HillsNews Summer 2018

HillsNews Summer Newsletter

HillsFest 2018

Battle of the Bands – Crisis Engine entertain in the quad

@HillsRoadNews

July 2018

Tuesday 3rd July saw the timetable collapsed to allow students try something new and have some post-exam fun!

The day’s ‘Communication’ theme kicked off with two talented student bands and our very own Mr Russo entertaining a packed Quad.

Students chose three activity sessions from a huge selection which included 90s Hip-Hop, Communication Circus, The Law of Selfies, Screenwriting, Target Golf, Volleyball and Wheelchair Basketball.

Lunchtime tutor group stalls encouraged us to find Nessie, have a henna tattoo, sip ‘mocktails’ and fling baguettes to raise money for charity.

Local young musician Tom Korni provided another stunning set as a backdrop to the BBQ and, despite searing heat, a thoroughly good day was had by all.

Lunchtime BBQ Students selling cakes at lunchtime

Gladiators, ready..?

Learning how to play Volleyball

Tom Korni entertaining students and staff at lunchtime

Oscar Jopp

Oscar outside 10 Downing Street

HR3/5km Fun Run

Students and staff were out enjoying the sunny weather as they took part in the 11th annual HR3/5km fun run during the afternoon of Wednesday 25th April. To date, this event has raised over £90,000 for local charities!

This year, former Hills Road student Ben Szreter, CEO of Cambridge United Community, professional footballers Liam O’Neil and Barry Corr and Rosalie Tribe, from event sponsors ARM, started the Fun Run from the College Quad. Ben remembers taking part in the Fun Run when he was a Hills Road student!

Hills Road student Oscar Jopp, 18, was invited to a celebratory reception at Number 10 Downing Street to mark the 70th anniversary of the US-UK Fulbright Commission.

The Fulbright Programme was the brain-child of Senator J William Fulbright, whose vision was for a peaceful and prosperous world. He believed that if people had the opportunity to immerse themselves in each other’s cultures, nations would never again find reason for war. His chosen vehicle was a global academic exchange programme that would be implemented around the world.

As a great ambassador of these values, Oscar has been offered a place to study at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, USA with a financial award from the university worth over $250,000. Oscar took part in the Sutton Trust’s Undergraduate US Programme which is delivered by the US-UK Fulbright Commission and has been selected as a team leader.

Oscar studied A level Computer Science, Maths and Physics at Hills Road.

He is also an all-round sportsman, most recently competing in the decathlon for both Cambridgeshire Schools and Hertfordshire County at regional and national competitions.

Oscar said “I am extremely excited to be moving to the US to study engineering at a private liberal arts college, and compete at NCAA division 1 in the decathlon.

My sporting abilities were just one of many factors considered when I was offered a place at Lafayette.”

“This would not have been possible without help and support from the Sutton Trust US Programme, Hills Road Sixth Form College, The Knights Templar School, Baldock, the Stevenage and North Herts Athletics Club, and my mother.”

Oscar was awarded an Arkwright Engineering Scholarship sponsored by TWI when he was in Year 11 and he is also a fully qualified athletics coach, coaching children and young adults.

Principal, Jo Trump, said: “We are delighted that Oscar has secured this fantastic and wholly deserved opportunity. He has demonstrated himself to be an exemplary all-round student who excels both in his sporting and academic endeavours. It is absolutely appropriate that Oscar should be taking forward the spirit of moral and social partnership between the UK and USA with this great scholarship through the Fulbright Programme.”

The start of the HR3/5km 2018 Fun Run

The HR3/5km team of oraganisers from left to right:

The Hills Road Elite Cheer Team warm-up in the quad

In addition, staff and student cyclists left the College for a 45km cycle ride passing through the Shelfords, Newton, Fowlmere, Ickleton, Duxford and Whittlesford, before returning to the College.

Judith Anderson, Teenage Cancer Trust Regional Fundraiser, said: ‘The incredible support of Hills Road Sixth Form College, undertaking challenges like the 5km fun run, is invaluable. Without vital fundraising Teenage Cancer Trust wouldn’t be able to provide the specialised nursing and emotional support that young people with cancer aged 13-24 so desperately need.”

Student Social Action Week 4th-8th June Raises £19,585!

Year 12 students had a fantastic week raising a total of £19,585 for charities during their first ever ‘Social Action Week’.

Set a week-long project challenge, the 1200 students were given a tough target of £10,000 to raise for charities of their choice.

Principal, Jo Trump said: “The purpose of the week was to connect our students with local, national and international charities that they are passionate about and to give them an insight into social action. We have been delighted by the way in which they have risen to the challenge and really understood what it means to make a difference in this hands-on way. Over the project week, students almost doubled the fund-raising target we set them in a phenomenal effort and we couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Unloc Enterprise Academy have been working with the College to help inspire, motivate and develop this enterprising mindset in its students. Unloc’s CEO Hayden Taylor said, “We are delighted with how successful the Hills Road Social Action Week has been.

Unloc has been partnered with Hills Road for the past year, working on achieving our mission of ‘empowering change-makers’ here in Cambridgeshire, and this past week has certainly been the highlight.”

“I would like to express my sincere thanks to all staff, governors, the public and - of course - the students for getting behind this impressive event and raising an incredible amount of money for good causes.”

At the beginning of the week students were split into groups of between 10 and 12 and were each given a brief to work on a project to identify and raise a minimum of £100 per group for their chosen charity. They then had three days to go out and about in Cambridgeshire raising the minimum target of £100 per group. One group of students formed a band called Ben’s Boys and three of their members performed in the centre of Cambridge raising funds for their chosen charity.

Other groups of students included the Deenadreamers who walked their neighbours’ dogs, washed cars and did some gardening to raise funds for the Botswana Diabetes Partnership Project and a group called Walking for Water, completed a sponsored 8km walk (the distance the average person in Kenya has to walk to access water) to raise funds for WaterAid.

Prizes were awarded at the end of the week with one going to the team who raised the most for their nominated charity.

This was the enterprising ice cream sellers who raised £811 for Melanoma Focus. Equally enterprising were the Bedsheet Boyz who created Community Art on Parker’s Piece by inviting the public to co-create a piece of combined art painted on bedsheets in return for a donation to their nominated charity, Jimmy’s Night Shelter.

Social Action Week Staff Team in front of the Bed_Sheet Boyz artwork!

Photos from Instagram #hillssocialaction

Keir Bradwell

Students Build an Intelligent Library Shelf

A team of Hills Road students attended Engineering Education Scheme Celebration and Award Day (EES CAD) on 24th April.

The Celebration and Award Day is the culmination of a 6 month project working with technology company Arm.

20 teams from the region brought their projects to the CAD to present and demonstrate them to a panel of judges and to each other.

Although EES is not a competition

and there are no prizes for the ‘best’ project, the Hills Road teams project was highly regarded by the judges and came runner-up in the student vote for ‘best project’.

During the day the Hills Road team stand, with its working model of an intelligent library shelf attracted a lot of attention from the students and industry mentors and the team were busy for most of the day explaining the system to interested visitors.

Keir Bradwell

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge have commended Hills Road student Keir Bradwell for an essay he wrote for their Essay Competition 2018, the Corpus Bacon Prize for Politics and International Relations.

Keir wrote a 2,500 word essay answering the question, ‘Is it a good idea to have public policy determined by voting in national referendums?’

Keir said, “ I wrote about referendums, but I tried to take a more theoretical/philosophical approach; I argued that there was no such thing as ‘the will of the people’ (based largely on the works of Joseph Schumpeter) combined with analysis of various referendums.”

Keir says he is infuriated by the attempts of Brexiteers to claim some sort of divine moral purpose on the back of a very tight referendum victory.

From left to right: David Evans, Finn Sutcliffe, Philip Sosnin, Lydia Shepherd, James Granville

Brexit Workshop

Politics Conference

On Wednesday 4th July the Politics Department hosted a conference in collaboration with Longley Park Sixth Form College in Sheffield.

The theme for this year was ‘The Changing Political Landscape of the United Kingdom since 1945’ which is relevant to year 1 of the Government and Politics course material.

Guest speakers included Dr Peter Sloman, Churchill College, Cambridge who spoke on Socialism and Conservatism during the Post-War settlement and Dr Nick Allen from Royal Holloway, University of London who spoke on Evaluating Prime Ministerial Performance, followed by a question and answer session which was led by Jenna Darler, Parliamentary Assistant to Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge.

The Houses of Parliament

Students taking part in the workshop about BREXIT

In April, 35 Year 2 Economics students took part in a 2-hour Brexit workshop intended to consolidate and challenge their views on the work of the European Union and the possible outcomes from the 2016 referendum that has led to the UK making plans to leave the EU. The session was run by an external organisation called Involver who are responsible for delivering the EU’s educational programme in the UK. Their slogan is ‘Doing Democracy’ and the students were certainly put through their paces to show their knowledge (or lack of it at times!) of the countries and institutions of the EU that have such a major impact on their day-to-day lives.

It was a politically-neutral session to teach about the history and development of European integration through a range of

individual and whole group activities and small group tasks, using a broad range of teaching techniques. After some introductory exercises to get them warmed up and thinking about Europe and Brexit, the students were asked to make choices about what they felt were the most important issues and many had to explain and justify their decisions in front of the rest of the group.

The final activity involved creating an outline manifesto with appropriate policies for a new political party that would take forward their group’s views on Brexit. The students found it an interesting afternoon as it allowed them to combine their interests in Economics, Politics and History on a current issue in a way that isn’t always possible in their separate subjects.

RoboCon Competition

The Hills Road team celebrating as their robot places another cube in the designated area

A team of students from Hills Road won the RoboCon 2018 competition on 15th April.

Sponsored by Cheffins, this prestigious event saw eight teams from schools across the region put their robotics and engineering skills to the test over a two day event hosted at Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge. The winning team has been awarded a guided tour of Cambridge Medical Robotics, one of the world’s leading robotics and engineering companies.

The competition was launched in November when the challenges were announced and a kit of electronics was given to each competing team. The teams then had four months to design, build and programme an autonomous robot to achieve the challenges, using a vision system to recognise markers.

The competition was held at the College over the weekend of 14th and 15th April, using a custom built arena provided by the fit-out and design company COEL. It consisted of two days of competitive rounds, pitching four robots at a time against each other to locate and retrieve marked cubes, culminating in the finals on Sunday.

The eight teams taking part were: Comberton Village College, Cambridge, Ely College, Ely, Haydon School, Pinner, Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge, Longsands Academy, St. Neots, The College of Richard Collyer (Collyers), Horsham, The John Warner School, Hoddesdon and The Perse School, Cambridge.

The competition was judged by

RoboCon 2018 Competitors

Runner-up for the SFCA Enrichment and Employability Award

Jo Trump is presented with the award on 27th June

Congratulations to David Massey some impressive names in the world of and the Hills Road Robotics team for their robotics engineering including Jeffrey Temple- brilliant efforts organising the Hills Road Head from Aurora Space; Carmelo D’Agostino RoboCon2018 in April which led to the College from Arm and Dr Ross Henrywood from being awarded runner-up in the Sixth Form Cambridge Medical Robotics.

Colleges Association (SFCA) Enrichment and

David Massey, leader of Hills Road Employability category.

Robotics Group said “We started planning

The Principal, Jo Trump, was this competition in October 2107, when we presented with the certificate at the SFCA learned that the robotics competition we Summer Conference awards ceremony were planning to enter (Student Robotics) on 27th June. Grateful thanks to principal was having a hiatus for a year.”

“All of the teams seemed to enjoy sponsors of the competition Cheffins Property the event and it was great to see the various plus Arm, MRSurgical, Citrix and COEL. approaches taken to solving the problem

Edward Dodson, Director of Cheffins we set. The competition was fierce and all said “Cheffins was delighted to be involved of the robots improved during the practice in this exciting project and this award is a rounds leading to a tense and exciting finale reflection of the hard work that David, his to the competition. All of the teams showed team and the Hills Road students put into the ingenuity and enthusiasm and we could not preparation and participation in RoboCon have asked for a better conclusion to our 2018. We are pleased to work alongside efforts. To cap it all, our robot managed to the likes of CMR, Raspberry Pi and COEL win the competition overall, although any of in this successful business and education the teams in the final could have taken the collaboration and hope that these types of prize.” partnerships will help Cambridge to continue

“We are tremendously grateful to our sponsors, and in particular to Cheffins, for to grow in its standing as one of the leading being willing to support this event. Without centres for robotics and artificial intelligence.” the funding and support we could never have managed to build and supply the kits, the arena, the software and the support that are needed for this sort of competition.”

The results of the competition: 1st: Hills Road Sixth Form College, 2nd: The Perse School, Cambridge, 3rd: Richard Collyers College, Sussex

Human Resources Team Win Bake-off

The Human Resources team Deborah Bennett, Michele Nightingale and Sadie Tokley with their winning cat cake

Art & Design Study Visit to Berlin

Students Excel in National Physics and Chemistry Competitions

Twenty-nine Art and Design students went to Berlin to see a fascinating range of architecture and art over a long weekend at the start of July. Day one was spent introducing the group to the extraordinary history of the city with visits to the Holocaust Memorial, the Reichstag and the Wall Museum at Check Point Charlie.

The itinerary was intensive and highlights included a number of key contemporary art collections as well as Daniel Liebeskind’s Jewish Museum. We also visited the Boros Collection, a massive intact Nazi over-ground concrete bunker; bizarrely this was designed on a complex Italian Palladian ground plan, but built in a hurry in 1943 to shelter 3000 people. It is now completely filled by a private collection of top flight international art.

Students soaking up inspiration at the Adele and Eva show at the Olbricht Foundation

An unusual excursion this year was a break-out group on Sunday evening to hunt down the Schwerbelastungskörper or ‘heavy load-bearing body’, a hefty concrete cylinder (over 12,000 tons) erected in 1941–1942

by Hitler’s chief architect Albert Speer to determine the feasibility of constructing large buildings on the area’s marshy, sandy ground. To everyone’s delight, as night fell, we finally found it in a quiet suburban district of the city; this was the type of special event unlikely to be repeated on any family holiday or relaxation orientated visit.

Students came back fairly tired but having had a huge amount of creative stimulation in this unique location.

Physics students after receiving their Physics Olympiad awards

Hills Road Chemistry and Physics students have recently achieved magnificent results in several national competitions, including the British Physics Olympiad and UK Chemistry Olympiad.

The College was honoured to welcome the Chairman of the British Physics Olympiad (BPhO), Mr Robin Hughes, who attended an award ceremony to present students with their certificates. A total of 63 Hills Road students took part in the different rounds of the BPhO with 45 achieving Gold, Silver and Bronze certificates.

The examination-based competition has a dual purpose: to challenge and reward the best physicists in British schools and to select the UK Physics Team for competition at international level. Most students entering the British Physics Olympiad are in Year 13.

without the Olympiad, but success is achieved by doing something to succeed and the Olympiads offer that opportunity.”

Hills Road student, Robert Vickers has done exceptionally well, receiving a Gold award and also finishing within the top 50 nationally in round one of the competition.

In addition to this achievement, he was the only student from Hills Road to enter the British Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad (BAAO) competition where he received a Silver award. Robert has been offered a place at the University of Oxford to read Physics.

Meanwhile, students of Chemistry celebrated their successes in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Olympiad competition, the AD Schools’ Analyst Competition and the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge at a lunch organised by staff in the Chemistry

Chemistry students at the celebratory lunch, including buns iced with the elements of the periodic table

Students thinking about art at the Hamburger Bahnhof Gallery - Berlin’s largest contemporary art gallery

Robin Hughes said “The Olympiad competitions provide a focus for enthusiastic and able students to engage in the subject to a greater depth. They are successful through having the courage and determination to take part, risking failure, which is more a perception than an actuality.”

“To try in competitions at this level is to succeed. Many leading professional physicists have taken these papers at school and got nowhere; what has developed their physics is that willingness to persevere, endeavouring to develop an expertise in the field, more than worrying about competition success.”

“The competitions are fun and a focus for many students who want to challenge themselves, but not a signal of future success or failure. You can do either of these with or

department. The lunch included buns iced with the elements of the periodic table, thanks to Chemistry teacher Mrs Summers.

53 Hills Road students took part in the national Chemistry Olympiad competition, making up 1% of the total entry. A stunning 45 students were awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze certificates as a result of their academic excellence in the competition.

The Chemistry Olympiad is the leading chemistry competition for students in secondary education across the UK. Run annually, the Olympiad is an opportunity for teachers to challenge their chemistry students, helping them to develop problem solving skills and apply familiar knowledge in new and interesting contexts.

William’s Dinosaur Skeleton

BASE National Final

Student William Wisson-Burton has made a skeleton of an Allosaurus Fragilis for his Extended Project! It is 27 feet long, 9 feet tall and weighs 420 kg. It took William

A team of four Hills Road students, Abbie Hartley, Natalia Karampetsou, Richard Complak and Callum Holliday were one of the top 48 teams selected to go to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) BASE National Business and Accounting Competition Final in Birmingham on 27th and 28th June.

over 500 hours to fabricate from scrap metal and agricultural machinery parts. Great work William!

From left to right: Abbie Hartley, Richard Complak, Callum Holliday, Natalia Karampetsou William working on his dinosaur skeleton

William with the completed skeleton

Hills Road Students Perform Exceptionally Well at University

It’s official! Hills Road students outperform all other types of school and college leavers in the country when it comes to their degree performance.

The table below is the latest annual release by the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association (SFCA) of the 2017 degree outcomes for students in sixth form colleges compared with all other education sectors. This data comes from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). The degree results for Hills Road students in 2017 were even more stunning than they have been previously.

Hills Road Principal, Jo Trump said “We are absolutely delighted with these latest degree

outcomes for our students and congratulate them all on their spectacular performance at university.”

“Ultimately the measure of any education is its ability to equip young people to thrive at the next stage in their lives. We know that our expectations of our students and our university-style environment allows them to develop as confident and mature learners and it’s fantastic that these degree outcomes support that view.”

“Hills Road students are really well prepared to make the most of the academic opportunities and independence expectations at university and we couldn’t be prouder of their achievements.”

The competition consisted of three initial stages before the final: 1. An individual round to assess strengths and weaknesses. All entrants progress from here to round 2.

2. A group round in which teams of 4/5 students had to respond to a series of challenges and questions based around life as a young accountant working on projects for clients. This was done online in a simulation style game and included making calculations and giving answers to commercial problems.

3. From round 2, 200 teams were selected to go through to round 3, which involved responding to some questions about the wearable technology market (Smart Watches and Fitness Trackers) and delivering their spoken response via some video conferencing software. The team was selected from all the Hills Road teams that entered (the whole cohort of Business students entered as part of the course of study). They received support to prepare from Julia Phillips, a finance director at Arm Holdings who was a mentor appointed by the ICAEW and also from Daniela Florea who is one of our Associate Governors.

4. From this round, the Hills Road team were one of 48 selected for the National final. In the final they were given an unseen business scenario and had to analyse this to give a presentation to a number of judges from the panel assembled by the ICAEW, before handling any questions the panel might have for them.

Team member Abbie said “During the competition we developed our communication, organisation, and presentation skills, whilst under time pressure, completing a task through decision making as a team.”

Naomi organises a Geography Trip to Sicily The visit to Sicily took us to the debate about BREXIT summit craters of Etna, to the Lipari Islands

Year 12 student Naomi Sleator organised a debate about BREXIT for her Extended Project.

Naomi managed to secure an impressive line-up which included Professor Alan Sked, Professor Emeritus of International History at the London School of Economics, Steven Edginton who runs the YouTube channel for Politics UK, Dr Julian Huppert, former Lib Dem MP for Cambridge (2010-15) and Lord Richard Balfe, who served as an MEP from the first European elections in 1979, until his retirement in 2004.

Now a Lord, he voted for the amendment proposed by Conservative cabinet minister Lord Hailsham, which goes further than the government’s proposals on how much power MPs could get.

Naomi said “I decided to have a balanced debate consisting of two people in favour of Remain and two in favour of Leave.

However, although I originally considered holding a Brexit debate, I soon realised that it wouldn’t be worthwhile and would most likely turn into a shouting match. I am interested in Brexit, as there has been so much controversy on the subject. It seems as though everyone has an opinion, and cannot agree with the other side.”

“Therefore, I decided to try and approach Brexit from a different angle, from the point of view of democracy. I hope that this question might be something that a Brexiteer and Remainer can come to the same conclusion on.

Students asked the panel questions including, ‘Should Theresa May resign?’, ‘Have the current political parties let voters down and should new political parties be created?’

It was a lively debate between the Remainers and Brexiteers. Well done Naomi for organising a fantastic and interesting event!

and a sweltering ascent of Gran Cratere on the active volcanic island of Vulcano.

A record number of mud enthusiasts took to the hot muddy pools to sample the benefits of living in a volcanic area. Visits to the recent lava flows on the flanks of Etna gave us an opportunity to study the ways in which the hazards are monitored and mitigated and to also cross the lava fields which helped our understanding of the flow dynamics of these recent eruptive events.

Student Natasha says “The thing I enjoyed most was the day we went to the top of Etna. We got to take a cable car and a jeep up to the top and the view was amazing.

It was very surreal to be standing on top of an active volcano.”

Ascending the craters on the Northern Flank of Etna

Below the summit of Etna with our mountain guide, at 2900m

“I learnt a lot about the way the

volcano and lava flows are managed to reduce the damage done to the residential areas, for example how the USA helped by putting up concrete barriers to slow a lava flow. The ice-cream, Granita and having a pool in the hotel were definitely a highlight! I also

loved having 7am swims in the sea.”

All in all, an incredible experience for our Geologists and Geographers in 2018!

We are so grateful for the help to run this tour provided by Sally Asby and Rayburn Tours.

Julia Thomson

Head of Geography

Naomi with the panel members and audience

Jumping on the crater rim of Gran Cratere, Vulcano, Aeolian Islands

Alexia wins BBC Proms Inspire Competition Film maker Gaylene express freely emotions which may otherwise Preston talks to Film remain under discussed, or even, at times, entirely stifled. Thus, this piece is both my Studies Students attempt to give an emotional rather than

political reaction to the crisis, and to draw attention to it through creative, non-violent means.”

Alexia is a First Study Composer at the Royal College of Music Junior Department, one of six composers with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain as well as one of four composers with the Britten Sinfonia Academy. She was an Aldeburgh Young Musician in 2015-2016 and she is a member of the National Youth Recorder Orchestra. In 2017 and in 2018, she was declared the overall winner of the Royal College of Music Junior Department Composition Prize as well as one of the winners of the Royal Philharmonic Society and Classic FM 25th Birthday commission, winning alongside six post-graduate composers.

In 2015, Alexia was the first female composer to win The Cambridge Young Composer of the Year Competition.

Alexia Sloane Her commissioned piece by the Royal

Year 13 student, Alexia Sloane, Philharmonic Society and Classic FM, Elegy has recently won the highly prestigious BBC for Aylan, was written for and performed by Proms Inspire Competition 2018 with her members of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic piece, Elegy for Aylan, which she originally Orchestra and broadcast on Classic FM. wrote for members of the Royal Liverpool Alexia’s pieces have been performed Philharmonic Orchestra as a result of winning in the following venues: King’s College the Royal Philharmonic Society and Classic FM Chapel, West Road Concert Hall (by The prize last year.

Hermes Experiment, Britten Sinfonia, The

The judging panel included Ligeti Quartet, Dr Sextet and The Phaedra composers Kerry Andrew, Sally Beamish, Anna Ensemble), Great St Mary’s University Church, Meredith, Dobrinka Tabakova, Joby Talbot, Jesus College Chapel, Emmanuel College Fraser Trainer and Director of the Proms, Chapel, St Catharine’s College Chapel, the David Pickard. Alexia’s winning piece will Guildhall, the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Tate now be performed as part of the BBC Proms Modern, the Southbank Centre, Handel Series on 22nd August in London by Aurora House, Snape Maltings concert hall, The Orchestra. She will also be writing a piece Royal College of Music, Café Oto (London), St to celebrate Professor Stephen Hawking’s George’s Hall (Liverpool) and further afield, in life and works either for the November Melbourne, Australia.

Cambridge Music Festival or for her BBC

Alexia said “This might sound like a commission next year. cliché, but being selected as a winner of this

Alexia said “My winning piece, year’s BBC Proms Inspire competition is a Elegy For Aylan is a loose song-without-words tremendous honour. The opportunity to work setting of one of my poems, itself inspired by with such an outstanding orchestra as Aurora the refugee crisis. Aylan was a three-year old Orchestra, and the BBC commission that will Syrian child who was found washed up on a follow, are truly incredible, as is the chance Turkish beach in 2015 sparking international to reach out to a wide audience through the outrage. I wanted to write a piece that Radio 3 broadcast.” demonstrates what an exceptionally powerful https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexia_Sloane tool classical music can be; allowing us to www.inspirarts.com

Gaylene Preston with Year 12 Film Studies students

Year 12 Film Studies students were privileged to receive a visit from acclaimed director Gaylene Preston early in June.

Gaylene was visiting Jesus College and found time to talk to our students about her career in the film industry.

Having written, produced and directed for TV and Film, Gaylene has had a huge amount of experience that she was happy to share with the group.

In particular, her recent documentary My Year with Helen provided some interesting background context for recent studies on film documentaries.

Gaylene’s talk was full of inspiration and advice for young filmmakers.

Thomas wins Gold at European U18s

Student Thomas Keen, representing GB, won a gold medal in the 3,000m at the European U18 Championships in Gyor, Hungary on 5th July!

Thomas, who runs with the Cambridge and Coleridge Atheletics Club ran a sub-60 second last lap to win the title - well done Thomas!

Photograph by Nick Rutter

Aurora Orchestra

Thomas Keen in action

Nigel Bennett Reminisces

Nigel Bennett with students

I joined the Music department in October 2010 after taking early retirement from a career in the Civil Service.

I think that my greatest achievement was to persuade the then Director of Music to allow me to organise a tour for the Jazz and Folk groups. Up until then there were only bi-annual tours organised for the chamber choir and chamber orchestra. The first Jazz and Folk tour took place in 2012, when we went to Mechelen in Belgium.

In fact, Evie Scott, who now works at the College, came on that very first tour playing clarinet in the Jazz Orchestra when she was a student here. Since then there has been a Jazz & Folk tour every two years: in 2014 (Mechelen again), 2016 to Cologne and this year to Hasselt in Belgium.

Of course the Chamber tours continue. In 2013 Julia Caddick and I drove a van full of equipment and instruments all the way to Venice – and back! In 2015 we went to Kraków in Poland (no driving that time) and in 2017 Andy Hosker and I drove a van to Budapest. So I can say that Hills Road has given me the opportunity to quite literally see a lot of Europe as a result of the various tours.

Aside from the tours, other highlights that stand out for me are the simply tremendous concerts that the students perform each year. I’ve had the privilege of playing in Ely Cathedral, King’s College Chapel and St John’s College Chapel and witnessed some outstanding students playing everything from Hummel, Dvorak, Elgar and Ravel to singing great works such as Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Nelson Mass. The most challenging thing was without doubt the performance of A Child In Our Time by Sir Michael Tippett which we performed at Ely Cathedral in 2011. This was Joss Sanders’s farewell concert and it was a very difficult and emotionally charged oratorio for a very emotionally charged concert.

I was also given the opportunity to be music director for a student production of The Producers in December 2016. It was the first time I had ever conducted a musical and it was a nerve-racking experience! As always, the students rose to the challenge and it was a privilege to be involved in such a great show. A big ‘thank you’ to Richard Fredman for allowing me to be part of the team.

The music department team are just great people; highly focused, highly motivated and highly talented. It’s been a real joy to come to work every day and I shall miss them all. But It’s time for a fresh challenge and I know that studying for a BA in Music at Anglia Ruskin University for the next three years will provide that.

I’m not severing my links with Hills Road completely – I shall still come back to play in concerts from time to time to beef up the brass section!

Nigel Bennett

Jazz and Folk Evening

Always a highlight of the musical calendar, this year’s Jazz and Folk evening didn’t disappoint with some rousing and energetic performances from the Folk Roots Group followed by some big band, full-on jazz sound provided by the jazz orchestra. Some energy-fuelled delivery of rousing numbers such as This Land is My Land were juxtaposed with some delicate and reflective songs such as She’s like the Swallow, all delivered with musical aplomb by the talented ensembles and soloists of Folk Roots. After the interval came the brilliantly exuberant big band sound

of a multi-piece jazz orchestra complete with a brass and rhythm section.

This great team could really deliver a superb jazz experience from jazz standards to more touching elegiac pieces such as Goodbye Pork Pie Hat: it was a musical treat. Best of all was to witness the obvious enjoyment that students get from creating music of this quality together. Both groups took this fantastic repertoire on tour to Belgium in July.

Read all about their tour below...

The Jazz and Folk Music Tour to Belgium

Students performing in the bandstand in Grote Markt, Hasselt

28 students went to Belgium on a short concert tour from 2nd to 5th July. The Hills Road Jazz orchestra and the Folk Roots Group presented concerts in Maastricht and Hasselt. Both concerts were very well received.

This was the fourth jazz and folk tour organised by the Music department. The first took place in 2012 and there has been a tour every two years since. In fact three of the four tours have been based in Belgium, with the 2016 tour based in Cologne. Belgium is favoured because it is relatively easy to get to and there are plenty of venues for jazz and folk groups.

Staff on the tour were Lottie Hanfling (Tour Leader & Student Welfare), Trevor Barlow (Director of the Jazz Band), Stu Hanna (Director of the Folk Roots group), Andy Hosker (Technical Support) and Nigel Bennett (Tour Administrator and Music Support).

The concert in Maastricht was held in the main square next to the very impressive Town Hall and the concert in Hasselt, Limburg was in the bandstand in the very busy Grote Markt.

The tour was arranged through OneStage Ltd, a specialist music tour company based in Hasselt.

Year 12 drama enrichment students performed Find Me by Olwen Wymark in the College’s Robinson Theatre on 4th and 5th July.

Head of Performing Arts, Richard Fredman said “The cast and crew all had such incredible focus, exhibited superb discipline

and there was such precise timing in the ensemble.”

“There was also total emotional engagement throughout and they shared Verity’s traumatic internal world with absolute conviction.”

“Fantastic work - thank you!”

Enrichment Production Find Me

A scene from Find Me

Hills Road Ultimate Frisbee Team

The Hills Road Ultimate Frisbee Team

The Hills Road Ultimate Frisbee team are celebrating after winning 3rd place at the Junior Outdoor Nationals on Saturday 30th June at Leicester University Sports ground.

The team included Year 13 student Seamus Turvill, Year 12 students Ahmed Qureshi, Ailwyn Ellis, Alana Calne, Angela Bull, Aaron James, Cameron Nixon, Kei Watanabe and alumni Akito Oyama and Alex HughesDavies. The team is coached by two Hills Road alumni, Christian Turvill and Tim Beech.

Team member and Hills Road

On a pleasant evening at Shelford Rugby Club on Friday 16th March the Highland Club from Ontario, Canada stopped over in Cambridge on their tour of England and Wales.

Their U16 boys played Shelford U16’s and their U18 girls played an East Region select team made up of girls from Hills Road and Long Road Sixth Form College, Palmers and Peterborough Colleges and girls from the Cambridge Rubies U18 team.

Watched by a good crowd of family and friends, senior staff from the colleges - notably Deborah Griffin, the bursar of Homerton College, who has done so much to develop women’s rugby - the girls put on an excellent display, on the fabulous new allweather pitch.

Although the score of 55 to 5 in favour of the Highland girls suggests a one sided game, it certainly was not. The Highland alumnus Akito said “This was a great result for girls, who have been playing together for many years through the various age groups, us since many of the school teams we were were playing against a combined side who competing against had been playing since were on a pitch together for the first time.

Year 7 so we were behind on experience.”

The East Region team frequently

“I would like to give particular put together good passages of rugby to get credit to the Year 12s who put in a lot of effort into the opposition red zone but the final bit training with the Cambridge team in order to of composure and communication necessary gain as much experience as possible ahead of to get a player over the line was missing. The Highland Club did not have this problem. this tournament.”

If you’d like to find out more about Their efficient set piece and physicality at the contact area gave them plenty of ball and they Hills Road Ultimate Frisbee, watch the video knew how best to exploit that.

Akito has created from this tournament:

9 tries, 5 of which were converted www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAhrE29qyNM were evidence of that. The East region defence was called upon a lot but never wavered. The U16 boys’ game on the other hand demonstrated how strong the club youth teams are in the region as Shelford came out on top with a score of 46 to 5. It was clear at the final whistle of both games that every player had given of their best and the happy faces as they applauded each other through their respective tunnels were in evidence throughout the rest of the evening as the players and coaches dined together in the clubhouse. Invitations from the Highland club to provide host families to look after players who might want to visit Ontario spoke volumes for the friendships made.

In Canada, clubs in the main have a girls/women’s section as strong as the men’s.

That is certainly not the case in the East region but with strong RFU encouragement more clubs are now offering opportunities for females to play and relationships are being formed to allow players to transition from schools to colleges and on to clubs.

Adrian Medd, Rugby Coach below that of their time at the National Schools Regatta in May, so it was a very encouraging performance.

With their A level exams now completed, the quad are turning their attention to prepping for the British Junior Championships in July, which will be the last race for these girls before they leave Hills Road Sixth Form College and the Cantabrigian Rowing Club to go to university, where they hope to continue their enthusiasm for rowing.

The Women’s Rugby teams

The crew are: Stroke - Izzy Ritchie, 3 - Eva Hill, 2 - Bex Hawthorne, Bow - Ellen Goode.

Competing at the Henley Women’s Regatta

From left to right: Eva, Izzy, Bex and Ellen

A rowing crew, the Cantabs junior girls four, made up of Hills Road students, was very excited to be racing at Henley Women’s Regatta on 22nd - 24th June.

They competed in the School Junior Quadruple Sculls race and with a category of 28, this girl’s crew (J4x) wanted to see how close they could get to qualification this year.

The conditions were almost perfect and the girls managed to put in a strong row, ending up as the 3rd fastest non-qualifier.

Despite the disappointment of being so close to qualifying (under 2 seconds), the girls put out an average split 10 seconds

Women’s Rugby Team Maiden Match

Sports News Hills Road Sport

The Sports department held their Crowned East of annual Sports Awards Dinner at the Hilton Cambridge on 27th April.

England Champions Hotel,

Over 100 students and staff

attended the event. Liv Hyde was awarded Sportswoman of the Year. Liv represented the East region in Tennis, Hockey and Volleyball at the AoC National finals in Nottingham 20th – 22nd April.

Sportsman of the Year award went to James McLaughlin who is captain of the

Hills Road Tennis team and James has also represented England at Golf.

The Hills Road Elite Cheer team won the College’s coveted ‘Team of the Year’ trophy. They were placed 2nd in the Level 1 category at the Future Cheer Showdown, Essex on Saturday 10th March. They also led the warm-up session at the recent Hills Road HR3/5km Fun Run in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust.

The women’s hockey team in action

For the fourth consecutive year, Hills Road Sport has won the Clifford Dixon Trophy, which was recently presented by the Association of Colleges to Ms Hemming, Head of Sport at the College.

Hills Road students amassed a huge 209 points after competing in 24 different sports. Their nearest rivals were SEEVIC (South East Essex 6th form college) in 2nd place with 94 points and East Norfolk Sixth Form College in 3rd place with 87 points.

Out of the 24 sports, Hills won 14, ranging from hockey and volleyball to women’s rugby and tennis. 76 Hills Road students from the winning teams represented the East Region at the National AoC Championships at Nottingham in April. This is the largest cohort of students from one single college to represent a region in the whole country, including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Hills Road medal haul at the Nationals included silver for both the men’s and the women’s hockey teams and bronze for golf and table tennis.

Ms Hemming said: “To achieve such an accolade is testament to the dedication of the staff and coaches and the commitment and competitiveness of the students.”

“Sport is such a great platform for life skills including the individuals’ well-being.

I am very proud to be associated with the College’s success in sport and we are already planning for next year when we hope to retain the trophy.”

James McLaughlin receives his award from Ann Hemming Liv Hyde receives her award from Ayden Duffy

The Hills Road Elite Cheer Squad

Football Team Wins the Holland Easter Cup

The Hills Road football teams celebrating in Holland in April Student Emily Brown competing at the National AoC Championships in April

Hills Road Alumni

All students are welcome to join the Hills Road Alumni network: https://alumni.hillsroad.ac.uk/homepage where you will be able to: • Reconnect with old friends • Reminisce about your time at the College • Remain up-to-date with the latest news Sign up today!

Congratulations to the Hills Road Football teams who competed in the Holland Easter Cup over the Easter break.

The 2nd team progressed to the finals day with some fine performances from Joe Burn and Torin Phelps. The 1st team played brilliantly throughout the competition,

not conceding a single goal against any of the professional and semi-professional teams, winning the final on penalties against Matlock Town Academy.

Player of the tournament was awarded to Hills Road student Duncan Cooper. Well done to all the players!

Production Notes Articles and photographs for this edition of the HillsReview were produced by Nigel Bennett, Caroline Birks, Keir Bradwell, Vivien Brownlee, Tawana Chamanza, Nicki Dartnell, Isabelle Depiot, Ayden Duffy, Mike Foster, Richard Fredman, Ann Hemming, Maureen Marsh, David Massey, Adrian Medd, Akito Oyama, Ian Pryer, Katrina Pursar, Nick Rutter, Jonathan Sansom, Rosie Snooke, Chris Southeran, Linda Swain, Shelley Tenberg, Julia Thomson, Tim Winn, William Wisson-Burton