Sherborne News Michaelmas 2016

Michaelmas 2016 ISSUE 23

Sherborne News Comment the most important aspect of being Head of School has been to help the new boys settle in

www.sherborne.org

Coming to the end of my first term as Head of School, I would like to start by expressing what a privilege it has been so far. I have immensely valued the opportunity to represent the boys on behalf of the School that has done so much for me, and for many others, across all aspects of life here.

Before I was interviewed, I did not have much of an idea of what being Head of School actually entailed.

There is no job description for it, and I heard from previous boys in this position that each boy approaches the role differently. I was told that, should I be selected, it would be because I would have a unique way of leading the School which would be appropriate for the coming year.

At first, this was slightly unnerving, but soon I realised that this was the best advice that I had been given; after I was appointed and started the role, my approach became quite self-evident.

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I would say that the most important aspect of being Head of School has been to help the new boys settle in, and make sure that the year started for them, and for the rest of the boys, as it should continue. I have tried to do this by maintaining a smile and being an approachable figure, so that they know that I would be willing to help if they encounter any problems.

Arguably my favourite part of the role so far has been working with the prefect team to ensure that all of the new boys were welcomed warmly and comfortably settled in through our openness and willingness to spend time with them.

I am hoping that this role will benefit me in later life, through giving me the experience of leading a team of prefects and teaching me the importance of being a good role model for younger boys, as well as being an ambassador for the School. It has reinforced my understanding of priorities within a school environment, in that the welfare of the boys comes first as, without this, they wouldn’t make the most of a school that has so much to offer.

ALLY COLLINS (U6f) HEAD BOY

Latest A level results reflect exceptional added value If you are hoping that your son, in addition to gaining a superb all-round education, will achieve great academic grades, read on …

As many of you will know, this year’s A level results were excellent, with over 52% of papers being graded A* or A. What may be less apparent is the extent to which these results reflect exceptional added value. Many schools use the ALIS value-added system to measure the academic progress that pupils make during their two years in the Sixth Form and the data confirm that Sherborne measures up incredibly well against other independent schools. For 2016, the ALIS value added scores show that, on average, our boys achieved almost

This success bears witness to the extraordinary endeavour of the boys, as well as the hard work and support of their teachers and the many others who support them. They all deserve our warmest congratulations.

Sixth Form Chemistry Symposium More than 100 Sixth Form Chemistry students from Sherborne, Sherborne Girls, Leweston and Clayesmore came together for the first of this year’s Chemistry Symposia.

Six presentations were delivered by students from the different schools on an area of Chemistry they were interested in. Freddie Corrie-Deane (U6b) talked about the Chemistry of Respiration, whilst Tom Crinks (U6b) and Conrad Cowan (U6m) explained how anti-inflammatory drugs work in the body.

Congratulations to Head of School Elect Augustus Johnson (U6d)

half a grade higher in each of their A Level subjects than they would have expected had they attended the ‘average’ independent school.

Indeed, the 2016 results place Sherborne well within the top 10% of independent schools for A level value added.

PRESTIGIOUS ENGINEERING SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED Congratulations to Alistair Johnson (L6e) who has been awarded the Arkwright Scholarship, which aims to identify and inspire future leaders in Engineering.

EPQ Presentation Evening Over the course of the past four terms, fifteen boys have worked on their Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) – an independent project worth half an A level, completed entirely outside of lessons. Although each pupil has been guided by a supervisor, the projects are of the boys’ choosing. One asked if Homer’s writings are good evidence of the realities of society in Ancient Greece; another researched Stalin’s expansionism.

Culminating in a 5,000 word extended piece, each EPQ comprises well over 100hrs of work and introduces boys to many of the skills desired by universities; indeed, three of the boys completing their EPQs have received lower university offers for completing their EPQs. Part of the EPQ is a presentation of the project. Joining forces with Sherborne Girls, 45 pupils in the Upper Sixth presented their EPQs to a packed audience on 16 November.

Mathematicians take Gold

DR TIM FILTNESS - DEPUTY HEAD (ACADEMIC) Congratulations to all our boys who took part in the UK’s biggest national maths competition. We are proud to share the news that Will Shardlow (U6m), Hiroki Ogawa (U6e), Jaroslavs Maksimovs (U6e), Peter Angkasith (U6e), Jack Leigh (U6g), Henry Dennis (U6g), Toby Smith (U6c), Nicholas Burt (L6f) and Felix Storer (L6g) all won a Gold Certificate.

Twenty-one Sherborne boys received Silver and ten received Bronze. We are very proud of our boys’ achievements this year.

CONGRATULATIONS TO LYON HOUSE winners of the InterHouse Literary Quiz and Senior Inter-House Debating competition.

SIEW-CHIANG LIM HEAD OF MATHEMATICS

Geologists win national competition To celebrate Earth Science Week 2016 there was a national competition for UK schools. Students produced a three-minute video in which they showed geological fieldwork in action.Congratulations to Jacob Ollis (U6e), Ben Heber (U6f), Harrison Arnold (U6g) and Fin Purchase (U6b) who won the GCSE entry with their video ‘Quarr Project’. GoPro cameras for the winning School make it even more rewarding. To see their winning entry Quarr Project visit our website.

MARK OLLIS MASTER OF GEOGRAPHY

European Day of Languages The Modern Languages Department celebrated the European Day of Languages with a morning of language lessons for the Third Form. The languages taught ranged from Dutch to Swahili, along with Upper Sixth Form language students joining in with the teaching. There was also a treasure hunt around the school with clues written in French, Spanish and German. The international outlook even extended as far as the dining hall, where various foreign dishes were on offer.

THOMAS BROOKE (U6d)

Particular mention must go to Will Shardlow, who came top in school, and who has been invited to take part in the British Mathematical Olympiad, which means that he is one of the top scorers in the country.

William Shardlow (U6m)

Inspired by Design It's incredible to see what students have accomplished this term. I have worked with the boys in their Art classes, taught my own Filmmaking Enrichment class (which just shot their first film last week) and am leading a group of motivated students to build their own Super 8 Camera. Meanwhile students have been enjoying our weekend film screenings at the Powell Theatre. I look forward to continuing this artistic journey with them all.

Art

Design & Technology students took part in a day of design lectures and activities at the University of Central London. The boys heard about the multiple elements that contribute to successful design and were able to draw direct parallels between their own creative journeys with their A level work and the 'real world' projects that were presented.

CARSON EINARSEN US FOUNDATION FELLOW

Term started with Creative Collaboration for all Lower Sixth Art and Design Technology students. Boys worked together to explore visual connections and ultimately construct work in response to the theme of migration and displacement.

The Private View, in the Oliver Holt Gallery, for the first Sherborne Sessions Art Exhibition, was extremely popular.

Work was produced by pupils in response to the British contemporary artist Tom Phillip’s A Humument. Work ranged from hand-stitched textiles to carefully crafted ‘found poems’. The printmaking workshop for parents,

held in early October, was a success and we look forward to running it again. Third Form boys had the opportunity to get involved in the first Big Draw here at Sherborne which is held nationally every October to promote drawing in all its forms.

EMMA DRAKE TEACHER OF ART

By the end of the day we came away with a strong sense of the multitude of directions that creative careers can follow and an indication of the passion that designers have to pursue and drive ideas forward to help influence the world we live in.

PETER CHILLINGWORTH HEAD OF DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

Travel Photography Competition

This year’s winner is Jack James’s (5d) photo from Cape Town in South Africa. It is a combination of 100 images in which the lines on the mountain are made by hikers’ head torches and the trails in the sky are moving stars.

The Sherborne Sessions all about good writing Between the 11th and the 15th of October the School hosted 26 writers and hundreds of students from every secondary school in Sherborne for ‘The Sherborne Sessions’. Robert McCrum (OS, Associate Editor at The Observer) launched the festival at a dinner in the OSR. His warm support of the festival centred on his desire to honour good writing. Prior to the dinner, The Oliver Holt Gallery hosted a thoughtprovoking exhibition of work by pupils matching text and image. Later we played ‘Just a Minute’ with contestants from here and Sherborne Girls. The event was brilliantly hosted by James Crawford (Head of Theology and radio producer) and we hope it will become a regular fixture.

The festival welcomed writers as varied as Evie Wyld, Christopher Reid, Rory Maclean, Viv Groskop and Sam Swallow of The Hoosiers. Speakers explored how to write travel pieces, plays, documentaries, novels, film scripts, jokes, translations, slam poetry, journalism, radio scripts, history, advertising copy, biographies, film reviews and lyrics. In addition, writers offered workshops. These led pupils to write poetry with Seamus Heaney’s and Ted Hughes’ editor, film reviews with Radio 1’s film critic, and to perform their own song with a bona fide popstar.

The festival, launched in 2012, has benefited from the kind sponsorship of The Charles Skey Charitable Trust, Justin Douglas, Flotilla Media and Rodney Short. The Sessions show that writing is not only a way of making a living, but is also a central component to making a life.

REBECCA DE PELET HEAD OF ENGLISH

SUPPORTED BY THE SHERBORNE FOUNDATION

Politics trip to Washington DC

Duke of Edinburgh Silver Canoe Qualifier – a three day trip from Wye Valley to Ross on Wye covering an impressive 81km.

SARAH OLLIS

CCF - Pringle Trophy

A group of 31 boys and girls studying A level Government and Politics visited Washington DC, at the end of a tense and controversial Presidential election campaign. Among many inspiring sights and sounds, we were treated to a tour of the US Capitol, the Supreme Court and the National Archives, home to America’s founding documents. The thought-provoking highlight of the trip was the visit to the British Embassy, where we were fortunate to be able to pose questions to the UK Defence Attaché, Major General Richard Cripwell, Lucy Hughes, head of the Asia Desk and OS Anthony Quainton, former Head of the US Diplomatic Service.

MICHAEL MCGINTY MASTER OF POLITICS

A team of Sixth Form Royal Marine cadets competed against 16 other schools in the annual Royal Marines Pringle Trophy. They took part in a range of military and fieldcraft skills, spending a night under ‘bivvies’ and 24 hours on military rations.

The Sherborne team performed admirably in a wide range of situations, most notably in camouflage & concealment, observation, practical leadership, and first aid & casualty evacuation; performances that will put both pride and fear into teachers and parents.

The Sherborne team completed their tasks with the core values and commando spirit in abundance.

ADAM DUNCAN - OiC ROYAL MARINES DETACHMENT

Exploring Berlin Sherborne boys kept bumping into new angles on the city of Berlin during our two day whistle-stop route march around the city.

The boys were interested, exhausted from the 26 miles walked, and they were challenged, but they responded excellently. Many were amazed that Berlin was so empty for a major European capital, wartime bombing having the unintended consequence of creating much green space in the middle of the city, but they were impressed at the opportunities this has provided. Why do we keep going back to Berlin? It is an ever changing city and this year with the Alternative for Germany party on the rise against immigrants, a look at its past is certainly necessary.

GILES REYNOLDS - HEAD OF HISTORY

Remembrance Day

Sherborne School fell silent as we remembered all those who had died in both World Wars and wars since. Each boy planted a cross to commemorate Old Shirburnians who had died in the First and Second World Wars.

Remembrance Sunday Parade Sherborne CCF again played their part in Sherborne’s Remembrance Sunday Parade. Cadet RSM Gus Johnson (U6d) had the privilege of being the Standard Bearer leading the Parade down Cheap Street to the Abbey. The head of the RN section, Jonathan Natterer (U6f), laid the wreath at the War Memorial. The boys listened carefully to a thought-provoking sermon from the Padre of 40 Cdo RM.

Music It has been as musically busy this term as any other previously, with lunchtime recitals in Cheap Street Church every Friday, a Woodwind Festival, a Brass Festival, a DJ Workshop, an Unplugged and a RocSoc, two house concerts, an Oscar Peterson Tribute Evening, two professional Tindall Recitals and prolific choral music in the Abbey.

The quality of music-making in the weekly recitals has been outstanding. Further visible in house concerts by Lyon and The Digby, where variety was key, there is currently a wealth of musicians in the upper echelons of ABRSM grades – with many more exams having been taken this term – who, with the faultless accompanying and rehearsal support of Head of Keyboard Benjamin Davey, give breathtaking performances on a weekly basis.

Chamber music has been a highlight. Two trios reached particularly strong musical heights – Ally Collins (U6f) (piano), Finnbar Blakey (U6a) (cello), Matthew Cann (U6e) (violin) gave a performance of Shostakovitch Piano Trio No.2, which will be taken forward to the National Pro Corda Chamber Music Competition next term, and likewise Sam MacDonald (L6c) (piano), Charlie Smith ATCL (L6g) (flute) and James Pyman (L6e) (cello) in Martinu’s Piano Trio. A Wind Quintet of Fourth Formers – Cassian Blackburn-Enever (4e) (flute), George Jefferson (4e) (oboe), George Lewis (4d) (clarinet), Benedict Mercer (4b) (french horn) and Nathanael Fagerson (4c) (bassoon) – performed Hallam’s complicated Charleston which will also compete nationally.

The Choir, with ever-swelling membership, has been singing twice weekly in the Abbey as has been the choral tradition at Sherborne since the 1960s. The ideal mixture of Music Scholars and enthusiasts enables sight-reading and repertoire development second to none: it was not solely in the Advent Carol Service and end-of-term Carol Service that this most mighty of vocal ensembles filled the Abbey with the polyphony of Palestrina, Byrd and Vittoria, and the Victorian and Edwardian pomp of Parry, Stanford and Wood. The whole school singing, too – the final hymn of the Advent Carol Service, Lo, he comes with clouds descending, had almost to be heard to be believed for its thunderous appeal – has been on best form with the school showing great pride in their singing far beyond the usual favourites such as Jerusalem.

Jazz, which has been enjoying something of a renaissance in recent years, has been as evident in solo performances as in those by the Swing and Jazz Bands. As Jamie Hewitt (U6a) colours the music with that most luxurious of jazz percussion, the vibraphone, so too have the exceptional improvising qualities of Sam MacDonald, Peter Folkes (L6a) and Freddie Graham (5c) on their saxophones, given the music a sparkle.

The improvising and singer-songwriter abilities stretch further to the Unplugged where Freddie Knott (U6m), known for his superb cello playing, featured as an artistic and talented vocalist with Tom Sherratt (U6d), of the french horn, on guitar.

JAMES HENDERSON DIRECTOR OF MUSIC

Two major concerts for your diary next term: On 9th February the massed Choral Society forces of Sherborne, Sherborne Girls, and the local community, perform Berlioz Te Deum and Elgar Coronation Ode in Poole Arts Centre (the Lighthouse), and the Joint Schools’ Symphony Orchestra performs Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Sibelius and Beethoven, in Oxford Town Hall on Sunday 26th March at 2.30pm.

Our Country’s Good JOINT SCHOOLS PLAY At a time when theatres are losing their subsidies, and Dorset libraries are going to the wall, it’s vital to remember the restorative, even redemptive power that language and the arts can have. Even the lunks who terrified the deported convicts realised that. At least, they do in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play Our Country’s Good, in which redcoats can be brutal, civilising or something in between.

This makes it a wonderful ensemble piece, and the Joint Schools Play took every opportunity to show these characteristics through smartly-drawn characters. With the good angels were Alex Warren (U6g) as the far-sighted captain and Harry Gibbs (L6m) as a second lieutenant, impatient for promotion but patient with a cast of thieves. Patrick Reynolds (L6c) was the menacing alternative – a ghoulish and sarcastic Scot with no time for art therapy. In between was the utterly compelling Ben Dickins (U6c), possessed by the ghost of a man he’d had hanged.

Their victims were realised with full pathos, with Milo Clesham (5f) as an autodidact who’d mastered the one half of a dictionary he’d read, and women with no escape from the roles life handed them, until given roles in a comedy by George Farquhar.

The audience left Ian Reade’s production elated by the performances, if more aware of how such an act still needs protecting.

TOM PAYNE

HARPER HOUSE PLAY Your Decision the devised Harper House play was inspired by a real life experience when Director Sam Hambro (U6d) and his friends found an elderly lady collapsed in the street and helped her by calling for an ambulance. Deciding to put aside two previous ideas and start again the boys only had three short weeks to adapt the story and perfect it. Working tirelessly the boys miraculously put together what is surely one of the greatest Harper House play performances to be seen on stage for a while.

THE GREEN HOUSE PLAY

this year was the contemporary play, Bull, by Mike Bartlett. This was a smaller affair than most House plays, with high quality acting and an intense script. The play is about a workplace and a fight for survival between three employees, one of whom knows they will get the sack. It was a highly moving and effective piece of drama with realistic characters that moved around the stage like professionals.

GUYS AND DOLLS - JOINT SCHOOLS MUSICAL This year’s Joint Schools Musical with Sherborne Girls was the fabulous rendition of the hit romantic comedy, Guys and Dolls. The musical featured outstanding all-round performances in singing, acting and dancing from the whole cast.

Sport It has been another busy Michaelmas Term for the boys at Sherborne. The weather has been kind to us and the fields look as good as they did in September. On the rugby front there have been numerous highlights and we have high hopes that the Junior Colts will continue to progress in the NatWest Cup. Several teams have enjoyed 'winning seasons' but more importantly, home and away, our

teams have played an expansive game with passion and commitment, but also with an appreciation of the values and standards we hold dear.

beyond. We will always support those keen to commit to a different sport in each term, and the principle of offering choice is here to stay.

In other sports, our senior footballers have, for the first time, enjoyed a full pre-season fixture programme, as more boys make the decision to specialise in the sport they are most likely to pursue at university and

I wish luck to those travelling to Barbados on the joint Cricket/Hockey tour and look forward to hearing of their experiences in the Caribbean.

DAVID GUY DIRECTOR OF SPORT

Sherborne has enjoyed success in a range of other sports

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Ben Liebenberg (L6a) won at the Wincanton Grade 5 tennis tournament.

STOP PRESS

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A new Dinghy team won three of its eight matches at the British Schools championships.

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Sherborne U14 retained County Cup – Congratulations to

Congratulations to George Case (4m) who competed in the British National Tetrathlon Championships to take the Gold medal.

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Mini Colts A on winning the Dorset County Cup Final.

LOOKING FORWARD...

Term Dates • Travelling day: Wednesday 4th January 2017 return by 7.30pm • First Exeat: Friday 20th - Sunday 22nd January • Half Term: Friday 10th- Sunday 19th February • Second Exeat: Friday 10th- Sunday 12th March • End of Term: Wednesday 29th March Parent/Teacher Meetings • Fifth Form: Parent/Teacher Meeting - Friday 20th January • Lower Sixth: Parent/Teacher Meeting - Friday 10th March For more information please go to www.sherborne.org/news-calendar/school-calendar

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Congratulations to Benedict Mercer (4b) who made history by becoming the first boy from Sherborne to win the Colts title in the South West Schools Regional Fives Tournament.

SHERBORNE SCHOOL ABBEY ROAD SHERBORNE DORSET DT9 3AP T: 01935 812249 E: enquiries@sherborne.org www.sherborne.org Registered Charity No. 1081228

Photographs: David Ridgway, Josie Richards, Martin Crabtree, Jack James (5d) and others.

In our first ever Clay Pigeon match (at Marlborough), our team finished fifth out of 20 teams; at The Millfield School Challenge Cameron Cooper (4d) was the best individual shot.