PORTMUTHIAN 2014.Pdf
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Portmuthian 2014 Dedication To all those who have come before, to the many editors and contributors who, in times of peace and in times of war, have laid the foundations from which our magazine, our school, and our community continue to grow 1 Portmuthian 1883 – 1898 Portmuthian 2014 Contents 05 School News 17 New Staff 25 Features 45 Art and Literature 37 61 Sport 93 Drama 105 Trips and CCF 90 96 125 Music 133 Clubs 145 Charity 128 157 Year 13 Leavers 169 House 181 Staff Leavers 182 198 193 Editors and Thanks 2 3 Acrylic paintings by AS pupils School News news school 07 Headmaster’s Review 08 PGS IB Cohort 4 Report 09 PGS Extend 10 Sixth Form Building Commemorating the 07 12 Centenary Charlotte Pascoe Charlotte Isabella De Guisa 09 12 Leon Tu Leon Phoebe Warren 4 5 Headmaster’s Review 2013-14: Connections James Priory school news school “the glass bridge…will become a metaphor As a school it is also our privilege to be connected with different communities, stretching well beyond Portsmouth. in its own right for the connections we make In October, around fifty pupils, staff and parents completed the Great South Run to raise funds for our link school in between past and present, and between Cambodia. As I write, a party of pupils and staff has arrived ourselves and others, as a wonderfully vibrant at Kikaaya College School in Uganda where they will be helping to build new classroom facilities. We are building and outward-looking school” links all the time with schools in France, Germany and Spain, as well as more recently in Shanghai and Pingxiang in China. I have always believed that no school is an island, even when As an IB World School with a charitable mission at our core, like Portsmouth Grammar School we find ourselves at the it is natural for us to want to make such connections and to historic heart of the UK’s only island city. discover new ways of connecting with the wider world. As Portsmouth’s oldest and largest school, we play a major One such example has been the growth of the Portsmouth part in the educational, cultural and, of course, economic Point blog, matched now by a Junior School version, and life of the city. Indeed, only this year PGS was singled out in the potential for MyPGS, our Virtual Learning Environment, a report by Oxford Economics as a case study of a school to play a part in sharing our educational resources and ideas which makes a significant economic contribution to the local with a wider community. Now that we have the confidence community, not least through our support for the Portsmouth of being a school nationally recognised for e-safety, and Festivities which we help to attract sponsorship from local with MyPGS available on mobile platforms as a result of the businesses and Arts Council England. work of Mr Chalk and the pupils’ Digital Council, it will be fascinating to see what connections become possible thanks This summer alone, for example, around 40,000 people to the virtual dimension of our school life. attended or participated in Festivities’ events around the city, including art trails, open-air dance, devised theatre, a One of my favourite writers, E M Forster, has a philosophy groundbreaking film project inspired by the Great War, and that we should ‘Only connect’. In his novels, this applies to Mozart symphonies given a new lease of life in the cathedral people and relationships, but also to contrasting cultures and nave Dubstep style. None of this could have happened perspectives on the world. ‘Only connect,’ he urges us, and, without the school playing its part in making it happen, and like the neural connections that flicker into life in our brains, the real impact of course goes beyond anything even the anything becomes possible. most sophisticated of economic reports could measure. This summer anticipation is growing for the opening of the Similarly, it was great to see the whole of Year 12 taking part new Sixth Form Centre, due to open its doors in September. in the Social Apprentice Day in July which gave them the What seems to excite people most, however, is the glass opportunity to visit charities doing challenging but valuable bridge linking Cambridge House with the extraordinary new work within Portsmouth. Many of those pupils have now building at the centre of the quad. volunteered their services and will grow personally as a result of working with people outside the comfort zone of the As a walkway, it will offer a new way of navigating the school classroom and quad. campus, an escape route from sudden winter downpours. But in offering a fresh perspective on a familiar space, it will also become a metaphor in its own right for the connections we make between past and present, and between ourselves and others as a wonderfully vibrant and outward-looking school. I hope you enjoy reading about the connections made in 2013-14 in this year’s Portmuthian, and that they inspire you to be part of connections yet to come. The Headmaster with Head Editor Gregory Walton-Green 6 Mr Priory on the roof of the new VI Form Centre 7 IB Report 2013-14 PGS Extend Cohort 4 Celebration Evening Simon Taylor Gregory Walton-Green “…the group have shown a great team spirit, news school and include a lively and enthusiastic mix of personalities and interests” Our fourth cohort of IB Diploma pupils have continued in the our first pupil taking the Diploma in, not just their second, but All pupils entering Year 13 are encouraged to write an fine traditions of their predecessors, rounding off their two their third language - Mirabel Mwizerwa-Gikwiye is bi-lingual Extended Essay over the summer holidays, or to complete a years in the Sixth Form with some excellent results, as well as in Rwandan and French, was educated most recently before project, with support and advice from a member of staff. All an extended summer break before university terms begin in PGS in Belgium and South Africa, and achieved a superb of the essays and projects are then graded, and the winning the autumn. 38 points, winning a place to read Neuroscience at King’s pupil receives the prestigious Ithaka prize. They are presented College, London. with the custom-made award at the PGS Extend Celebration As in previous years, the group have shown a great team spirit, Evening. All the Year 13 pupils who did exceptionally are and include a lively and enthusiastic mix of personalities and Extended Essays submitted this year ranged across topics as invited to present a summary of their Extend piece to the interests. The average point score (out of a maximum 45) was varied as the use of Anglicisms in French writing (this essay by audience, and they, alongside highly commended pupils 36.1, widely accepted as the equivalent of three A grades at A Aladdin Benali, written in French, also won the Ithaka Award) from all year groups, are congratulated. Level, with 96% of Higher Level grades at 7-5 (the equivalent to an examination of the differing accounts of the sinking of A*-B according to most Russell Group universities). This of the Belgrano and a study of the chemistry of caramel This year the top Year 13 entries were from Aladdin Benali, year’s university courses include traditional subjects such formation. Creativity, Action & Service (CAS) experiences too Neil Chhabda, Molly Cranston, Tamara Manuel, Taylor as Chemistry, History and Modern Languages, along with were diverse and rewarding, from assisting with local guide Richardson, Timothy Roberts, Daniel Rollins, Zoe Rundle, others such as Neuroscience, Linguistics and joint honours in and scout groups to participating in the school’s sport teams, Benjamin Slader, Natasha Iliffe, William Wallace and Gregory Psychology & Philosophy. Destinations include Cambridge, orchestras and activities such as the Charlton Chase. The Walton-Green. They discussed a wide variety of topics, KCL, UCL, Edinburgh and Sussex. third part of the core, Theory of Knowledge (TOK), included reflecting their various interests, from the physical changes questions on the role of scepticism in knowledge claims and in the brain that occur in PTSD sufferers, to a website about A noteworthy feature of this year’s IB group is that two of a comparison of ethics in science and the arts. football, the economic pros and cons of legalising marijuana, Aladdin Benali & Admiral Lippiett with the Ithaka trophy the pupils have a parent who studied the IB Diploma in their and developing a test to detect the onset of vinegar own schooldays, so it is great to see children of IB graduates We wish this year’s Cohort 4 every success in their future syndrome in archive photos. It was a great privilege to present joining our ranks, not to mention our first siblings of former IB studies and careers and are pleased, at the time of writing, to my research to the audience of fellow students, teachers, thoroughly engaging and entertaining in his presentation, was pupils, who have joined Year 12. In addition, our Year 13 group be hearing of some excellent university degrees being won by parents and honoured guests, and I thoroughly enjoyed awarded the Ithaka prize this year for his IB Extended Essay included another Senior Prefect (Tammy Manuel) as well as our pioneering first cohort of IB pupils. listening to the other 11 Year 13s and learning about the work on the attitude towards Anglicisms and linguistic purity in the they had done to become finalists.