Dear Parents, ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES My apologies for not issuing this at the end of last term, but – as you will see – so much went on last term that drawing this summary together has taken longer than I anticipated! There follows a hugely impressive list of the boys’ academic achievements and other opportunities in the Spring Term. It’s certainly a very long summary, but that in itself is testimony to the vast array of talent that our boys have shown themselves recently, and the numerous chances they have had to benefit from the talents of others too. Do please continue to encourage your son, as we are doing, to take full advantage of similar opportunities in the future, if he is not already doing so! We are all looking forward to an equally impressive Summer Term! All best wishes Alastair Tighe Deputy Head (Academic) • Congratulations to the following boys for being awarded Commendations this term for work or conduct which exemplifies the school’s core values in an exceptional way. o Fourth Form – Ben Barden for an excellent presentation on a trip to Kerala; Ben Barnes for an outstanding essay on Christian morality and also for his excellently researched and well-argued essay on Euthanasia; Divine Edjejovowo for an outstanding prep on the adaptations of the reindeer to living in cold environments, and also for an exceptionally full and detailed essay on virtue ethics entitled, ‘What makes a good friend?’; Joshua Holdsworth and Danny Hubber for challenging themselves with an excellent piece of work on ANWR; Rohan Jacob for outstanding performance in an RE test; Harilaos Karavaggelis and George Winder for their informative and wide-ranging presentations to a Year 8 Prep School Biology class; Hugo Mathew for excellent test results and an exceptionally detailed essay on stealing; Archie McLean and Jason Tsui for outstanding efforts in a newspaper project in English; Boris Song for an exceptional piece of DT sketch work well above the standards expected for his age group; Andy Wong for his well-prepared and delivered Spanish lesson on the past perfect tense. o Remove Form – Emmanuel Adeyemi for outstanding research on the orbital motion of the planets and for an outstanding History essay on Prohibition; Ben Aellen for demonstrating true sportsmanship and a sense of fair-play during an U15 football match; James Brazil, Alex Lam and George Whitcombe for persistently outstanding performance in DT; Oliver Dwight and Joshua Markham for compelling and consciously crafted pieces of imaginative writing in English; Flik Feng for outstanding contributions to the Creative Arts Faculty throughout the term, for producing multiple excellent music compositions both in class and in his own free time and for an excellent presentation on what it would be like to taste a neutron star; Gerald Hargreave Mawson for his exceptionally enthusiastic and committed approach to music composition; Oscar Hudson for the enthusiasm and skill with which he tackled two levels of the UK Linguistic Olympiad; Harry McPhail, Benjamin Sporton and Shawn Peng for outstanding experiment write-ups after an extended Physics investigation and for proving to be a top design student going above and beyond what is expected at GCSE level, including mastering some CAD skills from scratch; George Robertson and Jamie Williams for exceptionally imaginative pieces of English coursework writing; Matthew Stewart for taking the initiative to voluntarily enter the ISRSA essay competition on the theme, ‘Why Religious Studies Matters to Me’; George Thomas for the production of an excellent cake showing the structure of a flower; Lucas Trye for excellent attainment in Biology; Henry Poppleton for his resilience in DT and consistently thorough and well-presented work; Ukiri Oghenovo for his excellent presentation on what would happen if a small blackhole appeared next to you. o Fifth Form – Joseph Fordham, Toby Garrett and Harry Jennings for their commitment to the rehearsals and performance of a Spanish drama extract in the Modern Languages Evening; Harry Ward and Joseph Fordham also for taking the initiative to voluntarily enter the ISRSA essay competition on the theme, ‘Why Religious Studies Matters to Me’; William Haggar for his assessed presentation on CFS which was not only accomplished but also demonstrated incredible strength of character and emotional resilience; Silas Sanders for his contribution to music this term and for his performance in Guy Bennett's Celebration Concert, in particular, in which Silas played in all three groups that performed, including coming in as the only current pupil in an Old Bedfordian Brass Ensemble and sight-reading the music on the day. o Lower Sixth – George Christian for putting together and presenting an absolutely brilliant lecture on Diabetes at Biology Society; Emilio Gay for his commitment to the rehearsals and performance of a Spanish drama extract in the Modern Languages Evening; Archie Young-Lee for his solo performance in the Guy Bennett Celebration Concert; Jaynil Patel for reaching the final of ARTiculation, the national competition for talking about Art. o Upper Sixth – George Edwards for his arrangement of a superb ‘Evening of Fine Music’ for charity; William Entwistle for an outstanding essay answering the question, 'Any suffering in the world is ultimately a part of God's loving plan'; Ted Hicks for stepping in and doing an outstanding job compèring House Drama; Logan Jones for an exemplary essay on sexuality in works by Wilde and Stoker – the culmination of diligent study and effective learning. • Congratulations to ten of our boys who have received Oxbridge offers for 2017: Jack Dalton, Harry Guthrie, Edward Hicks, Wan Tong Lou, Fang Hang Qian, Rohan Sanghera, Ivan Simon, Harry Sivills, Andrew Zhu and Jake Duxbury (OB). Five boys received offers to Oxford and five to Cambridge to read Music, History, Maths, Medicine, Economics, Human Sciences, Spanish, Physics, Earth Sciences and Chemistry. • Following their performance last term in the UK Senior Maths Challenge, approximately 4,600 of the top students in the UK were invited to sit one of the follow-on competitions, the BMO1 (British Mathematical Olympiad, round 1) or the Senior Kangaroo. In the BMO1, Tonny Lou and Chester Wang (Upper Sixth) achieved certificates of Distinction, and Ignatius Ip (Lower Sixth) and Henry Shaw (Fifth Form) achieved certificates of Qualification. In the Senior Kangaroo, Thomas Pelling and Luke Lee (Fifth Form) achieved certificates of Merit, and Benson Chan (Fifth Form) and Rohan Sanghera (Upper Sixth) achieved certificates of Qualification. • Zahan Bharucha’s and Callum Fenton’s (Upper Sixth) superb debating skills secured them a place in this year’s ESU Schools Mace Debating Competition Regional Finals. The boys impressed judges when they proposed the motion, 'This house supports the use of all-women shortlists to redress the parliamentary gender imbalance', earning second place overall. • Having won the East Anglian regional heat of ARTiculation – the national Arts Public Speaking Competition – Jaynil Patel (Lower Sixth) represented the school in the ARTiculation Art Prize 2017 Final held at Clare College, Cambridge. Jaynil was one of just seven finalists selected from thousands of students and schools from around the country, and gave an excellent presentation titled, ‘Is That Art?’ The competition was judged by Tim Marlow, Director of the Royal Academy, and the students were lucky enough to hear Sir Anthony Gormley and Bill Woodrow who gave the opening addresses. • Renowned poet Brian Patten was guest of honour at the English Department’s Annual Prize Giving. The Poetry Prize was shared between Flik Feng and Ashwin Santosh Kumar. The Wellbelove Prize, which is open to pupils in the first three years of the Upper School and requires boys to write an essay about a work of literature not studied within the curriculum, went to Emmanuel Adeyemi for an essay about George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Fowles Prize was an extremely close affair, with four outstanding pieces of writing on the shortlist. Each of the boys who spoke about their work did so engagingly and elegantly. Angus Watson’s troubling short story ‘The Pact-Makers’ was awarded first prize. The evening concluded with a hugely entertaining reading by Brian Patten. • The tremendous artistic and creative talent of the boys was celebrated in this year’s Detweiler Competition, the theme for which was ‘Identity’. For the first time the competition was extended to encompass not only Art, Creative Writing and Music but also Drama. The Art competition was judged by antiques expert and ‘Flog It’ Star, David Fletcher (OB) and artist Peter Moore, a friend of Alan Detweiler. First Prize 2D went to Felix Mallalieu (Fifth Form) and First Prize 3D to Jim Hu (Upper Sixth). The following were Highly Commended: Jack Jordan (Remove Form), Tomi Fashola (Fifth Form), Benson Chan (Fifth Form), Jack Murphy (Lower Sixth) and Dylan Cox (Upper Sixth). The Creative Writing Senior Winner was Edward Lamb (Upper Sixth) for his piece entitled, ‘Arguing Against Aristotle: Identity Within Tragedy’. The Senior Runner-Up was Logan Jones (Upper Sixth) for ‘This England’. Junior Winner was Jamie Williams (Remove Form) (‘Another Round Please, Joe’), with Runner-Up Emmanuel Adayemi (‘Me And My Brain’). The Junior Drama Winner was also Jamie Williams for his monologue ‘Olam-Ha-Ba’. The Sixth Form winner was Harry Beard for his monologue ‘I Am’. Finally, in the Music Competition, first place went to Flik Feng (Remove Form) for his song composition ‘Loner’, with second place taken by Archie Young- Lee for his song ‘Who Am I?’ • Following an extremely competitive nationwide audition process, Archie Young-Lee (Lower Sixth) has been selected as a trombonist for the National Schools Symphony Orchestra (NSSO). Archie will join other talented musicians from across the country for the NSSO’s annual residential course in July, where he will be involved in a programme of individual instrumental coaching with professional tutors, play in smaller ensembles, sectional and full rehearsals, before taking part in a final concert.