The Caterhamian 2021-22

Cover artwork by Joshua, A Level Art

COMMON ROOM NEWS

This year we say goodbye to the following members of the Senior Common Room:

Matthew Baggs (Director of Sport) who becomes Head of Lower School at RGS, Guilford

Bertie Beeching (English, Resident Boarding Tutor) who takes a post as a teacher of English at The Leys, Cambridge

Lana Crouch (Sports Rehabilitator and First Aid Coordinator) who has take a post at The Royal Alexander and Albert School

Ben Goakes (3D Design) who takes a post as a teacher of 3D Design at Eltham College

Brian Hill (Head of Instrumental Music) who leaves us to pursue other interests

Harry Kingscott (Director in Residence) who has moved to another part of the country

Katie Koi (PE) who takes a post at Guildford High School

James Pike (Graduate Assistant Boys’ Sport) who has taken a post at Whitgift School

Bethany Quinton (Biology, Non Resident Tutor) who leaves to continue her studies

Hannah Walters (Physics, Resident Boarding Tutor) who has taken a post at Wetherby School, London

Conrad Ware (Mathematics) who leaves us to pursue other interests

Welcome to the following new teachers who join the Common Room in September 2022:

Simeone Compton, who joins us as a teacher of PE

Hannah Cundill, who joins us as a Learning Support Teacher

Mike Daniels, who joins us as a teacher of Design and Technology

Alexander Fieldhouse, who joins us as a teacher of PE

Carla Gentile, who joins us as a teacher of Biology

Lucy Halliday, who joins us as a teacher of PE

Daniel Martinez, who joins us as a teacher of Physics

Megan McGlashan, who joins us as a teacher of English

Georgina Walters, who joins us as a teacher of Chemistry

Harrison Whitehouse, who joins us as a teacher of Mathematics and Resident Boarding Tutor (Townsend)

Jack Martin, who joins us as a Graduate Assistant Boys’ Sport

Sp ch Day

SATURDAY 2 JULY 2022

Of course, this is the first time we have been able to do this since July 2019 and so for many of you this will be your first ever Speech Day.

I am delighted to welcome Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock as our guest of honour and am so looking forward to hearing from her in a moment. I love the reference to the Clangers in her brief biography. The original TV series ran from 1969 – 1974 and for people of my generation was watched on black and white televisions. Like so many great things from our childhoods it has been rebooted for a modern audience.

It has of course been great to reboot school this year. I cannot tell you how good it has been to see your daughters and sons enjoying being at school, enjoying each other’s company, enjoying the breadth of co-curricular activities we have at Caterham and smiling and laughing their way through the

year. For many of us (and by that I mean teachers and parents) it has been at times quite emotional to witness the corporate joy of the school once again – whether that be concerts, shows or sport. We had our first whole school assembly for two and half years on Thursday – and it felt just wonderful (as today

does) having all of us together physically again.

If you turn towards the back of your programmes you will see that our pupils share their best moments of the year – it is remarkable to see how quickly your sons and daughters have resumed living life to the full. Today is our opportunity to recognise and celebrate all of their success across a whole range of school activity.

It is also a chance to celebrate the success of our school – so much of what Caterham School has achieved this year relies on our entire community pushing in the same direction and having a shared ambition for what an outstanding school and an outstanding education should be.

We celebrate great achievement today – and what underpins the outstanding achievement of your children is a school culture that encourages breadth and balance, perspective and enjoyment, risk taking and adventure. A sustainable

It is such a thrill to be able to welcome you back to school physically to celebrate the achievements of our incredible pupils.

ELIAS DARYANI, HEAD OF SCHOOL

model of success which has at its centre a belief that you get the best out of people by creating an environment and culture which is ambitious and which promotes excellence as a habit, but also one in which people can they be themselves, be idiosyncratic, be bold and a culture where they are known and valued for what they bring, not judged for the things that have yet to develop. And also a culture in which it’s alright to admit that things can be tough some times – that it’s ok not to be ok.

Our school culture promotes outstanding outcomes. If I were to pick my best bits of this past year I would be here a very long time and I acknowledge that it is impossible to mention all achievements – but I will highlight some of the incredible things your children have achieved collectively this year. These are not

in any order of priority so please do not read anything into what follows.

I will begin with the external academic awards listed towards the middle of your Speech Day programme. Sixth Form pupils have had exceptional success in winning or being highly placed in a huge range of external national competitions organised by some of the most prestigious academic departments and organisations in the country. We have never had such a list of success in these competitions and it really is wonderful to see our Sixth Formers seizing these opportunities in such numbers – promoting academic ambition does not come at the expense of all-round excellence and many of the names you read in your programmes will also be awarded prizes for their outstanding co-curricular involvement. It is possible to be both an academic and excel across all areas of school life.

Performing Arts also roared back into life this year – our school productions were out-standing. ‘My Fair Lady’, staged back in December, utilised the talents of our senior pupils superbly and

was the perfect vehicle for some of the most talented performers we have had in the school. The Junior School Play, ‘Lord of the Flies’, was amazing. We are lucky to have some outstanding talent in the junior school who made a challenging and thought provoking play accessible to a wide audience. If you were lucky enough to be in the Humphrey’s Theatre on Wednesday evening you will know just how fantastic MAD live was – our annual showcase of Music and Dance. What was wonderful about the evening was not just the incredible quality of the performances but also the range of performers – from First Year to Upper Sixth – all supporting and encouraging each other.

Orchestral and choral music across the school is outstanding. The Spring Concert at St John’s Church in Caterham was another highlight of the year for me.

Sport seems to have reached another level this year. We have been extremely competitive across all sports this year – and have won (or come very close) in a number of competitions. Our rugby teams (boys and girls) had great seasons

MARIELLA ATTERBURY, HEAD OF SCHOOL

ANANYA SARAF, HEAD OF SCHOOL

What underpins the outstanding achievement of your children is a school culture that encourages breadth and balance, perspective and enjoyment, risk taking and adventure.

– the U15 and U13a teams were unbeaten, (and the U15s finished runners-up in the Surrey Cup), the 1st XV made it to the semi-finals of the NextGen Schools Plate Competition and we entered the Rosslyn Park Sevens with an U15 girls team for the first time ever. Our hockey teams had some incredible successes – the girls won the U14 London Schools’ Cup and the U13 boys got to the national finals and finished third in the Independent Schools Hockey Cup. This past term our athletes have pretty much swept the board at all ages. And of course, who can forget Eddie Jones coaching our girls and boys here at Caterham earlier this term.

There is so much more I could say – the strength of the CCF and Duke of Edinburgh, our Green Power Racing Car team which built and raced an electric car at Goodwood with pupil drivers, engineers, pit team and data analysts or the Jubilee Street Party Celebrations at the end of last term. This is a school that does not define itself by results – rather it defines itself by pupil experience and enjoyment – and unsurprisingly engaged and happy young people achieve great things.

It is also true that all of these achievements are supported by an incredibly talented, dedicated and hardworking set of teachers and other colleagues – an organisation only succeeds when everyone within it understands the mission (a bit like that apocryphal story about JFK visiting Cape Canaveral in 1962, spotting a janitor and asking him what he was doing – the janitor replied ‘I’m putting a man on the moon’.) Whether that story is true or not, it speaks to the fact that your children can do what they do because of the contributions of teachers, ground staff, caterers, theatre technicians and a whole host of other people and I would ask you to join me in giving a round of applause to all the staff of Caterham School.

Of course, it is at this time of year that we say goodbye to colleagues who are moving on, but also right that part of the role of a school is to help colleagues grow and develop.

This year we will be saying goodbye to:

Mr James Pike; Miss Laura True; Mr Bertie Beeching; Miss Bethany Quinton; Mr Ben Goakes; Mr Kingscott; Mr Brian Hill; Miss Hannah Walters; Mr Matthew Baggs; Miss Katie Koi; Mr Conrad Ware.

Can I ask you to join me in thanking all these colleagues for their service and to wish them well for the future?

There is one other significant departure today – the Reverend Julian Thomas has been the School Chaplain for the past 5 years and is retiring from that role today.

Julian has been the minister at Caterham United Reformed Church since 2014 and is also retiring from that position too. Julian, we are enormously grateful for all you have done for the school over the past 8 years, for your kindness and care

and for providing such a strong link between the school and the local community. Good luck and best wishes for your retirement. Could I ask all of us to show our appreciation with a round of applause?

I would also like to thank all the school prefects who have been so instrumental in helping shape the progress of the school this year. It has been a challenging time to be a school prefect – the uncertainty of whether we were physical, virtual, hybrid or who knows what else made the role more difficult than normal. They have all shown great fortitude and maturity in dealing with the situation and were all immensely helpful in helping calibrate our response to a rapidly changing situation.

I would also like to pay particular tribute to our three heads of school ›

who you will be hearing from in a moment. Mariella, Elias and Ananya have been superb Heads of School. They have ensured that our weekly meetings have focused on pupil issues and, in particular, challenging the school to do more in the area of diversity and inclusion. I have really valued their humour, their candour and their determination to get things done and to be change makers. All three of them will go on to achieve great things in their own ways and for me they represent all that is best about the school – we want pupils to be themselves, to speak up for themselves and to want to change the world. Mariella, Elias, Ananya – you have been fantastic heads of school. I will miss our weekly meetings and your company. Good luck in the future and please accept this small gift as a token of my gratitude to each of you.

Good luck also to our new Heads of School who were announced in our Whole School Assembly last Thursday – Paige Griffiths, Harry Jude and Danielle Yu.

One of the unexpected upsides of our recent virtual existence has been the fun of seeing the kitchens of so many of you – the kitchen seemed to be the place that most of us defaulted to when working or holding meetings. I have to say there are some very nice kitchens out there and I began to get quite jealous – until most of you worked out how to blur your backgrounds which eventually that spoiled the fun. Equally, many of you and

many prospective parents were able to see into my study for the first time. I had not realised how important the background to Zoom or Teams calls were – and how much more interesting the art work in my office was than what I had to say. In particular, there is a David Hockney print on the wall behind my desk of Salts Mill that raised many questions– Saltaire is where I grew up just outside Bradford and Hockney is himself from Bradford.

Saltaire is a world heritage site – it was a model village built by a Victorian industrialist called Titus Salt. At its heart is a textile mill around which Salt built homes for his workers, a library, a school, a church, a park and a meeting space. All built next to the River Aire – hence the name Saltaire. The notion of a model village may sound twee and a bit paternalistic and controlling – but for me Saltaire

represents the notion that success is built around community and that a rising tide lifts all the boats. In the same way that our founder, John Townsend, made it part of his life’s work to invest in the power of education to change lives and invest in people.

That spirit runs through our school today with our excellence supporting educational achievement beyond our campus. I am incredibly proud of the work we are doing through the East Surrey Learning Partnership and our continued support of the London Academy of Excellence, our support for Clifton Hill and Sunnydown Schools and the Wright Society – supporting ambitious medical applicants from local secondary schools. These are genuine partnerships which enrich and enhance outcomes for pupils and colleagues in the schools we work with, but also enrich and enhance the lives and experiences of our pupils and colleagues here at Caterham. We are a better school in so many ways as a result of this work.

I am grateful to all of you who have embraced and supported our ambitions in this area. Our first ever Giving Day back in March raised over £41,000 to support a resource library for local primary schools, to buy lunches for the primary school we support in Tanzania and to support our transformational bursary campaign. The ongoing generosity and philanthropy of so many of you is making a real difference to the life chances of ›

Our first ever Giving Day back in March raised over £41,000 to support a resource library for local primary schools, to buy lunches for the primary school we support in Tanzania and to support our transformational bursary campaign.

young people who through no fault of their own have had very challenging starts to their lives –

I am delighted that through your support we will be welcoming 6 pupils on transformational bursaries to Caterham in September.

And of course, we live in an interconnected world where the concept of community is increasingly global. The pandemic highlighted how easy it is to connect with pupils and parents all over the world and to build a community that transcends physical proximity, and the pandemic has highlighted how events in one part of the world can have an impact on all of us here in the Harestone Valley. Geopolitical events over recent months have also shown how events elsewhere can make an impact on our day to day lives here. The response by many of our parents to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the willingness of so many of you to volunteer to host families fleeing that conflict has been incredible.

I am delighted that we have been able to work with the networks that so many of you have created and that are supporting the educational needs of Ukrainian families. We currently have 7 families from Ukraine in the school – they have added immeasurably to the school community and it was fantastic to these pupils embrace sports day and MAD Live

in the way that they did.

I would also like to thank the PA, the OCA and CaterhamConnected for their ongoing support for the school. We genuinely could not achieve what we do without your help, expertise, energy and generosity and I am enormously grateful to all of you who volunteer to support the school in so many different ways. The school is about to about embark on a really exciting next phase of its development –that starts with the extension to the sports centre this year and will be followed by an ambitious building plan for the future, plans for curriculum reform and of course our continued drive to grow the number of transformational bursary pupils at the school. We are a school at the forefront of innovation in education and I hope many of you will want to be involved in shaping this future.

My final thanks goes to the Trustees, the Shadow Board and the Foundation of Caterham School. The Trustees in particular give a huge amount of time as volunteers to help guide the school and our success over recent years is down to the expert leadership of this group. I would want to pay particular thanks to Ian Edwards who stepped down as chair this year and who helped navigate the school so expertly through our separation from United Learning, but also to Monisha Shah, our new Chair of Trustees whose guidance,

wisdom and calmness is greatly appreciated.

Finally, to our Leavers. You have been a remarkable year group. You can be proud that you have not let yourselves be defined by Covid. As I wrote in your Yearbook, you have brought your own unique personality to the school and have challenged us to adapt and respond to who you are, and in so doing you have helped drive significant cultural change at the school. I am proud of what the school has become and you should all feel that you had a part to play in that journey, knowing that you leave a school that is more diverse, more interesting and (as a consequence) more successful than it has ever been.

The values I have spoken about this morning are values I know you share. As you go out into the world retain your curiosity, be ambitious but most importantly be true to who you are. Knowing who you are and what your values are will make your undoubted future success more sustainable and more enjoyable.

Good luck in all that you do. Please remember that for you, and for your parents, this is not the end of your relationship with Caterham School – we will always be here to support you and I hope we see many of you back at Old Cats events next term.

I wish all of you here today a restful summer and good luck to those of you waiting for public examination results. n

Her programme “Do We Really Need the Moon?” (BBC 2), which explored our intimate relationship with the moon, showed just that The programme earned Maggie the Talkback Thames new talent award at the prestigious Women in Film and TV Awards in December 2011. She went on to present a follow up “Do We Really Need Satellites?” (also BBC 2) and was one of the Scientists on Channel 4’s Brave New World as well as resident panellist on Sky One’s “Ducks Quack Don’t Echo” with Lee Mack. She is currently presenting the new series of Sky at Night on BBC 4 and Mini Stargazing for Cbeebies. Her latest book “Sky at Night’s Book of the Moon” was published in October 2018 by BBC Books.

Maggie had an unsettled upbringing, attending 13 different schools. She was diagnosed with dyslexia and shunted into a remedial class. As she says, ‘a government statistician would have forecast a pretty bleak future for me’. She was saved by the Clangers and the idea of ‘space travel’ entered her young brain. A few years later she became hooked on Star Trek and her ambition took hold. Her father nurtured her hopes and dreams and that, coupled with hard work, enabled ‘a black girl with

SPEECH DAY PRIZES

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a space scientist whose passion is presenting science to a general audience and demonstrating that you ‘don’t need a brain the size of a small planet’ to understand, participate in and enjoy science.

learning difficulties to travel from inner London to outer space!’

She studied at Imperial College where she obtained her degree in Physics and her PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Since then she has spent her career making novel, bespoke instrumentation in both the industrial and academic environments. Managing multidisciplinary teams, these instruments have ranged from hand held land mine detectors to an optical subsystem for the James Webb Space Telescope. (The JWST is a joint ESA/NASA venture due to replace the Hubble Space Telescope). TV and radio appearances include regular pieces on BBC Breakfast, Doctor Who Confidential, BBC Radio 4 (Woman’s Hour: Technology Review for 2009, Big Bang Day, Girls in Physics), BBC 2: The Cosmos – A Beginner’s Guide (2007), Channel 5: Big, Bigger, Biggest Telescopes (2009) among many others. She was invited on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs (aired 7th March 2010) and won Red magazine’s “Red Hot Women” award in the pioneering category (Dec 2009). She was awarded an MBE in 2009.

Maggie also works at Astrium Ltd in Portsmouth where she leads the optical instrumentation group. Here

she manages a range of projects making satellite subsystems designed to monitor wind speeds and other variables in the Earth’s atmosphere. These systems are made under the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Living Planet Programme and are designed to improve our current knowledge of climate change. Maggie also has a Science in Society Fellowship from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) which enables her to engage the public with the science work that she loves. The Fellowship is held at the University College London (UCL). To further share her love of science, Maggie has set up her own company Science Innovation Ltd (www.science–innovation. com). Through this Maggie conducts “Tours of the Universe” and other public engagement activities, showing school children and adults the wonders of space. She has given these talks to over 500,000 people across the globe (350,000 of these have been school children in the UK) and has just produced a film through Science Innovation called “Space in the UK”, which features Maggie on a “Big Brother” spaceship on a journey to Mars. This is being distributed for free through schools and science festivals across the country.

Guest of Honour:

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock

ACHIEVEMENT, PROGRESS AND CONTRIBUTION TO SCHOOL LIFE

First Year Prizes

Tom Dean

Abigail Griffiths

Sophia Minhas

Caitlin Mulcaire

Florence Reed

Taran Sharma

Emma Tagliarini

Yu-In Tang

Jaden Tung

Pieter Van Den Berg

Third Year Prizes

Darcey Bance

Lucy Bentley

Lana Carter

Vivienne Christofides

Mathilde Gisselbrecht

Alexander Gumbley

Annie Liu

Narayan Minhas

Samuel Parsons

Jonathan Woods

Second Year Prizes

William Blackborough

Rosie Butler

Jessica Cooper

Emma Farquharson

Connie McMillan

Barnaby Munday

Arthur Peachey

Santosh Pirabakaran

Daniel Roberts

Skye Wilkinson

Fourth Year Prizes

Leane Beukes

Sam Gill

Selena Hughson

Adrian Hui

William Taylor

Robert Thomas

Hazel Tsang

Mark Wolstenholme

Ariel Wong

Lilly Woodward

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND EFFORT

Fifth Year Prizes

Amali Carter

Hailey Cheng

Sophie Hobbs

Ava Kelly

Tiffany Ku

Justin Leung

Ethan Nichols

Habib Rahman

Janice Yau

Aaron Zhou

Lower Sixth Year Prizes

Nigel Chan

Thomas Chang

Catherine Chao

Holly-Heather Cook

Holly Gordon Clark

Paige Griffiths

Kelly Hou

O-Teen Kwok

Belle Mok

Luke Yuan

PRIZES FOR OUTSTANDING ALL-ROUND CONTRIBUTION TO SCHOOL LIFE

The Rignall Prize

Fleur Masters

Tiffany Chan

Megan Denton

Mariella Atterbury

Sharon George-Kalu

Ananya Saraf

SERVICE PRIZES

The Bonarjee Prize

Cameron Hudson

Anna Pearson

Laura Sessi-Knott

Dan Yendall

Rachel Cliffe

Amelie Doll

Louie Heaton-Armstrong

Perlie Tse

The Gregory Prize

Thirisha Anpalakan

Caius Ramsden-Board

Marcus Chandra

Millie Thomas

Elias Daryani

The Brooke Prize

Joani Baker

Olivia Ellam

Tom Granville

Conor Greer

Nagim Ibragimov

The Gorman Prize

Emma Davies

Joshua Campbell

Maddie Korvin

The Eothen Prize

Old Caterhamians’ Prize

ENRICHMENT PRIZES

Senior Academic Shorts

Junior Academic Shorts

DUKE OF EDINBURGH’S GOLD AWARD

Ananya Saraf

Megan Denton

Valentina Quijano-Evans

Lucy Butler

Ananya Saraf

Mariella Atterbury

Elias Daryani

Holly Gordon Clark

Alexander Mirza

The Wakefield Prize

Emma Kekwick

Vicki Miller

Elloise Paler

Jenna Sam

Ollie van As

Michelle Wong

Oliver Brand

Rainis Cheng

Fraser Bailey

Elena Andrews

Louis Anslow

Josh Baker

Josh Benjamin

Skyler Bennett

Antoine Bertrand

Lucy Butler

James Cripps

George Dillingham

Georgia Hebden

Valentina Quijano-Evans

Will Smithson

Amelie Griffiths

Raife Nash

Antonia Williams

The Bacon Prize

Bobby Benford

Arthur Bott

Edward Daniell

Julianne Gibbon

Caitlyn Hocking

Matthew Martin

Abbie McDowell

Enzo Pedersen

Alexander Rudakov

Matthew Sharpe

Andrew Steedman

Bariledum Kogam

Kathryn Boyd

Poppy Oliver

UPPER SIXTH ACADEMIC PRIZES

The Allison Prize for English

Rachel Cliffe

Paris Singh

Academic Prize for Biology Katie Tudor

Academic Prize for Business Fraser Bailey

Academic Prize for Chemistry Gleb Iagelskii

Academic Prize for Artem Streltsov Computer Science

The Coleman Prize for 3D Design Ferdy Clarke

Academic Prize for Drama Amelie Doll and Theatre Studies

Academic Prize for Economics Marcus Chandra

Academic Prize for Fine Art Tireni Adeniji

The Hilton Prize for French Marcus Chandra

The Stephen Smith Prize Ryan O’Sullivan for Geography

The Prize for German Bella Beadle

Academic Prize for Greek Maddie Korvin

GAMES PRIZES

Honours Cap England U20 Lacrosse

Honours Cap England B U20 Lacrosse

The Leathem Prize for History Kathryn Boyd

Academic Prize for Latin Amelie Griffiths

The Prize for Double Maths (Pure) Thomas Yu

The Prize for Double Maths (Applied) Ruby Chan

Academic Prize for Single Maths Jason Cho

Academic Prize for Music Raife Nash

Academic Prize for PE Poppy Oliver

Academic Prize for Photography Joshua Campbell

Academic Prize for Psychology Nicola Finnegan

Academic Prize for Physics William Pye

Academic Prize for Politics Elias Daryani

The St. John’s Prize Caius Ramsden-Board for Philosophy and Ethics

Academic Prize for Spanish Dina Motashaw

Academic Prize for Textiles Kathyn Boyd

Genevieve Alcock Ellie Shipsey

Megan Swan Ronnie Thomas Maddie Korvin

Honours Cap England C U20 Lacrosse Poppy Oliver

Honours Cap Wales A U20 Lacrosse Imogen Lack

Honours Cap England U17 Athletics Jemima Caldwell

Honours Cap GB U20s Underwater Hockey Esme Glass Louis Preston

The Dunwoodie Cup – Best All Rounder in Girls’ Sports Poppy Oliver

Games Prize for Consistent Contribution to Games (Girls)

Sharon George-Kalu Maddie Korvin

The John Villers Cup for Consistent Contribution to Games (Boys) Joshua Campbell

Darby Medal for Swimming Ava Kelly

Caiden Hibbert

The Smith Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Boys’ Sports

Cameron MacDonald

The Whiting Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Girls’ Sports Nicola Finnegan

The Dermer Prize for Top Sportsman Fraser Bailey

Competed at British Swimming Commonwealth Trials Ava Kelly

Qualified for winter & summer National Championships Caiden Hibbert

British Eventing: second in Class B80 at Ascot-Under-Whychwood

Allegra Driscoll

British Formula 4 Championship & Williams Formula 1 Academy Ollie Gray

SPEECH DAY PRIZE WINNERS

SPECIAL PRIZES

The Christine Walker Prize

The Abbott Prize for Choral Singing

The Blake-Thomas Falaises Prize (CCF)

The Alexander Clarke Prize for Community Service

The Hilary Trehane Prize for Services to the Community

The Ansell Reed Prize for contribution to boarding and school life

The Thomas Warren Prize for backstage support

Pi Prize – for exceptional contributions to lessons

The Baynon-Milnes Prize for outstanding concert performance

The Andrew Fisher Prize for outstanding performance in drama

The Jen Dodd Maths Prize

The Pidgeon Prize for Literature

The Caldwell Cup for Musical Theatre

The Caterham Engineering Prize

The Harvard Book Award – for the most outstanding Lower Sixth Pupil

Moncrieff Jones Science Prize

The David Rogers Maths Prize

The Susan Child History Essay Prize

The Chris Wright Cup for Junior Music

The Susan Herbert Prize

Alice Feng

Ferdy Clarke

Oliver Brand

Tiffany Chan

Bariledum Kogam

Perlie Tse

Mariella Atterbury

Sharon George-Kalu

Megan Denton

Nicola Finnegan

Philip Morgan

Millie Thomas

Maestro Yan

Elias Daryani

Millie Thomas

Theo Gumbley

Alex Mylet

Jason Cho

Louie Heaton-Armstrong

Holly Bradley

Tara Sinha

Santi Weiner Hurriaga

The Wright Society Prize Rosie Home

The David Evans Award for Overall Academic Excellence

Rainis Cheng

Robert Hunter

Saskia Kazi

Brandon Kim

Sholto Kirk

Laurence McLaughlin

Isabelle Oliver

Antonia Williams

Rosie Williamson

Michael Wong

Ananya Saraf

Santi Weiner Hurriaga

Tiffany Chan

Ellen Cross

INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT AWARD

The Young Prize

The Frederic H. Gay Prize

Lilly Michael

Fleur Masters

The Alden Davies Prize William Pye

Highly Commended

Joani Baker

Ruby Chan

Rainis Cheng

Megan Denton

Theo Gumbley

Audience Prize

Antonia Williams

Alexander Rudakov and Shortlisted

Rachel Cliffe

Winner of the Intermediate Sophie Hobbs IRP Competition

Georgia Hebden

Andrew James

Brandon Kim

Rain Ng

Caius Ramsden-Board

Paris Singh

Thomas Yu

THE CATERHAM AWARD

The ‘Caterham Award’ is awarded to Upper Sixth Form pupils who have participated fully in the Caterham School community. The award winners represent a great variety of interests and talents, and they will all have demonstrated responsibility, creativity, and a commitment to life at school.

The Caterham Award promotes the School philosophy, ‘Inspiring Education for Life’.

Tireni Adeniji

Tamsin Anderson

Elena Andrews

Reuben Andriesz

Thirisha Anpalakan

Louis Anslow

Euan Ashmore

Mariella Atterbury

Fraser Bailey

Joani Baker

Josh Baker

Bobby Benford

Josh Benjamin

Skyler Bennett

Nikita Berezin

Antoine Bertrand

Arthur Bott

Kathryn Boyd

Oliver Brand

Ella Bryn

Lucy Butler

Joshua Campbell

Jack Carter

Jeremy Chan

Ruby Chan

Tiffany Chan

Kenneth Chan

Marcus Chandra

Rainis Cheng

Jason Cho

Samuel Choi

Allie Chu

Hannah Chung

Ferdy Clarke

Rachel Cliffe

George Cosby

Josh Craddock

James Cripps

Ellen Cross

Edward Daniell

Elias Daryani

Emma Davies

Justin Deale

Megan Denton

Lily Devlin

George Dillingham

Amelie Doll

Yasmin Dossa

Olivia Ellam

Alice Feng

Nicola Finnegan

Max Fry

Sharon George-Kalu

Julianne Gibbon

Taylor Gordon

Tom Granville

Conor Greer

Amelie Griffiths

Theo Gumbley

Louie Heaton-Armstrong

Georgia Hebden

Tatiana Hissey

Caitlyn Hocking

Rosie Home

Hannah Hubbard

Cameron Hudson

Robert Hunter

Gleb Iagelskii

Nagim Ibragimov

Andrew James

Eren Jenkins

Sihu Jung

Levent Karacam

Saskia Kazi

Emma Kekwick

Keanu Khazanehdari

Brandon Kim

Sholto Kirk

Bariledum Kogam

Glenn Kong

Maddie Korvin

Jack Lance

Ben Latty Dennison

Eugene Law

Kristy Lee

Loanne Lewis-Reynier

Ivan Liu

Cam MacDonald

Matthew Martin

Fleur Masters

Abbie McDowell

Katie McGurrin

Murdo McIntosh

Laurence McLaughlin

Lilly Michael

Leah Miller

Vicki Miller

Dina Motashaw

Shibiram Murugamoorthy

Sahil Nagawa

Raife Nash

Jerry Needham

Rain Ng

Isabelle Oliver

Poppy Oliver

Ryan O’Sullivan

Elloise Paler

Fenton Parry

Dilan Patel

Kaylen Patel

Lara Paul

Anna Pearson

Enzo Pedersen

David Perlman

Joe Phillips

Levent Karacam

Saskia Kazi

Emma Kekwick

Keanu Khazanehdari

Brandon Kim

Sholto Kirk

Bariledum Kogam

Glenn Kong

Maddie Korvin

Jack Lance

Ben Latty Dennison

Eugene Law

Kristy Lee

Loanne Lewis-Reynier

Ivan Liu

Cam MacDonald

Matthew Martin

Fleur Masters

Abbie McDowell

Katie McGurrin

Murdo McIntosh

Laurence McLaughlin

Lilly Michael

Leah Miller

Vicki Miller

Dina Motashaw

Shibiram Murugamoorthy

Sahil Nagawa

Raife Nash

Jerry Needham

Rain Ng

Isabelle Oliver

Poppy Oliver

Ryan O’Sullivan

Elloise Paler

Fenton Parry

Dilan Patel

Kaylen Patel

Lara Paul

Anna Pearson

Enzo Pedersen

David Perlman

Joe Phillips

Joshua Poon

William Pye

Valentina Quijano-Evans

Caius Ramsden-Board

Aathman Ravindran

Sadaf Raza

Honor Redhouse

Andrew Reeve

Alexander Rudakov

Jenna Sam

Ananya Saraf

Laura Sessi-Knott

Matthew Sharpe

Paris Singh

Martin Smith

Will Smithson

Andrew Steedman

Mikhail Strelkov

Artem Streltsov

Zara Taylor

Diya Thakrar

Millie Thomas

Luke Tolfrey

Perlie Tse

Katie Tudor

Max Tyler

Ollie van As

Bohdan Vereitin

Oliver Vickars

Santi Weiner Hurriaga

Antonia Williams

Rosie Williamson

Oliver Willoughby

Michelle Wong

Michael Wong

Maestro Yan

Ian Yau

Dan Yendall

Seb Yip

Thomas Yu

Jay Yuan

Alex Zhong

EXTERNAL ACADEMIC

AWARDS

Caterham Sixth Form pupils have achieved impressive success in external academic competitions during the 2021/22 year. Application rates for showcasing excellence in this way is the highest we have seen for a number of years now – a sign that pupils really are embracing the challenge of truly ambitious A Level study.

Holly Gordon Clark answering the question “No man (or woman) is an island: how selfsufficient are characters in ancient literature?” Holly compared the presentation of Odysseus in Homer, Ovid and Margaret Atwood. (St John’s College, Oxford Classics and Ancient History Essay Prize). Holly received a Commendation from the don-judges. Holly has also won the 2022 Lancaster University Writing Award for her piece on Duffy’s work – she also came second in the Criticism category – her work will be published in Cake Magazine and on the Lancaster University website.

Holly won the 2022 Cathkin Park Dig It! Competition – this is a national young archaeologists’ competition (Council for British Archaeology and the Young Archaeologists’ Club).

Holly Bradley on “Was one’s community in the ancient world limited to one’s city?” She went miles off syllabus and researched how the nascent Christian communities in the late Roman Empire interacted with cities and Roman civic identities/structures. (St John’s College, Oxford Classics and Ancient History Essay Prize). Holly received a Commendation from the don-judges.

Holly has also won the University of Sheffield’s History Department Essay Prize Competition 2022. The judges noted that “This is a very good essay that shows a depth of knowledge on the issue and a good sense for critical analysis. The shape of the argument is clear, easy to follow, and builds from point to point. In particular, the way you are able to critique lazy comparisons that presume a ‘norm’, but cannot substantiate that norm works very well. The essay is also commendable for its ability to predict counter arguments and objections, which it makes a case against proactively. A strong essay that was enjoyable to read”.

Mili Greener, Molly Meyer, Holly Gordon Clark and Paige Griffiths: all of these pupils were Highly Commended for their Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics’ video essay 2022 competition (Oxford University).

O-Teen Kwok won the Science Snippets prize, beating finalists from Eton, Tonbridge and many other schools. This is an impressive achievement indeed. O-Teen delivered on the topic of aerodynamics, highlighting the importance and uses of the subject across all facets of science from football and F1 through to bird formations and aircraft. O-Teen delivered for only four minutes in front of a live audience, as well as guest judge Sir Jim Smith from the Francis Crick Institute, to demonstrate his passion for the field of aerodynamics. In addition to the above, O-Teen has also been awarded:

– Triumph Design Award: Outstanding Engineering and Innovation Award (last summer)

– Science Communication Competition: Champion

– Senior Physics Written Challenge: Gold award

– Senior Physics Online Challenge: Gold award

– Senior Maths Challenge: Gold award

– UK Chemistry Olympiad: Bronze award

– British Physics Olympiad round 1: Bronze II

– Senior Kangaroo Challenge: full qualification

Paige Griffiths was awarded a very well deserved Merit in the Key Stage 5 RE View on Religion Theology Faculty video competition (Cambridge University).

Olivia Morley was awarded Highly Commended for her short essay in the Harvard Crimson Global Essay Competition 2022.

Flora Hannay achieved third place in the South East Regional finals for ARTiculation 2022. Flora delivered a gripping piece based on Donna Gottschalk’s ‘Sleepers’ –A Critical Evaluation of lesbianism in the 70s’.

Elias Daryani achieved second place in the Penguin’s Lit in Colour Student Prize (resulting in a published poem on the Penguin website). Elias has also been awarded a Young Writer’s 2022 prize – his poem will be published in Young Writer’s EMPOWERED poetry collection.

2022 has been an impressive year for Science Olympiads. Pupils have achieved multiple bronze, silver and gold awards in national olympiads this academic year. One pupil, Alex Mylet, has achieved an astonishing seven olympiad prizes so far this academic year including:

– (BPhO) British Physics Olympiad: Silver

– Physics AS challenge: Gold

– Senior Maths Challenge: Gold

– BMO1 (British Maths Olympiad Round 1): Distinction

– Chemistry Olympiad: Gold

– Biology Olympiad: Gold

– British Informatics Olympiad (Computer Science): Merit

Annabella Woodruff submitted a superb piece (titled ‘Who is the most influential author of the 20th century’) to the Immerse Education Oxbridge Scholarship Essay Competition and won a partial scholarship

Tamsin Anderson won The Jacobs Prize for the Innovative Use of Science Learning (University of Sheffield 2021) based on her outstanding presentation on Seasteading and the Future of Floating Cities.

Rachel Cliffe achieved second place in the Lancaster University Literacy Criticism Essay Prize 2021.

Salina Henley was Highly Commended, with very promising feedback from the judges, for her entry to the Paediatric Medical Article of the Month (October 2021) (Cambridge University – via Medic Collective).

Salina’s article was titled ‘Breaking Out: Time for change for allergy sufferers’.

Joshua Ko is building up quite a portfolio of awards, including:

– Senior Maths Challenge: Silver certificate

– British Physics Olympiad 2021-22 BPhO competition: Commendation

– British Physics Olympiad 2022 Senior Physics Challenge: Silver award

– British Physics Olympiad 2022 Senior Physics Challenge for problem solving: Bronze award

– Chemistry Olympiad: Bronze award

Nithusha Sathyendran has had a poem accepted for publication – it is titled ‘An Open Letter To All Women’. This will be published under Empowered 2022 – Future Echoes.

Avery Chen achieved a Merit award for her efforts in The Andrew Jobbings Senior Kangaroo competition 2021.

Maddie Korvin was Highly Commended in the New College of the Humanities (NCH) Essay Competition. Maddie’s work was titled: ‘Is literature always a force for good?’

Marcus Cheng has participated in the Minds Underground Essay Competition (medicine category), and his piece titled ‘What will the Impact of an Ageing Population on the NHS Look Like?’, was Highly Commended.

Catherine Chao is building up a portfolio of awards, including:

– British Physics Olympiad: Bronze

– Senior Maths Challenge: Silver

– Senior Physics Online Challenge: Silver

– Senior Physics Written Challenge: Gold

Chelsea Chen has achieved a global gold award in the British Biology Olympiad 2022, a wonderful achievement.

RESULTS OPEN DOORS FOR CLASS OF 2022

ACHIEVING FULL POTENTIAL

Academic Results and University Destinations 2022

A Level results day brought celebrations to Caterham School as opened envelopes also opened doors to Oxbridge, to medical school, and to top UK and overseas universities. 70 per cent of all grades awarded were A* and A grades, of which 41 per cent the top A*, and over 91 per cent were A* to B grades, once again securing Caterham’s position in the ‘premier league’ of UK schools. A total of 25 pupils achieved all A* grades and the average holding for a Caterhamian is A*AA.

95 per cent of Caterhamians achieved the university destination of their choice, with 85 per cent securing their first choice university and course. This is set against a national picture of a challenging UCAS admissions cycle. The places secured reflect the high

ambition of Caterham pupils and the evolving picture of higher education choices. Alongside the traditional top UK university choices Caterham pupils are increasingly choosing and securing places at overseas universities and with leading global firms’ degree apprenticeships.

The Headmaster, Ceri Jones, said: “Today has brought fantastic news for our Upper Sixth Form and I am incredibly proud of each and every one of them as they move on to exciting new adventures. We must not forget that this cohort of young people have succeeded across two years of Sixth Form which held a great deal of uncertainty. With the support and expertise of their teachers they have achieved top grades through a blend of classroom and online learning. They have proved themselves to be resilient and focussed, they deserve every bit of their success today. As they move on, I know that they will take the fun and friendship they have enjoyed here at school and flourish in their ambition.”

“Today’s good news is shared by pupils, teachers and parents whose support and partnership with school is a significant factor in these top results. Thanks are due to our hardworking and inspiring team of teachers who showed great innovation and determination through virtual school, and ensured pupils were prepared for each and every eventuality.”

Ceri Jones, Headmaster

HIGHLIGHTS IN SUMMARY

70% of all grades awarded A* and A grades

41% of all grades in 2022 top A*

25 pupils achieved all A* grades

99% of pupils remain at Caterham after GCSEs to complete their A Level studies

SCHOLARSHIP AT GUILDHALL SECURED FOR RAIFE

A standing ovation for Raife on results day with the next step of a scholarship to read Classical Composition at Guildhall School of Music and Drama secured. Raife joined Caterham in Year 9 from Hazelwood Prep School:

“I’m very happy today as the grades I have received are even higher that I hoped. I’m looking forward the academic side of my course and the collaborative element, but also moving to London.”

Reflecting on the impact of the pandemic on his year group, Raife said: “We kept calm and carried on through Covid and got used to the switching between physical and virtual school. For us it wasn’t as challenging as you might think as we simply got used to it, it was our normal and the support was there regardless of being in school or online.”

Summing up the feeling of saying goodbye to friends and time at school Raife said:

“Today is a blur of joy and celebration punctuated niche memories of times hanging out with friends eating jollof rice, being in the common room.

As we move on I would like to thank my teachers, especially my music teachers and my English teachers for their guidance and teaching.”

ANNA’S SINGING HER SUCCESS

With her A Level grades secured, soprano Anna leaves Caterham to start at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. “I’m very excited about my course and looking forward to exploring opera, jazz, classical and choral. I joined at the start of Lower Sixth so I’ve only been here for two years but in the relatively short time I’ve been here I’ve made a lot of close friends and really enjoyed being taught by my teachers – it’s been a great experience.”

In her two years at Caterham, Anna has made an impact with performances in concerts and a leading role in the school’s production of My Fair Lady which Anna cites as a highlight: “It was amazing to be a part of the show and to welcome live productions back. A big shout out to my teachers Mrs Fahey, Miss Guttner, Mrs Richards and my friends. We will all stay in contact without doubt.

Does Anna have any advice for those joining Caterham in the Sixth Form?

“Just know that there’s no need to stress out at all. Within the first two days I felt at home, everyone is so welcoming and encouraging and the school really does care about everyone. It will all be great!”

91% of grades A* to B

CATERHAM IS CHEMISTRY FOR DIYA

Having joined Caterham for Sixth Form Diya has secured her grades to read Chemistry at the University of Surrey. Diya said: “I came to Caterham for Sixth Form and really enjoyed my time here. It was good to make new friends and the teachers helped so much even through virtual school. I got involved in life at school and joined Amnesty International and became the head of Junior Amnesty Club for younger pupils which was great to get off the ground.”

Reaching out to new Sixth Formers joining this September, Diya said:

“Just make as many friends as possible and know that your friends and your teachers will be your support system and they will be there for you and help you through the good times and the challenging times too.”

ROSIE’S OFF TO MEDICAL SCHOOL

Rosie is one of 8 Caterham pupils heading to medical school after results. “I’m very excited to begin medical school and to start my journey to becoming a doctor. I’m really looking forward to learning about all things medical, but also beginning university life in Manchester.”

“I was appointed president of Caterham’s Wright Medic Society which has been an incredible experience. It was such an honour

to be able to help younger pupils in their journey to medicine, and to help provide others the resources and support I’ve been given over the past 2 years, without which I may not have secured a place at medical school. I was also a frequent attendee of the MoncrieffJones Science Society club too, which has been an incredible resource for learning outside the specification of A level science.”

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Caterham – all of the teachers are amazing and the support we receive is just brilliant. It’s such a great community and I’m very sad to be leaving it, although I know I can stay connected through the alumni network.”

How does Rosie feel about saying goodbye to school life?:

“I’ll obviously really miss all my friends and getting to see everyone every day, as well as all the teachers. I’ll miss as well getting to play in the 1st netball team, although I am very excited to play again at University.”

ALL STAR GEORGE HEADS TO EDINBURGH

Moving from Hong Kong to the UK and starting a new boarding school in the middle of the pandemic was no challenge for George who gained four A*s in his A Levels. George’s stellar results see him on the move again – this time to read Geography and Economics at the University of Edinburgh.

“I am so happy today but I will miss the whole school, seeing everyone every day and the teachers. I’m going to miss living with my friends in boarding but I will still see them. I am sad to leave but it’s time to move on.”

George has been a big presence on the cricket and rugby fields at Caterham, as well as leading geography clubs.

Having joined boarding at Caterham in the Sixth Form, George had this advice for younger pupils:

“Just get stuck in as people are so friendly – you just need to be yourself. Make the most of the opportunities here –get involved in everything, clubs, sport, because if you don’t you’ll miss it and wish you’d done it.”

NATURAL MOVE TO DURHAM FOR IZZY

A stellar set of results (3 A* and an A) has secured Izzy’s place to read Natural Sciences at Durham. After joining Caterham in the Prep School Izzy will be moving to the other end of the country for her next step but will be staying in touch with her Caterham roots: “I’ve been at Caterham since nursery so I have so many memories of the place and the people – it’s been a great place to be and to grow up. I will always remember the very last week at school too which was so much fun.”

After so many happy years here, I’m looking forward to a new place, new experiences but I will miss the people. I’ll miss lessons and lacrosse too which has been a great balance to academic work. Mr Todd has been amazing and helped me get that A* grade in Further Maths. Mr Quinton too – all my teachers have been amazing.

TIRENI IS BUILDING HER FUTURE

Talented Tireni has secured her place to read Architecture at University of the Arts London, and fulfil a long-held dream. Tireni said: “Architecture has been the career I’ve wanted from a young age. I remember in primary school I wrote in our leavers book that I wanted to become an architect, and now seven years later what I’ve wanted is finally within my grasp. I’m looking forward to what university has in store for me. Ultimately, architecture is the main goal for me and seeing how each step is getting me closer to that dream is really exciting!”

“The whole school journey is a once in a lifetime experience. I think I’ll miss the atmosphere, the Sixth Form common room and laughing continually with my friends. I’ll also miss my teachers for their incredible support and I truly appreciate what they’ve done.”

“My time at Caterham has meant a lot to me, seven years of my life were spent in this school so it’s been a key part of my journey. The school helped me grow as a person; I’ve discovered a lot of my strengths, I’ve built resilience and tenacity, the school has helped me learn and develop skills for the future, and for that I am really grateful.”

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT FOR EMMA

Having secured A* in Maths and A grades in Further Maths, Chemistry and Physics, Emma’s set for take off to read Aeronautics and Astronautics at University of Southampton.

“I’ve always naturally gone down the STEM route and enjoyed those subjects so the choice of engineering was straightforward. I completed a project on aeroplanes and that got me really into that particular area. My ambition is to be an aeronautics engineer.”

Does Emma have advice for younger girls and boys looking towards STEM subjects?

“Just stick with what you like – if you love maths and physics don’t ever drop it even if your friends are doing other subjects or into other areas. If you love a subject, then it’s what you need to do. You can be that person, you can be the person that people look up to and make waves in STEM.”

Her future may be in the air, but Emma sites experiences on the ground as having a positive impact on her time at Caterham: “Combined Cadet Force has been one of the best things I’ve ever done at school and I ultimately became company Sergeant Major in the Army section. It’s helped with my confidence, my leadership skills. It helped me so much as a person.”

The average grade profile for a Caterhamian

48% of grades are 9

2022 BRINGS BEST EVER GCSE RESULTS FOR CATERHAMIANS

All records have been broken at Caterham with the highest ever GCSE results achieved in the school’s history. 90 per cent of all grades awarded are the top 9,8 and 7 grades (previously A/A*) and almost three quarters of all 2022’s grades are a grade 9 or 8 (A*). The average grade achieved by Caterham pupil is a grade 8 (A*) across 10 GCSEs – 11% of the year group achieved all grade 9s across all their subjects.

The school’s top results are reflected across all subjects. Almost 90 per cent of grades in maths and the sciences are the highest grades 8 and 9. 87 per cent of grades in English are the top grades 8 and 9. Caterham’s strength in STEM subjects also shone through in Computer Science where two thirds of grades were the top grade 9. The Latin department also saw top results with three quarters of all grades the top grade 9.

Headmaster, Ceri Jones, said: “Today is a true celebration for all of us at Caterham. This is a fantastic year group who have shown ability across so many areas of school life. Their record-breaking performance this summer after two years of uncertainty demonstrates what talented and tenacious young people they are. Behind them and their success is, of course, their teachers and families whose support across two years of switching between physical and virtual school provided the constant they deserve and needed.”

“I am thrilled for them as individuals and also for what this stellar set of grades enables as they move on to the Sixth Form. I am also delighted for the whole school community and our ever-growing academic prowess. Our focus is to ensure that pupils enjoy school, that they feel they belong and have fun, that they work hard and play hard. I am delighted that this approach continues to see our young people achieve their full potential and thrive at school.”

ENGLAND SPORTS STAR MEGAN CELEBRATES HOME WIN!

As a member of the England U20 squad, Megan has travelled across the globe for her sport but this week she celebrated top GCSE results at home.

Said Megan: “I am so relieved getting my results and I am delighted that they replicate the work I put into them. It is such a rewarding feeling knowing the effort I have put in and that it has

paid off. Getting the results has allowed me to recognise how happy I am with them and myself for trying my best.”

“My biggest achievement with lacrosse is winning the U20 home internationals with my team. I love lacrosse for so many reasons but I would say that the thrill and excitement it gives when we win or even train is just the best and doing it with your friends just makes it so much better. I love how it provides a break from my studies and gives an outlet. Lacrosse has taken me so many places such as Edinburgh for home internationals, USA to watch and play alongside the world championships and pretty much all over England for tournaments, matches and training. I am soon to travel to Prague with England lacrosse. I play for Caterham first team, Cougars lacrosse club and the U19 England National academy.“

Megan is also an accomplished musician. “I am currently working towards my grade 7 on the tenor horn which has allowed me to play in concerts, bands and festivals!

At Caterham I have been involved in house music, brass ensemble, concert band, sinfonia and scholars ensemble. I would say my highlight would be the tour to Belgium with concert band and the Piccadilly concerts in London second to that. I love that music gives me a break from school and sport and has allowed me to meet so many amazing people and great friends.”

“Caterham also offered lots of opportunities for dance which I participated in such as mad live, dance crews and plays. Netball has always been another sport in my life which I have absolutely loved, alongside athletics and will continue to participate in. I also really enjoyed being part of CCF and the camps. I did my bronze and silver DofE which I really enjoyed and have made lots of great memories.”

Megan joined Caterham from Oakhyrst Grange Prep School into the First Year. Progressing into the Sixth Form at Caterham in September Megan will be studying Chemistry, PE, Music and Drama at A Level.

PHILIP’S SET THE SCORE

Philip collected his GCSE results before diving straight into an orchestral rehearsal and a concert the very same evening. His score of eight 9s, two 8s and a 7 across 11 subjects set him up for a positive performance.

Reflecting on his achievements, Philip said: “I feel a sense of accomplishment and proficiency as I look back on the journey to get here. I also feel extreme gratitude to everyone that helped me along the way. My teachers are always passionate to answer all questions fired at them, often extending beyond the syllabus. My peers setting such a high standard and enthusiastic environment.”

Philip’s next step is to study Music, Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Physics at A Level in the Sixth Form: “I chose this selection to unlock gateways aligned with my passions. From a very young age, I have looked up to mad scientists and genius inventors both fictional and historical. From Lucius Fox to Brian Cox I always gazed in awe at their discoveries and creations. The double maths, physics and chemistry combination allows pathways from Engineering to

FROM COURAGEOUS COASTEERING TO ENVELOPE OPENING

Adventurous Candice returned from a Combined Cadet Force summer camp just in time to open her results envelope and reveal a string of grade 9s and 8s at GCSEs. Having rapidly switched from ‘Coasteering’ (which includes cliff jumping and canoeing) on the CCF Camp, to receiving her exam results, we wanted to know which was more nerve-racking: “Definitely opening the exam results was more scary! Coasteering was exhilarating and great fun with friends achieving things you wouldn’t otherwise do. I

have never done anything like that before and I loved it.”

But any results nerves were clearly not necessary as Candice secured top grades across her subjects. Candice said: “I am so happy today and very pleased with my results. I want to thank my teachers, literally every teacher was on it all the time. A big shout out to Mr Salem in History! Part of my success is also how much my parents have supported me to be successful –I am grateful for that.”

Medicine. My pursuit in Music is well known, not only to friends, but others who have seen me play in concert and rehearsal.”

Philip is one of Caterham’s leading musicians: “People at school immediately know me for the violin. Very quickly I moved up to the First Chair (leader) of the prep school orchestra. While I was in the Prep school, I was introduced to the top orchestra of the senior, which I then attended every week in my later years at Prep. When I finally joined the Senior School, I was already in the top orchestra, (which was has also been a pleasure to lead) welcomed into the senior

strings, close harmony choir and my favourite, the Scholars Ensemble.

“Without my teacher and my parents’ persistent encouragement I would not have achieved anything close to where I am today. I am now the same standard as my teacher, so now I have lessons with a member of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The music department at Caterham have arranged masterclasses with Chloë Hanslip and members of the Vienna Philharmonic. All have been valuable in building up the techniques I use; it is second nature.”

NATIONAL SWIMMER CAIDEN MAKES A SPLASH WITH ALL 9s!

Talented sportsman Caiden is celebrating a sweep of grades 9s secured across all 10 of his GCSE subjects. Caiden said: “I’m really pleased. As these were the first exams for a couple of years, I was unsure how this would affect my result.”

Caiden joined Caterham from New Beacon Prep School in Kent and will now progress to Caterham’s Sixth Form where he will study Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Geography and Chemistry at A Level.

As a high achieving sportsman, Caiden qualified for the winter nationals for the 2021/22 season. He took a pause from the Summer Nationals to sit his GCSE exams but is aiming to return to the Summer Nationals in 2023.

Caiden is dyslexic and is a firm believer that being dyslexic doesn’t stop you from doing well in exams. His results, and indeed his hard work towards them, is surely proof of that.

Congratulations to Sophie whose results envelope was bursting with no less than twelve Grade 9s at GCSE!

Celebrating her top results, Sophie said: “I am honestly so happy and relieved! It’s been a long (and anxious) wait, so I’m glad to have my results so I can finally chill out! I’m so grateful to all of my teachers for their support and enthusiasm.”

Despite sitting 12 examinations, Sophie has also taken full part in clubs and activities at school: “I attend a variety of clubs, including Spanish Conversation Club, which is really fun; I also attend Scholarship Society, History Enrichment, Lit Soc and Cryptic Crossword Club, all of which I really enjoy.”

Sophie joined Caterham in the First Year from Oakhyrst Grange School. Sophie now moves into the Sixth Form where she will study Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry, Spanish and English Literature.

A DOZEN GRADE 9s FOR SOPHIE!

WHERE OUR STUDENTS GO ON TO STUDY

UNIVERSITY DESTINATIONS AND COURSES 2022

Our focus at Caterham is to support our young people to the course and university about which they are passionate, and which best supports and enables their ambitions. The below table details the destinations of our 2022 leavers, the number of pupils moving on to the university and the range of courses secured.

UK & GLOBAL DESTINATIONS FOR CATERHAMIANS

UK & GLOBAL DESTINATIONS FOR CATERHAMIANS

Set against a challenging national picture for university admissions in 2022, Caterham’s leavers opened doors of opportunity with grades and preferred

courses secured.

their first-choice

85

per cent

of Caterham’s leaving Upper Sixth Form secured

university and course, and 95 per cent achieved the university

destination of their choice.

Set against a challenging national picture for university admissions in 2022, Caterham’s leavers opened doors of opportunity with grades and preferred courses secured. 85 per cent of Caterham’s leaving Upper Sixth Form secured their first-choice university and course, and 95 per cent achieved the university destination of their choice.

The places secured reflect the high ambition of Caterham pupils and the evolving picture of higher education choices. Alongside the traditional top UK university choices, including Oxbridge and Russell Group universities, Caterham pupils are increasingly choosing and securing places at overseas universities. This year Caterhamians progressed to New York, Boston, Chicago, Toronto and Hong Kong. Degree apprenticeship continued to grow in popularity in 2022 and recent years seeing leavers securing places at AIG, Grant Thornton, BP and EY.

The places secured reflect the high ambition of Caterham pupils and the evolving picture of higher education choices. Alongside the traditional top UK university choices, including Oxbridge and Russell Group universities, Caterham pupils are increasingly choosing and securing places at

overseas universities. This year Caterhamians progressed to New York, Boston, Chicago, Toronto and Hong Kong. Degree apprenticeship continue to grow in popularity with 2022 and recent year seeing leavers securing places at AIG, Grant Thornton, BP and EY.

Caterham has a long-established tradition of preparing young people for medicine, dentistry and veterinary science courses and in 2022 eight pupils successfully secured their places. Pupils aiming for these highly competitive courses gain extra support and extension through the school’s prestigious Wright Society and the wider science-focused Moncrieff-Jones Society.

Caterham has a long-established tradition of preparing young people for medicine, dentistry and veterinary science courses and in 2022 eight pupils successfully secured their places. Pupils aiming for these highly competitive courses gain extra support and extension through the school’s prestigious Wright Society and the wider science focused Moncrieff-Jones Society.

CaterhamConnected & Parents’ Association

The Lord Lieutenant of Surrey recognises PA support for RBWA

Caterham School Parents’ Association were delighted to be nominated for and to receive the certificate of recognition from Michael More-Molyneux, Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Surrey.

The certificate was presented in September when Emily Nichols and Sam Kensey, Chair of the PA, visited one of the shelters and to meet Charlotte Kneer, Deputy Lieutenant and Chief Executive RBWA, and see the life changing work that the charity does for women and their children escaping domestic violence. Last year, when applications to the shelter increased by 150% the

PA were delighted to be able to provide funding to help the newly housed families settle into their new lives by providing them with the household basics including duvets, pillows and personal hygiene items like toothpaste and soap. With the help of the school we were also able to provide some reconditioned laptops and tablets to enable children in the shelter to continue with their education online.

Thank you to everyone in the PA and the wider community who made this possible.

AN EVENING OF LAUGHTER & COMEDY

Our parents enjoyed a sell out Comedy Night on Saturday 25th September alongside their choice of takeaway dinner and chips. It was great to be back as a Parents’ Association hosting our first live event of the year. A massive thank you to everyone who helped organise the evening, the touring comedians who kept us entertained all night and Salisburys of Whyteleafe Fish and Chips who supplied supper.

FIREWORKS NIGHT 2021

What a wonderful evening!

children. A huge thanks to the whole CaterhamConnected community for making this happen.

A WIN for the OLD CATS

On Sunday 14 November, Home Field played host to the OCA Sports Afternoon with spectators enjoying the action over drinks. There was so much skill on the pitch from both the school and Old Cat teams and it was great to see so many players making a #laxcats impact at their unis!

Final score 14-6 to the OC.

Titch pitch played host to a fire lit family festival with Kat the Firedancer entertaining the crowd and the Parents’ Association ensuring everyone was amply fed and watered with mulled wine and local brewery beer, plus sweets and glow treats for the

Change and Climate

Insight EveningRoyal Academy of Engineering

The issues of Change and Climate were explored with an expert panel at the CaterhamConnected Insight Evening held at the Royal Academy of Engineering on Tuesday evening.

Global leaders in sustainability, psychology and change management shared their expertise and networked with Sixth Form pupils, parents and Old Caterhamians. The sell out evening was abuzz with conversations exploring positive examples of sustainability, why individuals, companies and whole societies resist change.

The evening was opened by keynote speaker Almuth McDowall, Professor of Organisational Psychology and an award winning researcher, who has recently been recognised for her work on the ‘always on culture’ by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development. Almuth combines an active career in academia with a portfolio of consultancy activities including consultancy with organisations who have enacted significant changes, including the Metropolitan Police and the NHS.

Almuth combines an active career in academia with a portfolio of consultancy activities including consultancy with organisations who have enacted significant changes, including the Metropolitan Police and the NHS.

Our panellists included: Dr Niall McCormack, Managing Director and Chief Executive of CausewayGT. Niall is the Chair of the Geothermal Association of Ireland, is on the Board of Renewable Energy Ireland, the Geothermal Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, and Vice Chair of the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geoscience.

Sixth Form Science OLD CAT SHARES EXPERIENCE

Old Cat Ben Brown Inspires...

On Monday 17 January, before returning to his aerospace engineering degree at the University of Bristol, former head boy Ben Brown OC revisited his old A Level haunts along the physics corridor to give two outstanding and inspirational talks to those looking to follow in his footsteps.

The first talk, on the uses and applications of fluid mechanics, was given to an enraptured Fifth Year scholars’ society and they discussed, among other things, the aerodynamics of COVID masks, the myth behind bumblebees breaking the laws of flight, and, of course, the lift generated in fast-moving planes and F1 cars. In the second more technical talk, given to 18 aspiring engineers and scientists at Lower Sixth Form physics extension, Ben discussed, with his usual energy and insightful delivery, the mathematics behind the generation of lift on aircraft wingsintroducing our audience to the world of vector calculus! The physics department are not only incredible grateful to Ben for giving time to talk to Caterham’s keen engineers but remain incredibly proud of his achievements which include securing a year-long industrial placement with Aston Martin F1 next year.

At the end of the term, we were honoured to host a returning Old Cat, Robyn Noble, and Katie Doyle to talk to A-Level biologists about Robyn’s experience having a liver transplant and about Katie’s research surrounding this area.

We were all fascinated by Robyn’s powerful story with all the complications along the way and seeing her now, standing in front of us presenting a talk with a transplanted organ. We all learnt so much including what autoimmune hepatitis and cirrhosis are, coming from someone who has experienced these first-hand. Especially for medics, the ethical dilemma surrounding organ donation was interesting to hear more about and how organs that aren’t suitable for transplants are used in research. Leading on from this, Katie took us on a whirlwind trip, delving into her work in research and her interest in the programming side of it - which was all engrossing to hear about.

CATERHAMCONNECTED WEBINAR FRIEND OR FOE?

On the evening of the 10 February, Caterham School welcomed Professor Robert Cook as part of the CaterhamConnected talks.

Thiswas a fascinating lecture on the role of the US government in the struggle for black civil rights. This involved aspects of the federal government, discrimination against non-white people, and the infamous Jim Crow laws, as well as the role and legacy of the American Civil War. The stunning similarities

of the past and the present outlined just how much more we all need to do for racial justice to be achieved and drew brilliant links between past, present and future. Many thanks to Mr Hosking and Dr Garber for organising the event and a huge thank you to Professor Cook for such an insightful presentation.

HOUSE REPORTS 2021-22

Caterham School’s Heads of House report on the year’s events....

BEECH HANGER MRS CLARE QUINTON, HEAD OF HOUSE

The term started for some of the girls in mid-August when they arrived back early to spend two weeks in Beech Hanger completing their quarantine before school got underway.

For some this was their very first experience of boarding and of the UK, so staff were on hand to make sure that everyone felt welcomed from the off. Soon the rest of the girls, new and old, arrived to fill the House and it was a relief to be able to allow everyone to meet each other across the year groups for the first time in a while. Covid restrictions were still very much in place, but the feel of the house was much more harmonious once again and as the year went on, we were able to introduce shopping trips to London, ice-skating in Guildford, Saturday night activities and a whole programme of activities over the exeat and half term weeks

when the House remained open for those unable to fly home or stay with Guardians. The girls enjoyed marking Remembrance by each making a tissue paper poppy which we crafted into a wreath for the Beech Hanger front door. Although we were unable to mark Christmas with our annual Boarders’ Carol Service the girls in Beech Hanger were so excited to be able to gift each other a ‘secret Santa’ present around our beautiful christmas tree, carefully sourced as always by the wonderful John Dodwell. All this could not have been possible without the huge support of my brilliant house team, Miss Gibbs, Miss Henry, Miss Quinton, Mrs B, Mrs Acharya & Mrs Gardner who ›

worked tirelessly to make our year in the House as fun and happy as possible. After Christmas the House events made a welcome comeback to the school calendar with the Boarders triumphing in no less than seven events. The Senior Lacrosse and Netball made all the more competitive and comical with the addition of the boys for the first time this year. The Beech Hanger girls redoubled their efforts to raise much needed funds for the Altevette School in Nepal and raised a staggering £900 with the ’12 Bridges Challenge’ – some walking, and others running, the 14km distance from Battersea to Tower Bridge. For the first time in two years the Upper Sixth and Fifth Year sat their public exams and were able to celebrate the

VINEY

end of their time at Caterham with celebrations and farewells. We also said goodbye to Miss Henry and Miss Quinton, so it was an

emotional end to the year as we packed up for the summer once again after a very successful year in Beech Hanger.

MR NICK MILLS, HEAD OF HOUSE

We were able to run an almost full programme of boarding trips and social events, while the return of House competition was also very welcome.

The year saw the welcome return of popular trips like paintballing and ice skating, as well as trips to the theatre, the cinema and to sporting

events. As always, the Viney boys took the House competition very seriously and were successful in most of the events they took part in. Their dominance in badminton, chess, athletics, basketball and swimming continued but they were also successful in a range of new events, not least the basketball players producing a spectacular performance in House netball.

I would also like to pay tribute to the departing Upper Sixth group. They have made a great contribution to school and boarding life over the past few years, with boys involved in all areas of school life. In addition to their great academic success, the boys have consistently shown themselves to be fantastically multi-talented and have been leading lights in rugby, music, innovation, debating, chess, the medics society, the Christian Union, basketball and just about every area of school life. Above all I am very grateful for their cheerful good humour and positive attitude in all boarding events and activities.

Perhaps the most significant departure from the house this year has been Mr Bovet-White who steps down as a boarding tutor after five years in post. He has made a huge contribution to the House with his relentless positivity and energy, and in driving the development of basketball within the school. I know the boys will miss him enormously.

The academic year 2021-22 saw a welcome return to normality after the restrictions the covid pandemic had placed on boarding life.

BEECH HANGER U6 LEAVERS 2022

UNDERWOOD

MRS PIPPA BURTENSHAW, HEAD OF HOUSE

The 2021-2022 school year has seen my first year as Head of Underwood. However, I have had a long-standing history within the House being a pupil here from 2006-2014.

It was such an honour taking over as Head of House, particularly at a time where House events were starting to get back up and running. This was a perfect time to re-inject the true House spirit that I knew Underwood had and encourage our newest members to enjoy the different House events and give everything a go to the best of their ability.

Over the course of the year, we have gradually seen the post covid events returning and our House spirit is ever growing. Whilst, House events have not been completely back in the full swing, the programme has adapted to make the most of getting together as a House and getting to know pupils in different year groups. We have had particular success in our summer House assembly activities, winning the Tug of War, as well as the Geography Challenge. These

events saw the Houses participate in ‘party games’ during their House assembly, to inject that competitive nature that we have all seen and love within our Houses. The spelling bee was another highlight of the year, narrowly losing to the boarders, with excellent effort shown by all who came and participated in one of the trickiest events.

I would like to thank all Underwood pupils who got involved in House events this year, we have sparked the energy back into the House system and the competitive nature of Underwood is once again on the rise. We have laid the

foundation of our building blocks to start bringing home the House cups once again!

Finally, I would like to thank our pupil Heads of House this year, Lara and Theo; they have truly shown great House spirit throughout their time at Caterham and were always prepared to step in at the last moment if there was a House event in need, as well as motivating our younger Underwoodians to participate in anything that they can. I would also like to thank our Deputy Head of House, Miss Troughton, for all of her efforts in helping the running of the House. GO UNDERWOOD!

We have had particular success in our summer House assembly activities, winning the Tug of War, as well as the Geography Challenge

NEWINGTON

MR NEIL PARKER, HEAD OF HOUSE

When I took out the spreadsheet to see how Newington had done in this year’s House competitions I was delighted to see that we had the highest number of points (and by quite some way – 15 more than the second nearest House).

For about quarter of an hour I envisaged the various ways I could let Newington know that our long wait for silverware was finally over. I was going to give a rousing, Churchillian oration about how, in the face of all obstacles that the last 18 months had given us, we had emerged wiser, stronger and with a greater sense of who we were and what we stood for. Sadly, those joyous moments were short lived when another Head of House joyously explained to me that the House with the lowest number of points would be the winner and as Newington had the highest points that meant…

Yet I still believe, as a House, Newington came back to school post COVID wiser, stronger and with a determination to forge a House spirit as it had never been forged before (forged as in creating something strong and successful rather than an

illegal copy). We started with two excellent pupil Heads of House: Emma K and Ollie V A. Both Emma and Ollie took real joy in helping create teams and urging turn out. Their peers followed their lead and the Upper Sixth were unstinting in their enthusiasm and support for House events. The mixed netball, lacrosse and hockey senior competition was a joy to watch as we fielded a full team for each event with humour and

spirit (if not with success). The highlight for me and the epitome of the Upper Sixth’s determination to make House events work was in House drama. Firstly, I am sure few will forget Fenton P’s rendition of Juliet’s balcony scene – looking fabulous in skirt and blonde wig, and secondly Ferdy C’s masterful improvisation to run the clock down after every single other member of the cast had completely forgotten what to do or say next.

There were a couple of successes on the sporting front. The Second Year won the House rugby and the House hockey. The talent and ambition in that year group bodes well for the future. Equally the Fourth Year boys put on an incredible show of athleticism and leadership to ensure a very successful Sports Day.

It is quite daunting to see the list of House events that have taken place. The fact that Newington was always able to field a full team is an achievement in itself and evidence of the value that the students place in this type of activity. So as the year came to an end I was left reflecting what would I rather: a group of wonderful pupils who pulled together in a vast array of House events over the year with spirit and humour or would I prefer to win. Well, the answer is both obviously, but if I can only have one I will take my group of Newingtonians every time.

...as a House, Newington came back to school post COVID wiser, stronger and with a determination to forge a House spirit as it had never been forged before

HARESTONE

DR ROBERT SOLTYSIAK, HEAD OF HOUSE

Finally returning to the Sports Hall for Whole School Assemblies couldn’t have come at a better time for Harestone.

It was great to have the whole school present to give rapturous applause as they won the overall house cup for the year! A really fantastic way to celebrate the attitude of house that worked hard and turned out dedicated teams for every house event.

On a sadder note, Miss Walters is bowing out of Harestone as well as the school as she moves onto better things and bigger pastoral roles elsewhere. We wish to thank her for her years of service to the house, leading from the front with enthusiasm and a truly diligent way of chasing students to sign up for teams – I have some massive shoes to fill this year. She couldn’t have done it without the exemplary help of the two heads of house; Poppy and Josh both

set a great example to the other Harestonians, showing great house spirit and competing excellently for the house all year.

The ‘do it for the house’ attitude that Miss Walters fostered will allow us to continue our successes this year. It was great to see that the success of the house was built on consistently performing well across all manner of events, with students showing their prowess in many areas building multiple second and third placed events with the patience of the proverbial Aesopian tortoise, to finally take the crown.

That is not to say that there weren’t glorious victories along the way – the Fourth Year rugby team dominating the competition and the juniors out-manoeuvring their cunning opponents in the house

chess. Harestone also acted the part in house drama, clocking up their fifth (or is it sixth now?) victory in as many years. It helps to have the leading man of drama for the school in the director’s seat and giving an excellent monologue – a big thank you goes to Josh C for organising the triumph and all his efforts towards the winning streak. The Humphreys Theatre is clearly a successful spot for Harestone, as this year Phil and his musical crew got the crowd singing along all the way to a win in House Music – truly entertaining stuff from both events.

We wish a fond farewell and best of luck to all our Upper Sixth Formers as they move on and one last big thanks to Miss Walters for an excellent couple of years.

The Humphreys Theatre is clearly a successful spot for Harestone, as this year Phil and his musical crew got the crowd singing along all the way to a win in House Music – truly entertaining stuff from both events.

RIDGEFIELD MR R EVANS, HEAD OF RIDGEFIELD

Ridgefield’s Grand Green Forest Continues to Blossom in 2021-22.

As a Duke of Edinburgh expedition staff member and a keen hiker, I am acutely familiar with the first law of woodland walking: do not go woodland walking without a map. When I joined Ridgefield as Head of House in March 2022, having spent more than four glorious years with the burning red of Aldercombe, I was gifted with a Ridgefield map straight away, and I am having a marvellous time working with the House of the Grand Green Forest.

Since our House Assembly venue from 2021-22 was the library, my first assembly with Ridgefield was themed around Cluedo. We have since enjoyed assemblies featuring memory games, “guess the number” problems, a challenge in which everyone had to close their eyes and raise their hand within a sixty-second window (without being the first person to raise their hand), and a game in which each year group had to suggest a three-song playlist to represent Ridgefield. The winning year group in the playlist contest was the Third Year, whose musical selections told the story

of our House in spectacular style. Green Green Grass, Shake It Off, and We Will Rock You (the last of these being a Ridgefield anthem from 2019, thanks to our barnstorming House Song performance that July) are sure to grace many more of our events in the months ahead.

At the time of writing, the Third Year is also winning our Forestry Fortunes series of House Assembly competition games in the 2022-23 autumn term, but there is still a long way to go!

It has also been brilliant to welcome so many of our favourite House Events back this year. If I had to list all my highlights from the 2021-22 and 2022-23 event calendars, I would be here all day! However, I must give a massive shoutout to our House Drama team, as Millie T’s script and the team’s hilarious satire of careers education and the life of a teacher enabled us to win first place against lots of very high-quality opposition in the group performance round. I would also like to thank our House Tennis teams – you all played brilliantly, but beyond our court victories, that sunny Saturday morning in May will

always stand out as one of the most thoroughly sunny days that I have experienced at Caterham. The House spirit that day was stratospheric (and not just from Ridgefield), and I look forward to many more days like it. Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has played a part in making Ridgefield the evergreen forest that it is. Katie M and Elias D last year, and Will A and Katie D this year – thank you for your ambassadorship as Pupil Heads of House. Harriet and Jess L, and Luke and James S – thank you for your uncanny abilities to accidentally sabotage each other by guessing each other’s numbers in our “guess the number” games. Sophia Y, Abi P, Ava W, Ollie L, Will A, and Ms Stedman – thank you for throwing yourself into the iconic Bounce Off fundraising spectacle on Giving Day. Abbie W – thank you for composing Ridgefield’s new patriotic tagline. Mrs Mugridge, Miss Henry, and the rest of the Ridgefield staff team – thank you for all that you are continuing to do to promote and celebrate our House. Here’s to an excellent 2023! As we all say now, To Our Friends That Are Green, Let’s Go!

If I had to list all my highlights from the 2021-22 and 2022-23 event calendars, I would be here all day! .

For me, it is clear, that these qualities flow through all those that wear red. Every year I am truly blown aware by the House spirit, sheer determination and willingness to partake in the wide variety of House events. No matter the event (or weather in some cases) our pupils put in a performance that do the House proud. Moreover, it was wonderful to see our pupils compete in House events after a break, due to the pandemic, the last couple of years.

In terms of success, in what was a unique year with the gradual return of House events, the reds were victorious in-House cross country and House art whilst securing podium finishes in 12

ALDERCOMBE

MR ROBERT MUGRIDGE, HEAD OF ALDERCOMBE

other events throughout the year – an impressive showing! For me, when watching Aldercombe compete, it is very evident that we are all supportive of one another. Aldercombers represent the House with pride and show superb teamwork, great resilience and character no matter the event or how results were going. With the return of a full ‘normal’ House programme in September, I am already relishing the chance to notch up some more victories next year and hope we continue improve on our already impressive participation numbers!

Finally, I and the rest of Aldercombe would like to thank all the Upper Sixth leavers for all they have done for the House

over the years and wish them every success in the future as they depart Caterham. I personally would like to say a special thank you to Amelie G and Louie H-A who led the House with passion and enthusiasm throughout the year. You both have demonstrated a great deal of positive energy in your roles as student Head of Houses, which I am sure has had an impact on the younger years and their performances. I also would like to thank Mr Richard Evans, our out-going deputy head of House who fulfilled his role with good humour and a love of quizzes! He will be sorely missed as he takes up his new role as Head of Ridgefield. We wish him the best of luck.

“Passion, teamwork, community, determined, supportive, effort, united”. These were the responses from the House when asked what it means to be in Aldercombe.

No matter the event (or weather in some cases) our pupils put in a performance that do the House proud.

Memories

TOWNSEND

MR PHIL COMERFORD, HEAD OF HOUSE

The school year for a boarder is typically punctuated with memories that last a lifetime, the majority being from time spent with housemates, and rarely academic!

This year seen plenty of these little moments, where boys came together in great celebration of the house and all the wonderful people and achievements within it.

Sharing these little moments with others as a team, magnifies the glory beyond what could be done as a collection of individuals. This was most evident in the support for house hockey - every single boy, even those who were injured, all on the astro making sure every day house knew who they were competing against. In a similar fashion for touch rugby; speed, agility, and determination being most evident in some tense games producing a mighty third place!

There are some strengths we don’t need to promote, and this was evident when the fear among others was palpable for House mathematics. These strengths also often cause firm traditions within our House, such as boys clamouring for a spot on the inters table tennis team, to of course go forward to victory. However certain traditions are good to break also, such as viewing our most passionate performance in House Drama during my time at the helm. Or despite often feeling the odds are stacked against us, taking the top spot in the House Spelling Bee, causing huge celebration in assemblies. A fantastic contribution from the house for the Art

Competition, so much so I hope to see plenty more pieces from the boys to hang upon our walls. The variation of our successes this year just goes to prove the breadth of skill within the house and goes to show that I am justified in feeling stunned everyday at the various things our boys achieve.

As there is almost every year, we say goodbye to some staff, and the hiatus caused by the pandemic coming to an end means we said goodbye to many staff who stood firm throughout the storm. Mr Beeching and Miss Crouch have all given an incredible level of energy and enthusiasm to the house. But a special mention goes to my departing Assistant Housemaster, Ms Walters. The great ability to problem solve teenage issues, has been one which many boys will remember and be grateful for, and memories of her around the house will remain. Of course, this means we welcome new staff to the fold. The kind and caring nature of Mrs Deale, the energy and initiative of Mr Whitehouse, and the master of all trades Mr Jones are all very welcome additions to the team who will make lasting memories with the boys I’m sure.

that last a lifetime...

LEWISHAM MR DARYL TODD Lewisham hold on to house trophy

After the challenging ‘Covid’ period, House events finally got going again this year with a reduced programme. Amazingly, we managed to come top of the points table again, thanks to a group of talented and loyal Lewisham pupils spanning all years within the senior school.

It is impossible to mention all who have contributed to our success but let us start with our Debating Team led by the charismatic Caius who dominated the competition from start to finish with razor sharp analysis and wit. Our musicians performed to their usual stellar standards with Anna D winning the singing competition, Ellie S reaching the podium on cello and Sam B singing beautifully in our Ensemble. Paige G and again Anna D won the Drama (duologue) with a rendition of ‘West End’ standards, and the talented Will C performed a fantastic monologue.

In Sport, our Upper Sixth boys

were again dominant in House Hockey and Athletics. Fraser B, Skyler B, Cam M and Will S have been the ‘powerhouse’ of Lewisham for over six years. They were ably supported by Aaron ‘the bolt’ H who continues to break school records in sprint events. Our girls swim teams continue to excel, led by the amazing Ava K and Sam C. Ethan K provides the boys’ success in the pool, again breaking school records.

Our youngsters continue to gain in confidence. Dan T and Adam W have shown loyalty and dedication across many events, and our group of Inters Girls have been our most

consistent performers in every sport, taking us to the top of the House points table. Isla C, Kayla A, Karlijn R and the Hunter twins continue to lead by example. This group, together with the multitalented Jenny L and Molly S, will be essential to our future success.

My thanks go to Elena A and Reuben A for leading the House this year, and to Head Girl, Ananya S for her loyal support. The strength and commitment of their particular year group has been quintessential to our success over recent years, and I am so grateful for their massive contribution to Lewisham House. Thank you.

The strength and commitment of their particular year group has been quintessential to our success over recent years, and I am so grateful for their massive contribution to Lewisham House.

HOUSE EVENTS 2021-2022

RETURN OF HOUSE COMPETITIONS

Mr Todd has been running the ever popular inter house badminton after school and, so far, the junior girls, junior boys and senior boys have played. As ever there was a very wide range of abilities on show from those pupils who demonstrated some fearsome talent with racket and shuttlecock to those for whom it was the first time on the court. Of course, it is this very mix of experience that makes house competition what it is: unpredictable and great fun. Wonderfully, pupils showed that house spirit is just as strong as ever it was before lockdown and our new

AS EVER THERE WAS A VERY WIDE RANGE OF ABILITIES ON SHOW FROM THOSE PUPILS WHO DEMONSTRATED SOME FEARSOME TALENT.

pupils all entered into the matches with the right mix of healthy competition and a sense of fun.

Congratulations to the Boarders, Aldercombe and Harestone for winning the Senior Boys, Junior Boys and Junior Girls respectively. Huge thanks to Mr Todd as well for running such a popular event.

Spirits are HIGH

House events were back in full swing again with the junior and senior table tennis competition.

House table tennis has always been a hugely popular event and the number of participants battling it out with bat and ping pong ball means the House spirit on show is high octane and high volume!

The skill levels on show are mixed; but the enjoyment felt by novices and seasoned professionals alike is obvious for all to see. A huge thank you to Mr Stamper for his titanic feat of organising a House event that has 12 pupils from each House for each age group. In the juniors Aldercombe and Lewisham were victorious in the boys’ and girls’ competitions respectively - but the true winner was definitely House Spirit!

It has been a delight to see house competitions back in action after the enforced absence of this hugely important area of school life..

A Taste of SPORTING RIVALRY

The last week of the Autumn Term saw a large number of house events taking place and with it the good natured, but razor sharp, rivalry that make the house competition such a fundamental part of Caterham School.

Inter-house netball on Saturday saw a very tightly fought tournament with Aldercombe victorious, but only beating Lewisham on goal difference. There was also the return of House Swimming after a two year break and the girls were in the pool first. Harestone won the Senior competition with Lewisham picking up both the inter and junior elements. Of particular note, Mr Perfect highlighted the following: Ava K (Lewisham) set a new House Record in the Senior 50m Breaststroke. Lewisham Juniors set a new House Record in the Medley Relay (Mia K, Sophie S, Hannah K & Lucy L)

The boys’ competition followed and despite pre-match nerves from Mr Mills, the boarders continued

their winning streak in the senior competition. Harestone won the Inters and tied with Ridgefield for the Junior number one spot. Mr Perfect’s performances of note were: Caiden H (Underwood) set a new House Record in the Senior 50m Backstroke, Jae C (Ridgefield) set a new House Record in the Senior 50m Butterfly, Ethan K (Lewisham) set a new House Record in the Inters 25m Breaststroke and Jack W (Underwood) set a new House Record in the Inters 25m Freestyle.

A big thanks to all the staff who made these events happen and a big thanks to the pupils whose efforts and performances make house events the success they always are.

HOUSE MATHS Nail Biting Number Cruncher

An exciting and challenging competition, all the pupils got really into it, and did very well for themselves.

The first round was a simple list of questions that could be approached in any order. The boarders secured an early lead here with Lewisham and Aldercombe hot on their heels.

The second round was a shuttle round where each team was split into pairs with the answer from one pair’s question allowing the other pair to tackle their question. Bonuses were awarded for speedy answers here so the pressure was on, especially in the second shuttle which proved to be much more challenging. At the end of this round the boarders were still in the lead but Harestone shot forward

to overtake Aldercombe and Lewisham.

The third round was more open-ended. Each team was given a cross number to solve. One pair was given the across clues and one was given the down clues and they had to work together (with minimal communication) to solve the whole thing.

When the dust had settled, the boarders had held on to their lead with Lewisham and Harestone tied for second place. Well done to everybody that took part and many thanks to the Sixth Form helpers. Many thanks to Dr Kemp for taking on the running of this very popular event.

CATS on the move TANZANIA REACHED!

A massive thank you to everyone who ran, walked, cycled or whatever you did to clock up the KMs to get us the distance from Surrey’s Harestone Valley to our partner school Lerang’wa in Tanzania. We reached the Challenge 2 finish line just in time for Giving Day unlocking funding for Lerang’wa Lunches from the Parents’ Association. The House winning with the ‘most KMs’ in the challenge is ALDERCOMBE and the winning Prep House is VIEWPOINT - well done everyone! The final furlong is here - it’s the total number of KMs from Jan to the end for the ultimate winners of the 2022 trophy.

HOUSE MUSIC Harestone crowned champions for 2022

HOUSE MUSIC

Each house was required to present a solo instrumentalist, solo vocalist and an ensemble performance.

There were some superb performances all round, and it was great to see pupils get involved and have a lot of fun. The guest adjudicator this year was one of our fantastic Visiting Music Teachers; Rosanna Moon (double bass/bass guitar). Rosanna plays for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and is also a jazz musician; we were incredibly pleased to welcome a musician of such calibre to offer her feedback and comments.

In the solo instrumentalist class, Annie L (Third Year) won First Prize for the Boarders with her beautiful performance of Chopin’s Waltz in C# minor on the piano. The Second Place Prize was won by Harestone’s Jessica C (Second Year) with her lyrical performance of Salut D’Amour, Elgar. Third Place was won by Newington’s Alex M’s (Lower Sixth) expressive and detailed performance of Brahms’ Intermezzo No. 2 in Bb minor. Special mention must go to Underwood’s Jack B (Fifth Year) who stepped in to perform just a few minutes before the start of the competition.

The solo vocal class included some quite sublime performances. The winning entry, Lewisham’s Anna D (Lower Sixth) who performed So Big, So Small, from the musical, Dear Evan Hansen; this was a jaw-dropping performance and was quite simply, stunning! Harestone’s Sophia M (Lower Sixth) bagged second place with her stylish interpretation of Amy Winehouse’s song, Love is a Losing Game. Third place was awarded to Anna P (Upper Sixth) with her expressive and lyrical performance of Crouch’s Kathleen Mavourneen.

The ensemble class brought much entertainment for everyone and there was a general air of enjoyment, fun and comradeship. First place was awarded to Ridgefield’s performance of You Will Be Found from the musical Dear Even Hansen; they had some outstanding harmonies, superb togetherness and rapport. Second place was awarded to Lewisham for their performance of Fix You, Coldplay. Special mention must go to Samuel B (Second Year) for

stepping up at the eleventh hour to perform a wonderful solo with excellent accuracy and projection. Third place was awarded to the Boarders for their wonderful trio performance of Shostakovich’s Prelude and Gavotte from Five Pieces.

The Music Department Prize is a new award in the competition which does not award any marks, but is recognition of a pupil who has really impressed the music staff in the competition. This year it was jointly awarded to two pupils for stepping in at the last minute; Alice H (Fifth Year) and Jack B (Fifth Year).

Special mention must go to Philip M (Fifth Year) for his energetic percussion performance and his attempts to encourage audience participation in Harestone’s ensemble as well as Ferdy C’s (Upper Sixth) exuberant piano accompaniment for the Newington ensemble.

The final standings of the competition were incredibly close, with just two points separating first to fourth place. Harestone were crowned the winners this year with runners up being Lewisham with third place shared between The Boarders and Ridgefield.

Congratulations to all participants and a huge thank you to all of the Heads of Houses and Assistant Heads of Houses for their hard work in putting together rehearsals and pupils to perform.

WAS ONCE AGAIN A LIVELY AND CLOSE-FOUGHT COMPETITION WITH PUPILS FROM ALL AGE GROUPS PARTICIPATING AND SUPPORTING.

...this was a jaw-dropping performance and quite simply, stunning!

HOUSE BOUNCE OFF WHAT A BLAST!

Caterham’s first ever House Bounce Off was an epic hit with ear-to-ear grins on the faces of competitors and those assembled to cheer on their house.

As CCF cadets marshalled the house teams there was a sense of nervous anticipation. At stake for the houses was a chance to prove their mettle against the Headmaster’s All Star Staff Team – drawing from Caterham’s brightest inflatable tackling talent.

The Houses set to their challenge admist deafening cheers, each pupil charging through the course with varying degrees of elegance and prowess. Aldercombe took the crown and then took on the all star staff team, which was book ended by Joneses – Mr Michael Jones first out and Mr Ceri Jones bringing the staff side home. A closely fought race was won by Aldercombe – but the true winners were the Giving Day causes and the fun had by all who witnessed it, young and not so young.

HOUSE DRAMA

The House Drama competition returned and we enjoyed two hours of entertainment that ranged from the weird and wacky to some thought-provoking and impressive performances.

Over the course of three rounds (Monologues, Duologues and Group Pieces) each House responded to the theme of ‘Identity’. We started with Monologues and these (very brave) solo performers gave us characters including Loki and Goldilocks. Daisy C for Underwood won First Prize for this round with her hilarious rendition of ‘Mobile Madness’.

Next up were the Duologues including performances across all the year groups. To mention but a few, Namratha D and Gia A of First Year (Ridgefield) gave us an excerpt from Wuthering Heights, Olivia A and Benji C of Fifth Year (Harestone) performed the hilarious tale of a babysitter and the five year old from hell, whilst Amelie D and Liv S performed a touching piece from Colder than Here demonstrating a brilliant sense of nuance and emotion. The winners of this round were Anna D and Paige G (Lewisham) who performed snippets from the movie Mean Girls with real confidence, a sense of character and flare. Finally we came to the Group Pieces. Each House was asked to devise a new scene (no longer than 5 minutes) around the theme of Identity. Ridgefield performed a scene called ‘I want to be

a…’ with some very believable primary school characters; Aldercombe created a comedy sketch about a group of passengers having their flights cancelled; Harestone devised an elaborate tale in which our own Mr Jones assigned Mr Gabriele the secret mission of discovering which Head of House had stolen the House Budget, which was very funny; Lewisham delivered some top-notch satire in the form of a very believable Boris Johnson in the House of Commons; Newington took us on the journey of a fresh-faced First Year dis-covering all about Caterham School; Underwood presented a scene about forbidden love between vampires and werewolves;

and the united Boarders Houses blew us all away with a striking, emotional piece about being trapped in your own identity. Ridgefield won the Group Round, a testament to their hard work and many rehearsals in the weeks prior. Points were awarded each round for coming First, Second and Third as well as bonus points for the amount of participants in each House. We were really impressed that so many pupils got involved in House Drama this year and hope we have even more next time round!

The overall winners this year were Harestone, who did consistently well in each round with some powerful performances – as well as a brilliant Group Piece that got lots of their House members involved.

Congratulations Harestone!

Senior House

CHESS

The chess players (many of whom had never taken part in House Chess before) headed up to B1 at the start of lunchtime, ready to sort themselves into Houses and decide who would be playing at which boards.

Mr Quinton introduced chess as being the ultimate game of strategy and the only game in the world that is 0% luck (both of which are great reasons why everyone should play this timeless game), and then The Draw was held, which decided who would be playing whom in the first round. I hyped this up as much as I could, as befits a decisive lottery, and the players took their places in B3 once the match-ups had been decided (and after they had picked up their lunches; we are very grateful to the catering team for providing these for us).

Playing with five minutes per player per game, and under the touch-and-move rule (which has been the downfall of many overly hasty chess players in the past), everyone rose to the occasion and produced some thrilling battles. Some contestants won their games because their opponents ran out of time, but others won with brilliant checkmates, including one interesting checkmate on square f7 with a white bishop supported by a knight. This left Newington,

In December 2019, Senior House Chess was a thrilling wintry event. On 10 May 2022, it returned to the Caterham calendar for the first time since that chilly day, and the summery mood made for a very welcome and very exciting return.

Aldercombe, Harestone and the Boarders facing off for the top four places in the competition.

In some very tightly-fought semi-finals, Harestone narrowly defeated Aldercombe, while the Boarders saw off Newington, setting up the third place playoff and final. The Boarders maintained their reputation as the Caterham chess champions, but Harestone superbly won the marquee “Board

One” match in the final, with Will (Upper Sixth) storming to a hard-won victory – apparently unbothered by all the spectators that this match had acquired! Meanwhile, Aldercombe narrowly took third place. Mr Quinton and I would like to thank all the players for taking the opportunity to spend their lunchtimes demonstrating the power of chess and the indomitability (a great adjective that will be familiar to many Doctor Who fans) of our House spirit. Thanks are also due to Mr Jones (English Dept), Ms Drummond, and the Heads of House, for their stirring encouragement for the players. Here’s to an excellent year ahead in Caterham chess.

Results of the HOUSE EVENTS 2021-2022

As we emerged from the pandemic, whilst it was still not possible to complete all of our accustomed house competitions, a great number took place. Winners are listed below and the results were analysed to determine the winners of an overall House Cup for 2022 who were Lewisham and Harestone

EVENT WINNING HOUSE

Spelling bee Boarders

Inters Table Tennis (Boys) Boarders

Inters Table Tennis (Girls)

House Art Comp

Senior HouseDebating

House CrossCountry

House Lacrosse (Seniors)

House Lacrosse (Inters)

Lewisham

Aldercombe

Lewisham

Aldercombe

Lewisham

Lewisham

Senior Netball Boarders

Maths Boarders

House Hockey (Juniors)

House Hockey (Inters)

House Hockey (Seniors)

House Rugby (First Year)

House Rugby (Second Year)

House Rugby (Fourth Year)

House Music

Senior House Rounders (Upper Sixth)

House Rounders (Fourth Year)

House Drama

Senior Girls Tennis

Inters Tennis

Newington

Ridgefield

Lewisham

Ridgefield

Newington

Harestone

Ridgefield

Newington

Ridgefield

Harestone

Ridgefield

Ridgefield

Senior Chess Boarders

Inters Chess Boarders

Junior Chess Harestone

Senior Athletics Boarders

Geography Challenge

Sausage Slalom (Second Year)

Tug of War

Tug of War (First Year)

Bucket Bonanza

Underwood

Lewisham

Underwood

Lewisham

Lewisham

BOARDING LIFE

12 BRIDGES WALK

by Elisabeth Gibbs

Saturday 8 May was perfect for Beech Hanger’s long-awaited 12 Bridges sponsored jog/walk to raise money for the Altevette Project which provides boarding education for girls in Upper Mustang high up in the Himalayas.

Our happy band arrived at Battersea Bridge to begin the 15km course, criss-crossing the Thames at each bridge, enjoying the sun, sights and cooling breezes.

The joggers set off at a pace ... while the walkers, although not meandering, chose a slightly less exhausting speed, taking in the sights as they went.

The joggers arrived at the final iconic destination first, to enjoy a well-deserved ice cream ... followed a little while later by the walkers.

The total amount raised was an astounding £911 - way beyond our wildest dreams.

A heartfelt and authentic ‘Thank You’ to all who took part and to all who sponsored this wonderful group.

THORPE PARK Boarders for the Rides

ON SUNDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER, THE FIRST BOARDING TRIP IN OVER EIGHTEEN MONTHS TOOK PLACE WHERE ALL YEAR GROUPS WERE INVITED TO SHARE THE SAME EXPERIENCE TOGETHER. WITH A HEARTY BREAKFAST, HOPEFULLY NOT TO BE SEEN AGAIN, WE ALL SET OUT TO THORPE PARK FOR AN ADRENALINE AND SCREAM FILLED DAY.

The bus filled with conversations about who would dare the tallest, the fastest or the scariest rides made the drive pass quickly. The arrival into the park built anticipation, quickly met with the awesome tower of Stealth looming above our heads; the screams of people being accelerated from 0-80mph in less than two seconds generating both nausea and excitement. Those who braved Jigsaw’s fear inducing rollercoaster emerged proud to have survived and dared those behind to follow their footsteps. All had a great day; especially the staff who found the early morning rain and lack of a queue made a great excuse to ride the Tidal wave, not once, but twice! Although perhaps not enjoying shoes squelching back to the midday meet-up point…

The biggest shock of the day was surprisingly not located within the Darren Brown Ghost Train, nor the unexpected loops of Colossus, but actually on checking the register for the journey back to school and discovering we had recruited a new boarder - a stuffed polar bear so large he needed two seats, and a clever seat belt arrangement to get him safely home. The basketball fans of Fourth Year had clearly been making good use of Thorpe Park’s willingness to give prizes for clean hoops. Rumour has it that they might have now changed the policy…

Boarders’ Concert LIVE STREAMED

The Boarders’ Concert celebrated the outstanding musical talent on offer within the school boarding community and was live streamed to parents who attended the concert online from far and wide. This allowed parents, who cannot usually attend events, to feel part of a fantastic school event and to hear their children performing live in our beautiful Wilberforce Hall.

The concert began with a passionate performance of Doppler’s Andante and Shostakovich’s 5 Pieces for Two Violins and Piano from the Watt Piano Trio. There was variety in mood throughout as well as a natural togetherness. The trio consists of Natalie W (Lower Sixth Form) on the violin, Franchesca C (Fourth Year) on the piano and Alice H (Fifth Year) playing the flute.

Annie L (Third Year) played Massenet’s Meditation on the violin with lyricism and delicacy. Moreover, she performed the entirety of the piece from memory. Zandile-Monique A-N (Fifth Year) gave a spirited performance of Keech’s Scherzo Rondoso; she managed to capture the rhythmic character of the piece wonderfully.

Rodney L (Third Year) took to the stage with his vibrant and virtuosic performance of Schubert’s demanding Impromptu in Eb minor, Op. 90, No. 2. We were delighted to see a debut performance from the Wan Trio, consisting of Violet W (Fourth Year) on the Oboe, Sophia L (Lower Sixth Form) on the flute and Rodney L (Third Year) on the piano. Their performance of Telemann’s Affectuoso was

Their musical prowess was demonstrated in the Spring Concert when musicians in the boarding community cam together to form a magnificent orchestra.

sensitive and they managed to capture the melancholy and reflective atmosphere of the piece excellently.

Franchesca C (Fourth Year) gave a refined and stylish pianistic performance of Chaminade’s Scena da Balletto. This was followed by Natalie W (Lower Sixth Form) giving a beautiful performance of Williams’ heartbreaking film hit, Schindler’s List. Lisa H (Fifth Year) gave a colourful performance of Debussy’s Reflets dans l’eau managing to capture all of the tonal nuances throughout the piece.

There was another debut performance, this time for the Violin Quartet, consisting of Leo L, Natalie W, Luke Yuan (Lower Sixth Form) and Adrian Hui (Fourth Year). They gave a superb performance

of Telemann’s Concerto for 4 Violins, No. 1. All four movements were superb and they managed to capture the solemnness of the slow movement, whilst navigating through the hustle and bustle of the fugal movements.

Jerry N (Upper Sixth Form) gave a lyrical and dramatic performance of Grieg’s Piano Sonata (first movement). He managed to capture the dexterous and dramatic sections as well as the lyrical sections.

The concert concluded with a superb performance of Brahms’ Cello Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38 (first movement). His rich and warm sound filled Wilberforce and the drama, emotion and passion that this piece demands was brilliantly portrayed through Marcus K’s (Fifth Year) wonderful performance.

Congratulations go to all performers of this concert – it truly was a celebration of their musical brilliance and their commitment to music at the school. Their musical prowess was demonstrated in the Spring Concert when musicians in the boarding community came together to form a magnificent orchestra.

Mr Tristan Hall, Head of Academic Music

INDIVIDUAL PUPIL SUCCESS

Music Festival FIRST PLACE

Congratulations go to First Year pupil Yu-in for her recent amazing achievements which include being awarded first place in the Baroque Class (10-12 years) for her Scarletti Sonata piano performance at the Coulsdon and Purley Festival.

She was also awarded the Baroque cup for all age groups, including 16 years and over. Yu-in is a music scholar who exemplifies true passion and dedication for music. Despite only joining the school in September, Yu-in has made valuable contributions to various ensembles and as a soloist. She is both a wonderful pianist and cellist and we look forward to seeing her achieve yet more accolades and prizes in the future.

National Classics Competition SUCCESS FOR PIA!

Pia in Fifth Year, a highly talented and enthusiastic Latinist, has been chosen among a small handful of runners-up for a national Classics prize.

The competition, run by the Antigone Journal, asked entrants to compose “Emails to the Ancients”: polite, witty and fanciful notes to figures of ancient mythology, literature or history. Pia decided to write to the emperor Nero as an outraged member of the IOC, chastising him savagely for his controversial participation of the Olympic Games in AD 67. His victories, secured in no small part by bribery and intimidation, were annulled soon after his death, but Pia wanted to tell the emperor directly that his conduct breached

the Olympic code and would not be tolerated.

To be chosen by an illustrious judging panel, which included Cambridge don and TV regular Prof Dame Mary Beard, as a runner-up in the U18 category despite being only 15 years old is a great honour and a testament to Pia’s devotion to all things classical. She has since taken her research further, writing a superb independent research prize essay on Nero’s use of games and spectacle. Well done, Pia!

MATHEW OWEN SENIOR ENRICHMENT TUTOR

LANCASTER WRITING AWARD Second in Criticism Category

CONGRATULATIONS TO HOLLY GC who has come second in the Criticism category of the national Lancaster Writing Award. This award seeks to celebrate emerging literary talent in Sixth Form pupils across the UK and the judges on the award were particularly impressed by Holly’s entry. In honour of her award, Holly won a £50 Amazon book voucher.

CONNIE WINS!

A huge congratulations to Connie M who was announced as the winner of the English Speaking Union’s Performing Shakespeare Competition at The Globe Theatre on Friday 26 June. After winning the Regional Final in May, Connie faced 18 other very talented finalists from around the country in an amazing final held at The Globe before being announced as the winner for her depiction of the duplicitous Lady Macbeth which was praised by the judges as ‘an extremely mature performance of a very complex character’. This is an outstanding achievement which Connie should be very proud of.

STANDING OVATION for Performing Arts Offers

A magnificent crop of offers to conservatoires and leading performing arts schools has been secured by Caterham’s talented Upper Sixth Form pupils. The offers recognise the pupils’ outstanding talent and ability across music, drama and dance.

CONGRATULATIONS TO:

Raife N who has received unconditional offers from Guildhall, Royal Academy, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Royal Northern as well as a scholarship offer from Birmingham Conservatoire for his principal study of Composition.

Amelie D who has received an unconditional offer from the Emil Dale Performing Arts Academy to study Musical Theatre. Amelie was one of just 48 out of 3000 applicants to receive an offer in a highly competitive round.

Jerry N who has received an unconditional offer from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for principal study of Piano.

Anna P who has secured an unconditional offer from Trinity Laban with her principal study of voice. Anna is currently preparing for a second round audition for The Royal Welsh College of Music in addition to an audition for the Royal Academy of Music.

Good luck also to Millie Thomas and Josh Campbell who are both currently in in application for drama at Guildhall and Bristol Old Vic.

Ceri Jones, Headmaster, commented:

“In any year this success would be remarkable but in 2021 it demonstrates not only the ability, progression and potential of our talented young people but also

their resilience. Despite the myriad challenges brought by Covid, the continuation of performing arts throughout virtual and physical school has ensured our young people can succeed in their chosen path.”

PERFORMING SHAKESPEARE Regional WINNER!

Congratulations to Rosie B, Abi P and Connie M for their incredible performances at the English Speaking Union’s Performing Shakespeare Regional Final held at Notre Dame School. Having been selected to go into the regional final from an internal competition at school, the girls competed against 22 other pupils from local schools and the standard was exceptionally high.

After a workshop, all three girls impressed the judges with their engaging, mature and accomplished performances of scenes from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (Rosie and Abi) and ‘Macbeth’ (Connie). The girls also had to perform an oracy component explaining their choice of scene and

character and any contextual information that they found particularly interesting. All the pupils were praised for their understanding of their plays and we thoroughly enjoyed watching the other performances. After a 35 minute interval for the judges to deliberate and give general feedback, Connie was announced

the winner of this heat; a magnificent achievement considering the standard. Connie will now go through to the Grand Final at The Globe itself on 24 June. The girls were wonderfully supportive and encouraging of each other and they should all be congratulated.

Outstanding Competition Success for Paige

Over the summer holidays Paige G (Upper Sixth) received the exciting news that her essay in the Theology category of the John Locke Institute 2022 Global Essay Competition has made the shortlist.

As a result, she was invited to Oxford to attend the awards ceremony and gala dinner. For this essay, she considered whether one can be a Christian, without believing in the miraculous resurrection of Jesus? Following this great achievement, she was also awarded a £100 prize as the first-runner up in the Keble College Oxford Theology Essay competition. In this essay Paige examined the extent to which the Council of Chalcedon can be described as a failure. Both of these individual accolades are outstanding, however to have been awarded such success in both is a truly fantastic achievement: Congratulations Paige!

ART AND TECHNOLOGY

SIXTH FORM INSPIRATIONAL ART TRIP

Over the Easter holiday the Lower Sixth Fine Artists, Photography and Fashion pupils went on a three day residential research trip to the Manchester and Liverpool Art Galleries.

It was a jam packed programme of art gallery research for their 3000 word visual essay to be written in the summer term. The galleries visited included the marvellous Manchester City Art Gallery which has taken a contemporary approach to the curating of the collection. We also took in the street art of Manchester and got the pupils drawing and thinking creatively about their surroundings with Hockney style ‘joiners’ and recording their surroundings in response to each of their bespoke lines of enquiry.

We had glorious weather and the pupils had a chance to consider the University campus at Manchester as they think ahead to UCAS applications.

A LEVEL ART...

TIRENI

BY TAMSIN A

GCSE ART

BY HAILEY C

BY YOYO Z BY YOYO Z

A LEVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

BY JOSH C BY LILY D

BY LAURA S BY JOSH C

T E X T I L E S

BY KATHRYN B, A LEVEL

BY LOLA M, GCSE

BY JAMES W, GCSE

BY JAMES W, GCSE

Design & Technology

September started as it always does with the lower school enjoying practical projects as well as learning new technologies. A particular hit among the First Year was the ‘Mini Succulent Planter’ which introduced pupils to the world of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and 3D printing. Pupils were tasked with design and making a 3D printed succulent holder based upon an architectural style of their choice.

September also saw the launch of a department rebrand. 3D was replaced with Design and Technology and our 3D GCSE course concluded this summer with a range of successful outcomes.

Fourth Year pupils undertaking GCSE D&T transitioned from lower school into GCSE with ease. D&T teaches pupils how to take risks and so become more resourceful, innovative, enterprising, and

capable. Pupils develop a critical understanding of the impact of design and technology on daily life and the wider world. Additionally, it provides excellent opportunities for pupils to develop and apply value judgements of an aesthetic, economic, moral, social, and technical nature both in their own designing, making and when evaluating the work of others.

Earlier this year, our legacy GCSE 3D Fifth Year pupils

began undertaking their final 3D coursework component. Although much of their time on the course was undertaken during Covid, pupils had worked hard upon returning to school to grasp the opportunity of hands-on practical time. The Fifth Years were our last group of pupils to undertake 3D GCSE and produced a superb body of work.

Other successful projects included learning about Origami and making structures to bridge gaps and withstand the most weight. First Years worked hard

to undertake these challenges and produced some interesting outcomes. Second Years undertook a wide variety of activities within their Edge lessons, undertaken in D&T. The ‘marshmallow challenge’ in particular was hugely enjoyed. Third Years were tasked with design and making an item of Jewellery, both using the Lostwax method and Autodesk (3D professional CAD) software. Much of the work produced was superb and demonstrated pupils’ ability to think differently when undertaking new challenges.

GCSE and A level pupils continued to work hard over the duration of lock down and ensured their subsequent coursework was of the highest standard. The quality of submissions this year, really was superb and demonstrated a demanding level of concept and finish.

I’d like to thank all the pupils which worked hard to engage with their lessons. Outcomes overall were truly excellent and demonstrated an exceptional level of perseverance in challenging times.

SIMON TAYLOR

DANIEL B, GCSE, LIGHT

SKYLER B, A LEVEL

HAMISH F, GCSE, LAMP

FERDY C, A LEVEL

TIA S, GCSE, MIRROR SEB Q, GCSE, LAMP

Pupils develop a critical understanding of the impact of design and technology on daily life and the wider world.

ARTS WEEK

The First Years took part in a morning of creating virtual street artworks that could be used around the school site to raise awareness of issues important to them. They were clever in their use of imagery and the positioning of it to make their points.

Well done to all who took part and for your creative suggestions.

Just some of the amazing suggestions, posters, labels and meadow Blue Heart texts from one of our Environmental & Eco activities in Arts Week for First, Second, Third and Fourth Year pupils. As many of these designs as possible will be used around the school in our new meadow areas, in the concourse recycling hub zone and in all classrooms. Thank you to all those individuals and groups who submitted their work.

ARTS WEEK

Tuesday of Arts Week saw the Third Years walking the red carpet for the Third Year Film Festival. The morning started with breakfast pastries, film quizzes and a selfie booth, with Third Years dressed up in their finest finery!

The morning also saw the year group meandering around the school site on a Movie Poster Scavenger Hunt. Groups had to recreate famous movie posters, with prizes for the winning team. There were some very creative and intricate entries.

The whole year group then descended on the Humphreys to watch films made by their peers earlier in the year. As part of a Film Studies Unit in the Spring Term, Third Year Drama pupils created films in three different genres: Film Noir, Silent Film and Horror. The festival showcased these fantastic productions, with awards presented at the end in a variety of categories. It was a fantastic event, much enjoyed by all.

Congratulations to all the winners!

BEST STORY: The MisunderstandingCharlie S

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Heritage - Finley C

BEST EDITING: The Misadventures of LarryFelix J

BEST PERFORMER: Isabelle C for ‘A Matter of Life and Death’

BEST FILM NOIR: Heritage

BEST SILENT FILM: The Wrong Bag

BEST HORROR: The Tragedy

BEST PICTURE: A Matter of Life and Death

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD: A Matter of Life and Death

BEST SILENT FILM

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

BEST PERFORMER

BEST STORY

BEST EDITING

BEST FILM NOIR

BEST PICTURE

MADLive

MADlive made its comeback after three years away. It was an absolute joy to once again witness the singing and dancing talents of so many of our pupils, performing everything from Stevie Wonder to Billie Eilish. Additions this year included two catwalks showcasing our wonderful fashion and textiles pupils, a brilliant set from our Fourth Year band, Lost Ambition, and an astonishing acoustic performance of original music from Cameron H (U6). Every track from start to finish was outstanding, and everyone involved is to be hugely congratulated on a wonderful evening of live music and dance.

ARTS WEEK Celebrations

WHAT A FANTASTIC END TO THE TERM AND YEAR WE HAD WITH ARTS WEEK, OPENING UP A MYRIAD OF EXPERIENCES AND FUN FOR OUR PUPILS. Throughout the week pupils participated in and experienced a range of activities including a day’s film making with the One Day Film School, a workshop on Fake News, with guest speakers Stephen Colegrave and Louise D’Costa, the Third Year Film Festival, and performances from the poet Luke Wright (who came to us following his appearance at the Glastonbury Festival). Workshops led by the RAP foundation, as well as some focusing on “The Power of Street Art” and “Creating a Welcoming World” have provoked thought and discussion; there has been work on Environmental Awareness and pupils have created poems. The cookery workshops saw pupils learning to make hummus and flatbreads; other activities on offer included a trading simulation and a film talk and viewing. The Lower Sixth welcomed guest speakers and took time to undertake some focused work on the UCAS process. A busy and vibrant week to end the school year.

BIOLOGY OLYMPIAD

BIOLOGY OLYMPIAD WINNERS

It consists of two 45-minute online multiple-choice papers, taken under exam conditions, with questions ranging from the evolution of mammals and gel electrophoresis to the Krebs Cycle and the Hardy-Weinberg Principle.

The 24 pupils who took part in the competition this year consists of the top Biologists of our Upper Sixth cohort and passionate scientists alike. There were a recordbreaking 18 medals, with 3 bronzes, 7 silvers and 8 golds - the most gold medals a year group has ever

achieved in the history of Caterham Biology. Achieving a Gold places Rosie H, Alex M, Michael W, Jason C, Brandon K, Rainis C, Ruby C, and Gleb I amongst the top 8% of all candidates who took part in the Olympiad nationwide. Silver medals went to Izzy O, Bobby B, Fleur, Perlie T, Ivan Liu, Ollie van A, Mariella A and Bronze medals to Katie T, Jeremy C, Sharon GK

A particular highlight was the outstanding L6 Alex M who took the Olympiad with the U6th and achieved a Gold Medal.

Just before their summer exams began a group of Lower Sixth Form pupils took part in the Biology Olympiad organised by the Royal Society of Biology.

We are proud to finish the term on a high with the following winning medals:

Chelsea C Gold

Anya L Gold

Elliot M Gold

Sophia L Silver

Isabel S Silver

Natalie W Silver

Marcus C Bronze

Anastasia S Bronze

Biologists Conquer Camber

During the morning, the pupils climbed through the dunes to the sea buckthorn, learning about the stages of succession from marram grass right the way through to oak woodland. The enthusiastic biology teachers provided pupils with an interactive learning experience by suggesting they lie on the sand to feel the marram grass (where primary succession was occurring)

and then walking through to where secondary succession was occuring. The pupils saw biology in action first-hand – especially when a handful of pupils were crawling through sea buckthorn!

During the afternoon, pupils used sampling techniques to observe the change in percentage cover of different species from the start of the dunes moving inland. To finish the day everyone enjoyed some

refreshing ice-cream on the beach. Overall, the day brought not only learning about succession, but also a chance to observe the changes brought about by abiotic and biotic factors. On top of the learning, there was laughter when mischievous seagulls stole bags of crisps and even had the audacity to lunge for Mr Quinton’s sandwich!

HOLLY COOK

Based on the A-level syllabus and built to push budding Biologists even further, the Biology Olympiad challenges and stimulates pupils with an interest in biology to expand and extend their talents.

What an enjoyable day the A-level biologists had on their trip to the famous Camber Sands on Wednesday 29 June.

SCIENCE Snippets Prize

Triumphant Win for O-Teen!

Amassive congratulations to Lower Sixth physicist O-Teen K who saw off tough competition to win the ‘Science Snippets’ science communication prize this week. Tasked with explaining his chosen topic of aerodynamics to his target audience of GCSE-level students, O-Teen deftly curated a presentation which was both informative and fun, leaning on examples such as the Magnus effect’s use in scoring the perfect penalty to the complex aerodynamics of F1 cars. Competing against finalists from across the country including Tonbridge School and Eton College, O-Teen’s ability to both academically impress without bamboozling the audience and making what is a notoriously perplexing topic accessible definitely sets him apart as a superb communicator of science. O-Teen received his first place prize from Sir Jim Smith of the Francis Crick institute.

Lower Sixth Focus on CELLULAR BIOLOGY

Ten pupils from Lower Sixth went to Southampton Univeristy for an exciting, biology filled day!

The day consisted of both a cellular biology workshop (where the students looked at different protoctists under a light microscope) and a neurology workshop. In the latter, students monitored fellow pupils’ heart rates, sweat production from their fingers and read electrophysiological signals by attaching electrodes to the wrists and skin conductance sensors on the fingers. Before jumping into the activities, we learnt a brief introduction to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system as well as the theory of Endosymbiosis.

A particular highlight of mine was using the skin conductance test

(sweat production monitor) in a bid to ascertain whether someone was lying! Monitoring each other’s heart rate was also thrilling when different photos were shown to each other to try to evoke a response, including scary, funny and cute photographs. Furthermore, I was fascinated to look at Cholera under a microscope and observe it moving around using its two flagella as well as the spherical Volvoxand we even identified a colony of Volvox!

Overall, everyone had an amazing time and it was a valuable experience for anyone thinking of a career in the biology field.

HOLLY C/LOWER SIXTH

LOWER SIXTH PHYSICISTS VISIT Imperial

College

This Tuesday saw 14 of Caterham’s keenest physicists take a trip to Imperial College, London to listen to Professor Andrew Tolley’s talk on the topic of ‘Cosmology and Dark Energy’.

Once re-energised on litres of luminous milkshake and Japanese cuisine courtesy of Kensington’s finest eateries, our Lower Sixth Form pupils settled in to learn about how our understanding of gravity has changed the way we perceive our universe, its history and even the fundamental notions of reality. Starting with Newton’s Law of Gravitation (taught in Upper Sixth A-Level), we enjoyed a whistle-stop tour of Einstein’s General Relativity, learning about how the curvature of spacetime gives us an alternative, kinematic

description of gravity, one which suggests that gravity isn’t a force at all. These turn-of-the-centuries ideas alongside experimental data on the redshifting of galactic light led to the notion of an expanding universe. This expansion necessitates scientists to seek out an ‘anti-gravity’ component to the laws of cosmology to allow the universe to expand at its accelerated rate. The competing theories behind this are nuanced and complex, but there is no outright winner - it is a mystery yet to be solved - perhaps Prof. Tolley will have inspired one of our pupils to tackle the question head on!

SENIOR PHYSICS CHALLENGE

March saw the return of the Lower Sixth Form Senior Physics Challenge in its written form.

Thirteen pupils across Lower Sixth and Fifth Year opted to sit the competition, answering challenging problems on a range of topics from particle accelerators to radiation. Alex M, Thomas C, Luke Y, Catherine C, Anson C and O-Teen K all received Gold medals, with Alex M achieving an outstanding 90 per cent! Helen Y and Tiffany K, both Fifth Year pupils, also received Bronze medals despite not having

undertaken any A Level Physics, ably tackling questions on the mechanics of non-uniform beams and manometer pressures. Achieving a medal in such a competition is a feat to be proud of, but our medals in Fifth Year show that Caterham spirit and tenacity to keep pushing beyond the specification and getting stuck into exciting but difficult problems.

SENIOR ONLINE CHALLENGE

ONLY THE VERY BEST MEDALS WERE AWARD TO THIS YEAR’S ENTRANTS TO THE SENIOR PHYSICS ONLINE CHALLENGE OPEN TO ALL LOWER SIXTH PUPILS NATIONWIDE.

Acompetition requiring the participants to answer timepressured and fiendishly complex questions on a whole host of topics from electrical circuits to astronomy posed no problem to our nine brave volunteers. Anson, O-Teen & Kelly achieved gold medals, as did Thomas who places his gold certificate alongside his amazing gold-medal performance in the 2021 Physics Olympiad. Silver medals were handed out to Tony, Catherine, Paramita, Elliot and Joshua securing a position in the top half of the 4700 pupils who took part.

BRITISH PHYSICS OLYMPIAD

In November 2021, 19 pupils volunteered to participate in the British Physics Olympiad competition hosted by the University of Oxford.

Nearly doubling the medal haul from last year, this year’s participants secured a simply outstanding number of medals; 2 Golds, 4 Silvers and 9 Bronzes. Ruby C (Upper Sixth) and Thomas C (Lower Sixth) were awarded Gold medals placing them in the top 16% of the 2300+ participants nationwide. The competition is aimed at pupils in Upper Sixth Form, often requiring knowledge not discussed in class until that point, so Thomas’ Gold, the Silvers from Kelly H and Alex M (Lower Sixth), and Bronzes from Catherine C, Luke Y, O-Teen K & Anson C (Lower Sixth) are very impressive. A special mention must go to our Fifth Year participants too, especially Helen Y who secured a Bronze!

Junior Challenge 2022 BRITISH PHYSICS OLYMPIAD

Many congratulations to the 40 Third and Fourth Year pupils who participated in the British Physics Olympiad Junior Physics Challenge 2022. They achieved a bumper crop of awards, including 21 gold, 9 silver and 9 bronze awards. Over 10,000 pupils from 200 schools took part this year and we are particularly impressed by our Third Year pupils for tackling questions aimed at Fourth Year level. Special mention must go to Jason C in fourth Year for coming top of the Caterham entrants. Well done to all who took part.

MJS Science Society launches PREP SCHOOL COMPETITION

This summer term saw the launch of another link between the Caterham Prep and Caterham Science with what we hope will be an annual science competition run by the Senior School Moncrieff-Jones Society (the Sixth Form science society).

Upper Sixth Form President Isabel S and Vice President

O-Teen K visited the Prep School a few weeks ago setting them a challenge – the pupils’ task was to research a scientist or scientific discovery that changed the world and make a video talking about their findings.

We were stunned by the amazing quality of the videos, as well as the depth of scientific knowledge displayed. There was an impressive number of topics, ranging from Isaac Newton, x-rays, and blood circulation. Most entries exhibited all the qualities

we were seeking: creativity, focus, rigour, sophistication and presentation so it was intensively difficult for us to make the final decision.

The top prize was awarded to Elliot W, Year 5 (Climate Change

and Evolution). The 3 highly commended prizes went to Mia M, Year5 (The Molecular Structure of DNA), Alexander J, Year 5, Nikola Tesla, and Seb C, Year 6 (Fundamental Particles).

Finally, a big well done and thanks to everyone who entered. We look forward to hearing the achievements of all these incredible young scientists!

IZZY AND O-TEEN

FIRST YEAR HISTORIANS...

MASTER CASTLE BUILDER WRITES...

Our original task was to make a model of a Norman castle. It was an optional task, but there was a prize for best entry and it could be made out of anything.…

Rochester Castle is my nearest proper Norman castle so I chose that one as it’s good to do things you can see in real life. First of all, I visited Rochester Castle which gave me some inspiration to think about what else there was to it, not just the castle. So I included a motte and bailey in my model. The secret of the model was to use an upside down mixing bowl to create the motte, before covering it in grass. It wasn’t a smooth process, I was going to use polystyrene for the motte but that didn’t work out well, so I had to have a think. It was a great half term project and I really recommend trying it. What I did not think about was whether my castle would fit through the doors at school, as it ended up being quite big, but it survived the perilous journey to Mr Hosking’s classroom.

ROCHESTER CASTLE

Published Author!

Dr Ashley Garber of the Caterham School History Department is now a published author.

Renegotiating First World War Memory: The British and American Legions, 1938-1946 is a fascinating examination of the cognitive adaptation required by veterans of the Great War as they came to terms with the renewal of hostilities in 1939. This is Dr Garber’s first book and is available via Routledge.

Black History Month 2021

Proud to Be

Every October in the UK, we celebrate Black History Month. This month encourages us to develop greater awareness of Black British history and the huge, and sometimes unseen, contribution the black community makes to all our lives.

This year’s theme is Proud to Be

We recognise that the whole school community have a part to play in actively supporting others to feel valued, respected and celebrated, so our focus in assemblies this week has been Allyship. Pupils from our Voice for Change groups have been presenting assemblies and preparing resources to share throughout Black History Month.

SECOND YEAR HISTORY TRIP TO

SCIENCE MUSEUM

On Wednesday 22 June, 93 Second Year pupils piled aboard two coaches to participate in the history trip to the Science Museum in London.

Although at first sight an unusual destination for a history trip, it quickly emerged that the purpose was both to broaden the minds of pupils to form cross-curricular links and to consolidate and build on this terms study of the Industrial Revolution and the impact this had on Britain. After fighting through dreadful traffic, the Second Year emerged into the sunshine to spend an absorbing three hours rotating around the galleries of the museum trying to solve a scavenger hunt created by Mr Hosking and broken up in the middle with packed lunches in nearby Prince’s Gardens. Tired, but much better informed, the pupils climbed back aboard their buses for the return to school. Thank you to all of the staff for organising and coming on the trip.

TOUR OF LONDON HISTORIANS

After so many months of Covid restrictions, lateral flow tests, and various foreseen and unforeseen barriers, it came as something of a relief to embark on something so seemingly ordinary as a Lower Sixth trip to London.

Mr. Hosking’s concerns proved unfounded as all nineteen Lower Sixth historians made their way, independently or in small groups, to the front entrance of the British Library for a leisurely 10.00am start, successfully navigating ticket barriers, the streets of London, and minor confusion over the locations of the British Library vs. the British Museum. All proved worth it as we plunged into the world of fake news, misrepresentation, and the impact of media on past, present, and future societies as part of their exhibition on ‘Breaking the News.’ Historical gems such as the infamous 1924 Zinoviev Telegram, various 17th century pamphlets, and the notorious ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ jostled for space with more recent reporting such as Grenfell Tower, Black Lives Matter, and Covid-19. Pupils were given thought-provoking tasks to engage in such as how to fact check information presented, how to analyse sources of news, and how they might approach publication of material were they in a position to do so.

With much to ponder, the group headed back to London Bridge for a well-earned lunch at Borough Market and a break. Fully refreshed, we headed over London Bridge

for a walking tour of London led by Mr. Hosking, Mr. Salem, and Mr. Mills. Highlights included the story of Old London Bridge, the Monument, St. Paul’s and the Great Fire of London, then on to the London Stone, Fleet Street, Temple Church, and the Royal Courts of Justice. Many were keen to catch a glimpse of protagonists from the ongoing ‘Wagatha Christie’ case, but like the dozens of journalists gathered outside, were doomed to disappointment. From there, we proceeded to Admiralty Arch and Trafalgar Square with only

minimal complaining of being tired and needing water/coffee breaks, then down Whitehall to the Palace of Westminster for some final thoughts on democracy and the rule of law. Tour complete, we repaired to Hay’s Galleria for a well-earned coffee and lively discussion on the highlights and talking points of the day.

MR STEPHEN HOSKING, HEAD OF HISTORY

CLIO Prizes

Sophie wins INAUGRAL CLIO AWARD

At the end of the Autumn half term 2021, Mr Hosking, Head of History, presented Sophie H (Fifth Year) with the inaugural CLIO Prize.

The CLIO prize is awarded on a half-termly basis to a pupil who is deemed by the History Department to show exceptional promise within the field. Successful pupils are presented with a book and a certificate, which is intended to spark their curiosity and passion for the subject. Sophie was awarded the prize for a remarkable essay on the changing nature of Crime and Punishment in Britain 1000-1700 and for her leading role in a mock trial demonstrating the strengths and weaknesses of the Anglo-Saxon justice system. Her choice of prize, ’21 Lessons for the 21st Century,’ by ground-breaking Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, reflect her twin passions of history and the sciences, and is an excellent choice for any pupil with a curious and enquiring mind.

In December 2021 Holly B (Lower Sixth Form) was presented with the Senior CLIO Prize. Holly

was awarded the prize for her exceptional performance in the November exams, her participation in weekly history society seminars, and her winning entry into the Sheffield University Essay Competition. Her choice of prize, ‘A Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England,’ by Ian Mortimer, reflects her desire to consistently explore outside the boundaries of the A-level syllabus and to stretch and challenge herself intellectually at every opportunity. Holly is a most worthy recipient and terrific asset to the history department.

Max K (Fourth Year) was presented with the Junior CLIO

WINNERS

SENIOR:

Prize, similarly awarded to a Lower or Middle school pupil. Mr Wood commented, “Max has been an exemplary student of History this term, bringing his curiosity and sophisticated insights to the content in equal measure to his diligence.”

Max’s choice of ‘Fatherland,’ by Robert Harris, reflects his fascination with the period being studied (Germany, 1919-39) and his enthusiasm for getting under the skin of the time period in a way that few other authors can match. I hope he enjoys the book as much as I did and it further fuels his love of history.

BY MR. HOSKING, HEAD OF HISTORY

Holly B - Autumn Term 2021 who chose ‘A Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England’ by Ian Mortimer

Tyler S-H - Spring Term 2022 who chose ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Avery C - Spring Term 2022 who chose ‘Devil-Land’ by Clare Jackson

Nico W - Summer 2022 who chose ‘The Road to Unfreedom’ by Timothy Snyder

James B - Summer 2022 who chose ‘On Tyranny’ by Timothy Snyder

INTERMEDIATE:

Sophie H - Autumn Term 2021 who chose ‘21 Lessons for the 21st Century’ by Yuval Noah Harari

Max K - Autumn Term 2021 who chose ‘Fatherland’ by Robert Harris

Annie L - Spring Term 2022

Narayan M - Spring Term 2022 who chose ‘The Time Travellers Guide to Restoration England’ by Ian Mortimer

Leeane B - Summer 2022 who chose ‘Ashes of London’ by Andrew Taylor

Violet W - Summer 2022 who chose ‘Empireland’ by Sathnam Sanghera

JUNIOR:

Emma T - Spring Term 2022 who chose ‘The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers’ by Paul Kennedy

Ava P - Spring Term 2022 who chose ‘Ask a Historian’ by Greg Jenner

Jess C - Summer 2022 who chose ‘What If? Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been’ by Robert Cowley

Vivienne C - Summer 2022 who chose ‘Dissolution’ by C J Sansom

SOPHIE H AND MR HOSKING, HEAD OF HISTORY

HOLLY PRESENTED WITH SENIOR CLIO PRIZE

MAX K PRESENTED WITH JUNIOR CLIO PRIZE

GEOGRAPHY FIELD TRIPS RETURN

AND GCSE GEOGRAPHERS HEAD TO THE COAST

AFTER MORE THAN 18 MONTHS OF NO TRIPS, THE GCSE GEOGRAPHERS WERE BACK IN THE FIELD FOR A DAY ON THE COAST.

With the sun shining, the pupils visited Seaford and Cuckmere Haven to investigate the impact of longshore drift and wave action on beach profile and sediment size, as well as an analysis of the effectiveness of coastal management schemes. It was fantastic to be out in the field again and everyone worked brilliantly, collecting plenty of data to help with their investigations. There was even time for some very well earned ice creams!

WELCOME BACK ... ENSEMBLES, BANDS, CHOIRS AND ORCHESTRAS!

The music department was overwhelmed by the commitment from our pupils during the first week of the Autumn term. Returning from a long, covid-enforced break, the enthusiasm in our ensembles and choirs have been a shining light and something for us all to look forward to this term.

Choirs, brass ensembles, string orchestras, flute groups, wind orchestras and our new ‘cello ensemble have all been creating wonderful sounds throughout the music department and the Wilberforce Hall, and we are loving the sound of live music once more.

SINGERS IMPRESS IN THE COMMUNITY ST JOHN’S CHURCH, CATERHAM

St. John’s Church, Caterham was alive with the sound of music in an impressive display of vocal talent from Caterham School as part of their Open Heritage Day.

With everything covered from early Baroque to current Musical Theatre, visitors to the church were treated to a rolling performance of songs all delivered with style and confidence from our talented pupils. The informal recital ran throughout the afternoon and pupils gave impromptu and unrehearsed performances of demanding

repertoire showing such flair. Performances were given by: Bjorn McG, Will C, Hannah B, Ferdy C, Millie T, Sophia M, Alice H, Bella B and Anna D. Representing Caterham Prep School, Sophia A in Year 4. Members of St. John’s Church were keen to comment on the outstanding singing and the supportive nature demonstrated by all pupils, whatever their year group. Our participation was a wonderful way to show our appreciation of St. John’s Church who are always warm and hospitable to us when hosting concerts, rehearsals and recording sessions throughout the year. Well done to all performers on another musical triumph!

Autumn Concert

Triumph!’

The Autumn Concert saw the return of live, orchestral music at Caterham School - marked by performances by the magnificent Symphony Orchestra, which is comprised of all instrumental ensembles: Sinfonia, Wind Orchestra, Flute Ensemble, Boarders’ Ensemble, Drum/Percussion groups, Trumpet Ensemble and more...

Symphony Orchestra is all-inclusive and gives all of our instrumental musicians the opportunity to immerse themselves into large-scale orchestral works and perform with their peers.

The first item, Aladdin opened the evening with epic Broadway magic! Featuring classics such as Arabian Nights, Friend Like Me and A Whole New World. Sinfonia & Boarders’ Ensemble performed Stars from Les Misérables with Nico W (Lower Sixth) providing the vocals. This was a stunning performance with emotion and reflectiveness. This preceded Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz; Isabella B (Fifth Year) sang this beautiful Eva Cassidy version with elegance and sensitivity.

The String Orchestra performed Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music. This beautiful ballad was stunning and it was fantastic to see diploma standard string players performing with younger performers who have only been

playing for a number of months! The rich, warm sound created was testament to this great piece of music.

This was followed by three vocal performances from members of our Sixth Form. Anna D (Lower Sixth) performed the stunning

ballad Everything I know from In the Heights. This was quite simply, exceptional. Anna’s theatrical performances are always something to look forward to, and this one did not disappoint. Sophia M’s (Lower Sixth) rendition of I Will Always Love You from The Bodyguard was striking and demonstrated her accomplished technique and unique style, which shone through in this emotive and powerful song. Millie T (Upper Sixth) performed Don’t Rain

On My Parade from Funny Girl. This was an energetic and rapturous performance with precision – a jaw-dropping and very enjoyable performance.

The audience was then treated to two stunning songs from Bernstein’s masterpiece, West

It was an absolute delight to see such commitment and engagement from every single musician in this 130 piece strong orchestra.

Side Story with Sinfonia expertly accompanying. Kathryn B (Upper Sixth) sung the heart-breaking song, Somewhere which was followed by Ferdinand Clarke (Upper Sixth) performing the love song, Maria. Both performances were superb; demonstrating maturity and understanding of the style of music as well as singing with mastery and emotion.

The Wind Orchestra treated us to an arrangement of classics from The Lion King. This was phenomenal from the opening brass fanfare to flourishing flutes and rampant percussion throughout.

To end this fantastic evening, The Symphony Orchestra performed a medley of songs from The Greatest Showman. This was a superb way to round off a magical and stylish evening. It was an absolute delight to see such commitment and engagement from every single musician in this 130 piece strong orchestra.

Thanks must go to Mrs Penny Parker for her contributions on

the French Horn – as well as being Assistant Head of Mathematics, she is also a fine musician and a wonderful supporter of the Performing Arts Department. We would also like to give a special mention and thanks to Mr Brian Hill (Head of Instrumental Music) for his amazing arrangements for all of the pieces - his efforts in carefully preparing the scores enables every musician, whatever their standard

to participate in the exciting programme. Lastly, we must thank and congratulate all of the talented and hard-working musicians who performed on the night. They were, quite simply, outstanding and the standing ovation from the audience is testament to their achievements. Welcome back, and Bravo!

MR TRISTAN HALL, HEAD OF ACADEMIC MUSIC

... phenomenal from the opening brass fanfare to flourishing flutes and rampant percussion...

First Year Class Concerts Singers and Musicians Impress

DIRECTOR OF MUSIC

Class Concerts took place for all of the First Year forms and there was such an impressive array of talent shown by both instrumentalists and singers.

The concerts provide an informal setting that allows less confident performers to share their skills and passion with the rest of their form. And, as always, there were displays of hidden talents. In all cases, the support and encouragement shown by the classes was exemplary. Everything from Haydn to Metallica was covered over the course of the week and a huge array of instruments played including William J on the Double Bass, Shaily R on the Harp and

Tara S on the Cornet. A huge number of vocal performances included particularly impressive performances from Finley R, Florence S, Lilly W and Healey D. Many First Years are involved in the school’s ensembles and have been working hard on music for the upcoming Autumn Concert. It is always exciting to have First Years with such energy and enthusiasm for performing and particularly rewarding to see them develop into confident and accomplished performers.

Beautiful Musical Moments REMEMBRANCE SERVICE

Recognition must go to musicians and singers who took part in the Remembrance Service.

The musical elements bring poignancy and depth to this most important occasion and this year included the introduction of Bagpipes, played superbly by Dr Chris Sinclair. Coupled with the sound of the distant drums, the Hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ signalled the start of the service accompanied by the Wind Orchestra. The Wind Orchestra was honoured to accompany the 150 strong parade of cadets with a March by Holst. The fantastic Trumpet Fanfare performed the Last Post - the sound echoed hauntingly across Harestone Valley.

RECEPTION FOR LOCAL SCHOOLS

The Music Department proudly opened the doors this week to local primary and prep school Heads and Directors of Music.

The reception brings together a wonderful group of colleagues who can discuss a variety of musical aspects including the transition to senior school, music technology and joint musical ventures. We are always grateful to the efforts and inspiration of colleagues who nurture our new pupils and the reception allows us to thank them in person. Teachers are always delighted to hear about their ex-pupils’ musical achievements and we greatly enjoy sharing news of significant accomplishments with them. Representing the department were two of our very talented music scholars Ammara K and Jae C who joined us for the earlier part of the evening. A tour around the Performing Arts Centre including our recording studio impressed our guests as well as the sound of pupils practicing; an eclectic mix of everything from Vivaldi to folk songs on the accordion!

During the Service, Chamber Choir and ETS sing the moving anthem ‘Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep’ by Howard Goodall in a moving and expressive performance. The service was followed by the annual choral Recital of Reflection and Contemplation in the Wilberforce Hall. Pieces by Taverner, Tallis and Purcell were included in this most beautiful performance attended by parents, families and many Old Caterhamians.

MR. ADAM ASSEN,

First Year Concert

A MUSICAL TRIUMPH

Our First Year performed a fantastic concert full of variety and style. It demonstrated the sheer talent in this year group - instrumentalists and singers alike showed great confidence in their solo performances.

There were creative and original versions which included; Shaily R and Tara S performing Ed Sheeran’s ‘Perfect’ on harp and voice, James and Duncan M joining with their sister Connie M to perform a brilliant version of Eva Cassidy’s ‘Wade In The Water’, Lily W performing the dance hit ‘Symphony’ by Zara Larson with a staff band and Sophia Y and Charlotte E performing their acoustic version of ‘Riptide’ by Vance Joy.

Excellent classical performances were given by many pupils but a highlight must be Jaden T’s ‘Arabesque’ by Debussy. Many other performances were memorable and brilliant and included various songs from musical theatre, folk songs and pop songs. The whole year group gathered en masse to form a giant chorus and perform Survivor’s ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and ‘Counting Stars’ by One Republic. Congratulations must go to the Fourth Year band for accompanying these so wonderfully. Close Harmony (boys’ choir) should also be congratulated on their renditions of Charlie Puth’s ‘Attention’ and John Legend’s ‘All of Me’. This concert was a wonderful way to celebrate the fantastic music-making that has taking place in First Year. It is so exciting to know that we have such great musicianship in our lower school.

HAMPTON COURT

Evensong at Chapel Royal

Our Chamber Choir once again sang at the iconic Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace in an Evensong service that was uplifting and stirring.

Chamber Choir sang ‘The Magnificat’ and ‘Nunc Dimittis’ settings by Purcell and in the response settings by Byrd. The anthem ‘Litany To The Holy Spirit’ by Hurford was a particularly beautiful moment as well as ‘O Praise Ye The Lord’, a jubilant hymn with force and energy. Chapel Royal is a significant venue for choral musicboth Purcell and Byrd wrote for the chapel as far back as 1572. It was a wonderful experience for Chamber

Choir to perform in this inspiring setting and the congregation were keen to congratulate the choirs on their achievement. Hampton Court representatives expressed their admiration for our choir and commented on their professionalism as well as their singing. Our Chamber Choir continue to impress and all singers should be delighted and proud of their accomplishments.

MR ADAM ASSEN, DIRECTOR OF MUSIC

The Brass Ensemble were once again at the centre of events at the final CCF parade for the term.

They performed a rousing, stirring and faultless performance of Auld Lang Syne and The National Anthem in full majestic style together with the Drum Corps. With 200 cadets marching past, the special parade was made particularly poignant with the addition of the musicians performing. Thank you and well done to all musicians.

BRASS ENSEMBLE CONTINUE TO SHINE AT CCF

BRASS ENSEMBLE Supporting Local Festivities

Members of Caterham School’s Brass Ensemble performed to the Caterham community, bringing wonderful Christmas spirit to several care homes; performing for the local residents of Tupwood Gate, Cherry Lodge and Buxton Lodge before making their way to perform at the Annual Memory Tree Lighting Ceremony. For many residents in care homes, access to live music has been significantly limited over the past two years due to COVID-19 and the related restrictions. To witness how much live music and carols meant to these residents underpinned the true meaning of Christmas and we are immensely proud that our pupils have made such a positive and memorable impact on their lives.

Although it was a chilly evening, the musicians played brilliantly in the open air and were fine ambassadors for the school. The evening concluded with a vast audience of well over a hundred people at Memory Tree where the Brass Ensemble took prime position and performed before the official switching on of the lights. It was fantastic to see so many people of all ages enjoying the wonderful music.

We would like to thank our pupils for supporting the local community and we are immensely proud of their fantastic playing and positive spirit. Finally, we must extend our thanks to parents for braving the cold weather to support and chaperone their children from venue to venue.

Congratulations to all who participated.

MR. BRIAN HILL, HEAD OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

SCHOLARS’ CONCERT

The Scholars’ Concert was an impressive display of talent, style and great musicianship with an eclectic programme of music from Tellemann to Bizet and some Jazz classics.

All performers should be awarded huge praise for their outstanding performances which showed such confidence and poise. From First Year to Upper Sixth, each performance had something special about it and every piece had breathtaking moments as the performers took on challenging and demanding technical passages with flair.

There are highlights that must be featured; first years Alexander M (violin), Albert C (piano) and Shaily R (harp) made their debut performances in this annual Scholars’ Concert and should be highly congratulated on their achievement. Ellie S (cello), Soraiya K (clarinet), Megan S (tenor horn) and Rhian C (saxophone) gave performances that showed such precision and accuracy. Jessica C (violin) gave an incredibly moving and stunning performance of John Williams’s Schindler’s List

theme - the haunting melody hanging in the air in the beautiful acoustics of the Wilberforce Hall. The final performance given by Philip M (violin) was a memorable moment for every person present; a remarkable and awesome presentation of Frank Bridge’s Moto Perpetuo. This particular performance was expressive, mature, virtuosic and demonstrated Philip’s deep understanding of musicianship. He led and took charge of this most impressive piece and directed Mr White, our accompanist with composure and vigour necessary in this fantastic piece.

There was admiration for every performer in this wonderful concert and thanks must go to our music scholars not only for this concert but for their continued dedication and commitment to the musical life of the school.

MR ASSEN, DIRECTOR OF MUSIC

WONDERFUL EXAM SUCCESS

Last term saw another stellar set of music examination results from both Associated Board of The Royal Schools of Music and Trinity College (including Musical Theatre).

Mountbatten Festival of Music Invite from the Royal Marines Band

Members of the Caterham School Wind Orchestra and Drum Corps were invited by the Royal Marines Band to attend the Mountbatten Festival of Music at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday 5 March and were simply blown away by the breadth and variety of the music of the massed bands.

To see how the Marines present themselves, from the Fanfare Trumpet Team, Drum Corps to the full band on stage, gave great insight for our own young musicians who can now take these ideas and implement them in their own performance when accompanying the Combined Cadet Force on their Annual Inspection, Passing Out Parade, and the school Remembrance Service.

From original compositions accompanied by video footage to commemorate 20 years since the Falklands War, to music from West

Side Story, Elton John and even The Prodigy. There was certainly music for all tastes. However, the highlight for most was the immaculate presentation of the Marine Drummers and the perfect synchronization of their stick work which was spellbinding.

The invite from the Marines to attend the concert furthers the link with musicians from the Royal Marines who intend to visit the school and work with our own Fanfare Trumpet Team, Drum Corps and the Wind Orchestra to in preparation for future School and CCF events.

It is testament to the amazing talent and dedication of our pupils across all year groups, including at Caterham Prep School who enjoy similarly excellent results this term.

It is particularly wonderful to see such great achievements from pupils who give so much to the music department and contribute hugely to music across the school. It is wonderful that these pupils do not solely work towards music examinations - they are members of bands, orchestras and choirs and perform as soloists. Their fantastic results therefore reflect their energy for music and are highly deserved. Congratulations go to all of our pupils for their hard work whatever their result, however, a special mention must go to pupils achieving Distinctions: Isabella C, Finley C, Francesca D, Max K, Yu-In T. Felicitations in particular to Ferdy C (U6) on his outstanding contributions in choral music and as a soloist. He has been extremely dedicated as a singer since being a pupil at Caterham Prep and recently played the dapper character of Freddy EynesfordHill in My Fair Lady.

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in residence MUSIC MASTER CLASSES

The award-winning quartet is recognised for its unanimous and compelling ensemble, with a fresh and imaginative approach. Formed in 2013, its members continue to demonstrate a shared passion for chamber music, infectiously reaching out to audiences with their energy and enthusiasm.

The weekend’s programme was devised by Mr Brian Hill, our Head of Instrumental Music alongside Jan Ryska, cellist from the visiting quartet. The workshops were inclusive - from our Transition String Orchestra through to Upper Sixth music scholars and it was a joy to see and hear pupils of all ages working with musicians of such calibre.

On the first day, the quartet treated pupils and parents to a short recital, featuring music by Mozart and Suk. The pupil and

The Music Department was delighted to host a series of masterclasses, lessons and recitals led by The Wiener Klavier Quartet (musicians from the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera), joining us from Vienna, Austria.

audience were highly impressed by the ensemble’s incredible sound, passion and cohesiveness. Suitably inspired, pupils then broke away into instrumental groups for an evening of individual masterclasses. Pupils commented that they learnt much from their sessions and enjoyed the experience of working with our friends from Vienna.

The following day, the quartet performed a morning recital for our chamber ensembles who then enjoyed rehearsals and workshops before performing their own lunchtime concert. The ‘Cello Ensemble energetically performed the world premiere of Jubilate, an original work by Mrs Helena Richards, Composer in Residence and Assistant Director of Music. The Wan Trio, Violet W (Fourth Year), Sophia L (lower 6th) and Rodney Lin (Third Year) gave a stunning rendition of Telemann’s Affectuoso

The Watt Trio, Natalie W (Lower Sixth), Alice H (Fifth Year) and Francessca C (Fourth Year) gave a haunting performance of Doppler’s Andante. Our violin quartet (Leo L, Natalie W, and Luke Y, (Lower Sixth) and Adrian H, (Fourth Year) performed Telemann’s Concerto for 4 Violins, No. 1 with poise and precision. The concert finished with our wonderful Transition String Orchestra performing Mozart’s Allegro with style and enthusiasm.

COME AND SING MUSICALS SCHOOL COMMUNITY IN CHORUS

This was a fun, enjoyable event that ran throughout the afternoon and allowed all singers to sing for joy - without the pressure of a performance.

Members of Chamber Choir, ETS, Vocalpoint and JETS came together alongside parents, grandparents, Old Caterhamians, siblings and staff (academic and bursarial) to form a wonderful chorus singing songs from musicals that included; Les Miserables, West Side Story, Rent, Dear Evan Hansen, The Lion King and Hamilton. This was a fun, enjoyable event that ran throughout the afternoon and allowed all singers to sing for joy - without the pressure of a performance. The level of sight-singing was outstanding and highly impressive and all singers engaged with the character, humour and style of each musical

represented. Pupils of all ages participated - from Year 4 in the Prep School to Upper Sixth and it was a wonderful sight to see such a range of ages working together in harmony. Keen singers volunteered for solos and particular recognition must be given to Matthew S (Upper Sixth), Mille T (Upper Sixth), Ferdy C (Upper Sixth), Connie M (Second Year), George M (Third Year) and Sophia A (Year 4). The event was also a reminder that our Prep and Senior staff body has a number of extremely talented singers and musicians and thanks must be given to them for the continued support and enthusiasm for musical activities in the school.

MR ADAM ASSEN, DIRECTOR OF MUSIC

Trinity College of Music: OUTSTANDING EXAMINATION RESULTS

The latest Musical Theatre examinations from Trinity College, London have resulted in outstanding achievements for all.

These examinations are much more than a vocal performance; they combine acting, song and movement and require candidates to express character and narrative. A hugely impressive eight Distinctions were gained (Will C, Ruby C, Lola D, Stanley S, Zoe T, Ben W, Lily W and Annabella W) as well as Merits (Elise B, Sophie C and Sophie H) and all pupils should be

highly commended for their achievements. There is huge depth to the work that goes into gaining such impressive results and the and passion for musical theatre performance is essential. Thanks must go to our incredible team of Visiting Music Teachers; the singing teachers are a formidable group of incredible musicians with vast professional experience.

Piano Recital DAZZING DISPLAYS

TALENTED PUPILS RANGING FROM FIRST YEAR TO THE UPPER SIXTH PERFORMED AN ECLECTIC RANGE OF REPERTOIRE AT THIS YEAR’S PIANO RECITAL IN THE BEAUTIFUL WILBERFORCE HALL.

The evening commenced with a rampant performance of Schubert’s famous piano duet, Marches Militaires with Ethan G and Rodney L (Fourth Year) performing. Both Ethan and Rodney are new to the school and have only been working together as a duet partnership for a matter of weeks.

Ferdinand C (Upper Sixth) is a regular in the music department and can be heard practising piano. He is mostly self-taught and his performance of Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag was full of energy and drive and he managed to capture the playful character of the piece brilliantly.

Mathilde G (Third Year) performed Moonbeams by Arens. She performed with real sensitivity and lyricism throughout with wonderful voicing of the melodic lines. Annah M (First Year) gave her debut piano performance in the school, performing Einaudi’s I Giorni. She managed to play with fluidity and it was wonderful to see her perform with a beaming smile on her face. Tijmen P (Second Year) gave an energetic performance of Bullard’s Disco Baroque, his dynamic variety and energetic drive in this piece was superb.

Cindy C (Third Year) performed a stunning piece, Summer by Haisaishi. Cindy’s opening was immaculate, with excellent clarity with the staccato articulation. A

really beautiful piece of music. This was followed by Scena da Balletto, Chaminade, which was performed by Franchesca C (Fourth Year). Her performance was refined and she managed to capture the Viennese-esq style throughout, with excellent attention to detail.

Ethan G (Third Year) performed the lyrical masterpiece, Nocturne in C# minor, Chopin. From the very start with the opening chorale idea, he had the audience on edge. He performed with a mature understanding of the lyricism and sensitivity that this piece demands.

Alice H (Fifth Year) performed Chopin’s Mazurka in G minor with melancholy and expressive character, and really brought out the intricate phrasing of this wonderful piece. Annie L (Third Year) performed the final piece by Chopin, Waltz in C# minor. Her excellent finger work in the expressive runs and the energy that she demonstrated throughout was superb.

Mikako S (Fourth Year) gave her interpretation of Brahms’ Rhapsody in G Minor; a piece that

requires virtuosic hand-crossing and a grand sound. Mikako was able to achieve the rich tone that Brahms’ music is so renowned for. Rodney L (Third Year) then gave a sublime performance of Schubert’s Impromptu in Eb Minor. He performed with dexterous mastery and demonstrated a mature understanding of the stylistic demands of the piece. I must commend Rodney for managing to achieve such a grand sound in the dramatic middle section of the piece – to create such a warm yet rich sound whilst maintaining such accuracy shows the vast potential that Rodney has at his disposal.

The concert concluded with an original composition by Raife N (Upper Sixth), who has received numerous offers to study at top British conservatoires. Raife has a natural ability to compose with harmonic sophistication and dramatic flair. This piece definitely did not disappoint. The opening section contained wonderfully complex chords and subtle phrasing, which developed into a formidable, dramatic explosion of chordal, pianistic ecstasy.

The concert was a celebration of the pianistic talents here at Caterham School, and all performers must be commended for their wonderful performances.

COULSDON AND PURLEY FESTIVAL OUTSTANDING MUSICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Over 100 of our musicians participated in the Coulsdon and Purley Festival and many trophies and awards were given to Caterham School pupils. Both Caterham Prep and Senior Schools were represented by a formidable number of solo participants.

In the soloist categories, a very special mention must be made for Violet W (4th year) who won an incredible number of awards: The Diamond Cup for woodwind concerto, The Platinum Cup for woodwind recital and The Raymond Douglas Memorial Trophy for most promising player under 16 years of age. This outstanding success reflects Violet’s amazing musical talents and hard work. Violet began playing the oboe aged seven, in Hong Kong after learning the Bassoon for a year. She was attracted to the interesting and unique sounds of double reeded instruments and quickly found a love for the oboe, in particular for music by Debussy. Violet is also a singer and is showing great promise as a composer. Huge congratulations must go to her for this hat-trick of awards.

Other soloists who won their classes include violinist Mathilde G (3rd Year) for solo performance, Grades 6 and 7 Strings. From the Prep School, Sophia A (year 4)

won her solo woodwind class on the oboe. A particular mention goes to Alfred D (year 5) for his wonderful contributions - entering a number of classes on both flute and saxophone.

The Brass Ensemble won the Coulsdon and Purely Festival Cup for ensemble playing with their rendition of Handel’s Music from The Royal Fireworks, our Wind Orchestra gave an outstanding performance of William Walton’s Crown Imperial and the Game of Thrones theme and won the Elsie Brown Challenge Cup for orchestras and large ensembles.

The Flute Ensemble received a distinction for their performance of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro Overture and the Clarinet Ensemble received honours for their performance of Tchaikovsky’s Chanson Triste and Weber’s Hunting song.

We would like to thank all those pupils representing the Prep and Senior schools and offer huge congratulations from all of us in the Music Department.

SPRING CONCERT Triumphant end to the term

The Music Department held a fantastic concert that marked the end of the spring term in style.

Choirs performed a selection of pieces that celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee; Handel’s ‘Zadok The Priest’ combined both Chamber Choir and ETS in a majestic and uplifting chorus, accompanied by the Senior String Ensemble with additional woodwind and brass. ETS sang a short recital of anthems associated with the British royal family- pieces sung at weddings and state funerals composed by Faure and Vaughan Williams.

Chamber Choir performed Bob Chilcott’s powerful ‘Jubilate’, together with the Brass Ensemble - an interesting and modern setting of ancient words from psalm 100 and a poem by Gerald

Hopkins. The Brass Ensemble also performed Handel’s ‘Music For The Royal Fireworks’ with great style and force. The second half of the concert featured some of our instrumental ensembles - the Cello Ensemble performing an original work by Jae C (5th Year). His challenging and rhythmic piece, ‘Impulse’ was most impressive in both its performance and composition. Chamber Ensembles performed pieces by Shostakovich and a relatively unknown composer, Hisaishi. His piece ‘Merry Go Round of Life’ features in the film ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ and perfectly captures the setting of a magical kingdom. The Boarders’ Ensemble performed Berlioz’s fantastic Hungarian March with

great energy. The final piece, ‘Mars’ by Holst, performed by Sinfonia, left the audience cheering. A powerful, poised and jaw-dropping performance of this masterpiece captured the talent and flair of so many of our orchestral musicians. The drama of this piece was made even more intense in the great acoustics of St. John’s Church. Huge congratulations must go to all of our singers and musicians who took part in this concert.

Thanks to the kind donations from our audience, an impressive amount of money was raised for the church’s Accessibility Project. It is a delight to help St. John’s in return for their warm welcome and appreciation of music from Caterham School.

LUNCHTIME LIVE

On Tuesday 7 December, the Music Department hosted Lunchtime Live, bringing together an eclectic mix of repertoire from Beethoven to Billie Eilish.

All performances were outstanding and delivered with style and musical maturity. Particular mention must go to Natalie W (Lower Sixth Form), Alice H (Fifth Year) and Franchesca C (Fourth Year) for their outstanding performance of Schostakovich’s 5 Pieces for Piano Trio, as well as Marcus K (Fifth Year) for not only his moving performance of the 1st movement of the Brahms Cello Sonata, but also his excellent leadership of the wonderful ‘Cello

Ensemble who beautifully performed Silent Night, Somewhere Over The Rainbow and the theme from Schindler’s List. Stunning vocal performances came from every direction, with special mention to Will C (Second Year), and Lily W (First Year) for their excellent delivery of Beat It and A Million Dreams respectively.

Congratulations to all performers for a very enjoyable and stylish concert.

Choirs come together in CHORAL CONCERT

The delightful family of sacred choirs at Caterham School (JETS, ETS & Chamber Choir) performed a wonderful, relaxed and uplifting concert in our Wilberforce Hall. JETS (Junior ETS) has members from Year 4 to Year 6 in our Prep School, ETS (Eric Thiman Singers) has pupils from Year 6 to Third Year in the Senior School and Chamber Choir represents the rest of the Senior School.

These hard-working choirs are responsible for the more formal choral performances for the school - Carol Services, Evensong, Mass and tours abroad. The concert celebrated the return to normal choral singing after a turbulent period due to COVID when the various restrictions affected rehearsals and concerts.

It also celebrated the amazing work by Mrs Ingrassia, Deputy Head Prep School who has been

crucial to the development of choral music at the school and who co-established ETS in 2010. Her work with the choirs was demonstrated by the wonderful array of pieces. The confidence and precision of each singer reflecting her wonderful attention to detail in all aspects of choral singing. Pupils, parents and colleagues were delighted to offer their thanks with speeches and gifts.

A highlight of this concert was seeing all three choirs join

forces and their collective sound was both moving and powerful. Congratulations must go to every singer who took part but in particular to our youngest performers in the Prep School. They joined the formidable chorus of Senior School pupils with great style and impressed in both rehearsal and concert.

MR ADAM ASSEN DIRECTOR OF MUSIC

LOWER SCHOOL CONCERT

A wonderful Celebration of Musical Achievement

The Lower School Concert was a wonderful celebration of our First to Third Year pupils’ musical achievements this year.

The concert began with vocal performance from ETS. They began with some sacred repertoire: Todd’s Call to Wisdom and Chilcott’s I Lift My Eyes. There was then a collaborative performance with both VocalPoint and ETS, with them performing On The Willows from Schwartz’s Godspell.

Following on from this, ETS and VocalPoint were joined by the String Orchestra who performed May It Be, which featured in the feature film, ‘Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.’ This was a beautiful performance with warm, legato playing from the string players and vibrant and resonant singing from the choirs; an excellent performance.

The String Orchestra gave a wonderful performance of contrasting repertoire, ranging from Meyer to Bach and Mozart. The musicians managed to capture the nuances of the music with excellent dynamic contrast and tonal variety.

There were a number of excellent solo performances. Mathilde G performed Ladies in Lavender on the violin. A beautiful piece and

Mathilde managed to capture the warm character of the piece. Abi P gave a confident and refined performance of Bach’s Bouree. A demonstration of both musical and technical mastery.

Connie M gave a theatrical and spirited performance of Lloyd Webber’s Bad Cinderella. Lucy B’s performance of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes was a fine jazz performance. Her lyrical and warm melodic playing shone through in this superb performance.

Kayla P was the only pupil to sing a sacred solo in the concert. Her performance of Franck’s Panis Angelicus was pure, resonant and quite simply, wonderful. Soraiya K’s piano performance of Bach’s Sinfonia No. 15 in B minor was very impressive; playing with control and restraint whilst including the subtle details demanded by Bach’s writing.

Annie L gave a spirited and dramatic performance of Rachmaninoff’s thunderous Prelude in C# minor, which was swiftly followed by a completely contrasting performance by Ethan G. He gave a lyrical and warm performance of Schubert’s stunning

Impromptu in Gb Major, No. 3. Joshua P gave an excellent performance of Massenet’s Meditation on the saxophone; capturing the lyrical purity of the music and full of dynamic variety. Our final soloist was Jasintha E, who sang Abba’s I Have a Dream. A very well-rehearsed and confident performance.

To conclude the concert, the Orchestra, of which most members are from the Lower School, gave excellent performances of Smith’s The Tempest and Ford’s Dark Adventure. It is wonderful to see so many of our younger musicians performing together and experiencing the magic of ensemble playing. It is the best way to put all of their practice from lessons into context and a great way to share their love of music with their friends.

We are very proud of all of the performers who have clearly worked so hard to prepare their pieces and we congratulate them wholeheartedly.

MR TRISTAN HALL HEAD OF ACADEMIC MUSICFOR

LAMDA SHOWCASE the evening had it all...

On Wednesday 2 February, we were delighted to welcome parents, staff and friends to the inaugural LAMDA Showcase. Nineteen pupils, from First Year to Upper Sixth Form, took to the stage to present the pieces they have been preparing for their upcoming LAMDA examinations.

Avariety of categories and grades were represented from the Acting, Verse & Prose and Public Speaking exam suite. From a heartfelt speech about the merits of The Sound of Music, to a hilarious monologue in which a teenager tries to convince her dad to let her take the

SIXTH FORM DRAMA SCRIPTED

PERFORMANCES

On Wednesday 17 November, the Upper Sixth Form Drama pupils performed their impressive scripted pieces as part of their A Level examination. The atmosphere in the Deayton Theatre was intimate and the perfect setting for what was going to be two very thought provoking performances focusing on some very current themes.

The first drama piece was ‘Leaves’ by Lucy Caldwell performed by Lilly M, Millie T & Amelie D. This piece displayed two young sisters’ individual responses to the aftermath of their older sister’s attempted suicide. They achieved an emotional performance whilst providing the audience with some comical aspects in order to create a very

real representation of sisterhood. The second piece was ‘Lungs’ by Duncan MacMillan performed by Anna P & Josh C. This, in particular, was quite hard-hitting as it presented a couple’s deteriorating relationship after a miscarriage. They both earnestly expressed the significant psychological damage caused by such a loss and how this resulted in a change in their

car to the school dance, the evening had it all! A huge congratulations to the pupils who rose to the occasion under the heat of the stage lights and the watchful gaze of their enraptured audience. We hope this gave them a boost of confidence ahead of their examinations.

relationship from one of love and warmth to cold and distant as they tried to come to terms with their heartbreak. Both performances made a palpable impact on the audience and a lasting impression. It was so exciting to be welcomed back into the theatre especially to see such accomplished performances.

ANNA D, LOWER SIXTH FORM

FRANTIC ASSEMBLY VISIT

ON MONDAY 11 OCTOBER, THE FOURTH AND FIFTH YEAR DRAMA PUPILS WERE LUCKY ENOUGH TO TAKE PART IN A DEVISED THEATRE WORKSHOP WITH LEADING UK THEATRE COMPANY FRANTIC ASSEMBLY.

Frantic Assembly are known for their ‘thrilling, energetic and uncompromising physical theatre’ and have worked in the West End and internationally on shows such as The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time, Othello, Things I Know to be True and Fatherland.

The workshops began with a high-energy and thorough warm-up, followed by skills exercises, lifting techniques and creative tasks, culminating in the pupils creating a physical theatre duet. We were really impressed by the pupils’ commitment and imagination and look forward to seeing how their newly learned skills influence their GCSE devised performances.

A special mention to the Fourth Year pupils who, despite having just three people in the room and the rest joining in virtually, managed to adapt and produce some outstanding work both in the Humphreys Theatre and at home.

LORD of the FLIES

Pupils from First and Second Year were finally able to perform the much-anticipated Lower School Play ‘Lord of the Flies’, after being postponed from Spring Term.

Despite the five-week hiatus, the cast did a tremendous job of remembering the show and, if anything, came back with much more energy and ferocity!

It was a dynamic, emotional and complex show with lots of choreography, lines to learn, many entrances and exits – the cast did a remarkable job and the audience were blown away.

Behind the scenes, a team of

Sixth Form Play LAVA REVIEW

Lava by James Fritz is a timely play about grief, masculinity and the power of expression, rocking with raw emotion and sharp humour. With one mute character, multiple locations, and an asteroid that has hit the capital city, Paige G and Holly G-C certainly didn’t choose an easy play for their directorial debuts! However, they certainly rose to the occasion and produced an intimate and engaging production, which had its audience enraptured throughout.

Lower School pupils supported the cast with lighting, sound, costume, props, and make-up. It was a massive team effort and the entire crew were able to accomplish all of this by supporting one another and behaving like true professionals.

Most of all, the cast and crew had a wonderful time putting this show together and they should all be tremendously proud of what they achieved.

ON WEDNESDAY 9 FEBRUARY, THE DEAYTON THEATRE HOSTED THE INAUGURAL PERFORMANCE OF THE SIXTH FORM PLAY. FROM THE DIRECTORS, TO THE CAST, TO THE TECH TEAM, THE SIXTH FORM RAN THE SHOW…AND WHAT A SHOW IT WAS!

“The audience were blown away”

Credit must also go, of course, to the fantastic cast who had their own challenges to deal with!

Nithusha S did a phenomenal job as the silent Vin, getting across her character’s inner turmoil and vulnerability through beautiful moments of stillness, whilst Liv S brought a delightful charm to the role of Vin’s despairing mother who finds solace in the presence of a stray cat. Meanwhile, Lola D shone as Jamie, the attention grabbing out-of-towner who means well but often misses the mark and whose rendition of ‘Mad World’ will remain in all our memories for some time. Finally, Anna D brought incredible nuance and maturity to the role of Rach, Vin’s friend who is desperate

to help him find his voice again. With a large portion of the play being made up of Rach’s one-sided conversations with Vin, Anna did a

Southern Counties DRAMA FESTIVAL

On Wednesday 23 February, the Fourth Year Festival Group took part in the Southern Counties Drama Festival in Oxted. The cast and crew have been rehearsing to stage Alison Carr’s play Tuesday and then performed at the Barn Theatre as part of the regional competition.

The play tells the unusual story of when, one ordinary school day, a tear in space and time appears above the school yard and parallel universes collide. It’s a funny play, with some very touching and human moments between the characters. It was an ensemblepiece, requiring the cast to be onstage the whole time, switching in and out of different roles to tell the story and they did a brilliant job of this.

There were two performances that night and we were up first. Special mention should go to Rosie D who, not only acted as a Stage Manager, but took responsibility of calling all of the cues in the show.

The cast did a really remarkable job and kept the audience engaged in this weird and wonderful story. The Festival Adjudicator gave us some poignant and helpful feedback at the end, describing the performance as ‘innovative’ and ‘sharply presented’. She

commended the cast on their energy and enthusiasm, stating that their ‘enjoyment shone through’. She even gave individual feedback to the actors such as ‘generous acting’, ‘giving a lot to support the company’, ‘having a sereneness in their acting’, all of which I’m sure the Fourth Years will carry forward into future performances.

Stay tuned to see if the group makes it through to the next round of the Southern Counties Drama Festival competition!

And let’s not forget those behind the scenes! Matt S and Megan D in the Upper Sixth were technical superstars. This was not a simple production; there were endless lighting changes and sound effects, not to mention conversations happening part through dialogue and part through projected text messages! Timing was tricky, cues had to be precise and of course, Matt and Megan did an amazing job!

truly impressive job in commanding the audience’s attention and maintaining a wholly believable and heartfelt performance throughout.

East Surrey Dance Festival GRAVITY AND ADRENALINE

On Wednesday 9 March, two of our dance crews, Gravity and Adrenaline, took part in the East Surrey Dance Festival at The Harlequin Theatre in Redhill.

Gravity performed an energetic and challenging routine (which they choreographed themselves) to BLACKPINK’s ‘How You Like That’. The audience were extremely impressed by both the routine and the performance. Adrenaline showcased their dance and gymnastic skills with a lively and equally impressive performance to Demi Lovato’s ‘Confident’.

The organisers of the event commented; ‘The Caterham School dancers danced and performed beautifully and we really hope they enjoyed the experience. Their dance numbers were stunning and so full of excitement and energy!’

A huge congratulations to all our dancers for two brilliant performances and a wonderful evening of live dance.

Theatre Tour to Primaries FRIENDSHIP

FIRST

During the summer term we saw an exciting new venture from the Caterham Drama Department.

Acast of 15 Third Year pupils took a mixture of devised and scripted work based on the theme of friendship to five local primary schools during lunchtimes, performing their Theatre in Education piece to pupils in Years 3 and 4. With lots of audience interaction, a cute play about animals helping each other, a catchy rap, comedy, sketches about the qualities needed to be a

good friend and a song and dance for the audience to join in with at the end, the Third Year pupils did an amazing job of keeping their young audiences engaged as well as educating them at the same time. They received lots of lovely feedback from pupils and staff at local schools and the Drama Department can’t wait to take a new show on the road next year. Well done TIE Crew!

Orchard Theatre Festival

The Orchard Theatre Festival is the Drama Department’s summer showcase of scenes, sketches and songs chosen from the various Drama co-curricular clubs – taking place over two dreamy summer evenings (albeit Friday was more like a grey, slightly windy summer evening).

Audiences brought picnics and were entertained by the immense talent of our Junior and Senior pupils, all on our beautiful outdoor Orchard Theatre.

The Junior Festival included clown sketches, LAMDA pieces, scenes from Shakespeare, some new writing and a snippet from the Third Year’s TIE (Theatre in Education)

show, which toured to primary schools earlier this year. Audiences loved the performances and were very impressed by the array of talent in our younger years.

The Senior Festival included comedy sketches, some powerful monologues, a catchy piece of musical theatre and the much-anticipated Staff Play: Teachers. Audiences were similarly impressed, and the staff did an excellent job of playing rowdy students (TikTok dance included and very well received!)

Thanks should go, as ever, to our student backstage crew who helped to make both evenings slick and efficient. In addition, a special thanks to Anna Davies who did a marvellous job of compering both evenings, keeping the audience excited and engaged with her warmth and charisma.

After an exciting year of Drama events, at the end of term we hosted the final performances on the Drama Calendar and let’s just say, we really went out with a bang!

OUTSTANDING LAMDA RESULTS

Congratulations to the 41 pupils who took LAMDA exams in May.

The results were outstanding, particularly given the number of pupils and range of exams and grades taken, with 5 Merits and 36 Distinctions being awarded. Congratulations to all pupils who took an exam, but also a very special congratulations to Upper Sixth Form pupil Millie T, who started her LAMDA journey when she started at Caterham School. Having achieved a distinction for every exam she has taken, Mille has crowned this by being

NAME EXAM RESULT

Krish B Acting Grade 4

Distinction

Maaduri A Devising Grade 8 Distinction

Laura B Devising Grade 8 Distinction

Daisy P Acting Grade 4

Aimee P Acting Grade 4

Ava F Acting Grade 2

Distinction

Distinction

Distinction

Amelie D Acting Grade 2 Distinction

Albert C Verse and Prose Grade 3

Distinction

Llewy R Acting Grade 4 Distinction

Lily W Acting Grade 2

Florence S Acting Grade 2

Aimee L Acting Grade 2

Gia A Acting Grade 3

Florence R Acting Grade 4

Arya P Acting Grade 4

Sky-Brooke D Verse and Prose Grade 6

Daisy C Acting Grade 3

Rory W Acting Grade 4

Ariya P Acting Grade 3

Ruby C Acting Grade 4

Distinction

Distinction

Distinction

Distinction

Distinction

Distinction

Distinction

Distinction

Distinction

Distinction

Distinction

Coral M Musical Theatre Grade 4 Merit

awarded a Distinction for her PCertLAM, taken after completing Gold, which involves a one hour recital and performance of 4 pieces based on a theme of the pupil’s choice as well as a 6,000 word essay involving research into the roles and writers as well as analysis of the rehearsal process. This is a fantastic end to her LAMDA journey and much deserved; we wish Millie every success in all her future performance opportunities.

Thomas B Acting Grade 5 Merit

Stanley S Musical Theatre Grade 3 Distinction

Oscar T Acting Grade 4

Emma F Acting Grade 4

Distinction

Distinction

Anushman R Acting Grade 4 Merit

George M Musical Theatre Grade 4 Merit

William O Speaking in Public Grade 3 Distinction

Max K Acting Grade 6 Distinction

Zoe T Acting Grade 5 Distinction

Isabelle P Acting Grade 5

Holly D Acting Grade 5

Distinction

Distinction

Alice C Acting Grade 7 Distinction

Lilly W Acting Grade 7

Distinction

Amaya P Verse and Prose Grade 6 Distinction

Romilly B Verse and Prose Grade 3 Distinction

Ruby S Musical Theatre Grade 4 Distinction

Hazel L Speaking Public Grade 5 Distinction

Sophie C Acting Grade 3

Imogen B Acting Grade 3

Isabel S Acting Grade 3

Distinction

Distinction

Distinction

Bella B Acting Grade 7 Merit

PSYCHOLOGY SOCIETY

Six outstanding pupils have presented to the Psychology Society on topics ranging from Quantum Consciousness to Psycholinguistics. Each week the psychology classroom has been filled with pupils keen to extend their knowledge and understanding of Psychology beyond the specification. Particularly impressive

have been our new Lower Sixth Form, who have been brilliantly engaged, asking perceptive and insightful questions and taking detailed notes on each presentation. A big thank you to the following Upper Sixth pupils for their outstanding presentations so far this term: Dina M, Lucy B, Anna P & Vicki M, Ellen C and Georgia H.

Psychological Theory comes to life at Prep me

On Thursday 14 October, Upper Sixth Form Psychology students visited Year 1 and Year 3 pupils in the Prep School to conduct observations and see first-hand Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. Pupils performed a range of tasks testing children’s ability to conserve (understand that mass/volume/number stays the same even if the appearance changes) and egocentrism (ability to understand another’s point of view).

It was certainly a fun afternoon for the Prep School children and a real opportunity for our Upper Sixth Form to see psychological theory come to life! The students will now apply their understanding of inferential statistics to analyse their data and present their findings in the form of a psychological report.

It was a busy and exciting half-term in the Psychology Department.

BRAIN DAY

On Tuesday 3 May, we were treated to a special visit from Dr Guy Sutton who delivered his famous ‘Brain Day’ seminar to L6 Psychologists.

Pupils consolidated the work they are covering in Biopsychology, looking at the structure and function of the nervous system and synaptic transmission. Dr Sutton performed a sheep brain dissection, with pupils getting to poke and prod key brain structures including the hippocampus and pineal gland.

Dr Sutton spoke about recent advancements in neuroscience, including Oxford University’s work growing cerebral organoids (human brains grown in vitro from stem cells) which raised interesting and important ethical questions: what happens if these organoids become increasingly complex and develop consciousness? Should they be subject to the same

ethical standards as human and non-human animal subjects? Would it be unethical to now prevent this technology knowing its important applications in understanding various neurological disorders?

Our pupils had fantastic questions for Dr Sutton, ranging from queries about the effects of bilingualism on the cortical organisation of our ‘brain dictionary’ to transgenerational epigenetics. Dr Sutton helped to bust brain myths and explained how our current models of schizophrenia, language, dementia and even criminal behaviour are rapidly developing based on our new understanding of genetics, neurodevelopment and advanced brain imaging techniques.

Dr Sutton ended the day with

a lecture available to all Sixth Form psychologists, biologists and medics on ‘The present and future of the brain’. Dr Sutton took pupils through early research using brain computer interfaces with prosthetics, to contemporary developments with brain to brain interfaces and the future use (and misuse) of this technology. Pupils were also introduced to emerging fields of neuroscience including the neuroscience of climate change and space travel.

The Brain Day can be best summarised in Dr Sutton’s closing remarks to pupils, ‘We very quickly need to consider what it means to be human, because all that is about to change’.

Practical Ethics and Responsibility

Four Philosophy and Theology pupils in the Lower Sixth recently entered the Uehiro Centre’s Practical Ethics and Responsibility competition.

They were invited to make a video to tell the centre about an ethical problem they were interested in and how they think responsibility is involved. They chose to discuss the topical issue of who is responsible for the content posted on social media. They examined the extent to which the social media companies themselves should ultimately be responsible or the individual poster. Their video is engaging and informative, drawing on their studies in ethics but largely referencing their own independent research. I am delighted that they have been awarded “highly commended” and their video will be shared on the Oxford

Practical Ethics Centre’s website. This is a fantastic achievement, and more so because the entire project was run and initiated by the students themselves.

Many congratulations to Paige G, Mili G, Holly G-C and Molly M.

I am delighted that they have been awarded “highly commended”

Cat Among the Pigeons

COMPETITION WINNER

A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Holly C in Lower Sixth Form for her winning entry to the Cat Among the Pigeons ‘Identity’ Photography Competition. This image will be published in the magazine at the end of the year and we are really looking forward to seeing it in there!

Holly said of her image ‘I believe life is like a tunnel, there are bends and you are always looking forward. Everyone’s tunnel is different, therefore your tunnel defines you - your tunnel is your identity.’

POETRY BY HEART COMPETITION Judges Blown Away

The final of the Poetry by Heart Competition was an entertaining event where pupils showcase their excellent recitations. Performances ranged from poignant war poems such as Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum est’, to poems that pupils had written themselves on important themes such as women’s safety in the aftermath of recent events.

The judges (and audience) thoroughly enjoyed every performance but ultimately were blown away by several outstanding and exceptional recitations: Rosa H (Second Year), Jack B (Fifth Year) and Amelie D (Upper Sixth Form) were all highly commended; Millie Y (Fourth Year) was awarded third place for her evocative and moving poem, ‘The Inevitable’ which she wrote herself; James McM’s (Second Year) thought provoking recitation of Carol Ann Duffy’s, ‘Last Post’ earned him second place and the winner, with an exceptionally vivacious and entertaining recitation of ‘Snake’ by Daniel Goodwin, was Annabella W (Lower Sixth Form).

Huge congratulations and thanks to all of the finalists, as well as those who reached the heats too. All of the finalists are now able to enter the Poetry by Heart competition, which gives them the opportunity to compete prestigiously at a national level. Well done to all.

HANS WOYDA

Caterham Mathematicians Progress

During the first half of the autumn term, some of our brilliant young mathematicians took part in Round 1 of the Hans Woyda competition. They faced fierce challenge from their opponents in Trinity School, answering incredibly tough questions in geometry, algebra arithmetic and more; all under intense time pressure. After six closely fought rounds, we went into the final round neck and neck. In this round, the fastest to answer the question scored the points, ratcheting up the tension. It went right down to the wire but in the end the last points went to Caterham and we won 33 to 31, both very commendable scores. With round 1 in the bag, we look forward to the next round.

Well done to Alex Z. (Upper Sixth Form), Alex M. (Lower Sixth Form), Marcus W. (Fifth Year), and Jennifer M. (Third Year)

Second Round Victory

On 16 November, Caterham mathematicians competed in the second round of the Hans Woyda Competition, against Woldingham School. The Caterham team consisted of Annie L (Third Year), Sophie H (Fifth Year), Luke Y (Lower Sixth) and Maestro Y (Upper Sixth). The competition involved tough questions that we had to complete within time limits of 30, 60 or 90 seconds. There were seven rounds in which we had to do a variety of mental arithmetic, algebra and some challenging geometry questions. The first six rounds were incredibly closely fought; the last round, however, was the round in which we managed to secure a victory, gaining ten points. The final score was 38–32 to Caterham.

RETURN OF STUDENT AMBASSADOR SCHEME

This year saw the relaunch of the Student Ambassador Scheme which sees Sixth Form maths pupils support younger year groups by assisting with lessons and maths clinics.

Sixth Form pupils have the chance to work with pupils one to one or in small groups, and many go on to prepare and deliver lessons to their class. There was also the opportunity to support our outreach programme this year with several Sixth Form pupils assisting Mrs Griffiths with her Fizzy Maths sessions which are delivered to pupils from local primary schools.

This year, we had a fantastic set of Lower and Upper Sixth maths pupils involved in the scheme, supporting classes from First Year through to Fifth Year. The pupils involved were dedicated, reliable and offered support of the highest quality to our younger pupils. The maths department would like to say a huge thank you to all those involved - your efforts to support our younger pupils are hugely appreciated by both staff and the pupils themselves, and we hope to see many of you in our classes again next year.

Round 3: Success Against Tough Opposition

In another impressive showing, Caterham raced to victory against Wilson’s school in the Hans Woyda Round 3 maths competition. Maestro Y, Alex M, Sophie H and Mathilde G performed brilliantly under intense pressure, solving tough maths questions at breakneck speed against the team that had so far been dominating our group and scoring a handy 36 to their 23. That makes three matches played (Trinity, Woldingham and Wilson’s), and three matches won. Congratulations to our team as they progress to the knock-out stage of the competition, which begins in January. Thanks also to Dr Kemp, for organising and training the team, and attending all the matches.

British Maths Olympiad

Well done to the five pupils who took part in last term’s British Maths Olympiad round 1 (the extremely difficult follow on to the Senior Maths Challenge).

Alex M and Luke Y (Lower Sixth Form) both achieved distinctions, which is fantastic. Also in Lower Sixth Form, Paramita achieved a merit and Maestro (Upper Sixth Form) also achieved a Merit.

A special mention goes to Lisa (Fifth Year) who didn’t quite manage a merit - but should be highly commended for taking part in the competition which is for Year 12 and up, it was wonderful that she participated.

UKMT CHALLENGE

CONGRATULATIONS ALL ROUND! Senior Maths Challenge

Congratulations to the 14 Gold medal winners, the 23 Silver medal winners, the 17 Bronze medal winners, and to the three other participants who took part in the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge in November.

Special congratulations to the 11 who qualified for the Senior Maths Kangaroo follow on round and the three who qualified for BMO1.

Special congratulations to Lisa (Best in Year 11), Alex M and Maestro Y (Best in Years 12 and 13 and jointly Best in School), and to Luke Y (Year 12) who missed Alex and Maestro’s score by just 1 mark.

MEDAL SUCCESS Intermediate Maths Challenge

Congratulations to the Third, Fourth and Fifth Year pupils who participated in the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge in February. They achieved a fantastic 48 Golds, 32 Silvers and 38 bronzes.

The 20 pupils in the Third Year who achieved silver or gold qualify for the more challenging ‘Grey Kangaroo’ and the 40 pupils in the Fourth and Fifth Year who achieved a gold qualify for the even more challenging ‘Pink Kangaroo’.

Special congratulations to Joshua and Ryan from the Third Year who qualified for the still more challenging

Maths in Action Trip

‘Cayley Olympiad’, with Joshua taking ‘Best in Year’. Special congratulations to Isla and Ariel in the Fourth Year who qualified for the yet more challenging ‘Hamilton Olympiad’, with Ariel taking ‘Best in Year’ and ‘Best in School’.

Also very well done to Marcus W for his ‘Best in the Fifth Year’, with Lisa H hot on his heels

OLYMPIAD AND KANGAROO QUALIFIERS Junior Maths Challenge

Well done to the 24 Bronze, 25 Silver and 25 Gold certificate winners from the 87 pupils who took part in this year’s UKMT Junior Maths Challenge.

In particular, well done to Albert and Jaden in the First Year and Josh in the Second Year for qualifying for the extremely challenging Junior Mathematical Olympiad, with Albert and Josh achieving joint Best in School with 124 out of 135. Well done also to Leonid in the First Year, and Jessica, Liam, Edwin, Posh, Alex, Abi, Tijmen, Miles and Keyan from the Second Year who have all qualified for the challenging Junior Mathematical Kangaroo.

The Maths in Action trip on 18 November was inspiring with NASA building spacecraft, or you can be a journalist writing down interesting maths problems you’ve encountered when travelling around the world. One of the highlights of the day was when the speaker took out his guitar and sang to us the song that inspired his talk.

puzzles to how human irrationality can affect the working of Game Theory, maths is so much more than A Level textbooks. It was nice to listen to different maths talks in a hall with many other mathematicians for the first time since the pandemic. I was also fascinated by the variety of things you can do after studying maths. You can be an engineer working

Maths can be useful, but maths is also everywhere and sometimes simply too beautiful to be ignored.

Last but definitely not least, Dr Frost’s exam tips were highly beneficial for us maths pupils and it was just incredible to listen to him in real life. The trip was surely a fun and valuable one.

From fun maths

FIONA C (LOWER SIXTH FORM)

South Kensington, nous voilà!

Sixth Form French pupils had an exciting trip to London, exploring South Kensington

“à la française”, soaking up the very French atmosphere of this part of London.

The mini tour started with a stop at Le Lycée Français, site of the French Résistance’s Head Quarters during WW2 , a topic they are studying as part of the A level course. We spent some time at the bookshop “la librairie La Page”, browsing French latest titles, comics and stationery. We then finished our tour at the Institut Français to watch “Les diaboliques” a timeless French classic movie which, well before Hitchcock’s “Psycho” raised the psychological thriller to a new, horrific level. This “chef d’oeuvre” by talented director, Henri-Georges Clouzot had everyone truly engaged until the end and that ingenious twist but “chut, c’est un secret!”.

A truly enjoyable cultural experience!

LET’S EAT CRÊPES!

Our First and Second Year pupils celebrated “La chandeleur” in style!

Thanks to our brilliant catering team, a makeshift kitchen was set up in the very beautiful Leathem Room.

First and Second Years were happy to share this special moment with Marcus C. a very well known and liked Upper Sixth Form pupil among the French Junior Club. Marcus very kindly improvised as our “crepes” cook. Surrounded by very excited and supportive junior pupils Marcus made a perfect batter in “un tour de main”. As Marcus was cooking the pancakes with more and more expertise, he also managed

to devise a game in French to help pupils wait their turn to be served. First and Second Years discussed animatedly the choice of filling for their crepes and practiced even more vocab in French such as “le citron”, “le sucre”, “le miel”.

A big thank you to Marcus for his help, enthusiasm and kindness. Well done as well to First and Second Year pupils for their eagerness for French and their impeccable behaviour in our improvised French kitchen. An experience to repeat avec plaisir!

An experience to repeat avec plaisir!

French meets drama A HAPPY ENCOUNTER

1B had the pleasure of a visit from the Drama dept during their French lesson. For this very special occasion, 1B practiced their French speaking and Drama skills, in an improvised French role play of news reading, weather forecasting and interviewing. Encouraged by Mr Kingscott’s advice and support, 1B gave us a wonderful performance, some even had props! Pupils took their role very seriously. They became so engaged in their acting that they soon overcame their nerves as well as their fear of speaking French!

A big thank you to the Drama department and to Mr Kingscott in particular.

JUNIOR INTERCLASS COMPETITION French Karaoke

First and Second Year pupils completed, with a heart-warming enthusiasm, their first French interclass competition of 2021 -2022: A French Karaoke! Tom G and Marcus C; French Sixth Form pupils acted as judges. They had a tough time deciding the winners. Tom and Marcus kindly gave their time to announce the winners during this week’s First and Second Year assembly. The winners were: 1O; 1T; 1W; 2K, 2R, 2W.

Well done to all First and Second Year pupils for fantastic entries and thank you to Tom and Marcus for their help and support.

FRENCH DEBATING Regional Competition

Well done to Enzo P, Marcus C, Martin S and Tom G, our Upper Sixth French pupils who took up the challenge to participate in the French Regional Debating Competition hosted by Charterhouse.

The competition was held virtually again this year. Our candidates debated with passion, in French, very complex motions such as: “Manifester est la maniere la plus efficace de faire avancer la societe” or “On devrait legaliser la Gestation Pour Autrui” . Caterham was up against some very tough opponents and fought bravely. Our competitors made the most of the debating techniques they had been working on and showed superb skills of improvisation to defend their points. They also demonstrated a lot of boldness to make their opinion heard, skills that will no doubt become very useful for their A level speaking exam.

First Year French

PEN PAL PROJECT

Gets Stronger and Stronger

Pupils are always very excited to receive their letters. They comment and compare the content. They are curious to see how different French handwriting is. They also realize how similar their interests and activities are to those of their pen pals. They have discovered a lot about life and culture in Le Mans,

France (particularly - for the joy of many - la Formule 1 et les 24h du Mans). They are able to use a lot of the vocabulary and grammar they have studied in class to correspond with their pen pal, as they have been talking about themselves, their likes and dislikes, their school day and their favourite hobbies.

POSTCARDS FROM SPAIN

Third Year Spanish pupils were very pleased to receive responses to their postcards that were sent to Madrid before Christmas.

The Spanish pupils’ English was very impressive and they told us all about their favourite holiday destination and what they like to visit in their town. Our Caterham pupils replied to their letters, telling them all about our school in Spanish and English.

On Thursday 3 February, the German Department were delighted to welcome father of Will and Emilie, Mr Carl Lumbard to speak to Third, Fourth and Fifth Year German pupils about his experiences during his year abroad in Germany while studying French and German at university.

Ayear abroad during a university course is always an enriching experience, and it can be life changing. Alongside his job as a teaching assistant in a German school, Mr Lumbard’s experiences included mastering the meticulous art around preparing the proper cup of German coffee, learning to appreciate asparagus

season, driving on the Autobahn, playing football for the local team, and watching football with Gastarbeiter from Yugoslavia and Turkey, and even negotiating the nerve-jangling journey to Berlin through then East Germany.

Many thanks to Mr Lumbard for sharing his insights and experiences.

Frida Kahlo Brought to Life

The Lower Sixth Form Spanish group went to see an interactive Frida Kahlo exhibition in London entitled “Mexican Geniuses”. There was plenty to read and watch about her life and the 360 degree cinema where her paintings were brought to life was a real highlight. Afterwards they enjoyed some tapas in London Bridge on a lovely sunny evening.

APPLE DISTINGUISHED STATUS CONFIRMED BY APPLE

Caterham School has once again been recognised as one of just a handful of schools to be formally accredited as an Apple Distinguished School.

The extension of Caterham’s Apple status recognises continuous development in the school’s use of technology and innovation in learning and teaching.

Since first being recognised by Apple in 2015, the school has received interest and visitors from across the UK and beyond, keen to learn from Caterham’s

experience and best practice in implementing technology in the classroom and across school life. Caterham is also recognised as an EdTech 50 school, one of just 50 UK schools awarded for measured effectiveness of technology in pupils’ learning and school experience.

COMPUTER SCIENCE INNOVATION DAY Finding Solutions to Real World Problems

Pupils from 2K all spent Monday in the first Computer Science Innovation Day. This new initiative aims to allow pupils time to become immersed in creative problemsolving activities.

Their brief was to create two innovative solutions to problems in one of four fields chosen from health, transport, sport or home and leisure. After finding their own real-world problem to solve, pupils had to design and build two prototypes, both incorporating technology with the micro:bit. This small computer requires pupils to write software to control a range of sensors and outputs to produce their desired solution.

Products included a treadmill calculating distance end energy expenditure, a step counter embedded in the sole of your trainer, an alarm clock using light to wake you up, a reaction time tester and a thermostat to help the warn the elderly if they are getting too hot or cold. The winning team, ‘Swai’ with Santi, William, Abi and Izzy, created and programmed a prototype step counter attached to the leg and a pressure pad that could be positioned on the finish line to help accurately determine the winner of a race. They were commended for the way they overcame obstacles and found solutions when building the electronics of their prototype and the effectiveness of their code.

Each Second Year tutor group will have their own opportunity to excel in further Computer Science Innovation Days throughout the term.

CAREERS

DEGREE APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMME Access to Success

We were delighted to welcome parent Amanda McIntosh to kick off the new Access to Success degree apprenticeship programme. Currently working for Shell, Amanda is an Oil and Gas Engineer who is heavily involved in graduate recruitment and mentoring young professionals and she kicked off the first of her sessions looking at the very start of the degree apprenticeship application process, the importance of researching the companies you are applying to.

Finding out what the company really does, its ethos and aims and ethical backbone should be a natural part of your research and form a huge part of your ultimate decision about whether this is a company you want to work for.

Amanda talked about the need to use certain words and phrases common to that company’s website, as many application forms are computer scanned for specific phrases as a first phase, as well as the need for you to understand that a dull un-researched application will never get past the hiring team.

Tailoring the answers to recruitment questions is vital and it is no longer to use the same answer for similar questions – you must ensure that your knowledge of the company, the role and the person specification are clear. Research is not only important for the actual written application, it also supports you right through interview and group assessment days too.

She also talked about how candidates applying should learn how to “stalk” the company and the people that might be interviewing them, using platform such as LinkedIn, or even the school’s

DESIGNING IN THE AGE OF EMERGENCY TALK

The Careers department were delighted to welcome Duncan Baker-Brown, practising architect, academic and environmental activist, to talk to our aspiring future architects.

Duncan’s talk Designing in the Age of Emergency focussed on sustainable architecture and how designers of the future should be looking more forensically at how they build and create projects with the planet in mind. He posed two very thought provoking questions to our pupils: What are

the real challenges to adopting an authentic sustainable existence with our host plants? and: Why aren’t more people with power concerned with their own ‘business as usual’ policies?, which are

CaterhamConnected platform, as this allows you to find out more about the person who will be on your interview panel and how you can use this to your advantage. She also explained that when so many companies engage on social media to offer advice on the recruitment process, it is difficult to justify not understanding their processes and what you might be up against.

A huge thank you to Amanda for being such an integral part of this new programme and for giving up so much of your time to support our Sixth Form.

MRS CLARE BROWN, HEAD OF CAREERS.

powerful questions for them to consider.

University Fair Exciting Futures Ahead

WHAT A JOYOUS OCCASION THIS YEAR’S UNIVERSITY FAIR WAS!

It was so lovely to have universities back on site and talking face to face to our pupils about their future plans. The excitement in the room was palpable and it was great to see everyone engaging in conversation about a wide range of topics. We were also thrilled to open our doors once more to pupils and their parents from our local partner schools – St Bede’s, Oxted, de Stafford, Warlingham and Riddlesdown, and it was great to see Caterham pupils and their parents, from the younger years come along as well.

Representatives from universities up and down the country offered advice on how to choose your course and what to look for at open days. The University of Exeter talked about their beautiful Cornwall campus and how entry requirements can often be lower for courses there. Arts University Bournemouth were passionate about their superb range of creative courses from acting, animation production, architecture and commercial photography to textiles, visual effects and fine art.

Jocelyn from The University Guys gave an amazing talk on Study in the USA explaining how different the American system is to ours and how important it is to do your research and find the universities and colleges that will suit your personality. Newcastle’s eye opening presentation on medicine and how to make a successful application offered some honest advice on the competitiveness of their programmes, not only at Newcastle but also at all UK medical schools.

We had such a range of different university style campuses represented too. From the city based Imperial, City, Bath and Queen Mary to the collegiate Lancaster to Bristol, Cardiff, York and Nottingham and it was wonderful to hear our pupils learn more about these differences and how they might prefer certain locations to others.

A huge thank you to everyone involved in the event and for helping with all the logistics that go on behind the scenes and I am already looking forward to next year’s event!

MOCK INTERVIEWS

Monday 11 October saw 13 Caterham School, two Oxted and 15 London Academy of Excellence potential medics and dentists take part in virtual one to one mock interviews with a superb panel of medical parents and Old Caterhamians.

Mock interviews for these fields have been in place for over 20 years but this is only the second year the careers department have been able to offer this programme to our extended network of partner schools and I am forever indebted to the parental and alumni community for their continued support with this event.

Each thirty minute interview included questions asking why you want to be a doctor, what developments have been fundamental in the progress of medicine/dentistry over the last few years, how has the NHS coped with the pandemics, dealing with difficult conversations and medical ethics, amongst many others.

One of the most difficult questions appeared to be those asking about personal weaknesses and understanding why thinking about this aspect was so important to showcasing how well you understand yourself and the need for continual self-evaluation in order to develop your skills. The general rule of thumb when answering this type of question was to be honest but not to focus on a catastrophic weakness. Instead choose an area where you can evidence what you have learnt about yourself and how you are already addressing this in order to improve.

Each interview was then followed by a ten minute feedback session, where pupils were offered advice on how they might improve their answers through more self-reflection, research and better restructuring of answers.

Some top tips included: drawing a spider diagram of the skills required to be a doctor and include some brief examples of how you can demonstrate that you have these for each skill, keep your answers structured and don’t waffle too much as a tired interviewer might cut you off and move onto the next question, remember how important teamwork is, think about your work-life balance and how you might deal with this and consider using examples that are not in your personal statement to add depth and variety to your answers. The very final top tip was to always have some questions for the interviewer that cover areas that can’t be accessed through university website research.

This

BALI RAI VISITS

PUPILS HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO MEET AND SPEAK TO AUTHOR BALI RAI WHEN HE VISITED SCHOOL.

First and Second Year pupils did themselves proud with outstanding costumes (thanks and well done certainly also goes to some very creative and dedicated parents), whilst the Sixth Form English ambassadors put on a fantastic array of activities that saw the Library heaving with eager book-enthusiasts.

Staff also played their part, donning an eclectic mix of costumes. Yet at the heart was a palpable pleasure in reading, with assemblies across all year groups listening to extracts from the books Ms Wildsmith thinks everyone should read, to pupils walking around school carrying their favourite book and Sixth Form tutor groups compiling superb lists of recommended reading.

Happy World Book Day indeed!

He met members of the First Year Library Club and read their reviews of ‘Now or Never’, a story set around the true experiences of an Indian solider in World War I. He had coffee with Sixth Form leaders of Voice4Change and their wide-ranging conversation ranged from equality, representation and diversity in books to society in general. He then gave a talk to the Third Year on the subject of empathy which included his own personal reflections of growing up in a multi-cultural world, and links to historical figures in twentieth century UK. His visit was thought provoking and inspiring and a fantastic way to launch Book Week.

It was such a joy to see so many pupils embracing the fun and sharing their passion for reading.

year’s World Book Day was like no other in Caterham History

CLUBS SOCIETIES &

Table Top Games Club

Table Top Games Club has been revived and is bigger and better than ever! Pupils from all year groups have been playing and learning Blood Bowl, Warhammer 40K, Magic: The Gathering, Chess, Jumanji, Talisman and loads more!

French Society

We had a great start to French Society this year.

Marcus and Dina, our inspiring and charismatic President and VicePresident welcomed a curious, enthusiastic, and engaging audience, including some very keen Fourth Year pupils who have just started their GCSE. The presentation on “ La musique francophone comme outil d’apprentissage” by Dina raised many points of discussion and motivated us to create a common playlist of our favourite French songs on Spotify explaining our choice. A great way to ease in our younger learners and to explore the language in a different way.

JUNIOR FRENCH CLUB

A Delicious Moment

First Year French pupils surpassed themselves with an amazing display of skills and creativity in the French Junior Club “The Caterham Great French Bake Off”!

First Years presented their cake and explained the baking process sharing some very nice baking tips. Luckily, for the French teachers acting as judges, Kathryn and Marcus (two wonderful and dedicated French Sixth Formers) came to support the First Years as well as help the French teachers taste and judge!

During the tasting phase many familiar French adjectives could be heard! “Delicieux”

“Incroyable” “Magnifique” “C’est très bon”. There was a very joyful atmosphere where First Years shared their cakes and got to know the Sixth Formers.

With great eloquence and professionalism Kathryn and Marcus did the honour in presenting the prizes to the three winners. An inspiring experience for them.

Well done to Aimee (1B) 1st Prize, Bonnie (1W) 2nd Prize, Ben (1W) 3rd prize.

Junior Spanish Club Olé!

WHAT’S FOR LUNCH?

It was great to see so many budding Flamenco dancers at the Junior Spanish Club GATOS. We learnt the basic steps and arm movements to some authentic Spanish flamenco music and then tried to fit our moves to the Gipsy Kings song ‘Bamboleo’ (but with a lot of crashing into each other and stamping on feet!)

French Gastronomie A DELICIOUS JOURNEY!

The French Society was delighted to hear Tom’s presentation on French Gastronomie.

Tom took us on a journey exploring: French gastronomy’s history; cultural differences in approach to food as well as an analysis of the influence of French gastronomy and its impact at world level. For everyone’s delight Tom also shared his culinary experiences in Poitier during half term with some mouth-watering pictures. Pupils discovered delicacies unknown to them such as “Macaron” and “le tourteau fromager du Poitou”. Merci Tom!

The GATOS Junior Spanish club Skyped Madrid to speak to a teacher in our partner school. It was lots of fun to try out the pupils’ Spanish on a native speaker and we mainly talked about food. The teacher couldn’t believe how much choice our pupils have at lunch here as in Spain there is only one course available and that day it was fish and rice. Their favourite pudding in Madrid is arroz con leche which is rice pudding.

CATS CHESS - Team Back in Action

The Caterham Chess 1st team (Nikita B, Ivan B, Artem S and Nico W) faced a fierce challenge in their first match back post Covid, playing in a South of England tournament in the big hall at Wilsons School.

The time control was 10 minutes each with 5 seconds increment on the clock. Initially matched against Tiffin’s school, the Caterham suffered a 3-1 defeat only with Nico W on board 3 securing a convincing win. The next couple of games also were tough with some difficult draws and losses. Finally, in the last game of the day against Wilson’s team, Caterham secured a smashing 4-0 win. A great way to finish a long week! The team finished a creditable 7th in their group of 14. A massive thanks to Mr Quinton for organising it all.

The Wright Society An Evening with Dr Wright

THIS YEAR ‘THE WRIGHT SOCIETY’, CATERHAM’S PRESTIGIOUS MEDICS SOCIETY, HAS BEEN DELIGHTED TO WELCOME IN AN IMPRESSIVE AND ENTHUSIASTIC GROUP OF LOWER SIXTH MEDICS.

The first of many exciting events was the group welcoming Dr Richard Wright, the society’s patron, for an inspiring talk about Careers in Healthcare. Dr Wright, as well as being a local GP and the school doctor, is the clinical director for North Tandridge primary care network, so there is no one better to give the Lower Sixth pupils advice, and they were incredibly lucky that Dr Wright took time out of his busy schedule to talk to them.

The seminar consisted of lots of helpful information, including pathways to a career as a physician, what it’s like being a junior doctor, and details of different specialties and careers within medicine, all supplemented by some great anecdotes. One of the main aims of the evening was to show the medics the variety of career options one has with a medical degree, as well as some information about other careers within the healthcare sector. Dr Wright also helped to provide the aspiring medics with a realistic view of medicine, which is a vital thing to have before entering this career path, and something candidates must evidence when interviewing for med school.

A massive thank you to Dr Wright for kindly taking time to talk to the society; it was an excellent talk.

ROSIE HOME, PRESIDENT OF THE WRIGHT SOCIETY

PERSONAL FINANCE CLUB

Every Thursday lunchtime a classroom in the Economics and Business department is full of the chatter and laughter of eager Fourth and Fifth Year pupils who are gaining the confidence and tools to be in control of their financial futures.

They are acquiring a true skill for life which they can put into practice whilst at school and beyond. As a result, they will be better prepared to avoid money and financial worries as they learn to budget, choose a bank and credit card, borrow sensibly, manage debts effectively and plan ahead to make their goals financially achievable whether it be at university, starting work or an apprenticeship and beyond.

Pupils work at their own pace and largely independently. On successful completion of the course, they are awarded an Open University Digital Badge and statement of participation, which have recognised status with employers. They can also talk about this independent learning in job interviews and on their university statement in addition to using it as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award.

Congratulations to CiCi, Caterham School’s first graduate who is pictured with her award, which she gained in record time.

MASKED THEATRE CLUB

The Masked Theatre Club have been meeting in the Art Department to learn how to make their own theatre masks, under guidance from Miss Taylor and Mr Kingscott.

In the autumn term they learnt all about the different styles of theatre masks and got to try lots of different styles of performance. But this term it was time to put all these skills to the test.

They started by making mask shapes using modroc (if you’ve ever had a broken arm, it’s the material that the plaster cast is made from). They then added interesting expressions such as big eyebrows, wrinkles, pouty lips and one (very) long nose. Then they painted the masks and added colour using sharpies to finish.

SCIENCE CLUB PROMPTING CURIOSITY

During the autumn term, over 20 Second and Third Year pupils regularly spent their Friday lunchtimes investigating all manner of curiosities from the scientific world at Caterham’s Science Club.

Each week brings a different theme, learning some of the theory not taught during lessons, allowing them to get stuck into exciting experiments and practicals and taking away with them bespoke fact-file cards with extra links to books, videos and documentaries to further unleash the beauty of science.

Les Petits Filous

The French Junior Club “Les Petits Filous” was delighted to welcome its new members. We had a fun and competitive Kahoot on French general knowledge with some amazing scores. Our “Petits Filous” had also the pleasure to taste some authentic French biscuits.

Well done to them!

Over this term, pupils have grown dendritic tin crystals out of clear stannous chloride solution, dissected regurgitated owl pellets to find the skeletal remains of mice and birds, witnessed the brilliant violet flame from indium metal, and shown that the chlorophyll within leaves causes them to fluoresce red under ultraviolet light.

From making scented candles to investigating radioactive rocks, and from making the science lab into a giant camera obscura (and making photographs from silver nitrate solution) to investigating the properties of bone (and what happens when they’re left in acid!), no rock (igneous or otherwise) has been left unturned in our mission to understand the Universe around us. The first half term’s competition on investigating how to power London’s energy usage using hamsters(!) was won by Kiana and Marusia (Second Year).

DR SCOTT

GREENPOWER CAR CLUB RACING AT GOODWOOD

On May 13 Third and Fourth Year pupils raced their Greenpower Electric Race Car at Goodwood Motor Circuit.

They have been assembling the car along with designing the bodywork since September and after lots of hard work and resilience they were finally able to put their efforts to the test.

The day consisted of two 90-minute endurance races where the team tried to complete as many laps as possible on their two batteries. Our first race was fantastic and after completing nine laps, we finished in 34th place with an average speed of over 20 mph. After a battery change and a few tightened bolts, race 2 kicked off but sadly the car had to be retired after a couple laps. While this was

a disappointing end to the day, the team are excited to fix the race car and get back on the track soon. For our first event the team performed admirably and learned an incredible amount that they can carry through into the racing season next year.

A big thank you must go to the Parents Association who have kindly sponsored this project for the past year. Their financial assistance has been invaluable and made this whole project possible.

UPLIFTING AND JOYFUL

& Juliet

It was an incredibly uplifting and joyful production that had everyone dancing in their seats and grinning from ear to ear. By the time the confetti fell, spirits were through the roof and everyone’s best arm waving, hip swaying and hand clapping was underway! This was an inspirational trip for the group who are devising their own mini-jukebox musical in preparation for the Orchard Theatre Festival. Seeing how pop classics such as Bon Jovi’s ‘It’s My Life’, Backstreet Boys’ ‘I Want it That Way’ and Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’ could be combined in a retelling of the story of Romeo and Juliet really got the creative juices flowing.

In May the Making a Musical club took a trip to see ‘& Juliet’ in the West End.

FRENCH JUNIOR CLUB Escape Room Experience for

First Years

It was all hands-on deck for the final event of the year for The French Junior Club, ‘Les Petits Filous’. Thanks to the expert advice from the Science and History departments and fabulous input from the Drama team to create an awesome Escape room experience, 20 very excited First Year pupils equipped with a “French passport”, a pen and their iPad gathered in the foyer of the Humphreys Theatre ready to start their French adventure through time and history. They faced challenges going from room to room, from Prehistoric times- where pupils had to use their French knowledge of vocabulary for animals and food, to the Norman Conquest where they had to translate into French a letter left for Guillaume Le Conquérant and find, with LED lamps, French words written in invisible ink. They then arrived in Madame Marie Curie’s lab where challenges involved figuring out how to switch on a magic electrical circuit using colours in French, looking into microscopes, mixing some chemistry solutions to find an unidentified chemical

SUMMER OF CODE COMPETITIONJason Impresses Judges

Congratulations to Jason C (Fourth Year), winner of the annual Summer of Code competition.

Judges were particularly impressed with the way he took the traditional game Labyrinth and gave it a new twist. In Jason’s version, not only did you take have to control a ball around a maze by tilting the base but he introduced obstacles to negotiate. Smaller obstacles could be solved by bouncing the ball whist other required the player to bounce off other surfaces to gain more height. The most difficult challenges needed the ball to be travelling at speed, making it very hard to control!

solution, all of it “en Français “ of course. The last room featured a futuristic décor with sound effects where QR codes gave them access to more challenges linked to recognising French towns, rivers and more food as well as dealing with some tricky French tongue twisters. All these challenges led them to identify a code for a safe where they could collect their reward, if they had managed to crack the code with the help of Marcus C our “fantastique” Upper Sixth French pupil and President of the French Society. Bravo to “les Petits Filous” for taking part in this adventure and “un grand merci” to the staff that made this wonderful adventure possible.

Junior French Club L’Epiphanie

The French Junior Club, “Les Petits Filous”, First and Second Years celebrated “l’Epiphanie” or Kings day. They enjoyed decorating their own crowns while listening to French music and practising the colours in French. They learnt about the Kings cake or “le gâteau des rois” in France and the traditions around this French festival. It was then time to taste the famous “gâteau” to everyone’s delight.

CATERHAM LEGOCATS

LEGO LEAGUE TOURNAMENT

Ten First and Second Year LegoCats participated in the London-Lewisham Regional Tournament, as part of the international FIRST Lego League robotics competition.

They had to build and program a robot to complete a variety of challenges, based on the theme of Cargo Connect using the Lego Robotics system. They also had to make an Innovation Presentation tackling a current issue within the global shipping infrastructure. Alex, Will and Ann delivered a fantastic presentation on the use of robots to aid in the efficiency and loss prevention of moving containers at ports. Pupils represented themselves and the school brilliantly and performed at the highest level. They received the ‘Rising Star’ Award, for the best new team.

Congratulations to all of those who participated!

THE WRIGHT SOCIETY

A&E DOCTORS GIVE INTERNACTIVE

PRESENTATION

Three doctors from East Surrey Hospital, who practise Emergency Medicine, came to talk to the Lower Sixth Wright Society. We were honoured that they gave up their precious day-off to run an exciting interactive session for us! Their session included an introduction into what Emergency Medicine looks like in practice; how to specialise in Emergency Medicine and the positives and negatives that come with the job. Whilst working in a pressurised environment with a tricky work-life balance, it was lovely

to hear how they described A&E as a family, creating an overall positive experience as one works with friends and support each other.

The second half of the session focused on three interactive stations: how to deal with a

dislocated wrist; how to use ultrasound to insert a cannula into a vein and how to conduct a surgical suture (stitches) on a banana. So much was squeezed into so little time.

A massive thank you to Mr Yasir Shaukat (Consultant in Emergency Medicine), Dr Yathin Thammaiah and Dr Mohamed Musa for giving up their previous day off to come to teach our Lower Sixth Medics.

ENRICHMENT DAY SECOND YEAR VISIT HERSTMONCEUX

As part of the Enrichment Day in September, Second Year pupils enjoyed a visit to the historic Observatory at Herstmonceux, East Sussex.

They boarded the coaches (which Mr Evans had conspicuously named after two Space Shuttles, namely Discovery and Atlantis) after morning registration. With Second Year science featuring lots of opportunities for practical work and team-building tasks, the events at the Observatory made for a terrific “teaser trailer” for the rest of the year.

The teams were divided by Houses, with one team representing each House and four other teams (all of which were named after characters from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons) representing “coalitions” between two or more

Houses. Lewisham made their mark when they built a sufficiently tall tower (2.92 m) that Mr Evans could not reach up to the top of it with a tape measure and a small step ladder. Team Forest Green, a coalition of Ridgefield and Underwood pupils, took an excellent second place in the tower-building challenge, which tested their decision-making abilities regarding which blocks they needed to use from a small selection. Meanwhile, over at the codebreaking challenge, Team Rhapsody (a coalition of members of all six Houses) excelled at deciphering a series of cryptic messages by interpreting a coded

wheel of symbols. Congratulations must go to Lewisham for winning the team challenges overall.

Whenever the teams were not completing these challenges, they were busy discovering the many delights around the site. Dome F (a series of infographics and exhibits about the history of astronomy) proved very popular, as did the interactive Telescope Tour (in which several pupils delivered excellent role play performances as an astronomer and a distant star), and the ever-popular Discovery Park exhibits made welcome return appearances.

INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PRIZE FINALS NIGHT

All six finalists gave a night to remember.

Each finalist presented for seven minutes on their project, an unenviable task in itself given the scope of each IRP! They then answered unseen questions from both the judging panel and the audience. Each Upper Sixth pupil spoke with great clarity and passion on a wonderfully diverse range of themes. Congratulations to them all but in particular to the winners of the named prizes;

Overall Winner: Lilly M

Runners Up: Will P and Fleur M

Audience Prize: Alex R

FOURTH YEAR Head to London Museums

The Fourth Year enrichment day was a trip to the Natural History and Science Museums in London. Teachers and pupils were equally delighted to explore the treasures and highlights of both the natural and scientific worlds. Space, dinosaurs, volcanoes and gemstones were at the top of the list, while some pupils also enjoyed a ride on the flight simulator. For many pupils it was their first school trip while at Caterham and it was a great opportunity to be with friends across the year group.

Academic Enrichment

DR SIMON SLEIGHT TALKS CULTURE

In December, Dr Simon Sleight from King’s College London gave an insightful talk about Urban Youth Cultures in Australia after the Cold War period to a selection of pupils in the Humphrey’s Theatre. This involved students, subcultures and everyday life after the Cold War period. There was a lot about fashion and the comparison between leisure time in the past and the present. The focus on ‘bodgie’ and ‘widgie’ youth culture was particularly interesting, as it also examined the increase in spending leisure time dancing and partying. Dr Sleight finished by answering some questions regarding the economic, political and social changes that shaped, or were shaped by, these new and often rebellious movements.

Many thanks to Dr Sleight for coming and giving such an exciting talk.

ANNIE L & NARAYAN M (THIRD YEAR)

Enrichment Programme

Sixth Form pupils took part in a wider enrichment programme based on the book The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

Departments and form tutors led wide-ranging discussions on complex issues surrounding science, ethics, economics, class, race and racism against a backdrop of American history and politics. Mrs Webster and Dr Langdon presented a lunchtime masterclass in the Library on the ethics of medical research. This was both historic and a look forward to some of the challenges facing societies today.

WIDER CIRCLES

Anti-Bullying Week

ODD SOCKS DAY

CATERHAM SCHOOL JOINED SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES ACROSS THE UK TO RAISE AWARENESS OF ANTI-BULLYING WEEK. We marked this by wearing odd socks, giving pupils the opportunity to express their individuality and spread awareness of the core values of Anti-bullying Week. Pupils and staff brightened up their classrooms with fabulously patterned socks and glorious clashing colours! This event was supported by assemblies to all year groups throughout this week, focusing on this year’s theme – One Kind Word.

EDGE MARKETPLACE

THE CONCOURSE WAS BUZZING WITH ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCITEMENT AS THE FIRST EDGE MARKETPLACE EVENT TOOK PLACE.

The Edge programme in Third Year is a 10-week course during which our pupils learn the basics of business planning and creation form our resident experts in the Business and Economics department. Working in teams, they take the theory learnt in class and create and market a business using a modest amount of seed capital. November

saw the first opportunity for the teams to sell their products to the Caterham community and the range of ideas and innovation were impressive. Our pupil businesses ranged from homemade candles, personalised t-shirts and beeswax wraps through to made-to-order fruit yoghurts and quirky keyboard button covers.

It was remarkable to see the

energy and excitement of both sellers and their potential buyers. The pupil businesses have a chance to reflect on their efforts post-event and consider if and how they might develop their ideas. Any profits will be donated to charity at the end of the year, once the full cohort or intrepid entrepreneurs have had their chance to share their ideas with the community.

SHOWING OUR STRIPES FOR GIVING DAY

The bee-themed fancy dress day took place in March as stripes adorned outfits worn by both pupils and staff. Some larger-than-life bees buzzed about the building and some dapper dressers simply cut a dash in lines and stripes. Pupils voted for their best-dressed member of staff at the Giving Day hub. The winner was Mrs Webster who fully embraced the theme – a double win following Mrs W’s recent Book Day dress up gold position.

CHARITY COMMITTEE £6K RAISED FOR YOUNGMINDS

The Charity Committee were delighted to receive a letter of thanks from Young Minds for the huge £6000 raised.

Thank you so much for fundraising for YoungMinds. That is such an amazing donation!

It’s hard to watch young people struggling. And it’s even harder when it feels like there’s no one at all who can help. Since the pandemic, millions more young people are struggling to cope with their feelings.

When young people don’t have access to the support they need, when they need it, their mental health often gets worse, with some reaching crisis point. More families need our support. And far too many young lives have been lost.

That is why we are on hand to help. More young people need our help more than ever, which means we need you more than ever.

Your support helps us to be there for families when they need it most.

Julia Garden, Community Engagement Officer, YoungMinds

Partnerships LAE BUDDIES

Members of the Lower Sixth Form spent the day at the London Academy of Excellence, reuniting with their LAE buddies from their visit to Caterham in September. The day was spent completing various tasks around the Olympic park and enjoying spending time with fellow students in Stratford. Plans were formed for joint activities next year – from sports and film to collaborative academic study. collaborative academic study.

CHINESE NEW YEAR

Celebrating the Year of the Tiger

Chinese New Year started on 1st Februrary. The year of Tiger - symbol of strength and braveness.

We celebrated by putting up beautiful decorations around the school and holding assemblies for all year groups.

Pupils were invited to set up the new year decorations in hope of putting everyone into a festive mode. They could be seen at the entrance of the school with couplets, dragons and lovely hanging pieces.

At the assemblies held for all year groups, pupils enjoyed a presentation on the origin, customs of the Chinese New Year, Chinese zodiac signs and meanings, red envelopes gifting rules etc. They have also learnt how to say new year greetings with a hand gesturethe proper Chinese way.

THE ORPHEUS CENTRE Repeat the Beat

A big drum roll for our very own Dave Perkins from the School Maintenance team who raised money for this very worthy cause by playing his drums constantly for 12 hours solid!

Our pupil drum group did this for five minutes, using the Game of Thrones drum beat, so (high) hats off to Dave for his drumathon!

This unique and special event was in memory and celebration of Orpheus student Lucy, a talented drummer who passed away in 2020.

The Orpheus Centre is an independent specialist college in Surrey which supports young disabled adults to learn important skills to live independently and gain employment. We believe that every young disabled person should have the same opportunities as their non-disabled peers. We offer a holistic learning programme, a supported housing scheme and a domiciliary care service. Everything at Orpheus is focussed on maximising lasting independence and quality of life for our pupils.

SIXTH FORM CHARITY COMMITTEE Supporting Mercy Ships

It was fantastic to welcome David Hatch, and his partner Diana, to lead a Sixth Form assembly on Mercy Ships, a charity the school has passionately fundraised for this year.

David, an Old Caterhamian who left the school in 1955, a retired Professor of Paediatric Anaesthesia at Great Ormond Street, and Mercy Ships advocate, inspired Sixth Form pupils to keep up the great work supporting this charity in his assembly. David reminded pupils of the organisations role in deploying hospital ships to some of the poorest countries in the world, and how funds raised have enabled surgeries to people with little to no access to care. Pupils were full of questions for David about his work and how they might continue to support Mercy Ships and engage further with international development opportunities.

Partnerships CLIFTON HILL SPORTS DAY

At Caterham we hosted pupils from Clifton Hill School (a school for pupils 11-19 with severe and profound multiple learning difficulties). We had sports mornings for their Key Stage 3 pupils and a repeat day for Key Stage 4. Our Lower Sixth Form organised a series of physical activities for the pupils on our astro pitch. The event was attended by parents, everyone got a medal and a cookie, and a great time was had by all in the sunshine!

SILENCE IS NOT AN OPTION

We were delighted to welcome Hon Stuart Lawrence to Caterham School this week to talk to our Second and Third Year pupils about his new book ‘Silence Is Not An Option’. Stuart is an author, motivational and public speaker with over 20 years’ experience as a youth engagement specialist.

His brother Stephen Lawrence was murdered in 1993 in a racially motivated attack. His family’s tireless campaign for justice has led to cultural shifts and changes in attitudes towards racism within our community. This fight and their story are still as impactful and important today as it was in the 90s, whilst the fight for justice and change continues.

Stuart talked to pupils about resilience and the importance of campaigning for positive change. They were encouraged to think about how they can play a part in making their community cohesive and supportive.

Pupils will continue to explore the themes of his book during tutor sessions next year. We are very grateful to Mr Bance for his support in making this event happen.

Second Year Disco Inferno

Lots of fun was had at the Second Year Charity Disco. Pupils raised money for the school charities by buying tickets and enjoying a fun evening. Many thanks to the Sixth Form Charity Committee who organised the event.

STUART LAURENCE VISITS

Partnerships

COMMUNITY DAY & HORRIBLE HISTORIES

Our teachers and Lower Sixth pupils had a great time hosting pupils from St Stephen’s, Whyteleafe and Holland Schools.

The morning involved fun sessions in STEM, drama, history, geography and philosophy, run by Caterham teachers, assisted by Lower Sixth pupils – there was fun and learning for all! In the afternoon the 150 pupils involved joined other schools for the Horrible Histories matinee performance.

SCIENCE EXTRAVAGANZA

Eighty Year Five pupils from St John’s Primary School in Caterham visited our Science Department for a day of enrichment.

The children enjoyed three separate sessions run by our biology, chemistry and physics teachers. Across these sessions they learnt about sound waves, chemical and physical changes and how to use a microscope.

The St John’s pupils had an amazing time - thank you to our brilliant science teachers for organising such a successful day!

She began sharing her experiences of rape culture on Instagram in 2020. This started an important conversation about how we equip young people to manage some of the challenges and expectations they face. At only 22, she has influenced change within the Department for Education, the Home Office, the Police, the Ministry of Justice, Ofsted and has prompted the launch of the NSPCC helpline for survivors of abuse in education.

Her strong message was underpinned by the importance of empathy, open conversations and learning rather than blame. We are very grateful to Roedean School for their hospitality and inviting Caterham School to this fantastic event.

TALK FROM SOMA SARA – Founder of ‘Everyone’s Invited’

Pupils attended an inspiring talk by Soma Sara, exploring the impact of her groundbreaking ‘Everyone’s Invited’ platform and the positive change that has followed.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

An Inspiring Evening of Celebration

We were delighted to see so many members of our school community joining us to celebrate our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion journey over the past two years.

The evening was hosted by our Sixth Form Heads of School who presented the steps we have taken towards creating a culturally inclusive environment, challenging inequality and valuing our diverse community. They were joined by Candice (Fifth

FIZZY

MATHS

Year) and Jas (Third Year), forming an inspiring team, who gave an authentic and powerful account of the positive impact our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion work has had on them and the wider school community.

Response to the evening was overwhelmingly positive, recognising the importance of openness within this journey, the learning needed to progress and the significant achievements of the past two years.

WE HOSTED MATHEMATICIANS FROM OUR EAST SURREY LEARNING PARTNERSHIP PRIMARY SCHOOLS: AUDLEY, ST JOHN’S AND FURZEFIELD.

Mrs Griffith’s ‘Fizzy Maths’ session was aimed at pupils with high attainment, developing their smart thinking skills and characteristics such as confidence, perseverance and resilience (and having fun). An Audley pupil told us: “I learnt how to do maths using creativity” and a St John’s pupil: “The main thing I have learnt is that it’s okay to get things wrong.”

Mrs Griffiths had designed resource packs for the pupils to work on in advance of the session, which is all part of an ongoing program of maths collaboration within the ESLP.

OUTDOOR LEARNING & DUKE OF EDINBURGH

WILDCATS

Local Scouts Tackle the High Ropes

On Tuesday 7 June the Outdoor Learning Department welcomed the Third Caterham Scout group for an evening of Wildcat adventures. The Scouts overcame their fears to bravely take on the High Ropes course, which for many was a real challenge. Well done to all of those involved.

Fourth Year Silver Expedition

The Fourth Year Duke of Edinburgh expedition party headed out to the Chiltern Hills on the morning of Thursday 26 May, ready for three days’ worth of thrilling rural route planning and hiking.

After meeting at the front of school in the early hours of that Thursday, the expeditioners loaded their bags onto three buses, with the main challenge being “finding the right bus.” The M25 was mostly cooperative with its traffic, apart from the final few miles before the M40, during which we came to a brief standstill and had to watch a succession of vehicles passing us in the next lane. A short while later, we headed down a narrow country road and arrived at our expedition launch pad, where we met our assessors from Adventure Expeditions, a firm that specialises in hosting and assessing D of E activities.

The assessors briefed the expeditioners on “the rules of the route,” including the Country Code (not to mention how to pack a fully stocked D of E bag), and then the teams headed off. Meanwhile, Mr Wilkinson and the rest of the

Caterham trip staff set sail for a few more junctions up the M40 so that we could set up camp at the campsite end point for the day’s route. After a quick lunch, several of us walked along the route (from the finishing line), surveying the unrivalled natural beauty of the Thames Valley path in and near Bourne End and Marlow. When we

encountered an increasing selection of teams at various places on the route, we tried and failed to remain inconspicuous.

In the evening, having been debriefed by their assessors and installed their tents, the teams undertook another of the great D of E rites of passage: cooking their first evening meal of the expedition. There was some memorable confusion about where to find the water refill station, and some unforgettable confusion about how the tap worked at one water refill station, but we all ate very well. We all remarked that the busy road near the campsite was unlikely to fall silent at any point during the night but being the outdoor-minded expeditioners that we are, we did not let that faze us. Atlanta, an adorable black cat who frequently visits the campsite, walked over and greeted us just after nightfall, and then she waved us off the following morning.

DofE expeditions, as exposing and self-guided as they are, have always been among the best platform for highlighting friendships and great citizenship.

Friday 27 and Saturday 28 May included lots more walking, cooking and camping. The Friday campsite was trickier to find than the Thursday one, but once we knew where the correct field was, we were able to set up in good time. Several teams, however, initially got the wrong impression about which gate would lead into the correct field, and after finding their initial gate closed, they had to double back and walk another hundred metres down the road. This could have been a hefty “Fieldgate Scandal,” but the teams took the diversion in their strides.

The Friday evening, after dinner (during which the staff cooked a terrific curry, albeit one that included some staggeringly hot chilli, which left its mark for several minutes), some of the teams joined forces for a series of cricket and rounders matches. The camaraderie at these matches was top notch, and they really illustrated the priceless value of the friendships between the teams. D of E expeditions, as exposing and self-guided as they are, have always

been among the best platform for highlighting friendships and great citizenship.

The Saturday expedition concluded with a lunch on a village green, followed by a walk to a slightly dilapidated coach pick-up point (the pick-up point

was dilapidated, not the coaches). Miss Dawrant and I had to draw on our considerable experience as Refectory lunch queue duty staff to make sure that the coach queues were unambiguous and that the assessors had all the opportunities that they needed to complete their final sign-offs. The first few teams through the queue boarded Coach 1, which reshuffled the coach passenger lists, and then we headed back to Caterham in an impressively quick time via mostly clear motorways. After our return, I bid the teams “farewell” by encouraging them to savour this magical landmark moment of having completed their silver expeditions.

Thank you so much to everyone who was involved in the expedition. Those three days were a perfect representation of the “be yourself, be a model citizen, challenge yourself” ethos that underpins the Duke of Edinburgh scheme.

Duke of Edinburgh GOLD CONGRATULATIONS TO OLDCATS

Congratulations to the Old Cats who attended their Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award Presentation at St James Palace.

With three progressive levels, the Gold Award is the pinnacle of the programme and requires two self-sufficient expeditions for four days and three nights walking for 7 to 8 hours each day. This is in addition to a full year of voluntary work plus six to twelve months of a skill and physical activity for at least one hour a week. Whilst the awards require significant commitment from each individual, they offer a life changing experience and the opportunity to develop key essential skills for life and work.

The award, presented by HRH the Earl of Wessex went to: Euan A, Imogen R, Laura C, Nicholas VD, Sanjana I, Thomas B and William S

MR R. EVANS TEACHER OF CHEMISTRY, HEAD OF RIDGEFIELD DUKE OF EDINBURGH EXPEDITION STAFF

‘be yourself, be a model citizen, challenge yourself’ ethos that underpins the Duke of Edinburgh scheme.

BLOCKBUSTER TALENT SHOW FOR GOOD CAUSES

Caterham School Talent Show returned to the Humphreys Theatre for the first time in two years.

It was wonderful to be able to welcome an incredible array of acts to the stage, some of whom were veterans of the Talent Show from previous years, and others of whom were debutants. Both the Matinee and Evening Shows were worth every penny of the ticket price, and by supporting our acts, the audience was also supporting the Charity Committee’s nominated good causes for this year, Lerang’wa Lunches and Mercy Ships.

The Matinee Show was an exemplar variety event, featuring barnstorming vocals, poetic dancing, roof-raising music, and hilarious comedy. With Elias and Sahil (Upper Sixth) introducing the performers, everyone rose to the occasion, as did Mr Patterson, who kept the audience on tenterhooks with a classic riddle while the judges were deciding who the top three acts were. Third place went to Will and Samuel (Second Year), second place to Alice and Victoria (Fifth Year), and the star prize went to Vincent Ku (Fourth Year), for his electrifying electric guitar solo. Congratulations to them and to all the other acts who featured on the bill.

The Evening Show was another blockbuster. As ever, the Upper Sixth Dance Battle was the marquee event of this show, and in many ways, the hype was greater than ever this year - not just because the Dance Battle was

back for the first time since 2020, but also because the teams had one fewer week than their Upper Sixth predecessors to put their performances together. There was no danger, however, that the performances would be beautifully unfinished - but the writing was very much on the wall for one team when the judges decided which super troupers had won the Dance Battle.

Coincidentally, Writing’s On The Wall, Beautifully Unfinished and Super Trouper were among the songs chosen by our singers during the Evening Show.

Third place was awarded to Fiona (Lower Sixth) and Glenn

(Upper Sixth), second place to Anna (Lower Sixth), and first place to Marcus and Jerry (Fifth Year), for their stunning cello-andpiano rendition of Lewis Capaldi’s Someone You Loved.

After this, the Dance Battle commenced. Having attended several rehearsal sessions by both teams, I was watching closely to see how their performances were evolving. It was great to see how brilliantly they came together on the night, especially given their relatively short rehearsal time. Highlights included the boys’ team’s rendition of Will Smith’s Miami and the girls’ team’s tribute to a completely different US city

(Los Angeles) with Fergie’s L.A. Love. In the end, the judges had to make their calls independently of each other and on the spur of the moment, and the boys emerged victorious. Congratulations to everyone who stepped into Caterham folklore by participating in the Battle.

I would like to extend my thanks to the Charity Committee, Mr Fahey, and Mr Patterson for organising and publicising the Talent Show; to our in-house crew, including the frontof-house team and Mr Baddeley’s theatre technicians, for setting up the literal and metaphorical spotlights; our aforementioned compères (Elias and Sahil); and my fellow judges (Mrs McMullin, Miss Branson, and Mr Park). Having written an English homework piece back in my school days in which I reimagined The Secret Life of Walter Mitty as a story in which I was secretly a Britain’s Got Talent

judge, it was an unexpected honour to be invited to step onto the judging panel at the eleventh hour for an event that means so much to the Caterham community. Here’s to a very successful remainder of the year in charity events and the performing arts.

MR R EVANS TEACHER OF CHEMISTRY EVENING SHOW JUDGE, 22 JANUARY 2022

CCF RECRUITS CAMP

RCT KAYLA PRASHAD, THIRD YEAR RAF

A Recruits-Eye Account

In my Third Year I was intrigued to find out more about Corps. It seemed to offer challenges and rewards which would give me different skills for life and potentially a military career. I attended the meetings held on Wednesday afternoons, learning about drill, fieldcraft, aviation … let alone a new set of vocabulary! Three days away at camp offered an ideal opportunity in a safe environment in which new friends could be made and skills learned.

We arrived early on Saturday of half-term for kit inspection, showing our NCOs our bags and uniform, and then headed off to Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex. My first impression of our accommodation was reminiscent of a dreary hospital room – the Army isn’t big on luxury!

Would I recommend Corps?

After a hot lunch, we formed up in our sections (I was allocated to ‘Blenheim’), ready for the day’s activities – field signals, observation, drill and instruction in weapon handling on the small-bore target rifle. A hearty dinner was followed by more exercises in night movement (which involved crawling through mud and avoiding being seen by the ‘ enemy’), light and sound at night and a test on the rifle. By 2230 hrs (that’s half-past 10!) we were dismissed to our beds after an exhilarating day.

At 0615 hrs the next morning we were awake for a full English and billet inspection, followed by a two-hour navigation exercise out to Pippingford Park Training Areas (my section cunningly diverted via a café). On area, the activities included stalking, camouflage and concealment and cooking and shelter in the field – all preparing us for the evening’s exercise. It was getting dark as we were briefed by the Commanding Officer on our mission and made our way out into the forest, but swiftly we fell into a deafening ambush from the

enemy. We crawled to safety using the techniques we’d learned before breaking off to our objectives: to find covert information about the enemy without being seen or heard. Through a light rain and darkness (and a lot of mud) we fought on, determined to find five locations. My section found four and were thrilled at our teamwork when all the sections gathered in herringbone as the exercise came to an end at 2100 hrs. After a debrief from the CO and a warm coach back to camp, we flopped into bed, completely exhausted.

The final day arrived and, like the others, we woke up very early for breakfast and inspection. Another busy day beckoned: target rifle shooting on the range, a paint-ball ‘close-quarter battle’ course and an obstacle course. They proved to be great fun and wonderful experiences, especially as Blenheim took the fastest time on the obstacle course. Lunch and a final parade followed, with several awards made to my friends. The homeward coach arrived and we all left with experiences which would last a lifetime.

On reflection, as a new recruit to CCF, I felt compelled to write up my account of my adventures. Would I recommend Corps? It’s certainly not for everyone, but I know the skills and values it provides will help enormously with school and life beyond. Personally, I have enjoyed it very much indeed and I thoroughly recommend trying it to everyone. It encourages self-reliance, time management, teamwork, fitness and challenge. I have increased respect for the CCF staff at school and now can’t wait to build on this great experience.

It’s certainly not for everyone, but I know the skills and values it provides will help enormously.

CATERHAM & TRINITY CADETS JOIN FORCES

JOINT JNCO CADRE CAMP

Corps was delighted to run for the first time a joint camp with Trinity School CCF.

Thirty-four cadets from the Fifth Year and Lower Sixth of both schools underwent a rigorous five-day cadre to practise and assess their skills as potential junior non-commissioned officers. Working in four squads with leadership duties shared amongst them, the cadets revised core military skills such as skill-atarms, drill, fieldcraft and military knowledge. On Saturday, the students were put through their leadership paces on assessed command tasks and had a chance to compete with their squad in the exhausting march and shoot competition. In the evening, each of them delivered a theory lesson on topics from badges of rank to the history of the Royal Air Force, with officers assessing their instructorship and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Sunday saw the cadre head out to training areas for a day in the field. Students had a chance to lead their sections into enemy contacts, testing their skills as

section commanders; to manage a casualty evacuation under fire (with terrifyingly life-like wounds); to lead a patrol; and to mount an OP on unsuspecting recruits. The chance to be instructed by Caterham’s new SSI, Capt Jones (sometime RSM of the Infantry Battle School) was invaluable for all. Cdt Cha, Cpl Hannah and Cpl Willson N showed particular talents in the field, as would be expected of the cream of the Army’s crop.

Monday brought the dreaded practical TPs, when the cadets delivered a skills-based lesson to their peers. Having prepared kit, resources and lesson plans in advance, they instructed one another in movement with the weapon, camouflage and concealment, target indication and many other lessons from the fieldcraft syllabus, all again assessed in detail by officers for feedback and grading. Cdt Case, Cdt Bortey and Cpl Thurgood shone in particular with some excellent and innovative training periods.

Tuesday concluded an exciting and demanding camp with an inter-squad competition of tug of war and the obstacle course.

CAPT MATHEW OWEN, OC ARMY SECTION

Muddy, sweaty and smiling broadly, the cadets threw themselves into the fray with the gusto they had shown throughout, until Yellow Squad emerged as narrow victors. A smart final parade beneath Caterham and Trinity’s banners brought camp to a conclusion. All the cadets were deservedly congratulated on their fine performances, and particular prizes were awarded:

There is no doubt that there are some fine JNCOs in both units to lead their juniors in the years to come. Nor is there any doubt that this highly successful camp will not be the last venture in which Caterham and Trinity join forces to great effect.

CCF

80th

Anniversary Dinner

RAF Club, London

In 1941, during the dark days of the Second World War, 574 (Caterham School) Sqn ATC was inaugurated and began the life of the cadet movement at Caterham.

To mark our 80th anniversary, the Officers’ Mess met in the salubrious surroundings of the RAF Club in Piccadilly for a most convivial evening. Also present were several long-time friends of Corps and ex-members of the mess, along with long-suffering partners, as our large group gathered in a private dining room to eat, drink, tell old tales of

times gone by and look with optimism to the future of a very healthy contingent. It was a splendid and memorable evening and fitting way to toast all that Corps has given to generations of Caterhamianshere’s to another 80!

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY

Caterham School community, including parents, Old Caterhamians and friends of the school gathered to remember the fallen on Sunday 14 November.

It wonderful to welcome back to school our guests to take part in this important part of the school year. The CCF led the service with an impeccable parade. Recognition must also go to musicians and singers who took part in the Remembrance Service. The musical elements bring poignancy and depth to this most important occasion and this year included the introduction of Bagpipes, played superbly by Dr Chris Sinclair. Coupled with the sound of the distant drums, the Hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ signalled the start of the service accompanied by the Wind Orchestra. The Wind Orchestra was honoured to accompany the 150 strong parade of cadets with a March by Holst. The fantastic Trumpet Fanfare performed the Last Post- the sound echoed hauntingly across Harestone Valley.

During the Service, Chamber Choir and ETS sang the moving anthem ‘Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep’ by Howard Goodall in a moving and expressive performance. The service was followed by the annual choral Recital of Reflection and Contemplation in the Wilberforce Hall. Pieces by Tavener, Tallis and Purcell were included in this most beautiful performance attended by parents, families and many Old Caterhamians.

WG CDR KEVIN BAGE CONTINGENT COMMANDER

CCF Range & Obstacle Course Day

ST MARTIN’S PLAIN

Twenty-five cadets travelled to St Martin’s Plain, Folkestone for a day’s marksmanship training in October.

The cadets, mainly from the Fourth Year and Lower Sixth, completed a demanding session on the electronic DCCT Range, practising the weapon handling skills and applied marksmanship principles and analysing their shooting through the use of a state-of-theart computer system. In the afternoon, the cadets were put through their paces on the obstacle course, crawling through tunnels, clambering up a 10 foot wall and swinging across (or, in some cases, into) a pool of murky water. It was a splendid day in fine weather, during which all of the cadets performed admirably.

CCF EX WYE WANDERER ADVENTURE TRAINING CAMP

Based at Cinderford in the heart of the Forest of Dean, the programme began with a 9-mile open canoe trip down the River Wye, in full spate and torrenting along past the beautiful countryside and famous limestone faces of Symonds Yat. Some boats raced ahead; some stopped on the banks to commune with cattle; some (Cdt Owen) enjoyed an easy ride while pretending to paddle. An evening quiz night and a good feed recharged the cold, damp cadets for Day 2. The OC’s penetrating insight that “it doesn’t rain underground” led the contingent deep into the wonderful caves

of the Llangattock escarpment: starting in a cavern used in centuries past as a chapel for dissenting Christian communities, the cadets scrambled, rolled and luged their ways through narrow tunnels into a beautiful unseen world. Sometimes fully submerged, head under the water and helmet banging on the rock above in search of air, the cadets showed enormous courage and physical endurance during a demanding day, and when they emerged in the late afternoon they were full of smiles and enthusiasm for the experience.

The weather was by now biblical as Day 3 took us to Morlais for climbing on the imposing rock faces of the old quarry. With rain and wind conspiring to wash them away to the sea, the cadets were again outstanding: whether climbing up the slippery faces or abseiling 50 feet from wind-swept ledges, their Blitz spirit and camaraderie pulled them ever

closer together. And in a flash it was Day 4, and a strange yellow sphere appeared overhead as the rain cleared. Off we went for muddy, wildly fast and exhilarating mountain biking at Coleford during which most cadets clung on, but a couple spent more time off than John Wayne’s safety catch. And so the exercise came to an end, one which had seen cadets from five year-groups meet the great challenges of weather, face up to some demanding training, and prevail with a positivity and esprit de corps which left our instructors in genuine awe.

The sky was pregnant with rain on the Monday of half-term as forty-five members of Corps bused out to Gloucestershire for Ex ‘Wye Wanderer’.

CCF Ex EAGER TIGER Recruits Fieldcraft Assessment Day

Third Year Army recruits undertake training in the Army Proficiency Certificate (Basic) throughout their first year with Corps. At the heart of this syllabus is fieldcraft – operating as a rifleman in an infantry section in the field. Six months of training was put to the test on a damp Sunday in March as the recruits made for Pippingford Park.

The cadets conducted patrols, demonstrating their competence in various formations and crossing obstacles, before being assessed on their ability to live in the field, erecting two-person shelters and cooking a hot meal from ration packs. Their final assessment gave them their first chance to fire the rifle with blank ammunition, working in pairs to suppress the enemy and advance or withdraw in contact.

The young Army cadets performed admirably and all passed the assessment. Particular congratulations to the following recruits who were deemed ‘Highly Competent’: Rct Gumbley, Rct Hibbert, Rct Jordan, Rct Parsons, Rct Prashad, Rct Termanis and Rct Woods.

CAPT MATHEW OWEN, OC ARMY SECTION

CCF Ex Crowborough Crusader

ADVANCED INFANTRY ASSESSMENT DAY

Just four days after the recruits conducted their fieldcraft assessment, the Army Section returned to Pippingford Park with 40 Fourth Year cadets. Sponsored as we are by the PWRR, a line infantry regiment, all cadets are expected to be proficient in the Advanced Infantry syllabus before progressing to JNCO training in Fifth Year.

The cadets were full of excitement and determination to succeed on a warm spring day as they prepared themselves and their weapons for battle. In the morning, under the instruction of Capt Jones, the assessees conducted a series of rolling advances to contact with blank ammunition over a gruelling. hilly course which tested both their fitness and their understanding of the six section battle drills. Their section and platoon NCOs from Sixth Form were in amongst them too, practising their roles as commanders. After a hasty lunch the OC Army took over as the cadets patrolled to an ambush site on the banks of a tranquil lake. Moments later the bucolic

peace was shattered as a withering volley destroyed an enemy patrol, the cadets showing excellent skills and drills in conducting a deliberate ambush. The final phase of the test was patrol harbours and saw the cadets select and occupy a triangular harbour area in good order.

Almost all of the cadets passed this stern examination of their infantry skills, with several particularly impressing the instructors and receiving a ‘Highly Competent’ grading. A splendid day was had by all doing what Army cadets love most and preparing for several further exercises in the months to come.

SUMMER LIGHTNING URBAN COMBAT EXERCISE

SGT WILLIAM BAKER UPPER SIXTH, ARMY SECTION

During the Easter Holidays this year, the Army Section embarked on a four-day exercise at Longmoor Camp. The objective was to train in close quarter combat and urban operations – Training In a Built-Up Area (TIBUA) – and we were based in Longmoor’s amazing custom-built urban fighting village.

We were engaged in numerous training events including learning to breach buildings using windows and explosives, fighting in buildings and up staircases, and guarding a Security Force Base. Equipped with our new helmets, gloves and knee pads as we got to grips with these new combat techniques, we also learnt about recce patrols, manning vehicle checkpoints and waking up in the small hours of the morning to partake in sentry duty!

A woodland ambush on an enemy convoy and dusk close target reconnaissance on suspected buildings led us to the final exercise, where cadets in two platoons infiltrated a village in a dawn assault, clearing the site of all hostile forces using blank ammunition and lots of smoke. As a Platoon Sergeant throughout the exercise, I loved the opportunity to command cadets under the intense pressure of simulated combat, and the entire exercise was a perfect opportunity to test my leadership skills as well as fitness and core drills. The entire camp was extremely engaging, a really unique experience, and thanks to the detailed instruction of Capt Jones and the other staff the other NCOs and I are eagerly looking forward to next year’s iteration.

CCF ANNUAL GENERAL INSPECTION

AFTER A COVID-ENFORCED HIATUS OF TWO YEARS, CORPS PUT ON ITS ANNUAL SHOWCASE THIS SUNDAY IN BEAUTIFUL SUNSHINE.

An immaculate Guard of Honour welcomed our Inspecting Officer, Col Sir Charlie Sykes Bt, the Commanding Officer and the Headmaster to Home Field. Thereafter a very large audience of parents, staff and guests were shown around various stands, including climbing, fieldcraft, first aid and drill, where the cadets showed off their training. News of a dangerous enemy brought the guests back to Home Field in alarm, but thankfully the Caterham Rifles were on hand once again to save the day. A slick section attack drove the dastardly dissidents from their rickety shacks until all resistance was crushed. There followed the first Army v. RAF Gun Run race: the competition to move a full artillery piece across a

demanding obstacle course was won, inevitably some would say, by the Army team.

The day finished with the whole contingent on parade. Col Sykes commended the cadets on their excellence, commitment and positivity, before awarding prizes: Best Recruit went to Rct Woods (Third Year); Best JNCO to LCpl Case (Fifth Year); and Best Cadets in the two sections to CSM Sharpe and CWO Masters (Upper Sixth). The Stokes Pace Stick was awarded to Head of Corps, RSM Brand (Upper Sixth). As the Union Flag and RAF Ensign were lowered and the National Anthem sounded across a sun-kissed Home Field, all cadets involved could reflect on another outstanding performance at a very busy time of year.

CAPT MATHEW OWEN OC ARMY SECTION

WG CDR KEVIN BAGE CONTINGENT COMMANDER

SENIOR CADET PROMOTIONS A

New Year,

A New Leadership Team

The new academic year catapults a new group of senior cadets to leadership position in Corps.

More than any society at school, Corps is pupil-run, so my team and I take great care in filling the contingent’s top cadet positions.

The Army Section’s two companies, Sobraon Coy and Minden Coy, were given to CSM Matthew Sharpe and CSM Emma Davies respectively. These two new Company Sergeant Majors will be supported by CSgt Cam MacDonald

and CSgt Caius Ramsden-Board, with Sgts Benjamin, Bailey, Greer and Hocking appointed as platoon sergeants below them.

The RAF’s senior cadet became CWO Fleur Masters, ably assisted by FSgt Arthur Bott and, commanding the two flights, Sgt James and Sgt Steedman. FSgt Denton was given the onerous honour of Senior Training Sergeant, her role in arranging weekly training

supported by Sgts Saraf and Martin. The top prize, Head of Corps, went to the year’s outstanding cadet in my team’s opinion: RSM Oliver Brand will carry the Stokes Pace Stick in 2021-22 and, with his strong team, lead Corps through another no doubt enjoyable and successful year. Congratulations and to RSM Brand and all of his team.

CORPS DINNER

Corps marked its foundation in 1941 in April (a little later than tradition usually demands) with the annual Corps Dinner.

180 cadets were joined by officers, representatives of the School including the Headmaster, and guests from the regular and reserve Armed Forces.

After a fine three-course meal, prepared by Mr Ahern and his incomparable team and served by the Fifth Year JNCO Cadre, the Commanding Officer, Wg Cdr Bage, reminded the cadets of their history before introducing the Senior NCO team for their review of the year. Embarrassing images of their superiors’ more youthful years and horrendous jokes aside, RSM Brand and his team delivered a very amusing and polished summary of another busy twelve months which missed no opportunity both to show the Unit in the best light and to defame the top table. The Headmaster responded in more dignified

fashion, praising the cadets for what their commitment and values bring to School life in the liminal ground between formal classes and unstructured recreation. Our guests declared how impressed they were with Corps and how much they enjoyed the evening, as did all who attended.

VALETE! Corps bids farewell to departing officers

The joy of Christmas was dulled a little for members of Corps as the end of the Autumn Term saw three much-loved officers leave us for new adventures.

After four years’ dedicated service, Lt Ed Tyldesley is promoted to Captain and returns to his beloved Devon to take over as Contingent Commander of ISCA Academy CCF. His enormous passion for the cadet movement, his great patience and puerile sense of fun, his inexplicable desire to wear braces with combat trousers will be enormously missed by cadets and colleagues alike. Meanwhile two Old Caterhamians

and ex-cadets who have been assisting Corps over the past few years move on to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst to begin their training to become regular Army officers. OCdt Richard Webb and OCdt Ed Chatfield have given unstintingly of themselves, passing on their enthusiasm and knowledge to young cadets week in, week out, not to mention on camps. All being well, OCdt Webb will be commissioned into the Royal

Engineers and OCdt Chatfield into the Royal Corps of Signals in 2022. The whole contingent paraded to say farewell, marching past and saluting our departing friends as the band played Auld Lang Syne. There were tears in eyes as valedictory words were said and the leavers were presented with engraved bottles of port and framed mess pictures from the Officer’s Mess and cards from the cadets. All of us will miss these three servants enormously, and we wish them all the very best for the next chapters of their service. Valete!

CCF Passing Out Parade 2022

CADETS END THE YEAR IN STYLE

On a sunny Home Field on the last Wednesday of the Summer Term, a large audience of parents, friends, staff and ex-cadets assembled as over 100 junior cadets and their NCOs marched onto parade to pass out of their respective phases of training. Third Year recruits passed out of basic training and became cadets, while Fourth Year cadets marked the completion of their advanced infantry and aviation cadres. As ever, a recent ex-cadet serving in the forces came to inspect the parade and address them. This year, Lt Matthew Willson RN, who left

Caterham as Head Cadet of the Army Section in 2009, reviewed the parade and spoke of what life as a cadet meant to him and to his career as a submariner in the Royal Navy. He, the Commanding Officer and the Headmaster commended the cadets on their commitment throughout another very busy year and, as the Union Flag and RAF Ensign were lowered, all cadets of the Corps could feel very proud of themselves for all they have achieved over the past three terms.

CPL MARTIN, LOWER SIXTH

LT ALANNA NORTH

CAPT MATHEW OWEN OC ARMY SECTION

Army Section SUMMER CAMP

Over 50 members of Corps participated in the highlight of the Army Section’s training year: annual Summer Camp, this year based at Okehampton, Devon.

The sections were immediately pitted against one another in a competition which rumbled on through the week, testing the cadets in skill-at-arms, drill, fitness, command tasks, air rifle shooting and the DCCT range. After a short night’s kip in their palatial accommodation, the contingent deployed to Scraesdon, a disused Palmerston fort, for a two-day battle exercise in which we joined up with a certain Capt Tyldesley and his new unit, ISCA Academy. In broiling heat, cadets were trained in room clearance by Capt Jones before embarking on a battle exercise like no other: fighting through dingy rooms and sepulchral tunnels, abseiling into a moat; breaking into the fort through mouse holes and providing fire support from high on the ramparts in one of the most demanding and

unusual exercises Corps has run. The surprise arrival of an ice cream van as ‘ENDEX’ was called only broadened the smiles on the cadets’ faces at the close of Ex Scraesdon Siege. Day 4 took the hardy band off to Meadfoot Beach for a day’s adventure training, paddle-boarding and kayaking on the open sea and hurling themselves into it from rocks and cliffs as they coasteered the beautiful south Devon shoreline. After an evening of beach sports and fish and chips and a good

night’s kip, it was time for a two-day sea kayaking expedition – a unique opportunity to see Cornwall as they paddled down the Fowey and a stern test of the cadets’ hardiness. After a day’s paddling out into the open sea, the party landed in a cataclysmic summer rainstorm, spirits undampened, and camped beside the beach at Polmear, singing the National Anthem with a gusto which belied their fatigue around an open fire. And then it was wetsuits on and to sea again, this time without the tide’s help as the cadets paddled through the craggy Cornish rocks to the welcoming, sun-kissed bay at Porthpean.

But still no time to rest: first it was back to camp and straight into uniform for an evening’s air rifle shooting and sports, and then on to Day 7. Capt Jones ran an awesome live firing marksmanship ›

CAPT MATHEW OWEN OC ARMY SECTION

training package at Millpool Ranges near Bodmin as the cadets honed full bore marksmanship at 100m, running forward to the point in full kit and engaging targets from the standing, kneeling, sitting and prone positions. Their peers raised and lowered the targetry from the butts and, as bullets whistled over their heads, our Upper Sixth SNCOs received their outstanding A-Level results in a setting they will never forget. And so to our last day, which began with a fiercely competed session of archery tag and ended with a final parade, a chance to reflect on a wonderful week. All the cadets received the OC’s warmest commendation for their efforts and were told that their performance during training had so impressed

our external instructors that they were being used as examples of hardiness to the top brass of the Royal Marines! Some were singled out for special awards, among them Cdt Hibbert (Best Recruit); Cdt Livsey (Most Improved); Cpl Bortey (Best Marksman) and Sgt Baker (Best NCO). It was one of the best overall performances by a contingent of cadets the staff had seen, and throughout the week they all displayed in spades the values which are integral to Corps: courage, commitment, self-reliance, discipline, service and friendship.

CADETS JUMP SOLO

CCF Ex Skyfall 2022Static Line Parachute Jump

When I saw the letter inviting cadets to go parachuting, I knew I could not waste such an opportunity and so put my name down immediately.

Arriving with a handful of other senior cadets early on an August morning to a huge hanger on Salisbury Plain, I gazed upon the sea of adrenaline junkies in awe, meticulously preparing their canopies. Safe to say I felt out of my depth surrounded by professionals who do this as job or, even worse, for fun. We got straight into training and we were introduced to our instructor from the Army Parachute Association, an ex-soldier with decades of experience and quite an intimidating fellow. While on the ground it is hard to simulate the chaos of jumping out an aircraft, but we understood that the movements would be vital when the real deal came around. Training activities included jumping off a box onto a mat in order to learn how to fall properly, hanging in harnesses suspended off the ground, and a talk from our instructor on what

SGT JAMIE HANNAH, ARMY SECTION, UPPER SIXTH

to do if we landed in a tree or a powerline or, as one student many years ago did, down in the village three miles away on someone’s roof.

With our training complete we strapped up and awaited our chariot to take us up 4,000 feet. The landing zone had been repeatedly pointed out and we were given radios as to communicate with our instructor on the ground. Tension was high in the group as we realised we would shortly be leaping out of a plane, but this didn’t stop RSM Brand’s father capturing our terror with his 4-inch lens. As we boarded the plane the noise was deafening, even drowning out our pounding hearts. They packed us in like sardines and a newcomer joined our group, in an attempt to diffuse some anxiety I started up a conversation discovering that the newcomer had done this twice before! The nerves were bubbling up and as one by one my comrades disappeared out of the door, and at last it came to my turn.

I once watched a video on a trick navy seals use which is to blatantly lie to themselves about how excited they are regardless of the nerves. The aim is that eventually you start to believe you own lie and the anxious energy turns to

excitement. As I sat on the edge of the plane with my feet hanging over nothing and smiled resiliently at my instructor’s GoPro, I had not a thought between my ears. I pushed myself off and adopted the position of a starfish as I had been taught, the air whistling past at a couple hundred miles per hour. I’m convinced the three seconds between jumping and the static line pulling out my canopy for me is what death feels like: pure, paralyzing fear set over me as I counted to five aloud. Suddenly, I opened my eyes to find myself peacefully floating above the Wiltshire countryside and the next

couple minutes were some of the most tranquil and blissful in my life. I performed a few turns, spying my comrades whom I couldn’t help but count to see if any were unlucky enough to hit the ground sooner than expected. I gently floated down to my landing zone, guided by my instructor on the radio, and stuck the landing, all be it 100m away from where I should have been. My knees weak, my hands shaking and a massive grin on my face – out of a field of very many, this was perhaps the best experience I have had as a member of Corps and I would highly recommend it.

While on the ground it is hard to simulate the chaos of jumping out an aircraft

My knees weak, my hands shaking and a massive grin on my face

SPORT

LIFETIME MEMORIES WERE MADE WHEN EDDIE JONES AND THE RFU GAVE A SPECIAL COACHING SESSION ON HOME FIELD FOR CATERHAM BOYS AND GIRLS SENIOR PLAYERS.

The whole school was thrilled to welcome England Coach Eddie whose visit was in support of Caterham’s Transformational Bursaries programme and grass roots rugby. Eddie generously answered questions from our boys and girls senior squads before leading the pupils out onto on to Home Field for the best coaching session ever! Eddie also presented the 1st XV with their Colours.

Surrey University Surrey Human Performance Institute

Fifth Year and Upper Sixth Form

A Level pupils visited the Surrey Human Performance Institute at Surrey University to spend a morning completing a battery of fitness tests discussing how the results could be used as a baseline level for sport training programmes or to determine the state of a pre-op patient.

AUTUMN TERM REVIEW

The autumn term PE programme has seen pupils take part in a new carousel of activities.

The enthusiasm all pupils from First to Fourth Year have shown in their PE lessons has been fantastic regardless of what activity they are doing.

Their curiosity as they develop their understanding of functional movement in the performance gym or demonstrating their resilience as they race up Dome Hill or even as they work through different principles of play to become tactical masterminds has been awesome. The PE staff have really enjoyed seeing the pupil’s push themselves and grow in confidence.

Further up the school the GCSE and A Level PE pupils have experienced the real depth of the subject and the extent to which it can be applied to their own experiences. Creating personal development plans as part of their coursework or researching how top sports players have utilised technology to improve performance, specifically considering the pandemic has helped to create a tangible buzz around the subject.

Finally, what has been a standout this term has been everyone’s desire to know more, from the First Year pupils all the way to the introduction gym sessions for the Sixth Form. Even the staff are pushing forward with six members of the PE staff passing their Level 1 British Weightlifting Qualification. The commitment to learn more, do more and love being physically strong has made for a very exciting end to the calendar year.

RUGBY

The depth in rugby at Caterham is shown across the board with the U12 and U14 managing to field A-D teams; the U13 and U15 A-C team, which, for a co-ed school of our size is very impressive.

The increased popularity is not just across the boy’s side. A surge in the number of girls participating in the game at U18 and U15 level has led to the latter entering into the famous Rosslyn Park National Schools 7s competition. It was here that a beautiful scene was witnessed, Amy H diving into the corner to score the winning try for Caterham with the whole of the 1st VII boys team cheering in support including her older brother Robert.

From a performance perspective, the U13A team recorded an impressive unbeaten season with some audacious long range tries. This group certainly has the speed to challenge the very best in the county.

The 1st XV equalled the school’s best run-in recent history getting to the semi-final of the National Plate competition. This impressive feat saw the group train deep into the second term showing great commitment even when challenged with the winter flu that swept the nation. They also secured a historic victory over Hurstpierpoint under floodlights. Enzo P putting on a kicking masterclass to all to behold. The rest of the 23 strong squad backing him up with a huge defensive shift to thwart the late Hurst onslaught.

The U16 recorded thumping victories against Colfes , Dunottar and Sevenoaks. The power of Joe S and Jack F up front coupled with Zac F and Oscar As speed and accuracy of pass made it very difficult for the visitors to compete.

The U14s secured record victories against Sevenoaks opening their Caterham rugby careers on a strong note with Seb T-S and Ethan W showing their attacking flair, Bailey, Niall and Bradley their bravery.

Rugby 7s

The U15s backed up their impressive 15-a-side seasons with the former getting to the Cup final of the Surrey 7s clocking victories over KCS Wimbledon, Trinity, Hampton and Epsom on route to the final.

They most certainly did themselves and the school proud considering we were the hosts for the 32 school tournament.

The U13s not wishing to be outdone also reached the Cup Final with victories over Reigate, St George’s and Whitgift. This group, utilising the speed they had shown earlier in the year, narrowly missed out on topping their group at Rosslyn Park by one score despite having one of the toughest draws in the competition.

The U12s reached the quarter finals of the Surrey 7s waterfall competition adopting a very mature territorial version of the game after winning six consecutive coin tosses! Using the slope to their advantage the likes of Harry C and Sam M kicked to the corner and with the help of the rest of the squad applied tremendous pressure. Thumping tackles from Brennan S and Taran S resulted in the ball being presented back to to Caterham withe the side taking full advantage.

RUGBY XV

RUGBY 7s U13

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RUGBY 1ST XV

RUGBY 2ND XV

RUGBY U16A XV

RUGBY U16B XV

RUGBY U15A XV

RUGBY U15B XV

These photographs have been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be ordered online at https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

RUGBY U15C XV

RUGBY U14A XV

RUGBY U14B XV

RUGBY U14D XV

RUGBY U14C XV

RUGBY U13A XV

https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

RUGBY U13B XV

RUGBY U13C XV

RUGBY U12B XV

RUGBY U12C XV

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RUGBY U12A XV

CRICKET

SURREY COUNTY CUP CRICKET Caterham pupils lift the trophy

It’s not just Mr Batty winning trophies!

Lower

Sixth pupils Jonny N, Ethan W and Felix C were part of the U17 Oxted & Limpsfield Cricket Club team who won the Surrey County Cup - the Denis Jacobs Cup this week.

The team are all aged U16 or below so did really well to beat Guildford CC in the final which was held at Reigate Priory. Some brilliant performances including an 11 ball 28 from Felix led to a six wicket win. Well done boys!

Jonathan Batty Story One Hundred Cricket

Caterham’s own Mr Batty coached the Oval Invincibles to success in one of the summers’ key sporting moments. Mr Batty’s side stormed to an emphatic 48-run victory over favourites Southern Brave to become the first women’s Hundred champions on a historic afternoon at Lord’s. After setting a target of 122, the Invincibles bowled out the Brave for just 73 in a perfect bowling performance.

CRICKET U15A

CRICKET U15B

CRICKET U14A

CRICKET U14B

CRICKET U14C

These photographs have been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be ordered online at https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

CRICKET 1ST TEAM

CRICKET U13A

CRICKET U13B

CRICKET U13C

CRICKET U13

CRICKET U12A

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CRICKET U14

CRICKET U12B

CRICKET U12C

CRICKET U12A

CRICKET U12B

These photographs have been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be ordered online at https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

HOCKEY

Well Earned Victory for U13 Girls

Caterham U13A and B team hosted Woldingham in two 7-aside matches.

As a result of a lost season last year, this was the first time these girls had pulled on the black and gold to represent the school in a hockey fixture. Some excellent hockey was on show from both teams and areas that we had worked on in their training sessions after school, such as playing to space and eliminating on the weak side were being used to good effect to break down a stubborn Woldingham defence. Both matches were played in excellent spirit and competitive

Surrey Indoor Hockey Competition

Our first ever girls 1st VI indoor hockey team entered the Surrey indoor hockey competition at St Georges College in November.

After arriving in good time the girls began to prepare for the round robin tournament, getting used to the bigger and faster pitch. Our first game was against the hosts, St George’s. An extremely tight game saw our girls put in

throughout. However, it was Caterham who came out on top, 4-0 and 3-1 respectively. Shout out to E Tagg who ‘bagged’ a hattrick in the A team fixture and A Pond who volunteered to go in goal for the B team having never done it. Well done to all those that played!

a terrific defensive performance but just lost out 0-1. Our second game, vs favourites Cranleigh, was cagey with both defences coming out on top. Cranleigh scored a goal with 40 seconds left leaving the girls no time to reply. Heading in to the third game a shift in positioning was needed and it paid dividends as the girls romped to a 4-0 win vs COL Freemens. It was a similar story in the next game vs Reigate with the girls racing to a 2-0 lead before being pegged back to 2-1 but they eventually held on. Our final game, vs Reeds was where the girls really came alive. Two evenly matched teams went toe to toe and our girls played some exceptional indoor hockey, taking the lead but eventually Reeds scored late on to equalise, which was a fair result.

We are so proud of the group who battled through every game on their way to a terrific third placed finish, narrowly missing out on qualification to the next round. They were all an absolute credit to the school, but special mention must go to Lilian DB, playing five years above her age, and to our top scorer, Elloise P.

We are so proud of the group who battled through every game on their way to a terrific third place finish

U13 INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS NATIONAL FINALS –Bronze Medalists

HAVING HAD A FANTASTIC SEASON AND CUP RUN, BEATING NOTABLE OPPOSITION IN WHITGIFT AND KINGSTON GRAMMAR ON THE WAY, THE U13A TEAM MADE THE LONG JOURNEY UP TO THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM FOR THE SCHOOL’S MAIDEN APPEARANCE AT THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS NATIONAL FINALS EVENT.

After an overnight stay, the boys were full of energy and focus for the task ahead, a semi-final against Taunton School. The boys started well, creating chance after chance and snuffing out any opportunities for the Taunton attack. Unfortunately, we just could not find the finishing touch in the first or second half and, after a nervy last few minutes, a 0-0 draw was the final result. On to strokes and although the boys stepped up gallantly, ultimately we lost out in sudden death.

Bumper Year for County Selection

Hockey continues to go from strength to strength as this year has seen our largest ever number of county and regional selections.

This has been just reward for the countless hours of hard work our amazing athletes have committed to over the past few years. The thriving Caterham School Hockey Academy has provided additional support and training to most of these players on top of the school indoor and outdoor hockey programme.

Director of Hockey, Peter Friend said “We are always extremely proud of our players here. This is a fantastic achievement for these young athletes and hopefully is only the first step in their representative hockey career.”

The boys were extremely disappointed, but they had to pick themselves up to go again in the bronze medal game against a strong King’s Chester side. Pick themselves up they did, and the boys raced in to a 2-0 lead with some clinical finishing. A screamer from the backhand side of the King’s centre forward nestled in to our top corner making the game 2-1 and bringing them right back in to it. A couple of minutes later we had the ball in the back of the net, but as we celebrated the umpire disallowed the goal, back stick was the call. A very tight last 5 minutes ensued, with King’s scrambling a ball home from 1m out, 2-2. Going in to the final 2 minutes, Sam D. put his body on the line as he saved what looked like a certain goal inches from the line, taking a stick to the face as a result. As he watched nervously from the sideline and with 30 seconds to go, calamity struck, as King’s again bundled a ball in to our goal, only for the umpire to again rule the goal out for back stick. The final whistle blew and sent the game to penalty strokes once again. This time there was to be a fairy tale ending as Arthur P., Yannick P. and Rory W. all slotted their strokes leaving Orin D. in goal to rubber stamp the result. He guessed the right way and kept out the final King’s stroke to seal the win and bring home the bronze medal.

It was a phenomenal achievement from the team to get to the finals and an even bigger achievement to bring home the bronze medal. The future is very bright for this age group and for hockey at the school as we continue to push to qualify and compete for national finals in the future.

Congratulations go to:

2nd Year: Lilian DB, Elise T, Ava P, Arthur P, Yannick P, Zac L, Hector H and Rory W

3rd Year: William C, Izzy C, Ava W, Ethan W, Seb TS,

4th Year: Ethan VH, Alex S, Casey M, Karlijn R, Izzy H, Josh F, William L and William T

5th Year: Louis P, Jack F

Lower Sixth: Jemima C

A phenomenal achievement from the team to get to the finals and an even bigger achievement to bring home the bronze medal

Well done to all that took part and massive shout out to Georgie O would led the team superbly and was outstanding the heart of midfield winning player of the day.

U12s Triumphant at Epsom College Hockey Invitational

Our U12s were invited to take part in the Epsom College Invitational Cup.

Following on from an encouraging Surrey cup tournament, where performances steadily improved throughout the day, our girls were excited for the challenges that lay ahead. The wet weather and the Sahara sand could not dampen the mood and the team was looking forward to showcasing their talents.

The tournament compromised of 5 games in league system. After a tight 1- 0 win v St. Teresa’s in our first game, confidence grew and there was no stopping us. Fast flowing, attacking hockey followed which meant we recorded 3 wins in the next 3 games. By chance, this meant that the tournament was to be decided in our final match v hosts Epsom. Both teams were currently unbeaten and in an even game, where both sides had chances, it finished 0-0. After a nervous wait, Caterham ended up taking the trophy on superior goal difference. Credit to Amelie in goal and our defenders as we only conceded once in 5 games!

U13B Surrey Hockey Plate Champions

It was the turn of the U13Bs to represent the school in tournament action, this time hosting the U13 Surrey Hockey Plate.

The sun shone and the sky was blue for what was a thoroughly enjoyable day on the astro as the boys played their hearts out, winning all three group games (scoring 11 and conceding 1) against St George’s College, Reigate Grammar and Barrow Hill before progressing to the final against St George’s. Having beaten them in the group stages, the boys went in to the final full of confidence, but the game was much tighter this time, with the boys failing to convert a number of chances and Noah P. in goal producing some excellent saves. As the game ebbed and flowed, the boys established a foothold, and quick fire goals before half time and just before the end of the game saw the boys take the game and the title. It was impressive to see the strength in depth of this year group, following the success of the U13As.

HOCKEY 1ST XI

HOCKEY 1ST XI

HOCKEY U15A XI

HOCKEY U15B XI

HOCKEY U15C XI

HOCKEY U14A XI

HOCKEY U14B XI

HOCKEY U14C XI

These photographs have been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be ordered online at https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

HOCKEY U14D XI

HOCKEY U13A XI

HOCKEY U13B XI

HOCKEY U13C XI

HOCKEY U13D XI

HOCKEY U13A XI

These photographs have been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be ordered online at https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

HOCKEY U12A XI

HOCKEY U12B XI

HOCKEY U12C XI

HOCKEY U12D XI

HOCKEY U12A XI

These photographs have been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be ordered online at https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

LACROSSE

Super Success at National Level

Huge congratulations to our Lacrosse first team who came a mighty second place in the Schools Challenge Cup!

This is such a tremendous achievement for our girls, leaving them second in the country. The girls played with such heart and team spirit throughout the whole day, winning each of their games by one goal. They almost held out in the finals, however, St. Catherine’s claimed the win taking the score to 6-5 in the last 30 seconds. We must also raise a shout out to G. Alcock for achieving top goal scorer of the tournament.

ENGLAND SQUAD

We could not be more proud of these fantastic five!!

They have all been selected for the England home international teams!

England A team: G. Alcock

England B team: E. Shipsey, M. Korvin, R. Thomas and M. Swan.

LACROSSE 2ND X

Congratulations girls this is a huge achievement!

LACROSSE 1ST X

LACROSSE 3RD X

LACROSSE U15A

LACROSSE U15B

LACROSSE U14A

LACROSSE U14B

These photographs have been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be ordered online at https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

LACROSSE U14B&C

LACROSSE U13B

LACROSSE U12A

LACROSSE U13A

LACROSSE U13C

LACROSSE U12B

LACROSSE U12C

These photographs have been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be ordered online at https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

ATHLETICS

Surrey County Selection

It was a successful term for our athletes in both team and individual events.

In the District Championships, our U13, U14 and U15 teams have won both the boys and girls competitions. The U12 saw both teams finish second place in their District Championship. Three of our ESAA Track and Field Cup teams competed in the Regional Round of the competition and while they have not made it through to the National Final, we are closer than ever. The commitment to training and inner desire to improve has impressed the coaches all season long.

Individually, 23 pupils represented South Surrey in the Surrey School Championships. Success at the Surrey School Championships allows pupils to represent Surrey County at the South East England Inter County Championships.

CONGRATULATIONS to the following athletes:

l Ryen R

l Edwin K

l Harry O

l Bradley B

l Oliver M

l Ava W

l *Estee N,

l Mathilde G

l Sofia W

l Lada R

l William T

l George P

*Surrey County Selection

l Ethan V H

l Freddie A

l Josh F

l Isla C

l *Isabelle S. Y,

l Lilly W

l Mary B

l Leane B

l Aaron H

l William O

l Leon W-T

U13 DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIPS HOMEFIELD HOSTS

The U13 Athletics team competed in the District Championships against thirteen local schools.

Theatmosphere was electric on Home Field as our athletes ran, threw and jumped to great success. In what is always a fiercely contested competition, both the boys and girls finished first. Whilst there were great performances throughout the day, the following pupils were the District Champion in their respective events:

Elise T: 300m and High Jump

Isabelle C: 1500m

Edwin K: 300m, Triple Jump and Relay

Rehan Y: 200m and Relay

Alex S: Relay

Zac L : Relay

ESAA

The English Schools Track and Field Cup teams attended the first round of this national competition at Guildford Spectrum athletics track.

The competition limits each competitor to one track and one field event per athlete in order to find the best all-round team in the country. Competitors are awarded points based on times and distances achieved for the various athletic disciplines.

The top points scorers for the Junior Boys were Rehan Y with 30 points, Arthur P with 33 points and Edwin K an impressive 41 points. The boys scored 309 points in total.

The Junior Girls had strong performances from Elise T amassing 34 points from the 300m and the High Jump; with Marusia E and Emma F both contributing well with 29 points each. The team came sixth out of 14 other schools in the points total with 275.

The Inter boys’ team amassed an incredible 406 points putting Caterham eighth in the country. Huge contributions were made by Tom B with 37 points, Ollie P with 38 points, Ethan V H, and Ryen R with 39 points, top scorer on the day was Freddie A with 42 points. Ethan broke the Inter boys 300m school record with a time of 39:60 and Ryen broke the Junior boys 300m school record with a time of 37.74.

The Inter Girls team didn’t disappoint with a mammoth total of 398 points finishing third on the day. Impressive contributions from Isla C with 33 points, Ava W with 35 points for the 200m and Discus. Lilly W with 38 points equalling the inter girls school record for the High Jump with a leap of 1.41m. Colossal scores from Isabelle S Y with 41 points but the biggest contribution for the day came from Estee N with scoring 29 points from her 1500m and 17 from her shot put giving her a haul of 46 points! Estee now holds the 1500m Junior girls school record with a time of 4:55.

ATHLETICS U15

STUNNING FORM at South Surrey District Meet

The return of the South Surrey District meet with athletes competing against 16 other schools for a place in the Surrey Championships on Saturday 11 June was exciting.

Our Caterham athletes were on stunning form completing a clean sweep of victories across the four age categories, Inter Girls and Inter Boys, Junior Girls and Junior Boys.

School records tumbled, the Junior boys 4x100m quartet of Bradley B, Edwin K, Rehan Y and Ryen R clocked a time of 49.89 beating the previous record.

The Inter girl 4x100m quartet Beth E, Isla C, Isabelle S Y and Isabelle G Y set a new school record of 54.62.

Isabelle S Y joins her older sister on the school record table with a Triple Jump distance of 10.35.

Hot-off-the-heels of her 1500m school record earlier in the week, Estee N adds the 75m Hurdles record to her list of achievements. It’s turning into quite the season for her!

ATHLETICS U15

ATHLETICS U14

ATHLETICS U13

ATHLETICS U13

ATHLETICS U12

These photographs have been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be ordered online at https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

ATHLETICS U12

NETBALL

The NetCats had a fabulous two terms of netball. We had a record-breaking 26 teams out in action in a whopping 264 fixtures along with County and National tournaments.

Highlights included a National Quarter Final finish for our U15A squad, County finals for our U12, U14 and U16s and National Schools competitions for our U14, U16 and Senior 1st team. We also re-entered the district league in all age groups where our B and C teams enjoyed successful and competitive match ups against some of the A teams in the district.

We also saw new fixtures put in against local Moon Hall School and the local Prep schools to ensure our E and F teams get to experience a broad and balanced fixtures diary.

Caterham entered the World School Games 2022 in the summer term and battled hard against schools from Scotland, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Switzerland to finish in 5th place. The competition took place at the hub of elite netball, Loughborough University, and allowed our pupils to get a feel for studying and playing competitive sport at university whilst also getting the fantastic experience of playing at such a prestigious event.

NETBALL 1ST VII

NETBALL 2ND VII

NETBALL U16A VII

NETBALL U16B&C VII

These photographs have been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be ordered online at https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

Caterham battled hard against schools from Scotland, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Switzerland.

NETBALL U15A VII

NETBALL U15B VII

NETBALL U15C&D VII

NETBALL U14A VII

NETBALL U14B VII

NETBALL U14C VII

These photographs have been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be ordered online at https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

These photographs have been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be ordered online at https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

NETBALL U13B VII

NETBALL U13C VII

NETBALL U13D&E VII

NETBALL U12A VII

NETBALL U14D&E VII

NETBALL U13A VII

https://www.gsimagebank.co.uk/caterhamschool/t/ke54qt2022

NETBALL U12B VII

NETBALL U12C VII

NETBALL U12D VII

NETBALL U12E VII

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INDIVIDUAL SPORTING SUCCESS

Caterham School SUMMER SPORT NEWS

Whilst some of us took the time to recover from the busy summer term, there were others who took the opportunity to return to full, elite competition. In the sports department, we have been inundated with all the many great things pupils have been getting up to, however we have selected some highlights to share with you.

Surrey Academy fast bowler Nathan B has been named in the 18 strong England U19s squad for the upcoming Royal London ODI series with the West Indies.

Following an outstanding season at Caterham, he has continued his excellent form during the summer with Surrey 2nd XI, Academy and U18s. He has now been rewarded with selection for England U19s for the series against the West Indies. Nathan has played in 2 of the first 3 one day internationals, taking 3-30 in the latest match.

Earlier in the summer, Nathan also featured for London & South East in the ECB Super Fours

competition that pits each region’s best youngsters against each other across one week of competition.

This is the first time the U19 team has been in action since the 2020 ICC U19 Cricket World Cup, and the squad, selected by the Young Lions selectors, will be led for the first time by ECB Elite Pathway Coach, Richard Dawson.

Also featuring over the summer for Surrey has been Callum N (Y11) who has been playing regularly for Surrey U15s.

Jemima C (Y12) has been selected for England to throw the javelin after claiming an impressive array of titles this season. Jemima is now the English Schools Athletics Association Champion, English Athletics Association Champion, South England Athletics Association Champion and has been selected to represent England in the Schools International Athletics Board championships.

Jemima won first place in The Schools International Athletics Board Championships in javelin. She was selected to represent England in this event which sees her earn a spot on the international board at school.

Congratulations Jemima- we are so proud!

NATHAN BARNWELL

JEMIMA CALDWELL WINS FIRST PLACE

National Schools Equestrian Association Competition Sixth for Third Year Livvy

Caterham School was represented for the first time since Covid began in the National Schools Equestrian Association (NSEA) competition by 3rd year Livvy D in the 90cm Eventers Challenge Jumping competition. Riding her chestnut pony “My Rustic Clover”, she jumped a lovely clear round and finished individually 6th against a very large class of 46 other riders. Congratulations to both horse and rider.

National Hockey Title Win for Lilian DB

Second Year goalkeeper Lilian DB represented her club, Knole Park, at the Lee Valley Olympic Park in the England Hockey Supra League finals.

The Supra League is a new junior competition, bringing together the winners of the four Tier 1 Divisions that have run since January. At Lee Valley, the Girls U14 competed in semi-finals followed by finals and 3/4 play-offs.

The teams qualified for the Divisions from the eight Areas Tier 1 competitions pre-Christmas and the Divisions were broadly based on dividing the country into 4 geographic groups bringing together the best teams from the country in each age group.

Knole Park overcame Bowdon HC 4-0 in the semi-finals before going on to win their final against Surbiton HC 3-1. This is a fantastic achievement for Lilian who caps off a stellar year for Knole Park HC, having already won the National Cup title. Well done Lilian.

Surrey Schools Table Tennis Individual Championships

Excellent Play from U19 & U13

Agroup of U13 Boys went to Glyn School to take part in the Surrey Schools Table Tennis Individual Championships and bravely took on a range of other schools. We advanced as far as the semi-finals, but could go no further. It was a great deal of fun and a very busy set of matches.

Well done to Jake A, Harry C, Ethan T, James M, Tijmen, Alex M, Sam M, Duncan M, Krish B and Barney M.

Eight players went to Salesian School to play in the U19 Surrey Schools Individual Championship. For the U19 Girls: an epic result as Paramita was Runner-Up on the day, and is now likely to go through to the next round. This was a very close result with the Caterham girls all doing well, with the number of individual points scored being the deciding factor. For the U19 Boys: they were up against some high-level opponents, one of whom was playing for England two years ago. Given that, O-Teen went into the semi-finals, where he fought bravely to get past the former national player. Previously, Nikita took one game off this star player, 12-10, which was a minor triumph on its own. Well done to them all! U19 Girls: Paramita, Kelly and Avery & U19 Boys: O-Teen, Nikita, Harry, Anson and Kenneth.

Dream Fencing SOLID GOLD FOR MELISSA

Many congratulations to Melissa T (Third Year) who won fencing gold at Elite Epee, the strongest series in the UK. She competed as part of the Dream Fencing Academy that trains here at school.

Melissa T came third in the U14 South East Youth Championship. As a result Melissa has been invited to represent the South East Region in the Youth Championship held at EIS Sheffield. Well done Melissa this is an awesome achievement.

National Premier League Honours for Kathryn

Huge congratulations go to Upper Sixth pupil and hockey 1st XI star Kathryn B who made her debut for East Grinstead Hockey Club Women’s 1st XI in a top of the table National Premier League clash against Wimbledon HC.

The National Premier League is the top league in the country and East Grinstead are currently battling at the top for European Qualification with their team containing a host of international players including Olympic gold medal winners.

This is a huge achievement for Kathryn and represents a great reward for years of hard work. We are so proud of her.

CATERHAM MEDAL SUCCESS FOR OXTED HC AT LEAGUE FINALS

Five of our pupils represented Oxted U14s at the league finals in Folkestone. A tough opening game vs Folkestone led to a very narrow 2-1 defeat, but the girls came roaring back with wins against Canterbury and Guildford. The girls finished second overall and took home the silver medal. It was a great reward for a terrific season, and it is fantastic to see so many of our hockey players representing Oxted HC.

Congratulations go to Third Years Ava W. and Coral M. and to Second Years Jess L., Ava P., and Elise T.

SUCCESS

CONGRATULATIONS TO ABI W who won Gold for the London Korfball team in the U13 Inter Areas England Korfball competition!

Her team won seven matches and drew one to reach the final with Abi scoring the golden goal.

Congratulations to Tom N (Third Year) who won Silver in Round 1 of the Central England Regional Mountain Bike Cross Country Championships in Reading. We wish him the best of luck in the next round of the National Championships in Scotland.

Third Year pupil Alexander G

and Melissa T competed for the Dream Fencing Club on Bank Holiday Monday at the 2022 British Youth Fencing Championships at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. Both fencers did very well both finishing in 13th place in their respective competitions. Melissa had four victories and only one loss and Alexander had three victories and two losses. Congratulations to them both.

BASKETBALL STANLEY JOINS U15 SOUTH OF ENGLAND SQUAD

Less than a year after playing his first competitive basketball match, Stanley M (Third Year) was selected to join the Under 15 training squad for the South of England super-region.

Congratulations to Branden T who moved up to Senior X30 racing category. A keen karter, Branden has just gained his ARDS licence (Association of Racing Driver Schools) and is now qualified to race in adult races on the UK circuit.

Having participated in south-east regional camps in October and February, he is thrilled to have been invited to the next stage in Basketball England’s development programme.

Stanley, who was first introduced to the game at Caterham and has represented the school’s successful Under 15 and Under 18 teams.

Congratulations and good luck Stanley!

YEAR 6 LEAVERS’ SERVICE

Tuesday 28 June 2022

SO LONG FAREWELL GOOD LUCK CATERHAM PREP

Welcome and Opening Prayer: Annie Ingrassia, Deputy Head

Reading 2: Psalm 119: Luke 24: 13-35 from The Barnabas Children’s Bible

Read by: Christopher Bovet-White, Form Tutor 6B

Later that same day, two of Jesus’ followers were walking along the road from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus, about seven miles away. They were talking about all the events of the last few days.

Reading 1: Psalm 119: 1-8 from The Message

Read by: Nicola Stone, Form Tutor 6S

You’re blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by GOD. You’re blessed when you follow his directions, doing your best to find him. That’s right—you don’t go off on your own; you walk straight along the road he set. You, GOD, prescribed the right way to live; now you expect us to live it.

Oh, that my steps might be steady, keeping to the course you set; Then I’d never have any regrets in comparing my life with your counsel.

I thank you for speaking straight from your heart; I learn the pattern of your righteous ways. I’m going to do what you tell me to do; don’t ever walk off and leave me.

As they walked, another man came alongside them. ‘What are you talking about?’ he asked them. Cleopas looked at the stranger, surprised. ‘Surely you must have heard what has happened?’ he said. ‘We were talking about Jesus of Nazareth. We thought he was the Saviour God had promised to us. But, three days ago, our chief priests and elders had him executed. Then today we have heard that his tomb is empty – they say he has risen from the dead!’

The stranger then began to explain all that the prophets had told the people about God’s Saviour, about how he had to suffer and die.

It was almost dark when they reached Emmaus. ‘Come,’ said Cleopas to the stranger. ‘Stay here with us and have something to eat.’ As they sat down to share a meal together, the stranger picked up the bread, thanked God for it and broke it.

Suddenly the two friends knew who the stranger was. They had been walking and talking with Jesus! But as soon as they recognised him, Jesus disappeared. They left everything and rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the others that Jesus was alive.

Outdoor learning

BIRD OF PREY VISIT

As part of their topic, YEAR 2 were incredibly excited to have a visit from two falconers who brought two of their owls and two hawks to meet them.

Frankie, a stunning Harris Hawk, arrived first, demonstrating how he could quickly fly into the Caterham School trees, completely camouflaging himself and much to the annoyance of the local crow families. Then the children were thrilled to be introduced to Quinn, a two-month old baby White-Faced owl covered in fluffy baby feathers; some were lucky enough to hold him on their gloved hand! Next came a beautiful buzzard called Bryn who again was happy to sit on the arm of some fortunate onlookers, including Mrs Maskatiya

We wondered if he would spot our resident Old Park Wood buzzards? Lastly, we all met Albert, an enormous owl with the most beautiful amber eyes and huge, sharp talons.

Woodland Warmth

During outdoor learning, YEAR ? had so much fun learning how to safely start a fire! As a team, they all had a go at using a flint and cotton wool and eventually (with the help of Mr. Wilkinson) started their very own fire!!

WORLD BOOK DAY

Everyone brought their book to our special assembly and we all took part in a costume parade! It was wonderful to see so many home-made and imaginative costumes, inspired by books from a wide range of genres.

The pupils enjoyed a fun-packed World Book Day which included a book swap, competition, library visit and even a fire drill! Thank you to all the parents for the wonderful costumes and for donating books for the book swap and school libraries. Each child went home with a £1 book token to spend on a special edition book or use towards a book of their choice.

On World Book Day we were all excited to dress up as our favourite book characters!

People who help us

RECEPTION learnt all about “People Who Help Us” in our community.

They were lucky enough to have visits from the school nurse, a doctor, the Godstone Fire Brigade and they even tried on real policeman’s protective clothing – it was very heavy! The firemen received a 999 emergency call during our visit, so they had to dash off to help. Seeing the engine go off with its lights and siren on was very exciting.

The pupils also found out about dentists and vets, alongside many other helpful jobs. It inspired them to think about what job they want to do when they grow up!

CelebratingDiwali

The RECEPTION and older children have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Diwali celebration. Many of the children celebrate at home so were able to tell their class about how they make rangoli patterns, light diyas, dress up and enjoy fireworks! In class the children decorated lanterns, painted and made playdough diyas, coloured in beautiful rangoli patterns and listened to a traditional Indian tale.

Furry Friends Help with Healthy Eating

As part of their Topic lessons, YEAR 1 learnt where food comes from and all about healthy eating. They had great fun designing their dream sandwich and then they got the opportunity to make them and taste them. Their bears joined them for a special picnic.

Year 1 Keep BEEing Amazing!

Fortunately, we have our own bee hives in school and a group of bee-keepers who helped them with their research. This began with a taste test in which the pupils concluded that honey was yummy!

The pupils then explored where honey came from –bees!! The pupils learnt some incredible facts all about the Queen, Worker and Drone bees, and made fact sheets and life cycle crowns. Then, as if that wasn’t exciting enough, the Year 1 children went to the Senior School to have a lesson in the chemistry lab with Mr Tyldesley (Caterham School’s resident bee expert). Here they learnt even more facts and got to show off their bee knowledge. Well done Year 1, keep ‘BEEing’ amazing!

YEAR 1 created their own bears and then went on to discover that they like to eat honey.

PRODUCE SHOW

It was wonderful to see so many children enter the PREP SCHOOL PRODUCE SHOW this year. It is great to see pupils taking an interest in gardening and the crafts. The photography and drawing categories were equally impressive. All money raised went to a very worthy cause, the Caterham Food Bank.

Reception visit Caterham Library

We were delighted to invite Mrs Chapman to our weekly Good Work Assembly and have the opportunity to thank her for all the work she has done with the Parents Association. We talked about the ways the school has benefited from the donations and equipment provided by the PA, such as the buddy benches and the new climbing frame.

HUNGRY CATERPILLARS!

The pupils in EYFS were treated to the story of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. They learnt about healthy eating and the importance of five a day. Some of the children even tried spinach! The children then created faces and caterpillars using a variety of foods.

BIG BATTERY HUNT

G is for....?

In PRE-SCHOOL, the children have been learning to recognize the sound g. They made goldfish and Gruffalos to help them remember the sound.

THANK YOU to everyone who sent in batteries for the Big Battery Hunt. We collected 1715 batteries which meant that we were able to get 1715 batteries recycled. Batteries thrown into the bin usually end up in the landfill so it is much better if they can be recycled. It can take 100 years for a battery to decompose and the chemicals can pollute the soil and water. If we recycle them the different materials from batteries can be recycled and reused in different ways which is so much better for the environment.

In the Prep School the winning class was 4J who between them collected 355 batteries, and in the Pre-Prep School, the winning class was RP who collected 154 batteries between them.

ECO-SCHOOLS AWARD WITH DISTINCTION

1D Our Eco-Warrior Committee are very proud to announce that they have been awarded their Eco-Schools Award with distinction.

This is a new format of the awards from last year where they achieved silver status. This was no mean feat as there were seven steps and processes to go through which all involved a lot of work. We had to:

l Form an eco-committee;

l Do an Environmental Review of the entire school including the grounds and kitchens;

l Create an Action Plan;

l Find out all the Curriculum Links;

l Inform and Involve others;

l Monitor and Evaluate;

l Write up an Eco-Code for the School.

Then there were bonus sections too and we did enough of these to earn our status with distinction. We are now the proud owners of a certificate and green Eco-Schools flag. To celebrate the flag has done a tour of Prep!

It has been an absolute pleasure and privilege to review your Eco-Schools Green Flag application – you are most definitely a worthy Eco-Schools with Distinction Green Flag Award winner!”

Eco-Schools

Mr Taylor delivered all of our donated books (20 boxes worth in total) and the children’s lovely messages down to Canterbury, where they will be sorted and packed up ready to be shipped to Africa. A massive thank you to all the YEAR 5 children who helped pack up boxes, Mr Jones who helped to pack them into a van and to Charlie at Books2Africa for his welcome and help at the sorting warehouse.

Around the World Day CELEBRATING OUR DIVERSITY

Each class travelled around the world stopping at India for a taste of Bollywood dancing, a quick bit of painting in the Sistine Chapel in Italy, they learnt how to write their name using Hieroglyphists in Egypt, took part on a keepie uppies challenge in Brazil and joined in a traditional welly dance in South Africa.

Mid way through the day they all stopped off on their journey to tuck in to some tasty fish and chips in Great Britain. It was wonderful to learn more about all the nationalities represented in the school and we all had fun guessing the different flags!

Thank you to all the parents for their efforts in creating some amazing outfits.

The school was bursting with colour as the staff and pupils celebrated their nationality as part of our “Around the World Day”.

Roman Day

The pupils had a fun-filled day taking part in many different activities including Latin lessons using wax tablets, attending Gladiator School and performing pantomimes. They even got to make protective charms in the same style that most Roman children would have worn.

Freddie:

“My best bit was the Celts v Romans battle because I was a Roman and I got a gigantic shield. When the Celts threw paper rocks at me, I could feel them hitting the shield. It was extreme!”

Johanna: “Roman Day is the best!”

Ruby:

“We used bees wax boards and we had to write with little sticks. I loved this because it was like being a Roman child.”

Thomas:

My favourite part was when the teachers were in the Gladiator Arena. Mrs Sparrow won.”

Kiara:

“Soon, I was a crazy, cool Celt (still in my school uniform). Suddenly, all those Rotten Romans marched in and the fight began. The Romans formed a tortoise shape. We threw rocks but their shields were too strong.”

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP QUIZ WINNERS

Caterham Prep sent four teams of YEAR 4 AND 5 Geographers along to the Caterham School Junior Globe Trotting Quiz.

The four teams had been preparing for quite a few weeks, doing many practice quizzes in their own time, a couple of pupils even reporting that they had gone to sleep at bedtime, globes in hand!

12 prep and primary school teams attended the quiz and the competition was tough. Although the scores were fairly close throughout the quiz, one of our teams led from the start. They managed to keep this up right to the end and for the first time, Caterham Prep School finished on top, bringing home the trophy. Our other three teams tied in third and fifth place. We are so proud of our pupils and delighted that all of our teams came in the top 5 places, testament to the engagement in our Global Citizenship curriculum. Everyone left a winner with a brilliant geographical themed goodie bag. The children thought the quiz was captivating, fun and interactive and they had a wonderful time. Thanks go to the Geography team at Caterham School for organising such a wonderful quiz each year.

In May, despite the best efforts of an enraged army of YEAR 3 Crazy Celts (complete with face paint), the Romans managed to invade Caterham Prep once again!

WELL DONE TO MRS DEALE AND OUR ECO WARRIORS 2020-2022 WHO HAVE LED INITIATIVES AT SCHOOL AND PROGRESS TO THE AWARD OF PLASTIC FREE SCHOOLS STATUS.

The journey to the award started over lockdown in 2020 with our plastic free action group meeting virtually to assess the progress and activities that needed to take place. Once back in physical school, the hard work started with a series of trash mobs and detailed recording of items found and their plastic content.

The group then had to raise their voice and take it outside of school to challenge companies and government on how we can deal with plastic issues. The pupils in the group wrote emails to their local MP, Mr Chris Philp, outlining their campaign, their findings in the school and asking for help in tackling the issue. They also wrote to the companies that produce plastic hand sanitiser bottles and plastic ink cartridges challenging them on their plastic packaging and using their voice to call for change. They received a number of very positive replies suggesting how these companies are making changes. Lunch packaging in the school was also changed to having far less plastic and water bottles have been eliminated from school packed lunches with pupils asked to bring in their own reusable water bottles. It has been an eye opening and rewarding process and having submitted all our evidence for the objectives to Surfers Against Sewage who run the award, we are very proud to have been awarded Plastic Free School status.

HARVEST FESTIVAL

We celebrated Harvest Festival in the Prep School with an assembly by Reverend Thomas. During the assembly we discussed how little things can grow into big, and how our actions, however small, can make a big difference to the environment. Thank you to all those families who donated food for our Harvest collection. These were sent to the two Caterham Foodbanks who help support members of our community.

Cook Off! 2022 REDS vs GREENS

Children in YEARS 3-6 joined in the excitement and frenetic action of Chartwell’s ‘Cook off’ event, led by Chef James and our own Kate Ives. Children learned and shared their understanding of eating healthily and the impacts of good diet on growth, learning and general wellbeing before a brave group of children and teachers took to the stage to engage in a healthy (and delicious) cook-off. Red and Green teams had only fifteen minutes to prepare a mouthwatering meal for a panel of young judges, coming away with a result that came down to a single vote.

JUST GIVING DAY

They had such fun completing the obstacle race with Mr Bee W and then to their surprise they had bee cupcakes! The children painted their bee stones giving them lots of stripes. A great day was had by all of us.

YEAR 1 had a fantastic day helping to create a buzz for Giving Day. As well as taking their turn on the Bee Bolt obstacle course, they loved painting their bee stones. These stones will join flower stones in our woodland for all our community to enjoy!

PREP SCHOOL pupils were buzzing at the Bee Bolt on Giving Day. Energy levels were at the max as they prepared to tackle the obstacle course, designed and hosted by Head of Science, Mr BW (with, of course, a pollination theme). Competing in their year groups, form against form, the competition was always going to be fierce with reputations at stake! The course saw our young bees collecting pollen whilst facing a number of challenges along the way before returning to the hive with their reward.

The excitement and cheering went up a notch as their teachers took to the course, head to head with Mr Jones and Mrs Hudson victorious! ›

The PRE-SCHOOL children were so excited to dress up as bees for Giving Day.

As a part of our Giving Day celebrations, YEAR 3 AND 4 each had a full, fantastic day of English with Miss Stone. They developed their understanding of information texts, carried out research and completed their own pieces of writing all about bees! Children enjoyed finding out lots of new facts, working with children in YEAR 6 to develop their knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, and working in teams. They all worked really hard and are now experts on bees!

In addition, YEARS 3 TO 6 took part in a Spelling Bee – well done to those that reached the finals!

Lots of busy Prep pupils got creative painting their stones with decorative flower artwork or transforming them into bees for our Giving Day collaborative artwork. The finished stones have been placed in our woodland and we hope they will bring a smile to the faces of the many children and members of the Caterham community that walk by. Bee-kind, Bee-happy, Bee-yourself!

In PRE-PREP they learnt how to play some traditional play-ground games, completed a Jubilee Scavenger Hunt around the woods, tried out some 1950’s dance moves and even had a Q & A session with the Queen!

At lunchtime a magnificent royal tea party was held in which the pupils tucked into special cupcakes featuring the winning cake topper designs. In the afternoon the pupils were entertained with a traditional (well, modified!) Punch and Judy show. It was lovely to see the children having such fun and even trying out some of their new dance moves on the school field at break time.

WHAT A FANTASTIC DAY!

Celebrating The Platinum Jubilee

Pupils across the Prep School enjoyed a wonderful day of Jubilee celebrations.

SCIENCE Week

Caterham Prep and Pre-Prep children got hands-on during science week.

From building cardboard rockets to launch across Titch Pitch, to looking after a mammoth sunflower seed to see it germinate and a very special day with Year 3 and 4 undertaking an awesome workshop with Mr Rob Bennet, Bloodhound Education’s chief science communicator and special guest Mr Ron Ayers MBE (Lily- May’s grandfather).

Year 6 participated in a rocket science STEM special, where they worked with Mr Lang and Mr Bovet-White to plan, design, build and test a rocket to be made from every day recyclable items from home. The challenge was for maximum distance under 10psi of pressure using a compressed air rocket launching system. It was a fantastic day with lots of fun had by all and a real appreciation for the engineering design process. The top three designs which were launched over 10 metres were then given increased thrust and launched across Titch Pitch! Awesome!

Year 6 also worked in groups to research and write persuasive speeches about climate change.

They focused on the impact of the increased amount of carbon in the atmosphere and the actions that individuals, businesses/ organisations, and world leaders/ governments need to take to make immediate change. They went on to produce films to showcase their speeches, combining persuasive language and speech-writing techniques with emotive and

thought-provoking visual aids.

Caterham Prep and a selection of engineers from the Green Powered Car Club at the senior school were giving the amazing opportunity to meet Ron Ayers at the start of a STEM special for science week. Mr Ayers is an English engineer who was responsible for the aerodynamics of the land speed record-holding vehicles, Thrust SSC and JCB Dieselmax, and is chief Aerodynamicist for the Bloodhound SSC. It was fascinating to get an insight into the amazing work behind the scenes for these projects and for children from 7-18 getting the opportunity to experience this. Rob Bennet, Chief Science Communicator for Bloodhound education, then lead an action packed day from the history of the land speed record, to inspirational practical demonstrations including a big ‘BANG’ for combustion and thrust to building and launching air compressed cars. What a privilege, and remember never stop asking questions and remain always curious!

It was fascinating to get an insight into the amazing work behind the scenes for these projects and for children from 7-18 getting the opportunity to experience this.

Happily Ever After

Congratulations to YEAR 6 for their wonderful performance in their production of ‘Happily Ever After’. Everyone gave so much energy and commitment to the entire rehearsal process and Miss Stone would like to thank them all for making this such a wonderful experience. We hope this is an event that they will remember for many years to come.

A WONDERFUL DAY

Reception VISIT PAINSHILL PARK

RECEPTION had a fantastic time on their trip to Painshill Park!

The surroundings were beautiful and we explored the grounds during the morning with a Sensory Treasure Hunt. We found lakes, vineyards, ruined abbeys, grottos, bridges and gothic temples in and around the animals, plants and trees that we discussed and investigated.

After lunch it was all about the minibeasts with Adam, the mega minibeast expert! We made our way over to the woodland as if we were millipedes, ladybirds, caterpillars and much more, before exploring under logs and shaking trees to see what we could find. We managed to avoid most of the rain showers and enjoyed the most wonderful day!

Lakes, vineyards, ruined abbeys, grottos, bridges and gothic temples...

Year 1 MEDIEVAL FUN

YEAR 1 embarked on their first ever school trip, riding on a large coach to Tonbridge Castle.

The children ‘wowed’ their tour guide with all of the facts and information they had learnt. They also had a fantastic time playing with the catapults, dressing up and colouring. It was such a beautiful day so the children were able to climb to the top of the battlements, up the Motte to where the Keep would have been and they even managed the first picnic of the year in the beautiful sunshine. Later in the week the children spent the day in the Senior School with Sir Teachalot, who was a real life knight. He trained the children to be able to fight with swords, to joust and to do other knightly duties.

The finale of their castle topic was to have a Medieval Feast. The children baked bread, made musical instruments and some even made their own headdresses and costumes. The children laughed at the jester’s jokes, were impressed with the musicians and were thankful that the taste tester survived.

YEAR 2 experienced a wonderful day out to Brooklands Museum as part of our Flying High Topic. The children were thrilled as this was their first ever school trip (who knew a coach journey and a packed lunch could create such excitement!) They enjoyed a variety of different workshops and activities which included making ‘Loopy Gliders’; observing all the different processes involved in designing and making aircrafts over the last 100 years; a walk through on the world famous Concorde; and finally the opportunity to sit in a Hurricane Bomber from the 1940s. The children were completely absorbed by the day and were very well behaved representing the school brilliantly.

Year 2 TRIP TO BROOKLANDS MUSEUM

Year 3 TRIP TO WISELY

YEAR 3 travelled to RHS Wisley, linking with their science topic on plants.

The morning was spent in guided workshops with Wisley staff, making use of the educational class-rooms. Here, the children were able to deepen their understanding about fruits and seeds and planted their own cornflower seeds to bring home and grow. The afternoon was spent in small groups, exploring the incredible gardens, with a focus on the fruits in the orchard and the spectacular range of plants in the Glasshouse. The children should be commended for their behaviour and curiosity throughout the day!

Year 4 TRIP TO DOVER CASTLE

In May YEAR 4 visited Dover Castle to look at the architecture and to see what living in a castle was like in Henry II’s time.

We were shown around by Lady Eleanor of Aquitaine who allowed the children to accuse each other of heinous crimes and decide on the punishments that should be allocated. We learned about the sayings ‘Sleep tight’ and what a Guarderobe was. We had the opportunity to use armour and dress in medieval clothes. The day, while spent avoiding rain, was brilliant and the hailstones while in the coach on the way back only added to the excitement.

We learned about the sayings ‘Sleep tight’ and what a Guarderobe was.

Wondrous Water

YEAR 5 PUPILS WERE FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO VISIT BOUGH BEECH RESERVOIR AND WATER TREATMENT WORKS.

This trip tied in very well with their topic of Wondrous Water in Global Citizenship.

The children had an incredibly informative day finding out about why the reservoir was built in that particular spot and the role of the dam and the valve tower.

The children worked in two groups throughout the day and were able to visit the reservoir and see the dam wall itself, as well as visiting the valve tower then descending the dam wall and walking through the tunnel that goes right under the dam to the bottom of the valve tower.

They were also taken on a tour of the water treatment works and to see the eight stages of cleansing that takes place to make the water pure

enough for us to drink. At the end of the day there was a discussion about water saving and how important each drop of water is to us. We explored ways of saving water and why the current use is unsustainable. The children thoroughly enjoyed the whole new interactive set up that has been built for visiting children. They were able to play with pipes, see how much 10 litres of water weighed and many other fun activities. It was a memorable day and hopefully one that made the children think about how fortunate they are to have clean running water and to know that they need to look after this precious resource.

Year 5 ADVENTURE TO HENLEY FORT

After settling into their Mongolian yurts, it was time for the first of many activities taking place over the course of the three days. The pupils learnt how to make fire, charcoal and made popcorn on a giant campfire as well as developing their orienteering skills by finding features on a map and measuring distances between two points. They called on skills learnt in our own Wildcats area back at school and mastered bouldering and climbing techniques before overcoming the challenges of the giant climbing wall. They then created shelters using natural resources and tarps and negotiated a series of different problem solving challenges using team work and communication on the low ropes course. By the end, the pupils had become successful archers aiming at targets and targeting a plastic “Wasp nest”.

In June Year 5 left for their first residential trip to Henley Fort.

Each morning we all enjoyed a full English breakfast to set us up for the day, eating outside under a giant canopy, whilst the evening came with some incredible cooked meals!

The adventure continued into the evening with a hike on the first night when we learnt about the history of the area and collected firewood for the campfire. The second night

we toasted marshmallows on the campfire, opened letters from our families, and played a giant game of kickball.

The pupils all had a great time learning about leadership, taking responsibility for their own actions, working as a team, communicating positively and becoming more independent. They are a credit to the school and behaved impeccably throughout the trip.

Year 5 Trip to Greenwich Observatory

YEAR 5 scientists went on a mesmerising trip to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich where they experienced an interactive planetarium adventure looking at the solar system, what it contains and just how big it is. They also got hands on in two workshops to consolidate their class learning. They discovered all about the Sun, Moon, and Earth as well as learning about how the solar system formed.

Did you know the solar system is 4.5 billion years old? The largest star in the universe (UY Scuti) - we have found to date, could fit 5 billion of our suns in it!

PREP BOYS’ SPORT

FOOTBALL

The boys had a very tough programme of fixtures against Aberdour in January with our U8s leading the way at the away game.

It was wonderful to be back playing a full programme of football after the previous season’s fixtures were cancelled due to Covid. The boys got off to a wonderful start with a round of clean sweeps against Banstead Prep with all teams recording victories. The season did get much tougher for the boys, but they did play some great football. The most important thing was that every boy played in every fixture throughout the whole season. Highlights of the season were the U10s winning the Reigate St Mary’s plate tournament and our U9 winning the Caterham U9 tournament. Caterham also hosted the inaugural U8 football tournament which means Caterham now hosts tournaments for every year group.

RUGBY

The Rugby season in contrast to the football season was an over whelming success with all teams achieving unparalleled success.

The U11 A team won every match they played showing a great combination of flair and physicality. This unbeaten season matched their previous 3 seasons going undefeated in their entire time at the Prep school. The strength in depth was illustrated by more great success in the U11 and U10 teams who also had wonderful seasons only losing one game apiece all term.

Our younger team also showed wonderful passion on the rugby field. The U9s played some remarkably mature rugby showing how rugby should be played. The U9s won all their games except for one nail biting 9-8 loss at the end of the season. To complete a fine all-round season the U8s went unbeaten all season. The rugby they played was fantastic to watch from A-C team. They played fast attacking rugby and most importantly they played with a smile on their faces.

This programme has allowed us to assess our student’s movement competency through a simple screening process

HOCKEY

The boys’ hockey continues to grow in strength at the Prep School and it is great to see so many boys playing hockey outside school as well as at our Senior school academy.

It is good to have such a good relationship with our fellow school on our circuit that allows us to enjoy playing festivals across all the year groups. The standout side this year were the U9s who from A-C played some wonderful hockey but our U8s also showed they have a lot of promise with the work we now do in the pre-prep starting to pay off.

CRICKET

We were blessed with a majestic summer of cricket.

SWIMMING

Swimming is going from strength to strength at the Prep School with the children having the choice of 3 squad sessions a week as well as their timetable lessons.

The strength of the squad was shown in their convincing wins in all the galas they swam in. Many thanks to Mr Perfect for all his hard work with the squad.

FMS

Over the past academic year, the Games Department have been implementing a new functional movement programme at our school.

Colts A team had a good season winning 5 of their 8 games.

The sun shone brightly all term and the boys really enjoyed a full programme of fixtures. The Colts A team had a good season winning 5 of their 8 games but the highlight of the season was the performance they put in against Whitgift facing some of the fastest bowlers in the county. Despite the loss the boys played with great bravery and determination to take the game to the final over. The U9 and U8 teams have showed some great potential and the hard work they do in the spring term in preparation does really make a difference.

This programme has allowed us to assess our student’s movement competency through a simple screening process, collect data on their progress, identify areas for improvement, as well as as-sign each student their own individual movement pattern screen report (MPS Report), which includes corrective exercises to help them move.

As part of this programme, we have also now assigned pupils’ their own athletic development plan. As well as the screening process the children have also enjoyed FMS in their Games lessons where we have focussed on how well the children move, how they can improve their bal-ance and their core stability.

PREP GIRLS’ SPORT HOCKEY

With the previous year’s fixtures halted due to Covid, everyone was keen for the start of the 2021-22 season.

For the girls, hockey was first on the agenda; with many of the younger pupils having not played the sport at all, it was straight in at the deep end with several mini-matches against the Hawthorns and Micklefield. Lots of small-sided games played in a round robin, with the emphasis on fun and learning the basic rules of the game. Year 5 and 6 played the 7 a side format, with padded GKs, it was again, a new opportunity for many to gain experience of the game.

NETBALL

This season saw the introduction of the new BEE Netball format.

The Prep NetCats embraced the adapted rules, which gave every player the opportunity to experience all the playing positions. For Year 3 and 4, playing ‘Flier’ Netball, Caterham played 4 v 4 matches in round robin friendlies against Reigate St Mary, Hawthorns and Micklefield. Strong passing and driving into space had been the focus of the season, and several goals scored across the teams was great to see!

In February, the U11A Netball team participated in the IAPS tournament at Kent College. The first game against Derwent Lodge was a tough opener and the girls were caught off guard and started to rush their passes (lost 1-6). They followed up with a more closely contested game against Rose Hill. The target was to minimise unforced errors and focus on the free player, the game was tight and Caterham were unlucky, losing 2-3. Next we were up against Russell House, and the team really stepped up. They were more decisive and used the time on the ball more effectively, they came away with a 6-3 win. A knock out game against Dulwich Prep followed, this was an end to end fight, some composed shooting enabled Caterham to hold on to a 4-3 win and they progressed into the Plate final to face Brighton Prep. Both teams fought hard and lead switched throughout the game. Two quick Brighton goals sealed their victory but a commendable effort from all the Caterham players who improved significantly over the course of the day.

Caterham played some friendly matches against Hawthorns, Reigate and Micklefield, with a mixture of results and the most senior team (U11A) also played in the Hawthorns tournament. In a round robin of eight schools, the girls had lots of opportunity for match play and put into practice the skills they had been working on in lessons. They fought hard against very strong opposition, holding a couple of teams to a draw and had several break away runs to goal. The team improved with every match and great enthusiasm was demonstrated by all!

CRICKET

We were fortunate to have a full season of sunny cricket for all age groups.

TheYear 3 girls, picking up the bat for the first time, played several matches ‘off the tees,’ which encouraged lots of batting practice. That said, by the end of season, many girls were able to hit bowled balls and worked hard on their own bowling technique. The Year 4 girls had a fabulous season, with the ‘A’ team winning all their matches quite convincingly. The Year 5 teams had a mixed bag of results, but most importantly the girls improved in their skills over the course of the season and on occasion were the victims of their own success, as the opposition found it easier to bat against our consistent line and length. The Year 6 teams, continued to improve over the season, with greater power in bat and accurate bowling, a super haul

of wickets and some notable results, rounded off their time in Prep school sport. The U11As also had the opportunity to play in the knockout Surrey Star Burst Cup, Hawthorns 6s and a friendly match against Caterham U12s

Against the seniors, the Prep girls were up for the challenge and left the U12s chasing 88 after the first innings. The U12s started well, but accurate bowling by the prep girls held the seniors to 17, before the final pair came into bat. The U12s managed to pull up to 53, but it wasn’t enough, and the Prep girls sealed the victory!

FOOTBALL

In the second half of the Spring Term, the girls switched to football.

Greatfun was had by all, but also the determination and enthusiasm to learn the game was fantastic. Individual skills were worked on during lessons, as well as small-sided game play and more friendly fixtures against our local opposition. It certainly was a fun filled season, with lots to build upon for the seasons ahead.

The U11A Girls Football team headed to Bromley High for the annual IAPS festival. It was a great opportunity to play against different schools, some had travelled from as far afield as the Midlands! In the first game against St Paul’s Cathedral School, Caterham were caught off guard by two quick goals in the opening minutes, losing 2-0. Next up was an end-to-end battle with Bute House, the girls fought hard and were unlucky to concede a very late goal despite the hooter. In a physical game against Royal Russell, the girls chased every ball but just couldn’t find the back of the net, however this was a turning point of the day. In the next two games, Caterham held their positions and came away with two draws (0-0) and with confidence growing, they took a victory against St Mary’s Hampstead, 2-1, before heading into the final match against Northampton High School, finishing with a 1-0 win. Over the course of the day, the girls took on board all the coaching points, making significant progress and should be really proud of their efforts.

LACROSSE

In March, the Year 6 girls had an open invite to play a friendly game of lacrosse against the U12Cs

Ten eager players arrived at Hillfields raring to go, in what was for many, their first ever experience of a lacrosse match. The girls had had an introduction to passing, catching and retrieving ground balls and they soon got into the swing of things. The U12s got off to a flying start, going ahead 3-0, but the U11s fought back and gained confidence running with the ball and started to take on players one on one. Goals followed from both teams, but it was the U12s who took the victory 7-5. Great fun was had by all, and the girls are looking forward to stepping onto the pitch when they move up to senior school in September.

Great fun was had by all, but also the determination and enthusiasm to learn the game was fantastic.

PREP SPORTS DAY 2022

Sports Day was back with a bang and what a day it was!

PRE-PREP SPORTS DAY

In June the sun shone and we had great fun at our EYFS, YEAR 1 AND 2 sports events. Each one began with a carousel of activities where pupils were given an opportunity to demonstrate the skills learnt in their P.E. lessons. We saw amazing batting skills, super throwing and some stunning jumping!

After a quick drink the track races began which included beanbags on head, hurdles, sprints and relays. It was lovely to see each pupil beam with excitement when awarded a special medal at the end of the morning.

PREP SPORTS DAY

The early rain didn’t dampen our spirits and the field events were very closely contested with some wonderful performances, with two school records being broken.

The afternoon saw a new format for the track events, all the children took part in the sprints and they also took part in another race which was slightly longer. YEARS 3 AND 4 ran a 200m or a 400m in addition to their sprints and YEARS 5 AND 6 ran either the 200m or 600m.

Over the Summer Term the children have been regularly timed and from that data we were able to grade the races to ensure the children were running against children of a similar speed. This format worked brilliantly with all the races being very close and lots more children were awarded medals throughout the afternoon.

The most pleasing aspect of the day was the spirit in which the children competed; it was great to see so much encouragement being given and the sportsmanship on show. Ultimately, Pilgrims emerged victorious but everyone deserves huge congratulations for making Sports Day so special.

It was wonderful to see all the parents back at the event after a two year absence.

Caterham School

Harestone Valley Road

Caterham

Surrey CR3 6YA

Telephone: +44 (0)1883 343 028

Email: enquiries@caterhamschool.co.uk

Web: www.caterhamschool.co.uk

Caterham Prep School

Harestone Valley Road

Caterham

Surrey CR3 6YB

Telephone: +44 (0)1883 342 097

Email: prep.reception@caterhamschool.co.uk

Web: www.caterhamprepschool.co.uk