The Edwardian 2022

At the end of my introduction to last year’s Edwardian, I offered the following view looking ahead to 2022: “I believe that we can again be cautiously optimistic about the coming year. Whilst some aspects of the ‘new normal’ will undoubtedly remain part of school life and there will, I am sure, be other new challenges to face, there will also be plenty of wonderful opportunities and experiences to look forward to, and one thing of which I am certain is that KES pupils and staff will grab these with both hands.”

Looking back on what is now the year that was, that prediction feels as though it has stood up quite well to real world scrutiny. Some of the arrangements that evolved out of necessity during the pandemic have indeed stayed with us out of choice, and the challenge two years ago of adapting to remote teaching and learning morphed into the even greater challenge this year of ‘blended learning’, especially during the long Autumn term, as Covid continued to hit our school community. Readjusting to previously established programmes, patterns and expectations was always unlikely

Headmaster

to happen overnight, but the range and scope of the opportunities on offer to our pupils this year has been quite remarkable, even by pre-pandemic standards, and the sheer number of events, activities and undertakings has been nothing short of amazing. As predicted, our pupils have indeed grabbed those opportunities and experiences on offer with both hands, and the fact that this year’s Edwardian has had to extend to more pages than ever before tells its own story. It certainly reveals many colourful tales of happy engagement and commendable achievement from so many within the School community and perhaps even bears out the observation made to me by several parents throughout the year that it was wonderful that “everything is back to normal”, even when – seen from the inside at least – it clearly wasn’t! That it may have appeared so from the outside is testament in large part to the tremendous efforts of teaching and support staff and a desire and determination to build back those opportunities in and out of the classroom as quickly and as fully as possible; I extend my very grateful thanks to them and also to

all the parents who, as always, have continued to support the School enthusiastically on every level. The pupils themselves must also take great credit for keenly pursuing the KES mantra of making the most of everything that comes their way and for displaying so wholeheartedly and successfully that spirit of adventure and discovery that feels as strong as ever; as the photographs, accounts and stories in this magazine attest, they have clearly had some great times this year!

I won’t make any predictions for next year beyond the hope that it reflects a further case of ‘onwards and upwards’ on all fronts. I hope that, by the time you are reading this, our pupils have been celebrating another uplifting set of GCSE and A Level results following the first full public examination season since 2019 and that those returning to school do so refreshed and recharged after a wonderful summer and ready to throw themselves into what – and let’s keep everything crossed – will be a pretty ‘normal’ year….

M Boden

KES Community

The KES Community Partnerships and Outreach Programme aims to provide meaningful benefit to the local community and beyond.

It offers KES pupils the valuable experience of service, in addition to our weekly volunteering programme, as part of an all-round KES education. This year’s initiatives have offered new partnerships providing engagement and enrichment opportunities for KES pupils and local young people.

In the first of a series of workshops, KES Art teachers and Sixth Formers collaborated with staff at Three Ways, Bath, to help pupils create art focused on themselves and their interests, with inspiration from textile designer, Alice Kettle and artist, Joseph Cornell. Everyone taking part in the KES Art department initiative found the experience hugely rewarding and we very much look forward to continuing this relationship.

A collaboration with The Holburne Museum provided further cultural experiences for KES historians and artists, alongside the Year 5 cohort at Bathwick St Mary Church School. As a sponsor of the Museum’s Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics exhibition, KES was able to offer exclusive access to the exhibit to pupils at both schools, with an introduction by the exhibition’s curator, and a series of art-based workshops for KES Special Talent artists and Year 5 pupils at Bathwick St Mary Church School.

At KES, an innovative partnership with Lenovo and Microsoft led to the development of the new Creative Media Suite, equipped with 26 Lenovo Legion T5 desktop systems, along with full peripherals. Designed to enhance an exciting range of learning opportunities at KES, as well as providing pupils with some of the key technology and creative digital skills that they will need in the future, the new Media Suite is also home to the school’s flourishing co-curricular esports programme. We also foresee the new suite serving as a digital hub for wider use by young people across the local Bath community. The outreach programme in support of this ambition started during the Summer Term, with a series of Minecraft Education Edition workshops for over 100 children, as part of our annual Activities Week for local primary schools.

Indeed, our longstanding Activities Week programme for local primary schools takes place at school during the same week that KES pupils undertake their own Activities Week.

Over 200 Year 5 pupils from eight local primary schools took part in a week-long series of workshops, hosted by department colleagues. For example, Art sessions explored urban landscapes, Geography

workshops explored the continent of Africa, agility and tactical awareness skills were developed in PE sessions, a body percussion Music workshop saw others use their own bodies to create a rhythmic and choreographed original composition, culminating in a live performance, whilst in Drama, groups explored the tale of The Lorax. Thanks to the support of our partner, Bath Cricket Club, several schools spent the day at our Bathampton playing fields, enjoying a community cricket competition, and skills-based training.

Elsewhere in the community we continued our support for The Egg theatre, in a programme which included a Drama workshop at the Junior School, hosted by the creative team at the theatre, as well as partnering with Bath RFC Juniors and Girls, where many of our pupils play outside of school, to support rugby in the community.

We look forward to building on these existing partnerships next year and exploring others where KES can support and contribute to the wider community.

K Gentle

KES PARENTS

Run by parent volunteers, the aim of KES Parents is to provide a supportive social network for new pupils and their families when pupils first join the school and throughout their educational journey. They seek to help build a strong and vibrant community and believe that one of the best ways to do this is to provide a variety of events and opportunities for parents to meet up and to get to know one another, in addition to helping to support the school.

KES Parents’ annual organised events build a strong community at KES, whilst also raising funds to support educational and entertaining projects across all three parts of the school. Events have included comedy and quiz nights, wine tastings, the Summer Ball, the Year 11 Prom, and of course the hugely popular Christmas Fair. These events provide an opportunity for parents to meet each other and socialise outside the school day.

KES Parents also run the Nearly New Uniform Shop, located on the Sports Hall balcony. Sales take place on selected Wednesday afternoons, and on several Saturdays throughout the year. Available stock changes seasonally, and sales are advertised on the school’s website and e-mail.

Providing funds for many different projects over the years, this year’s

projects include new Pre-prep tricycles and scooters, a contribution towards improving the top of the Junior School meadow, a smart materials handling box for the DT department, equipment for the Art & Photography department, gym mats and ELSA support programme resource materials for the Junior School and a significant contribution for new outdoor furniture and equipment to enhance the areas in around the Wessex Building. A huge thank you to all those parents who have helped, organised, attended at any of the events or bought from or donated to the Nearly New Shop. The funds go a long way to provide the “extras” that make our community and learning environment a much better place in which to work, visit, and learn.

KES Parents actively welcome parent participation and would be delighted to hear from parents who would like to join the committee, or to provide support. Committee meeting dates are published on the school’s VLE parents’ notice page. You don’t need to attend all the meetings, just feel free to come along when you are able. Many parents decide to help on a project basis such as running a particular event, others help at Nearly New. There is something for everyone to fit around your other commitments!

Finally, I would like to thank all those parents who have made such a huge contribution to KES Parents and the School over the years, and who now leave us as their children move on. There are too many to mention, but thank you on behalf of the school, its staff, pupils and fellow parents. You have made a positive difference to so many and we are for ever grateful for your help, support, contribution, and friendship. Please do come back and visit, or even attend one of the many events in the future!

Thanks in particular to Alan Stone (and his wife Sue) who has been the KES Parents Chair for the last few years and has done a fantastic job, leading the way on so many levels, especially through the pandemic years. Wendy Powney replaces Alan, and I wish her all the best in her role as Chair for the coming year.

D Chapman

Art & Photography

“A visit to a museum is a search for beauty, truth, and meaning in our lives. Go to museums as often as you can.”

– Maira Kalman

Art and Photography has been busy and exciting this year with the added bonus of running a number of trips to visit galleries and museums. Getting out and about has reminded us as a department just how important it is to visit art exhibitions to inspire and motivate students. There is nothing quite like seeing art ‘live’, being able to move around a piece of work, get up close and to investigate the finer details is an integral part of understanding the creative process. We have also been fortunate to have some great exhibitions on our doorstep this year. We visited the Kurt Jackson exhibition at the Victoria Gallery just before the summer break and took Year 12 and the Special Talent Art students to the recent ‘Tudors: Passion, Power & Politics’ exhibition at The Holburne Museum. As KES sponsored this exhibition, we were also able to run a series of workshops in the Museum’s education space for KES students and Year 5s from a local primary school. They were captivated by the exquisite detail in the paintings and produced some bold and colourful work in response.

Over the past year, Mrs Hughes has made strong links with Three Ways School and 6th Form students have planned and delivered art workshops to students at the school, which has proved to be a hugely rewarding experience for all involved. It has been great to see some of our older students work with patience, care and enthusiasm whilst sharing their skills and knowledge with the Three Ways students.

In the Autumn, we took our Year 11 students to Oxford and explored the wealth of sculpture and art in the Ashmolean Museum and took in the eclectic and captivating collection at the Pitt Rivers Museum. Our 6th Form residential to Cornwall was also a hugely rewarding experience and we managed to visit eight different galleries and museums over our short time away. Particular highlights were the Tate St Ives, Barbara Hepworth Museum and the beautiful Tremeneere Sculpture Gardens. It is fantastic to see how all these trips have informed the development of students’ own work and inspired new ideas and ways of working.

The relaxation of pandemic rules has made it easier to get out and visit galleries, as well as more students now coming to lunchtime clubs and using the art facilities outside of lessons. It has been wonderful to see so many students of all ages coming back in their own time and the department has a real buzz of creativity throughout the day. We look forward to planning more trips in the forthcoming year and continuing to provide exciting creative opportunities for students both in and out of the classroom.

E Hume-Smith

Kat Nicholas Year 13

Year 8

Year 8

Alex Porter Year 13

Ollie Chapman Year 11

Phoebe Ritchie Year 13

The Edwardian

Year 9

Luiza Britton Year 11

Immy Bond, Year 13

Archie McGillvray Year 12

Maia West Year 12

Scarlet Parker Booth Year 13 Clem

Photography Competition

What a fantastic celebration of talent and creativity we had for this year’s Photography Competition. There is such a wonderful display of KES community and creativity in celebration of the theme ‘Serenity’ that will be exhibited at this year’s Art & Photography Exhibition. Everyone should be commended on their entry it was a hard decision to choose just a few winners and runners-up so we congratulate all entrants on their stunning efforts!

F Hughes

Aleena Jahanzab Year 8 - Winner - Seniors

Milla Hemley Year 7 - Winner - Age 12 and under

Bev Denny Winner - Parent & Staff

Peter Simonds - Runner Up - Parents & Staff

Lewis Guan Year 8 - Runner Up - Seniors

Sarah Walker - Evening Chill - Runner Up - Parents & Staff

Ben Lander Year 12 - Runner up - Seniors

2021 - 2022 saw a return to Nethersole teaching and a change in the teaching personnel. Mr David Blake joined us fresh out of university to teach Business Studies and Games as maternity cover for Mrs Salako. For any new teacher, the prospect of a full timetable, a tutor group and the normal “ups and downs” of a school year is a daunting prospect. Mr Blake has done a superb job! Growing in stature and confidence as the year has progressed, his hard work, professionalism, and absolute dedication to the students that he has taught has shone through. This sentiment is shared with the Sport department for his impact upon the KES 1st and 2nd XI football teams and the Year 7 pastoral team.

It was very much an academic year of two halves for Years 11 & 13: pre- and post the Omicron variant of COVID. It certainly looked as though public examinations might be cancelled for the third year running as the new variant spread through the UK. However, with vaccines and boosters, and a determination for them to go ahead, they sat their exams. We wish them well for the summer results, but they should know that they worked extremely hard and made sense of the examination board “Additional Information.”

In Year 9, four groups set up excellent businesses and ran pitches at the KES Christmas Fair. Record amounts of money was raised for

Business Studies & Economics

the KES charity and our young entrepreneurs also got to keep some of their hard-earned spoils. The department is always amazed at the hard work and enterprise of these young people and this year was no exception. Year after year, the products and marketing rival those being run by adults who do this for a living! The department understands that behind each business are KES mums and dads who may have baked brownies, stitched bunting or made an eleventh-hour dash for some environmentally friendly, Christmas-based, packaging! Parents we salute you!

In March, the department took GCSE and A level students to the Tutor2u Grade booster conference. This was a good day out and a chance for students to recognise where they were in terms of their understanding, bear down on the structuring of answers and test themselves against other GCSE students from around the region. Members of the department were impressed by the standard of answers given by students and the growing levels of confidence on display. This was backed up by some glowing feedback from the Tutor2u presenters on the quality of the KES students.

As the department looks forward to 2022 – 2023, it hopes to bring back the KES Enterprise scheme for Year 12, the Year 7 VIP disco, the IFS student investor programme, a range of business breakfast

talks and a return of GCSE and A level trips to local business.

I would like to thank my wonderful department, without whom none of this happens. Mr Blake moves on to pastures new to take up a position as teacher of Economics, Business Studies and PE at Monkton Combe. To Mrs Dias, Mrs Salako, and Mr Barber, as always, it has been a pleasure to share the highs and lows of another academic year with you. Thank you for your hard work, great humour, and energy.

G I Butterworth

Classics

As we started to make our way back to some sort of normality after the disruptions of the past two years, it was fantastic to see such a range of activities and extra-curricular opportunities available to our students once again. The Classics Extension Group, ably led by Mrs Burchell, returned to N35 to hear talks from our Sixth Form students on topics as diverse as ‘A comparison between the life and works of Ovid and Pedro Almodovar’ (Ollie Cochran), ‘Modern misogyny, Ancient origins’ (Xander-Spencer-Jones), ‘The lost music of Ancient Rome’ (Emma Hocking) and ‘The importance of magic in the Graeco-Roman world’ (Archie McGillivray). Two of our Year 11 students, Bethan Cheshire and Elise Withey, produced a superb entry into the Cambridge University Classics Visual Media Competition. Their entry, entitled ‘The Glory of Medea’, featured an original woodwind composition by Bethan, whilst Elise contributed the poetry and artwork. The finished video is available via: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SEjiBlOH3rE. We were also delighted to hear that two of our Year 13 students, Elysia Bidgood and Henry Skinner, had been offered places to read Classics at Oxbridge colleges, taking our total to six successful applicants in the last five years.

We have been spoiled this year in that a number of school and professional productions have had a classical theme. The school’s production of the ‘Antigone’ was a real treat, with a number of Classicists taking on leading roles. The separation of the characters of Creon and Teiresias into a number of constituent parts was an interesting and successful modern adaptation, whilst Ellen Scholefield (Antigone), Ollie Cochran (Creon), Benjie Poole (Haemon), Henry Skinner (Teiresias) and Jonty Manners-Bell (Sentry) all shone in their roles. We were very fortunate to be visited by Professor Patrick

Finglass of Bristol University before the school performance. As one of the leading Sophocles scholars in the world, he gave a very interesting lecture on ten key passages from the text, which is still available to view on the KES TV platform. Only a matter of a few weeks later we discovered that Kingswood School’s Senior Play was also a production of the Antigone, and it was interesting for a group of our Sixth Form students to watch their more traditional approach to the material.

Year 12 Classical Civilisation and Latin students ventured to London’s British Museum and the King’s College Greek Play, once again generously funded by KES parent, Mr MannersBell. The students toured the recently re-opened Parthenon exhibits and the Bassae frieze, with Mrs Burchell bringing the sculptures to life with her in-depth analyses. After a quick lunch at Borough market, we arrived at the Greenwood Theatre to see the King’s College students’ interpretation of the Antigone and Oedipus myths, entitled ‘The Plague at Thebes’. It was a thought-provoking production, with flashbacks to the time of Oedipus delivered in Ancient Greek, and a more psycho-analytical evaluation of Antigone in English.

Finally, it was a welcome return for our Year 7 Roman Baths trip and I am very grateful to Mr Feeney for all of his organisation. The Year 7s enjoyed a session of artefact handling and background information, before touring around the site itself. We look forward to the opening of a new education centre ahead of next year’s visit, which should certainly add to the experience of the trip.

Speaking of trips, we are already in the early stages of planning for a trip to the Bay of Naples (July 2023) and the Senior Classics Trip to Greece (October 2023).

Computing & ICT

A YEAR IN THE COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT

We are pleased to return to our energetic curriculum and special projects this first normal year since lockdown. In September we welcomed ex-KES student Joe Hewett and colleague Tom from Netcraft, an international cybersecurity company, to come in to inspire our Y12 and Y13 Computer Scientists. Another visitor was ex-Kes student Emily Best who talked about landing her prestigious role at a top-secret cybersecurity company and discuss the many benefits of getting a degree apprenticeship.

Year 9 Computing students started learning about Artificial Intelligence in lessons thanks to a partnership with Intel. They learned about the different types of AI and how it impacts our everyday lives. They built chatbots and developed machine learning algorithms that learned how to get better at winning games of Pong.

The Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge competition tests the Computing & ICT students’ problemsolving skills. Our students spent a week working through the challenging

questions. Congratulations to Laura Cannock (Year 7), Lily Quaglieni-Cox (Year 8 & 9), Fergal Stopforth (Year 10 and 11) and Harry Frith (Year 12 and 13) who won Best in School in the four separate age categories.

Owing to the pandemic, our winning team of National CyberFirst Girls in 2020 missed a prize-winning trip, but not to be disappointed, it was rescheduled for a September visit to McLaren Formula One HQ! They were regaled at an afternoon tea with speakers from GCHQ, McLaren and Darktrace, a code-breaking activity, a scavenger hunt and a grand tour of the uber-technical facility. This year, we registered six teams of Year 8 girls for the CyberFirst Girls competition. ‘The Screaming Codebusters’ comprising Ava Shaw, Hafsa Shazuli, Annabel Howlett and Amy Middlebrough won the semi-final and made it to the Independent Schools Final. Intended to be a live event, Covid concerns forced it to be held virtually. The Year 8 girls worked amazingly hard but missed the top place. They had a great time, worked well together and learned useful coding and codebreaking skills.

The Cipher Challenge Club started in October looking at the year’s challenge mysteriously entitled ‘The Lighthouse Conspiracy’. It was inspiring to see Year 7s trying this out with teams of older pupils joining later to crack the final challenges. All years came along to the hugely popular weekly Coding Club to build on their Scratch, Python and JavaScript programs. We can’t wait to see their creations develop! We ran our first Girls into eSports club and had an amazing turnout from keen Year 7s and 8s who had a chance to try out a creative challenge in Minecraft Education.

As the year closes, Year 12 will visit a robot lab and makerspace at Bath University and we offer huge congratulations to Year 13 Computer Science pupil Max Smith for reaching the final of the British Informatics Olympiad (BIO) at Trinity College, Cambridge. The annual BIO is an extremely challenging programming competition which only the very brightest computer scientists succeed.

CREATIVE MEDIA SUITE

The new Creative Media Suite, developed in partnership with Lenovo and Microsoft, is an impressive facility. Its twenty-six new desktop systems have proved really popular with our esports fans as well as our budding designers and programmers.

The computers are installed with powerful graphics cards and the latest software to explore 3D design, animation, video editing and SFX. It is hoped this digital hub will also serve young people across the local Bath community as students investigate the processes behind making realistic 3D games and develop their own.

L James

Design & Technology

Pupils have had a creative year in Design and Technology. Year 7 finished the academic year enthused and excited with the completion of their clocks, pens, and key fobs. Year 8 projects kept pupils engaged with designing and making cushions, oil burners and a slotted tabled decorations for a particular need. Year 9 demonstrated their excellent skills manufacturing a wooden tray, developing their card modelling skills and casting using a range of materials. Year 10 designed and made some amazing mood lights and USBs. Year 12 have experienced designing for a variety of needs and have had the opportunity to prototype in a range of material choices. Years 11 and 13 have successfully completed their coursework and intentions of making, it’s been a difficult two years for them; however, they have risen to the challenge and should be commended for their determination. Next year we look forward bringing back trips to the Design Museum and Jaguar Landover alongside a range of exciting clubs. The Design and Technology department are looking forward to what next academic year brings.

M Roy

AIRGINEERS

By Tim Byers, Aidan O’Mahony, Lawrence Moore and Will Harris, Year 9

With the start of the new year brought a new club, the Airgineers, exclusively for year 9 to build a drone from scratch. Although it has come with a few technological challenges, we have been able to build a fully functional quadcopter drone from scratch, starting with a 3D printed chassis and various parts to a finished project. Overall, we found it a very enjoyable and intriguing experience in which we learnt many new skills, such as soldering and programming, which we can carry forward into later DT courses. This also gave us the opportunity to expose ourselves to KES’s evergrowing clubs on offer enabling us to broaden our knowledge. Cooperation has been key to the creation of our drones as through the challenges we worked together to find a solution. We want to say a massive thank you to Mr Hutchings for supporting us through this journey.

TEXTILES CLUB

With the guidance of Mrs Flay, students in Years 8 and 9 have levelled up their sewing skills and become masters of the sewing machines in the KES Textiles club. We have enjoyed a range of projects, such as making cosy fleece hats and cross stitch pocket mirrors and patches. In our current sustainability focused project, students have undertaken the mammoth task of sorting through the boxes of fabrics that have been donated to the department over the years and upcycled them into patchwork tote bags. Using jazzy textile vinyl offcuts from a local maker, the bags will be decorated and embellished and then sold at the KES 2022 Christmas fair.

R Flay

UK ROC

What an amazing year for the UKROC team who won the National Finals in October. Well done to Harry Frith, Ben Fallon, Ben Mc Nab, Max Smith. Conrad Perry and George Kiernan. This was followed by a trip to Lockheed Martin to find out about rockets being launched into space from the UK.

Good luck to Ashton Hill, Cosmo Sutcliffe, Joe Reece and Angus Cannock our current UKROC team who have made the National finals for this year after competing at the 2022 regional finals held at Bathampton playing fields.

M Roy

Drama

With a nervous sense of excited anticipation, we sprang into the new academic year, perhaps this new year would allow us to return to more normal working practice in the Theatrical world. It is great testament to the KES Drama Team and the students that despite lingering uncertainty, they committed to rehearsing and preparing the precarious large scale events. I am pleased to announce that no such cancellations occurred, and the team has been able to flex their imaginative muscles again without the need for masks and sanitising gel.

We welcomed a new intern to the team and Jaye Williams did not disappoint. Jaye has run the Lower School Drama club with great skill, putting on Form Competitions and an end of year Jack and the Beanstalk showcase. She also headed up the fabulous production of Peter Pan by our Year 7, which was a magical feast to see.

At GCSE and A-level students continued to produce outstanding work that pertinently and imaginatively explored the world around them to enormous success. With our exceptional A-level students gaining 100% A*-A we could not have been prouder of the attitude and resilience they showed to achieve such amazing grades. The GCSE students similarly achieved highly

successful marks and Lower School students have also creatively explored their world through Drama designing for big budget Hansel and Gretel productions in Year 9 or considering the impacts of culture and racism through the play Anita and Me in Year 8. While there is always a chance to hone dramatic acting talent in lessons, it is also vital that we learn to learn the importance of another person’s point of view, and what it might teach us about our own lives.

It was great to return to face-to-face LAMDA lessons. Over 70% of our exam students gained Distinction. Maia West Y8, achieved an outstanding 97% for her Solo Acting exam. LAMDA remains extremely popular at KES and our waiting list is forever growing. Many of our students talk of how LAMDA increases their confidence and gives them a greater understanding of working with a text to explore acting techniques. We are incredibly proud of all of them.

Pupils had an opportunity to experience live theatre again, to feel the lights on our face and the overwhelming emotion that only sitting in a collective audience can give. Inspiring trips for exam pupils included Wise Children’s Wuthering Heights and the musical Everyone’ Talking About Jamie. We also watched the classic Animal Farm in

Bath Theatre Royal where the use of puppets was a key influence on the students’ own creative work. Year 9 pupils went to see Blood Brothers and it was wonderful as a teacher to see them laugh and cry at this classic musical.

The productions this year at KES have all been classics, with traditional tales being retold for our contemporary audience. We started the year with the older students taking on Sophocles’ extraordinary classic text Antigone. Taking the challenges of this ancient play in their stride, the students turned it into a relevant political piece. It was directed by the whole team of Sarah Bird, Victoria Stevens Craig, and Dani Tamblyn. Year 7 took on the challenge of flying and make-believe in a beautiful interpretation of Peter Pan. Years 8 and 9 finished the year in a huge scale production of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, acclaimed as marvellous and magical. Set, props lighting and sound were outstanding and brilliant thanks to James Sellick and Rebecca Walker who never cease to impress with their creativity and design on our shows and exams.

Our thanks to all involved in making this another wonderful year in Drama!

S Bird

Peter Pan

Intriguing, innovative and distinctly charming

Review by Joshua Stokes, Year 13

Adapting a renowned and time-worn tale into a modern performance is always a daunting task, especially when that tale is the inimitable Peter Pan, yet it is one that these promising Year 7 actors have accomplished with impressive aplomb. Assured, inventive and memorable, the production experiments with theatrical form in a manner that defies expectation and injects new life into a narrative at risk of becoming lethargic. It is, in essence, an aptly spellbinding rendition of one of Britain’s most iconic and ubiquitous pieces of children’s fiction.

The actors, lifeblood of any performance, prove themselves not only capable of filling the large shoes defined by the now century-old story, but also of using those shoes to walk in a fashion unique to themselves; far from a mere imitation, the performance seems defined by a refusal to play it safe. From Will Powell’s endearingly absentminded Smee to Arty Waddington’s charismatic Captain Hook, the stage is at all times populated by a compelling cast of competent entertainers. Lola Jones, Peter Gamble and Libby Scotland each provide their own nuanced take on ‘the boy who wouldn’t grow up’, and the chemistry they have with their respective counterparts (Penny Papadin, Livy Palmer and Roami Wilson) as Wendy is both palpable and immediate. The cast exudes confidence, and their talent makes it evident as to why.

Much like the ambitious production itself, the set exists in a constant state of charming flux, transforming itself time and time again with the use of techniques simple but nonetheless effective. Take, for example, the feat of replicating the sensation of soaring blissfully through an azure skyscape; this glorious spectacle is reproduced with only a handful of splayed umbrellas to emulate clouds, a few sheets of shimmering blue fabric to represent the sky behind, and a wonderous swelling of music to unite the scene. Equally as fantastical is the mischievous Tinkerbell – here represented by a handful of bells held up to a strobing light, with her comedic expressions recreated via the use of a frame bedecked in fairy lights. An additionally creative interpretation involves the use of empty clothes as puppetry to present the parents as a more distant or alien presence in the children’s lives. The use of inventive prop work not only manages to sell even the most ethereal moments, but also elevate them beyond expectations.

Central to the appeal of the narrative of Peter Pan is the freedom that accompanies childhood and its many exploits. The production manages to briefly afford that same joy of play to an audience that has perhaps outgrown it in a manner that is truly special; the infectious exuberance of this skilful cast is plain to see.

Return to Wonderland

The Year 8 and 9 production of ‘Alice in Wonderland AND Alice Through the Looking Glass’ was a crazy carnival of theatrical delights which saw the Wroughton Theatre transformed into a psychedelic wonderland - the very stuff that dreams are made on!

As the lights came up on a monochrome set where Reverend Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll - played with Victorian aplomb by Kai Dodgson) sits while the Liddell sisters (Abi Whittock and Freya Palmer) floated down a silken River Isis in a puppetry boat. ‘Tell us a story,’ they begged and so the magic began… The circus troupe of Wonderlanders filled the stage with colour and song and no fewer than five different Alices fell through hoops

and swirling ribbons down, down, down to the bottom of the rabbit hole.

‘Eat me!... Drink me!’ sang pots and potions, as one minute Alice was the size of a tiny doll, the next big enough to dwarf the stage, her hands and feet like giant lollipops on sticks. She meets a White Rabbit (Imogen Luker) with the voice of an angel and witty repartee that leaves Alice bamboozled and the audience in awe. Then she bumps into a domineering Duchess (Lola Clayphan) cradling a baby pig and declaring, ‘We are all mad here!’ Enter Cheshire Cat - a Chinese dragon in polychromatic Juicy Couture, played by Rosa Franks, Issy Gale and Ava Shaw in a performance equally as crazily colourful. The sweetly befuddled King of Hearts (Kai

Durant-Valdez) brings his deliciously despotic Queen (Beth Ritchie) who commands a kangaroo court to try the errant but hilariously unrepentant Knave of Hearts (Will Pile).

Alice herself – or should I say selves - Harriet Haysler, Rebecca Jellis, Bonamy Purcell, Isla Stafford and Anna Treharne – is as beguiling and charismatic as John Tenniel’s first illustrations. Whether delighted or frighted, small or tall, bemused, amused or confused – these Alices never fail to delight. They stumble into the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, where presiding is Annabel Howlett - the gloriously eccentric Hatter - Cassie Milton, a zany aristocratic March Hare and the adorably narcoleptic dormouse, Albie Beresford. They caper

around a living tea-table (replete with moving human legs and live teacups) in a crazy game of musical chairs and dance to a manic whirligig of time.

Our Alices encounter birds of feather –a delightfully bumbling Dodo (Amelie Highfield), a dour Yorkshire Griffon (Theo Fallon), a chirpily colourful canary (Ella Miles), a magnificent magpie (Alisa Shaji), and a loquacious Lory (Sophie Hinds) – squawking and flapping tetchily in rhyming couplets. The wonderfully weird Red Knight and the White Knight (Jack Watkin and James Ruffle) ride hobby horses across the chess board and deliver hilarious put-downs in iambic pentameter. And deliciously ditsy White Queen (Morven Boyd) and her sardonic nemesis the despotically bossy Red Queen (Juliette Gooberman-Hill) galumph across the chess board before falling asleep on Alice’s shoulders.

Alice slips through the Looking Glass in the second half to enter a world that is upside-down, topsy-turvy and back-to-front. Indi Hickman Shrive and Fred Gray appear first as a surreally psychedelic bubbleblowing caterpillar then reappear magically as the Lion and the Unicorn in a World Heavyweight face off. Teddy Bodey and Francis West are the hilariously slapstick Fish and Frog footman, who metamorphose magically into Tweedledum and Tweedledee - a miniature clown-suited Ant and Dec with a chorus of musical oysters. Iris Rostom is the Mock Turtle of Wonderland who conducts a chorus of performing lobsters before transforming into a magnificently funny Carpenter. Barnaby Frith begins as an athletic octogenarian and transforms into Humpty Dumpty who spouts post-modern aphorisms like ‘When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” And Danny McKenzie is the backflipping young upstart who pops up magically in the second half as an errant knight who fights the monstrous Jabberwock! The Wonderlanders steal the show, for it is they who bring the magic to life. Rising to the KES drama department’s mantra that ‘there are no small parts’, the glorious chorus of singers (Christopher Cooper, Phoebe O’Mahony, Freya Palmer) and wonderful Wonderlanders (Grace Catton, Joely Clark, Abi Hardware, Olavi Hawkins, Aleena Jahanzab, Ricky Jiang, Ben Parsons Jones, Alvina Shaji, Evie Shepperdson,

Emily Stenhouse) fill the stage with a smorgasbord of circus delights. Whether they are beat-boxing to Chariots of Fire or creating a giant Jabberwocky with silken wings and flaming eyes made of rubber tyres: Whether they are playing fawns, mice, horses or flowers; creating trains, borogroves or slithy toves; whether singing, chanting, gyreing or gimbling … our wonderful Wonderlanders allow the audience to ‘believe in at least six impossible things before breakfast’ and lend this show the magic Lewis Carroll brought so zanily to the page.

The trance-like lighting and sound design are thanks to visionary James Sellick, and the astonishing set and glorious array of costumes are magicked into life by the magician that is Rebecca Walker. And the dreamers behind this production –our two astonishingly imaginative directors, Mrs Bird and Mrs StevensCraig, ably assisted by Jaye Williams and Year 10 Joseph Walker - take the audience on a gloriously hallucinatory journey into a fantasy world, down the rabbit hole, behind the looking glass, in the realms of reverie. And seeing the Wroughton theatre full to the rafters! Well, what a return to Wonderland!

C Bruton

Going, going, Antigone!

The third of Sophocles’ tragic trilogy explores ancient tensions that drive a schism through families, communities and whole nations. It is a tale of impossible choices and consequences that ends with dead bodies piled up on the stage and humans portrayed as mere playthings of the gods, a tale which felt both very apt and paradoxically uplifting!

The staging was simple. A grey post-apocalyptic landscape, with separate zones starkly delineated by tape so familiar in the Covid era. Soldiers issue edicts to the audience: ‘Masks to be kept on, by the order of the King of Thebes … Laughter is allowed – although this is a Greek Tragedy.’ The whole cast sing Avicii’s ‘Wake me up when it’s all over!’. Starkly ‘bubbled’ into

distinct groups – they each danced to their own conflicting melodies: Macarena, Robot, jive, boogie, TikTok. These clear societal divisions were then shattered by an opening duel in which two die, and a stark warning from the chorus for more bloodshed.

But hope glimmered through the darkness. ‘We will be the generation who mend all that has come before!’ declares Antigone, a girl caught between duty and passion, between sister and brother, between the law and conscience. Played with astonishing force and power by Ellen Schofield and Lily Chapman, this turmoil was echoed, refracted, reflected in the beautiful physical theatre of her friends – Charlotte Clark, Beech Mills-McDonald and Defne Sertogle. But it was the image

of the solitary luminous figure in a blood-stained skirt, centre stage facing death with unworldly stoicism and dignified defiance that lingers.

As counterpoint, sister Ismene’s agony and impotence was exquisitely captured by Maddie Davies and Luiza Britton. Ismene ends up sole survivor of a god-cursed family, and in a fascinating feminist interpretation, the whole of Thebes slowly bowed to her rule. Both actors captured Ismene’s precarious emergent power as she stands, dead family at her feet, defiant like a flickering candle in a dark world.

Meanwhile, Creon and his cronies march onto the stage. They are a slightly comic bunch played by Violet Fitzwater Bowker, Lucas KoverWolf, Charlie McGuire, Ellen Sinden and Isla Byrne, and paint a satirical portrait of the political machinations that go on behind closed doors.

Creon, a leader caught in a trap of his own monstrous arrogance, fights Gods but is undone by one girl. Neve Riley and Ollie Cochran delivered a devastating portrait of a desperate leader – and desperate parent –clinging to the vestiges of power in home and state. As Creon screaming at his son, demanding obedience,

There are some astonishing stand-out individual performances in this piece – India Purdie’s poignant monologue as the grief-stricken Eurydice; Horry Foster/ Benjie Poole’s rapid and transformation from boyish besotted lover to tragic martyr cradling a dead lover; Jacob Cooper’s glamorously sinister Propaganda. But it was the ensemble work that lent this production its real power. The news team - played by Roman Bradford, Dotty Hodge, Edie Osmond and Hester Poole – are alternately comic, grotesque, prescient and parasitical, as their salacious desire for gossip, scandal and headlines held a mirror up to our own media-obsessed culture.

The citizens and friends, like Haemon’s companion, played by Ian Korzuch, surreally amplify the struggles of the key protagonists and the sense of a world in turmoil. Silas Collins, Iyshea Hender, Oscar Lowton, Clem Scotland, Ollie Featherstone and Jonty Manners- Bell were braggingly bellicose, brashly belligerent and then comically chaotic and pitifully tragic – are the comic pawns in a game and caught between ‘the fell incensèd points of mighty opposites.’ Tiresias, the blind seer, was portrayed as a quartet of dryad-like nymphs played with lyrical and hypnotic intensity by Ebony Hammond, Lollie McKenzie, Sahara Purdie and Henry Skinner. They danced, sang and wove their webs of prophecy and created some of the most beautiful visual images of the production.

Music lent this piece new layers of power and beauty: Maria Mergoupis’

haunting strains on the violin; Joseph Walker leading a chorus of voices soaring above the chaos and carnage on stage; the operatic strains that accompany the horrific shadow play image of Antigone suspended from a noose, her dead lover at her feet. And the dissonant chords as the entire cast reel in slow motion horror as ‘the whirligig of time brings in his revenges’ and the death toll mounts.

Mrs Bird, Mrs Tamblyn and Mrs Stevens-Craig collaborated as directors for the first time, and that spirit brought an incredible eclectic energy to this multi-layered piece. The ensemble spirit extended to the cast too as students from Years 10-13 performed on stage together for the first time in nearly two years. As the UK lurches towards Plan B and Christmas seems once more in jeopardy, this production seemed to speak to the fears and horrors we have all endured over the Covid years. But it also spoke of hope, of the resilience of the human spirit, of the indefatigable power of individual conscience, and how the collective spirit of collaboration can restore harmony. Because this will be ‘the generation to change what has come before,’ this incredible young KES cast inspired me with hope for the brighter future they will build!

C Bruton

these two actors issued a cry of pain that tore at the audience’s heart.

English

THE ANTHOLOGY

This year’s double Anthology launch party was uniquely special, as parents, pupils, staff and special guests gathered in the Porter Library to celebrate the publication of not one but two editions of the KES Anthology. Both the 2020 and 2021 editions celebrate the outpouring of creativity throughout the pandemic, as KES pupils demonstrated the one thing that you can’t lockdown - creativity.

Our guest judge and editor – the critically acclaimed novelist Rachel Heath observed, “The poems and stories written by pupils this year seems to speak to and wrestle with our strange Corona lives, with American politics and with the urgency of the environmental crisis”.

Meanwhile poet, author and literary critic Imogen Russell Williams, who judged the entries from the 2020 Poetry and Short Story Competitions commented, “I was exceptionally impressed [and made envious] by the standard of the writing submitted.”

The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly listening to the young authors read from their work. The poems and short stories in these unique collections were really brought to life by their writers from Year 7 – Year 14 (yes, even school leavers came back to join us!) Clearly the ‘roaring twenties’ are set to be an exciting time of literary innovation!

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THE QUILT

Year 13 Literature students enjoyed a revision trip to the American Museum, picnicking amongst presidents, dressing up as Puritans and linking texts to contexts! The American Literature module at A Level requires students to study texts in their historical context so it was a joy to be able to read work by Edith Wharton, Walt Whitman, James Fenimore Cooper, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Thomas Paine, F Scott Fitzgerald, Nathaniel Hawthorne – and more - amid historical settings. Students drew links and made illuminating connections, seeing how literature holds up a mirror to history. We have been running this trip for a few years now and inspired by the quilt collection at the museum our outgoing Year 13s made their squares to add to the English department quilt. They may be soon moving on to pastures new but all our A Level students – past and present - remain forever on the quilt and always in our hearts!

YEAR 7 BOX FACTOR FINAL

The brilliant Year 7 bookworms battled it out to see who would be crowned Box Factor Champion 2021. Year 7 pupils presented amazing talks about intrepid time travellers, daring knights, Russian myths, mystical winter wonderlands, murder mysteries and much more. They introduced us to a rich cast of characters and a host of themes to delight and intrigue. Their boxes moved, lit up, spoke, made music, magic, came in shapes like ships and horses, and even sprouted chicken legs.

The six finalists were: Eleanor Wilton (7G), Laura Cannock (7H), Libby Scotland (7J), Raman Shur (7K), Tom Hearn (7L) and Ben Jones (7M). On the day, it was the toughest of decisions for the panel of expert judges to choose:

BOX FACTOR CHAMPION 2021: Eleanor Wilton, for her presentation of ‘Frog’ by Joffre White.

2nd: Ben Jones for ‘Twitch’ by M.G. Leonard.

3rd: Laura Cannock for ‘Paper Butterflies’ by Lisa Heathfield.

Best Box: Tom Hearn, Kit Baxter and Jess Clayton all winning prizes for their incredible, innovative creations.

J Holt

THE THRILLS OF GOTHIC LITERATURE

Juliette Gooberman-Hill &

Barnaby

Frith, Year 8

Year 8 enjoyed a wonderful trip to listen to KES teacher and published author, Mrs Catherine Bruton, as she launched her new book, Following Frankenstein, at the Bath Children’s Literature Festival. Mrs Bruton’s talk was very entertaining and informative, and I especially enjoyed it as a young writer. She has really inspired me to channel my creativity with some wonderful tips about writing and how to create a spin-off story.

After the talk, we visited Bath’s newest attraction, Mary Shelley’s ‘House of Frankenstein’ with its fun, creepy and kooky exhibits, including a highly realistic mechanical model of Frankenstein’s monster, complete with heartbeat! Many of us were afraid of going into the basement, where the really terrifying part began. We made our way through a maze of rags, encountering dead pigs, skulls and rattling cages along the way. Guided by a rather psychopathic-looking worker, we crawled through a tunnel, only to find a room of animal skins on the other side! We were locked in a room with a terrifying wax figure, and when we found our way out, we were chased by a man with a spanner! ‘The House of Frankenstein’ is most definitely not for the faint-hearted!

PINTER’S THE HOMECOMING

Ollie Cochran Year 13

Harold Pinter is notoriously one of the most neurotically precise playwrights of the last 100 years. The creator of the suitably named ‘Pinter-pause’, long, psychological pauses that capture brooding tension bursting at the seams with pregnant significance, he wrote some of the most famously enigmatic plays of the 20th century, including The Homecoming, which we saw at the Theatre Royal Bath.

Director Jamie Glover stylishly captures Pinter’s examination of the masculine fight for power and territory in a feral North London household. At the top of the pecking order, at least in his mind, is Max (Keith Allen), who constantly attempts

to assert dominance by romanticising his past. His two at-home adult sons, the cool classy pimp Lenny (Mathew Horn) and the brash boxer Joey (Geoffrey Lumb) join in this fight for authority. Yet, when third son Teddy (Sam Alexander) and his quietly rebellious wife Ruth (Shanaya Rafaat) unexpectedly arrive for a ‘homecoming’, the hierarchy is ruptured.

Glover brilliantly finds moments of both comedy and suspense in this production, and these are seen in utterly bizarre ways: whether it be Lenny and Ruth’s conflict over a simple glass of water; Lenny’s lengthy monologues, masked with comedy but callous and unsettling; or the repercussions that arise from a cheese sandwich theft.

The set design by Liz Croft provides a suitably menacing layer to the power games – the back wall stretches infinitely upwards, a cage for the men to fight in, and shadows are ominously warped into gothic, hellish figures descending or ascending the staircase.

Of course, as with any Pinter play, it ends ambiguously, and you leave feeling much dirtier than when you went in. Nonetheless, its dubious thematic conclusions and puzzling final act provided a good base afterwards for debates, and it is, without doubt, a play that sticks.

HAMLET TRIP

Joshua Stokes, Year 13

There are few activities more enlightening when studying a piece written for the stage than to see it live and experience the beauty of its performance inexpressible through text alone. So defined our glamorous London outing to Cush Jumbo’s reimagining of literature’s most well-known Danish Prince, the “most amiable of misanthropes” (William Hazlitt), Hamlet.

That persistent hum of gleeful anticipation was heightened upon our entrance into the city itself, with the glittering winter lights carving an incandescent promenade through the concrete jungle, lending an almost ethereal quality. After two long years of remaining restricted solely to the classroom by COVID’s ever-looming presence, it was nothing short of magical.

And then the play began...

Three hours later it was over, and our initial enjoyment soon turned to critical analysis, as we proceeded to unpick each of the production’s shortcomings. Despite some exemplary moments, Greg Hersov’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s longest work felt somehow both distortedly rushed and unnecessarily elongated. Hamlet’s mention of his proposed “antic disposition”, instrumental in establishing the central question regarding the authenticity of Hamlet’s ‘madness’, was a notable example, none of us could recall its inclusion. In general, the confused atmosphere fell victim to directionless iterations on an original concept. Jumbo’s more consistent interpretation of Hamlet as a petulant teenager did little to restore what was lost.

However, the mediocrity of the play originally intended to be the trip’s centrepiece did not detract from the radiant energy of a night out in London. With our more nuanced take on this ubiquitous classic, we returned, the splendid glimmer of the London skyline receding into the midnight blue. The residual adrenaline translated into meaningful, ebullient, and enlightening conversations, before tiredness fostered a reflective tranquillity that carried us softly home.

Journalism Competition

Anu Anand Hall, a BBC World Service anchor/presenter with 22 years’ experience in international news and current affairs judged this year’s competition. Anu has worked all over the world, reporting major stories like the death of Mother Theresa, 9/11, the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the 2004 Tsunami, Nepal’s devastating earthquakes in 2014 and several Indian elections.

She was incredibly impressed by the standard of writing from entries of all years. From sports journalism, restaurant reviews, opinion pieces, political journalism to film and theatre reviews and much more, there was an astonishing breadth of topics, variety of styles and diversity of voices. Her key piece of advice for all the budding hacks in the school is to ‘Talk to people - that’s the NUMBER 1 goal of journalism - quote, Quote, QUOTE!’

Enjoy the winning entry opposite. This - along with other great pieces of KES journalism – can be read on our online student newspaper ‘Reviewed’. Following are our winners and the judge’s comments.

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YEARS 7 – 9

Winner: Indira Pandit ‘Does Spelt Food Spell Disaster: A reflection on living with my mother’ ‘Written with irony and humour, great imagery and clever use of overstatement which really works! A glorious read!’

Runners-Up: Lawrence Moore ‘The Lazy Burger, Bristol: I could get better meat at motorway services’ ‘… shines with humour…sarcasm and use of fabulous phrases and great descriptions’ and Panos Katsimihas ‘Za Za Bazaar: Restaurant Review’ ‘…focused, descriptive…using description and personal opinion.’

Highly Commended: Polly Waddington ‘Christmas Market Classics: All the tastiest treats to try this Christmas’; Emily Pledge: ‘A feeling only describable as home: A culinary trip down memory lane’ and Ben Parson-Jones ‘The Packhorse Inn: Restaurant Review’

YEARS 10 -13

Winner: Orla Rostom ‘Do we overlook the importance of the Oceans when Talking about Climate Change?’ ‘…a powerful, extremely relevant global topic…packed with important facts, explanation and context. Great journalism!’

Runners-up: Filip Kanzurovski ‘Canada Day, 2021’ ‘…an interesting global topic - colonialism and indigenous populations…Great fact based reporting, detail, description’; Ritvij Roy ‘La Xavinieta: The tactical masterclass bringing Barcelona to the top’ ‘…important financially, culturally and of huge interest to millions of fans; A brilliant article!’

Highly Commended: Ed Goodwin: ‘CE Sabadell: The Spanish Side with a Bristolian Backing’ ‘… both global and local at the same time. A really well written human interest piece!’; Emma Hocking: ‘The Lost Music of Ancient Rome’ ‘… totally new and unexpected’; Josh Stokes and Theo Aldridge Stone: ‘Has America Earned its Stripes?’ ‘very ambitious…in an engaging, interesting debate format. Really well argued points.’

DO WE OVERLOOK THE IMPORTANCE OF THE OCEANS WHEN TALKING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE?

Orla Rostom, Year 11 – Senior/Overall - Winner:

The ocean is the largest carbon sink in the world but until recently it was rarely discussed in the media when talking about the pressing issue of climate change. This is surprising as coastal plants alone can store up to 20 times more carbon than forests on land. In fact, 93% of all the world’s Carbon Dioxide emissions are stored in the oceans by marine vegetation, algae and corals. The loss of just 1% of this ecosystem was equivalent to releasing the emissions of 97 million cars. So, why is the ocean always overlooked, despite its colossal size?

How does the ocean slow the effects of climate change?

Fish help to balance the carbon system by swimming through the water column, creating a powerful down-welling of the warmer surface waters, causing mixing with the colder waters below. Experts have said the decimation of marine life may be interfering with this process and contributing to the warming sea temperatures. Just last summer, a weeklong heat wave was estimated to kill more than 1 billion marine animals along Canada’s Pacific coast, highlighting the vulnerability of ecosystems unaccustomed to extreme temperatures. This mixing of the water can also provide nutrients to plants at the water’s surface, which absorb carbon.

The most shocking and damaging of our effects on the sea is bottom trawling - the most destructive form of fishing. Large nets are dragged along the ocean floor, capturing many fish in one go, almost like a humpback whale does. Whilst this process is more efficient, it is very damaging to the ecosystems. The largest trawl nets are so big that they could swallow whole cathedrals or up to thirteen jumbo jet planes.

The size of the nets and the nature of the fishing technique led to a lot of bycatches - the invisible victims of the fishing industry. This is when marine life is caught while trying to catch a target species. Most dead bycatch is

discarded as waste back into the sea. Some estimate that global bycatch may amount to 40% of the world’s catch, totalling 63 billion pounds per year. This can be extremely detrimental to the ecosystem, as it can disrupt the food chain and lead to overpopulation as a result of extinction. Also, there is a moral question involved: should we be killing innocent animals just to throw them back into the sea? We are irreversibly destroying the seas for our benefit.

During the process of trawling, nets are pulled along by fishing boats, dragging heavy weights at the bottom, destroying the seafloor and leaving nothing behind. It has been compared to bulldozing the Amazonian rainforest, except the consequences are much worse… Every year, approximately 25 million acres of forests are lost around the world, which is equivalent to 27 football fields per minute. Bottom trawling wipes out an estimated 3.9 billion acres of ecosystems every year, which is equivalent to losing 4,316 football fields every minute. Over a year, it is equal to wiping out the land area of Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Turkey, Iran, Thailand, and Australia combined. This is an incomprehensible and unforgivable amount. By obliterating so much of the seafloor, we’re diminishing the sea’s ability to capture carbon as there are fewer plants and fish.

What are environmental groups doing?

Environmental groups such as Oceana and Greenpeace are refraining from speaking out about this issue and deliberately ignoring it, despite its importance. They instead promote “sustainable fishing”, which experts such as the founder of Sea Shepherd, Paul Watson, say is purely a marketing phrase designed to keep fish-eating supporters loyal to the companies. If they speak out against eating fish, there’s a chance that shareholders, volunteers and members who eat fish could stop supporting the company. Some would argue that by maximising their profits but promoting eating fish, they’re helping to reduce climate change as more money is available to invest in restoration and other

projects. However, many experts say that misleading and misinforming the public is inexcusable and call for the NGOs to change their guidance. For example, the diver and documentary host, Sylvia Earl, said that “there is no way eating fish can be sustainable”. Environmental groups could take a leaf out of Sea Shepherds’ book, who partner with governments around the world to assist them with the detection and capture of criminal enterprises that are in operation to engage in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing operations.

How can I help?

The best way to help restore our oceans is to reduce your fish consumption. Many see fish as a staple source of protein and Omega oils. However, you can achieve the recommended intake of protein by eating other foods, such as green vegetables, beans and pulses and tofu. Even if you don’t completely cut seafood out of your diet, decreasing the number of times you eat fish per week can have a substantial effect.

Most people think of fish as lesser than pigs, cows, chickens and other land animals, and believe they’re less intelligent. This prevents them from relating to fish and caring about their habitats. However, we have more in common with fish than you might believe: fish can learn from each other, recognise other fish they’ve spent time with previously, know their place within fish social hierarchies, and remember complex spatial maps of their surroundings. Many people also adopt an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude of ignorance when it comes to the ocean, which is ultimately damaging our planet’s future.

So, we have a choice. We can continue to degrade the salty water that covers most of our planet or we can steward it in a way that enables it to take care of us. Without healthy oceans, our life on Earth would be severely challenged, unpleasant and perhaps impossible. The oceans are the life support system of all living beings: life on Earth can thrive without land, but it cannot exist without an ocean.

Poetry Competition

This year’s poetry competition was judged by John and Gill McLay, literary agents, founders of the Bath Children’s Literature Festival and Events of Wonder. The theme this year was Myths and Monsters, inspired by the recent ‘Events of Wonder’ exhibition at the Victoria Art Gallery. Our students responded with entries that explored mythical monsters from around the world and across the ages, they explored acts of monstrosity, and asked us what makes a monster. They made our judges laugh, made them cry, forced them to think as their comments below indicate. Congratulations to all who entered!

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Years 7&8 Winner: (& overall winner of the 2022 trophy)

Sarah Blacker Y8 – A reader-friendly, well-written, well-structured, and vivid poem. Its strong imagery and simplicity was expertly delivered to make us think.

Runners-up: Cecelia Keppel-Palmer Y7 - Very powerful showing clear natural talent. William Powell Y7 –Joyous, entertaining and funny.

Highly Commended: Georgia Jones Y8, Ifor Williams Y7, Savanna Morley Y8

Years 9&10 Winner: Chloe Barrington Y9 - Bold, brave and passionate. Your poem stood out.

Runners-up: Hannah Blacker Y10Clever structure and mechanism to deliver a very vivid picture. Elise Withey Y11 - Beautifully told and structured.

Highly Commended: Freddie Champniss Y9, Grace Burn Y11, Anna Winklemann Y10, Albie Beresford Y9

Years 12&13 Winner: Benjie Poole Y12 - Powerful and thought provoking. Really accomplished.

Runners-up: Jacob Miners Y13Clever structure and evolution. Isobel Smith Y13 - Beautiful structure and observation.

Highly Commended: Josh Stokes Y13, Zara Branigan Y13, Molly Baxter Y13

WHAT IS A MONSTER?

Sarah Blacker Year 8 – Overall Winner

What is a monster?

Does it have claws, fangs or scales?

Does it growl, cackle or screech?

Does a monster look animalistic, or does it look like you and me?

Does it have two eyes, ten fingers, two legs?

And how is it a monster if it’s like us?

Does it shout hurtful things: ‘You’re useless!’ ‘You’re talentless!’

Does it hit, punch, kick?

Are monsters a fear, An invisible, silent creature, Lying like a blanket over a person, a place, Leaving us with a sense of dread?

Does it spout riddles, have wings, a jaw - or no?

What is a monster?

I guess we’ll never know

Left to right, Sarah Blacker, Elise Withey and Orla Rostrom

Short Story Competition

This year’s Short Story Competition ‘Around the World’ was also judged by Gill McLay, literary agent, founder of Bath Children’s Literature Festival and Events of Wonder. There were stories of adventure from every corner of the world, globe-trotting tales from the Arctic to Australasia, and gripping chronicles which circumnavigated of the earth. There were legends of other worlds, accounts of interplanetary rotations, discoveries of other realms and stories that were just ‘out of this world’! Our judge loved the scope, variety and ambition of the tales which engaged with everything from contemporary politics to ancient myths and a great deal more besides.

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Junior Category: Winner: Laura Cannock Y7 ‘Dad’s Legacy’Well written and great balance of sadness and hope.

Runners-up: Lizzie Barnes Y7Very accomplished. Ifor Williams Y7 - Original and different.

Highly commended: Martha Edwards Y7 - Impressive narrative journey. Ben Jones Y7 ‘The Wanderings of Huem’Great opening and wonderful writing is wonderful. Nameeta Naneibam Y7 ‘The Travelling Chilli’ - Strong writing and characterisation.

Intermediate Category: Winner: ‘Another Time and Place’ by Ava Morley Y9 - Clever and well written with great characterisation.

Runners-up: Wendy Zang Y8 ‘Around My World That Once Was’ - Beautifully written with great observation. Imogen Luker Y9 –‘Portal of Everything and Nothing’ - Clever writing and a great idea.

Highly commended: Francis West Y8 - Our judge said: Lovely description in an ambitious piece. Kaan Demirtas Y8 ‘The Insane Discovery of a Novice Explorer’ - Supported brilliantly with a clear knowledge of ants! Hafsa Shazuli Y8 ‘Untitled’ - Strong narrative.

Senior Category: Winner (and Overall Winner of the Short Story Competition): Elise Withey Y11 - A beautiful story that was perfectly balanced with atmosphere, fear, hope and beauty. Very clever writing never forgetting the reader.

Runners-up: Maria Mergoupis Y12 ‘Forgive me Father For I Have Sinned’ - Brilliantly told and incredibly confident. Claudia Williams Y11 - Beautiful writing and a gentle but strong story. Isla Byrne Y10 ‘Hermoine’ – Fantastically contemporary and energetic.

Highly commended: Patrick Hewett Y10 ‘The Tourist’ - A real talent for plotting. Joseph Walker Y10 ‘Taken’ - Brave and clever.

SPRING’S DEBT

Overall Winner – Elise Withey, Year 11

Spring, and the bluebell woods were thick with wild garlic. Dew-fattened, leaves pressed close against the ground, the small, bright flowers scattered like stars. The smell clung, wet and heady, to my clothes. Twilight darkened like a bruise. Along the high green banks lay the bluebells, spilling down the slopes, across the forest floor gorged on rainwater, and as always I kept to the path, knew not to disturb them.

This part of the woods looked the same as every other I’d walked through, but now I knew I was lost. Hopelessly so. The bluebell woods stretched right down the mountain and, though I’d been walking for an hour, I still hadn’t caught a glimpse of home.

I’d come from the northernmost end of the village, where the shop was, but I’d taken a shortcut through the woods rather than follow the road down in a loop through the valley. It was pressing evening, and the sun kept low over the hills. The path seared white into the mountainside. In the bare light, the bluebells were deep, velvety indigo. The forest sweated with the stench of wild garlic. Below, the black oaks; above, the wide sky, the empty stars

When the man appeared, I thought for a second I’d imagined him, he stood so frozen. Clinging to his hand was a little girl, no older than three, bundled in scarves and mittens and a puffy jacket two sizes too big for her.

‘Excuse me!’ I called, breaking into a jog. The bluebells swallowed down the sound of my voice. The air was very still.

The man looked up. He had a long, weathered face, moulded by rough hands. His eye sockets seemed pressed into his head like thumbprints, shadowed by a jutting brow. He was very tall. I could not see his eyes.

I regretted attracting his attention. The bluebells pressed in close, listening eagerly.

‘Are you lost?’ asked the man, and stricken I nodded a yes. Then he smiled, and the clay-hewn lines of his face softened into kindness and my shoulders eased. The little girl - his granddaughter, maybe? - peered shyly up at me from beneath her pom-pommed hat.

‘We were stargazing,’ the man explained. ‘Just about to, at least; scarce dark enough yet. But the stars’ll be there tomorrow night, just the same. We’ll walk you home. Bluebells’ll do you a mischief should you wander through them come dark. There’s an old quarry round here. Can’t see it, what with all the flowers. Easy to go astray, take a tumble.’

I thanked him profusely. I hadn’t known of the quarry, nor the woods’ treachery, but the unease from the bluebells had already begun to sicken me since the sky had started to darken.

The pair walked me home. The little girl mustered enough courage to

cling to my sleeve, announcing the names of constellations to me, high voice reedy with authority, while her grandfather smiled down and covered her tiny hand in his old craggy one, gently correcting her now and then.

The sky ripened till it was more purple than the bluebells and the light left the forest inch by inch. Soon, I couldn’t see the hand I held in front of my face. But the grandfather led on still. He seemed to know the path with a familiarity bordering on love, or maybe fear. No doubt he came here near-nightly, the stars below him on the forest floor, constellations of bright wild garlic flowers.

‘Thank you for your help,’ I said. He waved dismissively. I shook my head, though he could not see it in the dark of the woods. ‘No, really If you hadn’t helped me I’d have been stuck here till dawn-hell, I might even’ve fallen into one of these quarries, I don’t know. I’m grateful. Really.’

The old man was silent for a minute. The forest hummed around us. ‘My daughter, and Tilly’s mother,’ he said eventually, ‘she was lost here, once. An old lady found her wandering. Led her right back to my doorstep. And I-I’d been so worried, terrified beyond words, looking high and low for her. You don’t know what it’s like. I was so worried. But that old woman, she found her. Helped her. The effect of her help, I still feel it

today, each time I come here. I know the way home now, and when Tilly grows up she’ll know the way too. And maybe you will one day. But it wasn’t me who helped you, really. Thank the old woman. Thank her.’

Then he fell silent once more. We did not speak again till the woods thinned, lightened, and down by the valley’s edge I saw the gold glimmer of windows, houses, so far, so far.

The old man walked me right to my door. It opened at the touch of the doorbell, to my mum, my dad, both furious with relief. I was bundled inside, scolded and hugged and told how awful and wonderful I was, and by the time I’d extricated myself in time to thank the old man the porch was empty, the gate ajar. Beyond, the woods. The waiting night.

I did not walk the bluebell path again till many years later. Even then, I could not go a step without thinking of the old man and his little daughter, and the help they offered me. I could not chase that memory from my mind- not until I walked that path again and again and again, till it was imprinted into my memory, till I could walk it come night or fog or snow. Only then did I allow myself to say that I had truly thanked that old man for his help. Only then was the debt I owed him, paid.

Geography

The year began with year 13s visiting North Devon as they undertook fieldwork to prepare them for their A level coursework. The start of the 2022 summer term saw the same fieldtrip with the current year 12s (although this time to South Wales) as they have started preparing their A level coursework. For both trips, the students investigated carbon sequestration, beach morphology and deprivation, and place, all suitable areas of investigation for A level coursework and so relevant to the real world and some of the challenges we are faced with. Both trips were blessed with fantastic weather and students were prepared thoroughly for the mechanics of geographical investigations.

Year 8s took part in a day trip to the Dorset coastline, to help revise their work on coastal processes and landforms. During the day they were fortunate to enjoy a wonderful boat trip that enabled them to view

Swanage Bay, the spectacular chalk cliffs in which Old Harry and his wife have formed, Studland Bay, Brownsea Island and Poole. As if this wasn’t enough, the pupils also visited Lulworth Cove, Stair Hole and walked across the clifftops to Durdle Door. No coastal day would be complete without a trip to the ice cream kiosk! This was an exciting and very enjoyable day out for all involved.

Year 10s have also completed their first day of fieldwork in Bath, looking at how housing quality varies across Bath. Having decided on their routes, groups of students collected data and spent the afternoon with their teacher analysing and understanding their results. They now have a trip to North Wales to look forward to in October!

Another exciting event was the Year 7 and 8 interform Geography competition. Each year group had three rounds of the quiz during their form time and then a grand final

with their strongest geographers competing for the title! They faced questions about capitals, country outlines, flags, and geographical landforms, to name but a few. Congratulations to 7L and 8J who won their year group finals!

In the classroom we continue to challenge and stimulate pupils as they consider the real world around them and, as a department, we continue to develop resources that are relevant to the world and current significant events that occur. As Michael Palin stated, ‘Geography explains the past, illuminates the present and prepares us for the future.’ None of this would be possible without the dedication and hard work of my fellow geographers and, as ever, I am extremely grateful for their commitments to the geographical education of KES pupils.

Dr J Knight

History & Politics

This year the History and Politics Departments have been unleashed, finally. September saw the return of our annually scheduled attack on Chepstow Castle – the local washerwoman and woad salesman were delighted to see us descend once again. It may be two years since our last outing, but the most popular method of infiltration remains comfortably familiar: up through the latrine. We also visited Westminster with a group of Y10 and Y12 students, meeting Guardian Political correspondent Peter Walker to learn about the demands of political journalism as well as a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament and the Supreme Court. Interest in the trip was no doubt inspired by the preceding visit of old Edwardian John Glen MP, who gave our students a fascinating insight into helping run the treasury, political integrity and how to navigate an ever-changing career filled with highs and lows (in his case, mostly highs). We were particularly impressed with his candour and ability to convey the challenges of government in a time of such flux.

As fascinating as a trip or visiting speaker can be, it is always the time spent in the classroom that matters most, and the department have been working hard to ensure it remains as fresh and relevant as ever. We have been working on building a broader focus to our KS3 work and

have been rolling out a study for Y9 that questions the impact of WW1 on black Britons, women and the working class, as well as looking at the role of the colonies and their reaction to the war in comparison to the motherland. Our extension group has seen some outstanding presentations on Japanese unification, the Mongols, the US Constitution and Pitt the Younger to name a few. We have run seminars on big questions such as ‘are revolutions always bloody’ and ‘what is the role of the historian’ to get KES students thinking beyond exams and pushing themselves to more of an undergraduate mindset. Those interested in exploring the subject beyond the syllabus in years 10 -13 should join in next term.

Speaking of joining next year, the department will be headed by Patrick (Paddy to those who gain favour) Ford, a British History and Politics specialist of considerable pedigree who will no doubt take the trip itinerary off our shores and push things on in all aspects. I will look forward to checking this column in future years to see how far things have progressed, and, most importantly, that Chepstow continues to be attacked on schedule.

It’s been a pleasure, S Lomon.

Maths

UKMT CHALLENGES

It was fantastic to see over 400 pupils from years 5-13 test their problemsolving skills to the limit in one of the three main UKMT challenges: the Junior, the Intermediate or the Senior Maths Challenge.

Back in November, 111 pupils from years 11 –13 took part in the SMC. We gained 71 certificates that were either Bronze, Silver or Gold, including 11 Golds. Max Smith won the cup for the highest score in the school and went on to take part in the BMO 1 competition along with 3 others. All 4 students did very well in this 3 hour competition, gaining certificates of merit.

Later in the year, 149 pupils participated in the IMC. We took 13 gold certificates and 103 certificates overall. Year 11 pupil Owen Williams won the shield for the highest score in the school, and it was great to see golds coming from all 3 year groups, including year 9. As a result of their excellent performances, twelve year 9 pupils qualified for the Grey Kangaroo competition with 5 merits from Toby Donohue, Ben Manon, Alex Dolan, Joseph Pagnamenta and James Thomson. Nine pupils from years 10 and 11 took part in the Pink Kangaroo competition, with just 2 pupils, Hannah Blacker and Ed Blackwell, gaining merits.

Finally, in April, 141 pupils from years 5 to 8 participated in the JMC and the results in this were amongst our best ever, particularly from year 7. This competition yielded 81

MATHS FEAST

certificates in all, 20 of which were gold. Lewis Guan gained the cup for the highest score in the school and went on to take the part in the Junior Maths Olympiad along with 5 other pupils who had qualified for the Junior Kangaroo competition.

I would like to congratulate all of the students who took part and thank the UKMT who celebrated their 25th birthday this year. Instead of having a birthday party, their celebration consisted of organising a bonus 45 minute online Maths Challenge for year 7, which contained the most memorable questions from the last 25 years of JMCs. My personal favourite was this question from 2013 and is below:

Weighing the baby at the clinic was a problem. The baby would not keep still and caused the scales to wobble. So, I held the baby and stood on the scales while the nurse read off 78 kg. Then the nurse held the baby while I read off 69 kg. Finally, I held the nurse while the baby read off 137 kg. What was the combined weight of all three?

A) 142 kg

B) 147 kg

C) 206 kg

D) 215 kg

E) 284 kg

Please feel free to give it a go and email me your answer at: rjp@kesbath.com

R Pagnamenta

Eight Year 10 students competed in March’s annual Maths Feast at St Mark’s School. There were 4 rounds, starting with ‘the round with no words’! Both groups demonstrated excellent teamwork skills and worked hard under time pressure.

Team 1 scored full marks in Round 1 and Team 2 scored full marks in Round 2, but despite their efforts, they just missed first place and came 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Well done to all the team members: Joe Ronay, Jamie Dod, Patrick Hewitt, Ed Blackwell, Esmee Brookes, Noah Murray, Jo Reay and John Yan on their conduct during the morning and their excellent maths skills.

SJ McCrorie

Lewis Guan with JMC trophy UKMT challenges

INTER FORM MATHS RELAY

Run by a team of sixth formers, 14 forms competed once again for the prestigious title of Maths Relay Champions 2022. Congratulations to 6H who were the highest placed form from the Junior School. 8L performed well and were comfortable winners of the year 8 competition. Meanwhile, 7K were convincing winners of the year 7 competition; their score of 22 was one of the highest ever in the history of the competition. Well done to all the pupils involved and thanks to the sixth formers who gave up their lunchtime to look after, encourage and mark their team’s answers.

R Pagnamenta

MILLFIELD MATHS COMPETITION

Our year 9 team in action in the Group Round of the Millfield Team Maths Competition. They went on to finish in 4th place which was a great performance against older opposition.

R Pagnamenta

PI DAY MEMORY COMPETITION 2022

This year’s Pi memory competition saw two pupils pass the 100 digit mark. Year 7 pupil Will Powell managed a very impressive 110 digits to finish in 2nd place. Hafsa Shazuli, from year 8, used a different technique, and decided to write out the digits. This took a little longer, but she managed to reach 150 digits without a single error. Well done to everyone who took on the challenge this year.

R Pagnamenta

SPANISH CLUB

By Lola Record Year 12

Four year 12s have enjoyed helping with Spanish Club. The year 7 and 8 pupils have learnt about a wide variety of cultural topics, about both Spain and other Spanishspeaking countries and lots of new, fun vocabulary. Friday lunchtimes have been filled with a huge array of activities, ranging from arts and crafts (making paper fans and ‘conejitos’ or bunnies) to a quiz on Las Fallas, a famous Spanish festival. Favourite activities have included playing “mano nerviosa”, a Spanish card game (organised by Lara and Katie) and making Guatemalan ‘worry dolls’ (organised by Alice and me). The students always arrive full of enthusiasm and make the most of every activity.

YEAR 7 PEN PAL EXCHANGE

By Daniel Thomas Year 7

During the spring term, Year 7 pupils started a pen pal exchange with Colegio San Cernin in Pamplona. This is the school that KES has done the Exchange with over the last 20 years. Over the past few months, we have been perfecting our Spanish letters ready to send them off. In them, we have talked about our likes and dislikes, our pets, our family and much more. After a few weeks of waiting, we received our first letters from our pen pals and rushed to open them. We were so excited! Surprisingly, their English was very good and they were able to create a great piece of written work. Before the Easter break, we were able to send our letters off as well. In the future, we hope to send more letters like these to our pen pals and hopefully get to know them even better!

Spanish

MFL COMPETITION

We were delighted to see how enthusiastically our pupils engaged with the many competitions organised this academic year. Just before Easter we offered the British Council MFL competition. They were asked to perform either a dialogue or a sketch or compose or recite a poem. They were then asked to record their performances and submit them to the MFL Department for judging. We were thrilled to see such a range of excellent performances and some amazing writing in the target language. Our overall winner, James Foster in Year 9, produced a fantastic video of him doing the news in Spanish – well done, James! We had the weather forecast in Spanish and some lovely poems, including the winning poem by Ava. Many thanks to all those who took part.

B Charlton

ÉL REGRESARÁ

By Ava Foyle Year 10

Viene de nuevo en medio de la noche, Tan lisa como una cuchilla. La gente lo espera ahora. Como siempre, Él regresa.

Se está ahogando en la oscuridad Mientras los árboles susurran su nombre. Lo conocen ahora, porque como siempre, Él regresa.

Las puertas están cerradas, y los ventanas también. Ellos sabían que volvería, y cuando está Entre les, no es una sorpresa. Pensaban que Él regresaría.

Pero cuando va, es bosque, zumba Y escapa justo antes del día. Tenía hambre, pero ahora tiene alivio. Él ha ido, Sin embargo, Como siempre, Él regresará.

He Will Return

He comes again in the middle of the night, As smooth as a blade. The people expect it now. As always, He returns.

He is drowning in the darkness, While the trees whisper his name. They know him now, because, as always, He returns.

The doors are locked, and the windows too, They knew he would come back, and when he is Among them, it is no surprise. They thought that He would return.

But when he leaves, the woods, they hum And he escapes just before the day. He was hungry, but now he has relief. He has gone, However, Like always, He will return.

SPANISH CHURROS

By Freddie Russell Year 11

The Monday after we had finished our Spanish Speaking exams Year 11 Spanish students were lucky enough to have the opportunity to get a small taste of Spanish culture at Tapas Revolution that entailed a delicious serving of churros and chocolate sauce, a typical Spanish dessert. This was also accompanied by a quiz style game organised by our great language assistant, Sara. We are so thankful to the Spanish department for organising this experience. It was not only the perfect way to unwind after the stress of preparing for the exams, but also a fun way to connect with Spanish culture.

TORTILLA

By Kate Ronay Year 12

One of the best things about doing Spanish A level is that as well as learning about grammar and vocabulary, we get to learn about Spanish culture. This year, we got to make tortilla Española (otherwise known as Spanish omelette). We spent a lesson cooking the popular Spanish dish, and at the same time practising and learning relevant language. One of the things we discussed was ‘con cebolla o sin cebolla’ (with or without onion), which is a big debate in Spain. We went with Mrs Charlton’s recommendation – con cebolla - and it was delicious! This was a really fun workshop that helped us to learn about the Spanish culture of tapas, and we really recommend you try making tortilla too!

SPANISH PLAY REVIEW

By Aidan O’Mahony Year 9

We missed our annual Spanish play but luckily Onatti came back to KES this year! On Thursday 10 th March, Year 9 and 10 were lucky enough to experience the skill and talent of Onatti productions with “En el Campamento” , a play where everything that could go wrong went wrong, from being left in the middle of nowhere with no way out to unshared food which led to a futile argument as Maria lost trust in David. A mixture of active participation with a couple of miscommunications only adding to the experience paired with some comedic brilliance left the audience enthralled. The two actors, Maria and David, were both clear and professional helping to bring the play to life making it easy to follow whilst also meeting the level of understanding within the room.

¡POR FIN VAMOS AL CINE!

By Olivia Seaton Year 13

After a year of on and off onlineschool, it was a great to visit the cinema as a class and watch Almodóvar’s latest film ‘Madres Paralelas’ at the Little Cinema in Bath. By chance, the film also happened to cover some important topics that feature in our A level syllabus including, ‘La Memoria Histórica’, making it an especially beneficial trip. Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the film with its captivating and unexpected plots, and it was interesting to see Almodóvar’s underlying directing techniques and the similarities with our A level set film ‘Mujeres al borde de un ataque nervios’. ¡Una buena experiencia!

SARA APARICIO SANCHEZ

In a few weeks I will leave Bath and, even worse, I will leave KES. Even though this year has gone in a blink of an eye, I can happily say that I have enjoyed every day working in this school. I remember vividly how delighted I felt on my first few days thanks to the warmth of the MFL Department, the students and all the school. They made sure I fitted in well and made this an unforgettable year.

I do not think that I will ever work in a better environment than the MFL Department. It has taught me how to stay optimistic even in chaotic situations, how perseverance meets results and how to always look for excellence. However, the most precious lesson that I will take away is how important teamwork is to achieve your goals.

Students at KES are nothing short of astonishing; they have not only had excellent attendance (even the ones before school!) but they have also challenged me to be more creative. Not only has their willingness to improve impressed me, but it has also inspired me to improve myself and my work. Finally, I must say a huge thanks to Mrs. Charlton, not only for supporting me every day, but also for giving me the opportunity to grow both professionally and personally.

I will miss you all, Sara

German

TRIP TO KLOSTERHAUS

Year 9 had the opportunity to get a taste of German culture in March. After an adventurous train ride, thirty Year 9s arrived in Bristol to have lunch at the German restaurant ’Klosterhaus’. The students tried a variety of traditional German food, ranging from Currywurst , Schinkenknackerwürste and Schnitzel to Apfelstrudel, Käsekuchen and Schwarzwaldeis . Of course, Year 9 made good use of this tasty little insight into German culture and had fun practising some German outside of the classroom. They chatted in German about what they had to eat (Was hast du gegessen?), what they had to drink (Was hast du getrunken) and how they liked their food (Wie hat es dir geschmeckt?). Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the trip and, of course, the delicious German food – es hat uns allen sehr geschmeckt! The trip to ‘Klosterhaus’ proved that one does not always need to travel far to get a chance to practise a language and to experience a little bit of German culture. And this won’t be the last German trip - Year 9 has definitely got a taste for German now!

M Egger

FROHEN MARTINSTAG!

On 11th November, ‘Martinstag’ (St. Martin’s Day) is celebrated in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and many other parts of Europe. The celebration is somewhat similar to Hallowe’en. It involves dressing up in costumes, walking from house to house, and singing or performing in exchange for an edible reward. The legend of St. Martin states that he shared his red cloak with a beggar during a snowstorm, and the celebration in his memory encourages compassion, generosity, and altruism. In several regions, pupils in schools will make paper lanterns, which are candlelit and carried during an evening procession. Here at KES, we decided to emulate this tradition and give our budding Year 7 artists an opportunity to make and light their own Martinstag lanterns. They also joined in with the singing of a popular Martinslied entitled ‘Ich geh’ mit meiner Laterne’ and were treated with some delicious Haribo!

C Ferguson

MARION EGGER

„Wer hat an der Uhr gedreht“, i.e. “who has messed with the clock?”, the opening line of a famous German children’s song, is an utterance one hears quite often in the German speaking world to reference the way time flies – as if somebody has secretly turned the clocks forward - when in enjoyable company. Now, that old song is stuck in my head. How is it possible for my year as the German assistant here at KES to have gone by so fast?

Time flies when you are enjoying yourself - and there is so much that made my year at KES a marvellous experience, so much I will miss: The welcoming, supportive atmosphere, the students’ enthusiasm and creativity, the beautiful views of Bath that I got to enjoy every day, the coffee breaks and chats with my lovely colleagues - and, with particular emphasis, all the wonderful people at KES. Looking back at this year now, I’d like to say “vielen herzlichen Dank” to all of you - thank you for the wonderful time!

A special thanks goes out to everyone in the MFL department. I had the loveliest time being part of the MFL office and will treasure the experience. It was inspiring to witness your dedication and passion for languages, teaching and learning. I’d like to particularly thank Chris Ferguson for always making time for me and my questions – danke!

Last but not least, I want to thank the students in my lessons. It was a pleasure to practice German with you, introduce you to the one or other curious German word and tradition – and be taught some new English expressions in return.

I hope you enjoyed our German lessons as much as I did, have a great summer break and all the best for the next school year!

Auf Wiedersehen, es war mir eine Ehre!

M Egger

French

A TASTE OF FRANCE – HAUTE CUISINE AT KES!

There is much more to studying French than simply learning to use and understand native speakers using their mother tongue. It also means learning about so many aspects about not just France, but also other francophone countries, and the focus is on culture, history, geography, and, of course, most apt of all, its cuisine! In the absence of visits abroad during the last few Covid years, this year we brought a taste of French cooking skills into the classroom.

To begin with, our French assistant, Lucie Beugnet, produced a mouthwatering display of regional food on one of our language posters, based on typical dishes from various regions of France. This included bouillabaisse from Marseille, choucroute from Alsace to moules frites in northern France. Since March she has been posting regular tweets of haute cuisine on the school twitter page. Some of the highlights were croquemonsieur, ratatouille, salade niçoise and boeuf bourguignon, not to mention several delicious items of confectionery and patisserie.

Finally, our Year 10 French classes had the opportunity to practise their own culinary skills in the classroom, followed by a sampling session. The focus was the classic accompaniment to salads: sauce vinaigrette! The students all worked in pairs,

producing five different variations of this classic sauce. Everyone then sampled the different sauces with a piece of bread – baguette, of course!

The starting point was a classic combination of extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. Other variations included one made with yoghurt, another with herbs such as thyme and oregano, as well as, of course, the addition of finely chopped garlic, and lemon juice instead of vinegar.

Some of our students were already familiar with vinaigrette, but for others it was their first time preparing food, chopping garlic and Mediterranean herbs, then mixing and balancing ingredients to make a classic salad accompaniment made famous by the French.

This was a welcome and refreshing change to grammar practice, listening and reading comprehension, but also an appetising way of learning and revising essential food vocabulary!

Future possible plans for learning about French food preparation include making crêpes, croquemonsieur, home-made mayonnaise and a blind dégustation of French herbs, using only smell and taste.

A Vass

LUCIE BEUGNET

As the end of my stay in the UK and my work at KES is drawing near (only a few weeks left!), I wanted to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to work here for a second year as a French language assistant.

Like last year, this year offered many occasions to learn more about teaching, improve my English, talk with passionate colleagues and exchange with pupils often eager to develop their knowledge of foreign cultures and languages, regardless of their age.

I really enjoyed the time I spent at KES, and travelling around the UK, and I wish I could stay longer, but I’m also looking forward to putting into practice everything I learned here and share my experience with my future colleagues and pupils in France.

KES Music has undergone a rapturous renaissance with the Senior School alone hosting around 50 performance opportunities! The programme has bounced back with an extraordinary variety, breadth and number of musical opportunities so vital to the KES experience. As seen through our performances, the accomplished and high-level musicianship at KES has in no way diminished.

Post-Covid, I am hugely indebted to our talented, enthusiastic and hugely impressive Music Staff for all the energy they have employed in publicising and resuming activities, re-building two years of lost ensemble skills and for re-engaging pupils. To achieve musical ‘lift-off’ has required every ounce of thrust! The quality of the musicianship and the levels of commitment, enjoyment and fulfilment evident from our young musicians in performances is once again proving to be a musical force to be reckoned with!

We believe that the pictures, captions and pupil responses convey just how exciting and prolific the 2021-22 KES Music programme has been.

Our musicians have enjoyed a healthy programme of three formal evening concerts for solo performers and regular lunchtime recitals and assemblies. The very encouraging numbers of pupils undertaking ABRSM and Trinity music exams ably demonstrate the level of preparation and accomplishment. In the Spring ABRSM session, over 90% of our pupils achieved a merit or distinction award with one of our pupils, Bethan Cheshire, achieving her third instrumental Grade 8 award in a year!

A particularly poignant moment was when two of our trumpet superstars, Anna Blackwall (Year 7) and Tom Birchall (Year 12), stepped up to play The Last Post and Reveille at the School’s Remembrance Day commemorations. It has been

wonderful to enjoy a ninth year of partnership with Bath Philharmonia. The Senior Orchestra and others have enjoyed a full programme with Bath Philharmonia including masterclasses with its principals, a full day of orchestral workshops and the opportunity to attend their free dress rehearsals. Sophie Langdon, Bath Phil’s leader has provided valuable one-to-one mentoring for our own talented Senior Orchestra leader Aoi Seiki. The Gala Concert featured a KES instrumentalist performing a concerto backed by the Phil while BBC Young Musician of the Year 2010 winner, Lara Melda, met pupils and lead a piano masterclass at KES. The partnership’s spectacular finale was the Bath Orchestral Gala Concert where our Senior Orchestra and Bath Phil professionals performed a hugely challenging and polished programme based around the theme of ‘A Night of Dance! ’ including ballet music, clog dances, can-cans, tangos and even electronic dance anthems (with choreography!) amid the grandeur of Bath’s Guildhall.

The KES Senior Singers choir and KES Sixteen performed magnificently at our annual Carol Service in St Mary’s, Bathwick as well as at the end of term KES Founder’s Day Service in the Abbey. These choral groups demonstrate their deep love of performing that ranges from Renaissance counterpoint and contemporary masterpieces in church, through to show-stopping musical theatre and upbeat choral arrangements of Country and Western. Year 7s took part in a Lower School Singing Competition of rousing songs from the James Bond films. Our top young KS3 singers

composed songs and performed with other Bath schools accompanied by Bath Philharmonia to sell-out audiences in Bath as part of the Bath Festival School Voices Project!

Instrumental ensembles such as INTER-KES (intermediate orchestra), Baroque Group, Saxophone Ensemble, Steel Pans, Flute Ensemble, Clarinet Ensemble, KES Brass and KES Steel, Baroque Group have all maximised opportunities to perform in unique ways for the KES community. The Saxophone Ensemble won their class in the Mid-Somerset Festival Competition, KES Wind entertained the KES Christmas Fair, KES Soul fundraised at the KES Unite concert and wowed the Assembly Rooms for Bath’s Party in the City , the department has also formed a Guitar Band ensemble this year too!

Mark Boden, our composer-inresidence, created two magnificent new works for the school this year with an exciting suite of three, electronic dance music inspired pieces called ‘Pick Me Up!’ for the Gala Concert and performed by the Senior Orchestra, Bath Philharmonia and three KES vocal soloists. In celebration of the school’s 470th anniversary, Mr Boden has created an uplifting choral piece for the 65-strong Founders’ Day Voices and KES soprano soloist and Bath Abbey chorister, Emma Hocking; all accompanied by a talented team of hand-picked instrumentalists in our KES Contemporary ensemble.

Jess Griffin, our first postgraduate Music Department Intern, organised trips to London for young musicians to experience live performance. They have seen Britten’s ‘Peter Grimes’

at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden while GCSE and A-Level musicians visited the Royal Festival Hall to watch 4 UK premières of contemporary music presented by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and have watched a performance and lecture by Libby Burgess of Bach’s iconic 48 Preludes and Fugues!

The KES Music rocket has definitely re-launched! We are safely back in musical orbit and yes, we are already preparing ‘to boldly go where KES Music has not gone before!’

R Drury

Scan to watch the Extravaganza Concert on YouTube:

Scan to watch the Carol Concert on YouTube:

By Angus Cannock Y12

Being a member of KES ensembles has also allowed me to learn how an ensemble works and pick up lessons in managing rehearsals and running performances, so I’m successfully running a Corps of Drums as its Drum Sergeant in the KES CCF, something which wouldn’t have been possible without the skills I’ve learned through KES music. Despite not really being a music student, music has been one of the best parts of my time at KES.

By Aoi Seiki Y13

Musical life at KES is very engaging and I have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in a wide range of musical performance styles from Baroque to Pop Music. This year, with the introduction of the exciting new roles of Music Prefects and Music Mentors, I was also awarded further opportunities as a prefect to guide younger pupils in their musical journeys at KES. I am very grateful for the excellent support and enthusiasm of the KES Music Department, and hope that KES music will continue to grow and flourish in the future.

Jason Thornton Music Director of Bath Philharmonia congratulating Gil Nowak, Year 12, on his violin concerto

KES GALA CONCERT

By Laura Cannock Year 7

One of the highlights of my inspiring year was playing in the Gala Concert with members of Bath Philharmonia, I loved the diversity of all the different styles of dance music we played.

By Matthew Barclay Year 13

Overall, music at KES has been immeasurably influential on multiple facets of my life. It gave me the chance to play a wide variety of music, in multiple groups, developing key skills and confidence that will be vital in my future studies. As I move on to study Music and Maths at Cardiff, I will look back fondly on the concerts and rehearsals I have attended in my time at KES. There really is something for everyone.

MID SOMERSET FEST

By Orson Savage Year 11

I appreciate the huge variety of music styles that KES offers and I enjoy playing within group and soloist settings. I will be taking exams for Grade 8 saxophone; Grade 6 clarinet; Grade 6 piano; and Grade 7 singing. Two years ago, I was a beginner clarinettist and now my teacher has taken me to performing at Grade 6 standard.

Scan to watch the Masterclass with the Bath Philharmonic Orchestra on YouTube:

CLARINET ENSEMBLE

By Ed Goodwin Year 10

The Senior Orchestra celebrated its 9 th year in partnership with Bath Philharmonia for our Side-by-Side Gala Concert, with this year’s theme being “A Night of Music For Dance.” It was an extremely fun evening to play alongside the incredible musicians of Bath Phil, conducted by their founder, Jason Thornton, and it displayed the wide skillset of our players across many types of dance music.

REMEMBRANCE DAY

By Anna Blackwall Year 7

My favourite event was Remembrance Day, my first time playing solo in public. It helped boost my confidence at the start of Year 7. I’m looking forward to all the opportunities that I will have in Year 8 and all the new skills I will learn. I am really grateful to all the KES Music staff who have helped so much me this year.

KES UNITE

By Dillon Hodge Year 12

In Year 10 I joined KES Soul, although the French Horn is not typically an instrument found in Jazz/Funk band, I was easily accommodated and this was great fun, playing a new style of music I hadn’t previously explored.

ROYAL OPERA HOUSE

By Indira Pandit Year 9

I play the cello and piano and have been part of KES music since Year 7. I am in the Senior Orchestra, the String Quartet, Cello Club and Baroque Group. All of these have definitely helped me to improve as an orchestral player and make friends who I wouldn’t otherwise know. Performing in the KES piano masterclass with Lara Melda was really helpful too and an amazing opportunity, especially after seeing her perform so brilliantly the night before.

Psychology

It has been a huge relief to be back together this academic year, away from our screens and being able to discuss how significant events of the past two years have been for Psychology. Now more than ever, our students can relate Psychology theory and research to their own experiences of lockdown and the pandemic. From panic-buying to mask-wearing, our minds and behaviour have responded to the extraordinary events.

Students have enjoyed exploring the rise in conspiracy theories, sometimes as harmful as the virus itself in spreading fear and distrust. Psychologists explain the spread of conspiracies as hardly surprising; our memory can often work in ways that replace original facts with new false ones as people seek to make sense of events that we have no

As we have begun to normalise our curriculum again in 21-22, we have been able to visit the Park Row Synagogue in Bristol once again with our new Year 7. As always, this has proved to be an extremely valuable and productive visit and has provided the children with the opportunity to engage with and understand Jewish religious practices. We are very grateful for the community’s continued hospitality.

The RS Department has welcomed a new and dynamic colleague, Hannah Dawes, from Oundle School. She has already made her mark by initiating the new Socrates Essay Prize for Years 7 & 8, the first winner of which was Barnaby Frith. Barnaby’s essay was on the extremely interesting moral topic of the value

control over. This, accompanied by social media algorithms that feed us messages consistent with our beliefs, help strengthen the acceptance of ‘fake news’, leading to some intense classroom debates.

In year 12 we started the course with ‘Social Influence’ exploring conformity and obedience, relating this to our experiences of staying away from loved ones or queuing outside supermarkets. We have all adjusted and changed our behaviour, psychologists explain this because we hope to ‘fit-in’ with a wider group. In Asch’s line experiment, he found that participants would go along with a group for fear of being ridiculed, or when a situation is unclear, and we lack the information we strive to do the right thing and observing others helps us determine what to do.

We have also looked at how in a crisis, we turn to others for support, even strangers. This was exemplified by Colonel Tom Moore who raised over £33 million by walking laps of his garden at the age of nearly 100.

Our year 13 students will be sitting public exams for the first time this summer, they have contributed so well to building a thriving subject despite missing out on the extra-curricular trips and activities of pre-COVID times. We all wish them every success!

S Utton

Religious Studies & Philosophy

of human life and is published in the RS area of the school’s VLE. Runner-up was Jemimah Barker, who wrote about Divine Command Theory. This is also published on the VLE. Both pupils have been awarded book tokens and Barnaby has received tenure of the Socrates Trophy until the next competition.

Socrates Club itself has returned to its normal in person format combining all year groups and has been dealing with the important and dynamic debates surrounding topics such as the environment, gender politics, and Britain’s involvement in the war in Ukraine.

Striking out in a new direction, we took ten pupils from years 9-13 to join other schools across the Southwest for an inaugural Bath Philosothon at Monkton Combe School. The Philosothon competition follows a Community of Inquiry model which seeks to promote – in a spirit of mutual respect and friendliness – questioning

and reflection. As we begin to emerge from the pandemic, it was particularly exciting to see so many young people gathered together ‘doing’ Philosophy. Pupils were placed in groups and over the course of four rounds they reflected on, and responded to, topics and themes explored in preselected texts and literature. There were conversations on the nature of personhood, what determines continuity in the universe, and the extent to which robots deserve rights. An antidote to social media soundbites, Philosothon requires those taking part to justify their views, disagree with others respectfully, and accept that their own views might come up against challenge! We were pleased to win third place overall and hope to host a similar event for year 7 and 8 at KES next year.

M Buswell

Biology

The Biology department has focused on increasing opportunities for pupils to become involved in a variety of external competitions as well as ensuring there are as many practical activities as possible across the curriculum from Year 7 to Year 13. Highlights of practical work include Year 7 microscope work, Year 9 heart and lung dissections, Year 10 enzyme experiments and Year 12 performing an ELISA test to discover who has monkeypox!

Sixth form Biology has gone from strength to strength with currently over 100 pupils studying the subject at A level. Year 12 students have extended themselves beyond the curriculum reading the Biological Science Review articles on relevant topics of disease, vaccines and the immune response which has led to researching different autoimmune diseases. Year 13 Biology continues to be an exciting year in Biology starting with fieldwork on the Dorset coast, followed in the Spring, by a day at ‘We the curious’ performing PCR and gel electrophoresis experiments.

The annual sixth form Biology Olympiad took place with a pleasing Year 12 attendance. Special

congratulations go to Daisy Barrow in Year 13 and Katie Ronay in Year 12 for achieving a Silver certificate, as well as Cosmo Sutcliffe and Maia West who achieved bronze awards.

The Royal Society of Biology also offer a Biology Challenge competition for Year 10 pupils which, like the Olympiad, incorporates curriculum Biology questions with more obscure knowledge rewarding those with a wider interest in Biology. Over 90 KES pupils took part this academic year with 8 pupils achieving Gold awards, 14 silver, 21 Bronze and 24 pupils were highly commended. Gold awards were achieved by Joseph Walker, Robert Hill, Evie Blower, Hannah Blacker, Matty Rosser, Kiah Zdyb, Tommy Harding-Lee and Joe Ronay.

The academic year also saw the introduction of CREST bronze awards to pupils in Year 8, who were ably supported by the Year 12 science prefects. One group of Year 8 pupils worked together to design and test the perfect bath bomb and a separate group tested the instructions to raise brine shrimp to see if they could develop a better environment to encourage greater numbers to hatch. These pupils

worked with determination and resilience to design, carry out and write up their investigations. Their problem-solving skills were tested when things did not go to plan, and they discovered new methods to obtain results. Congratulations to Annabel Howlett, Ava Shaw, Aleena Jahanza, Kaan Demirtas, Hafsa Shazuli and Wendy Zhang on being the first KES pupils to be awarded their CREST bronze award.

P Kirby

Chemistry

CHEMISTRY ANALYST COMPETITION

By Joshua Lang Year 12

A lovely, sunny stroll up North Road saw us to the Bath University campus, where we were quickly shown into the state-of-the-art Chemistry labs. Armed with lab coats and goggles, we started our set of four practical tests, doing analysis to make the best fish and chips! A series of titrations allowed us to determine the best vinegar to use and a quick Benedict’s test let us check that our chips would be sweet and tasteful. Similarly, we heated, until constant mass, to discover the culprit of our sour batter. The hardest test of all however was the thin line chromatography, where we used ninhydrin to find out which amino acids were in our food. Overall, it was a great experience and opportunity to learn new things and give us a small insight into possible future careers.

TOP OF THE BENCH COMPETITION

By Maddie Bobin Year 10

When I was first introduced to the Royal Society of Chemistry Top of the Bench competition, I didn’t know quite what to expect. I’d heard of other similar events but had never really thought about what a chemistry competition might involve. I was pleasantly surprised at the start as it was comprised of four rounds: a general knowledge, two practical, and a chemistry themed dingbats thing to finish. Our team included Jay Desai Y11, Ritvij Roy Y9, Rosie McMorris Y9 and me.

The practical rounds were about collecting, analysing and interpreting data from two videos of the experiments, while the general knowledge round had me digging through my mind for the distant memories of year 7, as the questions covered what the team had learned so far. Soon after the fun dingbats round, we were all scrambling for periodic tables, trying to decipher the elements from the picture clues. Eventually, after an hour of debating, discussing and deciphering we finished all four sections, eventually placing second in the whole competition! I really enjoyed this opportunity. I had a lot of fun working in a team and the competition really made me see all areas of chemistry in a brand new light.

Physics

MEET THE SCIENTISTS!

Top physicists from Years 8 and 9 attended an exciting November webinar hosted by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) near Oxford. Scientists from this world class laboratory talked about their work on particle physics, what they enjoyed about it and how they got started in the first place. Our pupils found this fascinating and were particularly interested in the discussions on antimatter, dark matter and quarks, as well as learning about how particle accelerators work. Our pupils clearly had a great time and were buzzing as the session ended. I think we all want to be stealth engineers!

C Stevens RAL

By Callum McGillivray & Hector Wreford-Brown Year 9

Guest speakers from RAL talked in depth about their Diamond Light facility and different jobs at their laboratory in a virtual conference on Particle Physics and careers in physics. We were shown prototypes and concepts of future experiments as well as existing ones. The scientists and engineers explained how they got to where they are now, and which university courses to take. The facility which caught our eye the most was the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. It was incredible to see the sheer size of the LHCb detector which left us thinking about concepts we’d never even considered!

PARTICLE PHYSICS MASTERCLASS

Year 13 Physicists gathered in a lab to experience the delights of the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory’s annual Particle Physics Masterclass in March. We were hoping this would be run in-person at the actual lab just south of Oxford this year, but unfortunately this was not possible, so all the invited schools watched and participated online.

We started with a talk on the Standard Model of Particle Physics from Manny Olaiya who managed to make this complex topic entertaining. We then had a virtual tour of the Diamond particle accelerator and how it is used to produce particularly intense light for analysing various materials. After lunch, Kristian Harder explained the construction and operation of the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, which was where the Higgs Boson was discovered in 2012. This led nicely into the Data Workshop, where we downloaded actual datasets from the LHC and analysed them to work out which particles had been produced in collisions. This was quite challenging and showed just how computationally complex data analysis can be at the cutting edge of Physics. Finally, we gathered together electronically to have a quiz, at which KES was quite astonishingly over-represented in the top ten scorers at the end. When you consider that pupils were participating from schools all over the UK, this was particularly impressive: well done, everyone!

M Harrison

BRITISH PHYSICS OLYMPIAD

Yet again, KES Physics has been overwhelmed with student successes beyond the exam hall. This year twenty-five Year 12 students and nearly forty Year 11 students took part in the annual British Physics Olympiad, a series of prestigious and challenging problem-solving competitions attempted by the most able physics students in the country. For the Year 12 Senior Challenge, two students achieved a Gold award with a further two students securing a Silver award and 12 securing a Bronze award. For the Year 11 Intermediate challenge, one student secured one of the coveted 130 Golds awarded nationally, a further eight secured Silver and a phenomenal 23 achieved Bronze. A special congratulations should go out to our golden trio: Richard Hua, Erioe Wang and Owen Williams. An outstanding achievement!

The most challenging of the British Physics Olympiad competitions is Round One whose results determine if students will be invited to participate in the International Physics Competition. Astoundingly, three of our students achieved a Gold in this year’s competition; an accolade only bestowed on 220 students nationally! Well done to Harry Frith, Ben McNab and Niels Steinhoff!

END OF AN ERA!

Although we will miss our much loved and well-used labs, the Physics department is excited to be undergoing a major refurbishment this summer. In addition to upgrading two of our existing laboratories, we are gaining a new Sixth Form laboratory for teaching A level Physics, Electronics and select GCSE groups. Each lab has been designed with both super-sized physics experiments and modern teaching and learning principles in mind. We therefore hope that these bespoke facilities will offer an engaging, functional and comfortable learning environment for all.

This year has also seen us say a sad goodbye to our long-serving technician, Electronics teacher and Lego Robotics team leader, Matthew Evans. Matthew had a lasting impact on many staff and students lives and we all wish him the best of luck!

S Richardson

Rugby

It has been an excellent Rugby season for all the players and staff involved as we returned to a degree of normality, meaning fixtures were finally able to take place! The School has consistently fielded up to 14 teams from U12 to 1st XV at weekends, which is testament to all the hard work from everyone who contributes to the programme.

With a clear rugby ethos and working from the KES Games Model that is replicated from the Junior School to the Senior 1st XV, the boys have been working hard on a number of key themes throughout the year. The progression of the players has been amazing, and this has led to some fantastic performances from all teams across the year groups.

The 1st XV rugby team had a challenging season with an extremely relentless fixture list. They can be proud of their performances against Dauntsey’s, Wellington School, Kingswood and in particular

Beechen Cliff, when the match was played on a Friday evening under the lights at Bath University with a huge crowd present.

It was wonderful to get the 7s programme back up and running again, with all age groups attending the National Rosslyn Park 7s. Everyone involved had a great experience playing against schools across the country. The 1 st Team capped off the rugby season in style when they attended the prestigious Sedbergh National 10s Tournament, competing against some of the very best schools in the country, including a fantastic performance on the live stream against Brighton College.

I am proud to say that our first Senior Rugby club for girls was introduced, led by Mr Broomfield,

and I am confident that this will go from strength to strength as the girls’ game grows locally and nationally.

On an individual level, we can be extremely proud of many of our rugby players who are representing the School at County to Academy level. Special mention must go to Alex Salah, who represented Bath Rugby in the successful U18 league campaign and George Ritchie, who has been selected in the U17 group. Five members have represented Bath Rugby at U16s along with one more playing for Bristol Bears. Five members are in the U15 setup, with a further eight involved in the U14 Bath Rugby programme, which is a superb achievement and highlights how exciting the future is for the Rugby programme here at KES Bath.

Thank you to all the coaches involved both on and off the field. The pupils have benefited from a superb team of committed and very experienced coaching staff, who have delivered high levels of support and consistently plan challenging and enjoyable sessions.

S Lilley

Girls’Hockey

The 2021 girls’ hockey season was one to remember with competitive success, high levels of participation, and significant individual development.

For Years 7 and 8, the programme focussed on developing the girls’ technical efficiency through weekly development themes covered in Games lessons. The atmosphere on Saturdays was electric with a great number of parents supporting from the side-lines and some fast-paced, exciting hockey on the pitch. In what was their first proper season of school fixtures, it was fantastic to see so many girls take pride in representing their school and putting on some excellent performances.

Participation was at an all-time high in Years 9 and 10. Development themes for these age groups focussed on building the girls’ tactical understanding. The U15 Girls had notable success in being crowned County Champions of the U16 T3 National Competition and

progressed to the Regional Stage where they competed well as the sole U15 team in the tournament. The U14 girls were disappointed to be unable to participate in their County Tournament due to Covid, but played some brilliant attacking hockey this season, scoring an average of well over 3 goals per game in their fixtures.

At the beginning of the season, 73 girls signed up to play senior hockey, showing the enthusiasm that exists for the sport in this school. The depth of quality that exists in Years 11, 12 and 13 was clear from the excellent performances of our 3rd and 4th XI squads. Both our 1 st and 2nd XI squads had their most successful hockey seasons on record, losing only one regular season fixture each. The 2nd XI progressed to the Regional Stage of the U18 T4 National Championships

as County Runners-Up and competed extremely well in a competition comprising predominantly school 1 st XI teams. The 1st XI were Regional Semi-finalists, finishing in the top 16 of the U18 National Plate.

Over 20 KES girls represent England at various levels of the National Hockey Pathway, including captain, Emily Maclean, who represented England U18 National squad in the summer. She, along with all our outgoing Year 13 players, will leave behind an excellent legacy for our younger pupils to aspire to.

L King

Boys’ Hockey

It was wonderful to see so many pupils enjoying a normal hockey season again through a packed calendar of fixtures.

The enthusiasm and commitment from the U12s meant huge progress was made during the season. They played some brilliant matches with unforgettable moments and show a great deal of potential for the future. A determined and focused approach from Year 8 was reflected in some excellent performances and they look well prepared for 11 a-side hockey next year.

In their first season of full pitch hockey, the U14s worked tirelessly. The players developed their ability to carry with pace, pass with accuracy and power, and tenaciously defend their goal. There is no doubt that there are many players with great potential who will already be looking forward to senior team hockey next year.

The Under 15s displayed considerable prowess throughout the season.

They played some excellent hockey, passing the ball with speed and opening up opposition defences with ease. Scoring over 60 goals between the two squads, this average of four goals per game is an indication of their attacking prowess. It was exciting to see six boys make their senior 1 st team debut at the KES Hockey Festival and there is certainly a bright future for them ahead.

Our 3rd XI played with great team spirit. They carried with skill and pace, passed quickly, and defended with discipline and determination. They faced all challenges in front of them with unflinching nerve and always retained a sense of respect and good humour. Their resilience was rewarded with some fine victories.

Speed, skill and determination, laid the foundation for an excellent season for the 2nd XI.

They attacked with a slick, fast-paced passing game, and were a constant threat to any team they faced. It

was a young group, and many will be pushing for a first team spot next year. A key strength of the team, however, has been the leadership from the most senior players in Year 13, who have been an outstanding example to the rest of the squad.

The 1 st XI had a magnificent season. They dealt with pressure admirably, playing with attacking flair and stubborn defence in equal measure. They have been the best 1 st XI the school has produced since the oldest members of the squad were in Year 7, which is a testament to the progress they have made in their time at the school. There were many highlights, one being a superb run in the National Tier 3 Cup, which saw

them narrowly beaten in the quarterfinals. The squad was excellently led by captain Ben Sharp. A member of the Team Bath Buccaneers men’s 1 st XI, playing in the National League. Ben is certainly one to watch.

All of our Year 13 hockey players should feel very proud of the impact they have had over the years – they leave an inspiring legacy for others to follow, and they will be sorely missed.

P Livesey

Netball

KES, yet again, has proven itself as one of the top performing netball schools in the South West, thanks to our talented teams and dedicated staff. Our U14 and U19 squads became regional school finalists, the U19 squad became County Champions for the 6th consecutive season while individual standouts Molly Livesey and Daisy Collett excelled in the programmes from Team Bath ADC and NPL Team Bath, respectively.

The 12A KES tournament featured solid netball playing and the B team won most of their fixtures, scoring 80 goals. Versatility has dominated the C and D teams’ season, especially the D team who was on a winning streak. The U13s’ enthusiasm and hard work paid off with some resounding victories against local strong sides and four of this squad formed part of the U14 Regional finalists. The U13 Bs also worked hard, highlighted in their last 3 games. The U13Cs clicked in their victory over the RHS while the U13Ds showed commitment through teamwork and good humour.

In a superb achievement, the U14A squad qualified for the Regional Finals. This success and desire to develop weekly means the U14s have been our most successful year group, winning most of their games across all three teams and are arguably the best in Bath. The U15s A and B teams have played each week, the C team only occasionally. All have shown determination and produced some exciting netball. Team members have been committed to training, correcting the inconsistencies that cost them matches. They have made promising progress ahead of joining the senior teams next season.

At senior level, the 4th team won most of their fixtures. A 28-6 win against Kingswood was a testament to their remarkable resilience and commitment, possibly making them our most successful 4th team in history. The 3rd team has been a joy to coach, performing extremely well and winning most of their fixtures. Stand-out games include Clifton College and B.G.S, where their resilience and determination

won out in end-to-end matches. The second team (Years 11-13) trained hard, played with a high work rate, but stay unrewarded with the victories they deserve. The hugely talented 1st team found form early on as County Champions and regional finalists. The girls have remained unbeaten which is no mean feat against some formidable opposition. They join only three other squads to have been unbeaten throughout the past 20 years.

The charity game against Kingswood was a true display of the outstanding level of netball and raised a substantial amount for the DEC Ukrainian Appeal. Years 7&8 enjoyed a mini tour to Exeter where they enjoyed a mix of wins and losses over 18 fixtures, with a spot of post-tour fun shopping and sightseeing.

We wish all the Year 13 pupils all the best for their futures and thank them for their contribution to KES netball over many years. A huge thank-you to all the captains who have also played a vital role this season.

Many thanks to all the pupils, staff and parents for their support and hard work throughout another hugely enjoyable netball season.

L Gwilliam

Football

“You can’t win anything with kids”, said Liverpool and Scotland centre back Alan Hansen, but in school football the only way to win is playing the kids, and KES can be proud of another successful season.

The 1 st X1 played 11 games, won 5, drew 2 and lost 4, playing against some top Independent and state schools. In place of Odd Down, “Fortress Bathampton” has become the new venue to strike fear in the opposition – KES only losing narrowly 2-1 to Beechen Cliff in the quarter final of the Somerset Cup. The wins came vs Wycliffe 1-0, Downside 3-0 twice, Kingswood 2-0 and Dauntsey’s, 2-1. Some super football was played, and it has been a real pleasure to work with this group.

Ably led by the inspirational captain, Joel Rosser, the 1stXI, and the Year 13 boys in particular, have been a credit to the school. Ollie Brook scored some spectacular goals as our main striker, supported by Max Lazarus, Brandon Mullins, Sam Trezies with Joel in midfield, and a

strong defence, consisting of Jack Garrard, Ben Fallon and the “cat” goalkeeper, Zak Rosenfeld. Other Year 13 boys played one of the two terms, and I thank them for their energy and passion this season.

The Year 12 boys who played both terms also made a great contribution and will need to step up next year as the senior players as we turn to the Academy group to be promoted into team positions. Thanks to all those Year 12 boys for their efforts.

The 2nd X1 squad won 4 games, drew one and lost 4. This team was captained by Josh Welsh in goal who had a super season as the team played with enthusiasm, passion and determination. The wins came against BGS (4-2), Clifton (5-2), Wycliffe (4-1) and Dauntsey’s (3-2).

In addition to Josh, other Year 13 boys who contributed were goal machine Josh Moir, the solid Filip Kanzurovski and the silky Ben Govier. Thanks to all those who played one term or two from the year groups, 11, 12 and 13.

Mr David Blake expertly coached the 2nd X1 and supported me in running the football again this year. Mr Blake joined in a training match once this year and started impressively with a few silky touches and passes, but things soured quickly when his professional roots were evident as he took a blatant dive in the box, tackled by the invisible man! It was a hilarious moment for us all. We wish him well as he moves on to Monkton Combe School.

Another big thank you goes to Mrs Worsdall, who has retired as Sports Administrator. She has been a huge support to football over the years. Thank you and enjoy your well-deserved retirement.

1 st X1 Player of Year: Joel Rosser

1 st X1 Most Improved Player: Ben Fallon

2nd X1 Player of Year: Josh Welsh

2nd X1 Most Improved Player: Filip Kanzurovski

DJ Chapman

Nearly 150 players of all ages participate in our mid-week afterschool tennis programme. Each year group have enjoyed a festival of Tennis against Kingswood, as well as fixtures against Royal High, Prior Park, Monkton Combe and Beechen Cliff. Some notable wins were for our Senior Girls who beat Bruton School for Girls, our U15 and U14 girls who beat Prior Park, the U12 girls beat RHS and our U13 boys beat Beechen Cliff.

The Aegon League was back up and running after a couple of years absence. U13 & U15 boys performed in Division 1 and played some outstanding tennis. Our U15 boys, won against Beechen Cliff 12-0, however lost to a strong Colston’s and Prior Park side. Our U13 boys also beat Beechen Cliff 12-0, but again lost to Colston’s.

The U13 & U15 Avon Singles and Doubles showcases some of best tennis in Avon and North Somerset. Six KES players played some particularly good tennis although missing silverware this year. Nell Harris won her first two singles matches to reach the Semi-finals. Nell then met

Tennis

the 1 st seed (the UK number 10) sadly losing before smashing the 3rd /4th playoff! Panos Katsimiha won his singles but faltered against the UK number 13 before rallying in his next two matches. Freddie Champniss won 7-6 and 6-1 and Ollie Pike debuted on 6-2 and 6-1. William Powell (Y7) and Florence Shone (Y7) also had their debut at the Championships. Both won their first match, then performed well in the consolation matches marking up 2 wins and 2 losses. For the doubles, a nasty slip meant William had to retire from his doubles match with Ollie. Nell and Flo and Panos and Freddie played valiantly but were knocked out in the first round. All gained a lot from this experience, and we look forward to them competing next year.

Thanks to our Tennis coach from Bath Lawn tennis club, Joe Blethyn and to Mr Barrett, Miss Kirby, Mrs Trump, Mr Haynes, Mrs Fuller, Mr King, Mrs Gwilliam, Mr Lilley, Mr Bye and Mrs Lansdowne for all their support, encouragement, and coaching throughout this season.

E Young

Cricket

The 2022 cricket season has been varied and exciting and revelling in good weather. The first full season in three years, it has not been without its challenges. As ever, balancing a varied programme during exams and the demands of Ten Tors and Duke of Edinburgh Awards, I have been impressed with the level of commitment from all players, which has resulted in some significant successes.

Female participation in cricket here at KES has prospered and the gender-neutral cricket programme is flourishing. With over 160 students playing scheduled fixtures each week, we have a well-established inclusive programme that incorporates both hard and soft ball fixtures, so that players at all levels can participate.

The KES cricket programme has supported the progression of girls’ cricket, and we now have more girls playing club and representative cricket at regional and county level than ever before. Testament to its success, the U15s reached the regional indoor national finals at Bristol University and the appearance of Erica Baxter at the crease, the first ever female to play for KES 1 st XI.

In highlights, Year 7 boys remained undefeated under the tutelage of Mr Barrett and Mr Rousell while Year 8 have shown strong talent this year, with Katie Gwilliam and Ava Shaw regularly playing with the boys XI. We look forward to following their progression. Year 9 also had a tremendous season winning all but one game, with Freddie Champniss and Hugo Bradbury both performing superbly on that day. Stand-out performances came from Bethan Mawer who scored her maiden 50 as part of the boys’ team and Ava Ojomoh bowling thunderbolts! Year 10 had a mixed season due to challenges with team selection and Jamie Dod and George Epsley being called upon to join the 1st XI but remained strong, and Martha Honeybone performed consistently well.

There was a mixed start to the season in the Senior squad, but it picked up with good results in the Schools T20 competition and wins against Beechencliff and Prior Park. There were notable performances from captain Josh Welsh, Jamie Dod and Harry Frith who scored his maiden 50 against QEH. We look forward to our annual Cricket Week – a chance for Seniors to indulge their passion with a week of unbroken cricket and some longer format games, including two days against Tiffin School from Kingston-on-Thames.

The burgeoning collaboration with Bath Cricket Club has benefitted both parties in several ways - BCC having use of Bathampton and the

school indoor facilities, while KES have enjoyed use of the brand-new indoor school at North Parade – an innovative new facility with stateof-the-art bowling machines. Fran Wilson, ex-England cricketer and current Western Storm player is initiating the first of many Masterclasses that KES will host. Fran looks forward to helping the girls with their tactical game.

As part of our partnership, we have also been able to introduce a specialist cricket coach to the team. Harry Ellison, a 1 st XI player with Bath has been a real asset to the coaching set-up. We thank him for sharing his knowledge and his enthusiasm and great passion for the game.

A huge thank you also to the whole of the PE department, teaching staff and catering team who have supported this year’s cricket programme and for being so engaged and enthusiastic.

G Brown

Sports Day

More Sport

BIATHLON

Though not many competed for the school this year, those who did put in some fantastic performances.

George McDonald represented KES in the Schools National Biathlon Championships placing a superb 22nd overall. Grace Catton achieved PB’s for both the 1600 run and 100m swim. Alex Hearn won the individual bronze medal in the Under-15 age category at the South West regional schools in November and subsequently competed at the National schools final.

Ollie Squire finished 3rd (U12) in the South West regional schools at Yeovil at the National Biathlon Championships in February (with 2 PBs) and then 6th place (with yet another 2 PBs) in the British Schools Biathlon Championships in March.

Well done to all for the dedicated hours of training and competing.

CROSS COUNTRY

There were 36 entries in the BANES schools’ round of the XC this year with the following 7 qualifying for the Avon round -

Minor (Year 7) girls: 4th Vicky Messent

Junior (Year 8&9) girls: 2nd Ulrika Avent

Inter (Year 10&11) girls: 6th Orla Rostom

Minor (Year 7) boys: 1 st Raffi Budd, 3rd

Ollie Squire and 4th Daniel Thomas

Inter (Year 10&11) boys: 5th Alex Hearn

At the Avon round two stars in the making were Raffi who finished 2nd and Ollie Squire 3rd. Alex Hearn represented Avon at the South West schools’ championships a year early following his performance at the Avon round!

TABLE TENNIS

It was fantastic to reignite our local match vs Kingswood. Twelve Year 7 students took on a variety of Year 9 and 10 Kingswood students in multiple matches, showing true determination and resilience. There were lots of lessons learnt and some great wins along the way. We look forward to playing them again soon.

On an individual note, Andy Wang (Year 7) finished runner-up in the U13 South West Table Tennis Championships in Plymouth qualifying for the National level Inter-Regional U13 Finals competition at the end of May.

EQUESTRIAN

The KES equestrian team has been getting back to pre-covid competition this year with Rachael Hetherington finishing 3rd in the National Dressage finals and Scarlett Ridgeway winning the 90cm class. I hope that 2022-23 sees some more horse riders join the school so we can enter more competitions.

SKIING

In December Alex Chang was the fastest U12 boy in the last round of the National Schools league in Gloucester before entering the U14 category. He then finished 15th in the U14 boys English Schools Indoor Open Championships in April.

ATHLETICS

It was wonderful to have the BANES competition return after a three-year absence. 21 athletes from Years 7-12 competed in a wide range of events. There were some fantastic performances:

Alex Hearn – 1 st in both the 800 and 1500mts.

Rhys Le Roux – 2nd in the Shot Put.

Vicky Messent – 2nd in the 800mts.

Raffi Budd and Ollie Squire – 2nd and 3rd respectively in the 800mts.

Eleni Francis – 1 st in the LJ and 100mts.

Sports Day

Thursday 30 th June

K Trump

Activities Week

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

DofE pupils hit the ground running this year as 113 Bronze, 53 Silver and 34 at Gold level candidates began preparations for the expeditions in March.

Silver groups endured the icy Westbury Lake to learn capsize and rescue drills before honing paddling strokes on the Kennet and Avon Canal. During a warmer Activities Week, the teams headed to the Wye Valley at Hereford, where they enjoyed a beautiful riverside camp. Amid the lovely weather and stunning scenery, the pupils developed their teamworking skills and gathered information for their aims. On the final day, all teams disembarked at Symonds Yat, where they showed fantastic support for each other, not just within their groups. Well done to everyone involved and many thanks to the fantastic staff at WOLT (Wiltshire Outdoor Learning Team) for all their work throughout the year.

The whole of Year 9 received expert training from WOLT in their outdoor education and expedition week where they were prepared for an overnight expedition. It was fantastic to see the 20 teams navigating their way across

the Mendip Hills and making the most of being together in the outdoors.

The Gold level resumed their two separate expeditions. In May, 30 of our students ventured to the Black mountains to complete a 4-day practice. The walking conditions were superb in the early summer sun. For the qualifying expedition in Snowdonia, they experienced the new look expedition that began with a day of scrambling up Moel Siabod, followed by three remote days walking the Welsh peaks, so breath-taking, they could be mistaken for the Alps. The students were superb and in the words of Andy, the course director from Wild Country Consultants, “were a credit to themselves and the school.”

Of the twenty-one OE’s invited, ten were able to attend the welcome return of the Gold presentation ceremony at Buckingham –Palace to receive their award.

They enjoyed a wonderful day wandering around the gardens and catching up with each other. It goes without saying that none of this could happen without the dedication, enthusiasm and support of the KES staff who give their free time to accompany these trips and training sessions. Too many to mention but very much appreciated.

Dr A Fewell

CCF

CAMBRIAN PATROL COMPETITION

By Sgt Owen Williams Year 11

Led by the Section Commander, Sgt George White, the KES team of Cpl Ryan Quayum, LCpl Rafee Jabarin, Cpl Owen Williams, LCpl Harry Newman, LCpl Dan Hadley, George Dias-Whyard and Meg Aitken travelled to the 35-mile course at Sennybridge Training Area in Wales to represent the South West against cadet units from across the UK.

After passing rigorous weapon inspections, we hit the frosty ground for a challenging day ahead. We arrived at the Section Attack stand first, where we had to attack and defeat an enemy machine-gun position using blank ammunition – which we did amid praise from regular soldiers running the stand. At the Target Indication stand, we were given a quick set of orders and then had to tactically move into an OP (observation post) and fire blank ammunition at any enemy who popped up, shouting the location of the enemy while a Brigadier was watching (no pressure!) When we had finished the stand, having each fired around 50 rounds of ammunition, we were told that our performance had been one of the best all day!

After lunch it was the Observation stand, a timed challenge of crawling into a camouflaged position and observing the landscape for any signs of enemy activity and recording that information on something known as a ‘range card’.

The final stand was the First Aid stand. When we arrived, we were thrown into the noise and action of a van crash scenario, with smoke, explosions and a variety of injuries - head wounds, broken limbs, heart attacks, and shock, and then we were faced with the problem of evacuating the casualties. Despite the difficulty, all cadets behaved with great presence of mind, putting all our first aid knowledge to the test, and all the casualties were safely evacuated out of danger.

That was nearly the end of the day - but not quite. After setting up our camp in a forest, the Section Commander, George White, had to deliver a set of orders to the team for the ‘March and Shoot’ the following day. All cadets helped to build the model of the area, and when Sgt. White delivered his orders, he was

complimented on the clarity and presentation of the orders by the regular soldier who observed him. The ‘March and Shoot’ itself involved a fast march over difficult terrain to the firing ranges, and then shooting at the targets with live ammunition.

We were the second-last team to be awarded our prizes, and so we were kept in suspense for quite a while. When it was finally announced that we had won a silver medal, we were delighted - especially since none of us had had any experience of an exercise quite like this. We were also (quietly) pleased to note that our standard of drill was by far the best out of all the teams.

Overall, the Cambrian Patrol was a physically and mentally challenging, but immensely rewarding experience, and we would recommend it to any cadets interested. Of course, we are extremely grateful for the help of the CCF staff involved: Lt Col Gardiner, Lt Jones, Lt Harrison, Lt Noble, 2Lt Brant and PI Wigfield.

CADET RADIO USER COURSE

CCF staff and cadets from Year 10 attended a signals course run by the Cadet Training Team in February. During a 2.5-day course, they completed training on the PRR and PRC 710 radio systems, learnt about correct use of Voice Procedure and the Callsign Matrix, and completed Basic, 1 Star and 2 Star assessments online. Well done to all cadets, who passed with flying colours and earned their Cadet Radio User badge.

Capt. C Jones

CORPS OF DRUMS

Angus Cannock and Eric Chi were invited this year to take part in the Gloucester Back Badge Parade alongside the Gloucester Army Cadet Force Corps of Drums. Instructors from Gloucester ACF provided music tuition to our cadets earlier this year, and we were delighted to be able to support this event. The Back Badge Parade is a unique parade remembering the battle honours of the “Glorious Gloucesters” whose cap badge is proudly worn by Gloucester ACF cadets. For drummers Angus and Eric, the event provided an opportunity to demonstrate their proficiency on the side drum, and to accompany a group of B flat marching flutes for the first time. It is hoped that the KES CCF will be able to include flautists amongst their number, as we seek to develop the Corps of Drums.

During the Easter holidays, Capt. Jones and cadets travelled to Otterburn Camp, Northumberland, to attend the Biannual Cadet Music Concentration. This was the first major cadet music event since the pandemic, with over 500 cadets and adult volunteers from all over the United Kingdom.

Cadets opting to join the Corps of Drums had the opportunity to develop new or existing skills on side drum, bugle or marching flute. Others joined the Beginner, Intermediate or Senior Bands and enjoyed the challenge of playing new music alongside new friends from all over the country.

As well as making significant progress in their musicianship, the cadets took part in a variety of activities, including Skill at Arms and First Aid, and there were public performances in the local village and at the Beamish Museum. Two of the KES cadets who were recognised for their standout achievements during the week were Eric Chi, who was awarded Best Cadet in 2 Star Cadre Corps of Drums, and saxophonist Patrick Gardiner was awarded Best Musician in the Intermediate Band.

Capt. C Jones

E-Sports

This year has seen the addition of the exciting creative media suite in B17. The room has been used for a wide range of activities, but one of the main advantages of the facility is the ability for the school to play competitive esports from the school site, rather than students having to play from home.

The school were able to field 3 teams in the British Esports Association’s student championships, with two rocket league teams and one league of legends team. Though the teams had mixed success against some much more experienced teams from schools and colleges around the country, the students really enjoyed the opportunity to play competitively from within school, rather than having to speak over the internet, and they plan on entering again next year and improve on their performances.

The school is now running a weekly club for students to play games competitively together and practice ready for next year’s tournaments. With a wide range of students from all year groups getting involved, we have also seen a huge uptake from our Year 7 girls, who seem very excited about getting involved next year! The school is also hoping to run some in-house tournaments in the last half-term of this year, so keep an ear to the ground if you’re up for a challenge!

Some of the Year 13 students who have been involved in the esports teams were also invited to talk at the British Educational Training and Technology show, where they talked about their experiences of being involved in the esports team and how they felt it had benefitted them from both an educational and extra-curricular point of view. I’d like to thank both Jack and Filip for their amazing speeches and how well they fielded questions from the crowd afterwards, they really did the school proud!

I’d also like to add another thank you and goodbye to our Year 13 League of Legends team, their patience and understanding this year has been amazing and the way they have acted as role models for the younger students has been incredible, best of luck in the future guys and GLHF!

T Sneddon

MUN at KES

Twenty KES students from Years 10-13 competed in the first in-person BISMUN for 2 years at Kingswood School, representing the United States of America, Canada, Nigeria and the Philippines. KES delegates performed amazingly well on issues from vaccine nationalism to the situation in Yemen. KES delegates participated expertly in the General Assembly, with many both speaking and answering questions from the floor, while the USA delegation was also able to pass an amendment to the resolution under discussion, which can be a rarity.

In debate, issues – including the international situation in Ukraine – were treated with reverence and respect. The fact that KES delegates were able to achieve widespread success in the face of such a high standard is testament to their commitment and preparation for BISMUN. It also reflects the excellent attendance at in-house debates. The

departing Year 13s have been key to this, organising and chairing those throughout the year. Best Delegate gavels went to Josh Bernald Ross and to Theo Aldridge-Stone. Josh Stokes and Zara Brannigan were highly commended and newcomer Joseph Walker achieved a commendation. Jacob Miners and Lucas Kover-Wolf complete the USA team which won Best Delegation and thus the conference. They leave behind a fantastic foundation to build on in future years and we look forward to what BISMUN 2023 will hold for KES.

Theo Aldridge-Stone

Benefiting from the OE Activity Award from the OE Committee, the Warhammer Club was reborn with some vital new scenery and rule books to help them play the games offered by Games workshop in both the “Warhammer 40,000” and “Age of Sigmar” settings. The group got their clippers out and eagerly put the scenery together ready for painting in September. The award has enabled the club to get a decent amount of scenery, so four games can be played simultaneously on fully painted tables.

日本語のクラブ活動。

By Will Burwell Year 13

This year saw the beginning of the Japanese language club for those with a keen interest in Japanese culture as well as the determination to persevere with this challenging but rewarding language. Some of the highlights included tasting a selection of snacks from across Japan, learning not one but two of the scripts (Hiragana and Katakana) used to write Japanese and even delving into some linguistic history. The confidence, enthusiasm, and ability of this small but dedicated club is growing quickly and I have really enjoyed helping Mrs. Gil introduce them to this fascinating subject.

勉強と頑張ってください！

Japanese Russian Club Lego Robotics Club Warhammer

This year’s group of keen Year 7s have been the life and soul of the club and I am sure their enthusiasm will continue to help the club grow and allow more students to enjoy this hobby. It was also brilliant to round off the year with a trip to Warhammer World in Nottingham where a few members from the club explored, built, painted and played. They gained stamps for their battle honours books, which entitles them to prizes on completion.

J Garner-Richardson

KES Pride

The best thing about the year is the community we have formed together in KES Pride. Meetings give us a safe environment for everyone to chat and have a good time. We have been lucky to organize events and displays that promote the joy of Pride and Pride’s aims of giving people the freedom to learn about acceptance and to change awareness of the growing Pride Community. There’s no pressure to be a certain way, KES Pride teaches us we can be anything.

By James Foster Year 9

(Hello! My name is James, and I adore Russian Club).

Every Friday lunchtime, a few students and teacher gather with Mr Ferguson to learn some basic Russian. We started off learning the alphabet. From then we learned basic greetings, such as привет (Hello), доброе утро (Good morning) and спасибо (thanks) before taking on food and opinions. Russian at KES is taught in its own unique way. Rather than bombarding the students with genders, conjugations, and many cases to learn, we learn essential vocabulary and techniques to be able to communicate with a native speaker.

Though some may question why Russian is still being taught and learnt within a Ukraine-supporting school, we should keep on trying to communicate. Massive thanks to Mr Ferguson for offering this opportunity.

Спасибо

Charities

The Charities Committee have continued our support of Moving Mountains Trust, while introducing Bath Welcomes Refugees (BWR) as our second school charity and have raised funds for both organisations this year. There have been many successful collections for Bath Foodbank, as well as a trip to their warehouse; pupils learned where our donations end up and how they are sorted, stored, and distributed. Jas Lyons in Year 12 chose to deliver four assemblies throughout the Summer Term to pass on what she had taken away from the visit and encourage others to get involved.

In February, the KES Unite concert made a return which raised £1400

for BWR, during which several pupils from across the school performed dances and solo vocal performances, as well as a newly formed postCovid KES Soul getting their groove back! In March, we also ran an extremely successful collection of clothing and survival items which BWR took to Calais to distribute

among refugees. Gavin Bate from Moving Mountains came into school to deliver a talk on his experiences climbing Mount Everest, and he very kindly insisted that all funds raised at the event be donated to BWR.

L Perris

Library

Masks are just dust jackets for the face.

And so goodbye to Covid and all that: we were back in business (nearly). New readers are our lifeblood, so we were thrilled to give every year 7 a book of their choice. These year 7s really stepped up by being fantastic book buddies to Junior School pupils during our World Book Day festivities. Just as the days drew in, we hosted a marvellous light-filled evening of fun for our YA Romance fans with games, music, crafts and delicious grub. This year, our in-person book clubs shifted into gear and readers flocked to the graphic novel shelf to borrow the gloriously romantic Heartstopper! One of the year’s highlights was achieving the long-held goal of forming a Library Student Advisory Committee which proved insightful and rewarding. Thanks to Helen Deng, AC Claydon, Luiza Britton, Clem Scotland, Emily Pledge, Evie Shepperdson, Ben Jones and Eddie Durant. ‘Coming up for air’ author Lou Abercrombie and YA thrillqueen Tracy Darnton will round out the year with author talks to our bookthirsty pupils.

L Bowman

Careers

Right image: John Glen, City Minister and Economic Secretary to the Treasury, one of more than 25 speakers who came in to school as part of the Inspiring Minds Speakers programme.

What a year for Careers!

This year has seen our new Careers programme take off with a bang! Starting with the launch of our Inspiring Minds Speakers programme, we have seen this grow to include nearly 25 speakers throughout the year, covering such diverse topics as the importance of re-introducing the Mongolian yak and the difficulties of reporting from war-torn regions of the world. All year groups have had the opportunity to hear from these speakers, with many dropping in to assemblies throughout the year and giving a quick overview of their career, whilst others have joined us for an hour or more and provided an in depth look at their day-to-day working lives.

We have also worked hard on raising the profile of Careers throughout the year, taking part in both the National Apprenticeship Week and the National Careers Week – during which our Careers Education Coordinator, Julia Rees-Roberts, and our lovely Year 12 Careers Prefects manned a Careers gazebo throughout the week, allowing students from all year groups to ask questions of different departments each day.

The whole school interaction continued, with our Upper School

and Sixth Form receiving information on Apprenticeships and Years 9 and 11 being given the opportunity to undertake Morrisby testing in order to help them further with their subject choices for GCSE and A-level. The Careers Convention 2022 was also a great success, following a huge amount of work and organisation from many people across the school, featuring over 60 delegates and a turnout of around 350 pupils and parents. The corridors of the school were buzzing with excitement and Careers-based conversations for many days afterwards!

We still have much to achieve both this year and moving forward, with the Year 10 Careers Carousel Day and mock interviews yet to come, as well as some of our intrepid Year 12s heading out across the country for their work experience weeks. As we move into next year, with hopes of starting our first full mentoring programme and introducing the idea of Careers Passports to some of the year groups, we are very grateful for all the help given to us by parents, Old Edwardians and the local community. We could never have completed this first year without you!

J Rees-Roberts

YEAR 11

The Milburn Prize for Art

The Andrew White Prize for Biology

The Russett Prize for Business Studies and Economics

The Symons Prize for Chemistry

Computing

The Ridyard Prize for DT

Drama

English Language

The Cawsey Prize for English Literature

The Symons Prize for French

The Rutherford Prize for Geography

The Symons Prize for German

Classical Greek

The Carter Prize for History

The Symons Prize for Latin

The Withy Prize for Mathematics

The Milburn Prize for Music

The Worrall Prize for Physics

The Milburn Prize for Religious Studies

Additional Science

The Aon Prize for Spanish

Academic Physical Education

The Roberts Prize for Effort

All Round Academic Performance

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YEAR 12

The Cork Prize for Art

The Russell Prize for Biology

The Warrender Prize for Business Studies

The Russell Prize for Chemistry

Classical Civilisation

Computing Drama

The Bennett Prize for Economics

Electronics

English Language

The Hodgson Prize for English Literature

The Milburn Prize for French

The Milburn Prize for Geography

The Pulsford Prize for German

Classical Greek

The Bang Prize for History

The Russell Prize for Latin

The Russell Prize for Mathematics

The Jim Harris Memorial Prize for Further Mathematics

The Edmund White Prize for Music

Philosophy

Photography

Physical Education

The Russell Prize for Physics

Politics

Psychology

The Francis Prize for Religious Studies

The Aon Prize for Spanish

The Former Parents’ Prize for Technology (DT)

Cecily Tebbutt

Marcus Krysztopik

Agathe Motel

Rafee Jabarin

Angus Cannock

Benji Poole

India Purdie

Tristan Rouvière-Hyde

Ben Lander

Katie Stokes

Charlie McGuire

Archie McGillivray

Maria Mergoupis

YEAR 13

The Milburn Prize for Art

The Tuttell Prize

Joseph Walker

Bethan Cheshire Owen Williams

Immy Bond

Rohan Patil

Alex Salah

Aoi Seiki

Sophia Cooper

Harry Frith

Ebony Hammond

Charlie Avent

Conrad Perry

Zara Branigan

Jacob Miners

Harry Carver

Barnaby Stephenson

Sophie Williams

Elysia Bidgood

Sophie Swale

Henry Skinner

Olivia Seaton

Max Smith

Mathew Barclay

Max Smith

Isobel Smith

Sophia Cooper

Niels Steinhoff

Joshua Bernald Ross

Sophie Ruffle

Iyshea Hender

Josephine Bonn

Emily Maclean

SPECIAL PRIZES

The Morant Prize for Outstanding All Round Performance

All Round Academic Performance

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The Kenwood Millennium Prize for Academic Excellence

Stanley Hardy Prize for Presentation

The Jubilee Prize for Academic Effort

The Laurence Cook Prize for Endeavour

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The Dr Roy Holman Prize for Captain of Rugby

The Sheppard Prize for Contribution to Rugby

The Harvey Cup for Excellence in the Performing Arts

The Lombard Trophy for Enterprise and Initiative

The Benbow Trophy for Service to the Community

The Mead Sixth Form Prize for Philanthropy

Andrew and Karen Harvey Prize for Philanthropy

The White Cup for Cricketer of the Year

The Holbeche Prize for Boys’ Hockey

The Holbeche Prize for Netball

The Holbeche Prize for Girls’ Hockey

The Amos Prize for Outstanding

Contribution to the Arts Festival

The Maunder Prize for Contribution to E.A.G.

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The IFS Student Investor Prize for Business and Economics

The Quill Prize for Creative Writing

The Stocks Prize for Head Prefects

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Independence Day

Year 7: My Favourite Subjects

By Jess Clayton

Everyone thinks starting secondary school is big and scary but, in my experience, it’s really not. KES welcomed me in like I was one of the family from the first day. I think the best thing for me was the pre-season training. Everyone was involved, having fun, meeting new people, and meeting some of the sports teachers! For me, one of the most exciting things about KES was the equipment. When I joined KES, it was the first time I’d ever seen a microscope or a laser cutting machine and we even got to use them (or watch them being used)! I also really like the range of sport we get to do; some sports include Hockey, Badminton and Netball (for the girls). KES got everyone involved when we started Year 7, we had a trip to Chepstow castle in the first couple of weeks and we got to explore the castle all day (as well as learning some History!). There’s something for everyone at KES, whatever you’re interested in.

By Will Choulerton

Since I joined Year 7, I have been immersed in many activities, clubs, and opportunities. My first extracurricular opportunity was pre-season rugby training, and I instantly loved it and made many friends. So, my favourite subject is sport. Our first fixture was against Bristol Grammar School, which was a bit of a shock at first as they were incredibly good, but the teachers helped us build on the loss and we came back stronger later in the season by beating Beechen Cliff 75-10. We also got to play lots of rugby throughout the term because we had (at most) 3 sessions in 1 week and we played a great series of interform games. We then entered the hockey season which I was very skeptical about at first, but the teachers were really encouraging and funny. We were unbeaten throughout the season, which gave us great confidence. Before I knew it the cricket season was under way, and it has been great so far. There are options to play softball and hardball depending on how confident you feel with your cricket skills. I cannot wait until our first fixture vs QEH!

By Imogen Goswell-James

There are so many opportunities to experience music at KES, whether you are completely new to the subject, or have been playing all your life. For me, it started with senior singers - a non-audition choir who meet every week and sing all kinds of songs. Through senior singers, I learnt about KES sixteen. Luckily, I was successful at my audition, and we now represent the school and sing at special occasions like the Carol Service. We meet for an hour each week and it is amazing to be surrounded by students and teachers who are passionate about music. As well as singing, you can try out an endless number of instruments, from trumpets and percussion to violins and flutes. I chose to start the guitar and love learning new pieces. If you can’t get enough of music, you can also join ensembles, bands or orchestras. The Music department run various trips, and recently I had the opportunity to join the Bath Voices project where Bath schools come together to workshop and write a song and perform it at the Bath Festival. It’s an honour to represent the school and to contribute to something so special. Music at KES is a great way to meet new people, make friends and enjoy yourself!

Valedictories

MATTHEW EVANS

Matthew Evans joined the school in 2003 as the Physics technician. Not only was he incredibly well organised but he quickly became expert in maintaining, repairing and building apparatus. His most successful creation was a black box containing switches, bulbs and a microprocessor which allowed pupils to test their problem solving skills with electric circuits. It was the creation of these boxes that demonstrated his outstanding knowledge of electronics that he progressed to teach electronics in the department.

All pupils, whether the brightest or more challenged, have responded well to Matt’s teaching and his caring approach. His subject knowledge is superb and his ability to solve problems proved outstanding. The subject could not have developed over recent years without his enthusiasm and expertise.

Matt ran the hugely popular Lego robotics club for many years and the club has enjoyed great success at the annual competitions winning many cups for their excellent work and attitude. Matt also organised an enjoyable Activities Week course to build and programme a hand-held games console.

Over the 18 years I have worked with Matt he has been a most supportive and pleasant colleague to work with. To say I am going to miss him is an understatement. He has been a real asset to the department, making a significant contribution to its success.

R Haynes

MANDY RUSSELL

Mandy Russell joined King Edward’s in 2003 and throughout her time here, she has proven herself to be both an integral member of the kitchen staff, and an important pastoral asset to pupils and colleagues. Despite nearly 20 years of clearing up and pandering to every common room need, she always had a smile on her face, an instantly recognisable laugh, and a friendly word – she also made great cake! Mandy was a helpful second pair of eyes during the busy lunch period, keen to offer a kind word and alerting the relevant staff member to any child she felt was vulnerable. Such was her impact and popularity, that she was always warmly thanked by Year 13 leavers on their final day. Keeping it in the family, Mandy was joined at the Senior School by two of her three daughters, Emma who worked in the kitchen and Claire who was a pastoral assistant and then the Music Department Administrator.

Mandy has finally decided that it is time to hang up her apron and leave us all to stand on our own two feet and we wish her well for the future; she has certainly earned a welldeserved break but will be greatly missed. Enjoy your retirement, Mandy, and spending time with Alan, your children, your grandson Louis and your two cats, Willow and Daisy Mae.

M Miller

ROSEMARY WORSDALL

Rosemary (affectionately known as Rosebud) Worsdall joined KES in 2007 as Sports Administrator, where she quickly made her mark. Having previously worked in 18th Century English Furniture, she came to us as a parent of three highly successful OEs, and so fully understood the needs and requirements of her role.

Rosemary is incredibly efficient, meticulous, and a real team player. She is one of the most caring people you could be lucky enough to meet, always going the ‘extra mile’. Her role as ‘grammar police’ means the PE Department ranked as one of the best in fewest report corrections! She is incredibly productive, extremely hard-working and she probably could have retired 5 years ago with all the extra hours she has donated to KES.

Rosemary was Chair of the KES Ladies’ Committee for several years, which included helping to run the Christmas Fair. She has supported numerous Duke of Edinburgh Expeditions, tournaments, school functions and social events.

On the day Rosemary announced her departure, we were lost for words, knowing the huge hole she would leave behind. She has been so much more than her job title suggests, she has been the glue that holds the department together. She will join her husband Guy who retired earlier this year. They have much planned, starting with a cycling trip in Italy.

You will be sorely missed Rosebud, leaving behind so many friends and colleagues and some very fond memories. We wish you a very happy and well-deserved retirement.

L Gwilliam

ANITA MUNN

Anita arrived as the sole Learning Support teacher in 2008 to support six pupils. By the end of her first year, she was teaching closer to 40, and was appointed the role of SENCo. A whole generation of KES pupils have benefitted from her patience and skill, and the Learning Support team is widely respected across the whole school.

Anita brings calm, warmth and considerable analytical skill to everything she does. Her work with pupils with additional needs is characterised by high expectations, rigour, and a determined belief in every child. She has championed difference and diversity in our school and has worked tirelessly to instil confidence in pupils who might have otherwise found life at KES daunting.

Appointed as Head of Year 7 in 2012, she joined the Lower School team alongside John Tidball and Dave Chapman. Hundreds of families have benefited from her kind and supportive approach as they began their Senior School journeys, and children know that her office door is always open, whether they need a locker key or a listening ear. She was promoted to Head of the Lower School in 2020 and has supported many colleagues as a senior member of the Pastoral team.

She seems indefatigable: she is rarely absent, and her resilience in the face of Covid is legendary. I cannot thank her enough and will miss her, as a sounding board, trusted colleague and friend. We wish her every health and happiness as she steps away from her long association with KES and can’t wait to hear what her next project might be. She won’t sit still for long!

C Losse

LISA WOLFE

During her 11 years at King Edward’s, 10 as PA to the Headmaster, Lisa Wolfe was recognised by all as a highly respected, valued and popular colleague. Those who worked most closely with her appreciated and benefited from her warmth, kindness, loyalty, support and great sense of humour. Lisa always had time for colleagues, and it is testament to her engaging and inclusive approach that many from across both the teaching and support staff and across the School would also count her as a good friend.

The job of PA to the Headmaster can be a very public one, and Lisa was often the first port of call for pupils, staff, parents, Governors, Old Edwardians and members and others in their dealings with the Headmaster’s office. Lisa managed everyone with skill, diplomacy, empathy and care, both presenting that very important positive first impression and managing those channels of engagement and communication with intelligence and thoughtful attention to detail.

Lisa was much loved by the office team that she managed, a role she undertook with characteristic sensitivity and concern and often accompanied not just by much joy and laughter, but also by homemade cakes, pastries and chocolate treats, as well as the occasional tomato plant. I also benefited regularly from such offerings and was a frequent visitor to her legendary chocolate drawer, if the Second Master hadn’t got there first.

Beyond keeping me well supplied with confectionery, Lisa’s support for me as Headmaster was unwavering and was certainly not limited to the administrative or secretarial, although those aspects were always done

with great accuracy and efficiency. I regularly sought Lisa’s opinion and advice on a range of matters, knowing that I would be given a calm and measured response that was sensitive both to the context and the nuances of the situation. Lisa worked incredibly hard and was utterly reliable. As might be expected of a good PA, she was often several steps ahead of me in the planning and preparation of the matter in hand, showing forethought, providing reassurance and generally embodying the wisdom of that well-known mantra: “keep calm and ask your PA.”

Lisa will be both much missed and fondly remembered by all at KES, and we wish her the very best for her ‘semi-retirement’, which I hope will include lots of opportunities for travel and adventure, as well as time with family and friends.

M Boden, Headmaster

Valedictories

TIM WEST

Tim West joined KES as a parttime teacher, quickly stepping up to full-time. Educated at Monkton Combe School, he obtained a BA in Interactive Media Production at Bournemouth University and joined King Edward’s School in 2011.

His passion and enthusiasm for all aspects of digital technology has been evident across the wide range of topics he has taught. Since starting, he has seen the transition from an ICT based curriculum to a more Computer Science centric curriculum. Tim has been a key member of the department, always delivering his lessons with a clear love of the subject. When I was a new member of staff, he was extremely helpful and reassuring.

He has always been a keen and active tutor. His detailed reports illustrate the depth of knowledge that he has of his Year 7, 8 and 9 tutees; they appreciate that he would always make time to listen to any concerns.

Tim has also taught games and enjoyed coaching the Year 8 rugby squad. He has also enjoyed running the regular weekly Christian Union Club. In recent years, he has been the lead teacher on the Sailing Trip taking ten students for adventures through the Solent with Tall Ships Youth Trust.

We wish Tim and his family all the best in his move back to Kenya where he shall be setting up and running charity work that helps provide food and IT in poor rural schools.

L James

CHARLOTTE HARTLEY

Charlotte arrived at KES in 2014 from Hardenhuish School in Chippenham and very quickly become cherished by staff and pupils alike. In a profession where colleagues are known to give so much of themselves, Charlotte went above and beyond. Her creativity meant that one day you’d pass her classroom and see students using paint colour charts and on another they’d have props from Shakespeare’s Globe.

Charlotte believed in providing students with a stimulating environment in which to learn meaning that her classroom was always beautifully decorated; pupils were proud to have their work displayed upon its hallowed walls. They also soon came to know of her passion for penguins leading to what was initially a modest group of objects on her desk becoming quite the menagerie!

Charlotte’s passion was for teaching our younger pupils as well as supporting those who found aspects of the subject challenging. She gave up her free time readily and could often be found in her classroom at break or lunchtime working oneto-one. She even managed to turn Spelling Club into a lunchtime activity that students were not only willing to attend but positively looked forward to! She also ran activity and induction sessions for primary and Junior School students who would always emerge buzzing with creative ideas and buoyed by Charlotte’s support and encouragement. Charlotte’s warmth, creativity and dedication will be much missed but our loss is her son Josh’s gain. After going on Maternity Leave in Spring of 2021, she has decided to take a break from teaching so that she can focus on being a mum to her gorgeous little boy.

Z Kayaçan

FERN HUGHES

Fern Hughes joined King Edward’s in 2015. Her imaginative, thoughtful, and organised approach to teaching Art and Photography has made her a hugely valued member of the department who is a reliable, supportive and considerate colleague. Fern has built up and developed the Photography A Level course and her creativity and dedication have ensured that pupils continuously reached their full potential. Fern has been active in KES pastoral life as Head of Year and a 6th Form tutor where she showed care and support. Her impressive commitment to the wellbeing of others was clear for all to see. She leaves us with fond memories and lots of stories to tell, including the many art and photography trips like the one to Venice, where everyone managed to scare the locals with custom-made masks, though Fern was happy because the photographs turned out fantastic. Fern has also been integral to the exhibitions, art talks and created a yearly photography competition that we plan to continue in her honour. She leaves KES to work in Bristol and lead the Creative faculty at her new school. Her great sense of humour and positive, upbeat manner will be greatly missed, however, we’re sure that she won’t miss her long commute! We are in no doubt that she will do a fantastic job in her exciting new role and wish her all the very best for the future.

E Hume-Smith

AMELIA MERRILL

Amelia took over from Tessa Williams who retired after 18 years in the Languages department. The fact that she stepped into Tessa’s role so smoothly and successfully is a tribute to her expertise, hard work, warmth, imagination and discretion.

‘MFL administrator’ doesn’t do justice to Amelia’s role in the department. How do you describe the multiplicity of tasks she handled on a daily basis under one abstract title? How do you do justice to someone who was excellent at her job, but also became a great friend and colleague? Amelia prepared and put up displays, produced letters, typed and checked class lists, invoices for trips abroad and handled publishers, tour companies, restaurants, cinemas and many more besides!

The most valuable members of a team develop their set roles. Amelia was a natural at this. She fitted smoothly and efficiently into a very busy department, lightening our administrative load, and making it easier to deliver our central role as teachers. And on top of this, she ran a Chinese language class once a week in her lunchbreak at the Senior and Junior schools.

Above all, Amelia is a warm, cheerful and lovely colleague who contributed greatly to the vibrant but friendly atmosphere of the MFL Department. We all remember her warm smile, her readiness to share a joke, to have a laugh and her friendliness.

Au revoir! Auf Wiedersehen! ¡Hasta Luego! 再见

A Vass

STEVE LOMON

Steve Lomon joined KES in 2019 to lead the History and Politics Department and, like any sensible Head of Department, he wanted to spend his first year understanding the department and evaluating what areas could benefit from change. In normal times he would then have led the department through some change and moved us on to the next phase. However, the last three years have not been normal times! Steve’s calm and confident manner came into its own during this time of teaching remotely. He made necessary curriculum changes, engaging children in their bubbles who often appeared only screen icons.

His relaxed manner, sartorially and professionally, is reassuring to staff and students with only a few of the latter who have mistaken this for a laissez-faire approach, much to their appropriate regret when they have realised his expectation for high standards. Steve has an excellent historian’s brain, as evidenced in the popularity of his Choices Evenings’ presentations and the continued popularity of History at GCSE and A level and of Politics at A level.

It is clear that our loss is very much his new school’s gain and we will be sorry to see Steve go, when exciting trips, debates and political discussions he planned with the department could not be fulfilled due to the events of the last few years. We wish him and his new family every happiness in the next stage of their lives.

T Burroughs

RACHEL BIRD

Having initially specialised as a Languages teacher, Rachel Bird’s interest in Psychology was cemented after completing a Master’s course. She started teaching Psychology at KES in September 2019 where students have benefitted from her energetic approach to lessons and the extra support she offers outside of this.

Rachel’s first two years at KES took her through the pandemic, when the school world turned on its head, so it is safe to say that her experience of KES was out of the ordinary!

Rachel turned her skills to focusing on supporting younger children, she qualified as a ‘Thrive’ counsellor and splits her time around all three school sites. Rachel has made a tremendous contribution to growing the department. Her enthusiasm for the subject has helped inspire students to study Psychology at degree level. She reluctantly leaves us to take up a post nearer her family. We wish her the best of luck!

S Utton

KERRY VAUGHAN

Kerry Vaughan leaves KES after a glittering 20 years’ service at the school having been promoted to become one of the full-time Directors of Music at Dauntsey’s school with a focus on performance. Kerry has been instrumental in establishing KES’s excellent reputation as a place of great string playing. In 2006 she co-founded and lead Year 3 whole-class string playing which has laid the foundations of a legacy that has carried on into the Senior School ensembles. Kerry has been a huge supporter of all our concerts, masterclasses, productions, examinations and workshops producing countless numbers of well-prepared, outstanding players who have gone on to display their vibrant playing and leadership in our top ensembles, such as Senior Orchestra, the Baroque Group and KES Contemporary. A hugely talented performer herself, she is a leading player in Bath Philharmonia, and thus often inspires our young violinists playing Side-by-Side with them in our wonderful Gala Concert performances with Bath Phil. We will deeply miss her professionalism, encyclopaedic Music industry advice, enthusiasm, dynamism and above all, good humour. We know she will prove an inspirational leader in her new role.

R Drury

STEPHANIE SPRAGG

Stephanie arrived in KES in 2006 as our first Specialist Music Staff singing teacher. Starting with only a small handful of pupils, Steph’s inspirational, gentle and caring manner in a wide variety of vocal styles made learning singing extremely popular and supply quickly outstripped demand! Joined by two additional singing teachers, she has remained a key lynchpin in the vocal team. She is also a talented and qualified Academic Music teacher and has helped us out with a course of Year 9 Music lessons. Steph is an administrative inspiration to others in the Music team, going the extra-mile to support her pupils’ performances in exams and concerts, personally making sure all her charges have

the correct copies of the exam pieces, and additional paperwork fully prepared. She played a key role in maintaining the department’s extra-curricular performing during the pandemic through Year 7 singing sessions to enliven our young singers and create virtual performances. Steph is moving on to new challenges focused in her home city of Bristol and we know she will continue to be an inspiration to many young musicians.

R Drury

JESSICA GRIFFIN

Jessica Griffin has set the bar high as a superb pathfinder in our new position of KES Music Intern. The title does not do justice to this fabulous Master’s Degree in Performance qualified flautist and instrumental teacher! Jess’s lively enthusiasm and commitment has helped all – especially our younger pupils – engage in the re-ignition of our extra-curricular Music programme. She has ably led and conducted our intermediate-orchestra, INTER-KES; sung in our choirs; inspirationally supported the flute sections in Senior Orchestra and KES Wind; been an invaluable one-to-one teaching support; shadowed the Academic Music staff throughout the year and trialled teaching small elements of our range of courses. She has also enjoyed working alongside Bath Philharmonia in several concerts with famous artists. She is highly organised, and we quickly discovered Jess has hidden talents in graphic design too! Jess is moving on to exciting new opportunities within the huge Music industry with a planned move to the London area, and we send her all our thanks and good luck!

R Drury

IMY LUC

Imy Luc has been at KES for only one year but has made a huge impact on the delivery of piano lessons at King Edward’s. Not only is Imy a superbly professional, caring, supportive and organised member of our Specialist Music Team, she is a super-talented performer which has deeply inspired

our Junior and Senior pupils. She has meticulously prepared many pupils for exams and performances this year and initiated a new, exciting Summer Term performance platform for all our KES taught Junior School pianists. This wonderfully showcased their hard work in a supportive, semi-formal atmosphere and we are planning to replicate this lovely event next year in the Senior School! Imy moves back to the Northwest to be closer to family, and we will very much miss her enthusiasm and outstanding musicianship. We will also miss the sound of her incredibly virtuosic piano pieces sometimes heard drifting across the grounds and know that soon she will also be a star of the north.

R Drury

New Staff

ANNABELLE BAKER

Annabelle Baker joins the Chemistry and Biology departments at KES following 15 years teaching science at St Gregory’s in Bath, where she held a variety of roles including Head of Science, Head of Biology and Ski Trip Co-ordinator. She loves outdoor and winter sports and as a former competitive swimmer, she enjoys training with her masters club. In her spare time, she enjoys visits to the coast with her husband and two young children in their VW campervan.

HEATHER BAKER

Heather Baker joined KES as HR manager in September 2021 and much appreciated the welcome extended to her by colleagues. Her previous HR role was at a secondary school in Chippenham, which is where she lives with her husband. Her two children have now left home, so she now has time to enjoy the company of friends at weekends and partake in hobbies – particularly knitting and other art and craft activities - and looks forward to engaging with more colleagues over the coming months.

CAROLINE CAMERON-DAVIES

Caroline Cameron-Davies joins KES as Exams Officer. Previously, she was a director of her own business, a European courier service, alongside her husband. She joined the Education sector six years ago and her previous role was as the Exams Officer in a state school. She loves to travel, cook and read.

PETER BROCKWELL

Peter Brockwell moved to King Edward’s in March 2022 to become the new Estates and Facilities Manager, having held the same position at The Downs Preparatory School in Wraxall for the last 8 years. When he is not working on his garden, you will find him at his local tennis club.

DR CHRIS ENOS

Dr Chris Enos originates from South Wales where he studied Chemistry at Swansea University. After completing a PhD, he moved to the South-West to teach where he has worked for the last 30 years in a number of independent schools. Working part-time has given him the opportunity of indulging his passion for working with wood and walking.

CHLOE CORRIE

After studying Natural Sciences at the University of Bath nearly 20 years ago, Chloe Corrie is happy to be back in Bath, this time in the Chemistry department at KES. She completed a PGCE at Oxford University before teaching abroad in Auckland. She returned to teach at two outstanding state schools in Hertfordshire where she worked as Head of House, Head of Chemistry and Deputy Head of Science. Having once been a competitive swimmer, Chloe loves to spend time with her family somewhere in water: on a paddle board, on the beach, or outdoor swimming.

HEATHER BARNES

Heather Barnes joined KES in August 2021 as PA to the Bursar and Second Master. She also coaches a KES boys’ hockey team. Previously, she worked in PA and admin roles in other independent schools and has also worked in the fitness and leisure industry and feels lucky to be able to combine the two at KES. When not in work, you can often find Heather doing sport, gardening, or off on an adventure.

TOM DAVIES

Tom Davies joined the School as Bursar & Chief Operating Officer in the Autumn. Tom read Ancient & Modern History at Trinity College, Oxford and is a Chartered Accountant who trained at Deloitte. He worked in professional practice for over a decade before taking his first Bursar role at another local school. Tom specialised in advising and auditing schools, universities and other not-for-profit organisations, including a few of the UK’s largest charities. Tom lives in Bath with his wife and his young children.

HANNAH DAWES

Hannah Dawes joins the Religious Studies department having previously been Head of Learning for Life at Oundle School. She read Theology at Durham after doing a two-year diploma in Biblical Studies in both Peru and Italy. Alongside teaching, Hannah has an educational web series called The Exchange, where she interviews experts and influencers on so-called taboo topics. Her recent series was on The Science of Drugs. In her spare time, she sings in a band, hosts a weekly supper club, and plays some very bad football.

ALEX DE CHAIR

Alex de Chair joined KES in May 2022 as PA to the Headmaster. After 20+ years as a PA in London and the Isle of Man, Alex moved to Wiltshire in 2014 with her two children and spent the next few years working as a PA/ Office Manager for a team of life coaches. She joins from Malmesbury School, where she supported the emotional needs of all the students alongside her TA duties. When she has spare time, she likes to read, play tennis, attend festivals and has recently started wild swimming.

TRISTRAM HAGER

Tristram Hager joined the English Department at KES in September 2021 having previously taught English, and been a Head of Department, at Charterhouse and St Paul’s School. He has also coached rugby and athletics and been an assistant Housemaster. He and his wife have relocated to Bath with their two young children and their dog. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, theatregoing, walking, running and skiing.

JO HOLT

After graduating, Jo Holt worked in London media, including ITV London. Two years of overseas travel and work heralded a change of direction and a return to the UK to complete her PGCE. Since qualifying, she has worked in state and independent schools, with a brief return to academia to complete her English Lit Masters at Bristol University. She now find herself settled at KES, teaching English. Her spare time is spent enjoying anything that gets her outdoors: running, hiking, swimming and tennis.

ALAN HUTCHINGS

After training as an Aeronautical Engineer with Westland Helicopters, specialising in R&D into Life Support Systems, Alan Hutchings completed his BEd at Exeter University. He worked as an Audio Electronics Engineer before becoming a teacher, eventually joining Rugby School in 2003. He served as Head of DT in Oxfordshire, and a Boarding Housemaster in Kent. Alan moved to Bath in 2017 to teach and became involved with KES CCF. His interests include military history, aircraft, air displays and tinkering in his workshop.

ESTHER GIL OJEDA

Esther Gil was born in Valladolid and went to university in Salamanca, one of the oldest universities in Europe, and has also studied in Ireland and Barcelona. Ten years ago, she moved ago to England to pursue her dream of teaching Spanish in a foreign country. She taught in Hertfordshire before teaching Spanish and French in Bath. Her great passion is languages she also speaks Italian, some Greek and Catalan. Recently, she has started learning Japanese, and runs the KES Japanese Club.

NATALIE ORGAN

Natalie Organ joined KES as a Spanish and French teacher who completed her PGCE at the University of Bristol. She grew up in Bristol and studied Spanish and Italian at the University of Cardiff. She has worked as an English teacher in several countries, including Italy and Mexico. In her free time, Natalie enjoys being in the outdoors, travelling and socialising with friends.

MARIA MOON PARK

Maria Moon Park joined KES as the new MFL Administrator in October 2021. As a Korean/Spaniard, she speaks three languages and therefore hopes to inspire many students of the importance of learning languages. Before joining KES, she worked in HR and before that at St Peter’s Hospice for eight years as an Events Fundraiser.

CLAIRE TURNER

Claire Turner joined KES in July 2021 after leaving her previous role in Army Recruitment. She has many years’ experience in School Nursing, both in state schools and in the Community. She completed a Nursing Degree in 2003 and qualified in 2016 as a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse with a Post Graduate Diploma. She enjoys travelling, reading and spending time with family and her 3 grandchildren. Her hope is to travel to Kenya in the next couple of years to see the work that Moving Mountains do.

SARAH WALKER

With a father who served for 26 years with the Royal Marines Band Service, Sarah Walker has had a life-long love of music and has joined King Edward’s from ABRSM. Before that, she was the Music Coordinator at Moorlands School. Arriving at Music Education later in her career, Sarah previously worked in International Publishing, where she travelled extensively. Sarah is a big sports fan and a keen amateur musician who enjoys playing her Saxophone with the local Orchestra of Everything.

SARAH WRIGHT

Sarah Wright joined KES Mathematics department in 2022, initially covering a colleague’s maternity leave. After studying at the University of Birmingham, she taught in the state sector before taking on a Head of Mathematics role in an international school in Malaysia. Sarah subsequently taught in Hong Kong for three years before returning to the UK in 2019, living first in Bristol and then Bath. In her spare time, Sarah most enjoys spending time with her young family in the great outdoors.

In Memoriam: Ayesha Rashid

Ayesha Rashid joined King Edward’s in 2002 and was a wonderfully dynamic, positive and engaging pillar of the Admissions team during her two decades of unstintingly loyal service. As Registrar, she worked closely with colleagues from all sections of the School to help ensure that KES was as full as appropriate with pupils who would thrive. That part of her legacy is a school in 2022 with the highest number of pupils in its history and with waiting lists in most year groups is testament to her success.

Behind each application, admissions process, successful offer and pupil finding their way to KES lies a multi-layered administrative operation and very human tale of care and consideration, diligence and engagement, compassion and, in many cases, hot chocolate and biscuits! The number of children whose journey through King Edward’s has been aided, supported and championed by Ayesha over the last twenty years undoubtedly runs into the many thousands, inspiring the many parents who came to her as a first point of contact for a wide range of school-related matters years after their child had arrived at KES.

Ayesha always approached each application to King Edward’s with a

huge amount of empathy, reflecting in part her own experience as a very proud parent of two boys who immersed themselves fully and very successfully in the KES experience and who are now thriving Old Edwardians and just as delightful as ever. Every aspect of that complex admissions journey was undertaken with commitment and a reassuring human touch that was an enormous help to nervous pupils and parents alike: responding to applications, organising visits and tours, helping to co-ordinate Open Days and Evenings, Activity Morning, Teach-in, interviews and the entrance exam, processing offer letters, phoning parents to offer help and advice, welcoming children and parents to the School at different stages of that journey and much, much more.

Colleagues remember Ayesha with tremendous affection, recalling so many of the qualities that made her not just a very proud and successful Registrar, but also a great friend to so many: her warmth, kindness, generosity of spirit, calmness under pressure, loyalty, determination, single-mindedness, utter professionalism and commitment to doing the very best job that she could to an optimum standard. She is also very fondly remembered for

her delightful sense of humour and fun, her ability to chat at length with prospective pupils and parents about almost any topic, and her remarkable capacity to recall the provenance of her many varied and colourful outfits that combined seamlessly with Ayesha’s gregarious personality to help her to light up any room.

Ayesha never stopped thinking of others, and even in the very difficult final months in which she so courageously fought the cancer that ultimately claimed her life far, far too soon, her first response when seeing and chatting to friends and colleagues was still, selflessly, to ask about them and their families, just as she always had done. Family mattered enormously and above all else to Ayesha – both her own and that of King Edward’s School. As Headmaster, I could not have asked for a kinder, more supportive or more loyal colleague than Ayesha; like so many others, I will miss her enormously, but also remember her with great affection, appreciation and gratitude.

M Boden