College News

Pupil headliners and latest news from round the campus and beyond ...

STEM SUCCESS

Ten teams of Fifth Form chemists took part in the Royal Society of Chemistry Schools’ Analyst Competition (right). The task requires the students to research and perform chemical tests. The scenario was to analyse and identify the contents of three mysterious barrels of chemicals that had been found by a river. This was a very tight competition and the RSC was impressed with the ‘overall quality of the entries’. Congratulations to all the teams who took part but in particular to the winners: James Chester, Henry Shephard and Nima Zanjani (first place); Konstantin Kluba and Max Weber (second place); and Kiran Patel and Joe Fry (third place).

We had some terrific results in the most recent Maths Intermediate Olympiad. Sammy Zhang and Kristy Wong both were awarded a Distinction – the ‘Everest of Intermediate Maths’, as Mr Brooks put it! Well done to both.

The Lower Sixth biologists took part in the Intermediate Biology Olympiad, which this year involved over 8,000 students from 450 schools across the UK. Well done to all those who achieved an award and a special mention to those who achieved a medal: Silver medallists Natalie Cheung, Ollie Faragher, Ben Millward-Sadler and Paris Yim; and Bronze medallists Thomas Bethell, Jina Choi, Oliver Field, Angus Kwan and Tallulah Redman.

SHORT STORIES

This year’s Short Story Competition centred around the concept of ‘Inside’. Entries submitted by members of the Senior School and Sixth Form considered constraints (both internal and external), and a range of dense and often suffocating interiorities. The judges decided to award first place to Miles McNamara for his highly controlled exploration of an alienated self, haunted by its shadowy double; and second place to Mridul Shrestha, who impressed the judges with his ambition of a tortured soul trapped in a purgatorial loop. Commendations are given to Rosanna May in the Third Form for her exploration of the murky English landscape, and to Conrad Padgett in the Lower Sixth for a decadent, sense-rich monologue, whose arresting voice hints of Jean Rhys and Anna Kavan.

Congratulations to all writers who submitted their work: ideas, themes, snatches of dialogue, and stray lines show the rich seam of imaginative promise across the years. We look forward to your submissions next year.

DR CHRISTY EDWALL Teacher of English

SHOOTING STAR

Congratulations to Upper Sixth Former Thomas Craig-Fleming who, despite the many COVID restrictions, was selected to represent England ‘A’ in the British Schools Small-bore Rifle Association National. England won the match with Thomas shooting an impressive 196/200, leaving him 2nd highest score in the competition. Thomas’s motivation is unquestionable and his commitment to the sport has flourished over the years. No doubt he will be knocking on the doors of the GB rifle teams, both small- and full-bore in the future.

Congratulations to Third Former Matilde Ghirardi, who recently entered the competition Green Spaces – A Celebration in Song with a poem about her experiences during the COVID pandemic. The competition, open to ages 11 to 18, aimed at commissioning song-cycles to be performed live and to ‘see poetry about London Parks set to music’.

Matilde’s The Postcard was one of the three winning poems that will be set to music by composer Amelia Clarkson for a song cycle premiere hopefully in Spring 2022.

The Postcard

Some people can be blind, to the world we have left behind. If I could steal a landscape, before our world gets reshaped. Then maybe I wouldn’t be so lonely at home Run with me in the park, before our world gets dark. Let’s hope for a light, at the end of this fight. Then maybe I wouldn’t be so lonely at home The flowers are thriving and the sky is blue, It’s only a shame we can’t see the view. Soon we will be free, and our beautiful world we shall see!