Issue 54 Autumn 2015

HigHligHtss t A l B A N s s C H O O l

CAdet pArtNersHip ON pArAdeThe High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, Jonathan Trower, praised ‘the discipline, leadership and courage’ of cadets at the Annual General Inspection in May. This year’s Inspection was especially noteworthy because it was the first to include cadets from Marlborough Science Academy, who have joined St Albans School’s CCF in a partnership sponsored by the Cadet Force Association. Fifteen boys and girls from Marlborough train with St Albans School’s Junior Corps every Friday afternoon.

‘It’s been a real success,’ says St Albans School’s C o m m a n d i n g O ff ic er, Major Kenny Everitt. ‘ T h e s t u d e n t s are really keen and committed, as are the staff who bring them

along and work with us every week. ‘The students from Marlborough were fully integrated and participating in all the competitive activities with the St Albans students at the Inspection,’ he continued. ‘Whether taking part in the gun run or testing their marksmanship, they were thoroughly enjoying themselves.’

Marlborough’s Head Teacher, Annie Thomson, has been delighted with the success of the partnership: ‘Children need resilience to cope; they need discipline, integrity and moral fibre, and this is one way they can gain those attributes.’

Headmaster of St Albans School, Jonathan Gillespie, said the partnership is working well: ‘We are delighted to be able to share our experience and expertise,’ he said. ‘This is yet another example of how an independent school is working closely with others and using its skills and resources to benefit the wider community.

‘We will continue working with colleagues at Marlborough until the school has developed the skills it needs to launch its own cadet corps,’ he concluded.

Jonathan Trower, High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, inspects the parade (above) and spent the day watching the varied activities (below).

Inspired Art & DesignThe creative talent of the School’s pupils was on display at the exhibitions of work in Art and Design and Technology towards t h e e n d o f t h e summer term. The displays in the two

departments showed the range of skills the students

have acquired and put to good use in their examination

work. Both final pieces and preparatory portfolios were

set out so that the whole creative process could be followed, including experimentation and research. There were drawings, paintings, prints, architectural models, a drone, games and point of sale displays among other exhibits, a huge range for viewers to admire.

Back to the 80s Mullet-toting pupils almost had us Dancing on the Ceiling of New Hall as they paid musical homage to chart topping anthems of the 1980s. Sean Bracebridge’s cover of Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger was met with delight from several dads, followed by a haunting rendition of U2’s All I Want is You performed by Freddie Scutt. Caroline Maggs’ version of the Guns ‘n’ Roses classic Sweet Child of Mine, provided a moment of sweet acoustic calm before a storm of rock and pop hits had the dance floor at maximum capacity. The night concluded with Michael Jackson’s Thriller performed by the entire exhilarated and brilliantly talented cast.

Juniors Meet Dramatic FateThe final full week of term saw the members of the Lower School Drama Club take to the amphitheatre stage for their annual summer production. This year’s offering was an adaptation of the Terry Pratchett classic Mort. In this tale, Mortimer, known as Mort (Conor Robinson), is the last to be selected at an apprentice fair and the only willing taker is Death (Kelechi Alozie – right), which leads to potentially disastrous consequences and quite a few silly ones. The performance benefited from the glorious sunshine as well as the confidence and commitment of a very talented cast who brought the universe of the Discworld to life in a vivid and humorous manner.

Junior House Drama provided a wonderful demonstration of the boys’ creativity and flair. The theme of this year’s competition was ‘Magic’, which lent some sparkle to the evening’s proceedings. Six weeks of hard work and dedication came to a head on the performance night where the winner was crowned. The adjudicator Simon Deans (OA) had to make a difficult decision.

Robot WarsYet again a School team won the Technical Innovation & Engineering award at the Rampaging Chariots competition organised and run by Selex ES. The Senior team set itself the challenge of creating a vehicle with onboard cameras, enabling it to be controlled remotely using a virtual reality headset. Directing the vehicle without actually viewing the arena created problems in navigation, but it was a technically demanding and rewarding challenge.

Robots battle it out in the Rampaging Chariots competition

Preparation pays off for DofE’s Award WinnersThe success of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award at the School was exemplified by 44 pupils gaining their Silver Awards and three going to St James’ Palace to collect their Gold Awards.

Such success follows a great deal of preparation and commitment in the various sections of the Award. During the summer term and holiday, for their Silver Award, 51 students completed practice expeditions in the South Downs, 37 in the Peak District and 62 in the Brecon Beacons. 33 pupils undertook their qualifying expeditions in the Peak District.

At Gold level, practice expeditions took place in the Peak District, Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons. Eleven students completed their qualifying expedition in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, where the Assessor was shadowed by Emma Russell (OA) who was undertaking her supported assessment in preparation for her imminent accreditation as an Assessor. 19 students also qualified in the Brecon Beacons.

enduring the heat and humidity of the Tudor kitchens.

A study trip to Germany in June allowed a group of modern language students to advance their language skills as well as developing their understanding of politics, history and culture. A trip to Tränenpalast, the former border station between East and West Germany, was a moving experience, as was the visit to the deep blue interior of the impressive octagonal new church, which promotes reflection on past events with the hope of lasting reconciliation.

In the Reichstag, the pupils learned the basics of the German parliamentary system, while politics of a different kind were seen at the East Side Gallery, a 1.5km stretch of the Berlin Wall decorated with graffiti. The Topographie des Terrors, and exhibition exploring Berlin’s difficult 20th century history, also covered dark periods of history and concluded the students’ wide-ranging, fascinating visit to the German capital.

Ready for all terrains and

weathers in the North Yorkshire

Moors

Dover Castle was besieged by the mass of the First Form, when the whole year group visited a site which has historical relevance from Roman times through to the Cold War. The pupils’ main focus was the Medieval period and they were instructed in the life and duties of young squires, guided around the Great Tower, which would have been their home, by Lady Eleanor De Montfort, who taught them courtly manners and etiquette. They also visited the battlements and crossbow towers, handled artefacts and took in the rest of the rich and varied history of Dover.

Not a single Second Former was lost when they were ushered into Hampton Court Maze, all eventually emerging successfully from its bewildering hedge-lined alleys. The whole year group took a day trip to Hampton Court to consolidate and extend their learning of the early modern period of history. It was a busy and productive day, with the students exploring the Young Henry exhibition, Henry VIII’s apartments, the Chapel Royal and

A Trio of Trips for Young Historians

Cricket: There was a packed schedule of challenging fixtures and well-earned successes at all levels. The 1st XI began with an 86 run win against Bancroft’s and continued with victories against Haileybury College and St Edmund’s. In our own T20 Tournament they continued their success, beating Hitchin by 5 wickets, St Benedict’s by 124 runs and St Joseph’s by 43 runs. Their winning streak was cut short in a tough match against Shenfield High School. The match against Berkhamsted went down to the final over with Berkhamsted, 8 wickets down , needing 12 runs to overhaul our 1st XI’s fantastic final total of 245. The 2nd XI enjoyed strong wins against Dr Challoner’s, St Edmund’s and Merchant Taylors’, followed by a 105 run victory against Bancroft’s in a tremendous pinnacle of the season.

Congratulations go to Ollie Laws-Mather for his 109 not out in the 2nd XI match against Berkhamsted. Our U15 A and B teams gained impressive wins against Haileybury College and Haberdashers’ before travelling to Berkhamsted for

a six-a-side tournament, meeting Dr Challoner’s in a tense final. Our team scored an impressive 83 from the five overs, with Challoner’s making 70 – 1 in reply. We therefore retained the Trophy. Playing in the County Cup, the U14s beat Kings Langley by 78 runs and St George’s by a more tense 9 runs. The U14 victory over Sir John Lawes’ in the final of the District Shield was a highlight of individual skills as both Brendan Warren and Rahil Thapar took five wickets to dismiss the opposition for

56 before Will Davis and Ben Yurkwich chased down the total in 6.3 overs with no wickets lost. Our solid U12 and U13 squads both earned wins over Bancroft’s and Merchant Taylors’, before an end of term victory for the U12s, who beat Kings Langley by 60 runs in the second round of the County Cup.

Netball: After a successful term’s teamwork and commitment, the girls played Aldenham School for the first time in their final netball match of the season. This was the last ever School game for some of the Upper Sixth. Captain Philippa English led the girls to a memorable 24-7 victory.

Lacrosse: The girls had a challenging term with a hard fought victory against Oakham School. The latter half of term saw them fight off county-wide competition to top the South East Schools Lacrosse League.

Tennis: Our Senior team beat Barnet Southgate 12-0 and Highgate 9-0, with duo Tim Richards and James Wilkinson celebrating victory in the U18 County Doubles Championship. Our U15s had an exceptional term, winning against Hitchin Boys’ School and Highgate. A triumphant Bertie Arbuthnott, Chris Fletcher, Liam Babwah and Alex Scholefield won their box in the county league. The U14 1st team played Nicholas Breakspear in the District League in May and went on to beat Sir John Lawes in June’s District League, winning 23 games to 15. In the highly competitive Nicola Mabbit League, the

U13 and U14 district squads both took first place, which was an outstanding achievement for all.

Athletics: We put out a full Boys’ squad and a select Girls’ squad for the District Championships in April, where Sarena Clarke won the 100 and 200m, and further wins on the track included Bolaji Anifalage (100m), Adam Thorpe (400m) and Tom Halling (1500m). There were wins in the field events for George Grant in the Pole Vault and Omeiza Haruna in the Triple Jump, meaning the team retained the Senior District Championships title. The U14 Athletics team is now County Plate Champion after the event at Westminster Lodge saw personal bests from Ryan Eware in the Triple Jump and Scott Brice in the 1500m, whilst Alex Lines and Matty Lee won the 300m and 800m races respectively. A selection of the School’s best individual Junior and Intermediate athletes competed at the County Championships, where Tom Fulton became the 2015 Herts County Champion with a time of 1m 59s. In District news, the 3rd Form Relay team of Seb Adolph, Ollie Larsson, Jake Maries and Cameron Furley took the title, whilst in the 4th Form, Max Swan won the 200m, Tom Fulton the 800m and Gus Laws-Mather the Javelin.

Individual Sporting Achievements: As a twice-crowned World Champion tri-athlete, one of our most successful Cross-Country runners and an impressive swimmer, it was no surprise the award for Sportsman of the Year went to Robbie Lightowler. Ayo Olukotun travelled to Portugal with the Lambs RFC for a youth rugby festival. Aidan Collins was selected to shoot in this year’s British School’s Small-bore Rifle Association School’s International Match, where a gun score of 191 put him on a par with A team members, winning him an England badge.

A pre-match netball huddle

(above) and T20 action (below)

spOrt: t20 tOUrNAMeNt sUCCess

s t A l B A N s s C H O O lAbbey Gateway, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL3 4HB Telephone: 01727 855521 Fax: 01727 843447 www.st-albans.herts.sch.uk

ACAdeMiC MAtters:

Commentary on Examination Results

Candidature 131 136 148 137 138

Average UCAS points per student, including AS462.4 477 474.7 458.8 454.5

Percentage pass rate100 100 100 100 100

Percentage of grades A and B at A level*94 95 93 91 91

resUlts iN pUBliC eXAMiNAtiONs

Summary of Statistics

Results in Public Examinations

Form V - GCSE2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Candidature120 112 127 126 113

Percentage of grades A* - C100 100 100 99 100

Percentage of grades A*/A87 84 80 85 87

Percentage of candidates gaining grades A*-C in at least 5 subjects 100 100 100 100 100

Percentage of candidates gaining A*-C in Mathematics 100 100 100 100 100

Percentage of candidates gaining grades A*-C in English100 100 100 100 100

Upper VI - A Level

Further details about examination results can be found on the School’s website.

A leVel 2015For the fifth year in succession more than 90% of all results at the Abbey Gateway were graded A*- B, the most widely-recognised measure of A level success. A* grades continued to account for around a quarter of all grades and the number of A* or A grades increased to over 67%.

A Level (not including GS)Candidature 138Total entries 453Percentage pass rate 100Percentage grades A*, A & B 91Percentage grades A* & A 67Percentage grade A* 25

UCAS points per entry 116.6UCAS points per candidate 382.6

A & AS Level (not including GS or Extended Project)Average number of passes 3.6 UCAS points per entry 115.4UCAS points per candidate 417.5

A & AS Level (including GS and Extended Project)UCAS points per entry 115.0UCAS points per candidate 454.5

62 students achieved at least one A* grade, 33 at least 2 A*s and 13 at least 3 A*s. Head of School Milo Knights from Harpenden, Ganesh Chauhan from Luton and Rachel Hoffman from St Albans shared the distinction of achieving a ‘clean sweep’ of 4 A* grades. Milo goes to Durham to read PPE, Ganesh will read Product Design Engineering at Loughborough and Rachel Chemistry at Durham where she will be joined by her twin sister, Camilla, who also made a significant contribution to the family’s tally of A* grades.

Among the School’s successful Oxbridge candidates are Kirsty Mitchell from St Albans (Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Merton College) and Joshua Southworth from Felden (Chemistry at Pembroke College), both with 3 A*s and an A. With the same grades, Matthew Lavelle from St Albans will study Biology at Exeter, George MacGregor from St Albans will read Economics at Durham and James Thompson from St Albans will study Geophysical Sciences at Leeds.

Harry Sampson from Bushey confirmed his place to read French and Spanish at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, with three A* grades. Also achieving 3 A*s were Thomas Kirby from Welwyn Garden City (Mechanical Engineering at Nottingham), Lara Superfine from Harpenden (Medicine at Southampton), and James Wilkinson from Hitchin (Chemistry at Durham).

Congratulating the students and teachers, Headmaster Jonathan Gillespie said, “With continued downward pressure on A Level grades nationally, we are delighted to see an increase in our A* and A grades which is greatly to the credit of our hard-working stu-dents as well as of our inspirational teaching staff. My warm congratulations go to our leavers together with my very best wishes for their university studies.”

Further details about A Level results can be found on the School’s website.

St Albans School is a company limited by guarantee.

Registered in England No. 4400125 Charity No. 1092932 Registered Office: Abbey Gateway, St Albans, Herts. AL3 4HB

gCse 2015St Albans School is celebrating a record number of A* grades for the second year running with 59% of entries being awarded the top grade (compared to a national figure of 6.6%), an increase of 2.5% on the record set in 2014 which stands in marked contrast to the slight decrease in the award of the top grade nationally.

Other outstanding headline figures for the School this year are 87% A*& A grades (more than four times the national level of 21.2%) and 97% A*-B, both categories showing increases compared to 2014.

A summary of the results follows:

Candidature 113Total entries 1141Percentage grades A* to C 99Percentage grade A 1 87Percentage grade A* 59Percentage gaining A* to C in at least 5 subjects 100Percentage gaining A* to C in English 100Percentage gaining A* to C in Mathematics 100Points per candidate 75.0Points per entry 7.4

40% of the year group achieved at least 8 A* grades, well over one quarter achieved at least 9 A*s and 20 boys were awarded at least 10 A* grades, 19 of whom gained straight A*s. Joshua Oliver (Redbourn) had the distinction of achieving a ‘clean sweep’ of 12 A* grades as did Will Deans (also of Redbourn) with 11 A*s. Twin brothers Andrew and Anthony Henein (Welwyn) both achieved a ‘clean sweep’ of 10 A* grades, and Luke and Thomas Hopper (Harpenden) gained a combined total of 19 A*s.

These achievements are all the more noteworthy given the fact that the vast majority of examinations taken at the School are now the International GCSE (IGCSE). More demanding than the national GCSE, the IGCSE generally provides a much better preparation for A Level courses, and St Albans School boys relish the greater challenges of IGCSE courses.

The Headmaster, Mr Jonathan Gillespie, comments: “Whilst we are delighted at this year’s further increase in our A* record, it is the success of individual pupils that gives the greatest satisfaction. They have my hearty congratulations on the outstanding results they have achieved at the end of two years of hard work. A special mention also goes to my colleagues for their expertise and dedication in enabling our candidates to achieve so highly. These achievements at GCSE provide an excellent springboard for the start of A Level courses and are all the more laudable given the wide-ranging commitments our pupils make to the extra-curricular life of the school, matching their academic successes with similar accomplishments in sport, music and drama.”

Further details about GCSE results can be found on the School’s website.

1N.B. Grade A includes both A and A*.

After st AlBANsEdwin Baynes (2007) has been awarded his PhD by Edinburgh University for his research into extreme flood events in Iceland;Joe Davies (2007) was awarded a First in Music by Trinity College Cambridge;Daniel Hogan (2009) gained a First in Management Studies from Nottingham University;Christopher Perry (2009) was awarded a First in Law and Business by Warwick University;David Weeks (2010) achieved a First in Financial Mathematics at Newcastle University;Alexander Craig-Thompson (2011) gained a First in Architecture from Kent University;Cameron Epstein (2011) achieved a First in Film Production and Technology from Birmingham City University;Michael Hollins (2012) was awarded a First in PPE by the University of York;Jamie Morton (2012) achieved a First in Law at Corpus Christi College Oxford;Harry Hamer (2013) achieved Distinction in his Preliminary Examinations in History and Economics at Pembroke College Oxford and has been awarded a Scholarship.