GORDONIAN AWARDS

Weare thrilled to announce this year’s Gordonian Award winners who were selected from a number of high quality applications and an extremely competitive peer group.

Congratulations to WeiYee Zhou for winning the Creative Arts Award and Nerys Tullett for winning the Sport Award 2022.

We now have six award recipients in school across Years 11, 12 and 13 who are using their awards to excel and further their disciplines. Their award is funded from donations to the Gordonians and we are so proud to be continuing this support to the students. We have an update from all current winners below.

2020 Winner Jason Cave – Music: Jason continues to play the violin and most recently achieved a Merit in his Grade 8 exam. He plays in the school concert band, string band and orchestra. He has spent the last year as Inter-House Captain for Arts, performing in Inter-House Music (although stretching his talents to sing Michael Bublé!) and leading Gravesend House to a brilliant second place. This summer Jason will leave Gordon’s after finishing his A Levels. He hopes to study law at university and is certain he will find an orchestra to join to carry on playing violin.

2020 Winner – Tamara Hibbins – Sport: Tamara, now Year 13, is still achieving in her athletics club and in sport within school. Earlier this year she ran for the county in the Surrey Schools Cross-Country event and now is starting her training for the track season where she competes in the 800 metres for Aldershot, Farnham and District Athletics Club. In school she is a hockey scholar, on the netball team and is the Sports Captain for her House, China. Tamara leaves Gordon’s this summer and is hoping to go on to Loughborough University to study Business Economics.

2021 Winner – Eleanor Scarlett – Music: Eleanor has continued to succeed in her music, playing the clarinet and also the drums in the school Pipes and Drum Band where she takes part in as many events as possible, including Whitehall in January. She has recently passed her Grade 5 theory exam, entered the Concerto competition and performed in the Spring Concert. Eleanor is a very committed member of school, taking part in Inter-House Music, helping teach younger members of the band and now she is also Deputy Head Girl.

2021 Winner – Tommy Oluwasona – Sport: Tommy travelled to Portugal in February as part of the Rugby 7s Tour and continues to play on the school team, most recently in Rosslyn Park National School 7s. He is a Senior Prefect and Student Deputy Head of his boarding house, Balmoral. As part of his role in Balmoral he has spoken to younger students before their rugby tournament, giving them tips and words of encouragement and also tutored them in Biology and Chemistry.

2022 Winner – Wei Yee Zhou – Music: Wei Yee has achieved her Grade 8 piano, Level 4 bagpipes as well as taking up the violin two years ago. She has performed for the school since joining in Year 7 and plays in the pipes band, orchestra, piano trio and the string ensemble as well as now teaching younger students the bagpipes during Period 7. She has recently gained a Pianoman Scholarship and a music scholarship and is planning to complete her gold Arts Award. She has performed in Inter-House Music every year and has represented Gordon’s at a huge number of events with her most memorable performance being getting to play with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers and Skerryvore in 2022.

2022 Winner – Nerys Tullett - Sport: Nerys’ main focus is athletics. She has set school records and has successfully competed at District Championships and at the South East Schools Regional Finals. She also represents school in hockey and cricket and volunteers to help coach younger years in hurdles. Her commitment to school is clear, choosing to represent her House at Sports Day over attending the InterCounty Championships.

Wesaid a fond farewell in March to our Admissions Registrar for the Main School after 26 years’ service to Gordon’s. Sue joined on 20 th January 1997 and in that time has processed around 16,000 admissions applications. When she first started she processed both the Main School and Sixth Form admissions but after a few years these were separated and Sixth Form applications were passed onto a colleague. Over the 26 years Sue has regularly dealt with over 500 applications every year for Year 7 as well as dealing with many successful and unsuccessful applications for all year groups due to Gordon’s being so heavily oversubscribed. There is no doubt she will have processed a huge amount of your applications, Gordonians, reading this magazine.

Sue originally saw the job advert in a local paper (pictured left) and it was advertised as ‘Secretary to the Headmaster’s PA, dealing with admissions’. Naturally it changed over the years and she left with the title of Admissions Registrar (Main School).

Catching up with Sue before she left was truly wonderful, her knowledge and memories of Gordon’s will rival most. She

A FAMILY OF GORDONIANS!

says the hardest part of the job for her is when a lovely student whose family have stayed in contact throughout the years haven’t succeeded in gaining a place. Whilst this is simply down to the school being oversubscribed it doesn’t make it easier to see their disappointment. On the other hand, the most rewarding part of the job is when a student is on the waiting list and the family are so happy and overwhelmed when they do eventually get their place. When asked what she will miss most, Sue had two things: her colleagues and the parents. Working with the team she does, liaising and solving problems will be very much missed. Whether the parents succeed in getting a place for their child or not Sue has always ensured they leave the process with a warm fuzzy feeling about Gordon’s and are confident that processes were followed correctly; a true testament to Sue’s professionalism and commitment to her job.

Sue is now looking forward to her retirement and spending time with her own ‘boys’, both Gordonians. Sam went onto Exeter University (where he met his wife, Kirsty) and is now working in the McLaren Racing F1 team, and Ben is working at Gearset in Cambridge having attended Swansea University after Gordon’s. Ben and his partner, Annabel, welcomed baby Jacob in the Autumn 2022 and Sue is very much looking forward to spending more time with him. There are also step-children, Nik and Pennie, and step-grandchildren locally (Jordan, Jake, Jack and Poppy) to enjoy keeping in touch with. now works for Everlight Radiology as a Credentialling Co-ordinator. Oliver went to Northampton University and now works for BST Detectable Products. We all still live close together in Nottinghamshire and see lots of each other – often based around the local rugby club where Oliver still plays. All of us have fond memories of Gordon’s as well as some not so fond but one thing’s for sure, the School gave us all the grounding we needed to be successful in our lives. Whilst the school I attended was very different from the ones my children did it still delivered on life’s important skills – integrity, loyalty and honesty which are strong traits in all of us, along with well-developed selfreliance and independence.

I was at the Gordon Boys’ School 197580, (7922) in China House. I left and went to Fareham to do my A Levels and then whilst waiting to join the RAF got a job with Lloyds Bank for 18 months. I was commissioned into the RAF in 1984 and was married to my wonderful wife Tracey in 1985. Since then we have completed 16 tours of duty together as far away as the Falkland Islands, where we were for a year, thence to Northern Norway beyond the Arctic Circle for another two years. I’m still serving with 13 Squadron.

As well as this I run my own business Prospero Professional Solutions providing ‘Conflict Mediation, Conflict Coaching and Conflict Management’ training courses. This will become my full-time passion when I leave the RAF in 2025.

Sue and husband Mike continue to host Ukrainian family Alina and daughter, Vika, aged 10 since welcoming them in May 2022.

Sue and Mike will continue to enjoy trips away in their motorhome, walking, being members of Trinity Methodist Church and looking after the garden. There will be more time for their hobbies; folk dancing together, Mike’s wood-turning and sailing as well as Sue hoping for more time for swimming, reading books for pleasure and also to continue to research their family history.

Thank you for your service Sue and welcome to The Gordonians!

C hris Breedon 7922 (1980) and his three children, Abbie 9989 (2006), Jade 10423 (2007) and Oliver 10547 (2010) all attended Gordon’s and here Chris shares what they got up to once they left and he says ‘one thing’s for sure the school gave us all the grounding we needed to be successful in our lives’.

We have three fantastic children, Abbie, Jade and Oliver. All three followed in my footsteps and went to Gordon’s. Abbie, Jade (both Augusta) and Oliver, (Balmoral – same building as my ‘China’ House).

Abbie went to The University of Kent, married in 2018 and now works in HR with Moy Park. Jade went to Uxbridge and then Lincoln Universities, having completed her A Levels at Henley College and

One of the things that still gets me grinning is playing the ‘Victory Beat’ with pencils or rulers on a desk top which gets my work colleagues sitting up! Strange thing is I was never a drummer – not even close but that tune is engrained in my head. We haven’t been to the school for a while now but hope to catch an Annual soon and see the ‘Victory Beat’ live once again.