The Dunelmian 14 S M C A H H O R O U L D 14 The Magazine of Durham School, 2015-16 Edition Floreat Dunelmia INDEX Speech6 Day 2016 A celebration of Durham School’s achievements in the 2015/16 Academic Year. Pastoral15 Creative29 If a child lives with Durham School is a hub of encouragement, he or creativity, both in terms of she learns to be performing arts, literature, art, confident. design and technology. Academic41 Durham School offers a wide academic range of subjects taught inside and outside the classroom. 59Sport Co-Curricular82 Our School has a well Our co-curricular activities deserved reputation for complement our curriculum to sports, individual competition help give pupils confidence and teamwork. for life. Old94 Dunelmians And so shall we, whate’er we be, whether lawyer lacking fee, or priest, or scribe, or bold hussar, sing Floreat Dunelmia! 2015-2016 3 WELCOME WELCOME Welcome Editor: Mr P Sturt The purpose of a school magazine is to act as an instrument of record Design: Mr A Beales for the year. Photography: Many sources including Mark Wilkinson But, much more than that, The Dunelmian serves as a celebration of the huge variety of Photography activities which take place here, and on every page you will find another aspect of our community recorded and remembered. Whether it be the sports reports, house memories The Dunelmian Magazine or another of the endeavours our pupils have been involved in, the richness of life at Published by Durham School Durham School comes spilling off the page. Quarryheads Lane, Durham City, You will, I hope, notice that we have redesigned some aspects of the magazine which DH1 4SZ I hope make it even easier to read. We have also included more examples of pupils’ 0191 386 4783 creativity in the form of extended projects, essays and artwork. My thanks must go to all Reg Charity Number of our contributors to the magazine, whether they be staff or pupils, and in particular my 1023407 thanks to Andrew Beales and Philip Sturt without whom the production of The Dunelmian would not have been possible. 4 2015-2016 2015-2016 5 SPEECH DAY SPEECH DAY heading to Oxford and Cambridge, two to universities in the USA and a number to other top Russell group institutions. However, and I have said this before but make no apologies for Speech Day repeating myself, just as pleasing are the results of other pupils which are on the face of it more modest, but which represent a huge achievement for them. Now is not the time to get bogged Mr Chairman, distinguished guests, ladies, gentlemen, down in the technical details of Value Added Data but the ODs and current pupils, many thanks and welcome to statistic I am most proud of from last year’s results is this one: this year’s Speech Day. the value that we add to our pupils at A level based on their GCSE results puts us in the top 8% of schools nationally and the top 14% of all independent schools in the country. Daily Telegraph league table positions may be one thing, A particular welcome of course goes to our Chief Guest Peter but knowing that the School does so well in helping every Barron, journalist, columnist and (erstwhile) editor of the child reach their academic potential is quite another, so my Northern Echo and we are all looking forward to what he has congratulations go to those pupils and of course to the staff to say to us later on. Some of you may know that I am a keen who support them with such dedication and who are so follower on Twitter and one person I follow is Peter, though generous with their time. I am sure he has never noticed it. I particularly enjoy following him as every so often he will post another entry into his Headline Challenge. “They will leave us well-prepared He will outline a news story and then provide his ideal strapline for the world of university and indeed life” for the story in question. Dating app launched just for Remain voters so they avoid Today’s leavers therefore have a tough act to follow but we awkward dates with Brexiteers...EURO THE ONE THAT I WANT have every confidence that they will leave us well-prepared Swedish footballer sent off for breaking wind during match... for the world of university and indeed life. And that’s a THEY STINK IT’S ALL OVER challenging world. We are in a time of unprecedented Farmer stages pig race over jumps to predict result of EU political instability and it is an unsettling prospect for some referendum...THE GRAND RASHER-NAL of them – today’s young people face challenges the like of Pimms Jelly replica of Buckingham Palace, with jelly corgis, which were inconceivable when I was their age. The lives, made for Queen’s 90th...FOR SHE’S A JELLY GOOOD FELLOW strengths and weakness, trials and tribulations of young people Bar opens in Soho, where drinks are served by dogs... are of course a happy hunting ground for the media and we BARKTENDER - PAW ME A JACK SPANIELS are bombarded on seemingly a daily basis with the latest story Lost property staff appeal to owner of false teeth left behind at about how youngsters these days lack character and resilience… Auckland Airport in New Zealand...GUM FLY WITH ME they lack basic skills and are leaving school unemployable… Dog called Dagger is internet hit after learning to paint pictures youngsters have phones surgically grafted to their hands, by holding brush in his mouth...PANTING BY NUMBERS and live in a cyberworld which is at the same time mind- Firemen pump water from lake to fight blaze - but hoses won’t numbing and time-sapping, as well as being terrifyingly work cos hydrant is clogged up with fish..TROUT OF ORDER dangerous. In order to combat this, schools and teachers should do more. We need to raise standards but we need to So, social media has its uses but it has its drawbacks too. In be careful about putting youngsters under too much pressure; these days of a bewildering overload of information, where they have to excel academically, but don’t forget those everyone has a voice baying to be heard, it is more vital to have important soft skills, kids these days can’t communicate and responsible journalists to cut through to the truth and cover it so on and so on and so on. fairly and without bias- particularly those stories with a local interest - and we thank him very much for his attendance today. I think – I know – the picture is much healthier than that for all youngsters, and for those at Durham School. You only have Following Peter’s Challenge, it falls to me therefore to give you to look at the breadth of achievement we are celebrating here the headlines for Durham School this year in my annual report. today, as well as those which we celebrate throughout the year, to see that pupils achieve highly. You only have to come to one TOP OF THE CLASS of the fixtures, concerts or shows to see how pupils work as a Since last year’s Speech Day we have had a season of public team, become resilient and display determination. You only need examination results. The Summer of 2015 saw some great to talk to our pupils to see their confidence, their ambition, their successes both at A level and GCSE; in the former, our A*-A rate humour and their level-headedness to know that they have the was the second highest in the School’s history, and in the latter soft skills ready to move on. They are a fine testament of course our success in the EBacc subjects, highly favoured of course I would say to the School but more importantly to you as parents, by government, was the best ever performance at the School. who provide the encouragement which helps them to realise the Chief Guest, Peter Barron Individual success stories abounded too, with three of our pupils achievements we celebrate here today. 6 2015-2016 2015-2016 7 SPEECH DAY SPEECH DAY THE BOOT ON THE OTHER FOOT On the sporting front this year, we have enjoyed some fantastic successes across the range of sports and range of ages. The first term saw some great games of rugby, with our youngsters - small in number but big in heart – punching above their weight to record some victories against bigger local rivals – the U16s who made it into the last 8 in the Rosslyn Park cup deserve special mention, as does their amazing run of 75 matches unbeaten; at the top end the first XV too coalesced into a fearsome unit, working strongly as a team as well of course as having some outstanding individual talent. As Headmaster of course, it is my duty to stress that it is the taking part not winning which is important, but I hope I will be forgiven if I pick as my particular highlight the final kick from James Elliott’s boot against RGS Newcastle at Kingston Park back in September – sweet revenge for the narrow loss last year. The girls too have enjoyed great success in hockey, holding their own in the ladies’ league that the firsts have participated in this year and there have been some serious victories over other schools. Rowing continues to go from strength to strength, with highlight being a record number of wins in our own Durham Regatta this year.