Highlights Autumn 2010

Issue 39 Autumn 2010

Highlights

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NOBIS

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ST ALBANS SCHOOL

Scientific Achievements Three teams of Lower 6th students attended the awards ceremony for the UK Planet Scicast film competition at the Royal Institution in July. Tom Gallagher, David Weeks and Jamie Holmes were shortlisted for the Best Physics content award, while Tom Byrne and Amal Samsudeen were shortlisted for Technical Excellence.

However, it was Oliver Madgwick’s ambitious explanation of ‘Weight, Mass and Gravity’, using animated Lego models, that most impressed the judges of the competition. He won the category for Technical and Artistic Achievement, and also took the overall award for the Best Film 2010.

At the RSC Analyst competition Lower Sixth formers William Lay, Kieran Rawal and Michael Mubiru came second of the fourteen teams. It should be stressed that these pupils are Lower Sixth, while their competitors were Upper Sixth, with an extra year of A level Chemistry already under their belt.

Kieran received a special commendation for his very high correlation coefficient on his calibration curve. In the KS4 Biology Olympiad, seven pupils received gold awards: the highest scorers were David McConnell, Thomas Govey, Niall Parkash and Thomas Latham. William Lay attended Oliver Madgwick’s film the Senior Space School UK series of lectures Weight, Mass and Gravity at Leicester University and was declared the Star made witty use of Lego Student, winning a prize and trophy.

L6 in Business The annual Lower Sixth Business Conference involved students in a variety of activities designed to replicate the world of business and develop entrepreneurial skills. This year, in addition to exploring skills for marketing and developing a new business, students underwent a Dragons’ Den type grilling. This added a tense and exciting fear factor to what was a most enjoyable day.

Master Spellers Our team of four First formers, Tom Alexander, Thomas Savage, Alex Jennings and Oliver Barlow, took part in The Times Spelling Bee 2010.

In a close and tense contest, our boys showed their quick reactions and displayed their accuracy, but were just pipped at the post in the final.

Headstart Engineer At Durham University’s Headstart Engineering Course, Lower Sixth Former Kieran Rawal was declared Best Student. He was one of 40 young engineers invited to experience university-style design and build projects. Working in a team of four, Kieran was involved in the design of a water tower that could contain the sudden influx of 30kg of water, as a simulation of accident control in a chemicals plant. He also worked on electromagnetism and the creation of a boat capable of sweeping debris from the surface of water.

Music Live

and on

CD

pianist, then played Alligator Crawl, a hectic sprint through the keys of the piano. Kris Henley showcased his skill as a saxophonist with lyrical ease. The finale came in the form of the Wind Band; their enthusiastic version of the theme from The Incredibles was a worthy end to a first class concert.

The Summer Concert was an evening which demonstrated pupils’ outstanding talent. The String Group gave a dignified and rhythmic rendition of Air from Orchestral Suite, while Peter Martin gave dazzling performances as trumpeter and vocalist, including I’ll Know from Guys and Dolls.

The Sax Ensemble gave a jazzy interpretation of Timechange, while Ariya Rabbani entranced listeners with his intricate and lively piano playing. After the interval, Charlye Simpson and Freddy Sawyer took to the stage to perform two duets, their singing passionate and soulful.

David Cartwright, another skilled

Ariya Rabbani showed deft control at the piano

The Leavers’ Concert was a most enjoyable occasion, full of variety and changes of mood.

A highlight of the evening was a performance of Steve Reich’s Clapping Music with its intricate rhythms. Two movements of Tarbini’s Clarinet Concerto, played with real accomplishment by Oliver Madgwick, and Matthew Arnold’s sprightly The Buccaneer, with Matthew Jackson’s fingers flying over the keys, entranced the audience. Oliver Moore gave a very controlled performance of Handel’s Where’er You Walk. A number of Upper Sixth formers played semi-acoustic versions of rock numbers, both vocal and instrumental, with some particularly fine guitar work from Josh Cooper and Caspar Veres.

Fire

and

Enyi Okoronkwo and Amal Samsudeen gave a very unusual performance of Billy Jean. Singing featured strongly in the concert, with the versatile James Nissen featuring several times with different voices, and the traditional Choir closing number, Goodnight Sweetheart, was the perfect coda to a splendid evening. Founders’ Day saw the release of the

Choir’s new CD, A New Heaven, which is proving to be just as popular as the last recording.

Ice

Forty Geography students from the Fourth Form upwards bravely ventured upon a 6 day expedition to Iceland. Mostly they lived in log cabins ten miles to the west of Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano that caused so much disruption earlier in the year. From this vantage point they were able to witness the continuing ash and steam eruptions. Pupils experienced almost twenty-four daylight, a characteristic of high summer in extreme latitudes, which enabled many activities to be undertaken, including swimmming in the

geothermally heated waters of the Blue Lagoon, watching explosive steam eruptions at Geysir and scrambling through subterranean lava tubes on the Reykjanes peninsular. The high point for many was a cruise in amphibious vehicles, passing between the icebergs on Jokulsarlon, a glacial lagoon. They also hiked to Svartifoss waterfall in the Skaftafell National Park.

Students enjoyed broadening their knowledge of the geography of Iceland and extending their knowledge of its culture, gastronomy and mythology.

Back

to

Africa

Thirty-six cadets returned to Tanzania with the £35,000 they had raised over the past year in order to fund and then assist in a series of projects in Mwanza, under the auspices of the Banana Tree Project. This is a UK based charity founded in 2006 by our former Head of Government & Politics, Mr Edward Beavington, to ‘assist in the relief of poverty, hardship, sickness and distress of street children in Mwanza, Tanzania and to help with their education.’

The money was used to fund the education of many of the children and to purchase desks for the classrooms, mattresses for the orphanage and school uniforms for 50 children. Our cadets lent their skills to refurbishing nine classrooms and decorating two orphanages under the guidance of local craftsmen, builders, teachers and orphanage staff.

The second phase of the trip involved a tour of the Serengeti

Election Blues Unlike the General Election, the School Mock Election provided a decisive result. The candidates for the three main parties campaigned relentlessly with posters and speeches, and were subjected to voter grilling at a number of special hustings assemblies. Each candidate spoke eloquently about the issues at stake, demonstrating how wellinformed the pupils are about the big political questions, thanks to lessons and the very active Politics Society. Visits from external speakers such as Peter Lilley, Nigel Farage and Esther Rantzen furthered the debate. On results day, the School returned a clear Conservative government, with 35 seats. The Liberal Democrats led the opposition with 8 seats, while Labour was beaten into third place with 3 seats.

Game Reserve and an ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. This daunting six day climb was achieved by 28 of the cadets, despite difficulties with the altitude. A break on the white sands of Zanzibar provided a relaxing finale to a strenuous, but very rewarding trip.

The 107th AGI was conducted by Brigadier Jonathan Bourne-May of the Coldstream Guards. The parade drill was polished in its manoeuvres and culminated in the ceremonial passing of the Sword of Honour from the retiring Cadet Under Officer, Alex Dismore, to his successor, Laurence Hulse.

Cadets carried out a variety of activities and visiting members of the Coldstream Guards demonstrated vehicles and equipment.

Seven cadets spent a week at RAF Cosford, which specialises in technical training. Their experiences included flying in helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, weapons training,

Charlie Baker shooting and a night exercise on the makes a new airfield. Harry Lampert was voted friend in Mwanza ‘best cadet on camp’.

Seventy army cadets spent a week at Crowborough, enhancing their military skills, team building and adventure training. In competition, our cadets won three of the eight disciplines outright and were declared the best Contingent on Camp at the final parade.

Fifty cadets completed their assessed Silver Duke of Edinburgh expedition in the Brecon Beacons in temperatures of over 30 degrees.

High Drama Fourth form drama students staged a very original production of Guards! Guards!, a humorous adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s original story, based in the fictitious Discworld. The play focused in particular on the city of AnkhMorpork and revolved around the activities of the City Watch, whose job ranged from apprehending common miscreants to dealing with fire-breathing dragons.

The amphitheatre provided an atmospheric setting for this sortie into the realm of fantasy. Excellent performances from Tom Ling as Carrot Ironfoundersson, Mitchell Zhangazha as Lady Ramkin and Christian Bevan as Captain Vimes, enhanced the audience’s enjoyment of this most original production.

Sport: District & County Winners Cricket: This was an excellent season for all our teams. The 1st XI opened well with a good win against Dr C h a l l o n e r ’s by 5 wickets, while Asif Rajah and George Scott both recorded centuries in the victor y over Enfield Grammar, with Tom Kight also taking 5 wickets.

The 2nd XI made a very strong showing this season, winning 88% of their games, including victories against Dr Challoner’s, Enfield Grammar, Haileybury, Bancrofts, QEB and Berkhamsted.

The victory against Bishop’s Stortford by 3 wickets featured two very good performances from Alex Goldstone , who scored 52 runs, and Robin Pendock, who took 3 wickets. Both U15 teams enjoyed very successful seasons. The U15As enjoyed 10 victories, while the U15Bs crowned their run of victories by taking the District Cup, with Christian Bevan making 46 and Tanveer Ranshi taking 3 wickets in the final against Beaumont. Other top scorers this season included Andrew Salvesen with 141 runs, Alex Terry 50 not out and Harry Di-Lieto 65 not out. The U14s crowned an almost unbroken series of victories by winning both the County and District Cups. The U13s retained the County Cup by totally outclassing Westbrook Hay in the final. Travis Hudson took out their County batsman after 3 balls and took 6 wickets for 5 runs – an outstanding achievement. The team took the 20 over match with nearly 10 overs to spare. The U14s also enjoyed some fine cricket during their tour of Dorset, both teams winning all their matches. The As beat Weymouth by 68 runs, Winton

by 78, with Joe Zacaroli scoring 47, then Bryanston and Milton Abbey.

The Bs won their matches against Dorchester, Bryanston and Milton Abbey.

Victoria Walker had an outstanding season

Athletics: The season started well with some promising performances at the district track meet, with wins for Ben Rose in the 100m, George Rose in the 400m and Jason Philip in the 200m. At the Senior District Championships our team was victorious with fine individual performances from Tom King, Tom Brooks, Louis Grant and David Prince, as well as by our relay team. At the English Schools

Track and Field Cup, outstanding individual performances were recorded by Drew Daniels-Smith and Omeiza Haruna, who ran the fastest 100m time of the day. Our athletes regained the Senior District Championships by a significant margin. The girls recorded some exceptional performances, with wins from Hannah Johnson in the 300m and Victoria Walker in the 1500m.

In a wider context, Ben Rose, George Rose and Victoria Walker were selected to represent Herts in the ESAA County Championships in Birmingham, while Bedfordshire has shown an interest in Omeiza Haruna. At Bedford, OA Lucy Yates won the AAA National Under 23 Championship at 800m in a time of 2.07.

Tennis: Our U18 and U15 teams triumphed in the County Schools Tennis Championships. Our U18 team of Gordon Tveito-Duncan and Tom Russell and the U14 pair Charles Trollope and first former Tom Boon won all their matches convincingly. The U18s went on to enjoy fine wins against Aldenham, Merchant Taylors’, Berkhamsted and Highgate. The U15s team of Alex Terry, Charles Trollope, Toby Sweeney, Toby Stapleton and Harry Hamer followed up their triumph in the County Schools Championship with wins against Mill Hill, Sir John Lawes, UCS, Merchant Taylors’ and Highgate. Special congratulations go to first former Charlie Broom, who won the Scottish Junior Open Competition.

Ultimate Frisbee: About 60 seniors have enjoyed taking part in this sport. With strong performances from Jonathan Andrew and Tom Joslin, the team won convincingly against Mill Hill 11-3, while the Bs won emphatically 21-1. Against Haberdashers’, the As won 20-7 with excellent performances from James Clegg, Oliver Madgwick, Zach Rich, James Henson and Gareth Gibson. The Bs won 16-7 with captain Nick Goldberg to the fore, maintaining the team’s 100% record in all fixtures.

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