School Life

Music

House Music 2018

Once again, the months of November, December and January were awash with countless rehearsals in preparation for the extravaganza that is House

Music 2018. With a great working spirit between captains, it was possible to arrange room bookings and equipment amicably, and with a friendly rivalry, Houses worked their ways towards the early days of February.

House Music auditions on the Monday of the House Music week went off with the usual last minute chaos and changes, however, with a final few days of frenetic alterations and rehearsals left throughout the week, most houses were ready by Friday.

With tickets having sold out within twelve hours, the hall was packed by 6.30pm on Friday evening, and there was an intense atmosphere of expectation and excitement. The adjudicator, Michael Paul Smith (Denson ’05), an ex-AGS jazz band pianist, opened the night with a speech of anticipation and enthusiasm, before handing over to the first house, Lee, where Oscar Brownhill (L13) led them into setting the bar extremely high with a memorable rendition of ACDC’s ‘Thunderstruck’.

The night ended with two houses: Hampden and Paterson. They were incredibly close and both played spectacular sets of music. With Hampden, led by Tom Robertson (H13) excelling in ‘Caravan,’ a piece with a mind-blowing set of performers including Toby (H11) and Jack Insley (H13), Lester Ridout (H10) and Tom Robertson, and closely following it with a Madness song, performed by Mike Grimwood (H12) and Dan Bedwell (H13), who couldn’t have done it better! It was clear that Hampden had put an incredible amount of effort into their set and it certainly didn’t go unnoticed. Following them, however, was the last house of the evening; Paterson. They opened explaining that their set will take the audience back in time over the past one hundred years, and this kicked off with ‘Solitude Is Bliss.’ This featured a remarkable line up of musicians, including Conor Simpson (Pa11), Ronak Rodriguez (Pa12), Dan Choudhury (Pa12) and Joey (Pa12) and Samuel Horrox (Pa13), who all played the song with a tightness and musicianship on par with Hampden’s ‘Caravan’ (and that’s saying something!), and using psychedelic projections to portray the mood of song in all senses - a great addition.

Following this was ‘She’s Not There’, led by Samuel Horrox, which successfully created an atmosphere that truly transported the audience back to 1969’s Woodstock Festival, before ending the evening in the Jazz age, where Lewis Ball (Pa13) led ‘Minnie The Moocher’ with an infectious energy that was only enhanced by Charlie Sellar’s (Pa13) energetic and stylish singing and dancing. Again, it was clear that Paterson had put an admirable amount of time and effort into their set, and no one could bring themselves to decide between the two closest houses.

There was about a 30 minute wait in which the Year 13 leavers from all houses played a set that completely summed up the musicianship and camaraderie of AGS, whilst displaying the astonishing talent that is held and by so many students

at the school. Following this, the adjudicator gave a rewarding speech that rounded up the evening perfectly, before announcing the competition’s results; all houses scored over 50/60, which is a rare and absolutely amazing achievement on everyone’s behalf, before the winner was revealed to be Paterson, followed extremely closely - in fact one-point-closely - by Hampden.

Overall, Mr Nathan summed it up saying “it was the best House Music I’ve seen in my time!”

Joey Horrox – Paterson 12

Classical Concerts

Other musical events throughout year showcased the Classical music talents of students of all ages at AGS. The many groups and ensembles (some combined with the High School) continue to excel and attract enthusiastic audiences both within school and other outside venues.

A brilliant addition to the Classical music calendar this year was the soloists’ evening held in the chapel at Exeter College, Oxford. With around 20 classical musicians playing (accompanied by Mr Nathan), there was a huge variety of music from different periods played by the mostly Grade 7 and 8 musicians from across both AGS and AHS.

Aside from this evening, of course the Choral Society, the Orchestra, Brass ensemble and the String ensemble played their annual March concert in the impressive setting of St. Mary’s Church, Aylesbury whilst the Carol service in December was expertly led by the AGS Choral Society.

After what was a fantastic year for AGS Classical music we look forward to seeing what the new group of year 7s can add to the musical life of the school and on behalf of all the classical musicians at AGS and AHS, I would like to thank Mr Nathan, Mr Dallas and Mrs Raven (AHS) for organising and supporting all these events throughout this past year.

James Weller – Paterson 12

Soloists’ Evenings

The Soloists’ Evening is a short, casual mini-concert held on the last Tuesday at the end of each term, where students perform a piece of their choosing to a crowd of peers and parents. It is a low pressure environment where students can develop their confidence in performing without much risk, due to a sympathetic audience. There is always a variety of performances, from piano and guitar to organ and harp, and a range of different styles, from jazz to classical, and abilities from across all years. It’s a rewarding event, as well as a chance to showpiece young performers, it is an opportunity to gain experience of public performance whilst it is also great for parents to see their sons perform on the small stage in Mu7.

Huge thanks to Mr Wright who coordinates this termly event, usually 4.00-5.15pm on the last Tuesday of each term.

Jamie Fairhurst – Paterson 12

House Music & Cabaret Night 2018

House music……a competition always worth fighting for. With music from across the globe, well known tracks, dance music - you can always ensure you will have a wonderful time.

This year was no exception, with the arrival of former Denson student Michael Paul-Smith from 2005 promising a well organised and prepared for event. But, if you were there that night, sitting in your seat and enjoying recognisable and rehearsed tunes, you were probably wondering why Mr Paul-Smith got it so completely wrong! To again, give Phillips a 4th place and to award Paterson a 1st place. Michael is not my role model anymore…..

In the weeks leading up to the night, a buzz of excitement was felt across all houses for one of the most major competitions in the Watson Cup. Singers, musicians, announcers – everyone was presented with the opportunity to represent their house and play the instrument they had been working for years on.

In fact, the music practice rooms were so full up I remember having to practise in the corridor, partly due to last minute desperation. During the night, there were some wonderful pieces performed, such as the skilfully put together ‘It must be love’ by Hampden, ‘Minnie The Moocher’ by Paterson and of course ‘Should I stay or Should I go’ by Phillips.

The competition went on all night (well a few hours at least) with much needed drinks and biscuits in the interval to keep everyone alert. All houses had a choir, which was full of energy, doing their house proud. If the pieces were considered particularly good on the night they were also invited to perform at the school Cabaret Night along with bands, such as Junior Jazz Band and Senior Function Band.

Despite the result……again…… House Music was a fabulous event and already we are plotting for next year and maybe, just maybe, Phillips can get their hands on the trophy.

Cabaret Night was another brilliantly structured event, with hot food, cold ice-cream relaxing music and Year 13 students dancing energetically to what would be their final AGS concert.

The evening definitely has a festival atmosphere with large groups performing on the main stage here in the Hall, small groups and soloists in the music room and even comedy and magicians along the main corridor.

It really is a great opportunity for students of all ages to perform and be thoroughly enjoyed by the hundreds of guests in attendance. I would like to thank all the Music staff who create wonderful events such as these – Mr Nathan, Mr Dallas and of course the visiting instrumental staff who all get involved and help to make music so successful here at AGS.

Ashwin Aggarwal – Phillips 9

Drama - Loserville

When Mr Warner first mentioned his intention to put on the musical Loserville as our joint school production just before the October half term in 2017 – my initial thought was –

isn’t that just a pop song? Yet in the spirit of ‘We Will Rock You’ I knew we had the talent and drive to make anything come alive, even if the storyline was a bit sketchy and cheesy.

It wasn’t easy by any means – Blood, sweat and tears, hours of rehearsal – but the usual team of Mr Warner, Miss Treherne & myself did it! With a huge amount of support from the amazing Director of Music – Mr Nathan, rocking out with his musician dudes! Not to mention all the amazing talent shown by our dedicated pupils, both onstage and behind the scenes.

The story – exploring the classic theme of the underdog struggling to find his place, along with the help of his nerdy but loyal friends finally rising to great heights in order to triumph over the evil – or in this case – handsome but lazy and shallow school ‘jock’ – to win the beautiful and highly intelligent girl and set the world of computers and the Internet loose into our world. We realised the only way to truly do this piece justice was to totally ham it up, which we did in spades!

The skilful comic timing and great vocals of the performers rivalled any West-end production and we were all incredibly proud. The sheer feel-good factor that was evoked by the audience clapping away joyously showed that this was no mere school show – this was an event that would remain in all our memories and hearts for a very long time. Mrs Venning summed it up perfectly when I spoke to her at the end – ‘best show ever!’

Mrs J Isherwood

Medsoc

MedSoc is a society where students interested in medical careers meet every fortnight to discuss, explore and learn more about respective careers

and topical issues. This year in MedSoc we have learned and explored a vast array of different medical careers that are available. We all get involved and this year everyone researched a different medical career and shared their findings with the rest of the group.

Occupations discussed included radiographers, physiotherapists, nurses, midwives and air ambulance paramedics. This activity was eyeopening as it became clear that there is a large range of opportunities that are available outside of being a medical doctor.

Throughout the year debate on topics including medical ethics and the admissions process for applying to a medical or dental school.

During one session Dr McNamara gave a particularly interesting talk about the drawback of being a doctor. This talk was very informative and moreover everything she told us was from her first-hand experience. In my opinion this was excellent as it is also important to understand that all jobs have some drawbacks.

MedSoc has also benefitted from some OA speakers. Dr Chris Ramsey spoke about his life story of how he became a psychiatrist; what his job is like, the sort of people he deals with, and how rewarding the job can be.

This talk was a unique opportunity for everyone to learn about one specialism of medicine (psychiatry) which is mostly about diagnosing and treating mental health disorders. This also is very topical as mental health is at the very forefront in today’s world and tackling it.

Dr Cornish who conveyed his experiences as a medical doctor, his training and about his time at AGS as he was an old boy of the school. Flynn Collins (D12) voiced medical ethics in particular the Alfie Evans case which was a very widespread and controversial topic.

The Year 13s have also been very supportive as they have given us feedback on what their application processes were like plus useful advice on Universities and recommended further reading. The teachers have encouraged all the students to lead on one of the sessions and so a number of boys have researched a particular field of interest and then presented to the rest of the group about what they learnt. My topic was on mental health of Doctors and Dentists.

Overall MedSoc has been a great place to discuss and debate medical subjects, themes and issues. All the students that attend are very grateful that this society is available as a MedSoc in many schools in unheard of. I would also like to say a big thank you to both Mrs Wilson and Dr McNamara as they have both given up their time willingly, and thank you to Mrs Cox and Mrs Taylor for their OA contacts.

After an incredibly busy and thoroughly productive year, it has been a pleasure to work as the Deputy Leader of MedSoc.

With hours of absorbing essential information from the insightful and inspirational speakers MedSoc has offered over the past two years, flying university visits, conversations with my peers & trawling the internet, I have (at last) completed the process of applying to medical school.

But, was it worth it? And would I do anything differently?

Of course, yes, it was worth it - I now have a place at medical school - and yes, I would do things differently. So here is the lowdown on how to be efficient and successful in your application to Medicine, ensuring you don’t make some of the same mistakes I did!

Firstly, identify the universities you want to study at. It took me months to decide on the 4 I wanted to apply to. Visit some, ask questions and get a feel for both course and university. Speak to OAs (you’ll meet plenty through MedSoc), family members and friends to narrow it down. Next, have a look on their websites and see how your application statistics fit with the entry requirements. Different medical schools will have different preferences as to the areas of strength in your application. Selecting universities by a balance of which you would like to attend most & which fit the individual strengths of your application will enable you to maximise your chance of success.

Once you’ve selected the universities you would like to attend, you can put your mind to aptitude tests. Different universities use different aptitude tests, so ensure you’ve read up on the details of the ones you wish to apply to. UKCAT registration opens in May, so booking early is important. I booked later and ended up taking my test in Ipswich, which

I can’t recommend. BMAT entries open in early September, with a much narrower window to apply. This makes it even more important to book early!

Organise your work experience as soon as you can. Persistence is key with this one, I was rejected or delayed in my application to many placements. If you’re like me and have a birthday late in the year (many placements require you to be 17), it’s even more important to be persistent and organise your work experience before your birthday. Use your networking skills and see what you can do - if you don’t ask, you don’t get! Family and friends with careers in Medicine are often only too happy to help. Remember that it’s not the length or quality of the work experience that is important, but what you take from it. I only had a single day on my placement! Charity work & volunteering is equally useful, if not more so, especially if within a medical or care context.

Lastly, draft those personal statements as soon as possible. The summer of Year 12 is a brilliant opportunity for this. Your personal statement is your only opportunity to demonstrate your individuality to medical schools. Focus on leaving an impression that sets you apart from the rest of the applicants. Consider the skills and qualities you have that make you a well-rounded individual, fit to be a successful medical student and a doctor. To recap, organisation is key. Sixth Form has been a steep learning curve how to get organised and I’ve just about made it through alive. Getting organised early will enable you to get the best out of your application, maximising your chance of success. Find ways of making your application stand out; nearly all medical students have exceptional academic achievements. Support is also there if you need it. Your Head of Year, Head of House and Mrs Venning can provide excellent advice for general application queries, whilst Mrs Wilson & Dr McNamara can help with Medicine specific stuff. A Levels will be around the corner, so enjoy the experience of applying before the really hard work kicks in!

David Bull – Phillips 13

Cookery Club

The AGS Cookery club is an opportunity for members of all years to learn the valuable

skill of cooking. This includes both traditional British gastronomy to exquisite Chinese cuisine. Cookery club runs for 6 - 8 weeks per term, with each session lasting 2 hours after school. Every session consists of Mrs Wilkinson demonstrating what we will be making in the session, and then us preparing it for ourselves. The atmosphere is always very chilled, with everyone working at their own pace to produce their magnum opus.

The importance of learning to cook is extremely understated in modern society, and developing this skill allows us to bring out our creativity and also brings us pleasure in later life by building our confidence in the skill. I find cookery really enjoyable as it allows a range of year groups to interact and learn about a common subject. After the session is complete, we get to go home with our personal masterpieces.

I would like to give a very special thank you to Mrs O’Halloran for her commitment to cookery club this year, and for spending lots of her own time helping us to learn new skills. With her input the club has run with individual attention, support and encouragement for all.

Chess Club

The AGS chess club is open to all AGS students of any

playing ability. Students from AHS are equally welcome. It has been another really successful year for the AGS chess club with up to 50 players turning up to enjoy an hour of chess on a Friday lunchtime. I would like to thank the senior players who have provided invaluable support and leadership this year. Richard, Callum, Adam and Jonathan have been a vital asset in organising and supervising the club and team.

As has become the trend in recent years, I have been able to sign off a large number of boys’ chess skills for DofE. I hope this helps them achieve their awards and wish them luck. Perhaps they will continue to play chess in the future, I do hope so!

The flagship event for chess club is still the annual National Schools’ Chess Championship. The qualifying matches are played in the Autumn term with knockouts in the Spring term. In 2017/18 we entered the regional qualifier which was held at reading Bluecoat school on 29th November. We were very well looked after by Reading and most crucially, well fed! With five teams and three matches to play we were slightly anxious, but The AGS team did fantastically. Despite a 2.5 to 3.5 loss in round one our boys went on to win 5-1 and 5-1 in the remaining rounds. This clinched second place overall and a ticket to the knockout, which was a home match against Eton College on 16th January. We have played Eton before and they are a tough school to beat at chess. The match was a hard fought affair but when Jonathan managed an incredible win after only two minutes, I was quietly optimistic. Jeffrey went on to win his game too. However, eventually we succumbed and after the full two hours, the final score was 4-2 to Eton. However, all games were incredibly close and went to the wire so a massive well done to the whole team; Eton were equally impressed with our playing. Well done to Callum, Richard, Oscar, Karan, Jonathan, Jeffrey and Josh for your commitment to the team throughout the competition.

As usual, the Spring term provided competitive fun with our intra school Chess Challenge and 30 boys were able to compete for prizes and a chance to go through to the Mega Final. This is exactly what Yuv did and went on to win the first prize for the under 12 category winning five and drawing one game at High Wycombe. As I write, he will be entering the Giga Final so good luck Yuv, from all of us!

I encourage new players to join us as I look forward to another successful year of AGS chess, you are all most welcome. We do need new blood and long term commitment as well as veteran players, to ensure we keep fielding an excellent team but above all, to have fun playing chess.

Computer Science Clubs

In addition to the many students who come to the Computer Science rooms at lunch to work on their programming skills and improve their understanding of Computer Science topics taught in class, we also have a number of student led groups who have come in and worked on various projects of their

own. These students are to be commended on the excellent AGS learner skills this demonstrates – the courage to try challenging things, taking ownership of what they want to learn about, having the motivation to continue working at something they want to achieve and the resilience to carry on in the face of significant challenges and using their new found skills to create innovative games and web applications.

Qasim Sheikh (H9), led a group of year 9 students including Leo Pichler (H9), Daniel Sulikowski (H9), Nabeel Ali (H9) and Muhammed Moeen (H9) in an exploration of interactive web technologies, developing websites that make use of web sockets to provide interactivity.

Other year 8 and 9 students including Laurie Egan-Carter (Ph8) Sam Small (Ph9), Carmelo Almadin (Ph8), Yash Kshirgar (Ph9) and Shantanu Kale (Ph9), have worked together to

develop their understanding across a wide range of Computer Science topics.

Oliver Thompson (H7), who has a keen interest in game making, has supported other students from year 7, including Leon Dixon (L7), Tommy Meader (H7), Dylan Strachan (H7), David Samuel (H7), Callum Meader (H7) and Neil Pandit (H7), in investigations of game making in Scratch and with implementing the challenging KidsCanCode Pygame tutorials.

A very busy year and we look forward to what the next one will bring!

Mr S Goff

Maths – UKMT Challenge Competitions

The Maths Department entered 360 students for Maths

Challenges this year. Altogether, they achieved 115 Gold certificates, 127 Silver and 81 Bronze.

The top scoring boys from each of the Senior, Intermediate and Junior challenges are put through to the next round - the Olympiad round, whereas those just below qualify for the Kangaroo round.

Senior Maths Challenge

Best in Year 13 - George Wyatt (R13)

Best in Year 12 - Fred Phillips (D12) 19 students qualified for the follow-on rounds.

Intermediate Maths Challenge

Best in Year 11 - James Brock (D11)

Best in Year 10 - Jeffrey Tan (H10)

Best in Year 9 - Nathan Curry (Pa9)

43 students qualified for the follow-on rounds.

Junior Challenge

Best in Year 8 – John Davie (Ph8)

Best in Year 7 - Yuv Saxena (H7)

30 students qualified for the follow-on rounds.

The achievement of all these students is really not to be underestimated - the first round questions are hard enough, but the following rounds are very tricky and require superb mathematical knowledge, together with welldeveloped thinking and logic skills. Thank you to Mr Datta who hosted pre-challenge preparation sessions for those who took part in all rounds of the challenge.

Well done to all who competed.

Mrs J M Smith

Maths - STMC National Final 2018

This year, with an experienced team of Max Hutt (Pa13), George Wyatt (R13), Fred Phillips (D12) and Richard Chappell (D12), AGS once again won the Wendover Heat of the UKMT Senior Maths Team Challenge where we competed against 16 local

schools. We were invited to take part in the National Final, held in London on 6th February. This time we would be competing against 86 schools from all over the UK, and the pressure was going to be much greater.

Much time was put into the poster round whose theme this year was Bell-ringing. As no-one on our team knew anything about the topic, never mind how it related to maths, they had a lot of pre-event research to do. On the day, the questions that related to the poster were tricky, and by the time the questions had been answered and poster had been

completed, there was no time to admire the final result before it was taken away for judging. Each round went well, but we knew we weren’t going to get the top prize when the first set of results were announced after the second round. Undeterred, the team continued to give their best and performed well in the remaining two rounds, the Shuttle and Relay. The final result was that our AGS team came 18th. Not as high a position as we would have liked, but, put into perspective, this position is 18th in the country and 18th out of over 1000 schools which took part. I am very proud of the team and all their efforts. They spent many hours practising for the heat and the final, they demonstrated excellent organisational skills researching for and putting together their poster and throughout they were supportive and friendly towards each other. They have been a pleasure to work with. Well done!

Mrs J M Smith

Maths Puzzle Club

Escaping detention using a time machine…that went wrong.

That was the theme of the Escape Room designed by members of Puzzle Club this year. After Christmas, we started to design an Escape Room with the idea of setting it up and running it to raise funds for Malawi. We planned to ‘lock’ teams of students in a classroom and only if they could solve riddles and puzzles would they be able to leave!

This project soon took a different turn when we found out about a national competition called Cracking the Code which was inviting teams from schools all over the country to submit their ideas and designs for an Escape Room with a futurist theme. This is where our idea for the time machine came from – all the puzzles and riddles eventually gave the number of years you have accidentally travelled forward in time. Only by working this out would you be transported back to present day.

We spent lots of Puzzle Club sessions on Thursday lunchtimes, lots of extra lunchtimes and hours outside of school putting together our entry. We submitted it and then it was just a matter of waiting for the results.

A few weeks later we found out that we had made it to the last ten teams in the country – we were very excited to be invited to the grand final event on 22nd June 2018 at The Crystal in London to present our ideas to a panel of mathematicians and industry experts.

When the day of the event finally arrived, we met Mrs Blunt, who runs Puzzle Club, and Mr Roberts at Aylesbury Station to catch a very early train. We then travelled across London arriving just before 9.30am and had some time to finalise our presentation – after weeks of hard work this is what we had been working towards.

The team included Leon Dixon (L7), Himendra Palisetty (L7), Oscar Peck (L7), Ajankumar Robertsingh (L7), Oliver Thompson (H7) and Aki Vuppalanchi (Pa7). The seventh member of the team, Johan Jose (L7), couldn’t join us on the day but was very much a part of the team working on the entry at school.

We were really nervous but by working together as a team and encouraging each other, we presented to a panel of 5 judges (and 4 organisers – including cameras!).

We really enjoyed presenting and felt it was the best presentation we had given on our Escape Room ideas (better than all the rehearsals), and we answered all the questions from the judges with ease.

After lunch we had a tour of the building and a treasure hunt. ‘The Environment’ was the theme as the building is the ‘world’s most sustainable events venue and it has the largest exhibition on the future of cities’. It was then time to sit in the auditorium for the final award ceremony. All the teams were recognised for their efforts and one by one we were invited up on stage for a round of applause and to collect a goodie bag.

Unfortunately we didn’t win the competition but we weren’t downhearted. We had had an amazing day and were all really enthusiastic about the event.

We are even already planning our entry for next year’s competition!

The Puzzle Club Escape Room team – Year 7

Religious Studies - Year 12 Curriculum Lecture

On 26 March 2018 we were delighted to welcome back to the school Old Aylesburian, Dr Jonathan Foster from the University of Sheffield to deliver a lecture on God and Science.

Dr Foster is currently a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Sheffield. His research group are developing a new class of graphene like two-dimensional nanomaterials for applications as diverse as creating solar cells, water purification and diagnosing disease. He has also worked with the God and the Big Bang project (which goes into schools to inspire students about science and faith) and is the current Oliver Barclay Lecturer with the organisation Christians in Science (CiS). This is an annual lectureship awarded by CiS in memory of their founder, given to a promising young communicator in science and faith who is also an active scientist.

Dr Foster spoke passionately about the importance and achievements of science as a method for understanding the universe but wanted to challenge the notion that science is the only valid way of knowing if something is true. Jonathan explained that science is a method where observations are used to support hypotheses, and suggested that it is more helpful to think of scientific theories as “useful” rather than “true”. He highlighted that our current scientific knowledge is limited, for example we only know in any detail what 5% of the universe is made of with the rest made up of “dark matter” and “dark energy” about which we know very little.

He suggested that whilst science is a powerful method for explaining repeatable physical phenomena it is not a good tool for answering questions about morality, history, law or aesthetics and that we have other “rational” ways of addressing these. Science itself is also based on a series of unprovable assumptions (e.g. that reality exists independently of our subjective experience or that scientific laws apply uniformly across time and space) and also can’t explain why the Universe exists in the first place. Jonathan reflected that for him, the more he learnt about how amazing and intricate the universe is, the less he could accept its existence as just a brute fact. This led him to his own personal conviction in a creator God, whose work it is a privilege to study.

Dr. Jonathan Foster completed his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at the University of Durham in 2008 where he also undertook his PhD. In 2012 he moved to the University of Cambridge where he held postdoctoral positions in the Chemistry and Materials Science departments. He joined the University of Sheffield in 2015 when he was awarded a Ramsay Memorial Fellowship and a Vice Chancellor’s fellowship.

Mrs K Crussell

Year 8 Team Building Day

The Year 8 Teambuilding day took place at the beginning

of June. We were lucky to have members of the organisation, ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ come into school to run a workshop teaching us all about racism and discrimination in society and how we can ensure we work as a team both in school and the wider world.

Show Racism the Red Card, as the name suggests is a charity, which has grown out of the world of football, using that sport as a way to get children and adults to understand and to work against discrimination in all its forms.

At the start of the day we watched a film on footballers’ experiences of racism such as Samuel Eto’o almost storming off the pitch against Real Zaragoza and when Mario Balotelli burst into tears after some racist remarks. The video also showed us who Show Racism the Red Card work with, for example league winners Manchester City the mighty Arsenal and even the not so mighty West Ham United. We then had some very educational classes in which we reviewed some scenarios and explained what we would do in those circumstances in order to combat discrimination.

After the first lesson we then looked at pictures of random people from different cultures and we had to guess their religions and where they were from. I’m certain the results shocked everyone, and we learnt how wrong it is to judge people on their looks or their clothes and how dangerous that can be in everyday society. In the final classroom lesson we reviewed words relating with racism and looked at discrimination laws and how they are applied both in the UK and beyond.

And then in the final hour of the day we had a relaxed session of sport in the sports hall where we were put into teams working with each other to try and amass as many points as we could on a number of different physical challenges. We spoke about what it meant to be part of a successful team and how to deal with and avoid negativity in order to work towards a common goal.

Following the day’s activities I have learnt a great deal and I now know more than ever that discriminating against anyone because of any of their features or their background is unacceptable, whether that be in football or the wider world.

Young Enterprise Report

It has been yet another fantastically successful year for Young Enterprise and for the third year in a row we reached the South Central Regional Final of the competition with Card Dog.

Card Dog – Company Review

Managing Director: Matt Bird (Hampden 12)

Team Members: Sam Harding, Alex Ayerst, Jude Cornish, Ryan Willis, Harvey Johnston, Doug Birchall, Tom King, Samad Chaudhry, Greg Michael

Student Advisor: Charlie Dunne

As our Young Enterprise journey draws to an end, we cannot help but look back and be proud of the last 10 months that we have dedicated into building and growing our company together. It all began back in September 2017 when we walked into our first meeting with no product, no company name and little business or sales experience behind us. However, what we did have was a shared passion for business, and it was this passion that has driven Card Dog to immense success in the Young Enterprise competition.

The process began with the team coming up with numerous ideas about what our potential product could be, but it wasn’t long before we set on an RFID blocking card with a built-in bottle opener. RFID

Skimming is where criminals use easily purchasable scanners to steal your money or details straight from your contactless cards through thin air. We developed a card, made from stainless-steel, that blocks the signals used by thieves to steal your money and details, keeping you and your money safe, whilst easily fitting into your purse, wallet, or bag and all with the added feature of a handy bottle opener!

After this our business took off, we attended multiple sales events and competitions all over the country, selling 312 Card Dogs as well as gaining valuable sales and business experience in the process. To add to this, we hosted a very successful quiz night in the AGS Foundation Hall which attracted over 100 guests! Our company progressed at an unbelievably quick rate, with our trade stand improving on a seemingly weekly basis, our sales confidence and pitch progressing immensely, and our product being improved with new branding and packaging. Our journey culminated in our Runner Up Best Company Award in the YE National Trade Fair in Stratford-uponAvon, as well as in our Overall Best Company Award at the Bucks and MK County Final. has supported us on this amazing journey enough, and we would like to give a particularly large thank you to our Centre Lead Miss Chalk, and our Business Advisors Kerrie Brindle and Sarah-Jane Saint-Ruth, without whom we wouldn’t be half the company we are today.

Card Dog were lucky enough to have Charlie Dunne (D13) as our Student Advisor, a role he fulfilled with great pride, joy, and above everything with a smile on his face. The whole team could not be more saddened to hear of his passing recently, and we would like to thank him for all his advice, support and interest in our progress which helped us greatly along the way. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends at this extremely difficult time.

Matt Bird – Hampden 12

Awards:

Aylesbury Vale Dragons Den Competition: Overall Winners

Aylesbury Christmas Market: Best Customer Service

MK Trade Fair: Best Overall Company, Best Trade Stand, Runner Up Best Product

YE National Trade Fair: Runner Up Best Company

Aylesbury Vale Area Finals: Best Overall Company, Best Presentation, Best Interview, Best Trade Stand, Best Use of Social Media

Bucks and MK County Finals: Best Overall Company, Best Trade Stand, Runner Up Best Interview

South Central Regional Final: Innovation in IT Award

Year 7 Science Club

When we were first told about Science Club, we didn’t know

what to expect. However, in Autumn Term 2 when it started, it was better than we could have ever expected in the first place! Science Club has allowed Year 7 students to get up close to many different practical experiments and see Science in a completely different way.

In the first week, we burnt magnesium to create bright lights and loud squeaks, this was something some of us had seen, but never done. It only got better when we filled a container with flammable bubbles and creating a fireball that reached up to the ceiling – but that was before we started putting eggs inside conical flasks and destroying metal cans in a couple of seconds. We also learnt that science goes into many things, for example, bath bombs. We made these with acid towards the middle of the year and they worked perfectly. There also was a demonstration, which involved creating an enormous toothpaste like substance – elephant’s toothpaste.

Then, as summer drew closer, we went outside and did some gardening. We livened up the overgrown and messy roof garden with vegetables; onions and carrots to pumpkins and beans. We also grew a handful of fruits: tomatoes, strawberries and chilli peppers.

We have thoroughly enjoyed science club this year and will never forget this experience. We would all like to thank Mrs Parvez for always having a practical ready every Friday and being so willing for us to make a complete mess in her lab!

Aki Vuppalanchi, Oliver Thompson & Rajvardhan Patankar – Year 7

Warhammer Club

This has been another outstanding year for AGS Warhammer club with six to ten boys regularly attending

our sessions. The keen players of Warhammer 40K have regularly met in Geography after school on a Monday to engage in fun and determined battle. It has been great to see the older boys supporting the younger ones and the level of skill in battle tactics as well as painting miniatures is second to none. While the bread and butter of the club is social and involves battles in a state of friendly competition, we all look forward to the annual inter school Warhammer league run by Games Workshop.

It has been a tradition in recent years for the four man team to get through the local knock out stage in Aylesbury and reach both the Semi Finals and Finals. This year was no exception and I took the team, consisting of Ross, Alex, Sam and Oli to the world centre of Games Workshop at Warhammer World in Nottingham. Once more we enjoyed to extensive gaming hall, shops, exhibitions and cafe facilities of ‘Bugman’s’ to take on the country’s finest players.

Having stormed through the Semis the team did fantastically to secure their best result ever with a second place in the finals. Many trophies were won and Sam gained Best

General and Most Sporting Player awards. Well done to all of the team for their fantastic achievements and here’s hoping for next year.

Special thanks to Ross who leaves us for university and who has led the team so well.

Mr M Goodchild

National Schools’ Geology Challenge 2018

The National Schools’ Geology Challenge, held by The Geological Society of London, is aimed at teams of A Level students competing to produce the best geology related, five minute presentation on their chosen topic, accompanied by a themed poster to illustrate

their talk. A geological quiz section of the competition also adds points to the final scores, allowing students to additionally demonstrate their wider geological knowledge.

Following success in the Regional Heats, Aylesbury Grammar School were rewarded, for the second year in succession, by reaching the Finals, to be held at The Geological Society headquarters in Burlington House, Piccadilly, on 22nd March 2018.

The topic for the AGS presentation, “Curious Carbonados”, was chosen to complement the Society’s 2018 Year of Resources and to highlight the fascinating and rare minerals found on Earth that may have extra-terrestrial origin, giving clues as to what other resources may be out there in the Universe, yet to be discovered.

The study of these remarkable ‘black diamonds’ may help us to find solutions to the problems of ever depleting natural resources on Earth, reinforcing the need to consider opportunities to secure new resources for the future but also assisting in facilitating the design of better materials for specific applications too.

Not only did the competition provide an excellent opportunity for geology students across the school to work together to investigate such a fascinating subject but it also enabled us to consult with experts in their fields to verify that the information we presented was accurate and as current as possible.

Having taken advantage of all the encouragement given by our teachers, Mrs Jiggins and Mr Jones, and by Old Aylesburian, Declan Millar, who came back to AGS to lend his support also, and with the final nod from Mr Sturgeon, we were satisfied that we had done all we could to ensure the quality of our submission; we were as confident as we could be for the final.

We knew that we would be facing tough opposition from a full house of equally determined competitors, and that we would be subjected to scrutiny by a panel of leading geologists from academia and industry, but nevertheless we felt positive that we would benefit from our thorough preparation and a good knowledge of our topic and that we would be able to rely on each other’s different strengths to help us through the various tasks.

We were drawn first to present on the day and our talk went well.

Despite some tough and probing questioning from the judges, we felt that we were able to provide reasoned and credible responses to all the points raised and it proved to be an extremely exhilarating and rewarding experience for us all.