The Canfordian 2019/20

Canfordian The

2019/20

the

canfordian Contents SPEECH DAY 2020

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SALVETE AND VALETE

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ACADEMIC 15 ENRICHMENT 20 PASTORAL 21 CANFORD AND CORONAVIRUS

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THE ARTS

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CHAPLAINCY 60 COMMUNITY ACTION

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A NEW LIBRARY

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THE CANFORD COMMUNITY

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THE BOURNE ACADEMY

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OUTDOOR ENTERPRISES

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SPORT 71

Headmaster’s preface 2019/20 was, to say the least, an unusual academic year so this edition of The Canfordian looks a little different in places to previous publications, although the aim has been to achieve a balance between all the wonderful achievements of the first two terms and those of the last.

It would take more than a pandemic to quench the resilience and ingenuity that are characteristics of Canford.

Running through all the reports in this issue are illustrations of the many and various ways our school community found to continue its purpose and maintain its values.

I hope you enjoy reading this unique record of a unique academic year.

The Headmaster speaks This is an abridged version of the speech delivered by the Headmaster at the virtual Speech Day on 3 July 2020. The sections omitted dealt largely with matters and events that are reported elsewhere in this issue of The Canfordian.

‘So what is Canford? It is a school community where all are inspired to explore, empowered to express and challenged to excel.

Our core values seek to: Develop purposeful engagement – Building a confident mindset develops a positive attitude to life-long learning.

We inspire members of our community to be curious and determined in pursuit of knowledge and opportunity.

Instil a courageous attitude – Being principled and strong, yet reflective and tolerant, is part of what we do and that takes courage. We support members of our community to be bold and sensitive in expressing their thoughts, their words and their deeds.

Promote humble ambition – Pursuing goals without arrogance or complacency brings meaningful success. We challenge members of our community to be energetic and resilient in pursuit of their goals but honest and grateful for fulfilment of them.

Encourage gracious leadership – Fulfilling a duty to guide and support others makes a difference. We urge members of our community to lead graciously and serve willingly for the greater good.

I have seen that vision and those values played out each and every day over the past year in so many ways and I am so proud to be part of this school community, not least because of the way that we have all adapted and supported each other over the past difficult months. Our remote education programme has seen the delivery of over 12,000 remote lessons and there has been a wide range of activities and pastoral meetings over the course of the last term. That has demanded a real team effort.

It has been a very difficult end to a key stage at Canford for our Fifth Form, but they have stepped up and engaged with their A Level courses early with purpose, courage and ambition. I understand entirely your frustrations at missing out on the post-GCSE time, but we

are proud of you.You have shown your mettle in so many ways and you will be an amazing group to help support the staff and the Upper Sixth in leading the school through what will be a different and challenging year ahead.

The Upper Sixth who leave us today have been incredible, too. I won’t go over the ground that we walked on in the leavers’ service earlier this term, but I will repeat that as a group your legacy is significant and will be longlasting here in our school community.

And so to some insights into what has been achieved in the past year by the whole pupil body, supported by my wonderful teaching and support staff colleagues Academically, the Upper Sixth have always set the bar high and their future ambitions are no exception. Most are heading into higher education: from 160 UCAS applications submitted, 578 offers were received, 13 of them from Oxbridge and 433 from Russell Group universities.

Our enrichment programme is significant and is designed to change ways of thinking and engaging with a wide range of issues and perspectives. The Festival of Ideas saw 22 speakers over three days, and all of the Sixth Form was taken off timetable for the festival to engage fully with the theme of ‘Identity and Diversity’ – part of an ongoing focus on key issues of inequality, ignorance and intolerance which face our society and the need to bring about changes in thought, culture and action. The focus became even sharper with the death of George Floyd and the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Summer Term saw the creation of the Canford College Programme for those who would have been taking their A Levels. Twenty-five external speakers focused on a range of issues and experiences, including Peter Singer, Laura Bates, A C Grayling, Michael Tomlinson, Deanna Rodger, Marie-Christine Nibagwire and James Landale.

Many of these talks were open to and attended by pupils in other year groups. There were 90 separate electives and over 200 separate Academic seminars.

In sport, the Christmas Term saw 626 pupils representing the school in some form of competitive sport, with a similar number in the Easter Term. Almost 20 different sports in total were played over the two terms. In sporting

“I have seen that vision and those values played out each and every day over the past year in so many ways.”

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ACADEMIC

speech day

ACADEMIC speech day “We need to try harder still in a very different world which contains many, many challenges ahead, and this will require us all to look deep into our hearts and minds.”

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terms, the Summer Term was fallow for obvious reasons, but we are gearing up for an active sports programme next term.

For me, two sporting highlights reflected Canford’s vision and values. The rugby 1st XV suffered a losing whitewash in 2018, when many who were on the bitter end of that experience were in the Lower Sixth. This year they stepped up and applied those Canford values to achieve tenth in the national rankings, playing in a style and with an attitude which made one very proud. And the under-16 and 1st netball squads showed incredible grit, talent and wonderful team spirit over the season and both secured fourth place in the National championships on the last sporting weekend before lockdown.

Canford drama staged twelve different events during the first two terms of the academic year, including Chicago with a cast of 45 and a crew of seventeen, a predominantly Shell-based pantomime, Cinderella, with thirteen pupils and two members of staff on stage, and, just before lockdown, a memorable production of Frankenstein. During lockdown, two small groups of pupils (nine in total) have written, recorded and edited their own series of radio plays. There have been 28 monologue presentations on our Gateway page and fifteen students are engaged in script writing and/or set design programmes.

Musically, there have been 28 ‘real’ concerts this year; the Lighthouse concert, cancelled right at the end of the Easter Term, would have been number 29. During lockdown there have been 22 remote ensemble performances recorded remotely and assembled, six ‘live’ Teams concerts, and one pre-recorded informal concert to allow those in the Far East to take part.

Our Community Partnership is a crucial part of Canford’s programme to develop greater social awareness and responsibility. The Independent Schools Council has a website called ‘Schools Together’ which catalogues the independent-state school partnerships run termly by around 1500 ISC schools. Canford has 64 case studies included and 20 state school partnerships: I can’t see another school in our area, or further afield for that matter, with as many.

The Outward Bound, CCF and DofE programme has offered many opportunities for pupils to develop their character and skills. Nor are Canfordians confined to base – across all aspects of educational life we ran 135 trips, ten of them overseas, in the first two terms. Sadly, many more were cancelled this term and over the summer.

To our leaving Upper Sixth and Fifth Forms – it has been a pleasure and privilege sharing this part of your journey and we send you on from Canford with our love and tinged with sadness at the parting. Go and make fine and worthy things happen wherever you can touch the lives of others!

Everything we do at Canford is underpinned by our ongoing commitment to fulfil our vision of being a school community where all are inspired to explore, empowered to express and challenged to excel: a school community where we try hard to live out our core values through our thoughts, words and deeds. We need to try harder still in a very different world which contains many, many challenges ahead, and this will require us all to look deep into our hearts and minds – to be honest, open and active in how we view our society, its issues and inequalities and how we take steps as individuals and as a community to make a real and positive difference to our world.

Following the Headmaster’s address, the virtual Speech Day continued with the announcement of prizewinners section by section, each introduced by an Old Canfordian. These were interspersed with house reports and musical performances. After an address

by David Levin, Chairman of Governors, there was an unforgettably rousing rendition of ‘When the saints go marching in’ by the Chapel Choir and members of staff (pictured above). The proceedings ended with teaching staff in fancy dress taking part in their 2020 version of the Canford Gallop (pictured below), showing that despite one of the most unusual and difficult terms in the school’s history, Canford’s sense of humour was alive and well.

Louis Ross Prize CP Snow Baynham Essay Prize Environment French Spanish German Latin Philosophy and Theology Classical Civilisation English History Geography Business Studies Economics Jones Prize for Politics Chemistry Hankinson Prize for Biology Halahan Prize for Natural History Sports Science Hardie Prize for All Round Academic Performance Hardie Prize for Humanities Hardie Prize for Science and Maths Hardie Prize for Physical Sciences Hardie Prize for Biological Sciences Hardie Prize for Economics and Maths Hardie Prize for Academic Performance Hardie Prize for Art and Geography Hardie Prize for English and Philosophy Hardie Prize for Languages Hardie Prize for Natural Sciences Mathematics Further Maths Physics John Gilhooly Quaich for Computing Fine Art Painting Tom Webster Art Prize FCS Prize for Design Technology Drama (technical) Theatre Studies Acting Michael James Prize for Singing Eddy Prize for Music School Prize for Music FCS Prize for Journalism Creative Writing Edna Adams Trophy for Debating Sports Awards Clive Mayer Memorial Trophy The CCF Benner Award The Peter Dugdale Cup for Service to the Local Community The Peter Dugdale Cup for Community Partnership Overseas Tom Nash Memorial (Gap Year) Sam Wolstenhulme Travel Prize Holford Prizes Sophie Johnson Prizes Heads of School Deputy Heads of School New Heads of School New Deputy Heads of School

speech day

Prizewinners 2020 Serena Blake Lucy Norris and Toby Bishop Sophie Hussey Robert Thomas and Tom Edsall Amy van Wingerden Olly Hutton Lottie Thomas Millie Edwards Francesca Hibbit Charlie Cooke-Priest Amy van Wingerden Finn Baker Valentín Lužák and Martha Taylor Joseph Hollywood and Robert Thomas Billy Pocock Thea Ellis and Georgina Kearns Charlotte Wittram Jessye Phillips Jack Salmon Ines Mitchell Tessa Marley Sophie Alcock and Katy Jack Milly Rees Sean Herrington Tia Yang Will Jones Emma Crinks Rosie Johnstone Emma Large Lizzy Balls Charlie Berridge and JC Zhang Mike Sorokin Nathan Bulstrode Nathan Bulstrode Mike Sorokin Matilda Child Emma Dalton Abbie Rowsell Tom Edsall Callum Bruce Serena Chamberlain and Yasmin Chadwick George Farthing Adam Phillips Finlay Boardman Rachel Ko Felix Spencer and Amy van Wingerden Jessye Phillips Connie Doxat Martha Taylor and Thomas Sykes Ollie Leat Zach Fenwick Sebastian Fecher, George Farthing and Harry Moores Not awarded in 2020 Beanie Culley Jack Salmon Josh Davies, Luke Hett, Archie Hunter, Josh Davey, George Billson, Mattie Effick Holly Hazzard, Ella Doubleday, Maddy Wells, Imogen Gallego Joe Nalbantoglu and Emma Large Adam Phillips and Connie Doxat Ben Parkin and Maddie Lyles Miles Quick and Nadia Lees

CANFORD COLLEGE PRIZES Art - Cameron Powell Biology - Tia Yang Business - Tom Edsall Chemistry - Milly Rees and Charlie Berridge Classical Civilisation - Ellie Maynard Computer Science - Sean Herrington Drama - George Farthing Design Technology - George Farthing Economics - Ella Heffner English - Francesca Hibbit French - Lottie Thomas

Geography - Will Bloxam and Tessa Marley German - Lottie Thomas History - Charlie Cooke-Priest Latin - Sam Downey Maths - Giacomo Perin Music - Beatrice Webb Physical Education - Sophie Saunders and Jess Rees Physics - Callum Bruce and Sean Herrington Politics - Rory Johnson Philosophy and Theology - Ellen Campbell Spanish - Emilia Milner

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Salvete & Valete Members of the academic staff who joined in 2019/20 Dick Carpenter, BSc, PGCE Physics

After reading Pure Physics at Nottingham University, Dick worked first as a chicken farmer and then trained to be an accountant before realising how much he missed teaching.

A PGCE at Nottingham Trent followed before spells at Quarrydale School, Newington College Sydney, Sherborne, Stowe and Nottingham High School.

Tony Diprose, BSc

Director of Sport and Physical Wellbeing Tony graduated from Loughborough before a successful career as a professional rugby player, which included representing both England and the British Lions.

Since retiring as a player in 2005/6, Tony has been Academy Manager at Harlequins Rugby Club where he has mentored and developed many outstanding players, both male and female. He was also Director of Harlequins Elite Women’s Rugby and Global Development Director. He is a qualified Level 4 rugby coach.

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Alistair Hardie, BA, MA,

PGCE

Assistant Director of Music (Academic)

Alistair began his musical career as a chorister at Exeter Cathedral, and then as a music scholar at Sherborne. After graduating from York with first-class honours, he received a post-graduate scholarship to study at Durham, where he helped initiate the ‘International Network for Music Theology’. Alistair’s compositions have been performed in cathedrals and theatres across the UK, and he was most recently Head of Academic Music at Ampleforth College.

David Hivey, BSc, PGCE Physics/Mathematics

David joined Canford from Merchant Taylors’ School. He loves to inspire pupils to see how Physics explains how every aspect of their lives works in one form or another. In addition to his teaching, David is a tutor in Wimborne. Beyond school, David sails at an international level and was the European Champion in the Moth class in 2018. He also enjoys walking and climbing.

Physics/Mathematics Rob joined Canford in January 2020 as a trainee teacher in Physics and Mathematics, following seventeen years in the British Army. He is a tutor in Salisbury House, runs the Royal Marines section of the CCF, coaches rowing and supports school expeditions and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

As a family, his wife Kirstin (former Head of Geography) and three young children are happiest on the water, in the mountains or involved with their local church.

Naomi Ings, BA, GTP

Kristina Symons, BA, PGCE

Salvete & Valete

Rob Hoey, MEng

Support for Learning

Holding a Level 7 Certificate in Teaching and Assessing Learners with Specific Learning Difficulties, Kristina has 26 years’ experience in a range of independent and state schools. Originally trained as an English teacher, she qualified as a Specialist Teacher in 2011, which enables her to diagnose underlying learning difficulties such as dyslexia. Kristina holds a 200-hour yoga teacher training certificate and teaches yoga on the Shell carousel. She is also currently writing a psychological thriller for the young adult market. Kristina is married with two children and two dogs and loves the Bournemouth beach life.

Geography

Naomi joined Canford from Hanford School and previously taught at St Swithun’s. She enjoys lessons with an ‘out in the field’ feel and has led local trips to Studland and abroad to Iceland. As well as teaching, Naomi is involved in the school’s Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and is a tutor in Lancaster.

Outside school, she enjoys surfing, skiing and running.

Rachel Lines, BA Head of History

Rachel completed her combined honours degree of History and Ancient History at the University of Exeter, followed by a PGCE, achieving the Ted Wragg award for outstanding trainee within her cohort. After working in the state sector, Rachel moved to Canford to take on the role of Head of Department and is also a tutor in Lancaster. Rachel has a specialist interest in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, which she studied at university. Outside school, Rachel regularly attends the gym and is a keen netballer.

Richard Redwood, MA Head of English

Before joining Canford, Richard spent the first fourteen years of his teaching career in London, Leeds and Dorset. In addition to leading the English department, Richard is also involved with rugby coaching and runs the John o’Gaunt debating society and Heretics.

Jack Wilson, MEng, PGCE Mathematics

Before joining Canford in 2019, Jack taught in schools in the UK and abroad, then completed his PGCE through the University of Exeter. He is also a live-in tutor of Franklin and when he is not on duty, you’ll find him kitesurfing at one of the local beaches or mountain biking in the New Forest.

Jenny Ward, MA, PGCE English

Jenny’s love of English was fostered during her own school days at Canford, and since leaving she has pursued the subject to Masters level, with a particular focus on Shakespeare. She previously worked for three years at St George’s College, Weybridge, where she contributed to the academic, sporting and musical life at the school, something she hopes to continue at Canford.

Emily Wright, BA, PGCE Philosophy and Theology

Emily joined Canford following three years at Headington School, Oxford, as an NQT. She has taught both Religious Studies and Geography and has previously taken A Level and IB Geography trips to the Alps, as well as an exploration trip to Ethiopia linked to a charity to build facilities for schools in rural areas. Emily has an interest in reading, running and sports such as netball, cricket and dodgeball. She is also a Fourth Form tutor in Salisbury.

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Members of the academic staff who left in 2019/2020 LAURA BLAKE Laura always strove to create a welcoming and diverse Drama Department which helped to develop the young people who passed through our theatre doors, not just as performers but also as creatives.

Laura was so generous with her time that you never quite felt on your own with things. Her down-to-earth and no-fuss approach had a calming effect on any process.

It was this generosity of time that helped to create that sense of solidarity which makes our Drama community the supportive network that it is. So often in Drama, we are asking pupils to make themselves vulnerable in order to properly access a role or to achieve authenticity in performance, and that is only really possible if pupils feel that they are in a ‘safe space’. The work that pupils have been able to create over the years is testament to the time and care that Laura has put in.

Laura’s undeniable passion for her subject is something which I am grateful to have been able to share while working with her and I’m sure her pupils, past and present, would agree. The energy and enthusiasm that she shared with pupils, both in and out of the classroom, has inspired a confidence in them to be who they want to be and helped them to achieve well beyond their own perceived abilities. It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to Laura as she embarks on her own journey back into education to write her PhD. She will be truly missed. I only hope to be able to uphold the ethos in the department that Laura has worked so tirelessly to create.

Helen Craig

JOHN DANT John is a genuine polymath whose love of learning in all its forms is infectious. As a true classicist, he does not acknowledge subject boundaries.

He greeted the news that the department had a trebuchet, for example, by taking a moment to explore the maths which described a watermelon’s trajectory.

As a teacher, despite an almost supernatural skill for a tangent (worthy of Herodotus himself), John shared his knowledge as someone who has never lost his sense of wonder for all that there is to discover. For him, no time spent with a pupil has been too long, no lesson (on or off timetable) too much effort. Although sometimes I had to ‘rescue’ the pupils from what they refer to as relentless ‘Dantisms’, they held him in very high esteem and great affection.

As a colleague, John was equally as generous; whether tolerating my utter failure to grasp a spreadsheet or my lack of a sense of direction, his patience was immense.

On trips with him, I – like the pupils – learned a huge

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amount; visiting Sicily for the first time in particular is something that will live long in my memory. Going to a museum, seeing a play and even attempting to get a minibus out of an extremely small parking space will all be somehow lesser experiences without him.

John is great company, too, combining old-world courtesy with a powerful appreciation for the finer things in life. In conversation he effortlessly switches from high culture to genuine silliness in one smooth movement, as capable of quoting Lucretius as Dave Lister.

Ultimately, I have struggled to decide which is greater: John’s impact in a relatively (and surprisingly) short time or the amount I am going to miss him. I can state with absolute certainty that wherever John goes, they are lucky to have him and that he can rest assured, whatever the future brings, there will always be a smoked kipper ready for him here.

Anna Berry

CHARLOTTE FRANKLIN As soon as Charlie arrived at Canford, it was clearly recognised that she had a calming and warm relationship with the pupils. Not only was she an excellent teacher, but she also played a big role pastorally.

She was quickly snapped up to be a tutor in de Lacy, where she made a lot of strong bonds with the house staff and pupils. From the way she spoke about being in house, it was clear that that was a direction she wanted to take in her career. She stayed in de Lacy for a period and then played a role in Wimborne. But boarding was what she loved and she came back to the dark side with her role in Marriotts.

She has continued to make a difference to so many young lives and it is clear to see that the girls love her and appreciate her kind, intelligent and bubbly nature.

Netball season is Charlie’s season! The time and planning she put into her sessions were as impressive as the special bonds she created with her players. She really drove the U14/16 teams and this was evident by how far they got in the regionals and nationals. She was wellrespected and girls felt they could approach her and ask for advice.

Finally, the Maths Department. They have lost a valuable member of their team, who is definitely going to be missed. Charlie was a passionate teacher who inspired and guided many young people. She had such a kind presence in the department and that will be hard to replace. She was not only a fantastic colleague but also a true friend to many.

So Charlie was an amazing teacher, colleague and, most importantly, friend to so many people here at Canford. She is going to be a great asset to her new school, where she will surely be loved by the students as much as she was here.

Bryony Snooks

Involvement has been Sarah’s watchword. From the start, she became that member of staff everyone wanted to persuade to be the female cover on a trip, and she embraced every opportunity to get involved, driving minibuses far and wide for D of E expeditions, Community Service trips and the full gamut of English Department outings. Whatever trip the department came up with, Sarah was the first to volunteer to go on it.

We still have a photograph on the wall in the department office of Sarah and Sindre Vandvik poring over a map. Each is pointing in a different direction and looking puzzled, surrounded by a group of amused students. The more cynical might see this as a perfect metaphor for a department not always known for following convention, but it is surely much more interesting to see it as evidence of Sarah’s modus operandi. Sindre favoured the ‘it’s-all-in-my-head-and-will-work-itself-out’ sort of route-planning, but Sarah liked a plan, a strict agenda. As anyone who has ever done any creative writing knows, boundaries (paradoxically) generate liberty – a vast space within which the creative mind can work freely and magically. We were all familiar in English with Sarah’s ability to adapt, improvise and create, to fill this extraordinary space, and we all benefited hugely from her constructive imagination.

Sarah was the best possible sort of teacher who wore her learning lightly and believed wholeheartedly in encouraging the students; a creative force in her own right, she used this talent for nurture particularly effectively this year in her running of Yellow Hour, which went from strength to strength under her influence.

For a number of years she was a dedicated tutor in Salisbury, where Nick Jones much appreciated what he describes as her unflappable, grounded and calm approach to all that was thrown in her path. In her years in the day house, Sarah demonstrated to the full her admirable ability to see through all the peripheral fluff and cut to the heart of the matter; she has an instinct for what is really important in a world that is increasingly shallow.

Kathryn Watts

JAY JONES Jay was an Art teacher at Canford for sixteen years.

Having worked previously at Charterhouse, she brought with her the experience of working in a boarding school environment and an understanding of the needs of pupils both educationally and pastorally. At Canford she was involved with the whole community from teaching Art and Design, organising weekend workshops and educational trips in the UK and abroad, running prep school workshops, being house tutor in de Lacy and Beaufort, organising staff events and supporting pupils as they progress to higher education and a life post-Canford. She promoted her belief that creativity should play a major role in the school and encouraged

all pupils, especially the less confident, to experiment and recognise the broader benefits of Art: problem solving, decision making and personal development. Alongside her role within school she maintained her own practice with painting, regularly exhibiting her creative work.

Nicola Will

Salvete & Valete

SARAH HOLLAND

RICHARD JONES For four years Richard Jones illuminated the classroom with his inspirational teaching and was a tower of strength in support of the boys in School House. As an industrial economics graduate, Richard enthuses about the merits of hard work and the importance of making the most of one’s time, for the benefit of both oneself and the wider community. His passion for nutrition, health and wellbeing, fuelled by numerous books and podcasts, filtered out to the wider school through initiatives such as the water bottles sold by a Sixth Form business enterprise group, and the encouragement of pupils to monitor their own screen time through various apps.

However, his most significant impact was the quiet manner in which he and Emily created a warm, welcoming environment where the young men of School House were encouraged to aim high, to work hard for each other and, most of all, to be kind. We will miss Richard’s good humour, impeccable dress sense (even if his penchant for wearing brown shoes with city suits was rather avant garde) and the sight of Archie and Jamie whizzing around Lancaster lawn on their bikes, and we wish him the very best of luck in his new role as second master at some place called Bryanston – wherever that is.

Nick Jones

JAMES LADD-GIBBON Having been appointed initially as a ‘graddie’ in 2015, James established himself at Canford as a fine classroom practitioner, tutor, sports coach and tremendously valued colleague.

When I joined Canford in 2016, Gibbo (as he will always be most affectionately known) was hugely supportive and remained so over the years.

These are some of his best qualities – a mutual respect, selflessness and willingness to help at all hours, born of a fierce loyalty to all those that he holds dear. His expertise and input in so many different aspects will be hugely missed.

Happiest playing cricket for the MCC or spending hours on the hockey pitch, he was at the forefront of the hockey programme in terms of expert coaching, video analysis and accompanying teams on numerous pre-season trips and tours. In addition, in his typical style of seeking opportunities to develop professionally, Gibbo became an excellent umpire, officiating with empathy and fairness, while fostering an outstanding rapport with opposition staff, pupils and parents alike. A proud and committed soul, above all his value as a great friend

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SALVETE & VALETE

and colleague cannot be overstated. It is with genuine sadness that we say goodbye to him, as he embarks on an exciting and fresh new challenge at Cranleigh.

Matt Collison

JEREMY ORME Jerry Orme arrived at Canford from Cambridge in the early 1980s and has thus completed almost 40 years’ service to the school.

His professionalism was always evident in the classroom, where he helped build an impressive Geography Department; beyond Canford, he contributed to text books and latterly devised public exam questions. He was keen that fieldwork should be as interesting and as relevant as possible: London Docklands and the Olympic Park as they first developed, the Chamonix valley, inner city Liverpool and the troubled suburbs of Paris were memorable destinations.

He was a caring tutor and housemaster for all of his career and, as well as pastoral care, was also an extremely diligent academic tutor.

From the early days of the ‘Friendly Action Group’ through to today’s impressive Community Service Programme, JRO was always actively involved. Most notable was his Northam Project, a link between Canford and a deprived inner city area in Southampton.

This wasn’t always easy to run, but JRO’s uncomplaining manner facilitated the links which benefited both the children of Northam and Canford.

His care for others was also reflected in the trips to Nepal he organised: participants had to raise money for pens, pencils, trinkets, toys and clothing, the aim being to deliver them to isolated schools in villages at the highest point of each trek. He also organised a trip to Borneo and walked the Hindu Kush, so it is not surprising that he was heavily involved in adventure training at Canford.

Since he has been unable to say ‘no’, he spent weeks and weeks of his holidays and weekends under canvas.

Given his experience, it is not surprising that, as awareness of the importance of health and safety grew, JRO was an ideal member of a national committee set up to establish guidelines for independent schools.

For many years he was a successful rowing coach and a mainstay of the Boat Club. His expertise was such that for several years he returned to Cambridge during the summer holidays to help train Downing College crews.

He then moved to cross-country, in which took part and organised until his retirement.

He was always available to pupils and colleagues for advice and good counsel, he had no ‘edge’ and was a friend to all.

Rick Raumann

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MICHAEL OWEN Mike, a graduate from Bristol, came to Canford in September 1983 and here we are some 37 years later, after what I think has been pretty much Mike’s whole teaching career. It is difficult to say where Mike has left his mark most at Canford: in the outdoor arena – the CCF, Ten Tors, canoeing, the Pyrenees – or as the housemaster in Court for many years, as Registrar, in the English Department, or as the pillar of Canford’s IT management system in its early days. Throughout, he has been that unflappable, resolved, hugely intelligent and very generous man.

Mike is a big walking man. None of this zip wire, caving, high ropes stuff – for Mike there is nothing quite like four hard days in the mountains. As if Mike did not have enough to do in the CCF, he looked after the Ten Tors teams for a number of years and he would take the junior army cadets out to Canford Heath on their first night of Enterprise weekend, rather like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Mike also played a full part in sport, coaching cricket for many years. He was a fine housemaster of Court, taking the boys out of the old Court House to enjoy the new building. There, as a tutor under Mike, I experienced his highly efficient stewardship and learned a great deal in my early days at Canford.

But while this was all going on, Mike, the English teacher, was diving into the new world of IT. Who would have expected an English-teaching housemaster to devise, write and run the school’s management information system? Please note that Outlook was only invented in 2012. In fact, I always wondered why Mike wasn’t in Silicon Valley, advising Bill Gates. The message was clear: his love of teaching and Canford transcended all of that.

Mike spent his last few years bringing new pupils to Canford. He is a hugely respected figure in the prep school world and prep school heads have described him as a guru. Managing expectations and disappointments often leads to difficult conversations with anxious parents, yet Mike handled all of these in his firm but friendly way, with honesty, sympathy and resolve, never losing his patience, a master of discretion. As one of his former Admissions colleagues put it, ‘He was the nicest man I have ever served. He had the ability to drive and motivate you to work above and beyond – a true professional gentleman. Behind the softly spoken exterior lies a man with much compassion for his colleagues and a genuine love of Canford.’

Dan Culley

Tim has been something of an unsung hero of the school, who gave 26 years of service.

Perhaps his defining quality was dedication. He hated to be away from school even when ill: I was not expecting the job of HoD to include ringing up staff members to implore them not to come in or arranging to take them to the San after they have collapsed. Tim knew how disruptive it is for colleagues when someone is away from school and it was characteristic of him that he would do his absolute best to avoid burdening others.

His classroom was always an oasis of calm, perhaps rather colder than many of his pupils would like, but meticulously organised and detailed, much like his lessons. Tim was known for his clear and precise diagrams which, as well as being accurate, were works of art, making full use of colour to explain the points he wanted to make. He was unfailingly generous with his resources and advice, freely sharing materials he had taken hours to create.

On the pastoral side, Tim worked incredibly hard and gave massive support to his tutees, often spending hours with them and their parents, helping them through the UCAS process or doing his best to make them work a bit harder.

Tim was in charge of sailing for a very long time. Once again this is something that few pupils and staff are aware of, but it is actually an enormous job. Tim achieved great success in this field over the years and brought real enjoyment to many.

There was no doubt that Tim found the prospect of remote teaching daunting, but he rose to the challenge admirably. Again that characteristic of dedication came to the fore: Tim sets up all his lessons as meetings well in advance, spent most of the Easter holiday preparing resources and converted his living room into a classroom, even buying his own full-size whiteboard to help him teach.

I know that Tim thought long and hard about his retirement and we will miss him enormously.

Ed Johnson

MARK BURLEY

SALVETE & VALETE

TIM STREET

Having devoted 23 years to developing sport at Canford, first as Sports Centre Manager and then as Director of Sport, Mark left a significant legacy behind when he departed at the end of the Christmas Term. With his passionate but modest approach, he has inspired generations of Canfordians to lead a healthy lifestyle. Mark had strong beliefs about the power of sport and why we place such emphasis on it at Canford. He felt that while it was always great to win, he wanted the important qualities sport fosters to be recognised – Confidence, Ambition, Nobility, Fearlessness, Organisation, Resilience and Decision Making – and even produced a T-shirt spelling out this CANFORD mnemonic which pupils are now awarded after being voted to receive it by their coaches. As Sports Centre Manager for the first 10 years of its existence, he turned a new and exciting, but empty, building into one that turns over a healthy profit for the School. The strength and conditioning gym was an area he sought to improve in particular, wanting it to be a place made accessible to anyone and everyone, allowing pupils to become fitter, faster and stronger but more importantly injury-free, so they could continue to enjoy a lifetime of sport.

In the department, Burls was fondly known as the ‘sports geek’. His knowledge of all sports was vast and over his time at Canford he ran a multitude of different teams: netball, football, basketball, athletics and rugby. He rather hid his light under a bushel but was in fact a qualified level 4 rugby coach, one of the only teachers in the country to achieve this and the same as that required by coaches of professional teams. He was never happier than when surrounded by enthusiastic pupils eager to learn new skills.

It was emotional to see the pupil recognition at the final assembly at the end of the Christmas Term, where there was a pupil-led standing ovation!

Mark was not just a Director of Sport, he also inspired in the classroom with his History and Physical Education teaching alongside careful guidance with his Sixth Form tutees. Our loss is Winchester College’s gain. They are lucky to have an inspirational leader of sport. He will be sorely missed.

Natasha Wilson

OTHER STAFF LEAVERS When Roger Centron Gomez joined us as a Spanish assistant from Matadepera two years ago, little did we know that we had recruited such a multi-talented person and an exceptional human being. Humble and hard-working, Roger gained both the pupils’ and his colleagues’ admiration with his professional approach that would have been easy to underestimate. After an excellent first year, we managed to persuade him to stay on and we are very grateful to him for the exceptional job he did.

Roger was also active on the hockey field, where highlights of his time here included reaching the Tier 1 West Finals with the U14As. Hugo Hammond was with us for a year in the Sports Department.

Hugo made valuable contributions, getting stuck in wherever needed and showing a real love for games from the first sessions he attended. It was clear he wanted every pupil regardless of ability to come away with a new skill or sense of achievement.

Martin Labonia came to Canford from Buenos Aires to take language oral classes and assist in the Sports Department. He hit the ground running with his enthusiasm and his ability to engage with everyone he encountered; his laidback nature and great willingness to get stuck in made him a hit straightaway with pupils and colleagues alike.

As the lead girls’ rowing coach, Grace Macdonald brought with her a wealth of experience from her local, undergraduate and international rowing career. She took on the challenge of encouraging and nurturing our girls into the ways of the sport. We would like to thank Grace for all her hard work, enthusiasm and passion, as she returns to university to study for an MSc in Physiotherapy.

Dimity Macho’s contributions to Canford over the last two years have been immense. She quickly established a reputation as a patient and dedicated Maths teacher at all levels, a highly valued and much loved tutor in Beaufort, and a tennis and netball coach par excellence. She impressed all who worked with her by her ability to get the best out of the pupils she coached, while maintaining smiles on all of their faces.

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Salvete & Valete

Pupils who joined Canford during 2019/20 Name

At 16+

David Benamor Georgia Calvert-Lee Grace Campbell Lily Clark Magnus Crawshaw Emily Cridland Tom Doyle Laura Driver Dani Egan Saskia Green Olivia Hingston Emily Howat Pavlos Karampoulas Loren Le Quesne Joe Louden Lydia Lydiate Acacia Manley Anu Osikoya Ben Parkin Grace Pickup Zac Prentice Tom Prest Isabel Roche James Simms Brad Spanjar Catalina Taylor Otto Thompson

At 14+

Serena Chen Michael Huang Greg Rowland Mimi Taylor Satch Thurston

At 13+

Petrus Admiraal-Garbett Zachary Ashby-Rudd Oscar Bailey Francesca Baillieu Georgina Baillieu Rose Baldwin Dominic Bates Scott Battisby Johannes Bishop-Weston Albert Blackburn Kit Blomfield Frederick Bowater Jessica Burke George Burnell Michael Campbell Felix Church Daniel Coupe Hector Courtenay Lara Crorie Lottie Cross Court Abigail Crossley-Weir Daisy Cullinan Millie Davey Jasmine De La Haye Sophie De Veulle Alice Denby Yoyo Ding Maya Doubleday Lara Edsall Harriet Farthing Max Firth Will Fountain Luca Freeman Frances Fulton Allegra Gamett-Griggs

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Previous school

Clayesmore School Parkstone Grammar St Swithun’s School Poole High School Clayesmore School Talbot Heath Devonport High School for Boys Talbot Heath Parkstone Grammar Talbot Heath Purbeck School The Ladies’ College, Guernsey Winton Academy Jersey College For Girls Queen Elizabeth’s School Bournemouth School for Girls Bournemouth School for Girls The Bourne Academy Poole Grammar School South Wilts Grammar Leaf Academy Hampshire Cricket College Bournemouth School for Girls The Bourne Academy Ballard School British School of Paris Wellington College

Scholarship(s)

Assyrian Academic Assyrian Assyrian Academic

Academic Assyrian Academic

Academic Academic, Music, Assyrian

Umberto 1 - Lanciano Keystone Academy Beijing Sunningdale School British School of Paris Poole Grammar School

Castle Court Highfield Westbourne House Highfield Highfield Allenbourn Elizabeth College Castle Court Priestlands Colyton Grammar School Sandroyd Sandroyd Dumpton Castle Court Pilgrims’ Highfield Castle Court Kellett School Hong Kong Twyford Exeter Cathedral School Knighton House Farleigh Castle Court Talbot Heath St Michael’s, Jersey Twyford Wycombe Abbey International School Dumpton Highfield Eagle House Salisbury Cathedral School Westbourne House Walhampton Twyford Parkstone Grammar

Academic

Drama

Art Academic

Sport Academic Sport Academic

Salvete & Valete

Charlie Gibson Castle Court Isaac Gill Durlston Court Henry Hancock Castle Court Nathaniel Harlowe Cayman Prep School Adriano Hedley Port Regis Thomas Herbert King’s Hall School Academic Oliver Hinds Durlston Court Zara Holt St Michael’s, Jersey Jorgia Holtby Dumpton Summer Hookey Castle Court Tom Hopwood Dumpton James Hornung Castle Court Academic Dill Howell Westbourne House Sport Dominique Hudson Dumpton Sport Eddie Jack Castle Court Academic, Sport Olivia Jackson Cayman Prep School Inés Jankovich-Besan St Mary’s, Calne Millie Jeffries Castle Court Academic, Drama Ross Jemmett Westbourne House James Johnson Twyford Academic, Sport Evie Johnstone Downe House Olivia Joll Port Regis Arthur Keen Chafyn Grove Charlotte Kersey Dumpton Academic, Music Thomas Kiff Clayesmore Prep Isla Knatchbull Twyford Henry Lane Aysgarth School Design Lara Le Quesne Jersey College for Girls Oscar Lineker-Bennett Twyford William Lowbridge Allenbourn Design Angus Macfarlane Cheam Design Chloe Markham Castle Court Drama Imi Marley Westbourne House Sport Sam Martin Castle Court Sport Guy Marton Castle Court Flynn McMillan King’s Hall School Jansci Motsi Wellesley House School Eleanor Mowbray Castle Court Julian Newell Poole Grammar School Music Chloe Nwankwo Wren Academy Drama Ellie Paget Durlston Court Molly Peacock Castle Court Art Louis Pearson Dumpton Olly Peters Stroud Daisy Pinner Bournemouth School for Girls Edward Porter Danes Hill Eddie Quick Perrott Hill Ranulph Raymond Winchester College Sam Reeve Salisbury Cathedral School Bibi Rodgers Knighton House Academic Isabella Rose Westbourne House Arun Samra Poole Grammar School Edward Schuster Bruce Castle Court Sport Eason Shao Walhampton Emily Shi Brambletye Art Isaac Siggers Castle Court Nathan Sloley Sunninghill Sergey Smirnov Home-schooled Theo Snell Highfield Thomas Sparkhall Pilgrims’ Music Poppy Speers Walhampton Amelia Spicer Dumpton Madeleine Spraigue Castle Court Henry Stear Dubai College Lucy Stephenson Dumpton Academic Lukas Svedberg Poole Grammar School Academic, Music Samuel Symes Twyford Edward Timberlake Westbourne House Academic, Sport Arthur Toosey Daneshill Ethan Tsang King George V School Mia Ulyett Allenbourn Johnny Walster Dumpton Hayden Weedall Lockers Park School Sophia Westberg-Orton Castle Court Sophia Whelan Bournemouth School for Girls Max Williamson Stroud Lara Witter Amesbury Giorgio Wyatt Castle Court James Yuan Shanghai United International School Agatha Zhao YK Pao School Sarah Zhao YK Pao School

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Salvete & Valete

Destinations of leavers (This is the best information available at the time of going to press. Some of those listed have accepted places for 2021 following a gap year.

OCs are indicated by leaving year.)

AECC, Bournemouth Bath Birmingham Brighton Bristol

Cambridge Cardiff Cardiff Metropolitan Coventry Durham

East Anglia Edinburgh

Exeter

Harper Adams Imperial College, London King’s College, London Kingston Lancaster Leeds Liverpool Loughborough LSE Manchester Manchester Metropolitan Newcastle Nottingham

Nottingham Trent Oxford

Oxford Brookes Portsmouth Reading Royal Agricultural Sheffield Southampton St Mary’s, Twickenham St Andrews Surrey Swansea University College, London Warwick West of England Winchester York

Angus Hooker George Billson, Finch Massam, Ellie Maynard, Emilia Milner, Ben Morris, Jack Sawyer Nathan Bulstrode, Sam Downey, Sophie Saunders Celia Hansell (2016) Charlie Berridge, Mia Brash (2019), Yasmin Chadwick, Beanie Culley, Millicent Edwards, Holly Hazzard, Lucy Hobden (2019), Hamish Johnson, Rachel Ko, Fruin MacKillop-Hall (2019), Alex Nikopoulos, Sophie Patrick (2019), Milly Rees, Emily Sewell, Felix Spencer, Madeleine Wells, Emily Witter Ruth Colville (2019), Ollie Hilton, Katherine Jack, JC Zhang Nuala Dyball, Tom Edsall, Grace Leggett India Still Joshua Brook, Gisele Dack Lizzy Balls, Ellen Campbell, Serena Chamberlain, Connie Doxat, Imogen Gallego, Francesca Hibbit, Matthew Daubeney (2019), Giacomo Perin, Stefan Perry, Sammy Smith, Felix Spowers (2019) Daniel Offer Katie Ashcroft, Ella Doubleday, Frederick James (2019), Freddie Johnson (2019), Will Jones, Poppy Keeping, Imi Nicholls (2019), Lara Pilkington (2019) Max Anand, Tom Boucher, Charlotte Butt, Charlie Cooke-Priest, George Farthing, James Fountain (2019), Lachlan Fulton (2019), Rosie Johnstone, Lucy King, Jonathan Fung, Joe Nalbantoglu, Billy Pocock, Jessica Rees, Jack Salmon, Oliver Scudds, Martha Taylor, Rob Thomas Oliver White Noah Le Boutillier, Mihhail Sorokin Sidney Beckles, Patrick Taylor Emma Dalton Grace Woolaway Georgina Kearns, James Longrigg, Fergus Taylor Nia Burley, Joe Hollywood Zach Fenwick, Ben Holland, Archie Hunter, Matthew Longley Lili Mikova Sophie Alcock, Martin Bull, Matilda Child, Jerry Hu Amelia Godel (2019) Stewart Boyd, Bella Brown, Katherine Daubeney, Woody Millhouse, Ella Sutton (2019), Tom Sykes Fin Boardman, Emma Crinks, Joshua Davey, Amelia Hedley, Rory Johnson, Tessa Marley, Charlie Peplow, Archie van der Flier Cameron Powell Finn Baker, Sean Herrington, Olly Hutton, Jennifer Jackson (2018), Jessye Phillips, Loveday Pride (2019), Amy van Wingerden, Charlotte Wittram, Tia Yang Georgie Jack, Harry Moores Zach Buller Ollie Leat, Eleanor Whitworth Alexander Mitchell (2019) Luke Hett, Douglas Rowland Jake Jeffries, Philipp von Gemmingen Mattie Effick Emma Dalton Daisy Bartlett-Hooker, Sean Sinclair, Joshua Davies, Flinn Tiefenthal Valentín Lužák, Lottie Thomas Yerlan Jakupov Jack Carpenter, Sebastian Von Schirnding Amelia Merrick William Bloxam, Freddie Porter

2020 leavers re-applying next year George Baugniet, Sophie Bearblock, Jacob Browning, Callum Bruce, Tom Dodd, Tom Edsall, Thea Ellis, Hannah Fairchild, Seb Fecher, Ella Heffner, Lauren Hua, Noorie Kaur, Emma Large, Lexie Macduff, Ines Mitchell, Patrick Perry, Adam Phillips, Alex Rogers, Abbie Rowsell, Bea Webb, Isabella Woodward, Alex Young Other 2020 leavers Melody Dean, Michael Maiden (into work), Matthew Shuttleworth (pilot course), Thomas Thornburrow (applying for overseas university), Max Wyatt

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ACADEMIC Canfordians voted to name the Chemistry office Youyou, after a female Chinese chemist who discovered a novel therapy against malaria using artemisinin.

WHEN we started the year in September, we could not have imagined how the academic life of the school would change with the arrival of Covid-19. While our teaching methods moved to online for the Summer Term, the quality of teaching, including much innovation by pupils and staff alike, ensured as seamless a transition as possible.

We record here some of the many academic highlights from Heads of Departments over the past twelve months both pre-lockdown and beyond.

Pupils studying Biology rose to all the challenges of the past year, producing impressive work and developing knowledge both before and during the lockdown. In the Sixth Form, research by JC Zhang was published in a peer-reviewed academic journal: a staggering achievement for someone of school age. We were delighted to once again see pupils achieve Oxbridge offers and Medical School application success, helped by contributions from OCs including Emma Thurston and Josh Doherty, and in the Biology Olympiad competition, we achieved two gold, two silver and two bronze awards.

Despite the lost opportunity to sit the exams they had prepared so hard for, there was an excellent response by pupils in the Upper Sixth to the College Programme with some really thoughtful and well-researched responses, especially on Coronavirus discussions. We are so fortunate to have the grounds and arboretum on our doorstep to explore and made full use of these again this year to complement classroom and lab work. Usually our Shells can take advantage of this for the annual departmental wildlife photography competition, but it was wonderful to see so many excellent entries taken by pupils from their homes instead during the period of remote learning.

It has been a lively year in Classics with a mix of on-site events and venturing further afield to explore ancient cultures. Our Fourth Form and Lower Sixth visited the excellent British Museum ‘Troy’ exhibition, which gave a fascinating insight into the story of a great city plunged into a ten-year war, full of captivating characters brought to life through some breathtaking art and archaeological evidence. We travelled to the Oxford Playhouse to watch the first performance of a new play combining Aeschylus’s Agamemnon with Sophocles’s Aias and attended the performance of Euripides’s Alcestis in the original Greek, with the reconstruction of an ancient flute being played, in the Greek theatre at Bradfield.

Our second trip to Rome (pictured) combined with the Philosophy and Theology Department was another memorable experience for everyone involved. We also saw our classicists perform extremely well in the Salisbury Classical Languages Reading Competition while the Classics Dinner – on a theme of Heroes and Heroines this year – was once again a highlight of the year with resplendent costumes from pupils and staff, a delicious supper and excellent speeches. We said goodbye to Mr Dant at the end of the Summer Term. His valete is elsewhere in this magazine but we thank him for his infectious enthusiasm for Classics which has inspired Canfordians and staff alike over the years, and wish him the very best for the future.

“We are so fortunate to have the grounds and arboretum on our doorstep to explore.”

There were some fantastic examples of ingenuity, engineering and problem-solving in Computer Science this year. The Shell Robot competition is run in conjunction with DT and saw greater use of sensors and unique delivery solutions including large electromagnets and xbox controllers in this third iteration. Impressive A Level projects included a chess AI, generalised AI and many interesting pathfinding solutions in 3D, plus several games including an OSU replay/edit/simulate program. The Canford College post A Level course was very successful with pupils exploring topics beyond the syllabus, including

In Chemistry, staff and pupils rose wonderfully to the challenge of teaching and being taught through Teams.

There was much excellent teaching and learning going on with pupils discussing ideas in breakout rooms, teachers performing live demos in their classroom and families being roped in to carry out solubility practicals at home.

The Lower Sixth were given a viva, an oral exam, through Teams which at first worried them greatly.

However, after sitting this at the end of the first-year course, their comments were almost universally positive.

The pupils said that they could really show their knowledge, that they actually enjoyed talking through their ideas and that it was excellent preparation for University interviews as these will undoubtedly be remote.

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ACADEMIC

flocking behaviour of virtual animals, as well as a Python course with some Upper Sixth formers teaching others.

Special mention to Sean Herrington, who has given so much of his time to the department and to help and guide his fellow pupils from all years, exemplifying the very best of Canford.

The prize for Computer Science this year went to Mike Sorokin, who is heading to Imperial College, London to study Maths and Computer Science. Nearly all the Upper Sixth taking the subject have gone on to study some form of Computer Science at university, with many to Russell Group destinations. OC David Kaufman, who studied Computer Science in 2015/16, has already created a successful social media start-up, so the future looks bright for those looking to make a career in the sector.

There are exciting changes ahead as we move to AQA GCSE to bring our courses into line after new specification launches.

We also welcomed a new member of the teaching staff this year, Mr Viner, who joined to teach GCSE Computer Science as well as developing some of our Canford systems.

“Our leavers showed themselves incisive and insightful in the range and perceptiveness of their questions.”

The Summer Term teaching remotely was a challenge for all concerned but the Design Technology Department were particularly impressed by the way the Fourth Form and Lower Sixth tackled the challenge of designing a new line of Lego toys. Learning and utilising Lego Designer software, they produced some outstanding work: impressive given the difficulties of remote communication.

The cross-curricular challenge with Computing, ‘Project XER’, again saw the Shells generate and make interesting solutions to the set challenge, programming and operating their robots to deliver pods in the ‘dangerous environments’, all while recording telemetry and reporting this to the operator.

This year we saw several Upper Sixth pupils take on technically challenging projects both in terms of design thinking and iterative manufacture. Tom Edsall looked at Scuba Diver Egress systems and then carried out extensive modelling and testing, both in the swimming pool and on the river, to prove the viability of his concept. George Farthing carried out many trials with customer feedback informing his choices throughout the development of his automated medicine dispensing system for the elderly. Advanced use of CAD and 3D printing was an essential element of his work. Zach Fenwick’s compact system to stabilise cameras also required expert use of CAD software and many iterative steps before.

The Economics Department has offered innovation, inspiration and opportunity this year. In March, Mrs Tea Colaianni (Canford parent and HR Director for Merlin Entertainments) and Charlie North-Lewis (General Manager of Wimborne’s Tivoli Theatre) gave presentations to, and led group discussions for, all of the Upper Sixth on the Entertainment Industry as preparation for the A Level synoptic paper. Over the course of the Easter and Summer Terms, Mr Marston organised a stock-market trading game that attracted over 40 participants from across the year groups, from Fourth Form to Upper Sixth leavers. Congratulations to Jimmy Johnson (Franklin) who, over the two-month game session, achieved a surplus of $22,000!

Through the year on Monday afternoons, Mr Ladd Gibbon and Mr Jones organised an ‘Apprentice-style’

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activity for sixth-formers. Business plans had to be presented to a visiting entrepreneur (local businessman Andy Lennox) and funds would be ‘won’ to invest in a product launch. Successful ideas included Christmas calendars, Canford hoodies and a ‘health-oriented’ tuck shop.

In the Upper Sixth Leavers ‘College’ programme, Mr Pearce invited a group of his peers (Dan Larkin, Jake Mason and OC Adam Kene) to give an insight into the invigorating joys and parlous dangers of setting up and running their own businesses. Our leavers showed themselves incisive and insightful in the range and perceptiveness of their questions and our thanks go to the three entrepreneurs who gave generously of their time to support this project during our remote learning.

In the English Department, the year began in stark contrast to the way it ended, with the excitement of the entire Fourth and Fifth Forms visiting the Mayflower Theatre to see the National Theatre production of An Inspector Calls. As we watched the powerful Scottish Inspector reduce the Birling household to an isolated group, reminding them of the importance of being responsible for each other, we had no idea that this theme would be re-enacted in the real world, too. The year continued with departmental trips to see Orlando, Dr Faustus and Frankenstein, but Covid-19 resulted in theatrical trips in the second part of the year taking place ‘virtually’: Jane Eyre, Twelfth Night, Macbeth and A Streetcar Named Desire. Evening events comprised the Shell poetry and music evening, and Fourth Form class performances on our themed evening, ‘An Inspector Calls: Through the Keyhole’.

Outside classes and the curriculum, pupils saw success in competitions and publications – Amy Van Wingerden was published in Emagazine having been highly commended in the national close reading competition and Catalina Taylor won the Never Such Innocence poetry competition and was highly commended in the Newnham College essay competition. Pupils were also entered for and published in the Woolf Prize, Through their Eyes and Global Acts of Unity.

We also took part in a number of national events including National Poetry Day and another successful World Book Day this year. It was great to see so many of us celebrating books and reading by sharing what we read with each other and by taking part in the quizzes provided by the English Department and the Library. The English Department provided a main school quiz by dressing up as characters from scenes in the set texts studied by pupils. All these events promoted a wider awareness of

The Head of Geography, Alex Boulton, wrote her report for The Canfordian sitting in an empty classroom in a very quiet school but noted: ‘I have just finished teaching a GCSE class, themselves sitting in rooms across the UK and all the way to Taiwan and the Cayman Islands. This has been our new norm; separated by a computer screen and many miles, teaching has taken on a very different feel this term. The department is very empty without the bustle, noise and energy of the pupils and we miss them very much. However we have all risen to the challenge and I think it is safe to say that our IT skills have come on a great deal. The Geography that we have delivered this term has been high-quality and innovative and I couldn’t be more proud of the teamwork and drive that my department has shown.’

From a geographical perspective, the current pandemic offers many opportunities for study and it is fascinating to think that we are living through something that is very likely to become a case study in the future. This year the Fifth Form began looking at the epidemiology of the spread in their Enrichment classes and Upper Sixth seminars addressed how different communities are so differently affected.

The past year saw a wide variety of field trips. Over

February half term an A Level trip to the Azores involved dodging both a huge storm and increasing levels of international lockdown, but it was a magical experience for everyone. The Azores are an incredible volcanic landscape and a cozido meal cooked in the ground, visiting a tea factory and swimming in geothermal pools were just some of the highlights. Closer to home, visits to Sorrento, Swanage, Studland and Southampton enabled us to fulfil our department’s aim to expose pupils to new places and new ideas and wherever possible to allow them to experience things for themselves. The increasing wealth of online resources has undoubtedly made it easier to provide a real range of incredibly current material in lessons, but there is still nothing that compares to personal experience. The opportunities next year may well be more limited but we will continue to make the most of every one we can.

There have been some staff changes this past year, with Naomi Ings quickly becoming a fixture. However, we also said goodbye to Jerry Orme. While at a garden centre buying a farewell gift to mark Jerry’s retirement, Alex got into conversation with the owner, only to find out that he had been taught Geography by Jerry many years ago; this is really par for the course whenever you mention that you teach at Canford: ‘Ah, do you know Jerry Orme?’ followed by some form of amusing anecdote. While these anecdotes vary from those about Geography to running, to rowing, to the house, they all have in common an enormous warmth of feeling towards Jerry. There is no doubt that he is one of the most generous and genuine individuals that you will ever meet and the calm and assurance that he brings to the department will be sorely missed. The Geography Department without Jerry is going to be a strange place.

We wish him every happiness in his retirement.

The annual History Department trip to the battlefields was particularly memorable and moving in the centenary anniversary of the end of World War 1, with visits to Ypres, the Somme and Menin Gate among the many sites visited.

The annual Keith Hay Dinner was once again a lively event, this year on a 1920s theme with an epic quiz that included an art, music and speeches round. This was extremely well organised and run by the History Committee.

A Level historians attended an online lecture by Professor Mark Stoyle from the University of Southampton on ‘Women during the Civil War’ as part of their Stuarts A Level module, while the Upper Sixth attended a Historical Association lecture delivered by Dr Ives on the American Civil War. Finally, without the pressure of exams, the Upper Sixth had time to take part in the Covid-19 Oral History project, sending out surveys to the Canford community and analysing the data to record the impact of the Coronavirus epidemic for future Canfordians to review and reflect on.

Covid-19 certainly brought the world closer.

ACADEMIC

beautiful literature and the joy of writing creatively.

The Shell cross-curricular project was launched after half term, and the landscapes theme inspired pupils to some excellent writing and ‘world in a box’ creations in the English, Art and Geography collaboration. The project, inspired by dystopian landscapes, culminated in a live reading and Q&A session with the highly acclaimed author of The Territory, Sarah Govett. Author Kieron Winn also held a live reading and answered questions, helping to inspire our Shells and sixth-formers.

In the Summer Term, a final dose of Shakespeare for this academic year did not come with the traditional visit of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men in June to perform Macbeth, cancelled because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

We did manage to replace this with a virtual screening of the Globe’s recent production of Macbeth. Many pupils (and their parents) watched the production from the comfort of their own homes. Several re-created the open-air experience by picnicking with an outdoor screen.

In honour of the Bard’s birthday, celebrations did not end here, with the department producing a Shakespearian mash-up and Shells producing their own finger-puppet versions of Much Ado About Nothing. Seeing pupils perform with cut-out versions of Benedick and Beatrice, their legs portrayed by fingers, certainly heightened the comedy.

We parted for the summer break, exhausted, exhilarated (by books and writing) and excited for when we would see each other again.

“It is fascinating to think that we are living through something that is very likely to become a case study in the future.”

The Mathematics Department reports that in the Intermediate MATHS Challenge, Shells, Fourth Form and Fifth Form pupils achieved thirteen gold certificates including Sarah Zhao in Shells, with thirteen pupils qualifying for the ‘Kangaroo’ follow-up challenge. In addition, Jamie Tian qualified for the Maclaurin Olympiad with the highest score the school has seen in recent years of 124/135. In the Senior Maths Challenge for Lower and Upper Sixth form Further Mathematicians, pupils achieved six gold certificates with five qualifying for the ‘Kangaroo’ follow-on challenge. In addition, Sean Herrington scored

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ACADEMIC

the highest in the school with a score of 100, earning him a place in the British Maths Olympiad, in which he was awarded a Merit.

We are pleasingly now seeing a sustained increase in application for straight Maths degrees where, for a few years, there have been Maths-related degrees in engineering and science. We are delighted to see this as we continue to convey to our pupils our passion for the subject, which is clearly now starting to bear fruit! It was great to see so much interest in the subject also from Year 8s across the country in response to our Code Breaking Challenge as part of the Prep School Leavers’ Programmes. Unfortunately, we were not able to run any trips in the second half of the year due to Covid but we are hoping to reschedule a trip to Bletchley Park when the opportunity arises.

“French film nights have been more popular than ever – a great opportunity to watch French films outside the classroom.”

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Our Modern Languages Department has had another very successful year. The junior members of the French Department enjoyed a Fourth and Fifth Form trip to Provence while the Upper Sixth immersed themselves in French theatre on a trip to the West End to see a modern version of Cyrano de Bergerac, starring James McAvoy.

More and more pupils are taking part in French language competitions, writing short stories or translating poetry, and we were very proud of Catalina Taylor, who was awarded one of just 23 special mentions among pupils across the UK for her French to English translation at the Juvenes Translatores Competition. The introduction of a reading scheme this year to encourage Lower Sixth pupils to read beyond the curriculum has seen very positive benefits and French film nights have been more popular than ever – a great opportunity to watch French films outside the classroom. Finally, MFL breakfasts for Shells and celebration of la Chandeleur (Candlemas) with crêpes for the Sixth Form have provided a literal taste of France!

The Upper Sixth German class was very likely the strongest and most proficient Sixth Form class ever seen at Canford. Stella Jarvis and Lottie Thomas entered the German section of the EU Juvenes Translatores competition (the last ever for UK schools before we leave the EU), with Lottie being awarded a commendation.

Lottie also secured an interview at Cambridge and a place at UCL to read German and French and was the winner of both the Academic German Prize and Upper Sixth College German Prize on Speech Day. We also welcomed a number of expert speakers this year. Miriam Golis (from Bielefeld in north-west Germany)

gave a very informative and in-depth talk in German to the Upper Sixth about her experiences of the German school system, university life and apprenticeships. Vicky Lethbridge (former Canford teacher and current Head of MFL at Parkstone Grammar School) came to deliver a very engaging and interactive Upper Sixth literature workshop on Bertolt Brecht and his play, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, a current Pre-U German set text. Finally, the 30th anniversary of the Fall of Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 was acknowledged and discussed in all German classes.

A highlight in Spanish was Upper Sixth pupil Olly Hutton winning the last UK Juvenes Translatores contest in the Christmas Term with a superb Spanish to English translation. Olly was selected from entries across the country and the award was announced by a representative from the competition when he visited Canford to give a presentation on careers within language translation. Sadly, due to Covid-19 Olly was unable to travel to Brussels for the awards ceremony but instead this was held online and gave the opportunity to meet winners from other countries across Europe. Olly now moves on to Oxford to read Spanish and Law. Most of our Upper Sixth cohort have opted to continue learning Spanish at university level in various ways.

Prior to lockdown, the Fourth and Fifth Form enjoyed our usual lively evening outings to local Spanish restaurants with the Fourths tasting a variety of Spanish, Cuban and Mexican foods and the Fifths mastering a salsa dancing masterclass. We also took full advantage of the remote learning period, and the Upper Sixth online seminar with Professor Stephen Hart from UCL was an exceptional event. The quality of the discussion exceeded our expectations in this university-style online seminar.

Finally, the Hispanista magazine has seen its first two issues published in the course of the year with top-quality content. It is available to read on the department page of the school website.

Our cohort of pupils studying Other Languages remains relatively small compared to the core curriculum of French, German and Spanish, but we were delighted to see 30 Canfordians taking language lessons and exam preparation in Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Russian outside the timetable this year. We helped develop this during the Upper Sixth College Programme, with Lucy Harding teaching a highly engaging Italian course for beginners via Microsoft Teams. A cultural highlight was once again the superb Chinese New Year festival

It has been a busy year in the Philosophy and Theology Department with a mix of trips and fascinating lectures complementing our classroom studies. November was particularly busy with A Level pupils attending an ‘Academy Conference Masterclass’ on the 15th, a celebration of World Philosophy Day on the 19th, when Dr Graeme Forbes delivered a lecture on ‘Life, Death, and the Ozymandias problem’ to our A Level pupils for our annual formal supper (pictured on previous page), and GCSE pupils attending a ‘Christian Life and Worship’ guided tour at Westminster Abbey and the ‘Islamic Beliefs and Worship’ guided tour at the London Central Mosque on the 27th. In February, we teamed up with the Classics Department for an exciting cultural trip to Rome for GCSE and A Level pupils – a fascinating experience which we very much hope we can repeat after travel restrictions ease.

During the Covid-19 remote learning period, we continued to question and inspire with a number of outstanding online talks by A C Grayling, Peter Singer and Christina Welch. Finally, we welcomed Emily Wright to the department this year from Headington School, Oxford.

She has been an excellent addition to our team, despite joining in what has been a truly unprecedented year.

Academic PE saw numbers studying the subject continue to grow this year with 87 pupils taking the subject across A Level and GCSE. Director of Hockey Matt Collison took over from Mark Burley in helping deliver the courses and relished the opportunity of getting back into the classroom. He has a BSc in Exercise and Sport Science from Bath University so is eminently qualified.

We were very proud of the way pupils embraced the College Programme after the cancellation of A Levels, and special mention goes to Sophie Saunders for her presentation on the disgraced Olympian, Ben Johnson, to Jess Rees’s look at the link between anxiety and performance and to Michael Maiden’s charismatic blog following his transition from mountain biker to road bike enthusiast.

We wish the best of luck to all our leavers after a challenging year, and it is good to see that four of our pupils – India Still, Mattie Effick, Jess Rees and Sophie Saunders – are choosing to study a sports-related course at university. We hope that we have provided a sound base for them to build on.

Physics welcomed new departmental members this year. David Hivey and Dick Carpenter settled in well and have already become part of the team. One of their first duties was to accompany the Upper Sixth to Thorpe Park for the annual field trip – they fully entered into the spirit of the day! Pupils have certainly made their mark this year in national competitions. Four sixth-formers received medals in the British Physics Olympiad – Mark Xai top Gold (top 50 in the country), Sean Herrington and Nathan Bulstrode Silver and Charlotte Wittram Bronze level 1. A number of our GCSE pupils keenly prepared for and entered the Intermediate Physics Challenge run by Oxford University. Milind Khashu, Harry Zheng and Tommy Qian received Silver awards, Jamie Barrington Bronze level 1 and Lucy Hancock a commendation. The Soroptimist STEM challenge also

blossomed this year. Agatha Zhou qualified for the final at Bournemouth University with her needleless injection system and last year’s finalists have stuck together and entered for a CREST award with a teaching aid for the organs of the body.

Another highlight this year was Tom Thornburrow’s designed and built earthquake simulator to show resonance as part of his EPQ – it has now taken its place in the vast stock of demonstration apparatus in the departmental equipment store. We are not sure when the F24 racing programme will resume, but the Sixth Form car has been rewired in preparation. We hope to see it back on the track very soon!

Finally, as our Upper Sixth move on to further their studies, we were delighted to see Charlotte Wittram and Sean Herrington fulfilling their Oxbridge offers and wish all Canfordians furthering their education in the world of Physics the very best for the future.

As is customary when a General Election is held, the Politics Department hosted a school-wide mock election on 12 December, the same day as the election itself. It was won for the Lib Dems by Leo Burnet of the Fourth Form, who waged a very savvy campaign pitched at the junior members of school.

The Upper Sixth attended the annual ‘Congress to Campus’ seminar hosted by Wellington College in early March. Former members of the House of Representatives (one Democrat and one Republican) respond to 30-minute presentations by UK-based university lecturers on topics such as the US Presidency, the US Supreme Court, Congress, the state of the political parties, and the ‘primary’ contest to nominate a Democratic challenger to Donald Trump in November. As ever, it was a full and informative day, indulging in nothing but US politics in readiness for the final run-in to the exams.

Within a few days of this trip, the school was closed and we were greeted with the news that exams would be cancelled. This proved to be a disappointing end to a productive term: this year’s group was a talented one and we were looking forward to some very strong A Level results.

Leo Burnet, the diminutive winner of the mock election, went on to produce pithy video newsreels highlighting the latest political developments as part of the on-line enrichment programme for the locked down Canford Community. He has a natural on-line presence and an effective broadcast style, so we look forward to more from him in the future.

Finally, after having been promoted to the Lower Sixth, the Fifth Form began their A Levels with a term of online teaching and it was a pleasant surprise to find the department had two sets of fourteen pupils eager to study A Level Politics. Alongside the eleven continuing into the Upper Sixth, this has made for encouraging numbers studying the subject. The interest has grown in recent years, no doubt a product of the recent turbulent past.

ACADEMIC

organised by the International Society, where our Chinese pupils were delighted to share their culture with Canfordians across the school.

“During the Covid-19 remote learning period, we continued to question and inspire with a number of outstanding online talks.”

2020 was an extraordinary year, without any formal summer examinations. In such circumstances we do not feel it is appropriate to publish grades in the usual way as examinations were not actually sat, but we were delighted that our very strong Upper Sixth and Fifth Form year groups fulfilled their anticipated promise and pupils’ grades have enabled them to successfully continue on to the next stage of their education.

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ENRICHMENT

“Maybe, just maybe, the seeds of the ideas that will change the world tomorrow will be sown over the course of the next few days.”

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ENRICHMENT during remote learning is reported on separately within this edition, but we must not forget the array of other enrichment opportunities enjoyed by the Canford community in the past academic year.

The Festival of Ideas was this year on the theme of ‘Identity and Diversity’ as part of an ongoing focus on key issues of inequality, ignorance and intolerance facing our society, and the need to bring about changes in thought, culture and action. All sixth-formers were taken off timetable for three days to fully engage with the theme, with pupils across junior year groups also engaging with aspects of the Festival alongside their curriculum study.

As Tom Marriott, Head of Enrichment, wrote: ‘I hope all Canfordians will approach this year’s festival with a curiosity to embrace new ideas, the enthusiasm to share and discuss these ideas with their friends and their teachers, and the resilience to have their ideas challenged in turn … .Maybe, just maybe, the seeds of the ideas that will change the world tomorrow will be sown over the course of the next few days.’

The theme was brought into even sharper focus with the death of George Floyd and the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement. Speaker highlights included

Carol Murraine from Eastside Young Leaders’ Academy talking about educational inequality and opportunity for young black children, Peter Tatchell on his career campaigning for gay rights, Fiona Hathorn discussing women on boards (all pictured) and Alison Branitsky discussing living with mental illness.

Over the course of the year, more than twenty ‘Ted Talks’ were delivered to Fourth Form scholars on a wide range of topics. There were 24 separate Tower Society discussion lunches and hundreds of pupils were involved in debating, numerous department book clubs, SMAC, Heretics, and Yellow Hour. All 147 Lower Sixth submitted an entry into the Baynham and CP Snow essay competitions, with thirteen entries shortlisted to win and receiving special commendation. The Baynham prize was shared between Sophie Hussey for her work, ‘Is the term Feminist outdated?’, and Toby Bishop who questioned ‘Is the enjoyment of sport worth the risk of concussion?’ while the CP Snow prize was won by Lucy Norris for her essay entitled ‘Is human communication the most complex form of communication?’ In addition, entries were submitted into 23 separate external academic competitions.

Finally, a university interview exchange programme with local schools and the City of London Academy supported pupils in the community on their approach to the world of work.

Pastoral

OUR first Wellbeing Journal, published in June, opened with the quote, ‘If you are positive you will see opportunities instead of obstacles.’ It has certainly been a challenging year for everyone in the Canford community but our pastoral programme has developed and grown in the past twelve months, not least through what we have all experienced during the lockdown, and we have learned a great deal from experts in the fields of health and wellbeing to support our school community.

Our programme of pastoral talks was very well received by parents and pupils alike this year. In early November we welcomed writer and campaigner Natasha Devon MBE (pictured), who gave a series of talks to parents and sixth-formers promoting positive mental health. Natasha is well known for her belief in the use of effective language at home and school to create environments conducive to emotional wellbeing, and her ‘Social Skills, Identity and Mental Health’ presentation was insightful and very informative. At the beginning of March, Alicia Drummond returned to Canford to give information, practical tips and tools to help teenagers fulfil their potential through her ‘Teen Tips’ platform.

Alicia works with over 100 schools and is also a parent herself, and is a British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy accredited therapist. Teen Tips extended their work with Canford once lockdown happened, running a number of talks and blogs for parents and teenagers during such uncertain and anxious days. We also thank Alicia and her team for an excellent talk in June for Year 8 parents about teenage years, letting go and what to expect prior to children starting senior school. Sadly, we had to postpone a talk scheduled for early May on internet safety by Lorin LaFave, who created the Breck Foundation in memory of her son, Breck Bednar, but we hope to reschedule this for the coming year.

Our Health Centre and Wellbeing staff including dedicated counsellors supported our pupils throughout

the year, working closely with the team of local medical professionals. The Gateway resources pages were regularly updated with the latest news and guidance on a range of wellbeing and mental health issues, and during lockdown formed useful links on our website’s Covid-19 hub and Canford Together pages.

In June we launched the aforementioned online Wellbeing Journal to help pupils manage the pastoral challenges they faced during the lockdown. Divided into four sections – sleep and relaxation, healthy lifestyle, goal setting and feelings – it contained information and activities promoting positivity for each individual according to what they needed. It was co-ordinated by Pagan Bishop and Melissa Clinton, who from September 2020 became our first joint Heads of Wellbeing. Pagan is our Head of EAL (English as an Additional Language) and also works in the Support for Learning department as well as coordinating the ELSA (Emotional Literacy) support in school. Melissa trained as a physiotherapist, has worked at Canford for many years and has a wealth of knowledge and experience of working with young people within our Health Centre.

We continue to learn from the pupils themselves about the latest problems and concerns they face as teenagers, and our pupil leader programme continues to provide opportunities for them to share their thoughts and offer new ideas to promote wellbeing within our school community. #WellbeingWednesday was run by the Wellbeing pupil leaders, offering a different positive message on a dedicated Instagram account each week during the term, which received large numbers of ‘likes’ and positive engagement. Digital communication became hugely important during lockdown, but with the return of pupils and staff to school, we hope to balance it with as much face to face communication as we can.

Nick Hunter, Deputy Head - Pastoral

“We have learned a great deal from experts in the fields of health and wellbeing to support our school community.”

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BEAUFORT ‘ALONE we can do so little; together we can do so much.’ Helen Keller’s words sum up Beaufort’s vibrant and supportive community. Right from the start, when the house welcomed the new Shell and Lower Sixth pupils so warmly, it was clear that this would be a wonderful year – and so it proved. Participation has always been a great part of the Beaufort philosophy, and this year the girls threw themselves into a wide range of activities and challenges.

House Music was our first whole-house focus and the Upper Sixth led the girls through it with energy and drive and yet with the lightest of touches. Various members of the Upper Sixth taught melodies and harmonies, rehearsed instrumental parts and dance moves and encouraged juniors who were not sure what the whole thing was about. On stage, on the day, all three performances were wonderful. The house song, a glorious rendition of Abba’s ‘Gimme gimme gimme’, was well sung, vibrantly performed and utterly together.

It set the tone for the rest of the year. Whether girls were participating in numerous house sport events, our first house concert, the house play (a clever adaptation of Noises Off) or academic challenges such as House Debating, there was a feeling that they were buoyed by the house as a whole. A rising tide lifts all Beaufortians!

This spirit carried the girls through the tricky waters of the Summer Term. The girls tried so hard to find ways to retain their house spirit. They logged in from all sorts of places to participate in tutor meetings, virtual house events, quizzes, wine tasting evenings for the seniors and house meetings. I was proud of the way that the house rose to the cross-fit challenge and was not in the least surprised when they not only won the girls’ house category but also scored the most points of all houses. I was even prouder that the girls instigated a charity challenge during the lockdown period, and raised money to support Refuge and Cancer Research.

Saying goodbye to the Upper Sixth is hard. They are a phenomenal group of girls: tight-knit, supportive, determined and hard-working. Their contributions to Beaufort over the past five years have been impressive and we will miss their energy, enthusiasm and kindness.

Clare Ives

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COURT IN a curtailed Court year, it is remarkable just how much was lived, loved and laudable in two short terms.

If an acrostic were to be made from Court House, there is no doubt the C would have to double for ‘culture’ and ‘cultured’. The Court Gent™ prides himself on embracing the arts and this, coupled with an insatiable desire to do everything to the best level possible, manifested in some extraordinary cultural expressions. The Court chaps’ sophisticated rendition of ‘Drunken Sailor’ was an ode to the joy of collective singing, while also serving as inspiration for George Farthing’s House Art winning album cover project. The remarkable production of Black Watch, with performers and stage hands from Shell to Upper Sixth, was also worthy of accolade, with Court again taking home best play, as well as the awards for best director, supporting senior and junior school performer – and a lifetime achievement award for George.

Culture is not limited to the performative, and we have thoroughly enjoyed our celebrations of all things Chinese in our annual New Year event; we have embraced our inner child with face painting and haunted house scares in Old Court House; we have our weekly limericks; we have expanded our knowledge of oenology in the Dining Society; we have shared in the spirituality of the pupil-led House Chapels; we’ve pizza-fested; we have celebrated each other and all that life holds. We have, in short, sucked on the pap of life and gulped down the incomparable milk of wonder.

There is wonder on the sporting front, too, with the chaps’ colossal collective effort bringing the overall win in House Cross Country (as well as senior and inter class wins), alongside triumphs in House Badminton, House Squash, senior House Hockey – and, most importantly, the sheer numbers enjoying partaking and supporting one another. And this is where the Court spirit stands out: they really celebrate their peers’ efforts, irrespective of outcome, and drive each other to joyous participation.

Effort is equally venerated in the academic arena, and we are tremendously proud of how the Fifth Form boys’ sustained and gargantuan investment catapulted them to heroes of Court and academic beacons in school. The number of top mark grades was staggering – but wholly deserved – and they have lit fires in the junior years. Was the year short? Yes. But sweet, oh so sweet.

Sindre Vandvik

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DE LACY SEPTEMBER saw the start of a long and arduous term, but the de Lacy girls not only survived but thrived.

Impressive achievements were made in so many areas and there was much to be proud of.

With an Upper Sixth year group of sixteen, there were plenty of leaders to enthuse the rest of the girls with the House Song. They rehearsed hard and produced a wonderful rendition of Queen’s ‘Don’t stop me now’. We didn’t win, but we all felt our reward was a closeness born out of striving for something as a team. Afterwards we celebrated in the foyer and sang the song again for ourselves, able this time to dance freely and let our hair down in true celebratory style.

The school musical, Chicago, yet again starred two de Lacy girls as main parts, as did the pantomime, Cinderella, with many others playing supporting roles.

We managed to get tickets for every de Lacy girl to see a performance of Chicago and the warmth of support shown was a symbol of the strong house spirit which prevails in de Lacy.

House Hockey was a highlight in December, when we came second in both the junior and the senior events: a great achievement. The weather provided a challenge for all on the day of House Cross Country – heavy rain, wind, huge puddles and slippery, soggy ground. However, the camaraderie of being out there together, battling the elements, was wonderful.

The Easter Term was packed full of exciting events, including House Drama, House Debating, Fifth Form dinner, House Lacrosse, House Netball, Upper Sixth wine-tasting and our annual house trip, which this year was ice skating. The term was tragically cut short, before we all embarked on the strangest period of our lives.

The Summer Term has highlighted the adaptability and willingness of our pupils to engage with us online, and their appreciation for the structure and support which the school has provided. The contact I have had with girls throughout the term has been as rewarding as ever, albeit in a very different way. De Lacy has remained a house with a clear identity, and the spirit of unity continues to be shown by their continuing support of each other and loyalty to their house.

Katie Salmon

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FRANKLIN LOOKING back at the year, Coronavirus actually fades into the background, overshadowed by all the fabulous things that still went on in the house. The best house is the happiest house and that remained a key pillar of Franklin. The year started as ever with House Music and I’ll just quote the judges’ comments on our entry: ‘Your musicians are fab. All very confident especially the dance moves – you nailed it. Loved this – a really fun performance.’

Eating together has been a key part in human socialising since the first person accidentally dropped some meat onto a fire and House Dinners remain a key part of Franklin life, culminating of course in the formal Christmas Dinner.

This year’s House Play was Noises Off, one of our best for many years with a strong cast ably led by Zac Arnold and Oli Pickard and they deserved the ‘Oscars’ they won.

Sport continues to be a key part of Canford life for so many and one highlight was winning House Football, having been robbed the year before, but there were ample others. It was equally good to see so many making the most of the Real tennis court or the golf course on a Sunday.

This year we welcomed a lively and friendly group of Shells and Mr Wilson as our new live-in tutor and together they set up a mountain biking Sunday club. We also brought in Shells games-night with an early finish to prep followed by board and other games.

As usual we say a sad farewell to our Upper Sixth, who were real leaders in so many ways, from Archie and Jack in the 1st XV and Hamish in the 1st VIII on the sporting front through to Sean and Olly securing Oxbridge places, to mention just a few. They were ably led by Will and Billy and set a really supportive yet ambitious tone. They leave us going to universities from Exeter to Newcastle and reading courses that include Human Geography, International Finance and Computing. Unfortunately, Coronavirus prevented us properly celebrating them on Speech Day. It is also my time to say goodbye after twelve years; being Franklin housemaster and partner in the education, development and care of so many Franklin men has been a huge privilege. Floreat Franklin.

Henry Bishop

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LANCASTER THE new pupil leadership team in house made their mark quickly and firmly. Charlotte Butt and Sam Downey can take huge credit for the manner in which they took the reins and having Adam Phillips as Deputy Head of School bolstered the overt Lancaster leadership unit. But it was the latent leadership that was shown by so many of the Upper Sixth pupils that really pulled the house in a fine direction, with Archie Hunter, Ollie Leat, Ellie Whitworth, Grace Woolaway, Ben Holland and Zach Fenwick all standing tall when events suited their skill-set.

With some impressive choreography and organisation skills, Lancaster successfully defended the ‘Best day houses’ song’ contest with a performance full of enthusiasm, fun and intricate dance moves – there were many ‘heroes’ that day for us to hold out for!

A talented quartet of junior members of the house were coached into fronting the classical and pulled off an astonishing performance, while to see seventeen members of the house from across all the yeargroups on the stage for our amazing unaccompanied contemporary performance was probably the number one highlight of the year. Continuing the music theme, our charity concert in November raised over £1000 for the Louis Ross Foundation.

Drama continues to run strong though our veins. This was highlighted by how the house pulled together with Peter Pan – not easy to pull off comedy and this show gave many a laugh!

There were two fine triumphs in the sporting calendar as we now find ourselves both junior rugby and senior netball champions! With Ed Schuster-Bruce winning the individual cross-country prize, several narrow defeats on squash court and hockey field alike, participation in all events and the advent of a noticeable increase in support from house members, this year was certainly one that saw our sporting spirit grow.

Although participation and input were at the best levels yet, the four winners of the ‘G’ trophy this year were Adam Phillips, Archie Hunter, Zach Fenwick and Adam Reid. Adam and Sophie Hussey have taken up the reins as heads of house and, together with their team, have protected and even nurtured our unity through the remoteness of the Summer Term – a fine achievement that bodes so very well for every member of the team in the future.

Owen Parkin

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MARRIOTTS THIS year has certainly been unique!

We started the year welcoming and settling newcomers, just like any other. The Upper Sixth, led

by Maddy Wells, our head of house, and Bella Brown as her deputy, helped make people feel at home and relaxed.

The house ‘At Home’ saw glorious sunshine and parents could relax and get to know other parents, something that isn’t always easy in a boarding set-up.

The House Music competition is always a highlight of those early weeks of the first term. Auditions, learning lines, adding dance moves and deciding outfits: no detail is too small. Marriotts kept up our fine tradition of strong entries across each of the categories. Our energetic, fun-filled, whole house rendition of Dolly Parton’s ‘Nine to Five’ stole the show. What was evident, watching from the audience, was how united they looked. The judges gave it the best in that category, a brilliant result and very well deserved.

A feature of the year was how well the house continued to unite across year groups, strengthened by the now strong ‘families’, which divide the house into smaller vertical groups and allow for greater interaction across the house.

The House Drama festival was a highlight of the Easter Term. The Exam by Andy Hamilton was apt in its timing, as the Fifth Form and Upper Sixth were more focussed on their own mocks at the time. Instead, this was led by Lower Sixth: Ines de la Cruz directed and she, Nadia Lees and Lara Wilkinson took the three lead roles, looking at the pressures teenagers face in the build-up to exams. Little did we know what faced our pupils this year.

As the country went into lockdown, Marriotts, like all of Canford, continued to pull together. Every lesson was taught and, in house, Instagram became our mechanism to stay connected and maintain our community. Cake baking challenges, whole family Tik Tok dance routines and birthdays celebrated by partying bears are just a few highlights. Marriotts remained positive and supportive and I am very proud of what we achieved in such a short time.

I was sad to say goodbye to my Upper Sixth, and hope that we do have the opportunity to gather in person at some point in the near future.

Cathy Byng

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MONTEACUTE THE 2019/20 school year will be remembered as a year with a long list of firsts. This was no different in Monteacute. In my review last year I talked about the desire to lift the crown of House Music champions, so it was satisfying to see all that hard work pay off. It was the first time the house won House Music in my time as housemaster and it was wonderful to see the boys work so closely and positively together. The talented musicians, Charlie, Rupert and Jason, were at the fore, supported by 50 or so enthusiastic backing singers.

Our Upper Sixth were a fine year and my big thanks to them all. Our head of house, Felix, is the last of a line of Spencers in the house, for now anyway, and a number of families say goodbye. We didn’t get the opportunity to celebrate but that will come in time, I am sure.

Our house play was, once again, written by members of our Upper Sixth. It was a surreal and challenging look at issues of climate change and the planet. It was ambitious and involved a number of boys making their Layard debuts both on and off the stage. We continue to challenge on the sports pitch as a house with our usual enthusiasm and commitment. This enthusiasm was also evident in our house wine-tasting competition. Well done to the winners and a special mention to the staff team that came last! Our House Art album cover was really well received.

I spoke in our summer broadcasts about what makes a house a home: the people in it, together with their willingness to support and care for those around them. We have a vibrant and positive atmosphere in Monteacute that runs through the tutor teams, matron, support staff and the boys. There is a togetherness that helps us all through the challenging times. Monte House radio, the brain child of Will and Max, demonstrated this very publicly and I thank them for making us smile during the difficult summer term. It showcased the house and managed to get over to the listeners the real sense of what can be special in a boarding house when it is united and committed.

Dylan Lloyd

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SALISBURY IT’S been another fantastic year for Salisbury, with members excelling in all areas of school life. Mr Baugniet and I have been really impressed by the high level of productivity and positivity throughout all three terms, despite only being in school for two of them due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the first two terms the highlights were the times when we were together for whole house events (made even more poignant by the fact we could only see each other remotely in the final term). This included the house charity concert, where we raised over £1000 and split this between our two house charities selected by the pupils: LEAF (Leukaemia Education And Fundraising) and Water Aid. The house play, Aladdin, was a comical and enjoyable production put together by our Lower Sixth year group and saw many in the house involved. So did the Christmas party, the house picnic, brownies and Secret Santa after House Cross-country and the house Easter egg hunt which Matron organised just before lockdown. Some other top moments included winning the House Classical Music competition and the junior boys’ House Hockey competition. We also did a great job in the House Art, Squash and Football and enjoyed the intra-house table tennis and chess competitions as well as the house bake-off.

Despite the disappointment of not being physically present at Canford during the Summer Term, so missing out on our beautiful setting by the river with lots of time outside and a range of big house competitions such as the House Regatta, Athletics, Cricket and Tennis, the pupils have remained positive and productive and still got stuck in. We won the House Cross-fit competition as well as getting involved in a number of challenges within the house, including the 5k challenge, making NHS posters, music challenges, quizzes, photography competitions and cooking challenges.

I would like to thank our house leadership team, in particular Nathan Bulstrode and Francesca Hibbit, for their energy and enthusiasm; they have been superb. They have now handed over to Matthew Butterfield and Frances Fleming who have already been doing a sterling job of organising house events during the Summer Term. We look forward to being reunited with all of the Salisbury team very soon.

Laura Linley-Adams

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SCHOOL HOUSE WHEN the term started in September, nobody would ever have foreseen the year ending as it did. The 2019/20 academic year will be one that will go down in the history books, as the Summer Term saw an empty school for the first time in Canford’s history. As a result, it meant that the grand old building that houses School House was also eerily quiet.

Until the school emptied hastily in March, the boys of School House had enjoyed a fantastic year. The new Shells had settled in brilliantly and the Upper Sixth were leading the house with distinction. Highlights as usual included the House Music competition and in particular Sammy Smith and Michael Ma’s awardwinning duet. The house Christmas fancy dress dinner was also a highlight. Seeing the old library full of the boys in their Christmas fancy dress, where costumes ranged from nativity scenes to reindeers, was a sight to behold.

The house spirit was evident throughout the year, nowhere better illustrated than by the impressive turnout for the Monday night house runs. Despite the absence of the boys in the Summer Term, the house spirit did not diminish. School House families contributed to a distance challenge, clocking up as many kilometres as they could by bike, foot or even skateboard as we ‘virtually’ visited all our boys dotted around the globe. We covered enough distance to visit the Cayman Islands, China and Singapore to name but a few. The House Art and House MasterChef challenges were also great fun.

As housemaster, my time has come to an end and it is with a heavy heart that I move on to pastures new.

I know the house is in fantastic shape and I wish Mr Coward and his family the best of luck as they take up the reins. I have been very lucky to work with a great team of tutors and matrons and I know the current team is as strong as it ever has been. As a family, we have had an incredible time in School House. It is a truly special environment and I urge the boys to make the most of the opportunities it offers them.

Richard Jones

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WIMBORNE IT has been an excellent year for Wimborne, right from the beginning with House Music: as ever, a great way of bringing the house together at the start of the year and making the new Shells feel very welcome. Everyone got involved in singing and dancing to ‘Mr Brightside,’ which then became the inspiration for our outstanding House Art piece.

Many members of the house got involved with Chicago, the school musical, and Frankenstein, the senior play, as well as a wide contribution to House Drama in our production of Disney’s Robin Hood, directed by two members of the Lower Sixth and performed by cast members from across the years.

Wimborne is proud to have many of its members representing the school in A team sport, which has helped us to keep up our great success in house sport this year with excellence in hockey, netball, rowing, badminton and rugby, plus a great show of house participation on the inter-house cross-country and fun run day. We also pulled together virtually as a house team to take part in the inter-house Cross-fit competition during the summer.

The Wimborne House Charity Concert was the last house event where we were all together in person. It meant we spent time in our year groups working on a song and as a whole house. It was a really great energy when we were all together and a lovely way to mark the unconventional finish to the term.

House spirit is a large part of life in Wimborne, and this went unchanged throughout the lockdown and online school. Despite not being together in person, we have managed to maintain support within the house with assemblies and online meetings. It has also allowed a place for people within the house to show off some individual talents with ‘Two Six Politics’, ‘Baking with Celia’ and some online musical performances.

Unfortunately, Wimborne could not say goodbye to our leaving pupils and staff members with the usual celebrations, but we wish them the best for the future and know they will continue to make us proud.

Millie Jeffries (Shell)

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CANFORD AND CORONAVIRUS HEADMASTER Ben Vessey writes: I have set out a strong flavour of what the school year has contained in the abridged version of my Speech Day address (pages 3-4), which gives insight into the rich and expansive nature of life here at Canford, and the vision and values on which our approach to education is based. I am truly fortunate to work with so many incredible pupils and staff; their quality, and that of the whole Canford community, has been tested and not found wanting in any sense during the latter part of the 2019/20 academic year.

To give a sense of the energy, creativity and ‘can do’ mindset of the people I have worked with, I thought it would be interesting for those not on the front line over the Summer Term to get a feel for the structure and format of the remote education programme which was put together in three short weeks over Easter and then executed so brilliantly over the summer. Perhaps the best way to do this is to quote from a letter sent to parents in April which gives a sense of how that journey into the new lands of wholly remote schooling would play out – and, indeed, did play out. Behind this programme and its success lies much creativity, many hours of hard work and a deep sense of care and commitment to ensure that Canfordians were educated and supported as effectively as possible in a world where lockdown and isolation have posed some serious problems on many levels.

“Behind this programme and its success lies much creativity, many hours of hard work and a deep sense of care and commitment.”

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In our planning we have been very mindful of the need to build in suitable breaks from screen time in both the academic and co-curricular schedule. This is one reason why we have chosen to follow the usual Canford school week from Monday to Saturday, which allows flexibility to space lessons and activities appropriately.

The majority of academic lessons will take place between 8.45 and 14.25, with suitable breaks in the morning and at lunch time. The exceptions will be Wednesday and Friday, where some lessons will occur later in the afternoon. There will also be academic lessons on Saturday morning between 8.45 and 13.05.

Academic lessons will be delivered via Teams as at the end of last term, and will be a daily blend of live video sessions, independent study exercises or tasks, and preparing assignments, with the teacher available to assist and clarify via the Teams system during lesson times. Small groups of pupils will be able to collaborate on set tasks also. This will mirror the patterns of teaching and learning your children will be used to in the normal onsite teaching programme.

On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons there will be an enrichment and co-curricular programme of activities. As in normal times, these will not run continually for everybody throughout the afternoon but everyone will have access to designated activities which will be a blend of bespoke live interactive sessions or directed ‘off the shelf ’ activities.

The Canford Music programme will continue with live remotely delivered individual music lessons, and ensembles will continue to function. The Drama

Department will offer a range of experiences including script writing, radio broadcasting and film-making. Clearly we cannot deliver the same sporting programme, but the Sports team will provide access to and support for a varied menu of physical wellbeing and training activities to keep pupils healthy in body as well as mind.

Community Partnership will seek to remotely engage Canfordians with a range of opportunities to support children and those in need.

We will provide significant pastoral and wellbeing support to the pupils in all year groups in what is clearly a difficult time. This will consist of tutoring across all year groups in both small groups and, especially for Sixth Form, on a one-to-one basis. Regular house meetings will take place for groups within each house. Creative and positive use of house and school social media platforms will also be put in place to share and celebrate progress being made and achievements. We will be offering a number of mental health and wellbeing opportunities, including remote access to the health centre and our counsellors. A revised and refreshed PSME programme will also form part of the weekly timetable. The daily programme will include a registration process, together with assemblies and Chapel.

In terms of academic programmes for specific year groups it is planned as follows: Shells: Courses will be shortened and from mid-May the timetable will change and Shells will start their chosen GCSE courses.

Fourth Form: Will continue with GCSE courses in preparation for GCSE exams in summer 2021.

Fifth Form: After an initial phase to complete and consolidate GCSE courses, which is required prior to Sixth Form study, the timetable will change and from mid-May the Fifth Form will start their chosen A Level and Pre-U courses. Support will also be offered for potential GCSE exams in autumn 2020 if these are required.

Lower Sixth: Will continue with ongoing A Level and Pre-U courses for exams in summer 2021.

Upper Sixth: Will engage with a specially designed ‘Canford College’ programme, which will offer a wide range of educational enrichment, pre-university/future life preparation, as well as professional and personal development opportunities. Amongst other things this will include seminars, discussion groups, internal and external virtual speakers, classes on key life skills, developing leadership skills and global citizenship.

Access to other co-curricular activities, pastoral and wellbeing support provision will also be a key part of the programme.

The Upper Sixth programme will run on a different rhythm to the standard timetable but will be clearly scheduled in advance to give a crucial structure, sense of focus and meaningful social engagement, motivation and inspiration to this group over the long, isolated weeks ahead. Given the dramatic change in circumstances in this final stage of their Sixth Form journey, such a programme is even more important for their educational development and personal wellbeing.

THE remote learning programme which was in place throughout the Summer Term was a steep learning curve for pupils and staff alike, but the positive approach which is a hallmark of Canfordians ensured that while it was an unusual term, it turned out to be an exciting and rewarding one. 12,000 lessons were delivered across Microsoft Teams, and the work produced by the pupils in so many different ways was inspirational and outstanding.

The engagement with the Canford College Programme for the newly named ‘Upper Upper Sixth’ (for technical database reasons!) was beyond our expectations for a year group who had missed out on their A Level exams and faced all the uncertainty of their grades, while the ‘new Lower Sixth’ embraced the challenge of starting their A Level courses a term early.

A few pages will never convey the complete sense of how much was achieved during those nine weeks, but we hope to give a flavour of the quality and variety of what was produced from the school community in dining rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and gardens between April and early July 2020.

Individual personalities and interests were given free rein during lockdown, and we were constantly amazed at the range of ingenious ways pupils filled their time not only to help themselves but also to support their peers.

The ‘Celia Bakes’ episodes (pictured) were worthy of any Bake Off or Delia production, with the help of the professional film crew in the Leavesley household, while Leo Burnet’s Two Six Politics bulletins tried to make some sense of the unpredictable political landscape every week across our social media airwaves. The pupilled weekly journal, This Week, moved to digital in the form of Canford Online, keeping a record of the ups and downs of school life in its remote form, and provided a real sense of community during some of the darkest days. Nathan Bulstrode managed to keep the Chess Club going using gaming software so that they could complete the tournament started earlier in the year, and Jess Fry recorded an impressive Art masterclass film which offered a sense of calm and escapism through painting and drawing.

The sports and wellbeing teams set numerous challenges for pupils to complete at home and there was frenzied competition with house rivalries certainly surfacing in the final stages. Advice and support on nutrition as well as fitness was offered and it was great

to see so many of our pupils trying their best to stay fit and healthy through the term. Our Director of Sport, Tony Diprose, has written separately in more detail about this and our Pastoral Deputy Head, Nicola Hunter, develops the theme of pastoral support that the school offered in her separate report.

It is not easy organising large group activities of any kind when pupils are scattered across the globe, but the Music and Drama Departments rose to the challenge in ways which we could not have imagined could have been achieved. As Director of Drama Laura Blake commented, it was ‘a bizarre term for theatre’ but she was thrilled with the ‘fantastic level of creativity through performance, new writing, collaboration and review’. Work by incoming GCSE and A Level year groups was displayed on the Drama Gateway pages. It was not just the actors who worked hard. A group of budding young designers have also been creating new and exciting set designs thanks to their masterclass sessions with our own Kevin Wilkins.

Wimborne House won the Cannes-ford Film Festival, with the Best Production award going to Will Walters for his creative short film, Secrets. In just 60 seconds Will delivered an entire, engaging narrative film. Two five-part radio plays were entirely written, recorded and edited by pupils during the lockdown: The Crooked House and The Wrong Side of the Tracks.

Music excelled during the lockdown, with 22 remote ensemble performances recorded remotely and assembled, some released ‘standalone’ such as the memorable staff and pupil performance of ‘When the saints go marching in’ premiered at the virtual Speech Day. There were six ‘live’ teams concerts, and one prerecorded informal concert to allow those in the Far East to take part plus six YouTube concert releases of previously recorded events, including two previously unheard concerts of the GCSE and A Level compositions from this year.

More is recorded about Art, Drama and Music under ‘The Arts’ (pages 49-59).

CANFORD AND CORONAVIRUS

Remote Learning

“Individual personalities and interests were given free rein during lockdown, and we were constantly amazed at the range of ingenious ways pupils filled their time.”

The Canford College Programme On 18 March 2020, it was announced by the Government that no A Level or GCSE examinations would be sat as scheduled in the summer. Canford staff immediately brainstormed what they could offer these particular year groups. The Fifth Form were quickly offered a new sense of purpose as the school decided to embark on their A Level courses a term early and in so doing, pupils got a head start on their Sixth Form years.

However, this wasn’t an option open to the Upper Sixth leavers, who faced multiple disappointments at not

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CANFORD AND CORONAVIRUS

The entire Canford Community of staff, pupils, parents, OCs, local contacts, external members and many other friends of the School united over the lockdown to support each other, fulfilling the mission to make a difference to their own lives and to the lives of others.

CANFORD AND CORONAVIRUS

CANFORD AND CORONAVIRUS “Staff were determined to offer these pupils something stimulating, educational and inspiring to end their Canford academic lives on as positive note as we could.”

46

being able to end their school days in the usual fashion, putting their hard work into practice sitting their A Levels followed by all the celebrations associated with leaving school, not least Speech Day and the Leavers’ Ball. Alongside this was the uncertainty surrounding the Ofqual stated requirements for allocating grades and the potential impact on future university and career pathways. Staff were determined to offer these pupils something stimulating, educational and inspiring to end their Canford academic lives on as positive note as we could – and so the Canford College Programme was born.

Masterminded by Head of Enrichment Tom Marriott, and with the support of numerous colleagues, the programme was launched at the start of the Summer Term, and by its close in mid-June had offered 25 external speakers, 90 separate electives and 200 different academic seminars. Each week, pupils were emailed a selection of options to choose from. Added to a minimum of two core extension activities based around their A Level or university course choices, they could add a minimum of three ‘electives’ and three sport and wellbeing options, plus UCAS clinics and careers advice, links with OCs working in particular industries, further academic extensions, Monday afternoon activities and school-wide remote Drama and Music programmes.

There was also the opportunity to take part in the Ivy House Award which aims to develop every sixthformer to ‘become an extraordinary leader and lead an extraordinary life’. This unique Lower Sixth year-long programme was condensed and adapted for the Upper Sixth by the founder, Elke Edwards.

Headmaster Ben Vessey wrote in his foreword: ‘Foremost in our minds was a sense of sadness that these circumstances had the potential to bring an abrupt and premature end to your time at Canford. With this in mind we immediately set about putting in place the foundations of a programme that would ensure that whatever the circumstances, your Canford careers would end with a bang rather than a whimper! The programme we have developed will follow a rhythm distinct from the rest of school life, with greater independence for you to manage your own time and work, while maintaining the critical links that bind the Canford Community together. It will provide a foundation for university-style learning and skills for future life. I hope you each find something in the pages that follow that will inspire, motivate and engage you in the weeks ahead. I urge you to be bold; to seize the opportunity this new world presents with the sense of adventure and the fearlessness for which Canfordians are renowned.’

External speakers tuned in on Teams from across the globe to give some fascinating lectures, including: James Landale, BBC Diplomatic Correspondent; nature film maker Bertie Gregory; spoken word poet Deanna Roger; explorers Charlie Walker and Alex Hibbert (pictured); Sir Oliver Letwin; sleep and brain expert Dr Nilesh Satguru; ethics and bioethics specialist Peter Singer; business impact analyst Peter Taylor; and historians A C Grayling (pictured) and Spencer Jones. Poundbury Wealth Management offered seminars on financial planning and a Business Studies project to create new digital start-ups Short courses developed a range of skills to suit all interests – car maintenance, creative writing, learning Italian and ‘Economics for non-economists’ were some of the options. So were compose a successful job application, learn the basics of computer programming, master the art of baking sourdough or fathom the formulae of cryptic crosswords.

More mainstream courses included for Chemistry students, as an example, genetic fingerprinting and molecular bonding and the chemistry of molecules like sarin, phenols, DNA. They also produced some amazing academic posters related to the chemistry of the coronavirus. Mathematicians learnt some of the fundamentals of calculus, such as the concept of a rate of change for an infinitesimally small limit, and linking dy/ dx to the idea of trying to measure a car’s speed from a static photo but the car is still moving… .

The opening quote in the brochure summed up the current unprecedented situation and set the theme for the weeks ahead. In the words of John Dewey, the American philosopher and educationalist: ‘Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.’

‘We have been heartened by the attention and efforts made to address the mental health challenges of pupils and staff; and to see how the normal school and community interactions have been re-worked to reflect the current situation whilst maintaining the core values of the school.

It has all taken a lot of work and re-work, and the efforts of all involved are very much appreciated.’

‘If ever there has been a time when I am glad they are at Canford it is now. The classes your team are providing, the involvement they feel, the ‘ clear academic progression they are making is more than impressive in the circumstances.’

CANFORD AND CORONAVIRUS

Quotes from Canford families:

‘I just wanted to say thank you to all the team at Canford for all their efforts in continuing to provide a meaningful education remotely and reducing costs to help parents continue to access that education.

We are extremely grateful. We are sorry that we won’t be back until September but I am sure this is the right way forward given the current situation.’

‘The online teaching provided by Canford has been outstanding, I know from personal experience how tough that is on the teaching staff, could you please pass on my thanks to them.’

Quotes from pupils: ‘I just wanted to email to say a huge thank you for developing such a comprehensive remote learning program. Obviously I would rather be back at school but it is really super and such a collaborative experience. I have been surprised at how much fun it has been so far.’

‘I just wanted to say a big thank you for organising the College Programme for Upper Sixth. I am particularly enjoying the wide range of options in the elective section. I can’t imagine the time and effort it took to get this all going successfully, so we are all very appreciative. I look forward to a Friday to see what new and exciting choices there are for the following week!’

‘I also think the Ivy House project is very worthwhile and interesting, especially for our year who are about to go out into the world – I’m sure those skills from Ivy House will be crucial. For me, certainly, this programme has made a difference to my lockdown at home in terms of providing structure, variety and interest.’

‘Thank you for such an incredibly diverse and fascinating college programme that incorporated so many incredible talks from external speakers and teachers. I’ve enjoyed all the talks I’ve attended, loved getting a chance to experience the Ivy House programme and have been thankful for the ongoing academic stimulation that my seminars have provided… These last few weeks have been a welcomed distraction from the chaos that the world has presented us with and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. Canford has been a significant chapter of my life, one I most definitely won’t forget any time soon, and I’m hugely thankful for the opportunities I’ve been presented with.’

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CANFORD AND CORONAVIRUS

The oral history project

“Already the amazing creativity which times of crisis often brings could be seen.”

48

As the school doors closed in March and we prepared for lockdown and all that it would entail, it occurred to me that for the first time for many years, the country was facing an event of national significance which would require sacrifice across the board. The mass observations produced during World War 2 were designed to document the lives of thousands of British par ticipants from all walks of life, and it seemed a good time to instigate a similar project to char t the views of the Canford Community as the Covid crisis deepened.

It would also be an ideal project for the Upper Sixth historians to get their teeth stuck into once it became clear that they would not be preparing for exams in the Summer Term. So a few weeks into the beginning of the Summer Term, a team of historians devised a questionnaire which they believed would provide a snapshot of current opinion. Their questions were based around views on the origins of the virus; the quality of the government response; the media’s impact; how the virus had impacted life – physically, mentally and socially; as well as the perceived economic, educational and environmental impact.

The results showed a wide range of views across all subjects. Some, at the early stage that this data was gathered (May) were already noting the restrictions to daily lives, the extraordinary government powers taken in response to the crisis and the impact on the mental health of loved ones.

Others noted the clear skies, the environmental benefits, the intimacy of family life with less distractions and the oppor tunity to work from home which, in some cases, transformed lives. Already the

amazing creativity which times of crisis often brings could be seen, with respondents noting the ways in which they were keeping in touch with loved ones around the globe through weekly Zoom quizzes – often with those who had fallen out of touch due to busy lifestyles. Never theless, the darker side was already emerging. There were those who were already worried about businesses, and anticipated a hard year ahead with choices to make which could be catastrophic to those they employed.

For our historians it was a chance to work with sources from a range of respondents, and it gave them a great insight into working with sources in the modern age – in par ticular how hard it can be to manage the vast amounts of information which is generated in the digital age; a far cry from the sources available for the Russian Revolution documents course which they studied for A Level.

We were so grateful to all those who responded to the questionnaire with full and often ruthlessly honest answers. It was a privilege to work with the material. Sadly, time precluded the full repor t which we had hoped to make, but credit goes to Connie Doxat, who found time to write up her findings on the impact of media. These will be published in full through the Canford Community Newsletter, but a brief extract is below.

Clare Ives

The ‘Conclusion’ section from Connie Doxat’s analysis of the impact of news coverage After such analysis, a key question comes to mind: has the news coverage helped soothe or scare the public’s perception of and appropriate reaction to the Coronavirus? While our study has indeed been able to capture a snapshot perspective from only a select few (all affiliated with the same school and hence likely to represent few varying demographics within our society), the responses drawn do indeed corroborate with much evidence circulating within the public and media. Conclusions can hence be drawn between the heightened consumption of news and heightened sense of anxiety towards the state of the crisis, the degree of sensationalism present within more mainstream, tabloid-style journalism, and the subsequent induced sense of hysteria amongst the public and its politicians towards dealing with the virus.

In the light of such a conclusion, one may be quick to point out it is perhaps easy to highlight the flaws within our media and provide a degree of criticism with little solution or explanation, and yes, this is primarily true. It is indeed a highly complex and knotty problem, to which few hold the correct answer. However, it also seems clear that through elucidating exactly where and why the public is losing confidence and understanding in the media’s handling of the pandemic, I hope to expose how we will be that slightly bit closer to striking the equilibrium for crises in the future.

the arts - DRAMA

DRAMA at Canford, like drama everywhere, possesses a potential for the radical. That was seen over this past year, from the standout performance of If You Want Something Done by Yasmin Chadwick and Serena Chamberlain, challenging gender norms at Canford within the context of the wider world, to debates regarding costume aesthetic, the problematic male gaze and ownership. Ethical considerations of the tension between nature and knowledge were explored in Frankenstein , the multi-faceted political implications of immigration were laid out in Hannah and Hanna , and a growing awareness raised of systemic and internalised racism through our reading of Othello in A Level Drama.

The theatre has long been the home of debate.

Not only a means to reflect culture, it also has the ability to problematise, provoke and challenge so as to contribute to and inform that culture.

When things need to change, theatre is a means of expressing that need and exploring what it might be. So, when the world around the Layard shifted so momentously, our approach had no choice but to shift with it and perhaps even to find new ways of working with it.

The first tremors of the coming event were added to the usual stresses of production week. A gruelling tech rehearsal for Frankenstein on Sunday was followed by a staff briefing preparing us for upcoming restrictions. Anyone who has lived through the agony and ecstasy of a tech rehearsal will understand the fear that this raised – the laborious and infuriatingly stop-star t addressing of minutiae alongside the awe-inspiring realisation of the overall aesthetic (as ever, indebted to the genius that is Kevin Wilkins) meant that we were not ready to give this show up! The production had become a labour of love, with literal blood, sweat and tears poured in – a little fake blood may still be found in the

Headmaster’s study, the preparations having become so all-encompassing! Perhaps my fears that each subsequent performance could be the last increased my own love of the production; little did I know then that it was destined to be the final one that I would stage at Canford. We lost our stage manager to quarantine but made it through the run, just a few days before Canford was forced to close its doors for the rest of the academic year.

But as ever, the tenacity and creativity of the Canford pupil could not be supressed. If we could not come together to create, then we would simply do it apar t. We followed physical and vocal warmups run by some of our favourite theatre companies and enjoyed access to world-class theatre thanks to the generosity of our nation’s institutions and the brilliance of the internet. We made sure that we, too, contributed to the continuation of the ar ts through the incredible all-student radio plays that were written, recorded and edited by our hugely talented cohor ts, not only learning but mastering new skills as they progressed. Students used their time to benefit from masterclasses in set design and script writing and to create their own shor t films for the inaugural ‘Cannes-ford’ (groan) Film Festival, with a simple yet beautifully eloquent winning entry from Will Walters.

Life in the theatre changed, but not once did it stop.

That change continues to be radical. Theatres around the world are questioning how they can adapt to the restrictions that now threaten the purpose of the building: to bring people together in a shared space and time so that they can evolve their understanding of the world around them collectively.

And whilst the Layard is a par ticularly special building to me, it is the people within it that have made it so. We have learned that there are more ways to come together than just physically, and we know that the space for creativity and imagination provided by the theatre, whether as a building or a concept, can provide radical leadership to the rest of the world.

Laura Blake, Head of Drama

“If we could not come together to create, then we would simply do it apart.”

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the arts - drama

Chicago

“Both leads shone as the two heartless, publicity-seeking murderers.”

50

WHAT on earth could follow the spectacle, success and reputation of Canford’s 2018 production of Les Misérables? Something very different in many ways, although just as difficult a challenge – Chicago.

Directed by Helen Craig with, as ever, magnificent choreography by Claire Camble-Hutchins and supported by a fantastically moody, smoking jazz score expertly performed by the school orchestra directed by Chris Sparkhall, it more than held its own and maintained the high standards we have come to expect of Canford’s musicals. The strong, largely female cast was a nod to the anniversary of 50 years of girls at Canford.

Loosely based on a real murder case in 1920s, Chicago highlights the twisted priorities of media sensationalism and the way society makes celebrities out of criminals. It tells the story of two chorus girls, Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart, accused of murdering their respective lovers. The media circus surrounding their crimes brings them infamy and celebrity status, aided by the machinations of their unscrupulous lawyer, Billy Flynn.

The monochrome, minimalist set, giving a feel of the circus as much as a prison, with the ensemble cast frozen in place, was striking even as the audience took their seats. The single, moving cell with two balconies allowed a wide range of entrances and exits and placed the cast centre stage. The opening number, ‘All that jazz’, introduced the play in dramatic style. In a power play that continued until the final scenes, Emma Large dominated the stage as notorious murderer Velma Kelly, before Amanda Cross Court as Roxie hijacked the scene by shooting her lover dead and then blaming her poor long-suffering husband, Amos. Both leads shone as the two heartless, publicity-seeking murderers.

‘The cell block tango’, skilfully choreographed using chairs, introduced us to the seedy world of the Chicago prison to which Roxie had been sent and was quickly

followed by ‘When you’re good to Mama’, in which the beautiful voice of Tamara Read-Ward cynically bartered fame, privileges and access to top lawyers in return for favours. One of these top lawyers, Billy Flynn, played by Adam Phillips in his Canford musical swansong, soon arrived. Adam was perfectly cast for this role, his height emphasising how Flynn looks down on those he uses in his quest for fame and fortune. After the gloriously ironic ‘All I care about (is love)’, he then manoeuvred Roxie like a ventriloquist’s dummy as the press interviewed her in a beautifully choreographed and performed version of ‘We both reached for the gun’ which wowed the journalists but replaced Velma in the public’s eye.

The second half opened with Amos Hart’s solo number, ‘Mr Cellophane’. Ruthlessly manipulated by Billy Flynn for publicity and perfectly played by Zachary Arnold, Amos stole the audience’s hearts and received a very genuine ‘Ahh’ as he finally left the stage without the exit music awarded to the other, more dominant but less genuine characters. The media circus was further emphasised by the circus act staging of the hanging of one of the few innocent prisoners, Hunyak, poignantly played by Esther Browning. In Roxie’s trial, which made

Cast

Roxie Hart

Velma Kelly Billy Flynn Amos Hart

Mama Morton Liz Annie June Hunyak Mona Mary Sunshine Fred Casely Fogarty Judge Harrison Kitty Clerk

Amanda Cross Court Emma Large Adam Phillips Zachary Arnold Tamara Read-Ward Georgia Calvert-Lee Gracie Woolaway Serena Chamberlain Esther Browning Georgina Kearns Maddie Lyles Freddie Young Charlie Cooke-Priest Gabe Wilkinson Josh Fulford Olivia Hingston Max Lockyer

Ensemble: Ruby Anand, Serena Blake, Leo Burnet, Eliana Covell, Magnus Crawshaw, Beau Gater, Amelia Green, Alice Hairon, Alice Herbert, Amber Herrington, Millie Heyman, Sophie Hussey, Jake Jeffries, Amelie Kearns, Nadia Lees, Lucie Marns, Ellie Martin, Alice Milton, Anu Osikoya, Flora Peddie, Elliot Phillips, Anna Preston, Hamish Ryan, Joanna Salmon, Annabel Seabrook, Millie Todd, Lottie Thomas, Joanna Way, Imy Woodcock.

Band

Musical Director: Christopher Sparkhall Violin: Matthew Butterfield Reeds 1: Rachel Ko, Catalina Taylor, Charlotte Kersey, Louisa Matthews, Tom Clark Trumpets:Neil Doherty, Julian Newell Trombones: Finlay Boardman, Timothy Downing

the arts - drama

full use of the set and chorus, the final verdict was far less important to her than the fame which was briefly hers but was snatched away by a new, more interesting case. Roxie and Velma were left alone and bankrupt.

Despite their mutual dislike of each other, they teamed up to form a ‘sister act’ and quickly regained their lost notoriety.

Under the catchy tunes and razzle-dazzle of the slick dance routines, Chicago contains an important message for our modern world despite being almost 100 years old. The city of Chicago is a fickle place addicted to fame, and fame transfers from one person to the next faster than the wind changes direction. As Billy tells Roxie: ‘You’re a phony celebrity. You’re a flash in the pan. In a couple of weeks, no one’s gonna give a damn about you.’

The only way to control fame is to control the winds of public perception. None of the guilty characters ever receive their due punishment and ‘justice’ is swayed by the press.

But more than this, making the original, tragic court case into a musical leaves us in the audience singing and dancing along—and makes us complicit in Roxie’s rise to infamy. You may think she’s reprehensible for cashing in on a crime, but it wouldn’t happen if the public didn’t love it. Helen Craig writes in her director’s notes: ‘The ability to control a narrative and convince people of a truth is powerful and dangerous, something many of us are aware of in the wake of the Me Too movement, allegations of “fake news” and even the recent Epstein

scandal. We hope that by studying the “razzle dazzle” that contributes to these corruptions, we might be able to better spot and respond to those tricks in the future.’

People will always do crazy things for fame and then try to glamorise it. Chicago does it with catchy musical numbers and humour, making us part of the cycle.

Sam Crouch

Bass: Thomas Sparkhall Percussion: Oli Banyard, Will Timberlake Piano: James Aiken

Technical team

Stage Manager: Matthew Shuttleworth Deputy Stage Manager: Celia Leavesley Assistant Stage Managers: Oliver Baldwin, Phoebe Kibble, Edward Loveridge, William Toosey, Tia Yang Sound Operator: George Peacock Sound Assistant: George Farthing Live stream: David Benamor Lighting operators: Callum Bruce, Edward Porter Follow spot operators: Jackson Kennett, Molly Peacock Camera and other properties design and realisation: Hugh Blake, Frederick Bowater, Yoyo Ding, Jack Niu, Molly Peacock

Production team

Director: Helen Craig Choreographer & Assistant Director: Claire Camble-Hutchins Visiting Choreographers: Sophie Camble, Josie Camble Scenic Design: Kevin Wilkins Scenic Construction Design: Colin Hoare, Jonathon Ledger Lighting Design: Callum Bruce Costumes: Claire Camble-Hutchins Production Lighting and Sound Mentor: Kevin Wilkins Producer: Laura Blake

For the Layard Theatre

Technical Manager: Kevin Wilkins Theatre Technicians: Colin Hoare, Jonathon Ledger Administrator/F.O.H. Manager: Lisa Perry F.O.H. Duty Manager: Lesley Walmesley Housekeeping: John Baxter

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the arts - drama

Frankenstein

“We were transcended into the dark recesses of our minds, as we voyeuristically observed the birth of a swarm of zombie-like creatures.”

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DANNY Boyle, eat your heart out. As a director interested in visual representations of visceral fear, this may be all too tempting. Had I been sitting next to the gritty British cultural icon and Oscar-winning director, I know he too would have been impressed with this entrancing version of the Nick Dear play.

Fitting with gothic tradition, this production was immersive, explosive and boundary-challenging from the off. We were transcended into the dark recesses of our minds, as we voyeuristically observed the birth of a swarm of zombie-like creatures. Moaning and groaning, they sought to escape the confines of a large amniotic sac. The poor wretches emerged into a dark murky auditorium to the electronic sounds of a psychedelic rave. This fleshy corporeal mass was exposed under an enormous petri-dish with illuminated gauze, symbolic of the scientific experiments imagined by Shelley herself.

Were the worms emerging into the daylight or had we all just descended into the underworld? Whichever way round, we were absorbed. This grave had depth.

Choosing to have three separate actors playing three disparate creatures no doubt posed challenges for Laura Blake, the director. Ollie Glen was unrecognisable in his physical performance of the ‘abhuman’ form. Disguised in skin-coloured tights complete with stitched in disfigurement, he scampered around the stage like a feral dog in search of food and kindness. He found neither, and the audience was left questioning what it really means to be human. Was it a love of music?

If the first creature dragged us from the grave onto

the streets, the second attempted to deliver us to ‘paradise’ in the countryside. Will Walters emerged as a more civilised creature who was notably able to speak. His energetic, puppy-esque performance was endearing. Supported by a convincing portrayal of De Lacey, the blind man (Charlie Cooke-Priest), he delivered the most romantic part of the production. With snow, countryside scenes and references to Milton’s Paradise Lost, we were lulled into a fairy-tale dream-world. Felix (Charlie Cameron) and Agatha (Grace Woolaway) took on the role of Prince Charming and his wife-to-be in a nightmarish version of Jack and the Beanstalk. Instead of magic beans, we had the magic of the creature who

the arts - drama turned his hand to furtively helping out the family with his superhuman strength. Amplified on stage by another ensemble performance of a horde of walkers, the kindness of the creature soon turned sour. The rural idyll warmed with paternal love was frozen by rage, revenge and ultimately fire.

Twenty-eight days later (or even more... Shelley was also vague about time), Gabe Wilkinson emerged as the final and most frightening of the three creations.

Dressed in formal morning suit and armed with the vocabulary of an elite Victorian public school headmaster, Gabe dominated the stage. He was selfish, manipulative and curiously erudite. Equally curious was Victor Frankenstein (Felix Spencer), who was nerdy, isolated and obsessively selfish. As in Nick Dear’s production for the National Theatre (in which Danny Boyle collaborated), it was this relationship that was under the microscope. The scientist and his creation took us on a journey of epic proportions; from Ingolstadt, where Victor’s brother was cruelly murdered, we trekked through mountains; we were transported to Scotland and back to Ingolstadt in search of enlightenment and, of course, love.

Elizabeth Lavenza (Georgia Calvert-Lee), Victor’s fiancée, attempted to restore the natural order by showering requests for expressions of love, and ultimately procreation, on her beloved Victor. The female creature (Jessye Phillips) was Elizabeth’s reflection in the underworld, a second perverse vision from Victor’s mind. Why was Victor more able to express admiration for the dead woman in his life than his wife-to-be?

Why was Victor haunted by the thoughts of William (Ed Loveridge) in a hypnotic dream? Before we were able to answer, Victor himself transformed from ‘God of science’ to ‘brutal butcher’, adorned with blooded apron and saw. Savagely dismembering his female creation, Victor set his abandoned creature upon a journey to vengeance. We were left aghast.

No gothic horror story would be complete without the ‘look behind you’ moment. This production did not disappoint. Elizabeth, reassured by the maternal Clarice (Olivia Hingston) that all would be well on her wedding night, was lulled into a false sense of security.

Waiting for her now-crazed husband to finish hunting his monstrosity, Elizabeth (and the audience) recoiled in fear as the creature appeared from under the bed.

The creature’s loving and comforting words contrasted peculiarly with the impassive taciturn voice of Victor toward his newly wedded wife. His consolation was short-lived as the nefarious plot unravelled to its

inexorable finale.

As a staunch Roman Catholic, Danny Boyle would have approved of the religious symbolism at the end of the production. We were left contemplating the value of A Life Less Ordinary. Had we witnessed something that affirmed life or death? Did it endorse science or religion?

Was it a dream or a nightmare?

Or, perhaps, just great theatre.

Richard Redwood

Cast

The Creature: Ollie Glen; Will Walters; Gabe Wilkinson Victor Frankenstein (a scientist): Felix Spencer Gretel (a prostitute): Nory Warner Gustav (a beggar): Freddie Young Klaus (a beggar): Beau Gater De Lacey (a blind man): Charlie Cooke-Priest Felix (his son): Charlie Cameron Agatha (his daughter-in-law): Grace Woolaway The Female Creature: Jessye Phillips Elizabeth Lavenza (Victor’s fiancée): Georgia Calvert-Lee Clarice (her maid): Olivia Hingston William Frankenstein (Victor’s brother): Ed Loveridge Monsieur Frankenstein (Victor’s father): George Farthing Ewan (an Orkney islander): Magnus Crawshaw Rab (his nephew): Zach Arnold A Constable: Elliot Phillips

Crew

Stage Manager: Oliver Baldwin Deputy Stage Manager: Celia Leavesley Assistant Stage Managers: Leo Burnet, Jessica West Lighting Operator: Edward Porter Sound Operator: David Benamor

Production Team

Director: Laura Blake Scenic Design: Kevin Wilkins Scenic Construction Design: Colin Hoare, Jonathon Ledger Lighting Design: Edward Porter, Kevin Wilkins Sound Design: David Benamor, Kevin Wilkins Projection Design: Kevin Wilkins Filming: Oliver Baldwin, David Benamor Costume Supervisor: Claire Camble-Hutchins

For the Layard Theatre

Technical Manager: Kevin Wilkins Theatre Technicians: Colin Hoare, Jonathon Ledger Administrator/F.O.H. Manager: Lisa Perry

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the arts - drama

Cinderella - Canford’s first Christmas pantomime

“The panto ended with everyone living happily ever after and the large audience showing their strong appreciation.”

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HAVING produced Christmas Nativity plays in the past, Laura Blake, Head of Drama, had always been keen for the school to put on a Christmas pantomime involving Shell and Fourth Form pupils, who were often unable to perform in the main school musical, and providing the opportunity to suck teachers into the performance.

This year, with a very willing and talented group of Shells and fourth-formers, Cinderella was not only performed by the cast, but created, designed, written and mostly organised by this band of pioneering thespians – with a little help from the drama team.

The script was conceived and written by Petrus Admiraal-Garbett (with help from Millie Jeffries), who was obviously keen to play one of the ugly sisters and consequently landed a fairly significant part. The continuing frisson between him and the other sister, played by Johannes Bishop-Weston, kept the play energised and provided a suitable backdrop for the aloof and haughty demeanour of Millie Jeffries as their winedrinking mother.

Chloe Nwankwo charmed the audience as a selfdoubting Cinderella, who befriended an equally insecure squirrel, William Lowbridge, with a love-struck and suffering Buttons played wistfully by Isaac Siggers. Chloe Markham strutted ‘his’ stuff as the assertive Prince Charming, a strong foil for the Fairy Godmother and dainty fairies played by Lottie Cross Court, Jessica Burke and Bibi Rodgers.

All the traditional pantomime devices were featured, with the audience getting actively involved in the ‘behind you’ sequence, there was a slapstick chase to the Benny Hill theme music and the cast sprayed a lot of fake wine over each other. An additional novelty was the appearance of two teaching staff, who claimed ‘extreme reluctance’ to perform as the panto dames of Madame Sage and Madame Onions but who seemed to quite enjoy it as their unscripted speaking parts grew larger with every rehearsal! They were introduced by Ollie Glen’s flamboyant dress designer, Pizzocherri, with Mr Dant producing numerous articles from under his bustle when trying to find his wallet – not an unusual occurrence in real life. One felt sorry for Ellie Paget and Jasmine de la Haye as the guards who had the unpleasant duty of preventing an enraged Madame Sage and Madame Onions from entering the ball and they received blue papers, demerits and detentions for their trouble.

Finally, a stage-shy Headmaster was coaxed onto the boards in a guest appearance to remind everyone of the strict codes of behaviour and dress expected from all those involved in the ball: a performance which he delivered with his customary enthusiasm and energy. The panto ended with everyone living happily ever after and the large audience showing their strong appreciation. One commented that their cheeks were aching throughout the performance – but whether it was from grimacing or smiling, they neglected to mention.

Michael Doherty

the arts - MUSIC

THE first two terms of the year passed in a whirlwind of excellent music-making. It is quite hard not to look back as I write this in the summer holidays with more than a tinge of longing for the return of that bustling normality.

We enjoyed masterclasses with vocal group Apollo 5, with soprano Julia Doyle (who was much impressed by the singing ability of our Upper Sixth) and with members of Britten Sinfonia, who were with us for the annual residence.The chamber music concert, which saw many of our scholars and senior musicians forming groups with one or two professionals, was a real highlight.The big Christmas Term concert saw the Orchestra, Wind Orchestra and other ensembles in fine form, and the Chamber Choir’s visit to Winchester for Evensong was much enjoyed by both the singers and those in the congregation.

In January we welcomed Alistair Hardie to the department as Assistant Director of Music (Academic).

He has settled in very quickly and already has a reputation for puns that almost equal those of Mr Aiken, as well as for high standards and a wonderfully encouraging manner.

The Easter Term also included the jazz concert, which saw a packed concert hall enjoying music by Gershwin performed by the Jazz Band, and the marking, in jazzed-up arrangements, of the Beethoven anniversary by the Wind Orchestra.

The story goes that, when the iceberg hit the Titanic, the musicians were on deck, playing to keep up the spirits of the passengers as the ship went down. Whilst Canford is, happily, far from sinking, there is no doubt that it suffered a devastating impact just before the end of the Easter Term. On the last afternoon before the school was closed, members of the Orchestra came together to record some of the pieces they had been due to play in the, by then, cancelled ‘Lighthouse’ concert.The Wind Orchestra had done something similar the previous evening.There was palpable emotion in the room as the concert hall fell silent for, probably, the longest period in its history.

However, just like the musicians on that fated liner, the staff and pupils were not about to let the small inconvenience of a school closure stop them.They simply moved online, got their instruments (and voices) warmed up and started making recordings to keep spirits high!

Learning new skills rapidly, and adjusting to the rather strange experience of playing solo to a backing track or

metronome click, there were challenges aplenty – for staff, too. Rehearsing a choir of 60 pupils and not being able to hear a single one is a surreal experience. One draws on all one’s experience of where they probably made mistakes to coach them effectively.

I could not be more proud of the pupils this Summer Term.The pupil leadership that I have seen, dropping in on small, pupil-run sectional rehearsals on ‘Teams’, has been exceptional.The willing engagement and a ‘let’s get this done’ spirit from all has been extraordinary and inspiring.

We have produced somewhere in the region of 25 remote ensemble recordings, ranging from a small group of Shells working in class music to cover some James Bond themes, through several pieces from all of the major ensembles, and culminating in a combined staff and pupil choir singing ‘Oh when the saints’, arranged by John Rutter.The music staff also collaborated in a remote orchestra and choir to perform ‘All by my self-isolation’, which Alistair Hardie arranged and co-ordinated.

I am devastated for all of our musical leavers that they could not have their big ‘live’ end of term concert – but they all feature strongly in our remotely recorded performances, and they will be very much missed. Adam, Bea, Fin, Lizzie, Rachel and Tessa, our A Level musicians, have been extraordinary contributors to the department, as have Gracie, Felix, Katy and Sam. Many others have been committed members of choir or ensembles. I wish them all well for the future, thank them for what they have done – in both normal and abnormal times – and sincerely hope they will come back for that final concert once we can arrange it.

Finally, though, the music needs to speak for itself.There is no better way to note the achievements in both the live concerts of the first part of the year, but even more, in the production of remotely made performances from the Summer Term, than to look and listen to what we have done. If you haven’t visited the Canford Music YouTube channel, then do so right now. It is far more interesting than anything I can write in this article, and I hope you will be blown away by the talents of the amazing Canfordians I have the privilege to direct in their music-making.

Christopher Sparkhall, Director of Music

“There was palpable emotion in the room as the concert hall fell silent for, probably, the longest period in its history.”

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the arts - MUSIC

Jazz Concer t

“Over the subsequent, painfully confined months I found myself reflecting often on how that evening … acted as a blissful, carefree prelude to a dark and forbidding symphony.”

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‘WELL, ladies and gentlemen, good evening, and a really, really warm welcome to our Jazz Concert this year.’

With these plain words, Mr Sparkhall opened the 2020 Jazz Concert. Those of us sitting in the audience that evening little knew that it was going to be the last such event that we would be attending for a long time. The link between jazz and freedom goes back a long way, and over the subsequent, painfully confined months I found myself reflecting often on how that evening, with its celebration of artistic freedom and the defiance of musical convention, acted as a blissful, carefree prelude to a dark and forbidding symphony.

The programme for the Jazz Band was drawn exclusively from the works of George Gershwin. One hundred years ago, Gershwin – then, like the century, in his early twenties – was struggling to establish both himself as an artist and jazz as a respectable art form.

This assessment of the idiom from the New York American reminds us what he was up against: ‘degrading, pathological, nerve-irritating, sex-exciting music’.

Nonetheless he persisted, and the selection of his works performed in this concert – drawn predominantly from his compositions for Broadway or for movie studios – left none of us in doubt as to his versatility, his range or his gift for a catchy melody.

The concert-opener, ‘S’ wonderful’, was followed by another instrumental performance, ‘They can’t take that away from me’. We had been promised that this piece would give Finn Boardman the chance to show us ‘the glories of the trombone’. Some of us more prejudiced members of the audience might have felt that that was something of a contradiction in terms, but he duly disproved the naysayers by delivering a magnificently sonorous improvised solo on that much-maligned instrument. There followed two vocal pieces, in which Callum Bruce demonstrated what ‘Nice work’ he had indeed been able to get, while Lizzy Balls delivered a tender and poignant ‘Embraceable you’.

After the break, in which the usual magnificent range of spectacular Canford canapés was served, the Wind Orchestra took the stage. Mr Hardie, newly in command of this outfit, introduced the programme in an entertaining, imaginative and vigorously witty way: ‘And for Mr Sparkhall, things only got worse: I came along and decided to put Beethoven on a Gershwin programme;

and Beethoven didn’t even write jazz.’ Nevertheless, the lack of grotesque punning and excruciating wordplay left many of us in the audience, quite simply, achin’.

In celebration of Beethoven’s 250th year, two of the pieces were jazz arrangements of his Fifth and Ninth Symphonies. The catchy and upbeat tones of the latter, christened ‘Joyful joyful’, in particular kept me positive over the dark days that were to come. Also on offer was an arrangement of SFC floor-filler ‘Don’t stop me now’, which got the whole room bouncing despite the unorthodox glockenspiel solo halfway through. The piece was rounded off by a beautiful flute coda from Georgina Kearns and Matilda Child, like the other soloists of the evening, in their final year of jazz concerts.

The final section of the concert saw the return of the Jazz Band, and a return to Gershwin. Adam Phillips gave a smooth and confident performance of ‘How long has this been going on?’, while Gracie Woolaway’s fabulous stage presence and wonderful control of dynamics created a truly enveloping ‘Summertime’. After a couple of further numbers, all that was left was to ‘Strike Up the Band’ – as it turned out, for the last time in a long time indeed, but enchantingly, rousingly and lasting long in the memory.

John Dant

Chapel Choir

Wind Orchestra

Charles Anstee, Zachary Arnold, Oscar Bailey, Elizabeth Balls, Ethan Bikhazi-Green, Johannes Bishop-Weston, Serena Blake, Finlay Boardman, Isabella Borneman, Louisa Borneman, Callum Bruce, Zachary Buller, Matthew Butterfield, Michael Campbell,Yasmin Chadwick, Thomas Clark, Eliana Covell, Magnus Crawshaw, Amanda Cross Court, Nuala Dyball, Samuel Ford, Tabitha Fuery, Joshua Fulford, Amelia Green, Alice Hairon, Lucy Hancock, Thomas Herbert, Rupert Hutton, Emma Jeffries, Jackson Kennett, Annabel Kersey, Rachel Ko, Celia Leavesley, Nadia Lees, Max Lockyer, Edward Loveridge, William Lowbridge, Madeleine Lyles, Tessa Marley, Finch Massam, Louisa Matthews, Julian Newell, Orlagh O’Donnell, Daniel Offer, Louis Pearson, Flora Peddie, Adam Phillips, Elliot Phillips, Tommy Qian, Oscar Rees, Isaac Siggers, Nathan Sloley, Samuel Smith, Sammy Smith, Thomas Sparkhall, Samuel Stirling, Eleanor Stocker, Lukas Svedberg, Catalina Taylor, Charlotte Thomas, Amy Van Wingerden, Eleanor Warner, Beatrice Webb, Imogen Woodcock, Grace Woolaway

Flutes: Beatrice Webb, Matilda Child, Lucy Hancock (piccolo), Georgina Kearns, Gemma Kendall, Isobel Place, Emma Jeffries, Rosie Ireland Oboe: Madeleine Lyles Clarinets: Jerry Hu, Stella Jarvis, Catalina Taylor, Hattie Kent, Joshua Fulford, Alice Hairon Bass Clarinet: Louisa Matthews Bassoons: Hamish Ryan, Alice Herbert, Richard Hare Alto Saxophones: Rachel Ko, Flora Peddie, Poppy Keeping, Oliver Banyard Tenor Saxophone: Max Richards Baritone Saxophone: Charles Anstee Horns: Jemima Carrell, Thomas Herbert Trumpets: Annabel Kersey, Isabella Borneman Trombones: Finlay Boardman, Timothy Downing Euphonium: JC Zhang Bass Guitar: Sasha Witter Percussion: Felix Spencer, William Timberlake, Joseph Bland, David Offer

Chamber Choir Sopranos: Tessa Marley, Elizabeth Balls, Madeleine Lyles, Amanda Cross Court, Grace Woolaway, Eliana Covell Altos: Lucy Hancock, Rachel Ko, Louisa Matthews, Yasmin Chadwick Tenors: Thomas Clark, Thomas Sparkhall, Charles Anstee, Max Lockyer Basses: Adam Phillips, Finlay Boardman, Matthew Butterfield

Cantabile Choir Rose Baldwin, Francesca Baillieu, Georgina Baillieu, Lara Crorie, Charlotte Cross Court, Jasmine De La Haye, Yoyo Ding, Zara Holt, Millie Jeffries, Charlotte Kersey, Lara Le Quesne, Imogen Marley, Chloe Nwankwo, Mia Ulyett, Abigail Weir, Sophia Westberg-Orton, Sophia Whelan, Agatha Zhao, Sarah Zhao

Orchestra 1st Violins: Matthew Butterfield (Leader) Rachel Ko Tessa Marley, Eve Hewett, Lukas Svedberg, William Timberlake, Louisa Borneman, Honor Williams 2nd Violins: Rupert Hutton Honoré Cutler, Emily Vance, Emily Shi, Amelie Kearns, Louis McHamish Violas: Katherine Jack, Amanda Cross Court Violoncellos: Samuel Downey, Eliana Covell, Emily de Veulle, Topsy Holder, Annabel Seabrook, Thomas Sparkhall, Samuel Stirling, Edward Timberlake, Madeleine Spraigue Flutes: Beatrice Webb, Lucy Hancock Oboes: Madeleine Lyles, Max Lockyer Clarinets: Catalina Taylor, Stella Jarvis Bass Clarinet: Louisa Matthews Bassoons: Richard Hare, Alice Herbert, Hamish Ryan French Horns: Thomas Herbert, Elliot Phillips, Jemima Carrell Trumpets: Jack Salmon, Annabel Kersey, Julian Newell Trombones: Finlay Boardman,Timothy Downing, Benjamin Bishop Percussion: Felix Spencer, Ethan Bikhazi-Green, Oliver Banyard, Adam Phillips

the arts - MUSIC

Members of musical ensembles, 2019-20

Jazz Band Alto Saxophones: Rachel Ko, Charlotte Kersey Tenor Saxophones: Thomas Clark, Toby Bishop, Max Richards Baritone Saxophone: Charles Anstee Trumpets: Jack Salmon, Julian Newell Trombones: Finlay Boardman, Timothy Downing Guitar: Oscar Rees Piano: Mr James Aiken Drum Kit: William Timberlake Bass: Maximilian Lockyer

Concert Band Flutes: Charlotte Howell, Charlotte Kersey, Lara Crorie, Sophie de Veulle, Zara Holt, Sophia Whelan, Thomas Norman, Georgina Baillieu, Mia Ulyett Oboe: Edward Timberlake Clarinets: Michael Campbell, Dill Howell, Jack Niu, Yutong Li Saxophones: Thomas Clark, Ross Jemmett, Jessica Burke Trumpets: James Balasubramaniam, Julian Newell, Henry Hancock Trombones: Benjy Bishop, Lara Witter Percussion: Ethan Bikhazi-Green

String Chamber Music Louisa Borneman, Matthew Butterfield, Eliana Covell, Amanda Cross Court, Honoré Cutler, Emily De Veulle, Eve Hewett, Topsy Holder, Rupert Hutton, Katherine Jack, Amelie Kearns, Pavlos Karampoulas (piano), Forest Li, Tessa Marley, Louis McHamish, Annabel Seabrook, Ben Shaw, Emily Shi, Thomas Sparkhall, Madeleine Spraigue, Samuel Stirling, Lukas Svedberg, Honor Williams

Piano: Pavlos Karampoulas

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the arts - ART

“House Art 2019 was once again hotly contested, with this year’s theme ‘Album Artwork Design’ in homage to artist Peter Blake.”

“House Art 2019 was once again hotly contested, with this year’s theme ‘Album Artwork Design’ in homage to artist Peter Blake.”

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DURING the first two terms of the year, pupils enjoyed a series of ‘visiting artist weekend workshops’ with illustrator and animator Hrefna Bragadottir and photographer Michael Alberry. The Fifth Form visits to London’s V&A, Natural History Museum and Science Museum complemented our work in the Art School and we are hopeful that trips such as this will be possible at some point in 2020/21. House Art 2019 was once again hotly contested, with this year’s theme ‘Album Artwork Design’ in homage to artist Peter Blake to acknowledge his first album cover design in thirteen years. Court won the overall creative prize and took possession of the Artist Palette, and Wimborne were awarded the cup for house participation. An evening programme of

Life Drawing sessions for Sixth Form artists fulfilled an important aspect for those applying to Art College or creative courses at University. Finally, we were delighted that OC David Plested donated his personal library of Architecture and Art books to the Canford Art School library, which has been a very welcome addition to our collection.

Delivering an interesting and engaging programme of lessons for Art and Design in lockdown was certainly a challenge! Over the Easter holidays we re-wrote our entire curriculum to allow for the limitations of online communication. There were many difficulties that we had not anticipated such as access to materials to create work at home, and freedom of information for some overseas pupils. We devised projects that utilised found papers to make books to draw in and recipes for making home-made paints.

In Dorset, we are very fortunate to be able to get outside and feel close to nature, but not everyone has access to an outside space. ‘The Garden’ project for the GCSE pupils centred around places where we can experience nature. In some cases that was a traditional garden, woodland, lake or river. For some pupils a window box or collection of house plants became their garden and starting point for work. It was exciting to see each interpretation and imaginative response to the theme.

Junior and senior pupils worked on photography projects that incorporated objects encased in layers of ice; the resulting images show delicate natural forms, found items and subtle light to create striking images that present the everyday as something precious and beautiful. The Lower Sixth and Fifth Form pupils experimented with using a long exposure to create light drawings. Different light sources created a variety of effects, and experimenting with the time-frames allowed more complex light drawings to be made.

Working from home, our Fourth Form pupils were

the arts - ART able to share their artwork using Padlet, an app that works like an online noticeboard, to ‘pin’ your images, links and documents. It is designed to allow people to collaborate and communicate, so we were able to display our artworks, make comments and vote on the best ones. The work produced by pupils involved using items sourced from their homes, and organising them to create an image of a container or object that could be found in the kitchen. Those images have been collected together and form a collaborative ‘shelf ’ of jars and bottles.

Canford has strong links with the local community and as part of the Community Service programme, juniors worked on a weekly illustrated postcard to be sent to local people. The aim of the activity was to connect with residents who would have had visits from pupils, and perhaps those who were isolated or vulnerable. There is something comforting and exciting about receiving a letter in the post! Our postcards were designed to bring cheer and remind people that even when we cannot be together, we are not alone.

We sent over 50 postcards and had some encouraging feedback: ‘the cards…cheered me up enormously, the

artwork was great’, ‘they certainly mean a lot to her and make her feel that she is less alone’, ‘she has the postcards propped up on her table and she looks at them when she’s eating, enjoying turning them over to read the inspirational quotes’.

Canford Art Instagram page kept pupils and staff connected throughout lockdown. The daily Photography challenge sparked a competitive nature!

Each day a different theme challenged pupils to look at their surroundings, find an interesting perspective and capture an image to share. It allowed us to communicate, collaborate and have fun.

During lockdown, and despite the frustrations of not being together and having the luxury of the studios and materials, pupils worked hard to make thoughtful, quality work, with the characteristic positivity and courage that is shown at school. This situation has perhaps taught us a little about the value of Canford, of friends and colleagues. We are so appreciative of being in the Art School, sharing ideas, encouraging, experimenting and revelling in those happy accidents that occur. It is good to be back.

Nicola Will, Head of Art

“Our postcards were designed to bring cheer and remind people that even when we cannot be together, we are not alone.”

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Chaplaincy

“Of course, there were two terms of Canford life BC (Before Covid), and they contained the usual array of chaplaincy events typically found in a school year.”

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ON 23 April 2020, we held a Foundation Day service like no other. It was the first online service uploaded to YouTube. It was the first chaplaincy event of the locked-down Summer Term, and marked the beginning of weekly chapel video podcasts. If you never got round to seeing them, search ‘Canford Chapel YouTube’ online and the full ‘playlist’ will be found (no doubt remaining somewhere in the ether for the rest of human history as a testimony to the spiritual lessons we learned during the unprecedented period of remote education last summer).

Each week after the Foundation Day service, I produced a series of podcasts that explored different themes reflecting on the challenges we were facing and the lessons we might learn, ranging from ‘We need heroes’ to ‘We are physical’. The format evolved, but broadly speaking they involved a Zoom interview, a biblical reflection, a photo montage and a short prayer.

The guests included psychologist and counsellor Dr Jo Jackson, Canford parents and frontline medics Aidan and Andie Siggers, OC and historian Tom Holland and the director of Christians in Sport, Graham Daniels.

Each shared something of his or her insight into the challenges that the coronavirus crisis was presenting to us, and all pointed powerfully to the unique ways that the Christian faith helped meet those challenges. Alongside these interviews, many in the Canford community sent in photos to make up the weekly montages – for example, of things they were thankful for, of their

#lastnormalphoto, or of hobbies and activities taken up in lockdown. These helped us keep our sense of our community alive, even when we were apart.

Alongside these weekly podcasts, other chaplaincy activities continued. The weekly Sixth Form Bible study met by Zoom call each Friday, culminating with a socially distanced barbecue on what would have been the final night of term and the Leavers’ Ball. Both pre-lockdown in the Merryvale living room and post-lockdown online, we shared many happy times with this year’s SFBS group, as we ate brownies, drank hot drinks and studied the Bible together.

Of course, there were two terms of Canford life BC (Before Covid), and they contained the usual array of chaplaincy events typically found in a school year. The final chaplaincy event before lockdown was our annual Lent Addresses. It was a joy to welcome Tom Price, leading a team from OCCA (the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics), and they threw themselves into school life (see photo), engaging in many PT lessons as well as the main events in the evening on the themes, ‘Love Island’, ‘Robots and AI’, and ‘Would I lie to you?’

A new initiative this Lent was the Philo-suppers, led by Dr Callum Miller, who spoke on religious truth, morality and bio-ethics. All were well attended with excellent questions being asked, along with lots of snacks eaten!

Back in the Christmas Term it was great to welcome back Rev. Pete Nicholas and Scott Darlow to preach, as we thought about being made in God’s image, as well as to welcome new speakers Sam Johns and Jared Littlewood. As ever, the two major services of the Christmas Term were powerful occasions. Remembrance Sunday was a glorious autumn day, setting a beautiful backdrop to another moving ceremony around the Sunken Lawn, after services with guest preachers Lt Col Dennis Vincent and Capt Theo Bossom. With the likelihood of a cancellation this Christmas, looking back on the Carol Service of 2019 evokes strong feelings of longing and nostalgia. The Minster was packed with parents, governors, staff and pupils all enjoying singing and listening to the magnificent musical repertoire produced by Mr Sparkhall, Mr Aiken, Mrs Salmon and the choirs – a strong reminder of why online chapel is no substitute for a physical gathering and congregational singing. Soon may normality return.

Rev. Philip Jack

COMMUNITY ACTION

THE academic year 2019/20 has been a year like no other. That said, the first two-thirds of it went swimmingly well in the community service department so I will focus on this before moving onto the challenges that Covid-19 gave us.

The year got off to a good start with our largest ever cohort of pupils starting their community service programme. We only put on one new activity, an oncampus art project run by Nicola Will that had the brief of designing some artwork for local schools or

care homes. This shows the strength of the provision we offer. We have fantastic relationships with external organisations and all of these organisations are keen to welcome us back again the following academic year, so there is no reason to hunt for new projects for our pupils. They do a really good job out there in the community and this is testament to their endeavours. I always feel a sense of pride when I see our minibuses departing for numerous destinations on a Monday afternoon, filled to the brim with enthusiastic and openeyed pupils, some clutching DBS certificates in hand, all chatting away about what they will be doing.

We have also been growing the programme over the last couple of years and some activities in previous years had slightly fewer pupils than needed, which meant that our excess pupils could be placed into those spaces. I would not want a case of more is better – I think it is better to consolidate what we do and to do it well.

It was good to welcome Alex Boulton back to the care of the elderly activity, as it was to welcome Richard Redwood as a helper into the same activity. Dick Carpenter enthusiastically took on the F24 kit car project, and David Hivey grew the good working relationship we have with the volunteers at Wimborne Model Town. Our new ‘gaplain’, Harry Nicholl, was happy to take on the French language club at St John’s School and I am very grateful to him for stepping up and getting on with this.

September brought the annual visit to PGL on the Isle of Wight with City Reach. It always seems to coincide with the start of autumn and the first batch of chilly rain

“I always feel a sense of pride when I see our minibuses departing for numerous destinations on a Monday afternoon, filled to the brim with enthusiastic and open-eyed pupils.”

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COMMUNITY ACTION “It is a real pleasure to see our pupils making new friends and giving our guests a great day.”

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that we get, signalling the end of summer. This year did not disappoint, yet as ever, our Sixth Form students did a great job in looking after the City Reach youngsters and raising their damp spirits. I was accompanied this year by Sarah Holland and would like to thank her for being such good company as well.

Shine also started well. The programme is now well established and it was great to see the pupils on the first and subsequent Saturdays. Due to my timetable I was unable to drive the pupils this year, which did mean that I felt as if I lacked the usual amount of contact, but I was able to drop into lessons and meet the children and teachers during their break. I was also lucky enough to teach a session this year due to another member of staff being absent. As is often the case with covering colleagues, it was all very lastminute, but I was able to get my Upper Sixth class

to help out with some activities – something I am very grateful to them for doing, given that they had no advance notice. It was another great example of our Canfordians stepping up and getting on with things because that’s what they do. There were no complaints (indeed some might say there were smiles and cheers when they found out that they did not have a formal lesson with myself).

Harry Nichol and Roger Centron Gomez helped me run the activity by serving the breakfasts and I am very grateful to them both for being such a big help. Harry also helped with the plenary sessions and it was great to see him develop a good rapport with the younger Shine pupils. They missed him at the end of the programme.

The Christmas Term ended with the annual City Reach Christmas party and as ever, we were inundated with willing pupil and staff helpers. With over 30 Canfordians volunteering to help, we were able to pair up our pupils

for keeping in touch with the more elderly members in our community, gardening for them and delivering food packages. It really was commendable and I can’t thank them enough for doing this. It is what being at Canford is all about and they are fantastic role models for our pupils.

There is some uncertainty about what this Christmas Term will look like – at the time of writing our visits to local schools, care homes and other institutions are on hold, so it has been challenging to plan a community action programme when there is little external community open to us for visiting. That said, we are planning to build on our Summer Term programme with an ambitious range of activities for the pupils. We have been bold in what we are trying to achieve and feel it will challenge and stimulate the pupils.

Important lessons have been learnt (for example, using designated pupil leaders to run and co-ordinate activities and teachers to act as facilitators) and this will stand us in good stead for the future. It is also great to see some other activities evolving from remote activities to face-to-face activities. If we did need to revert back to remote teaching, the programme can be adapted and shifted to meet this requirement. We are fully flexible in our approach and look forward to the challenges that this will bring. An exciting time lies ahead.

As ever, I am very grateful for the help and assistance given to me by Clive Jeffery. He is so thorough in all he does and it is really reassuring for me to have somebody I can rely on, week in week out. I also want to pass my thanks onto Jerry Orme as he retires this year. Jerry has helped me out so many times in the past and it is his programme that I now run. He is always there, freely giving his time and offering advice and support and I know I will miss him – so have a great retirement, Jerry, and thanks for everything you have done for the School.

Dave Allen, Director of Community Action

“We do not ordinarily put on activities in the Summer Term due to exams, but with no exams and a worldwide crisis, it was the least we could do.”

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COMMUNITY ACTION

1-1 with the City Reach youngsters. It is a real pleasure to see our pupils making new friends and giving our guests a great day. I would like to thank Jerry Orme, Sam Crouch and Jane Skellett for offering their services and giving up a Sunday at the busy end of term. The day was a repeat of our winning formula: Christmas lunch, a play in the sports hall, followed by swimming and then party food and games in John o’ Gaunt’s. There were a few tears on both sides when they left on their coach to go home.

The Easter Term carried on in much the same way.

Our Monday enterprises got off well and our pupils did another great job in helping the wider community.

Helen Craig and myself visited Kingsleigh School, where we worked with the Shine pupils on putting together a performance for their graduation. (I say ‘we’: it was really Helen doing all the work and me trying to help as best as I could.) We had a visit planned to City Reach where we were going to give them the £1200 we had raised on the sponsored walk and mufti day and then bang! It was all over. It was such a shame as there were some loose ends that I was not able to draw together.

That was not the end of the year, though, as out of the ashes we rose stronger than before, putting together a remote community service programme in record time for our pupils to help with in the Summer Term. We do not ordinarily put on activities in the Summer Term due to exams, but with no exams and a worldwide crisis, it was the least we could do. The term was a real success: our pupils recorded themselves reading poetry, playing instruments and singing and we were able to share this with the care homes. Other pupils recorded themselves coaching sport, teaching French or Spanish and making craft activities that we were able to share with local schools. We did a good job in supporting the local community as best as we could. Our staff members also stepped up and I am grateful to any number of staff

A NEW LIBRARY

“Many rules were laid down before the start of the development to ensure that lessons could proceed with as little disruption as possible.”

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THE plans for a new library for Canford are now becoming a reality. The modern, flexible library will better support the academic focus of the school today and for many years to come. You can see from the image above that it is situated on the site previously occupied by the CCF and shooting range. This facility has been relocated to the southern part of the site and is now open for pupils to use. There is a link building between the new library and the Gisborough Assembly Hall which will be used as a break-out space and refreshment area and for creative arts display. The Assembly Hall is also in the process of being redeveloped internally so that it will be able to accommodate the whole school for assemblies.

Masterminding these developments is our Capital Projects Manager, OC Tristan Hutton. This is no easy task, with constraints aplenty from the site having listed buildings and tree protection orders and being located in a conservation area to name a few. The restrictions of building on a school site compound logistics for the construction companies we are working with: many rules

were laid down before the start of the development to ensure that lessons could proceed with as little disruption as possible. And of course, the summer exam season was due to see very limited work taking place, the site being directly adjacent to the exam hall!

In reality the school was closed for almost six months, plans changed and there was an initial optimism that the development could be completed ahead of time.

However, whilst work has continued steadily, the additional working regulations and difficulties with supply of materials during lockdown has meant that the building remains on schedule to be completed in late spring. The library contents will be transferred during the summer holiday 2021 and it will hopefully be open for September 2021.

The new library presents us with an opportunity to offer you the chance to set your name in stone at Canford. ‘Lady Charlotte’s Walk’ will lead up to the main library entrance, adjacent to the Gisborough Assembly Hall. The path will be edged with granite stones which can be engraved with your own details or brief message.

We have space for approximately 450 stones, which will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. In addition, there are also opportunities to name the seminar rooms, book stacks and the library building itself. The path is named in memory of Charlotte Guest, former owner of Canford Manor and a woman ahead of her time in so many ways. She stood for a degree of female equality in an age when such things were a distant dream and had a genuine social conscience and desire to improve the lives of her husband’s workforce.

Headmaster Ben Vessey comments, ‘Lady Charlotte’s work resonates greatly with my passion for increasing access to a Canford education through our bursary programme. I hope, therefore, that you will join us in supporting the Martin Marriott Foundation by sponsoring a stone.’ All proceeds from this project will support the Martin Marriott Foundation for bursaries at Canford.

THE CANFORD COMMUNITY THE Christmas Term went very much to plan with the usual community events, the History Tour, Quiz Night and another successful online auction in aid of the Martin Marriott Foundation for bursaries at Canford.

A major event which we managed to hold in early February was our 50+ Reunion Lunch for OCs who left Canford 50 or more years ago. Over 100 OCs and their partners attended and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

They were ably helped through the servery by our Pupil Leaders, who enjoyed interacting with OCs. Little did we know that this type of event would soon be an impossible task for the foreseeable future.

The Summer Term didn’t quite go as we’d planned!

Little did we know when we spent so much time putting the Canford Community Calendar together last summer that we would have to unravel at least one-third of it.

However, we were not defeated and my Development team set up shop in each of our home offices. We started by getting in touch with all OCs aged 70 or over via email if we had their email address and phoned many of those not on email. The e-newsletter was sent every two weeks instead of once every halfterm and we also launched the Canford Global Connect Digest every other week. I feared that we would be short of news to share with the school operating remotely and most of us confined to our homes, but the virtual world meant that we were instantly able to have a window into the world of the Canfordian like never before and this meant we were certainly not short of content for our newsletters. The engagement and variety has been incredible and a real credit to the school.

Many OCs who left in the last five years made themselves available to help and advise our leaving Upper Sixth cohort and of course, that class of 2020 also became our newest OC members. We said goodbye to these pupils formally at the Leavers’ Service.

This was conducted socially distanced in the Music School with just a handful of staff and both Heads of School. It was a very emotional occasion, watched by

parents and pupils in their individual home settings.

We were very sorry to have to curtail the Fifty Years of Co-education celebrations and also to cancel the OC London Drinks Party. But throughout the whole of lockdown we had some lovely conversations and received numerous emails thanking us for staying in touch.

There is no doubt that we find ourselves in strange and uncertain times but we have risen to the challenge in the Development Office, as a school and as a community.

We are all pulling together and will continue to do so.

If you would like to explore or revisit some of the activities which took place during the Summer Term of 2020, please visit our Canford Together web page.

Amongst some of the events which were cancelled was the #CanfordinColour Colour Run. This is one of our main annual fundraising events for the Martin Marriott Foundation for bursaries and not holding this was a big disappointment for our Pupil Leaders. However, this year’s Pupil Leaders are busy preparing for a different type of event which anyone can take part in wherever you are in the world.

Rowena Gaston, Development Director

“The Summer Term didn’t quite go as we’d planned! Little did we know when we spent so much time putting the Canford Community Calendar together last summer that we would have to unravel at least one-third of it.”

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The Bourne Academy

“There was some tension during the inspectors’ visit; but then relief and pride as the Academy was awarded a ‘Good’ in every category.”

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THE first term started in the knowledge that Ofsted would be arriving early in the academic year and inspectors duly turned up in November. The Bourne Academy was to be the first school in Bournemouth inspected under a new system: grades would no longer be ‘best fit’, so a ‘Good’, for example, would only be awarded for a particular aspect of the school if every sub-category reached that standard. Although confident that the inspection team would recognise the Academy’s strengths, understandably there was some tension during the inspectors’ visit; but then relief and pride as the Academy was awarded a ‘Good’ in every category. We were warned that the written report would be fairly bland, but the oral feedback made excellent listening and it was clear that a great deal of what the Academy did was ‘Outstanding’. In particular, the pastoral care was deemed ‘Outstanding’ in all areas except on one small technicality; that ‘Good’, therefore, seemed a little harsh, but overall the report was a joy to listen to. And even within the formal language of the written report, the inspectors were able to speak of

a ‘welcoming and inclusive’ school, a ‘calm yet vibrant’ atmosphere and students who were ‘respectful, friendly and polite’ while also being proud of the school. The ASPIRE programme, at the heart of everything the Academy does, has clearly inspired staff and students.

Helping students to ASPIRE (Ambitious, Selfconfident, Physically literate, Independent learners, Resilient, Emotionally literate) was given a boost with the introduction of the Aspire Awards, which focus on attributes that are difficult to measure but form the soft skills that so many schools, including Canford, are working to instil in students. There was some concern that the nature of what was being rewarded might mean that winners would be embarrassed to have their names put up in the main foyer, but the awards have been well received and 250 monthly winners testify to the qualities that inspectors had observed at the start of the term.

October had seen an earlier set of winners when both F24 Greenpower cars qualified for the international final at Silverstone. Originally a joint

bourne academy

project with Canford, the Academy has been building F24 racing cars on its own, both in kit form and entirely self-built, for some years and now happily competes with better resourced schools (such as Canford). This year TBA finished a hugely creditable 27th and to complete their success, Derek the Bobcat won the Mascot of the Year! A winner in a completely different area was the Careers Department, who have been receiving plaudits since the Academy opened. They have now become the Lead School for the Dorset Careers Hub, spreading their excellence across the whole county.

January started with a joint Inset between Canford and Academy staff, following a very successful similar event two years ago, with senior staff from both schools leading the discussions after a talk from Will Smith, CEO of Greenshaw Learning Trust, on collaboration and looking outwards. The term then continued with new projects, such as the ambitious Reading Scheme where teachers read novels to students at the start of every day. After a successful trial, despite Covid-19 doing its best to disrupt things, a rollout to the whole Academy took place online.

The wide range of trips (universities, Bristol, Studland, London, Berlin…) continued and school sports teams were progressing through various external competitions when, as everywhere else, education was turned upside down by the virus.

One consequence was that, nationally, students in well-resourced schools fared significantly better than those in poorer areas, but the Academy did its best to make sure that it wasn’t part of that statistic; and letters and emails from grateful parents are testament to the efforts put in by all the staff. Laptops were loaned and a very generous parent governor made daily deliveries to 150 households, taking meals and work to students while collecting assignments to be marked – I don’t know whether he quite knew what he was taking on! All this effort helped the Academy to its best set of exam results to date. We knew that Year 13 was a strong year, so expected excellent results.

Initially the government’s algorithm, much maligned in the press, did not reward them fairly, but fortunately that was corrected. However, that same algorithm gave us slightly better GCSE results than expected: further evidence of its failure to do its job but not something we will complain about!

The Music Department showed what could be done with technology – even if individuals could only perform in their bedrooms – with their wittily titled Rockdown concert watched by a large audience, including several governors; and heads of house and other pastoral staff made regular phone calls to all students to ensure that they were coping. One unexpected bonus was that a few students who had previously been poor attenders became some of the most committed learners: a welcome surprise.

There were, of course, casualties as well: the Colour Run, a joint fundraising event with Canford, has been postponed; and plans for the tenth anniversary celebrations in 2020 are changing all the time. That the Academy opened in September 2010 might come as a surprise to some as progress has been rapid, impressive and sustained. Sixteen of the Academy staff have been there from the start, a few of whom are in the same roles they had at Kings High, but several of whom are testament to the opportunities that are

open to those with the right ambition and skills.

If I may end on a personal note, this will be my last report as I am stepping down as Chair of Governors in January. Sixteen staff may have witnessed the ten years of the Academy’s life, but only one governor has and it is now time to stand back. I have actually been involved for thirteen years, ever since a representative from the Department of Education (or the Department for Children, Schools and Families as it was then) visited Canford to persuade us to sponsor an academy, and I can honestly say that virtually nothing has given me as much pleasure in my teaching career. Apart from the setting up, my role has been more of a sounding board for the two outstanding principals than of direct involvement, but I have hugely enjoyed the vicarious pride at each success.

Our original Vision stated that the Academy must be for the neighbourhood, not a school that cherrypicked the best; that it must have a house system; and that the specialisms would be English and Engineering.

Those ideals have been questioned at times, but remain unchanged and continue to show their importance. And what is equally satisfying that there is now a partnership between Canford and the Academy that runs in parallel to the sponsoring relationship. Tentative at first, this is now a partnership of equals and there can now be very few at either school that do not know about the strengths of the other. We could have hoped for nothing more ten years ago and I am sure that the future will only be better.

Richard Knott

“I can honestly say that virtually nothing has given me as much pleasure in my teaching career.”

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OUTDOOR ENTERPRISES

Combined Cadet Force

“The biggest event was the move to the new Canford Outdoor Education Centre and the demolition of the old Armoury.”

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THIS year will undoubtedly be remembered as the Covid Year; the year that the world stopped and we all went home and did very little. And yet as far as the CCF was concerned, a huge amount was achieved with a number of exciting events and indeed milestones. It was to all intents and purposes a normal year until the CCF Parade in March. After that, we missed the final whole day enterprise exercises; sailing to the Isle of Wight (RN cadets), manoeuvring on Lulworth Ranges (Army cadets) and experiencing all that Braunton Burrows and 24 Commando Engineer Regiment (RM cadets) had to offer. In addition, the Welsh Three Peaks Challenge (which in effect has taken over from the perennial Snowdonia trip) and what promised to be an exciting new exercise generated by Ben Coward with the Rifles in Chepstow fell by the wayside. We also had record numbers of cadets due to attend the RM camps at Lympstone which were cancelled and sadly, the four Ten Tors teams got no

further than their first weekend of training.

However, turning to what did happen, the biggest event was the move to the new Canford Outdoor Education Centre and the demolition of the old Armoury in order to make way for the expanding Assembly Hall and Library. That happened with a relatively seamless closing of the Armoury in December 2019 (our final group photograph recorded for prosterity above) and the opening of the new COEC on Franklin Field soon after. The new building is now home to all the adventure training and Duke of Edinburgh activities as well as the CCF activities and alongside a revamped assault course and landscaped field for section attack training, the facility promises to be truly outstanding. The range (now only five lanes) promises to be in use three days a week and whilst social distancing protocols and other Covid-19 measures will slow things up, the new term will begin in earnest albeit without the excitement of the first whole day enterprises weekend, the National Rifles Cup and Pringle Trophy.

The Pringle Trophy remains a flagship event for the Marines section and Canford fielded another very solid and motivated team led by the veteran Zach Fenwick.

They did extremely well with a number of top five places in various stands, but in the event they finished after a rewarding experience with a slightly disappointing tenth out of a field of fifteen. Major Ben Coward (late Rifles) has made some significant advances in the training and preparation and the arrival of Major Rob Hoey (late Royal Engineers) will be able to build upon this.

However, Canford did, for the first time, participate in the Rifles National Cadet Cup Competition, an event run at the Longmoor Training Camp in Surrey, covering

OUTDOOR CANFORD ENTERPRISES COMMUNITY

a range of skills including patrolling, marksmanship, section attacks, observation, close quarter battle, first aid, navigation, urban operations, obstacle crossing and general military and regimental knowledge. Being a new experience, it was a bit of a shot in the dark with no clear idea how the stands were going to be run, exactly what the key elements were and how they were to be marked. However, the team, trained by Ben Coward, triumphed and won, beating a dozen other schools from both the state and private sectors.

Despite a truncated year, there remains much that was successful: the initial exercises in October, the shooting, the endurance challenges and the increased NCO leadership and responsibility – and of course the perennial Norway trip. This saw over thirty cadets along with a dozen Portsmouth Grammar School cadets led by an OC, Skye Deane (née Manton), returning to Bykle for three days familiarisation and training before venturing into the surrounding mountains for a further three days survival and touring. With outstanding weather, the challenge and experience remained as big and as exciting as ever, with cadets achieving a great deal in the process.

The last open school event before lockdown was the Annual Parade. Blessed with sunny skies and warm but not too hot temperatures it was, as ever, a great spectacle attended by large numbers of parents. The well-worn format of the parade, the gun run around the Sunken Lawn, training in the woods close to the Wren building with a section attack demonstration and prizes to conclude was followed by Lieutenant Colonel R J A Smith, The Royal Dragoon Guards, a parent, inspecting.

Prizes were awarded to the following cadets: Best Junior Cadets Royal Navy – Leo Burnet Royal Marines – Tom Windsor Army – Charlie Smith Best Leading Prospective JNCO Luke Zamoyski-Freitag Jess Fry Drum Major’s Bugle WO2 Jack Salmon

Clive Meyer’s Award WO2 Ollie Leat Benner Award WO1 Z Fenwick Overall it was a good year with a great deal learned and achieved despite the loss of so much. In a fitting end, the national paper, The Week, selected the Canford School CCF as the ‘Best of the Best CCFs’ in the country.

This reflects the efforts of everyone; my thanks go to the cadets for their enthusiasm, to the NCOs for their leadership, to the staff for their commitment and finally to Craig Risbey and Matt Cowlard for running the show so well. In addition, as Charlotte Franklin leaves for warmer climes I wish to thank her for her time and energy during her years here at Canford. Sub Lt Jo Toy also retires from the CCF and I would like to extend my thanks to him for his many years of commitment to the cadets (not only at Canford) and for his outstanding stewardship of the unforgettable Trafalgar Night dinners. Finally, I would like to extend our thanks on behalf of countless cadets to Major Mike Owen, who retires this year after many years running Ten Tors, kayaking, trips to Snowdonia, the Pyrenees expeditions, stealth exercises on the Heath, camps to Penhale and so much more.

Lt Col Dan Culley

“Blessed with sunny skies and warm but not too hot temperatures it was, as ever, a great spectacle.”

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OUTDOOR ENTERPRISES

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme

“Duke of Edinburgh taught me the importance of teamwork in situations like these.”

THE Duke of Edinburgh’s Scheme this year has unsurprisingly been different and sadly somewhat curtailed. Much has continued nevertheless but casualties include the largest group of Canfordians, over twenty, who were due to receive their awards in May at Buckingham Place; the second Pyrenees expedition with two groups heading out to Lescun in August; and the Bronze cohort, who have been stopped in their tracks. However, the Gold expeditions have continued, if on a different schedule from that planned. When they did manage to make it to Wales for their practice expedition in August, Storm Francis blew in and as even the instructors (Welsh Mountain Rescue Team) couldn’t stand up in the wind, they thought they had better call the groups in.

The volunteering sections have taken a different flavour too but with plenty of initiative, other options have been opening. We have seen many pupils delivering items to the needy, supporting the NHS as drivers, writing cards to the elderly in isolation and generally showing good Canfordian initiative. Lockdown physical challenges were confined to the garden in many cases but overall, the programme continues to see good progress – as ever, there are those that let it slip, but therein lies the challenge and the value of DofE. Below is a mixture of pupils’ comments reflecting their work in various areas.

Expeditions on Dartmoor and in Wales: I really enjoyed the entire expedition, even when it was raining and windy, because there was a sense of achievement. On the first day the rivers were so flooded that we had to walk 2 km upstream to find a safe crossing point, but then Imo decided to fall in anyway.

As clichéd as it may seem, Duke of Edinburgh taught me the importance of teamwork in situations like these, as working together meant that we got everything done much faster and more efficiently, and overall, the whole trip was more enjoyable.

Our aim was to study the diversity of amphibious life on the water sources of Dartmoor, considering their dwindling populations. This meant we spent lots of time searching for animals and to our surprise we found lots, including an adder, a grass snake, multiple frogs, and fish.

Volunteering: First school teaching: I went to Colehill school to teach our final lesson of the term. We chose to teach the

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topic Christmas. We then helped them make Christmas cards, using the vocabulary that they had learned.

Visiting the elderly: This week we read through some of the letters for my elderly person and I was glad to see her so happy as I know she had been struggling with her MS. She was so pleased that I found this box as she had no clue that this stuff was even still in her possession.

Farm school: As part of my Monday enterprise, I visit High Mead Farm, which is a local community farm that aims to help people with learning disabilities. Much of our work involves manual labour like cleaning out the animals or breaking things down and building fences.

Skills: Music: The month of my grade 8 exam! The first two weeks of this month, I practised hard for a couple of hours every single day.

Singing: I practised the songs, ‘Something wonderful’ and ‘He shall feed his flock’, by using the piano backing tracks on YouTube.

Cooking: This week I made myself a lunch of salmon cooked in pesto, crispy potatoes, and a side of vegetables which I fried in the left-over pesto.

Photography: I will be photographing wildlife and the local landscape mainly near my home in Dorset.

Physical: Yoga: I did another home yoga session. I found some of the movements harder than in previous videos, but it was good to challenge myself with new positions.

Martial arts: This is the most stressful time as we are training a few more times a week whilst teaching the younger children, as it is performance time.

Home fitness: As it is no longer possible to do circuits for my physical because of lockdown, I have changed to doing a similar routine but following a video by Joe Wicks on YouTube with my family.

Residential: This last year’s cohort has seen students attend cookery courses, choral weeks, French language courses, sailing, park ranger weeks, Spanish weeks, volunteering and teaching with children in Cape Town, animal welfare, Christian retreats, conservation projects, working with charities and orchestral training to name a few. This latest intake will be challenged but opportunities remain, and the initiative of good Gold candidates should win through.

sport

IT has definitely been an interesting start to my time at Canford since joining the school in January 2020!

On 14 March I was lucky enough to watch the U19 and U16 girls perform fantastically at the netball Nationals with both teams finishing fourth. The day flowed into evening as we all rushed back down the M3 so that the netballers could join the lacrosse girls and hockey boys at the excellent end-of-term sports dinner.

Little did we know that the Nationals would be the last competitive sport for Canford pupils for a while and that we were one week away from lockdown.

The Summer Term was certainly not the sporting term that we had all anticipated as cricket squares, tennis nets and the athletics track were left empty while the sports programme moved to behind a laptop screen. Many of the department’s staff were furloughed and the remainder considered how best to adapt to the ‘new normal’. From those meetings we set about finding ways to challenge every pupil to learn a new skill, allow them to gain more sporting knowledge and find new ways to improve their overall health and fitness. At a time when lots of activities were being

curtailed, it was vital to try to keep the pupils fit and well both physically and mentally. In some ways it brought a number of schools together as all sought to find the best way forward to meet the new challenges that we were facing and we all happily shared our ideas and initiatives.

With these aims in mind, the Sports department put together a programme of options, making full use of online resources to offer something to suit all abilities and interests. This saw weekly programmes using the school’s core vision statement as themes, asking the pupils to explore, express themselves and excel in what they were doing. Challenges were set, including 5k runs, athletic events and a 97 challenge to celebrate Canford’s 97th birthday. Using Instagram, pupils were asked to share what really motivates them including quotes from elite athletes and films. Motivational messages were also gathered from a wide array of inspirational figures. Thanks for their inspirational words must go to former Olympians Sir Steve Redgrave and Mark Richardson, ex-cricketers Luke Sutton and Kevin Pietersen, netballer Ebony Beckford Chambers and Old Canfordian and TV celebrity Ore Oduba (pictured).

As the term – and lockdown – continued, skills and fitness sessions were added, including ‘Colly’s Cardio’ led by Director of Hockey Mr Collison, tennis with Miss Bennett and ball-handling skills with a slightly out of practice Director of Sport!

Wellbeing initiatives were also part of the programme led by Mrs Clinton. Links were made available to Gateway resources, including advice on sleep, nutrition and mental health. There was also within the programme a Midweek Wellbeing Moment, which varied week to week but included acts of kindness and no tech 90, encouraging time away from screens and devices. Week three of the programme had a focus of its own, which was simply to ‘recharge’ at a busy time when the pupils were adapting to the different pressures of lockdown learning.

It was great to see the pupils respond so positively to the challenges set and to explore the options available to them. After the summer break we saw sport and the school re-open, and Canford pupils once again enjoying themselves and availing themselves of the sporting opportunities the school offers.

Tony Diprose, Director of Sport and Wellbeing

“At a time when lots of activities were being curtailed, it was vital to try to keep the pupils fit and well both physically and mentally.”

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sport The 1st XI squad.

Back row, left to right: Stewart Boyd, Archie Van Der Flier, Adam Phillips, Archie Hunter, Will Jones, Jack Carpenter.

3rd row, left to right: Sammy Smith, Josh Davies, Toby Philpot, James Longrigg, Stefan Perry.

2nd row, left to right: Patrick Taylor, Zach Fenwick, Joe Nalbantoglu, Seb Gallego.

Front row, left to right: Thomas Matthews, Sam Downey, Tom Sykes (captain), Harry Moores, Freddie Charles.

Rugby

“The experiences shared, sometimes under relative hardship, are important life lessons.”

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CANFORD Rugby has seen some great performances across the club this year. Teams of note include the U14As, the U16s and the 1st XV. The U15As and Bs also posted season win rates of 50% or higher. Whilst this gives a great sense of optimism, caution must be exercised, too, as fewer boys than ever seem to be keen to take to the field to play rugby in Canford colours. The educational benefits of sport, and rugby in particular, are not ability-dependent and they encompass far more than learning and mastering the basics of the game. The experiences shared, sometimes under relative hardship, are important life lessons.

The 1st XV enjoyed a resurgent season in 2019, brushing off the travails of 2018, when they ranked 96th out of 105 teams on the merit table. The boys finished 25th this year and made the last 16 of the

National Cup: a highly commendable achievement and quite a turnaround in fortunes, with largely the same boys involved. They have put together a set of on-field performances to be exceptionally proud of. It has been a great privilege for me to watch and to be involved with, but even more satisfying to see them do this with very little fanfare – they have simply rolled up their sleeves and got down to work.

The struggle they endured last year may well have provided an excellent catalyst for this season’s upturn in fortunes. The boys who took on the 2019 7s season laid the foundations with a huge amount of grunt work that saw them push RGS Newcastle right to the death in their group match. They produced some top-order rugby that day, so full of running and high-level skill throughout that it gave them a real shot of confidence.

The other thing that has struck me about this group of young men alongside their work ethic has been their ability to pull together after a testing time rather than drift apart. They could have been forgiven for mistaking short-term results as a measure of their own competence and gone to try their hand at a more forgiving sport. Out of all the things they take away from this experience, this might well be the most important.

The performances themselves have been, by and large, understated but also totally convincing. The competence the boys have shown in the whole range of rugby demands has been comprehensive. They have been able to share the load and pose threats all over the park. Taking on more responsibility across the team has allowed the decision-makers to relax into their own roles and as a result they have been able to bring those around them into the game more effectively. The game management that has followed has been excellent.

sport

Working with the boys from one season to the next has actually been very similar, from an operational point of view. We have tweaked a few things within the sessions and we have emphasised some other areas which, satisfyingly, have been seen to good effect on the field. By and large, though, from last season to this the boys remain immense fun to work with and I hope that, despite the pressure they no doubt feel when representing Canford’s 1st XV, they too have had large amounts of fun throughout this process. Sure, there are moments of when we get down to the ‘work’ and high levels of concentration are required, but hopefully there have been moments of levity in and around the tough stuff. The trip to Dublin at half-term was a highlight in this regard. Overseeing trips can be a little fraught now and then, but this has to have been my favourite touring experience with a school group thus far and I can only thank the boys for the huge part they play in making something like this such a good experience for all.

The 7s season has been curtailed a little by the Covid-19 virus and it was a great shame that this group of boys were unable to showcase their ability on the national stage at Rosslyn Park 7s, but in the outings we did manage, the squad came back with silverware from both the South Coast 7s at Portsmouth Grammar and the West of England 7s at Taunton. At Portsmouth the boys were fantastic, beating Sherborne in the Plate final and at Taunton went one better, winning the overall competition by beating Cheltenham in a tense final.

I hope the boys take huge amounts from this season.

I hope they go on to enjoy rugby long after they leave our care and that they use the experiences from this last couple of years to help them when things inevitably don’t quite go their way from time to time in later life.

I am in awe of the ambition and scope as well as the ability of this group and all I would like from them is to use their experiences to go on and be active and positive in the world outside Canford.

Rugby colours were awarded to Archie Van Der Flier, Stefan Perry, Jack Carpenter, James Longrigg, Adam Phillips, Freddie Charles, Stewart Boyd and Sam Downey.

Among OCs, Arthur Cordwell and Will Butt made their 1st XV debuts for Bath Rugby, and Luke Mehson appeared for Exeter Chiefs in the Premiership 7s at the start of the season.

Peter Short, Director of Rugby

P

W

D

L

1st 17 13 0 4 2nd 12 3 1 8 U16 16 11 1 4 U15A 15 9 0 6 U15B 12 6 2 4 U15C 5 2 0 3 U14A 19 12 1 6 U14B 12 5 2 5 U14C 4 0 1 3 U14D 4 0 2 2

“I am in awe of the ambition and scope as well as the ability of this group.”

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sport Back row, left to right: Jess Rees, India Still, Izzy Woodward, Sasha Witter, Holly Hazzard.

Middle row, left to right: Alicia Hudson, Sabina Culley, Sophie Saunders, Katie Ashcroft, Imogen Fairweather, Abby Childerley, Hannah Fairchild, Bella Hunter.

Front row, left to right: Abbie Rowsell, Molly Fairbairn, Martha Taylor (captain), Daena Shah, Elizabeth Balls.

Girls’ Hockey “The entire squad deserve huge credit, while the travelling parental support network did us proud!”

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CANFORD’S girls had a productive 2019-20 season, learning from their shared experiences as well as playing good, determined and mature hockey. The overall record for our 11 teams was P128 W76 L43 D9, with 342 goals scored and 218 conceded.

An experienced and talented 1st XI squad, comprising eleven Upper Sixth and five Lower Sixth, showed skill in attack and determination in defence. Sophie Saunders led the goal charge, netting 25 goals in as many games.

Retaining our title at the Cardiff Met Invitational Tournament was a sign of encouraging early season form and this was built on by hard work in training.

A strong start to the U18 National Tier 1 League campaign saw us record excellent victories over King’s Taunton (6-1) and Clifton College (5-0). We then

suffered a chastening 5-1 reverse at the hands of an accomplished Millfield side, but the group showed its spirit and fight as it bounced back from this disappointment, registering notable wins against King’s Bruton (2-1), KES Southampton (2-0), Wellington (3-2) and Cranleigh (2-1), to name a few. An away draw to Dean Close and a home draw against Marlborough left our hopes of progressing to the National quarter-finals in tatters, but the season was about far more than just the results. This group has achieved a huge amount in its time at Canford and has much to be proud of. Captain Martha Taylor and team-mate Molly Fairbairn both represented England at U18 level, a fantastic accolade.

The entire squad deserve huge credit, while the travelling parental support network did us proud!

The 1st squad travelled to Barcelona during Christmas Term’s half term, for an eagerly anticipated five-day mid-season tour. Up in the hills north of Barcelona, Club de Terrassa is one of the most traditional and successful clubs in the Barcelona region, but we managed a very rewarding 3-2 victory against them. Next day, our match against Club Egara, an experienced U18 girls’ team, resulted in the opportunity to face a different style of play from the previous day’s skilful side – and a narrow 1-0 win. After a much-needed day’s rest after two games in a row, during which we explored Barcelona, the following day we headed to Club Junior in St Cugat. They were widely recognised as the toughest opponents we were likely to face, but we secured a last-minute 3-2 win. The trip held many essential values for the girls: the playing side, which offered a range of challenges not experienced on our English schools’ circuit, but also the evident camaraderie, team spirit, and benefits of experiencing different cultures cannot be

sport underestimated. It was a fantastic touring opportunity, and one that will live long in the memories for this talented playing group.

The strength in depth of the 2nd XI was reflected in a great season. Calm determination in defence combined with a creative midfield who carried effectively and pressed the opposition defence, and with forwards who were not only speedy but also skilful finishers.

Whilst there was a heavy loss to Millfield (0-6), highlights included beating Blundell’s (6-0), KES Southampton (7-0), Wellington (3-0) and Marlborough (6-1).

The 3rd XI conceded half as many goals as they scored in an attacking approach. A mid-season fourgame winning run was a positive response to losing a ten-goal thriller (3-7) to Millfield, and their positivity in all their matches was commendable. The 4th XI were also a spirited and enthusiastic unit, beginning the term with three consecutive victories. Their season also included wins over King’s Bruton, Wellington and Marlborough.

In the National Tier 1 Cup, the U16 age group (including seven U15s) secured some impressive results.

Comprehensive wins over Exeter School and Plymouth College in the first two rounds led to a mouth-watering home tie versus Millfield. The girls were superb in winning 3-1. After Canford had taken the lead, a Millfield equaliser turned the tide, but the team showed impressive resolve to score on the counter-attack and withstand a late Millfield onslaught. The reward was a quarter-final away at Sedbergh. Following a lengthy road trip, we took the lead, but Sedbergh equalised before half time. Two late goals decided a close affair in the second period, and despite several decent efforts, we could not find a way back. No doubt the team were heartbroken, but they benefitted hugely from the experience and on another day could have made the final four in the country.

The U15A team started the season excellently, winning nine matches in a row, including the Sherborne Tournament. A strong overall season boasted 44 goals for and only 12 against. The defensive unit consistently performed at a high level, while end of term wins over Cranleigh and a hard-fought draw against Wellington were late season highlights. Georgie Boon, Tara King,

Honoré Cutler and Charlie Whitmore were all excellent.

The U15Bs’ fortunes fluctuated, as they consistently won, drew, lost before ending the season strongly to win six out of eleven. The U15C team contributed to the year group’s impressive results, with fine wins over Bryanston (2-0) and Wellington College (2-1).

The U14As not only retained the county title but recorded encouraging wins over Bryanston and King’s College Taunton early in the season. Having cruised through the Regional prelims, unfortunately a tough group at the Regional finals meant they did not make the knockout stages. The U14Bs enjoyed a tough season, in which they finished strongly after some mid-season losses. An inexperienced U14C team worked very hard in training but struggled to transfer this into results on match days. Still, they stuck at it and improved their core skills throughout the term. All Shell pupils were involved in team hockey throughout the course of the term, and this was a great credit to their enthusiasm.

The Coronavirus pandemic meant that the planned annual Shell tour to Scheveningen in Holland unfortunately had to be cancelled.

My thanks to all of the coaching staff for their continued efforts throughout the year, and to the parents for their support.

Matt Collison, Director of Hockey

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“No doubt the team were heartbroken, but they benefitted hugely from the experience and on another day could have made the final four in the country.”

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sport Back row, left to right: Archie Hunter, Otto Thompson, Freddie Pryce.

Middle row, left to right: George Billson, Freddie Peters, Max Wyatt, Oliver Pickard, Tom Sykes, Max Chapman.

Front row, left to right: Oluwajoba Agbedejobi, Will Whitmore, Charlie Peplow (captain), Luke Hett, Tom Doyle.

Boys’ Hockey WITH wins in 71% of all competitive matches played, it was a successful and memorable season for the Canford boys’ hockey club. The overall record for our twelve teams was impressive: P92 W65 L14 D13. 291 goals were scored and just 69 conceded.

A relatively inexperienced and ‘new look’ 1st XI had a fine campaign, exceeding expectations. A tight defence aimed to regain possession as fast as possible and to convert it into attack through a positive passing game.

This made for a brand of hockey that was good to watch as well as successful in terms of results.

We headed to Cardiff Met for their annual preseason invitational, which proved a very useful and well-balanced exercise. The key playing elements of the side were fostered through a fine sense of team unity as we came away with the title, having won all four games. Our England Hockey U18 Tier 1 League began before Christmas, and an undefeated domestic season followed. The two aspects combined well, as even though we didn’t progress from the league following

“A tight defence aimed to regain possession as fast as possible and to convert it into attack through a positive passing game.”

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difficult defeats to KES Southampton, Peter Symonds and eventual national champions, Dean Close, a number of confident and hard-fought victories followed: we beat Lord Wandsworth’s (2-1), Bryanston (2-0), Portsmouth Grammar School (3-2), Sherborne (4-3) and Marlborough (3-2).

However, the undoubted highlights of the season were our two away matches at Millfield. Following our 3-3 league draw before Christmas, when we were guilty of some errors, we travelled away again in March. We set a relentless tone early on and raced to a 6-1 victory, including a three-goal burst in the final ten minutes.

Captain Charlie Peplow, and vice-captain and players’ player of the year Luke Hett, led by example in fostering such a tight-knit group, and there were other notable contributions from Will Whitmore, Tom Doyle and Tom Sykes.

The 2nd XI squad this season enjoyed strength in depth. Opening wins over KES Southampton (11-0) and Lord Wandsworth College (5-0) brought the squad together effectively, as they quickly came to understand their responsibilities within the team. More wins followed, with a 6-1 triumph over Millfield and 4-1 victory over Wellington making up for their solitary defeat versus Sherborne.

It was a perfect season for the 3rd XI with six wins out of six, 30 goals scored and only 4 conceded! There were big wins aplenty, with many teams blown away by the team’s hard running, determination and clinical approach in front of goal.

A young 4th XI produced an even split of results, with two wins and two defeats during the season. They worked hard in training and enjoyed themselves on match days.

Following an opening day 0-4 reverse against an

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excellent KES Southampton side, the U16As lost only once more in their remaining seven games (in round 3 of the National Cup) and won four of them. The confidence and competence within the group grew as their approach matured and became increasingly connected. The U16Bs won four out of five in a number of really entertaining matches. The attitude throughout the year group was pleasing and the boys should be proud of their progress.

The U15As made good progress and played some fine hockey. They won four of their nine matches, and highlights included wins over Lord Wandsworth’s (3-1), Clayesmore (5-2), Sherborne (4-2) and Wellington (4-2).

The U15Bs had a phenomenal term, winning seven out of seven. Scoring 45 goals in total, they managed to keep a clean sheet in every game, failing to concede any!

Bryanston and Millfield were the biggest victories, with 10-0 triumphs outlining the superiority the team had on match days. The U15Cs won two out of three in a term thwarted by some cancellations.

The U14As were excellent throughout their debut season at Canford. Winning eleven out of fifteen, they finished comfortable winners of the U14 Tier 1 County Finals. There then followed an impressive series of matches in the Regional prelims, where their character and resilience as a team was firmly established.

Unfortunately, progress at the Tier 1 West Regional Finals was halted at the group stage after a difficult grouping. Other highlights included wins over Sherborne (4-1), Millfield (3-0) and Wellington (8-1). They were capable of superbly attractive and positive hockey, but consistency in big games and game management will be something to work on next year. Ed Schuster-Bruce and Dill Howell were the stand-out players, while Tom Kiff was very good in goal.

The U14Bs had a successful season, despite their comparative lack of experience. A solitary defeat at the hands of Millfield was countered by good wins over Clayesmore (3-0), Sherborne (3-0) and Wellington College (5-1), showing how the group had improved.

The U14Cs had a couple of games cancelled but worked on their basic skills to good effect, registering a couple of draws and an end of season victory.

My thanks to all of the players for their positive representation of Canford on and off the pitch and to the coaching staff for their continued efforts throughout the year. In addition, the parents should be congratulated for their unwavering support in all kinds of weather conditions.

Matt Collison, Director of Hockey

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“They were capable of superbly attractive and positive hockey, but consistency in big games and game management will be something to work on next year.”

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sport Back row, left to right: Talia White, Martha Taylor, Evie Corn, Charlotte Butt, Nia Burley.

Front row, left to right: Emily Cridland, Milenka Soskin, Holly Hazzard (joint captain), India Still (joint captain), Polly Yule.

Netball FOURTEEN teams represented Canford in competitive matches this year, with the largest number of seniors taking to the court. The 1st and U16 squads qualified for the South West Schools Regional tournament and both secured an impressive fourth in the National Schools Final. This was the first time in Canford’s history that a 1st team had qualified for the most prestigious competition in the schools’ calendar and then to have both teams achieve fourth position is a fantastic achievement. Daisy Brown and Lauren Corn are in the

“This was the first time in Canford’s history that a 1st team had qualified for the most prestigious competition in the schools’ calendar.”

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Team Bath futures pathway (Dorset hub). Emily Cridland represented Team Bath and played against Wales at the Viola Arena in Cardiff and was also selected to play against Wasps.

The 1st VII had a strong and positive season. They displayed great team spirit throughout the term and were excellent role models in the netball club. There were many memorable moments throughout the season, but Bradfield’s indoor tournament stands out. Injuries had sneaked in, but the resilience of this team and the determination to work for each other resulted in them winning the tournament, another first in Canford’s history. Another highlight was the Regional tournament, which was a pivotal point for this team. They played some excellent netball and the prospect of them heading to the Nationals was looking very exciting.

Mr Effick was thrilled when he saw who was in his 2nd team. They did not disappoint, from their brilliant performance at the start of the season against Wellington to a highlighted match against Marlborough.

The team started with an early 5-1 lead, but Marlborough fought back to 7-7 before Canford came through to win. Jess Rees and Hannah Fairchild should be highlighted for their impressive shooting statistics but as always it was a whole squad performance – which proved their greatest strength throughout the season.

The 3rd team made improvements every time they took to the court. Captain Ines Mitchell took charge from the outset, leading the team with her characteristic energy and enthusiasm. The team this term put many of their opponents under considerable pressure, resulting in a positive win ratio. To have a 4th team at the senior level shows the depth in the club. A special mention to Katie Jack and Sophie Alcock for joining the club for several

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matches and Anu Osikoya, who switched from Dance.

Poppy Lloyd proved a driving force within this team and her enthusiastic approach was infectious.

The U16As attacked the Regional tournament in style and were without doubt the team to beat. Their Saturday matches were consistent and gave them a great opportunity to try different combinations and to get on court and put things into practice. The U16Bs had a very successful season, with an impressive set of statistics.

They had closely contested games, but the team always remained calm when under pressure. The squad changed from week to week, and it was great to see its depth and diversity.

The U15As set themselves a target at the start of the year to become Dorset county champions following their success when Shells, and achieved it. The U15Bs worked exceptionally hard and proved their dominance throughout the term. The U15Cs and Ds have seen a lot of movements throughout the season but put out good team performances each week.

We welcomed the new Shells to the Canford netball club and were able to put out four full teams in competitive and enjoyable fixtures. The U14As just missed out on qualifying for the Regional competition, coming third in the county. The U14Bs put out some great performances each week; the triangular fixtures against Dauntsey’s and KES were fast and highly competitive, with only a few goals in it at the final whistle. The U14 Cs and Ds saw their squads changing each time the team stepped out on court. They had some fantastic fixtures, notably matches for both teams against Sherborne, where they played with grit and determination while having fun despite the rain most of the time.

Saturday 14 March saw the 1sts and U16s compete in the All England Nationals Tournament, competing against the best teams from around the country. In order to go through to the semi-finals, the U16s needed to win their last match of the day against Broxbourne. In an incredible finish, the girls won 12-10, seeing them through to the semi-finals and the top four schools in the country! Guildford High School, the team who went on to win the U16s group, were the opposition in the semi-finals. An amazing match saw Guildford just forge ahead with 2 points, finishing at 11-9.

Seven matches stood between the 1st team and the semi-finals of the National Schools Competition.

Hand sanitiser being regularly applied, the team had

their toughest group match up first, Bromsgrove, who had already played two matches. The last time we played against Bromsgrove was in the semi-finals of the Independent Schools Cup at U15s. A closely fought opening match resulted in a 7-8 loss. We knew that at National level all the matches would be close but we managed to win all the remaining six group matches to finish second in the group. The opponents in the semifinal were the winners of the other group, Hartpury College. We had played this team in the regional finals and beat them in the group stages but lost in the final.

The first half of the Nationals semi-final was exceptionally close but in the second half they pulled away to win 7-13.

Natasha Wilson, Assistant Director of Sport

“They had some fantastic fixtures … where they played with grit and determination while having fun despite the rain most of the time.”

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Football

“There can be glory in defeat, too.”

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CANFORD’S footballers have established themselves as a central part of the school’s sporting firmament, competing with distinction in national and regional cup competitions, partaking in league football and joyously engaging a large number of our Sixth Form pupils.

Canford football is, to borrow from Shostakovich, ‘the ballet of the masses’, a beautifully inclusive expression of collective endeavour.

Whether top athlete or passionate hobbyist, whether sensitive or ‘rough’, football brings a broad range of Canfordians together and unites them in a shared cause. The fact that every single footballer represented the school in a competitive fixture in the Easter Term is perhaps our greatest achievement this year. For the second year running, we managed to arrange suitable competition for all three teams; with twelve in the first team squad, eleven in the second team squad and eleven in the third, we stretched as far as we could at this juncture. But playing competitively is what it’s all about, whatever your level, and our chaps proved that through the joy, effort and camaraderie they showed in their matches.

The competitive outcomes were a little mixed this year, with huge highs unexpectedly followed by surprising lows – and vice versa. The lows? The Acorns’ – our second string’s – inability to find a win in the Christmas Term, despite some fine performances, is certainly one, yet the group’s ability to play with enthusiasm and never-say-die attitude provided a more satisfying high. For the Oaks, the biggest low was being on the receiving end of our biggest defeat in years – a 1-7 loss to Taunton in the league. Our Oaks are clearly looking at the stars when in the gutter, though, because this was immediately followed by an ‘impossible’ win against St Peter’s – the county cup holders – in the subsequent cup match. The football on display in that match was of the highest quality I’ve seen in my years here and the effort levels were super-human.

There can be glory in defeat, too, and that was seen in the third-round loss to Twynham, a school with 1700 students and a footballing powerhouse. Our boys took them all the way, narrowly losing on penalties after

‘giving us a lesson in organisation and unity’, as their coach put it. The fact that our opponents went on to the final shows how strong this performance was.

Moreover, there were convincing wins against strong teams such as Winchester, Dauntsey’s and our local rivals, Bryanston. For the Acorns, the crushings of schools like Bryanston (5-1) and Taunton (4-0) are up there, but most glorious was the 2-1 win against the wily old pros of the Corinthian Casuals.

It is regrettable that we didn’t see our seniors get to play the final couple of matches of the season, with superb contributors such as the co-captains, Doug Rowland and Mattie Effick, and stalwarts like Jacob Browning, Joe Hollywood, Charlie Berridge, Alex Rodgers, Will Jones, Ollie Leat, Harry Moores, Seb Fecher and Flinn Tiefenthal not being able to bow out in suitable fashion. A special mention should also go to the Acorns’ exemplary Christmas Term captain, Billy Pocock – a true gent. It has for all us coaches been such a delight to spend time with them; they put the beautiful into the game and coaching such enthusiasts has been a dream.

With a hugely promising group of Lower Sixth now stepping up to lead the teams in their senior year, we expect great things in the 20/21 season. Let’s hope the Covid situation allows for a triumphant year.

Sindre Vandvik

HOPES were high at the start of September of reaching the national finals for the third year in a row as two of that team, Giacomo Perin and Josh Brook, were now in the Upper Sixth. The first round was played at Yeovil against King’s College Taunton with Charlotte Brook joining the two boys. Whether it was complacency or a lack of match practice, the team lost 2-1 with both losses being pretty big. The bus trip home was very quiet as the team reflected on a chastening defeat.

The next week offered a chance at redemption with the first round of the HMC Foursomes. The team of six now included Adam Reid, Robbie Lingafelter and Tom Holtby. Josh and Robbie and Adam and Tom came up against some inspired Sherborne golfers who played much better than their handicaps suggested and, as is the major aim in match play, kept their ball in play whereas too often the Canfordians gifted holes: overall score ½ to 2 ½.

So within a week, we were out of the two national competitions and our golfing year looked all but over.

Fortuitously the West of England Championships, which used to be played at the beginning of the Summer Term and incurred the wrath of the SMT when I asked for pupils to miss two days of school, had been postponed to early October. In the first two rounds, we beat both Monmouth and Blundell’s 4-1, which advanced us to the final against Sherborne, where we took the chance to avenge the loss in the HMC Foursomes, winning 3-2. A

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Golf special mention to Adam, Josh and Giacomo who won all three of their matches.

Thanks to Kelly Bridges (our PGA professional) for coaching all the pupils who picked golf as a sport during the year and for improving everyone’s game.

Gary Shaw

Real Tennis IT has been an interesting year of lockdowns and virtual learning, but before the school went silent in March, we had a number of hard-fought matches against our school rivals of Radley and Wellington, which were all played in good spirits. There was also an opportunity

for selected pupils to play against adult members at the Hyde Real tennis club in Bridport, where Canford came out victorious 4-1.

The weekly carousel sessions give all Shells an opportunity to try out Real tennis, which has resulted in much greater exposure. We are now starting to see the development and improvement of these keen younger players, resulting in a better standard and more depth to call upon for school events and matches.

Will Fountain and Albert Blackburn are two exciting new prospects at Canford, having developed their games at Petworth and the Hyde respectively. They narrowly lost 4/6 to Winchester in the final of the U14s National School Doubles Championships and have already begun a friendly rivalry, with many close evening matches.

We also had a further five pairs go to the U16s and U18s championships at Radley and Queens. Jack Pocock and Sam Jefferson were the sole pair carrying the baton for Canford at the U16s, but they performed admirably and reached the semi-finals. In the U18s, our first pair of Charlie Anstee and Archie Hunter nearly pulled off the upset of the tournament, narrowly losing 5/6 in the quarter-final to a pair with an elite 18 handicap player. Ben Morris and Oliver Hilton grew in confidence throughout the tournament, managing to battle their way to the B grade final to come away with the title.

Lockdown did give us time to spruce up the court; the bandeau, shelves and net are now a smart shade of ‘Canford Blue’!

Steve Ronaldson

“We are now starting to see the development and improvement of these keen younger players.”

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Cross-country “I have been delighted to see so many pupils apply themselves to training and enjoy their running both competitively and socially.”

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IN my first year managing the cross-country team here at Canford, I have been delighted to see so many pupils apply themselves to training and enjoy their running both competitively and socially. We are sad to have missed the close of the season due to Covid-19 so unfortunately did not get a chance to host our ‘Canford Relays’, which I am sure would have been a triumphant end to a successful season.

Through the first term, every runner got a chance to compete in the PEDSSA schools series, in which we had some fantastic performances. Charlie Bird won each race that he contested in the senior boys’ category, winning the overall series with some impressive victories. In the senior girls, Imogen Gallego ran herself into a top three finish in the series. The inter boys’ team had great strength and depth, so much so that we were regularly able to field two teams with Jamie Barrington

consistently leading the Canford team.

In the Easter Term, Charlie Bird consistently medalled in the various races across the region and we were pleased to welcome to the senior girls’ team Serena Blake, who went from strength to strength and built in confidence from each race. One highlight in this term was the inter boys’ team successfully retaining the Downside trophy, with strong performances from Jamie Barrington, Rupert Peach and Felix Tuck.

Canford, and indeed Dorset, were extremely proud to have Charlie Bird and Serena Blake compete for the county at regional and national level. Serena was a part of the Dorset team at the South West Championships and Charlie had a storming run at the English Schools Championships in Liverpool, finishing 99th in a field of the best distance runners in the country.

Tim Harris

Badminton

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HAVING played all our matches and beaten every team in the local men’s league at least once, Canford were within reach of promotion just before lockdown! Our first foray into the senior men’s league gave the boys a great experience of playing badminton against experienced club players. For the first time we had a good pool of male badminton players who would not let themselves down when playing a high standard of club badminton.

The boys were sometimes up against it, as ex-county players were playing against them. It was good for the Upper Sixth stalwarts, Jonathan Fung and JC Zhang, to play challenging matches, as they were too strong to play against local schools. The team was strengthened by Ben Parkin, Zach Fenwick and Zac Prentice. I was proud of the boys, as one would expect: they tried hard, engaged well with the opposition and were polite and courteous. It was a pleasure to take them to clubs around the local area.

Some of the Canford staff were included in the matches when necessary. Mr Lee, Mr Parkin and I all helped out. Our last match was chosen to be a family affair with the Parkins and the Fenwicks putting JP Morgan to the sword.

The rest of the badminton squad were not unsuccessful. Some of the pupils represented the school for the first time in sport and we came out on top in all our matches against local schools. The highlight was an away win against Sherborne Girls. Tamara Read-Ward and Izzy Place ended the season undefeated.

Chris Fenwick

IT was a strange but rewarding season for the Canford Towers, and the squad displayed admirable spirit and unity. External coach Luca Dronyc got the best out of all the lads and player/coach Michael Ma occasionally took his place with great maturity and knowledge.

After losing three of the first four matches, the squad went unbeaten in the remaining six fixtures (with three cancelled as the pandemic approached).

In most of these matches we started slowly, only to outscore the opposition in the second half and edge ahead. Friendly revenge against Bournemouth Collegiate School, together with standout victories over Sherborne Shooters and Winchester Wizards, were the highlights.

Usually leading the stats were Michael, Tommy Qian, Cameron Powell, Finn Boardman and James Barker. They provided the lion’s share of buckets, boards and assists.

However, everyone else also gave their best and helped provide some great entertainment: Lucas Au, Henry Bailey, Toby Bishop, Edwin He, Jerry Hu, Valentín Lužák, Finch Massam and Zac Prentice. An example of the commitment was Toby requiring stitches in his tongue after a match – he always talked too much!

Steven Ives

DESPITE one of the wettest seasons in memory, the Canford lacrosse community waded through and scored some significant achievements. With healthy numbers of pupils keen to play from Fifth Form upwards, Canford fielded two teams for both the Christmas and Easter Terms. Three of the Lower Sixth succeeded in being selected for a South West Super Counties team for the first time – a great achievement for players who had considerably less experience than their peers from schools where the girls start playing in Year 7, so congratulations to Georgie Litchfield, Nory Warner and Sydney Brown. This was a reflection mostly of their innate skill, dedication to practice and athleticism but also a result of the increase in competitive play around Canford lacrosse now – both from team-mates within the school and from outside.

The first team entered the South West Rally in October for the first time but found the standard hard going as they were at too much of a disadvantage with their relative playing inexperience. Next season our firsts will be in the second team tournament, which is more our level of play at this stage. Notable wins in longer matches during the season were against Godolphin, St Swithun’s and Sherborne third teams, so we will be setting our sights on their second teams next season.

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The second team also had good matches against Talbot Heath and Milton Abbey but most significant was an impressive win against the Bournemouth University second team. Both teams fielded mainly beginners at the start of the academic year, but Canford played more as a cohesive unit and took the upper hand.

Unfortunately, the usual finale of the season, the weekend-long All England Schools Tournament, was cancelled at the last moment due to atrocious weather and flooded pitches. However perhaps the most tightly fought competition was still the battle between the houses. This year it was the day houses and Marriotts who were competing for the Stick, and after their match was a draw, it came down to goal difference with Marriotts just edging ahead.

A notable find this year, and Coach’s Award winner, was an ex-cricket wicketkeeper and new Lower Sixth pupil, Lily Clark, who has turned out to be an amazing goalkeeper. The Players’ Player Award went to midfielder Georgie Litchfield. She and Sydney Brown will be captains for the 2020-21 season.

Michelle Bray

“This was a reflection mostly of their innate skill, dedication to practice and athleticism but also a result of the increase in competitive play around Canford lacrosse now.”

Squash THE weekly carousel sessions over the last few years have allowed all Shells a chance to experience both squash and Real tennis for two weeks. We have also had our weekly activity sessions for fourth-formers and Shells, which have proved popular and encouraged interest in squash as a games option over the last couple of years. The Christmas Term continues to be our busiest term; 49 pupils descended on the courts!

Luckily, Covid-19 had a minimal effect on squash fixtures, so we managed to get all of our twelve matches played against Bryanston, Clayesmore and Sherborne, giving opportunities to rotate the squad and get a mix of years and abilities playing.

Charlie Anstee and David Offer (a county junior) have pushed each other and battled it out for the top

position throughout the year; they have continued to make big strides in their game and should lead the pack next season. It has also been exciting to see the depth of our squad, with a cohort of Fifth Form and Lower Sixth cementing their place in the team, making a real impression and being an inspiration to the younger players.

Congratulations to Court on winning both the junior and senior boys’ House Squash titles. The Beaufort senior girls of Amelia Green, Abby Childerley and Alice Milton proved too strong for Marriotts in an exciting final. Unfortunately, due to the school’s closure, we did not manage to finish the junior girls’ final between Salisbury and de Lacy.

James Ryan, Squash and Real Tennis Professional

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Including photography by Paul West | www.paulwestphotography.com

Faces of lockdown – how the Canford Community came together this year during the challenges of Covid-19

C A NF O R D Wimborne, Dorset BH21 3AD T: 01202 841254 www.canford.com CanfordSchool

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