From the headmaster

we have enjoyed a very successful start to 2018. Perseans have received 757 university offers including a new record of 51 from Oxford and Cambridge and 39 from medical schools. On the sports field four Perse Upper teams have reached the national finals in hockey competitions, whilst our senior general knowledge team has just come third in the national finals of the Schools’ Challenge (the school equivalent of University Challenge). In March we opened the Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre and the first show was an outstanding production of Billy Elliot.

The Perse continues to deliver public good for the wider community. Over £1 million each year is spent on means tested financial assistance and the resulting bursaries support 120 pupils who otherwise could not attend the School. We now provide educational support to 19 local Cambridgeshire primary schools, whilst further afield Perse staff and pupils assist Christel House Schools who give an excellent education to some of the world’s poorest children. We are busy fundraising to equip every classroom in Christel House Bangalore with a data projector to enhance teaching and learning. We have just passed 17 fitted data projectors and have 14 to go. Perse staff will be travelling out to Bangalore in July to deliver a music education project. The Perse doesn’t just support young people – we run Digistart programmes to assist elderly local residents with their IT needs and our free community lectures, now run in partnership with The Cambridge Building Society, are attended by people of all ages. Over 600 guests enjoyed talks from the writer and neurosurgeon Henry Marsh on the NHS, and the anthropologist and broadcaster Alice Roberts on species domestication.

Looking forward, the summer term will be busy with public exams including the first new 1–9 GCSEs which replace the old letter grades. The top grade 9 will be above the old A*, but as more grades are added to the exam system the resulting need for accurate differentiation will require a level of reliability in marking that has not always been evident in the past. We will be scrutinising public exam results carefully to ensure justice is done.

The summer holidays are the busiest time for the outdoor pursuits department with a plethora of kayaking, canoeing, climbing, and Perse Exploration Society trips. PES is the successor body to Scouts and this year 238 Year 7–10 students will be camping in the Peak District, 90 Year 11 students will be canoeing across Sweden, and 34 sixth formers will be trekking in the Himalayas. All told 2018 should be another successful year for the Perse, and alumni are always welcome to visit the School and see what we are up to.

best wishes,

ed