pasty making and pasta. The pupils have worked at an extremely high level creating dishes such as flaky pasta sausage rolls, chocolate swirl tear and share bread and homemade ravioli coloured with beetroot and spinach. Alongside their practical skills they have continually developed their knowledge of ingredients and technical processes. At GCSE the Year 10 pupils have been working hard this year not only finessing their practical skills but linking this to the examination preparation. The level of skills through technical processes and presentation has been phenomenal, especially as this is usually the first time of attempting these skills. A real highlight for many of them was making pate sucree with creme patissiere. The pupils have also tackled the butchering of a chicken and learnt how to meal plan, creating chicken curries, stuffed chicken breast, risotto and even making their own stock. Year 11 worked hard this year on their NEA which showcased their knowledge and practical skills. Although they unfortunately did not get to make their final practical dishes they did have an opportunity to make some trial dishes as part of their NEA work. In spite of Lockdown the Year 11 pupils worked creatively at home to continually improve their skills. They should all be very proud of their efforts and skill levels they have mastered at GCSE level.

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Will Gadd

SCHOOL NEWS

Art & Biology Team Up for Competition

The Nancy Rothwell Competition is an art-biology competition that celebrates specimen drawing and is open to entrants aged 7 - 18. The Royal Society of Biology runs the external competition, so PGS held its own internal competition to run alongside it. The winners were announced in the month of March and all pupils who participated were awarded a chocolate easter egg. The winners for the school’s internal competition were Sabiha Sabikunnaher (1st place), Jiali Hicks (2nd place), and Siha Hoque (3rd place). The judges were Mr Peebles and Miss Poole. Everyone who participated should feel very proud of their pieces and deserve a massive congratulations. We hope all entrants enjoyed the experience and wish to see them take part again next year!

Sabiha Sabikkhuner, Year 9 I chose the mandarin fish because I was intrigued by the variety of vibrant colours, so it was a challenge to draw, though very fun. Overall, I spent around 12 hours drawing it through wavering commitment, contemplating my life choices but in the end, it was worth it. The black background was a back-up plan but in the end I liked the contrast between it and the artwork. For the prize, I received a pack of watercolours, a concertina sketchbook, ‘Art forms in Nature’ by Ernst Haeckel, a pencil and brush and an easter egg - it was devoured within the next hour.

Jiali Hicks, Year 9 I wanted to draw something colourful and striking (two things which I am not), and chose a mantis shrimp. I also have vivid memories of watching a video about them in PRS last year that said they had the strongest punch and could tear your skin and flesh clean off.. I was terrified, so I decided to dedicate this project to them. I think I spent around 10 hours in total hunched over my desk drawing this thing. But hey, a book, a sketchbook and an easter egg is worth all those arm cramps. I completed my Nancy Rothwell Competition entry on a frog as I wanted to study a common amphibian - they seemed interesting to me because of the way they were adapted to survive in semi-aquatic habitats. This meant the anatomy would have many different aspects to it. I also wanted to look at the ways frogs metamorphose during their lives.

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SCHOOL NEWS

Cleo Curtis, Year 7

Sanuli Weganthale Epita Athauda Gedara, Year 7

Rowan Reddy, Year 9 I chose the blue dragon sea slug for a number of reasons - because I’m very interested in sea slugs, because I liked the colours of the slug, and because I thought it had a unique shape to it. Sea slugs are my favourite creature, and I have always loved their vibrant colours and extravagant antennae. A close contender for the creature I was going to draw, though, was Yi Qi - a small dinosaur with a feathery crest and bat-like wings. However, I have already drawn this dinosaur multiple times, and I wanted to branch out and draw something I never had before. The drawing took me about four hours, and I did it on an app called Procreate.

Daragh Walker, Year 9

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SCHOOL NEWS

Life as an Art Scholar

This year in Art Scholars, we did a variety of different things and experimented with new areas of art that we haven’t had much practice with before. Mrs Williams’ plan at first was to cover different mediums of paint over the course of the year, moving from watercolour to acrylic to oil. But because of the lockdown during Easter, we veered off that track. Instead, we learnt about perspective, how to draw from life and the basics of animation.

The lockdown started in February and we were restricted to Google Meets and discordant audio. The first thing we did was perspective; we covered one-point, two-point and threepoint perspectives. Afterwards, we had to create a piece of artwork that used perspective as a starting point. Next, we looked at life drawing and finally, animation. After returning to school, we were given a choice of what we wanted to work on. I was really inspired by this artist called Tahlia Stanton and decided to create an acrylic painting adopting her style. It was a fun process but I was always scared of messing up. I haven’t had much experience with acrylic but was able to use this opportunity to develop my skills and challenge myself.

The first thing we did was create Christmas cards. This year’s theme was silver. Elsa Davies won with her beautiful landscape of the Spinnaker tower in the evening. Before lockdown, we were focusing on watercolours. I was really excited to try it out since I watched a lot of videos online on how to paint faces with watercolour. I thought it would be quite easy because I knew all the steps, but it was more difficult than I had expected. The colours all bled into each other and I couldn’t match the shades I wanted; it was a mess. But, nonetheless, I really enjoyed the process.

All in all, it was a really fun year and I can’t wait to know what we’ll be doing next year. Jiali Hicks

The Annual PGS Library Writing Competition ‘Fly Into Fantasy’ In the autumn term there was a new arrival in the Main Library; a dragon took up roost. It became the inspiration for our annual competition. Given the difficult and unpredictable realities experienced this year, the Library team decided on a story theme of fantasy. ‘Fly Into Fantasy’ invited pupils to use their imagination to create new worlds and characters far removed from the world of COVID-19 and lockdown life. T h e r e were many wonderful entries: a wise but decrepit old dragon living under the school, a deadly monster preying on s u m m e r camps and an entrapped dragon who lived life as a laboratory specimen. Through the medium of fantasy all of the entries including the winning stories reflected their writers’ experience of life during a pandemic and in lockdown; be that in the setting of a trapped and confined life or in the ever looming danger of a monster who could take anyone at any time. Below are extracts from the two winning stories and a comment from the judges. If you would like to read them in full they are on the Portsmouth Point blog and available in the Library. 52

Middle School Winner: Cecilia Cameron “The light was daylight! No one had seen daylight for generations and there were only myths about its beauty. It was said to come from a large blazing ball of fire, millions of kilometres away. I didn't even know how the light reached this new world but it did and it was glorious. I pushed the metal wiring covering the entrance away and climbed the ladder. Suddenly, I was in a large room, with golden light streaming through large sheets of clear material, surrounded by books. Hundreds of books. Every wall was covered from floor to ceiling in leather-coated books of all different sizes. Different sections held different types of books (I didn't even know there were different types of books!). From fantasy and adventure to spells and potions and even science books. They were perfectly placed and in alphabetical order. I was in heaven! When I was told there was treasure, I was thinking of gold and riches, but this was better than anything I had (and probably ever will)

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SUBJECT NEWS see! It took a lot of self-control to climb back down into my world but my need to keep this place a secret got me back down the tunnel in time to greet my mother when she came home. I told myself I would be back tomorrow, and that I shall be.

simply a grotesque legend. It was very real. It had taken his father.” Judges response: A bleak story for bleak times. Rowan's story takes place in the vastness of outer space, a far cry from the underground tunnels of the previous story or the confines of its readers' bedrooms. But in its vastness lies the loneliness of Rowan’s characters, with humanity spread out and separated by all of her universe, the reader is left to question can we still connect to save each other? Staff commented that Rowan’s story was as skillfully written as some published work they had read. A promising talent, we look forward to seeing more creative work from these pupils.

Until tomorrow, adventure awaits, Martin.” Judges response: In a time when most of us were stuck indoors, with only limited contact with our friends and family, Cecilia’s story reminds us of the escapism that books provide and the importance of feeding your imagination. It was also lovely to see a plot where unlikely friendships formed in the place of prejudice and fear.

Upper School Winner: Rowan Reddy

Text into Performance

Year 7 explored ‘text into performance’ using Frankenstein as the text.They discussed some of the key themes and ideas in this seminal story of invention, creation and destruction and read an abridged version of the play before moving on to create their own 'Creature' from recyclable materials. They were extraordinarily inventive: using craft paper, plastics, textiles, socks and bottle tops to create their own inventions.They then performed an extract of the play using their puppets as actors.

“Grayson, however, was watching the void carefully, and not without a little apprehension. There was nothing out there now except stars, and the tiny shadows of other spaceships, but he knew how quickly it could appear. He’d met it before. The Dragon. It roamed the infinite darkness, shapeshifting, growing six wings and then two wings and then none. Its eyes were always the same, though. Flat and black like that of a shark. Planet-eater, some called it, but Grayson didn’t believe in giving names to monsters. The Dragon was not

The English Department thoroughly enjoyed hosting an exciting and full morning's enrichment for these pupils.

Heroes and Villains with Andy Briggs

Year 7 spent several weeks creating their own stories, featuring an amazing hero and villain. Each pupil created a hero and/or villain to feature in the opening chapter of their imagined story. The top eighteen across the year were judged by Andy Briggs: the winner was Mai Anh Nguyen (7X). Andy gave personalised feedback to the finalists and presented to all of Y7 about his experiences of the writer, screenwriter and producer.

Arabian Nights

tudents from Year 9 and 10 performed to a live audience, likely for the first time since the first lockdown. We performed the play Arabian Nights (also known by the name of its source material, One Thousand and One Nights). The story is of a girl called Shahrazad who, blessed with a perfect memory, is able to recollect stories in perfect detail. When the king Shahryar, after his wife’s betrayal, b e g i n s marrying women and executing them the next day, Shahrazad vows to save the daughters of the city by marrying the king and each night telling a story to avoid the h e a d s m a n ’s axe. During the play she paints pictures of bandits, f a r t i n g aristocrats and talking birds to name a few. Auditions for the play occurred during the lockdown in February over Google Meet, with auditionees reading extracts from the play. It was quite an odd audition in retrospect and personally it was my first remote one! Around a week later the cast list was put up, however we did not start rehearsals until we returned to

school in person. After months of rehearsals and prep, we were ready to present to a live audience. Despite rehearsing until the last minute (due to the time constraints presented by COVID), the shows themselves received lots of praise and enjoyment from a packed house (well, as packed as a theatre can be at the moment!). I asked Geography t e a c h e r Miss Garcia for some comments and she had this to say, “I thoroughly enjoyed the play and I thought the pupils were absolutely brilliant, particularly as it was performed so close to their exams - they did an amazing job remembering all their lines. Although I have of course heard about Arabian Nights, I have never read any of the stories so I feel like I learnt a lot as well and it has inspired me to finally get round to reading them. There were so many interesting and entertaining scenes I don’t think I can choose a favourite part, but one of the most memorable and hilarious moments for me has to be the tale of Abu Hassan! I also brought my 8 year old

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SUBJECT NEWS

Jack Stone

Honor Gillies

Rafe Crane-Robinson

Chi-Yee Lim

Sienna Caven and Mackenzie Gilmore

son and his best friend with me and they were both completely captivated. The first thing my friend’s son said to me at the end is “that was amazing! It’s the best play I’ve seen and it was really funny!” and this coming from a boy who can’t sit through a whole movie at the cinema because he gets bored. My son later told me “my favourite part was how there were stories within stories and how in the end the King became nice”.

Martin and Maisie and Charlotte from Year 12 for organising and directing so well to produce a great show. Finally, credit must be given to those who worked on the technical and backstage part of the show, who the show wouldn’t have happened without.

Overall it was a great experience and it was so much fun to perform in front of an audience after so long. Thank you so much to Miss

Lorcan Bonser-Wilton, Year 9

Shakespeare Schools Festival

ver lockdown I took part in the virtual Shakespeare schools festival. I had taken part in this in person a few years ago so was excited to give it a ago again.

Pupils from all years throughout the Senior school learned and preformed a monologue from one of Shakespeare’s plays from their home and recorded them - I chose a monologue preformed by Queen Anne in act 1 of Richard III. Although it was initially quite difficult to read and understand it, I really enjoyed finding more about the context of the monologue and

the play, and watching videos of other people performing it to try and understand it better. I enjoyed learning the monologue and performing it was really fun too, as it was a great feeling to be acting after such a long time in lockdown, even if it was just to a web-cam and while wearing a very heavy black dress as my costume on one of the hottest days of the year. It was also amazing to feel like part of something bigger while in isolation. Lucy Albuery

Twelfth Night

Despite problems caused by the pandemic, the Shakespeare Schools Festival still went ahead this year, culminating in a live-streamed performance of Twelfth Night in the DRT. After virtual auditions during remote learning, rehearsals started back at school in September. As we were such a small group, we were able to rehearse despite the pandemic. During October, we were lucky enough to take part in a workshop run by someone from SSF, in which we enjoyed voice exercises, movement exercises and a chance to rehearse some of the scenes from the play. We were taught to think about how our characters would move and speak, and how they are affected by their past to become the character they are in the play.

Faye Rustell

At the end of two months of rehearsal, Dr Cotton came to watch as we performed Twelfth Night to our mighty audience of one. The performance was filmed using three cameras and livestreamed on YouTube for family and friends to watch. Overall, both the cast and the crew had an amazing time and we can’t wait to do more productions in the future. Dawn Sands

Eddie Robinson 56

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SUBJECT NEWS

Anthony Harvey, Mackenzie Gilmore and Wilf Moore

Ana Ramallal Powell and Izzy Richardson

Solem Quartet Composers Workshop

n hindsight, the sudden stress of having two days to finish a piece of music that I started composing over a year ago was, to say the least, worth it.

in a week's time. Nothing of interest occurred in that week of anticipation, apart from the mandatory self marketing that comes with being a young composer in our day and age.

It was on an unusually damp Friday afternoon when Dr Shahov of the music department told me of a workshop for composers that was being put on by the Solem String Quartet. This was to be an opportunity for musicians of all ages to have their works played by a professional ensemble, and further gain from it by having them workshopped and discussed. My musical ears pricked up at the prospects of such a unique experience, to hear how my own music would actually sound in live performance, and to receive feedback on it that I could carry forwards into my composing career.

The evening finally arrives and I join the crowded Zoom meeting, packed with composers from around the world and of all ages. In front of me, sitting in a makeshift performance room, were the Solem quartet, complete with four string players and their instruments. I waited in eager anticipation of the musical hours that lay ahead, accompanied by various members of my family, teachers and of course, around 50 composers.

So there I sat on an unusually damp Friday afternoon, frantically searching through Sibelius files, dragging out an ancient machine from its resting place,flicking every music-related ring binder in sight to track down the original score of my piece ‘Cuckmere Haven’. I had started writing the piece upon my first visit to the magical place along the Sussex coast in 2019, just throwing a few sketches down about how the landscape was that day. I was to re-draft and add to it multiple times over the next year, but the project eventually became unintentionally dormant due to the need to focus on other areas. Hence, the frantic searching for my old scores, so that I could complete it and make it fit for sending off the final score on Monday. I then find myself sitting there, on Monday morning, a finished score in front of me, waiting for a response from the music department to make sure that everything was ready to go. It was, so I sent the final version over to Dr Shahov, who promptly assured me that it was with the Solem Quartet, ready for the workshop 58

Throughout the evening, the plethora of pieces that were played, combined with the feedback that they received had already provided me with high level education in string composing. Furthered by the pleasure of hearing such a wonderful ensemble play such a variety of pieces from the classical to the contemporary, the beautifully simple to the staggeringly complexities that some had achieved in their clearly challenging music. The time came. The Cellist announced my name and my piece, along with a basic summary sentence that I had provided about the root of the piece. I had been put into a group of pieces that all had a “jumping-off” point due to it being based upon a visit to the coast. They played my piece with the perfect musicality and expression that I had wanted to hear for such a very long time, anything could beat the Garageband strings that I had composed originally. The feedback that I then received was of great positivity. They very much enjoyed the piece I had sent them and they gave me some unique and useful pointers for how I could carry the piece forwards and general composing tips. Their perspective was invaluable and having

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SUBJECT NEWS

The experience of professional level feedback on your music is invaluable; it’s not everyday that you can use a real ensemble to hear your music.

the opportunity to ask them my own questions about the piece was another bonus. They also suggested some other composers who had written in a similar style to me, so that I could continue my study in a more focused manner than before. This was definitely a one in a lifetime experience. For anyone out there who wants to get into composing for strings, or any discipline, look for opportunities like this one. The experience of professional level feedback on your music is invaluable; it’s not everyday that you can use a real ensemble to hear your music. The Solem Quartet did this workshop as part of the ‘Beethoven, Bartok, Now’ series of concerts, which I would also highly recommend as a brilliant way to access new music from composers around the world. Benedict Blythe

Image: painted by Felix Barr, Year 13

Leonardo Competition 2021 The Leonardo Competition runs annually. It is a poetry competition but usually has a strong crosscurricular element, with the English department liaising with other disciplines, such as Art, and with an evening of poetry readings accompanied by showings of other work. This year, owing to COVID, we ran the competition remotely and as a poetry competition only. The theme was “Wave” and pupils could interpret this in any way. Entries focused, among other ideas, on Physics, the sea, the pandemic and on human communication and reconnection. Miss Laura Burden

Overall winner: Sabiha Sabikunnaher

Year 7

First – Indie Stone Second – Alexis Owen Third - Mai Nguyen Highly commended – Sam Armstrong, Alexandra Demster and Ruthie Gawley 60

Year 8

First – Sawsene Belaiche Second – Amber Davis Third – Sanuli Weganthale Epita Athauda Gedara Highly commended: Cecilia Cameron and Henry Moorhouse

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Year 9

Wave

SUBJECT NEWS

Stranded Lost Forgotten She lies there The sand like blistering hot coals under her skin But she doesn’t move

First – Sabiha Sabikunnaher Second – Dawn Sands Third – Katie Livermore Highly commended: Jiali Hicks, Piers Webb, Lucca Drake and Amelia Rahman

The sun’s out but she sees no light The air’s arid but she feels cold Numb Her heart’s beating but she doesn’t feel a pulse

So fast So fast that all is incomprehensible and a smudge But, so fast that nothing will ever catch you A wave of unfathomable power tumbling magnificently Alas, you will never reach the end of everything Totally divine Lawless and so moral-less But you can only live; In darkness, travelling at the speed of light

A teardrop falls from her eye A tiny rivulet that runs down her cheek Evaporates as quickly as it appeared Oh, how she wishes she could do that Turn to mist and float away Disappear and never return But she’s stuck here Abandoned by the people she thought she trusted

Gus Corbett (Year 9)

A feeling of longing overwhelms her An ache forms in her chest Pulling her deeper into despair She curses herself for being so weak But let’s the waves wash her away anyways

Isolation in Heaven

All alone in isolation But surrounded by God’s creation The reflection of light on the waves of the sea Is this Heaven, it certainly could be!

Jiali Hicks (Year 9)

They say the tide waits for no man That’s fine by me, as it fits my plan Over the horizon, I shall sail alone Is this Heaven, that I call my own!

Waves

Peace and tranquility has come about today The sea is my home, the place I stay The waves that crashed and took so many lives are now still again Is this Heaven, Amen.

Waves rise and fall, With the squall and pull of the tide and the lies That run through my head Which hurts with the dread of what has not be said, and i think to myself with these waves how to be brave when afraid when caught in the rip tide of my fear with no time to bide, and as the wave falls I see, the line of where we live or die.

Piers Webb (Year 9)

Lucca Drake (Year 9)

Sun and moon, gales with wind squalling This is my life, this is my calling With waves crashing all around me Is this Heaven, or is it just the sea?

Making Waves Just one drop, just one tiny speck of hope. That’s all we need. As that one drop will create ripples, And ripples make waves. As you stare across the surface, What you see can appear calm. Yet the waves are coming. And the waves will bring change. There comes a time when you will stand up, Make a noise, be heard. However big, however small, You can make the change. The world is at our fingertips. Is that the world you want to live in? Only you can stop the cycle. Only you can make the change.

When the tides are high and the wailing wind charges, Turbulent waves gallop across the battlefield; Moving as one mighty beast, Clashing;Buckling;Swerving;Slashing; Splattering the sky with foam like blood As the gaping waves engulf the fallen. Sabiha Sabikunnaher (Year 9)

And soon the clouds will clear, The colours shift and you will breathe. As the world appears brighter, And the change has been made. So smile with me today, And cast your drop into the ocean. Because that drop will create ripples, And ripples make waves. Katie Livermore (Year 9)

Waves

Twisted cosmos Hallucinated figures, Foreign faces, Pressurised motion, Some run, Some approach, Taking the oblivious and limp, Unfair yet sure, Howl me the question, You’d look for an answer, Let me echo the moon Amelia Rahman (Year 9)

Eternity Perfection Utopia A never-ending sheet of glistening water. Waves merely snoozing, sleeping, slumbering, Such immense bliss, you feel suffocatedLike glue ensnaring you, Confined Imprisoned You never want to leave.

…to the place beyond the waves… Overwhelmed I see you through the foamy seas, fifty yards away, lost suspended in time and I meet your eyes across the shadows of the waves you move so fast, blink and I’d miss you I miss you I miss you already though you’re not even gone the story of your life beats its rhythm in my heart spilling its final chapter into my soul as I watch you struggle watch you cry out but your screams are muffled by the chanting of the waves and I can’t hear you can’t help you can’t find you but I can read the thousand terrors issuing from your heart I catch them in the palm of my hand and hold tight,

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SUBJECT NEWS hold tight as you fall through the water a ballerina dancing on the wind and flung through the doors of time to the place beyond the waves and I hear those echoes in my mind the echoes of the song of the dead as you alight on the crest of a distant wave, blink and I’d miss you, I miss you.

my grief, All I wanted was someone to love, To fish me out my waves of sorrow, But no one came, Suddenly the sea went calm and retreated, I waved my life goodbye, And took myself to the after.

Dawn Sands (Year 9)

Sawsense Belaiche (Year 8)

The Disease

They say grief is like a shadow, Following you, mirroring taking your every move, But I think grief is like an ocean, Its vicious waves engulfing us when we least expect it, Threatening to drown you in the sorrows of your own making,

It started very small, only a few were taken by the clutches of the virus. Its long rope like arms snatching innocent souls. They were imprisoned by a colossal shadow, swarmed with obsidian. Families were covered by the ash smokes of isolation.

They don’t realise how deleterious their words are, Every sentence a constant thrashing wearing me down little by little, Taking me over consuming me, I can’t help feeling small scared, I really believed they cared, Until the tide turned, and a knife was wedged in my back, Shattering my mind and bone taking me under,

The metal walls surrounding the sick, protecting the world from their infectious breath, spewing out devastating waves of the mutated illness.

They told me to ignore it, That they were demons of my own creation, But their words were real and struck my down like rocks, Holding me down, holding my head under water,

Amber Davis (Year 8)

Villages were burnt down by the fumes of the prisons from where the zombified disease was contained. Towns torn apart, populations dropped like smashed flies falling to crumbled dirt.

Waves of Grief Here comes a simple phone call, Muttered ae a mere few words, As your walls come falling down, The pot of emotions has been stirred.

I try to fight against the thrashing of their words in my head, Like waves crashing against a cliff, But they won’t stop, Coming in stronger and stronger every day, Flowing to every corner of my mind,

First comes denial, A wicked thing, To the outside it seems you don’t care, However inside you’re burning.

I try to understand them, Try to forgive and move on, But I am being pushed to the limit, Running out of air, engulfed by the waves of

Second comes guilt, The time that’s lost, Every day that’s gone, 63

Every minute has been lost. Then comes pain, One of the worst, For it feels like you have been stabbed, And you are lost forwards. Next comes anger, A fiery rage, You scream and shout, But nothing feels the same.

We are all people. We all have feelings. We all go through things. Be considerate. Cecilia Cameron (Year 8)

Soon comes depression, A silent dagger, You can’t remember how to smile, Your life’s a stagger. Finally comes acceptance, A hard thing to come by, But you can now smile, As you wave goodbye. Sanuli Weganthale Epite Athauda Gedara (Year 8)

Nausea Nausea hits you like a wave. It can be triggered by anything; From a waft of stale milk to the sounds of the all familiar wolf whistle It makes me feel sick. There are a few things worse than finding that the bread is mouldy. That there is nothing else to eat but the green infected sandwich. And, no matter how far you cut around it, There is still that taste of wet earth that lingers on the tip of your tongue. But there is something worse. You know it is bad when you are scared to walk alone in the dark. When your parents won’t let you get the train home by yourself. When you hear horrendous things happening to people and think “That could have been me.” You think more deeply into innocent comments 64

And discover disgusting undertones. Things that should not be said, said And things that should not be repeated, repeated.

Adrift… alone, lost, on my own, A grumble, a groan, A rumble, a moan, Then high in the sky, Up from the sea, The water; it flies, All around me, Bending, contouring, Like a snake in the air, Darting out from its dark deathly lair, Rising and rising, High up above, Taking flight, As gentle as a dove, It careers swiftly towards the land, Then it breaks and disappears into the sand. Henry Moorhouse (Year 8)

Wave We were in wars, And battles, On beach shores, And country channels. We fought again and again, Thinking one of us could win, Wounds, more than ten, Scars, sharp as pins. Yet, there were times, When others would intrude, Make us work together, And forget about our fuds. Little did we know, That time would soon come, Where what we would show Was love, true but so dumb.

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SUBJECT NEWS I am the oceans’ edge.

Your eyes held the peace, And shone in the darkest nights, They were wild like a beast, Yet striking like the lights.

I cleave the water without resistance. The coolness enfolds me in my watery arms. A million fingers lift my hair Embraced in timeless dimension

I thought our love would hold, Keep us safe and sound, But I should’ve known your heart was cold, And what we have wasn’t really found.

Archie Barber (Year 7)

The Wave of Death

So the fights cane back, And the wars tenfold, What I wanted, we lack, Because we were never too bold.

They crawl over the top, Running across the mud. I think of their families, Waiting for them to return. And then the next wave comes.

Good memories, Gone, Enemies, Love torn.

I see the bodies in the mud, And braveness in their hearts. Their thoughts and prayers to all their loved ones. And the next wave comes.

So as we laughed, And you cried, I smiled and carved, Pull what holds you tied.

I hear the deafening shots of the guns and the clanging of empty shells. I can almost feel their pain as they slump onto the ground, The bodies going limp. And then the next wave comes.

I engraved, A small little message, Into your throat, And watched the blood wash it. The sadness, The feeling of nothing, Rinsed away, By a wave of great

I don’t want to do this just because I am the enemy. I can’t but I must to save myself and my country. The waves of soldiers roll on and on and on… Sam Armstrong (Year 7)

Happiness.

Swirling Sorrow

Alexandra Dempster (Year 7)

As apprehension slowly devours the quivering body, Vigorous shaking overwhelms. Racking sobs shake my core As the one person who accepted me, left for someone else. Why do I always push away the ones who value me? How many more times until I finally see?

Melding with the Cosmos I feel free, wild and unfeathered The air breathes breath Soft carcasses, Eternity’s kisses upon my skin. The warmth is soft and gentle, I close my eyes and melded with the cosmos.

Despondency ebbs like a rhythmic tide 65

How could she have lied? Coherent fury flares in the glazed eyes As all the augmented anguish multiplies. All I’ve ever wanted is for someone to care For a broken soul, brimming with despair. Misery, resentment and ignorance Eternally smothering the person I was, Joyous laughs that had erupted from my grinning mouth died down The tireless calls we had abruptly stopped leaving me with a frown It almost felt like a phase Longing for the good old days. When she left, I spiralled into torment Life no longer and optimistic beat As if it was an occurring defat, My emotions had gone into a frenzy Forever coming and going in waves, They always do. Mai Nguyen (Year 7)

I witness a wonder… Forming in the deep, dark heavens, Its wrath mystifying the previous solitude, The tendrils of her smoke-like vapour engulfing each star like a net to butterflies. Majestically, she rages and fights, releasing a sea of vividness, Blending the pupils that burn in the ever radiating heat, Embracing the ghostly depth of thin, floating cotton. Gliding steadily through an eternal mass, As the midnight sun illuminates the magic below, She flares and roars, unleashing the bloom and streaks of an everlasting rainbow, The shallow shades of a sea in the sky, meticulously combines with an oak tree’s leaf, Flawlessly wiping each cloud from the atmosphere.

As a keen grin overcomes her excellent mass, An intense murmur resounds in the sparkling air, Shaking each tree like an earthquake has entered the vicinity, This beautiful monster viraciously producing a whisper, For everything goes silent, and all that is left is the resounding tone that now harmonises through the twinkling moon. Indie Stone (Year 7)

The Waves Waves of wisdom, waves of joy, Wave of heat and wave of glory, The wave of a new friend coming to town, The Mexican wave of a complete celebration, The waves of the sea lazily beaching in the afternoon, The happiness skips and leaps in the field of my heart, But then a wave of doubt clouds all, And something jet black strikes fear into the heart. Waves of soldiers ready for war, Tidal waves of infection striking sadness into their hearts, Waving goodbye to a loved one, Stop stop make it stop! The black wave of fear swallowing me up, But then a wave of salt, The bitter revolting taste, Waking me up from the black eclipse of a nightmare. Standing on the glowing golden sand, Sound waves flowing with the music of the sea, It’s crystal clear calmness filling me with joy, Once again.

With great passion, the vibrant sheet witnesses The wonders on the ground, experiencing the sublime substance that conceals the earth like icing to a cake. 66

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Alexis Owen (Year 7)

SPORT

‘Another major highlight saw PGS Sport named in the Schools Sports Magazines "Top 200 Sporting Schools"’

Sport report by Mr Evan Stewart

A Sporting Spirit

he PGS 2019-20 sporting season, like many things here at school took on a very different look. The year began with no indoor PE or Games lessons permitted but thankfully the weather was kind, and this allowed all years to enjoy a return to movement and physical education in the sun at both Govenor's Green and Hilsea. The inability to safely play fixtures with other schools meant the Saturday Sporting programme also took on a new guise. This allowed over 350 pupils to regularly take part in training and internal matches across the first two terms. It was amazing to see so many pupils taking part in Rugby, Hockey and Netball, gaining a much-needed break from the stresses of COVID regulations.

played at least one fixture in the first half term. It was particularly pleasing to see the Year 7s and many Year 8s play their first competitive game for the school since joining. Another highlight saw 1st XI player Will Parvin take 5 wickets including a hat trick in his first game this season. Athletics restarted with a superb trip to the Millfield where the Year 9 and 10 teams represented PGS Sport with distinction. All teams placed in the Top 3 schools at the event which included schools such as Millfield, Clifton College and Blundell's School. The second half of term saw the U12 and U14 boys cricket sides progress to the semi finals of the Hampshire Cup while the U13 and U15 sides reached the finals. The U15s were successful in their final against Winchester and went on to the regional finals with victories over Sherbourne and Millfield School, before losing very narrowly to a strong Bradfield side with only a few balls remaining. Girl's cricket continues to grow here at PGS Sport with our U14 and U15 girl's sides taking part in hard ball matches for the first time. We very much look forward to continuing this progress next year and beyond.

Lockdowns of various fashion came and went but the PGS Sporting spirit remained and even when face to face training was not possible our pupils took part in online classes in CrossFit, Dance, Strava Running Challenges and Yoga to mention just a few. The highlights saw over 200 families in the PGS community take on the Family 3 and 5 kilometre challenges and enter a time online for these events. Another major highlight saw PGS Sport named in the Schools Sports Magazines "Top 200 Sporting Schools" ,as well as the Cricketer Magazines "Top 50 Cricket Schools" in the country.

The final week of term saw an amazing five sports days take place at HMS Temeraire to ensure each Year Group had the opportunity to finish the year on sporting high. We look forward to next year with optimism of a return to a more traditional Saturday Sports programme but we have learnt so much from the year that's been.

PGS like many schools were delighted to see the return of competitive fixtures in the Summer Term. Initially these fixtures began with cricket and ran alongside internal sport and training for Athletics and Tennis. Although the very poor weather caused many fixtures to be postponed or cancelled, we did manage to ensure all teams

Evan Stewart, Director of Sport

Coming Back to Sport

As the world returned to normal, Fola Odolfin interviewed our Director of Sport about the exciting comeback of sports fixtures at PGS

hat was it like coming back to Saturday Sports, after it was gone for most of this year? It has taken a long time to return to Saturday fixtures but we have had Saturday Sport throughout the last year in some form. It has ranged from online classes in CrossFit and Dance to Saturday Internal Sport with over 350 pupils involved across the day. We have been really pleased with Saturday commitment from the majority of pupils and are very keen to see this continue.

What changes did you have to do because of COVID? We have had to do a lot of planning both at Hilsea and with the other schools we plan to play. There are a lot of considerations from transport, changing rooms, catering and even toilet facilities that have to be reviewed and systems put in place to allow fixtures to happen. We must follow the National Governing Body regulations for each sport as well as sticking to the Department of Education guidance around fixtures, bubbles and COVID security.

It is fantastic that we are now starting a phased return to Saturday competitive sport with inter school fixtures. Pupils have missed this opportunity and it is great we can offer them the chance to challenge themselves in this way again. We have now gone 14 months without playing a competitive inter school match, which seems crazy. It is certainly time to see these return and we hope that pupils are looking forward to them as much as the sports staff are.

What do you hope to do for this last half term/ do you think you’ll be going back to matches? We certainly hope the last 3 weeks if this half term and all of next half term will allow us to return to competitive fixtures. We have to continue to follow the advice and guidance given to us as a school and for each sport but the picture certainly looks much brighter in terms of fixtures.

What do you have on offer during the day? Initially we will be playing cricket fixtures against other schools but also offering internal athletics and tennis for those not selected in any of the cricket teams. We hope to return to athletics and tennis fixtures in the coming weeks. We are obviously looking to get back to as many sporting opportunities as possible as quickly but importantly as safely as we can.

As I mentioned previously we have managed to keep Saturday Sport going throughout this whole period in some form and that is testament to the character of both the pupils and the staff here at PGS.

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Tennis

learly this was a very limited year for PGS Tennis, even the weather failed to cooperate but there was still time for some positive progress. The early morning session running through the year in the dome continued to be popular with the younger year groups.

During games all Year 7 and 8 pupils experienced some tennis and are able to make choices going forward from having played the game. In the second half of the summer term we managed to play a number of fixtures against local schools and the term finished with a very enjoyable Family Doubles event won by Will and Mrs Guyver. We look forward to a full return next year.

Croquet

Photo L to R: June turnout - Eliza Stevens, Benedict Blythe, Daisy Watson-Rumbold, Stephanie Wade, Mahir Asef, Robert Wilkinson, Rohan Sesetti, Benjamin Bradley

he Croquet team recommenced in the summer term 2021 with high numbers of Sixth Form pupils trying the sport for the first time. Initially two Wednesday afternoon sessions in extreme heat in April were followed by four weeks of rain...but the team was not put off, and practiced indoors on the large, carpeted area of the Sixth Form library on several occasions when Governor's Green was too wet. Sessions on croquet etiquette and the importance of team play, ensured that by June

when the weather improved again so had our croquet skills and this resulted in several highquality matches before the end of the year. We look forward to being able to play other schools in the new academic year.

Miranda Worley

Year 9 Sports Day A real highlight from the year was running S p o r t s Day again! Here’s a selection of pictures from Year 9.

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Cricket T

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Under 14 Girls

Under 15 Girls

The Year 9 Girls Cricket squad embraced a new challenge in the form of hard ball cricket this Summer. Playing tough opposition including the likes of Seaford and Lord Wandsworth College, the team put up a valiant display of batting and bowling to keep the scores close. Fielding several teams each week, over 21 girls have represented the Year group this season and should be very proud of their efforts. Some honourable mentions must go to Eva Durrant for her 34 runs against a tough Seaford bowling attack and Amy Nightingale and Lissie Knox who shared a combined total of 18 wickets across all matches.

he girls have taken a while to warm up to this year's cricket season! Right from the beginning of term we started with the bare 11 and after much encouragement the girls have stuck with it and have come on leaps and bounds; resulting in them really enjoying themselves. Sophie Haworth has captained the team and has done a fantastic job encouraging players enthusiastically and positively throughout and her love and knowledge of the game made her the right fit for the job. We have had a mixture of softball and hardball fixtures and a few cancellations due to the weather, a range of scores but two solid wins under our belt against Ryde and St Johns College and a strong draw against PHS. I've enjoyed coaching the girls and hope they look forward to some cricket next year, before they get stuck into their GCSE's.

Every player made significant progress over the course of quite a short season and I am very excited to see them develop upon their skills and passion for the game in Year 10.

Under 13 Girls

This year has been quite unusual for cricket, with COVID cancelations and most matches being rained off. Despite that, this season has been so much fun. We really enjoyed bonding again in our teams and being there to encourage each other on and off the pitch. Elizabeth and AJ’s bowling and Charlotte, Yasmin and Elspeth’s batting have been incredible throughout the matches and in training and of course I must mention Olivia Hemmings, who has played on the boy’s teams. Even on the Mondays, when it is pouring with rain and freezing cold, we still manage to have fun. I am so glad that we have been at school for this year’s cricket season and thank you to Miss Clark and Ms Tweddle for teaching us and helping us all to become better players and better people. We will miss you and are wishing you all the best for the future. Cecelia Cameron

Under 12 Girls

The U12 girl’s cricket season has been great and we have really enjoyed learning new skills and rules, such as bowling and boundary rules. The games staff have done so much to ensure that we have as much fun as possible by setting up 72

fixtures against other schools, making training as enjoyable as possible and so much more. I (Simone) personally have really improved my batting and now I really like it. Hannah’s bowling has also improved massively. It has been very fun to play cricket with my friends and use those skills I have learned in friendly match play. Unfortunately, due to COVID, the number of games has been very limited. Despite this, all the Year 7 girls have been very involved with PGS cricket and shown lots of improvement. I am really looking forward to sport, especially cricket, in Year 8 .

1st XI Boys

After the huge disappointment of missing the whole 2020 season the 1st team cricketers were excited to return to pre-season nets at Hilsea during the dry but chilly Easter holiday. Heavy rain prevented the opening fixture versus Churcher’s College so our first match was against KES who were bowled out for 88 in a fine bowling display culminating in a hat trick for Will Parvin who ended up with 5 wickets. Unfortunately rain swept in between innings

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Back row: Isaac Ghassemi-Allgood, William Chapple, Oliver Davidson, Archie Simmons, Monty Bond, Toby Cooper, Daniel Betsworth Front row: Max Bushby-Harris, Lewis Ndahiro, Ryan Nay, Suly Amin, Nikhil Sen, Oliver Aldridge

SPORT

and the match was abandoned. Our next fixture against Canford was cancelled following confirmation of a number of COVID cases at their school.

excellent example to others and will greatly missed. We look forward to welcoming back all our leaving cricketers to future OP’s fixtures.”

Our first completed match was after half term at Seaford College. Zac Gadsby was finally unleashed and showed his potential by spearheading our attack to skittle a strong Seaford batting line up for 98. Our captain Alex Beckett and Lucas Hutchinson provided excellent support in the seam department coupled with a fine fielding display. In 1st XI Boys reply our batting looked understandably rusty and we failed in the run chase against Seaford’s Under 15A Team excellent spinners. This year’s season has been long anticipated Our next fixture was a T20 v Churcher’s College. with a Year 10 group of boys that showed great We restricted them to 110tone with some tight depth and an abundance of potential. With the bowling from Tom Stone, Luke Anstey and Zac first couple of weeks being training games and Gadsby. Billy McBride and Alex Davidson were much disruption due to the weather, the boys cruising to a win at 46 for 0 when persistent rain were more than ready to get started with their first competitive matches of school cricket in forced another abandonment. nearly two years. On first outing Sam Kalra The annual MCC fixture was an enjoyable day hit an impressive 50 whilst Jack Nay showed with Toby Foord scoring a maiden fifty to earn some explosive batting in the early rounds of us a draw. Our penultimate match was away to the Hampshire Cup 20 Over format. Excellent Ryde where Toby Foord continued his fine form bowling performances were starting to take with another fifty and Alex Beckett secured our shape from Ben Reilly, Lucas Hutchinson, and James Curwood. This team was starting to gain victory with a tremendous score of 83. some momentum, which was needed with their We finished our season with a comprehensive first real test against Winchester College. The win against Lord Wandsworth College, team pulled through a very competitive match restricting the visitors to 156 and then cruising before surpassing Sherborne School at Hilsea to 160-4 with fine performances from Alex in the final round before the Regional finals. Beckett, Billy McBride and Jack Lee. We look So far, the mastermind tactics and quick hands forward to a fixture packed and sun filled season behind the stumps by captain Ben Feeney had in 2022. Our sincere thanks and best wishes impressed many, but his biggest test was yet must go to our leavers, in particular Alex and to come with a Regional Semi-final against Billy, who as captain and vice captain set an Millfield. The toss was won and PGS elected to bat first, setting the pace through an impressive 74

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Under 14A Team

innings from Lucas Hutchinson. A massive win in this match gave the boys a shot at the National finals with on a very good Bradfield College standing in their way. Again the toss was won and the game plan remained the same, but the boys couldn’t quite repeat the same energy and decisiveness that enabled them to defeat Millfield. Losing in the last over of the final was gut wrenching for all the boys who had given everything to this season. So many of them improved over the short season and contributed to a fantastic team effort that they can all be proud of. Bring on Summer 2022.

Under 15B Team

The U14A’s have seen captaincy experience given to Lewis Ndahrio, Ryan Nay and Nikhil Sen. All have shown strong cricket awareness and have learnt valuable skills in how to manage a team and work out how to lead when in the field. Lewis and Ryan have been our leading run scorers displaying excellent batting skill. Lewis achieved the teams top score in an impressive knock against Seaford. Ryan played numerous attractive drive shots. All remaining team members are able to contribute with both bat and bowl and it is great to see so many boys an U14A level it be able to be involved in both facets of the game. These talented allrounders consist of; Max Bushby-Harris, Oliver Davidson, William Chapple, Monty Bond, Nikhil Sen, Toby Cooper. For next season it will be crucial for the boys to continue to improve their consistency of line and length and bowl five/six balls in the correct spot rather than two or three. Other batters that have contributed in our small number of fixtures include Archie Simmons, Monty Bond and William Chapple.

Alex Leach

A solid season for the U15B team only being beaten by a strong Ryde side in both home and away fixtures. This season saw Elliott Hartridge Captain the squad supported by his Vice captain Henry Collins. The season was one of two halves, in that Elliot chose to rotate his team each game. That meant opening batsmen opened one week and then the tail end opened the next. Some good performances from

Under 13 Team

individuals, notably Sam Bradshaw's bowling and Fin Hoddle's batting with the latter standing fast against a hostile pace attack from Ryde in the away fixture. A great team spirit shown in this stop start season by all the team and I must add my thanks to all the 'C' team squad players that stepped up to the mark to ensure a strong team took to the wicket each week.

As with their bowling the boys will need to invest more time and concentration when batting in fixtures as on too many occasions they gave their wickets away too cheaply. Archie Simmons should be commended for his work behind the stumps. He has made outstanding 75

Under 13 Team

improvement to his keeping from when the boys were last out in whites in the 2019 season. We look forward to a full season next year where the boys can continue to show case their continued improvement.

Under 14B Team

After losing many of our fixtures to rain or COVID, it may seem that 2021 would be a cricket season to forget. However, there were some notable performances. Home to Seaford College, we managed to keep the visitors to 193 runs of 25 overs. Rufus Millar was the pick of the bowlers with two wickets from four, including an excellent catch by Suly Amin. Being bowled out for 56 in response, it was clear our batting needed some work. But Harry Cooper and Dan Betsworth were our top scorers. Away at Lord Wandsworth, Harry Cooper improved on his promising score against Seaford, achieving the teams top individual score for the season. Marvin Leung showed himself to be a tight bowler, taking a couple of wickets. He has been the teams leading bowler showing outstanding and accuracy during all his bowling spells. Sadly, Lord Wandsworth were able to chase down our target of 73. The bowling and fielding performance against RGS Guildford was very good. Suly Amin was 76

the pick of the bowlers with four wickets. Rufus Millar bowled economically with only 15 runs scored from his 4 overs. Fielding highlights include two impressive catches by Piers Webb and a sharp run out by Marvin Leung. Sadly, we could not chase down RGS Guildford’s score of 162 from 25. However, Marvin Leung and Harry Cooper were the pick of the batters .The U14Bs are a promising team, and a delight to coach. However, we will need to work on our fielding and our batting to be more competitive next year.

Under 13A Team

For the U13A we enjoyed eventually being able to complete a relatively normal season. The team was relatively stable throughout which allowed all the pupils to contribute with either the bat, ball or in the field. George Jameson’s and Huw Kalra’s innings and Sam Miller’s 4 wickets against LWC were highlights of our best game as a team. Tom Rait’s 33 vs Ryde and Tom Pritchard’s 28 vs Churchers were also some of the better batting scores this year. George and James Christie also had excellent innings against a very strong RGS team with James also being the pick of the bowlers this day with his economical bowling. All the players should be pleased with their commitment this year and I wish them the best of luck next year.

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U12A Team

U13B Team

The Year 7 boy cricketers have enjoyed the term and their first competitive fixtures for the school. They have worked hard to improve their cricket and have turned up to training and fixtures consistently. There have been some excellent performances from a few of the players with Will Aldridge scoring a quick fire 50 against Ryde. Reuben Teasdale has batted well throughout the term and scored an excellent 38 against Churchers on a difficult pitch. Reuben Cooper also batted consistently and showed this with a couple of high scoring innings and a 50 against Perrins. Ollie Davies finished the season with a very good 30 against RGS Guildford. All the boys should be proud of representing the school and I hope they are looking forward to more fixtures next season.

The U13B side played six fixtures across the course of a rain interrupted season. Throughout these games an amazing 23 players played for the side. Yelisey Hodell became a key figure when batting with an impressive 35 not out against Ryde and another knock of 42 against Lord Wandsworth College. The bowling of the side improved over the course of the season with an attacking line up of Olivia Hemmings, Vivaan Dixit and Max Priestly all taking a number of quality wickets. The team was ably skippered by William Brine-Howe who was assisted by Felix Wright across the course of the season. The side will want to continue its improvements next season in what we hope will be a more traditional season with less games cancelled due to the weather.

Under 14 Boys. Back row: Will Magro, Oliver Barden, Harry Cooper, Freddie Lowe, Roman Robertson-Cross, Alfie Harris, Suly Amin, Isaac Diffey, Dan Betsworth Front row: Marvin Leung, Augustas Corbett, Charlie Hill, Rufus Millar, Piers Webb, Charlie Nicholls

Under 12 Team

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Under 12 Team

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Back row: Beth Evans, Scarlett Smith, Lisse Knox, Katie Livermore, Chloe Mackley, Emily Farrar, Bella Cameron, Milly Wilson, Amy Nightingale, Martha Bell Front row: Sophie Escott, Lucy Harris, Rebecca Cheung, Eva Durrant, Evie Howard, Mia Cossey, Isobella Palmer-Ward, Willow Armstrong

TRIPS & OUTDOOR PURSUITS

Archaeology in Kent

On the Friday prior to enrichment week, Year 9 went on a history trip to the Centre for Experimental Military Archeology We departed from school at 06:30 and after a trouble free journey arrived roughly three hours later at our destination in Kent. Upon arrival we were greeted by a range of different people who served in the military and also one of our own teachers, Mr Sadden. During our stay at the centre in the morning we did five different activities in a rotation.

just in general interesting and probably due to the fact that it was made to be accurate in all forms as it was the set in a movie. The activities of the morning were interesting and very intriguing however, due to a positive COVID19 test reported to the school the trip was then suspended. The students that were in close contact with the student were separated and from there the afternoon activity of going to a cemetery didn’t take place. Due to the lack of enough transport some students were made to stay at the centre while we waited for another coach to arrive. We travelled back in separate coaches with some experiencing a much longer journey than others!

The students were split into five groups where we would take part in different activities: medicine during warfare, weapons and uniform, a quiz on the effects of war on our school, rations and a tour of a recreation of what trenches would have been like in WW1. The main highlights of the sessions were: the close observation of real medical tools used even today in modern warfare, how the food rations were shown to affect the soldiers, we got to experience the sound and witness the firing of real blanks despite it being a little deafening and seeing real weapons of war. Finally, the trench which was

For this, I would like to thank all of the teachers that accompanied us on the trip: Miss Bush, Mrs Clay, Miss Jones, Mrs Erricker, Ms Burns, Mr Gillies and Mr Sadden. I would like to thank them for helping all students return to school safely despite the commotion of isolation. Sophia Cheng

Duke of Edinburgh Award During July, twenty-four eager Year 11 pupils arrived at school bright and early in order to catch the minibuses to the New Forest to start our silver expedition. Day one was a comfortable walk of around 17km south towards Harry’s Island Scout Camp where we camped for the first night. Luckily all groups arrived and put up their tents before the downpour of rain started that continued throughout the night. Although

we were left to cook on trangias outside in the rain, spirits remained high. This was because Louisa McKay made an amazing chilli con carne for our group I think!. After dinner it was a challenge to see how many people we could successfully fit into a two man tent, I think the record was seven. The next morning we tried as best as we could

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TRIPS & OUTDOOR PURSUITS

to dry our tents before packing up and heading off for day two. Along the way, only group three, my group, managed to find one of the waypoints which was the Clayhill underpass. After missing the first path due to a fallen tree and then the next due to it not actually looking like a path, we managed to find our way. Even though this cost our group a bit of time, we still felt accomplished for being the first group in four-years to actually find the underpass.

The next morning we headed off early to start what we thought would be a 24km trek back to Fritham, however at one of the way points we spotted the teachers with the minibuses and trailer congratulating us and other groups on finishing the expedition phase. Overall I think everyone had a great time and managed to improve their map reading and campcraft skills. I am grateful on behalf of all of us who took part to the teachers who managed to make both expeditions possible. I believe we were all relieved when we heard the expedition could go ahead properly unlike last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

By the time we reached Ferny Crofts campsite, we had apparently walked 28.6km, it’s safe to say we all slept well that night. At the camp there was no threat of rain and everybody seemed to enjoy each other's company. We all cooked up a storm, consisting mainly of pesto pasta and hobnob bars.

Liberty Mitchell Brock

Hawkey House

Hawkey House is delighted to welcome our new cohort of Year 7 pupils. I have been impressed by how quickly they have settled into their routines and I have been greeted by many happy and smiling faces. To both Year 7 and Year 8, I encourage you to make use of the excellent opportunities on offer at the Grammar School. Pupils who are very active participators in clubs, music and sport benefit in many ways, such as improving their confidence and building on their transferrable skills. Last year, Hawkey house had great success in Sport and Music, winning the House music competition, Year 8 sports day and coming an excellent 2nd place in Year 7 sports day. This year

we hope to give our best again and perhaps with luck, that may lead to further success. During our first House assembly Year 7 and 8 pupils formed connections completing a series of questions between year groups. The confidence with which all pupils interacted and mingled was impressive to see. We also took the opportunity to formally announce our new House Captains: Ruthie Gawley and Woody Willis, Sports Captains: Anna Sievers and Jamie Taylor and our Year 8 Mentors: Rosie Lewis, Mahee Kalam, Maira Dixit, Aphaia Sillet, Arty Essenhigh, Livs Cook, Sam Haworth, Ismay Robertson and Bruno Fisher. To all in Hawkey House, I wish you a happy and productive year. Look after each other and remember that we are always here to help.

Eastwood House

This year in Eastwood House, despite COVID restrictions, many pupils embraced opportunities to get involved and contribute to showcase their individual talents throughout the year. Whilst house meetings were held remotely it was wonderful to see so many pupils join in to the various activities that were being shared though the Eastwood Google Classroom. These included remote cooking sessions and baking seasonal cookies. The pupils made gratitude boards and designed their own comic strips. They shared book recommendations and took part in quizzes. Whilst sports day was held in individual year groups it was wonderful to see all pupils getting 84

Steven McClean

involved and cheering along their peers. The strength of Eastwood’s desire for excellence in the classroom was demonstrated by winning the Anne Stokes Recognition Prize. My thanks go out to Aryan Ahmed and Siha Hoque for their work as House Captains as well as all of the Year 8 Mentors who have supported them this year. The running of Eastwood House would not be without the dedication of the tutor team and my overwhelming thanks goes to Mrs L Williams, Miss I Clark and Mr G Stratford, Mrs A Cross and Mrs S Smith for their contributions. I wish the current Year 8 the best of luck in Latter House and I know they will continue to wear the yellow house tie with pride.

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Emily Seddon

Barton House

HOUSE NEWS

As is clear from every report in this magazine, this has been anything but an ordinary year. What hasn’t changed has been the resilience and spirit of Barton pupils. They have remained largely positive and good humoured despite the circumstances. It has been a great shame that the interactions between some fine leaders from Year 8 with the Year 7s have been almost nonexistent due to the bubble system. Despite this there have been stand out performances in House events and almost all Barton pupils have represented the school in Music, Drama and Sport this year. The culmination of this was a victory for the Barton Year 7 team at Sports Day and the picture of them celebrating their success says much about the house spirit. Steven Hawkswell

Summers House

In a year like no other, Summers pupils have continued to make positive contributions and keep smiling. Despite not being able to gather together as a whole house in person, we have enjoyed remote meetings, enjoying activities such as draw-alongs, charades, quizzes, origami frog making, and games of real-life spot the difference and guess who. Pupils have been extremely committed and willing to take part in these activities, building house spirit and having lots of fun along the way.

objects. The quality was once again exceptional. Congratulations to all those who won prizes and were highly commended. We wish all of the Year 8 pupils good luck as they move into Whitcombe House in September and feel sure that current Year 7 pupils will return after the break ready to step into Year 8 and be good role models for the new intake. We all look forward to the restrictions easing, which will hopefully include the opportunity to meet once again as a full house next academic year. My thanks to Mr Ager, Ms Hart and Mr O’Meara for their dedication during another challenging year.

The annual photography competition ran at the start of the academic year, with some beautiful entries from pupils in both year groups. We were stunned by images of nature, landscapes and

Charlotte Martin

Latter House

Latter house continued to work collaboratively to build the house spirit throughout the past year and many students should be commended for their efforts in what was a much more challenging year for whole house community events. When working remotely at home there were many enjoyable assemblies, with a highlight being Daisy Watson-Rumbold leading a talk on her work with the youth cabinet. A further highlight during this period were the two 'Ready, Steady, Cook' challenges, one with the heads of houses themselves and the other with sixth form house captains. Although Latter may not have been victorious in these events, they certainly provided some light entertainment. Many of the more prominent house events did remain on the calendar in a slightly different version, mainly being online events. The efforts of the pupils who took part and helped to organise these events was very much appreciated. The excitement now builds for the coming year and getting back to events in person. The events that were able to take part online were House Music and House Drama. As we returned to school and came towards the end of the year, we had the opportunity to 86

have some real-life competitive House events. The main event was the year group sports days where each year group had the opportunity to take part in sports day events. Each event saw a year group winner, Year 9 were particularly impressive finishing 2nd with a much-reduced number of pupils due to you know what! Once the week was over all the points were added up to come up with an upper school winner and whole school winner. Latter finished 2nd in the upper school competition and 3rd in the whole school competition. Towards the end of the year, it became time to think about the House captain for the following year. This year we asked pupils were interested to present a short video of themselves to the pupils and staff of the house, each staff member and pupil were then given the chance to cast a vote. The result of this was the new House captain will be Ollie Spencer. Looking to the future I am excited by the planned activities for the next academic year and look forward to rebuilding the House spirit which is so important.

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Amy Chaplin

Smith House

After another very difficult year for House activities and involvement it was such a pleasure to see Smith pupils give their best in different competitions and contests. Maisie English won the House Drama monologue and Phoebe Clark and Poppy-Rose Banton produced an excellent duologue that was of a very high standard.

HOUSE NEWS

Smith. I was so encouraged to see the number of pupils, who at the last minute volunteered to run the 1500m or throw a javelin because there was a space. Year 10 were our best performers coming 2nd overall by only one point. This was an excellent performance considering the small number of girls that were available to compete on the day.

House cooking was a new competition that was born out of remote assemblies. Eni and Fola Odofin were our first participants but Lavinia Montgomery and Will Hicks produced the winning entry in the House Captains cookoff. I can attest to how good their breakfast was.

My sincere thanks go to Will and Lavinia for the great job they did as House Captains. I look forward to a return to House Assemblies and the usual competitions next year and being able to meet as a group once again. Andrew Seddon

The highlight of the year was defending our House Music crown. Habina Seo and Jay Pasricha did a phenomenal job organising and putting together an outstanding ensemble and house entry remotely. Habina’s technical work to piece together the entry was superb and I’m incredibly indebted to her for her time and effort here. The end of the Summer Term allowed the return of Sports Day, which is always a great opportunity for lots of pupils to represent 87

Grant House

Congratulations to everyone who has safely navigated through an extraordinary year. Another summer with no formal exams and very few events has made it a difficult time for everyone. House Music and Drama both took place successfully on-line. Sports Day was run in year group bubbles - Year 13 Leavers did not have their parents in for the final celebration service and lunch in the DRT, but the Year 11 did have the annual rounders and BBQ on their last day. Good luck to all our leavers this year - please keep in touch when you can. Julian Gillies

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HOUSE NEWS

Whitcombe House

Whitcombe's year has been an eventful one despite the challenges we have faced as a school. Even during lockdown house spirit was alive and well as we recreated famous movie scenes from the Lion King with Mr Robinson making excellent use of his dog! We even made dens to cheer up wintery blues. The energy and enthusiasm of the House has always been infectious, and remote learning did not put a stop to that.

enjoyed the green eggs and ham they concocted. House Sport continued throughout the year taking place in Games and PE lessons and all year groups showed their competitiveness. I think the award for most competitive does need to go to the Year 11s on Leavers Day rounders. Never has Hilsea seen such ferocity of play and such inspirational and motivational team talks. Next year will see a new Head of Whitcombe and a new structure to House Captains with a team rather than two individuals. Annabel, Lydia, Ben, Will, Elen and Immy will help guide you through the next year and continue to promote the green house.

Whitcombe demonstrated the talent of our musicians coming second in House Musicthank you so much to those who participated. I still think we were robbed! House Drama was our moment of triumph, winning overall, with Freya Stevens being actor of the evening.

Thank you to all who participated in House events this year, here's to a more 'normal' year of 2021/2022!

A special mention needs to also be made to Oliver Saint and Becky Wiles. Our wonderful house captains were the embodiment of House Spirit at the 'Ready, Steady, Cook' challenge. Their green breakfast delight was inspirational and luminous. Despite professing to have despised it, I am certain that Mr Doyle secretly

Kate Jones

House Photography

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HOUSE NEWS

House Drama

After last year’s House Drama competition unexpectedly turned out to be the final live theatre event from the Drama department before COVID arrived and messed everything up, it came as no surprise that nothing would prevent House Drama from taking place this year, even if it had to go completely digital. Although the various safety restrictions posed a considerable challenge to the usual proceedings, rehearsals went ahead mostly on schedule and indeed this year’s rendition proved to be quite a unique experience, becoming an online event screened exclusively from people’s homes. All four houses pushed forward and promised that this would be a night to be remembered, packed with a high-quality range of performances, genres and styles, all of which were judged by Director-in-Residence and PGS alumni James Gulliford.

pieces; Jacob French of Whitcombe did a fantastic piece from Lord of the Flies, Annie Jenkins from Grant provided a spirited rendition of Goodbye Charles and some guy from Latter whose name currently escapes me gave an energetic portrayal of a mental breakdown from Better Call Saul, loud enough in fact that Nicholas Lemieux it elicited a complaint from his sister working upstairs. The winner however was ultimately Maisie English from Smith for a truly harrowing performance from the upcoming Sixth Form play Monsters as a mother struggling to handle her grief over her son’s murder, a well-earned victory for Smith on the whole. Equally impressive was the collection of duologues, masterfully pulled off in creative manners despite COVID restrictions. The evening saw some truly masterful adaptations

Monologue-wise, there was some steep competition between the houses with a strong variety of compelling character Charlotte Earl 92

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Daisy Sissons

HOUSE NEWS

Annie Jenkins

Archie Elliot, Isabelle Durrant

of the likes of Miranda, Damsels in Distress and a particularly creative adaptation of Scribbles in the Margins. But ultimately, the winners for best duologue were Archie Elliot and Isabelle Durrant from Whitcombe with their tensionfilled portrayal of a scene from The Unreturning between a mother and her morally conflicted son just returned from the army.

Maisie English

the highest scores, reclaiming its trophy from two years prior. All in all it was a fantastic evening and showcase in highlighting the sheer dramatic talent from the pupils of this school. To pull it all off under such challenging circumstances is no small feat and is surely a testimony to the skills of each house in organising such strong performance. Well done Whitcombe indeed!

Finally, rounding off the evening, the group projects from each house again faced a similar series of trials and tribulations but still yielded strong results with an incredible line-up of pieces from a diverse set of genres and tones. Latter went the way of the classic British farce with The Real Inspector Hound, Whitcombe elected to for the mystery direction with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Grant went for the classic sitcom set-up with a fast-paced adaptation of Brooklyn NineNine. It was a close call but Best Group was ultimately awarded to Grant. In addition, in assessing the entire evening, Best Actor went to Duncan Jeynes of Latter whilst Best Actress was awarded to Freya Stevens of Whitcombe. In the end, Whitcombe came out on top with

Nicholas Lemieux

Learning to Negotiate: Heart toHeart You have five minutes to decide who gets the heart.

During Enrichment Week, Year 12 were given situation. Fear not heart patients, in five out of the formidable task of negotiating whether a six scenarios, lateral thinking and a willingness donor heart--with only minutes of viability- to reach across the aisle led to compromises in -should go to a team of heart disease which both parties were able to researchers or a single father. While “the find common ground. hearts were front and centre, it was intellectual minds that carried the day. “The level of engagement across capacity of the group was impressive and the The Memorial Library welcomed David the pupils was quality of thinking (and dare I say Joel, from the Institute of Directors,and innovation!!) pursuing solutions president of the Hampshire Chamber spectacular...” to the exercise would give of Commerce, to lead pupils through some of their more experienced an exercise typically reserved for air marshals adult counterparts a run for their money!” said and 2-star generals. During the activity, the 6th Mr Joel in a follow up conversation. He also formers were divided into two negotiation teams mentioned that “the intellectual capacity of the (research scientists and heart surgeons) or given pupils was spectacular and that their thinking the role of a neutral observer. The teams were knew no boundaries.” Carol Webb given 10-minutes to decide on their arguments before facing off for a time-sensitive negotiation in which indecision could lead to a no-win 94

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Special Collections

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Huddled together in the Memorial Library on a balmy June day, a group of Year 12 pupils took turns attempting to decipher a handwritten note. and exist as a bridge between the PGS Library and the Archives. They represent the achievements of former pupils and members of staff; cover local history (Hampshire, Sussex, and Isle of Wight); and include a few rarities and artefacts. As well as refining their presence on the catalogue, we have begun to build lessons and classroom activities around them, with the aim of promoting their existence and enhancing pupils’ research skills. The collections include: The Walter Hammond Collection: Walter “Wally” Hammond (OP 1916-18) was a Cricket legend and England captain, considered one of the best batsmen of the game. We have a number of books chronicling his career and examining his place in the history of the sport.

Inside a copy of Music f r o m P r i m e Minister, Edward Heath, to Old Portmuthian, Sir Peter Carey (OP 1933-41) the words were at first, a challenge... “How many hippy dippies?”. A prepared transcription was eventually required to untangle the knotted scrawl: “With many happy memories of the BOT (Board of Trade) and with warm wishes for the future.” The above session, with members of the Historiography Club, saw pupils sift through selections from the Sir Peter Carey Collection to piece together a picture of his career from university leaver to Permanent Secretary for the Department of Trade and Industry. Over the last two years, we have been rethinking the way we handle legacy items and special collections, restructuring their organisation and building in learning opportunities. Thumbing through the special collections offers tantalizing glimpses into a PGS who’s who: the late Simon Gray’s (OP 1945-47) plays, donated by his widow Victoria; a signed copy of the 1936 boy’s own adventure Ringed by Fire by Percy F. Westerman (OP 1890-94) (although the true gems of the Westerman collection are the inscriptions in the gifts of proud parents. My favourite is: 'To my dear son Terry. A reward for trying so hard. Let your motto be “Never despair, Try, Try Again” December 1947.’); the autobiography of Olympic silver medalist Roger Black (OP 197784); Hannah Kohler’s (nee Wozniak, OP 1991-98) critically acclaimed debut novel, Outside Lands; and the current Head’s scholarly work, Platonic Dialogue and the Education of the Reader.

The Percy F. Westerman Collection: Westerman was a prolific “boy’s own” author who wrote over 170 thrilling yarns, most of which have a nautical theme. The collection also contains works by his son, John F. C. Westerman. The Sir Peter Carey Collection: Donated by Sir Peter in 2005, this collection contains his course books from his days at Oriel College, a few items relating to his time with British Intelligence during WWII, a large number of politics books from the 1970s-90s, and some volumes of poetry, art, and travel. The Local History Collection: Covering regional, nautical, and public school-related history books, pamphlets and journals. Included are a number of works by the school’s archivist, John Sadden. We also hold a number of rare books, ex-prize-giving books with historic bookplates, limited bequests and donations, and other oddities collected over the history of the PGS Library. For more information, please contact us at librarian@pgs.org.uk Carol Webb

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Prefect Training Day

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New Prefects for 2022 Lewis Bevan Lucy Albuery Luke Hooper Lydia Lazenby Maddy Ross Manon Francis-Braconi Maya Russell Mia Parry Oliver Jameson Oliver Kettle Oliver Moras Olivia Spink Ollie Spencer Phoebe Clark Poppy Codling Poppy-Rose Banton Rebecca Cleary Rohan Sesetti Saanvi Ganesh Sam Bryan Tiana Fray Tobias Chan Tom Shahran William Hartridge William Parvin

Alice Collins Alice Ren Annabel Heaton Ben Davis Benjamin Millard Charlotte Earle Daisy Sissons Daisy Watson-Rumbold Daniel Smith Destiny Rose-forde Kennedy Dulcie Langley Elen Jones Elinor Jeynes Eliza Stevens Finn de Trafford Flora Sprague Hamish Orr Harvey Hill Henry Buckle Imogen Diffey Isaac Mead Ishbel Duncan Isobel Geddes James Reynolds Jayne Cheung Karis Cufley

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Community Action Workplace

Sixth Form students embraced many Social Action Projects to help the local community A particular highlight was our continued work Finally, we have a group of pupils who have with the Mary Rose Academy (MRA).Pupils continued to work towards the Schools of took the time to get to know and understand Sanctuary award which promotes inclusivity MRA as a school and the specific needs of and equality for all. These pupils have been pupils that attend MRA in order for them to meeting with various members of SMT to be best placed to create useful and meaningful share their thoughts, ideas, and suggestions resources. Our pupils went on for ways in which we can share to create sensory stories which our commitment to creating would be used both at MRA and a culture of welcome, whilst posted on the Mary Rose website raising awareness of important for parents to use at home with issues faced by refugees and their children. These sensory asylum seekers. Pupils have been stories include instructions for incredibly passionate and have resources that could be included educated themselves and shared at specific points of the story to what they have learnt about the create a full sensory experience. human right to sanctuary by creating online resources and We have also had a small group of Sports enthusiasts who have writing their own pieces to keep been creating 'mini-challenges’ our community informed. and HIIT workouts which have This is a group working to been shared with various other advocate sustainability, the group In future they hope to contribute have been recycling bottle caps to primary schools within the area. make jewellery. They made them towards training sessions on all from scratch on their own. supporting refugees and asylum Further to this, we had a group They will be selling the products seekers as well as conducting mini of pupils who have been working to raise money to donate to the ‘social experiments’ to highlight Eco-Council who are currently with The Final Straw to promote requiring funding towards a larger the diversity at PGS. A handful of these pupils will also be putting sustainable living. This term they sustainability project. together entries for the Heywood have been creating campaign Foundation Competition, which material which highlights small approaches challenges and changes we could be making to lead a more sustainable life, as well as opportunities presented by COVID-19 and how animations which depict the 'Plastic Journey' to capitalise on opportunities available to us from drains to the sea which will be used by The today. Final Straw on their websites and social media. Some pupils have even written articles on the During the Summer term, we hope that Year 12 impact of plastic misuse for The Final Straw pupils will be able to begin to plan and work blog and school magazines. Moving forward, towards their own social action projects in pupils will continue with their campaigns and and around the community which will offer an ventures toward promoting sustainable living opportunity to enhance and develop invaluable in various capacities with the hope to also and transferable skills. get out for beach cleans and creating media Govina Basra to share with other schools, businesses, and communities.

Sparking Every Interest

The Ignite! Sixth Form academic enrichment programme is incredibly varied and carefully considers the needs, aspirations and interests of Gen-Z. With almost twenty different options to choose from, pupils have been able to select enrichment courses to suit their interests and needs. The Ivy House Award, the Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, and the Arts Awards are just a few examples of qualifications that pupils can gain through Ignite! programme so that they gain practical and transferable skills ready for life beyond PGS. Alongside these award options are those that enable the furthering of pupil interests which are less covered in lessons, such as Marine Biology, Criminology and Medicinal Chemistry. Ignite! enables the growth of knowledge and building of skills in an interactive, small group setting. Whether online

or in person, Ignite! successfully continued to provide engaging and varied academic enrichment to Year 12 over the past year. The five options that pupils select throughout the year are accompanied by a relevant and captivating guest speaker programme. This part of the Ignite! experience was surprisingly unaffected this year, with the speakers and pupils adapting superbly to online talks. That said, we are excited to meet as a year group from September 2021 to collectively be inspired by those kindly coming into school.

Sustainability

Beach cleans, ethical consumerism, carbon footprint calculations - these are just a few of the activities that have run as part of Sustainability Ignite! this year. Pupils were able to socially distance on Southsea Beach, meaning that litter could still be picked and monitored. Furthermore, we were delighted to have a session speaking to OP Amy Nguyen, founder and editor of “Sustainable and Social” about ethical consumerism and business. A particular favourite of pupils this year has been the screening of David Attenborough’s documentary “Extinction”, spurring many discussions about the best ways to address environmental issues on a global and local scale.

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Louisa Burton

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Year 10 Taster Day

Sustainability, Sociology, Strategy Games – these are just three of the fourteen Ignite! options that Year 10 and Year 11 pupils have been able to sample over the past academic year. Pupils selected two of the Year 12 academic enrichment Ignite! courses and spent 45 minutes enjoying a sample session of each; Year 11 the week before Christmas, and Year 10 the week after their summer examinations.

eat them too!) Short films about how to make a cup of tea were created in Film School, whilst pupils dived into coral reefs in Marine Biology (using VR headsets…). The afternoon provided some light-relief during a very demanding year as well as equipping pupils with some new skills and potential interest areas. Dexter Jones said “climbing was fun and I managed to do walls I didn’t think I would be able to do” and Freya Stevens commented that she “enjoyed exploring the variety of these courses”.

In Medicinal Chemistry, pupils were able to try their hand at making paracetamol, whilst in Food for Thought pupils baked five star-rated chocolate chip cookies (and, of course, got to

Louisa Burton

Year 11 making sustainable Christmas wrapping paper as part of the Sustainability Ignite! Option. From left ro right: Mollie Norris, Louisa McKay, Atlanta Nelson-Smith, Phoenix Cross, Anya Shankar, Liberty Mitchell Brock, Laura Hantrais, Elsa Davies.

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Ignite Highlights The 6th Form super-curricular program delivered some exciting moments!

Marine Biology

Engineering

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Climbing

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Year 12 Reconnecting Day

Reconnecting Day, which took place on the during Enrichment Week, was designed for Year 12 pupils to spend quality time with their peers following over a year of lockdowns and restrictions. The morning consisted of two 90 minute rotations of the pupils’ choosing, ranging from Crazy Golf at Clarence Pier to a bike ride around Portsea Island. Ther Sixth Form cafe was transformed into a board game cafe, complete with a breakfast buffet and background jazz music and the Art project group worked on A3 paintings which later were pieced together to form an abstract image of outgoing Head of Sixth Form, Mr Rees. The day provided a productive yet relaxing and sociable end to what has undoubtedly been a turbulent year!

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End of Year Show for Year 13 Year 13 Art students held their superb end of year exhibition titled ‘Embark’ at the local Jack House Gallery.

Larissa Palmer

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Students were giving personalised goodie-bags as recognition for their trremedous efforts.

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SCHOOL NEWS

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Ithaka Prize

by Andrew Milford, Coordinator of Sixth Form Extend

he Ithaka Prize is our celebration of the creative journey PGS Sixth Formers experience when they carry out their research projects for PGS Extend or the IB Extended Essay. In the summer of Year 12, pupils work alongside a supervisor to plan their assignment and identify appropriate sources and methods for their research. They complete the projects independently over the summer and then submit them to a marker on their return in Year 13. Over the following weeks, the pieces are assessed and graded, with a distinction awarded for work which reflects university standards. The best of the distinction work is nominated for the Ithaka Prize for Independent Learning.

project would be worth a distinction. The fact that she has also produced her own translation of the original Greek and has critically evaluated her translation methodology in doing so makes this an exceptional piece of work. This is one of the finest examples of humanities scholarship I have read from a sixth form pupil.’ Since joining in Year 7, Megan has had a passion for Latin and Greek and all things Classics, so in many ways this project represented the culmination of her academic journey at PGS. Next year Megan has a place to read Classics at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge, and we wish her all the best as she prepares to continue her love of Classics beyond the arch.

Every year, our Sixth Formers benefit greatly from PGS Extend and IB Extended Essays as part of their university applications; higher education institutions are particularly keen to see evidence of studies beyond examination syllabuses. Of course, 2020 was a year like no other. Under unprecedented circumstances, one might have expected that the creativity and commitment of this years’ cohort would be dimmed. In the event, the complete opposite proved to be the case. This year’s finalists, of which there are more than would be shortlisted in a ‘normal’ year, produced a range of projects that are truly exceptional in breadth and quality. The judging panel have been faced with an incredibly difficult decision. This year’s Ithaka Prize was awarded to Megan Latham, for her translation of the Gospel of Mark from the New Testament from its original Greek and a commentary. The judging panel agreed wholeheartedly with Megan's project supervisor, who commented: 'Were Megan to have just analysed three translations of Mark, and provided a commentary so detailed, this 110

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SCHOOL NEWS

The full list of shortlisted pupils: Jacob French - ‘The Aging of the End’; To what extent has our perception of death changed over time? (a documentary) Max Harvey - Bedroom spectrometry Sacha Hemingway - Compare and contrast the ways in which Christopher Marlowe and H.G. Wells present the universal desire to exceed the status quo. Megan Latham - A translation of the Gospel of Mark from the New Testament from its original Greek and a commentary Nicholas Lemieux - Have streaming services rendered traditional TV completely obsolete? Nicholas Ross - Is it possible to research space from the back garden? Habina Seo - Architecture exists in sound: the redesigning of the PGS Music Department Scarlett Sprague - Mountaineering on Mars: Is it possible to climb Olympus Mons? Oliver Thomas - ‘Peter the Great: Celebrated Tyrant.’ A documentary video essay assessing the life and legacy of Peter the Great of Russia Samantha Todd - ‘My Medicine’: an anthology inspired by medicine 111

Exceptional IB Results

ur congratulations to pupils at The Portsmouth Grammar School who, along with over 170,000 pupils around the globe, received their International Baccalaureate Diploma results. This is the school’s first set of results for Sixth Form pupils who were unable to sit their examinations as usual due to the COVID-19 restrictions put in place. All pupils scored strongly, with scores of 35 points or more from the maximum of 45, and four achieved highly impressive total scores of over 40 points. “Our pupils, with the support of our staff, worked incredibly hard this year in ever changing and challenging circumstances,” said the Head, Dr Anne Cotton. “We are delighted that their endeavours are reflected in these results and we are incredibly proud of how they have approached this year. We wish them well as they embark upon their next steps.” Amongst those celebrating is Edie Critchley who achieved 42 points which will take her to Oxford to read English Language and Literature. “It feels really quite surreal after the last two years,” said Edie. “It has been a bizarre Sixth Form experience, but the school have been really reassuring throughout.” Edie had wanted to apply to Oxford from a young age and says she always felt supported by the school to achieve this. “I am dyslexic,” Edie Critchley said Edie. “When I

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was younger I had a lot of assistance from the Learning Support department, but as I moved in to the Sixth Form I felt more independent and able to work more on my own. That I wanted to go on to read English at Oxford was never questioned and the school always encouraged me to go for it.” “I’ve been at PGS since Reception and loved my time here. It feels strange to have reached the end of my time at PGS,” said Joe Russell who gained a very impressive 44 points. “I’m amazed with my results – it’s been a challenging year with lockdowns and working from home, but I’ve really enjoyed doing the IB and I am thankful to my teachers for their support.” Joe will be going to Bristol University to read Biology. Becky Wiles is heading to Imperial College London to study Medical Biosciences having gained an outstanding 43 points. “I am so happy with the results I received, and relieved that they will get me to Imperial in October,” said Becky. “I would like to say a big thank you to all the teachers who have supported me throughout the past seven years. I wish you all the best!”

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Emily Curwood is celebrating having also achieved an impressive 44 points. “I joined PGS when I was three and have felt lucky to have had so many different experiences at the school,” said Emily. “I would describe my experience at PGS as enriching, as I have been able to explore as many corridors as I could before leaving sport, music, and the

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“That I wanted to go on to read English at Oxford was never questioned and the school always encouraged me to go for it.” academic side. Going on the sports tour to Holland and the Spanish exchange are definite highlights of my school experience as they allowed me to develop skills, meet new people and visit new places! I am obviously very happy about my results, I put a lot of thought and time into my coursework for each subject, so I am glad to see that come to fruition.” Emily will be going to Warwick to read Health and Medical Sciences. “I'm not entirely sure of what I want to do in the future,” concludes Emily. “I would love to continue the trend of exploring new places and cultures - hopefully working in a field where I am able to travel and work with others across different countries.” Since results were released, each pupil has had the opportunity for an individual meeting with members of the Sixth Form team, to offer them the support they need as they prepare for their next steps. “We encourage our pupils to reflect on their pathway beyond school and on where they aspire to be at 25. The enriched programme that we offer at Sixth Form helps them to think about where they wish to be in the future, and we do all we can to support them getting there,” concludes Dr Cotton.

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Edie Critchley

A Level Geology

Class of 2021! Luke Edenborough, Alex Barker, Mrs Hafsa Garcia, Esme Kelly, Scarlett Sprague

It was with mixed emotions that we said goodbye this year to our last class of A level Geologists. Mrs Garcia, who has helped to deliver the course over the past two years, says: “Geology was a new subject to me when I started at PGS and it was a lot of hard work updating my subject knowledge, but I’ve come to realise what an important subject it is, and I have absolutely loved teaching it, especially because we’ve had such brilliant pupils!” Although our fieldwork plans over the last year had to be cancelled thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, we were able to fit in a last-minute Geology tour of Old Portsmouth before our last class of pupils left. Dr Catherine Mottram, a senior lecturer and structural geologist, kindly joined us from 114

It’s asteroids, dinosaurs, dangerous geohazards, and engineering dams! THE PORTMUTHIAN 2020-21

the University of Portsmouth. She revealed some of the geological mysteries of the Hotwalls, and talked to us about the importance of Geology - after all, without geologists we’d have no modern technology! We identified igneous minerals in the steps, examined trace fossils in the limestone paving and learnt how the shingle on our unique beaches formed millions of years ago by ancient sea creatures. Esme promised on the way back that she would be explaining to all her friends when she visits the beach over the summer where all the pebbles come from! Many of our pupils have gone on to study Geology or a related subject at university. John Taylor, who achieved an A* in Geology last year, has just completed his first year in Civil Engineering at University of Bath. He

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comments that , “A-Level Geology at PGS was a very useful subject for the course. The geology module in first year was just the basics of the A-Level course, giving me a massive head-start over everyone else”. This year we had pupils gaining offers to study Archaeology, Forensic Science and Wildlife Conservation and one of our pupils, Scarlett Spague, has been offered a scholarship by Imperial College London to study for an MSci in Geophysics. She explains why she chose the course at PGS and how it has shaped her future: “My choice to study the Geology A-Level was based on my passion for mountaineering as I wanted to know more about the origin of the rocks I was climbing on.

“I have absolutely loved teaching it, especially because we’ve had such brilliant pupils!”

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I now realise that geology is so much more than just rocks. It’s asteroids, dinosaurs, dangerous geohazards, and engineering dams! I am super excited for my future job opportunities afterwards; in particular I am interested in abseiling down active volcanoes to collect lava samples!” Hafsa Garcia

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SIXTH FORM Year 13 pupils celebrating their last day of PGS 6th Form in the library.

Sebastian Sharpe, Will Jones

Honor Mitchell-Brock, Henry Simmons, Emma Wells

Holly Smith, Emily Russell, Sofia Callander, Helena Williams

Bruno Smith, Joe McCue

James Ware, Keir Jones, Dom Belcher Esme Kelly, Tara Bell, Evie Beard, Daisy Summerskill, Claudia Bishop

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Looking to the Horizon Careers & Universities

This year, the magic of technology allowed the to attend – our Year 11s and Year 12s derived Careers and Universities department not only to a huge amount of benefit from the evening, navigate the challenges presented by lockdowns enabling them to set out purposefully, and and distancing but also to open up new informedly, on their journey towards higher opportunities. In November, we held our first education and employment. We were delighted virtual Careers Convention, inviting a range of to include, as part of the online fair, Emma Gotz career professionals, from spheres as diverse as from the National Apprenticeship Service – this finance, technology, the arts and engineering, to is an increasingly dynamic option for our pupils speak to pupils from Year 10-13 online about the with more and more companies offering degree multitude of pathways open to them. This was apprenticeships in partnership with leading followed, in the Spring Term, by a universities. series of excellent remote Careers Pupils are lunches that enabled parents and Another successful online event OPs to talk to pupils in Years 10- heading to was the Practice Interviews for 13 in depth about the possibilities university Year 12s, which enabled them that face them beyond their time at to discuss their aspirations and school; a key theme was the need destinations develop their interview skills with to be adaptable and resilient, ready across the trained professionals who offered to make the most of opportunities globe, from an essential sounding board and presented. gave invaluable feedback on not Miami and only interview technique but CV In the summer term, Mrs Cross and Colorado to skills. The online format allowed Miss Fewings worked closely with us to include interviewers in France Mrs Bushell to present a fantastic Hong Kong. and interviewees in China, which, online networking event in which again, added an international reach pupils from Years 11 and 12 were able to talk to the event. Interviews for our Oxbridge and for several hours with OPs with qualifications Medicine applicants this year were all online. in the arts and humanities – showing the sheer We were delighted that 9 of our current and range of career pathways open to pupils with former pupils attained places at Cambridge and degrees in literature, language, art, music, Oxford in a very competitive year, as well as drama, history, politics, philosophy and a significant number of offers to our Year 13s other arts/humanities: not least because of for competitive courses such as Medicine and the essential combination of critical thinking selective universities from Durham and Imperial and creativity that such disciplines involve. to Warwick and Bath. Pupils are heading to One OP took part from his home in Florida, university destinations across the globe, from reinforcing the international dimension of an Miami and Colorado to Hong Kong. As always, arts/humanities qualification. The participants on UCAS Day in June we were delighted to had a great deal of fun, with some impromptu welcome back (online this year) OPs currently musical performances online for example, as at university who generously shared insights well as being extremely productive. We were and advice with current Year 12s embarking also excited to hold our first online Universities upon their journey beyond the PGS arch. Fair, with a record number of universities able 118

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We have been delighted to organise a series of creative and stimulating events and activities for younger pupils this year, enabling them to explore their options beyond PGS. In the summer term, Year 7s developed skills, from budgeting to planning and communication, that will stand them In an increasingly in good stead in the world of complex world it work. Year 8s had the chance has never been to enjoy handsmore important on experience that pupils are of a range of careers, from informed. medicine to marketing and firefighting– with parents generously giving up their time to come in to school. Year 9s explored a range of career pathways, making use of the excellent Morrisby Careers platform. We are delighted to be working with Morrisby, who have decades of careers experience, and this year initiated Morrisby Profiles for pupils in Years 10 and 12 which gave them superb feedback to help them reflect on A level options, work experience opportunities, career pathways, university or alternative qualifications. In an increasingly complex world it has never been more important that pupils are informed. This is our mission in the Careers and Universities department and we are pleased that 2020-21 has been another purposeful, successful and fulfilling year, helping our pupils fulfil their aspirations. James Burkinshaw Head of Careers and Universities

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First Name Alexander Abid Ahthini Alexander Felix Frederick Evie Grace Alexander Dominic Tara William Claudia Alexander Rory Sofia Robin Edward Matthew

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Destinations Surname Abramson Ali Aranan Barker Barr Barry Beard Beardsley Beckett Belcher Bell Bellis Bishop Bradshaw Buckeridge Callander Cavusoglu Charlton Chimbwandira

Destination Cardiff UCL Bangor Exeter Greenwich Miami Art Foundation Exeter Exeter Leeds Bristol Essex Exeter Bath Oxford (Trinity) Gap Year Warwick KU Leuven, Belgium Sheffield

Toby Edith Emily

Cornelius Critchley Curwood

Gap Year Oxford (Hertford) Warwick

Anna Alexander William

Danso-Amoako Davidson Davis

Laura Luke Daniel Alexander Francesca Stephanie

Docherty Edenborough Ellis Ellison Elsmore Fernandes

Liverpool Reading Kings College London Manchester Bournemouth Warwick Bristol Bath Art Foundation (St Martins)

THE PORTMUTHIAN 2020-21

Course Business Computing Biomedicine Archaeology Architecture Biology Philosophy Geography Law English Biology Psychology Economics Spanish & Portuguese Economics Business Robotics with Foundation year English Literature Health and Medical Sciences Medicine Property Investment International Relations Geography Ecology Chemistry Politics & Spanish Chemistry

SCHOOL NEWS

Sofia Cian Ewan Jacob Samuel

Findlay-Pacheco Fish Fleming French Gale

Warwick Southampton Warwick Kent Nottingham Trent

Charlotte Louisa Ella

Gao Glading Gordon

Arya Prasad George

Gowda Gregory

Imperial Gap Year Kings College London Bristol Aberystwyth

Jurgens

Greyling-Oosthuizen

Sophie Jevon Maximilian

Hamer Hannah Harvey

Callum Poppy Matthew William Erik Oliver Theodore Sarnaz Octavia Keir William Rohin Nivethan Lian

Helyer Herbert Hickman Hicks Hillman Holland Horrocks Hossain Hynes-Laitt Jones Jones Kachroo Kajendran Kan

Kings College London Bristol Art Foundation Cambridge (Robinson) Exeter Cardiff Nottingham Bristol Gap Year Kent Surrey Bath Birmingham Exeter Portsmouth Imperial Plymouth Loughborough

121

Biomedical Sciences Computing Liberal Arts History Economics with International Finance and Banking Molecular Biology Natural Sciences Medicine International Relations and Military History Medicine Veterinary Medicine Natural Sciences Economics Medicine Aerospace Engineering Economics Bio Chemistry Law Computing Business History Property Development Medicine Computer Science Design

122

Shackleton Esme Megan

Keiditsch Kelly Latham

Yuan Victoria

Nicholas Thomas Sebastian Sophie Alexandra Billy

Lemieux Locke Martin Martin Marx McBride

York Surrey Cambridge ( Murray Edwards) University Arts London Durham Durham Leicester Exeter Warwick Newcastle

Joseph Robert William Honor

McCue McDonald Miah Mitchell Brock

Gap Year Cambridge ( Caius) Sheffield Cardiff

Lavinia Emma Jack Harrison Emily Lucy Eniayo Larissa Jay Edward Grace

Montgomery Moseley Moyse Munday Nelson Noble Odofin Palmer Pasricha Payton Phillips

Klara

Pottle

Hannah Sophie

Rayner Reeve-Foster

Liverpool Warwick Durham Southampton Warwick Cardiff Birmingham Gap Year Sheffield Exeter Kings College London University of South Wales Gap Year Norwich

Isabel

Richardson

James Nicholas

Rixon Ross

Emily

Russell

Birmingham Theatre School Reading Colorado School of Mines Bath

THE PORTMUTHIAN 2020-21

Medical Engineering Physics with Astronomy Classics Film & Screen Studies History History Business Biology Management Sport and Exercise Science Medicine Medicine Philosophy and Economics Veterinary Medicine Philosophy History Economics and Business History and Politics Business Biomedicine History History Psychology Forensics

Film and Moving Image Production Foundation in Acting Quantity Surveying Physics Sport and Exercise Science

SCHOOL NEWS Joseph Oliver Grace

Russell Saint Saunders

Bristol Oxford (Pembroke) Leeds

Amy Habina Sebastian Kang Hugo Henry Bruno Holly Scarlett Julia Thomas Daisy Grace Oliver Samantha Mary Danielle

Scott Seo Sharpe Shen Shepherd Simmons Smith Smith Sprague Staite Stone Summerskill Symonds Thomas Todd Tumbrok Turner

Imran Charles Ruixuan James Emma Rebecca Leo Helena Frederick John

Vloemans Walker Wang Ware Wells Wiles Wilkinson Williams Williams Brown Yu

Cecilia

Yuan

Cardiff Bath Exeter Southampton Leeds Cardfiff Exeter Sussex Imperial Exeter Nottingham ArtsEd Gap Year Gap Year Cardiff Sussex Royal Veterinary College Bristol Birmingham Edinburgh Plymouth Cardiff Imperial Cambridge (Queens) UCL Southampton Cambridge (Emmanuel) Durham

123

Biology Spanish Modern Languages and English Business Architecture Marketing Management Computer Science International Relations Business Manangement Business Biomedicine Geophysics Economics Design Foundation in Acting

Medicine Neuroscience Veterinary Medicine Maths Economics Biology Product Design Medicine Medical Biosciences Natural Sciences Law History Maths Business and Management

Introducing:

PGS Connect The Development Office has launched a new online portal to help alumni stay connected with each other and with the school, wherever they are in the world. As this new online community becomes fully established, registered members will be able to: • • • •

Update their contact details, create a profile, and choose their communication preferences Catch up with the latest news from the school and OP community Check out the latest photos from the school and its archives Register for reunions and other alumni events

• • • •

Track down old school friends Search out other OPs in the same profession or line of business, or even the same company Seek guidance and support about universities and careers Find an OP mentor, or offer to mentor someone else

The portal is open to pupils from the end of Year 12 (with parental consent) so they can seek advice from the OP community about the universities or career paths that they are considering. Find out more at www.connect.pgs.org.uk

A Final Thank You

This edition of Portmuthian would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment from the team. Chief Editor Thomas Locke, ably supported by Hannah Rayner and Louisa Glading worked relentlessly throughout lockdown and long into their summer holidays to finish the magazine on time. Furthermore, the dedicated team of Year 9 students Jiali Hicks, Sabiha Sabikunnaher, Fola Odofin, Dawn Sands and Sophia Cheng pulled together to write articles and create fabulous artwork for the publication - they were crucial to its success! Well done to all. 124

THE PORTMUTHIAN 2020-21

Portmuthian 2021

Articles inside

PGS Connect

Careers and Universities

A Level Geology

Ithaka Prize

Exceptional IB Results

Sparking Every Interest

Year 10 Taster Day

Community Action Workplace

New Prefects for 2022

Special Collections

Learning to Negotiate: Heart toHeart

House Drama

Whitcombe House

Smith House

Grant House

Latter House

Duke of Edinburgh Award

Cricket

Archaeology in Kent

A Sporting Spirit

Solem Quartet Composers Workshop

Arabian Nights

Coming Back to Sport

Text into Performance

The Annual PGS Library Writing Competition

Art & Biology Team Up for Competition

A Tribute to David MacDonald

Engineering Gold for

Staff Leavers and Joiners

Art Club

Design & Technology

Stock Market Club

Geo Club Collaboration

Portsmouth Point: Thanks a Million

Chasing The Sun

Citizenship Day

Record-breaking Fundraising Success

PortsFest: Sea Shanty Sensation

Success at UKMT Senior Maths Challenge

Geography Club

Giving Day Radio

Record-Breaking Donation for Wilkie Scholars

Diversity and Inclusion

Chancellors of the Future

Destined for Success: Destiny Elected to Youth Parliament

Dr Cotton’s Review

Welcome

LGBTQ+ Symposium

Celebrating the First-Ever Giving Day