Maidstone Grammar School We have once again reached the end of another busy term, and what a term it has been. This newsletter, which complements my weekly Headmaster’s Blog, will hopefully give you some idea of life at Maidstone Grammar School since Christmas. In this Issue Despite the term being very busy, it has also been very rewarding, and the many articles in this newsletter celebrate Harvard numerous successes. My favourite day of the term, and in fact of the year, is the day I invite the two students to take on the News & roles of School Captain and School Vice-Captain. It was a Achievements delight to offer the roles to Kristian Szwedziuk and Lex Delamere-Ayling, and I look forward to working with them Rugby Tour during the next 12 months. Sporting Achievements Before you read on I would like to quickly update you all with our expansion plans. Back in January we began our three year CCF building plan; a plan that will see a new performing arts building, additional science laboratories and computing MGSPA. classrooms, a new pavilion, and a full size 3G all weather pitch. By now the students will have seen the timber frame being Term Dates constructed for the Performing Arts building, and this first phase should be completed by August. In addition to these exciting building plans we are working hard behind the scenes to prepare the restructuring of the House and Pastoral systems. The names of the four new houses have been decided: College, Corpus Christie, Tonbridge and Barton. These four names symbolise the four homes the School has had in its life. It was important that the new names reflect the traditions of Maidstone Grammar School, and I believe that they do this perfectly. I look forward to seeing in the coming years Maidstonians building a strong allegiance to their new Houses. Enjoy the rest of the newsletter and have a wonderful Spring break. M Tomkins MGS April Newsletter 2017 Harvard 2017 January 2017 brought with it not just a new year, but a new experience for us to embark on. Harvard Model United Nations 2017 was our target, and on Sunday 22nd January, we were off. An early start, we had to be at MGS waiting for the coach at 4am, but we all made it, most of us wearing our HMUN jumpers with our names and nicknames on the back. Although with these, some of us didn't quite get what we bargained for! The coach journey to the airport was oddly quiet, and after a brief stop for breakfast and a minor panic about one of us forgetting their bag, we boarded the plane and we were off to the States! Our first destination was New York. The journey into New York is one of the most amazing things but it gets even more impressive though when you are in the concrete jungle. The giddy attitude we had characterised my time in New York. Time Square that evening was the highlight of the time we spent in New York for me. Having the sun set while we were indoors eating, and coming outside to even brighter lights with a group of my closest friends was something I will never forget. We spent hours taking photos and visiting all the shops, us boys even braving Sephora with the girls, which turns out to be the Mecca of the makeup world. New York was a model challenge of how to cram as much as possible into 4 days. The New York Public Library, Central Park, the United Nations site, the rainy Statue of Liberty, the humbling 9/11 memorial, the hospitable people of CNN and the Thai and Finnish missions to the UN is the list of our adventures. Each experience was unique and amazing, and if you throw in ample time to sleep, shower and eat, this was New York for us. Venturing off in a regular group of 9 or 10 during free time, we found Bubba Gumps, Five Guys and a beautiful little Thai restaurant close to our hotel. After visiting our respective missions, we endured the roughly 5 hour coach transfer to Boston, where the real work would begin. The following day involved some sightseeing, following part of the Freedom Trail (always been on my bucket list) and shopping and eating in Quincy Market. That evening though everything changed. Suited and booted, name tags on and placards in our arms, we hit the opening ceremony and training sessions, making our final preparations for the debates. For the next 4 days we were in and out of our committees, meeting new people from all over the world and putting into practise the skills we had been learning with the previous MGS HMUN team in our Monday training sessions back home. Cont…/d MGS April Newsletter 2017 Harvard 2017 For me, the week ended on a high when, despite facing serious opposition from all the major world powers, the delegation of Uganda and I (representing Thailand) led our block onto victory with our resolution passing on the morning of the final day. After watching our moderators face single ladies for us all and a few number exchanges and group photos, our time in the USA had come to an end. HMUN 2017 was an amazing experience, and despite the flu we were passing around and the bumpy plane journey home, it was one of the best things I've ever done, and I will miss my time there immensely. I would recommend Harvard to anyone, whether you think you have the skills or not. Anyone can succeed there as there is a role in committee for everyone, and it was a pleasure to participate. Allen Wesson, Deputy Head Delegate for MGS’ delegation to HMUN 2017 Business & Accounting Competition Congratulations to the following Year 12 students: Ella Collie, Samuel Jeffery, Charlie Luxton, Matthew Piper, William Terry and Allen Wesson who won the Kent heat of the ICAEW National Business & Accounting Competition and will be representing Kent schools at the National Final in Birmingham on the 30th June, competing against 42 other heat winners from around the UK. MGS Careers Evening On Wednesday 15th March MGS held a careers evening for students and parents from Year 9 upwards, which was a new event for the school. Although we have external speakers from industry and education coming into school to talk with students on a fairly regular basis, this was the first time we had brought a group of them together for an evening event such as this. We were lucky enough to find twelve willing volunteers, including some former students, to come back into school and deliver presentations on a variety of career areas, including accountancy, civil engineering, teaching, law, medicine, surveying, journalism, the armed forces and engineering. The evening gave students and parents the opportunity to find out more about these career areas and to speak with people directly involved in these fields. The evening was very well supported, with almost 400 students and parents attending, and is definitely something we will look to run again in the future. The photo is the Civil Engineering presentation delivered by former student Bob Tong, a Partner at Buro Happold Engineering. Photo is Civil Engineering presentation delivered by Bob Tong, a Partner at Buro Happold Engineering Photo is Civil Engineering presentation delivered by Bob Tong, a Partner at Buro Happold Engineering. Bob is a former MGS student MGS April Newsletter 2017 Student Achievements & News Following our first MGS science fair, some of our winners Ethan Ellingham, Samuel Fletcher, Edward Flower, Joseph Clapham and Matthew Taylor who attended the regional competition were invited to the national final and took their project “How to improve Wi-Fi signal.” Paras Dixit and Alfred Hodges took their project “Is Biological Plastic a Realistic Alternative?” Since the regional competition in June last year, both groups have worked hard to develop their projects, continuing to ask scientific questions and investigate these. All the boys presented their projects to a number of judges confidently and enthusiastically. Although we didn’t win any prizes, students had the opportunity to talk to celebrity judges and attend some great shows presented by TV personalities including Greg Foot. Students have shown an interest in continuing with their projects and improving them further to take to the next regional competition. It has been a pleasure to work with students who have demonstrated such hard work and enthusiasm. Well done to all involved. Year 10 Geography field Trip by Tom Jackson The day started off with a coach ride to Greenwich Millennium Village. We walked around the village and did three environmental quality surveys at three different locations: the renaissance walk, the school square and West Parkside. With a short walk to the Emirates Airline and despite the windy conditions we made it over, it was a great experience that allowed us to see the City of London from the skies. Next visit was to the crystal building, on the other side of the river, it was a fascinating building in which we learnt a lot on sustainability and what our future cities may look like. We took a short coach journey to Stratford, where we were able to collect a lot of data by doing a number of surveys including an EQS, a QUA and a building survey, as well as interviewing members of the public. More surveys took place at the Westfield centre which gave us the chance to compare the two locations. Our last visit of the day was to the Olympic Stadium, The Velodrome and The Orbit, where we interviewed members of the public asking their opinions of the effects of the regeneration.