King’s Ely 2013

Head’s Prizegiving Report

Introduction We live on a planet infatuated with technology in the commotion of a society hooked on the power of the internet. We stress over keeping up with the latest developments; ensuring that our infrastructure is future proof, tamper proof, safe from hackers and abusers of any and every kind. We strive to protect our children from unseen, unknown assailants whilst ensuring that they are equipped physically, and intellectually not to be left behind.

We are committed to keeping up with, and, indeed, playing our part in leading effective educational developments and that includes information and communications technology. We are making huge investment in networks that enable the expansion of mobile technology within the school, especially, thus far, in King’s Ely Junior where such a facility is particularly empowering as a tool for learning. We embrace exciting new opportunities and we exploit every new channel that opens up before us. But we have to use it intelligently. In this place, where the individuality, creativity and uniqueness of every young person in our care is what drives us, we must keep as our focus the greatest creation; the human being. It is our job never to lose sight of the soul by being dazzled by the skill of the technician.

At King’s Ely, it is the human gifts of commitment, generosity of spirit, altruism and dedication that carry greatest currency. This report will touch on the concrete legacy we will leave behind but, most importantly, it records the activities and achievements of the people who make us what we are.

Staff news The Michaelmas Term 2012 brought several new arrivals including a new Chair of Governors. Old Elean, Richard Slogrove, retired on 31st August 2012, having served the school as governor, with passion and commitment for over thirteen years, seven as chairman. He had led the school through a period of unprecedented change during which the Ely Cathedral Girls’ Choir was founded; the Arts Centre was built and the Old Palace was acquired and converted for the use of the school. On 1st September, Jeffrey Hayes took up the leadership of our dedicated Board of Governors.

Additions to the teaching staff were Nadia Baker to teach Maths; Sophie Cheng as Senior Instructor to the Ely Scheme; Liz Currie as part-time, temporary teacher of Religious Studies; Tom Danby to teach Geography; Caroline Daniel as sports coach; Nick Moor as Director of Music; Sean Quinn as Head of Psychology; Alex Reall as Head of French; Alicia Taylor as Teacher of Biology; and Cassandra Wise to teach Physics Alex Berry became the new Assistant Organist to the Ely Cathedral Girls’ Choir.

In King’s Ely Junior, we welcomed Kate Lonnen to the Learning Support team and Lesley Tillotson as Design and Technology Coordinator. Several internal changes also came into force at the beginning of the academic year. Ben Edmondson became Director of Sport; Kate Furness moved from King’s Ely Acremont to become a Year 3 Teacher in KEJ; Sharon Jackson replaced Jane Thomas as Withburga Housemistress; Steve Johnson became Head of Rugby; Esmeralda Salgado assumed the post of Head of Modern Foreign Languages; Liam Smith became a Resident Tutor in Hereward Hall; Jane Thomas was promoted to the post of Director of Teaching and Learning; Nick Williams took up the post of Housemaster of St Dunstan’s; Samantha Campbell became the new matron of Etheldreda House; Richard Foakes joined us as Design Technology Technician; Rebecca Loughead became an intern in the Porta Library; Anna Kasket took up the post of Receptionist in the Old Palace and we welcomed four new Graduate Assistants: Jack Jarvis, Rebecca Turner, Victoria Airey and Henry Bertram.

Christmas was a time of farewell to three GAP students, Sarah Engelmann, Jacqui Miller and Jake Hanshaw, and far more significantly, Miss Helen Wright. Helen Wright came to King’s Ely in 1987 as Housemistress of Walsingham House for boarding girls, a position she held until 1995. She initially taught in the RS department for a year in 1987, before moving to the PE department from 1989 and she also became Sports Hall Manager. Miss Wright went on to take responsibility for Careers Co-ordination, a post which has evolved into Head of Personal Development. She introduced our annual Future Focus Fair and Work Experience programmes. Many will remember her for her organisation of our biennial Burns Night extravaganzas and the pure enjoyment they generated. Miss Wright taught in all parts of the school assisting with PE in Acremont and she accomplished huge projects to raise funds for a number of charities. One was for Siyacathula, the school in South Africa that the school supported for many years through Helen Wright’s good offices and her determination to make life better for the children who attend the school. I will also remember Helen for her unstinting passion for the London Olympics and for the drive to get King’s Ely involved and to follow up with our own Elympics. Helen Wright is a person of unflinching integrity, of deep personal faith, expressed openly in words and implicitly through the example she set through the life she leads. She will be missed in ways that we cannot yet imagine and her absence will be felt on a daily basis for a long time to come.

The Lent Term 2013 brought more new arrivals. Revd Canon Anthony Stidolph helped us out briefly as Chaplain as did Bernadett Halaj as part-time teacher of Religious Studies following the appointment of our erstwhile Chaplain, Toby Humphrey, as Head of Personal Development. Alastair Ray joined us as KEJ Design Technology Co-ordinator; Charles Doyle-Davidson as teacher of Religious Studies and Audrienne Bezzina took up the reins as Head of KS3 Maths. We were joined by four new GAP students: Lorena Valente, James Rickard from Australia and Meagan Britz from South Africa.

Internal changes came into force at the beginning of the Summer Term changes when Dr Caroline Skeels was succeeded as Housemistress of Torfrida by Philippa Blair as she became Head of Maths; a post relinquished by Steven Cavill to allow more time for the immensely complicated task of constructing the King’s Ely timetable. Alicia Taylor was replaced, briefly, by former Head of Biology, Jeff Riley; Revd Mark Letters became our new Chaplain and Carly Aldous-Juneau was appointed Housemistress of Hill House.

In the life of every organisation, and schools are no exception, there are times when staffing goes through significant change. This year, King’s is one of those organisations, partly because we have one or two temporary situations in place. In particular, I thank Nick Moor for his sterling work in keeping the music department on track and moving forward, and Paul Trepte, Director of Music in this fine cathedral, for looking after the choir for the course of this year and keeping them singing superbly.

Several of our teaching staff are moving on to more promoted posts elsewhere; we congratulate them and can only celebrate that the experience they have gained here has so impressed other organisations. The exception is Rebekah Maguire, who has taught English here for two years; she is to return to full time study to qualify to work with children with Special Educational Needs. James Robinson, who arrived as Head of German in 2008 and has since taken on responsibility as Master of Boats and Housemaster of Osmond leaves us for a post at Oakham School. Sarah Czarnota, teacher of Business Studies since 2009 and Housemistess of Wendreda, King’s Ely International girls’ boarding house, returns with her husband to Australia. Will Turnpenny has been teaching in King’s Ely Acremont for two years and will move on to a post in a local primary school. Cassie Wise, who has completed her year as a newly qualified teacher in our physics department is moving on to a position in London. Chris Thacker departs after five terms as Actor in residence. Leaving us, too, are Henry Bertram and Victoria Airey who have helped us on one year placements as GAP students in Choir House and Priory House respectively.

Dr Ian Young has served King’s Ely well. He was appointed in 2006 as Deputy Head Academic for KES but as we worked towards better transition into KES he assumed whole school responsibility. Ian was instrumental in achieving a one-school educational continuum and in constructing our cross-phase timetable which was no mean feat. He played a leading role in the work that went into our achievement of the NACE Challenge Award which reflected the quality of teaching and learning in the school. We congratulate him on his appointment as Deputy Director of United Learning, taking responsibility for the academic development of the eleven independent schools within that organisation.

As the year draws to a close, we also face three very significant retirements.

Bridget Pope has been part of King’s Ely for over forty years and no student who has travelled the King’s Ely journey will have done so without experience of Bridget’s dedication to, and unfailing enthusiasm for, her job and her school. Bridget came to King’s Ely as a teacher of PE and Games Teacher in 1972, and was appointed Housemistress of Withburga in 1982. She has taught Games and Geography, has been a boarding house tutor; Mistress in charge of Girls’ Games and Housemistress of Queen Emma. There can be few who have contributed in more ways over such a period to the life of this school.

Dr Wendy Pitt has been with us since 1981. She arrived as a teacher of Chemistry and has since run the department for over twenty years. Wendy’s passion for her subject and for empowering the learning of her students has been studded with success, not only through the placing of many of her charges in the country’s top universities to read chemistry, but also in their success in competitions over many years. Most importantly, chemistry is a subject that pupils at King’s Ely enjoy and there can be no more fitting tribute to a fine teacher.

Dr Graham Parry has influenced the life of every student who has passed through our care since January 1995. As Deputy Head he has managed the day-to-day business of KES with efficiency, fairness and compassion. He has the respect of all of his peers who marvel at his capacity to work tirelessly for the benefit of his pupils and the school. He has given me fathomless support over the past nine years and, without him as Deputy Head we will be much the poorer. I cannot thank him enough for all that he has done and we all wish him well for his future in retirement.

Many people in his position teach very little, but Graham has always been fervent in his determination to carry on teaching. As with Dr Pitt, his pupils know that they have a great teacher and I am delighted to say that Graham has agreed to continue teaching, part-time, next year. So, in Graham’s case, this is not farewell. However, this is the moment to thank him for the work he has done for this school and for the students he has helped along the way of becoming what they have the capacity to be.

I take this opportunity to thank all of our staff whether they be teachers or members of one of our fabulously loyal and hard-working support teams. Each plays a part, with professionalism and dedication, in making this a good place to be either as colleague or student. To our leaving colleagues we give our heartfelt thanks and good wishes and hope that they will return often to let us know how they are faring.

Very sadly, our community was touched by tragedy again this year. One of our support team, Sarah Gibbs, died in a road traffic accident in September. Aged just thirty-five, she leaves a husband, Glynn, and four children.

Academic

A Level All who left Year 13 in the summer of 2012 have gone on to destinations of their own choosing and nearly a third of all A2 results achieved were A*s or As with a total of 80% A*- C grades. All students studying Textiles, German, Spanish and Russian received exclusively A*s or As. Eleven students achieved at least three A*s and As. A full list of our 2012 leavers and their destinations can be found at the end of this report.

GCSE At GCSE, fifteen per cent achieved all A*s and As, and a good number missed out on doing so by just one grade. Five candidates, Lucie Clift, Laura Day, Emily Lachmann, Sanjiban Mandal and George Ryan, achieved A*s across the board and we were delighted that our candidates achieved at the highest level we could expect.

I cannot let this section pass without mention of the Y6 KS2 success in Maths last summer. Our KEJ pupils achieved excellent results on the Level 6 Sats extension tests.

My congratulations on the success of all of our hard- working Eleans.

Competitions and other academic successes

Biology A group of A Level Biology students entered the British Biology Olympiad, with Emily Holdsworth, Sam Huguet and Luke Cave receiving bronze medals, Lueh Chien and Tony Lesmeister receiving commendations and James Wege being highly commended.

Chemistry Our Sixth Form Chemistry students were among four thousand who entered the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge in October, designed to test students beyond the challenge of the AS Level syllabus. They were tested under exam conditions with questions increasing in difficulty. King’s Ely’s students came home with eight top awards. Five copper awards went to Tony Lesmeister, Sam Huguet, Axel Rois, Tommy Chien and Ji Sung Lee; two silver certificates were awarded to Luke Cave and James Wege; and the gold award, achieved by only the top 8%, went to Charles Lin.

Still in Chemistry, twelve Sixth Form students were amongst four thousand, five hundred students from across the UK who took part in the International Chemistry Olympiad in April, a challenging examination-based competition for top-performing A Level chemistry students, organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry with gold, silver and bronze certificates awarded to the highest achievers. All twelve students gained certificates: Tom Allpress, Anna Calderbank, Luke Cave, Tony Lesmeister, Charles Lin, Nina Wang, James Wege, Jonathan Wood, Tommy Chien, Sam Huguet, Ji-Sung Lee and Axel Rois.

Mathematics Eighty-three pupils from the top sets in Y9 to Y11 sat the national Intermediate Maths Challenge, with eleven pupils earning Gold certificates and forty-six others, Silver or Bronze certificates. Christina Dong and Chikashi Rison, both in KEI, achieved top scores and went on to complete the Intermediate Mathematical Olympiad, Christina scoring 60/60 and Chikashi 50/60 in this higher paper earning them each a Distinction, a gold medal and a book token. This placed them in the top fifty students in the country.

Physics Tony Lesmeister won a place at the finals of the 2013 National Science and Engineering competition. Sadly, exam commitments prevented him from competing in the final phase of the competition.

Spanish Georgia Baynes narrowly missed out on winning a national competition testing candidates’ Spanish language skills, to represent the UK on the Ruta Quetzal expedition. Georgia finished second overall; a tremendous achievement.

Performing Arts

Art King’s Ely’s most gifted and talented students exhibited their work at the South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell in November. The exhibition featured a collection of Fine Art, Fashion and Textiles and Photography displays from current King’s Ely A Level students and Sixth Form graduates, along with twenty other British schools. The exhibition was organised by King’s Ely’s Director of Art, Alison Rhodes.

In January, King’s exhibited at the Babylon Gallery in Ely as part of a collaborative schools exhibition. King’s students were awarded prizes covering the areas of Photography, Fashion and Textiles and Fine Art.

In March, all of our A Level Textiles students displayed work at a major Fashion Design exhibition at Olympia and their work helped to launch a national competition. As a result of this, Lauren Martin, who works for the high profile designer Philip Treacy, will be working with our Fashion and Textiles A Level students in July.

Also in March we held our major Spring Art exhibition at King’s where students from all year groups displayed current work produced.

We have been invited to exhibit at the Burghley Horse Trials in September showing examples of work produced by young designers.

Debating Both Senior and Junior sections of the House Debating Competition this year were won by members of Wilkinson House. The King’s Ely team comprising George Ryan, Leo Banahan and Madeleine Pinto won the Rotary Club of Cambridge Rutherford trophy as part of the Rotary Youth Speaks competition in November. Fen Brainage was won by Wilkinson House and the Clark Rooney trophy was won by Jack Spoor of Osmond House.

Drama and Dance The Drama department has had another successful year. In the Michaelmas Term, we enjoyed the Cagebirds and the major musical for this academic year ‘Guys and Dolls’; the Lent Term highlights included the A Level Theatre Studies Showcase, the National Theatre New Connections play ‘The Mobile Phone Show’; whilst we are looking forward to King’s Company’s outdoor production, an adaption of ‘Frogs’ by Aristophanes, later this term. In December, twelve pupils passed their LAMDA exams, Melody Grace achieving a Grade 8 gold medal pass and Beatrice White a Grade 8 gold medal with a distinction. In March a further five pupils passed their LAMDA exams, four of whom achieved a silver or bronze medal with distinction.

Music The Michaelmas Term brought the high jinx of the House Music Competition. Wilkinson won the Ensemble Class, Hill were victorious in the Unison Song section and Wilkinson the overall winners.

In the Lent Term, our Music Festival reached its climax with the Finalists’ Concert. Overall winner and Young Musician of the Year, winning the Senior Instrumentalist category along the way, was Luke Cave and Saskia Porter-Thaw, was also crowned Young Musician of the Year, winning the Intermediate Instrumentalist category along the way. The winner of the Intermediate Singer category was Sophie Hudson and the Senior Singer category was won by William Oliver.

We have enjoyed five ‘Lunchtime Live’ concerts this year as well as several major school concerts. These have included the King’s Ely Charity Concert in November; in the Lent Term, the Choral Concert saw the Chapel Choir joining forces with the Cathedral Choirs and the Summer Term brought the KES Cabaret and the Spring Concert. Both Cathedral Choirs sang in a live BBC Radio 3 broadcast with the London Sinfonia on the May Bank Holiday.

Of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music examinations taken this year, a very significant percentage were passed with distinction.

The King’s Barbers have taken to the competition trail. They were runners-up in the Manchester Amateur Choral competition at the Royal Northern School of Music in March, competing against 14 other schools. They then went on to compete in the Voice Festival a Capella Youth Competition at Wellington College in April.

This year, five King’s Ely Senior pupils are members of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain: with Edward Birchinall and Isaac Bateman joining Fern Ashby, Lucy Green and Emma Jones. Flautist Lucy Pearce won three competition categories at the 2013 Music Festival, with three other King’s students gaining distinctions and commendations.

During the summer break the Ely Cathedral Girls’ Choir will be embarking on their second overseas tour; this time to Belgium. Never to be outdone, King’s Voices, the elite singing group of King’s Ely Junior, is off on tour to the same destination over the summer half term.

Charity Action report 2013 Last year’s recipient of a major fundraising push by all King’s Ely pupils was the Shelton Sri Lanka Trust. Once all was said, done and counted, we donated £19,277.37 to be split between the two schools supported by the Trust. Mrs Hodgson, current KE parent, who founded the Trust with her husband, after a trip to post tsunami Sri Lanka, wrote us a heart-warming letter expressing gratitude for all the school had done and assuring us that the money will be put to great use.

This year the KES students decided that they would like to raise money by house, each choosing its own charity to support. The choices range from The Ely Food Bank; Lifeline 4 Chernobyl; Ataxia UK; Macmillan Nurses; Toilet Twinning and Action for Children. The total so far has reached £7305.15.

Alongside this, we have already donated sums to Highfield School following an event in the Old Palace at Christmas; the staff raised enough money by dressing up in pink for the day to twin with two toilets, one in Burundi and the other in Cambodia, providing clean sanitation for two villages; we have the photos to prove it!

The annual Christmas Sixth Form Ball raised over £1,800.00 for Asthma UK and The Bishop’s Palace festival raised over £300 for the Sue Ryder charity. Monies have been raised through tuck shops, cake sales, the Hereward Cabaret, Etheldreda Entertains, Withburga Winter Wonderland and the sale of valentine roses. School House and Hill House teamed up this year with a Christmas Celebration and for the first time Wilkinson house hosted a “nuclear” disco. There are still many fundraising events to come before the end of this term. Osmond House is planning an OsFest; there will be a School House barbeque and there are still several smaller events planned before we can close the books on this year’s fund raising. Cathedral collections have been resumed and we have raised funds for charities such as Centre 33, and, most recently, Cystic Fibrosis.

King’s Ely Junior has been busy raising money for the Air Ambulance. They are holding a special Charity Action Morning this term and they appear to be on track to raise a considerable sum of money for this deserving charity. Meanwhile, King’s Ely Acremont pupils have been raising money for MAGPAS. They also raised £110 for Children in Need and sent fifty-three shoe boxes to Operation Christmas Child. They, too, have two more events to follow before we break for the summer.

School events in brief Admission of Scholars We were pleased to welcome the Dean of St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Reverend Dr Frances Ward, an Old Elean herself, as preacher at the Admission of Scholars’ Service last November, with her father, former Headmaster of King’s Ely, Hubert Ward, one of the guests in attendance.

Opening of the Old Palace The opening of the Old Palace was a unique event in the life of King’s Ely and we were delighted to be joined by His Royal Highness, The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO on 25th January. His Royal Highness enjoyed a tour of the building, guided by the Heads of School, Jamie Huffer and Milly Green, before joining over a thousand guests and dignitaries, students, parents and staff for a blessing in Ely Cathedral. After returning to the Old Palace, the Duke unveiled a commemorative plaque to mark the occasion.

This year’s Osmond Lecture, held in February, was given by Rob Eastaway, writer and broadcaster on creative problem solving, maths, innovation, cricket and memory. His talk was entitled, How to win a bet in the pub.

This year’s Future Focus Fair was held in March and its success was due, in no small measure, to the contribution of parents and members of FoKSE, led by Tim Ellis, who gave up their time to help with the event. Year 10 have their week of work experience yet to come later this term. We were pleased to welcome The Bishop of Huntingdon to preside over our Confirmation service in March.

This year’s Hoop Trundle, held earlier this term, was won by Year 13 Queen’s Scholar, Sophie Emms and Year 13 King’s Scholar, Sam Huguet.

Sport at King’s Ely

Cricket The season got off to a great start when the 1st XI won the 2012 Solway Cup seeing King's crowned as County Champions for the first time since 2008. Due to the horrible weather last summer, the final had been delayed but that did nothing to quench the thirst for victory of our boys under the passionate guidance of our Director of Sport, Ben Edmondson.

News subsequent to my last report is that the House cricket winners for 2012 were Osmond for the junior boys and School House for the senior boys.

This season has already seen some notable performances, including George Clift taking six wickets for six runs in the U14B match against Wellingborough, the undefeated U15A XI beating The Leys and the second-highest partnership in King’s cricket history from U15A batsmen Mark Parry, scoring a century, and Ed Goff helping the team comprehensively beat Wellingborough.

Cross Country King’s hosted the Schools County Championships in January for the second year running. Many King’s athletes took part, representing the district, and Harry McWilliam, Year 11, Emily Grapes, Year 11 and Rebecca Daniel, Year 7, all qualified to run in the national championships for Cambridgeshire. House Cross Country, on a very warm day, saw a large turnout with individual winners: Harry McWilliam in the senior boys’ race, Emily Grapes in the senior girls’ race, George Clift in the intermediate boys’ race and Isabelle Parris in the intermediate girls’ race. House team winners were Osmond in the senior and intermediate boys’ races, Hill House in the senior girls’ race and Torfrida in the intermediate girls’ race.

Equestrian Our team has achieved strong success throughout the year.

Football House football took place in the last week of the Lent term as a league format, with Osmond winning both the senior and junior events. The 1st XI continued their unbeaten run against Wellingborough winning 4-2 and extending the record to ten consecutive victories; King's remain the only school 1st XI whom Wellingborough have never beaten. The most memorable match of the term was a 5-5 draw against Oakham, where King's scored three goals in the final ten minutes to draw an entertaining encounter.

Hockey House hockey winners in the Michaelmas Term were Withburga in the senior girls and Torfrida in the junior girls. We have had several girls playing county hockey this past year: Tati Allpress, Georgia Baynes, Alice Harris, Harriet Pinto, Saskia Tricker and Sophie Hart who was also selected for the England U16 squad.

Netball Last term, the Senior House netball winners were Withburga, whilst the Junior House netball winners were Torfrida. The highlights from last term were the U15A netball team who only lost 1 match all season and who won through to the County Tournament, and the U14A netball team who only lost two matches all season.

Martial Arts Chris Le won bronze in the British Taekwondo Championships in December and in March, he won silver at the English Tae Kwon Do Championships.

Rounders The Senior House rounders in 2012 was won by Withburga with Torfrida winning the junior girls’ competition. The star, so far, of this term is the U14A team, who remain unbeaten.

Rowing King's Ely Boat Club has grown from strength to strength in the past year, with a huge increase in numbers, especially in the lower years, which bodes very well for the future. This year has seen over fifty wins across the board including Toby Rudkin’s success for Great Britain against France. The poor weather we endured over the winter period in which a number of competitions were cancelled, hampered our rowers chances of success.

In September we saw the first of many Old Eleans v King's Ely boat races, held on the Ouse just down from the boathouse where King's pupils recorded a narrow victory.

During the Easter break 2013, a group of rowers travelled to Seville for training together with students from The American School in London. Hopefully the dedicated training in the poor weather over the winter period and the hard work that was completed in Seville will lead to another successful summer of racing.

Rugby Playing against opposition, often from much larger schools, our boys achieved a 50% win-loss ratio, which was a tremendous performance. Some teams won big games, but the all-team highlight was winning every match, except for a narrow U16 defeat, against local rivals . The 1st XV highlight was probably its Daily Mail cup win over Wellingborough. In the 7s season, our team beat The Leys, The Perse and Long Road Sixth Form College on its way to sharing the Cambridgeshire County Champions’ title. We also recorded our first win in five years at the internationally recognized Rosslyn Park 7s tournament. The highlight of the year for the U14 and U15 was a rugby tour to Paris during the Michaelmas half term break. Individually, the following players have gained representative honours: Michael Brennan for Eastern Counties, Sam Hirons for East Midlands, George Clift for Norfolk and Oliver Saunders, Adam Powe, and Alan Gregory have all represented Cambridgeshire.

Swimming House swimming during the 2012 Summer Term brought wins for Torfida in the junior girls and Withburga for the sniors. In the boys events the day houses were also dominant, with Osmond winning the junior boys and Wilkinson winning the senior boys. The Reverend James Shield for the overall House winners went to Torfrida.

Tennis House tennis winners in 2012 were Torfrida. Stars of this term to date include the U14s, with 1st pair Millie Oddi and Rose Barson and 2nd pair Lucy Pearce and Marta Nunez, remaining unbeaten so far this season. Our senior 1st pair, Natta Pornsirianant and Laura Huffer, has been playing exceptionally well.

Ely Scheme and Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

The 2012 Martin Doyle Challenge was won by Torfrida, with a new girls’ record, and School House. In the 2012 Sword and Dagger competition, the winners of the Sword were Wilkinson for the boys and Withburga for the girls, whilst the winners of the Dagger were Hereward and Withburga.

The Ely Scheme Challenge, the inter-house competition for Year Nine pupils during the Michaelmas Term, brought victory for Wilkinson and Torfrida as the respective boys and girls winners. The Ely Scheme, Climbing Club, Kayak Club and those students participating in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme have had a plethora of trips to enjoy over the course of the academic year travelling to Dartmoor, Derbyshire, the Lake District, Norfolk, Thetford Forest, Wales, Yorkshire and the Olympic canoeing venue at Lea Valley. Overseas trips have taken our Kayak Club to the French Alps, our Climbing Club to the Costa Blanca and Fontainebleau, a major trekking expedition to Corsica last summer, mountaineering in Morocco over New Year and, still to come this summer, an expedition to the Alps.

Many candidates have achieved Bronze and Silver Duke of Edinburgh Awards over the past year, whilst Henry Sandercock and Rowland Daniel achieved Gold before they left King’s last summer.

Other trips and Exchanges Last summer holiday the Chapel Choir went on a highly acclaimed tour to New York whilst Adella Charlton led the annual trip to the Christian Mountain Centre in Wales. In the Michaelmas Term, Year 11 Geographers had a residential field trip to Flatford Mill; students of German and Spanish enjoyed successful exchanges and, during half- term, our geographers were privileged to take a trip to Iceland. Successful ski trips were enjoyed by pupils in both KEJ and KES. In the LentTerm, we welcomed Year 13 French exchange students, Year 12 Geographers had a residential field trip to Flatford Mill, our newly appointed Year 12 acting prefects were put through their paces on a training weekend in Suffolk and at the end of term our Year 13 French students went to stay with their counterparts in France. Highlights still to come include a Year 9 and 10 Spanish trip during half-term and our now annual Year 9 trip to the Battlefields of France and Belgium. Year 9 will also visit to the Holocaust Centre in Newark near the end of term. KEI students enjoyed weekend cultural visits in the local region and further afield to castles, historic houses, Oxford, London and other places of interest. We believe that learning should take place beyond the classroom and, throughout the year, all of our pupils enjoy a wide variety of trips with an academic focus.

Technology We are experiencing something of an Apple takeover and the iPad has taken certain parts of the school by storm. We are making huge investment in networks that enable the expansion of mobile technology, especially, so far, in King’s Ely Junior, where such a facility is particularly empowering as a tool for learning. We have plans to continue developing the network across the rest of the school in the near future.

~ and finally The need to do as well as possible in public exams remains our driving imperative, of course it does because qualifications are the keys to choice and the abundance of opportunities to which all of our students aspire. However, it is easy for schools to become so obsessed with exam preparation and assessment that they seldom stop to consider what it means to be an educated human being and how to travel in that direction. But facing the challenges presented through Ely Scheme; representing the school in sport; taking responsibility for others as a prefect, an instructor, a mentor to younger children; playing or singing in a concert; performing or taking responsibility for lighting or stage management in a play; facing the challenges of community service; all of these things are part of life at King’s Ely and our pupils take on these trials and push the boundaries of their own courage and commitment. We are very proud of all that they achieve and rejoice in the conviction that, along the way, they build that self-knowledge and inner resilience that will enable them to face the challenges of a world we cannot imagine. They travel along that road towards becoming a truly educated human being.

None of this would be possible without the hard work and dedication of our staff. It can never be overstated that the willingness to go the extra mile of the students on the part of my teaching colleagues is the cornerstone of the school’s success. My thanks go, as ever, to our support teams who look after us so well. We continue to celebrate all of the individuals who make up the King’s family and the fact that, together, the whole is so much more than the sum of the parts.

This report, long though it is, does little more than scratch the surface of all that goes on at King’s Ely and I apologise if I have omitted something that is close to your heart. However, I hope it does something to give a flavour of the richness of life in our school and the wholehearted commitment of the vast majority of our students, to learning, living life to the full and being young people of whom we are immensely proud.

Sue Freestone May 2013 Destination of Leavers 2012

Student Institution Course Entry Year Addison, Max Lancaster Biological Sciences 2012 Aniskowicz, Chris UEA Accountancy and Finance 2012 Archer, Robert UWE Bristol Film-making 2012 Avdeev, Ervin Durham Business Management 2012 Barlow, Lydia Chester Animal Behaviour 2013 Bates, Nicholas Oxford Brookes Biology 2012 Beattie, Joscelyn n/a DTS Course, King’s Lodge 2012 Berg, Henrike Durham Psychology 2012 Bryan, Hugo Harper Adams UC Rural Property Management 2013 Campbell, Helen Falmouth Performance Sportswear Design 2012 Chan, Ben Bath Chemical Engineering 2012 Cheng, Justin Bristol Management 2012 Cheng, Sally Guildford School of Theatre Musical Theatre 2012 Cheung, Betty Nottingham Accounting & Financial Management 2012 Chu, Yi Birmingham City Visual Communication 2012 Clere, William Hull Mechanical Engineering 2012 Coghlan, Sam Sotham Solent University Music for Film , TV and Game 2013 Collier, Matthew Aberdeen Philosophy 2012 Collins, Katherine QMUL Geography 2012 Daniel, Rowland Oxford Brookes Film and Drama 2013 Davis, Olivia Loughborough Art Foundation 2012 Day, Naomi Anglia Ruskin Early Childhood Studies 2012 Donaldson, Ross Derby Commercial Photography 2012 Doxey, James Gap Year Gap Year 2013 Dumakov, Damir Durham Business Management 2012 Eddleston, Maxine Westminster Kingsway Professional Chef's Diploma 2013 Fulford, Bradley Cardiff Architecture 2012 Gaskin, Matthew UEA Politics 2012 Georgiev, Lyudmil Westminster Business Management 2012 German, Ben Leeds Philosophy 2012 Gilligan, Megan Bath Spa University Business Management & Geography 2013 Girones, Juan Southampton Biomedical Sciences 2012 Going, Joanna Goldsmiths Media & Sociology 2013 Handley, Sam Bath University Computer Programming 2013 Hennebry, Lauren University of Nottingham Human Genetics 2013 Hill, Oliver London School of Social Policy with Government (BSc) 2013 Economics and Political Science Hill, Toby Aberystwyth Zoology 2012 Hodgson, Jonathan Manchester Economics and Social Studies 2012 Honig, Dauren Maastricht, Netherlands Business 2012 Howlett, Tegan Leeds University History of Art 2013 Izzard, Chris De Montfort Economics and Finance 2012 Kohll, Harlan Warwick Computer Science 2012 Koopowitz, Eliott Bath Natural Sciences 2012 Kumar, Flavia Hartsbury College, UWE Sports Coaching 2012 Kunle, Sam Gap year Aeronautical Engineering 2013 Lines, Joe Gap year Aeronautical Engineering 2013 Loraine, Freya Nottingham Psychology 2012 Martin, Aidan UEA Medicine 2012 Martin, Kate UEA Psychology 2012 Martsenko, Nicolay Westminster Business Management 2012 McCorquodale, Rory Gap Year Gap Year 2013 McIrvine, Victoria GAP Year Gap Year 2013 Muffett, Alex RAC Business Management 2012 Ng, Nicky MMU Sports Science Foundation 2012 Pang, Sally Kent Forensic Science 2012 Patel, Jaimin Aston Biological Sciences 2012 Polovinkin, Mikhail Durham Business Management 2012 Poole, Bethany Cardiff Criminology 2013 Raywood, Isabelle Bournemouth Events Management 2013 Riordan, Francesca Norland College Nursery Nursing 2012 Sandercock, Henry Kent English and American Literature 2012 Schreiber, Alex Sydney, Australia Medicine 2012 Simmons, Daniel Greenwich Software Engineering 2012 Sivier, Josh Chester Primary Education 2013 Snell-Mendoza, Will Aberystwyth International Relations 2012 Spencer, Jason Hertfordshire 3D Game Design 2012 Tarrant-Raja, Deen Lincoln Biomedical Sciences 2012 Tooth, Jack York French and History 2012 West, Rob York Law 2013 Wisatessajja, Sukrit Oxford Brookes Foundation Built Environment 2012 Wise, Charlotte Loughborough University International Business with French 2013 Wong, Kenny Central St. Martin Architecture 2012 Wong, Franco Durham Business Management 2012 Wong, Lee-Wei Leicester Medicine 2012 Wynn, Florence St Andrew’s English 2013 Yon, Jack Newcastle Medicine 2012 Yun, Kevin York Environmental Sciences 2013 Zhou, Bei St. Andrew’s, Cambridge Business Foundation 2012 Zhou, Lunlun Durham Business Management 2012