KonnEctionS Summer 2011

From The Head Master The beginning of the term was marked by heat and dust providing perfect conditions, at least for our cricketers on sub-continental style pitches as they have prepared for their tour in Sri Lanka. As I write our students are all heads down in the middle of examinations and the School has the atmosphere of a ghost town. However, this never lasts for long and, as the end of term approaches the noise levels will increase again as the Arts Festival, Sports Day, Activities Day and the Swimming Gala provide a focus as the summer holidays approach.

We are gearing up for some important improvements to the School over July and August with the refurbishment of our English and modern foreign languages area, further landscape work on the Hill Lane site and even the excitement of a new boiler at Wellington. KESSoc has been exceptionally busy organising the biennial ball and funding a range of initiatives including the eco-garden which was opened by the Mayor, Councillor Matthews, on June 28th.

The number of trips we organise continues to take an enormous amount of time and energy but it is always worthwhile when you see just how much our students learn from what is on offer. Over a third of the School were involved in these activities over the spring holiday and many of these are reported in this issue including a very successful ski trip to France, an activities holiday at Beam House, a netball tour of Holland, classics visit to Greece, hispanicists in Cordoba and various treks across the New Forest and Dartmoor. All managed to avoid the latest round of volcanic ash as did the language trips over half term to Mutterstadt and Catalonia. Our charity work remains very active with significant numbers involved in Summer Camp and South Africa this summer as well as a new project at Lovaton. Other students will be spending the summer holiday in southern France with the water sports trip, travelling on expedition to Alaska and on our Sixth Form student exchange in North Carolina. Reports of these activities and various individual achievements are given in detail in this edition.

The summer term tends to rush by with a touch of nostalgia as we see another generation of students move on to higher education. It has also been farewell to Mr Winter after 36 years teaching at King Edward’s. We thank him and the other staff who are retiring or moving to other posts and wish them all well.

AJ Thould Head Master

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King Edward VI SchoolWilton Road . Southampton . Hampshire SO15 5UQTelephone: 023 8070 4561 www.kes.hants.sch.uk

Founded 1553

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Bright Sparks

On March 11th, a team of six Second Year King Edward’s pupils attended the Bright Sparks event at the historic Hursley House. This event, hosted and organised by IBM at its largest European research site, gave pupils the opportunity to work collaboratively on eight different challenges, attaining points for each. Sixteen schools attended the event and King Edward’s achieved 5th place overall

French ExchangeThe Sixth Form French exchange (with twenty-two students from Lycée St Martin in Angers) took place this term. The exchange partners enjoyed a three-day weekend here in the UK and then spent a day in School before going to London and Oxford. The week also included the KES American Barn Dance on Saturday and a farewell meal at Poppadom Express.

Which way next?On the last day of the spring term the Fourth Year sports science class spent a dry but windy afternoon at Victoria Country Park testing their orienteering abilities

on its permanent course. The class competed against each other in a score competition lasting an hour with the eventual winners of the event being Eddy Evans and Toby Edwards who managed to successfully visit all the controls in under 50 minutes.

Academic Achievements & Activities

Onattiproductions visit KES

The Onatti Theatre Company have visited KES on several occasions this term to work with the Third Years in the Modern Languages Department.

In March those students studying Spanish enjoyed a fun end to the week when Onatti presented a play entitled ‘Horóscopo’. It depicted an afternoon in the lives of some Spanish teenagers and how reading the horoscope might lead to certain expectations. The language was very well-suited to the level of the students and many were laughing out loud for a great deal of the performance.

The German language set also enjoyed a play based in a TV studio. The story centred around two warring, ham-fisted TV presenters whose first ever live show lurched from one disaster to the next. Six members of the Third Year took part in the play as contestants in various activities, including a fashion show element!

In May, Onatti productions entertained the French language groups with a hilarious performance of ‘Le paquet mystérieux’. Three pupils even got a chance to take part in the action themselves and the play generated much laughter and enthusiasm from the audience.

Chemistry Olympiads

GeographyField Trip

Maths ischallenging!

2640 students entered the International Chemistry Olympiad this year. Amongst the KES entrants, Nick Smith was just 1 mark off finishing in the top 7% in the UK - an outstanding achievement. Matt Crouch, Nick Smith and Beatrice Tyrrell received Silver Awards and Jack Eardley and Simon Purkess achieved Bronze.

The Lower Sixth geographers returned to School for the last day of the Easter term after a very successful field trip to South Wales. The weather was kind for once and the group succeeded in completing all the fieldwork exercises.

Due to his excellent result in the Intermediate Mathematical Challenge, James Fuller was invited to participate in the Maclaurin Mathematical Olympiad examination, along with about 600 very able mathematicians from around the country. James did extremely well to be placed in the top 50 and was rewarded with a Certificate of Distinction, a book prize and a medal. As a result of his excellent results he has been invited to attend the National Mathematics Summer School at Queen’s College, Birmingham. The mathematical activities will be intensive and designed to stimulate around 40 of the UK’s most talented young mathematicians.

David Veres achieved First Prize this term in the Hampshire Mathematics Challenge 2011 competition. There were 301 entries from 20 schools for the Challenge and this is a fantastic achievement. David received his award at a presentation evening at the University of Southampton in May.

Academic Achievements & Activities

Re‘Volver’

On March 8th, Dr Mark Dineen, lecturer at Southampton University, visited the School to give a talk to all the students doing Spanish for A Level. The talk was on the award winning film ‘Volver’ and its director, Pedro Almódovar. Film studies has now become part of the A2 Spanish syllabus so this proved to be a very informative and worthwhile talk.

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Mutterstadt ExchangeSix enthusiastic Third Year pupils, accompanied by Mrs Allen and Mr Kukla, travelled to Mutterstadt during half term to enjoy a full programme of activities as part of the return leg of the German exchange. A morning in school experiencing the very different styles of learning at our partner school the IGS Mutterstadt, a day’s climbing on a high ropes course in the forest near Speyer, a visit to the theme park ‘Holiday Park’ with its hair-raising Freefall Tower and G-Force rollercoaster and a sweltering trip to Heidelberg to see the castle, with the allegedly biggest wine barrel in the world, all formed part of the trip. A barbecue farewell party rounded off the week.

SpanishExchange

Twenty-five members of the Third and Fourth Years spent the beginning of the holidays in Cordoba, Southern Spain. They stayed with families and attended daily lessons at a specialist language school. When they were not in lessons, they were visiting the local area, eating tapas, going to the cinema and generally enjoying the warm weather whilst practising Spanish with the locals. On the last day they explored the Alhambra Palace, Granada.

A union in Europe

Thirty students from the Sixth Form and Upper School travelled to Belgium in March. The purpose of the visit was the European Parliament, having been invited there by Nirj Deva MEP when he visited the School on Speech Day. In Brussels they were given an introduction to the role the Commission fulfils, as well as an insight on working for the Commission and history of the Parliament. They also got to spend time in the public gallery. The return journey to Southampton took the students through Passchendaele and Ypres setting in context the original reasons for the development of closer ties between the European nation states.

Classics on FireThis year’s GCSE Classics revision day took place in the New Forest. Under the guidance of Ranger James Brown the group spent the afternoon on Fritham Plain and Sloden Inclosure and learnt about the “carbonari”, who constructed many burning pits throughout the area in Roman times, and investigated three pottery sites. In the morning David Allen, Hampshire’s Chief Archaeologist, Chris Elmer, Head of the Hampshire Museums Education Team, and Owain Hughes, Hampshire’s Education Officer, had engaged the group in a number of fascinating activities which included designing the new sign format for display boards at Rockbourne Roman Villa, assisting with the arrangement of finds from the site and preparing and presenting an overview of the Roman occupation of Britain.

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Co-Curricular

On Wednesday March 22nd, the whole School community congregated in the School Hall for the annual Thanksgiving Service. Led by school chaplain Rev. Julian Poppleton, Thanksgiving provides an opportunity to give thanks to the School’s founders King Edward VI and William Capon. This year’s guest speaker was the Canon Treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral - The Reverend Canon Mark Bonney.

Thanksgiving

An American Barn Dance

The South African Team raised approximately £1,700 for the ‘Path out of Poverty’ project from the proceeds of their American Barn Dance and charity auction. The School Hall was beautifully decorated making it visually stunning for the 130 guests who attended the evening of fun and dancing. Music was provided from the band ‘Swing your Partner’ and accompanied an American themed buffet.

Classics trip to Greece

Thirty-two students and four staff spent a sun-filled and inspirational week in Greece over Easter. The group were able to visit the impressive new Acropolis museum as well as the Acropolis itself, the Agora and the amazing National Museum with its stunning collection of Mycenean gold. Other sites included magical Delphi, Olympia, stunning Epidavros, Mycenae and Corinth.

Lower School DebatingCompetitionThe inaugural KES Lower School Debating Competition was won this term by Cameron Brown (L12) and Rahell Ahmed (L1). En route to their title the boys had to propose the merits of reducing the school leaving age, to oppose the notion that celebrities should act as role models and support the idea that Lower School Debating Society is the best society offered by KES. Mr Culver commented ‘Cameron and Rahell have proven to be extremely accomplished debaters, but what has been most pleasing is to see the huge progress made by all the young debaters at KES this year. This would not have been possible without the support and tuition of Anmol Gauba (S2) and Nikhil Bassi (S12) who have done a tremendous job as link-men between the senior and junior debating squads’

On the piste atLa PlagneDuring the first week of the Easter break a very large number of students participated in the annual ski trip. This year the destination was La Plagne in France and the party enjoyed hot weather during the course of the week which made the skiing in the afternoon a little harder, although skiing conditions higher up the resort were excellent. The beginner group made very good progress skiing a red run on the penultimate day, while the top two groups skied off piste with their instructors on several occasions.

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Minding our Psat KewThe Cactus Club made a successful trip to Kew Gardens, London’s World Heritage Site, on March 12th. James Mitchell and Ben Wall impressed staff with their knowledge of the Cannonball Tree and the uses of Aloe Vera and were most deservedly chosen as the winners of the Charles Darwin Challenge. In the course of the five hours on site most of the 300 acres of this royal park were covered.

Beam House

Despite it being rather chilly, the group of Third Year students who visited the Beam House Activity Centre during the Easter holidays enjoyed a fun filled, action-packed stay. The group took part in a wide range of activities including archery, high ropes, quad biking and climbing.

Ready SteadyCook!

Under the watchful eyes of KES’ very own John Torode and Greg Wallace, aka Mrs Kennard and Miss Smith, the second ‘Ready Steady Cook’ competition, contributing to the Allen Grant Trophy, took place in May. After the Head of School had duly covered himself in tomato sauce and forty furious minutes of cooking were up, the winners (by a tiny margin) were Watts. Their beautifully seasoned pasta and vegetable dish just pipped Capon’s take on Carbonara to the post.

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Riding round in circlesSix members of the Summer Camp team were joined by three of the South Africa team to tackle laps of a 10 mile course around Bolderwood in the New Forest, with more than its fair share of hills. Everyone involved gave their all, most completing 40 miles off road (and hence beating last year’s record), with Will Torlot pushing himself to reach the 50 mile mark.

Six KES students from the Medical Society attended the inaugural ‘Introduction to Surgery’ evening at Southampton General Hospital on May 4th with Sixth Form students from across the county. The event was run by the Royal College of Surgeons to inspire prospective medical students and give them an idea of the varied sub specialities involved in surgery.

Throughout the evening the students were given lectures by current medical students, a neurosurgeon, an orthopaedic surgeon and a cardiothoracic surgeon, all of whom showed them videos of their procedures, gave details of medical life and answered questions. After these talks the surgeons gave everyone a lesson in surgical suturing whilst discussing their experiences and giving advice on how to approach the forthcoming years of university application and studying medicine.

A surgicalintroduction!

Young carer workshopsThis term the Summer Camp team organised, planned and held four workshops for secondary aged young carers from around Southampton. The two-hour sessions were varied and involved different themes, from healthy eating and sport to relaxation and art. The Sixth Formers ran the sessions extremely smoothly and prepared quizzes and healthy snacks at the end of each workshop. The final session had an Easter theme and the activities included an egg and spoon race as well as an Easter egg hunt in the eco-garden.

At the beginning of March the School enjoyed hosting our American exchange visitors from Charlotte Country Day School. The group partook in various day trips as well as spending several days in school with their exchange partners. One of the students, Carl McPhail, wrote as follows to thank all who made them welcome:

“We all enjoyed the experience of a lifetime that KES made possible. All of the activities were very interesting and helped us to understand history and a different culture.”

Charlotte Exchange

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Second Yearsat LovatonA group of Second Years descended on Lovaton Cottage over the May bank holiday weekend. The weather was reasonable for the trip, allowing the pupils to fully experience the pleasures and views of Dartmoor. During their stay the pupils undertook a number of teamwork challenges; building catapults, gutter runs, sign posts, herding sheep and moving on skis. They also experienced the opportunity of climbing on Dartmoor granite, cooking for themselves on trangias and sleeping under canvas.

HollandNetball TripOn April 17th thirty-six netballers and four staff congregated at KES ready to head out to Holland for five days of netball training and fun. Blessed with good weather throughout the week, the party enjoyed some great games of netball, explored the historic town of Valkenburg, went swimming and bowling and ate pancakes amongst other things.

On May 6th the second KESSoc annual lecture took place. This year the School was delighted to welcome Joy Lofthouse as the speaker.

Joy Lofthouse, who had never even driven a car, signed up to the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) in 1943. With only a few hours training, she learned to fly anything from pre-war Tiger Moths to Hurricanes and, of course, the fabled Spitfire of Battle of Britain fame, many of which were built at the Supermarine factory in Eastleigh.

By ferrying planes from factories to RAF stations across Britain, she and her fellow men and women pilots played a vital role in propping up the war effort. Between them, over 300,000 planes were delivered during the war saving front-line fighter and bomber pilots from losing time keeping their squadrons of planes up to strength. During her two years as a pilot, she learned how to master the controls of 18 different aircraft, but there was one she relished flying more than any other. “The Spitfire was a wonderful aircraft to fly,” she said. “Its controls were so easy, it was nice and compact. It was everyone’s favourite and just right for a lady.”Joy gave a fascinating talk which enthralled all those who attended.

AnnualKESSoc lecture

Parents’ Calendar

NB : This is not the full calendar. Details of the full calendar (including sports fixtures) can be found on the website.

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Date StartTime EndTime Description

04/09/2011 WeekA

05/09/2011 INSET Day: School closed

06/09/2011 Term Commences

06/09/2011 15:00 Ceremony of Admissons

09/09/2011 16:10 17:10 Junior House

11/09/2011 WeekB

13/09/2011 11:00 School Photograph

13/09/2011 19:30 KESSOC Council Meeting: Hospitality Suite

14/09/2011 09:10 17:00 First Year trip to Beaulieu Activity Centre

15/09/2011 09:00 18:00 Fifth Year Art trip: London galleries

16/09/2011 09:10 17:00 First Year trip to Beaulieu Activity Centre

16/09/2011 16:10 17:10 Junior House

18/09/2011 WeekA

19/09/2011 09:10 17:00 First Year trip to Beaulieu Activity Centre

20/09/2011 13:00 14:00 Staff & Parent Prayer Meeting

21/09/2011 09:10 17:00 First Year trip to Beaulieu Activity Centre

22/09/2011 19:00 Upper Sixth Parents’ Evening

23/09/2011 14:30 Speech Day: Mayflower Theatre: ends approx. 4pm

23/09/2011 19:55 Lower Sixth German Mutterstadt Exchange: Home leg: depart 30th Sept

25/09/2011 WeekB

26/09/2011 09:10 17:00 First Year trip to Beaulieu Activity Centre

27/09/2011 09:10 17:00 First Year trip to Beaulieu Activity Centre

29/09/2011 19:30 21:00 New Parents’ and Pupils’ Evening

29/09/2011 Upper School Theatre Studies trip

30/09/2011 16:10 17:10 Junior House

30/09/2011 Romania Shoe Box Appeal starts: deadline 19th October

02/10/2011 WeekA

04/10/2011 08:45 17:00 Second Year Geography Trip: Wookey Hole 2.1; 2.2; 2.3

04/10/2011 08:45 17:00 Third Year Classics Trip: Bath

04/10/2011 19:30 20:30 Sixth Form French Exchange Information Evening

06/10/2011 13:00 Sports Team Photographs

07/10/2011 16:10 17:10 Junior House

07/10/2011 Jeans for Genes Day: Non uniform

09/10/2011 WeekB

09/10/2011 That Certain Uncertainty: Nuffield Theatre

10/10/2011 That Certain Uncertainty: Nuffield Theatre

10/10/2011 08:45 17:00 Lower Sixth Geography trip: Southampton

11/10/2011 10:00 17:00 Partnerships and Music Community Day

12/10/2011 08:45 17:00 Second Year Geography Trip: Wookey Hole 2.4; 2.5; 2.6

13/10/2011 Fifth Year ‘Science of Theme Parks’ day: Thorpe Park

13/10/2011 19:00 20:30 PSHE: Parents’ talk: Eating Disorders

14/10/2011 16:10 17:10 Junior House

16/10/2011 WeekA

18/10/2011 Sixth Form French Exchange party departs: returns 25th October

18/10/2011 Fifth Year Latin Trip: Rockbourne

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19/10/2011 19:00 Sixth Form Information Evening

19/10/2011 Deadline for Upper Sixth UCAS applications

20/10/2011 INSET Day: School closed

21/10/2011 Half Term

21/10/2011 08:30 19:00 Fifth Year and Sixth Form D of E Exped to Dartmoor: returns 24th October

27/10/2011 Charlotte Country Day School, USA: Third Year Exchange (away leg): returns 8th November

30/10/2011 WeekB

31/10/2011 School Sailing Regatta

01/11/2011 School recommences

03/11/2011 08:45 17:00 Lower Sixth Geography trip: Dorset/Hampshire coastline

04/11/2011 19:00 21:30 First and Second Year Summer Camp Disco

06/11/2011 WeekA

07/11/2011 09:00 14:00 Second Year Classics trip: Fishbourne Roman Palace 2.1; 2.2; 2.3

11/11/2011 18:30 21:00 Open Evening: School day ends at 3pm

13/11/2011 WeekB

13/11/2011 ‘Ali Baba’ rehearsal

14/11/2011 INSET Day: School closed

15/11/2011 Monday Timetable

15/11/2011 19:30 KESSOC AGM: Hospitality Suite

18/11/2011 KESSOC Wine Tasting: Dining Room

20/11/2011 WeekA

20/11/2011 ‘Ali Baba’ rehearsal

21/11/2011 09:00 14:00 Second Year Classics Trip: Fishbourne Roman Palace 2.4; 2.5; 2.6

21/11/2011 First Year Toy Appeal: Fun Run

22/11/2011 13:00 14:00 Staff & Parent Prayer Meeting

22/11/2011 19:00 Ski 2012 Parents’ Information Evening: Dobson Theatre

23/11/2011 19:30 20:30 Adult Choir rehearsal

24/11/2011 19:00 First Year Parents’ Evening

26/11/2011 19:00 23:00 Class of 2001: 10 year reunion

27/11/2011 WeekB

27/11/2011 Ali Baba’ dress rehearsal

28/11/2011 19:30 20:30 Adult Choir rehearsal

28/11/2011 16:00 ‘Ali Baba’ technical rehearsal

29/11/2011 19:00 Lower Sixth Parents’ Evening

30/11/2011 19:30 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

30/11/2011 19:30 20:30 Adult Choir rehearsal

01/12/2011 19:30 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

01/12/2011 19:30 Big Band: Wessex Cancer Trust Christmas Concert: Romsey Abbey

02/12/2011 19:30 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

04/12/2011 WeekA

05/12/2011 19:30 20:30 Adult Choir rehearsal

05/12/2011 Charities Christmas Stalls: Crush Hall: all week

06/12/2011 19:00 Fourth Year Parents’ Evening

08/12/2011 19:30 20:30 Carol Service massed rehearsal: Main Hall

09/12/2011 Aachen Christmas Market Trip: returns 11th December

09/12/2011 Closing date for 11+ and 13+ applications

11/12/2011 WeekB

12/12/2011 19:30 21:00 Carol Service

13/12/2011 14:45 Tea for prospective Sixth Form students

15/12/2011 16:10 23:55 Sixth Form Theatre trip: Spamalot: Brighton

16/12/2011 Term ends

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Creative Arts

Quartets and SeptetsThe Saxophone Quartet, Saxophone Sextet, Flute Quartet, Wind Quartet and Wind Septet all performed at the Turner Sims Concert Hall in a joint concert with the Hedge End choir ‘New Music Makers’ as part of their annual spring concert. The pupils performed with passion and vigour and all were very impressed with the quality of the musicianship.

Charity concert raises money for Uganda

Congratulations to Peter Thompson, Peter Budden, Charlotte Jones, Rose Mapes, Anna Roberts, Harry McGhee, Bi Jia Wu and Elinor Cooper who performed solos at a charity concert in Romsey Methodist Church on Saturday 12th March. The concert organised by a former KES teacher, Jim Sampson, raised £950 for the TESO Development Trust which supports disadvantaged communities in Uganda.

FestivalSuccessesCongratulations to the following musicians who won cups and First Place certificates at the Southampton and Portsmouth Music and Drama Festivals:

SouthamptonMusicFestivalBi Jia Wu came first and won a cup in the Baroque/Classical piano class and first in the 20th Century piano class.Mike Huang won the Lady Cooper cup for grade 7 piano performance.Nikhil and Kieran Bassi won the David Heard Cup in the duets and trios, woodwind grade 8 section.Reem Katifi and Natalie Fairhurst won the Verra Noyce trophy for vocal duet.Jenny Whitby won the Southampton Airport Cup for post grade 8 flute recital.Alex Ferriman won first place in the 15 year old vocal solo category.Nick Willsher won the Grade 8 saxophone and jazz class, the Soroptimists International Cup and, as part of the Junior piano ensemble, the Iris Minard Rose Bowl.

Nick Willsher and Tom Edwards jointly received the Cecilian Cup for the most outstanding performances in the whole of the woodwind section.Ishika Prachee won first place and the cup for Baroque piano performance - Under 16 years.Anjelica Cleaver and Ishika Prachee won first place and the cup in the Under 18 piano ensemble category.Reem Katifi won the grade 6 vocal class.Tabitha Sparks won the Under 13 vocal class.Jack Osmond Smith won the grade 6 vocal category, the dramatic solo, the poetry and the prose reading and the Under 15 year Dramatic Championship Cup.

PortsmouthMusicFestivalBi Jia Wu won four trophies: the 20th Century piano class grade 6/7, the Classical piano class grade 6/7, Duet class and Romantic piano class.

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Music for Youth National FestivalOn March 16th the Symphony Orchestra, Big Band and Flute Quartet took part in the regional rounds of the Music for Youth National Festival at Taunton’s College. All three groups produced top quality performances and received very positive feedback from the adjudicators.

Special congratulations to all members of the Symphony Orchestra who, following these regional rounds in March, progressed through to the National Festival of Music for Youth and performed on stage at Symphony Hall, Birmingham on July 6th. The Flute Quartet also made it through to the National Festival and performed in Recital Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire on July 7th.

An audience with MacMillan

On March 24th A level Music students travelled to the Anvil, Basingstoke to hear James MacMillan conduct the BSO in a concert of English Music. One of the works performed was MacMillan’s own composition ‘The confession of Isabel Gowdie’ which is a set work for the A level Music course and was first performed at the BBC proms in 1990 to great acclaim. The performance was thrilling and the students were fortunate enough to meet MacMillan backstage after the concert to ask him questions and have their scores autographed.

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Gabarek and the Hilliard EnsembleOn May 26th, a group of Fourth and Fifth Year students attended a concert in Salisbury Cathedral given by the Hilliard Ensemble, one of the top vocal quartets in the country. Their beautiful intertwining harmonies were accompanied by improvisations from the Norwegian saxophonist, Jan Garbarek. The musical result was haunting and meditative and a fascinating meeting of traditions that the pupils thoroughly enjoyed.

Rotary ClubCompetitionOn Thursday March 3rd the annual Southampton Rotary Club Music Competition took place in the recital room at KES. This was the regional round of the national competition. The performances were outstanding and a large number of KES pupils took part with the following being awarded prizes.

First place: Harry McGhee (5th year) who won the competition playing the last movement of Poulenc’s Clarinet Sonata. Second place: Jenny Whitby (4th year) Flute Third place: Bi Jia Wu (3rd Year) Piano

As representative of the Southampton area, Harry competed in the District Competition later in the month and won third prize.

The voicesof St Peter’sHaving experienced St. John’s College, Oxford, last year the KES Chamber Choir were all excited at the prospect of singing evensong with the St. Peter’s College Chapel Choir in 2011. The group was privileged to sing with St. Peter’s very select Chapel Choir, which includes sixteen choral scholars.

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Sport

It’s in the basket!Congratulations to the senior boys’ basketball team who have become champions of their division (south) in the Southampton and District U19 Men’s Basketball League for the second year running.

National Netball SuccessIn March, the U14 netball team played in the National Schools’ Netball Finals at Southampton Sports Centre. They had already done extremely well to reach this stage of this prestigious tournament as the Southern Region winners and therefore in the top 18 teams in the country. They were beaten in their semi-final match by eventual winners, Goffs, who described it as their toughest match. However, the girls went on to win the third place playoff match placing them in 3rd place overall. This is a fantastic achievement for the whole team.

Netball gold!Congratulations to the U12 and U13 netball teams who both performed tremendously well at the recent netball tournament held at St Swithun’s. The U12 team finished in second place winning silver medals whilst the U13 team recorded eight straight victories (only conceding two goals) and therefore finishing in first and gold medal position and becoming tournament champions.

HouseCross Countrycompetition

The House Cross Country competition took place at the end of March. After a fantastic race, Ben Dunford and Briallen Taylor were the first boy and girl home in the junior race whilst the Colts race was won by Conor Bevers and Ellie Stephens. The senior winners were Ralph Amos and Jenny Beckingham.

U14 boys’hockey successCongratulations to the U14 boys’ hockey team who won the Hampshire Cup Tournament. The team played 4 games in their pool (losing one and winning three) which meant they qualified for the semi-finals. After a 0-0 score at full-time, against Kings A team, in the semi-final match, KES won the game 3-1 on penalties. They went on to win the final 1-0 against Churcher’s.

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Individual Sporting achievements

Charlie Coxtogether with his helm, Craig Dibb, won the 420 Winter Championships at Datchett this Spring. The pair also won the gold medal in the 420 class at the RYA National Youth Championships held on Hayling Island over the first week of the Easter break. It was a very closely contested event with Ed Riley and his partner providing very stiff competition and eventually winning the silver medal. As a consequence, Charlie and Craig have been selected as the only boy boat in the 420 class to represent Britain at the ISAF Youth World Championship to be held in Zadar, Croatia in July.

Alex Shawwas commissioned by Chicken House publishers last autumn to do some photographs as the basis of a book cover for a fictional publication for teenagers as a result of someone seeing the photographs she took for her AS level. The book, Wood Angel by Erin Bow, has now been published using Alex’s work for the cover.

Lauren Begbourentered the U14 girls’ foil Southern Region National Qualifiers and achieved 3rd place. She now goes through to the British Youth Championships to be held in Sheffield to represent the southern region in this age category. Lauren also recently gained a 3rd place at the British Premier Series Foil held at King Edward’s.

Grace Murraycompeted in the UK National Youth Fencing Championship in Sheffield this term. Grace won her pool of 7 which left her ranked 6th in the competition. She then went through to the direct eliminations where she won her first match but lost the second by just one point! This meant that she narrowly missed out on a place in Team GB.

Anna Goodisonrecently auditioned for the National Youth Theatre, along with 4,400 others across the country. She has been selected and this means that she joins the group in the summer holidays for training and performance. She will also be performing with the Hampshire Youth Theatre this September at the Nuffield Theatre in a performance of the ‘Caucasian Chalk Circle’.

Harvey Kavanaghhas been selected for the West of England Hockey squad.

Briallen Taylorrecently competed in the Hamble Aquathlon in which she achieved the Silver medal.

James Kingshotthas been placed 1st in Hampshire in the recent County Championships in the 50m Breaststroke, the 100m Breaststroke and the 200m Breaststroke in the 13 year boys’ age group

Georgia Applebywon a silver medal for sparring in the lightweight black belt section of the South West Tae Kwon Do Championships. Georgia has been learning Tae Kwon Do since she was 6 years old and got her black belt last May. She is also the former British Champion in her section.

Joe Weatherleyhas been awarded a place on the Hampshire Cricket Board’s Emerging Players Programme (EPP) - one of 9 places offered to County players in the 14 & 15 squads. He has also been re-appointed Captain for the summer season.

Charities CommissionIn the second half of the spring term the School held a non-uniform day for the national Comic Relief Red Nose Day with the theme, ‘Wear something funny for money’. Break-time saw the Crush Hall come alive with a wonderful array of cakes being sold, followed by a variety of lunchtime activities. This is always a big money spinner and we raised around £1,700 on the day. The term finished with an Easter Egg hunt and raffle organised by the very dedicated Anna Clark and the Lower School Charities team. Will Holmes added to the final week with overseeing ‘Would I lie to you?’ involving Mr Eades, Mr Bulmer and Mr Culver. By the end of March we had raised enough to send significant donations to Fairbridge Solent and the Children of Chernobyl which we have promised to support annually. We have also contributed funds to Comic Relief, the British Heart Foundation, Shirley Warren Community Garden, Gift of Sight, Simon Says, Naomi House and the RNLI.

The summer term is always challenging because of public examinations. However, we were kept busy planning events for the Arts Festival street theatre where we hosted a stall with the theme ‘Curiosity’. A variety of activities took place many of which were organised by the highly active Lower School Charities team. The South Africa team have also been busy this term raising funds with a race night at Fleming Park and the Summer Camp team organised the annual First and Second Year disco –

this year with a ‘beach’ theme. A special mention must also go to Patrick White who has individually raised £700 for the South Africa Goedgedacht project by running a half marathon.

As this academic year draws to a close, I would like to express very sincere and special thanks to Phil Mitchell and Olivia Pearce who have both proved to be outstanding in their commitment as Presidents this year. They have been true role models for all of the School to follow when it comes to the word “Charity”. I would also like to thank all of the KES community and staff who have given up their time to be involved with the variety of charitable activities that have taken place throughout the year.

We wish the South Africa team all the very best for their summer trip in August where £10,000 has been committed to funding a youth worker for the year (working in the new Pathway out of Poverty centre in Riebeek) and to the Summer Camp team who will contribute £4,500 to running the camp on behalf of the Young Carers. The Cricket Tour team travelling to Sri Lanka in July will be contributing £2,000 to the Foundation of Goodness Charity.

20 | KONNECTIONS SUMMER 11

Miss Noyes