School News

PRESTIGIOUS medical publication Neil Sardesai (Upper Sixth) has co-authored an article published in Regional Anaesthesia & Pain Medicine, the journal of the American Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine. Last year, he became involved in a University of Cambridge project that explored the use of ultrasound to map the anatomical variations of the medial cutaneous nerve in the forearm. Neil's Rouse Award project which explored how funding should be prioritised towards research into stroke treatments has also been published in the Young Scientists' Journal.

WORLD BOOK DAY celebrations Children at The Perse Pelican and Prep celebrated World Book Day in March by dressing up as characters from their favourite books. Pupils had a great time showing off a wide variety of colourful outfits, including the Gruffalo, Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland and the Gingerbread Man. INCLUSION, EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY update In 2020, The Perse formed an Inclusion, Equality and Diversity (IE & D) working group, comprised of over 100 members of The Perse community. Pupils, staff, parents, Governors, Old Perseans and IE & D experts from other institutions are working together led by Emma Rothwell, the School’s Assistant Head (IE & D and Chaplain).

So far the group has discussed: • Racism and anti-racist practice, particularly with regards to the curriculum, identity, representation and training; • Sexism and sexual violence, and how this impacts the learning and wellbeing of the whole community; • The response to Everyone’s Invited.

We intend to address other areas of IE & D in the coming months. In addition to the working group, we have run peer-led consent workshops for Y11 and a whole staff meeting on how IE & D issues affect learning in the classroom. We are committed to running unconscious bias training for all staff, and will be working towards a Gold Equalities Award. The School will also be partnering with LimeCulture, one of the UK's leading sexual violence and safeguarding training and consultancy organisations, to develop a sexual violence first responder accreditation for schools.

We will keep Old Perseans updated as we continue this important work. If you would like further information please contact Emma Rothwell at erothwell@perse.co.uk.

PERSE MUSICIAN of the year Prodigious pianist Juliette Richards (Upper Sixth) was declared the winner of the 2020 Perse Musician of the Year competition for the “panache and drama” of her rendition of pieces by Ravel, Beethoven and Stravinsky. Juliette was praised for an outstanding recital demonstrating real command of the piano. As well as Juliette, the final featured filmed performances from trumpeter Henry Butler (Upper Sixth), violinist Adrianne Lin (Year 10), clarinet player Alicia Li-Yan-Hui (Year 9) and vocalist Iona Woods (2020).

FRIDAY NIGHT showcase The music department has organised a weekly series of online concerts on Youtube. Performances have included individual recitals, choral ensembles, and The Perse Lockdown Orchestra, shown above.

GB CALL-UP for Perse pupil Lottie Knights (Upper Sixth) has been selected to represent Great Britain at world championships in both triathlon and duathlon in 2021. The Perse sport scholar will travel to Almere in the Netherlands in September to take part in the women’s U20 sprint duathlon at the ITU Multisport World Championships before heading off to Bermuda the following month to race in the World Sprint Triathlon Championships in the same age group. INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH victory Bella Crowne and Milou Ottolini (Upper Sixth) have triumphed in the SAGE (Strategic Alliance of Global Educators) Project Passport competition with their proposal to compare approaches towards sustainability. Their project considered how schools view climate change, make green choices, and what methods schools can use to be more sustainable.

49 OXBRIDGE offers This year 49 students have been offered places by Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Heads of School Victoria Leung and Fabian Dodds (Upper Sixth) are among the Perse students receiving Cambridge offers, to study medicine at Fitzwilliam College and engineering at Homerton College respectively. A delighted Victoria said “The school’s UCAS team were extremely helpful, adapting quickly to the ever-changing situation and instilling confidence in our applications. I thank my teachers for all their advice and support.”