The Leopard 2018

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Welcome to The Leopard 2017-18 THE LEOPARD: JOURNAL OF THE SKINNERS’ SCHOOL TUNBRIDGE WELLS

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elcome to ‘The Leopard’ 2018! It has been my absolute pleasure to edit a magazine that is not only a chronicle of Skinners’ life over the past academic year, but also a tradition that Leopard editors Jay Smalley and dates back almost as Jacob Turner far as the school itself.

Whilst the 1901 edition, the oldest in the school library, differs hugely from the current version, the premise is very much the same: ‘The Leopard’ still seeks to record and celebrate Skinners’ at its best, whether that be once-in-a-lifetime trips across the globe or the ins and outs of normal school life.

On behalf of the whole editorial committee, I extend my thanks to all the members of staff and students who have contributed to this year’s publication. Special thanks go to Mr Wesson, Mrs Pittman and Mr Ubly: without their input and organisation it would have been impossible to put this together. Enjoy!

Contents • Skinners’ Life..................2 • Skinners’ Appeal..........12 • Music............................14 • Art & Design.................16 • Drama...........................19 • Library...........................22 • Writing..........................25 • STEM............................31 • Trips..............................32 • Adventure ....................42 • Sport.............................52 • Parents’ Association....88 • New Teachers...............89 • Farewell........................91 • Head Boy’s speech.......94

Jacob Turner, Editor PRODUCTION & DESIGN Jo McCarthy / Alison Harvey PRINTED BY: wfmprint.co.uk Cover images courtesy of Stanley Baker Studios Ltd, School Photographers Paper from sustainable sources

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SKINNERS’ LIFE

The Skinners’ Chess team…

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This academic year has been particularly good for the Skinners’ Chess team.

The overall level of play have benefited enormously from the coaching sessions provided by John Emms (an International Master) and by our very own chess players who took every opportunity to improve their skill.

Particular achievements this year include our miraculous qualification for the national final when Skinners’ came second at Eton: a combination of a couple of crucial wins and lucky matchups was enough to secure the second spot.

From here, the Skinners’ Chess team were able to perform in the U19 ECF National Chess final.

This prestigious competition dates back to 1957-58 and is therefore in its sixty-first year.

During the first day, we only managed to scrape one win against St Olave’s, losing overall 5-1. Following our matchup with Brighton College, our future did not look good after losing 6-0. However the next day our determination was enough to get 3-3 against Wirral, where we won on board count. Our final match against Queen Elizabeth Hospital School did not prove so successful as we lost 1½ – 4½. But our earlier victory was

enough to put Skinners’ 12th in the country overall. What makes this achievement so promising is the young age of our players, as the majority are in Years 7-9, meaning that we can only expect greater things in the coming years as our best players gain more and more experience.

Overall, the future looks bright for the Skinners’ Chess team.

THE SQUAD:  Ben Barton  Giovanni Currah  Oleg Lyakh  Luke Peters  Lorcan Pritchard  Freddie Reid  Efe Shimwell

Oleg Lyakh

THE PROBLEM SOLVING CHALLENGE Ben, Luke, Giovanni and Lorcan also took part in the finals for the Team Problem Solving Challenge held at Imperial College, London.

This is the only event of its type in the world where teams discuss the solutions and solve the positions by careful and thorough analysis. Seven teams qualified for the national final and the standard of competition was very high. The team did very well to finish fifth overall.

Jacqui Charvat The squad at the National U19 Finals

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SKINNERS’ LIFE

Christmas Lunch Christmas lunch was enjoyed by virtually the whole school.

Many thanks to our wonderful caterers.

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HEAL HEAL Week was held during our first full week back in January and was designed to shake off the cobwebs and sluggishness that is often associated with the first week back after Christmas.

An Inter-House Cook-Off, where each House came up with their own unique, healthy breakfast smoothie was held on the Tuesday. Judged by Mr Bee and Mr Lawson, the hard-fought contest was won by Nicholson.

Much anticipation awaited the arrival of the bungee run, with numerous boys flocking to the School Hall in an attempt to cover as much distance down the runway as possible, or to just have a fun, novel lunch time with their friends.

The House Fitness Challenge completed the week, with many boys pitting their wits in a variety of competitions in the gym, including planking, dead hangs and two minutes of press-ups, squats and rowing. Sam Martin-Young and Toby Edwards, representing Atwell and Nicholson respectively, were victorious in the Year 7 competition, Dan Record reigned supreme in the Year 8 contest for Knott, Year 9 was won by Dan Fidler for Atwell, and Will Humphries took the Senior Challenge for Knott.

It was great to see so many people taking part and getting into the spirit of HEAL Week. Congratulations to all those who were involved.

It is also good to see the Skinners’ garden reinvigorated, its quest being to provide some of the vegetables served in the Dining Hall.

Many thanks to Mrs Bridge and Mrs Thain and their band of loyal helpers for their devoted work.

Tom Lawson

The Gardening Club The Gardening Club, assisted

by Mrs Bridge and Mrs Thain, have made excellent progress clearing the redundant raised planting beds at the back of the school site. This has been a huge amount of work and they have worked tirelessly to reclaim the area.

River Mead nursery in Vines Cross kindly donated seed potatoes, onion sets and garlic,

which the boys have planted in hopes of a bumper crop later in the year. The club has also joined the Canterbury Christ Church University Life Sciences Strawberry Network (a field research programme), and are assisting in monitoring air quality and pollution across the south east by planting strawberries and geraniums which absorb pollutants in the air. Staff,

students and their families also put in a hot Saturday morning’s digging to clear the second border ready for planting with insectand wildlife-attracting plants, and this help was hugely appreciated by the Go Wild Club – thank you! The next step is a small water garden and a living willow fence. The club is always open to volunteers to help.

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SKINNERS’ LIFE

Lower School Prize Giving Scenes from Lower School Prize Giving which brought the school year to an appropriate end.

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In addition to the awarding of the prizes, speeches from the Headmaster and Mr Johnny Aisher, Chairman of Governors, reports were given by Oliver Fitzgerald (Year 7), George Thomas (Year 8) and Tom Dunnett (Year 9).

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The Mock Trial This year a group of eager Year 9s decided that they would like to take part in the mock trial. The mock trial is a competition for secondary schools nationwide, where a magistrate’s court case is compiled and distributed to the participants. These schools then create a case, with lawyers, magistrates, witnesses, ushers, and even court artists.

Around 15 of us got together in December. Our first few sessions were what I’d describe as interesting. They involved a couple of team building exercises, one of which included crawling around on a classroom floor pretending to be animals, and also some projection and diction sessions. Then, after Christmas, we were given the case, which involved possession of a knife, and started to form a plan for how we would run it. We were given our roles and then work began in earnest. Witnesses practised looking innocent, when patently guilty, lawyers practised the savage art of cross examination and magistrates practised looking old and wise. Everyone in the team had their own job. The lawyers had to look at the witness statements provided. They had to outline the key points to pick on to prove or disprove the defendant’s innocence. The legal adviser had to produce a speech informing the magistrates on the fine technicalities of the law and the witnesses had to learn their witness statements and be able to regurgitate the facts in a way that seemed real.

Several months later, including one trip to a live magistrates court and many last minute, mildly stressful rehearsals, the

competition took place at Medway magistrates’ court. We all stood outside the brown, imposing building, buzzing with nervous energy, all in full costume.

Pinstriped waistcoats, suit jackets and hideously boring ties were in abundance and all the participants were breathing in the chill March air and spying out the competition.

Then we were in and waiting to go to our designated court room.

BOMB PROOF As it happens this court was built for IRA members in the 80s and because of this was designed to be, supposedly, bomb proof.

As a result the court rooms felt subterranean. A few tense hours later, involving sweating witnesses, smug barristers and a gripped crowd (the galleries were packed), we all stood in the main hall of the court, awaiting the results. The winner would progress to regional heats while the other five teams would be left in the dust. And… we were triumphant, and so moved onto a new case and a new story, this one involving possession of stolen goods contrary to section 22 the theft act 1968.

At this point, in hearing of our success in the first round of our campaign, several glory hunters

joined the team for the next round of the competition. This time we had less than two months to form the new case so were under a little more time pressure.

However once the day came we were ready for it. Again we were at the Medway magistrates’ court, but this time not against local schools but the best in the region.

Unfortunately, despite our best efforts in the court rooms, we did not win.

So after a six month involvement in the competition, our time was finally up. However we must thank those who helped us get there. Thanks go to sixth formers Jacob Turner, Alex Galpin, George Spice, Joseph Phillips, Will Bone and Joel Goddard, who ran the sessions and made sure we did ourselves proud. Then we must thank Mr Niven, who with his fantastic knowledge surrounding the subject, made sure that we were slick and finely tuned. From the experience we all learned a huge amount about how our own legal system worked, how to work as a unit and also enjoyed acting in an intense situation. We had a wonderful time and we all became closer friends because of it.

Jo Price www.skinners-school.co.uk

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SKINNERS’ LIFE

Recollections from WW1 This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Armistice and the end of the First World War. When war was declared in 1914 many Skinners’ boys enlisted in the armed forces, joining the likes of the Royal West Kent Regiment, the Royal Flying Corps and various ships of His Majesty’s Royal Navy. When the war ended 522 Skinners’ Masters and Old Boys had served in the armed forces of which 89 lost their lives. Although we cannot recount all of these stories here, these are two of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Major Vernon Holden M.C. D.S.O. Vernon Holden, born on the 7th January 1893 left Skinners’ at the age of 17 to work at London and County Westminster Bank’s Maidstone branch before enlisting as a Lance Corporal in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in August 1915. From here he received his commission to join the 10th Kent County Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant. He deployed after training to France on the 4th May 1916 with the regiment to be

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stationed between Hazebrouck and Bailleul. In September 1916 the Regiment saw extensive action at the Battle of FlersCourcelette and on 27th November of that year Holden was promoted to Lieutenant just after the Regiment took part in the Battle of Le Transloy at the Somme. Holden and the Regiment were posted in Italy at the start of 1917 before returning to France in February and being promoted to Captain as a company commander on 19th March 1917. Captain Holden then transferred with his regiment to Flanders where they saw combat at the Battle of Messines before taking part in the Ypres Salient at the Battle of Pilckem Ridge and the Battle of Menin Road Ridge.

For his actions at Pilckem Ridge he was awarded the prestigious Military Cross for, as the London

Gazette noted, ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty’ for his actions under heavy machine gun and rifle fire.

Holden, recently promoted to Major, was further part of the gallant defence at Saint Quentin in early 1918 against the German offensive resulted in 254,816 allied casualties, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for ‘conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during an enemy advance…

Throughout, his fine leadership and coolness under most difficult circumstances were of a high order.’ However during the final advance through Flanders Vernon Holden died of his wounds on 2nd October 1918, just over a month before the war ended. It is so sad to see a man who served a gallant military career cut down at the young age of 25 a mere

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month away from the Armistice. He is buried at Hagle Dump Cemetery at Ypres, Belgi

Captain George Jones Not all deaths come on the field of battle and it is important to remember this as these men, though often neglected, gave the same sacrifice. Captain George Jones was born in Bolowta, South Africa, yet spent a lot of his childhood living with his aunts at 46 Pennington Road, Southborough. He attended Skinners’ from 1909 to 1912 and was an avid cricketer and footballer, he played extensively at school and for Tunbridge Wells, with offers to play professionally from Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton and Hove Albion.

Dan Cross, second left, holds the Standard at the Tunbridge Wells Ceremony.

At the outbreak of war he was originally commissioned as a Lieutenant in 8th Battalion, East Kent Regiment and was injured at the Battle of Loos on the 26th September 1915, as a result he was promoted to Captain on the 27th. Then, in early 1916 he joined the Royal Flying Corps and quickly obtained his pilot’s certificate.

On the 28th May, whilst out on a practice flight in Kent, the plane in which he was flying with Lieutenant Tennant plunged into a nose dive, killing Jones and severely injuring Tennant. It was reported that it took almost an hour to cut Jones’ body from the wreckage. Jones is buried at Southborough Cemetery.

Jay Smalley

RESTORATION OF THE WAR MEMORIAL To mark the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that brought WW1 to an end, our War Memorial has been restored, with the wood lightened and the gold lettering re-written.

The work was carried out by our sign writer, John Weddle.

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SKINNERS’ LIFE

Results day

A level results 2018

A level results 2018 Above: Will Hardwick (Politics at York), Syimyk Kyshtoobaev (Liberal Arts at Yale).

Above right: James Corner (Medicine at Southampton), Tom Howard (Engineering at Leeds), Joe Edwards (Biology at Durham), Harrison Chapman (Combined Honours at Exeter), Ben Brannan (French and Politics at Edinburgh).

GCSE results 2017

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Snow days

Rowan MacDonald-Gay wait s for the bus to school

The Big freeze…

The freeze at the end of February saw the school struggle on before finally giving way on the Friday. The pictures include one of Rowan MacDonald-Gay stranded as he waited for a school bus – it did not arrive.

Start of the thaw…

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SKINNERS’ APPEAL

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OLD GYM APPEAL

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The next phase of the Space for All vision at Skinners’ redeveloping the Old Gym in order to create a new Sixth Form study centre, new classrooms to house the English department, and a new School Library. In one building we can address three conspicuous weaknesses in our facilities: a transformative construction that will benefit every boy at the school and accommodate our students’ search for intellectual growth.

Our Sixth Form accommodation is patently inadequate. We can now more than double the space available to develop extensive private study facilities and coffee shop style recreational areas, designed both to develop intellectual collaboration and silent study.

Our current School Library is a hive of activity and learning. But, for a school of over 1,000, it is tiny. Our new Library will be three times the size and can become a true learning resource centre for the whole school, with reading and research at its heart.

By translating the English department we acknowledge the importance of the subject for all pupils and deliberately juxtaposition it next to the Library. This will also unlock facilities elsewhere, enabling the Art department to move, the Maths department to expand and the Economics and Business Studies department to come together in one building.

We have come a long way since our foundation in 1887 but we can reach very much further with this landmark development.

However, we need the help and support of the whole School community to turn the vision into reality.

Since 2010 there has been exceptional austerity in educational funding. Nevertheless Kent County Council is generously supporting this project. Along with private benefaction we have raised a little over £3 million towards the total cost of over £4 million.

It is the extended Skinners’ community to whom we now turn to enable work to start as soon as possible: our parents and old boys, our friends and pupils will carry our project through. I thank you for your generosity and your help, which will enable us to succeed in creating Space for All at Skinners’.

Pick up an appeal brochure from Reception or go to: https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/617 And thank you very much for your support.

Edward Wesson 12

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THE ARTS – MUSIC

A Musical Year The department had its usual frantic start to the academic year, getting a repertoire ready for only the third Friday of term for Skinners’ Day. It’s a big event for the orchestra, the largest group we play to, and on this occasion was very well received by the audience.

JUNIOR SWING BAND AND JUNIOR ORCHESTRA were ready for Open Evening less than two weeks later – and of course many of these players were new Year 7 boys who had only been with us four weeks.

THE ST CECILIA’S DAY CONCERT is our big autumn event where all the regular extracurricular groups get a platform.

Eleven groups with regular weekly rehearsals, from Junior Orchestra, Junior Swing Band and Junior Choir, Intermediate Swing Band, Big Band, two Guitar Groups, Barbershop, Senior Choir, Big Band, Wind Trio, String Ensemble, and Senior Orchestra. It was great to have a senior orchestra that could give us the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in the full professional version. The strings gave a very good account of movements from the Capriol Suite by Warlock. A high point was the Junior Choir’s medley from West Side Story – we couldn’t let Bernstein’s centenary pass unnoticed!

The run up to Christmas is always exciting with the Carol Service and our now regular Royal Albert Hall event. The Carol Service

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moved to St Luke’s Church this year and we found it a wonderful place to perform; the boys rose splendidly to new challenges and created a great atmosphere with the familiar mix of old and new. Rutter and Willcocks were in there as were the traditional congregational carols and the now regular Year 7 sing off with the houses competing – of course this year with Nicholson in the mix.

THE ALBERT HALL MESSIAH is a great way to end the year – we were absolutely centre stage in the Albert Hall, and the audience responded with a standing ovation – quite startling with an auditorium of 4,500. The Senior Choir acquitted themselves brilliantly. Great to have Mr Hubbard, Mrs Hendry and some recent Old Skinners’ joining in on this wonderful occasion.

Sadly because of changes in the relationship between the Albert Hall management and concert promoter Raymond Gubbay this might be our last chance to join Old Skinner [from the 1960’s] Brian Wright in that fabulous place.

The New Year saw the regular GCSE AND A LEVEL RECITALS with their mixture of styles and aptitudes – it remains an essential part of the preparation for public exams. The U6th group of Tom Roadnight, Asa Thallon and Oscar Hussey really made an impact in this and a couple of other performances – they’ll be missed.

JUNIOR CONCERT is restricted to just Years 7 & 8 with so many

instrumentalists now keen to be involved. Group music was well represented by Junior Orchestra/ Swing Band/Choir and a couple of self-motivated chamber groups.

String playing is pleasingly strong at the moment – we are lucky indeed.

At the end of March the SENIOR CONCERT was a very good chance to display some fine ensemble playing. It was particularly pleasing to perform the first movement from Dvorak’s 8th symphony with full orchestra, and our string group and wind ensemble did some great work and the intermediate and senior Big Bands are doing really well, promising great stuff for next year.

THE FINAL CONCERT of the year is another huge challenge with many away on trips/activities week/study leave – this year another challenge was England in a World Cup match the same evening! Again however our loyal and highly adept musicians rose to that challenge and produced some fine music-making in a lighter vein.

Later that same week the Junior Production of Oliver took place and tribute must be paid to Sam Fineman for his composing and producing of the music for this – an effective score with something of Sondheim about it, helping the atmosphere significantly – a real achievement.

Some leaving U6th have already been mentioned but an additional thank you must go to Kelvin

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The ubiquitous SHAPE, Alfredo Di Santo, Ethan Roberts,

Music Exchange

Sam Fineman and Ollie Armstrong, pretty much the founding members of the Music Exchange, played gigs far and wide, headlining twice at The Tunbridge Wells Forum and becoming regular fixtures at a

SHAPE performing at The Forum.

number of local public houses.

Their first single and video are

With the generous help of the Parents’ Association, the Music Exchange was created this academic year. Its purpose is to allow boys to meet to share and play popular music of all genres.

Presently we have bands playing anything from guitar and synthlead rock and pop to hardcore thrash punk.

Not only are there almost daily practices at lunch and before and after school in M1 but the Music Exchange has spread itself into other classrooms and practice rooms across the school.

Increasingly Skinners’, music outfits are gaining a name for themselves across town.

out on YouTube (SHAPE – This

both solo and with his new

Initially our equipment was limited to a few redundant Modern Languages tape recorders used as amplifiers and a drum kit cannibalised from spare bits and bobs found in some Music Department store cupboards. Today we have several guitars, keyboards, drum kits, very good quality microphones and amplification and a 16-track mixing desk. As well as a PA system suitable for medium-size gigs, we also have the lights and smoke machines necessary to put on a proper show.

Memorable moments this year included numerous appearances at open mic nights and the Battle of the Bands at TWGSB (thanks to them for hosting us this year) where a slew of prizes were won.

These included best guitarist for Jamie Wells of Project 2 and best band for The Gatekeepers in Year 7. Although bafflingly overlooked by the judges, Deadlines, featuring Alex Armstrong on rhythm guitar, Ollie Armstrong on lead and Will Opie on drums, laid out some impressive riffdriven rock ‘n’ roll.

Chan as violinist and particularly James Corner, who has led the orchestra with such distinction.

James has supported and been a great contributor to choirs and instrumental music from Year 7 – an exceptionally high quality level of input.

The department was delighted to in the last weeks of the Summer Term to hear of significant enhancement to our music facilities to be carried out over the summer holidays. The conversion of BH2 to a music classroom with Macs running Sibelius Ultimate,

Logic Pro and Garageband have catapulted us into this 21st century in a most exciting way, a greatly enhanced provision that will make us the envy of many local grammar schools and sets us up excitingly for the future.

is the life) and they are returning to the studio in the new school year. The highlight of the last 12 months was appearing at Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park.

Will Gray, runner-up in this year’s Skinners’ Got Talent, performed scratch band, The Hunters, in front of the whole school.

All of the above were performances which impressed us and will, we hope, prompt many other boys to join a band and give it a go! My personal thanks go to all the boys who have been involved this year for their great good humour, for their willingness to help me and each other and, of course, for the music.

Will Randall

John Hendry www.skinners-school.co.uk

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ART & DESIGN

WILLOW WEAVING Year 9 students took part in a project to create an Old Skinners’ Sculpture Garden.

Over two days they made a four metre dome, some woven willow balls and a fedge (a fence hedge). They learnt about sustainable materials and how they can be used in building structures.

They also got quite wet!

ARTiculation ARTiculation, the national public speaking competition, which encourages young people to look, think and speak about art, held its Regional Final at Folkestone Quarterhouse at the end of January.

After winning the school heat, Will Bone represented Skinners’. He spoke with confidence and in depth for 10 min on Pandemonium by John Martin, explaining its influences, links to Milton and Paradise Lost, and how it was in essence an attack on the self-serving and morally corrupt Government of the time.

Whilst Will was not chosen by the adjudicator, practising artist Adam Chodzko, to progress to the final in Cambridge, he was praised for 'taking the audience on a truly excellent and very exciting journey into an artwork', commenting on how much he had enjoyed references to Bosch and to the Chapman brothers.

Leo Hillier

3D PRINTER CLUB Year 7 students have been building a 3D printer from scratch.

They are working from the Open Source instructions of artist Jonathan Keep.

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Berlin Trip 24TH – 26TH FEBRUARY 2018 Skinners’ Sixth Form Art Department took a trip to Berlin to explore and immerse ourselves within the culture. It’s essential for your coursework to be inspired and stimulated for constant creative development. Berlin is a wonderful place that fully incorporates and celebrates creativity and the trip was intended to help us discover artists to further our sketch-books and projects.

What makes Berlin so unique is its political significance and the fact that the city chooses not to forget its past, rather grow and develop from it. We visited various holocaust memorials, most significantly the Jewish Museum Berlin, as well as several segments of the Berlin Wall. This was not only for a time of reflection but how these stories could shape our art. We saw famous pieces of artwork such as; Andy Warhol’s ‘Kim Jong Il’ in the Hamburger Bahnhof. A great experience.

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ART & DESIGN

YEAR 10 In October, Year 10 GCSE Art students enjoyed a day in London exploring how to record portraits within a landscape to feed into their initial project 'sense of self'.

London trips…

The trip culminated in a visit to the National Portrait Gallery, exploring how other artists have addressed the same topic, from the Tudor period right through to the modern day.

YEAR 11 In January, Year 11 GCSE students, accompanied by Messrs Hillier and Moore, took in the creative and cultural highlights of London. They visited the Royal Academy of Arts From Life exhibition, encountering the different ways artists have responded to the seen world.

This also included a virtual reality experience, which was an interesting fusion of the traditional and digital Art world. Later they visited the National Gallery, thus opening up the historical context of Art for their current exam work.

There were also contrasting visits to the V&A Museum, the White Cube Gallery and the Whitechapel Gallery. A chance encounter with Gilbert and George at the White Cube led to some controversial

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but sound advice to young artists… ‘stuff your teachers’ (or words to that effect!).

their lenses to the sky, they

London Lumiere lit up the Southbank on the Saturday evening and a brief night photographic walking tour took place. Through Sunday morning heavy drizzle students took to the streets once more to record The City architecture. Keening

Fragments. Rounding off the day

photographed the old and new to explore their exam theme was Basquiat’s exhibition at the Barbican and a visit to the British Museum. The boys’ behaviour was excellent, which was also commented on by members of the public during the weekend.

Another great Art trip.

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THEATRE CLUB

Stratford Trip – a Triumph of Tragedy After seeing a variety of plays throughout the year such as Macbeth, Hamlet, A Birthday Party, A Long Day’s Journey Into Night and the brilliantly immersive Julius Ceasar, the Theatre club finally had a very dramatically full day in Stratford Upon Avon to watch the Jacobean tragedies The Duchess of Malfi and King Lear.

Arriving at 10.00 the group of 6th Formers went around Shakespeare’s Birthplace and attended an RSC lecture on The Duchess of Malfi, exploring the plays context and theatrical history before seeing the show itself.

A famously gruesome play by Shakespeare’s contemporary John Webster the production was fast paced, modernized and visceral.

It’s most notable feature of staging was a massive carcass of a bull which was slit open at the start of the second half and allowed to slowly form a pool of blood as the actors writhed, slipped and died. The audience

nearest the stage were protected from the blood with blankets but not protected from the steady onslaught of ‘toxic masculinity’ as the cruel brothers Ferdinand and The Cardinal take revenge on their sister the Duchess for marrying of her own free will.

MADNESS & VOILENCE This was not the most subtle of plays or productions but was acted with considerable conviction, unsparing in its consideration of gender equality, madness and violence. The students clearly left the theatre as though they’d just got off a roller coaster.

Equally unsparing but undoubtedly of a different level in terms of complexity and depth was the RSC’s production of King Lear. Directed with clarity and precision, the relatively simple staging emphasised the epic, pagan quality of the play, its occasionally surreal aspects and

mostly the charged energy and nuance of the language. Often considered to be Shakespeare’s greatest play and therefore one of the greatest texts in our culture, this can produce an overwhelming burden of expectation on actors and audience alike. But the finely crafted performances, most notably from Antony Sher as Lear and Paappa Essiedu as Edmund, allowed the intimacy as well as the grandeur work together.

POWER & BRILILANCE What students mostly recognized by watching both plays together was the undeniable power and brilliance of Shakespeare, something they often hear but may not always fully apprehend.

Both Mr Metcalf and Ms Fenton are to be thanked for their continued commitment to the students’ cultural enrichment with trips such as these.

Peter Ubly www.skinners-school.co.uk

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THE ARTS – DRAMA

Oliver Condensing a Dickens novel into a play is never easy and theatrical depictions of Oliver will lead many an audience member to expect the rather sanitized and sentimental Lionel Bart musical. So the challenge was on to present an appropriately gritty, often Gothic, version of one of Dickens’ most famous books.

Suffice to say that the challenge was more than met. This was a boldly conceived and often darkly witty production.

The story of an orphan born in the early 19th Century, victimized by the harsh institutions of the workhouse, sold as an apprentice to a funeral director, then befriended by the Artful Dodger and taken in by a criminal London gang headed by the crafty Fagin and brutish Sykes demands a lot from cast and crew. Told with actors announcing chapters and with the Dodger narrating aspects of the plot, the sense of pace and clarity was maintained throughout, building to the stunning climax.

Another potential problem which was admirably overcome was the issue of students of roughly similar age playing hugely disparate age groups. This was achieved not only through the precision of the costumes but the often stylized but thoroughly convincing acting. Singling individuals out from such an

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accomplished ensemble is a risk but a few were particularly notable.

The central part of Oliver can be difficult because he is so often the passive victim of events, surrounded by more colourful and dynamic characters, yet undergoing the most changes.

Henry Stevens managed superbly to give the part sensitivity and strength, particularly when his memory of his deceased mother is insulted by the odious Noah Claypole. His relationship with Nancy, played with a feisty alertness by Mae Harbison from TWGGS, was crucial to the story.

EXUDED MENANCE It is often pointed out that Dickens is better at depicting villains than more benevolent characters and, whilst this is a gift for actors, it is important for them to remain convincing. Etienne Lawrence exuded menace as Sykes mostly by his slow prowling across the stage and unflinching gaze at his minions. This contrasted very effectively with the constant gesticulations of Fagin, played with a wonderful balance of sinister and charming.

Dickens is also justly famous for being able to combine melodrama with comedy and Jo Price as Mr Bumble, Oliver Fitzgerald as Mr Grimwig were amongst the memorable comic players.

Whether he is melodramatic or comic may depend on taste but Tom Price as the Artful Dodger, acting as the character and as a choric figure managed both with wonderful assurance.

Two moments stood out as exemplary. The first was the freeze frame at the top of London Bridge as Sykes is about to bludgeon Nancy for trying to rescue Oliver. When the action stops the Dodger comes out with the rest of the cast to comment on the scene, expressing its horror far more powerfully than any stage violence could. The second was Fagin’s soliloquy, whilst in prison awaiting his hanging and reflecting upon his deeds. To evoke such sympathy as he becomes increasing deranged at this point was a remarkable achievement from Alex Maltby and testament to the overall involvement that the show had demanded.

Finally, the atmosphere and dramatic coherence was maintained by the versatile set, the excellent lightly but most superbly by the live piano accompaniment of Sam Fineman, a score composed by himself that accentuated but never dominated the drama. It also gave a sense of the old time music hall tradition and Victorian stage melodrama that Dickens drew on for this story.

Peter Ubly

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Road

Set in the gloomy backdrop of a decaying Lancashire town, the production of Road certainly did not disappoint. Narrated by the character of Scullery (Carlo Villa), the play is a series of interweaving narratives of residents of the town suffering under the impact of the Thatcher administration.

From the likes of drag queens Will Colyer to failed academics Max Cherry each solemn story presented the many different yet similar struggles of life on the Road. The interaction between audience and cast before the play and during the interval added further level of gritty realism to the production, the audience were not so much passive outsiders but were almost invited in into the narrative itself. This was all accompanied by a brilliant set, crafted under with the expertise of Mr Taylor, that inverted the

theatre so the usual seating area provided a layered environment to further the intertwining nature of the narratives, whilst the audience sat on an assortment of old armchairs and sofas (some of which were reportedly sourced from Mr Wesson’s living room) which gave the performance a further air of down to earth realness. This was all accompanied by excellent musical performances from the likes of Harry Gripper without which the play would not have been complete. The staging of Road overall certainly didn’t disappoint with great performances all round and an extremely poignant and haunting finale, the fact that it sold out on all evenings is truly a tribute to the production’s excellence itself. Many thanks to Miss Fenton, Mrs Kirk and Mr Taylor without whom this could not have been possible.

Jay Smalley

WEST-END ROLE FOR SKINNERS’ STUDENT

Tom Price made his West End debut in the summer of 2017, starring in Imaginary.

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Library The library has enjoyed another busy year: our Book Award groups have continued to grow and in the Autumn and Spring Terms around 30 boys from years 7-10 took part in the South East Schools Themed Book Award, this year with a theme of secrets and lies. They raced through the Teen and Young Adult shortlists respectively, meeting fortnightly over lunch to hotly debate the titles.

Along with 15 other participating schools, we enjoyed the awards ceremony hosted by Kent College, where well known authors Patrice Lawrence and Juno Dawson gave inspiring presentations on writing and where they get their ideas.

Questions from their audience came thick and fast before the final winners in each category were announced.

In the Summer Term, our book groups once again shadowed the judges of the Carnegie Medal for literature, and after a busy few weeks of reading the short-listed titles in keeping with schools across the country, the Carnegie Shadowing Balloon Debate, held annually with TWGGS, TWGSB & SKA, was held at Skinners’ in June, with around 15 Skinners’ lads participating. Once again, the Carnegie medal was sponsored

by Amnesty International and this was reflected in the plots of the diverse list of shortlisted books.

Our thanks to Mr.Ubly for running

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Students attending the South East Schools Themed Book Awards. one of the three weekly book groups for both awards and to Mr Wesson for being one of the judges at the Balloon Debate.

We have steadily added new fiction and non-fiction titles to our book stock and taken the opportunity to withdraw old and dated titles from the collection.

We continue to stock two national daily newspapers, a weekly local paper and a range of subject specialist magazines.

In addition we provide online access to a daily broadsheet and The Economist via the Library Homepage on FROG. Access in school and at home to JSTOR, a digital library of academic journals, books and primary sources, is available to all students but is proving particularly useful to Sixth Form students working towards their Extended Project Qualification.

Our Monday - Thursday Homework Hub continues to be busy, with many students staying

to complete homework before they go home, or whilst waiting for an after school club to begin.

In addition to our every-day library business, we also continue to run our small but popular stationery shop at break and lunch, providing essential stationery at a competitive price. We have further supported students and earnt valuable commission in the form of books for the Library by hosting book fairs by Oxford University Press (dictionaries at discount price).

We are very excited at the prospect of a new and enlarged library for the Skinners’ School and have enjoyed meeting with the architects to commit our dreams to paper. We look forward to extending the range of what we can offer in the Library and to welcoming all to the new facility in due course.

Tam Weaver and Cate Deller

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Carnegie Book Awards This year it was our turn to host the annual CILIP Carnegie Medal competition.

We were joined by students from TWGGS, SKA and TWBGS to engage in a lively and stimulating balloon style debate to discuss the shortlisted books.

ALTERNATIVE COVERS The students had read the eight novels engaged in weekly meetings in the library, as well as writing reviews and designing alternative covers. On the day of the debate the students formed groups across the schools to prepare a presentation, singing the praises of their allocated book. The shortlist was particularly impressive this year, with many of the books tackling difficult themes such as prejudice, institutional oppression and identity. Despite the wide range of styles and periods, many dealt with how individuals relate to groups in enclosed communities.

POPULAR CONTENDER After the Fire by Will Hill was a popular contender. Set in an isolated religious community in the Texan desert, the story becomes a chilling dystopian thriller, told through complex flashbacks and unreliable narration. Also set in an isolated region, this time the Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts, was Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren

Wolk. Told in a more direct yet lyrical style, the novel still deals with tough themes about belonging and freedom.

REMOTE LOCATION The overall winner of the Carnegie medal, Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean, deals with survival and the tension between individuals and groups within the remote location of a sea stack where the highly individualized characters hunt for birds but become abandoned.

This was a historical novel that was both convincing and surprising in equal measure.

CARNEGIE MEDAL Winning the Carnegie medal, however, does not necessarily mean winning the balloon debate, as this went to the group with the most convincing presentation.

Mr Wesson, judging the talks again this year in collaboration with teachers and librarians from the representing schools, announced that the best group were those discussing Release

by Patrick Ness. This novel in which the central character Adam Thorn tries to come to terms with his identity, sexuality and position in society through just one day, was commended by the group for its honesty and clear depiction of difficult themes. Mr Wesson, announcing the winner commended the group’s team work and persuasive enthusiasm.

in this annual event has engrossed a large group of students with some superb modern fiction.

The importance of reading has always been a cornerstone of the curriculum and the librarians Mrs Deller and Mrs Weaver have again been pivotal in promoting this amongst Skinners’ students. Many thanks to them for organizing and hosting such a great event.

Peter Ubly THIS YEAR'S SHORT LIST WAS: • Beyond The Bright Sea / Lauren Wolk • Release / Patrick Ness (team representing it won the balloon debate) • Rook / Anthony McGowan • After the Fire / Will Hill (Overall Shadower's favourite) • The Hate You Give (Winner of the CILIP Amnesty Honour) • Wed Wabbit / Lissa Evans • Where the World Ends / Geraldine McCaughrean (Winner of the Carnegie Medal) • Saint Death / Marcus Sedgwick

Yet again, Skinners’ participation

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SESTBA Run by a group of local School Librarians, the SESTBA is now in its 12th year: since the Autumn Term, members of our two book groups have read and then met once a fortnight in the Library to discuss the five books on the shortlists.

Over the months we’ve enjoyed some lively discussions about the merits (and sometimes flaws) of the contenders and on Tuesday 27th March ten of our book group members joined pupils from the other participating schools for the Award Ceremony at Kent College, Pembury.

There were fancy dress and alternative book cover competitions judged by sponsor AXA and the two short-listed authors who were guest speakers on the evening: Juno Dawson and Patrice Lawson spoke about what inspires them to write and how they go about the process, from initial ideas to research of characters, places and situations beyond their personal experience.

BOOK VOUCHERS After a break for refreshments and an opportunity to browse the bookstalls and spend the book vouchers given to attendees, Patrice and Juno took part in a fascinating Q&A session: as always, there were more questions than there was time, since we had to get on to the event finale – the announcement

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of the winner in each category.

There was general delight in the Skinners’ camp when Wolf Wilder

by Katherine Rundell was named winner in the Teen Category, whilst The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson was the runaway winner of the YA award.

AMAZING BOOK We’re already thinking about themes for next year’s award & will be finalising the 2019 shortlists before the summer holidays. Once the theme has been chosen, we’ll be looking for suggestions for the shortlist, so if you have read an amazing book recently that you think would be suitable, let us know and we’ll put it forward for consideration!

Cate Deller and Tam Weaver

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Skinners’ School Creative Writing Club ANTHOLOGY 2017-18 INTRODUCTION The Creative Writing Club is open to all students. We meet once a week to write together, attempting many different genres and styles of writing.

This year, the club has consisted of a small number of very committed and talented students from Years 7-12. Each student who attended has led a session at least once, coming up with something to inspire and guide the writing.

After each session of writing, members share what they have written and constructive feedback is given.

At certain points in the academic year, members have been given the chance to re-draft and improve their favourite pieces of writing and these are what are included here.

I hope you enjoy reading them!

Miss Bridger

Contributed by Will Tweedy (Year 12)

DRAW OF THE CARDS

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urling and throwing themselves between the crowds, the two men shoved each other between eruptions of hysterics and fear. The first man – a figure of five foot eleven – had a beaming set of penetrating eyes that lasered through the crowd, desperately trying to find a mouse hole to escape through. Hunting down the smaller man’s shadow was his antithesis, a billowing bear of six feet eight. Tattoos and piercings erupted down arms and a dragon flamed down his back, dissecting the hidden track marks which carpeted his sweaty back. The giant clumsily crashed into the oncoming bar tenders and scuffed the apple green turf of the poker den, forming an explosion of a rainbow of chips.

The chips swivelled and flipped in the air and greedy women snatched them out of the air as if they were clapping a mosquito.

The bear pursued the mouse, ploughing through the crowds, the giant screaming Russian curses.

The smaller man dipped and dived through the orchestra of chaos; behind him was the homed-in battle ram, thirsty for blood.

The dwarf had brains. He burst

through the doors like the crack of a shotgun. Behind him, the panting sack plodded scanning the crowd like an eagle. Still sprinting, the ex-military ratty man climbed further: floor 26, 27, 28 scaling the building with speed until floor 30 was reached.

The rat was trapped: out of stairs, but not out of options. Runts and grunts from the pursuing ogre echoed up the stairs and mushroomed around the mouse like the smoke of a bomb. The soldier looked around, eyes flicking like a sparked candle wick. The beast was climbing the stairs, slowly reaching his target like the fuse on dynamite. He clawed up the stairs to floor 30 and rose, erupting with curses and belches. The septic spike of Russian vodka floated in the air, poisoning the atmosphere.

The gorilla rose and mirrored his enemy. Circumcircling the two were vast panels of crystal glass, locking the two into a duel.

Suddenly, like an enraged bull the ogre charged, accumulating speed, face twitching, lips snarling. The army man stood with confidence, encouraging the bull with a flick of aggravation in his eye. Confused, the gorilla further picked up his pace and spear dived – leaping at the mouse. The mouse rouletted, and pivoted sharply to the side.

The beast had committed to the

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leap, already mid dive when the rodent side stepped. The ogre penetrated through the glass window, shattering the frame into millions of transparent shells.

The ogre plummeted to the floor, followed by a fleet of glass shards. A silence boomed. He collapsed onto the pavement, thousands of feet below, now flat as a grave stone. A fog of blood burst around him, painting the pure white face of the Russian with a deep crimson spray, the beast lay opposite the casino doors – mutilated.

A KING ON A FARMER’S SHOULDERS Inspired by reading the sonnet Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

A

rounded ball of salty sweat trickled down the chizzled jaw of the young prince.

The droplet paused, gathering in the upper lip of the boy. A kaleidoscope of crystal colours flittered in the iris of the boy.

Young Ozymandias – their tranquillity was readable and told a history of empires and battles.

Flares of blood – pricked capillaries spiked in his eyes, slowly infecting the innocence of the boy’s eyes. Power and authority – inherited from his father - was an expectation he carried on his weak, spindly shoulders.

Ozymandias stumbled forward; looking down on the empire that

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lay before him. He turned his stumble into a stride, breathing more heavily now, droplets of sweat streamed down his cheeks and trailed down his veiny temple, trickling down his back.

Thousands of steaming, sweating workers ploughed the ground that stood perpendicular to the boy’s temple. The murky streams that provided life to the valley reflected the crenulations and stained glass of the palace. Hamsik looked down at the puddles which circled around him and the fellow farmers joined Hamsik in his glance. They saw the palace mirrored in the puddles.

Thick clouds of rain slammed through the farmers’ sunshine and spat fattening dots of rain onto the land before them. The rain rippled the cloudy puddles, masking the image of a palace.

The clouds wrapped around the farms in a cloak and choked the dreams and lives out of the frail workers. Hamsik lowered his hoe and continued to plough the dirt. The same monotonous robotic movements: thrust, foot, stamp, up, thrust, foot, stamp, up. Shovelling the earth onto his shoulder, Hamsik spat onto the gasping earth, and let out an oppressive sigh.

Contributed by Keir Swift (Year 9)

WINTER AT THE BRIDGE

I

n winter, the Golden Gate Bridge doesn’t change at all.

I laugh a little to myself. The bridge isn’t even golden, as if it

had never occurred to me before.

It’s red. Blood red.

It stands tall over the frozen waters that flow to the Pacific Ocean, to freedom. The waters glitter as they gently lap the bridge’s sturdy legs, the icy wind snatching at my long black hair and whipping it behind me.

Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right.

In the few moments of my life as tense as this, I have never needed to think like this, never needed to manually move each muscle with the weight of the world bearing down upon me.

As the bridge is closed off to the public for maintenance, my mind should be consulting my precautious movements, and not of death.

A storm of mist and fog rolls in on the sea current, like battered tanks rolling to face the enemy. It gently rolls over the iced road in my wake, engulfing the last of my view. The tanks, the calm before the storm, rolling by, ignoring me. The real battle is not in the sea, nor is it in the air, nor is it on the land and the ice behind me; it is ahead of me, on the road to redemption.

The 9mm pistol in my hand feels heavy. When I feel it brush my leg, I know it’s hungry. A hunger only quenched by murder. My fingers grope the trigger. I whisper to the wind, reassuring my friend beside me that his hunger will be short lived, as dinner is soon to come.

Up ahead, a lone figure stands in the centre of the road, slowly becoming visible. His dark outline looking out to sea, observing the waves through the mist. A trench

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Firstly, I’m gonna need to stop right there. There’s none of that Star Trek crap on this vessel. It may be named similarly to the dumb ass ‘Starship Enterprise’ but don’t be mistaken; this ship is a whole lot betta.

Take the Starship Enterprise’s moronic structure, with its thin neck and lame shields that can’t stop the ship getting wrecked every other day by some weak enemy. This ship is the shape of a boulder. ‘Nuff said. A long, chunky, ass-kicking spaceship with enough guns to make Schwarzenegger run for the hills. coat hugs his body, a hat sitting neatly atop his combed white hair.

“I didn’t think you’d show up.”

He says calmly despite knowing I’m here to kill him.

“I’m done with it all.” I bark at him, “If it means a lifetime in prison then so be it.”

He turns so I can see his face.

A white beard clinging to his knobbly chin, wrinkles rippling around his face and harsh eyes installed with a balance of wise and silent rage. Blood red eyes.

From the corner of my eye flashes a black shape beyond instant recognition. I feel the warm blood of times not forgotten drip from my shoulder.

A cut, deep, sliced across my right shoulder, gushes blood and stings with the incoming cold air.

A five metre scythe sits in his hand, my warm blood dripping from the pointed end.

“Such a weak weapon: light, inaccurate, but it’s all I’m going to need to kill you with.” I scream at his jovial elderly face.

I roar a rather unfeminine roar, aiming the pistol straight at his face. He smirks, just to taunt me.

I take the bait and pull hard on the trigger as if there is no tomorrow.

A torrent of blood explodes from the back of his pearly hair, his body falling limp to the icy ground below like a lifeless rag doll.

The sirens of police boats sound below the bridge and the red and blue lights can be seen clearly through the mist. I step onto the edge of the bridge, spread my arms out and step off, embracing the authorities underneath for a lifetime of forgiveness.

THE FUN WITH THE GUNS

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pace, the final frontier.

These are the voyages of the Starship Soledad.

Its continuing mission: to explore strange, new worlds; to seek out new life and civilisations; to boldly go, where no man has gone before.

Try the Starship Enterprise’s Captain Kirk and Special Spock.

Our captain? A Soviet general who executed a crew member last week for ‘bringing his coffee four minutes later than he wanted’. As for Spock, there ain’t no prickly eared do-gooders on this ship, just hard core guns for hire.

Me you ask? Wow, you’ve got a lotta questions. Well, I’m a gun slingin’ merc with a mouth ready to raise hell on where we’re goin’.

Our destination? Some freaky, jacked up pile o’ rock that’s supposed to be the last hope for Planet Earth, lyin’ at the end of this crazy wormhole we’ve been in for the last two years.

Ever seen ‘The Martian’ starring Matt Damon? Me neither. I ain’t gonna spend two hours of my life watchin’ some Hollywood pretty boy growin’ potatoes in his own crap. I ain’t stupid enough to for that.

Well anyway, they sent twenty nobodies to Mars and watcha

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know? They all died! So now we gotta git to this new planet if mankind wants to keep livin’.

Problem is, this new place?

Somebody already lives there.

An’ that’s when your friendly neighbourhood, alien-killing, fun with the guns, me, comes in.

Contributed by Rex Hibbert (Year 9) This piece had to be about a crisis and include something about bunnies!

“PERFECT” DAY 1: Tiko is doing perfect.

Absolutely marvellous. He ate all the alfalfa I laid out for him in his bowl. He is a growing bunny isn’t he? Someone said a rabbit poisoner is coming to town. But he won’t kill my cute bunny. Will he? He’ll be fine.

DAY 1: I’ve got Josh, a great owner. He gave me some alfalfa in my favourite bowl. Of course I ate it, it is perfect. But there is something a little off.

But I can’t grasp the feeling.

DAY 2: Tiko is doing perfect.

Absolutely marvellous. He is now asleep in his little home. I think he needs a little more water!

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DAY 3: Josh needs to let me out of this little cell, 4 foot by 2 foot, this barely gives me room to stretch. What an idiot. I need to go. I can’t eat, my mouth is clogged up and I’m gurgling?!

DAY 4: Tiko is doing perfect.

Absolutely marvellous. I’m out of food; they can live for a bit without food right.

DAY 4: I really want some food but my mouth is closed. I can barely breathe. I can’t see through my eyes well and I can’t seem to understand this all. Am I even awake?

DAY 5: Tiko is doing perfect.

Absolutely marvellous. Tucked up in his little home. What a happy bunny!

DAY 6: Tiko is doing perfect. I got him some food but he won’t eat.

Maybe he is still tired. Meh. What can I do though? I can’t touch him. I think. He may have rabies or something?!

DAY 7: Tiko is doing perfect. I read the papers and it said that a rabbit owner has had her rabbits all killed from the poisoning!

DAY 8: Tiko is doing perfect. He is a little pale, but that is fine right?

How should I know? He is all tucked up in his little home nice and warm…

DAY 2: I need some rest.

Something has really come over me. Like a storm cloud in the summers of Africa. I feel soulless, trapped. At least I drank all my water.

DAY 3: Tiko is doing perfect.

Absolutely marvellous. He is jumping about in his little home.

He didn’t eat, but sure, he is very full!

T

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Contributed by George Thomas (Year 8)

“FIRE AND ICE” he fire crackled like Mal’s fingers before the deciding punch-up. The glass in which he kept

his rum shivered in his hand like a hysteric a baby on a cold night.

The memories came flooding back and for once, all was quiet.

It was not the first night that he had spent alone since the letter; it was indeed the last. He tipped the dregs of the brandy into a chipped shot glass and savoured the warmth of it. If he was to remember it all then he would need the demon drink to assist him.

‘Mal, why did it happen?’ articulated his Mum with a nervous flick of her hair. His Mum, the one who had raised him single-handedly despite the criticism. Now she was calming him down for the final time.

He would tell it to her as it was without any procrastination: ‘He did not know what happened that night, He just lashed out.

Drugs, Drugs, it had to be, Maybe the others…but no, not me.

Wipes away the sweat with a dirty-tattered sleeve, Was there anyone left to believe?’

Mal confronted his fears and spoke to Mom ‘I fancied a quixotic life, there was one person acting as a cap for my aspirations. I attacked him and threw away my dignity, if the beaks turn up and take me with them then I do (really really) regret it.’

He fumbled around for a grubby cigarette and lit it with a trembling hand; that was when

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they knocked. Things escalated quickly.

There were no formalities, he was handcuffed and gagged.

Off on a holiday, in her Majesty’s Prison; not at all the life for a fourteen year old boy. When he was twenty he would get another shot at life.

Contributed by Ryan Zhang (Year 8) Inspired by reading an extract from Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.

WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN I’ve been waiting, Waiting for something, Anything To happen.

Sometimes I feel like I’m waiting At the end of a road; Waiting For something to arise from the abyss.

Not to get out of bed But to survive in this Corporate hellhole.

Sometimes it’s crazy how much I want something to occur, I sometimes wish a clown With a shabby name tag Would pop out of my work desk.

Not being specific.

But still, it has come to this That the only amusement I find Is my imagination.

I can’t interfere; Likewise my peers.

So my mouth hinders to open.

I can’t report, They’ll ignore me.

They won’t care.

I bet they just want To get through the day Like any other.

Contributed by Jem Swift (Year 7)

HANDCUFFS AND DONUTS

P

I’m not merely indifferent, I have more thoughts Than one.

I look at life As if I were the spectator, Looking down at An animated puppet.

UNCH! PUNCH! The punching bag fell off its hinges. Finally! I’ve been trying to kill that for weeks (not in a creepy way).

I’ve been training for my shift that I’ll be alerted about, when I’ll be revving my engine outside the bank waiting for my crew of murderous, fiendish friends to jump in with bag loads of cash.

But currently I don’t have a driver’s license, because I’m only 15; nearly 16. And then I won’t need birthdays, but I’d still like some presents.

But this job It’s what drives me,

Meanwhile, a dramatic voice boomed across the room, yelling

Repetition, Repetition, Something the world witnesses, But does not interfere.

They just Let it be.

countless instructions at me, as I moved around in a quick frenzy.

“And 5, 6, 7, 8!” the voice spat out at me, every little word like daggers attacking my ears. I only just realised now how pointless this this was, so I instantly threw down the remote and sat down.

RING! RING! I’m so glad I changed that ringtone last week from the one that was really annoying and sounded like cats drowning. So, I answered the phone only to receive rants and raves at me. It turns out I was supposed to be at the bank a half hour ago. Oh no. My boss will kill me! Instantly, I ran to the door, stumbling out the house carrying an umbrella and an impressive gun.

Moments after pulling up into a lay-by, I spotted some big, incinerating arms sticking out of a bush. And one of the hands was clenching an overflowing bag of money. You know, sometimes my boss is such an idiot. And to make matters worse, I saw the bush moving down the quiet street. To put the bush out of its misery, I yanked it off, to reveal my boss, shortly followed by the menacing gang. “Bad disguise boss!”

“You don’t think I know! I’ve got the cash, you’ve got the car, and Jimmy’s overloaded with guns.

Go, go, go!”

In one swift movement, I led my gang towards the car; our minds all scared of the police, with their handcuffs and donuts.

When we reached the car, I sped towards the door, and opened our ticket to freedom; except it wouldn’t. One fumble through my

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pockets for the keys later, I gave my crew the disappointing look.

But before they could yell at me, sirens filled our head with their painful screech. Cars surrounded us, and many armed officers jumped out. You could hear the clang of Jimmy’s five pistols hitting the ground. “You’re under arrest!”

Oh man, maybe we can rob a bank successfully next time.

Contributed by Miss Bridger

CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL 11

Sacrilege

A body lay spread-eagled and und ignified On the steps leading up to the alta r.

A puppet, whose strings had bee n severed And left to fall.

A dark red sticky liquid Formed a dark pool.

Blood slowly dripping down the stai rs, Coagulating in the dents in the ston e Worn smooth by countless pilgrim s Visiting this holy place Before this unholy act took place.

Outrage!

Sacrilege!

Who would dare to commit such an act?

Who would dare to attack such a holy man?

Surely God would have struck the m dead Before their sword, poised to strik e, made the fatal blow?

Becket – a holy man, so they say .

Too caught up in prayer to notice as his life was taken away.

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STEM

Salters’ Festival of Chemistry

Year 8 pupils Harvey Galloway, Scott Renwick, Jack Stubbs and Jake Wright headed up to London South Bank University to take part in one of the Salters’ Festival of Chemistry Challenge Days.

The Skinners' students worked brilliantly as a team in the university laboratories, competing against teams from 14 other schools, mainly from the London area. During two separate practical challenges they carried out chromatography and precipitation forensic investigations, and practised their ability to produce accurate results during a 'disappearing cross' precipitation reaction. Whilst they didn’t win the prize overall they received several gifts each to take home and were lucky enough to watch a fascinating and inspiring presentation about how materials can have some apparently magical properties. They were praised for their outstanding attitude, very good manners and impressive efficiency in carrying out the tasks set out.

Sarah Lowe

Year 11 students outside the Cavendish Laboratories in Cambridge on a visit to the university courtesy of the Physics department.

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TRIPS

Model United Nations Trip to America

In the final week of January twenty-eight Skinners’ boys, Mr Coltella, Mr Johnston and Mr Montgomery embarked across the Atlantic to America.

The trip started in New York; Thanks to Mr Coltella’s outstanding organizational skills, every day that led up to the conference was full of activities from exploring Central Park to dining in Times Square, ascending the one world trade centre to experiencing the breath taking Ground Zero 9/11 memorial museum. We felt as if we had spent weeks in America because of the sheer number of activities squeezed into each day and the lack of time for sleep.

To prepare us for conference we were lucky enough to visit the Chinese Mission in New

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York. They hosted us for a Q&A session where members of the team could ask actual diplomats questions about Chinese policy.

Five representatives ranging from the economic council to the council for future technology faced a barrage of questions from the boys.

HUGELY BENEFICIAL This insight was hugely beneficial as the pupils representing China at the MUN conference now understood the specific lines of Chinese policy. In addition, we were able to visit the UK mission in New York and have a onehour session with two diplomats providing an insight into: how the UN functions, their individual roles within the UN and the career that led them to their profession.

Our last educational visit was to UN Headquarters before the conference in Boston Massachusetts. We were given a guided tour of the Headquarters where we got to see the actual committee rooms for the Security Council and the General Assembly, a very humbling experience considering some of us would be representing these bodies in a matter of days.

Following the tour, we spoke to the Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary; General Antonio Guterres, responsible for the press and media. We obtained some fascinating information into the role of the Secretary General, with the boys asking some very challenging and inquisitive questions.

The next day, we stopped off

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at Choate Rosemary Hall high school in Connecticut and spent a day at their phenomenal 185 hectare campus. Previous alumnae include former president of the United States John F. Kennedy and Ivanka Trump.

During the ‘school day’ each Skinners’ boy was paired with a host student attending a mixture of lessons from the study of History to Mandarin. Finally, we reached Boston and settled into our rooms at the Sheraton Hotel.

In the following 4 days we would spend twenty hours in committee sessions; multiple hours finalising working papers until the early hours of the morning; in some cases, being woken at 3 am for an urgent crisis session until the end of the conference at noon on Sunday. Everybody was exhausted after having been saturated with information on their topics, presenting speeches and debating a plethora of global issues with many foreign students day in day, day out.

Suddenly it was all over. Instantly everyone began to feel deflated wishing that the conference could continue no matter how tiring. It is safe to say the team felt immensely proud with the huge effort that every single member had made and the way in which we had grown over the last few days.

BEST EXPERIENCE The group of twenty-eight boys who flew home on the 29th of January were by no shadow of a doubt the same group that departed a week earlier. The Harvard MUN trip was by far the best experience I’ve ever had in

my school career, and I’m sure all the other members of the team would agree.

ONE BODY The way in which the group bonded, evolved and connected was a complete surprise to us all. It was as if everybody was a member of one body, working together through all the highs and the lows. Arguably, the lack of awards won by Skinners’ showed that we were unsuccessful; but, I could not disagree more because the memories, friends, and relationships created will

last forever and continue to give in our lives, where as an award would not.

The boys were commended for their hard work and the incredible ability to compete against some of the largest private schools on the debating stage (Dalton and Chicago Lab) in an outstanding performance at the conference; but, will ultimately treasure the life skills that they have begun to learn and learnt already. Each and every student will cherish every moment on the MUN trip.

Charlie Reed

MUNGA REPORT This year's Tunbridge Wells MUNGA, featuring most of the local West Kent schools, took place in November at the Town Hall. Boys from Years 11 to 13 took part, taking the roles of country delegates, press, secretariat and committee chairs, debating topics as varied as UN reform, indigenous people's rights and international conflict.

Skinners' had the challenging role of being the USA, (forthright in making America Great Again), the upstarts of Qatar (punching above their weight) and Botswana (friends to everyone).

A fun day was had, the boys prepared well, and participated effectively. Special mention to Jon Coomber who was highly commended for his role as a Committee Chair.

Chris Adams

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NAIMUN (Washington) February half term oversaw another year 12 trip to America. This time a group of 26, eager, roaring delegates heading to Washington DC, along with a few days in New York City. Trained by senior prefects, and led by Mr Coltella, we embarked on a jam-packed ten days and we returned enlightened, with a few awards too!

We spent four days in New York: climbing the Rockefeller Centre, eating out in Times Square and rambling through Central Park. Going to bed far too late and waking up far too early, each day was filled with sites to see and places to go. With the trusty banks of Fleming, Coltella and Johnston – a trip to Fifth Avenue was inevitable. On the last night we had a big meal out, all knowing we had a very early start the day after.

‘HARKNESS METHOD’ Waking up at the crack of dawn, we met our coach and departed from New York en route to Washington DC. Breaking up the journey with a trip to the Lawrenceville School, we arrived in Washington late at night. The Lawrenceville School competes with Dalton for the best private school in America.

We spent the afternoon in their lessons, experiencing the unique ‘Harkness Method’ – a style of teaching which stimulates debate and discussion. This was

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perfect preparation for our debate filled conference.

Leaving New Jersey, we headed for DC – making final touches to our position papers and doing some last minute research.

Having worked and trained for months, the coach was filled with excitement, with an undertone of anxiety. We arrived at the hotel very tired, and were keen to sleep (only after meeting fellow delegates and showing off our accents).

HIGHS AND LOWS The first day of conference started at 9AM. We all showed up to our committee sessions, and started to debate, all of us using different negotiating tactics – some aggressive, some passive. After a long day of debate, we returned to our suite and discussed how our respective days went. We coached and mentored each other, and laughed and cringed about how the day went.

The succeeding days of conference saw high and lows, and it was the most educational experience of my life. I learnt how to deal with immense pressure, how to rely on other people and most importantly, how to get a few hours’ sleep under huge amounts of stress.

The conferences, and the aftermath in the suite brought us together as

a group, and it was truly a life changing experience.

EYE-OPENING The conference in DC, the teaching at Lawrenceville, and the few days in New York were all an eye-opening experience. The intense atmosphere of conference allows you discover new sides to yourself you never knew existed.

Returning home, the whole team was more confident in themselves and the whole experience was enriching. Thanks got to Messrs Johnston, Fleming and especially Coltella for organising this incredible trip.

Will Tweedie

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as having a bit of free time in the historic town.

Loire Valley Trip 2018 – Year 8 The Loire trip was a combination of self-confidence, teamwork building and a way to develop our French skills in a secure and productive way.

Arriving at school at 5.40 am, we were overwhelmed by excitement.

The trip was 12 hours long, and we finally arrived on Sunday evening at our hotel in the town of Romorantin to a delicious three-course meal.

We proceeded to bed at ten but talked to our comrades until one in the morning.

tropical jungle with tall trees and a calm lake. We left Amboise for the animal park in Autrêche.

After having being amused by seven-year-old French children, we boarded the safari train. From large deer with antlers spanning one meter to bison weighing nearly seven hundred kilograms, this was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We returned to the hotel for the evening meal before playing football with Mr. Lawson on ‘Le Stade Tournefeuille’.

The next day we woke up to a modest breakfast and a blazing sun. At nine fifteen we left for Amboise on a one hour trip. We visited the Clos Lucé, Leonardo da Vinci’s house when he retired, then wandered through the gardens of this traditional French medieval manor. One area was significantly impressive, meant to represent a

Tuesday, we left the hotel for Romorantin, a short ten-minute walk where we could admire the French architecture, and have a chance to meet and talk with the local community. We then left for lunch at the hotel and the castle of Amboise. This was possibly my favourite activity as we learned a lot about French history as well

We woke up earlier than usual on Wednesday for the exciting Futuroscope. Futuroscope is a theme park based upon visual techniques. It has several 3D cinemas and a few 4D cinemas along with other attractions and shows, some of which are the only examples in the world.

On our final day, we visited the radio telescope at Nancay. We learned French terminology of the solar system and whether or not there was life in other planets and galaxies of our universe. This fitted very well with our current Science lessons. We left Nançay for the Caves troglodytes where the air was cool and refreshing.

After looking at different types of mushrooms, we were guided to the stone masonry village. This was a village constructed by two masons in hopes of keeping a memory of the beautiful stone that is worn down by acidic rain today. At five o'clock we left and headed for the Leclerc Supermarket in Romorantin.

On behalf of all those who went on the trip, I would like to thank all those who gave up their social time to accompany us, especially Mr. Renaudie who used his exceptional organization to make the trip go so smoothly.

Maxime Desbrousses www.skinners-school.co.uk

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Italy 2018 Making pasta in the village.

On a Sunday afternoon after a triumphant win for the England football team we embarked on a trip to Italy, 14 boys and 2 teachers. When we got to Italy we swiftly left the airport and picked up two hire cars for the journey through Rome and into the countryside, where we eventually arrived at Ornaro Alto, a village near Rome where we would stay at Mr Coltella’s parents’ house for the next few days.

making with the village expert, Elisabetta Aurelli in her home.

Nick Edwards was a bit of a pro and soon became the talk of the village with his newly found skill.

For dinner we went to Ristorante Le Coste in Ornaro Alto where we were given more weight in food than ourselves. For dessert we had ice cream cake which was nice however, the chef had had a happy day with the spirits to make the sponge which we found disgusting but incredibly funny.

We had a quick tour round the house finding the swimming pool which we enjoyed very much over the three days. Over excited, we all had a fair bit of problem getting to sleep and to Mr Coltella’s dismay it was about two o’clock before we finally slept.

The next day fuelled with our sugary doughnuts and croissants we travelled to Rome for the day where we saw sights such as the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, The Spanish steps and the Vatican City which were all amazing pieces of architecture. After the Vatican we were allowed free roam of the streets in the ‘Borgo’ where we got in a bit of a problem with a street seller who came round giving us ‘free’ bracelets which after we had put them on we found weren’t so free and he started following us in an attempt to either get money or his bracelets back which we found funny and slightly alarming at the same time.

We were woken up the next day where we went down to the village’s food shop where we were served with massive sugary doughnuts and sugary croissants which we all very much enjoyed devouring. We then went back to the house where we quickly left to go for a tour of Ornaro Alto which we learned about the village’s history and after pasta

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As a treat for all the walking we had done we sat down in Rome’s best ice cream parlour as Mr Coltella was related to the owner. Ned Hopgood braved the ‘rice’ flavour which he somehow enjoyed. On returning to the village, we again had dinner at Ristorante Le Coste, where we were again given the largest amount of food I had ever seen in one place. However, this time there was no ethanol cake as I liked to call it.

On the last day we again visited Rieti but this time underground where we were given a tour of the subterranean architecture, learning about Rieti’s history which was very interesting. This was followed by a trip to the largest man made waterfall in the whole of Europe. In the afternoon we had a swimming pool rugby game which ended with Jacob Kench screaming that there was a spider in the pool and quickly getting out.

A final trip to the airport where we bought gifts for our family members and then got on the plane. We arrived back in England at about 12:30am and by the time we got to school and then to our houses it was about 2 o’clock.

I can say from experience the next day at school was a bit of a struggle but thoroughly worth it for this great experience!

Will Murphy

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Avignon Exchange Will Randall After a very successful visit from the boys and girls of the Collège Champfleury in Avignon, during which many friendships had been forged, our trip to France had long been eagerly awaited. Despite an early start, spirits were still high when we touched down at Marignane Airport.

These were only slightly dampened by the unseasonal, misty rain and the distinct chill in the air when we arrived at Les Baux de Provence, a stunning, medieval, fortified castle and ‘village perché. Fortunately, by the time we arrived at Avignon, the skies had cleared and the mercury was rising.

The week passed only too quickly but highlights included a gastronomic episode in Les Halles, a bumble around the flea market, at which no weaponry was purchased, a few dance steps on the famous ‘Pont’ and a great day out to Marseille which included a boat trip out to the Chateau d’If and les Iles du Frioul.

Despite Matty’s dastardly efforts to scuttle Alfredo’s canoe, we made it safely down the Gardon and under the Pont du Gard – a stunning sight.

The stay ended in non-stop pool parties and feasting and it was

a weary but contented group

travelling companions. My

of young men who returned

personal thanks must be to

to Tunbridge Wells, Tintin

Matty Ingham and the boys

successfully smuggled out of the

that I accompanied for being

country. We were all also replete

absolutely model ambassadors.

with a number of memories that

Tremendously good company,

we will be able to enjoy for a long

they displayed all the qualities

time to come.

required to make the most of

Our thanks to Mme Marchenay

such a cultural trip – excellent

and her colleagues for organising

manners, brave efforts to speak

such a great trip and also to

French, eager curiosity and very

our friends and colleagues at

great good humour. Bravo, les

TWGGS for being such agreeable

jeunes gens!

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German Exchange Report Collated by Lenny Saville THEO HUGHES-WILSON On Friday morning, we had to get to school at 3 o’clock in the morning, which some pupils did not find pleasant, so that we could catch our very early flight. After 2 coaches and a flight, we arrived, and enjoyed a tour of Bonn.

That evening some of us went to a class barbeque where we could enjoy ourselves by looking at stunning views, playing football and being sociable. Everyone was very tired afterwards, ready to begin a weekend of activities that our hosts had organised.

LUCA SWINNERTON At the weekend, the Skinners’ group split up and we went to do various activities with our exchange partners. On Saturday, many of us went to Fantasieland (a very large theme park with great rides and adrenaline rushing rollercoasters). Others went to Aqualand (a great water park with pools and also saunas).

On Sunday, a large group of us went canoeing at a lake near to Cologne, and others went on trips to lakes, mountains, caves and more places near Cologne and Bonn.

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Overall, we all had a great time on that weekend and we got to know our exchanges and their families more but also what life in Germany is like.

LENNY SAVILLE After an adventurous weekend full of activities, on Monday, we were looking forward to trying a new watersport.

When we started the Waterskiing, we instantaneously knew if we were going to be bad or good at it. The Year 10s who went on the exchange last year completely showed the Year 9s up. By the end, all of us either gave up trying as we fell in straight away or going around many times having the time of our lives.

THOMAS NEALE On Tuesday we joined some of the lessons at BG with our exchanges. We then went to Beethoven’s House and then on to Kletterwald (the German version of Go Ape). When we got there, we found there were four levels of difficulty, so everyone could have a go and enjoy it.

This activity was great fun as

there was a lot of adrenaline due to the fact we were extremely high up. Even though it was a hot day, most of us completed it, followed by relaxing in the swimming pool, which also had a slide! The day was complete when we went to the shop to have ice creams! In the evening the England football match was on, so most of us watched that (we won that one, it could have been a bit awkward otherwise).

ALFIE HODGKINSON On Wednesday Skinners' met at the Bonn Train Station at 8 o'clock to travel to Cologne. After our long train journey, we finally arrived in Cologne. As soon as we stepped out of the overcrowded station we were in awe at the size of Cathedral to our left.

We then had a tour around the Olympic Museum which included activities such as ancient long jump. After we walked to the Lindt Museum, had a quick tour, and of course, brought some chocolate.

After, we had the choice to either go up the Cathedral’s tower or have some extra time to walk around Cologne.

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THEO HUGHES-WILSON Determined to squeeze every last second out of our time, we took a train up the mountain to Drachenfells, a castle on top with a viewing platform.

The river below and the hills to our left were amazing, and after a short walk, we arrived at a pool to swim in.

Those who wanted to, dived and rode the flume endlessly.

After a couple of hours, we took a boat back to Bonn to look at the history of Germany. After learning about Germany’s past, we began the journey to the airport.

After a small delay, we took off from KĂśln airport and landed in London Stansted. All in all, it was a brilliant trip and one we would all definitely repeat.

What a fantastic weekend was had by all in the Cologne Christmas Markets.

59 Year 7 students took part in the trip at the end of November to experience the Christmas Markets in Cologne and Dusseldorf.

From ice skating, visiting the cathedral and shopping in traditional markets, all students thoroughly enjoyed themselves and gained a great deal from the weekend including learning lots of new vocabulary.

Jenny Hubbard

Trip to Sicily During October half term, 49 Year 11 students travelled to Sicily. They had the opportunity to see volcanoes and historic towns, together with dramatic coastlines and gorges. Highlights included a trek over fresh lava fields on Etna and tubing down a river.

Thanks to Mr Adams, Mr Fleming, Mr Bannister, Mr Bee, Miss Fryer and Miss Lowe for helping to make it a very successful trip.

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TRIPS

Year 7 trip to Battle and Pevensey We started the day by going to the battlefield behind Battle Abbey. Mr Clucas gave us a very informative talk about how the battle unfolded, including lots of interesting facts. He also got us to re-enact the battle, by running up the hill imagining we were fully armoured with our schoolbags simulating the weight they had to carry.

We then were allowed to have free time to go and explore the Abbey grounds, including the ruined monastery, and the sight of King Harold’s supposed death.

We were also lucky to have a guided tour.

After lunch, we travelled to Pevensey Castle where we learned about the stages of the castle being built, including the Roman walls and medieval battlements. We were given

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freedom to roam and allowed to explore the castle further, completing a quiz whilst we went around. There were real cannons with cannon balls and flooded dungeons which I found very interesting. We all had a very interesting day with lots of facts that we could take back to our lessons.

Leo Kilner

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city from a Nazi Germany, WW2 and Cold War context.

Krakow The History Department took a group of A level History students to Krakow for a three day residential trip in October 2017. The group completed a series of thought provoking and once in a lifetime visits focused on the origin and nature of the Holocaust.

The visit started with a walking tour of Krakow, taking in many sites including Krakow Castle and Cathedral and the Jewish Ghetto, followed in the evening by a traditional folklore evening, comprising Polish cuisine and dancing in a local restaurant.

Ypres In November 2017 Year 9 embarked on the long trip to Belgium via Eurotunnel to learn about the fascinating history behind the Battle of Passchendaele (the Third Battle of Ypres). After we arrived and split into groups, we had the opportunity to visit the many battlefield sites and cemeteries around Ypres.

These locations included the ‘Passchendaele Memorial Museum 1917’ which had a large range of fascinating military memorabilia, personal objects and documents, and a variety of

The following day we visited the two Auschwitz Camps, Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp, both of which give an unforgettable insight in to the experiences of those caught up in the Holocaust. A visit to the Schindler Factory museum took place on the final day.

The city, in sweltering heat, was hard work but as memorable as ever and the 72 boys were impeccable and inquisitive.

Doug Clucas

Berlin In July, Year 10 students put up with missing the World Cup Final in order to undertake a three day visit to BERLIN, looking at the

WWI related archaeological finds and relics.

These provided a highly interesting insight into the painstaking life of a soldier and what weapons the combatants used to wipe out the enemy. We even had the opportunity to look around some trenches to experience the many hardships that the soldiers faced on the Western Front in their crude living conditions.

We also went to the incredibly moving Tyne Cot and Langemark cemeteries where 22,108 men were buried. At Tyne Cot we could even research the men who gave their lives for their country and what awards they had received after their deaths.

To round off the day we were permitted to go the ‘Leonidas’ chocolate shop in Ypres and after purchasing as much chocolate as we could carry we started our long journey back to England and arrived at 9pm back at Skinners’ School.

Hal Smalley www.skinners-school.co.uk

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CCF Annual Report RAF cadets were at the Tunbridge Wells cemetery in July to play their part in unveiling a monument to mark the 100th anniversary of the RAF and honouring 24 WW1 and 2 WW2 pilots buried in that cemetery, including Captain J.L.Fowke, who was a science teacher at Skinners’ and i/c CCF in the seven years before WW2 broke out.

With another year passing, the Senior Non-Commissioned Officers in Year 13 have striven to build on the impressive legacy of last year’s Skinners’ Combined Cadet Force.

With a successful year of combining the Army and the RAF sections comes another year of intense training, team-based competition, and adventurous activities. One of the oldest CCFs in the country, originally founded in 1901 as an Officer Training Corps, is widely presented by a proud, 200-strong contingent under the expert eye of the Officers, RSM Bowness (Army) and CWO Nicholson (RAF).

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FIELD DAY, as every year, was a huge success. Whilst the Army cadets’ faces gleamed with cam-cream as they engaged in Basha building and section battle drills, RAF cadets flew over Pippingford Park in a Chinook helicopter from RAF Halton.

The CCF has prided itself on its conduct and engagement in field activities, and this had not gone unnoticed, with Skinners’ old-boy Sqn Ldr Charlie Young, who appeared from the Chinook, describing the contingent as “thriving”. Field Day ended with a 48-hour exercise, where recruits and NCOs alike took part in battle drills and night exercises, improving teamwork

and leadership skills.

“Field Day was a great experience; it enhanced my leadership skills and really improved my teamwork.

Within half an hour, I had flown in a Chinook helicopter and organised recruits into groups for a navigation activity” – Cpl Theodore Tebay.

As well as Field Day, the CCF have embarked on a number of other trips throughout the year.

The contingent have participated in RECRUIT RISING, SMP and various other weekend exercises. Recruits and NCOs have fired rifles (both live and blank), whilst our school shooting team defeated the

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FIELD DAY – 16TH MARCH

‘Old Boys’ in the annual Old Boys shooting competition, with special congratulations going to Semih Altinpinar for his nearperfect shooting. We awaited the beloved annual camp, this year taking place in Crowborough, where cadets packed all they had learnt into an action-filled week of training. A number of seniors had returned (safely) from Dartmoor, a week-long leadership exercise, whilst four members of the Senior Company attended a leadership course, ACLC, in the summer.

THE REMEMBRANCE DAY PARADE in the centre of Royal Tunbridge Wells is the highlight of many a cadet’s time during the CCF. Led by C.Sgt Cross bearing the flag, 20 Army cadets and

10 RAF cadets paid respects to those fallen in the World Wars on behalf of the school and the contingent, making for one of the most spectacular parades in the school’s history. RSM Bowness laid the wreath on behalf of the contingent, whilst our very own Major Kelso laid the Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment wreath.

Although battling the harsh Great British weather, officers have tried their hardest to secure the best opportunities for all cadets. With weekend exercises cancelled due to torrential snow, and difficulties in the organisation of annual camp, the army recruits have remained strong and always battled the tasks posed to them with a smile on their faces. We thank Major Kelso and SSI 2Lt

Nathan Blaker and Flt Sgt Tom Moffat pictured with two trophies which are presented annually to outstanding CCF cadets.

Tom is holding the Jose Beddoe Cup, presented to a Senior Cadet NCO who has played an outstanding role in the leadership of the contingent. Nathan is holding the Royal British Legion Cup, presented to the Senior Company cadet who performs best in the tests that make up the Army Proficiency Certificate.

Thorpe for their hard work and commitment to the difficult circumstances they have faced this year.

In February, a group of 13 RAF cadets took part in the AIR SQUADRON TROPHY COMPETITION, battling in disciplines such as fitness,

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shooting, first aid, RAF knowledge and, perhaps most importantly, drill. The first team ever entered from Skinners’, led

by CWO Charles Nicholson, came 5th in the South East overall and 3rd in drill. We look forward to winning the national competition in the next few years! Special thanks go to Sqn Ldr Coltella and CI Simon Thomas, engaging the team in strict training sessions to better themselves; not to mention Plt Off Godman, who put forward his organisational skills to make sure the competition went ahead. The RAF has also secured funding (a huge thanks to the Parents’ Association) for a flight simulator to make for exciting and interesting training.

Charles Nicholson on the nwe RAF flight simulator -– Feb 2018.

Left: James Quill demonstrates a virtual reality simulator to Prince Edward at the RAF 100th anniversary celebrations.

CCF AIR SQUADRON TROPHY COMPETITION

The CCF welcomes a new wave of officers into the contingent.

Acting Pilot Officer Sarah Champneys has offered her expert organisational skills to the RAF section, whilst we welcome 2Lt Bridgland and Lt Bell to the section as full-time officers. As usual, we thank all of the officers for their dedicated support to the CCF, and thank the SNCOs leaving us for their continued commitment. Whilst we wave goodbye to the SNCOs expertly leading the contingent last year, the CCF welcomes new leadership from last year’s JNCOs. Oliver Peach takes the baton (or the pace stick, more correctly) as the Regimental Sergeant Major of the contingent, and Alexander Galpin takes the reigns of Cadet Warrant Officer of the RAF section.

14 cadets from Skinners’ CCF RAF Section took part in the CCF Air Squadron Trophy competition at RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire.

This was a two day event that included teams from all over the South East of England.

RSM Ed Bowness

Rob Godman

www.skinners-school.co.uk

The purpose of the competition is to test and identify the top three teams in five disciplines, being drill, RAF knowledge, shooting, air recognition, and first aid. Drill is the most keenly contested and probably the most difficult. The Skinners’ team came third in drill, and fifth overall in the whole of the South East including London, an outstanding achievement, given that our team trained for only five weeks, whereas other competitors will have been in training since September. The cadets' behaviour was exemplary throughout, and the highest standards were maintained by everyone. This has put the Skinners’ RAF Section “on the map”: a case of Ad Astra Ultraque!

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Annual Camp This year’s annual camp took 40 cadets to Crowborough Training Camp. The week began with multiple days of intensive training including canoeing, mountain biking, clay pigeon shooting and an assault course.

This year’s camp included a 24-hour tactical period which took place at Pippingford Park in Ashdown Forest.

Here we learnt multiple military strategies including compound clearing. The week concluded with competition day where we had to use the skills which we had acquired to compete for the best contingent. Our team won the mountain biking competition and came second in drill and medics, coming joint 2nd overall, with Maidstone Grammar coming 1st and our main competitor Judd finishing in 10th place.

Alex Bush

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Dartmoor 2018 Easter 2018 saw a small number of Year 12 NCOs visit Dartmoor for a week of intensive teambuilding, orienteering and hiking that challenged and tested them to their limits. The week- long exercise would truly put them through their paces, as they battled with snow, rain, cold and fog, as well as complex orienteering, to navigate the unforgiving terrain.

The exercise started with the group being split into two teams, and a day’s hike over hills and through bogs, set the scene for the week to come. Those with inadequate waterproofing soon felt the effects of the lashing rain, and everyone was thrust in at the deep end, navigating under thick fog and through waterlogged grassland. Exercise Dartmoor Leopard was a week to test the cadets, but from the first day it was evident that it would not defeat them.

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As the week progressed, the exercises became more ambitious, engaging in a 24-hour exercise as another Dartmoor storm rolled in, and working together to shelter from the weather and support each other.

Leadership and confidence amongst the team developed quickly, and notable action by Cpls Reed-Fulcher and Simms proved invaluable in protecting those others who suffered unduly the effects of the rain and cold. As the NCOs returned to their billets for a hot meal, tired and weary, a profound sense of determination swept the group. As we felt firsthand the effect of the weather on our kit and our bodies, the need for effective organisation quickly developed, and we all soon found ourselves setting out kit the night before an expedition and checking for anything out of place, and working together to share kit and give advice.

The next few days saw the cadets engaged in a number of individual and teambuilding activities, such as a high ropes course, climbing at a local Royal Marines base and problem solving tasks, and had a lot of fun and success. Having recovered from the early exercises and having developed incredibly well, the JNCOs took to the hills once again. Up and down tors, through bogs and across grassland, through rain and sun, the two teams performed admirably, with effective teamwork and a strong sense of belonging driving them forward. The ability of the team to adapt to any circumstance was perhaps best demonstrated in those final two days, with one night spent in the unexpected comfort of a local hostel, since the designated campsite was waterlogged, and the next spent in tents by a flowing river. Each night, team members would

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share stories about their day and joke about the weather; it seemed as if the apparent determination of Dartmoor to undermine the team morale only increased it.

Dartmoor was an incredible trip for all involved. Throughout the week, the cadets were put under pressure and given increasing responsibilities, whether it was planning the route for the next day or being team leader for a particular activity. The ambition to not be defeated was almost palpable, and I’m sure the officers were just a little surprised to find us laughing and listening

to music in our billets after a hard day’s walk and little sleep.

But the success was not only demonstrated in the field, where the teams effectively navigated the terrain with every member supporting one another, but also in the leadership and teamwork activities that were completed.

From giving speeches, organising plays and solving difficult problems, every cadet proved himself a capable and worthy member of the Skinners’ CCF, and I can say without a doubt that we all progressed as leaders and as team members. The JNCOs had endured physical and mental

strain the likes of which they had never seen before, but had come out with an unrivalled sense of camaraderie and achievement.

All of this could not have been achieved without the incredible dedication from all the officers involved, principally Captain Smith with help from Major Holding, Second Lieutenant Thorpe and CTT Sergeants Dip and Subash, who made the trip such a success. The memories of Dartmoor will undoubtedly live on in our minds for many years to come.

CSM Tom South www.skinners-school.co.uk

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Duke of Edinburgh

Charles Nicholson, Joel Dommett, comedian, and Matt Newton at Buckingham Palace.

Duke of Edinburgh Award continues to thrive, teaching boys qualities of collaboration, stamina, resilience and character, and setting challenges that they continue to rise to without fail.

The rewards were seen at Buckingham Palace in the spring, when Charles Nicholson and Matt Newton were the first Skinners’ boys since we reentered the DofE fold to receive their Gold awards (from, as it happens, Prince Andrew).

Over the May Bank Holiday weekend, nine Year 12 students (Dan Johnston, Tom South, Chae Macdonald-Gay, Max Cherry, Oscar Brown, Alfie Read-Fulcher, James Stoney, David Fullbrook, Henry Sikorski), completed their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award Practice Expedition. The lads trekked for four days in the heat,

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enjoying the incredible South Wales scenery, overseen by Claire Fenton.

In June 100 Year 10 pupils completed successful Bronze award hikes, whilst later in the same week over 50 Year 11s did their practice hikes in the sweltering heat in Ashdown Forest.

The school has now become a DofE licence holder: the next stage in the development of this remarkable discipline. Many thanks to the large number of staff who give so much support over the school year.

Julian Metcalf

Silver D of E boys watching England v Belgium in Ashdown Forest.

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Bronze DofE boys pictured at Kent’s Swattenden Centre.

Scenes from the Gold DofE hike in Wales.

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ADVENTURE

Borneo 2018 In July 2018, 36 Skinners’ Sixth Form students and 5 teachers completed a 3-week expedition to Borneo involving diving, conservation work, volunteering and trekking.

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Operation Wallacea 2017 A few pictures of the Operation Wallacea trip to Ecuador last summer. They do not do justice to the phenomenal amount of scientific research carried out but they do give a sense of the glorious scenery and the fun to be had when you are doing something serious.

Claire Fenton

Finland And a few pictures of the trip to Finland undertaken by Year 11 students.

Students took part in camping, fishing, trekking and snow-shoeing close to the Arctic Circle.

Rob Hardy

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Rugby reports U15 Rugby team – mud bath! Inset right: Ollie Daniels.

1ST XV It has been a ride, gents.

Turbulent but unforgettable, 8 games won. 12 games lost. A mixed bag. 406 points scored, at 18.5 a game on average, with 6 games lost within a score. We were robbed of a victory against RGS Guildford, came incredibly close to Eltham College at the second attempt, took a strong win from Christ’s Hospital and encountered some ‘interesting’ refereeing throughout the year (though we often also managed to make situations difficult for ourselves).

We came steaming out of the blocks against Judd, the better side when we hadn’t been given a chance; we had a 10-7 lead at

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half time. We produced some memorable performances for the school, typified by our performance at Paarl, but perhaps most fittingly by our 14-12 victory against Campion in our last ever game at Southfields, back where it all began in front of the pavilion, after Rory Holmes’ concussion forced us to move pitches.

From broken shoulders to dislocated thumbs to jarred backs to KO’s, our season was riddled with injury, meaning plenty of boys got a chance to step up, and deliver. We kept on fighting, in typical Skinners’ fashion, as the “plucky little state school taking on the giant independent schools” as James Gardner would put

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it. Regardless of who was on the pitch, we all stepped up and never gave up, even in the face of some of the strongest sides in the country. From the Brintons, James Gardner, Jake Grady and Harrison Chapman, who have played top tier school rugby from Year 7, to myself, Max Murphy, Anthony Storkey, Ben Isbell and Harry Boorman, later additions to the A team scene, a collective effort has been made down the years to consolidate Skinners’ reputation as best we can. We all benefited from having the likes of Ben Chapman and Ollie Daniels

from Year 12 in the side this year to name a couple, but we laid the foundations for a very strong and respectable side.

words of wisdom will never leave us, especially that, “our defence has to be like a net...it can’t have any holes in it”.

However, one man rose above the rest to pave the way for us to develop as both players and boys, from Cape Town to Gravesend, and for that, we owe Jerv a lot.

The man’s patience and frustration and excitement and celebration reflected the performances and heart we showed, reminding us all of the importance of learning from defeat and showing grace in victory when it came. And as we progress through our rugby careers, his

And although this may be merely a summary of this 1st XV season, we do not leave the fortress forgetting the passion shown down the years by a variety of players, coming and going: Josh Mistry, Felix Meulenkamp, Harry Gripper, Tom Midgley and, of course, Jonny Shepherdson. We thank Mr Jervis for his guidance and constant commitment and on a personal note, thank you boys – it’s been the dream.

The latter stages of the season saw a great deal of experimentation with personnel in anticipation of next season. Undeniably this brought troubles to team organisation and cohesiveness of the group. As such Eltham College, Campion and Chislehurst & Sidcup posed stiff opposition.

relates to that shown in the Judd game where all of the squad stood up in the face of adversity and left their ‘all’ on the pitch.

Ben Brannan

2ND XV With good, strong performances on tour prior to the season it was hoped that cohesion would already be in-built. After the opening 45-14 win at home against Langley Park it looked like we would be heading towards a fruitful season.

However, with a narrow defeat of 14-19 to Eastbourne College and a scrappy affair with John Fisher, the losses started to mount. The team performed more heartily against a Cranbrook ‘A’ team and certainly showed character in their performance away at Judd. An unfortunate injury in the latter fixture started to swing the balance in the favour of the old foe in what was up to that point a close tug of war finishing 19-10. This was backed up by good performances against Emanuel and King’s Canterbury later in the season. These were interspersed by some dogged games against Brighton College and KCS Wimbledon.

It is hoped that whilst score-lines did not necessarily reflect the passion and dedication shown to training, the players were offered opportunities to develop their character. The character spoken of

To paraphrase a proverb (particularly for those Year 13s leaving at the end of the year), the aforementioned character will give you the moral fibre and strength to change the things you can, the experience and education to accept the things you can’t, and (with any luck) the wisdom to know the difference.

Fergus McIntosh www.skinners-school.co.uk

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3RD XV The season began in the bright optimism associated with a new year. Fresh faces on the team sheet despite the same steady hand at the helm in the form of Mr Fleming. Although hopes were high, one can never be sure of success until the first ball is kicked. As such, there were nerves when we began the season on the opulent grounds of Tonbridge School.

However, any fears were soon made to appear foolish as Skinners’ started as we meant to go on.

A wave of black and red hounded out the ill prepared Tonbridge side and we took an early lead which we would maintain for the rest of the game, running out convincing winners. Next up was the arguably tougher test of Eastbourne College. Compounding the level of difficulty was the loss of some of the stars of our convincing win over Tonbridge, whose rapid promotions to the second team left us depleted. Once again, Skinners’ battled through this adversity and passed the test with a style that made us dare to dream. Could this be a special season?

Unfortunately, the captain was unavailable for the third game of the season against John Fisher. Despite being down and appearing out at half time, Mr Fleming’s half time team talk inspired a comeback and we ran out 40-26 victors. Now the season was truly underway.

Thoughts were beginning to turn towards Juddment day, yet one more test stood before us.

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Cranbrook. Playing their second XV, it would have been possible to be intimidated by the occasion.

Again, the side confounded expectations as we won 28-5 without much trouble.

4 wins from 4 but all that would be for nought if we lost our 5th match of the year. The Judd match is never a game decided on form, often more on grit and determination. Thankfully, alongside the speed and skill of our backs and the power and strength of our forwards existed a tight togetherness and desire to win. Exemplified by our defence even when we struggled to get a cohesive attack going, Skinners’ refused to buckle and never let Judd past our try line. Final score Skinners’ 18 - 3 Judd.

The post Juddment day fall in intensity is to be expected, although it was truly an impressive drop off for us as we were heavily beaten by Brighton next time out.

One step too far with a squad of only 15 and many playing out of position. We bounced back a week later though with a

14-7 defeat of KCS Wimbledon.

Another defeat followed by Reed’s School and our season was in danger of unravelling.

However, a defining characteristic of this team was its refusal to give up and from a personal perspective, by far the most impressive win of the year was against Kings Canterbury. Facing an aggressive side in a decidedly scrappy game where oftentimes the opposition looked to rile us into making a mistake, the team showed great discipline and a desire to play a free flowing Skinners’ brand of rugby at all times.

A slow start to our game with RGS meant we lost 19-17, but the highlight of the game came in the final minutes with the introduction of Harry Regan, whose debut for Skinners’ was well received by all.

Despite this end to the season, we finished winning 7 of 11 games and with a season that will create long lasting memories for a lot of us.

Will Hardwick

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abandoned last year.

This season saw us retain the Sixes and Sevens cup with a 29-7 win over Merchant Taylor’s, a great achievement with outstanding performances from Archie Barwick and Satoshi Purkiss. The game also saw our first official yellow card to date with Charlie Evans being sent

U16A XV This season has been our most successful yet, with wins over not only Judd (2214) but also Campion (15-12), Reed’s (17-5) and Eastbourne (48-29), a “fairly average” season as coach Keys would describe it.

The success of this season, I believe, has come from our ever improving defence with the

most points going against us being a questionable 31 against John Fisher. Our attack was flawlessly led by Finn Holden, with the team scoring a total of 350 points from 13 games, evidence of his good work.

One of our highest scoring performances was against Eastbourne College (48-29), a much awaited fixture due to Ollie Bingham single-handedly causing the game to be

off for collapsing yet another ruck on our try line. Thanks for taking one for the team Charlie.

Finally I would like to mention that we beat Judd at last, with tries from myself, Daniel Barber and Tom Lane finally showing that good will eventually triumph over evil, after 5 years of hurt and near misses. Perseverance pays.

Toby Ponsford quite survive a match refereed by his father.

Whilst we might have gotten lost around South London on the coach more than once, on the pitch the boys were at home, sensing out the weaknesses in back lines, understanding when and where to make their move. Tom Woollard and Billy Marsden became noted for their incredible breaks, at times resembling something out of Forest Gump, as they left the opposition in their wake.

U16B XV

determination to see off any

A season characterised by

U16Bs had become a team not

some unique set pieces,

to be trifled with, although one

touchline speeches and a

impassioned individual didn’t

challenge put in our way, the

The deftness of Chris Church’s footwork was only matched by legendary tackling from Shewan Harris, Nathan Pelc and Jono Newman who put their hearts and bodies on the

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›

line, no matter the odds against them. Unfortunately, in a friendly games session against the 3rd XV their bone cruncher got the better of Jono. Lending our prized number 12 to the U16As similarly saw him put out for the season, yet it wasn’t until 2 days later that Joe Evers realised that his wrist was broken. However, despite injuries, our ranks were never depleted, with our trusty stalwarts of Peter Holmes, Ted Peachey, Matt Edwards and Jamie Tucker joined by Jak Jago, moving down in order to be part of something special.

Despatching KCS Wimbledon 78-7 on a morning of torrential rain, on a pitch that came to resemble something out of the Somme, the boys’ spirit was high, edging towards a near perfect run of fixtures that had in previous years proved a challenge, with our Captain James Murphy kicking us home, time and time again.

Flexible and adaptable, not least with Conor O’Sullivan playing whatever role he was given, we succumbed to insurmountable odds in our final match against

Campion, where the defeat didn’t represent who the team had become.

The U16Bs are a team that never gave into fear or weakness but a team that gave way to heroes and inspirers; persistent and persuasive, digging a little deeper each time in order to find their best selves, even when it felt risky.

And when the season was over, the boys were not finished, finding a new outlet in a different sport (Hockey), so that their spirit and unity would live on.

James Coltella victories against Reed’s School (24-21) and Eltham College (1917), only to lose narrowly against Kings College School Wimbledon (15-22) in a fiercely contested match. The team’s season ended on a well-deserved high, beating Maidstone Grammar 48-0.

U15A XV After a disappointing loss in the first game of the season against a well-drilled Langley Park team, we responded with determination and hard work by winning our next 6 consecutive games, beating teams such as Eastbourne College and John Fisher. One of the wins included a convincing

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Standout performances go to Max Johnston scoring 100+ points with his boot, Russell Pooley and Harry Stafford who steam-rolled their way over the line, and Barney Stone with his elusive running and passing at the base of the ruck. victory over The Judd School (31-7) in an historic fixture.

Unfortunately, our winning streak came to an end as we lost 26-36 in the cup to Eastbourne, a team we had beaten earlier in the season.

Despite this disappointing loss, the team’s morale and momentum were not affected and we went on to win 7 out of our next 8 games. This included

Special thanks must go to Mr Watts who coached us through the season and to whom we are very grateful as he was able to shape 20 boys into an effective winning team. To our dismay, he has now moved on from The Skinners’ School but we all wish him and his family all the best for the future.

Ben Dufty

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lost the game and our lengthy unbeaten streak came to an end. Two games later, we lost our captain, Tom Forsdick, to a broken collar bone in the Brighton match. Following this we sustained more injuries which lead, inevitably, to a few more losses.

U15B XV We started the season continuing our undefeated streak which we had valiantly protected last season. Our first game was against Langley Park who always give us a good game. With our training squad at full strength and a 17-0 victory in this fixture, the team was feeling optimistic about our chances for the rest of the season. We continued to train

hard both on and off the pitch, leading to another 4 victories.

Then came Juddment day.

Having drawn to this side for the last three years the team came together and worked hard for each other. We won this game 10-5 bringing our undefeated streak up to 17 games (over 18 months).

The next game was to be played against the Reigate A Team.

Unfortunately, with one of our front row coming off injured we

Stand out players this year included Ciaran Hutchinson, playing the position of hooker with the pace of a winger and ferocity of a Number 8, Ollie Knudsen, whose spectacular miss passes won us many games, Ben Lake at full back who let no one pass him, and Owen Walker who always broke the line when no one else could. With all injuries healed we are very much looking forward to next season.

Tom Forsdick

U15C XV In the Under 15 Cs we started the season with an extraordinary game, beating Eastbourne College 52-0 with everyone making talented runs.

All the 3 games we lost were extremely close, however all the games we won, we were the dominant team, beating Reigate Grammar School 54-0, Brighton College 34-5 and of course the victory against Eastbourne.

Many of the boys have played exceptionally well this season including Jamie Williams who was a brick wall at fullback every game. The passing was quick out of the hands and down the line which allowed the captain

to score 8 tries this season, 4 of them being in the first game. Unfortunately, we lost on Juddment day but no one’s head went down. If we train even

harder and form a stronger, more solid side, we will surely come back with a victory next year.

Luke Partridge www.skinners-school.co.uk

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U14B XV The Skinners’ U14B team has improved massively from last year, winning 8 games, and with many close losses, it could have easily ended in a season with 9 or 10 victories out of 13.

U14A XV

team, and as always we had the mighty Nick Edwards.

The U14s season started with some tough fixtures and some new opponents with the arrival of some private schools. Our new coach, Mr Beck, had his work cut out getting us fit and ready for the upcoming season.

A great game against Langley Park saw us win 32-27 followed by a resounding win against Eastbourne College. Judd in another nail biting match saw us losing by just three points; we’ll get them next year boys.

The end of our season saw us beating the Kent runners-up and drawing with the Kent champions.

As the 15s season closed, the 7s season was just beginning.

All the boys were very excited and had very high hopes of what was to come. Our high hopes were not disappointed coming second in Kent, and then winning at Beths. We’ve loved playing this season and are all excited for next year and the new challenges of the national cup.

This team is now going from strength to strength and we have had some outstanding performances, notably from Alex Pincott scoring most of our tries at his newly found position at fullback. Finan Smith has undoubtedly proved to the team that he can kick a rugby ball, Joe Ryder has improved massively throughout the season and has become a huge asset to the

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Jack Ponsford

Alex Pincott

The season began very strongly with two big wins against Langley Park and Eastbourne College, the 66-19 win over Eastbourne being notable as it was our first time against them. This winning streak was cut short against a very strong John Fisher on their home ground. Two more wins against Cranbrook and Brentwood before our biggest game of the season against Judd: there was only a try in it and I believe next time we will be able to beat them!

Our next game against Brighton College proved to be a turning point: with our new pick and go tactic using our powerful pack we managed to squeeze a victory out against a team that we have struggled to beat in the past.

Next up we had a run of 4 games against opposition we would normally find strong and we came out on top in 2 of them with close losses in the others. We ended the season with a strong win against Maidstone Grammar who had beaten us the previous season.

Notable mentions go to Luke Walter for scoring 3 good tries against Maidstone to finish the season; Ed Bowyer, usually a flanker, scoring an amazing try on the wing against Canterbury; Jonah Houghton for his huge tackle against a Reed’s School second row; the forwards for the

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so many people in the Maidstone game and being an amazing vice-captain; James Muir, Josh Ilsley, Monty C-J, Dan Brice for their huge contribution to the backs and to Luke Walter, Ali Williams, Jed Jago, Matthew Whittaker, Jack Marnane, Fin Rice, Andreas Purse and Tom Vincent for how hard they worked in the forwards. Thank you everyone for an amazing season and thank you to all the supporters and Mr Glendinning pick and go tactic bringing many

Marnane for not breaking his

tries throughout the season; Jack

own ankles after side stepping

for coaching.

Ben Fearon in defeat, to Judd and Brighton.

U14C XV A season, if not of unbroken success, at least very consistent improvement and a bunch of players who were a delight to be with from start to finish. Whether we had 21 or 10 players for any given fixture (and the numbers did vary that wildly) the attitude was the

same: go forward, run fast, pass the ball and tackle. And when we passed it to Aleks Raffelt, usually he scored.

There was only one weak performance, a heavy defeat at John Fisher. Otherwise there were big wins against Eastbourne and King’s Canterbury, closer victories over Eltham and Reed’s and strong performances, albeit

Captaincy duties were shared between the two Theos, Norton and Whittingham, who were consistently the strongest performers on the pitch, ably supported by the rangy running of Aleks Raffelt, the smiling assassin in the front row that is Oscar Chatfield and Ben Brown sniping from full back.

The other regulars were Hugo Barraud, Tom McConnell, Jacob Buss and Matthew Coomber (forwards to strike fear into most opposition in the south-east), Jasper Pottier (the ultimate utility player), and sinewy backs in Conor McIntosh, George Counsell, Henry Gillespie and Alfie Hodgkinson. Alfie took up rugby in October and became rather good at it, which sort of embodies what the U14C team should be about.

Edward Wesson www.skinners-school.co.uk

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U13A XV After an introductory season to secondary school rugby in Year 7, this age group moved up to a new level of rugby in Year 8.

The U13A team was coached by a fantastic Mr Pursglove who selected me as captain of the A team (a real honour for me), and a side mixed with experienced and rookie players, all in his vision, all with great potential.

He created a very forceful side

with power, pace and discipline which went on to win 9 out of 11 games, scoring 405 points and conceding just 95.

One of our highlights of the season was when we toured to Paris where we learned to trust our team mates and be more aggressive, as we played U14 and U15 teams and had our ups and downs during the matches on this exhilarating tour.

had arranged us to have training sessions that helped the team’s trust and friendship creating a better platform to play rugby. Mr Pursglove’s hour long coaching every Thursday paid off in our results and helped all the players to improve collectively and individually every week. However, our main weakness as a squad remained having very poor starts to our games, resulting in the 2 defeats suffered this season, as our opponents scored too many points against us early in the first half – we weren’t switching on fast enough, leaving us to fight back in the second half – we did however use this opportunity to show them what the Skinners’ U13A rugby team is about.

Henry Dufty

During the season Mr Pursglove

U13B XV The 2017/18 rugby season was perhaps the most astonishing season of rugby I’ve ever played whether for school or club. After being steamrollered in every game in Year 7, we decided it was time to change.

We had a new coach, a new team and a new mind set. This season has truly showed me that anything is possible if you really try and pull together.

Our playing style went from

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mindless back-pedalling to champagne rugby. What do I mean by champagne rugby? I mean fluid, calm yet ruthless attacks and a very competent defence. Unfortunately, I can’t mention the whole team of individual players but there are some to draw attention to. I would like to commend Gregor Pauling for his dedication and his slightly terrifying commitment to tackles. Tom Colson, Louis van Oordt and Monty Cunliffe for being top try scorers. Particular congratulations to Louis for being promoted from the Cs. The Watkins twins and

Tom Idden for being a ruthless front three and mostly to Kit Roberts, for all his inspirational pre-match speeches that gave us a good laugh.

We were undefeated in all our competitive games, which is a feat that all of us worked hard for. We only had one pre-season friendly that we lost to John Fisher, a school renowned for their rugby. It was a somewhat controversial game that all of us believe we should have won. But the highlight of the season was surely our game against Judd where we steamrolled them 35-5.

We were the only Year 8 team

to come out on top. Our win was a classic rugby moment that I will never forget.

A big thank you to Mr Lawson for coaching us through a season undefeated. I thank all my teammates for putting up with me as captain, Josh Taylor for being vice-captain, and I hope to continue our amazing form into Year 9.

Seb Bentley

against Emmanuel School with a respectable score of 55-15.

We ended the season with an incredible game against King’s College School (KCS) in which we won 50-0.

U13C XV

Langley Park School for Boys with a close score of 25-20.

The U13C Team had a very

However, this confidence declined after two unsatisfying defeats against John Fisher School (0-50) and The Judd School (20-70).

strong season this year and have made great progress in all aspects of the game, especially in our communication on the pitch. We gained lots of confidence after beginning the season with a win in a challenging match against

Throughout the season we have greatly improved and scored some fantastic tries. Thank you to Mr Angus for guiding and supporting the team throughout this tough but enjoyable season. Your encouragement and positivity has helped us immensely. Everyone has performed well this year and I’m sure that we are all looking forward to next season!

Nick Semple

We managed to bring back some hope after achieving a draw against Brentwood School (15-15) and then winning

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U12A XV – THE LEOPARDS The season for the year 7A team has been a challenging one. Whilst only winning 3 games in the season it was not quite the start they were looking for in the first year playing rugby for Skinners’.

However, there were a number of reasons for this.

Having won the first game against Langley Park (35-5) they went into the Judd match hoping for a win after an excellent comeback to draw level against Brentwood School. They knew

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Judd was going to be very tough but had not anticipated that one of the Judd team boys had taken out our very quick winger at a football game less than a week before the game by breaking his leg. This meant that Skinners’ had to change not only the team’s tactics but also the team’s composition in the few remaining days before the game.

One of the reasons that I enjoyed playing so much with the team was because everyone in the team really wanted to be there and to play their best rugby. This was our first season playing together, unlike a lot of the schools we played against,

where the boys had all come up through their junior school playing as a team for a few seasons before. Whilst many of our team demonstrated their strengths on the pitch, one player W'dron Kundu stood out by scoring lots of tries and was somebody who had never played rugby before he came to Skinners’. He even started off playing in the “F” team. Another strong player was Conrad Sykes he is someone who was never afraid to tackle anyone, even the largest player on the opposing team, despite the fact that he was often the smallest player on the pitch.

I am looking forward to playing with them all in next year’s matches where hopefully we can improve on our win record.

I would especially like to thank Mr Jervis, Mr Watts and Mr Ingman for their help and support during the season to ensure that we were not only prepared for the game but also for taking us to the games and supporting us whilst we played. And of course, my fellow team players.

Rowan MacDonald-Gay

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shock to the system as we hadn’t really been crushed into the mud much before. Despite the odds, we came out of the first couple of games as the victor. The matches quickly increased in difficulty, especially against our bitter rivals, Judd. As the season progressed and the weather worsened, so did our results, with only a narrow win against Chislehurst and Sidcup to boost morale on the dark winter afternoons.

U12B XV – THE LIONS What an amazing first season as a Skinners Lion! We won some, we lost some, but most of all we became a team.

When we first started playing rugby, the training sessions seemed long, brutal and freezing

cold. However it quickly changed from being a trudge up to Southfields, to a race to get started.

Some of us had played before, most of us hadn’t. Quickly we picked up the techniques and passing down the line started to fall into place.

Despite all of this, we did not let our heads drop. We trained harder, we bonded closer, and this paid off, not conceding any tries in the final two games of the season to end on a high.

We can’t wait to kick off next season, bigger, better and stronger than before. We are the Lions: hear us roar!

Alex Timms

Our first matches came as a

Mud baths!

Above: U16B team Left: U15B team

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what to do every two minutes.

The friendship of the team is great. As we came from different backgrounds we worked hard to learn each others’ strengths and weaknesses well so we knew how to execute set plays effectively.

The highlight of the season was when we won against Judd. It was a close match with us only winning by one try. That was the moment I think we proved ourselves as a strong team that was not to be messed with.

THE BEARS The C team this year have played amazingly. We have developed a real family feel and hope to keep that going heading

into year 8.

Mr Ingman played a big part in why we did so well. He gave us different drill ideas to the point where we could warm up and get ready for the match without him telling us

We were a team of mixed ability but we all have one thing in common: we all had a passion for rugby and were very proud to represent Skinners’.

Henry Bevan against Brentwood in a narrow 20 – 15 victory. In our next match we played a strong Judd team and we lost 65 – 5 but we bounced back against Reigate Grammar which we won 65 – 10.

In our penultimate match we faced off against an Eltham College team who were lacking in numbers, but the players they did have were very good and we lost 5 – 40. We were all worn out by the end of the season and lost our final game to the Maths School.

THE WOLVES In our first game of the season we played Langley Park, starting slowly as we had never played with each other before, but by the second half we were making a comeback.

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Unfortunately, we ran out of time and the final score was 45 – 25 to Langley Park.

In the second game we played a weaker Caterham School who we beat 50 – 0, although Mr Beck told us we had reached a score of 100.

We continued our winning streak

Well done to all the players that have played for us throughout our first season and a huge thanks to Mr Beck for supporting us through thick and thin. I hope we have another successful year next year and continue our great progress.

Freddie Wearne

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U16B after a 70 point thrashing of KCS Wimbledon

Harrison Tapp U15 team

U15B team U13 B team

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Stop press…

Skinners’ 1st XV won the Chairman’s Cup in October 2018 by virtue of defeating Judd’s 1st XV 18-12.

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rugby training to get better and better to become outstanding players.

THE SHARKS

happy being part of Skinner’s

This was an amazingly successful year. We progressed so much since the first term and are looking forward to next year!

contact rugby and learning the

I am sure that everyone was

trying really hard and attending

U13 RUGBY TOUR TO PARIS

rugby team and had fun playing different team games which could help you with your communication. Thanks to Mr Pursglove, our team has been

Our first matches were hard and brutal. However, as we got further on the year it became more of an exciting game were everyone was having fun. In our very, very first proper match we drew with Langley Park School but it felt that we should have won. Then we played Brentwood and then we played Judd and finished the season with a bit win against Eltham College. We all had different abilities and that’s why we make a very good team and it was fun to get better at the sport.

Next year we hope to see us moving up with some good games and strong results!

Blake Baker

U13 BERKHAMSTEAD 7S TOURNAMENT

36 Year 8s went on a development tour to Paris in October 2017, where they trained at Racing Metro and went to watch Stade Francais v London Irish.

They played 2 fixtures against Rosny-Sous-Bois and Sarcelles, playing their U14 sides. Whilst not winning either of the fixtures they more than held their own against older, bigger and quicker opposition but showed good development and improvement of their all round game.

Simon Jervis www.skinners-school.co.uk

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Cricket reports Dan Pascall

unlikely situation. Comfortable victories against Borden and Oakwood Park have boosted the record, though, and there was a determination within the team to put in complete performances in cricket week to show the true talent of the side.

1ST XI The Skinners' cricket season of 2018 has been stop-start with weather and exams interrupting proceedings. We have performed strongly as a unit with ball in hand and in the field, but have struggled to create partnerships and put runs on the board to compete.

This lead to defeats in the National T20 to both Tonbridge 68

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and Claremont, where strong bowling performances, notably from Ollie Daniels and Harry Gripper, could not be matched with the bat, despite explosive starts from the impetuous Hugo Williams.

This was the case again against Canterbury Academy in the county cup, where a valiant fielding and bowling display, including three wickets from Alex Galloway, almost clawed victory from an

This was certainly shown in the first three days of matches. An exciting game against Brighton College was narrowly lost by 2 runs, with Williams and Daniels scoring the bulk of the runs in the chase. Williams again showed his form with the bat, hitting a hundred against Judd in a comfortable 8 wicket victory. On Wednesday we played the league final against a strong Simon Langton side at Kings Hill cricket club. An excellent fielding performance, including some fantastic catches gave us a chance. But it was not to be as we fell 20 runs short. The week was completed with a T20 defeat to the Old Boys and a victory at Bidborough CC.

Clayton Pohio

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nature of the team’s coach. Pat Bilham started to look the part of a real all-rounder, George Grieve bowled some impressively accurate overs and Horatio Blackman proved physical and athletic and a steadying presence behind the stumps.

U15A The season began with a convincing victory over Wilmington Grammar School which saw the bowlers produce some tight overs and the top order batsmen make quick runs. Robert Braidwood impressed with a flurry of boundaries to secure the win.

As the season continued onward we achieved successful

wins against the likes of Royal Russell and Sevenoaks Schools and the team regularly fielded exceptionally to restrict strong batting sides and tensions often ran high.

Special mention goes to Ben Dufty with a string of high scoring innings, including 95 not out, and some seriously quick bowling spells. Jake Saxton captained the team with serenity despite the rather overly-excitable

How successful our season would have been without Oliver Knudsen’s wicket analysis (he was particularly accurate when considering Astro strips) is unknown but probably Oliver’s mind games are his greatest strength. All team members played their part again this year and another happy and memorable season came to an end in glorious sunshine.

The coach would like to take this opportunity to thank the Under 15s for their company, their enthusiasm, their good sense of humour (they laughed at nearly all his jokes) and their friendliness.

Will Randall

U15B – THE COBRAS The U15 season hissed into action for the Cobras and proved to be rather successful, with a 75% win record. Despite the lack of cricketing experience, and just two players having hardball experience, the Cobras spent some time improving their skills.

A convincing 10 wicket win came when rumour had spread

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over the West Kent district of Harry Child's death bowling (1 over and 6 wides) and Dan Brelsford's IPL style innings from the bat. Thus Trinity Sevenoaks were faced with two options: 1) cancel the fixture or 2) face the utter destruction of an inexperienced U15C cricket team. The former was understandably chosen.

A convincing win against St Olave’s set up a fairy tale ending to beat Brentwood in the last over with a heroic 59 not out from captain Lance Abbott who with qualities which embody Cobras cricket (passion, love of the game, valour, valiance, daring and leadership), led from the front and batted ferociously throughout the innings, despite this being his third game of cricket, his holding the bat incorrectly and his previous best being 4. James Challingsworth also hit a venomous 18 not out off 6 balls to win the game with just two balls remaining. The heroic Cobras Viper-ed a clean slate, and began Adder-ing up

"Every great story seems to begin with a Snake" – Nicolas Cage

points on the table in a strong finish to the season.

What started out as an excuse to miss athletics has

that these young snakes have become fully grown Cobras.

Calum Glendinning, King Cobra

transformed into a successful cricket team and it is now

U14A XI This year has been a frustrating year with many highs and the occasional low. After the glory of winning the Kent Cup Final in 2017, it was a blow when Mr Watts left at the beginning of this season. However the arrival of Mr Pohio and our longstanding coach Mr Pursglove have both positively impacted and improved our team.

Our first game of the season was in the cup against TWGSB

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which turned out to be an easy victory, thanks to good bowling performances notably from Ewan Pedder.

After another win against Dartford, with Jack Ponsford scoring 31 runs, getting 3 run outs and a wicket, we faced Judd in the 3rd round of the Kent Cup. Bowling first, we restricted them to 73 runs with Ewan Pedder getting a 5 wicket haul, and then with a couple of good batting partnerships Skinners’ knocked them off in 14 overs.

Next were Sevenoaks who conjured up 115 runs in their 20 overs, but with 30 runs from Ewan Pedder and a 50 from Ben Adams meant Skinners’ had four victories from four.

Following surprise defeats to Royal Russell and The Maths School, the team bounced back with a win against Cranbrook, with James Nicholson taking an impressive 4–19.

In the quarter-final of the Kent Cup

we faced St Olave’s. Batting first, Skinners’ scored a strong 121, with runs coming from Ben Adams and Ewan Pedder. However, our bowling was far better, with Jo Price and Will Murphy getting key wickets throughout the St Olave’s innings and Dan Brice getting three catches.

In the semi-final against Tonbridge School, sadly Skinners’ were skittled out for 61, the only highlight being a 55-run partnership between Nick Edwards and Ben Adams! Frustratingly we could only take four wickets before Tonbridge knocked the runs off and the dream of a repeat of last year’s Cup Final was over.

Our season ended positively though with victory against John Fisher with Ewan Pedder and Nick Edwards building a fantastic 150 run partnership.

Everyone this year has contributed to the team’s success and I would like especially mention Arthur Branch, Ben Boyman and Alfie

Glass who have consistently been the backbone without perhaps much recognition. A special mention must also go to Nick Edwards who has given 100% behind the stumps in every game and saved us in many matches.

Overall, I think this season has been disappointing – but only because we have such high expectations of our team and we feel we could have done better.

Consistent batting performances from Ben Adams and tight bowling from Ewan Pedder throughout the year have helped, but I think the two most improved players this year are James Nicholson and Jack Ponsford who have both developed their game.

I would like to thank all the players, coaches and parents who have helped and supported this team this year and we look forward to the 2019 season with our new cricket coach Mr Burrows!

Ben Adams

U14B XI This year whilst in training and during matches every player developed their skills.

We scored more runs than we previously would have and bowled more dot balls when fielding.

Even though we played just two matches (against St Olave's and Judd) both of which we unfortunately lost, the team still proved their worth and I am glad to have been a part of the team and look forward to next season.

Sam Bowen www.skinners-school.co.uk

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and Tommy Acraman batting very well in the run chase. The rest of the season was rather mixed.

Tom Mosley’s 100 would probably be the batting highlight of the season. There were some good contributions with the bat during the season from Dan Jones, Zak Austin, Ruairi Cummings and myself. Our bowlers proved to be strong at times with Nathan, Tommy, Felix Underwood, Henry Dufty

U13A XI

Dartford’s score. We then

We had a good start of the season winning our first cup match. In the second cup match we didn’t win having not been able to chase

making it to the final playing

entered the plate competition, St Olave’s which we sadly couldn’t win in spite of a Dan Pascall hat trick in the first innings and Nathan Brown

and Ashwin Anaad. There were also some great performances from Josh van Heerden and Will Russell. Harvey Galloway also kept wicket for us extremely well throughout the season.

Harvey Sherry saved many runs and took many wickets (Gregory 2 for 3, Hoch 1 for 9, Coombs 1 for 12, Russell 1 for 14 and Tate 1 for 15). Judd won by 3 wickets.

Our second game was against St. Olave's Grammar School and we lost by 4 wickets The final game a victory against Langley Park, Skinners’ scored 121 runs for 8 wickets, Langley Park scored 116 for 6 and we won the enjoyable game by 5 runs.

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U13B XI

Everyone should be pleased with

The 2017 Season for the U13B

season, with special thanks to

team was a short one, we only

Rahul Patel, William Russell and

played three games of which

Joshua Hoch with their brilliant

we lost two and won one de-

bowling, destroying top order

spite playing very well.

batsman. Thomas Mawhinney

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their performance during the

We all enjoyed this season thoroughly and would like to thank our coaches and all of our supporters who came and cheered us on. We all look forward next season and hope that we can all develop our cricket abilities even more.

Nick Semple

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against Brentwood School who we knew were very good as we had played them at rugby before.

However, we posted 131 using up all our overs and they were able to chase that down with 3 overs to spare. But this had not been an easy win for a team who have won all their matches so far.

Our next game was against John Fisher, who we held to 105 for 9, a brilliant bowling and fielding performance, but the task was to go on to bat really well and chase down their score with 2 overs to spare. A rewarding win!

U12A XI The U12’s cricket season has been great. While we have only played nine games we have won five of them and I am sure there is definitely something special within the team as they have only been playing together for about two months now. There have been a number of reasons for this success.

Narrowly losing the first game against Yardley Court in the cup was very tough as the first game.

Even though Skinners’ had put on a very creditable 134, they were able to chase it down with just two overs left to play. Going into the second game, a brilliant display of bowling and fielding kept Ravenswood to only 85 runs and Skinners’ were easily able to chase down that total.

Judd were, as we knew, a very strong team with several county players and so a victory against them was never going to be an easy task and the result showed that. The next game was a plate game against Ashford School and

we yet again kept them to a low total of 117, this meant that we needed to play slow but steadily.

We won this match well with 4 overs remaining. Our next game was against Royal Russell School.

We gave everyone in our team a chance to bat and to bowl and we set them a target of 136 runs. We bowled them out for 65 with five overs remaining.

EXAM BREAK The exam break caused the tem to lose not only our impetus but also our next game to St Olave’s.

We were kept to 116 and needed to bowl and field extremely well, something on this occasion, we were unable to do. In our next game against Rochester Maths we met a similarly strong team, but even though we put a really good performance with the bat we couldn’t quite win.

This made the team even more desperate to win against Langley Park and with all our grit and determination we proudly won a very tight game with only 1 over remaining. Our next game was

VERY TOUGH The following week we had to play Judd in the semi-finals of the plate, this was as we knew going to be very tough. However, we restricted them to 123 from all their overs. We then lost 3 early wickets in the first 5 overs. This meant that we were asking a lot from the lower order.

Unfortunately they were unable to get enough runs and so we exited the plate competition in a competitive game. The following day we went into the game at Gravesend desperate to win. We posted a very good score of 159 meaning they needed to get 8 an over to win. We were very tight in our bowling and fielding and kept them to 105.

FINAL GAME Our final game of the season against Sackville was one we really wanted to win. You always want to go out with a win! This desperation was clearly shown when they were 104 for 1 off just 9 overs! Something really had to

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change and within an over of our team talk it did. Our next couple of overs only allowed them to add just three to four runs to their score.

This meant they now had to hit big shots to set us a high target.

They were unable to produce any big scores and they also lost a wicket. The pressure had then changed to be on them. Wickets kept falling and we kept them to just 133 runs. This was an excellent bowling performance at the end! Our opening batsman was dismissed early however a great knock from our 1st and 3rd batsman made us easily able to get these runs to win our final game of the season.

We would especially like to thank Mr Pohio and Mr Jervis for training and managing and supporting the team and we are already all looking forward to our next season’s matches.

Rowan MacDonald-Gay SPORT – BASKETBALL

U12B XI A rather mixed season with one win and five losses. We triumphed over John Fisher with a win by eight wickets.

Harry Underwood and Harry Warren were the standout performers of the season with

Ryuichi Beaufoy

U16 BASKETBALL TOUR OF GIBRALTAR Over the October half term U16 basketball team travelled to Gibraltar to participate in some preseason training sessions and a couple of friendlies against the local team Union Linense de Balancesto (ULB). Against the ULB U15 team Skinners’ came away with a satisfying 41-10 win, the match presenting a good chance to put into practice the motion offence we had been working on in training.

The second match was a well-fought contest against the ULB U17 team. The game was close but ULB came away with the win 6641.Despite losing the match it was a great experience and the team rallied at the end

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their bowling and Isaac Ridge put in a good performance as our wicket keeper. Thank you to all the staff for supporting and encouraging the team throughout and we look forward to next season’s matches with renewed energy.

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and managed to outscore ULB by 7 points in the last quarter.

Overall the trip was a very enjoyable and invaluable experience. I know that everyone who participated improved as a player over the course of our stay. I’d like to thank, on behalf of the team, local coaches Antonio Solis and Bianca Beiso for leading our training and conditioning sessions, Paddy Bingham for coming along as our parental supporter and finally a huge thank you to our coach Kevin Coleman for putting this trip together, making it run so smoothly and coaching us during our games.

Pierre Lefebvre du Prey

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Hockey reports The new astroturf surface makes its debut, January 2018.

1ST XI The Skinners’ 1st team started this season with some challenging games and despite being a very young team came away with some good results and performances. The season started with the game against Sir Joseph Williams Mathematical School where we lost narrowly but did perform well with special mentions to Oscar Hussey and William Hardwick.

The next game was in the Canterbury tournament. The first game was a very close 0-0 against St Edmund’s Canterbury.

Next we faced the hosts, Kent College, showing strength in defence another 0-0 draw, with good performances from Tom Graham and Josh Collard.

Against a large Langley Park side Skinners’ showed excellence in the midfield from Alex Thomson, Henry Moore and Matt Morey.

The game was close throughout and in the last-minute Eoin Robinson won a short corner and Oscar Brown cleanly flicked it onto the crossbar and in, 1-0 to Skinners’. We now had to concentrate in order to proceed to the next round. The final game of the group stages was against Simon Langton where defeat saw us enter the plate competition.

This round of matches started against Chatham & Clarendon Grammar School and some well won games saw us to the final against Eltham College who the U16 had lost to previously.

An even game came to a draw and returned to flicks in which Skinners’ narrowly lost after some good saves from the Eltham College goalkeeper.

Despite this end to the season we returned as heroes. Special mentions to Mr Beck for making these fixtures possible.

This year the 1st team have had an up and down year with some good to outstanding performances.

Highlights of this year have come from the Frank Mason tournament where the boys reached the final of the plate competition – a very successful day. Reaching a final was a great experience for the team and one which they will have learned a great deal from. Massive congratulations to all the boys and especially the U6th boys (Eoin Robinson, Oscar Hussey, Will Hardwick, Charles Nicholson and Harry Gripper) who will be leaving us this year.

James Beck

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U16 XI Skinners’ U16 hockey team started the season off with a loss to Eltham College 0-1, but our second game of the indoor season saw a cracking victory over Ashford School (the hosts of the competition), 2-0 with Alex Thomson and Matthew Morey working some nice interplays.

The regional finals saw us drawn against Kingston Grammar, last year’s national champions.

We started off strongly with Henry Moore and Dan Steyn playing well at the back. Two well worked short corners earned Skinners’ a great victory.

At the regional finals held in Southampton, we started with a deserved 4-1 win against Trinity School and after some well fought games we found ourselves battling to stay in contest for a place in the national finals. However it was not to be with a loss against Southampton at the end of the day but great performances from Joe Claxton and Seb Holder. This indoor season was very successful and I look forward to next year.

Outdoors we participated in the Kent tournament and our first match was against St Edmund’s Canterbury was an evenly matched game which ended 1-1 and went to penalty flicks where Skinners’ won with a 100% conversion ratio, with Alexander Britton saving some well-placed shots.

In the quarter final of the county cup we faced Tonbridge School which over the last few years has been a good match. There

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U15 XI was a good turnout to urge Skinners’ on, but after a strong performance we just missed out on the semi-finals. We created many chances and should have been two or three goals up at half time but our lack goals came back to bite us in the last few minutes. Thank you to Mr Beck for making this great season possible.

Alex Thomson

U15 XI The U15s played 2, drawing 1, and losing 1, with 4 games having being cancelled or postponed due to weather and other circumstance.

The highlight clearly came against Reigate Grammar with a cracking 2-2 draw and Lance Abbott running the length of the pitch and scoring. Well done to all the players who have represented the school and especially to Mr Pursglove for taking the side.

James Beck

U14 XI It was quite a successful season this year for hockey.

We won 2 out of our 3 games.

This could have been more but unfortunately two games were cancelled.We started off the season with a 2-1 win over Claremont. Theo Whittingham kept well with James Nicholson and Jasper Pottier helping out strongly in defence. Will Murphy and Nick Edwards played well in midfield, Will getting a goal, whilst Ben Brown got the second.

The second match wasn’t as good as the first with a 5-0 loss to a very strong Cranbrook School.

In our third and final match of the season we played Sackville School coming out with a 2-0 win, Ben Adams and James Nicholson getting themselves goals. Ben Adams and Lenny Saville stepped up to play at the last minute and both performed very well. So, for such a short season, I’m pleased with what we achieved.

Ben Brown

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U13 XI The U13A hockey team had a very successful season.

We had two key matches which built up to the big end of season tournament at Canterbury. The first game kicked off at Hawkenbury against a very talented Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School.

Unfortunately, we started very slowly and before we knew it we found ourselves several goals down and from then on it was an uphill struggle. Yet the boys like true Skinners’ did not give up and through great determination and hard work a great team goal was formed resulting in a final score of a 1-7 defeat.

After this game we knew we had to improve and set our sights on the coming fixture against Sackville School where we hoped to bounce back. We went into the game knowing we were an improved team and were delighted when the final whistle blew and we had emerged 3-1 victors. The team had showed their resilience and just how well they could play. Finally came our big Canterbury tournament, we went in with our spirits high wanting to put on a show. We were drawn in a talented group and unfortunately just missed out on the top tier finals. However, this did not deter us but only gave us more motivation for next matches. The team put on a memorable performance and finished with heads held high.

The team cannot wait for the next season where we hope to improve even more.

A special thanks to Mr Beck for inspiring us all the way and sticking with us through bad and good times alike. As well as this a special mention to Harvey Sherry, Toby Sambrook and Scott Renwick who put in inspiring performances throughout the season.

U12 XI The first year of hockey at Skinners’ for our year group proved to be a very positive one, bringing with it much hope for the future of the sport at the school. Around 60 pupils picked hockey as their games option, starting off with training sessions during games either in the school hall or on Hawkenbury astroturf. This training helped us improve our hockey skills and pick teams for the only match of the season against Reigate Grammar School.

good goals and a brilliant reverse stick hit from Jake Simmonds, the whole team was flying. The score at full time was a 4-0 win, with the second half bringing another goal from Evan, some great saves from Dominic Asprey in goal and good tackles from our defenders to keep the clean sheet. Special mention to Ben James in particular, who was outstanding. The B team lost 8-1, with Blake Baker scoring the only Skinner’s goal. Despite only having one match, the passion and enthusiasm for the sport provided much hope for seasons to come.

James Beck

Our opponents had already played a number of matches together so were a much more experienced team than us. We had our A and B teams playing their first match of the season however right from push back both our teams looked very strong. By half time our A team were winning 3-0 with Evan James and Ben James scoring

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SPORT – ATHLETICS

Athletics

Dan Pascall (Year 7): Sussex U13 60m sprint champion.

David Fullbrook continues to enjoy great success. He is now a decathlete and within that discipline is Kent Champion at both javelin and high jump. Above: Gold for David in the high jump.

Left: David Fullbrook in action.

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Silver Medal In February 2018 the U14 Badminton team competed in the Kent Championships.

After beating Harvey Grammar, Kent College and then losing to The Maths School in the group stages the team progressed to the semi-final where they beat Gravesend Grammar School to progress to the final where they met The Maths School again. They lost some close games which meant they won the silver medal for the runners up position.

TEAM: SAM GODDARD, JOSHUA MATHEW, SAMUEL BOWEN, LAURENCE RALPH Right: Sam Goddard is Kent U14 doubles gold medalist, U14 singles silver medalist and U16 doubles bronze medalist. He also has two bronze medals at England U15 and U14 level.

Left: Matthew Whittaker and Elliott Shah, winners of the plate at the Mid Sussex Junior Badminton tournament.

SPORT – FENCING

Aarav Chaudhari (Year 7) spent two days at Sheffield participating in the British Youth Championships (BYC) 2018.

After a long injury layoff, it was his first competition in 8 months and he finished 7th out of 63 British fencers.

With top-8 fencers guaranteed automatic qualification for next year’s BYC, this is a very credible result.

Fencing has also become a regular school sport this year and is gathering a popular following.

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SPORT – CROSS COUNTRY

SENIOR KNOLE PARK RUN Set in the beautiful surroundings of Knole Park, this prestigious run is a gruelling cross country race taking in six major hills on a circular two lap course. In its 44 years, Skinners’ are eight times winners of the team award albeit mainly in the 1980s.

Year 7 Cross Country Knole Park Seniors

Conditions were much improved on last year when a fresh fall of snow on the day of the race covered the course.

Although there had not been any rain this week, the mud was of a clingy variety making the going tough.

With such a challenging course, it is important to set off steadily and work your way into the course. This was particularly the case with the Taylors who were tackling the course for the first time in what would have been their longest race by some distance.

Completing the first lap, it was James in 10th with Oscar and Dan soon after. Matthew was in the 40s and Henry in the 50s.

All looked on good form with Dan seeming to shake off his recent illness although clearly he wasn't at his best. Running down the valley on the second lap, the leaders had dramatically spread apart with James in a clear 8th, Dan on his own in the mid-teens, Oscar being caught by a pack of four in around 20th, Matthew having a stormer coming through the field looking very strong and Henry looking solid with a final hill to go.

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Oscar Hussey www.skinners-school.co.uk

Skinners’ Boys representing Kent U18 cross country.

Dan Seagrove

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KING HENRY VIII RELAYS After a gap of some 32 years (we still hold the course record), Skinners’ re-entered the King Henry VIII relays in Coventry this year, finishing 5th out of 50 schools.

THE TEAM INCLUDED: James Puxty, Dan Seagrove, Oscar Hussey, James Stoney, and Matthew and Henry Taylor.

KHVII: Start

KHVII: Oscar Hussey – Leg 1

KHVII: Matt Taylor – Leg 2

KHVII: James Stoney – Leg 3

KHVII: Henry Taylor – Leg 4

KHVII: James Puxty – Leg 6

KHVII: Group

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SPORT – CLIMBING

Inter Schools Climbing Skinners’ entered two teams for the 2018 Inter Schools Climbing Competition, held at Boulder Brighton, West Sussex.

With 20 schools entered, two trophies were up for grabs: one for junior students (under 16), the other for senior students (over 16).

Skinners’ managed to get both junior and senior teams through the preliminary rounds and into the finals.

Our junior finalists (Josh Chillington, Alex Maltby and Ben Evans) performed brilliantly and finished as runners-up behind Hurstpierpoint College. The competition for this age category was particularly strong, with a number of GB squad members competing.

Our seniors (Dan Johnston, Tom Donno and Satoshi Purkiss) went one better, winning a closely fought final, with Lancing

College and Hurstpierpoint College finishing in second and third places respectively.

Huge thanks to Hus for training us and to the Bursar, Mr Johnston, for transporting us.

This combined success demonstrated the current strength of Skinners’ climbing and capped another fine season.

Dan Johnston

SPORT – ROWING Rowing: the Junior Sculling Head at Dorney Lake in March 2018, the Junior 16 Quadruple Scull (Bewl Bridge RC), with Alex Britton at stroke and Alex Aitken at three (a Skinners’ School stern pair).

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Senior Football

Skinners’ kicked off the 17-18 football season with high hopes for a successful campaign. The new Year 12 squad members added fresh dynamism and no little skill to the established core of Year 13 boys.

This optimism was not unfounded; the season began with three straight wins including an 8-2 dismantling of Harris Falconwood.

Two hard fought draws followed and Skinners’ established themselves amongst the front runners in North Kent Division 1.

Momentum was lost following a frustrating local derby loss to arch rivals St Gregs but the boys bounced back to produce a fine performance in a narrow 3-2 Kent Cup loss to Premier Division side Norton Knatchbull.

A sequence of four straight victories followed, culminating in a magnificent defensive display at top of the league Charles Darwin.

An opportunist strike from Alfie Barclay gave Skinners’ a first half lead which they refused to relinquish despite coming under sustained pressure from a talented home team. Skinners’ were now in

the title race and talk of a potential championship winning season began to permeate the squad.

Unfortunately it was at this point that the British weather intervened!

Six matches were cancelled due to waterlogged pitches and Skinners’ were only able to register three victories in the post-Christmas period.

Another defeat to bogey side St Gregs was the final nail in the coffin and the dreams of championship glory slipped away.

Champions elect Charles Darwin came to Southfields for the final game of the season gaining revenge with a 2-0 win that sealed the title.

To finish in third place in a league made up of established football schools is a fine achievement and all the members of the squad should be rightly proud of their

The season of 2017/18 was one of great promise and enjoyment, under the leadership of Mr Pursglove.

A 3rd place finish in the league does not accurately represent the success that was had. It was effectively a two-horse race for the title throughout, with Charles Darwin eventually coming out on top. However, it might have been a different story if the weather had not intervened post-Christmas.

Two defeats ended our challenge for the title, but there was pride in the team for our skilful and passionate playing style. An almost perfect blend of physicality from the Year 13s, coupled with the deftness of the Year 12s. An exciting year to take Skinners' football forward next season.

Jonny Shepherdson efforts. They represented the school with pride, honour and an unwavering commitment to the cause, playing an attractive brand of attacking football that won plaudits from opposition coaches and spectators.

I would like to thank all the players for their contribution to a most enjoyable season.

Rob Pursglove

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SPORT – SKIING

Skiing success A year of unprecedented success for our skiing team.

Having become U16 Boys Regional Winners in September, the Skinners’ School Ski Team (Joseph Pannell, Ethan Gillespie, Sebastian Rice and Joshua Wakeling) came 4th in the England Schools’ Ski Association Final in Norwich in October 2017. Managed by Marna Wakeling and displaying immense spirit and team work, the boys were the top performing state school in the country, all improving in their second runs and all producing two clear runs.

Joshua Wakeling also competed in Welwyn for LSERSA in the final race of the season and was placed 3rd overall in the South East Region.

With a wider squad, in May 2018

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Skinners’ boys competed in the Kent Schools’ Ski Championships at Chatham.

despite the age differences they are all friendly and supportive of each other.

Joey Ajayi, Eli Hardwick, Chris Garratt and Alex Ralph were placed second in the Secondary Junior Male teams event; Ethan Gillespie, Sam Martin-Young, Joseph Pannell and Joshua Wakeling were second in the Secondary Senior Male teams event; Johnny Aguss, Matthew Bentham, Jago Parcell-Jones and Joe Taylor took third place in the Secondary Senior Male team event. Meanwhile Chris, Ethan and Johnny all also took medals in the mixed team event in the afternoon and Joshua was placed third in the individual Secondary Senior Male competition.

The squad were deservedly awarded the Simon Everson trophy at the Final Assembly of the year.

The best thing about the ski squad is their camaraderie. They range in age from 11 to 15 but

Marna Wakeling

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SPORT – TENNIS

Sam Martin-Young

The Intermediate Swimming team (Reuben Edwards, Aiden McMillan, Dan Brice, Ben Strebel and Alex Turton) swam in the English Schools’ National Swimming Finals at the London Olympic pool in the autumn of 2017.

and second in 200m Fly, third at the south east regional championships in 200m Fly, and has qualified for British Nationals and English Nationals for 200m Fly and 100m Fly in a relay team along with Reuben Edwards (also Year 10).

After a superb preliminary swim in the heats, the team qualified for the final of the freestyle, where they finished in 8th place nationally.

Jack Field (Year 10) had a great weekend at the British Youth Lifesaving Pool Championships in April. Jack came away with a Gold in the 50m Manikin carry (and a new British Stillwater Championship record) as well as a Silver in the 200m obstacle, and in the 100m carry with fins. The manikin carry is an event where the competitor swims freestyle then dives down to collect a manikin from the pool floor of the pool before carrying it back (holding the manikin in one arm and not letting it go back under water). Jack was competing in the under-17 age category and completed the event in a time of 34.79 seconds – the previous British Stillwater Championship time was 35.74 seconds.

Sam Martin-Young (Year 7) qualified for the 50m breast stroke at the South East Regional Swimming Championships over the May half term. He swam a long course personal best of 39.38 knocking nearly a second off his qualifying time.

Ben Watson (Year 7) managed a clean sweep of swimming awards at Edenbridge Piranhas Swimming Championships) - all strokes (50 and 100 distance) gold with the exception of 50 breaststroke (silver).

Kody Bradbury (Year 10) has had an important year: he is Kent champion for 100m Fly

Julian Metcalf

Peter Bannister and Dan Jones obtained 2nd place in the inaugural U13 Tunbridge Wells LTC Tennis Schools' Championships. The event was organised by Emma Beech and hosted by Tunbridge Wells Lawn Tennis Club. It is the first ever lower school Tennis Championships but certainly not the last.

U15A TENNIS TEAM REPORT The U15A tennis team had a good season this year winning 2 out of their 3 matches. The team consisted of Jamie Smith, Matthew Coomber, Zavié Goutorbe, James Spry and Dan. The first match was at home against Judd. Determined to beat our rivals we came out 4-2 winners. Our second match was against Tonbridge School.

This time we were outplayed by a strong Tonbridge side losing 4-2. The final match was against Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. We were 3-2 down with one match left. However, we persevered and won it to take the match to a shoot-out at 3-3. We eventually came out 4-3 winners ending the season with a win.

Our thanks go to Mr Satow and Mr Lawson for organising and supporting the team this year.

Jamie Smith www.skinners-school.co.uk

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Team: Noah Featherstone-Csillag, Eddie Gillhouley, Dan Record, Ben Forrester.

Skinners’ U13 Kent Champions In January 2018, Skinners’ U13 Table Tennis Team travelled to London to compete as Kent champions, in the zone finals.

There they met the winners from the home counties.

At the group stage in match one, they faced their greatest opposition, Varndean School, East Sussex. With a draw looking likely, a magnificent effort from Eddie Gillhouley in beating Varndean’s number one in a close 5 set game ensured Skinner’s victory with a close win of 5-3.

Their following matches against Sandown School, from Essex and Salesian School, Surrey, resulted in convincing wins of 8-0 and 7-1 respectively. These victories put Skinners’ top of the group table and through to the semi-

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final where they met Westgate School, Hampshire.

The level of competition stepped up a gear and the boys found themselves in a very hardfought semi-final match. At the halfway stage it was level on 2 games apiece with 4 games to play. Skinners’ lost the next two games and with just two remaining games, were 4-2 down. Ben Forrester and Eddie Gillhouley battled hard, each winning in 5 set games, and with Ben winning in the final set 1917. This meant that Skinners’ had drawn the match and the winner would be decided on count back.

That was Westgate 17-13.

Huge congratulations to all the boys who played so well,

demonstrating both their fierce desire to win balanced with typical Skinners’ sportsmanship.

This was most evident in their support of each other and graciousness in the defeat as well as victory.

Well done to Noah who managed the pressure of playing number one admirably always encouraging the team; Eddie who won crucial games and only dropped one game out of 7; Dan Record who moved up to play number three and played courageously: and Ben Forrester who moved up from the B Team to take fourth spot and play so well. Special thanks to John Burleton who gave his time to coach the team.

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CHARITIES

Charities In 2017-2018, Skinners’ community generosity has been overwhelming. Donations from all events have had a lasting impact on charities both locally and nationally.

From cake sales led by the younger members of the school to Christmas jumper day, every event bought the community together in the spirit of fundraising.

A newly appointed, enthusiastic charities committee held fundraising events for Safe Anaesthesia Worldwide, SAWW. Donations raised from the charity appeal during the Skinners’ school Christmas Carol

Service and Skinners’ Got Talent reached over £1,000 providing vital anaesthetic equipment and training to those in need. These fundraising events would not have been successful without the immense contribution of the teachers, pupils and the committee.

The Skinners’ community also provided a strong support to Daniel Carey whose brother Owen sadly passed away from anaphylactic shock last year.

Daniel successfully completed the London Marathon in memory of his brother raising over £6,000.

Parents, friends and the wider

Skinners’ community were honoured to be able to support his cause fundraising much needed research into anaphylaxis.

SKINNERS’ LIFE Thank you to our teachers, parents and friends who continue to inspire our fundraising efforts.

• Charity committee chairman: Harry Green • Charity committee vice-chairman: Alfie Cubberley

LETTER FROM THE RECIP IENTS OF DONATED SKINNERS’ CLOTHES IN AFRICA

Hello James and Calum

I just wanted to say thank you very much for donatin g the sports clothes. I have attached som e photos of various people wearing them. It seems quite surrea l to be in a rural Zambian com munity and to see Skinner’s School logos on people's clothes!

They were all very grateful and apprec iated the quality of the clo the s. The guys in the local football tea m are helping to build she lters and huts that we stay in when we invite our scholars to our place for week long courses.

We are hoping, despite the fact that it is very basic, to eventually get all our scholars there and providing them with distan ce learning A-levels rather tha n studying at the school the y are currently at. It means, we hope, that we can provide a broader range of A-level subjects, give more input to SATs and university guidance and develop the non-academic aspects of the curriculum including community volunt eering, problem solving and employability skills.

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October providing additional funding for the school and simultaneously providing new pupils the opportunity to meet other new pupils. The first of the summer disco parties was held this year which highlights a shift towards holding these events outside in better weather.

Achievements and support Sam Wright wins the chocolate raffle.

At the end of the academic year we once again reflect upon the achievements and continued financial support that the PA brings to Skinners’.

They started the year with a fantastic BALL IN MAY 2017 in which they transformed the dining room into the vibrant and zestful Leopard Lounge.

Lasers and strobes hypnotically illuminated the dancefloor as the cleaning cupboard miraculously underwent its annual transformation into a cocktail bar. Meanwhile, the RAFFLE AND AUCTION were

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a huge success again and was able to raise an outstanding £9,000 for the school.

The autumn was filled with a multitude of events that started with an INTRODUCTORY DRINKS PARTY that welcomed the new Year 7 parents. The social evening of wine and snacks provided parents with the opportunity to meet their sons’ form teacher, other new parents and have the first of hopefully many enjoyable evenings at Skinners’. This was followed by the YEAR 7 AND 8 ‘RECKLESS DISCO’ which took place in early

In December the PA ran the ANNUAL CHRISTMAS FAIR AND FARMERS’ MARKET that acts as a core event for fundraising. The fair was held in its traditional style of a “one stop Christmas shop” with a plethora of delicious local produce on offer. The Sports Hall has become an integral part of the Christmas Fair with the bottle and chocolate tombola and Christmas puddings sale a highlight.

THE QUIZ NIGHT IN MAY was a rousing success despite initially being postponed due to the snow in March. In addition nonuniform days have helped raise funds for specific departments and allowed pupils to financially support the school in exchange for something simple. And the SKINNERS’ SCHOOL MERCHANDISE SHOP has gone from strength to strength due to the synergy between PA and the sixth form boys who help sell the merchandise.

The PA’s commitment to Skinners’ is remarkable: the association raised a remarkable £30,000 for the school. So, as Nicky Tebay takes up the role of chair for a 6th year the Skinners’ community would like to say thank you to all of those involved.

Will Bone

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Focus on new teachers MRS BEATRICE RIDDIFORD (English) 1. What do you most like about Skinners'?

I work in a lovely, supportive department and the boys always make me laugh.

It's really busy and noisy – I worked in a very small college before! I can't decide if the staff room is noisier than the quad at break time! The students here are much more confident but there is a similar desire to succeed to my previous college.

3. Why did you get into teaching?

2. How does working in Skinners' compare with other schools you have worked in?

I wanted to share my love of my subject with others.

The lessons here are longer than at my previous schools, which I really like as it means that you can get more done without having to constantly watch the clock. I have always taught in all boys' schools so that aspect of things is pretty similar.

4. How would you describe your teaching style?

3. Why did you get into teaching?

Your reading and writing skills are critical for A Level and degree level study, and in pretty much every job you might choose to do. We use an amazing range of brilliant texts to teach these – what's not to like?

I love reading and communicating about literature so it was a pretty straightforward choice!

4. How would you describe your teaching style?

I hope that it is friendly and approachable.

5. Why do you think your subject is important?

If you can instil a passion for reading in young people, then that is something which will be a source of joy and support throughout their lives.

You'll find most of the answers to life's problems in great works of literature!

6. What do you enjoy in your spare time?

Playing with my two young sons, reading, watching films, swimming, walking and cooking.

I expect you to do the thinking, not me! I am quite strict but I also like to use my sense of humour, which is, of course, excellent!

5. Why do you think your subject is important?

6. What do you enjoy in your spare time?

I enjoy riding, gardening and reading; that is, when I am not driving my two boys around somewhere!

7. What would you take to a desert island and why?

This is a bit of a cheat answer but – a library!

One that contains all the books I haven't yet had chance to read!

8. Anything else?

7. What would you take to a desert island and why?

Can I go and have a cup of tea now? Would you like one?

A rechargeable Kindle and my family photograph albums.

MRS VICKI ILLING (Economics and Business Studies)

MRS CARRIE THAIN (English)

1. What do you most like about Skinners'?

1. What do you most like about Skinners'?

The school ethos, great learning and teaching environment, staff and boys.

Everyone here is really friendly and thoughtful to each other.

2. How does working in Skinners' compare with other schools you have worked in?

2. H ow does working in Skinners' compare with other schools you have worked in?

Far less time is wasted disciplining students which means valuable teaching time can be

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effectively spent teaching. There is a greater focus on the character of the pupils.

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3. Why did you get into teaching?

Called to help teenagers combat apathy! Plus when I had my sons , my old career did not suit having a family.

and physicists have the problem solving skills.

6. What do you enjoy in your spare time?

Travelling, personal developments.

7. What would you take to a desert island and why?

My TARDIS.

4. How would you describe your teaching style?

Firm, fair, fun.

5. Why do you think your subject is important?

1. What do you most like about Skinners'?

Every single person needs to study Economics at some point in their lives to understand how money and economies really work. Plus the economics graphs are amazing!

The students and the staff, everyone here is so helpful and friendly, especially if you are new.

6. What do you enjoy in your spare time?

The boys are so polite, it was a new experience being thanked for the lesson, every lesson I taught. I have worked at two other grammar schools and the boys here definitely ask the most intellectually demanding questions.

Trail run, walk , swim , church and sleep.

7. What would you take to a desert island and why?

My husband – he can start fires and build things… Definitely not my mobile!

DR SIMON HU (Science) 1. What do you most like about Skinners'?

I love the fact that there are many students who thrive to excel both academically and in sports.

2. How does working in Skinners' compare with other schools you have worked in?

2.

How does working in Skinners' compare with other schools you have worked in?

3. Why did you get into teaching?

I love my Science, especially Biology. I enjoy helping students understand something they may not have even known existed at the start of the lesson. Watching my students grasp a concept and the "penny drop" moment when a student suddenly understands something, those are the particularly special moments.

4. How would you describe your teaching style?

I feel I can contribute a lot of my knowledge and experiences to the students of this school, not just in academics but other areas too.

I very much enjoy bringing current news about science and medicine into my lessons. I am a strict teacher, but you do have to have a sense of humour as well if you are going to survive in teaching.

3. Why did you get into teaching?

5. Why do you think your subject is important?

I started doing some casual teaching while completing my Ph.D and found it more enjoyable than doing research.

You are learning about yourself and the world around you, what could be more important?!

4. How would you describe your teaching style?

“You can turn up for an one hour lesson and gain nothing from it or you can get the most out of it.

Either way, it is one hour of your time you’ll never get back.”

“So don’t waste your time and don’t waste mine” 5. Why do you think your subject is important?

Life is full of problems. Chemists have the solutions

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6. What do you enjoy in your spare time?

I enjoy watching sport, cricket, rugby and tennis especially. I also play netball, like baking and gardening, but spend most of my time running around after my 3 year old daughter.

7. W hat would you take to a desert island and why?

My kindle with a solar charger: that way I can read all the books I want.

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Leaving staff.

Inset left: Matty Ingham, right: Heather Roberts

THE END OF THE YEAR SAW THE DEPARTURE OF A NUMBER OF STAFF. First, tribute to our Gap Students, Matty Ingman and Calum Glendinning, who performed wonders in their office roles as Attendance and Reprographics officers respectively and also contributed hugely to sport, DofE and the life of the school.

We absolutely get value from our gappers: Matty and Calum were truly exceptional and we wish them well as they go on to Exeter and Southampton Universities. As they departed early to go travelling, Charlie Stafford stepped in and gave

us great service in the School Office and as a cricket coach.

Many thanks. Another member of the PE department who has worked here this year as part of her Sports Science course at Leeds University is Emma Beech. Emma was an invaluable help, supervising games, administering the department, getting involved in PE lessons and analysing sports performance. We wish her every success in her final year at Leeds.

Malcolm Amos joined us just to cover Ms Everard’s maternity leave two years ago. He has been here ever since, working

as a science technician and most recently covering Mrs Tonkin’s maternity leave. He has been flexible, expert, willing and cheerful and he has fitted into the school in whatever role we have asked of him. So I must thank Malcolm for his lard work on our behalf. I am sure we will find a way of making him return but in the meantime, wish him an enjoyable return to a welldeserved retirement.

Steve Burns has taught Maths part-time for two years at Skinners’. If that were it, I would not go on for much longer were it not for the impact he has made during

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that short time. Steve came to us from Tonbridge School but also with the experience of a career in banking in the City of London. He therefore brought an exceptional perspective on school life and its context whilst at the same time being a truly outstanding teacher. There are boys here who have traditionally found Maths tough but have been transformed by Steve’s care and attention, even if it has sometimes been the reward of a Friday kick about that has motivated them to work hard...

Steve now embarks on a career break to go travelling in camper van, but I hope we might see him in Skinners’ colours, as it were again.

Ellie Fryer joined Skinners’ in September 2016 but in two years truly made her mark as a geography teacher, calm and reliable member of the staff room and a go to person for resources and ideas. Ellie was a newly qualified teacher when she arrived, having graduated from London University and PGCE at Oxford, but from the outset it did not really seem as if she had just qualified. Those taught by her will recall that not a moment is wasted in a lesson, that resources are well used that they were engaged and challenged. Those tutored

by Ellie know that she knew them well and always supported them. She has given great support to DofE and to a range of school trips, always armed with a huge array of sweets that have been especially good for staff morale. Ellie moves

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to Benenden School where, alongside teaching Geography she will take responsibility for stretching more able students.

We wish her every success.

Kevin O’Brien came to Skinners’ from St Anselm’s College in Canterbury. He is steeped in Religion, Philosophy and Ethics with broad experience from his own education (including degrees or maters qualifications from three universities) and his teaching career. Kevin’s passion for his subject was obvious from day one and has not diminished in any way during his four years at Skinners’. Those taught by him will understand from first hand his superb knowledge and his high standards and his absolute desire that everyone progress.

These are the qualities of an outstanding teacher. Kevin has been almost an ever-present on performance nights in the Thomson Theatre and on a range of school trips; his support for such school events is a sign of the man and his wider perspective on school life.

It is this sort of quality that has earned him promotion to the role of Assistant Head at Beths Grammar School in Bexley and as he brings his considerable energy to bear on that school we wish him every success.

Rob Hardy has spent 13 years of his life at Skinners’, seven as a student, six as a teacher. He knows the place back to front and his influence here as someone who knows

everyone is immense. Rob joined Skinners’ (job-wise) as a newly qualified teacher and graduate of Bristol University.

Mrs Mead taught Rob GCSE Physics and he was taught A-level by both members of the Mead Team, so his grounding was pretty good. In his six years as a teacher here, Rob has been Head of Year Head of Physics, has run a range of outward bound trips, from DofE to World Challenge trips and Finland expeditions. He has coached a lot of rugby players and his presence on the yard will be a gap in September. In all of this Rob embodies the wider the education that Skinners’ tries to offer, alongside academic excellence. Rob leaves us to become Head of Physics at Cranleigh School and with his wife Alice (a Physics teacher at Bennett) expecting their first child, exciting times await him.

Simon Jervis joined Skinners’ in September 2011 and over the past seven years has overseen a transformation in the breadth and quality of sport at the school. A senior club and county rugby player and coach of a number of top clubs including Blackheath, Westcombe Park, Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge Juddians, he has not only taken our rugby from strength to strength but has seen the school re-enter the top echelons of cross-country running and athletics, develop vibrant and successful basketball, badminton and table tennis squads and has made all sports available to a significantly wider

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number of boys at the school.

That 70% of Skinners’ boys play sport for the school is largely down to Simon’s attitude that whilst we should look after elite sportsmen we should also make sport and good health accessible to all. Simon has developed our PE programme, introduced the Sports Leaders programme and introduced PE at A level. He also has a vision for the development of our sports facilities that we will take on in future years.

His legacy here is therefore significant and we are hugely in his debt. Simon leaves Skinners’ to take up the post of Head of Performance Rugby at Eltham College and at Old Elthamians RFC and we wish him every success and happiness there.

Emma Wheeler came to Skinners’ in September 2005.

A graduate of Bristol University and a real German specialist, she has raised the bar of languages teaching and gained a particularly loyal band of sixth form followers, many of whom have gone on to read modern languages at university. This is the sign of a great teacher.

Emma is calm, efficient, supportive, transparently loves her subject and is armed with that rare combination of a sense of humour and natural firmness.

In her time here, Emma has had the joy of starting a family and now moves to be Head of German at TWGGS (which remarkably means her place of work will be even close to her home than it currently is). We wish Emma every success and I am relieved to know that in

moving to TWGGS she will still be very much involved therefore in teaching A level German to Skinners’ students.

Heather Roberts has worked at Skinners’ since the year 2000. She has now spent a career working in laboratories in hospitals or schools and it is our fortune that she devoted so much of that career to the role of lead science technician at Skinners’. Heather is frighteningly well-organised, utterly dependable and refreshingly plain-speaking.

She is able to manage the considerable task of looking after a range of practicals and people at the same time: it is probably only when you get told by your teachers or by me that you realise the difference good science technicians make to your learning experience.

Heather has also led on Health and Safety mattes at the school, ever important in the modern era and on a crowded site.

Heather leaves Skinners’ for a retirement of travel and tennis with her husband Roger and we wish her every happiness in all that that brings.

Tim Watts joined Skinners’ in September 2007 to teach PE and games and in April took up the post of Director of Sport at Warminster School. In sporting terms, Tim is a true polymath, with genuine expertise as a player in three areas – cricket, rugby and hockey – indeed he played cricket for Northamptonshire. And in

his time at Skinners’ all three sports felt the benefit of his considerable expertise. He ran one particularly successful rugby team from U14 level through to 1st XV – a team that lost only 7 times in 5 years. His cricket sides play attractive and spirited cricket. He gets on well with the players and he gets on well with the coaches and he leads both bodies with humour and care.

He is a veteran tourist and those who have toured with him with have enjoyed his company and will know that above all he really cares about students and about sport. Tim has also been a highly effective head of year for the past two years, leading students from the front and getting after them when they needed it.

Sport is right at the heart of the Skinners’ School and Tim Watts is right at the heart of our sport.

Our thanks to him and we wish him and his family all the best in Wiltshire.

Jenny Bishop left Skinners’ in February to take up the role of Headmaster’s PA at Tonbridge School. Jenny had been at Skinners’ for eight years, working for my predecessor, Simon Everson, and then for me. She has also been a marvellous Admissions Secretary. I know that Jenny has already made her mark at Tonbridge and we send her our thanks and best wishes.

Edward Wesson

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Reflections on a school career – BEN BRANNAN'S ASSEMBLY TO THE SCHOOL ON THE EVE OF STUDY LEAVE Seven years ago, sitting at the front of this hall, I listened to clichés about how time at school moves quickly, and how we should make the most of it, and I think most of it washed over me without much meaning. It feels very strange therefore to be standing up here now to remember these things because...it has all gone in a flash. Some of you at the front were four years old when we, the Year 13s, joined Skinners’ and the world was a very different place in many ways. We joined secondary school in the wake of the financial crisis, with David Cameron as our Prime Minister and Barack Obama in his first term as US President.

2011, the year we joined, saw the deaths of Osama Bin Laden and Colonel Gaddafi; the Royal Wedding between Wills and Kate; the death of Amy Winehouse and large-scale riots in Tottenham.

But how can I illustrate how times have changed since we joined? Words are universally and timelessly relevant...we use words to communicate, and within that, to tell a story. I am going to use one word per year to tell that story.

Specifically, the ‘word of the year’ according to the Oxford English Dictionary. I want us to reflect on what these words say about the

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world in which we have grown up over these last few years, and how they may or may not reflect on us.

When we started school in September 2011, the word of the year (or phrase) was ‘SqueezedMiddle’: defined as “The social group consisting of people whose income is too low to support them comfortably but not low enough to exempt them from higher tax rates or qualify for government assistance”. It represented a political commentary about how times were hard following the financial crisis of 2008 and things were starting to bite - there was an air of gloom across the country and a sense that no one was in charge.

In many ways, we, as young boys joining the school had similar fears of the unknown and of the future.

However, the future of the school looked bright, with the construction of the ‘new’ Sports Hall and the arrival of Mr Wesson, our ‘new’ Headmaster beckoning at the start of Year 8.

2012, Year 8, the time when we felt like giants next to the new arrivals in the year below us.

The word of the year was again linked to politics, as the Oxford English dictionary chose the term ‘Omnishambles’ It was coined by a character in ‘The Thick of It’ - a political satire starring Peter Capaldi - who would go on to become Dr

Who. It picked up even more on the sense that things in UK were a bit out of control. Although, with the Olympics approaching there was a sense that some things were changing. Once the games were up and running and Team GB started winning medals and the military stepped in to do the security, the Olympics became an international success - an event many of us were lucky enough to witness (we even got to take part in Mr Johnson’s Olympic-themed activity week). In many ways, we were lucky to survive Year 8 and the early stages of Year 9 as it was predicted the world would end on December 21st 2012. At least we could have taken memories from the Loire Valley trip with us.

2013 – The Boston Marathon Bombings, the death of Nelson Mandela, the birth of Prince George, the year we won the cricket Kent Cup under the masterful leadership of Mr White (so I am told, I was by no means part of this team) and the Oxford English dictionary word of the year was ‘Selfie’. This choice reflected a change in our behaviour - something significant enough for a newish word to become ubiquitous. It’s hard to believe, but Selfies - now such a common thing for people around the world to do - really only became part of the everyday in the second decade of this century. They became the mainstream - presidents and popes were even doing them. Snapchat was founded in September 2011, the month we joined Skinners’. I have estimated that since its inception, amongst the roughly 130 boys that have come and gone from our year group since Year 7, from a sample

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of Snapchat ‘scores’ ranging from 26k to 418k, we have sent 56,271 selfies each on average, which adds up to 7,315,295 in total. To put that in context, that is: 1.045 million per year, 2,863 per day, 119 per hour, and 2 per minute for 7 years straight. This is how we communicate now, whether it is healthy or not. I cannot imagine how different this will be seven years from now.

2014 was the dictionary year of the ‘Vape’; a recognition of modern behaviour, of technological advance and of youth trend, perhaps in spite of the invention’s original purpose as a route to stopping smoking.

Something that wasn’t in the mainstream just a few years ago now has a platform; Vape lounges and pick n mix stores exist, with the VC Cloud Championship, the biggest competitive vape-trick competition paying out $100k to the winner in Las Vegas. Who would have thought of that as a thing, even when we were in Year 7?

Year 11, 2015, saw the ‘tears of joy’ emoji become the dictionary ‘word of the year’, begging the question, how many of us could have predicted when we joined the school that within a few years, the word of the year would not even be a word. Emojis are no longer the preserve of texting teens either – instead, they have been embraced as a nuanced form of expression, and one which can cross language barriers.

Even Hillary Clinton solicited feedback in the form of emojis.

They have become fundamental, if not overused, in expression of emotions and reactions on all forms of social media.

This same year, we took our

GCSEs, the first full exam experience, a pivotal time in anyone’s school career and one where the emoji may not have been ‘crying with laughter’. Some boys left our year group in pursuit of other interests, and were replaced by boys from other schools, who have contributed greatly to our time here in the Sixth Form.

2016, the year we started Year 12, ‘Post-truth’ was the dictionary ‘word’ or ‘phrase’ of the year. It represented a completely new way of looking at some of the things that we take for granted - and this one is fundamental - TRUTH. Post-truth is defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’. What does that remind you of? This was the year of the UK referendum on leaving the European Union (the path to Brexit) and the year of Donald Trump assuming the presidency of the USA. Our cohort that went to the Harvard MUN conference witnessed, first-hand, protests at Trump’s inauguration on the streets of Manhattan, and may even have participated to a certain degree (more or less), against the advice of a somewhat alarmed Mr. Coltella.

It was amusing. But what is not amusing is the fact that things may never be the same again. In this version of the world, Obama founded ISIS and George W. Bush was behind 9/11 - Welcome to post-truth politics.

2017, the year we started Year 13, the ‘word of the year’ was Youthquake; the rise of the voice of youth - ‘a significant cultural, political, or social change arising

from the actions or influence of young people’. Naturally, you would be correct in assuming this was in the wake of the snap UK general election called by Theresa May with the aim of getting a clear mandate to enable the delivery of Brexit. According to some analysis, the insurgence of youth was what made the difference - in some ways, this might be interpreted as the re-politicisation of young people in the UK. Any of you at music festivals last summer, will be familiar with chants of, “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” and the social media campaign by the Labour Party last year, having their posts shared all over your feed. Although ultimately that ‘quake’ may have only been a rumble.

So, what’s my point? I mean to say, fundamentally, that whilst words, people, technology and society may change over time, we are fortunate that the values of this school remain the same. It is at this time of reflection on my school career that this is naturally most obvious. Whilst some of you may not have known some of the legendary teachers we had the pleasure of meeting such as Mr. White, or more recently the likes of Mr Flower and Ms Schillinger, you do know the veterans of the school (Mr Fleming, Mr Walsh, the Meads, the Hubbards, Mr Green) that the school just can’t quite seem to shake off...I joke, of course, because these people are central to the biological makeup of the school. Some of them have seen nearly 30 years of Skinners’ before any of us even joined and will stay onboard for years to come because they have become attached to a quite unique institution. These teachers

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have seen in the school what we experience on a daily basis - we cannot forget for a moment how lucky we are to have this school, despite any funding or facility challenges we might face.

The class of 2018, the potentially not-so-golden year that keeps pushing forward, is so nearly no longer part of the school. We have contributed nonetheless: James Puxty, a national cross-country champion; Dan Thorne-Large, a European-standard athlete, representing Great Britain in sailing; exceptional musicians,

CHRIS UTTING 1948-2018

In the passing of Chris Utting the Skinners’ community has undoubtedly lost one of its greats. As Head of History from 1976 to 2009, and more latterly as Head of Sixth Form, Chris’ contribution to the school was enormous. He lit up the staff room and the classroom with not only a formidable intellect but a dry wit and quiet reflection on the annual bandwagon which is called “education.”

When Chris arrived at the school in 1971 he was very much regarded as one of the young guard, but such was his standing he very quickly gained the respect of both students and teachers – he was at the time of his appointment as Head of History, the youngest Head of Department the school had ever appointed. He enjoyed nothing more than being in the classroom and it is to his immense credit there are generations of Skinners’ boys who have gone on to read History as undergraduates, including Oxford and Cambridge, and many have continued into the world of academia as university lecturers or as advisors for TV programmes

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great cricketers, rugby players, scientists, mathematicians and the Brintons, the most loveable twins in the school. Every year brings a different flavour, a different take on the Skinners’ experience with the underlying values of the school being continued.

of school. Take the school’s values

So, my message to you, at this conclusive point in our secondary education, is this: Savour the small moments of joy and hardship; of victory and loss; success and failure, because they are all key ingredients in the making of the end product that is your memory

might just find something you

such as the BAFTA winning Horrible Histories series (I am not sure he’d really appreciate the latter!).

Beyond the classroom Chris made significant contributions to both school hockey and cricket, and as a senior examiner for many years he was also able to a help his fellow professionals come to grips with the ever changing public exam system.

His patience and kindness in helping those of us who were fortunate to know him really made him stand out from the crowd – despite his Yorkshire roots he rarely had a bad word about anything or anyone. He also transparently loved Skinners’: once, when asked if he should think about moving, he replied “Why would I want to leave the best school in the world?”.

Chris spent years following or playing cricket (in particular at Eridge Cricket Club), supporting Hull City and undertaking an array of walking holidays, many of which were to his beloved Yorkshire. Indeed he died suddenly whilst in Yorkshire this summer celebrating his 70th birthday and that of his wife Maureen. His funeral was held in the School Hall on 17th August and whilst he has clearly been taken too early, the occasion was a fitting reflection of a wonderful man and a life of devotion to his

wherever you go in life. Respect your teachers, your elders and your parents for pushing and supporting you through the entire process.

Try stuff; namely things you hadn’t considered before because you have a real passion for. And back yourself when it matters.

Work hard, play harder, and don’t forget to enjoy yourselves, because you will be up here saying goodbye before you know it.

family, to Skinners’, to History and to sport, amongst other things.

Chris leaves his wife, Maureen, a son Mark (an Old Skinner), two daughters Sally and Clare, and seven grandchildren. Those who spoke at his funeral (and all of his children did) spoke of man whose fierce devotion to his family was very obvious. I am honoured to have known Chris at Skinners’. He will be sorely missed by everyone involved in the school community.

Craig Fleming We were delighted to announce a new cup to be awarded to the highest achiever at GCSE. The recipient of the UTTING CUP this year was Joshua Asprey and was presented by Maureen Utting at the ceremony on the 21st September 2018.

We also note with sadness, the passing in 2018 of BARRY JUXON, Head of Maths 1979-1992 and PETER NEALE, Head of Art and DT 1991-2005.