News From Tonbridge, Autumn 2020

A round-up of School news, events and achievements

Pages 2 & 3 Oxbridge History Results

Pages 4 & 5 Community Pink Day Fundraising

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Autumn 2020

Pages 6 & 7 Films Poetry Music

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Page 8 Tonbridge in pictures

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Two organ scholars heading for Oxbridge Organ scholarships are awarded to talented students who are chosen to direct or assist in a college chapel, offering them unlimited opportunities to engage in music-making at the highest level.

Alex left Tonbridge in 2020 after completing his A-levels, and is currently performing the role of organ scholar at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, during his gap year. His role at St John’s College will involve various duties including playing at regular services, training choristers and conducting.

l Ben Gardner, left, and Alex Trigg

Two students will be taking up the hugely prestigious role of Oxbridge organ scholar next year. Alex Trigg has been appointed at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he will study Music, while Ben Gardner has been offered the role at Balliol College, Oxford, where he will be reading for a degree in Maths.

Ben (CH5) has achieved many notable successes in his time at Tonbridge, including the award of a distinction in the British Maths Olympiad.

Mark Forkgen, Director of Music, said: “They have shown incredible dedication in meeting the standard required of an Oxbridge organ scholar. Both have demonstrated that they are capable of being leaders and carrying out these duties, in addition to reading for a degree.”

‘History Boys’ triumph!

Three boys earned prizes and plaudits following a national essay-writing competition on the subject of Sir Winston Churchill.

After entering the Sir Martin Gilbert History Prize earlier this year, Eddie Adams (OH4) was placed runner-up in the Year 11 category, while Hector Money (HS5) and Tom Pitts-Tucker (CH5) both gained a top ten finish in the Year 12 section.

The competition, named in honour of Sir Martin, the renowned late historian and biographer, invited students from across the country to give their assessment of an aspect of Churchill’s life.

All three boys are planning on reading for degrees in History at university.

Cambridge commendation An essay by Sixth Former Rory Smith was ranked as ‘Very Highly Commended’ in an essay competition run by Trinity College, Cambridge. Rory (JH5) entered the 2020 Robson History Prize, where he compared and contrasted the ancient Roman and Athenian empires.

Trinity College wrote to Rory to say: “In a bumper lockdown year we received over 300 entries for the Prize, but your essay in particular stood out …

Many congratulations! You deserve high praise for writing such an outstandingly intelligent and interesting piece of work.”

It’s safety first as boys go ‘Back to School’ management”, with Tonbridge becoming the first school in the UK to introduce such a capability.

James Priory, Headmaster, said: “I was impressed with the energy and activity across the campus as the School truly came to life once more. Keeping safe has not stopped us from having a highly stimulating time as the boys started to explore new activities, new learning and new friendships, and to benefit from all the richness of experience that Tonbridge offers.

Tonbridge life resumed at the start of September, with an emphasis on ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all in the School community.

Measures taken included the deployment of heatsensitive cameras and infra-red thermometers for regular temperature checking; Tonbridge-designed face coverings; ‘traffic flow’ and one-way systems to ensure social distancing; numerous hand sanitising points; increased staffing resource in the School’s Medical Centre, and an internal ‘Track and Trace’ system.

Tonbridge worked closely with Sutton House, a team of globally recognised experts in biosecurity.

Thanks to this partnership, and one with University of Cambridge spin-out company Diagnostics for the Real World (DRW), the school acquired a SAMBAII testing facility, to enable rapid and highly reliable testing on site. This device has been described as “a real game-changer in infectious disease

“Despite the unusual times we’re in, and the challenges we still face, I am confident that we will continue provide the best possible education and care for the boys.”

l A Social Distancing Marshal and the Strategy document

A ‘Back to School Strategy’ document, shared with all parents and staff, included information on new procedures for boys to follow in terms of classroom layouts, timetables, breaks and mealtimes, Boarding and Day Houses, and co-curricular life.

Excellent results achieved in GCSEs and A-levels Twenty-two boys achieved an amazing ‘clean sweep’ of Grade 9s / A*s; a further 60 boys achieved solely 9s/8s/A*s.

Boys also excelled at A-levels, with more than 70 per cent of all results graded at A*/A; 93 per cent of grades were A*, A or B (or Pre-U equivalent). l Some Tonbridge boys pictured on GCSE results day

This year marked the School’s GCSE and IGCSE strongest performance on record: 95 per cent of all GCSE results were at Grades 9, 8 and 7, the equivalent to A* or A. An impressive 79 per cent of all results were at Grades 9 and 8, and exactly half of all grades were at Grade 9.

A total of 21 boys achieved solely A* or equivalent grades, while 42% of all students achieved A*s / As. The Upper Sixth cohort at Tonbridge will now be taking up places at many of the UK’s leading universities. A significant number have chosen to study abroad, particularly in the US, and will be attending prestigious institutions including Chicago and the University of Hong Kong.

Boys are busy serving the community . . .

This has enabled the first live ‘link-ups’ between Tonbridge boys and students from Child Action Lanka, the School’s overseas partner charity.

The boys have started working in pairs with their overseas friends, sharing presentations, conversational English and helping with homework.

Boys are taking part in a variety of projects which are helping to support communities on both a local and international level.

Third Years have been learning about the causes of the international refugee crisis while working with the RefugEase charity. As well as helping out in a warehouse in Tonbridge, and packing donations for deliveries to northern France and to Greece, boys set themselves a sporting challenge and are collectively cycling and running a distance of 2,000 miles to raise funds.

In other activities, a group of Sixth Formers are preparing teaching resources in French and Spanish, which will assist local primary school teachers. Other students are keeping in touch with the senior citizens at a local day centre by writing letters, making short video messages and even paying socially distanced visits.

Other boys have been helping out at the Sustain Food Bank in Tonbridge, preparing food parcels for local families in need.

Following fundraising activities over the past couple of years, the School has been able to provide a new computer suite in the Child Action Lanka base in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka.

The whole School came together for its annual Pink Day, held to remember and support those affected by cancer.

Boys and staff wore pink items, and some dressed in wigs and fun costumes, to raise much-needed donations for charity.

Large areas of the School were dressed with pink decorations, and after dusk several School

buildings, including the Barton Science Centre and the Chapel, were illuminated in an amazing light show which featured a projection of the breast cancer ribbon.

This year more than £5,400 was raised to support the vital work of Breast Cancer Kent. Pink Day is also an opportunity for boys to learn more about the work of the NHS and of cancer charities, and to share their own experiences.

School unites in ‘lockdown fundraising’ weekend Students, staff and families from the Tonbridge School community across the globe came together in two fundraising events in May, raising more than £25,000 for good causes.

With charities needing support more than ever, the School was keen to be creative despite the international ‘lockdown’ and decided that these annual events should go ahead remotely.

Everyone was challenged to run or walk in their own version of The CRAS, the school’s annual cross-country event, and to log their individual runs on an app.

All over the world, boys and their families tracked their progress in local areas, parks, gardens or even just inside houses, clocking up distances of 3.5km

for the younger boys and up to 6.5km for seniors and adults. Each runner then made a donation to support the work of West Kent Mind: to date more than £7,500 has been raised for the mental health charity.

Later in the day, after completing their runs, First Year boys held a virtual version of their annual ‘Sleepout’ event, when they make shelters and sleep rough to raise awareness of homelessness.

Boys rose to the occasion by building shelters in gardens and garages, on roofs or even inside flats, using whatever material they could find and coming together online to discuss their plans.

This year the boys raised more than £17,500 for Kent-based charity Porchlight. visors, using innovative laser-cutting technology, thanks to a team of staff and pupil volunteers. More than 3,700 visors were distributed to care homes, surgeries and hospitals.

l The School’s mask-making operation in action

Tonbridge’s range of community, fundraising and voluntary activities saw it named as a Finalist in the Independent Schools of the Year Awards 2020. This recognition came in the category for ‘Community Outreach’, with a panel of judges looking at ways in which schools deliver programmes of social impact.

Student-led activities at Tonbridge saw £113,000 raised for national and international charities last year. In a normal year, 24,000 hours of volunteering time is given by pupils and staff. More than 150 boys choose weekly volunteering over other activity options.

Tonbridge’s community activities included the setting up and running of a Primary Care Treatment Centre at the School in March this year, which enabled the NHS to assess patients and help save lives at the height of the Covid-19 crisis.

At the same time, the School’s DT Department was among the first in the UK to manufacture protective

l Stewards at the NHS Primary Care Treatment Centre

Stars turn out for Short Films Awards Boys were invited to submit original work in categories for Drama, Documentary and Comedy.

Films had to last no longer than three minutes and could be shot on any device in landscape format.

Stars from the worlds of film and television took part in the School’s first annual Short Films Awards ceremony. The Oscars-style, online event, which ran for more than 40 minutes, was shown ‘live’ online back in July.

Presenters included director Tom Hooper and actors Dan Stevens (pictured above), Rosamund Pike, Emerald Fennell and Lily Cole, with Alistair Petrie taking the role of Master of Ceremonies.

The competition was the brainchild of Oscarwinning documentary-maker and former Tonbridge pupil Vikram Jayanti (Sc 1968-72), who has been teaching filmic story telling at the School.

Vikram said: “My aim was to encourage and galvanise our film-makers. Nothing succeeds like a competition, especially one with glittering prizes and with star names to present them.”

Dan Stevens, also an Old Tonbridgian (MH 199601), who rose to international stardom with his role in Downton Abbey, presented the Grand Prize to overall winner Ryan Ng for his comedic work, Setbacks. Presenting the award from his home in Los Angeles, Dan described Ryan’s work as “a brilliant and playful piece, full of invention, cheekiness and humour, and I loved it”.

Ryan received a state-of-the-art, portable video projector, while other category winners were each awarded a pocket video camera. l Tonbridge Short Films Awards 2020

Grand Prize and Overall Winner Ryan Ng (FH1) for Setbacks Drama Alex Dean (CH4) for The Thought Fox Documentary Rory Dalton (FH1) for Generations Runner-up: Hugo Streets (FH1) for Abandoned Thoughts Comedy Zac Ribbins (WW4) for Just Jamming Runner-up: Daniel Stick (WH5) for The Exam

Publication showcases boys’ poetry A new publication features more than 50 of the best poems written

by Tonbridge boys for this year’s Staveley Poetry Prize.

The competition has been running for more than half a century. It is named after a remarkable teacher at Tonbridge, Tom Staveley, who taught and inspired Sidney Keyes, one of the greatest poets of the Second World War. The English Department’s Peter Carpenter said: “We thought that the quality and range of the poems was remarkable and merited a publication, and so we produced an 80-page booklet to showcase the very best of the boys’ work.”

This year’s prize was judged by renowned poet Jonathan Edwards, pictured right, who back in the Summer Term chose overall winners for the three age groups.

Archie Capon (WH5) won the Senior Prize, Jack Walder (PS2) the Intermediate Prize, and James Tam (MH1) the Novi Prize. The publication features the poems awarded first, second and third prize in each category, as well as all the entries that were Highly Commended or Shortlisted. * Jonathan Edwards was one of the judges in this year’s National Poetry Competition, the most prestigious UK poetry prize.

Innovation the key to House Music success

More than 100 Tonbridge boys demonstrated their musical innovation and creativity during the School’s recent House Music Competition.

Boys from all 12 Houses played their own arrangements of classic songs spanning the decades, which ranged from Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing to ingenious acoustic arrangements of Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal and Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel.

Members from each House arranged and performed one amplified and one acoustic song at the School’s EM Forster Theatre. The competition was judged on standard and variety of performance, as well as musical innovation.

Due to Covid restrictions, this year’s contest had a few differences. Instead of one large evening event, each House performed its music in the Theatre at different times during the week, with a maximum of

eight boys on stage at any time. Performances were filmed and the show was streamed on YouTube.

Mark Forkgen, the school’s Director of Music, said: “It was a real joy for us all to experience live music in the Theatre once more. The restrictions on numbers simply led everyone to be even more creative and inspired.”

House Music 2020: Results House Music Cup: Smythe House Runners Up: Ferox Hall; Welldon House Cullen Shield for Best Acoustic Item: Ferox Hall for High and Dry The Paul Gamblin Award for Best Amplified Item: Hill Side for the Piña Colada Song Best Arrangement: Marcus Siu (Sc4)

Teams rise to Aerospace Challenge Three Tonbridge teams were placed in the top five in the country during the Schools Aerospace Challenge 2020.

Just 12 teams from schools and colleges across the country were selected for the national final, in which students presented a proposal to the RAF on the topic of hybrid power engine systems.

Sponsored by the RAF and the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, as well as by a range of names from industry, the Aerospace Challenge tests students’ skills in aviation, engineering and innovation.

The ‘top five’ teams will now be taking part in a final ceremony and will also be receiving prizes of £1,000 per team, split between students and their schools.

Phil Deakin, Head of Science, said: “The Aerospace Challenge gives students an opportunity to meet leading industry professionals and demonstrate skills in teamwork, communicating and presenting.”

Tonbridge boys earned warm praise from the award-winning writer who judged the school’s recent EM Forster Short Story Competition.

Author Adam Marek said there was “so much impressive writing ... It was a pleasure to have my imagination pulled from World War II to haunted houses and dystopian cities.”

Edward Lee (SH1) was the Novi winner for his war story, Behind enemy lines – to die, to sleep.

Tom Kwok (MH2) won the Second and Third Year category for Breaking in, a comedy about a bungled burglary. The Sixth Form prize was awarded to Sam Hudson (CH5) for The book, a story set in an oppressive state.

VIEWS FROM TONBRIDGE

Autumn colour on campus

Half term activities for boys staying on site

Conservation work

Novi rock climbing expedition

House cricket

Art Class outside

Saturday sport

The Lower Fields

Novi cycling trip to Bedgebury

News From Tonbridge: Editor: Nick Ellwood, Head of Communications Designer: Jody Taylor, Reprographics nick.ellwood@tonbridge-school.org