We have celebrated the success of boys’ own writing in the Fowles and Archie Wellbelove Essay Competitions, together with art and music in the Detweiler Competition whose theme this year was ‘conflict’. It has also been great to see the levels of success achieved by our boys in the science, maths and language national challenges and Olympiads. Full details are given in the following pages. Particular congratulations to Aidan Swain (lower sixth) for his commendation in the Marlow Essay Competition run by Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and to Jacob King for being the regional winner and a national finalist in the art public speaking competition, ARTiculation. Additionally, the school has welcomed some exceptional speakers to deliver lectures and seminars on a variety of topics including: ● Professor John Rees, Professor of Medical Education at King’s College, London, who spoke on the topic of ‘Challenges of healthcare provision in West Africa’; ● Professor James Booth of Hull University on ‘Larkin and Jazz’ in the Richard Palmer Memorial Lecture; ● writer Louis de Bernières who led a creative writing workshop; ● composer Paul Edwards who spoke on ‘British Music in the First World War’; and ● Dylan Sabulsky, Frederick Dieleman and Thomas Nutz, holders of the Marie Curie Fellowships at Imperial College London, who spoke on the practical uses of quantum physics. It is always a particular pleasure to welcome Old Bedfordians back to the school to give presentations to current boys and to share their experience with them. Among those who kindly came to talk to boys this year were: ● Ben Taylor, who spoke on wealth management; ● Richard Bollan, who spoke on the upstream oil industry; ● Sandy Gray, Professor Martin Snaith and Professor Richard Hills who together reflected on how engineering and physics have changed, or not, over the past 40 years; and ● David Wallace, Fairfax Professor of Physics and Philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford, who gave a talk on quantum theory. There have also been trips out of school which have encouraged boys to broaden their experience of academia and enhance the study of their subjects at school. Among such events have been our linguists’ participation in the Hispanic Theatre Festival in London and a French debating competition in Cambridge; participation in a holocaust survivor conference; a study day at Wadham College, Oxford, on the invention of modern science; attendance at a production of Antigone at the Barbican; and a trip for fourth and
remove form boys to the ‘Defining Beauty’ exhibition at the British Museum. We also introduced a new initiative for our AS-level boys this year entitled the ‘Bedford School Independent Project’ (BSIP). This provides all boys studying A-level with an opportunity to undertake a piece of research on a topic of their own choosing, akin to what their IB counterparts do with the extended essay. The project culminated in a presentation evening in the summer term for the best work. As you might expect, the audience enjoyed fascinating insights into a whole range of ideas, including, ‘How Satan is portrayed in Literature’, ‘The History of the Judaeo-Spanish Language’, and ‘An Investigation into Sports Supplements’. Extracts from the winning presentations are printed in subsequent pages, and I am delighted that a significant number of boys are developing their project further and submitting it for the externally assessed EPQ (Extended Project Qualification). This gives boys a qualification in addition to their A-level subjects, and is increasingly well-respected by universities. We have also celebrated the academic achievements of boys through the introduction of a new award, Academic Stripes, which acknowledge the best exam performances in the fourth, remove and fifth forms. Boys now wear their stripes on their school blazer, complementing the established academic colours awarded to the top achieving upper sixth formers in their AS or IB1 exams. A full list of academic award recipients is published in the following pages. It is hard to justly represent the range and number of academic opportunities which boys have enjoyed this year in just a few paragraphs, in addition to the daily classwork which is at the heart of all we do. But the record is certainly an impressive one, and we all owe a debt of gratitude to the dedication of the teaching staff whose hard work ensures that academia is truly vibrant and inspiring here. Moreover, the record is testimony to our belief that education is about more than just exam results – important though they are. Indeed, we were delighted to be able to celebrate some impressive exam performances in the summer: four boys secured Oxbridge places, just under 50 per cent of our A2 results were graded A*-A, and 37 boys secured all A*/A grade profiles at GCSE. But our hope is that all boys will find ways of exploring and engaging with the exciting and endless possibilities that academic study brings. To this end, we are committed to offering boys the very best opportunities academically (as I hope this brief summary has demonstrated), and we look forward to sharing more discoveries with them, and celebrating more of their successes, in the future. A.G. Tighe
THE MAGAZINE OF BEDFORD SCHOOL AND THE OLD BEDFORDIANS CLUB
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