Leighton Park School magazine

THE PARK // SPRING 2020

ACHIEVEMENT WITH VALUES, CHARACTER AND COMMUNITY

ACHIEVEMENT

Top Performing School

Cross-Country Champions

Leighton Park has been listed as one of the country’s top performing schools for Sixth Form education for the third year running, and one of only eight nationally, that have appeared in the top 100 every year, according to data released by the Department for Education (DfE) on 24th January 2020.

Recognised as the best performing school in Berkshire and 27th in England for the academic progress of its 2019 Leavers, Leighton Park added 0.6 of a grade on average to its students’ achievements. The School’s value-add contribution has secured a ranking of 8th in England when looking at schools with a cohort of at least 50.

Inspiring our Mathematicians

Getting the term off to a flying start, Fryers hurtled across The Park for the CrossCountry Turkey Run in January, with Charlotte Coyle (Year 8) and Jacob Stockwell (Year 7) coming in at 1st place.

Next up on Saturday 18th January, Ben Rowe (Lower Sixth) and Mia Waldmann (Year 11) impressed at the Berkshire School’s Cross-Country Championships in Newbury.

Ben who placed 10th in the U19’s, was picked as a reserve runner for the Senior Boys’ at the English Championships, whilst Mia who placed 3rd in the county, was chosen as 4th runner for the Berkshire Girls’ Intermediate Team.

Still keen, our runners did not stop after crossing one finishing line! In February, we celebrated at the Independent Schools Association (ISA) Regional Cross-Country Championships as six teams with 25 runners in total, from Year 7 all the way up to the Lower Sixth, competed at Sherfield School. Mia and Ben were delighted to make it through the heats alongside Nicola Lee and Harry Penman (both Year 11), to represent the London West Team at the National Cross-Country competition. Nic also celebrated her win at the U17 Girls’ Oxfordshire County Cross-Country competition!

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On Tuesday 10th March, ahead of World Pi Day, our mathematically minded students in Year 11 and Lower Sixth attended a morning of Maths Inspiration lectures at the Hexagon Theatre, Reading. Amused by stand-up comedian and host, Matt Parker, the audience laughed over calculous cracks and geometry gags before welcoming a line-up of interesting guests.

The School also inspired our mathematicians with posters of encouragement, designed by fellow students, which decorated the walls of Peckover for those in Years 9 to 11 who sat the UK Mathematics Trust’s (UKMT) Intermediate Maths Challenge on 6th February.

Sporting Achievements

Teams across all sports have taken part in national and local competitions this term. In football, the U14 team took part in the ISA 6-a-side Festival finishing 6th overall out of 20 competing schools. The U18 ISA netball team travelled to Staffordshire, to play against other prestigious teams. Both the U13 Girls’ and U13 Boys’ took part in the In2Hockey tournament, with the girls finishing 3rd in the plate competition and the boys winning their competition.

Every boy in the Fryer rugby squads has represented the School in a competitive fixture this term. Our four strong squads have experienced more competition for places than ever before! The U13A’s came very close to winning the Crosfields 7’s tournament.

Finally, congratulations to Luke Eddowes (Lower Sixth), Max Hily and Zak Jenkins (both Year 8) who competed at the British Rowing Indoor Championships (BRIC), with Zak securing 2nd and medalling in the U13 category!

The Elite at St George’s Park

DofE Award Ceremony

Our Advance Performance Programme (APP) for elite athletes and Sports scholars provides our county, regional and national sporting champions with additional coaching and support. The current APP group had the opportunity to visit St George’s Park on Wednesday 29th January, home to England’s 27 national football teams.

An intense training programme awaited them with demanding fitness tests and physical performance profiling. Andy Gallacher, Head of Athletic Development commented, “This trip provides our athletes with an invaluable experience and insight into what it takes to become a professional.”

There were plenty of smiling faces on Sunday 15th March as our largest ever DofE Award Ceremony took place in Peckover Hall. We were delighted that so many of our students completed their Bronze and Silver Awards and were gathered to celebrate their achievements.

There were some treasured artefacts on display including pictures of Daniel Legg’s (OL) weighted plumbata, the product of his metal-working skill, Bella de la Mora’s (Year 10) impressive knitted throw, and the hand-made book on the adventures of Teddy and his journey with Group B as their expedition project.

We were also pleased to hear that two of our alumni from the Summer 2019 Leavers’ cohort completed their Gold Awards successfully.

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VALUES Holocaust Survivor Shares his Story History and Politics students were recently honoured to listen to Kurt Marx tell his story as a Kindertransport survivor who escaped the Holocaust. Aged just 13, Marx was one of over 10,000 children transported to Britain under the famous rescue programme, a journey which he described as “exciting” in response to a question by Tomi Edwards (Lower Sixth).

Despite the escalation of Kurt’s life from normality to chaos, a recurrent and striking theme in his talk, was not the callous acts of many throughout the war, but the compassion of individuals he encountered.

For Max Verry (Year 9), it was Kurt’s remark “I was one of the lucky ones, the family me and my friend had were very good to us,” which stood out and demonstrated the power of kindness. Max commented “It was really interesting to hear stories from someone who had to live through such terrible times. I can only imagine what it was like to leave home because of your religion and never see your family again.

The striking aspect was when Marx had left the terrors of Nazi occupied Germany, to come to England where he still saw the same discrimination.”

Fearing we have not learnt from the atrocities that happened during World War Two, Kurt’s overriding message was to be kind to one another.

Bullets and Bylines

Celebrating LGBTQ LGBTQ group is a new student led initiative masterminded by Izzy Jones and Spencer King (both Lower Sixth). The safe space that welcomes all, aims to spread awareness and empower, as well as offer support and advice. To mark LGBTQ History Month, the group led an inspiring Collect alongside our Anti-Bullying Ambassadors, speaking to fellow students about the positive and negative power of words.

The hot topic of legitimacy and truth in the media provided food for thought when award winning journalist and Old Leightonian, Shyam Bhatia, spoke to Sixth Form students in January. He reminded them of the key principles of good journalism in a world of citizen journalists and asked “In an era when truth has become a marketable commodity, can journalists still pride themselves as belonging to a socalled 4th Estate that acts as a check on the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government in a democratic society?”

Shyam’s incredible career led him to win the ‘Foreign Reporter of the Year Award’ in 1993 and took him all over the Middle East. Sharing the stories from his fascinating autobiography ‘Bullets and Bylines: From the Frontlines of Kabul, Delhi, Damascus and Beyond’, it became clear that the life of a foreign correspondent seeking truth on the front line can be a dangerous one; Shyam recalled being kidnapped by the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Other extraordinary recollections included using Yasser Arafat’s fondness for honey to give him special access, and after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, talking his way into Saddam’s palace to be offered a gold Kalashnikov. He declined the offer.

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On Tuesday 11th February a number of students then attended the University of Reading to hear London based performance artist, theatre maker and writer, Travis Alabanza, in conversation.

Sport Relief: Staff v Students

The Tenner Challenge

In aid of Sport Relief 2020, staff challenged the 1st Netball team to a fierce but friendly game on the courts. It was staff who had the edge on this occasion, possibly due to Matt Richards’ incredible levitation skills, triumphing with a close score of 15-14!

Year 7 managed a series of innovative enterprises when they were recently challenged to raise money for charity with the profits generated from just £10!

Each team devised a business offering that would appeal to members of the Leighton Park community enough to encourage them to part with cash in aid of a good cause.

The businesses ranged from selling after school snacks to making beautiful birthday, valentine and occasion cards; there was even a home accessories company, ‘Foxy Craft’, dedicated to creating coasters and plants in hanging lightbulbs! Baked goods including brownies, cupcakes and cookies from ‘Musical Monkeys’ and scrunchies in a variety of bright colours and fabrics from ‘The Little Scrunchie Company’ were successful, as were the team of hot chocolate vendors, ‘The Chocolate Llamas’, who managed to set up an outsourced concession in another

A Labour of Love

school to supplement their revenues from within Leighton Park!

Fryer’s Resident Graduate, Heather Sweetman, reflected, “The Tenner Challenge has been a fantastic idea.

All of them have been really creative and come up with very different ideas.

They’ve learnt how to be proactive, what is and isn’t possible and about the importance of teamwork and organisation.”

Ethical Breakfasts

As part of our Ethical Breakfast series, Lower Sixth Business and Economics students discussed the responsibility of moral decision making within recruitment and the importance of working with integrity and compassion with local leaders, Ethical Reading.

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Across the School students sported shades of pink and red for Valentine’s Day, whilst student led charity, Amicus, celebrated by delivering over 200 roses around the Park to their lucky recipients. The funds raised were donated to local cause, Nishkam SWAT, which aims to combat a number of issues including homelessness, alcohol and substance abuse and care for the elderly.

CHARACTER All That Jazz Trial and tribulation augmented by a phenomenal soundtrack thrilled audience’s from 4th to 7th February at the Senior School production of Chicago! Broadway’s longest running musical gave students a chance to explore music, murder and media hype.

Nikki Wilson (Upper Sixth) who played lead femme fatale, Velma, commented in the run-up to the big night, “It has been an incredible opportunity and so much fun, seeing it all come together is so rewarding.”

Peter Scoggins, Director and Designer of the production added, “This is an ambitious choice of show for any school to put on and fortunately we knew we had the talent and the commitment in our students to make memorable performances.”

It was clear that the cast’s commitment was rewarded as they delivered stunning performances night after night. Mirroring the excellence of the students on stage, were the efforts of the backstage crew, hair, make-up and costumes and the superb band.

Trumpet player Oliver Picken (Lower Sixth) noted, “Live music really brings a show like Chicago alive and I’ve really enjoyed playing alongside a group of such talented musicians and supporting an amazing cast and crew.”

Dance Evolution Our GCSE dancers were wowed by critically acclaimed Cuban performers, Acosta Danza, when they caught the opening night of ‘Evolution’ at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton.

Later in the term, students from Years 7 to 10 were delighted to work with Jemima Brown from the James Cousins Dance Company. A prescribed professional work on the AQA specification, James’ piece ‘Within Her Eyes’, was brought to life by Jemima and gave students an insight into the choreographic approaches used.

Keen dancer, Flick Waldmann (Year 9) commented “It was a really great experience to learn and perform with someone who is a professional in the dance industry. I really enjoyed listening to her talk to us about her career.” Albie Adams-Perez (Year 10), who currently studies GCSE Dance continued, “I really enjoyed the contact work and learning new ways of lifting in Dance.”

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History and Politics in Berlin For our GCSE and A Level History and Politics students, Long Leave marked the start of a jam-packed itinerary in Berlin.

From Alexanderplatz to the Olympic Stadium, home to the 1936 games, to the Reichstag building, across the weekend the group explored the city in glorious winter sun.

The Brandenburg Gate provided a backdrop to political changes in Germany; but the group were most moved by the vast field of nameless tombstones at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, where they reflected and paid respect to countless victims.

After visiting the Bavarian Quarter, an educational, yet harrowing tour of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp covered the establishment of the camp system, punishments and the use of slave labour, the Kapo system and Station Z. Sharing their experience of Berlin in Collect, Adi Othnay (Year 10) remarked, “I think I was affected the most by the concentration camp as it was difficult to see and learn about, and really showed the truth of what happened during Nazi Germany. As a group we were all heavily impacted by the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.”

Students later found some light relief, walking the length of the East Side Gallery and admiring the artwork which largely comments on political changes in Germany, in the late 20th century.

On their penultimate day, students considered the purpose of the Treptow Park Soviet Memorial, visited the Wannasee Conference House, site of the Potsdam

Conference, the ‘Bridge of Spies’ and Berlin Cathedral. To finish there was some friendly competition over a few games of bowling, at Schillerpark.

Before returning home, the group stopped at Stasi Prison, Checkpoint Charlie Museum, Berlin Documentation Centre and the interactive DDR Museum.

The West End and Beyond From Rona Munro’s ‘Frankenstein’ to critically acclaimed musicals ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and ‘Six’, students were entertained by a number of innovative external productions this term.

Watching ‘Frankenstein’ at the Waterside Theatre as part of their live review studies, A Level Drama and Theatre Studies students described the play as “intriguing, with Mary Shelley on stage as narrator”. Whilst those who caught ‘Six’ at the Arts Theatre in London, were blown away by the diversity of the Tudor queens turned pop princesses.

Year 7 also visited the Progress Theatre in Reading for the production of Terry Pratchett’s ‘Wyrd Sisters’. With plenty of laughs at the plot and characters, they had great fun expanding their theatrical awareness!

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CHARACTER Book Week 2020 Our annual Book Week was embraced by the Leighton Park community from 2nd to 6th March, opening with the beautiful pop-up book shop in the Cadbury Room, showcasing favourite titles suggested by staff and students.

Author, Ali Sparkes, delivered a sidesplitting presentation to Year 7 detailing her journey from her school day scribblings to internationally successful, published writer in Peckover Hall on Wednesday 4th March.

Ali followed her talk with two Library-based workshops where Year 7 were challenged to develop the concept for a novel, producing a title, blurb and a draft of the first page, working in small groups.

Book Week would not be complete without some unpredictable Guerrilla Poetry.

Year 7s delighted in sharing their poems; bursting into classrooms and presenting their verses with gusto.

The Oakview team brought Dr Seuss to the table in celebration of World Book Day. Book bunting adorned the walls and ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ plus ‘1 fish 2 fish’ were just two of the delightful dishes on offer, with a fantastic ‘Cat in the Hat’ cake to finish.

Triwizard Tournament School Library come Hogwarts Common Room, gave students the chance to compete in the infamous Triwizard Tournament on Thursday 6th February, marking Bloomsbury’s sixth annual Harry Potter Book Night.

With dragon eggs hidden in amongst the shelves to be found, characters trapped in the Black Lake ball pit in need of rescuing and the race on to complete the labyrinth, students were eager to get stuck into the challenges at hand.

Julian’s Japanese Ghost Tales

Dominic Hodgetts (Year 7) was delighted to return Dobby’s sock in a twist on the classic ‘pin the tail’ game.

Our very own Patron of Reading, Julian Sedgwick, once again inspired students with his wit and musings on Japan and the country’s fascination with terrifying tales. Not to be dismissed lightly, Japanese ghost theatre provides deep insight into the hazy boundary between life and death. Fascinated with this very subject, Julian led a series of workshops with Year 7, in which he shared anecdotes from his recent travels around the east coast, researching for his new book and discussed Noh Drama, a classical form of Japanese theatre which often involves a restless spirit. Students then composed their own ghostly scenario, which many used as their entry for BBC Radio 2’s 500 Words competition. Congratulations to Stephanie Watt (Year 9) and Eva Mobley (Year 7) whose short stories ‘A New Leaf’ and ‘Hey diddle-diddle’, have been selected for the next round of the competition.

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A Dramatic Turn

ISA A Cappella

Stellar singers, The Sons of Pitches, winners of BBC2’s ‘The Naked Choir’ and a phenomenal five-strong a cappella group, were welcomed to Leighton Park as judges in our latest singing competition. Nine schools joined two of our a cappella groups for the inaugural Independent Schools Association (ISA) A Cappella Competition on Friday 28th February in Main Hall.

On 14th March our Fryer and Senior School Drama students gave excellent performances at the ISA Drama Competition. Fryer students have been working on a performance of ‘The Tempest’ by Shakespeare, while Senior School students have been engaged with Lorca’s ‘Blood Wedding’

The Sons of Pitches declared Leighton Park’s ‘Les Tres Belles Clefs’ the winners of the Barbershop category stating, “We loved this performance. It had a huge amount of energy. It was fun and clever and it made us laugh. It also impressed us with its musicality.”

Nikki Wilson (Upper Sixth), who holds an offer from the Royal Northern College of Music, exclaimed, “It was terrifying!” but agreed with her co-singer, Megan White (Upper Sixth), who added, “It was terrifying but it was also really nice to do as a group. It’s the first competition we have done like this.” The Year 9 group, ‘One Note’, also offered an impressive performance.

Berkshire Book Award

Fryer Book Club joined five schools from across Berkshire at Denefield School on Wednesday 12th February to nominate their six favourite shortlisted novels for this year’s Children’s Book Award. Before getting stuck into the judging, students were first treated to ‘Jelly’. Debut author Clare Rees spoke about the process of getting her first book published and delved into its plot, which explores a post-apocalyptic world where a group of teenagers are trapped on a giant jellyfish.

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‘Extra Time’, written by Sam Rowe (Year 10), was developed for the competition to include three more actors. Head of Drama, Peter Scoggins, commented “This was an impressive performance of a play by our own talent at Leighton Park.”

Also in March, students participated in Woodley Festival’s Speech, Drama and Poetry recitations. It was great to see Edward Francis (Year 10) winning Gold for his Sight Reading. Another success this term was Megan White (Upper Sixth), awarded second place in the ISA’s inaugural Musical Theatre Competition.

COMMUNITY The Foyer Jazz Club Faces from near and far rocked up to witness our stellar musicians perform alongside award winning, saxophonist and composer, Alex Hitchcock, for the grand opening of the Foyer Jazz Club on Thursday 16th January and with stunning vocalist, Joanna Eden, vocal coach to Sam Smith, in March.

The School’s House Band was led by Head of Jazz, Stuart Henderson on the trumpet, and included Paul Jefferies, Double and Electric Bass teacher at the School.

Stuart reflected, “It has been fantastic to welcome members of the community into what we nurture here at Leighton Park.

I was overwhelmed with the amount of support we garnered for the club’s launch, but equally, I knew it was something not to be missed.”

Participating in the afternoon workshop with Joanna Eden, Martha Morgan (Year 9) exclaimed, “It was an amazing opportunity to meet such an outstanding singer and receive genuine feedback to constantly improve on our singing.”

LP Face Shields Fight Covid19

An amazing initiative masterminded

by Head of DT, Mark Smith, to help the NHS frontline tackle Covid-19 developed into a major co-operative manufacturing operation during the Easter holidays.

Mark began making protective face shields in the School’s DT workshop using the laser cutter to create re-usable plastic headbands out of polypropylene stock, to which he attached disposable A4 PVC sheets donated by the School’s stationery suppliers, Frasers Office Supplies Ltd. His original aim was to make 200 but within the first week a further ten schools’ DT teams were involved plus a local commercial company, Neal’s Export Packaging Ltd. A GoFundMe page set up to help cover the cost of materials reached over £17k in the first ten days and many of the residential staff on the Park were involved in logistics, delivery and production. Some of our non-residential staff and some students’ families also got stuck in!

At the time of writing, 5,032 shields have been produced and distributed across the county to hospitals, surgeries, pharmacies, care homes, councils, NHS trusts and hundreds of individual healthcare workers. The new target is 10,000!

“We are just so grateful,” echoed Jane Goddard at Westwood Road Health Centre. “We are asking our staff to put themselves at risk and I am very pleased we can now offer them some protection. When the face shields arrived I felt relief!”

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The Joys of Spring To begin 2020, we were thrilled to launch Park Life; a Nature Watch initiative with STEAM at its centre. The interdisciplinary project kicked off with Club STEAM, Nature, Environment, Wildlife Taskforce (NEWT) and the Science Club all getting involved.

Initial projects include using technology to monitor the progression of Spring and 3D mapping of the Park.

Creative Callings

Members of Art Club got out into the community this term, attending Life Drawing classes at the local Rising Sun Arts Centre and visiting our neighbours at the University of Reading for their Interim Art Exhibition. At the show, both GCSE and A Level students were curious to explore the possibilities of working on large scale canvasses and in mixed media, taking the chance to discuss artistic processes with the exhibitors.

The first Artist Spotlight of 2020 shone a light on Bertha Kunska (Year 11). The mural in Oakview currently showcases a variety of Bertha’s work, created in response to her travels in Turkey and a recent visit to Kew Gardens. There is a playful honesty to her work, simply enjoying the process of layering up text and image, lines and colours.

PSC Quiz Teams Measure Up It’s not just the students at Leighton Park that live by its values of Achievement with Values, Character and Community.

The Parent and Staff Community (PSC) came together in Oakview Restaurant on Saturday 18th January, to pit their wits against one another for the renowned annual charity curry and quiz.

The evening raised £516 to go towards the charities that manage the School’s partnerships in Tanzania and Uganda, supporting their critical development projects.

PSC Secretary and keen quizzer Rachel Milhofer commented “It was a fun evening, with 86 tickets sold! After a delicious curry, ten teams of parents,

staff and students battled through eight rounds of questions, plus a bonus picture round.”

Team ‘Bladerunners’ triumphed, narrowly beating ‘Aspiring Higher than Last Year’ who lived up to their name, ascending from last place in 2019 to second place this time round!

The Hewitt’s, Jenkins’ and Inness’ families who comprised this year’s champion team, were delighted to be awarded bespoke Leighton Park rulers, customised

by A Level Design Technology students, to commemorate their victory. Led by Quizmaster, Tim Dean-Lewis, and Scorer, Eme Dean-Lewis, the PSC team organised another fantastic night, enjoyed by all.

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COMMUNITY

Knowledge is Power Nicky Hardy, Deputy Head (Pastoral), has organised a series of talks for parents this term covering topics relevant to raising teenagers. With guidance on coping with anxiety, social media and screen time, and exam stress, parents were offered the chance to ask questions and engage both with the topics and one another, in Peckover Hall.

Leavers’ Day

Positive about Partnerships

Helen Taylor, Head of Sixth Form, organised an impromptu gathering in Peckover Hall on Friday 20th March in recognition that it might be the last day the Upper Sixth spend in school. Set to graduate from Leighton Park as the Class of 2020 in May the group hurriedly accelerated their plans due to Covid-19.

Whilst we hope there will be the chance to celebrate again this summer the students were pleased to enjoy a glass of (non-alcoholic) bubbles and special cookies together.

Food for Thought Year 8 put their Community, Activity and Service lessons to good use when they baked seasonal, sweet treats for local charity, A Bed for the Night.

Natashia Coccia, our new Director of Outreach, has been championing the power of partnerships this term. “They can literally transform lives from tackling educational disadvantage in local schools to loneliness in the wider community.

Partnerships expose our students to real world issues and help them foster valuable new skills.” says Tash.

From one delicious task to another, our chefs in Lower School Cooking hobby trialled their frying and flipping skills for Pancake Day, serving up some scrumptious pancakes. Following this, Food Science and Business finalist, Karishma Maharaj, from the University of Reading, brought a whole new meaning to ‘experimenting in the kitchen’, with some of our Lower Sixth scientists. Putting the STEAM into science, together they used chemistry to create unique cupcake flavours.

Another benefit to our students is the phenomenon known as ‘Helper’s High’ whereby altruistic deeds cause the brain to release endorphins, improving happiness levels and supporting students to develop a clear, confident sense of self. This term we have provided cooking experiences for Year 5 pupils from four local schools and supported a Pupil Referral Unit with access to music and dance experiences.

In Design Technology, Year 7 undertook their own culinary experiments, creating their very own chocolate bars. After spending several weeks developing their concepts, creating a brand and logo, making moulds and choosing ingredients, they finally got stuck into the sweet stuff for the production phase of their project.

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