Autumn 2014
GOLDEN YEARS Our best results ever
KING’S
news
James Clarke Crews for GB rowing team Paths of Glory The middle school play
Welcome
The Gilding restoration has now been completed – the finishing touch to the main entrance
“KCS has rocketed up the league tables to the top of every London parent’s wishlist.” TATLER SCHOOL GUIDE 2015
Once again, King’s pupils have achieved outstanding academic results at every level, with newspapers reporting extensively on some of our successes this summer. Those of us within the school, however, know how much more there is to every pupil’s life than exams. In music, sport and drama current King’s boys and girls are setting the highest standards for their successors to match. The same is true with their part in the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, in the CCF, or in the activities and partnership projects that take over every aspect of school life every Friday afternoon throughout the year. This newsletter gives a glimpse into the life of “the most exciting day school in London.” Andrew Halls, Head Master
Contents
04
Results
06 07
Co-Curricular
Achievements
08
King’s association news
10 Art
11
Sport
14
Dr ama productions
18 20
Partnerships
Music
22
Renewal Progr amme
23
Refurbishment
03
Results
Hitting the high marks! This summer’s upper sixth and upper fifth have proved to be golden years with the school’s best ever combination of IB and GCSE results. In both The Times and the Telegraph, King’s was ranked second boys’ or co-ed school in the UK for GCSE results, and the best boys’ or co-ed school for A level/IB results, discounting a sixth form college in Cardiff which has only 18 UK students. Including all schools, King’s finished fifth for GCSE and third for A level/IB. At GCSE, King’s achieved a recordbreaking 96.6% of all full-course grades at A* and A, with 75.4% of all results
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Pupils have met their Oxbridge offer this year
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at A* alone. Kai Konishi-Dukes hit the national headlines with a remarkable achievement of 15 top grades. With one of the largest International Baccalaureate cohorts in the world, the King’s upper sixth of 190 pupils achieved outstanding results. With a new school record of 53% of all higher level grades at Level 7 (equivalent to A* at A level), it is no surprise that so far 92% of the year achieved their first choice university, with 51 pupils winning places to Oxford
and Cambridge. This was the third consecutive year that the King’s upper sixth has achieved a school average of over 40 points – and no school in the world with similarly sized cohorts can match this record. Meanwhile, the lower fifth achieved 93% of all grades at A* in their French GCSE, and the first lower sixth AS cohort since 2007 achieved 86% of all grades at A/B, a figure that should provide a strong platform for A level success next year. IB and A level results
School
Gender
1
Cardiff Sixth Form College
Mixed
Number of IB + A level candidates
% of grade 7 or 6 at HL or A* and A at A level
112
94.7
2
Wycombe Abbey School
Girls
81
90.9
3
King’s College School
Mixed
191
86.9
4
Magdalen College School
Mixed
143
86.6
5
North London Collegiate School
Girls
115
86.2
6
Guildford High School for Girls
Girls
97
85.6
7
St John’s College, Cardiff
Mixed
39
81.1
8
Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School
Boys
156
80.9
9
Concord College, Shrewsbury
Mixed
149
80.6
10
Queen Ethelburga’s College
Mixed
83
80.4
11
Royal Grammar School
Boys
127
79.9
12
St Helen and St Katharine School
Girls
86
77.9
13
City of London School for Girls
Girls
72
77.8 77.6
14
The Godolphin and Latymer School
Girls
105
15
The Abbey School
Girls
81
77
16
Withington Girls’ School
Girls
72
76.5
17
The Perse School
Mixed
157
76.1
18
The Faculty of Queen Ethelburga’s
Mixed
65
75.9
=
King Edward VI High School for Girls
Girls
72
75.9
20
Walthamstow Hall
Girls
37
75.9
The Telegraph Saturday 23rd August
The upper fifth celebrate their outstanding results p
GCSE results School
Gender
Number of students
% of A* + A
1
North London Collegiate School
Girls
104
98.8
2
Wycombe Abbey School
3
James Allen’s Girls’ School
Girls
92
98.6
Girls
107
4
Westminster School
98.1
Boys
120
97.8
5 6
King’s College School
Boys
153
96.6
City Of London School For Girls
Girls
91
7
96
Guildford High School For Girls
Girls
116
95.8
8
The Godolphin and Latymer School
Girls
113
95.5
9
Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls
Girls
125
94.8
10
Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School
Boys
177
93.7
11
St Helen and St Katharine School
Girls
104
93
12
Withington Girls’ School
Girls
77
92.3
13
The Tiffin Girls’ School
Girls
118
92.2
=
Magdalen College School
Boys
117
92.2
15
The Perse School
Mixed
152
91.2
16
King Edwards School
Boys
125
91
17
The Henrietta Barnett School
Girls
91
90.6
18
St Albans High School for Girls
Girls
99
90.3
19
Notting Hill and Ealing High School
Girls
86
90.1
20
Royal Grammar School
Boys
131
90
The Times 30th August 2014
Kai Konishi-Dukes hit the national headlines with his remarkable achievement of 15 top grades.
05
Co-curricular
#tedxkcs
Ideas worth spreading...
Chair of Governors, Penny Hughes CBE, Non-Executive Director of RBS
King’s hosted its inaugural TEDx event on Monday 30th June 2014
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TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) events are created in the spirit of its mission – “ideas worth spreading” with the aim of sparking conversation and connection. The TEDxKCS theme was Collaboration: Pursuit of Excellence and was delivered to lower sixth form pupils; it combined the screening of three pre-recorded TED videos followed by ten live presentations.
Achievements
School captain and vice-captains 2014/15 Captain of School: Charlie Allen (centre) Vice-Captain: Thomas Van der Stichele Vice-Captain: Anna Westcott
Nick collects his award at this year’s Prize Giving ceremony
Nick D’Aloisio Yahoo! Award Yahoo News Digest, masterminded by our very own Nick D’Aloisio (OK 2014) was the recipient of this year’s Apple Design Award. The algorithms were originally developed at ‘Summly’, Nick’s first news condensing app, which he sold to Yahoo! Nick has now completed his A Levels in Mathematics and Further Mathematics and has received an offer from Oxford.
Prize giving ceremony Following a gap of over 40 years, King’s recently hosted an exceptional prize giving ceremony at the Cadogan Hall. Over 300 awards were given to members of last year’s fourth, lower fifth, upper fifth and upper sixth forms. Vanessa Feltz presented the awards and delivered a fine speech.
King’s wins ‘Outstanding Progress Award’ King’s won this year’s Education Business Award for ‘Outstanding Progress’ in the Independent School category. The award is presented to the UK independent school that has made outstanding progress in the management of its facilities, finances and human resources and can demonstrate an increase in the educational performance of the school.
Duke of Edinburgh’s award Gold completions from cohort who left this year Thomas Carr Eleanor Cripps Grace Hickman Joseph Stephenson
Will Van Klaveren Cameron Wilkinson Victoria Williams
07
King’s Association
THE FRIENDS’ SUMMER BALL
A Brazilian carnival comes to king’s In mid-May, The Friends’ summer ball committee headed by Eve Short brought a Brazilian carnival to King’s. Dancers from the London School of Samba and Brazilian drummers entertained over 400 guests. Parent and broadcaster Neil Fox generously supported the event as master of ceremonies. The evening raised over £45,000, a remarkable result. Some of the money raised will fund an iPad classroom which will enable children in the senior and junior schools to explore new portable technologies in a variety of subjects.
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GEORGE SAINTSBURY SOCIETY LUNCH The inaugural lunch of the George Saintsbury Society took place at the In & Out (Naval and Military Club) in St James’s, London SW1 on Thursday 1st May. Forty-five OKs who left the school between 1947 and 1972 met for drinks in the club library, followed by lunch in the King Harald V Room. The Head Master, Andrew Halls invoked the memory of George Saintsbury, who attended King’s in the mid-nineteenth century and was famed in Victorian times as a literary scholar, Fleet Street commentator and wine connoisseur.
LIFELONG FRIENDS DRINKS RECEPTION On Tuesday 3rd June, more than 150 former King’s parents returned to the school for our first Lifelong Friends drinks reception, held in the new main reception beneath Great Hall. The evening brought home the warmth and affection still felt for King’s by parents whose sons and daughters have now left the school, and we plan to hold further Lifelong Friends events in the future.
The Arthur Wellesley Society t
HOUSE OF LORDS DINNER With a speech by Kenneth Baker
Recently, eighty members of the King’s community were welcomed by Lord Baker of Dorking to the Palace of Westminster.
The Arthur Wellesley Society q
DR ROWAN WILLIAMS: DOES RELIGION NEED DEFENDING? The 104th Archbishop of Canterbury visited King’s at the end of April to address an audience of parents, pupils and staff on the subject of the defence of religion. Dr Williams presented an erudite thesis on the topic. He made it clear that although the short answer was ‘no’, it was important to consider what human society would lose if it were entirely secular in nature. His summary of society’s relationship with religion was
that ‘we do not need to believe in it but we do need to come to terms with it’. He countered what has become known as the ‘chocolate teapot’ argument most expertly. This argument aims to prove that God does not exist by suggesting that it is impossible to disprove there is a teapot orbiting the sun which is too small for us to see. Dr Williams underlined the false nature of many of the premises on which this argument is based, particularly the misunderstanding of the true nature of God.
The evening began with fascinating guided tours of both Houses before guests adjourned to the Peers’ Dining Room for dinner. Kenneth Baker, who was Lady Thatcher’s Secretary of State for Education and Science (1986-9) in addition to holding a host of other ministerial positions during his time as a Conservative MP from 1968 to 1997, gave a riveting speech outlining his views on the current state of the British education system, education’s effects on society at large and the possible outcome of the next general election.
CITY and BUSINESS NETWORKING RECEPTION The annual City and Business networking reception was held on the evening of Wednesday 7th May at the Headquarters of Barclays Bank in Canary Wharf. The 30th floor atrium afforded splendid views of Canary Wharf, the River Thames and Greenwich, and more than 170 alumni, current and former parents and staff gathered to enjoy drinks and canapés. Current King’s parent Colin Matthews, CEO of Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd, gave a talk on his experience of running one of the world’s largest international hub airports.
09
Art
Boy Blowing Bubbles, oil on canvas
Art focus: Walter Sickert Art Prize Winner goes on to study at Falmouth College of Art Huw Roberts completed this painting as part of his IB Visual Arts course. It marries together perfectly his painting skills and his direct influence from certain periods of art history, it being inspired by John Everett Millais’ famous ‘Bubbles’. Huw scored a 7 at Higher Level with full marks, was also awarded the Walter Sickert Art Prize, and is now attending Falmouth College of Art with a view to pursuing a career in the creative industries.
10
Sport
Great Britain Junior Rowing World Championships On Sunday 10th August, 2014 leaver James Clarke lined up as part of the Great Britain crew in the final of the Men’s eight at the Junior Rowing World Championships in Hamburg. With a strong headwind for the final, the crews were seeded with the highest ranked (Germany and The Netherlands) in lanes five and six and Great Britain in the less than favourable lane one.
leading the field with the Italians also moving well. Conditions started to take their toll in the second half of the race with all crews moving significantly slower.
At the 200m mark the GB crew had taken an early but slight lead over the field but were in 3rd place going through the first 500m mark of the 2km race. Germany and The Netherlands were
GB closed the door on any threat posed by the French and Spanish crews with a strong push in the third 500m but could not hold onto the Italian crew. At the finish line the Germans held a
late surge from the The Netherlands with Italy taking the Bronze. GB came home in a very commendable 4th ahead of France and Spain. Speaking after the race James said: “It was the most incredible race I have ever been involved with and leading the field after 200m was a great feeling, but we knew that we were especially up against it with our lane draw.” t James Clarke (third rower from front)
A basketball star in the making… Tunde Oyerinde has made the final 12 and has been selected to represent the South East England U15 basketball team at the forthcoming 2014 inter region tournament this autumn. Tunde has done extremely well to be selected; he is one of the youngest members of the team.
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Sport
Hurdles National Champion Michelle Hughes (L6M) recently competed at the Sainsbury’s School Games in Manchester, a ‘mini-Olympics’ for the UK’s elite athletes of school age. Michelle won the 300m hurdles in a time of 43.90, making her a National Champion!
1st Xv Off to a great START The King’s 1st XV have had a very positive start to the season. After a successful pre-season tour to Bordeaux in the South of France, the team has recorded wins over Bordeaux-Begles Under 17, Pangbourne, Caterham and Wimbledon College in the first three weeks of the season.
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SOUTH American Football TOUR Over the summer, thirty boys and four members of staff set off on a two week football tour of Argentina and Brazil – two of the strongest footballing countries in the world! On the pitch, the King’s teams did the school proud with four resounding wins against local schools before moving on to Rosario, Argentina’s third biggest city, where they played two more games against the Jockey club – with the 1st XI winning 4-0 and the 2nds unlucky to go down to a narrow 1- 0 defeat. Moving on to Rio de Janeiro, the team would face much tougher footballing opposition. The boys fought hard in all the matches, winning two and losing
two – a fine achievement given the competition. There was also time to visit the statue of Christ the Redeemer, enjoy a night out to watch a top-ofthe-table clash in the Brazilian Second Division and a day on the beach working on their football skills. Most importantly, they spent an afternoon supporting an ABC trust circus project in Rio. Before the tour, over £9,000 had been raised for this charitable endeavour, aimed at supporting local street children.
Emily completes marathon in 4 hrs 20 mins Emily Ramsden completed this year’s London marathon in a remarkable time and raised £8.5k for her chosen charity, the Princess Alice Hospice. She revealed that her training schedule was both physically and mentally tough but that it helped change her mindset towards running. Emily found the race day an incredible experience with people cheering her on throughout the race.
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Drama
PATHS OF GLORY In June, thirty boys from the fourth and lower fifth forms performed a dynamic, physical and moving stage version of Humphrey Cobb’s 1935 anti-war novel Paths of Glory – adapted and directed by James Trapmore – as the year’s middle school play.
The novel, famously later a Stanley Kubrick film, is markedly unsentimental in its treatment of war, and the production was uncompromising in its engagement with the brutality and helplessness of the situation, although not without moments of dark humour. The commitment and focus of the company at large was a striking feature of the performance, with standout individual performances given by Daniel Bishop, Ben Millard and Marcus Duncomb as three private soldiers shot at dawn as “examples”, Jacob MasonWhite as the general who dooms them, and Ralph Covill as the respected colonel who tries to save them.
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15
Drama
The Real Inspector Hound Director Luke Baines and producer Joe Campbell marshalled skilfully a group of their peers, negotiating the play’s witty dialogue and sharp plot twists. Verbal dexterity was a notable feature of the overall performance, in which actors are required to negotiate the fine line between high dramatic stakes and knowing send-up. The cast did so with great panache, as well as mastering a dizzying array of stage business, incorporating radios, wheelchairs, telephones, teacups, feather dusters, hat-swapping and dead bodies… Unlike the two theatre critics at the centre of the piece’s escapades, full-house audiences were thoroughly entertained, and almost no one suffered an existential crisis in the course of proceedings. Bravo!
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Tom Stoppard’s whodunit cum meta-theatrical feast, The Real Inspector Hound, was given a spirited production in the final week of the summer term, as the year’s lower sixth play.
17
Partnerships
Zambia Trip exceeds expectations
Visiting our partner school FIWILA This year two teams of boys and girls from the sixth form spent 24 days in Zambia during July.
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The trip included a visit to our partner school Fiwila, in which students had a chance to teach two subjects of their choice, organise and take part in community projects, play sports with the local students and become members of the community during their stay. Thanks to funding from the Friends of King’s, and a generous donation from the Shropshire-Fiwila partnership, the students were able to work on two large-scale projects: renovating the solar power in the boarding dormitories and in the labs, and providing running water for the boys’ dormitory
(which was so successful that the current system should provide water for the school toilets and two staff houses). The students also had an opportunity to explore Zambia by visiting the country’s natural attractions and by trekking along the Zambezi river for three days, sleeping under the stars. The trip was a wonderful experience for all students who rose to the challenge and achieved outcomes far beyond their and our expectations.
Students had a chance to teach two subjects of their choice
OPEN DOORS The seventh Open Doors project took place in early July. 130 children from Ronald Ross, St Mark’s and Southmead primary schools enjoyed an exciting range of sports and arts projects run by King’s staff on the school site. Over 55 sixth-formers from King’s, Ricards Lodge High School and Coombe Boys’ School gained work experience as team leaders. The project ended with a sports tournament and a theatre performance to a packed audience of parents and staff. The project is supported by the Friends of King’s.
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Music
All that jazz! JAZZ CLUB The annual jazz club was much anticipated and this year featured fine performances from two jazz combos, the saxophone quartet and big band. Parents and supporters gathered around cafĂŠ-style tables as they dined to the rich variety of music on offer. The saxophone group was most impressive with their expressive and rhythmic control. The big band was the centrepiece of the evening and numerous solos were performed by members of the band and delivered with style and panache. This was an outstanding evening of music making.
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The choir performing evensong in St. Paul’s cathedral
CHAMBER CHOIR SING AT THE CHAPEL ROYAL
PIANO MASTERCLASS AND RECITAL
The chamber choir had the privilege of returning to sing at the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace in June. For the choir, this was their last time singing together this year and what a splendid venue it was for that. The link with Hampton Court has been further strengthened by our school organist, Mr Jackson, who is director of music at the Chapel Royal. Mr Jackson played the organ for the service of Evensong which was attended by a very large congregation of parents and choir supporters. The choir sang superbly and provided an uplifting sound in music by Harwood and Brahms, and concluding with John Rutter’s beautiful setting of The Lord bless you and keep you. This provided a most moving end to a very special service. For four choir members it was a farewell, including our gap year student Mr James Aburn.
Eight pianists from both junior and senior schools were involved in the annual piano masterclass on Sunday, 27th April. The masterclass this year was given by the distinguished Professor Andrew Ball from the Royal College of Music, who was very impressed with the high standard of the performances and the excellent way that everyone responded to his many suggestions. Works by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Debussy and Scriabin were performed. All pianists should be congratulated, and benefitted enormously from this event. Just a few days later, the same pianists performed at the piano recital. There were excellent renditions by Noah Poulson, Shreya Singhal and Thomas Kobialka.
Itamar Rashkovsky Winner of solo performer’s award at the Royal College of Music
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Renewal Programme
The work on the New Classrooms and multi-functional hall has begun
Teaching building The new teaching building incorporates six classrooms, meeting rooms and a 150-seat multi-function hall linked to the science block. Due for completion: Autumn 2015
A summary of the latest projects that are now underway as part of our renewal programme, to maintain the success of the school and develop its strengths.
The Quadrangle The landscaping of the quad and the creation of a new hard play area will provide spaces for recreation, relaxation and play, all unified by central landscaping and pathways. Due for completion: January 2015
Dining hall The refurbishment of Q block will start with extending and improving the dining hall facilities.
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A beautiful landscaped site
Refurbishment
Sixth form centre refurbishment
The sixth form centre has recently been updated with new furniture, offering a comfortable space in which to meet, study and socialise.
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King’s College School Southside Wimbledon Common London SW19 4TT +44 (0)20 8255 5300 info@kcs.org.uk More information is available from the admissions registrar: +44 (0)20 8255 5352 admissions@kcs.org.uk For sixth form admissions please contact: +44 (0)20 8255 5320 sixthformadmissions@kcs.org.uk
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